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.