Week 7- Science lesson

This week we followed the intended schedule and it was interesting to finally see what their day truly looked like. I was able to see how they test for their sight words and their high frequency words. I myself tested the kids on these words and it was interesting to see how many different levels were in the classroom. I already kind of knew the students who struggled within the classroom based on whole group lessons I have done but it was shocking to see how many people were below grade level on these words and had a lot of catching up to do to be at a second grade level. I knew the kids who had an IEP in the classroom but through this experience and even the small group reading I did with them, I did have a question about another student. I am no expert on IEP's just yet but I did bring up my concerns with a particular student and interesting enough my CT has already submitted paper work on this student to be evaluated. I also taught a whole group science lesson to the class on the different phases of the moon. It was out of the blue and I offered to teach it, I am really glad I did. I did a read aloud and during my read aloud I was asking higher order questions which only a few students seemed to know so as I continued the read aloud, I used lower level questions to ensure they were understanding the topic. The students were all able to answer those questions and then we made our own phases of the moon cycle. I used black construction paper and white chalk for the kids to draw the different phases. The students liked using the chalk as it was something different than what they are use too and they kept engaged with the entire lesson. There was one student who got extremely upset and started crying because he couldn't match the cycle I made. I just reminded him that its ok and everyones is going to look different, make it unique to you. As long as I could see the different phases represented in some way, I was happy. Overall, it was a good day with the kids and i'm ready to continue taking on more lessons outside of my observed lessons.