Blog Entry #6

An area of diversity that is given to study deeper during the Graphic Organizer, and found in my service-learning classroom is Exceptional Students. There is a child with mild to moderate autism. Anyone on the outside wouldn't know any difference when looking at him, but while I would work one-on-one with him, I could tell that he is an exceptional student. The teacher explains to the other student that sometimes he gets an extra minute to complete tasks. While the students are on the rug during Math or English lecture time, and they are required to face a certain way and look at the teacher, this exceptional student isn't directed which way to face, but just asked to sit on the rug. 

The teacher doesn't differentiate the content for this student, but the Process and Products. The other day, while creating a mini book, the students were asked to cut the 4 squares out, place them in order and then glue them on. The teacher offered for this exceptional student to use glue or tape. He was instructed to do it the same way as the other students, but wasn't required to use the same process.

Blog Entry #5 Assignment

The evidence that I have seen in my Service Learning placement includes examples of the following:

The children in the first grade class with whom I work have ample time to work on math problems, with their math books and problems that are specifically designed for first graders. They also have designated time to discuss and learn about science. This is correlated to Sputnik and the implications from the Space Race that began when the Soviet Union was the first country to successfully launch a satellite into space in 1957. The next year, 1958, the US successfully launched their first satellite, named Explorer. The US felt they were behind in technology, math and science. This spurred implementation of more focus of math and science starting young in elementary school.

Another example of Brown v Board, that it is unconstitutional to separate black and white children in a public educational situation,  can be seen in the diversity among children in my Service Learning placement. I spend my time at an elementary school that is very diverse in ethnicity. In my first grade class by itself, there is 1 Hispanic, 1 Hawaiian and 1 Native American. As I walk the halls of the school, I have seen many African American, many Hispanic, and many Asian children. This is a prime example of the results of Brown v. Board.

Blog Entry #4 

In my concept map, I included in the creativity section to allow the students to create scenarios and situations for the learning, addition and subtraction to take place. I have seen my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Holden engage the learners in many meaningful ways. These include:  1. While teaching the first graders simple subtraction, she used the smart board and allowed the children to move around laminated pictures of cookies. Multiple kids were allowed to come to the board to add and "eat" the cookies, then the entire class would count how many cookies were taken away. 

In my concept map, under fun and games, I included to have the students encourage and cheer on other students when they have a success. 2. I saw this in the classroom, when after a small field trip, to say thank you to the volunteers, she asked the class which cheer they would like to give for each parent/volunteer. This gave the students choices and options and taught them to show gratitude and respect.

3. While teaching number order, the teacher created a game that each student worked on with another student. They would roll some dice, and then look at the number chart on their desk. If they saw the number, they would cross it out with a dry erase marker. It appeared more as a fun activity to the students rather than a math exercise.

A non-engaging exercise I witnessed was learning phonetics, while the children were sitting on the rug. The assistant teacher was showing screens on the white board, but lecturing to the students what all the words meant and how to create them. The teacher wasn't asking any questions, and if she did, she answered them herself. Very shortly, the kids were bored, picking on each other and not paying attention.  

To make this phonetics lesson more engaging, I would have laminated words, and letter groups that children can hold and come to the front. All the students can direct where each child can stand to create different words and sounds. Or another idea is to have the children, while sitting at the rug, to raise their hands and answer questions of words and sentences that have those word orders.