Essay On Observation In The Classroom

It was helpful to observe the entire third-grade literacy block in order to understand how the pacing and flow of the instruction works rather than simply reading about it in a text book. My initial impression was that the pacing was rapid enough to ensure each component of the lesson moves along smoothly, which assisted with classroom management as there was no moment when the students could waste time. Consequently, my visit to the classroom (from 10:30am to 12:25pm) felt like no time at all. I can imagine that for my cooperating teacher it feels the same way; trying to cover a large amount of material during a block which on paper appears to be plenty of time, but in reality flies by. The classroom is tiny compared to other classrooms …show more content…
Zullo read, she stopped at certain points in the story where she had placed a sticky note with one or two words as a reminder to herself to ask the students a question. Examples of the teaching points for the students included, the author’s descriptive word choice. “Which words did she use that were descriptive?” The students responded with “crackerjack”, “slither” and “snarled”. She asked the students to recognize figurative language, which they did, noting, “perched like a bird of prey.” Ms. Zullo asked, “what do you think she means, ‘I want the inside story’?” The students thought that meant Mrs. Keller was asking her students to write something real. Ms. Zullo continued to read, pausing at additional places in the book, asking for a prediction. She discussed the point that the author made when the main character, Trish, wrote the word “love” multiple times in her essay. She asked if the students could give examples of another word for “love.” The students had a difficult time with this concept. Ms. Zullo explained that if you need to find a million-dollar word, you can utilize a thesaurus. She asked if any of the students knew what that was, one response was: “it’s a type of dictionary that gives other words for the boring word.” This was the stopping point for the book (the students were extremely disappointed; it was a cliffhanger!) Ms. Zullo instructed the students to return to their desks and get out their writing journals. Their assignment was to consider the two Beverly Clearly books they had just finished reading, and to write down everything they know regarding Beverly Clearly as a person and a writer. The students were told that if they were stuck, they could ask a friend at their table. The students were instructed to include examples from their