Our main purposes for this field visit were to see the fruits of the students’ labors in working on their PowerPoint presentations we had instructed on in our second lesson. The work put into these took much longer than we had intended, as the students were near completion at this point, but as we would see, still needed a bit of refining. We worked through each presentation, with the students discussing each of their own slides. There were many proud moments as we saw how the successful completion of the project demonstrated their understanding of our instruction on both simple machines and PowerPoint construction. While there were of course a few things off (e.g. incomplete slides, or answers copied from the graphic organizer we had distributed), the presentations on the whole were quite good.
As each group finished, Mrs. Garcia demonstrated how to incorporate new effects into the slides (namely sounds and transitions), and students were able to field more in depth questions from Deborah and I, which were intended as round-about assessments. The students seemed to really enjoy working on the slideshows, and were excited about learning how to make their presentations even snazzier with the new effects. Being able to see how they synthesized all of the instruction we had provided served as a great sending off present! Working in their classroom has been a great experience, and I look forward to returning in the spring.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Field Visit 4
Field Visit 4
As we had been able to cover the different subject blocks of instruction thus far in our visits, Deborah and I decided on checking out the Extended Learning Time (ELT) portion of the daily routine. ELT serves as a place to play catch-up for each student individually. With this, Mrs. Garcia is able to spend more time with a particular set of students, and allow the class to practice independent work. Students were mainly working on their Alphabet Books at this point. The books are based on a template, where the students were able to determine their own theme (such as sports teams, animals, cartoon characters, etc.) in order to complete these books, which would later be presented to the pre-school class.
After a bit of time spent on this, three students who had been absent, Alex, Tommy, and Keiyanna, returned to present a Reader’s Theater performance of an adapted play. The teacher they had been working with transformed the book Wolf into a dramatic piece, which the children read/acted out for the class. Mrs. Garcia was sure to address the class beforehand, letting the audience know that the three performers had been working hard, and that they could be very nervous, and to make sure we were all being respectful and attentive. The students did a great job of supporting their fellow classmates.
At the conclusion of the Reader’s Theater, Keiyanna, Tommy, and Alex re-joined the rest of us in ELT. Mrs. Garcia provided instruction on various activities that people should be attending to, including letter-writing about a book they were reading at home, the alphabet books (of which she modeled a completed version from a past year), and work from a previous unit that had not yet been turned in. Students who were working on the alphabet books were allowed to access the internet to do research on their subjects, if they were having difficulty finding matches for all of their letters. Deborah and I assisted students in their work on the computers, mainly with typing, but also with some brainstorming as to what they could look for in regards to specific letters.
Towards the end of our stay, we began to chat with Mrs. Garcia about a general outline of what we would be preparing to teach. We were able to work our lessons in with what she would be teaching, so that while we would be the ones to begin the lesson, Mrs. Garcia could pick up where we left off, and allow us to transition from simple machines to technology instruction using PowerPoint.
As we had been able to cover the different subject blocks of instruction thus far in our visits, Deborah and I decided on checking out the Extended Learning Time (ELT) portion of the daily routine. ELT serves as a place to play catch-up for each student individually. With this, Mrs. Garcia is able to spend more time with a particular set of students, and allow the class to practice independent work. Students were mainly working on their Alphabet Books at this point. The books are based on a template, where the students were able to determine their own theme (such as sports teams, animals, cartoon characters, etc.) in order to complete these books, which would later be presented to the pre-school class.
After a bit of time spent on this, three students who had been absent, Alex, Tommy, and Keiyanna, returned to present a Reader’s Theater performance of an adapted play. The teacher they had been working with transformed the book Wolf into a dramatic piece, which the children read/acted out for the class. Mrs. Garcia was sure to address the class beforehand, letting the audience know that the three performers had been working hard, and that they could be very nervous, and to make sure we were all being respectful and attentive. The students did a great job of supporting their fellow classmates.
At the conclusion of the Reader’s Theater, Keiyanna, Tommy, and Alex re-joined the rest of us in ELT. Mrs. Garcia provided instruction on various activities that people should be attending to, including letter-writing about a book they were reading at home, the alphabet books (of which she modeled a completed version from a past year), and work from a previous unit that had not yet been turned in. Students who were working on the alphabet books were allowed to access the internet to do research on their subjects, if they were having difficulty finding matches for all of their letters. Deborah and I assisted students in their work on the computers, mainly with typing, but also with some brainstorming as to what they could look for in regards to specific letters.
Towards the end of our stay, we began to chat with Mrs. Garcia about a general outline of what we would be preparing to teach. We were able to work our lessons in with what she would be teaching, so that while we would be the ones to begin the lesson, Mrs. Garcia could pick up where we left off, and allow us to transition from simple machines to technology instruction using PowerPoint.
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