On Tuesday I had some time to talk to my cooperating teacher about a lesson I taught on Monday. I had introduced the new poem for the week, which was about skiing and engaged students by talking about the Winter Olympics. I asked them if they had watched any of it and we began to dialogue about what events they liked or knew about. My cooperating teacher commented that she thought that dialogue was a really good idea to help them make connections to the poem. We then discussed how surprised we were that not many of my students knew about the Olympics. It made me realize that I need to incorporate more visuals and even videos when possible, as well as talk about topics or subjects that they may not know about, such as the Olympics. Because some knew and others learned about the Olympics, they were much more interested in the poem than they would have been (2N).
Wednesday I taught a writing lesson and for the first time this semester, my students finished much faster than my cooperating teacher or I expected them to. I was able to keep them working and focused by showing the students who finished quickly the next step in their writing process for the piece, but I couldn't believe how quickly they worked and how focused they stayed. They are usually all over the place during writing: getting out of their seats, talking to their neighbor, pretending they don't know what to write, etc, but today they got right to work and finished quickly. I think it's because the topic they were writing about was one they chose. We are in the middle of a nonfiction unit for reading, so they are writing nonfiction pieces in writing as well. Today they had to choose something they know a lot about as their writing topic. Many of them were excited to write about the things they really like. It was great to see them work so hard during writing, but now I also know what they are capable of accomplishing. Hopefully our writing time will look a lot more similar to what it did today than most other days.
Thursday my cooperating teacher and I began working on a behavior plan for a student who has been unmotivated and obstinate. He refuses to complete work, even when he knows how to do it. One little thing sets him off and he puts his head down and doesn't respond to anything we say. We came up with a plan to set one morning reading goal for him and one afternoon math goal for him. Each time he meets that goal he will get a sticker on a chart. When he fills a line in the chart he will get a reward, such as playing an educational game on the iPad. It was reassuring to talk with my cooperating teacher about the struggles she has with the student to know that it's not just me. It was also hopeful to discuss the progress we hope he will make. We are going to try to implement the system starting Monday. I'm looking forward to see his response.
We focused our "science Friday" on animals. We talked about the needs of animals and played a classification game. In the afternoon my teacher asked me to teach math. I had about 10 minutes to plan the math block using the math problem of the month. I made a guide sheet in the computer lab during their bathroom break and gave them a challenge problem and manipulatives to compare the heights of giraffes. Students worked busily for almost a half hour trying to figure out the problem. The lesson turned out better than I expected, which was great. It was a good experience to have to plan on my feet and improvise as well!
Schmidt chapters 8 and 9 talked about authentic assessment, history and the arts. Even if I am not directly teaching social studies or the arts, they can still be incorporated into classroom learning. Some of the strategies Schmidt mentioned really stuck out to me. One of these is using images to teach history. By showing students a photography and asking open-ended questions, they use critical thinking skills, can visually process information, and produce language to describe their analysis. This strategy can be used not only in connection with history, but any relevant topic portrayed in an image. This strategy is also one I would love to use with English Language Learners. Another strategy described was using historic simulations. Students learn to take on the perspective of someone else as well as produce language by participating in the simulation. One strategy Schmidt mentions in terms of the arts is to ask students to participate in a readers' theater, but to give them props to use. This encourages movement and a dramatization of the text. It appeals to kinesthetic and visual learners. A final strategy I really liked was "Say What?" The teacher describes a simple scenario to students and asks students to volunteer to act out the scene, "emphasizing what the characters say as well as their gestures and actions" (Schmidt, p. 194). I like this strategy because it is spacial, kinesthetic, and verbal. Students listening and watching also receive language.
In terms of authentic assessment, Schmidt talked about how the goal of assessment is to show mastery and to produce new knowledge. Assessment becomes authentic and is driven by motivation when presented to someone outside the normal classroom setting such as parents, peers, knowledgeable community members, etc. through demonstrations, performances, products, etc. I have seen authentic assessment used only a few times in the classroom. From my own experience, I participated in a court debate over a constitutional issue in high school. We performed the debate for a team of historians from the community and were judged by that panel. Other forms of authentic assessment from my own school experience included a science fair, a country fair (in which we picked a country and had to present the culture of that country to people we invited from the community), and a dramatic performance of a modified version of a Shakespeare play to another English class in high school.
As I thought of ways I could use authentic assessment with my first and second graders, I thought of the resources I have as a college student. Because I have friends from a variety of majors it would be easy to bring in "community experts" from a variety of disciplines for a class of first graders. I was considering incorporating an art project and bringing in an art expert for my students to present to. I'll have to look into community experts. I'd really like to try to find someone who knows a lot about plants to incorporate a plant science project with an authentic assessment.
Wednesday I taught a writing lesson and for the first time this semester, my students finished much faster than my cooperating teacher or I expected them to. I was able to keep them working and focused by showing the students who finished quickly the next step in their writing process for the piece, but I couldn't believe how quickly they worked and how focused they stayed. They are usually all over the place during writing: getting out of their seats, talking to their neighbor, pretending they don't know what to write, etc, but today they got right to work and finished quickly. I think it's because the topic they were writing about was one they chose. We are in the middle of a nonfiction unit for reading, so they are writing nonfiction pieces in writing as well. Today they had to choose something they know a lot about as their writing topic. Many of them were excited to write about the things they really like. It was great to see them work so hard during writing, but now I also know what they are capable of accomplishing. Hopefully our writing time will look a lot more similar to what it did today than most other days.
Thursday my cooperating teacher and I began working on a behavior plan for a student who has been unmotivated and obstinate. He refuses to complete work, even when he knows how to do it. One little thing sets him off and he puts his head down and doesn't respond to anything we say. We came up with a plan to set one morning reading goal for him and one afternoon math goal for him. Each time he meets that goal he will get a sticker on a chart. When he fills a line in the chart he will get a reward, such as playing an educational game on the iPad. It was reassuring to talk with my cooperating teacher about the struggles she has with the student to know that it's not just me. It was also hopeful to discuss the progress we hope he will make. We are going to try to implement the system starting Monday. I'm looking forward to see his response.
We focused our "science Friday" on animals. We talked about the needs of animals and played a classification game. In the afternoon my teacher asked me to teach math. I had about 10 minutes to plan the math block using the math problem of the month. I made a guide sheet in the computer lab during their bathroom break and gave them a challenge problem and manipulatives to compare the heights of giraffes. Students worked busily for almost a half hour trying to figure out the problem. The lesson turned out better than I expected, which was great. It was a good experience to have to plan on my feet and improvise as well!
Schmidt chapters 8 and 9 talked about authentic assessment, history and the arts. Even if I am not directly teaching social studies or the arts, they can still be incorporated into classroom learning. Some of the strategies Schmidt mentioned really stuck out to me. One of these is using images to teach history. By showing students a photography and asking open-ended questions, they use critical thinking skills, can visually process information, and produce language to describe their analysis. This strategy can be used not only in connection with history, but any relevant topic portrayed in an image. This strategy is also one I would love to use with English Language Learners. Another strategy described was using historic simulations. Students learn to take on the perspective of someone else as well as produce language by participating in the simulation. One strategy Schmidt mentions in terms of the arts is to ask students to participate in a readers' theater, but to give them props to use. This encourages movement and a dramatization of the text. It appeals to kinesthetic and visual learners. A final strategy I really liked was "Say What?" The teacher describes a simple scenario to students and asks students to volunteer to act out the scene, "emphasizing what the characters say as well as their gestures and actions" (Schmidt, p. 194). I like this strategy because it is spacial, kinesthetic, and verbal. Students listening and watching also receive language.
In terms of authentic assessment, Schmidt talked about how the goal of assessment is to show mastery and to produce new knowledge. Assessment becomes authentic and is driven by motivation when presented to someone outside the normal classroom setting such as parents, peers, knowledgeable community members, etc. through demonstrations, performances, products, etc. I have seen authentic assessment used only a few times in the classroom. From my own experience, I participated in a court debate over a constitutional issue in high school. We performed the debate for a team of historians from the community and were judged by that panel. Other forms of authentic assessment from my own school experience included a science fair, a country fair (in which we picked a country and had to present the culture of that country to people we invited from the community), and a dramatic performance of a modified version of a Shakespeare play to another English class in high school.
As I thought of ways I could use authentic assessment with my first and second graders, I thought of the resources I have as a college student. Because I have friends from a variety of majors it would be easy to bring in "community experts" from a variety of disciplines for a class of first graders. I was considering incorporating an art project and bringing in an art expert for my students to present to. I'll have to look into community experts. I'd really like to try to find someone who knows a lot about plants to incorporate a plant science project with an authentic assessment.
Becky, it's really interesting that you see your students' learning math as now dependent on you. That gives you quite a bit of responsibility, doesn't it? If you believe you are an effective teacher, you can view this as an opportunity to really make a difference in your students' learning. If you don't think you're so good, this responsibility could be quite a burden and make you feel quite guilty. I think the best teachers thrive on knowing they have this responsibility and that they are good and will really make a difference. Stay confident.
ReplyDeleteI like that you came up with a plan with your cooperating teacher for your difficult student. You talked about a morning goal and an afternoon goal. Initially you'll want to make these easily attainable so that he makes a clear connection between his effort to make the goal and the reward. You might also want to have more immediate gratification initially and then gradually working toward filling the row with stickers.