Hicks_Observation Reflection

Joanne Hicks - Observation Reflection

 
On November 27th and December 6th I observed a third grade classroom during their Literacy Block.  There were 26 students in this classroom, five of which have IEPs.  The teacher, Mrs. Endicott is in her third year teaching third grade.  The classroom was very organized, with the classroom expectations posted at the front of the room.  Students were very respectful and there was an obvious positive and safe learning environment in place.  

The first lesson I observed was on character traits.  The teacher was using the story, Miss Rumphius to teach this content.  Students seemed to have a good understanding of the concept.  Although one students gave an example of a character trait being related to the persons appearance, Mrs. Endicott was very nice and questioned the students to redirect his thinking.  The student then changed his mind and said character traits were really related to how the person acts or how they handle situations.  He gave the example, if a person had to do something scary it would take courage, so courageous was a character trait.  I was impressed with the students vocabulary and understanding the meaning of the word courageous.  The teacher gave the students a quick formative assessment (I can card) an exit slip, she will use this data to help her drive her instruction during tomorrows lesson.  The teacher then split the students up into differentiated groups for literacy centers.  Each center had three levels of mastery, Mrs. Endicott had made modifications to the activities to meet the needs of each group. One of the centers incorporated technology, each student was able to work in Compass Learning a program that uses each student's MAP scores to design an individual learning path for each student.

The second day Mrs. Endicott was teaching the students about acrostic poems.  She wrote the word Holiday on the board and had the students brainstorm words that began with each of the letters in the word holiday. Student created a class acrostic poem for holiday.  Then Mrs. Endicott had the students work on their own acrostic poems using the word Christmas. It was fun to watch the students creating their acrostic poems, every student was engaged because they were excited about the topic of Christmas.  After all students were finished drafting their poem, she gathered all students up front on the floor and they had a poetry slam to share their pieces.  All students go to share and hang their work in the hallway to share. 

I enjoyed observing in Mrs. Endicott's classroom the third graders were very refreshing. I learned a great deal about teaching character traits and acrostic poems.  I also really liked the "I can card" she did in her classroom.  It gave the students the opportunity to show what they knew as well as gave her data to use in designing her lesson for the following day.  This formative assessment was not very time consuming and required little preparation. I definitely plan to implement this in my classroom in the near future.










 

Hicks Reading Log/Wiki Checklist

Reading Log for 30 books (to paste into your blog in at the end of the term)

• Instructions: List the titles and authors you read under each Genre, and use checklist below for Wiki posts. Then, highlight this material and paste it into a final blog post. I have already included (in the 30) the ones we read for discussion. Feel free to read more in each genre as you make time.

Genre / Titles you read

             I.      Non-fiction/Informational (1 chapter book or photo essay book reflection required on blog)

1)      Planet Earth Amazing Animals of the Rainforest by Tracey West

2)      A Butterfly is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston

          II.      Poetry (1 chapter or picture book reflection required on blog)

1)      Witness by Karen Hesse. (required for discussion)

2)      Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

3)      Dirt on My Shirt by Jeff Foxworthy

4)      A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Luis Stevenson

       III.      Modern Fantasy (1 chapter book reflection required on blog)          

1)      The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. (required for discussion)

2)      Pigs might fly by D. King-Smith

3)      Duck for President by Doreen Cronin

4)      Mercy Watson Fights Crime by Kate Dicamillo

       IV.      Historical Fiction (1 reflection required on blog –can be a picture book)     

1)      A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck. (required for discussion)

2)      George Washington’s Socks by Elvira Woodruff

3)      Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

4)      To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

          V.      Multicultural/Traditional (2 reflections required on blog – one can be a picture book)         

1)      Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine

2)      Ashley Bryan’s ABC of African American Poetry by Ashley Bryan

3)      A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

4)      In the Time of the Drums by Kim Siegelson

       VI.      Realistic Fiction (1 chapter book reflection required on blog)

1)      The Last Safe Place on Earth by Richard Peck. (required for discussion)

2)      Rules by Cynthia Lord

3)      The Tiger Rising  by Kate Dicamillo

4)      Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Dicamillo

5)      Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary

    VII.      Picture Books (5 reflections required on blog during the first two weeks of class. There should be a total here of at least six.)

1)      Flossie & the Fox by Patricia McKissack. (required for discussion)

2)      Owl moon  by J. Yolen

3)      The man who walked between the towers  by M. Gerstein

4)      A sick day for Amos Mcgee by P. Stead

5)      My friend rabbit  by E. Rohmann

6)      Faithful elephants: A true story of animals, people, and war by Y. Tsuchiya

7)      Math Fables by Greg Tang

Wiki Checklist

Instructions: Write the number of entries for each category you posted into on the Course Wiki (requirement is four total posts, in four different categories)

__1_ Social Studies

____ Science

____ Math

__1_ Music

__1_ Art

__1_ Reading/Language Arts

____ Physical Education

____ Other

Planet Earth Amazing Animals of the Rainforest

Planet Earth Amazing Animals of the Rainforest

West, T. (2009). Planet earth amazing animals of the rainforest. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Tracey West, the author, is probably best known as the author of the Pokeman chapter books.  She is a well rounded author writing in many different genres.

Planet Earth Amazing Animals of the Rainforest is a non-fiction book that gives students a look into the interesting world of the rainforest.  The book is packed full of information about the animals and their interactions with the environment.

The book includes several text features. The first text feature students will encounter is the table of contents.  The author has divided and color coded the table of contents based on where the animal is found in the rainforest.  The first few are water animals, then forest floor animals and so forth.

Another text feature she has included is stunning real life photos of the wildlife found in the rainforest.  Accompanied by captions to explain and describe the animals in the photos.

This book includes a glossary with terms students might need defined. Several of the words on this list are required words to be taught in the fourth grade science content.  I can see this book being very useful when teaching about different habitats and animal interactions.

Another great text feature the author included is a map.  Showing the students where the rainforests are located around the world.  The map is also labeled with names, dimensions and location of each rainforest.

The author also included a list of things the students can do the help preserve the Earth.  She included a website they can visit to learn more about what is happening in the rainforest.

www.loveearth.com

George Washington’s Socks

George Washington’s Socks
Woodruff, E. (1991). George Washington's socks. New York, NY: Scholastic.

 

 Take a trip back in time with Matt and his history club.  In this historical fiction book you will get a true feeling for the events and happenings of the Revolutionary War.  You will meet George Washington and get an inside look at the struggles the American Colonists faced to give us the gift of freedom.

George Washington’s Socks

Woodruff, E. (1991). George Washington's socks. New York, NY: Scholastic.

George Washington’s Socks is a historical fiction book.  The author uses the setting and events of the Revolutionary War as an integral background for her book.  

You will notice a theme in many of Elvira Woodruff’s books; she likes to use time travel as a way to create suspense and excitement in her writing.

In the book, George Washington’s Socks, Matthew Carlton and a few boys in the neighborhood have started a club.  They have an overnight campout that turned into a time travel back to the time of the Revolutionary War.

The story is told in first person from the point of view of the club members. The club members get to meet George Washington and even participate in the Revolutionary War.  It gave the boys an up close and personal experience of what it would have been like to fight in this war for freedom.  The conflict of the story came when Matt’s sister was captured by the enemy, sending the club members on an eventful quest to save her. The conflict was resolved near the end of the book when the club members were reunited with Matt’s sister and they were able to find their way back to their present day home.

While there were not pictures in the book, the author did a great job using imagery and descriptive language to paint a clear picture of the setting in the reader’s mind.  Through her words she depicted the heroic acts and inhumane living conditions these young men were enduring.   

I used this book as an extension activity to the 5^th grade unit on the Revolutionary War.  We read the book and charted the sacrifices and gains and used them as research for an opinion essay, describing the sacrifices and gains, and deciding if we thought the struggles the American colonists went through were worth the gain of freedom.

The following website has guided questions to help students comprehend the text as they read.

http://www.twpunionschools.org/PDF/Summer%20Reading%20Guide%20GR5.pdf

Rules

Rules

Lord, C. (2006). Rules. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Rules, rules, rules everyone and everything has rules to follow.  In this realistic fiction book the protagonist Catherine is developing a list of rules for her little brother.   These are not just any rules; they are rules to help him fit in with society.  Catherine’s little brother has autism and she thinks he needs this list of rules to help him be more normal or less embarrassing.  Catherine develops several new friendships throughout the summer which leads to a person-against-self conflict; she has to overcome her embarrassment in order to defend her friendship with a young man in a wheelchair.  

Throughout the book, Cynthia Lord did a great job developing the character of Catherine, giving her a great personality.  The author was able to show this personality through the friendship she developed with Jason a young man in a wheelchair.  In order for Catherine to communicate with him she had to develop word cards for his communication book.  I found the words and phrases she chose very indicative of her personality. 

The book was organized into chapters.  Each chapter’s title was one of the rules Catherine had developed for her little brother.  I thought the author was very clever to entitle each chapter with a rule.

I would use this book with grades 3-8 to teach acceptance and diversity.  Visit the following website for a booktalk on the book Rules.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/rules-booktalk

Visit the following website for a reading guide to accompany the book; it looks really great including writing prompts and graphic organizers to use while reading the book. 

http://www.nred.org/www/nred/site/hosting/Events/Literature_Festival/RULES_Study_Guide.pdf