Clinical+Reflections

February 7, 2011
 * First Day of Clinical Reflection**

My Reading Block clinical is at Highlawn Elementary in Huntington in Mrs. Turley’s Kindergarten. I had spent a very short time in the class for my Children with Exceptionalities clinical the semester before. On my first day, I was lucky enough to be able to do a read aloud and teach a whole-group lesson. First, Mrs. Douglas, the teacher's aide, briefly went through the calendar and we did a stretching activity. After that, I read Chapter Five of //The Puppy Place # 1: Goldie,// a book Mrs. Turley had been reading, to the children. They loved hearing about the puppy and freely answered the questions that I asked. “What do you think will happen next?” and “What do you think Mrs. Peterson will do now?” After the story, we got right to work on word families. The children were working on “it” and “ig” word families. We used the ELMO and white board to look at their colorful workbook pages and sound out words such as pig and bit. We then chose the correct picture together. I walked around the room to make sure the children were on task. Two of the children are mild/moderate MI and they needed guidance. After that activity, we used the ELMO to go over an activity in which the children had highlighted word wall words in a story as part of their homework. We re-read the story together, emphasizing the words they highlighted. We then started a new and similar activity and read //Humpty Dumpty// together. The children were instructed to take that home and highlight the word wall words, reading the rhyme with parents. It was quite an eventful first day, but I really enjoyed the opportunity to teach!


 * February 13, 2011 **

The first week of my clinical at Highlawn Elementary was both a learning experience and quite a bit of fun! The kindergarten students that I am placed with are a constant revelation. They are so inquisitive, and so interested in listening to stories and offering their opinions. The classroom is small, and each child has his or her own desk. Cubbies are available for them to put their papers in, and a very small closet allows them a place for belongings. The classroom is equipped, however, with an ELMO and a Smart board. I was amazed that all of the students were able to use the smart board with ease to write letters or words. Because they are growing up with this technology, they will be well equipped to utilize it. I was pleased to see how much the teacher integrated technology into the classroom, not only using the ELMO and Smart board, but using the internet and sites such as starfall.com and teachertube.com. I was interested to see that many teachers are no longer calling Word Walls Word Walls! They are now using the term high-frequency words. The students in my class currently are working on the word have. During my first week, I was able to lead two reading groups, teach a whole-group lesson, and do a whole-group read aloud. Next week, I will be working with my teacher to tweak the lessons I will be teaching for the following week.
 * First Week of Clinical Reflection**


 * February 20, 2011 **


 * Second Week of Clinical Reflection **

This week, I was able to participate in teaching small groups. Though still observing some, I lead small group reading time for several groups. Reading groups in this class consist of three children, and I lead both the low group, the highest group, and the next to lowest group on one day, with the other groups on the next day. Children are practicing sight words and learning to decode. Choral reading was used in group for the first reading of the book. Then, each child read individually to me. We talked about word famlies and the sight words they had practiced. After reading, the children circled site words they knew.

Mrs. Turley has been trained in the Ashe-Locke method of reading/phonemic awareness instruction. Cabell County is using this method in some schools. I was able to view this method, which involves using the Smartboard and asking children to "think it" and "say it" (referring to letters and sounds).

Next week, I will begin teaching my lessons. We are starting to introduce consonant digraphs and work on reinforcing recognition of short vowel sounds.


 * February 27, 2011 **


 * Third Week of Clinical Reflection**

This week I continued teaching small and whole groups. I was excited to read A House for Hermit Crab to students. They had been reading books by Eric Carle, so this fit right in. For this lesson, I emphasized the /k/ sound. Students practiced writing the letter Cc and drew a picture to go with a new word they chose. Later, in writing center, students colored and decorated a crab coloring sheet. Mrs. Turley decided that instead of taking this sheet home, students could do it in class. They really seemed to enjoy this activity, comparing colors and other decorations.

This week, I learned something new (something I had probably never thought about). When Kindergarten students are writing new words, they are encouraged to spell them as they hear them. As teachers, we are not to correct their spelling yet. I had never thought about this, but it makes sense. The English language has so many rules and exceptions, it is probably better not to confuse the students at this point.

Something I need to work on: questioning during a story! How do I ask all of the questions that I want to during a story while still maintaining order? The children get so excited and want to shout out their answers that I end up not asking all of the questions for fear of losing control.

Next week: More word families and some individual tutoring.


 * Fourth Week of Clinical Reflecition**


 * March 5, 2011**

You know what they say about the best laid plans!

This week, I was only able to teach one of my planned lessons. Our Mary Had a Little Lamb rhyming words lesson and writing activity was pretty successful. The children were able to come up with rhyming words and were creative in their drawings. They were asked to finish the sentence The lamb followed Mary to _. They had some difficulty getting their minds away from "school", even though they were asked to come up with a new place. After some discussion, most were able to think of a new place, but some were still stuck on school!

My classroom teacher decided that she really needed to complete many of her benchmarking assessments this week, so she asked that I put off my other lessons until next week. I was able to perform assessments, though, so that was a great experience. The assessments were: beginning and ending sound recognition; letter recognition; sound recognition; high-frequency word recognition; and decoding. Children did well on recognizing those vowels and most beginning and ending sounds. A few had trouble with decoding. I was really amazed how many had trouble with b vs. d. So many kids have that issue!

Next week: Last week's lessons and a new one that is integrated language arts and science.


 * Fifth Week of Clinical Reflection**
 * March 12, 2011**

I am really starting to feel like I know what I am doing! Though I have enjoyed my entire clinical experience, I still felt a little like an observer in many ways. I have been teaching, teaching, teaching, but did not really feel like a teacher--still much like a student. This week, I really started to feel like a teacher. I am not quite as nervous about the Fall and student teaching now.

I taught an integrated lesson this week about tree rings. I read the book //The Grandpa Tree// to the children. We talked about beginning, middle, and end, a concept we are really reinforcing. After questioning about that topic, I moved on to talking about tree rings and how the age of a tree can be determined. I passed around cross sections of a tree trunk, and the kids loved looking at them. We moved to the desks and they made their own "tree trunks", drawing the correct number of tree rings to indicate their age on a paper plate. Then, the students drew pictures on the rings to indicate the things that may have happened (a tree ring would show a drought, blight, or injury during a year in which such a thing happened) to them during a year, such as breaking an arm or leg, having an illness, or starting school. I felt like I really got this concept across to the kids and got them reflecting on significant events in their young lives.


 * Sixth Week of Clinical Reflection**
 * March 19, 2011**

Big push on assessment of letter and sound recognition this week. The year is rapidly winding down, and it is essential that teachers know what students have mastered and what they need help with. First Grade is approaching, and they must be prepared. I was able to observe DIBELS testing this week. It was so enlightening to see the testing in action and also see what individual students need to work on.

Many students still are having trouble with the graphemes //b// and //d//, and often mix them up in their writing. One lesson I taught this week focused on //b// and /b/, as well as distinguishing this sound. I used a /b/ sound song that students sung with me, and then we worked on distinguishing the graphemes. I was able to identify students who needed additional tutoring on this subject.


 * Seventh Week of Clinical Reflection**
 * March 26, 2011**

Spring is here (no break for me!), and that was a big deal this week (despite the fact that the weather turned colder at the end of the week). I was able to get the children outside before the weather turned, with a lesson on Spring that encouraged children to pay attention to their surroundings and recall and reflect on details for a writing exercise. For this lesson, students were encouraged to pay attention to what they saw, heard, felt, and smelled outside. We went out to the playground, walking around and stopping periodically. I encouraged children to be very still, listening to and experiencing the outdoors. I pointed out flowers, smells, the wind, etc. to help the children understand our goals. When we returned to the classroom, students reflected on their experiences, filling out a graphic organizer with: I saw_ I heard I felt

I asked students to add their own "I smelled__" Students then drew pictures of what they experienced. This lesson goes along with the five senses lessons that Mrs. Turley is teaching in the afternoons,

My favorite lesson this week was for the advancing reading group. This group became authors, a concept they seemed to find heard to believe! They began creating their own books, a lesson that they will then help others in the class understand next week.


 * Eighth Week of Clinical Reflection**
 * April 2, 2011**

This week I started a multi-day lesson on lions that focuses on retelling skills. The children loved the lion video I showed them from National Geographic Kids. They were great at retelling/recalling what we read in each chapter. Students are making their own books, coloring lion pictures and writing sentences about what they learned about lions. Next week, we will finish the lesson and put the books together. Students are learning that they can be authors and illustrators just like some of the authors/illustrators they have been learning about (Eric Carle, Jan Brett),

Next week we will be "back to basics", focusing on word families. The school year is rapidly drawing to a close and teachers are assessing what students need to work on to be prepared for first grade. This week flew by, and I really enjoyed the lion lesson.


 * Ninth Week of Clinical Reflection**
 * April 8, 2011**

Word families, word families, word families!

This week we focused quite a bit on word families. Students read special word family books, made new words on the Smartboard, and took turns reading new words to the class. I had a major technology fail this week. A word family video from pbskids.org would play, but without sound. With no fun video for the kids to watch before reading, I had to improvise fast. We made op words ourselves without the video and then used the ELMO to complete a graphic organizer. The kids took turns coming up to the ELMO and writing a new word. Glad I had the graphic organizer ready!

Next week, Cabell County's spring break!


 * Tenth Week of Clinical**
 * April 18, 2011**

Last Week! I really only needed to come one day this week, but I came three days. I am going to miss them all. I did some individual tutoring to wrap up and we did benchmarking. The last day was tough for me. I gave them all M & M Easter Eggs (SHH!) and they gave me the best hugs! Wish I could do my student teaching with those children in first grade. I would love to follow them.