The first day I entered the class, I was amazed at how the class is filled with Print. On the walls you can actually see what they are currently working on for the day and for the week, instructions for the students and much more, the student’s progress in a particular area, a word wall, motivational posters, and other vocabulary words such as contractions and compound words. The students followed directions well and raised their hands properly using the appropriate signal written on the wall. Of course, there were times when a student did not follow directions and made trouble, however, there was a class system that they followed. During center time, the students separate into groups and work on either vocabulary, reading, on computer or a …show more content…
There were times when the teacher quickly went through lessons and that the students did not have time to think things through. However, their time on the carpet gave students time to answer questions and give their ideas and thoughts about a particular subject. For example, when giving a lesson on the carpet about the Greek Gods and Goddesses, the teacher asks the students about what they will think will happen next or about what each God and Goddess does. When the students go back to their seats, they start on their worksheets. The teacher seems to focus much more on centers and what activities to give the students each day. I also realized that the only opportunities they have to write is when at their desks working on sheets or during center time when they have to complete a reading response. In my opinion, there should be an area where writing is the main …show more content…
Without realizing it, I went over my time by a few minutes. At the time of my lesson, I still had not remembered the names of the students, so just in case I made a mistake, I wrote numbers on the back of the question cards and called on the numbers for students to read and answer the questions. After reading the first page of the book, students already realized that the book was a rhyming book and started to show interest. During reading, I found that asking the students “What do you think will happen next?” really motivates them and gets their attention. During the whole class game of matching compound words, I found that it is importance to make sure that there are rules or directions that the students should follow. The students were too excited and continued to talk over me. The purpose of the game was not only to teach a lesson about compound words, but to also provide opportunities for children to engage in conversations with their peers and the adults. Although there are some parts that did not go as how I anticipated, I felt that overall, the lesson plan went well. The theme of the lesson plan, Halloween is what really interested the students. Themes really grabs their attention, especially if it is something that matches with what is currently happening in their lives. If I could do the lesson plan over again, there are four parts that I would change. One, keep track of time
Ralph Fletcher’s story in the beginning of the introduction quickly grabbed my attention. Although the story was humorous, I found there to be a lot of truth in it. In the story, the young students realize that their teacher will take anything and make them write about it. It seems to be that the teacher does this so often, that the students are afraid to take joy in the simple things. The students don’t want to assigned another writing prompt. Fletcher then says that teacher need to be sure “not to get too evangelical about teaching writing.” I agree with this statement. It is very important to teach students how to write, but as a teacher we need to know when we should take a break so the students do not get burnt out. Once students get tired
Before this quarter started I was fairly confident that I had what it took to ace English 101. After the first paper, I realized I was mistaken. Throughout this quarter I have had numerous problems with my writing that proved I needed to do a little more studying to help take my writing to the college level. Although I did not fail any of my papers, there was plenty of room for improvement. All the areas I needed to improve on are all areas that I think every English 101 student should know. I believe that every student at the college level should know how to cite sources correctly, know how to use good transitions, and know how to properly elaborate their examples.
In one semester of English 101 I have learned so many things about writing. I used to believe that writing was just putting words on paper, but have since learned that writing is much more than that, I now understand that writing is a way of exploring my mind and of making connections with other writers and readers. Over the course of the semester I have been learning to write in a way that uses the skills of reflection, critical thinking, and much more. I have used these skills to compose two academic essays that I am submitting in a portfolio to determine my final grade in English 101. In order to have a passing final grade my essays need to display skills I have learned in the course that are required by the Portfolio Assessment Rubric or
To begin, my observation was at Webster Elementary School, a school placed in the city surrounded by houses and other schools. The specific classroom I am observing is full of Kindergarten students who seem to very advanced than I had imagined. The classroom walls are brick and white, but the classroom teacher Mrs. O'Brien does an amazing job keeping the space use for both an upbeat and educational vibe, especially for environmental print. Everywhere you look there are educational posters, numbers, and mental state vocabulary words, as well as, students completed work. To add, students sit in medium sized tables with 4-6 other students when they aren’t having whole group instruction on either
Classroom organization was critical to these students’ safety and success. The small group area was centered in the room with their “centers” along the outside of the room, including a swing area with lots of mats, some interactive toys for counting, colors, and sounds. Each student is teamed with an aide, and during the time I was in they were sitting in a row listening to the main teacher read the story, so they could interact with each other when necessary, and with their aides. The classroom setting and layout is focused on the students’ safety first and foremost. The use of materials for these students was very limited, they created a caterpillar out of
As a teacher of writing, I realize from my experience already that I need to take a step back and allow my students some room to breathe, some room to think, possibly a model writing and an opportunity to pick up their pencils without any fears or confusion and simply write. They need to believe in their own feelings, their experiences and their own knowledge of the world around them and learn to tap into them. Without this exploration, students will remain stuck sitting with that same blank piece of paper in front of them. As a future teacher of writing, I will explore my writing by working alongside my students. I am simply amazed by what I have learned from this process already.
When I first entered this class, I already knew that it wasn’t going to be easy just because I 'm not good with putting things into words and explaining myself with proper grammar. I can honestly say English 101 has really inspired me to be a better writer. This class affected me in a lot of ways it showed me that writing takes time and you can 't expect a paper to be great without any revising or editing. That has always been a mistake of mine, I would tend to free write a lot it seemed to be the only way I could get my thoughts processed on a paper. I would forget periods, commas and misspell words without even noticing. I never cared much for punctuation, but once I got into this class I knew it was much needed. The topics we wrote on were not just any random topics which in a way made it more interesting to write about things that are actually important and things our generation should be informed about.
First off thanks Mr Cole for being an awesome instructor that I really enjoyed being in your English 101 class. My second quarter of English writing class in college has very challenged both my researching and writing skills. I learned a lot of about myself, and I realized that the main thing I needed to work on in all my papers was really analysing information rather than just reporting on it. One of the most things that I liked about you and your English 101 class was your editing and your media comments. They were really helpful, made me easier to understand and realize my strengths and my weaknesses from all my papers. I think my biggest strength is brainstorming and revising. I have learned that I should do lots of brainstorms, outlines and give myself more time to find things and revise all my rough drafts to make them better. On the other hand, I always was stuck in using the punctuation mark such as comma, period and semicolon in my papers. Moreover, grammatical mistakes were also my weakness because
As I look back on my English 101 experience, I have come to the conclusion that I have learned many new things that have improved my abilities as a writer. I have learned some new techniques that have improved my ways of approaching an essay. I learned all about the rhetorical appeals and how to apply them in my writing and how to look for them in a essay written by a author. I have also learned how to argue both sides of a argument, and how to look for reliable sources and to properly quote and site the author of the essay. I feel as if I have become a better writer and my improved writing skills are shown within each essay.
The English classes that I have taken over the course of my years in school have always been greatly enjoyable. Fortunately, I've been lucky to have had amazing teachers, more than eager to aid me in improving my writing. I believe that as far as my writing skills, there is always room for improvement. There will always be another vocabulary word to learn, or a writing style to master. Although I am not necessarily striving for perfection (I don't dream of being the next Mark Twain or F. Scott Fitzgerald), improving my personal best is what I am invariably working towards. This year in English 101 has served as a very significant step in my writing journey. It gave me a push into the “bootcamp” of college writing, while still retaining certain aspects of writing that I find truly enjoyable.
As we all are fully aware, each student is diverse and has special needs when it comes to learning. There are three types of learners: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Visual learners learn best when shown how to do an assignment. They prefer diagrams, pictures, and charts. Simply allowing your class to create flashcards and color coding notes can help these types of learners memorize the information. Our brain organizes information through a process. Creating flow charts will help the brain map out the information from the lesson given. Auditory learners learn best when a teacher presents information by talking to the student. When directions are read aloud, they tend to succeed. Allowing time for students to discuss the material in a group before moving on to the next is beneficial for these types of learners. Kinesthetic learners are learners who excel when engaged in the learning activity. By participating in labs, skits, and presentations, they acquire the information faster. Starting the class with a few warm up activities, next a lecture, then a classroom discussion, and wrapping up with a review will help all types of learning styles. Without the knowledge from psychologists about the different types of learners and their special needs, teachers would not know how to respond to their students who may struggle with the material given.
As a child enters a classroom they should be surrounded by literacy in every learning center around the room. “A learning center is a defined space where materials are organized in such a way that children learn without the teacher's constant presence and direction.” (Cited Landry, et al., 2014, pg. 12) These areas consist of blocks, dramatic play, music, toys and games, discovery, sand and water, art, easel, writing, library computer and listening. Each center needs to be set up to ensure supervision is assessable from all areas of the room as well as provide child friendly hands-on activities that generate individual creativity, observations and real life experiences. “Children should also receive multiple opportunities to experience specific linguistic concepts in diverse contexts and experiences organized to foster repetition as an integral part of the classroom routine.” (Cited Justice, 2004, pg. 42)
My teaching career has been spent learning how to provide appropriate support, guidance, patience, & understanding, as well as to enhance academic growth & success, for all students. My purpose as a teacher is to enrich and inspire the lives of young students with moderate/intensive needs by providing access to information instead of functioning as the primary source of information for students to flourish. My teaching methods will be to create an environment ripe with opportunities for discovery and exploration which will allow all students to learn at their own pace, generate questions and construct knowledge, while providing hands-on practice of skills in authentic situations as well as to make learning intriguing and meaningful to all students. Carefully planned and constructed learning environment will also allow the teacher more time to meet the individual needs of each student. Another important factor to a well-prepared learning environment is to facilitate learning, and providing students with balance and consistency (2004). Young students require a balance between various classroom dimensions, including activities guided by the teacher and independent work, quiet work and active work, gross motor and fine motor activities, and open and closed aspects to the curriculum and classroom materials (2004). Consistency is also a required condition for learner success. Schedules (daily and weekly), the enforcement of classroom rules, and student expectations should not be in flux but remain consistent. Without a sense of consistency in the classroom, school life would lack the necessary feeling of safety and reliability young children need to focus, to take risks, and to t...
In microteaching session, our lesson is being implemented with the foundation of learning is fun, meaningful and purposeful, which is one of the pedagogical principles in teaching. Undoubtedly, lesson planning is the first step that allows teacher to prepare the activity that could develop pupils’ ability. As the newly implemented KSSR syllabus promotes, HOTS has been put under the spotlight in education field. Writing, which largely involves metacognitive thinking skills, should be promoted in order to cultivate HOTS in younger generation. Thus, teacher should diversify the varieties of activities in order to make sure that pupils’ endowment is fully cultivated and their interest in the lesson is maintained. According to Champkins (2003), the average attention span of a primary school pupil can be calculated using the rule of chronological age + I (minute). This is an approximation of the period where pupils are able to concentrate in an activity. Subsequently, teacher should make sure that the lesson is learner-centred and activities planned are engaging, appropriate and suitable for pupils to enjoy the learning process. As the target group of pupils is Year 4, we have tried to attract pupils’ attention through creating suspense and asked pupils to predict the following activity. By doing this, we hope that we will be able to arouse the curiosity of pupils on the topic. In the lesson plan, we have also included group work. According to Gorgon (2008), group work is effective in developing pupils’ initiative to think, contribute to the group, share and evaluate information as well as promoting pupils’ sense of cooperation. From this, pupils will not be only improving their communication skill, but they are also being provided with an opportunity to develop collaborative skills as a real life scenario is provided for pupils to interact with their partner and pupils in the process of
The writing class session I observed is a packaged program in which the students have been participating in for 5 months. They all know the routine of the reading and writing workshop and understand “the Daily 5.” The student’s movements are purposeful and there is little time wasted in transitions. The books used by students become more complicated as the students ability strengthens. At the end of the workshop, Mrs. Rammond praised those students who used their time efficiently during “the Daily 5.” She spoke directly to the students who wrote in their journals and asked them to share their entries. The students learned some new trivia about insects, practiced writing and then had some time for art.