Elementary School Observation

On September 7, I observed Mrs. Taylor’s first grade classroom during their literacy block. As soon as we walked in, she had the children’s undivided attention. She incorporated songs from YouTube to make the phonics review lesson interesting. The lesson focused on consonant and vowel relationships. The YouTube songs contained the alphabet song while also adding emphases on the short and long sounds of each letter. The students received multiple phonics lessons all from two videos. They were physically interacting with the video because they used their arms to create the letter C when a consonant appeared on the screen and the letter V when a vowel appeared on the screen. After the videos, the students participated in another activity that …show more content…
Taylor sounded out a letter and the students were supposed to write the letter that makes that specific sound on paper. They also did this by listening to a word being pronounced by their teacher. Once the words were repeated a few times, students were prompted to spell the word. One student had trouble spelling a word towards the end of the assessment. The students all encouraged her to spell the word by sounding it out and Mrs. Taylor did not move to the next word until every student spelled it correctly and had no questions. She also encouraged them by saying unique phrases like: “give your brain a kiss” if they answered correctly, or “’let your pencil do the talking” when it was time to write an answer versus saying it. This is something I would like to do with my students because I think every child deserves to be encouraged in a fun unique way. With her displaying encouragement, the students will continue to push one another to be the best they can be. During both activities the students were engaged the whole time. They interacted with the teacher along with their peers which seemed to make their learning more …show more content…
An example of this theory was seen during the activity that assessed the students’ learning. During the assessment, they had to echo the word the teacher pronounced. For example, if the teacher made the sound of an O, students were prompted to echo the sound and then write it down. This activity displays this theory because students actively used their voices to make the sound while also physically writing it down. When it came to spelling out words, students were required to repeat the pronunciation of the word given to them by the teacher and physically write the word down by spelling it according to the sounds they previously heard. This activity displays this theory because students are using their listening and aural skills to spell the word