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.