10/14/2011
New
experiences every week
This
week I enjoyed working individually with students on literacy skills, in
particular. The two girls I worked with
were so excited; they literally were jumping out of their chair. I was handed a non-fiction book titled The Sun, and taught them using a lesson
plan produced specifically for the book.
I have no prior experience using a script. It was odd asking them questions from a
paper, and soon adapted them to the questions they were asking me.
The
students first looked through the book at the pictures and made predictions
about what the text would talk about. I
then showed them the title, the authors, and the table of contents. We discussed each one, and then I asked them
to take turns reading aloud. They were
both very excited to read aloud. The
objective was to practice reading fluency and comprehension. We soon started to examine “abstract” ideas
from the book such as: the tilt of the earth, whether the sun moves in a circle,
the importance of the sun, the water cycle, plants, and seasons. One girl knew about the water cycle and
attempted to explain it to the other. I
encouraged her to teach her peer; however, when it didn’t work I grabbed a
white board and drew pictures. Science
and astronomy are exciting to me, it was a wonderful feeling explaining such a
complicated process as the water cycle to a seven year old. As we read, I also tried to ask comprehension
questions from previous pages which connected each of the mini-chapters.
I’ve
been volunteering in elementary schools since 2008. Teaching one-on-one in depth was new for me,
I was happy for the responsibility. The
following day we reviewed what we learned and reread the book. Both students begged me to read another book
with them. I was very excited by their
enthusiasm! I find working one on one
with students is warming them up to me as a teacher; after all I’ve only been
there four days!
Another
couple of new experiences I had this week involved one student cheating, and
another challenging me. When the student
challenged me during class, I was following up on a direction the teacher made during
student presentations. Ultimately in the
end I stood my ground and explained the appropriate way to speak to teachers in
the future. I spoke with the teacher
afterwards who claimed I was right to stand my ground, otherwise he would be
challenging me the rest of the seven weeks I am there. The student had had a bad day, the following
day was back to normal between us.
The
student who cheated was a new experience as well. I honestly had not expected to see it as this
grade level and he was mortified to be caught.
The teacher met with him, and told him why he should not cheat. He claims he won’t try it again, so the
teacher stated she would not involve parents this time. It comes down to knowing your kids. Everyone needs a second chance!
Below
is the behavior chart used in the classroom.
Clothespins with the children’s name on it move up and down throughout
the day depending on behavior. It should be vertical, I don't know what is wrong.
