EDUC 304 Field Experience Reflection #2 Ashlie Carr During my student teaching I will be teaching 4th grade Science.

The school I attend for field experience has the fourth grade set up in a way that the students rotate classes and the teachers only teach one subject. There are five blocks about an hour each. So, I will be teaching the same lesson five times a day. When I arrive in the spring, my CT said that I could observe and help out for the first couple weeks and then I will start teaching when we get to Force, Matter and Energy. I will be teaching SOL 4.2 and 4.3 which includes direction, speed, motion, force, mass, friction and kinetic energy. In SOL 4.3 I will be teaching conductors/insulators, electricity, circuits and magnets etc. As far as I know, there wont be any interruptions like field trips or testing going on during the time Im teaching. I feel like one strength/asset I have to bring to the classroom is my energy and enthusiasm. Throughout my schooling, I have always enjoyed teachers who are excited about the material and they always have fun activities that help me learn. Its my goal to be a teacher that is enthusiastic about what Im teaching and I plan creative activities that relate well to the curriculum. My CT has a teaching style similar to mine in that we both like to have the students talking and participating in conversation during the lesson. While I teach, I like to be asking questions about the material and so does my CT. Our textbook talks about questioning and cuing and I agree with the way the authors present information about that strategy. Since my CT and I already use this strategy, I have been challenged to make sure Im doing it correctly. I want to make sure Im incorporating analytical questions in my teaching. According to the text, analytic questions prompt students to think more deeply and critically about the information presented (Dean 2012). So, I want to re-evaluate my own questioning style to make sure Im prompting

them to think deeper about the topics. With this in mind, Im really happy about how our teaching styles are similar because it wont be a conflict and I can enhance my teaching style by watching her! In order to teach the curriculum well, I want to make sure I have a really good grasp on what the SOL is saying, and I also want to make sure I have a good understanding of all the material. I have talked to my CT about what I need to teach them specifically, so I feel better about that part. As I have been working on my unit, I have been researching the information given in the SOLs. Looking up the SOL topics has given me a better understanding as well as better ideas for teaching it. I made sure that my unit was based on what I would be teaching in the spring so I could start thinking ahead and getting ready. So, my unit is specifically geared to my field experience. Therefore, I have been trying to incorporate teaching strategies Im learning in school while I plan. I feel that Im more of a curriculum developer in some ways because the SOLs are just a list of facts. If I was just an SOL presenter, then it would be like jeopardy! I really want to find ways to relate the SOLs to real life situations and not just teach what the SOLs have listed, but also things that are related that can help the students for a better understanding of the material. As Ive been planning and talking to my CT, I learned that the students are divided by ability level in the five blocks. Therefore, I will have to keep that in mind while planning. For the first couple blocks, I need to make sure I over plan in case they get done really quickly. In the last two blocks, I need to make sure I dont plan so much that they cant keep up and they dont get a good grasp on the information. In the last two blocks, I have noticed that they are very slow writers. When they are given a worksheet to fill out, the often have to do it quickly because there is only an hour in the block so they write incredibly sloppy. Our textbook talks about

summarizing and I thought this would be a strategy I would be beneficial for the last two blocks especially. I really liked the four rules about summarizing information that is laid out in our textbook. 1. Take out material that is not important to understanding. 2. Take out words that repeat information 3. Replace a list of things with one word that describes them (e.g., replace oak, elm, and maple with trees.) 4. Find a topic sentence or create one if it is missing. (Dean 2012) Although this is focused on writing/reading, I feel like its beneficial that the students know how to summarize the information they learn during a block regardless of the subject area. As a teacher, I need to provide graphic organizers and advanced organizers to help my students visualize, summarize and understand the main point of my lessonsespecially in the lower performing groups. My CT has been really good about telling me how to make accommodations and what sort of things I need to plan/do when thinking about the first blocks compared to the last two. I have no doubt I will be able to figure out what will work in my student teaching in this area because of the helpfulness of my CT. Im looking forward to being a student teacher in this class and I feel very blessed to have the CT I have.

Reference Dean, C.B., Hubbell, E.R., Pitler, H., Stone, B., (2012). Classroom instruction that works: Research-Based strategies for increasing student achievement. Denver, CO: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.