Sixth Field Experience

11.16.11


“What is being taught, how is it being taught and are the students engaged?”


In the Library classroom, there are many topics that are taught to many different grades. Majority of classes do use this time in the Library for homework time or study hall, which creates prep time for A. On this day we had the Grade 3s come in for Math, then prep time, then the Grade 6s come in for study time. For Math A used a math text book, counting blocks of 10s, 100s, and 1000s, and dry eraser boards and dry eraser pens. She arrange the room by tables and put the children into groups. The children do not realize they are grouped by skill level. She has the kids work together on assignments and try to have them ask one another for help before asking the teacher for help. She uses the counting blocks for the tables to lay out in front of them so it is easier for the students to see the groups of 10s, 100s, and 1000s. She had them use the dry eraser board to make a counting table then to put the blocks into the appropriate category. If the students begin to get off topic or get to noisy, A uses different methods to gain back the children's attention such as; clapping a pattern and having the children clap back the pattern, saying in a soft voice "if you can hear my voice, _____" where she says clap three times, put your hand on your head, put your head down, etc. She also will stop teaching until the classroom is quiet. If she has to use these methods often during a class, she will explain to the students that if the class cannot quietly do their work they will lose something they are looking forward too, such as computer time. All of these methods work great for getting the children's attention back on track. For students who have a hard time focusing, there are methods the teacher uses such as widgets, which one student in the class used. The math class was great to observe because seeing how A worked with many students of different skill level. By having the students grouped by skill, it helped the students feel more at ease to ask questions to one another, and A was able to focus on tables that needed more assistance and felt confident that the table with a higher skill level was able to work on their own. The students were noisy today and A had to utilize her methods to keep the students on track, and did have to threaten to take about their computer time. Once the computer time was used against them, they all worked quietly.