Block I Photo Assessment

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Block IPhoto Assessment

• Carrie L. Enger
• May 10, 2004

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Rutherford Elementary

• For my Block I experience I was placed in Ms.
  Kari Renkens 2/3 classroom at Rutherford
  Elementary in Stillwater, Minnesota.
• The home group consisted of twenty-four students.
• For my eight lessons, I taught both the home
  group as well as a group of twenty-six third
  grade students.

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Social Studies Lesson 1Teaching

• My social studies theme focused on the country of
  Scotland. For the first lesson, I hooked the
  students by telling them that I recently went on
  a trip to a far away place. I played a piece of
  traditional Scottish music and asked if anyone
  could guess where it was that I visited.
• I continued by explaining that before I share any
  more about my trip, I would like them to learn
  more about Scotland. They began by writing down
  two questions they had about Scotland. Then, at
  each of the four workstations, I set out
  different artifacts that represent Scottish
  culture. The students were instructed to read
  the corresponding fact sheet and then examine the
  artifacts for five minutes. Afterward, they
  wrote down one new fact or vocabulary word that
  they learned at that station.

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Social Studies Lesson 1Materials

• Four fact sheets about Scotland (currency, food,
  clans and tartans, and castles)
• Four packages of Scottish shortbread
• Examples of Scottish currency
• Examples of Scottish tartans
• Various books about Scotland
• A CD of traditional Scottish music

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Social Studies Lesson 1Student Responses

• Can I have a calculator? I want to find out how
  old this castle is. -Liam
• Yum! This shortbread is good! -Eric
• Scottish people were skirts? -Grant
• How much is one pound worth? -Maria

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Social Studies Lesson 1Reflection

• Overall, I was very pleased with the lesson. I
  was completely prepared and all of my materials
  were well organized. As I walked around the
  room, I could tell that the students were excited
  about the hands-on manipulatives. They took
  turns reading the fact sheets, and were very
  thorough in writing down what they had learned.
  Most of the questions they had written down were
  answered in the process.

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Social Studies Lesson 2Teaching

• I began this lesson by addressing the group as a
  whole. I reviewed what they had accomplished on
  the first day, and we discussed the questions
  that had not been answered by the work stations.
• I then explained that I would show them pictures
  of my visit to Scotland. This led into a
  discussion and brainstorming session about
  Scottish culture. Some of the topics that were
  discussed included animals of Scotland, the
  flag, the national flower, the capital city of
  Edinburgh and its castle, and other national
  symbols.
• We then created a large chart on the whiteboard
  to compare what we had learned about Scotland to
  what we know about the United States. For
  example How are they the same? How are they
  different?

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Social Studies Lesson 2Materials

• Scottish photographs, pictures, and postcards
• Large whiteboard or piece of paper to compare
  U.S. to Scotland

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Social Studies Lesson 2Student Responses
They call soccer football dont they?
-Connor Ms. Enger, that was your house in
Scotland? Isabelle I remember the capital
city, its Edinburgh. -Jeffrey
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Social Studies Lesson 2Reflection

• Because Ms. Renken had previously done a unit on
  the United Kingdom, many of the students had
  prior knowledge about Scotland. This, along with
  what they had learned during my first lesson,
  provided for a lengthy discussion on Scottish
  life and culture. Being able to share
  photographs and answer questions from a firsthand
  perspective kept the students attention and
  really got them into the lesson. I was very
  pleased with the comparisons they were able to
  make between the United States and Scotland.

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Social Studies Lesson 3Teaching

• For my final social studies lesson, I introduced
  the symbol of St. Andrews Cross. I showed the
  students that the Scottish flag displays this
  symbol and explained that they were going to
  create their own flag.
• Students then chose one fact from their fact
  sheet and wrote it on an outline of the flag.
  After they had finished that, they created their
  own flag for Scotland by using symbols that we
  had discussed in the previous lesson. Some
  included castles, bagpipes, a crown, sheep, and
  a tartan.

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Social Studies Lesson 3Materials

• Student fact sheet (from lesson 1)
• St. Andrews Cross (Flag of Scotland)
• Reproducible flag outline

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Social Studies Lesson 3Student Responses
Where should I put my name?
-Arthur We are out of
blues!! -Tori Can I put two
facts on my flag? -Tyler
I cant decide which fact to write. -Erik
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Social Studies Lesson 3Reflection
I was very impressed with the Scottish flags my
students created. After they were completed, I
hung them up on the wall of the locker room,
displaying both the fact side as well as their
own new flags of Scotland. Everyday, as they
pass through the hallway, students look for their
flag and comment on how cool they look.
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Language Arts Lesson 1Pre-writing
In order to integrate social studies and language
arts, I decided to have the students create a
cinquain poem about their cooperative groups, or
clans. I began by showing the students a
sample cinquain poem that I had written. I asked
them to tell me what type of writing it was, and
they were able to tell me it was a type of
poetry. We wrote down the different things they
noticed about the poem, which helped us come up
with a definition for cinquain poetry. I also
asked the students to pick out the types of words
I had used in my poem, and had them brainstorm
other words that I could have used. Each student
was given a word web where they were to
use positive words to describe the
characteristics of the people in their
clan.
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After the students had finished their Word Web
they were to complete their procedural checklist
for Day One.
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Language Arts Lesson 1Materials

• For each student
• Individual student folder
• Procedural checklist
• Word Web
• Scotland word search

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Language Arts Lesson 1Student Responses
Ms. Enger, we cant decide on a clan name.
-Sebastian Do we have to fill in every line?
-Grant Hey, its a
tartan! -Molly
Your poem uses describing words. -Liam
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Language Arts Lesson 1Reflection

• Overall, my lesson went very well. This type of
  poetry seems to fit very nicely with both student
  interest and ability. If I could do it again,
  however, there are some things I would do
  differently. For example, some students had a
  difficult time coming up with a name for their
  clan. In the future, I will spend more time
  explaining how to come up with a name, as well as
  what to do if a group couldnt agree upon a name.
  Also, I had students finishing at different
  times. Even though I had an activity planned for
  those that finished early, I could have kept
  those that were taking longer more on task by
  setting a time limit for when they were coming up
  with their clan name.

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Language Arts Lesson 2Drafting

• I began my drafting lesson by handing out a cut
  apart cinquain poem to each student. It was then
  their task to re-assemble the words into the
  correct form. Once this had been completed, I
  had two students read their poems to the class.
  They realized that the words could be re-arranged
  in different ways and still make sense!
• The students were given graphic organizers to
  create a rough draft. They were able to use
  words and ideas from their word web to complete
  the graphic organizers.

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Language Arts Lesson 2Materials

• For each student
• Individual student folder
• Procedural checklist
• Envelope with cut apart cinquain poem
• Graphic organizer

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Language Arts Lesson 2Student Responses
Can I share my poem? -Briana Where do
the commas go again? -Lily Hey! You can
reverse that and it would still make sense.
-Liam
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Language Arts Lesson 2Reflection

• I really enjoyed seeing the students get creative
  with the cut apart poetry. I believe it allowed
  them to get a more concrete grasp on what a
  cinquain poem looks like.
• The graphic organizers were very detailed, so it
  was difficult for the students to make any errors
  and they finished fairly quickly. Because of
  this, I had them create several drafts on
  separate pieces of paper. This way, they could
  choose their best piece of work for publishing.

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Language Arts Lesson 3Revising, Editing, and
Publishing

• In order to introduce revising and editing, I had
  the students correct a poem I had written that
  contained several errors. Once they returned to
  their tables, they completed a Revising and
  Editing checklist for their best poem, and got
  an o.k. from me to begin publishing.
• I modeled the tartan publishing by showing
  students how to weave strips of paper and glue
  them down onto white construction paper. Once
  they had written their poem onto the tartan
  weaving with pencil, they finished by going over
  it in black marker.

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Language Arts Lesson 3Materials

• For each student
• Individual student folder
• Procedural checklist
• Revising and Editing checklist
• Strips of multicolored construction paper
• White construction paper
• Pencil and black marker
• Scissors and a glue stick

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Language Arts Lesson 3Student Responses
Ms. Enger, my strips wont lie down on the
paper!
-Zach Is this how you spell asome?
Jaci
Look! Im finished! -Karah
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Language Arts Lesson 3Reflection

• Not every student finished their publishing
  during the allotted time. However, they did
  complete their procedural checklist for the final
  day, and we were able to come back to it and
  finish the following week.
• I was very happy with the outcome of the lesson.
  The students enjoyed creating the publishing, and
  it was interesting to see their personalities
  come out in their work! Ms. Renken even praised
  my decision to do tartan weaving saying, This is
  a very age appropriate activity!

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Language ArtsRubric Assessment

• In order to assess the cinquain poetry created
  by my students, I created a rubric. Criteria
  included Organization, Word Choice, Ideas and
  Development, and Conventions. Each area was
  graded on a scale of one to five points, with
  five being the highest. The completed publishing
  was worth twenty points.

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Jacks Published Poem

• Jack is a student who does very well in language
  arts. However, he does not always follow
  directions, and his poetry reflects this. Jack
  failed to get my o.k on his rough draft, which
  resulted in an incorrect focus for his poem.
  Jacks clan decided on the name McFlurry.
  Instead of focusing the poem on the people in his
  clan, Jack wrote about an actual McFlurry (the
  ice cream treat from McDonalds).

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• Jack received a score of 16/20. Although his
  poem was organized correctly and he didnt have
  any grammatical errors, his focus was incorrect.
  Additionally, he used two words twice.

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Megans Published Poem
Megans poetry is an example of high
achievement. It is obvious that she understands
the components of cinquain poetry. Her poem is
specific to her clan and her word choice is
unique.
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Megan received a perfect score of 20/20. She
clearly took time to think about the words she
was going to use. When writing her four-word
sentence, she pulled ideas directly from her
word web. This set hers apart from most
others. On top of all of that, Megans work was
neatly done!
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Rubric Reflection

• I found my rubric to play an integral role in
  assessing the work of my students. It was the
  first rubric I have ever created, and I feel that
  the time that went into its preparation resulted
  in easy use.
• Although I felt my rubric covered everything I
  was looking for, there is one thing I would do
  differently next time. This would be to hand out
  the rubrics ahead of time, so students know
  exactly what they are going to be graded on.
  Regardless of this, the third graders did very
  well.

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Final Thoughts

• My experience in Ms. Renkens 2/3 classroom at
  Rutherford Elementary was exceptional. After
  putting lots of time and energy into preparing my
  lessons, I was able to see them in action. I
  gained many valuable classroom management
  techniques, and was able to try out a variety of
  teaching methods.
• As I walk away from this experience, I look
  forward to continuing on toward the completion of
  my degree by building upon the foundation I have
  created here in Block One.