Observation Report
Gresham Elementary School
I had the opportunity to observe at two schools. My first school was Gresham Elementary School. This school is located in Jefferson county. The principal assigned me to a first grade classroom. My cooperating teacher was Ms. Nabors. During my time at Gresham Elementary School, I noticed their daily routine and instructional practices that were used.
I arrived at Gresham Elementary School at 7:30. As I walked to my assigned classroom, students were waiting in the gym to be picked up by their teachers. When the students arrived to my assigned class, students begin to work on the "Daily Fix- It." Daily Fix-Its are two sentences generated from Scott Foresman Reading Street that must be corrected. These sentences are designed to assessed daily lessons given about phonics and spelling pattern. After the students complete the Daily Fix- it, teacher would reveal the two sentences on the Promethean board with corrections made. Students check their work. Next, the teacher takes roll, lunch count, and read notes form parents. in the beginning of the year , each child was assigned a number based on the order of their name on the class roster. Students are called by their number to place lunch orders. The morning announcements starts at 8:15 everyday. During the announcements, the students say the pledge of allegiance, school motto, and school rules. The principal conducts the announcements.
Throughout the course of the day, students will rotate to P.E. and a art elective such as music. Once a week students visits the school library. During my visit at Gresham, I got an opportunity to assist the teacher with providing tier 2 instruction in Reading and Math. Tier 2 instruction can be provided in two ways. Students can be divided in a group which the teach would arrange a time to meet with those students to provide support on their level. Sometimes tiers 2 instruction is individualize depending on the needs of the students. In my tier 2 group meeting, I met with students who were struggling readers. Students brought their decodable books to the table. Students will read softly to themselves as I rotate listening to each student providing phonetic cues as needed.
This intervention serves as teacher assessment and provides students with additional practice to master skills.
I arrived at Gresham Elementary School at 7:30. As I walked to my assigned classroom, students were waiting in the gym to be picked up by their teachers. When the students arrived to my assigned class, students begin to work on the "Daily Fix- It." Daily Fix-Its are two sentences generated from Scott Foresman Reading Street that must be corrected. These sentences are designed to assessed daily lessons given about phonics and spelling pattern. After the students complete the Daily Fix- it, teacher would reveal the two sentences on the Promethean board with corrections made. Students check their work. Next, the teacher takes roll, lunch count, and read notes form parents. in the beginning of the year , each child was assigned a number based on the order of their name on the class roster. Students are called by their number to place lunch orders. The morning announcements starts at 8:15 everyday. During the announcements, the students say the pledge of allegiance, school motto, and school rules. The principal conducts the announcements.
Throughout the course of the day, students will rotate to P.E. and a art elective such as music. Once a week students visits the school library. During my visit at Gresham, I got an opportunity to assist the teacher with providing tier 2 instruction in Reading and Math. Tier 2 instruction can be provided in two ways. Students can be divided in a group which the teach would arrange a time to meet with those students to provide support on their level. Sometimes tiers 2 instruction is individualize depending on the needs of the students. In my tier 2 group meeting, I met with students who were struggling readers. Students brought their decodable books to the table. Students will read softly to themselves as I rotate listening to each student providing phonetic cues as needed.
This intervention serves as teacher assessment and provides students with additional practice to master skills.
Epic Elementary School
At Epic Elementary School, I observed a kindergarten classroom. This is a magnet school for students who are the best and brightest in the district. Students are accepted based on test scores of pre-screening assessment. I was assigned to work with Mrs. Patterson, who was my cooperating teacher. Mrs. Patterson's Kindergarten class is an inclusion classroom. She has 21 students. The class is consist of 2 English Language learners, 2 students with special needs, and students ranging at level and advance.
Classroom routine is students arrive to school at 7:45. Students meet in the classroom after putting coats and book-bags away. As students come into the classroom, they go their cubbies to get their supplies. When they sit down, there is an enrichment handout on the table for each student. At 8:15, students meet on the cozy carpet for morning announcements, which is broadcast school-wide on the Promethean board. At 8: 30, teacher introduces the morning message. Students read the message out loud then write the message. After writing the message students will draw an illustration that correlates to the message. At 9:00, students meet on the cozy carpet for calendar. Each week four students are assigned jobs for the week. The student that is assigned as the pointer will be the pointer starting Monday morning. The pointer will select students to assist with calendar duties. For example, the pointer will ask what is today's date? Then the pointer will select a student to respond to the series of questions about the calendar and weather. At the end of the discussion, the student who is assign as the class's pointer makes a prediction of the weather for tomorrow. He or she will draw the predicted weather on a slip of paper and attach it to the calendar. Students transitioned throughout the day to learning stations. Each station is design to practice literacy skills such as phonics, phonemes, comprehension and fluency. After literacy stations, students have large group on the rug. During large group the teacher introduce and models the consonant and vowel sound of the week. She demonstrate the sound in an assortment of words. After the lesson its time for students to go to P. E. When students return from P.E., they listen to a non fiction story about rabbits. Then, the teacher ask students open-ended questions about the book. Students are asked to return to their tables for math. Teacher has their Go Math Workbooks on their tables. She introduces the math lesson with a song about counting up. She writes different ways to demonstrate the number 10. Ten is displayed as a word, number sentence, using a model illustration, and a ten frame. Students open their workbook to assigned page. Students repeated the demonstration on the workbook page. Teacher guided students this math exercise.
After math, students had snack. Then, they prepared for nap. During nap teacher prepare take home folder by marking checks on their conduct sheet, then placing homework agenda for the week inside the folder. After nap students are dismissed to go home.
Classroom management and procedures are as follows: students enter the room, place take home folders in the bin, sit and read quietly until the morning announcements. Each week four students are chosen for four class jobs. The classroom jobs are line leader, table washer, pointer, and class monitor. Behavior management plan is student is given a warning and asked to write name on the chalkboard. If student continues to misbehave, then student place a check by his or her name and a privilege is taken away. Privileges are jobs, recess, or silent lunch. Once a student receives up to three checks, a note is written on their conduct sheet and is sent home to his or her parent.
The school district uses Scott Foresman’s teaching resources for integrating subjects with reading. Go Math is the curriculum used for teaching math. On week four of student teaching, I begin to prepare my unit plan. The unit I covered was Let’s Explore. Let’s Explore introduce students to sequencing events, telling time, and learning about rights and responsibility. Each day the students will have a lesson on a listening for a selected phonemic sound, identifying phonic pattern in a poem, building comprehension with the book of the week. Students perform daily journal writings and small group practice to enforce fluency skills. There are an assortment of informational text integrated with the lessons, which helps integrate social science and science.
On my second rotation of student teaching, I was assigned Ms. Brown's third grade class. The morning started by students entering the room. Morning assignments were posted on the whiteboard. After putting their belongings away, students begin on their morning work immediately. When the morning announcements come on the Promethean board students paused to listen. After the announcements students continue to work on morning assignments. At 9:00 morning assignments are checked. Then, the teacher asked students to take out their homework. After she checked for homework completion, she review the homework with the students. At 9:30 a new reading skill was introduce. After she concluded her lesson, students were dismissed for P.E. When students return, they listened to the story of the week on the Promethean board. After the story, Ms. Brown placed a grammar transparency on the projector. The transparency introduced a grammar lesson on subject verb agreement. At the end of the lesson a reading and grammar assignment is added to the board. Students worked on their assignments til lunch. After lunch, students have silent reading for ten minutes. Then the teacher read a book out loud to the students. After the read out loud, the teacher transitioned to math. She refer to a page in student's textbook. Ms. Brown demonstrated how to regroup when subtracting 3-digit numbers. Teacher use the I do, we do, you do type of instruction method. For classwork, students continue to practice the strategy. At 2:00, Ms. Brown transitioned to science. Students were asked to take out science textbook. Ms. Brown asked them to choral read the first paragraph. Then, Ms. Brown start demonstrating on how to interpret the text. She direct the students to the chart on the page. She asked some probing questions about plants. Then she she asked for them to turn and talk. Lastly, Ms. Brown transitioned to social studies. She activated prior knowledge by asking students what they recall about Native Americans. Students responded popcorn style. Then Ms. Brown read a passage out of the book to the students. Then she propose a question, then asked students to turn and talk. Now its time for dismissal. Students are dismissed and by their assign numbers.
Classroom routine is students arrive to school at 7:45. Students meet in the classroom after putting coats and book-bags away. As students come into the classroom, they go their cubbies to get their supplies. When they sit down, there is an enrichment handout on the table for each student. At 8:15, students meet on the cozy carpet for morning announcements, which is broadcast school-wide on the Promethean board. At 8: 30, teacher introduces the morning message. Students read the message out loud then write the message. After writing the message students will draw an illustration that correlates to the message. At 9:00, students meet on the cozy carpet for calendar. Each week four students are assigned jobs for the week. The student that is assigned as the pointer will be the pointer starting Monday morning. The pointer will select students to assist with calendar duties. For example, the pointer will ask what is today's date? Then the pointer will select a student to respond to the series of questions about the calendar and weather. At the end of the discussion, the student who is assign as the class's pointer makes a prediction of the weather for tomorrow. He or she will draw the predicted weather on a slip of paper and attach it to the calendar. Students transitioned throughout the day to learning stations. Each station is design to practice literacy skills such as phonics, phonemes, comprehension and fluency. After literacy stations, students have large group on the rug. During large group the teacher introduce and models the consonant and vowel sound of the week. She demonstrate the sound in an assortment of words. After the lesson its time for students to go to P. E. When students return from P.E., they listen to a non fiction story about rabbits. Then, the teacher ask students open-ended questions about the book. Students are asked to return to their tables for math. Teacher has their Go Math Workbooks on their tables. She introduces the math lesson with a song about counting up. She writes different ways to demonstrate the number 10. Ten is displayed as a word, number sentence, using a model illustration, and a ten frame. Students open their workbook to assigned page. Students repeated the demonstration on the workbook page. Teacher guided students this math exercise.
After math, students had snack. Then, they prepared for nap. During nap teacher prepare take home folder by marking checks on their conduct sheet, then placing homework agenda for the week inside the folder. After nap students are dismissed to go home.
Classroom management and procedures are as follows: students enter the room, place take home folders in the bin, sit and read quietly until the morning announcements. Each week four students are chosen for four class jobs. The classroom jobs are line leader, table washer, pointer, and class monitor. Behavior management plan is student is given a warning and asked to write name on the chalkboard. If student continues to misbehave, then student place a check by his or her name and a privilege is taken away. Privileges are jobs, recess, or silent lunch. Once a student receives up to three checks, a note is written on their conduct sheet and is sent home to his or her parent.
The school district uses Scott Foresman’s teaching resources for integrating subjects with reading. Go Math is the curriculum used for teaching math. On week four of student teaching, I begin to prepare my unit plan. The unit I covered was Let’s Explore. Let’s Explore introduce students to sequencing events, telling time, and learning about rights and responsibility. Each day the students will have a lesson on a listening for a selected phonemic sound, identifying phonic pattern in a poem, building comprehension with the book of the week. Students perform daily journal writings and small group practice to enforce fluency skills. There are an assortment of informational text integrated with the lessons, which helps integrate social science and science.
On my second rotation of student teaching, I was assigned Ms. Brown's third grade class. The morning started by students entering the room. Morning assignments were posted on the whiteboard. After putting their belongings away, students begin on their morning work immediately. When the morning announcements come on the Promethean board students paused to listen. After the announcements students continue to work on morning assignments. At 9:00 morning assignments are checked. Then, the teacher asked students to take out their homework. After she checked for homework completion, she review the homework with the students. At 9:30 a new reading skill was introduce. After she concluded her lesson, students were dismissed for P.E. When students return, they listened to the story of the week on the Promethean board. After the story, Ms. Brown placed a grammar transparency on the projector. The transparency introduced a grammar lesson on subject verb agreement. At the end of the lesson a reading and grammar assignment is added to the board. Students worked on their assignments til lunch. After lunch, students have silent reading for ten minutes. Then the teacher read a book out loud to the students. After the read out loud, the teacher transitioned to math. She refer to a page in student's textbook. Ms. Brown demonstrated how to regroup when subtracting 3-digit numbers. Teacher use the I do, we do, you do type of instruction method. For classwork, students continue to practice the strategy. At 2:00, Ms. Brown transitioned to science. Students were asked to take out science textbook. Ms. Brown asked them to choral read the first paragraph. Then, Ms. Brown start demonstrating on how to interpret the text. She direct the students to the chart on the page. She asked some probing questions about plants. Then she she asked for them to turn and talk. Lastly, Ms. Brown transitioned to social studies. She activated prior knowledge by asking students what they recall about Native Americans. Students responded popcorn style. Then Ms. Brown read a passage out of the book to the students. Then she propose a question, then asked students to turn and talk. Now its time for dismissal. Students are dismissed and by their assign numbers.