Physical environment
This is the coolest set up I have ever seen. The kids are a mixed group of 5/6th graders; half the class, math and science, is taught in the adjoining classroom; while the other half, English and social studies, is taught in the classroom I am working in. The kids are split into two teams. The teams are separated for individual instruction and during work periods the wall dividing the classrooms folds back creating a huge work room.
In our side of the classroom there are 5 hexagon shaped tables with 4 to 5 children per table with these awesome midget chairs that you only experience in elementary. In the center of each table is a basket full of pencils and scrap paper as well as some other miscellaneous supplies. Off to the left of the classroom is a colorful rug headed by a comfy chair where the students gather to discus various things about their writing projects or to listen to the teacher read in class. On the opposite side of the room is another carpeted area surrounded by bookshelves that are loaded to the max with books. Some are resource books and chapter books, but my favorite part was a section of the student’s stories. These are beautifully illustrated stories written by her students from the current year as well as from previous years. At the dead center of the room is a projector that faces a white board that is barley visible through all the posters and pieces of paper placed on it. In the far right corner of the board there is just enough space to list out the days activities. In the back corner of the classroom are seven huge Macintosh computers exactly like the ones we have in our classroom at UAA.
At first site the room appears unorganized and buried under paper, but it is actually cleverly structured. The students have their homework files, their in class files, their tubs of supplies, and their portfolios. Everyone knows where everything is, and it is all set out to be easy to find, collect, and return.
Curricular environment
Ok this is taking me a bit to understand, but this classroom has NO GRADES! The children are in the classroom for two years and self asses their progress as they go along. The program works closely with the student and their parents to ensure that milestones are being met without the pressure of a grading system. The curriculum is structured but allows the students to have a say in what they want to learn. There is a lot of focus on group collaboration and teamwork. The children are naturally chatty so this allows them to talk while working on instrumental projects. As far as text books, they use grade appropriate grammar books and spelling books where the teacher copies worksheets for the students to complete.
One interesting thing I was told is that the teacher teaches the 5th grade curriculum one year and the 6th grade curriculum the next, so a student may get 6th grade before 5th grade depending on when they enter the classroom.
Human environment
The students address their teachers by their first names, and communication is encouraged at appropriate times. The students have 30 minutes of quite reading time a day and during that time they find a cozy place to read independently away from their friends. There is a new student in the class who is Alaskan Native and I get to complete a reading assessment on him next week, which I am totally excited for. There are defintley clicks in the classroom that I am still figuring out. There are the quiet students, the loud students, and it is a mixture of different colored faces. I have not heard any distinct accents or seen any real linguistic challenges besides the class wide misspelling of gose for goes and dose for does, that was announced today as the entire class spelled it aloud as a group 3 times. One other thing that steuck me as odd was that the children eat freely and leave to the bathroom throughout the period. They simply get up, from say the rug time activity, saying nothing. They go to their bag and get chips or a banana or whatever their snack may be and then return to the rug area and eat while the teacher continues her lesson.
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How exciting to have some hands on work to do! Are you going to use the running record coding techniques that we learned in class to complete your student's reading assessment? I'd be nervous about doing an assessment with a technique like that that we just learned. Are there more youtube videos out there that you could practice with first? Or does the teacher have a certain format of initial assessment items that need to be observed? I'm interested to hear how the reading assessment will go for you!
ReplyDeleteYes, actually they have an entire kit. I cannot remember the name of it off hand, but she is going to teach me how to use it. I am assuming it is similar to what we were doing in class, but I think it has a little more to it. i saw the box the kit comes in and it was pretty big, but we did not have time to look at it last week. i will keep you posted.
ReplyDeleteIf the classroom doesn't have a grading sysytem, does the teacher ( or you :) just mark their papers correct or incorrect, then have them correct the answers if need be? I always thought that would be a cool idea in theory but I have no idea how I would go about that in real life. While the class that I'm in doesn't have more than grade in it, they are split up very similarly. Next door, Mr. E teaches math, math support and science and my teacher teaches reading, reading support and language arts. I like that the teachers get to form meaningful relationships with their students versus just seeing them for an hour a day.
ReplyDeleteIn my practicum the students are allowed to move freely too. This certainly seems to effect the dynamics of the class/ learning environment very positively. At first I was shocked that the students could just get up and move around as if they were college students ( not even in some classes) I'm sure this type of independence is very conducive for learning.
ReplyDeleteGina
ReplyDeleteThe students do a lot of pier reviews and working one on one with the teacher. All of their writing goes through several drafts before it is finalized and "published". The students keep a portfolio of work to show their parents at conferences then self asses their projects on different rubrics. The teacher evaluates their comments on how they feel they are doing and adds comments of her own. I haven’t seen any sort of tests; it is mainly creative writing and reading exploration of different topoi and themes. I was skeptical about the system at first, but after seeing it in action it is really intriguing and fun to see how well the children do in that type of environment.
The teacher gets to know the students very well and is able to keep the group on a seemingly level field. She does break into small groups and assists with different things as needed with individual students to keep the dynamic of the group going.
Nicole
ReplyDeleteThat’s funny you say that because I thought it was disruptive! It is probably my own interpretation and is only distracting to me because the other children don’t seem to notice.