Observation Of Elkhorn City Elementary Teacher Dana Sheets

On September 17, I observed first grade, Elkhorn City Elementary teacher, Dana Sheets. These rambunctious students had just came back from lunch and were still phasing to settling down for their lesson. The teacher did a wonderful job of catching their attention through the transition of calming them. She had the students complete a word puzzle on the wall out of their spelling words. She had made the boards setup on the wall so that each student can just run up and connect a puzzle piece, in which case is one letter to help spell the word out, the next student would follow behind, completing another word and eventually they would have the word spelled out. This would be a great formative assessment to quickly check the status of their learning. …show more content…
She gathered the students on a “phonics mat” and she sat down with them. She got on their level when teaching them, and I think they benefited from this because they felt a better connection to Mrs. Sheets. I plan to do this a lot with my class to bring a comfortable setting where the students are interested in learning but keep an understanding that I am the leader. The students were so excited for their “phonics time” and I soon found out why. The teacher held up poster boards with the letters of the alphabet, (Aa) on them and they began singing a song. The song was equipped with them saying the letter followed by the sounds they can make. “Aaaa ate your apple” Mrs. Sheets picks a student on each vowel to repeat the two sounds they can make and come up with different examples for each. The song was very catchy and each student knew all the words and sounds. They were very