Final Report

Special Education Intern

University
Final Assessment
Education
Report

Michigan State
Department of Special

Intern: Katie Vondette

Mentor Teacher: Kristen Knight
Grade and Schools: K-8 Brooklands Elementary and Reuther Middle
District: Rochester Community Schools, Rochester Hills, MI
Date: April 14, 2015

THE INTERNSHIP SETTING

Rochester Community Schools is proud to be a true community school
district. Over 14,700 students living in Rochester Hills, the City of Rochester
and Oakland Township receive an excellent education through a combination
of high expectations, quality curriculum and an exceptional teaching staff.
Some of the district achievements include a graduation rate of 97.61% (avg.
Adams, Rochester & Stoney Creek High Schools), and 95% of graduates
attend post - secondary schools. Also, student achievement scores are in the
top 5% on statewide assessments.
Katie Vondettes internship semester provided her with a various teaching
experiences. She began her first half of the day teaching homeroom-3rd hour
at Reuther Middle School. Here she had the experience of working with 6th
graders in the Language Program, as well as working with a higher needs
population in 2nd and 3rd hour in the Functional Language Arts and Math
classes. Katie had experience working with students who had learning
disabilities, Autism, and were otherwise health impaired.
Katies 2nd half of the day was at Brooklands Elementary, teaching K-5 groups
in math and Language Arts. During this time, Katie provided writing support
to a group of 2nd graders to support their writing from the general education
program. She also taught a first grade Connecting Math Program and worked

with 5th graders in the Language Program. Katie developed weekly lesson
plans for push-in support into the general education classroom to provide
additional instruction to two kindergarten students who were struggling with
letter identification and sound production.

KNOWING SUBJECT MATTERS AND HOW TO TEACH

THEM
Katie is a very adept learner in a variety of educational programs. Every
hour, Katie had to master a new curricular program to effectively provide
quality instruction to the students. She excelled in this area. Katie was able
to differentiate instruction in the Moving with Math program for students who
were performing at the functional level of AUEN. She provided instruction to
three different math levels all within an hour. She was able to research
videos and smart tech presentations that related to the content the students
were learning. In addition to this, Katie provided full group instruction on
concepts that related to real-life skills. She created and implemented a
sequential group of lessons to teach students how to make change for a bake
sale.
At Reuther Middle School, Katie also differentiated instruction for two
different learning groups working in the Reading Milestones program. In one
of the groups she planned for middle school students who comprehend at 1.5
grade equivalent. The other group had a student performing at
approximately a 4.0 grade equivalent. Katie used edhelper to create weekly
spelling units for students. She created re-telling sheets, using picture from
the text, to help students gain mastery on a skill they were struggling with.
She also assessed the kids weekly with quizzes following stories. Finally,
Katie co-planned with the speech and language teacher for Monday group
when students practiced group work and conversational skills.
At Brooklands Elementary, Katie Vondette worked with a variety of grade
levels and needs. When working with the kindergartners, Katie assessed the
early learners on their letter ID and sounds. Based on their results, Katie
developed lessons to gain mastery over letters with which they were
struggling. She used a variety of tactile methods to help foster greater gains,
including gel packs, boogie-board, shaving cream, and sandpaper letter
shapes. She used direct instruction by first teaching the concept, modeling
and finally having the students complete independent practice. Students
made significant gains with Katies individualized instruction.

While Katie, did so much more, I want to focus on one more of the groups
that Katie taught. Katie worked with a first grader in the Connecting Math
Program. This particular first grader was facing significant struggles in her
daily life, which she brought with her to school. She would often have a
difficult time leaving class and sometimes could not focus on instruction.
Katie, took this student under her wing and found positive incentives to
help motivate her. In addition, she adapted the program to make it feel as
though it was more like playing a game which proved highly effective. As a
direct result of the additional attention that Katie gave to this student, the
first grader looked forward to seeing Katie on a daily basis and was able to
develop a level of trust and complete her daily learning goals.

WORKING AND LEARNING IN A SCHOOL AND PROFESSION

Katie presented herself at all times as a professional to staff, students,
and parents. She went above and beyond in all areas. On many occasions,
other staff members commented on how amazing Katie was in the
classroom. They also observed her high-level of skill in classroom
management and instruction.
Katie actively participated in all staff meetings. She attended parentteacher conferences and two IEPS. In addition to this, Katie organized class
participation for an after-school Bake Sale to take place at a school function.
She worked with students to draft permission slips from parents, donation
requests from teachers, and a sequenced set of lesson plans on how to
participate in a bake sale and make change for items bought.
Katie has also learned to use a variety of IEP progress monitoring tools.
She has administered the MAZE reading comprehension assessment, the
AIMS WEB oral reading fluency measure, and the M-CAP/MCOMP math
computation and math reasoning probes. She consistently monitored goals
to help report out on progress. When other assessments were needed for
progress monitoring, Katie would create an assessment that could be used to
monitor those IEP goals.
SUMMARY
Katie performed as though she had been a professional educator for
many years. She entered into the internship with already having attained the

skills necessary to be an amazingly effective teacher. Not only does she

have phenomenal classroom management skills, she also has a strong
understanding on how to best reach all students. She has an understanding
of what each student needs and knows how to differentiate academically as
well as socially for those students. Her motivation to see her students
progress and succeed will serve her well in her future and her
professionalism and dedication are evident in her daily performance. Katie
will make an excellent addition to any school staff.
Mentor Teacher __________________________________
________________________
Intern___________________________________________
Date________________________

Date