Week 3

Wondering: How does the actual planning of the lesson help with teaching rather than teaching from an already planned lesson affect teaching?

    This week my co-teaching partner and I planned and taught our first Pathwise Lesson. The lesson was on summarizing a story. We first sat down with our mentor teacher as she gave us ideas for the lesson and it took off from there. We decided on using a graphic organizer from Pinterest that involved the activity of "Someone, Wanted, But, So, Then". My co-teaching partner and I took the time to plan out the lesson together. This helped us visualize what the lesson would actually look like. We decided to use the book Pierre the Penguin. 
   Today was the day we actually taught the lesson. Since we wrote down the steps that we were going to go through during the teaching process, we felt confident in the outcome of the lesson. The students seemed engaged in the book and were able to answer the questions about what the most import details of the story were. Once we finished the "we do" part of the gradual release and responsibility model we sent the students off to the "I do" part. Most students did this step amazingly, however there were a few students we did have to assist. One student even point out that the graphic organizer practically laid out the summary for you. We had her read her summary to the class and point out/teach this observation she came across to the rest of the class. This is what I would consider "high quality assessments" according to Tomlinson and Imbeau. They say that "high quality assessments should guide students in understanding essential learning outcomes, their status relative to those outcomes, and ways in which they can work effectively to maximize their growth toward and beyond those outcomes." That student understood the whole idea of the organizer and how to apply it to a book, as well as teaching the class about what she had observed. Overall, I think our lesson went even better than expected and I felt well prepared with us actually doing the planning of the lesson. Wondering: Can the students tell the difference in teaching style when a teacher has not actually planned the lesson (It is planned by someone else) he/she is teaching?

Link to the Graphic Organizer for Summarizing: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bz_lKYUlDu4TOTVjNDhiMDAtNWY1Mi00ODg0LWE3YzEtZGIxZmEzNzdhZTdm/edit?hl=en_US

Week 2

    Over that past few days in the classroom, my co-teaching partner and I taught a few lessons. Today specifically, we did a science experiment with the students. Before the experiment, I was wondering how lack of some content knowledge was going to effect my experiment? The experiment was to help the students understand what sunlight can do and why the sun is important to us on Earth. The day before this experiment the teacher taught the students about some of the things the sun can do. To start off our lesson, we asked questions to tap into their prior knowledge. For example, we asked "What are some things the sun does?" The students were quick to respond with answers relating to, "the sun heats the air, water, and land" or "the sun makes things grow." These answers were all on track. Once we finished with questioning, we explained that we are going to observe two water cups. One water cup will be placed in the sun and other will be placed in the shade. Both cups had equal amounts of water and started at the same temperature. Before the lesson started, we placed these cups in the associated locations outside. To allow for time to pass while the cups went through the experiment phase, our mentor teacher and the class was lead to where the solar panels were on the schools campus. The teacher questioned and then explained that these solar panels collect sunlight which turns into energy that creates some of the electricity the school uses. We talked about how they can be on top on houses or buildings because they are closer to the sun and can attract the most heat. 

   Eventually, we made our way back to the class, where Colleen and I split the class into two groups and took them outside. According to the Fisher and Frey, "a significant body of research indicates that the use of visual and graphic displays facilitates understanding." By allowing the students to visually observe the thermometers, they were able to explain to their other groups of classmates the temperature of the water.  Overall, I felt a bit weak in preparation for this lesson. Going into the lesson, I thought I was prepared to teach the experiment and go over it with the class and co-teacher. However, I think the lack of seeing the introduction of the lesson hindered my teaching. I wasn't exactly sure of what to ask. I now wonder if this is something that would affect any subject I teach or just when doing a science experiment?

   

Week 1

  After being in my classroom as an observer the first week, I was able to grasp the classroom management and other information that would help me work in this environment. I was able to catch on the class structure and even had the chance to get to know the children. Immediately, our mentor teacher told us about S, who is a student who doesn't talk aloud. My wondering from that instance was,  What are the reasons that this child doesn't speak?
   One of our class assignments for the first two weeks was a Learning Community Assignment. This assignment had us create a group of questions that we had to ask each child in hopes of getting to know them better. The Dana Reflective Educators Guide says, "Through engaging in action research, teachers can generate valuable knowledge about their learners' readiness, interest, learning styles, and more! With this knowledge, teachers make adaptations to instruction, increasing the probability that the needs of all learners will be met within one single class period or lesson."By getting to know my students through these means of research, I am able to get to know each student in the class in ways that can help me with instruction. I have found out that if you have S in an environment where she is alone with just you she will whisper her answers. I tried to ask her more questions about her home life at home and the language spoken in her house. She told me that at home she speaks Chinese with her family. During class, S is completely silent however, does all her schoolwork nearly perfect and has great listening skills. I want to make her experience in school as great as possible. The article says, "Action research is a wonderful tool teachers can utilize to differentiate instruction, ultimately making schools a better place for all students, regardless of their interests, abilities, background, and learning styles." This leads me to the next wondering. "What is the reasons behind S not speaking?"