Field Visit #4 - 10/26/06

This morning we went back to our first grade classroom for more general observation. I noticed that the teacher did have to discipline a little bit more than usual today and make more comments to individual students. We noticed that they do have a warning system which is mostly oral, but when a child is not listening and has to have instructions repeated to them a few times, they are warned with "going to their chair." We found out afterwards that the students really do not like being at their desks when their classmates are in a group on the floor, so it is a threat/punishment that seemed to be relatively effective with these students. The student can still see and participate from their desks, but they like to be able to move around. This movement does seem to keep students on track. Today, within calendar time and moving into math, the students had to move to 3 different locations on the floor as they switched gears. This seemed to break things up a little bit and get everyone re-focused. The class went through their normal routine this morning with calendar time and math lessons, moving into word study as we were leaving. It seems that most of their testing is now completed, and things are moving back into their normal schedule. Students were split into pairs today to work on two different activities relating to counting and patterns.
I thought about what I saw and came up with a few questions that I would be curious to explore more with the teacher. I would like to see a new lesson topic introduced to the class to see how the teacher initially begins instruction and explanations. Since we are only in class once per week, we do not really get to see how processes or topics are introduced and how the children react to them. I wonder if the teacher has a certain technique to get the students interested and to teach them the routine for the activity involved with that lesson.
I also wonder how long it took to really get to know the kids well. She knows what their situations are at home, what type of discipline will have the best impact on a student, their religious beliefs, etc. I wonder if this just came out over time, if she sent a questionnaire home, met with parents and past teachers, or a combination of some sort. It will be nice to see this whole process through next fall.
I watched today as children were pulled out of class by other teachers for further instruction, and I do wonder if they miss a lot of important instruction in the class at this time. It seems that the same children leave class every day, but we do not usually see them become reintegrated back into the classroom. There were a couple of students out yesterday when an activity was taught, so the partner of that student taught them what to do with help from the teacher when necessary. I wonder if similar things happen when children return from a pull-out.
The last thing that struck me today was that there is a very big range within the classroom of student development and learning levels. The teacher was binding books the students had made, so we were able to read some of them. She has children who are writing very long, involved stories, and others who are not writing very conventionally yet. I wonder how she deals with this during class. I know that students will sometimes continue working on a project when others move on, but I wonder how instruction and teacher support varies for those students. There is an assistant in our class, which I'm sure helps with this issue, but I also wonder what happens in classes with no assistant.

Field Visit #3 - 10/19/06

I was once again impressed with my first grade class visit this week...especially their growing knowledge of sign language! The first thing I looked at was student involvement. The students in this class are all very anxious to volunteer and participate in class, so I never saw a time that it was hard to get an answer. A majority of the students wave their hands enthusiastically whenever the teacher asks a question. There was even debate over who got to be tested first! To keep things even for the students who may not have volunteered as much, the teacher was very careful to call on people she hadn't heard from yet that morning. She would sometimes call directly on a child if they hadn't volunteered yet to make sure everyone was involved.
As far as routines go, I often feel like the entire class/day is one big routine. The class is on a schedule that the students know very well and have no problem following. When the students come back from specials, they have calendar time. This time is especially "routined," starting with the date and a pattern they are working on, moving onto filling in charts and graphs for the day, weather, number of days of school, filling in straws as counters, working with the clock, counting on an abacus by 1s,2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 8s, 9s, 25s (changing each day a little bit), and working on sign language and Spanish. The class then moved to math time, with the teacher's same transition into new activities.
This week there was very little disruption or misbehavior. There were some gentle reminders not to block the walkway during calendar time on the rug. At one point the class did start talking a bit among themselves, so the teacher said I can't hear the person speaking or I hear whispering...waited, and then started using names of those students still talking to calm them down. In the past she has also used names to call out people who were not paying attention or were misbehaving.
I spoke with the teacher about some potential lesson ideas to teach the class, and came up with a few, but we are planning on talking more about this over the next week. The ideas so far are to do a logic game, which the students sometimes do as a part of calendar time transitioning into other math lessons, to do a writing activity with a book (perhaps a fairy tale, which is a genre they've been working with this month), or a science lesson on force and motion (which would be based around push and pull for first grade). We initially thought we'd be teaching a few math lessons since we are always in class for math, but the teacher said it was fine if we change the schedule for a few days, and that the kids might actually like to do that. I really liked those three ideas, and think that we can make a few good lessons with those.

Field Visit #3 - 10/19/06

I was once again impressed with my first grade class visit this week...especially their growing knowledge of sign language! The first thing I looked at was student involvement. The students in this class are all very anxious to volunteer and participate in class, so I never saw a time that it was hard to get an answer. A majority of the students wave their hands enthusiastically whenever the teacher asks a question. There was even debate over who got to be tested first! To keep things even for the students who may not have volunteered as much, the teacher was very careful to call on people she hadn't heard from yet that morning. She would sometimes call directly on a child if they hadn't volunteered yet to make sure everyone was involved.
As far as routines go, I often feel like the entire class/day is one big routine. The class is on a schedule that the students know very well and have no problem following. When the students come back from specials, they have calendar time. This time is especially "routined," starting with the date and a pattern they are working on, moving onto filling in charts and graphs for the day, weather, number of days of school, filling in straws as counters, working with the clock, counting on an abacus by 1s,2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 8s, 9s, 25s (changing each day a little bit), and working on sign language and Spanish. The class then moved to math time, with the teacher's same transition into new activities.
This week there was very little disruption or misbehavior. There were some gentle reminders not to block the walkway during calendar time on the rug. At one point the class did start talking a bit among themselves, so the teacher said I can't hear the person speaking or I hear whispering...waited, and then started using names of those students still talking to calm them down. In the past she has also used names to call out people who were not paying attention or were misbehaving.
I spoke with the teacher about some potential lesson ideas to teach the class, and came up with a few, but we are planning on talking more about this over the next week. The ideas so far are to do a logic game, which the students sometimes do as a part of calendar time transitioning into other math lessons, to do a writing activity with a book (perhaps a fairy tale, which is a genre they've been working with this month), or a science lesson on force and motion (which would be based around push and pull for first grade). We initially thought we'd be teaching a few math lessons since we are always in class for math, but the teacher said it was fine if we change the schedule for a few days, and that the kids might actually like to do that. I really liked those three ideas, and think that we can make a few good lessons with those.

Field Visit #2 - 10/12/06

We had another exciting day in first grade today...The morning started with us taking the children to the school book fair, where we helped them create their 'wish lists' to take home to their parents. We each walked around the fair with two children, and it was really fun to see how excited they were to pick up books and put them on their lists. The two boys I walked with had some similar tastes in books, so it was fun to talk to them about the books and hear them talk to each other about everything they picked up.

Once the lists were complete, we went back to the classroom. I tried to pay particular attention to the way the teacher began lessons and transitioned between lessons. We began the day with calendar time, which includes looking at patterns, weather, counting in English and Spanish, a piggy bank activity, working on sign language letters and spelling, and some calendar activities. Calendar time started at 9:15 and went until 9:30. A big introduction was not necessary since this is a regular daily activity and students were ready to begin almost immediately after the teacher said it was calendar time. The teacher used some small transitions between various tasks by saying things like, 'okay, now let's go back to our calendar and see if we can figure out the pattern yet,' mentioned that 'a student asked for a math challenge, so let's give one a try', and said 'alright, let's get those hands ready for sign language.' Once this time was done, the teacher needed 5 minutes to set up for the next activity on the rug, so students were asked to sit and rest at their desks for a few minutes and talk to their friends about the books they found at the fair.

At 9:35, the teacher came to the front of the room and said: "5-4-3-2-1, freeze; all eyeballs on me." This seems to be the transition phrase used most often in the class to grab the students' attention. As more and more students hear the count down, they quiet down or help count down. The teacher began by explaining what activity they were going to be doing, and since they had done the same activity yesterday, they knew what she was talking about. She was sure to state clear expectations for behavior and the rules of the math activity, such as 'leave space for each other' and 'don't sit in front of the projector' before the students were asked to move. Students were called over to the rug in small groups based on the number of letters in their names. It took about 2 minutes for the students to get situated and calmed down, so the lesson began at 9:37.

During the math activity, most students were on task, but there were a few times that the teacher needed to grab attention back from a few students. She would say things like 'are you done interrupting?', 'that's very disrupting,' or 'I'd like you to wait for the class' to bring individual students' attention back to the activity and the rules of the class. I noticed that she used names to draw attention to the particular student who was distrupting. I think it was useful to get their attention, but am not sure what the best way to do this is or not. She did need to get particular students on track, but drew a lot of attention that that student while disciplining. She would also pause if it was getting too loud and waited for students to quiet down before continuing. She did a good job of asking questions to the students about what they were seeing and how their observations compared to their classmates. She also gave good feedback to draw others' attention to something a student had said. She was also sure to call on different students constantly by using statements like, 'Who haven't I heard from yet this morning?' This lesson ended at 9:51. The "odd job" person for the day collected the materials, and students were told they would be using this activity to create their own version of it at thier desks. The transition statement was 'Now that I've made a lot of these for you, I want you to make some shapes for me.' She was sure to repeat the rules and have many different students repeat parts of the rules as follow up.

The students went to their desks and again took about 2 minutes to get their individual materials and settle into their desks to start working. We all walked around to observe work and give assistance where needed. Students were told that if they finished early, they could choose another math activity to work on until time was up.

It was interesting to see how the count-down worked to grab attention, and it did seem to work every time. I wonder if the teacher taught them what that was going to mean or if she just started using it and it worked over time. This class moves from one lesson to another very quickly, so there were many small transitions, but none took very much time. The teacher did do a good job of keeping most students focused for the entirety of lessons through questioning and being patient in waiting for everyone to be ready. I liked how she followed up with students to have them repeat rules. She did this over a period of time to make sure that they didn't answer and immediately forget.

Another observation we made was that students at this age will watch everything a teacher does, and often repeat these things. We saw a student cutting her paper up exactly as the teacher had earlier, after drawing pictures just as the teacher had in her example. We are not sure if this is the way this student normally does things, but it was interesting to see that it was the same way the teacher did them. It is a good thing to keep in mind when working with young children.

Field Visit #1!

Today we had our first field visit with a first grade class. We spent some time speaking with the teacher and observing the classroom before the children came back in from a "special." It was fun to watch the change in the atmosphere of the classroom as the children arrived. While the room was empty, I took note of the centers in the class, the items posted on the walls and bulletin boards, the arrangement of the desks, and the various materials present for children to use in their learning. The physical environment of the classroom varies from corner to corner and side to side. There are areas for reading, desks for students to work in, small tables for center work, and an area set aside for children to store their belongings and work. With all of these areas, there is certainly a lot going on in the classroom. The walls are covered with pocket charts, children's works, calendars, clocks, pictures and labels in multiple languages, shapes, maps, sight words, and problem solving games. Along the walls are pillows and stuffed animals for reading, book shelves and a library, puzzles, and dictionaries. The desks were aligned to allow for some conversation and group work, and larger tables are spread around the classroom for more collaborative work or games. Everywhere children turn, there are tools to help their learning and resources for them to use in various works/activities. I immediately noticed the many labels on the walls, clocks, pictures, and book bins to help children learn new concepts as well as languages.
As the children arrived, I felt the change in energy (and the stares of the children) as they rushed in to put their library books away and join the teacher on the rug. There was plenty of space for all children to join together for their daily morning calendar and counting activities.

The children definitely know their daily routine well. They knew exactly what to do and where to go as they entered the classroom. The teacher was very good at engaging the students and attracting their attention to the task at hand. Children were eager to participate and help with the organization of the calendars. As the students assembled, it was very clear that the class is very multi-cultural. It was great to see the teacher using multicultural activities to engage children. The class is learning both Spanish and Sign Language to communicate. Students were excited to do the planned activites, and the rules of the classroom and the individual games played at the centers were clearly understood. The teacher and the teaching assistant were supportive of students and encouraged them to try new challenges. I also noted that the teacher gave great feedback to the children as they answered questions. There were quite a few changes taking place, as various children left class for additional instruction, met with the teacher for reading assessment, and later came back to join their groups. This did not seem to be a distraction to the children.

Overall, this classroom is very well organized for children to learn, with various environments, tools, and activities surrounding them, all at a level appropriate for small children to see, reach, and use easily. The teachers obviously have taught the children how to proceed from activity to activity and how to treat each other and share, and they make sure to always encourage the students. I am excited to go back and work with the students further in weeks to come!