jessicaturco_journal7

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March 25, 2009 Assessment Journal # 7 Today (Wednesday) I visited my elementary school in the afternoon from 1:30pm- 3:00pm. A parent of a student was in the classroom assisting with art projects they started a few days before. Since this first grade was still learning about dinosaurs, their art projects involved creating dinosaur scenes out of colored clay and painting their papier-mâché dinosaur eggs. Usually in the students do math and science in the afternoon, but today was their art day. They were not tested on anything nor were they required to fill out worksheets, it was a simple afternoon of fun.

The parent and teacher were in charge of the clay stations while I was in charge of the students who had not yet painted their papier-mâché eggs. Some of the children in the classroom had already painted their eggs, so they went right to clay dinosaur making. Four at a time came to my painting table, where I put smocks on the children and carefully put their eggs in front of them to paint. While the students were painting I talked with them about school and asked them different questions about dinosaurs. To my surprise, they knew quite a lot about dinosaurs! They defiantly knew more about dinosaurs than I did, I do not even remember learning about dinosaurs in elementary school!

Children who finished their clay dinosaurs were allowed to work at a table where there were no students and work on dinosaur puzzles. When the entire class was finished with painting and clay making, the teacher handed me a book and asked me to read it to the students on the reading rug. I told the students to come to the rug and began reading my dinosaur book to them. (A book similar to rainbow fish, by the same author and the concept of having a part of you that is different and using it for good.) After I finished reading the book, I dismissed the students to the tables since it was time to pack up and go home. Even though there was no real form of assessment that I could observe today, I still was able to interact with the children and see how they work when they are doing something that is not graded or critiqued.