Subject Matter (TPE3)

I created two 10-lesson units: a Water and Climate science unit and an ELA unit on the book Sarah, Plain and Tall. I also taught parts of a social studies unit, and I created my own poetry unit for ELD students. Organizing subject material was a challenge I enjoyed tackling.

Whenever possible, I reference other subjects when I am teaching a lesson. For example, during my water and ELA unit, we made artwork, and for our social studies and water units, we integrated much writing. I enjoyed incorporating the visual and performing arts by having students act out a frozen pose of their historical figure that they wrote a biography about. I also integrated a music lesson into my ELA unit and had students create artwork for a class quilt as our final activity in the ELA unit (3.1, 3.2, 3.3).

Another highlight was modeling how to use Google Docs and Chromebooks. Students have been in awe at how quickly I type, and I always use this to motivate them to practice their typing correctly rather than trying to get away with using just two fingers. Students are becoming fluent with Google Docs, and that has taken a lot of modeling and instructing how to change text size, center, bold and underline, and insert photos, among other skills (3.6).

English Language Arts

One of my favorite units I taught this semester was Opinion Writing: one of the three writing genres--the other two being Narrative and Information--that 3rd graders learn according to Common Core Standards. After students practiced thinking of their own opinions and sharing them, I read a mentor text and modeled for students how to write a complete opinion using an OREO graphic organizer. Students then handwrote their opinion paragraphs and typed them on Google Docs, personalizing their work by inserting a photo.

Later on, I taught a 10-lesson ELA unit featuring the historical fiction book Sarah, Plain and Tall. As we read this book, we practiced making predictions, visualizing the setting, and discussing how the author kept us guessing about Sarah's final decision. Students then completed extension projects such as a letter to Sarah, in which they had to use adjectives to describe their own home setting; a Cinquain poem to describe characters in the book using nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs; and another opinion paragraph arguing for whether Sarah should stay with Anna's family or not.

Science

When I first entered my full-time student teaching placement, students began work on an Animal Report, which was an integrated Science-ELA research project. Throughout the semester, I enjoyed assisting with similar Science-ELA projects like reading and writing on the planets in our solar system and on a Solar Eclipse that happened during a school day. The full 10-lesson science unit I taught, however, which was another of my favorite units, was one on Water and Climate. I combined a variety of resources, including the Foss Water and Climate curriculum and science experiments learned in my Teaching Credential Program Science Methods course.

During this unit, students conducted hands-on experiments and investigations to learn about surface tension, evaporation, condensation, and the water cycle, among other topics. Students, for example, tested water droplets on different surfaces indoors and outdoors--such as wax paper, aluminum foil, bark, soil, and concrete--making predictions and observations, sharing them with each other, and drawing conclusions from those observations. They recorded their experiments in science journals. To learn about where water is distributed on earth, students did a scavenger hunt to collect images, graphs, and pie charts with information about water on Planet Earth. Students also made an interactive flipbook to learn about meteorologists and how they study weather and climate to make predictions.

Water and Climate Unit

Math

During my takeover days, I used the Bridges Math curriculum to teach math lessons on fractions, multiplication, division, and measurements, and geometry. I enjoyed using manipulatives and objects to introduce new topics so that students would have a concrete foundation upon which to build an abstract understanding. For example, when I introduced measurements, I brought in a real scale, measuring tape, and measuring cups for students to practice conversions with. When I taught on fractions, students used tangrams to develop an understanding of parts of a whole.

I learned that when teaching anything, but especially when teaching math, it is good for students to move around and not sit at desks with their brains focusing on the same task for too long at a time. Thus, besides formal math lessons and worksheet activities at our desks, I also included a measurement scavenger hunt--indoors and outdoors--and regularly paired desk work with number talks at the rug. Students would discuss with each other and work on whiteboards, for example.

Throughout my student-teaching I was regularly involved in the math assessment process. Our district required regular Bridges checkpoints and formal assessments to be brought to PLC meetings to discuss how the schools might improve mathematical learning for students. Besides giving students frequent verbal feedback as I worked one-on-one with them, I consistently graded student work and gave students written feedback and encouragement on their assessments. When students did not seem to be grasping a concept, my Cooperating Teacher and I would make sure to draw a brief sketch to clarify a problem or to mark it and give verbal clarification, and we would have students review their graded assessments to better understand how they did and which areas they excelled at and which they could improve.

Measurements Lesson

Social Studies

I enjoyed working with my Cooperating Teacher to co-teach a biographies unit to students. I began by reading short mentor biographies about notable women, as it was Women's History Month, and had students brainstorm character traits that we could identify in people that we read or write about. We also discussed why people write biographies and what should be included. Students then were able to choose a 3rd grade-level biography and draw facts from it to fill in a graphic organizer. Finally, they took information from that packet and handwrote a draft that they could then edit and transfer to Google Docs. Though I taught several of these whole-group lessons, my favorite part was releasing students to work independently and then circulating to help them one-on-one, as I was privileged to get to know the students as writers and watch their growth writing informationally and in Google Docs.

Physical Education

I had a fabulous time teaching a basketball skills lesson to students as one of my first lessons this semester. I taught students some drills for ball-handling skills, which I picked because it was an area in which beginners, intermediates, and advanced basketball players could all grow.

Another highlight was assisting with swim lessons. All the 3rd graders in our district have 2 weeks of swim lessons in the spring, and I went with students every day, helped coach from the pool deck, and assisted the head PE teacher and swim teachers as they gave their lessons. The final day, it was so rewarding to watch students play water polo, as they had come wonderfully far in their confidence in the water!

Basketball Lesson

Health

I learned from my Cooperating Teacher how to integrate advice for health into daily conversations in the classroom. For example, when students would start to pick at their shoes on the rug or if we needed to clean our desks or wash hands, my CT and I would take the opportunity to explain briefly to the whole class that there are germs on our desks, shoes, and on the floor, and we need to keep our hands and desks clean.

My last week with the students, I taught a lesson on the human heart. Students loved watching a video simulation of a beating heart, and they were fascinated by getting to measure their heart rate per minute indoors and then outdoors after playing a jumping game. We talked about ways to have a healthy heart and how a stronger and bigger heart is linked to a longer life. When I dismissed students at the end of the day, I had them share with me a way they were going to take care of their heart. For most of them it was easy, as sports-lovers--exercise!

Health Lesson

Art

I enjoyed getting to help my students in their weekly art class, and I supported students in watercoloring when we went on a field trips to the nearby bluffs preserve. In addition, I taught an art lesson to students in preparation for Valentine's Day: paper heart-basket weaving. This was challenging for students, I found out it worked best in small groups and one-on-one. Thankfully I had the opportunity to pull students and work with small groups to get the job done. The students marveled at the pattern that made up the basket, and I was able to connect the lesson with pattern critical-thinking by asking them to describe the pattern to me.

Visual and Performing Arts

During my 2-week takeover, I taught an ELD group of third graders, and we did a unit on poetry. Students learned about haikus, "I am..." poems, and acrostics. When students wrote "I am" poems, I had them first write them to go with the book The Giving Tree. Students could choose whether to write from the perspective of the boy or of the tree. Then I paired them so that they would read aloud together, alternating the voice of the boy and the voice of the tree. They were able to practice their language skills in a creative and moving way, and their confidence grew noticeably from the beginning of the unit to the end.

I integrated the visual and performing arts into my Science and ELA units through a Water and Climate Charades game and through a Sarah, Plain and Tall class quilt. We also did a music lesson using the song that Sarah sings to Anna's family in the book. Students loved it whenever we were able to integrate the arts! They begged for more poetry whenever I would take time to read it to them.

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