Our time at Fieldwork!

       We finally finished our last day at fieldwork! All four groups presented their three lessons and I can honestly say it was a stressful couple of weeks, but it was very rewarding. I observed and learned so much from not only my group, but my colleagues work as well. My colleagues did a wonderful job in their first time of teaching. They all executed their lessons perfectly. However, there could be some minor improvements, such as the academic language and the  different ways of teaching these lessons. Most importantly our time management. We all in at least one lesson went under or over our time limit.

Lesson Plans

       We learned how to teach direct instruction, which is teaching the students the information. For example, using powerpoint or a prezi. You also will have guided practices that you can do as a class to further extend their knowledge on the topic. The other two lessons, which we did in groups in one hour, are inquiry lesson and the cooperative lesson. In our inquiry lesson, we had student solve a problem, come up with a hypothesis, and find evidence to come to a conclusion. With cooperative, we had students work in groups to do an activity that furthered their knowledge of the given topic. Below are the links to my groups lesson plans for all three lessons!

                                      Direct Lesson

                                                                                   Inquiry Lesson

                                                                              Cooperative Lesson 

Reflections & Observations 

     When observing my colleagues in their groups I watched different kinds of direct, inquiry, and cooperative lessons. I saw ways of teaching that I could use when I student teach and I saw ways that I know not to do. For example, when asking a student a question make sure you ask a couple of students not just one. You could also have the whole  class agree or disagree in many different ways. This helps you as a teacher find out if the hole class understands the topic being taught. I also learned new terms in academic language, such as not to say the word "guys" and use terms such as "boys and girls" or depending on the topic "explorers" or "learners". Not only did this experience help me to learn to better myself as a teacher but also how to work in groups. While observing we were expected to fill out observation reports. These reports helped not only the observers but also the group that presented a time to reflect and also look at what improvements could be made. Below are the links to my observation reports for each group and their lessons, including my own group!

Group 1

Direct 

Inquiry 

Group 2 

Direct 

Inquiry 

Cooperative 

Group 3 (my group) 

Direct 

Inquiry 

Cooperative 

Group 4 

Direct 

Inquiry 

Cooperative 

We as teachers all did an amazing job and cannot wait for new experiences and opportunities to come. This was a great learning experience for me in becoming a teacher and for the rest of my class!

Designing assessments

        For our Fieldwork,  we had to design assessments to see what the students already knew and what they did not know. We also assessed the students after fieldwork. Pre-assessment test and post-assessment tests are suppose to see what the student already knows and what the student has learned after the lessons. The pre-assessment help the teacher in finding out how he or she should create their lessons and what information he or she needs to teach their students. The post-assessments helps the teacher in finding out what he or she needs to review or elaborate more on and what the students gained from the lessons.

         When creating the tests it was difficult to come up with the questions to challenge the students. I also found it difficult to make sure, in the pre-assessment, that I did not ask them questions that were on topics that they learned previously. In making these tests you must make sure that the questions are suitable for the grade level that you are teaching and that
they will help you in seeing what the students need to work on and what they do not need to work on. The pre-assessment test helped me and my group members see how we needed to proceed in creating our three lessons. The pre and post assessement will help me in creating my unit plan for this class. It can help me see what lessons I need to make to make sure in the post assessments all the students know the answers and the information.
     Besides pre and post assessments there are other forms of assessments. They are a very important part of learning. They help review, challenge the students knowledge, and give them a better understanding of what they truly know. They also help teachers find out what the students know, don't know, or are struggling with. The three types of assessments: Diagnostic, Formative, and Summative are the main parts to which teachers get that information. There are many ways to act out those three types of assessments to fit the needs of all different types of learners. I for one am excited to put them in action and use them in the field. 

Last Day of Teaching

We made it through the second day of teaching! Today we taught two lessons, inquiry and
cooperative. Many of the groups struggled with the time management but we managed to fit both lessons into one hour! I thought that was awesome! There were a little bit of spots in our lesson were we could have improved and done differently but has far as getting both lesson plans done in the given amount of time I thought we did pretty well.

For our Inquiry lesson we did artifact bags the students, in groups, were to try and figure out what event they had. Within the bag were clues and documents. For an Inquiry lesson students must have a question that they are suppose to solve, create a hypothesis, and then try to come up with a conclusion or solution to the problem. That is what our Inquiry lesson showed and we used a worksheet to help guide the students through the process.
For our cooperative lesson, we already had the students in their group from the Inquiry so that saved us some time! The whole class created a aromatic poem together and used the word Independence. However, we gave each group a couple of leader so they can decide what word they wanted to use. We created as a class the acrostic poem on a poster board and had the students keep it to hang up in their classroom.
There were some improvements that we could have made to our lesson to make it messed rushed. It was a little rushed when having the students work into groups. We were also less prepared then we were on our direct lesson. I feel the direct lesson went a lot smoother then this one, but over all I thought we did a great job. I am excited to see what the other next group has planned!

First day of Teaching

Today my group and I taught our second grade class for the first time today! We taught a Direct lesson on the Colonies and the road to America's independence. At first I was a nervous wreck. I never taught in front of an entire class before. I was used to teaching students one on one. However, my experience today was amazing. Even though I was nervous and scared out of my mind I had a lot of fun. All the students were amazing and all so smart.
Since we were teaching a direct instructional lesson we were directly teaching the students the information within the chapter. We created a powerpoint that we would present to them and created an activity to help further their knowledge. We split the information being taught between the people in our group and I had the pleasure of teaching the students the difference between Loyalists and Patriots. I also told them a story about Paul Revere! We then made a timeline as a class on the road to independence! At the end of the Direct lesson we reviewed to the class what we have learned and asked a couple questions and everyone was able to recall the information!