Visit Four

During my fourth visit at Lakeshore Middle School I again observed Mr. U’s class and was surprised to see development in his use of age-appropriate materials and practices.  During my last session in his classroom Mr. U had developed an ineffective station system for his students.  The different tasks he assigned his students included individually reviewing sight words and reading fluency, working at the computers on "spellingcity.com",  and working on spelling, fluency, and writing. I was placed with the students at this station, helping them with any technological issues they faced. At one station Mr. U had three other UNF pre-service teachers using flashcards with the students.  The most shocking component of my last visit was the materials that Mr. U was using.  He was having sixth, seventh and eighth grade students read texts at a first grade level.

However at this visit, Mr. U abandoned this system completely.  He was using direct instruction to teach his students about ecosystems and biomes.  In addition to implementing oral comprehension questioning Mr. U worked with the whole class to complete a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting these two systems.   Overall the students were far more engaged and actively participated in the instruction.  I believe this was because they were learning new information, rather than repeating lessons they had already learned.  The activity also allowed the students to talk about their personal experiences with the plants and animals that were featured in the lesson. 

Overall, I found the learning environment much more conducive to learning.  During my last visit to Mr. U’s class I was disappointed and frustrated that I couldn’t help the students more.  But during this session, I was excited for the students, as they began to enjoy learning.  The use of age appropriate instruction definitely influenced this learning environment.