GROUP TIME EVALUATION

1.Name of school; telephone number; name of teacher, and age/grade level

Lincoln Elementary School, 702- 799- 7133, Ms. Childress, Kindergarten classroom.
2. Beginning and ending time of group time.
10:10 to 10:40 am
3. Number of adults working with the children during the group time; number of
children in the group.
One teacher and 20 children.
4. Describe the nature of group time. Write a complete description of each of
activity(ies) during group time. Include in the description the way in which the
teacher involved the children in each activity.
Large group time- Teacher was going to read a poem about plants. The vocabulary
word was seed, she started by asking the children what they thought a seed was, they
turned to a partner and asked each other and they each answer what they thought.
Then asked if anyone wanted to answer called on a few children. After she asked if they
knew what a poem was, she remember them what a fairy tale was and explained that a
poem has rhyming words. Asked was an author does and children answered. Started to
read it bit by bit and made signs with some of the words for example picking weeds and
signs of digging a hole. Once they finished the poem they talked about the sequence
and reread the poem once again noticing the beginning, middle and end of it. Then after
that she put a music video on the projector for children to sing and dance the video was
about the alphabet. After that she showed them cards with letters and they had to make
the sound that the letter made, also tried to do activities with the letters for examples
with K they would karate kick or with J they would jump. They had a letter for the week
this week was T they learned a song that would teach them how to write it.
5. How appropriate are these activity(ies)? Explain.
The activities were appropriate because the teacher incorporated movement and
allowed the children to be active and lose energy which helped them pay better
attention.
6. How long was the group time? Is this appropriate for the age of the children?
Explain (Include the children’s ages in your answer.)
The group time was 30 minutes yes, because children seem to be enjoying the activities
that they were doing and they were fast pace lessons and they weren’t doing the same
thing they were different activities.
7. How appropriate was the space used for group time? Explain.
The space was appropriate because they had a lot a space to move around and dance
they were able to be sit down and have space between them, their space was as big as
a carpet with all the letters of the alphabet.
8. How did the teacher bring the children together and begin group time?
Children were coming back from another class before they enter the room the teacher
told them that they were going to go to the carpet to read a book.
9. What percentage of the time were the children actively vs passively involved in
the group time? Is this appropriate? Explain.
In the activities they were always doing something, so they were actively involved when
reading the poem they would make movement of digging or planting, with the music
video they were dancing, for the cards they were making move movement about the
letters like jumping for J. this is very appropriate because children this age need to be
actively moving or they will lose interest very quick if they just have to be sitting around.
The only moment when they were passively was in the beginning when introducing the
vocabulary and introducing the poem.
10. How did the children react to the group time?
Children were enjoying the poem and being able to pretend doing what they book talked
about and they loved being able to dance around with the video.
11. What evidence of flexibility, on the part of the teacher, did you observe while
she was conducting the group time? Support with observed examples.
The teacher put a pause on her lesson when a mother texted her pictures, one of the
students shared that she had baby bunnies in her house she shared the pictures with
the students.
12. Was there any individualization to accommodate special needs of children
during the group time? This addresses both children with special needs and the
typically developing child who is exhibiting a need that the other children are not,
e.g. shorter attention span, higher need for attention, lack of understanding of
activity, etc. Support with observed examples.
I did not observed individualization for any children they were all able to choose were to
sit and she didn’t address any children to recalled events or anything.
13. Did one gender tend to engage in inappropriate behaviors more than another
gender during the group time? Support with observed examples.
No, children from both genders in a few instances got distractions.
14. Describe inappropriate behaviors that occurred during group time and the
behavior management techniques the teacher uses. Discuss the effectiveness
and appropriateness of the techniques used.
Children would just get distracted; one boy had a chap stick in his pocket and he was
playing with it and a few girls were very talkative and some boys would try to play
around. The teacher just said some children aren’t doing the right thing and children
would immediately pay attention again. These behaviors all happen at different times
and not at the same time.
15. Describe how the teacher ended group time.
The teacher explained the worksheet they were going to do and organized the tables to
what centers they were going to go. Then they all when to their tables and she took
some children to the back into smaller groups.
16. What activity followed group time? Is this appropriate? Explain.
Some children were in smaller groups with her, others went to the computers and
others went to their tables to work with their worksheet. The worksheet part is not
appropriate because they should have that kind of work but it was just coloring pictures
so it was probably to keep them busy while she worked with the smaller groups.
Evaluation:
Write an overall evaluation of the group time experience. Be sure to include
supporting explanations for your conclusions regarding these various elements.
I believe the group time experience for the children was very beneficial and appropriate
because I was able to observe a couple of strategies mentioned in the Developmental
Appropriate Practice book.
• When children are talking, teachers take into account their capacities as
speakers, giving children time to express themselves. Page: 225
• Teachers model and encourage calm, patient behavior and facilitate children
development of self-regulation by supporting them. Page: 227
• Adults teach children the pleasure and importance of physical activity, as well as
body and spatial awareness and key movement skills (catching, jumping, etc.)
Page: 232
• Physical activities are integrated into various learning experiences throughout the
day. Page: 232
• To enhance children’s listening skills, teachers create regular opportunities for
children to actively listen to and converse with others and work together. Page:
234
• Teachers provide opportunities for oral responses to stories. Children are
encouraged to describe events, retell stories or parts or stories, and give simple
directions to others. Page: 234
The all children were able to participate in the group activity either by talking with
partners, answering individual questions and by answering questions directed for
anyone to answer. The pace of the activity was fast but children were able to follow
 along to the activities. The reading of the poem came from a teacher book so, that
was part from the curriculum that had to be implemented because it came with
different instructions and it wasn’t a book the teacher choose. The other activities
seemed to be part of what the teacher wanted to teach like the letter of the week.

POWERFUL INTERACTION OBSERVATION

Use the following format typing first what is in blue and then writing your
response. Date: 15/Nov/2018 School: Lincoln Elementary School
Teacher: Ms. Childress Age of Child: 5 years
Time: Write the beginning and ending time of the observation (i.e. interaction
between child and teacher)
10:50 to 11:10
Setting: Write a brief description of the context in which the interaction occurred,
including the age and gender of child. If you use a different class than in the
preceding observation, be sure to also include a brief description of the new
setting; number of adults present; and the age and number of children present.
Same classroom as other observation, 5-year-old boy, the teacher had a small group in
the back of 4 children at the time, other children finished and went to their seats.
Interaction: Write a detailed objective anecdotal observation of the interaction
between the teacher and the one child. Recording everything the teacher says
and does, and everything the child says and does in complete detail.
The teacher was teaching to sound out the letters in a word and how to write the letters
to make the word with individual whiteboards for them. She would say words and they
had to write the letters (I’m guessing they already knew the words like sight words).
Starting with the first letter and the they would keep adding more letters until they
finished the word like hit, hot, cat, car. The boy was stuck on trying to read the word
“hot” but he would read “hit” the teacher would tell him what sound those the O make
but when he read it it was hit the teacher smile and the children started laughing
because they knew he was wrong again. The interaction finished when another children
came to the table and looked at the board and helped the child figure out the sound.
PI Characteristics: Using Powerful Interactions by Dombro, Jablon and Stetson,
describe the Powerful Interaction (PI) behaviors you observed the teacher using.
Support each behavior with one example from your observation + cite the page
number in the text where you found each behavior.
The teacher started laughing with the children when he knew he got the word wrong
again. Laugh with children- page: 117
The teacher always talked to him with respect and tried not to laugh at first we he was
wrong then she laughed with him. Show respect- page: 53
She asked the children was sound the letters made. Ask questions- page: 123
Improvement: Describe the specific PI behaviors, that if included, would have
improved this interaction. Cite the page number in the text where you found each
behavior.
Link the new to the familiar- page: 129 -She could have used other words that the child
new that made the same sound linking what he already knew with the new learning.
Help children see themselves thinkers- page: 79 -Give enough think to answer and get
children to think first before saying.
Solve problems together- page: 107 -She could have given the children another word
and keep going until they solve it together.