Fifth Field Experience

Today, we taught the fifth and last lesson of our unit on water. Although we planned to teach a lesson that included a slime activity, my partner and I decided to completely change the lesson last night. The original lesson was design to have the students mix various ingredients to make a slime mixture (the teacher suggested we use this activity and make a connection to water). Although it seemed like a fun activity, we were not convinced that the activity help the students internalize the essential components of our unit. We were also questioning if the students would actually be able to make the mixture and complete the lesson within the time allotted for our lesson. It was important to us to teach a meaningful culminating lesson that would highlight the fundamental information within our unit. So, we opted to teach a poetry lesson (one Ms. S. also suggested) to complete our unit.
After a quick review of the previous lessons, my teaching partner read some examples of poems about water. Then, we began to help the students construct a class poem based on all the information that was essential to our unit. The students work with poems frequently with their teacher. Yet, they had never constructed their own class poem. Prior to teaching the lesson, we developed a poem in order to guide their thinking process and provided prompts in order to connect their suggestions. They were quick to offer ideas to add to the poem, and we (the student teachers) would ask them if we could state what they respond in a certain way. (If they said, “Ice is a solid,” we would say, “Great, should we write ‘Ice, a solid?”) Ultimately, we wanted to walk them through the thinking process to help them understand how poems are written (a technique learned in Language Bloc for young students). After the students were finished with the poetry writing, we echo read the poem and they returned to their seats for a writing/drawing activity based on the poem. Ms. S. happened to have prospective parents visiting that day (good to know that actually happens in public schools), so we had to go through the summative assessment much quicker than we had hoped.
Teachers have to evaluate their lessons and make decisions based on knowing what will work with their students. Overall, I found this activity to be much more beneficial than an activity that could prove to be distracting (although I was really excited to make slime); especially so for the students that were not able to understand the information without direct and repetitive instruction. I intentionally paid attention to one of the students I had been worried about throughout the unit. I asked her questions about the material to see if she had retained some of the information. Even though she was able to verbally answer my questions, she could not write/draw anything relevant to the lesson or question at hand. I am still not sure if it is because she cannot recall and express what she knows in a written format, or if she does not understand the directions. Although I understand that it is not possible for us to have more time with the students, I feel that the little time I had was not enough to be able to figure out what type of instruction she needs to move her along; too often a frustrating occurrence in teaching. As inclusion has become a part of the public school system, class size plays a big role in the amount of individualize assistance that students can receive. Inclusion is not necessarily a bad change. It is simply one that brings new challenges to teaching.
Through this field experience, I was exposed the many realities of teaching. I was able to see just how much work goes into one thirty minute lesson and how rewarding teaching is to me. (I’m still not sure how I am going to plan six hours each day!) I learned so many useful skills and techniques through my mistakes and successes. Even though I know I will make many more mistakes, I am more confident that I will be able to implement what I have learned more effectively in the future.