1. Erin Jefferson
ASL Paper
Seminar
28 April 2015
02 March 2015
Hours completed: 2
I agreed to complete my service hours at The Summit High School for autistic
children. Upon my arrival on my first day I got the feeling that this school was a very
inviting school. You could see awards, paintings and drawings on the wall. The
hallways were clean and looked very new. After being directed to the Dean’s office I
met Dr. Littwack. He is a very kind man who asked me about my future career path
and then let me know what I would be doing at the school. He explained how
passionate the teachers and faculty there was and how they really think they are
helping to make a change. Hearing about this relaxed, fun, but professional, work
environment really got me excited too be there. I was told I would be simply helping
students with whatever homework they had. Next I met Wanda and Barbara, both
who run the after school homework center. Wanda assigned me to one student.
Everyday I came I would work with a student named Blake. Blake wasn’t new to the
idea of having a St. Johns student help him with his homework so he was very nice
and open with me. I started with Blake on my first day. We started off talking about
him and his classes. He decided to show me his work he does in Photoshop class. His
work mostly consisted of adding robot eyes, devil horns and moving heads onto a
normal picture. One particular piece he showed me was titled “anti-Christmas.” It
was a picture of a normal house but with clip-arts, pictures and words in reference

2. to an anti-Christmas and anti-Christ. My favorite moment that happened at this
school occurred on my first day. Blake was explaining his classmate’s classwork
when he said “some kids are more autistic than artistic.” I thought that it was so
light-hearted and funny. After the jokes we finally got to the homework. He starts off
by saying he has some English work and that he is good at English, he just has
trouble getting his thoughts into sentences. I helped him with his Macbeth
homework, helping him find quotes in the book. He didn’t seem to have any trouble
with his thoughts or sentences. He understood everything Macbeth was saying and
used fairly substantial vocabulary too. I felt like he didn’t need my assistance, except
for keeping him focused.

3. 09 March 2015
Hours completed: 2
Now when I arrive I go straight to the Dean’s office and wait for Blake. If I get
there before school gets let out then I get to watch the kids interact with each other.
Although autistic, the students act completely normal. No outbursts or fighting.
Today Blake had both chemistry and trigonometry homework. Considering the fact
that I do not have any knowledge of chemistry I had to quickly teach myself in order
to help him with his questions. Dr. Littwack assured me on my first day if I do not
have a lot of knowledge of a subject then I should have my student skip it while they
are with me. The same went for his math homework. It just so happens that
chemistry and trigonometry are my worst subjects, but I tried my best, and Blake
was very understanding of that. Blake said he was pulled out of his math and science
classes today. Because of this he is behind and doesn’t understand his work. After a
while Blake starts to get frustrated and distracted. Of course, I am supposed to keep
him focused and on track, but he starts digging through desk drawers and begins
playing with random objects. Then it got very hard to get his attention. He was not
listening to or answering me. He ended up making a slingshot out of rubber bands, a
pen, a ruler, and a girls hoop earring.
12 March 2015
Hours completed: 2

4. Today started off differently than my past other two. I ran into the Dean and
he had some news for me. He told me that Wanda, who’s in charge of the homework
center, tried to pair Blake up with another SJU student and he refused. She said he
threw a fit after hearing the offer. Apparently he enjoyed working with me and was
attached. Dr. Littwack says that this is great because autistic kids usually don’t
attach to people, and never attach quickly. Blake was working with another student,
Harrison, in the computer lab today. They had a Macbeth homework assignment
that needed a partner. When I got there they were already typing up quotes and
searching through spark notes on the computer. One moment that did intrigue me
was watching them interact. There work well together, they might be a little childish
for their age at times but they are friends.
Harrison: “I like working with you, sorry if I didn’t do much. All I was talking
about was butter and math.”
Blake: *smirks*
After working well for about fifteen minutes, the boys got distracted. They started
looking up videos about comparing the sizes of all the plants. They were so
fascinated they watched it multiple times.

5. 16 March 2015
Hours completed: 2
Today was not eventful at the school. I helped Blake with math and history
work. He did need help with a chart on the Cold War, finding the causes and effects
in his textbook. I noticed, along with him being distracted, that he was very spaced-
out today. That’s unusual for him. He was not responding to me when I asked him
questions, no matter how many I asked.
19 March 2015
Hours completed: 2
Today when I arrived I found that Blake had no homework and had gone
home. So, Wanda paired me with a new student for the day, Jake. Jake has a physical
problem that I do not know much about. It seems that he does not have full motor
control of the left side of his body. I helped him with his economics homework and
his take home test. Jake definitely needed more help than Blake did. I noticed that
there was a sticker on his computer that said “speak slow and over annunciate”, so I
did. I checked over his answers and helped him find the correct ones if they were
wrong. if we came across a word he did not know he would ask me to explain the
definition. I explained it in the simplest way I could. Jake is a very nice, polite boy.
You could tell he was very grateful that I was helping him. Anytime he asked a
simple question he would after apologize for it. He is a very apologetic boy, which I
found a little odd.
Jake: “MSG stands for Madison Square Garden.”

6. Me: “yes, it does.”
Jake: “Sorry if that came off rude for telling you.”
Above is a conversation that me and Jake had that day.
26 March 2015
Hours completed: 2
Today, while working with Blake, I read my book. He was working on math
homework and did not need any help from me so I began to read. He tapped him
pen and hands a lot today. I think it was keeping him focused because he did not get
distracted and start making a beat with his pen. It was a quick session with Blake
today.
30 March 2015
Hours completed: 2
Today I had the pleasure of working with Jake who had a take home English
final. After reading the questions, and me explaining them, Jake takes out his Dragon
Dictation. Which is a program that types what is said into the headset. He says that
this program helps him when he has a large amount to type, but it is to distracting
in class to use it. I was impressed by the technology because the program heard
everything thing he said correctly. There were no mistakes when he directed the
program to highlight a word and change it to another word. I think that this would
be great if he could use it all the time because he types with one hand and it is not
efficient.

7. 13 April 2015
Hours completed: 2
I had to explain chemistry to Jake, which was not as difficult as a thought it
might be. I went over and explained the definitions in the chapter, such as
“reflection of light.” He does not take long to understand what I am explaining. It just
seems like he needs the information to be refreshed in his mind. After explaining
definitions we worked together to answer I few questions he had. I helped him look
through the chapter to find the answers, not just tell him. After working on science,
Jake announces that he has a book report due and he needs to choose a book. He
pulled out a list and asked what I recommended. I only knew two books on the list,
Lord of the Flies and Catcher in the Rye. I remembered nothing about Catcher in the
Rye but a lot about Lord of the Flies, so, I told him to choose that. He went straight to
a website called BookShare. There, you can download an audio of any book
instantly. We both listened to the first chapter together before time was up.
23 April 2015
Hours completed: 2
Today was my last day at The Summit School. for my last day I worked with
Jake. He explained to me that he is up to chapter five in his book, but he needs to
listen to chapter three over again because he did not understand the chapter. Then,
he asked me to explain the chapter after we listen to it, and so I did. I simply
explained what the chapter meant and then we moved on the chapter six., I also
recommended him watch the movie and he finishes reading the book. I had just

8. recently watched the movie again and I knew that it would really help him
understand and put a picture to everything that was happening in the book. After
getting Wanda to sign my paper she thanked me for helping out and said I was a lot
of help and I agree.
Total number of hours completed: 20
( did not write about 04-16-2015)
I believe that I helped these two boys in two different ways. Blake needed to
stay focused. He was a smart boy who didn’t need much help academically. I
definitely felt needed more by Jake because he would always ask questions and ask
me to explain things. When looking over his work I would need to help him correct
many answers.