Observation Blog #6

I observed in 4th grade. The classroom had been rearranged since the last time I was there. The teacher mentioned she was trying something new to get the classes attention, by walking on the desks. So she moved the desks. I kept calling it her "catwalk". She said it is fun for the class and yes...it does get their attention!

Our observation connections this week are about engaging the students - I think the "catwalk" definitely engages the class! ;o)

Connections: There were a couple of engaging activities I observed: The choral answers, while also working in their notebooks. The small group time, and individual activities that were reinforcing concepts. Attention getting activities - like the walking on the desks. The assessment was looking for feedback so far in division. The teacher is very good at withitness, she observes and walks the class regularly. 

We spent a lot of time on math when I was there. They are learning long division. It is a new concept and they have only been working on it for a short period of time. She did almost a centers idea. Where the whole class had certain activities they were working on - and she took small groups of 4-5 kids and they went over the process of long division as a group, working on a worksheet together. Then we came back together as a large group and did some problems using the SMART board and they worked through them in their math journals. It was mostly "choral" answers. "What's the next step?" and the class would respond. I could tell her goal during this part of the teaching was to train them on the steps of long division. They weren't 100% sure what to do on each step (yet), but they were getting really good at knowing what the steps were they needed to do. I can see this where she was going with it. After our together time they took an assessment to see how they were doing so far. The 4th grade team will use these assessments to break the kids into different groups to continue working on division with other 4th graders who are at the same learning level as they are. This was interesting to watch, because these 4th graders were getting really frustrated with trying to put into work the things we learned. I shared with the teacher that the class is learning something TOTALLY foreign to them.. it would be like me learning a new language! Just a good reminder.