When I think back to my days as a student in elementary school, I can't think of many times that my teachers worked to foster positive peer relationships. Growing up, there was a distinct idea of individualism. Working with others on assignments was considered cheating and was discouraged. As a preservice teacher, I am learning to look at almost every learning experience as an opportunity for collaboration. In my classroom, we have established norms to set guides for how we speak to each other (with kindness) and we take many opportunities to demonstrate that we understand those norms. The best way I think we can foster positive peer relationships and create a cohesive community is to practice being good community members in a safe environment where they have the ability to make mistakes without fear of judgement.
Think about your years in elementary school and your experiences as a preservice teacher. What are some of the ways that teachers work to foster positive peer relationships and create a cohesive community?
When I think back to my days as a student in elementary school, I can't think of many times that my teachers worked to foster positive peer relationships. Growing up, there was a distinct idea of individualism. Working with others on assignments was considered cheating and was discouraged. As a preservice teacher, I am learning to look at almost every learning experience as an opportunity for collaboration. In my classroom, we have established norms to set guides for how we speak to each other (with kindness) and we take many opportunities to demonstrate that we understand those norms. The best way I think we can foster positive peer relationships and create a cohesive community is to practice being good community members in a safe environment where they have the ability to make mistakes without fear of judgement.
0 Comments
What: Attention getters are such a vital part of classroom management. When students are working cooperatively or at centers, it is often necessary to get the students' attention to make announcements or bring students back together to speak to the group as a whole. My CT uses a call and response method of getting the students' attention. Some examples are: (Teacher: Student)
Now What: Students really enjoy these attention getters. Being as they all follow the same pattern so it makes it easier to introduce new call and responses. Moving forward, I will continue to use these attention getters in my classroom and take them into my own classroom one day. ReflectionFor my first supervisor observation, I taught an ELA lesson that consisted of a mini lesson on prefixes, a vocabulary introduction, and a shared reading lesson that covered cause and effect. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would have spent less time on vocabulary. (About 15 minutes in) The students understood the vocabulary words right away and when I started to second guess myself is when they started to second guess themselves. However, I did think that incorporating the signs for the students helped to clarify some more abstract vocabulary words and the students really enjoyed it. I was surprised how quickly the students understood the concept of the prefix "un." We went over it once or twice (about 5 minutes in) and the students were able to apply the prefix to other base words to participate in a word sort. AnalysisIf I were to teach this lesson again, I would make sure that the students understand what is expected of them in a text dependent question. I would go over the necessary parts and make that expectation clear. Students really struggled with that concept. Another concept that my students are struggling with is cause and effect (the main topic of shared reading in this lesson). Unfortunately many students finished their independent work and still did not understand the relationship between cause and effect. I am working with my CT to find resources to help the students understand that relationship. Cause and Effect resource that my CT gave me. We used this to introduce cause and effect. Modeled cause and effect graphic organizer
ReflectionFor my first cooperative teacher observed lesson I taught the ELA block (approximately two hours) and in that block I taught a mini lesson on the prefix “un,” modeled how to use vocabulary from a text in a text dependent question (TDQ), and did a mini lesson based off of the shared reading for the week on character traits. If I taught this lesson again to the same group of students, I would have made an anchor chart of the three things that we must include in a TDQ response. In my lesson, I modeled an example based on the question we answered the day before and I could feel eyes glazing over (about 15 minutes in) The three things that we include in a TDQ response (part of the question, text evidence, and vocabulary) are things that we refer back to daily. If I had changed gears and worked with them to create an anchor chart, I think that would have been more successful than modeling an example and the students would have a concrete material they could refer back to. I was surprised at how engaged the students were during our word work mini lesson (about 5 minutes in). We had introduced the prefix “un” the day before in a word sort and I had learned after reviewing their ticket out that most of them had a solid understanding of what the prefix “un” meant and how to apply it to their reading. For this lesson, I had students work in cooperative groups to brainstorm as many “un” words they could come up with. They really got into this activity. I framed it at a race so they worked in teams and pushed each other to come up with new words. One student came up with the word undetermined another student came up with the word unscramble. I was really impressed with the level of enthusiasm that my students brought to the table. Teaching this lesson made me think about some of the information that has been taught in our coursework. My class is comprised of many students who are involved in sports. Our shared reading was based on a biography text on Roberto Clemente, a famous Puerto Rican baseball player. In both of my literacy courses as well as in my teaching children’s literature course we discussed the importance of choosing not only literature that is developmentally appropriate but also use material that the students find engaging. AnalysisThe students that I suspected (my reteach group) were the students that struggled the most with this material. For shared reading and extending it to respond to the TDQ, I pulled that group to work together with me to read sections of the text that included different examples of character traits. By the end of our session, the students were starting to understand and construct their answers. However, working with students who need to be retaught is an area where I need support in and is a goal for me moving forward. Another area that I struggled in was in pacing. In our ELA block, I need to fit in four mini lessons in word work, vocabulary, shared reading, and fluency. I am currently only planning for three of those aspects. In my lessons I have a tendency to talk too much or push a discussion past when we need to move on. Doing this, my students do not have adequate time to practice their skills with each other, independently, and with a book of their choosing. This is one of my goals for this semester. I have invested in a timer and I am using it during every lesson that I teach, in the hopes that I will improve. Modeled TDQ response. CT observation notes.
What: Last weekend I went to the FLAEYC (Florida Association for the Education of Young Children) conference hosted in Orlando, FL. It was an amazing experience where I got to listen to the best of the best present their areas of expertise in early childhood! Among countless other things I took away from the conference, I learned some fantastic new attention getters that with my CT's permission I implemented in my classroom this week. I used two new ones and the students really took to them! Dr. Jean Feldman:
Now What: My students really took to the attention getters that I started using with them. They weren't perfect, there were a few students (especially at the beginning) that didn't quite get it. However, other students were especially good at advocating that it was time to be quiet. Moving forward, I intend on being consistent with the attention getters that I have established and setting high expectations for them. http://drjeanandfriends.blogspot.com/2014/04/tootsie-roll.html Link to Dr. Jean Feldman's blog post about the "tootsie roll" attention getter.
What: This week for my weekly task, I lined up the students for lunch and specials for the whole day. (No easy task with third graders!) At Rivertree, all students follow the FAME (face forward, arms at your side, mouths closed, eyes open) line procedures. When my CT lines up the students she will call them in groups to not have them congest the walk ways. She varies the ways that she calls them to line up. She often uses:
Now What: Similar to last week, this isn't the first time I've lined up students and it's not the last time I will either. Going forward, I want to start incorporating the ASL sign for "line up" into my routine. Rivertree has a large DHH population. It's a little thing but if I have DHH students in my class I want to be able to incorporate bits of their native language into my day (and save my voice a little!). Sign for "line up". (Found on lifeprint.com)
What actions will you take as an educator to make sure you plan and deliver instruction that is responsive to student learning needs?
The first thing that any educator should do to plan and deliver instruction that is responsive to student learning needs is to collect data and determine the student's current performance level in whatever subject you are planning for. Different methods of data I have seen used/have used/ have been trained to use are:
Tier 1:
After students worked with an intervention for a period of time, the teacher should collect data and make further adjustments. What: This week for my weekly task, I decided to create an anchor chart to go along with my ELA lesson on theme. Theme is one of those topics that is really difficult for most kids in Third grade to understand because there is this shift from the concrete into something that is abstract and subjective to interpretation of the text. Using an anchor chart, I was able to make sure the students had some key information to use during their independent work. Throughout our time together, I have watched my CT create anchor charts and write on the board often. I asked her where she finds ideas for different anchor charts and visual aids throughout the classroom and she directed me to places such as:
Now What: This was not the first anchor chart I have made/used in the classroom, (Although, I will say this one is the best I've made so far) and this won't be the last one I have used. Going forward and thinking into my future classroom, I am going to keep in mind the guidelines that my CT has modeled for me and utilize the resources she has shared with me. An anchor chart on theme. Bonus!This week I had an unexpected opportunity arise! On my internship days (Tuesday/Wednesday) I am responsible for teaching the Social Studies and ELA blocks during our day, each week I create lesson plans according to where we should be based on the pacing guides. On Tuesday, however, I started to come down with what I suspect was the flu. Call it teacher's intuition, I decided it would be wise to start planning some just in case plans. I emailed my CT my lesson plans for the day and worked on trying to get well. The next day I ended up being too sick to come in. For the first time, I had to create "sub plans". This week I truly saw how teaching is like no other job on the planet, with the amount of work one has to put in to just be sick! My "sub plans" from the day I was sick.
What: Due to the fact that I was not with my CT for the first day of school/first days of school. I was not able to observe how she introduced herself to the students and how she got to know them and learned their names. To substitute this valuable information, she walked me through her process for getting to know her students and learning their names.
To learn her student's names and get to know a little about each of them my CT:
Now What: As I am writing this blog, I have learned each of the students' names and a little bit of information about each of them. Next year, when I am in my own classroom, I am going to implement some of the strategies that my CT has taught me and plan to quicken my process of learning student names. How do you define "learning community?" What is your ideal classroom learning community?
A learning community is a gathering of people where the intent is to gain knowledge. For me, my classroom is the ultimate learning community where the students work together to create and gain knowledge and I work to facilitate their exploration and am an active participant in learning alongside my students. In my classroom, the teacher and students both learn together. This week in classroom management, we read about collectivist classrooms and how the students work interdependently, cooperatively, and focus what is best for the group. This model coincides with my personal pedagogy where students work together to form a learning community to construct knowledge. In my ideal classroom, the students will learn that I do not hold all of the answers but that each of them has knowledge from previous experiences that they can bring to each other and help us all learn something worthwhile. In my third grade classroom, for my first ELA lesson, I wanted to engage the students about the story we were reading. When I posed the simple question: "what happened in the story?" to the students, one of my students responded with "well you read it, you tell us." I responded back to the students that I did not read the story, that I really needed them to tell me what happened so they could catch me up. Once the students realized that I was not going to just give them the answer, but expected them to work with the people at their table to share and create knowledge about the story. This is how I want my learning communities to be. |
Mrs. randolph*For the purposes of this blog, all student and faculty names have been changed to protect their privacy. All identifying information has been removed.* Archives
March 2017
Categories
All
|