Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Blog Post 2- Literacy in my Clinical Placement
Although this is my second week at my clinical placement, I feel as if I still have not gotten a real feel for the way things go in the room. I was placed with a substitute teacher again, as my cooperating teacher was gone. The first day I was there, we did literacy for about thirty minutes. This was a worksheet booklet that worked on students' color words through Valentines Day worksheets. The substitute on that day also read aloud four books. The students seemed as if that was pretty normal to their day to day routine. Today, I showed the substitute how to work the SMART board and we were able to go more in depth with the lessons. The students took turns coming up to the SMART board and choosing words that began with D. They also played a sight word matching game. We also read aloud four books before the students started to get really restless. Afterwards, they went back to their seats and did worksheets for an hour. Both times, literacy has occurred in the morning starting at 9:30. The substitutes mostly just walked around the room demanding the students be silent during this time. The students seemed to be very restless and not enjoying the worksheets. They also seemed bored with the worksheets on their sight words that included "for" today and reviewing past ones. I thought this was totally not developmentally appropriate. Just watching the students complete this busy work made me cringe. I could not imagine having my students sit in desks most of the morning until lunch doing worksheets. I understand that there were substitutes both days and she wanted to give them something easy to do, but I thought this was a more difficult route than just giving the teachers the lessons to actually do them. I saw so many behavioral issues and the students had to keep getting up and moving their clip down both days ( which made me cringe as well). I now see how that is not an appropriate method for correcting behavior because the students do not get it. Both times I have been there the same students were on that level. I will be curious to see if that is different with my regular CT is there. Even though my clinical placement in second grade last semester was totally different, I see how this site could be different. We focused a lot on guided reading last semester, and it seems as if my CT this semester uses Daily 5. (I have not had the chance to really speak to her so I am not one hundred percent sure.) I see both methods as great ideas for the classroom. The students get a change to differentiate their reading in Daily 5, and in guided reading they acquire new skills and are leveled. After my experience the past two weeks, I realize that I will not use worksheets as the main activity. Frankly, it makes the day drag and a lot tougher. The kids were pretty out of control, they were bored, and they all complained of how easy it was. I saw no collaboration and sharing of ideas. I saw not paired reading. I mostly saw "literacy overkill". They did not really gain new skills, just practice over and over old skills. Since seeing this, I know that I need to be very diligent in making substitute plans. I will not underestimate the ability of the sub. I will make sure my students are still learning when I must be gone, and that it is not just a free day. After seeing all of the worksheets, I saw some ideas on Pinterest that my CT could have used and the students could have played instead of the worksheets. (Pictures below.)
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I was in shock when you said, “The first day I was there, we did literacy for about thirty minutes. This was a worksheet booklet that worked on students' color words through Valentine’s Day worksheets. The substitute on that day also read aloud four books.” I was in kindergarten last semester and I could not imagine my students sitting through four read alouds and worksheets for 30 minutes. I agree with you that we should not limit our subs. My last previous CT had a sub that she likes to use when she needs a sub. I am surprised your teacher does not have a go to sub. I saw on Pinterest a sub tub that would be smart to look into. My teacher even talked about a sub tub and I was able to see her sub book. I think it is nuts that your CT has so many worksheets with a sub for kindergarten. I agree with you that Kindergarten should not have so many worksheets and no collaboration. I like when you said literacy overkill because I was able to get a great picture of what you were experiencing. I am glad that you are feeling all of these cringing feelings because just as my poor literacy experience as a child this experience for you this will remind you what not to do with students. You saw so much that you were able to learn from “I saw so many behavioral issues and the students had to keep getting up and moving their clip down both days ( which made me cringe as well).” I think that being in this situation you learned so much and I can’t wait to read about when you see your CT and find out these questions you were wondering as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jordan is saying that worksheets are predominately used as busy work. Students truly do learn better through more interactive approaches, where the learning is a more hands on approach. The differences in the approaches are obvious, specifically in how the children interact with each other along with their behavior throughout the class time. When more interactive lessons are utilized the general behavior of the classroom seems to be better behaved and more enraptured with the lesson activities. Doing worksheets until lunch time seems like a waste of time; rather worksheets could serve to reinforce a lesson. If used towards the end of each lesson to see what knowledge was retained, worksheets could serve as a method of showing progress. During my clinical the main focus was literacy. With literacy as the focus writing is the most prominent way to help children be better communicators. Instead of having each individual student write on their own, my CT divided students into groups and had them help each other within the groups. This helps strengthen their verbal skills, as well as their writing skills. This way there is opportunity for mutual growth between all the students and they aren’t individually struggling through being able to ask one another for help.
ReplyDeleteJordan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lindsay and Yeseul that what you were seeing when you wrote this post was a sorry excuse for quality literacy instruction as worksheets are never the best route for any kind of instruction! Lindsay's ideas for the sub-tub are an awesome tool that you should consider for your own future teaching as they will not only help you feel better when you're not there, but it will help the sub feel better (being a sub is EXTREMELY tough), and will help the kids!
With that being said, I am so glad that the sub had you! You wrote how you helped her learn how to use the SMART and add in more interaction and engagement in the lessons--nice work, girl! I am very interested in whether you have seen a difference in the flow of literacy instruction now that your CT is back. Do you see Daily 5 being used appropriately as Dr. Sanden described it? Do you think that maybe a readers' and writers' workshop would be even more supportive for these students? Do you plan to introduce some of these engaging, interactive literacy games (the ones in the image) to your students and your CT. I bet she would be very open to them. Consider sharing the ideas with her, and then creating these! Keep me posted!
:)Kira
I’m sorry to hear you had a substitute the first two weeks of clincials. At least this was an opportunity for you to see how your teacher plans for substitutes. I am sad to hear the students spend so much time on worksheets and they had to listen to read alouds until they became restless. I completely agree with you when you said, “just watching the students complete this busy work made me cringe.” I wonder if this was the substitutes rule or your CTs. It always surprises me seeing these things in classrooms because we have learned in all our classes at ILSTU to stay away from them. I hope this is not going to be the only way you see literacy taught in the classroom. I do not like how the substitute demanded the student stay silent. My CT tells me that she allows the students to keep conversations at a whisper during these literacy times because she wants students to be quiet enough to avoid disturbing their peers but also allow oral language to be practiced. You mentioned there were several behavioral issues. Was this due to the ‘silence rule’? I wonder if the students practice better behavior when they are engaging in more active lessons than just worksheets. I would love to hear an update of how literacy is taught once your CT returns to the classroom.
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