Clinical Evaluation 3

My third evaluation was in a special education resource classroom which serves kinder- 4th grade. The day of my evaluation, I was observed working with the kinder group during our reading portion. This evaluation highlights one of the aspects of teaching in which I struggle with the most, assessments. Assessing students can be difficult for me since I know that all students are accessing different materials and require different tools to be successful. In a special education classroom, all students have different goals, and it can be difficult seeing one student thrive, while the other falls behind. This is just one of the things I admire about my mentor teacher. She has found a system to assess students and does so every Friday. Since she teaches reading, she using Orton-Gillingham methods and looks to tier the kids learning. For example, a student needs to know their letters before they can know the sounds, once they know the sounds, they can start reading, once they know how to read, comprehension can be assessed. Having a system is essential.