Engineering Lesson

Last Tuesday, December 2nd, I presented my engineering lesson with my group members. We taught to a very small group of Kindergarteners about floating vs. sinking. We introduced the lesson by referring to the tub of water we had in front of us, and told them we were going to make our own boats to test whether they would float or sink. We had a table of recycled materials that the students were able to utilize to make their own boats. What really surprised me most about this lesson was how excited and engaged the students were without us having to prompt them. There was one student in particular that showed her enthusiasm for the project with a constant smile and excited gasps. It was clear to all of the co-teachers that this student was really excited about the content, which was really motivating for us.

Overall, the lesson went okay in my opinion. Each of the students were able to successfully tell us what the difference between sinking and floating was at the end of the lesson. Each of the students created a boat. While some floated and some ended up sinking, the students were still able to have a great learning experience and were able to correct their boats by taking off or adding more materials so they would be able to float. We went around in a circle and the students loved being able to test their own boat in front of the rest of the group.

The aspect of this lesson implementation that I wish could have gone differently was the student to teacher ratio. It was really hard to get any individual instruction in, since there were more teachers than there were students. I think it kind of threw the children off as well because one of the students asked when they first got to our station, “Why so many teachers?” It took a while for the students to recognize that we were all in charge of the teaching because they were hesitant to answer our introduction questions for the first few minutes of the lesson. The flow of the lesson took a while to get going because of the awkward setup with 5 teachers and 4 students. A way we could have prevented this awkwardness would be if we had decided beforehand which teachers were going to say what––if we would have created an informal script. 

We learned through this lesson the importance of have extension activities in case the lesson ends early and there’s extra time that needs to be filled. We ended the lesson about 10 minutes early and were able to make use of the extra time by having the students draw a picture of their favorite boats that they saw or created during the lesson. They were able to draw some pretty detailed drawings and were then able to describe them to us individually as we went around the table. Had we not had anything planned as an extension, we could have been spending a lot of time twiddling our thumbs searching for something ti fill the remaining time. 

Clinical Science Lesson Implementation

I implemented my clinical science lesson to my first grade classroom about the life cycle of pumpkins. The lesson included some gross motor movement and they applied what they learned in a partner game on the carpet. The students remained engaged throughout the lesson, which I considered the biggest strength of the implementation. I could tell that they were engaged because throughout the song they consistently had their eyes on me as they were learning the new motions and words. When it came time for the students to apply the knowledge through the card game, they were competitively showing interest and engagement by keeping score with their partners in a very animated way. They were actively participating, and I didn’t have to remind any groups to play the correct way or stay on task. 

If I could choose one area to focus on for improvement, I would choose the introduction. I had planned to introduce the lesson by asking the students to activate their prior knowledge by sharing what their families used pumpkins for. I wanted to go along with this concept and discuss with them that some families used pumpkins for holiday recipes, and others for decorations on the front porch. However, when I implemented the lesson, the introduction ended up being more of a concrete review about facts of pumpkins. While this is still a way of activating their prior knowledge, I should have stuck to the original plan that I had mapped out since it had more of a relational aspect to it. Students can relate to what pumpkins are used for around their houses at home or in their community, but facts are not as engaging and exciting to serve as an introductory piece to the lesson for them. Next time I plan and implement a lesson, I want to make sure I have a solid introductory piece and stick with that during the implementation phase. When students are off task, it’s my job to scaffold them to come back into the conversation that I had originally planned for.

During the lesson planning period, I found myself doing a lot more research on the life cycle of pumpkins than I thought would have been necessary. There are many different facts about pumpkins in general that I hadn’t been aware of, let alone all of the stages of the pumpkin growing process. I was under the impression that pumpkins begin as seeds and grow into a robust, round orange ball. However, once I used some resources to learn more about the process I learned that there are multiple steps that I had to master before I would teach it to the students. I wanted to make sure I taught the process to the students in a way that was motivating and interesting to them, and in a way that is outside of their everyday routine. I chose to introduce the life cycle by teaching them a song with gross motor movements. They were smiling and laughing as they learned the new song which gave me an indication that the students were enjoying themselves as they were learning the new content. Some of the students that don’t normally participate in class discussions were standing up and moving with the rest of the students, which made me confident that I had created a lesson plan that included differentiation for every type of learner in the class. 

As the lesson unfolded during my implementation, I found that it was very important to be as organized as I was. I had precut and laminated all of the cards for the “Pumpkin War Game,” and made sure that there were enough for each set of partners to have a set of cards. I also planned ahead and had a few of the decks picture only so the students that were struggling with reading had a fair chance to play the game without worrying about pronunciation and correct reading of the different words. This part of the lesson isn’t something that I could have saved for last minute, so it was very important that I had all of this preparation done beforehand. Coming up with accommodations for the learners that are struggling with certain aspects was important so that every learner could play the game and apply what they had previously learned during the implementation. 

The last part of my lesson was the individual hand outs at the very end for the students to practice all of the knowledge they had learned from the week about pumpkins and the life cycle. Each student received a mini-book about the life cycle of the pumpkin, with each stage that we had previously talked about on the pages. These mini books served as a unit wrap-up since they had been learning about pumpkins and studying them for the entire week prior. The students were responsible for coloring each of these pages with stages 1-7 as they read. By having an extra piece for the students to take away with them it helped to solidify what we had learned through gross motor and active application. 

Overall, I gathered at the end of the lesson that most of the students were on track and understood the content. Before they went to their seats at the end of the game, a student came up to me and said to me “that was really fun Miss Laine!” Hearing those words from the student helped me to feel confident that not only did they learn new content about the life cycle of pumpkins, but they had fun and took all of the material they learned to heart. I took a risk by using the gross motor song since the students aren’t normally exposed to that type of learning and I was not used to teaching in that way. I am glad that I took that risk because I got great results and confirmation that the students had fun. When the students learn and have fun after a lesson that I took the time to create and implement–I can’t ask for anything better! 

From Seed to Pie
Tune: 'The Farmer in the Dell'
(by Diane Donovan as found in  The Mailbox –Preschool,
The Education Center October/November 2003)

The seed is in the ground.
The seed is in the ground.
Hi-ho, the pumpkin patch!
The seed is in the ground.

Additional verses….
The seed grows a sprout.
The sprout grows a vine.
The vine grows a bloom.
The bloom grows a pumpkin.
We make a pumpkin pie!

Exceeds: Included the song that I sang in the implemented lesson
Lesson exceeds: Laminated the game pieces and gave to my CT to use for future reference as well as the lesson template

Sight Lesson Implementation

Last Thursday, Brittany and I taught our lesson to the Preschool class at Brigham about the sense of sight. We sang a song about using our eyes to see, read "The Eye Book" by Dr. Seuss, and created our own cardboard binoculars for them to use during our "I Spy" game. As Brittany and I were thinking about our past experiences in the classroom while planning for this lesson, we had to think about the different accommodations we would have to make–not all students in the classroom are confident with speaking fluent Spanish. We decided we would be making multiple references to the part of our body we use to see by pointing to our eyes throughout the lesson. While Brittany was reading the book, I was trying to prompt the students to point to their eyes every time they heard something about "sight." I would point to my eyes when it would occur, but the students didn't seem to be catching on to what I was asking them to do. They were listening intently to the story, but just seemed to watch me as I was trying to implement these non-verbal cues. They didn't make the connection as to why I was putting my fingers up to my eyes while Brittany was reading, but at least the ELL students had visual cues if they needed them and didn't fully understand what Brittany was reading about.

This lesson certainly related to my goal that I developed toward the beginning of the semester: learn the struggles that the ELL students experience and learn how to better accommodate them. Through the different experiences in the classrooms at Brigham, I feel more confident overall about different ways to accommodate those students. It's one thing to aide a lesson and take notes about what the different accommodations that were used. However, when planning for your own lesson for the first time in a class of ELL students, it becomes much more difficult and takes a lot of close consideration.

One of my fears when Brittany and I were first preparing for this lesson was how to engage a group of young children when they may not fully understand what our directions and activities would be. A strong introduction would be key to a successful lesson, since their initial understandings and engagement levels would develop right when we sit down to explain the topic. It was tricky to think of an introductory engagement piece that would hold the interest of all of the students. When we decided to sing them a song to introduce our topic, it proved to be a great way to get the students excited about what we were going to learn about. The students are probably not sang to every day, so this was something new and out of the ordinary which definitely lead them to pay attention to what we were doing, more specifically the words we were singing. While our first verse we sang didn't have any participation from the preschoolers, I didn't panic at this point because I knew they were soaking in what they were hearing and getting their brains ready to work and listen. The second time we sang the song prompting them to join us and they seemed to try their hardest to sing with us even if they weren't confident about the words.

The binocular creations seemed to be the most exciting and engaging aspect of the lesson for the students. They were the most talkative during this point, and openly engaged in conversations with the teacher aides about what they used their eyes to see. As the students were working we would all take turns asking the students "What do you see when you look through the binoculars?" This would give them time to reflect on what sense we are learning about without trying hard to think of a clever response. They would say "I see you!" or "I see a window!" Whatever response they came up with first, that was what they shouted out excitedly. It was really exciting for Brittany and I to see the kids as engaged and excited as they were about their creations. Even if not all of the students completely understood the content behind what they were working on, we were accommodating for them by asking small talk questions that were disguised as lessons about our theme. They didn't even realize that we were assessing what they were learning! One of the main take aways from this lesson was that ELLs' accommodations don't always need to be an elaborate change in the lesson plan–it can be as simple as assessing them with basic level questions that they are excited to answer.

Another take away I am thankful for after implementing this lesson was that coming up with activities that all students can benefit from can help ELL students to feel included whether or not they fully comprehended the material prior. I noticed while the students were working on their binoculars that every student was thrilled to be making something so out of the ordinary from their usual activities. It was clear that this was their favorite part of the lesson-every student's favorite part. The realization came to me that sometimes language barriers are not an obstacle in engaging a student in the lesson. The student I focused in on was the confused boy that I had remembered from the first session. I informally assessed him for a few minutes while all of the students were at work creating their binoculars. This boy seemed to be so happy to be working at his own pace, independently, with his friends on something that he wasn't being "graded on." It made me very grateful to get to witness a student that happy with what he was assigned to do, whether or not he understood why he was doing it. His day time teacher can speak some Spanish to him throughout his normal routine, but while the 276 teachers were in charge I can see how he could easily feel defeated seeing as we don't speak enough Spanish to know how to successfully communicate in his home language to him. However, once he was able to break away from the formal routine and let his creativity shine, he became engaged in a way that I had not personally witnessed from him before.

There are so many aspects I have yet to learn when it comes to successfully accommodating ELLs in my future classroom. However, after the experience in Brigham and this formal lesson I feel much more prepared and have more concepts and ideas about effective ELL teaching in my schema that I will use later on in my teaching.

Science Post #3 Recycling Lesson

Last Thursday, Lisa and Amanda gave their lesson to the Kindergarten class at Brigham about recycling materials. The students were introduced to some different materials that are commonly recycled, and they had to determine where those materials were supposed to go when they were done with it (the recycling bin). This was my 3rd time in a classroom at Brigham and my 2nd time in the Kindergarten room. As some other peers that were in the classroom with me had  mentioned, it would have been beneficial to know the plans beforehand so we could have had some input with some Spanish phrases like "papel" and "reciclar." However, with Lisa and Amanda teaching a clear and concise lesson and the extra hands that we provided as assistants, the students seemed to have a pretty significant grasp on the material that was taught.

My goal that I continue to reflect on for the ELL students in this classroom was to become more aware of their struggles and discover ways to better accommodate them. During the independent working time when the students were cutting pictures and pasting them in the correct categories, I determined a way to accommodate them in a small way. I started by having conversations about the different materials they learned about and tried to relate it to their activity. "What was the can made out of? Is foil made out of the same material?" With a blank expression in their eyes, I knew I needed to try something new. I grabbed the can first, and brought it over to one of the students. I simply pointed to the can, and pointed to the picture of the aluminum foil. Without using any conversation, I simply raised my shoulders as if to ask him "Is it the same?" Right away the boy was able to comprehend what I was asking him and he responded with a loud "yes!" He was then able to categorize the aluminum foil in the correct category. By using the manipulative we had talked about in class and then applying it on a personal level during independent work time, the student was able to relate and add a new concept to his schema.

Being able to have the preservice experience by getting to know these ELL students is so beneficial and important in our repertoire. Being able to appropriately accommodate and relate to ELL students is my biggest fear as a beginning teacher. However, I do feel more confident in the first part of my goal that was getting to know ELL's struggles through this experience. Before stepping foot into the Brigham classrooms, the only diversity I had dealt with in a classroom setting was of the Indian culture at my day care I worked at for the past few years. I have not personally had to deal with language barriers so this whole realm of ELLs is a new perception for me entirely. Growing up in my small farm town, I also hadn't dealt with cultural diversity as an Early Childhood student. All of my peers spoke English and barely any even had the slightest accent. Once I got to ISU, I was introduced to my first taste of cultural diversity. That's why I feel so fortunate to be able to teach in such a diverse classroom at Brigham; it's experience I wouldn't have received until later in my career otherwise, which may have been too late. I am fortunate that I will be able to draw from these experiences and look back on these ELL students and classrooms and take some of the accommodations I've discovered to heart.

This is a link to a website that has Spanish teaching resources. I would use this to familiarize myself with the different topics that are included so I will be more knowledgable to incorporate Spanish activities for my ELLs.
 Spanish Resources for Kids

EXCEED: Went over the required word limit and included a source for activities and ideas to teach Spanish to kids that I will use in my classroom one day.

Science Post #2 Living and Nonliving Lesson

Katie and Kristie implemented their science lesson in the kindergarten class at Brigham last Thursday. They chose to do their lesson on living vs. nonliving things and we got to take our students on a mini field trip to the playground. As I was observing and helping out during their lesson, I was made very aware of my original goal I had set before we started coming to Brigham. When I was initially thinking about how my experiences would be in the bilingual classroom, I was very worried about being able to accommodate the struggles that the bilingual students would be facing. I turned this worry into a goal by stating that I would find out what some of the biggest struggles English Language Learners face and learn how to better accommodate them. Communication was certainly one of the biggest issues that I faced in the classroom last Thursday, and the experience didn't give me confidence that I would be attaining my goal without some real help and intervention.

When we took the students outside, it was hard to keep them in their small groups since we were on their "recess territory." A lot of the students began with the concepts we had asked them about (finding an object and declaring it living or nonliving). However, it became very hard to bring them back to the topic at hand when they went into recess mode and starting running around and playing tag. Since most of my small group's primary language was not English, they didn't feel the need to listen to me–or potentially didn’t even know they were supposed to be listening–when I would instruct them to "come back to the group" or "don't hang on that branch." Their struggle was being able to understand and respect a teacher that had never seen them before and didn't know how to communicate with them in their daily, dominant language. As a teacher in training, this discouraged me because it made me realize that I really didn't know what to do about it.

Dr. Osorio was outside with us during the time that we were instructing the discovery activity, so she was able to communicate with the students in Spanish about coming back to the task at hand or rejoining their small group teacher. While it was very beneficial to have the help out there on the playground during our activity, it’s a harsh realization that I may not have that kind of help in my future classroom when I need it. If I have a student that’s falling behind because they don’t understand my instructions in their Second Language, it’s my job to make sure I can figure out how to accommodate them so they don’t fall any farther behind on my behalf. As my goal will continue to unravel during my time at Brigham for the rest of the semester, I’m hoping that I will be able to see more bilingual practices implemented that I will be able to use as my own one day. While this experience didn’t leave me confident or prepared for the bilingual challenges both my students and I will face, I am hopeful that I will continue to learn through my observations and experiences as we finish this semester.

In the mean time, in order to better prepare for the student’s challenges I will face next time I’m in the classroom, I will begin to do some research about different practices and activities teachers have used in their classrooms. For starters, I can make myself familiar with some key “school” words such as “pencil” and “markers” and “playground.” If I add a few new words to my vocabulary each week, by the end of the time at Brigham I will have studied and hopefully be able to implement of those words on a daily basis to help communicate with the students better. 

I have bookmarked this website into my internet “favorites” tab because after browsing through it I have discovered it will be a very useful resource to use throughout my time at Brigham as well as my years ahead teaching my own classroom.

I Teach Bilinguals Web Blog

Exceeds: Went over the word limit and included a link to a useful bilingual education resource and ended on an inspirational quote.

Science Post #1

My goal that we wrote in class about working with English Language Learners was to become more aware of their struggles and find out how to better accommodate them. I saw an example of some of their struggles first hand when we were playing the “get to know you” game on Thursday at the beginning of class. The concept of the game was to step into the circle if a classmate had mentioned something that you liked. While we were going around the circle listening to everyone’s “likes,” there was a boy in the circle who looked as if he was not aware of anything going on in the game. Anytime we stepped in and out of the circle, he turned to his friend standing next to him and mimicked the actions he did throughout the game. As I studied closer, it appeared as if the boy didn’t speak English because his friend he was next to was repeating what the classmates and teachers said in a different language to him. One of the struggles that English Language Learners continually deal with is the inability to follow directions if their teacher and peers don’t speak enough of the primary language that they do. It surprised me during our visit that while this boy was clearly struggling, the teacher didn’t step in to help him and he didn’t ask one of us for clarification.

When I was first writing my goal, I had no idea how I was going to progress towards reaching my goals since I hadn’t had much experience in bilingual classrooms. After having spent an afternoon in a classroom with ELLs, I have a better idea of some of what they go through on a daily basis in a school where their predominant language isn’t spoken. They have a harder time following direct instructions and a harder time fully grasping the purpose of lessons and activities because they focus all of their energy and concentration on mimicking their peers so they appear as if they understand the content. Now that I’ve had a better opportunity to see these struggles firsthand, I’m going to be more observant towards ELLs while doing instruction, and come up with a system to better communicate the message I’m trying to send so every student can understand what’s expected. One example of a way I could present this concept in the future is to incorporate dual-language key words throughout the school day from day 1. The first day of school the students would walk into a classroom filled with labels in English and Spanish (i.e. “Crayons” and right underneath it would say “Crayones”).  If there are any other languages that are represented in my classroom, I would make sure to incorporate those in the labels too. Not only would it be a good idea to have these written on labels, but I would also reference them throughout the day so the ELLs can hear me using their language throughout the day in front of the other students so they feel the urgency to pay close attention since I’m taking my time to learn and incorporate their language.

As of now, I don’t see that my goal needs to be revised or changed. I think it’s still relevant and I still have room to discover more struggles and misconceptions that ELLs deal with on a day-to-day basis.  Once I become more aware of these struggles, it will be time to set more goals as to how I’m going to better accommodate these students.

I found an article from the National Education Association that I found especially helpful in the “Strategies” section. It listed strategies to follow in order to successfully address ELL students.

http://www.nea.org/home/32346.htm

EXCEEDS: I went over the expected word count of 500 and included a beneficial article about how schools can successfully incorporate the use of ELL programs to best benefit the children.

My name is Laine Augspurger and I am a small town girl from Mahomet, Illinois. Mahomet is a town about 10 minutes from Champaign, where the University of Illinois is located. Mahomet only has one elementary school, so I attended the same school with the same non-diverse population for my entire childhood. I don’t recall much of my science experiences, however the concepts that I do remember were owl pellet dissections and natural disasters and weather-related activities. For example, with the owl pellet dissection–I remember being really opposed to the idea and not wanting anything to do with getting dirty and finding the regurgitated bones of an animal that an owl had eaten prior to our dissection. However, I got a chance to learn more about trying new things and learning about something I had never heard of before. I don’t remember much about the project itself, but I do remember my teacher making it interactively interesting to the point where I still remember to this day how easily she swayed my negative opinions about it and made it fun. Regardless of our diverse-lacking class, our teacher still found a way to make an activity that many girls didn't find appealing to be fun and interesting. 

Once I got to high school, my science experiences became much more memorable than they were in elementary school. I have always thought of science the way I saw it through my earth science class I took my junior year. We studied geology, natural disasters and weather, which was not the greatest experience for me due to my unenthusiastic teacher. The topics were really interesting, but I found it hard to pay attention and the learning wasn’t interesting because of her lack of planning. I took a horticulture class my senior year which introduced me to a whole different type of studying and learning science that I had never had the opportunity to experience in the years before. We studied different types of flowers and trees, as well as learned how to make our own wreaths and bouquets.When learning science became fun and interesting to me, as it did in my horticulture class, it made me realize that it’s all about how the teacher’s teach it rather than the material we are learning about. 

Based on my past experiences in learning science, my learning philosophy stems from hands-on, interactive learning–the kind of learning that I personally benefitted from. I want to be able to instill the same excitement and newfound interest in a topic that they may or may not have initially been excited about learning. I think my background of having both positive and negative experience in the science realm will help me to better understand what young students want to see as they are in the process of building their own personal science autobiographies. I want my students to be able to look back on their experiences and remembering that I taught them in a way that they enjoyed and cherished, regardless if they remembered the exact material I taught them or not. 

I’ve had the experience to practice teaching science in a very informal way through my job at Next Generation School in Champaign over the past few summers. It gave me the chance to do some research in some different cross-curricular areas, science being one of my favorites. In this picture below, I made dirt and worm cups with some of my students and we discussed soil and decomposition while we got to eat a yummy treat. This is the kind of science fun I hope to do with my students in my future classroom one day!