When a teacher enters the classroom first thing in the morning, they should be viewing everything in the room that will be utilized for the day's agenda. After analyzing how the day would play out on the physical environment, teacher's should manipulate and organize materials so that they will be easily available to students. The less downtime there is in the classroom, the better, especially with students in first grade. These six/seven year-olds may be eager to learn, but their attention spans and lack of experience lead to them to follow others and ask for confirmation abundantly. Having classroom structure designed to teach towards a variety of learning styles is what educators should strive for. According to Classrooms that Work, "Excellent teachers use a variety of collaborative grouping arrangements to allow children to learn from one another." (Cunningham & Allington, 2011, pg. 10) I made a text-text connection here to the mentioning of a whole-group gathering space in the Clayton & Forton readings for this week. They mentioned how the space should be used in a way that all the students are sitting in a circle, mentioning multiple benefits. One of the benefits would be increased responsibility and accountability sine all eyes can see other children. In my internship class, the students are seated in more of a rowed "audience" fashion, and the readings warn against this style of instruction. The space for the meeting carpet is small enough as it is, plus there is a computer/ELMO projector taking up about 25% of the carpet. Since there are multiple cables and wires that run to the computer at desired lengths, it is impossible to temporarily move the metal desk out so that all students can sit in circle fashion. Some students can also hide underneath of the desk, and sit on the far side. When the teacher asks them to please move where she can see them, they groan as if they would rather hide and not be a part of the learning. (#FEAP2c) In my opinion, we should create engaging lessons for when students are on the carpet, including the use of whiteboards and sticky hand high fives. I have noticed in my internship that I ask students open-ended questions and don't let them have time to practice their thoughts with a partner. Next week I will be sure to include more partner talk within our whole group gathering time. (#FEAP1d) Too often there are students who breeze by that material, due to the fact that the same handful of students raise their hand and answer. Partner sharing allows everyone's voice to be heard. (Classroom Management)
References
Cunningham, P., & Allington, R. (1999). Classrooms that work: They can all read and write (2nd ed.). New York: Longman.
References
Cunningham, P., & Allington, R. (1999). Classrooms that work: They can all read and write (2nd ed.). New York: Longman.