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Mayte Elvir

Professor Medina

EDUC 1301-82002

8 April 2021

Field Experience III

I conducted my classroom observations via video observations. I watched many videos of

good teachers with effective teaching and managing skills throughout my field experience and

others with not so many good teachers. Thinking back on my field experience, one video I saw,

in particular, was “3rd-Grade Reading Intervention.” Unfortunately, it did not state the name of

the school or the teacher; however, I will be discussing the instructional approaches used during

the third-grade reading class. How students experience the curriculum is shaped by the

instructional approaches that teachers use. Some of the instructional approaches I saw the teacher

use were interdisciplinary curriculum or integrated curriculum, cooperative learning, writing

across the curriculum, and critical thinking.

Interdisciplinary curriculum or also known as integrated curriculum is a curriculum that

integrates the subject matter from two or more disciplines, for example an English teacher and a

social studies teacher team up to integrate their subjects. In the video “3rd Grade Reading

Intervention,” the teachers C/O was for students to build awareness of the characteristics of big

cats and how they share a history with their common pets. The teacher's L/O was for students to

use reading strategies to think, write, and talk about their thinking in order to read to learn, learn

to read, and read to change the world. In the video, the teacher integrated writing, research

project, and science. The teacher involved science as part of their lesson by reading a book about

big cats and used writing to help know what they read by writing what they had previously
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learned about big cats. Students also did some research about big cats for their project.

Interdisciplinary curriculum is beneficial to the students because it helps them experience and

connect real world situations to the curriculum.

When students work together to achieve a learning goals is called cooperative learning.

During class, the teacher worked with a small group of students to work on their reading skills.

The group was of 5 students, the teacher worked with the 5 students. They read together, and

discussed together. The teacher also used pair-sharing between two students to discuss the

reading. During the pair-share activity students interacted with the content and each other well.

Coopertive learning helps students get equal opportunity for success. The pair-share activity

helped students see other perspectives from their peer and gain more knowledge. Writing across

the curriculum is using writing as a tool for students’ learning, not only in English but in all other

subjects. The teacher used what she calls Just a Minute Journal (JAM) for student to capture their

reflections. The JAM journal allowed students to take initiative of their learning. Lastly, she used

critical thinking. Critical thinking is helping students evaluate their ideas, opinions, and evidence

before making a decision or a judgement. The teacher uses the JAM journal to help students

think before making a decision or judgment. The teacher provokes thought and discussion

through questions, she then tells students to think for a minute and write down in journals. This

helps students become better thinkers and problem solvers. This allows students to think

carefully before they answer any questions.

For me, the teacher did a great job with the lesson, the students seemed to be engaged.

They all participated and behaved well. The only thing I could say about these approaches to

improve learning is to use more hands-on activities. The students would read, write, and discuss

but I did not see any hands-on activities The only hands-on I saw was researching about big cats.
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The teacher should have gotten articles with pictures about big cats and told students to read the

article and cut out important parts and interesting pictures to put in their own research journal.

Most of the teachers' students were focused but there was some minor distraction. She

showed many effective managing skills. The teacher used a non-verbal signal to a student that

was reading too quietly. When a student disengaged, the teacher would ask question and would

slightly touch the student on the arm when became off-task. The way she designed the physical

environment helped the students stay engaged and interact with each other. The way students

were arranged helped students have a clear view of instructions. They were also arranged to

where they all could not get distracted by other things and all faced the teacher.

I feel like as a new teacher, I will experience cultural shock. I will be stressed,

overwhelmed, depressed, doubtful. I will be disoriented when in a society with different values,

customs, and norms. I feel like I will also be intimidated by the principal and other teachers that

have been teaching longer. I will be worried about my relationships with parents. To overcome

these challenges, I will try to find a mentor that will help me and guide me through those first

years. I have two cousins that are elementary teacher and have been working for a while now. I

will also try my hardest to make sure that I maintain a good relationship with parents, I will

respect and value the principal but also myself and my teaching.

As I saw in the observations, like many teachers, I will stay confident and know my

subject well. I will enjoy the subject that I teach for the improvement of my students. I will

acknowledge students feeling, respect my students and help them academically and personally.

Lastly and most importantly, I will enjoy what I do, teach!