Throughout my time as a level three intern, I have been reflecting on my teaching practices including what has been affective and what requires improvement. A reoccurring area that requires improvement is behavior management. I have established a goal of improving my behavior management implementation and strategies so that I may create a cohesive classroom community.
Behavior management is an important goal to focus on as a future teacher for various reasons. If a classroom does not have an effective behavior management plan implemented sufficiently by the educator, then the classroom environment and community will suffer and the students will not gain social and academic skills. It is also important that the educator has an understanding of his or her students while implementing the behavior management strategy. In order to work towards the goal of effectively implementing behavior management in the classroom, there are various strategies that will be beneficial. First, it is important that the students have a concrete understanding of the requirements of the task at hand. Through providing explicit directions that state the consequences of getting off task, the students will enter the lesson or activity further prepared which should result in less off task behaviors. Another idea that will assist in reaching this goal is acquiring a stern voice that indicates that the behavior problem is not acceptable so that the student will turn their attention back to the task. Additionally, the strategy of positive reinforcement will assist in working towards this goal. The positive reinforcement may be received in various forms including verbal praise or support. I have implemented some of the strategies/ideas in working towards my goal of more effective classroom management. I have worked on a stern voice that does not cause fear but simply indicates that I am being serious, which seems effective but I would prefer not to rely on a stern voice solely. I have also worked on stating the directions more clearly and restating them once they are said, and I have observed a considerable increase in on task behavior when this strategy is implemented. I believe that this strategy is effective because it provides concrete support in the lesson or activity that students are completing. I have also worked on providing my students with positive verbal recognition. I believe that this strategy is working because once one student is praised for following directions, being a good friend or citizen, etc. then their peers are more likely to follow suit. The classroom community plays a major role in students’ academic achievements. In order to create a cohesive classroom community that enhances student achievement, positive peer relationships are crucial. Peer relationships influence students academically and personally. Educators strive (or should strive) to foster positive peer relationships. Throughout my years in elementary school and my experiences as a pre-service teacher, I have experienced, observed, and learned about many ways that educators may assist in creating positive peer relationships to create a cohesive community. There are various community-building activities that may be implemented within the classroom. An example of one that I have experienced within my courses and plan on implementing in my future classroom is a Morning Meeting. A Morning Meeting sets a tone for respectful and engaged learning in a climate of trust and it builds and enhances connections among students and between students and the teacher (Kriete & Davis, 2014). Another manner in which teacher work to foster positive peer relationships is through accountable talk; accountable talk requires the student to use respectfully worded phrases to discuss academic concepts. For example, rather than Sally blurting out that she thinks Billy is wrong because he did this wrong, Sally would state that she disagrees with Billy’s answer because and explain her reasoning. I have observed this throughout my internship, and it seems to foster positive collaboration, which translates into positive peer relationships. The educator may also practice respectable manner with his/her class to promote positive peer relationships (and positive life skills). In addition to the various manners to adjust verbal communication, the educator may use brain breaks as a community building activity that requires the students to talk to their peers in a more casual setting while still being monitored by the teacher. This is something that I have seen throughout my current internship. During the brain break, the students are ecstatic to talk to any of their peers about any given topic. Once the brain breaks are completed, the students appear to have a more positive vibe. There are various other ways in which educators can foster positive peer relationships and create a cohesive community. The development of positive peer relationships and a cohesive community is crucial to students’ academic and personal development. References:
Kriete, R., & Davis, C. (2014). The morning meeting book. Turner Falls, MA: Northeast Foundtion for Children. Throughout implementing and reflecting on the lesson taught during ELA (lesson plan provided below), there were various aspects that could use improvement and some that were implemented effectively. One aspect of the lesson that was altered from my original plan was providing students two minutes to add more information each section of the Venn diagram. While teaching the lesson, I realized that it was taking longer than planned and that a majority of the students needed additional guidance in filling out the Venn diagram. Due to the observations made while implementing the lesson, I altered the individual work to better meet the students’ needs. Through this experience, I was able to gain experience in monitoring students’ understanding of the lesson. The students learned what was intended efficiently for the most part. This can be determined through observations while the students were discussing the information and student work samples. The students were able to effectively fill out their Venn diagram with information that was found on their web of key details from each text. In order to accommodate students that struggle with writing in straight lines, there were two versions of the Venn diagram provided (can be found at the end of the lesson plan below). This form of differentiation was affective in the lesson, however, after observing the students and evaluating their work, I believe that a majority of the class would have benefit from the lined Venn diagram. An area that could use improvement throughout my instruction is classroom management. There were various occasions in which the specific students struggled with staying on topic, and it took me a couple tries to properly redirect their attention to the lesson. Another error made on the instructional technique, relates to explaining how a Venn diagram works. In order to more effectively teach the lesson I should have explicitly taught the components of the Venn diagram and than went in to the lesson. This was part of my original plan, however, the error was made while implementing the lesson. Lesson Plan: Student Work Samples:
In order to ensure that I am able to plan and deliver instruction that is responsive to student learning needs I will practice extensive preparation and reflecting throughout instruction. Through the planning process of instruction I will review and reflect on student background knowledge and their current academic and cognitive level. In order to properly plan instruction, I would pre-assess students to establish what knowledge they currently know and what misconceptions that the students currently have related to the instruction topic. Throughout the implementation of the lesson I will incorporate formative assessments. The formative assessments will allow me to ensure that the student is following instruction as intended and will assist in being responsive to student learning needs. The formative assessments will consist of anecdotal observations and various others (exit tickets, turn and talk, etc. depending on the lesson). After the lesson was taught I will reflect on how the students understood the instruction through formative and summative assessments. This will allow me to alter the following lesson dependent on students needs. In order to plan and deliver instruction that is responsive to student needs, I will use various formative assessments and alter instruction after evaluating and reflecting on the outcome of the preceding lesson. I will also ensure that the formative and summative assessments are appropriate and enjoyable for the students to the best of my ability. If the students are enjoying the assessments, the assessment will better exhibit that the students have actually taken from the lesson.
After planning and implementing this lesson, I feel as though it could have gone better. A majority of my lesson was implemented in the manner that I planned, however, through student participation and involvement, it is evident that the students required a more intriguing activity to accompany the lesson. If I were to teach this lesson to the same group of students, I would have an additional activity in which they were required move around so that their engagement level would increase. Additionally, I would include an intriguing pre-reading activity so that the students are excited to read the text and learn the content. Based on what happened throughout the lesson, the next steps would be to reteach text features in a more precise manner. Due to my lack of experience and knowledge of background knowledge that first grade has, I thought that they had already learned about text features. I made the assumption based on the planning tool provided because it did not mention “introducing text features.” When teaching lessons in the future, I will be sure to research the previously learned information that the students have received and clarify with my CT. In order to assess whether or not the students learned what was intended, I required them to write one important thing that they learned during the lesson in their reading notebook. After assigning the assessment, I realized that this did not align with my objective as well as I thought it would. In order to accurately assess whether or not the students learned what was intended, I should have required them to write one text feature and the purpose of that feature. Overall, I feel as though the lesson was adequate enough for my first lesson in first grade, however, there is a lot of room for improvement so that I am better able to assist my students in learning the content in the most effective and engaging manner possible. Lesson Plan: T-chart (created as a class):
There are various manners in which to define a “learning community.” I would define a learning community as group of peers that come together to further their academic and social skills. The tone of the learning community starts with the educator. The learning community should be one in which the students feel safe, respected, and engaged in a climate of trust (Kriete & Davis, 2014). The learning community must be one in which learning can take place. In order to ensure that learning can take place, the learning community must be properly managed, which is an important role of the educator (Marzano, Marzano & Pickering, 2003). My ideal classroom learning community is one that promotes acceptance of all students and all learning styles. In order to promote students interest, it is important to teach in a manner that is most suited to them. Learning styles differ amongst learners, and educators should make changes in their teaching approach that will benefit all learners (Pritchard, 2013). Through implementing a classroom learning community that promotes all of the learning styles, student involvement may increase. An ideal learning community also maintains a sense of safety and belonging. References:
Kriete, R., & Davis, C. (2014). The morning meeting book (3rd ed.). Northeast Foundation for Children. Marzano, R. J., Marzano, J. S., & Pickering, D. (2003). Classroom management that works: Research-based strategies for every teacher. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Pritchard, A. (2013). Ways of learning: Learning theories and learning styles in the classroom (3rd ed.). |
AuthorAmanda Silebi Archives
March 2017
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