Field Work Task 6/7

Task 6-

Since me observations were at the end of the school year, I observed and witnessed many assessments being done. Assessments test what the students know and have learned over the course of the year. I observed an incident of learning when a boy who was not a native speaker of English was mispronouncing words wrong that had the ending “ght” before reading the teacher reminded him the ending and the sound it makes and when reading out load he pronounced it correctly. He then went on to finish the passage and pronounced the “ght” ending correctly three more times! You could see the light bulb going off in his mind and you can tell he really understood it in that moment. She also gives them prior knowledge and information they might need. Before reading a passage about a falcon, she didn’t assume all students knew what a falcon was. She asked how knew what a falcon was, almost all students except 5 knew, so she had students explain to each other what a falcon was while she looked one up on the internet. The teacher I observed used positive and negative reinforcement in her one on one lessons. Positive reinforcement is presenting a motivating or reinforcing stimulus after the desired behavior, making it more likely to happen in the future. A negative reinforcement is when a certain stimulus is removed after a behavior, this makes future behavior increased because of removing or avoiding negative consequences. Positive reinforcement that I observed was the teacher giving students five minutes of free play after completing an activity. She also awarded students for completing all assignments for the day with stickers and stickers for good behavior. Negative reinforcement I saw was when she took away an eraser that was starting to distract a boy, so he would be able to focus again.

Tasks 7-

When I asked the teacher ways the help her and her students remember concepts and new material she said mnemonics, notecards and concept maps. It’s important to show students different ways of remembering and studying so they can find the one(s) that work best for them. One student I asked said writing down the same thing over and over again helps them remember. Another said visualizing and making a picture in their mind helps them remember. I think uses multiple approaches is so important to make sure students are learning all ways to remember. This can include utilizing their sensory memory that allows them to use their five senses, perception which allows the students to assign meaning to a stimulus and teaching students to look for relationships and patterns. The teacher I observed ( Ms.R) said it appeals students remember the material better in subjects they are most interested in. This makes senses because when students are interested and engaged their going to want to learn and remember what they are learning. If they are not interested they will just be passively learning instead of actively learning.  Making learning fun is also important, getting kids up and learning will be more memorable to them then just reading something out of a text book. This is especially true in subjects which as art and science. Bringing the material to life in any way possible will help students remember and be excited about learning. She recommends beginning teacher to learn about their students and their interest to better help them remember the information better. As an example she said if a student really likes music you can put the information into a song or a rhyme. It has to be something they enjoy or are good at which will give them the extra confidence to remember and want to remember.