Focus: Teaching a Lesson
One of the best parts of having come in on a Friday was that I got a little bit more continuity than usual, especially in science and maths. I worked individually with I during microwriting, talking him through the brainstorming process by asking probing questions and recording his responses on a whiteboard. When he went to write his sentences, he was able to pull from the words he had already generated.
While the students read independently, I went into the library and collected additional information for their animal mindmaps, part of their current unit in science. I rejoined the class in time for maths, where they were adding geometric shapes to their preexisting work with coordinates. Mr. Barry offered three levels of difficulty for the lass to practice labeling points and drawing geometric shapes. He and I had a fun moment discovering another difference in our vocabularies - I learned when he drew on the board that what he referred to as a "trapezium" we call a "trapezoid". I wandered around the room answering questions and observing the students. One interesting interaction I observed was between J, G and X, who sit around the same table. J is one of the top students in the class in all subjects; G is excellent in literacy but struggles in maths; X is a good student when he actually does his work, but he's easily distracted. When I approached their table to answer a question from G, J helped me to explain it to her, and together they helped X understand it as well.
I sat with I for the end of maths, who was having particular difficulties labeling points. After a few minutes of struggling, however, it finally clicked, and he breezed through the remainder of the exercise. Not only did he finish labeling the points without assistance, but he was able to then build his own shapes based on coordinates he had been given. As difficult as it was to watch him struggle, the moment he finally understood was that much sweeter.
After maths, the students pulled out their mind maps to begin writing reports on the animals they had researched. By the time they left the room to eat lunch, they had completed their first topic sentences. During lunch, Mr. Barry and I discussed some of the morning's happenings, including the story I mentioned of J, G and X. He was glad to hear that his plan for seating them together was working. He also explained that just sitting next to M has brought out a better work ethic in A as well as increasing M's social skills. He also explained why W had been pulled out of the classroom starting at the middle of maths. As with a number of the students in Year 4, W's home language isn't English. St. Andrews was interested in seeing whether the difficulties he was having in class were because of the language barrier or because of an underlying problem, so a specialist was testing him as well as a few other students facing the same issues.
After lunch, the students returned to their reports for a bit before changing into their PE kits for dance. The brain dance warm-up took an extra twist this week: in preparation for our lesson on levels, they were required to do the whole thing sitting down. Afterwards, the students moved across the room at different levels. Interestingly, when I lined them up at one side so that I could give instructions, they turned it into a bit of a race. Students edged forward, ready for my cue to go. They then made poses with a partner using the same concept of levels. I dismissed them back to the classroom in pairs so they could get ready for assembly.
After the students were dismissed, Mr. Barry and I spent a few minutes talking about the lesson I would do on my next and last visit. I mentioned that I hoped the boys would enjoy it, knowing that whether they enjoyed it could make or break their behavior. Mr. Barry explained that this year, 6 out of the 7 boys in Year 4 don't have dads at home, compared to 2 out of 12 in his class last year. We talked a bit about the difference in the boys' behavior and role modeling between the two years - while he could previously count on the majority to model good behavior, this year it had fallen almost entirely to him.
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