Experience & Reflection Blog

    On September 23, I was lucky enough to spend the day in a Kindergarten classroom. Stepping foot into a colorful classroom full of children was a perfect way to start off my day. Seeing all of the exciting students made me want to see how they go about their day in this learning environment. At the start of the day, the children follow a routine by flipping over the card with their name written on it. This allows the teacher to take attendance as well as the students learning responsibility. The rest of their morning routine took place on the carpet. At this time the teacher preforms activities such as the calendar. It is important to keep to the sequence of daily routine in kindergarten to supply the students with a structures and stable atmosphere. When teaching kindergarten students the months in the year and the days in the week, it is important to be repetitive.

    While reading the suggested books for this class I have learned about children’s different levels of education. I learned that reading to children has many benefits. Interactive read alouds provide the opportunity for students to make self to text connections as well as self to world connections. Interactive read alouds can also lead to the improvement of children’s vocabulary.

    While learning the proper way to make an effective lesson plan I learned that the rationale behind the lesson is important. Understanding the “big picture” of what your students will learn from the lesson will help you grasp the concept you want them to understand. Along with following the lesson plan, I feel it is important not to teach the lesson plan but to teach the students.  As I began to make my lesson plan for my interactive read aloud, I thought about the goals and objective of my lesson. I thought about how I would get the students to be attentive and focused as I was reading and that dealt a lot with your language, enthusiasm, as well as the pitch of your voice. When I decided to read Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson I practiced in front of my friends over and over so I was prepared with the literature that I would be reading. I learned that if you are familiar with the text it is a lot easier and exciting to read to children.  

    After completing my lesson I learned that at times things will need to be adjusted given the time, circumstance or behavior of the children. While reading Harold and the Purple Crayon to the morning kindergarten class, one student had already read the book and knew what was approaching on the pages to come. I adjusted the questions I was asking the children at this point by not asking them to make predictions but asking if they have ever experienced what Harold was experiencing. I feel if I kept asking the children to make predictions, the one girl that already read the book would give the rest of the story away and the other students would lose interest.

    During the afternoon kindergarten class I could tell that I was less nervous and more excited that I had another opportunity to read to the children. They were attentive, focused and excited as well. They answered the questions and made predictions but wanted to get back to the story to find out what Harold was going to do next. Another thing that I realized when I began my interactive read aloud was how I introduced the book and the questions I asked. In my lesson plan I wrote out how I thought I wanted to start the lesson, but I didn’t follow the exact wording that I wanted. I feel like I adjusted what I needed to say when I was around the excited children it was a different experience rather than typing up a lesson that I planned to follow.

Experience & Reflection Blog

    On October 15, 2010 I observed Mrs. T’s 1^st grade classroom. This classroom has much more structure and organization then the Kindergarten classroom that I previously visited. It was amazing to see the difference in learning levels of students within just one year. Seeing what the students can do independently in the first grade is such a drastic step from the students in Kindergarten. I noticed a lot of teacher talk in Mrs. T’s classroom. For example, I heard her say “I notice Eli finished his work and is now reading a book quietly- great idea!” this draws the students’ attention to Eli and makes them strive to get noticed for good behavior too. Something I noticed and thought was a great idea was that the students made a book for the classroom. This book was similar to Brown Bear Brown Bear by Eric Carle. The book consisted of a picture of each student, almost like a year book. Each student was allowed to take the book home for one day to show to their parents. I think that this allows each student and the parents to feel part of the classroom community. The students were very excited about the book and it seemed like they were very proud of it.

            Another thing that I noticed about this class was the students’ different levels developmentally. Some students were so advanced in certain subjects while others were struggling to keep up. This called for Mrs. T to always have her lessons differentiated to meet the needs of each student. Mrs. T always had activities for the more advanced students to do when they finished their homework early. The students don’t even need to ask Mrs. T what do next; they simply look up at the white board that has a timeline of worksheets to do in order whenever they finish the task before that.

            During the literacy part of the day, Mrs. T read Cookie’s Weed by Cindy Ward. This was a big text book that allowed students to read along and read each word that Mrs. T was reading. First Mrs. T read the book to the class, and then she asked the students to join in with her. This is an example of choral reading. “Choral reading is a wonderful way to reread books.” (Cunningham) The days of the week song that was connected to the book, could also be an example of choral reading that would promote fluency. The song is typed in big letters that the students can read from sitting on the carpet. I thought this book and song combination was a great way for students to become more familiar with the days of the week and it showed examples of capitalizing the first letter of each day of the week.

Experience & Reflection Blog

    On October 7, 2010 I was placed in a second grade classroom. The classroom atmosphere was much quieter and involves much more independent work done among the students. The day started off with a morning meeting, which I learned is part of the responsive classroom. After the morning greeting, share and morning message, the students jumped right into their writing workshop.

    For this writing workshop the students continued to write their small moment story. Throughout this writing workshop, the students would read over their drafts, checking for spelling and punctuation mistakes. If they couldn’t find any spelling or punctuation mistakes, they were asked to make their small moment more detailed. During the writing workshop, my teacher had some conferences with some students. One conference that I got to observe was with Rachel. We all sat on the carpet while my teacher asked Rachel to read her story aloud. While she was reading her story, my teacher took records of things she noticed in her story. She jotted down strengths and weaknesses in Rachel’s writing. After Rachel was done reading, my teacher went through the story with her. At this time she asked Rachel where she may need to add punctuation and capitalization. While my teacher conference with students, the other students knew exactly what they were supposed to be doing. She told them if they thought their story was all finished, they could color, make the cover to their story, write a summary on the back cover or read their just right books.

    After the watching the conference that my teacher did with the students, I made the connections to what I read in Kidwatching. Mrs. M informed me after her conference with Rachel that she is a student that has good ideas, but tends to rush through her writing. This leads to her making some spelling, punctuation and capitalization mistakes. “Such notes, particularly useful for students who need extra support from you, are kept in the student’s personal work folder so that they can be reflected on and referred to again and again.” (Owocki, Goodman) I connected this to what I saw in the field because Mrs. M showed me the notes she took and told me that she can always refer back to it and it will always be dated. This way she can go over it with the student and even the parent.

    Mrs. M had time before lunch so she read the students part of the chapter book they were reading, Elmer the Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannet. During the first chapter she read, she really grasped the students’ attention with her expression. She pointed out new vocabulary words that the students may not have been familiar with. The next chapter she read had many action words. During this chapter she told the students to act out the actions that they were hearing. For example, the text read “climbing up a ladder” and “peering through the vines”. This allowed students to be involved and become part of the story. According to Debbie Miller, “reading aloud motivates kids to want to learn to read, extends their oral language, and gives them opportunities to connect new information to what they already know”.  I believe that Mrs. M agrees with Debbie Miller. It was clear to me that it is important to read aloud to the students and that they can really gain so much from it.

Experience & Reflection Blog

    On Thursday October 14, I was placed in a third grade classroom. The classroom atmosphere was much quieter and involves much more independent work done among each student. The day started off with a morning warm up worksheet. While some students worked on their warm up worksheet, other students were in charge of saying the pledge of allegiance for the entire school.

    Students worked on their small moment story drafts during writing workshop. Throughout this writing workshop, the students would read over their drafts, checking for spelling, punctuation and capitalization mistakes. If they couldn’t find any spelling or punctuation mistakes, they had to ask their writing partner to read it over with them to see if they could find any mistakes. On the board there were some questions that the students were told to ask their partners. These questions were, does the lead hook the reader? Is the story interesting and understandable? Is there enough dialogue, description and emotion? Does the ending wrap up the story effectively? I thought these questions were appropriate and really did a good job guiding the students throughout the writing workshop assignment.

    Something Mr. G said really stuck out to me, while he was instructing the students to make sure that they edit their work and make it the best it can possibly be, he related it to himself. Mr. G writes for scholastic and all of his students know that. He told them that, when he writes for scholastic, he edits his work a lot and makes many improvements. I even felt connected to the assignment and I wasn’t even taking part in writing. At the end of the writing workshop, he asked the students to review and acknowledge what they did today in class. “Children develop a strong and positive writing identity when they write for meaningful purposes and when they feel comfortable enough to take the risks that allow them to express themselves through varied genres.” (Owocki, Goodman) I believe that the writing workshop in Mr. G’s classroom allows for each student to write about whatever they may choose and show what their interests are. If the students were told to write about one holiday or sport that they weren’t interested in, they wouldn’t be enthusiastic or want to show their writing to anyone else.

    During snack, Mr. G read to the students aloud. He was reading the chapter book Charlotte’s Web. He asked the students to listen to the descriptive and detailed language the author used while writing the book. He reminded students to write their small moment stories with detail and description. Mr. G really grasped the students’ attention with his expression while reading Charlotte’s Web. According to Debbie Miller, “reading aloud motivates kids to want to learn to read, extends their oral language, and gives them opportunities to connect new information to what they already know”.  I agree with Debbie Miller. It was clear to me that it is important to read aloud to the students and that they can really gain so much from it, even if they are just listening while eating their snack.

Experience & Reflection Blog

    Finding out that my permanent placement was in a second grade classroom that I previously visited made me very excited. I was happy to know that I had an opportunity to further get to know the students of Mrs. M’s classroom. I have noticed each time I visited her classroom that she follows the full routine of the responsive classroom morning meeting schedule. Mrs. M tries to start off the day by allowing each student to feel part of the community of the classroom. This starts with her morning meeting.

    First, we all sit in a circle on the carpet. Then we begin the greeting. On Tuesday the greeting we did involved holding a pumpkin and passing it to the person sitting next to you, she asked each student to say hello and the person’s name sitting next to them as they pass the pumpkin. On Thursday the greeting entailed turning to the person next to you and saying hello and there name but saying hello in another language. She made this greeting a little tricky by telling the students they couldn’t repeat the same language. Before beginning this meeting she asked the students who knows how to say hello in another language. I believe the students came up with at least 7 different languages. This greeting was a little confusing for the students and took longer than the greeting usually does. Although this greeting was a little more complex, I think the students still enjoyed it and felt the comfort of someone greeting them for the day.

    The next phase of the morning meeting that Mrs. M takes part in is the sharing part. Mrs. M explained to me that she has a calendar next to their homework board that has three students’ names on each day of the month. That calendar is the share calendar. For the share, students can bring in a book, souvenir, object, card or anything that they choose to show to the class. This allows the students to enrich the other students in the class with knowledge or a personal story that they have. During this time, if some students have something in common with the person that is sharing, they make the hand signal with their pinky and thumb and move it back and forth. After the student tells about their share, they say,” I’m ready for questions or comments”. At this time the other students in the circle raise their hands and wait to be called on. After picking on three people, another student chimes in and says,” when are you available for more?” Then the student who is sharing says for example recess, snack or after school. I noticed that the students really enjoyed being a part of this.

    The next phase in morning meeting is a group activity. The activity that I observed involved having an empty pencil case in the middle of the circle. Mrs. M asked the students who didn’t have a turn to take part in this activity yet this year. Some students raised their hands and she picked three different students that went in the center of the circle one at a time. While in the center of the circle, you pick out an imaginary object and act out what you are doing without using any words. For example, Miranda pretended she was licking ice cream off an ice cream cone. Another example was Jake pretended he was writing with a crayon. Another morning activity that I observed was having someone from the circle leave the room while someone in the circle became the leader and tapped their knees, shoulders, head and ears. The person who left the room would come back and try to guess who is leading the rest of the class in this activity. The group activity allows students to all actively participate and feel that they are a part of something. The students can show to the teacher how they participate in a group and if they can control themselves. When someone acts up or is not following directions, Mrs. Ml simply asks them to go sit and think for a moment.

    The last phase of the responsive classroom morning meeting is news and announcements. In this part of the morning meeting, students hear about the events that they have for the rest of the day and the homework posted for that night. This begins with a letter written on a white board next to the circle. On Tuesday, students were asked to read the letter aloud with expression. The letter said, Good morning students! Today we have a busy day! Miss S is here from Rider University! Today we have Library. Love, Mrs. M. I think the students enjoy reading this letter aloud and it changes every day so it will never get boring or just become routine.

    “In elementary and middle schools across the United States, students and teachers launch their school day with a half-hour daily ritual that builds community and expresses important beliefs about the value of relationships in the classroom.” (Roxann Kriete) I believe starting each day with this “half-hour daily ritual” makes a difference in each students’ day. Allowing each student the opportunity to say hello to one another and acknowledge each other is important to the way that the classroom becomes a community rather than a room full of students that are learning together.