Practicum Week #1

I am doing my practicum with Mr. Cohan who goes by the name "Skip." His 6th hour is quite interesting, dealing with a group of autistic students from the 9th to 12th grade. There is the full range of students with a little bit of autism to the high levels. It is something I haven't ever had to deal with, and teaching kids with autism can be both fun and challenging at the same time.

For the first week his class was not in the regular classroom of a computer lab (more or less), which has computers for the students to work on for projects and whatever else they need. The students take longer to get things done, as well as staying on task. I noticed right away the students had a difficult time introducing themselves to me one on one.

For a physical enviornment, the classroom is setup in rows, but with the students in Skip's class everything seems a bit more relaxed to accommodate to the student's needs. So far I haven't seen the text book that is used for the English class, but the standard seems to be so far that the students are provoked by the teacher to engage in conversation with him as well as the rest of the class when asked. With their condition, sometimes it is difficult for them to comprehend what is being said, but is an ability they must be able to work on. This happens when something is presented with a lot of information in fewer words. They ask questions after the explanation/lesson is given, and often times students will need to be re-directed back on course by the teacher. I noticed with watching the class a second time, there seem to be only a couple of connections between just a couple of students talking and working, but most of them seem to be working independently. At that, sometimes it linguistically takes them time to form their oratory language in their brain before starting into the sentence, as there can be a pause. No pattern found exactly just yet .

Let's call this student Jim who is actually in my class of observance, who won't talk to anyone except the teacher (in a quiet voice). I asked Jim a question after the teacher wanted him to introduce himself to me, and he couldn't do either. Jim understands everything that is going on and what is being said, but is coming out of a shell. Jim will in response write his answers on a piece of paper and give them to you, which is something Skip is trying to get him away from.

There does seem to be a norm for the "environment," as it is in academic place called school. The students are aware of what is expected of them and they may occasionally say or do something unacceptable, but are soon corrected and back to work. It is interesting to see the professionalism brought out by the staff members of the school.