Observation 2: 8th Grade Social Studies

What I See                                                                                          What I Wonder

–          Kids walk in, Teacher checks who is late, gives a lunch meeting-          Kids are reading while waiting for class to start –          Teacher reminds students to raise hand when they want to speak –          Holocaust unit –          Defining of terms- perpetrator, bystander –          Student asks what is worse, being the perpetrator or bystander? Teacher says- I am throwing that question back at you. Student gives her opinion –          Teacher lists some words the students need to know –          Age of reason- do you know what this term means? Teacher calls on a student for an answer, student answers, the age a person becomes responsible for their actions –          Teacher reviews questions she wants students to be thinking about while they are watching a film called Confessions of a Hitler Youth. –          Students are given 5 minutes to answer three questions before watching the film –          Students are quietly working and are given the instruction to read silently while they are waiting for all to be done, and have their pencils down, that is how teacher will know the students are ready for the movie –          Student raises hand and asks for clarification on a question- teacher gives explanation through examples relating to the students life, asking him questions so she can get him to see the answer –          After kids are finished, she calls them together to give a short explanation of the film- who narrates it and what it is about –          There are three more questions to be answered while watching the movie –          After they watch the movie they are to read one of three articles –          Video is already set up and ready to go –          The movie begins –          Teacher covers over some of the film because the images of the holocaust are particularly graphic –          The story is about one child who was part of the Hitler Youth –          Students are all engaged in the movie (9:35) –          A student shows the teacher how to get rid of the menu bar on the bottom of the screen –          (9:40) Teacher reminds students that if they don’t think they will remember, they should take notes while watching the movie –          Some kids are taking notes, some are just watching the movie –          Teacher repeats one word that the narrator says often, because it is hard to understand with the narrators accent –          A students asks a clarifying question, teacher says, I will come over to answer that (teacher was on other side of the room when the question was asked) –          (9:45) A student gets up to go to the bathroom –          Teacher points out the boy was ten at the time- this related back to one of the pre-movie questions –          Teacher clarifies for another student a question –          More students are writing now while movie is going on –          Teacher clarifies a historical piece alluded to in the movie-she whispers more details to a few interested students –          One student is leaning back in his chair –          Student asks a question- teacher answers –          Student asks another question- starts to be a domino effect, Teacher says this is important I will answer questions after the movie –          Movie glitch-it pauses in the middle of a sentence- teacher quickly comes to remedy it- it is not working –          Students start to have a side convo –          Teacher says she will fix it by the time of their next period and says let’s switch to what we will do now then –          Let’s look at the first three questions- actually the bell will ring in one minute, so pick a spot for your sheet, put it away, bring it to 6th period class where we will finish the movie then move into L.A –          Students begin packing up their stuff and quietly conversing while teacher then continues to try to figure out movie glitch –          Bell rings, teacher opens up door, and lets kids go.

-This teacher has taught Holocaust to 8th grade for five years and works closely with the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center. She attended a Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Lerner Fellowship. -This movie is so intense; I wonder how she does this whole unit now. I appreciate the difficulty of planning and implementing this unit so much more after being in this one class period. I spoke to the teacher after to learn a little bit more about how she does the unit. The teacher teaches ideas- Pre-World War 2 European Jewish life, bystander, perpetrators, rescuers, resistance, and implications for the future etc., not the history of the Holocaust. The history of the Holocaust is not developmentally appropriate. The Holocaust is a mode to teach these big ideas without getting into the details of the camps etc… If kids ask, the teacher answers (ie what is the Third Reich, you might think that the teacher is not doing their job if kids don’t know what the Third Reich is, but it is not about teaching the holocaust or how Hitler came to power)

Weekly Reflection 11: Math Lesson- H2

H2- Honor Student access to content material

To me this is a form of differentiation. When we think about the purpose we serve as teachers, it is about giving our students access, tools, and skills to survive and thrive in the world. Often content tends to be a tool to teach skills that students can then apply to a variety of subjects and situations in their future. That being said, the content is still important and making sure it is accessible to students is important. This particular student I work with is able to learn most of the material that her classmates can, but needs the content presented to her differently so that she can access the material. I work with her four days a week to give her access to the material. In this particular lesson we worked on prime and composite numbers and word problems. Her classmates were doing the same thing, but moved through this topic quicker and with less explanation.

Here are some excerpts from a recent lesson of a student I work with in the Learning Center:

3.6-Rephrase your learning targets using student-friendly language:

By the end of the lesson you will be able to tell the difference between prime and composite numbers and be able to tell me why. You will practice using the problem solving strategies:  (We wrote this together before approaching the word problem)

3.7 – How will students demonstrate this? Describe observable actions. – e.g. Given (learning activities or teaching strategies), the students will (assessable behaviors) in order to demonstrate (connection to EALRs/Standards).

Student will be able to tell me whether a number is prime or composite. She will be able to explain how she knows this by telling me factors of given numbers. She will be able to tell me how knowing the factors will allow her to decide whether a number is prime or composite. She will also demonstrate for me how she will use our problem solving strategies as applied to a word problem.

3.10 – Academic Language – What are the linguistic demands embedded in the learning targets? (Consider what language and literacy skills students may need to know in order to demonstrate their competency on the learning targets successfully.)

Strategy-ways to approach a word problem in order to find the answer

Factors- numbers that divide into a given number

3.11 – Academic Language – What key vocabulary (content-specific terms) do you need to teach?

Prime Number-A number divisible only by itself and 1

Composite Number- A number that is divisible by 1, itself, and at least one other number 

5.5-Learning experiences:

Anticipatory Set: We will learn the difference between prime and composite numbers by defining them and putting examples up on the board

Statement of Objective: Student will be able to differentiate between prime and composite numbers. Student will be able to label them. Student will be able to solve a word problem using specific strategies.

Input: Student will be shown definitions for prime and composite numbers. I will give her examples, using factors to explain the difference.

Guided practice: Student will go to worksheet and begin to identify which numbers are prime and which are composite. Student will write on the board to figure out the factors of a given number and I will be able to help her through it.

Independent practice: She will work through labeling numbers prime or composite on her own, using the white board as work space

Input: I will remind her of the problem solving strategies we learned. Writing them down together on a white board

Guided Practice: We will read through the word problem together. I will remind her of he steps as she works through the problem. I will make sure she writes down her thinking each step of the way.

Here is the word problem and the work she completed on the word problem:

5.6 – Closure – How will the key points of the lesson be articulated?

We will review the definitions of prime and composite numbers. We will review how to find/use factors to determine whether a number is prime or composite. We will review the steps we went through to solve the problem

5.6 – Closure – How will the key points of the lesson be articulated?

We will review the definitions of prime and composite numbers. We will review how to find/use factors to determine whether a number is prime or composite. We will review the steps we went through to solve the problem

5.7 – Closure – What questions or prompts will you use to elicit student articulation of their progress towards the attaining the learning target(s)?

I will ask the student to tell me the difference between prime and composite and have her explain to me how finding the factors will help her tell the difference. I will have her tell me the problem solving steps and explain how she got her answer

~

In order to access the material the student needed the steps of problem solving to be explicitly restated. She also needed a warm up involving a review of prime and composite numbers. This student benefits from a review of previous lessons or skills learned in order for her to be successful. I am “honoring her access to the content material” by presenting the information to her in a way that will allow her to reach the learning target for the day.

 

Weekly Reflection 10

As part of my Internship Observation Assessment I was asked to fill out section 6.3 of the long form. This section asked me to look at three works samples from my lesson and answer a few question pertaining to them. Below are my answers and some screenshots of student work. The lesson was on finding the Least Common Multiple, using a certain method we learned in class involving prime factorization. Then they were to apply this to putting fractions in order.

Three work samples:

1- M- She is the strongest student in the class. She tends to work quickly so she sometimes misses directions or may make simple mistakes. However, she demonstrates understanding of concepts quickly and sometimes seems bored in class- this can make teaching her challenging. I am currently working on some enrichment projects for her.

M did meet the Learning Target of the lesson. She successfully demonstrated understanding of ordering fractions by finding the LCM of a given set of fractions and making the denominators the same.

In the above example it is clear she knows how to find LCM and use that to order fractions. She did have to be told to make sure to show all of her work and that her work is clear so that I could follow her train of thought. The assessment was appropriate because one goal she is working on is showing all of her work in a way that is organized and neat. She had to practice this a lot on this particular assignment.

2-E- She is not quite at grade level. She struggles with concepts, and works very slowly. This means that she does not often make it through all the practice that she really needs to solidify her understanding of topics. She is a slow starter, for example, one thing she did after I assigned the assignment, was to write out all the problem numbers.

This is a problem, because it is a way for E to pass time without actually doing any work. In addition to that, she does not really leave herself any room to do that work, and she forces herself to write in a small space. I had her start again on a fresh sheet of paper and just jump into the work, no writing out all the problem numbers first. Although she was able to demonstrate that she understood the overall concept, of making the denominators the same so that the fractions could be put in order, she did not go through all the steps to find the LCM that she was taught to do. And although she got the problems correct. I am concerned about her not showing all of her work because of her history of struggling when concepts become more challenging. She did meet the Learning Target of the lesson, but I will be watching her work carefully in review material of this topic.
3-S- This students has struggled with math for years, but in the last 1.5 years has begun to show more enthusiasm and less nervousness towards math. This in turn has led to more success for her. She is very hesitant to ask for help though or show when she does not understand something; unless I really push her to open up to me, which can take a lot of time. I do feel like I have made some headway though and that she has begun to be more open to asking for help, or at least taking it. S does NOT like to show her work. She will often work through problems in her head and then go back and show her work; this sort of defeats the purpose! At the beginning I made it clear that I needed to see her work along the way since one of our goals was to show how to find LCM and then use that to order fractions. She did that through the first ten problems or so, but did not on the last ten or so. In the following picture you can see how she was showing her work and then she stopped. She demonstrated understanding of the Learning Target, but it concerns me that she stopped showing her thinking. I will be watching her work carefully in review material of this topic.

How long till we hear from our kids, “What?? Read a real book?”

Carr writes about how the experience of reading an eBook should be different than the experience of reading a book in print. That there should be links or other features of the computer incorporated into the reading experience. That would be cool, but I think it would take away from my experience in reading a book for pleasure. If it is a book for school, I can see advantages, but not in a book for pleasure.

There are a few features that are written about that will be incorporated into an eBook. One such feature is social networking.

Which could be engaging, to be able to know what others are reading and have real time discussions with them, but it does completely change the experience of reading a book. I think I would use both formats. It would depend what I am looking for. Back to the “getting lost in a good book” or as Isaac of Syria had put it “…as in a dream, I enter a state when my sense and thoughts are concentrated. Then when the prolonging of this silence the turmoil of memories is stilled in my heart, ceaseless waves of joy are sent me by inner thoughts, beyond expectation suddenly arising to delight my heart.” (Carr 2010). I think it would be impossible to feel this way if I was in the midst of communicating with other people while trying to read. Maybe this goes back to Prensky (2012), digitally wise or digitally clever. Is it wise to have all these features incorporated into eBooks or just clever? I think that it depends on both the person and the book that is being read. This could be especially true for students who may be struggling to understand a book. If the student had the opportunity to be connected to to others through social media it could help them, but on the other hand, the student may resort to asking for help before really trying on his/her own.

As you can probably tell I am pretty torn myself. I know that I would rather read a real book for pleasure. But I also know that a lot of my negative or skeptical opinions about technology have been changing weekly since I have been reading both The Shallows and Brain Gain. So really now I am just totally confused! I think that is a good thing though. Technology is not going anywhere and in fact it is coming faster than I think anyone imagined, so if I have gone from feeling negatively about it to being confused, it is probably a push in the right direction… no?

And let’s take this a step farther, what about what we should be doing with our students? Prensky’s focus this week is on the inevitability of our culture being so entrenched in technology that many other things we do in the “old” way will become obsolete. We are in a new age. And we need to embrace it because it is happening right now. To embrace it is digitally wise. But as Prensky points out, if we are embracing it, shouldn’t we be teaching it to our children as well? Are we not doing them a disservice if we don’t?

~Experience this week: I find it more annoying to click to the next page, when reading on my computer, than flipping a page in a book. It is better on the iPad, but I still prefer flipping pages.  I also like to lay down when I read, and I can do that when using my iPad, but not my computer.

Carr, N. G. (2010). The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton.(Kindle)

Prensky, M. (2012). Brain gain: Technology and the quest for digital wisdom. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Kindle)

Weekly Reflection 8: Child Find

Last week I went to a meeting at the Seattle Public Schools about Child Find. Child Find is the Seattle Public Schools obligation to find and evaluate children in private schools. This meeting was basically about a chunk of money that could go to the private schools for children who are not in IEPs, but who need more support than they are receiving. This money was referred to as equitable participation or proportionate share. We were at this meeting to help decide how the money would be spent. Students on an IEP cannot receive money from this fund. However, the student can be on a service plan or student accommodation plan.

An example of a child who would qualify for this proportionate share money would be someone who is evaluated by the public school and who qualifies for an IEP, but is not on one. A reason a child would not be put on an IEP, for example, is a situation in my school. We are a dual curriculum religious school. It is sometimes not worth it for the parent to choose to have their child sent to the public schools and miss out on some of the short amount of time the students have in general studies (since this would then defeat the purpose of a double dose of the subject) or the student might miss some of the religious studies, which the parents also don’t want. We (meaning a decision between the parents and teachers) often choose not put children on an IEP and send them to the public schools because it is not worth the time.

At this meeting we were asked to decide how we would use this money to support these students. One more important detail that played a part of our decision was that, if we have a student on an IEP and they are currently getting services from the public schools, we are to encourage the parents to keep their child on the IEP and not access this proportionate share money. The reason being they get more services through the IEP and the students are then being served through FAPE, which then requires us to service the student and move them forward. Where students on a service plan are not covered under FAPE and may receive services only once a week or not enough times to move them forward at the pace they deserve. And once this proportionate share money runs out for the year, and then it is gone. This is also the first year we have this money, so there is a lot of unknowns and we will just have to see how the decision we make works out.

We decided that a lump sum of the money would go towards equipment, such as FM systems. Then the rest of the money would go towards hiring tutors, particularly in reading. The tutors can be hired by the schools individually, but SPS would also provide a tutor that would come to each school for 1.5 hours a week. This was the proposal put together by the team that was at the meeting. It still needs to be approved. It was pretty cool to be a part of the decision making process that determines where and how a chunk of money is used to support our students.

Weekly Reflection 7: Sustained Silent Reading

This week my Principal gave out an article to the Lower School teachers entitled, “Making Sustained Silent Reading Really Count: Tips on Engaging Students” by Katherine Hilden and Jennifer Jones. We discussed the article and what this could look like in the different classrooms. The article focuses not on the research as to whether or not sustained silent reading is good for kids, but about how to make sustained silent reading (SSR) meaningful and useful time spent for each student. The authors of the article put together a profile of different types of readers. It is written on a continuum and shows types of readers and how much teacher support is required for each level. For example, the student with the highest need for teacher support are the ones they reference as “fake readers” and the ones that need very little teacher support are called, “bookworms”.

The article mentions that in order to keep tabs on the types of readers you have in your classroom; it will take regular conferencing with the students. At this point in the article we spun off into an engaged discussion about how to find time to conference with all of our students in the classroom. We are a dual curriculum school; this means that we only have about three hours to teach all of our general studies to our students. This does not leave much time per subject and our teachers have to be creative as to how to spend their time. The fifth grade teacher was struggling with how to find time to conference with so many students. One idea that was suggested in the meeting was to conference with a few students per day, and expects to get to each student once every two weeks. This would be enough meetings to gather data to find out where the students are in their reading, but not be overly stressful or overwhelming for the teacher to find time to do this. Another suggestion was to conference with a couple students at a time who are about the same level, or perhaps reading the same book. The fifth grade teacher had another great idea involving a journal. Instead of having the students write a summary in their journals of their reading that week, she has the students write her a letter. She provided the students with a rubric as to what she wants included in the letter and a sample that she, the teacher wrote. I thought this was a great idea, it gives the teachers specific information about the book (because of the rubric) and allows her to monitor if her students are actually getting through the books since she has expectations of how many books they should read by the end of the year. I really enjoy these meetings with the Lower School teachers because we tackle practical issues the teachers are having. It is inspiring to see that when teachers get together and have the opportunity to share, how much they can learn from and help each other!

Hilden, K., Jones, J. (2012). Making Sustained Silent Reading Really Count: Tips on Engaging Students. Reading Today, 17-19.

Weekly Reflection 6: Science Lesson

Today I met with the science teacher at the school to discuss a new idea for a lesson tomorrow. Several teachers have been having difficulty with one of the classes in the school. There have been some meetings around how to best handle them and a new discipline policy has been put in place. One of the modifications for the students is that they cannot be in the science lab for science class; they have to earn back the privilege. The science teacher had been trying to conduct some really engaging lessons, but they involved a lot of movement and the lessons were unsuccessful.

The science teacher thought about how she can plan a lesson that would be useful to the students and engaging, but for now, kept them in their seats. She came up with the idea to run Jeopardy like game using MSP questions.  I helped her today with some of the planning. We decided on how many categories there would be, point values of the questions, that the students would be in groups of two, and what the students can win with their points. There will be two adults in the classroom, the science teacher and myself. I will continue this post tomorrow with a debrief on the lesson.

The lesson went okay. It seems to me that the science teacher and I differ a little on how to best manage the behavior in the classroom, and I don’t think we did a good job of making clear to each other the difference in our expectations beforehand. It was also challenging, because since it is her class I felt like I was holding back a lot and not intervening to help her when she seemed to be struggling or making what I thought, was the wrong management decision.

Overall, the behavior of the students was improved and they were very excited about the prospect of earning back being in the science lab or having extra recess. I do think that most of the students were engaged, but there was still an undercurrent of the disrespectful behavior that she is struggling with. After class we had a short debrief together and though we agreed that it went pretty well and we agreed on some changes we could make for next time; it is seems we have a little different perception of the behavior. It is possible I have higher expectations than her, but I also know that having those higher expectations is the only way to get these kids to behave how you expect or want. This is something that we will have to work on.

Weekly Reflection 4

This past week in school I met with the 3^rd and 4th grade teacher to discuss how to best serve four of the students in her classes who need extra support. One of the qualities that I admirer about this teacher is that she strives to keep her students part of the class as much as possible. That means that if she can keep the students who need extra help in her class, she will. Because of this she and I are meeting regularly to make sure that we are purposeful in our planning so that the students can get what they need, but still be a part of the classroom as much as possible. This does not mean that I won’t ever take the students out one-on-one, but we are trying to minimize the time that they miss class. This is all particularly challenging because we are a dual-curriculum school, so as it is, the students only receive general studies classes for about three hours a day.

Weekly Reflection 3: MSP

Mid- September is the time of year that we, at school and parents, at home, are eagerly awaiting the results of the MSP test (Measurement of Student Progress), that the students took in the spring. I always have conflicting feelings over the MSP test. Both when the students are taking it and while waiting and reviewing the results. I do not like to take standardized tests, and I imagine most people feel the same. However, it is a part of what all students have to do to get into college and/or graduate school. It is the way the system is set up. Maybe one day in the future it will change or look different, but for now this is it. Knowing that, even though I don’t like putting students through the stress of it, it is an important skill for them to have. Test taking strategies and stress management can benefit students not only in preparation for the MSP, but for any standardized tests. That being said, it can be particularly difficult for students with learning differences to take these tests. At our school we accommodate these students based on IEP’s or 504’s, but it is still extremely challenging for them. It can be hard for me to watch them struggle through the test while I am proctoring them.

Then comes the fall. Many parents put A LOT of weight on the results of the test. There are even some who judge the quality of the child’s previous teacher based on the results of this test. I like to think that I am immune to this way of thinking, and although I do not take it to the extreme as these parents, sometimes I wonder if I too put too much weight on the results as well.

Once our school receives the results, our principal brings them to the Learning Center (L.C.) where we spend considerable time reviewing every students results (whether they are served by the L.C. or not). We look at how the students did last year and how it compares to this year. Did a student pass last year and not this year? Did they not pass last year and pass this year? Are there any surprises? I have found that when a student passes we are excited and we feel a sense of accomplishment in having helped that student succeed. But when a student does not pass, although there may be some sense of responsibility that I feel (these feelings were magnified when I was a classroom teacher), I also think to myself, well it is just one test, they were probably having a bad day.

I think the bottom line is. It is a snapshot of the student. It could be they were just having a bad day. Or maybe they really did their best, but taking tests is incredibly stressful for them. Maybe they had a headache while taking the test. Or on the other hand, maybe they like tests as a way to demonstrate their knowledge; maybe they had a really great morning at home, so their mood was light. Whatever the case, it is just one piece of the child’s learning, and although we and the parents have to consider the results of this test, we also need to remember that there is so much more to what the child knows than just the results of this test.

Once we have reviewed the results with the Principal my mentor teacher and I go through each child who did not pass and write up a plan for each student for the year. A part of the plan writing entails a discussion of why we think the student did not pass. The results of this discussion help us to decide what kind of support we need to put in place for each child. Sometimes it may be as simple as teaching the child test taking and stress management strategies, or it may be as complex as in-class support combined with pull-out support. Typically the students who need the more complex support are students who we are already serving in the L.C. or were on our radar as ones who may need L.C support. Once these reports are complete, we send home the report with the results of the test. We also call each parent to let them know if their child did not pass and that a plan for their child’s learning will be included with the results of the test. This assures the parents that not only are we aware that their child did not pass, but that we already have a plan in place to help them succeed next time.

Week 2 Reflection: A New School Year…

The first few weeks at school are filled with sitting in classrooms observing, meeting with teachers, administering assessments and creating my schedule. I come in each year knowing a few of the students I will be working with, but the students always start in their classrooms so that the new teachers have a chance to get to know the students and so the students get a feel of being part of their class.  As my schedule has slowly been coming together I have been spending more time with students and less time on paperwork and teacher meetings. Finally! I love spending time with my students. This year I will be working with some students with whom I have been working for several years and with some new students as well.

It is always challenging setting up how to best spend my time with my students. We (the teachers and I) spend a lot of time deciding if it is best to work with the students in their classrooms or to pull the students out for small group or one-on-one work time. We try to keep students in their classrooms as much as possible. We try make accommodations and to employ inclusion in our classrooms. However, this is not always the best model for all students. We are lucky in our school to have three Learning Center teachers, so we are able to make individual plans for each of our students and we are able to individualize the type of time spent with each student. Usually, by the fourth week of school we have it all figured out and our schedules are set. This should be happening in the next week or so! Once I know my schedule I am able to plan accordingly for each child. This might mean working with teachers to help them with accommodations and differentiation or to plan my own lessons. The biggest struggle I have is that I wish I could spend all day with some of my students and it is so hard to figure out how to spend my time so I am serving each child as much as they truly need. It is something I am constantly working with my mentor teacher to figure out. I have also found that the needs of students change throughout the year so to my schedule changes as time goes on. I have also found that the needs of students change throughout the year so to my schedule changes as time goes on.

Helping children find success in school is important to me. It can be very discouraging for students who struggle and anything I can do to help them, I will. I support my students both on an academic and personal level. I have found that fostering relationships with my students and showing interest in my students helps in their academic success as well.  To a new year!