Field Report and Interview Two

Continuing my observation at Franklin Elementary in the third grade classroom, I have

noticed a variety of different strategies used by the teachers that benefit the students. The first

type of strategy used is scaffolding activities which she uses to help the students develop new

skills. The first activities my CT uses in her class is utilizing visual representations and graphic

organizers. She models by a show and tell approach by doing think alouds. The CT speaks

through the process of the homework questions by walking through examples outloud and

stopping and asking questions. Then provides a chance for students to ask questions before

working on their own. Another scaffolding activity the teacher uses is tapping into the students

prior knowledge. She always asks about students' own experiences to help guide in discussion

when introducing new topics in each subject so the students can make personal connections.

Another example is the teacher gives students time to talk. They are given many chances

throughout the topics to make sure the students are making sense of what is being taught to them.

The students appear to benefit from these scaffolding activities the teachers use. Other students

do receive academic help from other students. An example being for math class, the teacher

walks through problems on the SmartBoard in the front of the class. She then asks for help from

students as she is going through another example. Then in the third example, she pulls a stick

with a student's name on it to come to the board to walk the class through the problem. If the

student gets stuck, she pulls another stick for another student to help the first student with the

problem. Then the teacher asks the class for thumbs up or down if they are in agreement. If there

are students who disagree, she calls on the student to explain until they discover the correct

answer. An example of scaffolding in the classroom in the classroom I observed was when the

social studies teacher was introducing history to the students. She asked for personal experiences
and ways to connect it with students' lives. The teacher asked the students to explain where they

would hear about history. Many students talked about their grandparents being in the military

and explained how they hear history from their family. Students benefited from these

connections when introducing the topic of history.

The next topic of discussion is how the teacher develops students higher-order thinking

skills, metacognitive skills, and self-regulation. The teacher, like previously mentioned, likes to

connect concepts with other concepts to help gain a student's higher-order of thinking. ANother

example of how a teacher develops higher-order thinking is by encouraging questioning. Making

the students comfortable with asking questions aloud as it may answer other students questions.

If not, she lets them know if they have questions they can ask when they start an assignment.

When it comes to metacognitive skills, the teacher encourages this by asking questions after the

lessons. When the class finishes an assignment, the CT make sure to ask the students what was

confusing about the assignment, what was easy or difficult with it. She then gives a small time

for students to reflect on the assignments. When it comes to self-regulation, the CT assigns

students jobs and makes sure to post the job routines on the classroom wall so the students can

work on this independently. In the morning, the students enter the classroom and know they get

the same materials out every morning and that is their chance to get ready for the day as it is their

job. They take the first 20 minutes of class to eat breakfast, fill their water bottles, gather their

ELA materials, sharpen their pencils, use their restrooms. Two students are chosen to get out

breakfast and put it away and organize the students lunch choices and bring it to the teacher. This

benefits the students self-regulation skills.

The CT provides feedback out loud. An example being a student provides an answer, the

CT will say, “that is a great observation, lets see what other students observed or can add onto
what you said”. The CT when a student is not feeling confident or may be getting frustrated, the

CT will be more private with their feedback and go to their desk, place a gentle hand on their

shoulder and speak to them one-on-one. When students are working independently, the teacher

likes to approach students to let them know what she appreciated. She also compliments when

students are doing their work and following directions by simply saying thank you to them.

Another example of feedback is in math class, they are all on different multiplication tables and

they are timed and given a worksheet where they have to fill in their assigned times table. The

CT writes feedback on each student's sheet prior to handing them back. She writes encouraging

messages on them that benefits the students. When it is more positive feedback, students benefit

from the feedback and answer more questions out loud as they appear more confident in their

answers.

The teacher giving feedback provides motivation for the students. When the student

receives positive feedback, they appear more confident in answering more questions. The teacher

also provides movement breaks so the students have the chance to move instead of sitting for a

long time. The teacher also asks many questions to help motivate the students and also brings in

fun ways to connect the topics with students' experience. She also likes to bring in visuals or

relating back to previous discussions to motivate the students. During discussions, the teacher

will ask the students to stand up if they agree with what she says or stay seated if they disagree

so the students are moving around. When doing their multiplication table, once they pass one,

they write their name on the assigned prize that they get which motivates them to do the

problems correctly. For example, when the students pass the multiplication tables of 9 they get

extra time on their recess. When they pass multiplication tables of 3 they get to bring a stuffed

animal to school. I visually saw the students' excitement when they passed their multiplication
table and got to write their name on the next prize. The strategies the CT used appear to be

effective as the students were interacting and engaged in class discussions. The prizes appeared

to be very effective as students gave their full efforts.

The last discussion topic from my observation was about the CT expectation of her

students. The teacher always provided the students with her expectations. Every time the

students were getting ready to go somewhere, like for lunch, she asked the students what the

expectations are. The students will answer with inside voices, being respectful, etc. SHe would

also ask them what her expectations were for her classroom. For each assignment, the teacher

would go through her expectations based on how she will grade the assignments. Students appear

to follow through with the teachers expectations based on the students behaviors for the day.

Some students will act out and will get asked to sit in the hallway till they are ready to return to

the classroom and follow her expectations. I feel the more the teacher expectations are told to the

class, the more the students understand and follow. When it is built in her routine to explain her

expectations and her posting it in the classroom, students appear to make those expectations into

reality. When it is in their daily routine, students performance is increased based on the teachers

expectations.