Observation Instructional Lesson Observer: Abby Menchinger Grade: Fourth Curriculum Area: Language Arts Date: 10/29/13 Time:

9:30 am.

What I notice I notice that students have a free range of what they are able to write about and are given many options Students are engaged and are paying attention to what the teacher is writing on the board Students are allowed to talk with one another about their ideas Teacher engages students by asking them questions and giving examples Teacher allows students to share out loud what they want to write about Imaginative narratives Writes a starting sentence on the board The students seem to really enjoy writers workshop They work on one piece for a week or so Thoughts, questions, connections to methods classes: There seems to be very little instruction and there is a lot of leeway Do the students actually complete their work? How are they assessed by their writing? I notice that when students are done writing, they are allowed to read, my concern is that students will just hurry and write so they can read with their friends Are students allowed to write in a home language? How are students home languages or first language actually played into Charter schools? I really like how Mrs. Megan posts the students work on the walls She has files for all of the students writings so they can see their progress from the beginning of the year to the end of the year

Reflection: I think observing writers workshop influenced me as a teacher in many ways. It was encouraging to see that teachers still value writing and that my teachers makes sure that her students have time to write every day. It was also encouraging to see that the students value writing as well. My teacher had her own day book, which is very similar to a writing journal. The students were allowed to decorate their day books with pictures of their families or things they liked, my teacher did the same. When the students would write, she would write sometimes

as well which I believed helped the students because they were able to follow by example. The students were encouraged to write in any way they wanted too. When I was in class, they were walking on imaginative narratives. The definition if an imaginative narrative was described to the class and then they were able to write about anything they wanted too. This encouraged students to use their imaginations and allowed them to write about things that interested them as well as writing on a topic that the teacher had instructed them on. This was also used for assessing. The teacher was able to tell by their writing if they understood the genre they were supposed to be writing about.

Interview Student Interview : Grade: Fourth Curriculum Area: Language Arts What are some things that you write about in class? Personal narratives, imaginative narratives are what we have been working on recently in class Do you ever do free writing? Mrs. Megan allows us to do free writing sometimes. We write Mrs. Megan letters in our day books. We write about the books we are reading and tell her about the characters in the books we are reading Do you write about your families? Yes, we sometimes write about personal experiences and stories that we want to tell the class. Are there any students in your class that speaks a second language? Yes we have two students, one student speaks Spanish at home and the other speaks German You guys are doing a play, The Lost Colony, how does that incorporate into your writing? We write a lot about The Lost Colony and we are putting on a play. Each of us will get parts and we have to memorize our lines. We write our lines and write about what we think happened to the Lost colony Your teacher said you guys do writers workshop? (she answered, yes we do!) Do you enjoy writing and what is your favorite thing to write about? I love to write! My favorite is imaginative because I get to make up stuff and its fun to write about stuff in my imagination Do you have spelling words? We have spell check each Friday. At the beginning of the week we do a Good, Better, Best chart and write our spelling words in the chart throughout the week. On Friday we have to spell our words in the best column. Anything you could change about writing in the classroom? Observer: Abby Menchinger Date: 10/29/13

I wish we did more writing.

Reflection: The student I interviewed really loved to write so it made it really easy to interview her. I could tell that she valued writing in the classroom and had learned many things through writing. She even said she wish they wrote more and I was impressed with how much writing they did in the classroom. This made me a better teacher because it showed me from a students perspective things that worked well for her and things that could be improved to help her excel in her writing even more. It also helped me remember that something a teacher may think is great, may not always work so well for the student. This assured me that while teaching, I need to always be focused on my students and meeting their needs above everything.

Document Collection and Reflection Type of Document: Venn-Diagram Date: October 23, 2013 Time: 11:00 am. What kind of document did you collect? I collected a venn-diagram that students filled out. They compared and contrasted a character in the book with themselves. The main idea of this lesson was for students to understand characters in a book. The book I read to the class was The Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco. The students listed the characters from the book and we discussed as a class some character traits that were present in the book. The students then chose a character and compared themselves to the character. What does the document show? The document is used to assess if students understand how to compare and contrast character traits. This student listed some of her character traits as being confident, loud, and in a normal class. The character she compared herself too was named Ravanne. Some of her character traits are shy, quiet, not confident, and in a special needs class. Some things they had in common were that they both had fun in class, they liked math, and they were both smart. This shows that the student understood how to list her own character traits, how to list the character traits of a character in the book and how to compare characters. Reflection: What are your thoughts/opinions about this document? I think that this document was a clear assessment to see if the objective was clearly met. I was allowed to assess them on their mastery skills by how many characteristics they listed and if they were accurate according to the book. It showed me if they understood what a character was and if they could list our character traits by remembering what they had read in the book. I think that I could have also provided them with another document or another way to assess them. Some students did not meet the objective because they just wrote the same things on each side and I needed to provide them with extra help. I think I should have had an extra document that I could then later assess those who did not mater the objective at first.

Interview Protocol Interviewer: Abby Menchinger Date: 10/14/2013 Time: 3:30 pm How do you write a typical lesson plan? The fourth grade teachers plan their units together and they plan week by week and day by day. They meet together during the week and plan. Each teacher will plan a center and will give the materials needed for each center to be completed. What types of materials do you need available when you plan lessons? Computers, teacher editions of books, assessments In what ways do you plan to accommodate individual differences in the classroom? There are two teachers in the classroom. They will sometimes teach different small groups that can accommodate individual needs in the classroom. Parents also come in and do conferences with the students. Some of their word is based on how individually skilled a student is in that subject. Instructional/ Questions: What are some of your instructional challenges as a teacher? Reading levels of different students in the classroom, making sure those students understand reading content and then also meeting the needs of different students. What have been some of your instructional successes as a teacher? Students make good grades on test and state test. Mrs.Megan said that she is genuinely happy when she is teaching What do you consider essential characteristics for successful teaching? Being Nurturing and patient How often do your students receive social studies/ science instruction? Three to four days a week

What social studies and science topics/ units will be studies during the second week of my clinical experience? What are possible goals/ objectives I could address for my lessons? Do you have any instructional resources that would support these goals/ objectives? We will study the Lost Colony, and Fossils. What does reading instruction look like in your classroom? What reading topics will be studied during the 2nd week of my clinical experience? What are the possible goals/ objectives I could address for my reading lesson? Do you have an instructional recourse that would support these goals/ objectives? We do silent reading every day in class, parents come in and do reading conferences with the students. Sometimes I do mini lessons will a group of students. We will be studying characters, character traits, and how characters change throughout a book. Classroom Management Questions: What motivation tactics do you use to ensure a desire to learn? I believe that my students know that they need to do the right thing at all times. We have a class promise that I hold the students too Tell me about the classroom community. What are the class rules? How is student behavior monitored? In what ways is positive behavior reinforced? In what ways are negative behaviors prevented? Tell me about the consequences for negative behavior. The classroom community is held to a standard by the class promise. Student behavior is monitored by my and our assistant. We dont have much reinforcement for behavior; we dont have very many reinforcement s for behavior. Our classroom is very diverse and the students get along well. If a student is misbehaving we speak to them one on one. Tell me about the pacing of lessons and interaction in the classroom- use of time- and other aspects of timewait time, and time using teacher talk and student talk. What works well with your students? I pace my lessons for my students so that they can comprehend them. At 10:15 we eat snack and have a brain break. I make sure my students move throughout the day. They move from the carpet to their seats throughout the day. We have free choice as well.

Reflection: I observed that the teacher was very organized and was always well planned throughout her week. She had been teaching for a very long time which played into this. I think that even showed me how experience grows you tremendously as a teacher. I really liked how

the teacher said that she did not have positive reinforcements because her students know how they should behave in class and that is expected of them. I also like how she stated that she paces her lessons so that her students comprehend them. I could tell that she was more focused on her students understanding a lesson rather than rushing through as much as she could get done. I was surprised how much science and social studies was taught in the classroom and I was really excited about that! I think her interview helped me understand practically what works in her classroom and

Reflection I was at a Charter school this semester which was very different than anything I have been used too. At first I wasnt sure if I liked the environment but then it started to grow on me. I really enjoyed how the school was ran in general. The school had a creed called the I Am creed which every class recited with the pledge of allegiances in the morning. This creed affirmed that students that they are all unique individuals who needs to value each other as people and as peers. This was a great idea because no matter whose class you are in, the I Am creed is something is consistent and it is something that no matter what age you are, you are held to its standard. Along with the I am creed, each class also has a class promise. My class wrote this class promise together and they recite this in the morning together. This was great because instead of yelling at students. The teacher was able to confront students specifically things from the class promise that they were not following. I learned so much from this experience and from the teachers at this school. Not only was I able to teach and observe great lessons, but I was able to see practical things in a classroom that I know for sure I want to implement into my classroom when I teach. I really like the idea of a class promise and that is something that I know wherever I teach, I will definitely want to do. Another thing I really liked was the parent involvement of the school. The school and my teacher did a great job at connecting the students families to their students success in school. My classroom continuously had parent volunteers come in and work with the students. The school itself also had a parade while I was there which the parents were all invited too. This is a great way to invite the parents in the childrens learning environment and I was impressed with how much involvement there was. Overall, I am so thankful that I was placed at a school that values higher learning for their students. Every teacher at this school seemed so dedicated to helping their students learn at a level that in helpful for the individual. Another thing that was so great was that my teacher understood that each of her students learn at different levels and work at different paces. Because she understood this, students were given work that individually was helpful for them and meet their needs and goals. It showed that my teacher really cared about her students because she took the time to assess and know what her students needed. I really enjoyed this experience and this school and I believe that my IMB placement definitely will and has influenced my teacher experience.