Observing Amanda, Ganny, Olivia and Cierra has been very interesting and entertaining. Last week we observed their direct instruction lesson which is on the Life of New Spain. They had a fantastic powerpoint and seemed very knowledgable about the information they were teaching. Amanda had an outstanding introduction and really engaged the students into the lesson. They each took turns reading off specific slides but I did feel as though Amanda did most of the talking. She seemed very comfortable in front of the classroom and it all came natural to her. On top of their great presentation, they had really cute materials and worksheets for the students to complete that went along with their lesson. Every teacher kept the students engaged and made sure that they were always paying attention. If the class was getting too loud, the teachers used many different gaining attention techniques that really got the students to quiet down.
I also really enjoyed how the teachers incorporated rules for the classroom to follow before they began their lesson. Me and my group did the same thing and it was extremely effective for the class. The teachers had one student at a time read aloud the rules to the class so everyone else can hear. Also, after reading the rules the teachers introduced the Captains vs. Explorers game. The students or explorers, got points if they followed any rule that was on the list they just read but if they were misbehaving or being too loud, than the teachers or captains got a point. I loved the idea to this game but I wish that the teachers gave themselves points a little more often. The students did follow rules but I think that the students took advantage of that. Every time someone followed a rule, a student would say out loud that they should get a point. Just because they follow the rules every single time doesn't mean that they always need a point. If the students got more points than the teachers than they got a prize at the end of class but the teachers never gave themselves a chance to catch up to the students in order to "scare" them in thinking that they may not get a prize. Obviously the point of the game is for the students to cooperate and follow rules but it seemed like they won automatically because the teachers never gave themselves a point. Overall, the lesson was great and I learned a lot of new teaching techniques I never thought about including in my own lessons. They were pressed on time so they weren't able to do their guided practice activity but I wish that they watched the clock a little more attentively because that activity is a must in a direct instruction lesson. I think that the teachers focused too much time on having the students write down notes in their explorer journals. Writing down notes is important but many of the students wrote too slow and kept asking for the teachers to go back a slide. If the teachers cut that time in half, they would have had more time for the guided practice activity.
I really enjoyed this lesson and the four teachers seemed very knowledgable and enthusiastic about it! I can't wait to see their inquiry and cooperative learning lessons! :)
Observing my peers teach their lessons has been very interesting for me. Since my group already taught, it has been relaxing to sit in the back of the room and observe. Since my professor decided to have the rest of the groups teach for three days rather than two, I have been extra observable. Since my group only had two days to teach, we felt very rushed. It was virtually impossible to fit all of our activities into two days of teaching. Since we struggled so much, our professor decided to change the rules for the rest of the class. It was beneficial for the rest, but not for us. If we had three days to teach, our lessons could have been implemented so much better. We had great ideas but time was our biggest issue. Once our teaching was over, a weight was lifted off of our shoulders. All we had to do next was observe our peers and critique them.
Again, observing my peers has been interesting. Even though every group and lesson is different, it is expected that each group that goes is better than the first. I honestly believe that my groups lessons were great and if we had more time, they could have gone a lot more smoother. But what I've been observing so far has been pretty good. Kristen, Angie and Cassandra were the next group to teach. Their direct instruction went well and it was full of great information. They incorporated a game called Teacher vs. Class which gave students the opportunity to get points if they were quiet and participating respectively to receive a prize at the end of the lesson. Many students seemed to be knowledgable about the Spanish and Aztecs. Some were also a little confused. I really enjoyed the teachers Inquiry lesson which was a scavenger hunt using QR Codes on ipads. Many students were engaged in this activity and knew exactly what to do. I liked how Kristen made sure that the students were staying on task by reminding them about their Teacher vs. Class game. Not only did the teachers activities enrich the students knowledge, they kept the students engaged at all times. Once their day for cooperative learning came along, the lesson didn't go as smooth as I thought it would. The teachers did a great job explaining on how they expect the students to work together in groups. They focused a lot of attention on what it means to work together and how to do it effectively, which is exactly whats PIGS is all about!!
The students were put into groups and had to complete a task together and present it to the class. One of the examples was creating a picture collage on the ipad about Francisco Pizarro. I knew what this task was only because I was told to help the students stay on task by my professor and one of the other teachers. I didn't mind doing this, but I had to pause my observation writing to help out another group. Even though it wasn't their fault that they only had three teachers in the group, they shouldn't have created four groups of students if they couldn't keep track of them. It shouldn't have been my job to help another group out just because they didn't prepare accordingly. Also, since my group only had two days to teach three lessons rather than three days, I felt as though the teachers should have been much more prepared and not worry about time management. They still missed a few things because they were rushing, yet my group had to combine two lessons into less than an hour of instruction. It was almost impossible but to teach Inquiry or Cooperative Learning in one hour is definitely doable. I don't mean to sound harsh but it is definitely frustrating to see what the rest of the groups have one extra day to teach. My group didn't get that opportunity so the bar is set pretty high for groups three and four. I think that group three did a great job, but could have paid attention to more details in their lessons in order to make their teaching close to perfect.
I can't believe it happened, but me and my groups first day of teaching to the 5th grade finally came!! We taught them about Christopher Columbus and his voyages to the Americas. Figuring out what to teach them and how to make it engaging was definitely very stressful but I was very happy with what we came up with!
The first day of teaching was our Direct Instruction lesson. We created an interactive and engaging powerpoint where we each took turns sharing important information about Christopher Columbus and his voyages. The class seemed very happy with our power point. Before explaining any facts, we passed out a "Columbus Notepad" where the students could jot down any important notes they see throughout the lesson. We constantly reminded them of key terms and had them write down facts that would be helpful for them in the future. They seemed to really like that and I saw every student writing down notes. Almost everyone participated and seemed very knowledgable about the information we were giving them. We incorporated checks for understanding where we asked different students review questions and they all did fabulous! At the end of our powerpoint, we showed them a video summarizing Christopher Columbus' voyages.
You can view this great video here! :
After viewing that video we introduced two guided practice activities. The first was a Columbus Web Organizer. We created one on a poster board and had the students raise their hands to tell us some important facts about Columbus and what they've learned throughout the lesson. Many students were eager to raise their hands and share great facts with us and the rest of their classmates. We also passed around a blank web for them to fill out so they were able to fill in what we were going over as a class. After we wrapped that up, we introduced a Columbian Exchange poster board. Students had to velcro different pictures correctly onto the board. Pictures included corn, pigs, horses, diseases, sugar cane and much more. We called students up one by one and they either placed the picture in America or Europe. They seemed to enjoy this and were eager to come up and place the pictures.
Here are pictures from our guided practice activities:
After the students participated in the guided practice activities, we handed out an exit ticket to test each student's knowledge independently. This exit ticket had multiple choice questions, a fill-in-the-blank quote, and a spot for them to share two things they learned and one thing they wish to become experts on. We could have saved a little more time for the independent practice but overall the lesson went great!! The students seemed very engaged and it set up the scene for our Inquiry and Cooperative Learning lessons!!
One thing me and my group was proud of was creating a set of rules to share with the students before our lesson began. We reiterated that it is important to follow rules and respect one another! Here is a look at our class rules poster board!
On Thursday we headed to school and were ready to teach our Inquiry and Cooperative Learning lesson. For our Inquiry, we started by briefly going over the scientific method since they needed to use it for this lesson. We strategically grouped the students into four different groups and created an interactive powerpoint for each group to access on our laptops. Each group was assigned a 'crew captain' which was me and the rest of my group members. We led them through the powerpoint and they had to work together to answer the given tasks so they can receive a clue to move onto the next task. They had to locate different coordinates, think about their key terms, write a letter to the King and Queen of Spain convincing them that Columbus deserves to take a fifth voyage, and complete a mini-game on the Columbian Exchange. Each group completed these tasks together and once they were finished, they had to reflect whether or not their hypothesis they made in the beginning on their explorer pages were correct. The students seemed to enjoy the tasks and really worked together to figure out the right answers. After they completed that, as their independent practice, they were given a letter from Columbus thanking them for convincing the King and Queen to fund his fifth voyage, but some of the words were missing from the letter. These words were key terms and the students had to independently fill those words out from memory.
After our Inquiry lesson we introduced our Cooperative Learning lesson. We had the students stay in their groups to create a poem about a given topic to participate in a class Poetry Slam. We introduced the rules, told them how to properly present and to cooperate with one another. We assigned each student in the group a different role like scribe, illustrator, presenter, summarizer and more. Since they didn't have much time left it was a little difficult for the students to quickly come up with a poem. With the limited time they had, each presentation of their poems were fabulous! It would have been better if we had more time but with what we had, I thought the groups did a great job!
Overall, I had a great experience teaching the 5th grade! Working as a group definitely helped me become more prepared. Our Inquiry and Cooperative Learning lessons were a little rough only because we had to squeeze so much content into less than an hour. If we had one extra day it would have gone so much better. Since our class watched our lesson, our professor decided to give the rest of the groups three days to teach rather than two. I wish we had that opportunity but overall I loved our lessons and we tried our hardest to make them engaging and interesting for the students. For our first time, I'm very proud of our group : One Happy Globe!
Excitement..Stress..Nerves..Anxiousness..Determination.. These are all words that accurately describe fieldwork with a 5th grade class!
I have never taught a lesson to an entire class before. I've only worked one-on-one with students but something about getting up in front of the whole class and teaching an actual lesson on something the kids will be tested on is a little nerve wracking. You have to make sure that every little detail is perfect in order for the lesson to go as planned and to succeed in teaching. Even though my group isn't the first to go, I got nervous thinking about Marie & Aimee going!
The day finally came..the class sat on the floor in the back of the room, on our laptops jotting down every note and observation we could. Every little idea, mistake, observation had to be noted so me and my group can improve. Just seeing the two of them up there..made me notice "Wow, that's going to be me in a week!!" But after they got into the groove of things, the lesson itself went very well. The class got loud at times and there was definitely some information missing in the direct instruction, but the information was explained beautifully and the students seemed really confident in answering all of the questions. The one thing I took note of was classroom management. For my group, we made sure to set aside time to explain the rules of the classroom to the students. They just think we're a bunch of college students just joking around with them; they don't take us seriously. We don't want to scare them but they need to know that this is serious and this information they're going to be learning is going to be on their tests sometime soon!
After observing the first day of fieldwork, it made me and my group really hit the gas and get moving on our lesson. Since we're teaching about Columbus, we were thinking of every fun and engaging activity we could imagine to keep the students engaged. Not only did we spend hours in the library together, we dedicated our own time to come up with ideas and get to work! It has been very time consuming and stressful, but once we teach it'll all be worth it!
We teach next week and me and my group definitely need to sit down and become confident in the material we are presenting to the class. We have to make sure we call on every student possible and DO NOT refer to the students as 'guys!' I'm excited to see how our lessons turn out, especially our Inquiry and Cooperative Learning. We are working on those at the moment so it is still a work in progress. Watching Marie and Aimee teach there's was a little confusing only because there was so strict powerpoint and direction. We definitely have to get moving, but we can't wait to start!!
