Journal #3-Domain #3- Teaching and the Curriculum
How is the day planned? What is the teacher’s daily schedule? How does it relate to the age level of the group?
The days, especially the mornings are very structured, even down to the little instructional details. Ms. Faith’s class has the same routine everyday, accept if there is a field trip or assembly. The student arrive in the classroom and are immediately instructed to remove their jackets, turn their folders into the red bin, and start doing the warm-up activity, which is always a worksheet. The warm-up activity is reading a passage, answering questions and drawing a picture about the passage. These activities are great for students in first grade because it helps build upon valuable skills they should be learning at this age, which is reading comprehension and creative expression through art. These objectives can clearly through the morning warm-up as well as calendar time.
After the morning warm-up is completed the students are instructed to go to the rug for calendar/sharing time. During calendar the students go over versus things like what day of the week it is and how many days there have been of school. Ms. Faith uses the number of days there has been of school and helps the students in developing essential mathematic skills, like counting by 5’s or 10’s. Following calendar time is sharing time. Although sharing time lasts for only about 5 minutes, the objective of this use of time is clear; it helps build a good relationship between the teacher and the student.
Once calendar is complete, the students are instructed to go to their different stations. Each stations is concentrated on a different area, there is a math game, reading, writing, and listening station. They rotate stations every 10 minutes then do catch up work, which is usually cutting out something for a game later in the day, then go to lunch. Everything is very structured in this classroom. Ms. Faith basically has the same routine daily.
How is the classroom time used?
Classroom times are used very efficiently. Ms. Faith doesn’t allow anytime for the students to mess around. Once she has seen that the students have completed an assignment, she tells the student to do a different task, such as read a book. Ms. Faith stays to this routine schedule because she is so good at knowing the time frame of activities.
What preparations were made to start and conclude various activities?
The students are specifically instructed when an activity is over and what to expect next. Since the students are on such a structured schedule, they know what to expect next. If the activities are different from what is normally done, Ms. Faith usually repeats the instructions at least three times and asks the class if they understand.
When students are assigned a worksheet at their desks, they are asked to write their names on the top of the worksheet and put their heads down. This is not only a good tool for knowing who is ready, but also for the preparation of the next activity.
Can you identify the purpose or objective of each activity?
The objectives of the lessons are very clear. The students are building upon valuable skills, such as critical thinking. Each month the teachers focus on a different objective of critical thinking. This month it is questioning, last month was making connections within the story. Questions are basically asking the students to predict what will happen during the story. This will help the student understand what the character is thinking and feeling during the story. The objective for questioning is clearly written on the dry erase board as well as the worksheets the students have to fill out. The teacher also uses different forms of questions to develop these skills.
How are cultural differences considered and needs met?
The literature that Ms. Faith reads to the students displays different cultures. She discusses important cultural events that are going on during a certain time, for example February was black history month. Ms. Faith read stories that occurred during the African American rights. She also reads read a story about the Chinese New Year, which was occurring that week.
In a paragraph, reflect in an analytical manner, what you learned about Teaching and the Curriculum. You must integrate at least two ideas from class discussion or the text.
Because of the strong district 68 standards, the teachers don’t have much creativity in lesson planning. There is not room in the curriculum for additional lesson planning for the educator. The entire first grade is learning the same thing, at pretty much the same time.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Journal #4-Domain #4-Teaching and Instruction
Journal #4-Domain #4-Teaching and Instruction
Describe different ways (strategies) the teacher presents material to the students.
Ms. Faith relays a lot on worksheets. The worksheets generally have a math or reading object, most have a drawing and coloring in aspect as well. The students sometime fill in the worksheet while Ms. Faith is teaching the material, then they are asked to do the last questions by themselves or in a group.
A lot of material is presented through books. In our 7 week penguin until, were the students learn about different types, environment, and habits of penguins. Whenever Ms. Faith is introducing a new type of penguin, she reads a story about the certain animal.
What type of student groupings does the teacher use? (one-on-one, pairs, small groups, whole class?)
Ms. Faith uses a variety of different types of grouping. Students work independently only during the morning warm-up worksheet or when they are taking an assessment.
The student’s desks are in groups of 4, so the students when working on things at their desks are allowed to ask the other students for help. Small groups are also used for group reading and the different stations in the morning.
The grouping that is seen the most in this classroom is whole class. Most of the day is spent on the community rug. The students do move around a lot, but for instruction as well as reading the rug is used. When all the students are on the rug, they are working as an entire class.
What techniques are used to assess and evaluate learning? Describe any assessment technique you have observed.
The assessments within the classroom are mainly used to help track the student’s progress. Since in first grade there are no letter grades, the student is more graded upon their progress. Every week the students take a spelling test. It is just a short 5 word test about the letter pattern they were learning for the week. For example, last week they learned about long e, so they spelling test was words like beet or feet.
The students are given a math assessment every other week. The assessments basically have the same objectives but get harder by the week. The last couple of weeks they have been building upon their skills of counting by five, so the assessment was about adding and subtracting by five. In the previous weeks, they have been tested for adding and subtracting by 2 and 3. Ms. Faith writes down the progress of the students by the assessments, then sends the tests home, so the parents can see their child’s progress.
What are you learning about this age group?
I am learning so much about this age group. The thing I am learning the most about them is how good they all are at phonics. When they are reading a story and don’t know the word, they are able to use their proper knowledge to sound out the word. Although the students are great readers, they seem to struggle with spelling. They have trouble with one syllable words, but are able to read words with multiply syllables.
What do students enjoy and dislike most?
The students enjoy games. It seems like objective taught in the classroom is turned into a game. Every time Ms. Faith teaches a new objective in her lesson, there is usually a game to follow it.
The students also enjoy to be read out loud to. They really get into the story and connect with the characters in the story. When a story is read that the children like, they usually act out the characters of the story during recess.
The children seem to dislike when Ms. Faith talks for more then a few minutes without interacting with them. She rarely ever does this, but the students start to get every antsy if they are unengaged in the material.
Do you see technology being used in the classroom?
I do not see much technology used in this classroom. Each student probably uses the 2 classroom computers three times a week. This is used when the students are at their morning stations or during choice time on Friday afternoon. I have only seen the computers being used for math games. On the desktop of the computer there are also other programs, dealing with writing and phonics, but Ms. Faith says they never use those games.
Ms. Faith also has her own computer in the classroom. She mainly uses it to check her e-mail during silent reading, which her in-box is always loaded with letters from faculty and administers. She sometimes will use it to cross reference things in class.
In a paragraph, reflect in an analytical manner, what you learned about Teaching and the Instruction. You must integrate at least two ideas from class discussion or the text.
The text discussed how it is important to integrate a variety of different ways to present material to the students. Ms. Faith utilizes technology, games, worksheets, readings, or projects to help the students understand the curriculum. The students see a variety of different assessments within the school day, so they will not be doing the same thing all the time.
In class we talked about the different types of assessments, summative and formative. I have learned from my observations that in earlier elementary school there really is no such thing as a summative grade; your grade depends on your progress as a student.
Describe different ways (strategies) the teacher presents material to the students.
Ms. Faith relays a lot on worksheets. The worksheets generally have a math or reading object, most have a drawing and coloring in aspect as well. The students sometime fill in the worksheet while Ms. Faith is teaching the material, then they are asked to do the last questions by themselves or in a group.
A lot of material is presented through books. In our 7 week penguin until, were the students learn about different types, environment, and habits of penguins. Whenever Ms. Faith is introducing a new type of penguin, she reads a story about the certain animal.
What type of student groupings does the teacher use? (one-on-one, pairs, small groups, whole class?)
Ms. Faith uses a variety of different types of grouping. Students work independently only during the morning warm-up worksheet or when they are taking an assessment.
The student’s desks are in groups of 4, so the students when working on things at their desks are allowed to ask the other students for help. Small groups are also used for group reading and the different stations in the morning.
The grouping that is seen the most in this classroom is whole class. Most of the day is spent on the community rug. The students do move around a lot, but for instruction as well as reading the rug is used. When all the students are on the rug, they are working as an entire class.
What techniques are used to assess and evaluate learning? Describe any assessment technique you have observed.
The assessments within the classroom are mainly used to help track the student’s progress. Since in first grade there are no letter grades, the student is more graded upon their progress. Every week the students take a spelling test. It is just a short 5 word test about the letter pattern they were learning for the week. For example, last week they learned about long e, so they spelling test was words like beet or feet.
The students are given a math assessment every other week. The assessments basically have the same objectives but get harder by the week. The last couple of weeks they have been building upon their skills of counting by five, so the assessment was about adding and subtracting by five. In the previous weeks, they have been tested for adding and subtracting by 2 and 3. Ms. Faith writes down the progress of the students by the assessments, then sends the tests home, so the parents can see their child’s progress.
What are you learning about this age group?
I am learning so much about this age group. The thing I am learning the most about them is how good they all are at phonics. When they are reading a story and don’t know the word, they are able to use their proper knowledge to sound out the word. Although the students are great readers, they seem to struggle with spelling. They have trouble with one syllable words, but are able to read words with multiply syllables.
What do students enjoy and dislike most?
The students enjoy games. It seems like objective taught in the classroom is turned into a game. Every time Ms. Faith teaches a new objective in her lesson, there is usually a game to follow it.
The students also enjoy to be read out loud to. They really get into the story and connect with the characters in the story. When a story is read that the children like, they usually act out the characters of the story during recess.
The children seem to dislike when Ms. Faith talks for more then a few minutes without interacting with them. She rarely ever does this, but the students start to get every antsy if they are unengaged in the material.
Do you see technology being used in the classroom?
I do not see much technology used in this classroom. Each student probably uses the 2 classroom computers three times a week. This is used when the students are at their morning stations or during choice time on Friday afternoon. I have only seen the computers being used for math games. On the desktop of the computer there are also other programs, dealing with writing and phonics, but Ms. Faith says they never use those games.
Ms. Faith also has her own computer in the classroom. She mainly uses it to check her e-mail during silent reading, which her in-box is always loaded with letters from faculty and administers. She sometimes will use it to cross reference things in class.
In a paragraph, reflect in an analytical manner, what you learned about Teaching and the Instruction. You must integrate at least two ideas from class discussion or the text.
The text discussed how it is important to integrate a variety of different ways to present material to the students. Ms. Faith utilizes technology, games, worksheets, readings, or projects to help the students understand the curriculum. The students see a variety of different assessments within the school day, so they will not be doing the same thing all the time.
In class we talked about the different types of assessments, summative and formative. I have learned from my observations that in earlier elementary school there really is no such thing as a summative grade; your grade depends on your progress as a student.
Journal #1-Domain #1-Teaching and the Environment
Journal #1-Domain #1-Teaching and the Environment
How is the classroom physically organized? Do children seem to know where things are?
I have the pleasure of being able to work with an amazing teacher, Ms. Faith. She is a first grade teacher at Highland School in Skokie, IL. The first thing I noticed about her classroom is how organized it is. Although it is not the biggest classroom, Ms. Faith did a good job of separating the different parts of the classroom. I was impressed when the students were told to get their reading books, the students immediately went to the reading area, and picked out a book. There was no confusion on were the books were. The different areas such as reading, math, and writing, were clearly labeled on the bookshelves, which is eye level for the students. The bookshelves also serve a dual purpose by creating separators for the different areas.
How do learners and teacher’s use the classroom space?
The space is used every efficiently. The students utilize all the room in the classroom. Any extra little space in the classroom is used for group activities, such as reading a play or playing a game.
The teacher does not have a desk. Her desk is just a table with an adult chair surrounded by extra student chairs. She doesn’t waste space in having a desk of her own; she uses this extra space to help the students.
Is the room more child-oriented or teacher-oriented? Give examples.
The classroom is definitely more child-oriented. In the reading area for example, every book can be read by a first grader, there is no book that is challenging to the average reader. Important resources within the classroom are colorful posters and pictures that address the curriculum that is being taught to the students. Another example is we are doing a penguin unit, so there is information and pictures of penguins all throughout the classroom. The classroom also has a number line as well as a word wall that will assist in the students learning.
What resources are in the room? How do children and adults use them?
There are many resources in the room. There is also a bookshelf and bins filled with books. There are labels on these objects saying what category the book falls under. Fiction and Non-Fiction are examples.
Behind Ms. Faith’s chair, there is all these different curriculum books, each organized and labeled by subject. There is also three computers in the classroom. One is for Ms. Faith’s use only; the other two are for the students to use to play learning games.
What techniques are used to get students’ attention, to transition them from one activity or place, to another?
To get the students attention, Ms. Faith tells the students to put their hands on their heads if they can hear her. Then she keeps moving to different parts of the face until the all the students are paying attention.
A way she transitions the students to their desks, is instructing when they get back to their desks and take out everything, to put their heads down to show her she is ready to teach. This strategy seems very effective in helping the flow of transiting from one activity to the next.
What examples of technology are available?
There are three computers that are in the classroom, but one is only for teacher use. Everyday the students have different stations in the morning in which they rotate and the computer is one. The students play different math and reading games. Other then the computers there is not that much else used technology wise.
In a paragraph, reflect in an analytical manner, what you learned about Teaching and the Environment. You must integrate at least two ideas from class discussion or the text.
The classroom has a meeting area in the back. The students sit on a giant rug. This is their community area, as the text referred to it as, kind of the same idea as home base. This is the student’s start their days by morning check-in and end their days with what is the homework for tomorrow. The set up of the classroom is very similar to what was discussed in our text, about the students needing a general meeting area.
Another idea that Ms. Faith incorporates in her classroom is the fact that she used the different areas for subjects like science, math, writing, and reading. This was discussed in our text as an important way for organization. This is very effective because the students as discussed earlier were able to find a book in about 10 seconds.
How is the classroom physically organized? Do children seem to know where things are?
I have the pleasure of being able to work with an amazing teacher, Ms. Faith. She is a first grade teacher at Highland School in Skokie, IL. The first thing I noticed about her classroom is how organized it is. Although it is not the biggest classroom, Ms. Faith did a good job of separating the different parts of the classroom. I was impressed when the students were told to get their reading books, the students immediately went to the reading area, and picked out a book. There was no confusion on were the books were. The different areas such as reading, math, and writing, were clearly labeled on the bookshelves, which is eye level for the students. The bookshelves also serve a dual purpose by creating separators for the different areas.
How do learners and teacher’s use the classroom space?
The space is used every efficiently. The students utilize all the room in the classroom. Any extra little space in the classroom is used for group activities, such as reading a play or playing a game.
The teacher does not have a desk. Her desk is just a table with an adult chair surrounded by extra student chairs. She doesn’t waste space in having a desk of her own; she uses this extra space to help the students.
Is the room more child-oriented or teacher-oriented? Give examples.
The classroom is definitely more child-oriented. In the reading area for example, every book can be read by a first grader, there is no book that is challenging to the average reader. Important resources within the classroom are colorful posters and pictures that address the curriculum that is being taught to the students. Another example is we are doing a penguin unit, so there is information and pictures of penguins all throughout the classroom. The classroom also has a number line as well as a word wall that will assist in the students learning.
What resources are in the room? How do children and adults use them?
There are many resources in the room. There is also a bookshelf and bins filled with books. There are labels on these objects saying what category the book falls under. Fiction and Non-Fiction are examples.
Behind Ms. Faith’s chair, there is all these different curriculum books, each organized and labeled by subject. There is also three computers in the classroom. One is for Ms. Faith’s use only; the other two are for the students to use to play learning games.
What techniques are used to get students’ attention, to transition them from one activity or place, to another?
To get the students attention, Ms. Faith tells the students to put their hands on their heads if they can hear her. Then she keeps moving to different parts of the face until the all the students are paying attention.
A way she transitions the students to their desks, is instructing when they get back to their desks and take out everything, to put their heads down to show her she is ready to teach. This strategy seems very effective in helping the flow of transiting from one activity to the next.
What examples of technology are available?
There are three computers that are in the classroom, but one is only for teacher use. Everyday the students have different stations in the morning in which they rotate and the computer is one. The students play different math and reading games. Other then the computers there is not that much else used technology wise.
In a paragraph, reflect in an analytical manner, what you learned about Teaching and the Environment. You must integrate at least two ideas from class discussion or the text.
The classroom has a meeting area in the back. The students sit on a giant rug. This is their community area, as the text referred to it as, kind of the same idea as home base. This is the student’s start their days by morning check-in and end their days with what is the homework for tomorrow. The set up of the classroom is very similar to what was discussed in our text, about the students needing a general meeting area.
Another idea that Ms. Faith incorporates in her classroom is the fact that she used the different areas for subjects like science, math, writing, and reading. This was discussed in our text as an important way for organization. This is very effective because the students as discussed earlier were able to find a book in about 10 seconds.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
