Visit Three

During my third visit to Lakeshore Middle School I had to opportunity to assist in Mrs. J's class.  I was given a book to read with two students and was instructed to ask them comprehension questions regarding the text.  The students I helped seemed to have read the text before and when I asked them if they had I was proven correct.  They had read the same text the week prior to my visit.  With this in mind, they answered my questions quickly and with ease.  Then they worked on their writing skills tracing words and writing them independently.  These words correlated to the words used in the text.  After they completed the writing activity all students were free to read or work on the computers.

The reading materials that the students were provided with were age appropriate and engaging.  Various texts about insects, dinosaurs, and snakes came with 3D glasses, which really sparked the students' interest.  At this point I was introduced to a student named Trystin, who loves to read.  He recalled facts from all the books he had read and told me about them in great detail.  I proceeded to help him find and comprehend new facts about his favorite topic, dinosaurs. 

Overall, during this visit I had the greatest opportunity to interact with students and understand common teaching practices in the classroom.  I hope I have the opportunity to revisit Mrs. J's room and ask her questions regarding what she has learned about successful teaching methods over the span of her career.

Visit Two

 

During my second experience at Lakeshore Middle School I was placed in Mr. U's class, consisting of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. I was told that this class consisted of students with developmental disabilities. During the class session that I attended Mr. U was teaching a reading class and had developed a system of three stations with different tasks for his students. At one station he sat with the students individually and reviewed sight words and reading fluency. At another station he had the children at computers on "spellingcity.com", working on spelling, fluency, and writing. I was placed with the students at this station, helping them with any technological issues they faced. At the third station Mr. Underwood had three other UNF pre-service teachers using flashcards with the students.

Overall, I found the learning environment extremely un-conducive to learning. The paraprofessional in the class was more disruptive to the flow of teaching than the students themselves. Furthermore, it seemed as if Mr. U had relinquished his disciplinary power to the paraprofessional, who never had a clear idea of which student was ‘misbehaving'. She would wrongly accuse students of misbehaving and threaten to take away their P.E. time. At one point, the paraprofessional told a student that she didn't like the way he was walking and stated, "I will break you." She proceeded to make him practice walking, "…without acting like Joe Cool."

Furthermore, the materials that Mr. U was using in his lesson appeared far below their grade level. I was shocked to learn that he was using first grade reading materials. At one point, a student who had finished his flashcards, quickly, approached Mr. U about getting higher level material but was told, "I don't have anything else." This lack of age appropriate material coupled with an accusatory paraprofessional proved to be extremely frustrating for the students. They would often mumble to themselves and complain about the environment.

Reflecting back on the experience, I wish I would have had the opportunity to work more closely with the students in Mr. U’s class. Supervising their computer activity didn't even give me the opportunity to talk with the students. Furthermore, even though the materials he was utilizing seemed far below the grade level of his students I would have liked to see if I could manipulate the material to make it more difficult. The other UNF students in my group were given the opportunity to work with the students using flash cards and did an amazing job finding more challenging uses for the materials. Rather than just asking them what the word was, they would ask them how to spell it, the definition and more. I would have even asked them if the word was a noun, adjective or verb.

After collaborating with my peers, they told me stories of classrooms that left them dumbstruck and ready to make a difference. I believe this is the type of situation I was faced with in Mr. U’s classroom. His students have so much potential, I just think they need to be offered a more difficult curriculum and experience different learning strategies aimed towards their needs.