The reason I titled this post, "I'm going to be a great teacher" is not because I am cocky but because that is something the students in my literacy group said to me today and it really brightened my day. Although I do not want to sound cocky in saying this, I do see myself making a great teacher someday because I am dedicated to making a difference and helping the student's learn. Just in these past few months that I have been creating lesson plans and working with students in the elementary schools, I have seen myself grow in my ability to create engaging and educational lesson plans. I really enjoy what I am doing and I feel as though it is evident when I do my lessons each week with the students. I am having just as much fun teaching them the lessons as the students are having learning them. That is a sign that I am going to make a great teacher.
For this week, I did a lesson on the how-to genre. The students were familiar with ways we use the how-to genre (such as to give directions) but never realized the purpose of the how-to genre. I started out by asking my students if they had ever made or eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before. They all quickly responded yes. I then gave them different sentences that were about making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and asked them to put the sentences in order. This was to introduce students to the concept that when telling someone how to do something it is important to have steps and the steps should be in order.
I then told students I was going to give them a book to read and they had to make mental observations of what they saw in their books. The books were not reading books though, they were instruction manuals. The students laughed at this first and were like "these are not books." However, once I asked them what I had given them to read, students identified them as instruction manuals and I informed them that instruction manuals are part of the how-to genre so they are in fact books even though they are not the typical reading books. I asked the students to create a list, as a group, of some of the common characteristics they noticed in their how-to guides (instruction manuals). They did surprisingly well with this. I thought for sure I would have to help guide them in coming up with characteristics but they were able to identify the fact that for the how-to genre it is important to number things, put things in order, and list the necessary materials, tools, or ingredients in order to do something.
The next part of the lesson was my favorite. It involved oreos. Each child got to show how they eat an oreo and the rest of us watched and made observations. Then as a group we created a generalized guide on "how to eat an oreo." It was funny to see how everyone eats theirs a little bit differently. For this part of the lesson though I made the group come up with only one way to eat an oreo. The students in my group were excited to see how I ate my oreo. They were surprised to see I do not dip mine in milk. In fact I never have before.
The most important part of this lesson was having students create their own "how to eat an oreo" guide. So I gave each student another oreo and had them create oreo books that listed the instructions on how to eat an oreo. They did really well with this task too and seemed really engaged in this lesson.
I can remember at the beginning when I first met my students they disliked doing anything that involved writing assignments. However, now they do not even realize they are doing writing activities when they are because they are so engaged in the lesson. Like today for example, I had the students write instructions on how to eat an oreo in their oreo books which required writing sentences but they did not even realize it was a writing assignment that I was having them doing.
One last thing I did in this lesson was have students swap oreo books and try someone else's method of eating an oreo. Even I tried a student's method and it required me to dip my oreo in milk (something I had never done before) and must say it was quite delicious. I myself thoroughly enjoyed this lesson along with my students.
For the past two weeks, the students and I have been reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen aloud. We do not have very much of the book read so I have chosen to purchase a copy of the book to give to each student once literacy groups are over. Today they asked if they get to keep the copy of the book they were reading, and I thought to myself "how perfect that they will be receiving their own copy and can finish the book on their own time." One of my students expressed to me today that she wished she could read ahead and find out what is going to happen but does not have a copy of the book. This gives her something to look forward to each week because she knows we will be reading more and finding out what happens.
I am sad to think that this experience is almost over and I will no longer get to spend time with these students. I have enjoyed watching them grow as learners and myself grow as their teacher. I used to say for sure I wanted to teach first grade but now after working with these fifth graders I am starting to consider the idea of teaching older students instead. Honestly though I will be quite content teaching any grade as long as I can make a difference in the students' lives.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Centers
I had a great time today working with the fifth graders. For this week's literacy workshop my collaborative group decided to try centers with our students and I would say they were a success. Each one of us college students did a different topic for our center and our assigned literacy groups rotated through the different centers. I am glad we got to experience doing centers with students because it allowed me to get to know the other students who are not in my literacy group. Although doing centers this week was a positive experience for the three of us college students as well as the fifth grade students, we have decided that for the remaining weeks we will continue doing what we have done previous weeks which is working with our individual groups for the entire time.
My center today focused on the importance of detail. To introduce students to the importance of detail I read them two fake advertisements for cars that are for sale and then had them say which car they would buy and why. The catch was that one car sounded really nice but was a short description and the other car was older but the advertisement had a lot of detail. It turns out that the newer car had been in an accident but the advertisement did not say that. The students who said they would buy the newer car with less details were "mad" when I informed them that the car they just bought does not actually run. This quickly helped students realize the importance of detail.
The next part of my lesson required students to create a character that is an animal and write a detailed description of this character. I gave each student three minutes to do this. Before they started this, I reminded them the importance of including as much detail as possible because for the next part of the lesson someone else would be drawing the character they created based on what they write for a description. They got really interested in the lesson when they found out they would get to draw a picture. Art is something I know my literacy group mentioned they enjoy doing the first week I met them but it is something they do not get ot do a lot of in the fifth grade classroom.
Once the three minutes were up and students had written their descriptions, I collected the papers and distributed them to someone different. The students then read the description of the animal character they were given and then had to draw exactly what the description said. I told the students they could not add any details to their pictures that were not included in the description. For example, I told the students if the description they were given did not mention anything about a head then they could not draw a head on their animal. Also, if no colors were mentioned in the description, the student could only draw with a pencil. They laughed at this at first but then found it frustrating as they were tying to draw their characters and realized that the person who wrote the description had not included enough detail. This was the purpose of the lesson, to help the students realize why having details is important.
To wrap up my lesson, I had each student read the description they were given and then show the picture of the character they drew to see if what they drew matched only what the description had said. It was funny to hear students who actually wrote the description say "that's not how my character was supposed to look." I informed them that they had not included enough detail to help the drawer realize what the character was supposed to look like.
The centers today took longer than we had originally planned in our agendas. We had thought fifteen minutes would be enough time at each center but we ended up spending at least 20 minutes at each center. This meant we had less time at the end of the morning to do an activity with our individual group. However, I think it is good that we allowed the extra time at each center so that the students were fully able to do everything we had planned at each center. One thing I found to be difficult about doing centers is that not every group finished at the same time. My center always finished before the others did so I was left with the students waiting to move onto another group. It allowed for some extra discussion on our pictures that we created but it would have been an appropriate time to move onto a new group instead.
I liked doing my center with my literacy group the best, as opposed to with the other groups, because I think they were the most successful in following directions. I believe the reason they were best at following directions correctly is that they are my group and are familiar with my teaching style and how I give directions whereas the other two groups might not have understood my directions as clearly because they have never worked with me before.
I am very pleased with the outcomes of today's lesson and I think all the students along with myself enjoyed doing it. I even participated in today's lesson by creating a description of a character and drawing a picture of someone else's character with the students each time. This lesson is definitely something I will consider using in my future classroom.
My center today focused on the importance of detail. To introduce students to the importance of detail I read them two fake advertisements for cars that are for sale and then had them say which car they would buy and why. The catch was that one car sounded really nice but was a short description and the other car was older but the advertisement had a lot of detail. It turns out that the newer car had been in an accident but the advertisement did not say that. The students who said they would buy the newer car with less details were "mad" when I informed them that the car they just bought does not actually run. This quickly helped students realize the importance of detail.
The next part of my lesson required students to create a character that is an animal and write a detailed description of this character. I gave each student three minutes to do this. Before they started this, I reminded them the importance of including as much detail as possible because for the next part of the lesson someone else would be drawing the character they created based on what they write for a description. They got really interested in the lesson when they found out they would get to draw a picture. Art is something I know my literacy group mentioned they enjoy doing the first week I met them but it is something they do not get ot do a lot of in the fifth grade classroom.
Once the three minutes were up and students had written their descriptions, I collected the papers and distributed them to someone different. The students then read the description of the animal character they were given and then had to draw exactly what the description said. I told the students they could not add any details to their pictures that were not included in the description. For example, I told the students if the description they were given did not mention anything about a head then they could not draw a head on their animal. Also, if no colors were mentioned in the description, the student could only draw with a pencil. They laughed at this at first but then found it frustrating as they were tying to draw their characters and realized that the person who wrote the description had not included enough detail. This was the purpose of the lesson, to help the students realize why having details is important.
To wrap up my lesson, I had each student read the description they were given and then show the picture of the character they drew to see if what they drew matched only what the description had said. It was funny to hear students who actually wrote the description say "that's not how my character was supposed to look." I informed them that they had not included enough detail to help the drawer realize what the character was supposed to look like.
The centers today took longer than we had originally planned in our agendas. We had thought fifteen minutes would be enough time at each center but we ended up spending at least 20 minutes at each center. This meant we had less time at the end of the morning to do an activity with our individual group. However, I think it is good that we allowed the extra time at each center so that the students were fully able to do everything we had planned at each center. One thing I found to be difficult about doing centers is that not every group finished at the same time. My center always finished before the others did so I was left with the students waiting to move onto another group. It allowed for some extra discussion on our pictures that we created but it would have been an appropriate time to move onto a new group instead.
I liked doing my center with my literacy group the best, as opposed to with the other groups, because I think they were the most successful in following directions. I believe the reason they were best at following directions correctly is that they are my group and are familiar with my teaching style and how I give directions whereas the other two groups might not have understood my directions as clearly because they have never worked with me before.
I am very pleased with the outcomes of today's lesson and I think all the students along with myself enjoyed doing it. I even participated in today's lesson by creating a description of a character and drawing a picture of someone else's character with the students each time. This lesson is definitely something I will consider using in my future classroom.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Math Enrichment Lesson with Manipulative Resources
This week I did a lesson with my student on perimeters of various polygons. To help my student understand how to find perimeters of polygons I had her use a geoboard to create different polygons. We focused on triangles, squares, and rectangles.
I asked my student if she had ever used a geoboard before. She said no and seemed really excited to get to use rubber bands to create various shapes on the geoboard. I remember my student saying a while back that she does not use manipulative resources in her classroom. That could explain why she had never seen a geoboard before. I find it very valuable to use manipulative resources when teaching lessons because it helps students understand what they are learning better. Manipulative resources, especially in mathematics courses, allow students to actually see what they are learning or trying to demonstrate as opposed to just reading or writing about it. Each week I plan to use some sort of manipulative resource with my lesson that I am teaching so that the lesson is more hands on for my student and she will get the chance to use the resources that she does not have or get to use in her classroom.
This week my student gave me a suggestion on how to be a better teacher and it made me laugh. I had given her multiple sheets of dot paper so that she could sketch each polygon that she created on the geoboard onto paper. I had given her a separate piece of paper for each polygon that she created. She told me instead of doing that I should have saved paper and just had her draw multiple images on the same piece of paper. She said it would make it easier for me to grade too. That made me laugh! I will definitely keep her suggestion in mind when I do future activities that require paper.
One thing I realized this week is you do not always have to stick exactly to your lesson plan if something better comes to mind or there is a teachable moment as you are teaching your lesson. This happened in my lesson plan this week. My original closure activity was to have the student find an object around the classroom that was a polygon and then estimate what the new image would like if that object was stretched or shrunk and then we would measure the perimeter of that object. Instead of doing this, I noticed my student wanted to create her own polygon on the geoboard (a very unusual shape) and then determine the perimeter of that. I thought this would be a great way to wrap up the lesson and allow her to show me what she had learned. So I had the student create some sort of polygon on the geoboard, determine the perimeter, and then change the polygon in some way so that she could determine a new perimeter. This was a successful closure to the lesson and I could tell she really enjoyed using the rubber bands to create polygons on the geoboard.
I am looking forward to working with my student again next week and doing a lesson that involves using a different manipulative resource.
I asked my student if she had ever used a geoboard before. She said no and seemed really excited to get to use rubber bands to create various shapes on the geoboard. I remember my student saying a while back that she does not use manipulative resources in her classroom. That could explain why she had never seen a geoboard before. I find it very valuable to use manipulative resources when teaching lessons because it helps students understand what they are learning better. Manipulative resources, especially in mathematics courses, allow students to actually see what they are learning or trying to demonstrate as opposed to just reading or writing about it. Each week I plan to use some sort of manipulative resource with my lesson that I am teaching so that the lesson is more hands on for my student and she will get the chance to use the resources that she does not have or get to use in her classroom.
This week my student gave me a suggestion on how to be a better teacher and it made me laugh. I had given her multiple sheets of dot paper so that she could sketch each polygon that she created on the geoboard onto paper. I had given her a separate piece of paper for each polygon that she created. She told me instead of doing that I should have saved paper and just had her draw multiple images on the same piece of paper. She said it would make it easier for me to grade too. That made me laugh! I will definitely keep her suggestion in mind when I do future activities that require paper.
One thing I realized this week is you do not always have to stick exactly to your lesson plan if something better comes to mind or there is a teachable moment as you are teaching your lesson. This happened in my lesson plan this week. My original closure activity was to have the student find an object around the classroom that was a polygon and then estimate what the new image would like if that object was stretched or shrunk and then we would measure the perimeter of that object. Instead of doing this, I noticed my student wanted to create her own polygon on the geoboard (a very unusual shape) and then determine the perimeter of that. I thought this would be a great way to wrap up the lesson and allow her to show me what she had learned. So I had the student create some sort of polygon on the geoboard, determine the perimeter, and then change the polygon in some way so that she could determine a new perimeter. This was a successful closure to the lesson and I could tell she really enjoyed using the rubber bands to create polygons on the geoboard.
I am looking forward to working with my student again next week and doing a lesson that involves using a different manipulative resource.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Dictionary Lesson Likes and Dislikes
Today I did my lesson plan with my literacy group on using dictionaries to help figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words. There were parts to this lesson that my students really enjoyed and other parts that they seemed bored and not interested in doing the activities. Surprisingly the ones I thought they would enjoy the most were the ones they were bored with and the ones I thought were not as interesting they liked more.
I started off by doing an activity that was not reading or writing based, just something fun as an opening activity to the day. Their task was to draw a picture with a partner by holding onto the same crayon and not talking at all. The only guideline was that they had to draw a snowman. The students really enjoyed this and after they did the activity I had them verbally share one thing they liked about it. I suppose that was my way of incorporating literacy into the activity. I also plan to do something like this at the start of each time I meet with the students so that they have some sort of fun non-literacy based activity to look forward to.
Today was the the first time I actually realized what it is going to be like teaching, where you have this fantasy in your head of how a lesson is going to go but in reality things do not actually turn out that way. I definitely had this idea in my head that there would be parts of my lesson that the students would be really excited to do and others they would enjoy but were not quite as fun. However, today as I was actually teaching the lesson to my students I realized that what I think is going to be fun and exciting is not necessarily their idea of fun and exciting.
The other thing I realized is that it is hard to please every student at the same time. Some students will like to do something and other students will have no interest in doing it. This was very evident in today's lesson. I had one student say "this is no fun" and then a few of the other students were like "yes it is, I love doing this."
I found out that the student who was giving me the most difficulty today, and saying things were boring, likes to read and would prefer to do that so I am going to keep this in mind as I plan what to do in the future weeks. I am thinking about choosing a book and every week we read part of it. However, I know the reason this student thinks things are boring and would rather read a "fun book" ,as she called it, is because ELA is her area of weakness but it is important for her to continue doing literacy based activities besides just reading so that she can become better at it. I will take her interests into consideration but I cannot base an entire lesson on "fun reads" because I have four other students that I also need to try and please by doing lessons they enjoy too.
I hope next week all the students will find my lessons to be fun but at the same time they will be learning something too. Overall this week did go well and it brought some new perspectives to me on what being a teacher is going to be like.
I started off by doing an activity that was not reading or writing based, just something fun as an opening activity to the day. Their task was to draw a picture with a partner by holding onto the same crayon and not talking at all. The only guideline was that they had to draw a snowman. The students really enjoyed this and after they did the activity I had them verbally share one thing they liked about it. I suppose that was my way of incorporating literacy into the activity. I also plan to do something like this at the start of each time I meet with the students so that they have some sort of fun non-literacy based activity to look forward to.
Today was the the first time I actually realized what it is going to be like teaching, where you have this fantasy in your head of how a lesson is going to go but in reality things do not actually turn out that way. I definitely had this idea in my head that there would be parts of my lesson that the students would be really excited to do and others they would enjoy but were not quite as fun. However, today as I was actually teaching the lesson to my students I realized that what I think is going to be fun and exciting is not necessarily their idea of fun and exciting.
The other thing I realized is that it is hard to please every student at the same time. Some students will like to do something and other students will have no interest in doing it. This was very evident in today's lesson. I had one student say "this is no fun" and then a few of the other students were like "yes it is, I love doing this."
I found out that the student who was giving me the most difficulty today, and saying things were boring, likes to read and would prefer to do that so I am going to keep this in mind as I plan what to do in the future weeks. I am thinking about choosing a book and every week we read part of it. However, I know the reason this student thinks things are boring and would rather read a "fun book" ,as she called it, is because ELA is her area of weakness but it is important for her to continue doing literacy based activities besides just reading so that she can become better at it. I will take her interests into consideration but I cannot base an entire lesson on "fun reads" because I have four other students that I also need to try and please by doing lessons they enjoy too.
I hope next week all the students will find my lessons to be fun but at the same time they will be learning something too. Overall this week did go well and it brought some new perspectives to me on what being a teacher is going to be like.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Candy Fractions
This week as a math enrichment lesson, I taught my student about fractions using candy as a manipulative resource. Using different colored M&M candy, I asked the student to identify how many M&M's there were total and then create a fraction for each color of the M&M's based on the total number all together. For example, if there were 20 M&M's total and 7 of them were green the fraction would be 7/20. The student did a very good job setting up fractions. Then I asked the student to compare two different colored M&M's by using the symbols <,>, =. I was surprised to see that when I asked a similar question as a paper-and-pencil activity such as is 7/20 greater than, less than, or equal to 9/20 the student hesitated more to answer this problem then when M&M's were involved. This goes to show that using manipulative resources helps this student learn better. This student appears to be a visual and hands-on learner I will keep this in mind as I plan future lessons that will help enrich the student's math skills.
My student tells me that she does not like doing math and that it is her least favorite subject; yet, I cannot understand why because she does a really good job at it. She is always asking for a challenge and if she does not get a problem right the first time she asks me if she can try again until she reaches the right solution. I can tell that my student is a determined learner and whats to make sure she understands what she is being taught.
This week my student brought a book of Sudoku puzzles with her and with our extra time I allowed her to do one of the puzzles. I pretended that I did not know what a Sudoku puzzle was and listened to her explain how to solve the puzzle. It amazed me how excited she was to do these puzzles, and although there is math involved in completing a Sudoku puzzle, she seemed so interested and engaged in the puzzle despite the fact that she tells me she does not like doing math. Activities like these are what kids need more of, where they are doing math but do not realize it because they are engaged and interested in their learning activity.
I want to help my student realize that math really is fun as long as you allow it to be and there is more to it than just routine paper-and-pencil exercises. I hope to achieve this by developing hands-on and creative lessons that involve some math topic but that the student will be so engrossed in the lesson that they will not even realize they are doing math. I look forward to introducing the student to a new topic next week through creative and hands-on instruction and learning, and hope that she will enjoy the lesson as much as she did this week. I am having a great time working with my student and learning more about her as an individual and young mathematician.
My student tells me that she does not like doing math and that it is her least favorite subject; yet, I cannot understand why because she does a really good job at it. She is always asking for a challenge and if she does not get a problem right the first time she asks me if she can try again until she reaches the right solution. I can tell that my student is a determined learner and whats to make sure she understands what she is being taught.
This week my student brought a book of Sudoku puzzles with her and with our extra time I allowed her to do one of the puzzles. I pretended that I did not know what a Sudoku puzzle was and listened to her explain how to solve the puzzle. It amazed me how excited she was to do these puzzles, and although there is math involved in completing a Sudoku puzzle, she seemed so interested and engaged in the puzzle despite the fact that she tells me she does not like doing math. Activities like these are what kids need more of, where they are doing math but do not realize it because they are engaged and interested in their learning activity.
I want to help my student realize that math really is fun as long as you allow it to be and there is more to it than just routine paper-and-pencil exercises. I hope to achieve this by developing hands-on and creative lessons that involve some math topic but that the student will be so engrossed in the lesson that they will not even realize they are doing math. I look forward to introducing the student to a new topic next week through creative and hands-on instruction and learning, and hope that she will enjoy the lesson as much as she did this week. I am having a great time working with my student and learning more about her as an individual and young mathematician.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Another Successful Day with my Literacy Group
Today another student was added to my literacy group so from now on I will be working with five students instead of four. They are all girls and seemed to get along fine together when working in the group with me. The only bad thing about having a new student added during week two is that she missed doing the student interest inventory and pre-assessment that I did with the other four students last week. This means I do not know as much about this girl as I do the other students, however from what I gathered today from the activities we did together, she seems like she has a lot of potential to do well in literacy.
My group of students, all girls mind you, are still very obsessed with Robert Paterson (or anything Twilight) and Justin Bieber so I still had to enforce the rule that I made up last week that any activity that we do whether it be written or verbal cannot involve any of those people. I want them to realize that there is more cool things in life than just Justin Bieber and Twilight and they can discover this through reading and writing. I will continue to enforce this rule throughout the remaining weeks that I spend with them.
Today we focused on understanding how to summarize. I started by reading the students the traditional story of The Gingerbread Man. At first they looked at me funny and said "How old do you think we are" but then once I explained to them what today's lesson was about and that they needed to explain to me what the book was about after we read it, they realized why I started the lesson off with an easy book. Then I had the students do a writing activity where each person started a story off with an opening sentence. Then they passed their paper to the person sitting next to them and that person wrote the next sentence. We continued this process for a while and eventually the original author of the story got to write the final sentence. Then I read each story aloud since I figured the students would have a hard time reading each others handwriting. After reading each story one at a time, I asked the students to provide a verbal summary of what the story was about. The challenge I gave them was to create a summary that was 16 words or less. We used our fingers to make sure someone did not say more than 16 words. This was a successful activity.
Now that the students had the chance to learn about what a summary was and to try and create one in 16 words or less I read one last passage to them and then asked them to individually write a summary of the passage. It was about a blue snowman. I am using the students' written summaries to assess their understanding of what a summary is and whether or not they can make one in 16 words or less.
Today's activities helped me realize that the children seem more interested in doing writing activities if they are creative such as the stories we wrote today each taking turns writing a sentence. They do not like to just write for no purpose. I will keep this in mind as I plan future lessons. I also found that they do not mind doing activities that involve reading, however they like to be involved in the reading as opposed to being read to. I tend to do a reading activity with them where I make each student read part of the book or passage. They take turns reading paragraphs. This is something I will also keep in mind as I plan my future lessons to do with the students.
My group of students, all girls mind you, are still very obsessed with Robert Paterson (or anything Twilight) and Justin Bieber so I still had to enforce the rule that I made up last week that any activity that we do whether it be written or verbal cannot involve any of those people. I want them to realize that there is more cool things in life than just Justin Bieber and Twilight and they can discover this through reading and writing. I will continue to enforce this rule throughout the remaining weeks that I spend with them.
Today we focused on understanding how to summarize. I started by reading the students the traditional story of The Gingerbread Man. At first they looked at me funny and said "How old do you think we are" but then once I explained to them what today's lesson was about and that they needed to explain to me what the book was about after we read it, they realized why I started the lesson off with an easy book. Then I had the students do a writing activity where each person started a story off with an opening sentence. Then they passed their paper to the person sitting next to them and that person wrote the next sentence. We continued this process for a while and eventually the original author of the story got to write the final sentence. Then I read each story aloud since I figured the students would have a hard time reading each others handwriting. After reading each story one at a time, I asked the students to provide a verbal summary of what the story was about. The challenge I gave them was to create a summary that was 16 words or less. We used our fingers to make sure someone did not say more than 16 words. This was a successful activity.
Now that the students had the chance to learn about what a summary was and to try and create one in 16 words or less I read one last passage to them and then asked them to individually write a summary of the passage. It was about a blue snowman. I am using the students' written summaries to assess their understanding of what a summary is and whether or not they can make one in 16 words or less.
Today's activities helped me realize that the children seem more interested in doing writing activities if they are creative such as the stories we wrote today each taking turns writing a sentence. They do not like to just write for no purpose. I will keep this in mind as I plan future lessons. I also found that they do not mind doing activities that involve reading, however they like to be involved in the reading as opposed to being read to. I tend to do a reading activity with them where I make each student read part of the book or passage. They take turns reading paragraphs. This is something I will also keep in mind as I plan my future lessons to do with the students.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
First Night of Math Enrichment
Along with spending time in a fifth grade classroom once a week tutoring children in literacy, I have the opportunity to work with a fourth grade student once a week for the next few months to enrich her mathematical skills. I am really looking forward to this experience because I am majoring in mathematics so I get to put my specialty area to use.
With that said, yesterday was my first time meeting the fourth grade student. Every Monday night, I will have an hour to spend with her doing math lessons and activities that will help enrich her math skills. I spent this first hour getting to know more about her and pre-assessing her knowledge of mathematics. I found out that she had also been part of this math enrichment program last year that other college students and I participate in so she told me she is looking forward to it again this year. Once I found this out I asked her what she liked about the program last year and what she hoped to get from it this year. She said she liked learning about something math related before her teacher taught it in class because then she was familiar with the material ahead of time. I will keep this in mind as I plan lessons and activities to do with her each week.
Originally this math enrichment experience was supposed to involve more students. However now that it is in action each college student including myself just has one student each to work with. Now that I have gotten to know more about my student I feel as though working with her individually will actually be more beneficial than if each group had more than one student. Through an interest inventory survey that I completed with her I found out that she enjoys reading and writing but not math as much. I hope that working with her the next few months and doing engaging and interesting math lessons will help her grow to like mathematics more. Learning about and doing math can be fun as long as the lessons and methods of teaching the skills are interesting. That is what I am for...to help create fun and engaging ways to get children to learn mathematics.
During the pre-assessment where I asked her a few basic math problems that children her age should know she was very good at finding the solutions. In fact, in one question I asked her I tried to solve it too and her and I got different answers. When we checked over our work it turns out I was the one who had a made a mistake and she was able to find my mistake and show me how to solve it correctly. I was very impressed! As we were running through estimation and division problems she taught me some clever poems that she had learned from her teachers to help her remember how to solve those kinds of problems. I wish I had been taught creatively like that when I was learning about division and estimation. I can tell both her and I are going to learn a lot these next few months.
I am already eager to go back next week and spend time doing math with this fourth grader.
With that said, yesterday was my first time meeting the fourth grade student. Every Monday night, I will have an hour to spend with her doing math lessons and activities that will help enrich her math skills. I spent this first hour getting to know more about her and pre-assessing her knowledge of mathematics. I found out that she had also been part of this math enrichment program last year that other college students and I participate in so she told me she is looking forward to it again this year. Once I found this out I asked her what she liked about the program last year and what she hoped to get from it this year. She said she liked learning about something math related before her teacher taught it in class because then she was familiar with the material ahead of time. I will keep this in mind as I plan lessons and activities to do with her each week.
Originally this math enrichment experience was supposed to involve more students. However now that it is in action each college student including myself just has one student each to work with. Now that I have gotten to know more about my student I feel as though working with her individually will actually be more beneficial than if each group had more than one student. Through an interest inventory survey that I completed with her I found out that she enjoys reading and writing but not math as much. I hope that working with her the next few months and doing engaging and interesting math lessons will help her grow to like mathematics more. Learning about and doing math can be fun as long as the lessons and methods of teaching the skills are interesting. That is what I am for...to help create fun and engaging ways to get children to learn mathematics.
During the pre-assessment where I asked her a few basic math problems that children her age should know she was very good at finding the solutions. In fact, in one question I asked her I tried to solve it too and her and I got different answers. When we checked over our work it turns out I was the one who had a made a mistake and she was able to find my mistake and show me how to solve it correctly. I was very impressed! As we were running through estimation and division problems she taught me some clever poems that she had learned from her teachers to help her remember how to solve those kinds of problems. I wish I had been taught creatively like that when I was learning about division and estimation. I can tell both her and I are going to learn a lot these next few months.
I am already eager to go back next week and spend time doing math with this fourth grader.
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