Education Fieldwork

During a Curriculum and Pedagogy Seminar last semester we were required to teach a lesson in our field placement. I was placed in a first grade classroom at Bayside School with fifty first graders and two teachers. These are my field notes from that experience. 

Lesson Objectives: To teach students how to write a list, why lists are used, and to provide them with prompts to write lists of their own 

Number of students: Four

Four students gather at a table towards the back of the room while the rest of the class is split up into other stations that they will be working at for the next twenty minutes. Behind our table is the computer cluster where stuents are working quietly on reading and math activities. Next to us is a group of three students reading a large poetry picture book outloud to each other. There are not enough teachers for each station to have a supervisor so the computer cluster and the poetry cluster are working independently. On the other side of the room, two separate groups of students (about 6 kids each) work with each of the head teachers on writing and vocabulary. There is another group of four students in the library nook doing independent reading. 

6th Visit; 1st grade inclusive classroom; 5 students with autism, all high functioning. Worked directly with two of them today.

Before entering the classroom, I always arrive during recess.I join Mrs. T, talk with her and observe the students.

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Help Mrs. T plan a lesson; putting words like forest, tree, rivers, sister, brother, mother, kind into categories like "mother nature", "family", "actions" to begin a lesson plan on Native Americans

-Observed Mrs. T read the book "Brother Eagle, Sister Sky" to the students; she had them to a picture tour (looking thorugh at the pictures and sharing their observations)

-Completed an "I Know (K), What I Want to Know (W), & What I Learned (L)" chart.

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Switched to do sensory wok with Mary; assisted her in using the blue ball and trampoline.

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Observed Mrs. T do reading activities with Mary

Mrs. T asks "Is your brain ready?" to see if the sensory work was enough for Mary to continue with her academic work. Mrs. T does reading from a large book. Ask Mary to sound out the letter. Points to each one with the end of a pencil.

These notes are from my first day of praxis this semester that took place this morning. This semester I am placed in a 6th grade langauge arts classroom at Spring Charter School.* This is the same classroom that I was placed in last semester for another education course, so half of the students that I worked with today were the same as the students that I worked with last semester. 

I was in classroom from 8AM-1PMand during this time the class engaged in morning meeting, a period of reading, a period of writing, and then the other class came in and repeated the reading period before I left.

Observations:

There were three different teachers that filtered in and out of the classoom. One of these teachers was the main 6th grade language arts teacher. This teacher is responsible for teaching language arts to 5th and 6th graders, using a looping system where they start with the students in 5th grade and then move up with them to 6th grade.

Setting: A private, independent second grade elementary classroom in center city

Today was my first day at this new placement. The first day is always an unpredictable one, because I, as well as the teacher and students, are figuring out what role I will have in the classroom during my visits. In past field placements, it has been clear that I will have an observational role only, but in this placement, it seems as if the teacher (referred to as Teacher P) is open to me taking an active role in the classroom--participating in group activities, talking and interacting with the students, helping out with setup for activities.

I've attached two sets of field notes.  One attachement is notes I took specifically for this assignment after my Zumba PE class yesterday, and the other attachment is old field notes I have saved from when I was in Special Ed and ELL.  

Last semester, I took Curriculum and Pedagogy (Ed 301) and did my field placement in a 2nd grade class. Because I developed a positive relationship with my cooperating teacher and really enjoyed the environment created by the school, I will be continuing my placement there this semester. This is an excerpt from the field notes that I took on my first day in the class.  

-2nd grade class

-1 to 3:30 pm

-two main periods while I am there (math and reading)

-when I arrived, my cooperating teacher immediately included me in the routine of the classroom

-first child that I worked with was Justin, a boy that my cooperating teacher described as “special” (she did not mean this to be offensive)

-Justin has motor control issues (which make it difficult for him to write), as well as speech problems

-He is not at the same level in math or writing as his peers

January 29th, 2013

Fieldwork Seminar

Field Notes #1

These are “field notes” from the first meeting for my Independent Study this semester, which is the culmination of my concentration in Peace, Conflict and Social Justice Studies. Pseudonyms were used. 

• These field notes come from the second meeting of a Comparative Literature class
• Course is taught by Professor Reynolds*, a Classics professor who also teaches one course in Comparative Literature
• There are about 25 students in the class
  • College sophomores, juniors, and seniors
  • About ¾ female and ¼ male
• Class began by the teacher bringing up a key question and asking the students to answer using one of the readings as a guide
  • Discussion was technically student led, but it was interesting to see how Professor also shaped the discussion
    • With certain points made by students, Professor Reynolds continued to ask questions (either to that individual student or the entire class).
    • With other points made by students, Professor Reynolds would just nod or say okay, and then call on another student
      • What determined which points/comments were elaborated?
        • I assume Professor Reynolds pre-determined a direction for the conversation to go and addressed points that fit that mold.
        • Professor Reynolds could have also highlighted comments that she felt were particularly insightful or interesting
        • She didn’t say any one’s comments were wrong or irrelevant, but did not fully acknowledge them
        • How would this method work in a classroom with younger students?