Fieldwork (Cluster 9): Evaluating Learning

I have to say, I have been blown away by how much these kindergartners know. They are able to write complete sentences, complete addition and subtraction in their heads, remember scientific terms like "extinct" and "evaporate," and read tough words. I fully admit that I was not expecting these students to do as much as they can.

One day in particular, I watched the students read a "Time For Kids" magazine on the meeting rug as a whole class. The magazine was about what we can do to save lions from extinction. It talked about what was happening to the lions' environment, as well as hunting. The teacher paused throughout the magazine to allow for group discussions about what was going in the text. This allowed for me to observe numerous instances of learning:

1. using context clues to define "habitat"
2. understood that people were cutting down trees for paper and wood
3. concluded that we should plant a new tree every time we cut one down
4. connected lions dying off to dinosaurs
5. used knowledge of dinosaurs to say lions would be extinct
6. identified Africa on a map
7. identified that an ocean separates Africa from America
8. used the map key to say that there were few lions remaining in Africa
9. concluded that you can only get to Africa by boat or plane
10. decided that hunters are targeting lions for their fur
11. understood that using fake fur would eliminate need for lion's fur
12. concluded that the main reason for lions becoming extinct is human interference

The most impressive part of this lesson for me was that students had these instances of learning because of their group discussion. The magazine itself played only a small role in guiding where their conversation went. The teacher would ask probing questions, as well as follow student ideas to help the students reach these conclusions. She made sure to praise students individually as they inputted their ideas and then praise the class as a whole at the end for the wonderful thoughts they had.

When I asked the teacher I have been observing what she thought the students learn the fastest, she thought for a few minutes and then said, "Wow, that's hard to answer... I didn't think that would be so tough!" After giving it some thought, she decided that any topic where the students can use rhythm or rhyme to remember it was something they picked up easily. For example, learning the ABC song, or the linking chart chant. Anything where they can chant is easy for them to learn because they remember the inflection they are supposed to use and the order the information goes in. She suggested I use modeling as much as possible. This not only helps them learn, but shows them what is expected of them. She uses modeling in every lesson. For math she always completes a sample problem for them and explains her thought process. When the class is doing a read aloud, the teacher verbalizes what she is thinking as she is reading.

I then asked the kindergartners what subject they though they learned the fastest. I asked them when they were at round tables, which unfortunately, I think allowed some students to be influenced by their peers responses. However, I think most of the were authentic. The results are displayed in the table below:

Some responses I thought were interesting. For example, traditionally, girls feel like that aren't as successful in math and science classes. However, in this class, the only student that said they learned science quickly was a girl. Overall, nine boys and four girls felt they succeed in math centered topics, which is a more expected result. I did find it surprising that more students believed they were better at math based topics than literacy based. After observing the class for six hours, I was able to get an idea of which students excelled in certain areas. Some students who felt they learned counting better actually require extra support for math, I thought it was interesting to see students may feel confident in an area where in reality they are better at another topic.

I think it's fantastic to see how confident students are in their abilities. Especially at this age, students are eager and excited to show what they know. Their ideas and thoughts should be encouraged in the classroom, even if they begin to move off topic. As long as learning is occurring, their ideas are wonderfully relevant.