Amy Benson

ECE 251

April 4, 2018

Professor Alyce Gray

Group Time Evaluation

1. Name of school: CornerStone Christian Academy

Telephone Number: 702-939-5050

Name of Teacher: Darlene Thomas

Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten 5-6 year olds

2. Beginning/Ending Group Time: 1:45-2:20 pm

3. Number of Adults/Children: 2 Adults- 1 Teacher and 1 Aide to 17 Children

4. I began observing this kindergarten class right after they had transitioned from recess.

The students were seated at their group tables. The teacher began the group time by

playing the song, “I Like to Count it, Count it” by Shari Sloane. The children were

instructed to come to the circle time carpet while dancing and counting to this song. The

teacher modeled the behavior that she was wanting to see. She gave positive feedback to

those following the instructions, naming the positive behaviors. She initially gave the

instructions of what to do during the song, and yet also allowed the children to dance or

express themselves how they were comfortable during this activity. Two of the boys got

a little aggressive toward one another while dancing. The teacher got in between the two

children and quietly redirected. In fact, she was so quiet with her redirection that I

couldn’t quite hear what she told them.

 Next, each child was given a picture card of an animal and asked to keep it a

secret. They were then given instructions to wander around the classroom making their

particular animal’s sound and listening for their partner (the student making the same

sound). They were instructed to return to the carpet once they found their partner. This

lesson was on counting in odd and even numbers, and pairs. With this being a Christian

school, the teacher also integrated the Bible lesson with Noah’s Arc and the animals

traveling two by two. One of the children had an animal that no other child had. He

represented the odd number. She discussed how it felt to be the odd man out and not to

have a partner. She allowed enough time for each child to find their “pair”. Although the

teacher gave the instruction, she allowed this activity to be more child lead as they were

discussing the animal sounds and coming to their own conclusions as to who their partner

was.

The teacher told the children to come back to the carpet for an activity. Once the

children all returned to the carpet, the class as a whole counted the number of pairs that

the class made up. The children were instructed to sit in a big circle with their legs

stretched towards the center of the circle. The teacher and aide had blue and pink number

cut outs. The blue were odd numbers and the pink were even numbers, all being from

numbers 1-34. The teacher gave the children the numbers and instructed the children to

place the blue cut out of an odd number on their left foot and a pink cut out even number

on their right foot. Both adults were helping with this activity. The teacher then asked the

children to first count around the circle by ones. She then had the children bend their

knees and cover up their even number (pink). They then reversed this and covered up the

odd numbers (blue). Lastly, they counted around the circle by 2’s (two feet per one
 child), to determine how many pairs of feet there were in the classroom. This was an

interactive activity as a whole group.

This whole group activity concluded by reading the story, My Even Day. This was

obviously a teacher lead activity as the teacher was reading the story. The aide at this

time was helping to redirect behaviors of children unengaged in the story. The teacher

introduced vocabulary such as odds, evens, pairs to the children in several different ways.

She used different modalities to bring the group lesson together, from music and

movement, to gross and fine motor.

5. The hook that this teacher used to get the children involved in the whole group lesson

was great! She got them out of their seats by using a song, and yet incorporating the

vocabulary and math lesson that she was teaching. This also allowed for

individualization as the children got to express themselves through dance. She didn’t

just tell them to come to the circle time carpet, she included movement and modeling. I

felt that this was DAP and she had all of the children’s attention.

The game about giving the children a picture card of an animal was

developmentally appropriate as she chose animals that all of the children were familiar

with. The picture cards were appropriate as all of the children could understand what it

represented. The teacher’s instructions were easy to follow and that showed since the

children almost immediately began to make their animal noises. She and the aide were

right there to help a child needing assistance. This activity also allowed for the children to

get up off of the floor and was very interactive for the children. The only down fall of this

activity was that there were a few students that had found their pair right away and these
 children had almost 7 minutes of wait time before the rest of the group to found their

pairs.

The next portion of this whole group time really gave the students the visual

example of evens, odds and pairs by using the children’s feet and color-coded numbers.

Every child had an active part in this portion of the lesson. Once again, getting the feet

and numbers ready took some time, although the majority of the students were engaged.

Even though this was a teacher lead activity as she was giving the whole group

instruction on odds and evens, she let the children estimate how many pairs off feet there

would be in the class. This resulted in a graph of whose estimation was closest. This was

definitely not a sit and listen activity for the children. They were up out of their seats,

interacting with their classmates, learning a new concept and vocabulary that was

scaffold from the previous lesson and she built on it from there. There was very little

redirection of children because they were actively engaged, and the teacher made the

transition to whole group time fun!

6. This whole group time was around 35 minutes. Although this is a long period of time,

the children were actively involved in several different activities within this time frame

and were not just sitting. There was cross-curricular learning taking place with the

children being able to lead the activity at times. The teacher taught a new concept using

the children themselves instead of a paper and pencil with teacher led instruction which

is developmentally appropriate for kindergarten students. The teacher began this group

time with a song and dance to introduce what they were going to learning about. Since

the children were just returning from recess, the teacher was smart to start with active

learning. She finished the group time with a story, which was the only time during this
 group time where the children were sitting and listening. Therefore, I feel like this

amount of time was developmentally appropriate for five and six-year-old children.

7. At the beginning of this group time, the song came on and the teacher instructed the

children to dance around the room, ending up at the circle time carpet. For this portion

of the group time, the whole classroom space was utilized. Once the children got to the

carpet, they listened for instructions on the next activity and then got up and used the

entire room to explore and find their pair of animal (in fact I had to adjust myself while

observing as to not be in the way of this activity). The following two activities were

back on the carpet which had ample room for the children to spread out with their legs

straight in front of them. Although this is an average sized room, the teacher and

students used just about every inch for this whole group instruction!

8. The teacher brought the children together with a song called “I like to Count it, Count

it”. She told the children to get out of their seats and dance with her over to the circle

time carpet. She modeled what she was looking for from the children.

9. I would say that the children were actively learning about 75% of the time with 25%

passively learning. I do think this is appropriate for a kindergarten class, as they were

learning a new concept while being involved on the whole and learning kinesthetic,

visual and auditory techniques of teaching. As a result of this, she was teaching to the

whole child. The children had a vested interest as they were allowed to become partners

with the teacher in their learning. There was also time for teacher led instruction and the

students to sit and listen, which is also appropriate. They had both active and quite

periods, with teacher and self-directed activities which created a balance for the
 students. The teacher was aware that the children were coming down from active outside

play, and planned this whole group time with active and passive activities accordingly.

10. The children were excited to begin the whole group time with music and movement!

The teacher was praising positive behaviors as a group, and as a result, the children were

engaged in what she was saying. This was proven by the fact that almost all were

instantly up on their feet dancing and singing the song. Once they were at the carpet, the

teacher used almost a whispering voice to introduce the game they were about to play.

This led the children to focus on what she was saying, which quieted the room almost

instantly. The children enjoyed becoming an animal and only making the animal sounds,

having to find their pair. There was a lot of giggling happening in the room. The teacher

and aide were facilitating the activity and helping students that needed individualized

instruction. Overall, the room was happy, engaged, and active.

11. The teacher seemed flexible while conducting the group time and she allowed for extra

time if needed during the different activities. One example that I saw of the teacher

being flexible was when the children were on the circle time carpet and counting the

pairs, odds and evens with the bottoms of the student’s feet. She asked the children to

estimate how many pairs the class as a whole would have and the whole class wanted to

give their answer, so she decided to make a graph on the white board with the children’s

names to see who got closer. The children loved this, although I don’t believe she was

going to do this originally. Another example of her flexibility was allowed for more time

when the children were acting as animals trying to find their pair. A few of the students

needed more time to find one another, so she allowed for more time while keeping those
 that already had their pair engaged through questions. She was great at giving her aide

cues as to what she needed, without messing up the flow of the activity.

12. During the music and movement portion of the group time, there was a second language

learner new to the class and she seemed unsure about getting up and dancing. The

teacher paid special attention to her, helping her to feel comfortable and dancing silly

herself to show the child that it was “ok” to be goofy. When it was time for the pair

game, I noticed that the teacher intentionally had this girl paired with the one friend in

class she was most comfortable. She also had the aide help her find her partner. Another

boy had a shorter attention span, and seemed to get handsy and aggressive with others

when he was not fully engaged. She intentionally followed him around the room and

praised the behaviors she wanted to see. She also had him sit next to her during passive

activities, although she made him feel special and not in trouble by saying,” Dane, I

would love it if you would sit next to me!”

13. The boys were definitely more active during the music and movement as well as the

active game portion of the whole group time. The levels of their voices when they were

pretending to be the animals were a lot more elevated than the girls. A few of the boys

got bored during the animal sound game once they had found their pair, and a few began

to sort of push one another, and even roll around on the floor. At the end of the whole

group time when the teacher was reading the story, two boys seemed to be checked out

and began to fidget. The girls seemed more engaged and the teacher was able to hold

their attention for the whole group time.

14. It was very apparent that the teacher knew the students in her class in how she handled

each one of them. For example, she was strategic in who she partnered together in the
animal game. After being in the room for a few minutes, I could pick out the children

that tend have less attention span, and bore easily. During the animal game, there were a

couple of boys that found their pair right away. This meant that they were waiting for

the rest of the group to be done for about 7 minutes. During that time, one of the boys

began running his body into another boy. One of the boys fell and then began rolling

around on the floor. The teacher intervened not adding extra attention to the situation

and instead told the boys two choices of what they could do to keep “their bodies safe.”

The boys chose one of the options given and the teacher said, “Way to go! You are

keeping your body safe!” During the story, another little boy was not engaged in the

story and instead was talking over her about something unrelated. The teacher responded

by stopping and saying, “I would be happy to listen to what you have to say as soon as I

am done reading the story.” After the story, the most important moment came when the

teacher remembered to check in with that particular child and ask what he wanted to talk

about. She didn’t forget, she kept true to her promise, and that child’s face lit up as

though he felt important in her eyes. This was an awesome moment to witness! A couple

of kids were at odds during the odds and evens circle time game with the shoes. Mrs.

Thomas saw and said, “Why don’t you try the bug and a wish?” The girl in this situation

said, “It bugs me when you touch me, I wish you would stop.” The child complied and

the teacher praised both for using their words and having respect for one another. Mrs.

Thomas gaged the room and children, she knew what to expect and never lost her cool.

She seemed to enjoy being with the children and the feeling was mutual.
15. The teacher ended the group time by finishing the story and asking a few open-ended

questions about the story. She then excused the children back to their seats according to

the first letter in their name. The children returned to their seat for individual work.

16. The children returned to their seats for an individual worksheet about odd numbers, and

even numbers. The teacher took a group of students to a table for small group

instruction. The rest of the children worked independently with the aide walking around

the room watching and asking the children if they needed help. The groups changed with

the teacher until all of the children had the small group instruction with the teacher. I

feel that the activity is somewhat appropriate due to the fact that the children had 3 on 1

time with the teacher to give instruction as well as assistance from the aide. I also felt

that the children had enough time to finish the activity and had been introduced in

several ways what the worksheet was about. The only thing I didn’t see was

differentiated instruction according to the child.

Evaluation:

After observing Mrs. Thomas with her kindergarten class, I found the overall group time

to be developmentally appropriate as she used experiences and materials that were

appropriate for this age group. She was flexible to change things up if it wasn’t working,

or to take the lesson in a different direction according to the responses of the children.

Mrs. Thomas’ lesson was a combination of teacher role and child role and allowed for

child discovery throughout this process. The children were engaged throughout this

whole group time, and this was due to involvement that each child had with the lesson.

The lesson also included several cross curricular domains such as, cognitive, physical

and social domains.

The children were actively involved in the learning process and although this might have

been a goal-directed activity, it felt like more of a play based activity. The teacher

included multi-sensory learning throughout this lesson, from sound, to touch and visual.

She already took the temperature of the room, meaning she was fully aware of her

audience. She put children into groups according what the best outcome would be with

behaviors and learning styles. This lessened the time she spent on redirecting, and added

to her engagement with the children. Even though the activity was teacher led, the

children were very hands-on with the activity.

On the other hand, the teacher was asking questions that she already knew the answer to.

Therefore, the experimentation of the activity was somewhat lost. The teacher’s

questions during the odd/even game, although open ended, were more on the

Psychometric approach since already knew the answers and was trying to match the

knowledge of the students with hers. I witnessed the teacher stray from this

Psychometric approach when she turned the shoe game into a graph and estimation

activity according to the children’s questions and ideas.

This whole group time seemed to scaffold on prior knowledge that the children had. For

example, when she put the song on in the beginning, it was about counting by ones,

fives and tens. It was obvious that the children had already been exposed to counting in

groups because they were singing along with the music. She was continuing to introduce

new concepts that went along with what the class had previously learned. At the end of

the group time, she had small groups for children needing extra support on their

worksheet, and had differentiated instruction for those children that were independent
workers. She also paired a student with “an expert partner” during the game. The child

that didn’t actually have a partner and was the odd animal, actually learned how it felt in

a unique way to be on her own. This took the learning to a new level and created a new

experience for not only the individual child, but the class a whole.

The pace of the whole group instruction was great! The children were never sitting and

listening for long. Instead they were encouraged to wander around the room, be actively

involved, and use their own voices, or body parts to figure out the answers. The hook to

get the children to the carpet was fun and active. During the animal game, she allowed

the children to set the pace and have the time they needed to complete the task. There

was balance between working in small groups and as a whole group, and well as short

and long periods of time for certain activities. The children were able to be vocal at

times, and instructed to listen at times. The transitions from the seat to the carpet and

back were entertaining for the students.

The interactions with teacher and her students was authentic. I could sense that she had

done her work to develop meaningful relationships with each student by how they all

reacted to her. She obviously had a classroom management system in place because

when there was a peer conflict, she gave verbiage that the children had heard before and

were able to use appropriately in order to solve their problem. She was engaging and yet

calm, goofy and also in control. She adjusted her demeanor to fit the children’s in her

class. She showed respect to the children’s feelings and demanded respect for herself

through love. One example of this is when she was helping an active boy during whole

group time to stay engaged. She invited him to sit right next to her and made it a positive

and not a punishment. She used phrases like, “I will be happy to hear what you have to
say as soon as I am done reading.” She also praised positive behaviors and quietly

redirected negative behaviors when necessary without embarrassing the child in front of

his peers. Mrs. Thomas was inviting and I found myself smiling or giggling throughout

this observation as she made learning fun!