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.

Fieldwork (Cluster 5): A Discussion of Intelligence

The kindergartners I have been observing are in the pre-operational stage of development. This means they are fairly egocentric, developing their fine motor skills, and beginning to socially interact. Because it is the end of the school year, most of the students are already six years old and are getting close to moving out of this stage.

Physically, they are all able to correctly grip a pencil or crayon. They are now using normal-sized pencils, as opposed to the large ones they began the year with. This shows that they have developed their fine motor skills. They are also very active at this age; they need to take breaks to get up and move around often. If the teacher feels like they have been sitting for too long, she will give them a chance to play "Silent Leader," which is a game where one student leads the class in a series of silent stretches. She also staggers activities between the meeting rug and group tables, so between tasks students are able to get up and walk around. She makes sure that they do not spend too much time in one place to keep them from getting bored and fidgety.

The teacher set simple goals for her classroom, such as each student counting to one hundred, recognizing 26 letters, and recognizing 54 letter sounds. These are appropriate cognitive goals for where the students are now. They should be able to recite the alphabet and identify long and short letter sounds. Some students are also able to identify sounds of blends and digraphs, such as "th" and "ch." Most students are able to count to one hundred, with only about three struggling.

The students are now used to interacting with their peers. They are eager to work in groups and are agreeable when the teacher decides who will work together. There is rarely any bickering between the students; they take turns with little argument and work together successfully. Emotionally, the students are still very eager to demonstrate what they know or to help out around the classroom. I noticed that when the teacher asks a question, particularly about a reading they did as a whole class, most students raise their hand, even if they don't know the answer right away. They are excited and want the attention and praise from the teacher.

I decided that I wanted to collect a random assortment for interviewing people on their view of intelligence, so I posed the question on Facebook. I ended up with three responses from three very different people. However, I think they are all related to each other. I believe if you ask a child to tell you about an intelligent person, they would tell you the person would get 100's on everything, they do really good in school, and they're really smart. As a person matures, they are able to recognize that intelligence has many levels. I think I would describe an intelligent person as focused, a critical thinker, and creative. Here is a screenshot of the Glog I created to share my results.

Intelligence grows and forms as we mature. Because there are so many different types of intelligences, it is easy to expect different answers from anyone you ask. One person may picture a traditional "nerd" when they think of an intelligent person, while someone else may picture an artist or musician. None of these ideas are wrong, which is what makes this topic so interesting.

Fieldwork (Clusters 3-4): A Classroom of Variety

The students in this kindergarten class are an extremely diverse mix, not just ethnically, but educationally. They all have individual needs outside of the needs of a whole class. This class has one student was just classified with multiple disabilities, two ESL students, and a mix of students who need support in different fields throughout the day.

The student with multiple disabilities was classified in the middle of the year. Instead of changing his classroom, he was assigned a paraprofessional to help him throughout the day and remains in normal instruction. This student requires extra attention to stay on task no matter what the class is working on. The teacher and para provide reminders to redirect his attention. The para also pulls him aside for one-on-one lessons where she reinforces concepts taught in class, or spends extra time working on sight words. He is also prone to emotional extremes: when he is upset, he is inconsolable, and when he is excited he jumps around and dances. This students educational and emotional needs are met by all teachers and paras in the room.

There are two English language learners, one whose first language is Chinese, the other Spanish. These two students receive speech therapy twice a day and are out of the classroom for thirty minutes at a time. When the students return, the teacher always makes sure they catch up on any work they may have missed while they were out. When group work is assigned, these two students tend to flock to each other. However, the teacher does try to split them up so they are able to interact with other students and practice language use with their peers. She also provides additional support for directions, such as modeling and picture ques.

Some students require extra help with math or writing. The teacher and class para make sure they take extra time with these students during the appropriate times. One student in particular requires a lot of educational support; she has a hard time remaining focused on a task. For example, when doing addition, she understands the concept, but would prefer to continue counting instead of completing the task correctly. The teacher always makes sure she reminds the student to focus on the task at hand and then allows her to write her numbers as high as possible on the back, so she is still able to count.

Another boy has a speech impediment and is very emotional. He tends to be very quiet, shy, and reserved. If another student upsets him, or if he gets in trouble for something, he immediately breaks down into tears and cannot express how he feels. The teacher has noticed that it has become a technique he uses to get out of trouble or get his way. She has had to learn to identify when the student needs support and when he is using crying to his advantage.

This is absolutely a mix of students I can expect in a future classroom. I need to learn how to balance my time with each student as my cooperating teacher has.

Fieldwork (Cluster 1): Interview With a Teacher

For this fieldwork assignment, I interviewed a kindergarten teacher in Valley Central School District. She has many years experience with children in this age range, and in my opinion, is wonderful at what she does. The students have a wonderful relationship with her and seem to grow and learn every day. My time in her classroom has been an enlightening experience to say the least.


Q: What effective teaching principles do you use to reach every child in your class?

A: I am continuously assessing the students in different ways, including daily observations. I keep strong records for the assessments so I can look back and use them to guide and support teaching. I also like to make sure I am teaching to different modalities: verbal, auditory, kinesthetic, visual. I give the students opportunities to do do hands-on interactive instruction whenever I can. I also really like to use a lot of group or partner work. I encourage them to discuss a topic between themselves, and then with me; I use turn-and-talks after almost every read aloud. Students are given time daily to work in centers. These are organized around the room and designed in a way for me to guide them in their choices. I like to keep a positive learning environment; positive redirection, positive problem solving. The schedule is posted daily for the students to see so they know what to anticipate through the day.


Q: What latest research are you referring to in your teaching design?

A: For ELA, the school district follows the Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Framework for instruction in:

• guided reading instruction
• shared reading
• shared writing
• interactive writing
• writing workshop
• work board centers

We refer to the Continuum of Literacy Learning to observe and plan for the "Behaviors to Notice, Teach, and Support" in order to plan for: Writing, reading, listening, and speaking. The K-5 staff are trained by Literacy Collaborative Trainers from Lesley University in the Literacy Collaborative Model. At the training, the staff was provided with over 15 resource books to utilize in planning and to guide instruction.

As for the New York State Modules, I don't feel that these modules are highly research based - I believe they were done in a hasty manner.While the concepts are mostly developmentally appropriate, the lessons and skill sheets are done in a manner that is so standardized it does not allow for any creative teaching or teaching in a way where math is integrated with literacy, science, or social studies. Also, the skill sheets are not supportive of a four, five, or six year old's way of thinking: there are many problems on a page, small counters to work with, and switch concepts on the same page.


Q: In what ways has the research on effective teaching empowered your continued learning process?

A: No matter how many trainings I attend, I feel like there is always something left to learn. We were provided with over twenty hours of initial training and coaching; currently we receive forty-eight hours of annual training and coaching as needed. I do believe the Common Core Standards can be taught in a more appropriate way, with more hands on and thoughtful way, which I try to interpret into my lesson plans.


As the teacher started talking about the effective teaching principles she uses in her classroom, I noticed many similarities to our book. She believes that children should be allowed to work together to learn in an engaging environment. Their class discussions were always so fun to watch; it was incredible to see what kind of connections the students made to what they had previously learned. She always keeps a calm and kind tone when talking to the students, even when someone was misbehaving. Students respond positively to this because, they don't feel like they are really being yelled at. She reasons with them and explains everything going on. The students never feel like they are left in a lurch or have no guidance; her directions are clear, concise, and easy to follow.

I thought it was interesting to have a teacher directly challenge the Common Core standards she was following, and agree to have me use it for class. After she showed me one of the worksheets she was using for a more or less math lesson, I could see where her concerns fell. The sheet was crowded and jumbled. She had to bring the students back to the meeting rug after every two problems so they understood what the sheet was asking for them. The next day when she went to review the same topic, she created her own activity where the accompanying worksheet was clean and simple. Students were able to complete the sheet after only one set of instructions.

I think the time I spent in this classroom has easily been the most influential and beneficial observation time I have spent in a school. Her methods for teaching students proved to be working as I watched the success of her students in each lesson.

Fieldwork (Clusters 10-15): A Constructivist Classroom

My fieldwork observations have been taking place in a kindergarten classroom at Berea Elementary in Montgomery, NY. The teacher I am working with uses constructivist methods throughout the day.

The teacher follows a morning routine every day: Do Now task, calendar time, Writer's Workshop, and then Work Board. For Work Board, students are paired up into groups of 5 or 6. They are given 4 different centers to complete each day. Centers can include: ABC's, 123's, Reading the Room, Writing Words, Classroom Library, Browsing Boxes, Highlight Words, sketchbook, and practice printing. The activities for each center are organized and labeled around the room. For some centers students have different activities to choose from and are permitted to make that choice themselves. If the teacher has a specific task she would like a child to complete she gently suggests, "Maybe you should try the patterning box today, Derek." In this case, some students may break off into groups of 2 or 3. The set-up of her classroom is similar to the one below:

As students complete a center, the teacher will check in on them to see how they are progressing and to make sure they don't spend too much time on one task. She allots about 10-15 minutes for each activity. She also makes sure students stay within their groups.

At the end of the day, if students have completed their work for the day, or if it is a special occasion, they have classroom choice time. The idea is similar in that students work within groups of 3-5. However, they are not completing an educational task. They can participate in things such as dramatic play, creating books, water colors, classroom library, and Play-doh. She offers different activities every day so students aren't always doing the same thing. She also encourages students to try new activities so they aren't working with the same children everyday.

The teacher uses 5E lesson plans as often as she can. One lesson I was lucky to observe was planting. She told me that the students had been reading fiction and non-fiction books about the life-cycle of plants. From these texts, they had put the life-cycle of a plant in the correct order using a felt board and also constructed their own model of a plant. On the last day of the unit, students planted their own seeds in a plastic cup to keep in the classroom for a week and tend to. Students had to decide where the plants should be kept to receive optimal sun light, as well as decide when to water them. The students observed the plants for a week, noting any changes, and then got to take them home to plant in their own gardens.

I personally think that constructivist methods are a great addition to any classroom and love the way this teacher uses them.

Maria Montessori? I barely know her!

That was my reaction when I first signed up to do my Education Contributors project on Maria Montessori. I knew the name "Montessori Schools" only from hearing snow closing delays on the radio as a kid. Now that I have read about her and her work, I am certainly happy that I chose her.

Maria Montessori was born in Chiaravalle, Italy in 1870, and spent her early childhood growing up in Rome. Her mother valued education, and therefore made sure Maria received a good one. Maria enrolled in an all boys technical institute at the age of 13 to persue engineering, but for college chose medical school. After becoming one of Italy's first female physicians, she quickly turned her studies towards educational psychology. Maria made strides in special education as early as 1910, and by 1930 her methods had already spread worldwide.

Maria Montessori would be considered a constructivist, and developed her own method of teaching, the Montessori Method. This method uses group work, mixed age groups, and large class sizes. Students engage in activities where they are in charge of their own learning. A teacher would guide them in making center choices that are appropriate for them, but then would allow them to complete the task. By mixing the age groups in the classroom, younger students are able to learn from older peers, while the older students are practicing what they have already learned. Also, working in groups like this bolsters students social skills. They are able to interact with their peers in an education setting that prepares them for the real-world.

Maria believed children passed through  four sensitive periods, shown below, where they were more susceptible to different types of learning. For example, in early childhood, students would use sensory-motor materials, and would participate in activities that engaged all of their senses (hearing, touching, tasting, seeing, smelling and motion).

I think the Montessori is definitely something I would use in my classroom. I love the idea of making sure students are actively participating in a lesson, and are experiencing the material. I know that in some cases, direct instruction will happen, but exploratory learning is so important for students to apply their knowledge. Finding ways to make topics applicable to real-life situations is the best method for making learning meaningful, and memorable for students.

Here are links for my full PowerPoint and emaze presentations on Montessori so you can read more and find out how to become a fully trained Montessori teacher!

Skills Happen

Some skills just happen, whether you realize it or not. These are called automated basic skills; they happen without having to consciously think about them. An example of this is writing letters. When you first learn the alphabet, you have to really think about how to form each letter. "Okay, I'm writing an 'a.' Pull back, around, and down." Now, without even thinking about it, if you need to write an "a" your brain knows what to do.

Most psychologists agree that there are three stages in the development of an automated skill: cognitive, associative, and autonomous. The cognitive stage is when we are first learning a skill. We are relying on declarative knowledge and general problem-solving strategies to accomplish a task. This load is heavy for our working memory to handle, and may require a lot of trial-and error until the task is completed (Woolfolk, 2014).

The second stage, associative, we begin to chunk parts of a procedure. By practicing this, we move into the autonomous where the entire process can be completed without thinking about it (Woolfolk, 2014). For example, consider learning how to ride a bike. The first time you take your training wheels off, you have to really think about how to pedal, balance, and steer all at the same time. As you practice, pedaling and steering begin to flow together, you can do them without concentrating. Finally, you are able to balance, as well as control your bike without having to focus. This process has now become an autonomous skill for you.

This video explains how your brain is able to automatically learn these skills.

The idea of working through these stages is important to classroom learning, especially when a teacher is showing his or class a skill that they will use through their educational career. When the skill is first presented, it is important to make sure students have ample practice with it. The teacher should describe when it is appropriate to use the skill and why they are using it. Also, as teachers we need to remember that all students will not have the same level of prior knowledge. Students will master these skills at different times and should be given the opportunity to continue working with them unit the skill is mastered. Practice should include simplified versions of the whole process as they apply to real life scenarios (Woolfolk, 2014). Putting the process, and really any lesson, into real life context makes it meaningful for students, thus showing them the value in what they are learning.

Sources:
Woolfolk, A. (2014). Educational psychology (12th ed.). Pearson Education.