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.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
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.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Meeting with my Literacy Group for the First Time
Today was the first time I got to work with my assigned literacy group. There are four students in my group all of which are girls. I was surprised by how well they worked together and seemed interested in doing the activities I had planned for them. However it was clearly obvious to me the difference in skills these four girls have. Each one likes a different component of literacy. This means I will plan spelling, writing, and reading activities throughout the term and vary what we do each week so that everyone gets to do something they enjoy most.
In just the short amount of time that I spent with my group today, I learned so much about them. I got a chance to assess their literacy skills in reading, writing, and spelling. I also learned some information about their interests through a student interest inventory activity that I created for them. We started the day with the student interest inventory. I asked students questions about things they like to do and how they view themselves as learners so that I can use this information to help me plan lessons that will be meaningful and interesting for them to do.
A majority of the questions that I asked the students resulted in a response with the name Justin Bieber or James Patterson. I have some extreme Justin Bieber and Twighlight fans in my group. Listening to them talk about their "crushes" for these two celebrity boys makes me remember back to when I was their age and NSync and Backstreet Boys were my heart's desire! Since I now know these boys are something that really interests these girls I will try to keep that in mind as I plan my lessons. Perhaps we can do something that involves song lyrics or Twighlight movie analysis. I also discovered today that the kids in my group love candy (you're probably thinking duh! what kid doesn't) so I will keep this in mind as a reward but I don't want the kids to be accustomed to getting a physical reward (like candy) everything I do a lesson with them. They should want to learn and do the activities that I have planned for them even if there isn't a physical reward involved. That is going to be my major goal this term is to get the kids excited to learn without needing candy first in order to do what I ask them to.
The first thing I told my group today was not to worry; everything we did today was only for the purpose of me getting to know them better personally and academically. Nothing will be graded today. I had them write ten spelling words that I asked them (and then as a bonus question I asked them to spell my last name just for fun). We also read a short story about a dog that goes to the moon. This was so I could Pre-assess their reading ability and also I was watching for their ability to stay on task and pay attention which I was surprised to find they are very good at. They took turns reading paragraphs from the story and they always had to be listening so they would know when it was their turn to read. Another thing that surprised me was one of the girls was very helpful in correcting the students as they struggled to pronounce a word or if they said the wrong one she would say the correct word. The one other activity I did with the students today was have them respond to the question "If you or someone else wrote a book about your life what would the title be and why?" This was so I could pre-assess the students writing.
I already have ideas planned fore what I am going to do with the students next week and I am looking forward to returning. I can tell I am going to have a lot of fun this term and so far I like being in a fifth grade classroom.
In just the short amount of time that I spent with my group today, I learned so much about them. I got a chance to assess their literacy skills in reading, writing, and spelling. I also learned some information about their interests through a student interest inventory activity that I created for them. We started the day with the student interest inventory. I asked students questions about things they like to do and how they view themselves as learners so that I can use this information to help me plan lessons that will be meaningful and interesting for them to do.
A majority of the questions that I asked the students resulted in a response with the name Justin Bieber or James Patterson. I have some extreme Justin Bieber and Twighlight fans in my group. Listening to them talk about their "crushes" for these two celebrity boys makes me remember back to when I was their age and NSync and Backstreet Boys were my heart's desire! Since I now know these boys are something that really interests these girls I will try to keep that in mind as I plan my lessons. Perhaps we can do something that involves song lyrics or Twighlight movie analysis. I also discovered today that the kids in my group love candy (you're probably thinking duh! what kid doesn't) so I will keep this in mind as a reward but I don't want the kids to be accustomed to getting a physical reward (like candy) everything I do a lesson with them. They should want to learn and do the activities that I have planned for them even if there isn't a physical reward involved. That is going to be my major goal this term is to get the kids excited to learn without needing candy first in order to do what I ask them to.
The first thing I told my group today was not to worry; everything we did today was only for the purpose of me getting to know them better personally and academically. Nothing will be graded today. I had them write ten spelling words that I asked them (and then as a bonus question I asked them to spell my last name just for fun). We also read a short story about a dog that goes to the moon. This was so I could Pre-assess their reading ability and also I was watching for their ability to stay on task and pay attention which I was surprised to find they are very good at. They took turns reading paragraphs from the story and they always had to be listening so they would know when it was their turn to read. Another thing that surprised me was one of the girls was very helpful in correcting the students as they struggled to pronounce a word or if they said the wrong one she would say the correct word. The one other activity I did with the students today was have them respond to the question "If you or someone else wrote a book about your life what would the title be and why?" This was so I could pre-assess the students writing.
I already have ideas planned fore what I am going to do with the students next week and I am looking forward to returning. I can tell I am going to have a lot of fun this term and so far I like being in a fifth grade classroom.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
First Day in the Classroom
Today was my first day in a fifth grade classroom in an inner city elementary school in New York. For the next few months I will be going to this classroom once a week to work with the students and help enhance their literacy skills. I have been assigned to work with a group of four students all of which need the most help in fluency. Since today was my first day in the classroom I spent the time I had there observing the teacher and students. I was able to identify the four students I am assigned to work with although they do not know I am their tutor yet. Next week when I return to the classroom is when I will have formal introductions with the students and get to know them better personally and academically.
During the time that I spent in the classroom today students completed a math lesson and a reading lesson. I was able to get a sense of what the students' behaviors are like and their ability or inability to listen to directions and complete the tasks they are assigned. When I first got to the classroom the teacher had all the students sit in a circle and share their names and one thing they like about books. Based on the student's responses I was able to conclude that most of the students read books to help them gain knowledge about something (a lot of students listed books they liked based on a hobby as theirs such as football) and also some (but not all) students said they liked the read books for fun because they were interested in seeing what happened in the story as they read further into it.
I noticed just on today's observations while the students were doing the math and reading lesson that every child is on a different level ability wise. Some students are great readers pace wise but are not able to comprehend what they are reading which is something I will keep in mind to work on with the students. I will also be emphasizing the importance of fluency when I do my lessons with the students in order to help them become more fluent readers. While the students were doing the math lesson, which involved solving a multiplication or division with decimals problem, I noticed that some students are not even able to begin solving the problem correctly. Some students were trying to solve a division problem using the format of a multiplication problem where one number is placed on top of the other. This is a problem, considering the teachers said the students have a test over the material tomorrow.
Overall I really liked what I saw in the classroom today and I am looking forward to working with the fifth graders. I have only ever worked with kindergartners and first graders before so this will be a whole new experience for me and I am ready for it to begin!
During the time that I spent in the classroom today students completed a math lesson and a reading lesson. I was able to get a sense of what the students' behaviors are like and their ability or inability to listen to directions and complete the tasks they are assigned. When I first got to the classroom the teacher had all the students sit in a circle and share their names and one thing they like about books. Based on the student's responses I was able to conclude that most of the students read books to help them gain knowledge about something (a lot of students listed books they liked based on a hobby as theirs such as football) and also some (but not all) students said they liked the read books for fun because they were interested in seeing what happened in the story as they read further into it.
I noticed just on today's observations while the students were doing the math and reading lesson that every child is on a different level ability wise. Some students are great readers pace wise but are not able to comprehend what they are reading which is something I will keep in mind to work on with the students. I will also be emphasizing the importance of fluency when I do my lessons with the students in order to help them become more fluent readers. While the students were doing the math lesson, which involved solving a multiplication or division with decimals problem, I noticed that some students are not even able to begin solving the problem correctly. Some students were trying to solve a division problem using the format of a multiplication problem where one number is placed on top of the other. This is a problem, considering the teachers said the students have a test over the material tomorrow.
Overall I really liked what I saw in the classroom today and I am looking forward to working with the fifth graders. I have only ever worked with kindergartners and first graders before so this will be a whole new experience for me and I am ready for it to begin!
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