jessicaturco_journal6

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March 12, 2009 Assessment Journal # 6 Since I was going away for Spring Break on Friday, March 13th, I did my observation the day before, Thursday. My students were very excited to see me a day early, they kept asking, “Are you sure it is not Friday?” Going in on a Thursday, I have to admit, was different than going on a Friday. During silent reading, the students were eager to show me the new books they were reading on the newest subject they were learning: dinosaurs! Telling me all these advanced names, which were very hard to pronounce, each child told me something new and interesting about dinosaurs! Who knew first graders would love dinosaurs so much!

When it came time to reading, instead of breaking off into the three reading groups, like they normally do, the reading aid had all of the students sit on the reading rug while my cooperating teacher assessed one student at a time at her desk. At the reading rug, the reading aid put a big Scholastic books magazine on an easel and explained to the kids that today they were going to read about spiders. She asked the students to raise their hands and tell her what they knew already about spiders. One by one, she wrote their comments on a dry erase board on another easel. She created a “What we know” column and a “What we learned” column.

The big Scholastic magazine had four pictures of spiders, each with a caption describing the picture. As the reading aid pointed to a picture and read the caption, she asked the students to discuss with a partner something they knew and something they learned. After a minute or two, she would have the students discuss with her what they knew and what they learned. The reading aid would then write the children’s responses under the appropriate column. By the time reading was finished, the chart was filled with interesting facts about spiders. I found that this method of teaching, using a know and learned chart, is a great way to visually show students information in an organized manner.