JennaM+Journal+6

The last time I observed at my elementary school, the students in my first grade class was being assessed on how to tell time. I have seen the students work with the Judy clock within the past month, so now would be around the time when an assessment would be given. My cooperating teacher would move the hands of the Judy clock and asked students questions like, “If I move the small hand at the seven, and put the big hand on the nine, then what time is it?” Even though the students are still working on this portion of the lesson of telling time, they are now learning about what it means if the time is a quarter past, a half hour, and a quarter to a certain time. After my cooperating teacher went over a few examples on the Judy clock with the class, the class had an assessment with same clocks with different times on them. The teacher discussed that when the small hand is at a number or a little after the number, it remains to be that number and the big hand is the second number, which for this test, mostly represented a quarter past, a half hour and a quarter to. There were about ten questions on the assessment. After each student handed in their assessment, the students were able to work in groups (their groups are always the students at each table). The teacher told the groups that they were able to get the questions that they got on the test and do it over again, whether it was right or wrong, with the groups. I liked this assessment because it allowed the students to work on the test together and also showed my cooperating teacher how children worked together as a group and observed what the students knew before and after the assessment. This is a great way for my teacher to keep a progress report for her students. I therefore realized that the assessment was not just the packet of questions, but how the students answered the same questions when interacting with their peers.