Ms. D's Lesson Flow (Field Visit # 3)

Thursday, October 25, 2007

General Field Notes:

Robin and I arrived at 8:30 in the morning in order to see the morning routine of the class and the content lesson for the day. As we walked in the room, children were seated around the room (most at desks, some up near the library) reading self-selected books or working on additional assignments. There was a low hum in the room as children spoke softly to one another, but they were working independently for the most part.

8:45 – Announcements – 11 minutes. Because Friday is a teacher-work day, these are end-of-the-week announcements. Ms. D walked over, turned the lights off (leaving the lamp on her desk turned on), and all the children went back to their desks immediately. She closed the door and the children sat quietly listening. A few students were trying to continue reading and Ms. D responded “Put your books down please, don’t try to read in the dark.” Some high points of the announcements included:

- No school tomorrow.

- Today is the last day of the semester.

- Make-up math and reading assessments for 2^nd grade were occurring in the morning.

- Citizens of the week. (These were children that followed the “Bobcat way.” They were nominated by teachers for their good deeds throughout the week). Two children in the class had been nominated, the class automatically clapped after hearing their names.

8:56 – Ms. D goes through the lunch sticks – double checking lunch choices and marking on the sheet for the office. Note: the children were COMPLETELY quiet during this process and as Ms. D sat down in the back to prepare 2 girls for make-up standardized testing. She did not ask them to be quiet. They just were.

9:00 – Ms. D finishes the lunch count. “Here’s the math problem: there are 20 people normally here, 1 person is absent, 8 are packing, how many people are buying?” She gives them plenty of time to complete the math problem (some do in their head, some on paper) and raise their hand. Almost all children had their hand up before she called on a boy to answer. He was allowed to pick a friend and the two of them took the attendance and lunch count up to the front office.

9:03 – Ms. D calls the children to the morning meeting by table number. She quickly runs down the schedule for the meeting: “Ok, we’re going to do our greeting, then the date...” The morning meeting consisted of:

- Greeting: Ms. D went around the circle and each student said good morning to their lunch buddy from the day before. They then told the class what their lunch buddy’s favorite thing to do was on a rainy day. i.e. “Good morning, Janet.” “Good morning, Bonnie.” “Bonnie’s favorite thing to do on a rainy day is take a nap.” “Janet’s favorite thing to do on a rainy day is eat soup.” Ms. D commented on each one of these. If a student forgot she would lower her voice to a whisper and say, “Did you forget?”

- Date: “Tell someone next to you what today’s date is.” The students turned to their neighbor and said the date. Ms. D put the date on the calendar. “Tell me with your thumbs if it is the beginning, middle or end of October.” Students all put a thumbs down. “Yes, you’re right, it is the end of October. Can someone tell me what day of the week the last day of October will fall on?”

- Attendance: Students calculate the attendance by moving around on a 100 chart. They then add one straw to the ones place of a pocket chart which is separated by place value.

- Weather: Ms. D has someone hand her the Daily Progress she brought in. She pulls the front section off and pulls off the last page. She folds the paper in half so just the weather portion is showing and tacks it to the bulletin board. “Someone tell me one part of weather.” A student responds, temperature. Ms. D looks at the temperature expectation for the day. She circles it on the newspaper and reports it to the children. She then tells them the temperature from Wednesday, asks if the temp has gone up or down and then adjusts the paper thermometer accordingly. Another student reports precipitation, and Ms. D reports that there is a 90% chance of precipitation that day. She compares this to 9 red marbles and 1 blue marble in a bag to help the children understand the probability of rain. The last thing they go over is the moon phase. She asks the students what country we live in, a student responds, and Ms. D circles the map of the US on the paper. She then points out Virginia.

- Stretching: Ms. D has the students stand up in a circle and they begin to stretch, touching their toes, rolling their necks. They also practice slow breathing.

- Announcements: It is S’s birthday. She comes, stands on a chair while we all sing happy birthday to her. She is then allowed to choose a pencil from a selection of 5 provided by Ms. D.

- Table Share: Since it is the last day of the week, one table has the opportunity to bring a share. Table 4 had the privilege this week. Each child introduced their share item and then fielded at least three questions from the class. They then passed their share around the circle for everyone to look at. Ms. D reminded them, “Remember to be very careful with your classmates’ things, treat them how you would want your items to be treated.”

- Other Announcements – Flat Stanley is back! The classroom is apparently participating in the Flat Stanley program. The children’s pictures are pasted onto Stanley’s head so each student gets to travel (i.e. Flat Sarah went to NYC). “Positive Paws” - Ms. D hangs little yellow sheets of paper around the bulletin board with good-deeds from the students. (Note: check to see who writes these – students? Ms. D? Other teachers?)

During the morning meeting, J had trouble sitting still. He was very fidgety and did not have much control over his body. Ms. D had softly responded to his behavior, “J – please sit still,” “J – please move down here.” Each time, J seemed to get very overwhelmed and put his face in his hands. In the middle of the Flat Stanley discussion, Ms. D reminds J to keep his body still again. His face goes in his hands. Ms. D asks him what is wrong. He asks Ms. D if he can go to his seat. She says, “sure.” J returns to his seat and puts his head down. A second teacher in the room (possibly J’s instructional aide?) goes back and talks to him quietly. A few minutes later they both return to the circle and J’s behavior has changed.

9:30 – Content begins - weather. Ms. D introduces the lesson by having the children stand and sing a song they learned the day before about the water cycle.

“Water travels in a cycle, yes it does. Water travels in a cycle, yes it does...” The song includes the words evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. The children perform hand movements with the song.

The children sit back down in the circle and Ms. D starts reading a book about weather to them entitled What Makes it Rain?

While she is reading a few students get fidgety and she states in general terms to the class, “Please keep your body still. Thank you.” Two girls are sitting on the pile of carpet squares and do not seem to be sharing the space well. She has mentioned this to them a few times already this morning and states, “Both of you come off.” And then returns to the story.

“I’m not going to read the whole thing because we’re running out of time, I’ll just show you some pictures.” Ms. D continues to flip through the book, showing some important pictures and reading bits and pieces of the text. She then provides instructions for the activity. Students will be continuing to work on their stories – “If I Was a Raindrop.” She reminds everyone that although there will be some make-believe in the story (“You’re not really a raindrop!”) that they need to include facts as well and use the words precipitation, condensation and evaporation. She reminds the children that if they need help they can access the books on the book rack (all about weather) or the “Science Journals” (textbooks) she will put out on their tables. “Remember to use the index!” She then asks children to repeat the directions to her to make sure everyone is clear on what they will be doing. “Write your WHOLE story before you begin to illustrate.” She dismisses the children from circle by table number. Ms. D works with one child at the front table, helping him with his story and sounding out the words.

9:50 – “Boys and girls, it’s now time to go to READ. Put your story safely in your desk and line up when I call your table.” She asks the students to put the science textbooks on the front table.

Two students are at the front table stacking the textbooks. The boy begins to move them from the table over to the shelf by the window where they are normally kept. The girl asks him quietly, “Do you think Ms. D wants you doing this?” He raises his shoulders as if to say, ‘I don’t know.’ She responds, “Then maybe next time you won’t do that.”

9:55 –Ms. D is in the hallway, providing her READ achievement group as they enter the room. She tells each group, red, blue and green, which station they will be starting with. She then enters the room, turns the lights off and states, “you have a countdown of 10 to get ready.” Students begin to scramble. She instructs the back table (independent station) to silently read a book of their choice. The children hurry up to the library to choose a book. Some children select picture books (they return to the library after finishing, return the book and select a new one), other children select “chapter books.”

Ms. D sits down at the back table with her “guided reading” group. (I put this in quotations because this is how she refers to the group, but it is not guided reading in the literal sense). All the children begin to speak at once.

Ms. D: “I can’t understand you at all – because you’re all talking at once.” Now, put your homework binder under your chair and get out your book and paper [homework – stop and writes].

The children pull out their book, A Toad for Tuesday and their stop and writes. Ms. D provides instruction for their center time. “I’m going to go around and everyone will share their somebody.” Students share their stop and writes. Ms. D then asks them why they think she chose this book to go along with their kindness unit. Students share their thoughts.

Meanwhile, the students in the middle group were doing word study work. They were paired up and selected either a shoebox or file folder activity. Most were working with compound words (e.g. put two halves of a peanut together to make a word and then deposited in the shoebox which was covered with an elephant). Some children had clipboards with either notebook paper or a worksheet and were recording the words they created. I never got to observe where these papers were submitted but I assume they were not only to help students with repetition of the compound words, but also to hold them responsible for completing the activity.

After discussing A Toad for Tuesday, Ms. D told the students to go get an “open court” book from the shelf under the window. I believe these are the basal readers that are required. She asks them to use the table of contents to find the story “The Elves and the Shoemaker” and to locate the place where the stopped the day before. She asks the students to re-read the part they read yesterday so they could review the material and review their place in the story. She asks a student to summarize for the rest of the group. Then she has each child read one page aloud as the rest of the children “follow along” with their fingers.

At this point, a child from the word study group approached me and asked, “what is this word?” She showed me a card with the word depart written on it. I told her, “let’s try to break the word up into pieces that you know.” We decoded “de” and then “part” and she concluded the word was “depart.” I asked her if she knew the meaning of the word and she shook her head no. I explained the definition and then used the word in a sentence for her. She then bounced off, back to the center.

10:20 – Ms. D to the guided reading group, “we’re going to rotate now, I want you to think about kindness and what this unit means to you.” And to the rest of the class, “Ladies and gentlemen, now we’re going to change centers.” She gives the children instructions and counts down from 10 while they change centers.

Guided reading group number 2 arrives and pull out their book Gulliver’s Stories. Ms. D asks them to remove the post-it notes because they would be handing their books in to her that day. One student did not have his book. Ms. D asked if he knew where it was.

Student: “It’s at home.”
Ms. D: “Do you know where it is at home?”
Student: “Yes.”
Ms. D: “That is two books you have at home now. No more books until you bring those back.”

Misbehavior Observations:

Ms. D’s class was extremely well-behaved today. She dealt with issues such as J’s frustration in morning meeting very well – allowing him to return to his seat and calm down. I need to e-mail Ms. D and ask her if J has any special needs and if the aide stays with him all day (she left with him when he moved classes for READ). She also had very good control over the class during center time and children seemed to be very aware of the routines and noise level allowed.

Lesson Discussion:

Ms. D provided Robin and I with a large chart title “GPS Navigation” with the SOLs that would be covered in each subject during the next quarter. She told us we could choose to teach any lesson, in any subject, full-class or small-group. We did not have a chance to talk to her after our visit but in our weekly e-mail plan on providing her with ideas for our teaching plans and asking for her input. Robin and I decided not to co-teach any of the lessons, seeing as how that is not typical practice once we get into the field. We will brave it alone! With Ms. D’s approval, Robin will teach one full-class content lesson on Native Americans, and I will teach one full-class writing workshop focusing on either business letters or journals. We each plan to teach one small group during morning READ time, Robin taking one group and me taking another. We hope to do this on the same day. We hope to finalize plans this week.

Ms. D's Management System (Field Visit # 2)

Monday, October 17, 2007

Because of our assignment issue, Robin and I had to make two visits to observe Ms. D in one week. Knowing her daily schedule this time allowed us to view more instructional time and to see a full literacy period. The general daily schedule is as follows:

8:30 to 9:00 – Morning meeting
9:00 to 9:50 – Content
9:50 to 10:50 – READ
11:00 to 11:30 – Lunch
11:30 to 11:55 – Recess
12:00 to 12:45 – READ
12:50 to 1:45 – Specials
1:50 to 2:45 – Math
3:00 – Dismissal

We still need to clarify with Ms. D the “Content” session (assuming science and social studies – which subjects on which days?) and the specific specials that occur.

As we noticed from the schedule, READ (the literacy block) is split into two separate sections. The first, before lunch, is small group work on Mondays and writer’s workshop on Wednesdays. The session following lunch is whole-group instruction. Since we wanted to see both, we stayed for a three-hour block and studied our own schooling outside while the kids were at lunch!

9:50 to 10:50 – READ Writer’s Workshop –

Because it is a Wednesday, the children are participating in a full-group writer’s workshop. The enrichment teacher, Miss Gift, is pulled into the classroom to assist with instruction. For this one-hour slot there are three adults in the room – the aide, Ms. D and Miss Gift. Most instruction seems to come from Miss Gift.

10:00 – Students are working on their first draft of stories, also known as their “sloppy copies.” They are working individually and Ms. D and Miss Gift are walking around the room answering questions and observing student work. Miss Aide is seated at the back table.

Student asks Miss Gift a question.
Miss Gift (voice level 5/10): “That is not an appropriate question. Where were you while we were explaining this?”
Student:
Miss Gift: “Ok, then it is an appropriate question.”
Miss Gift moves over and quietly begins explaining instructions to the student.

10:05 – Interruption 1: Miss Gift stops the class to explain that the children should not be consulting a dictionary while working on sloppy copies. “You slow your thoughts down when you try to spell, we want to keep our thoughts moving while we write.”

10:10 – Interruption 2: Miss Gift tells the class they need to slow down with their work. Two boys start acting up a little, getting fidgety in their seats – touching each other. Ms. D walks over and leans back on the couch next to one of them. She places her hand on his shoulder. The behavior stops.

10:12 – One of the two boys, E, is talking to other children at his group. From across the room while still seated at the back table, Miss Aide addresses him (voice level: 6/10):

Miss Aide: “E! You do NOT need to be talking to anyone. If you are talking to them, you’re disturbing them. If you’re disturbing them they can’t do their work. I can hear you the entire way back here.”

10:14 - Interruption 3: Miss Gift stops the class again to explain the power of a question in storytelling. She suggests that they incorporate rhetorical questions into their stories to help engage the audience. “Go team.”

10:16 - Jay approaches Miss Gift and asks for a pencil.

Miss Gift: “In the black basket. Wait a minute.... Jay, have you not had a pencil this whole time?!?”

Miss Gift (voice level up): “What in the SAM-HEY have you been doing for the last... SIXTEEN MINUTES?!”
Ms. D: “Jay, come look at the clock. Look how much time you wasted.”
Miss Gift: “Jay, that is unacceptable. Go change your card.” (Behavior card in library pocket)

Ms. D: “Go change your card, Jay.”

10:20 - Interruption 4: Miss Gift explains that the children need to be skipping lines on their sloppy copies. She is eating a snack while walking around the room and talking about her “Pirate’s Booty” that is so good.

10:22 – Interruption 5: Miss Gift tells the class they are learning very difficult stuff! They are learning to proofread and edit their own work. They need to work hard until 10:40. There seems to be a conflicting message between instructions from Ms. D and Miss Gift regarding when the children should consult a dictionary.

10:26 – Interruption 6: Miss Gift, “Sorry to keep stopping you, but I figure if one person has this question, everyone has the same question. You need to look back and after every 5 sentences you need to expand that thought. Expand the BEEJEZUS out of it. Take each sentence you can and make it GLORIOUS. Again, these stories are waaaay too short. You need to expand, take your time.”

10:32 – Interruption 7: Miss Gift explains the best way to expand thoughts. E’s hand is currently up and waving frantically in the air. After a few seconds he gets impatient and his body starts fidgeting and he is out of his seat. He is drawing on the chalkboard which is right next to his desk with a pencil.

E: “Ms. DDDDDDDDDD”
Ms. D: “I am not even responding to that.”

10:35 – Interruption 8: Miss Gift explains that storytelling is a different kind of art

10:40 – Secretary comes on the PA system again, “Miss Gift, please come to the office. Miss Gift to the office.” Miss Gift turns and addresses the class.

Miss Gift: “Ok, who told on me? ... Why am I going to the office?”
I did!”>
Miss Gift: “Well, none of you are my friends anymore. If I get in trouble – you ALL are getting in trouble.”

Miss Gift exits the classroom.

Two boys begin to act up – children begin to look at others’ papers and read their stories.

Ms. D: “Um...ladies and gentlemen there.”

E has his story paper stuck to his lip and is moving it up and down and giggling. He makes a comment to his neighbors.

Ms. D: “E – that is not appropriate to share that here.”

C goes over to the manual pencil sharpener and begins to sharpen his pencil.

Ms. D: “C – you have sharpened your pencil several times this morning. That’s enough.”

10:46 – Lights go off. Ms. D instructs the students to finish the sentence they are working on and to put all papers in the red folder. She randomly selects two girls to pick up the folders. She tells the students to hold their red folder in the air when they are ready to have it collected.

Ms. D: “I’m going to countdown from ten and you need to be in your seats. 10......9..... Thank you B, thank you S, thank you to all of table 1. K – you need to move up here.” “E – you are moving next.”

10:50 – Ms. D instructs the students to get their word study homework out. She sits at the back table and calls the students by twos to approach her and hand in their work. If they do not have their homework – they discuss it with her at this time. Children begin to move around the room during the downtime. Talking ensues and E starts acting up, hands up in the air periodically.

10:58 – Ms. D steps into the hallway. One child is back by the cubbies. One is staring out the window. Ms. D returns to the room and begins the lunchtime routine.

“Miss X and Miss Y’s rooms – please return to your class. My class, if you need to get your lunchbox, please do so.”

A few children go back to the cubbies and then return to stand behind a desk. Ms. D grabs one of three different plastic cups with popsicle sticks inside. She begins to pull out the sticks and call the children to line up by which type of lunch they are receiving. First is lunch A, then lunch B, then peanut butter and jelly, then snack and finally the packers. Note: this is a different order than the children were called on Monday. The students are lined up between the back table and the sink in a straight line. They are whispering to each other but the room is generally quiet. Ms. D explains that there are 18 people in class that day and 18 is an even number. That means 9 children at each table.

“Ok, let’s face the way we’re traveling. We’re going to wait on Miss X’s class and then we’ll head to the cafeteria.”

Downtime while waiting. Ms. D is in the hallway. Some children start jumping around toward the back of the line.

11:00 to 11:55 – Lunch and Recess: Robin and I head outside to eat our own lunch and study for an upcoming science quiz. We discussed some of the positive and not-so-positive things we witnessed (note we did wait until we got outside to do this!!)

12:00 to 12:45 – READ Whole Class Instruction:

12:03 – Children enter from recess. Soft music is playing and the lights are off. “Drink and head down” Ms. D reminds them. Children come in, take a drink (5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and you’re done they remind each other if taking too long) and go to a seat and put their heads down on the desk.

12:05 - “Take your two minute rest please,” Ms. D reminds them.

Routine: Children put one finger in the air if they need to use the restroom – most do. It seems as if one boy and one girl can be out at the same time. There are no passes. Ms. D recognizes each child with their finger up by saying their name and then “there is a line, you will have to wait.” “Put your hand down please, there is a line.” Two fingers go up if the child wants to return to the water fountain.

Meanwhile, Ms. D is collecting books from the small class library for whole group instruction. She pulls the projector cart over and places a transparency on top.

12:09 – “Heads up.” Immediately Ms. D starts writing on the ELMO.

Student: “What if we can’t see?”
Ms. D: “Then you may move.”

Students begin moving chairs around to face the front of the classroom. Some children seem to be straining to see.

12:10 – Instruction begins.

Ms. D: “What is the lead of your story?”
Student: “The beginning.”
Ms. D: “That’s right, what else?”

Ms. D: “Ok, apparently we need to discuss this with our groups. Please take 30 seconds and talk amongst yourselves.”

12:11 – Instruction continues with several children providing input. “Put your hands down. I’m so glad you have good information though.” Ms. D starts reviewing different types of introductions, starting with dialogue. She writes the word dialogue on the transparency.

Ms. D: “What is this word?”
Student: “Dialogue.”
Ms. D: “That’s right, everyone say this with me.”
Class: “Dialogue.”
Ms. D: “Good, dialogue means...”

She picks up a popular children’s chapter book and reads the introduction to provide an example. She finds another book and reads the first few lines.

12:14 – “Please raise your hand if you’ve started a story this way.” Ms. D moves about the classroom. A number of hands go up. “Raise your hands please.” “Jacob – you need to sit on your bottom sir.”

12:15 – Ms. D continues in this manner, listing several different types of leads on the transparency – having the children chorally read the word and then she reads examples out of books such as Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web and others.

12:19 – Review of types of leads and draws a small icon next to each one so the students can recognize the difficult words. Then she reads aloud a few introductions out of different books and asks the children to determine the kind of lead. They answer chorally.

12:21 – E is out of his chair and basically falling over the couch. Ms. D quietly leans forward and says “sit back E.” He does.

12:22 – Ms. D provides instructions for the activity in which children receive a pile of different books on their tables and go through to determine what type of lead they believe the book starts with, write their idea on a postie and move on to another book. “Can you clean your desks off please and move your community basket to a convenient place.”

12:23 to 12:24 – Passing out books and materials.

12:25 – In response to something E has said or done, “E – you do not. You need to apologize to your group.”

12:26 – Passes out more books while kids work. Children seem to be slightly distracted by the sheer volume of books at their group (even though only a handful) and how much they like or dislike the book.

12:27 – “Freeze your bodies, I think we’re a little confused.” Ms. D reviews instructions.

12:28 – Four children get up to get pencils out of the black box. C is at the manual pencil sharpener again.

12:29 – “Freeze. I’m going to add a category but I’m going to wait until I have everyone’s eyes.” More discussion regarding directions. Ms. D adds a choice to the transparency.

12:30 – Children return to the activity at hand.

12:31 – C is at the electric pencil sharpener at the back of the room. “C – no more sharpening your pencil today.”

12:33 – “One minute warning.”

12:34 – Lights go off. Ms. D picks up a book and reads an example.

Ms. D: “Everyone needs to be in their seats. What type of lead is that?”
Student: “Question.”
Ms. D: “Well do you hear a question? No. How could we make that into a question?” She answers herself.

12:35-12:36 – Shuffling through books to find an example.

12:39 – Unrelated comment. “Yes, that’s right, but we’re not talking about that right now. Thank you though.”

12:40 – “Direction number 1.” Ms. D explains the first direction. There is a good deal of movement in the classroom. The lights are still off. “Direction number 2. Everyone stop and look here. What is direction number 1?” Student answers incorrectly. “No, everyone eyes up here.” Ms. D reviews directions.

12:41 – Cleanup. “You have a very slow countdown of 10 to get this accomplished.”

12:43 – “Ok, get your snack out.”

12:44 to 12:49 – Children eat snacks with lights off while Ms. D reads to the children out of the book “Gooney Bird.”

12:49 – Lights on. Children line up for special.

Classroom Routines: Ms. D has a number of routines established in her classroom to maximize learning opportunities. The ones observed today (and Monday) are as follows:

Class-Running Routines –

Lunch count: three plastic cups sitting on the back desk next to the door. One labeled “lunch A” one labeled “Lunch B” and one labeled either “Pack” or “Snack” (I can’t remember). Students take the popsicle stick with their name on it (I’m assuming sometime in the morning) and place it in the respective cup. For lunch line-up, Ms. D calls students grouped by cup.

Lunch line-up: students are lined up by respective lunch type. The lights are off and students wait quietly in line.

Entering the room from recess: Students enter the room following recess and go straight to the water fountain. They get a drink of water and return to their desk. The lights are off and soft music is playing and they rest their heads for two minutes before starting work again.

Lining up for specials: Ms. D calls the children to line up by table number.

Lesson-Running Routines –

Homework checking: Ms. D calls students to the back of the room in pairs to check off their homework assignments. This appears to be downtime for the rest of the class.

Writing down assignments: Each student has a “homework binder,” inside of which is their planner and probably a folder for loose papers. These seem to be grade-wide binders. After assigning homework, Ms. D asks the students to get out their homework binders, flip to the date, write the assignment and due date in. At times, she asks them to pull out the binders later to check and make sure they wrote the assignment correctly.

Interaction Routines –

Bathroom and water fountain: In order to minimize discussion, children raise their hand with one finger up if they need to use the restroom, 2 fingers if they need to get a drink of water. This allows Ms. D to acknowledge the child without breaking stride with the lesson – she can just point or say the child’s name and “go ahead” or “yes.”

Attention grabber: Lights off and/or “Freeze your bodies.”

Weinstein Activity – Page 197 –

Weekly schedule is listed at the top of field notes. Again, I’m not sure how much time is allocated to social studies versus science (it may be an every other day situation), this is something we need to discuss with Ms. D. The ALLOCATED time for each subject is as follows:

Literacy (READ): 1 hour, 45 minutes/day
Math: 55 minutes/day
Science & Social Studies: 50 minutes/day
Specials: 55 minutes/day
Recess/free time: 25 minutes/day

1 hour and 45 minutes is allocated to literacy each day. Because Robin and I got there a few minutes late from class – we did not get to see the entire first hour, which was conducted mostly by Miss Gift (with quite a few interruptions!) We decided to track the second part of READ (following lunch/recess) and the time chart is listed above in my notes.

Allocated time: 45 minutes, Actual Instructional Time: 26 minutes

Students enter 8 minutes late from recess; therefore, instruction begins 9 minutes late.
Snack begins 2 minutes early.
1 minute lost to pass out materials.
2 minutes lost because several children needed pencils from the basket.
1 minute lost because Ms. D had to repeat and clarify instructions.
3 minutes spent cleaning up and organizing paperwork.
1 minute lost shuffling through a book looking for an example.

Our Introduction to Ms. D's Room (Field Visit # 1)

Late this morning Robin and I got our first opportunity to meet Ms. D and observe her classroom. Ms. D is a second grade teacher with 20 students in her homeroom. (Although, that doesn't mean she has 20 students all day. She gets a different ability group for both math and reading and children are constantly filing in and out of her room. More on that later...)

When we entered the room, students were in 3 literacy groups. One large group was at the back table working with an aide, a second large group (of 8 kids) was at the front table working with Ms. D and the third group was spread out at individual desks around the room silently reading. When the children moved they shifted as a group. Ms. D told us to have a seat and that we would have a chance to talk at lunch. During this time Robin and I sketched our classroom maps (which I nerdily drew up in Microsoft Visio - you can take the girl out of engineering, but you can't take the engineering out of the girl) and made some general observations. We also brought the list of probing questions regarding Steele's 6 Functions and took some notes on what we saw.

So let's a look at Ms. D's room...
Some basic observations on the room itself before I get into Steele's functions. The room was a decent size, but with so many children moving in and out, it seemed much smaller than it was. Robin and I got to sit on the big blue comfy couch in the reading area in the front right portion. The literacy area was really nice and homey with a couch and a futon and a moderate number of books. An aquarium sat on the bookshelf with some type of lovely lizard inside. He was a little difficult to get to because a movable supply cart with the ELMO on top was sitting right in front of him. Beside Lonny the Lizard was a horseshoe table (shown here as oval) where Ms. D sat with her reading group. It was a pretty tight squeeze with 9 chairs around it, but gave Ms. D a great view of the rest of the room - especially the students working independently. Her desk was also toward the front of the room, facing toward the back. She had a computer and a nice relaxing lamp on top. Beside and behind her desk were piles of textbooks, workbooks and papers. The front of the room had a chalkboard but it was completely covered with chart papers and posters. Flat up against Ms. D's desk was the computer station which had two desktops and two chairs. The center of the room consisted of four clusters of student desks - each with between 5 and 6 desks. In the middle of each cluster was a basket that held some general supplies - markers, crayons etc. for student easy access. The pathways in between the desk clusters may seem generous in the map, but it was a very tight squeeze. On the right side of the room behind the reading center was a tall green plant and Ms. D had strung some Christmas lights on the wall which emitted a soft glow when the lights were turned off. Again, we had another chalkboard - this one covered as well. Library pockets were lined up with each student's name (homeroom kids?) and a construction paper tag indicating their behavior that day. In between the chalkboard and the door sat a cardboard mailbox center on the floor looked as if it was being used to store paper. Adjacent to the mailboxes, a large file cabinet with a television suspended above. Right next to the door was a student desk facing the wall.

The doorway was another tight squeeze. It sat off from the hallway a smidgen which was really conducive to keeping noise from the hall out of the classroom. Right as we walked in though we almost ran into another wall. There is a long block of...wall (?) that ran from the door to the other side of the room. Behind it were cabinets and coat hooks and cubbies for the kids. The front side was filled with cabinets for storage and shelves that held art supplies above and a sink, pencil sharpener, personal fridge and microwave on the counter. In front of the sink was a second U-shaped table with several chairs surrounding it that held a basket filled with pencils for students that forgot to bring one with them to class. There was also an easel in the back of the room holding a flip chart. The back shelves by the window were stacked with manipulatives such as tanagrams, puzzles and board games. One very noticeable attribute was that there was no student work hanging on the walls. The room was full but not personal.

Whew - a lot to take in. Meanwhile, Ms. D was working with groups and we got to pick up on a few of her instructional sayings and behavior management techniques. She asked the students several questions requiring high level thinking, especially prediction and personalization - "what do you think our new book will be about?" "do you agree or disagree with that?" After assigning the reading for the new few nights, Ms. D asked each student to pull out their homework binders and fill in the assignment. Each child had a white binder that they carried with them which held their assignment planner and homework for the night. Ms. D helped the students write the correct assignment in the planner and place the homework sheet in the back of the binder. Then she called for clean-up.

"Freeze your bodies. Everybody find a seat: 10, 9, 8... Are you ready for instructions? I see that M is ready. So is K." Ms. D then double checked that the students recorded their reading homework and sent off the other two classes back to their homerooms for the lunch period. At 10:55 off the kids went to lunch. Teachers have to drop kids up - and pick them up from lunch 20 minutes later to take them outside. During this short 20 minutes, we were able to schedule the majority of our subsequent visits and ask some great questions. Teachers have recess duty everyday so Robin and I went outside with the class and the three of us talked about our education backgrounds and some other odds and ends.

12:00 - back in the classroom. As the students come in the lights are off and they have the opportunity to get a drink of water "5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and you're done" at the fountain and then rest their heads for a minute and listen to soft classical music to calm thir bodies from recess. Next thing you know the class is up and running again doing a whole class reading lesson. Ms. D's ability-based reading group has returned and there is no assigned seats so the kids plop down wherever they find a spot. One child sat at the back round table with Robin and I. We couldn't tell if he was there because of behavioral issues, if he didn't like to sit with the groups, or because there weren't enough desks for all the students. As Ms. D ran the reading instruction she wandered around the room helping students as needed. She didn't seem to stand and teach from one certain part of the room - maybe why all the chalkboards were covered. The discussion went smoothly and unfortunately we had to slip out before the lesson was complete, but we will have the opportunity to return this Wednesday!

I took this opportunity to respond to the questions posted in the Weinstein text in full. I loved this chapter on classroom organization and after looking at the 6 fuctions I noticed a lot more about Ms. D's room than I probably would have otherwise. My responses to the function prompts are below. And until next time... KLM blogging off. :-)

STEELE'S SIX FUNCTIONS
Weinstein pp. 57-58

Security and Shelter

Does the classroom feel like a safe, comfortable place to be?
Yes. Room feels safe physically, socially and emotionally.

Does it contain furnishings and materials that are soft and responsive to touch?
Yes. Classroom has a “reading corner” with a large, blue cloth couch (facing away from desks), and a futon. There is also a large blue piece of carpet to help separate the space and a pile of carpet squares for student use. No other observations of “soft” furnishings outside this area.

Do children have freedom from intrusion and interference?
Yes. The door is in the back corner of the classroom and is set back from the hallway. Most noise from the hallway could be easily blocked off by shutting the door. Student coats and cubbies are behind a separated wall, therefore not distracting if kids need to get something out of a backpack.

Is there any opportunity for retreat or privacy?
The reading area could be used for retreat but is not very private. It is large and the partitions are extremely low. The cubby area provides an extreme amount of privacy, but teacher supervision is not possible.

Social Contact

Does desk arrangement facilitate or hinder social contact among students? Is this compatible with the explicit objectives?
Desks are arranged in clusters of either 5 or 6 students. The clustering definitely enhances social contact and the teacher is very explicit with “are you making a good choice by sitting next to that person?” Although this does send a partially contradictory message. The teacher does not seem to use a chalkboard or overhead, therefore it doesn’t seem as if student direction would be an issue.Because of the ability group rotation, there are always different students in the room. For these times, the teacher does not seem to have assigned seats, but children appear to have a good grasp on the arrangement. There are not enough desks in the afternoon and we observed a child sitting alone during visit 1 with no children to confer with (behavioral or space issue?)

Symbolic Identification

Are there displays of students’ work throughout the room?
We did not observe any student work on the wall – from either the teacher’s homeroom class nor ability classes. Ms. D had a few drawings hung behind her desk which may have been drawn from current students.

Is there evidence of the students themselves displayed throughout the room (e.g. name tags, photographs, silhouettes, brown paper bodies, multicultural materials, “star of the week” bulletin board, etc)?
Not for the most part. Each homeroom student had a name plate taped to their desk and a library card taped to the chalkboard indicating behavior. No other representations were present.

Task Instrumentality

Are frequently used classroom materials accessible to students?
Yes. Baskets in the center of the desk clusters contain markers, scissors and other supplies. A basket of pencils for general use is on the back round table and the pencil sharpener is on the counter by the sink.

Are shelves and cabinets well organized so that it is clear where materials and equipment are stored?
Materials are stored in general areas (games on this shelf, manipulatives on another) but are not clearly labeled. Textbooks are piled on the long shelf under the windows. Art supplies and papers cover the back sink area without a definite place.

Are pathways clearly visible?
No. Desks are relatively close together and students seem to walk every direction possible. There does not seem to be “pathways” exactly – just maneuvering.

Do pathways allow easy access in and out of all areas?
The room is very tight. The back table is close to the sink counter where students go to get a drink of water and sharpen pencils. The front guided reading table is also a tight area where students often have to slip by one another. Desks are slightly hodgepodge and adults especially have difficultly moving from one side of the room to another.

Does the seating arrangement allow students to see instructional presentations without difficulty?
Unsure. I can not tell where Ms. D actually does presentations (if at all), but it seems as if some students will have to turn around no matter what.

Pleasure

Does the room make people feel good?
The room had many different pictures, posters, and charts displayed – but they seemed to be overlapping one another so the walls seemed confusing. The reading nook was great, but otherwise the room seemed cramped. There was little personalization/information about the students themselves. Christmas lights lined the chalkboard so when the lights were turned out there was a nice glow. Does the room contain some type of softness (e.g. carpeting, pillows, bean bag chairs, cushions, rocking chair)?
Literacy center: large couch, futon, carpet squares, rug. Not present elsewhere in room.

Are there any amenities present (e.g. plants, aquarium, etc.)?
Aquarium with lizard sat on top of one of the bookshelves, but was blocked by the cart with the ELMO so it was difficult to see. A nice big plant sat behind the couch.

Is the classroom colorful and brightly decorated?
Yes, but little organization to the decoration. Wall coverings sat over top one another. Colorful posters and fun jokes backed with construction paper decorated the walls.

Growth

Does the classroom contain a wide selection of supplemental reading materials?
Dictionaries and books were present but not in large quantities. Special books were displayed by having their book jackets hung on a bulletin board. I noticed dictionaries, some books on magnets – but otherwise, not too observant to the genres.

Are the books displayed in a way that encourages students to engage in voluntary reading?
Book rack near the sofa has books facing out. The bulletin board with book jackets advertises special books. Other books were spine out on a small bookshelf and milk crate.

Does the classroom contain a variety of materials and equipment (e.g., science materials, art materials, puzzles, computers, etc.)?
Yes. Back corner includes many games, puzzles, manipulatives, tangrams, the sink area is filled with paint and art supplies. Two computers sit at a station directly in front of Ms. D’s desk.