Before last week's tests began, my students worked so hard and did me proud. My advisor observed me the day before the math testing began. They started that day with a math lesson on measurement, then we did storytelling, which they hadn't done in a while, and learned about the word "artifact." They did an activity around how to look at artifacts.
Then, after lunch, they did a very challenging artifact study, behaving as if they were in a museum studying artifacts. We had to go back and reorganize the items, and ask that students not touch them, as that caused problems during the lesson, but we were able to regroup so that everyone was able to study them closely without touching. Nice recovery.
They were incredibly focused during the study, and did some beautiful work. They didn't want to stop, even though that artifact study went over an hour, and including the morning introduction, they had been doing artifact work for two hours. Between that and measurement, their brains were full, but they still did some scientific observation as part of their animal studies at the end of the day! Amazing.
The next day, Shamiqua* was really discouraged by the first day of the math test. She dragged her feet, and her coat, getting to the cafeteria. I had her and another girl, Oksana*, who is not known for her patience (unless *she* is trying to get ready, in which case she becomes enraged if you rush her at all- but anyway!). Shamiqua is shuffling down the hall at a glacial pace, coat dragging behind her; Oksana and I are 20 feet ahead, waiting for her to catch up. I figured Oksana would have some impatient comment for poor Shamiqua.
But no. In what was, for her, a very rare show of empathy, this is what Oksana did. She walked back to Shamiqua and stood beside her. Then, she matched her pace, step for step, all the way to the cafeteria. It took about 10 minutes, and every other class in the school, it seems like, pushed past them on the stairs, but it didn't matter. They were in their own slow space, not talking, but sharing nonetheless. I told Oksana she was my superstar for the day, and she gave me one of her very rare, non-smirking, very beautiful smiles, and said, "Why?"
*names are not real
Showing posts with label social studies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social studies. Show all posts
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Falling down on the job
It was bound to happen sooner or later. I've been teaching one lesson a day for the last two weeks, and inevitably, one of them didn't go well.
As you know, we've been working on the compass rose. We've been team-teaching this unit because I am not there every day. Yesterday Ms. Lee wanted them to finish a bird's-eye view map of the classroom that they did, and we also had some compasses and maps to work with. We wanted them to finish their maps first, to reorient them to the four directions, so first they were to correctly mark the compass rose that we'd pasted onto each of their maps with N S E & W (it was a small map).
Then, we gave them compasses and had them try and line up their compasses with the compass roses on their maps. These are not very high quality compasses; they don't work well, and we had an interesting discussion about why it might be that they were not all pointing to north (magnets in the room? Metal in the building? Force field of the microwave and refrigerator in the northernmost corner messing up the manetic field? Fascinating).
Finally, we had five maps of the greater NYC area, one for each table, and we were going to have them work with the maps and find places north, south, east, northeast, southeast, etc., of Brooklyn. So, three transitions, and no clear "lesson, then work" flow, which made it tricky.
Now, mind you, they were also doing all of this at their table seats, and they are not used to being at their table seats for whole class discussions. For some reason, calling out and chatting with neighbors is a huge problem at their work seats, while it's not, so much, when they're on the rug- this I attribute to conditioned behavior. They are used to being quiet on the rug, and being free to talk while working, at least some of the time.
That said, they LOVED the maps. So much that some groups were not able to share well, and goodness knows they were not able to be quiet and listen to each other in a discussion-type format. It was great for the kids who got it, and knew what they were doing; less so, naturally, for the ones who were trying to figure out the directions still.
Ms. Lee totally had my back on this. She walked around and helped me make sure everyone was getting access, and that the kids who were struggling with the directions were getting a little guidance.
I had not really thought through the discussion part, I confess, and it took me by surprise that they were so exuberant. I tried, on the fly, to think of a way to change the dynamic so it wouldn't be so chaotic, but I couldn't think of anything that wouldn't shut off their enthusiasm. So I soldiered on, shushing them as questions were asked and answered, and, in the words of Ms. Lee, tried to appreciate that "there was engagement, there was learning," even if it was a little chaotic.
In retrospect, we could have used the ELMO for this and done the entire discussion on the rug rather than the groups having maps (although I rather like that they could actually hold it). One advantage of this venue is I could have traced with a pointer the vector of the directions, and some kids could have described their thinking, in a way that would be very visual as we worked on the questions together, and I think this might have helped my strugglers.
Alternatively, I could have designed a simple worksheet that they could work on in groups ("find two places northeast of Brooklyn," "find one thing on the map that is not a city that is south of Brooklyn," this kind of thing). I would have had to walk them through it and read the questions out, but it would not have been any less chaotic than what we had already going on. We could have come back and discussed what each group came up with.
So, you live and you learn. Thank goodness Ms. Lee is not the type to dwell. She told me not to be so hard on myself. We'll have another chance to look at the maps when we start the unit on New York City, and I can use what I've learned then.
As you know, we've been working on the compass rose. We've been team-teaching this unit because I am not there every day. Yesterday Ms. Lee wanted them to finish a bird's-eye view map of the classroom that they did, and we also had some compasses and maps to work with. We wanted them to finish their maps first, to reorient them to the four directions, so first they were to correctly mark the compass rose that we'd pasted onto each of their maps with N S E & W (it was a small map).
Then, we gave them compasses and had them try and line up their compasses with the compass roses on their maps. These are not very high quality compasses; they don't work well, and we had an interesting discussion about why it might be that they were not all pointing to north (magnets in the room? Metal in the building? Force field of the microwave and refrigerator in the northernmost corner messing up the manetic field? Fascinating).
Finally, we had five maps of the greater NYC area, one for each table, and we were going to have them work with the maps and find places north, south, east, northeast, southeast, etc., of Brooklyn. So, three transitions, and no clear "lesson, then work" flow, which made it tricky.
Now, mind you, they were also doing all of this at their table seats, and they are not used to being at their table seats for whole class discussions. For some reason, calling out and chatting with neighbors is a huge problem at their work seats, while it's not, so much, when they're on the rug- this I attribute to conditioned behavior. They are used to being quiet on the rug, and being free to talk while working, at least some of the time.
That said, they LOVED the maps. So much that some groups were not able to share well, and goodness knows they were not able to be quiet and listen to each other in a discussion-type format. It was great for the kids who got it, and knew what they were doing; less so, naturally, for the ones who were trying to figure out the directions still.
Ms. Lee totally had my back on this. She walked around and helped me make sure everyone was getting access, and that the kids who were struggling with the directions were getting a little guidance.
I had not really thought through the discussion part, I confess, and it took me by surprise that they were so exuberant. I tried, on the fly, to think of a way to change the dynamic so it wouldn't be so chaotic, but I couldn't think of anything that wouldn't shut off their enthusiasm. So I soldiered on, shushing them as questions were asked and answered, and, in the words of Ms. Lee, tried to appreciate that "there was engagement, there was learning," even if it was a little chaotic.
In retrospect, we could have used the ELMO for this and done the entire discussion on the rug rather than the groups having maps (although I rather like that they could actually hold it). One advantage of this venue is I could have traced with a pointer the vector of the directions, and some kids could have described their thinking, in a way that would be very visual as we worked on the questions together, and I think this might have helped my strugglers.
Alternatively, I could have designed a simple worksheet that they could work on in groups ("find two places northeast of Brooklyn," "find one thing on the map that is not a city that is south of Brooklyn," this kind of thing). I would have had to walk them through it and read the questions out, but it would not have been any less chaotic than what we had already going on. We could have come back and discussed what each group came up with.
So, you live and you learn. Thank goodness Ms. Lee is not the type to dwell. She told me not to be so hard on myself. We'll have another chance to look at the maps when we start the unit on New York City, and I can use what I've learned then.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Second-graders are not spatial
At least, many of them are not. We've been working on teaching the four directions and how to use and create a compass rose on a map. They are making their own big compass roses, including the four directions and the "in-between" directions (NW, SW, NE, SE).
Some of them had problems figuring out how those should be arranged. Even when I told them "northeast is between north and east" (which is not very conceptual), they still mixed it up. Some of them put a few points at southwest, and none at northeast. Sigh.
These same kids also struggled with the notion that north didn't move, even if they did.
We started with looking at real maps and talking about maps and what they can do. We gave them a worksheet that helped them practice where the four directions are, and provided clip boards so they could orient themselves towards north, which was marked in one corner of the classroom (and yes, it is actually north). They didn't use the clip boards- which we thought would have made it easier for them, but alas, no.
We also did a kinesthetic activity, using both arms to point N-S, W-E, and one arm to point to a direction as fast as they could, then change their orientation (for example, turn 180 degrees) and find it again. Some students really struggled with this.
Interestingly, one student (who *did* get it) was standing in front of the corner marked "north" and when I would say "point north" he would point at his nose. I had him turn his body all the way around while still pointing north, while the other students watched. He had fun with it, but I got a lot of blank stares, too. Argh!
We have real compasses, and next week we'll use them along with a bird's-eye view (another stumper, for some kids- what do you mean the desk is just a rectangle?) map they each did of the classroom, to put the compass rose on their maps and mark it themselves. The science teacher, from whom we borrowed the compasses, warned that "they don't work very well." I took the whole tray to see if they all pointed the same way. Hmmm... not really!
We'll see- it will be interesting. I don't think that the students' getting it or not will hinge solely on whether these compasses are perfectly accurate. They DO know about compasses and the magnetic field that makes them work, so if they notice they are not working perfectly, it will be a good chance to have a discussion about why that is.
They can also practice being good scientists by sharing compasses and trying to reproduce results, which is an important part of the scientific method.
And maybe later this year, some of my little sweeties will suddenly be struck with the ability to conceive of a bird's-eye view, and a constant, like north, outside of themselves and the direction they are facing.
Some of them had problems figuring out how those should be arranged. Even when I told them "northeast is between north and east" (which is not very conceptual), they still mixed it up. Some of them put a few points at southwest, and none at northeast. Sigh.
These same kids also struggled with the notion that north didn't move, even if they did.
We started with looking at real maps and talking about maps and what they can do. We gave them a worksheet that helped them practice where the four directions are, and provided clip boards so they could orient themselves towards north, which was marked in one corner of the classroom (and yes, it is actually north). They didn't use the clip boards- which we thought would have made it easier for them, but alas, no.
We also did a kinesthetic activity, using both arms to point N-S, W-E, and one arm to point to a direction as fast as they could, then change their orientation (for example, turn 180 degrees) and find it again. Some students really struggled with this.
Interestingly, one student (who *did* get it) was standing in front of the corner marked "north" and when I would say "point north" he would point at his nose. I had him turn his body all the way around while still pointing north, while the other students watched. He had fun with it, but I got a lot of blank stares, too. Argh!
We have real compasses, and next week we'll use them along with a bird's-eye view (another stumper, for some kids- what do you mean the desk is just a rectangle?) map they each did of the classroom, to put the compass rose on their maps and mark it themselves. The science teacher, from whom we borrowed the compasses, warned that "they don't work very well." I took the whole tray to see if they all pointed the same way. Hmmm... not really!
We'll see- it will be interesting. I don't think that the students' getting it or not will hinge solely on whether these compasses are perfectly accurate. They DO know about compasses and the magnetic field that makes them work, so if they notice they are not working perfectly, it will be a good chance to have a discussion about why that is.
They can also practice being good scientists by sharing compasses and trying to reproduce results, which is an important part of the scientific method.
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