The district that I am placed at for my practicum experience has a "sage" program, which means that classes are either 18 students for one teacher or 30 students for two, but once students go to their electives they are left with the single elective teacher regardless of class size; this means that class sizes greatly fluctuate throughout the day. Mrs. W, my Cooperating Teacher (CT), has also recently acquired the Kindergarten classes. (This district splits students up K-12 into 4 different schools that are all connected.) The Kindergarten art class is 45 minutes long and meets twice during the 6 day rotation, whereas all of the others meet for 90 minutes only once every 6 days.
DAY 5
3rd Grade: 18 students, 90 min.
This was the first class of the first day working with Mrs. W and her students; they were beginning their second class of an Egyptian sarcophagi project. Even during this first class I could see that Mrs. W is an exceptional teacher who can really engage her students. She began by reviewing the story that was used to introduce the lesson by asking specific questions that were directly related to the story. It was amazing to see what the students could recall from that last class. Mrs. W also never told students they were wrong if their answer was incorrect, she would say "not quite" or "close", it was clear that she didn't want to discourage students from further participation. She also lead students to an answer that they were unable to find, she used things that they were familiar with to lead them to the right word, one student picked it up quickly and answered "scarab beetle!". While students were working on this project Mrs. W spoke to the students about their last project, which was a duck stamp painting, and told them that today was their day to vote for the best ones to be sent in for a contest. She told them to be proud of their work, even if they did not get theirs sent in. She said she would not have hung them in the hallway unless she thought they were their best. She then dismissed them by table during work time to vote out in the hall, asking "Is there anyone that can't be trusted to be quiet in the hall?" Students voted and worked well through the class, I assisted students with the building process and answered questions throughout the 90 min class.
Knowing that I will be teaching a lesson at this school, I pay very close attention to Mrs. W's interactions with her students and how she conducts her classes. She uses a really great clapping rhythm that students imitate to get their attention. I've definitely taken note of this for my lesson! I've also started thinking about and writing down questions that I will ask students for my lesson. I also like Mrs. W's use of positive feedback and that she asked students if she could trust them to be quiet rather than just telling them to be quiet in the hall. I have to make sure that I remember these for my lesson. I also spoke with a group of boys in this class; they were discussing a video game while working that I was familiar with, when they realized that I knew what they were talking about they immediately opened up, asking me question after question about the game and to help them with their project. It seems that with some students, you just have to have an in.
2nd Grade: 30 students; 90 min.
The class began with the question, "Who can remind us what we are working on?" and when students raised their hands to answer, "Thank you for raising your hands". These students were continuing castle projects and reviewing what they had previously learned. Mrs. W asked several questions and had enthusiastic replies. She demonstrated the next part of their Castle book using a document camera. As students began working, Mrs. W worked individually with all of the students in order to guide them through this difficult stained glass aspect of their books. I also circulated the classroom answering questions, re-explaining the demonstration, and walking some students through the process.
This was a difficult task for many students, some understood without any issues while others could not understand the task at hand. I think this was a great challenge for this class and yielded beautiful results. I'm not sure if I would approach this with this age-group if I were teaching, simply because so many students needed so much guidance, but there was definitely students who excelled. I think this is something that I'm going to have to think about an continue to consider as I approach my lesson and student teaching.
Kindergarten: 30 students; 45 min.
I was only able to stay for the first 20 minutes of this class, but I was able to watch Mrs. W begin this class with several questions. These students were creating a cuckoo clock out of paper, cardboard, sculpey, string, and pine cones. Mrs. W said, "I will call on you if you respectfully raise your hands". She used lots of questions, which I think was really great. I don't know if I would have thought about using that many questions without having seen it in action; I'm now planning on asking more questions for my own lesson.
No comments:
Post a Comment