Amber Courtney

Gene Watson
Observation Reflection 3
My third reflection was at Aloma Elementary, and I focused on observing At-Risk
students. Aloma Elementary has a wide range of students with some coming from low-income
families and others coming from middle-income situations. It is located at Semoran and
University Blvd. This affects the students and school as a whole because of the varying amount
of parent involvement in the area. The school overall was clean, safe, organized with lighting.
The doors entering the hallway with the classrooms were automatically locked in addition to
individual classroom doors being locked and gates around outside areas. The students sat in
groups of six for kindergarten, and had separate desks joined together for the other grades, and
had individual supplies. The seating arrangement was flexible because students were able to sit
on the rug during story time and wherever they wanted to work with a partner during math.
Everything in the Kindergarten and 1st Grade classrooms were organized for the most part and
each student had an individual cubby in the back to keep their binders, lunchboxes, and
backpacks.
Most of the classrooms I was in had a lot of posters and other visual aids displayed which
was overwhelming to me but seemed more beneficial for the students. There was also a daily
schedule with pictures, and each student was assigned a specific task each week which was
displayed on a chart. The posters were mainly displayed at eye-level and included vocab words
to help students. The rules were written on a poster with pictures included for the younger
grades. The children had individual pictures that were displayed to show who their partner was

for the math activity and their names were next to the alphabet letter that their names started
with.
There were computers that some of the students were able to do a reading program on
while some students were individually assessed by the teacher, and other students worked in
groups on developing various reading skills. An at-risk child in the classroom was able to work
on a missed assignment with help in finding the answers in a story. There is an interactive
smartboard in each classroom for the student and teacher to use for different lessons. There was a
separate table with stools, and student work displayed around the classroom. There was a circle
time in the 1st and 2nd grade classes where the majority of the students would review completed
material or be introduced to new material. During this time some students were able to stay and
their seats to listen or continue to work on the assignment.
A majority of different teaching methods are used in all of the classrooms, such as
pictures and words, in order to help all different types of students. Students that were not
listening would be ignored in order to not reward incorrect behavior with attention. The students
in various classrooms would work with assigned partners in order to help the lower students be
able to do the same work, and also allow the upper students to practice helping others. Some
students were able to use paper that had lines easier to write on to focus on completing the work
instead of becoming frustrated with writing. Examples were given before an individual
assignment was given so that the students could work together with others and get used to a new
method of recording and understanding information.
Some behavioral correcting methods used included redirecting students who were off task
and asking if they needed assistance. In the Kindergarten classroom there were two students
sitting in separate desks from their groups in order to help them focus and have motivation to

work so that they could go back to their groups. These two children were of lower
socioeconomic status, and appeared to be in a minority group for race. The children were writing
about whether they wanted to go to Disney or Legoland, which gives them a relevant topic that
they can be excited about. The teacher gave them a choice of starting with a bubble map to
organize their thoughts or just start writing, and would encourage about half of the students
individually to plan out their writing on a bubble map before writing. The teacher would foster
creativeness and independence by allowing students to loosely follow the prompt and be able to
express their own thoughts. If a student needed help spelling a word, the teacher would walk
them through the process of sounding out words and finding the letters instead of giving them the
answer right away.
Another technique that a teacher used was giving individual points for correct and
expected behavior, such as staying on task or attempting to answer a question. The students in 2nd
grade would move to different classrooms for part of reading time in order to give at-risk
students a lower ratio of students and teacher. This time could be used to work on skills that were
lagging related to English. This will helps students become more confident in their ability to
succeed.
I learned that although a school day can be very busy there is always time that can be
made for at-risk students to help them with the skills they need. This reminded me off when I
was in elementary school and some of the student could have benefited from the extra help to
encourage them. Many student will become easily frustrated if they cannot do something, which
can lead to greater complications later on. There is a vast amount of techniques and
accommodations that can be made for all types of students. The benefits of encouraging
independence early on can lead to confidence and independence later on. My least favorite part

was seeing the students separated from the class but not given the opportunity to return to their
seat. The at-risk students represented all different genders, race, and socioeconomic status. This
means that any student could become a struggling student and it is also important to focus on the
progress of each individual.