Running head: REFLECTIONS

Pedagogy Reflections
Melissa LeSage
EDCI 3482

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Learning Center Reflection

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Learning Centers are areas around the classroom that allow children to engage in hands
on activities to support learning across the curriculum. With younger children, learning centers
will cover many disciplines of learning and development. Some of these are blocks, art, dramatic
play, manipulatives, sand and water, etc. In the primary years, these will transition into centers
that are based on academics. Some of these are math, reading, writing, science, and social studies
centers. So, why do we use centers in schools? Learning centers give children the opportunity to
make choices, they give them practice in order to master the material, they allow them to work at
their own pace without being pressured, it allows them to work independently or with a partner,
and it integrates a variety of knowledge. The teachers also get a chance to assess students
knowledge regularly, accommodate every childs attention span and abilities, build the centers
according to the childrens interests, and give children a time in the day to have hands on
experiences. When learning centers are happening, children should be interested and able to do
the activities because they were designed for the classroom by the teacher (Kostelnik et al,
1993).
Learning centers are meant to be very child directed, however that does not mean that we
need to ignore teaching strategies. We still need to include them in everything that we do.
Teachers should begin by giving directions, demonstrating or modeling what the children need to
do, and they should create or add challenge. Teachers should always have a backup plan before
the lesson in case a child finishes the center very quickly. We never want to try to find something
for them to do on the spot. Usually we just give them busy work when it comes down to doing
this. Teachers should always give assistance when the children need it during center time.
Teachers always need to make sure that what they are doing is developmentally
appropriate for the kids in their class. We need to look at the developmentally appropriate

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practice guidelines to help us make sure our classroom is a place where every child can learn.
According to Copple and Bredekamp, Vital to young childrens learning and development is
having significant periods of time in which they can choose what they want to do and, together
with other children, direct their own activities (2009, p.40). These free choice times include
recess and learning centers. When teachers direct children about what center to go in, it takes
away their right to choose. This is something children need in order to allow them to grow and
develop into independent thinkers. There are ways to do this without assigning children spots.
Have bracelets at each center and when all the bracelets are gone, then they know they have to
find another center. You can also give children checklists to make sure they go to at least
two/three centers a day. There are ways to integrate choices into learning centers. We just need
teachers to be creative in the classroom.
Unfortunately, my mentor teacher did not use my learning center in one of her centers.
Instead she used it as a whole-group assessment. Because mine did not go as planned, I did not
get to assess how it was as a learning center. Instead, I will assess my idea for it. I did not know
that a lot of the children had not done word searches, so the word search did not go well as a
whole group assessment. The teacher decided that she wanted to put the words up on the Smart
Board for them to use, so they did not look at the definitions at all. This made me a little upset. I
spent time creating three word searches and thinking the activity through so that they could learn,
while still doing something fun. Meanwhile she removed the learning aspect of it and instead left
them searching for words. I completely understand that it is her classroom and I am just a visitor
for a semester. However, I feel as though she should have allowed the children to try before
stepping in and handing them the words. Another problem was that the children did not know
how to search for the diagonal words. They would give up if the words were not in front of them

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clear as day. I tried to show them how to scan through the letter finding the letter that they were
looking for. They did not want to put in the effort to fins it. Next time, I may try another word
game. As far as the weather report, that assignment went okay. I think it was too simple. The kids
finished very fast and did not give any thought to the report. They just answered the questions.
Next time, I may make it with questions that directly relate to the weather instead of adding
opinion questions.
The standards for this lesson were to pose questions that can be answered by using the
students observations and their knowledge. Within the weather report, they will have to use
observations they have made about two different types of weather through the question During
this type of weather I see.. The children also have to use scientific knowledge to talk about
what weather instruments scientists use while this weather is going on. For the word searches,
they need to know the definition of familiar terms before they can complete this activity. Without
this knowledge, they will not know the words.

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Small Group Reflection

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Small groups are groups of no more than 6 children that work together to accomplish a
task. When an area is set up for a small group, some behaviors do not occur as much. Some of
these behaviors are wandering, fighting over materials, running, and repeating similar activities.
These children are also more likely to be cooperative and help when they are close to another
student. Small groups are also a good way to give children interventions. For example, most of
our reading groups have less than six children. This is because it is easier to handle six rather
than the entire class. It is also better for giving children who need the same intervention time to
get help (Kostelnik et al, 1993).. Some teaching strategies used in small groups are:
acknowledging what a child does or says, encouraging them, demonstrating what they could do
to improve, giving assistance to help them learn to improve, and providing information (Copple
& Bredekamp, 2009).
Working with smaller groups, allows the teacher and the children to be more focused and
this allows them to introduce new skills or applying and reinforcing a concept already taught.
According to Copple and Bredekamp, In a small-group setting, the teacher can give each child
more attention and can provide support and challenges tailored to childrens individual levels
(2009, p. 40). This means that small groups allow children to be taught at their zone of proximal
development. This is where a child cannot do things on their own, but they can do them with
assistance. The child should feel comfortable in this type of setting because the teacher can give
the children support, attention, he can ask questions, make sure every child is participating, and
assess the children easier than if it were a whole group. Small groups are a great addition to any
classroom and every teacher should consider using them.
This small group lesson went okay. The only problem was that I planned it for the
average child in the classroom, knowing that I would have the children that did not understand

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the lesson before. So, I had to do one or two bars on the graph with almost all of the children
one-on-one before they fully understood what I wanted them to do. Next time, I know to take
more consideration into the students that I will be working with and not creating this lesson to be
used with everyone. Other than that, it went well. I know one thing I need to work on more is
how I manage the childrens behavior. Its something that I struggle with. I do not want to be
mean to the kids, so I let them do it and then they take advantage of me. For this lesson, I tried to
get sterner with them to let them know that they need to pay attention to the lesson. I only had
one major problem and I was able to handle that okay I think. I asked the kids to continue with
the task while I talked to him. The only thing I regret is not taking him out the room. I moved
him closer and talked to him in a whisper. I was afraid to leave the room because I figured the
kids would stop working. Next time, I will take the kid out the room. I do not want to embarrass
him.
The standards for this lesson were to analyze temperature from other sources and to graph
that data on a chart. The children will be given a newspaper article or weather from an online
source on it. These children have to analyze the temperature found on these reports to be able to
make a graph out of the information. Because the children are in first grade, I would not expect
them to make their own graphs. So, the graph is already provided for them. They just have to
graph the data found on their weather report. The children have to figure out where to graph the
different bars and how long they need to be. This will lead up to them being able to do this
themselves in second grade.

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Whole Group Reflection

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Whole group instruction is when every kid in the class is involved in an activity.
Whole group instruction can be done at the childrens desks or on a rug in the front of the room.
Whole group learning allows children to sit closely on the rug and they feel like a cohesive unit.
This type of learning allows the teacher to guide the discussion to meet the requirements they
need to in their lesson. The teacher is also able to assess the children through questions asked.
When the teacher does ask questions, the children usually stay focused because they do not want
to be the one that gets called on and does not know the answer (Kostelnik et. Al, 1993). In order
for the children to get the most out of the lesson, the teacher must use a variety of strategies to
keep children interested. The teacher must always acknowledge what the children say and then
encourage them to keep on putting forth effort and learning. Another learning strategy every
teacher uses in whole group instruction is asking questions. The teacher uses questions to gauge
what the children know in order to continue to teach them at an appropriate level. Some teacher
also create or add challenge if they notice the children are not being challenged. (Copple &
Bredekamp, 2009)
Whole groups are developmentally appropriate when they allow the children to share
experiences. Copple and Bredekamp say that, Large-group times gives children opportunities to
practice skills such as talking to a group, listening to their classmates, responding appropriately
with questions or comments, working corporately, and using and processing new information
(2009, p. 39). The skills being taught during whole group times are very important as the
children move up in the primary grades, so teaching them in a whole group setting every day will
allow children to master them. Whole group times are also appropriate times to introduce
concepts or skills and then allow children to practice these skills in other settings. For teachers,
the most appropriate thing to be aware of the cues that children give when they are not interested.

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When this happens we need to end the lesson and pick it up another day (Copple & Bredekamp,
2009).
I feel like my whole group lesson went very well. The kids enjoyed all the little activities
and games. My mentor teacher always does an interactive read aloud on the first day of the
lesson. I did not want to change what she had previously done, however it was boring. I wanted
to find a way to integrate what she usually does without it being boring. So, I decided to include
short, fun games and an experiment throughout the interactive read aloud. Throughout the lesson,
we did a matching game. At the end, we ended with a game where they had to guess what
weather instrument I was talking about by reading clues. The children loved this game! They
also enjoyed the experiment. I could tell that the children have not experiments in the classroom
before. When I told them that I was doing one, they all were excited. This experiment was very
simple it showed them what happens before it rained, so I did it when we were talking about
precipitation. It gave them some prior knowledge before we started talking about the weather
cycle. The children were interested in the lesson, which is what made it go very smooth. There
were a few behavior issues within the lesson that I had to handle, which is not my strongest area.
I know that this summer I need to read on behavior management strategies in order to get better
at this. Overall, the students did great during the lesson. I know that I need to work on
developmentally appropriate ways to manage behavior.
The standards for this unit are to predict and anticipate possible outcomes, analyze
temperature and weather conditions, describe connections, and reading with fluency. When we
talked about the types of weather, I will have them predict the next type of weather. For example,
I will say what usually comes after the wind starts to blow very hard. They should say it will
begin to rain. We will talk about instruments used to measure weather and connect them to

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different types of weather. Finally, we will be reading as a whole class. So, I will be assessing
them on their reading during this time. I will be observing the kids during the lesson and
completing checklists.

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References:
Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (Eds.) (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early
childhood programs: Serving children from birth through age 8. Washington, DC:
NAEYC.
Kostelnik, M., Soderman, A., & Whiren, A. (1993) Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum
Best Practices in Early Childhood Education (5th Ed). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:
Pearson Education, Inc.