Observations of a Special Education Class

Teacher: Perla Magin Title: Special Education Teacher

District: Los Angeles Unified School District

Disabilities served in the classroom: Autism and mild mental retardation

Languages spoken by students: English, Spanish, Tamil and Persian

Cultures represented in the classroom: African American, Caucasian-Asian, Persian, East Indian and Hispanic

1. How does the teacher reinforce good behavior in the classroom?

a. Provides specific verbal praise to the students such as "You did a great job. You wrote all your sentences correctly";

b. Offers students the option to engage in their favorite activity such as going to the computer or reading a book;

d. Rewards students by allowing them to pick a toy from the "toy store" that they can take home; and

e. Utilizes gestures such as "high fives," cheers and applause to celebrate the students' specific achievements.

2. List five specific ways in which the pupils with mild/moderate disabilities learn.

a. Utilizes visual organizers such as picture communication cards;

b. Utilizes manipulatives such as counters and any other objects that can be for counting, as in the case of arithmetic;

c. Utilizes kinesthetic activity such as role playing to explain new vocabulary words in context;

d. Requires sensory stimulation and modulation such as the use of materials for tactile stimulation and weighted vests to cal

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elp them practice their listening and speaking skills independently. 5. What technologies are used to empower the pupils? The availability of the technologies, as described above, is highly empowering for these ninth grade students, because it allows them to practice their listening and speaking skills on their own. Instead of relying on the teacher and their partners to help them with the text, the students can utilize the computer program to "read" the passage to them. 6. What teaching strategies are used which address multicultural and multilingual education? Because the group of aphasic students came from African American, Hispanic and Caucasian backgrounds, the teacher provided the groups with reading passages from these three different cultures. The pairs of students were able to pick the reading passage of their choice, after the general group discussion in which the teacher provided an introduction about them. Moreover, the questions presented to the students also required them to consider the cultural themes in the reading passage. During the group discussion, the teachers challenged the students to critically examine the reasons underlying their selection of the individual reading passages from a cultural persp
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Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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