Kindergarten Observation Summary Assignment Johnika White Literacy for Early Readers/Writers Fall 2021

Kindergarten Observation Summary Assignment

Johnika White

Literacy for Early Readers/Writers Fall 2021

Classroom Observation Summary Assignments:

Kindergarten/Elementary (highlight the location)

Section 1: Observations before the lesson

(Note: To complete section 1 of the summary, it will help you to engage in a conversation with the host teacher prior to your scheduled observation time.)

1.Name of Teacher

2. Name of School

3. Grade level

4. Describe the classroom (brick and mortar / virtual).

Mrs. Megan Krell

Starms Elementary

K-1 to K-5 K4 Special Education Teacher

The classroom has sections where students can seat individually or as groups and Brick and mortar

Thanks! The class has 25 students.

What do you observe about the set-up of the classroom?

The class set-up is designed to aid kids solve various puzzles. Besides, it has the necessary materials for a kindergarten learner. Please describe what those “necessary materials” are.

Do you see any literacy type things such as the alphabet?

What has the classroom teacher told you about his/her literacy instruction?

From the class teacher’s information, the teacher uses materials that children are impressed with. For example, the use of puzzles.

Did the teacher tell you anything more, such as a specific program that’s used in the classroom?

What do you observe regarding the students?

Children appear more free and ready to learn under the teacher’s guidance.

What types of interaction does the teacher have with students?

The teacher maintains friendly but strict interactions with the students. Given it’s a Kindergarten class, can you comment on positive interactions, such as praise and encouragement that you observed?

What has the teacher told you about the lesson plan that s/he has for the lesson you will?

The lesson plan has fewer and simple activities that does not involve intense children interaction.

While this makes sense, can you give any specifics about the particular lesson plan that was taught?

What are the objectives for the lesson you will be watching?

The objectives include learning to identify objects and drawings.

What kinds of objects?

What materials will s/he use?

Materials include drawings on books and letters on the wall.

Nice—there it is! The alphabet is on the wall!

How will s/he assess the students’ ability to meet the objective for the lesson?

The student’s ability to meet the objective will be met by assessing what they gained. How will the teacher go about assessing their knowledge? Will the teacher observe the children and make anecdotal notes?

(Important: Ask the teacher to point out a struggling student and a high performing student before the lesson begins. You will need to be watching these 2 students in particular during the lesson you will observe.)

Section 2: Observations during the lesson

During the lesson, pay special attention to the instructional language that the teacher uses. Is s/he using explicit modeling language? Give examples.

Yes. The teacher uses an explicit modelling language and is practical with the students. Where they seem not to understand, the teacher does a demonstration. For example, showing them how to answer puzzles. I’m curious about these puzzles. Can you give an example of the puzzle? Are they word puzzles?

What scaffolding do you observe? Give examples.

I could see a scaffolding of different numbers and letters. For example, letters that form names. What specifically did the teacher do to scaffold letters that form names?

How much of the talking is done by the teacher versus the students?

The teacher talks a little and then takes opinions from students. Besides, the teacher also assists students in groups to solve puzzles. Is it like 50-50—teacher talks about half and students talk about half?

Do students have opportunities to talk to one another?

Yes. Children communicate with one another most of the time. The teacher also asked them to discuss some activities. Like a “turn and talk”?

What types of reading/writing/speaking/listening are happening during this lesson?

The student was engaging in identifying different objects, symbols, and letters. Were speaking and listening also part of the lesson?

Discuss the progress of the struggling student and the high performing student in relationship to the learning objectives and the assessment. What do you notice?

From my view, the struggling student appeared to be catching up well when it came to the identification of objects, symbols, numbers, and letters.

Happy to hear that the struggling student could keep up with the others.

Section 3: Reflection after the lesson

Reflect on what you observed. From your time spent in this classroom so far, make 3 clear connections between the lesson you observed and what you have learned so far in this course. Use APA citations when making connections to course texts. Your connections may include what you did see, or perhaps what you did not see. In every aspect of this assignment and reflection, assume positive intent and demonstrate the highest level of professionalism and respect toward the host teacher and the students observed.

Connection #1

The process through which students are being taught using puzzle to be solved. Is it an electronic puzzle done on technology? A bit more discussion/description is needed here. How does this relate to what we’ve been doing in class or your readings? The citations should come from our class texts.

APA Citation #1

González, Y. A. C., & Muñoz-Repiso, A. G. V. (2017, October). Development of computational thinking and collaborative learning in kindergarten using programmable educational robots: A teacher training experience. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (pp. 1-6).

Connection #2

The relationship between the teacher and the student. What about the relationship between the teacher and student? More is needed here. Again—how does this relate to what we’ve been discussing in class/reading in texts? The citations should come from our class texts.

APA Citation #2

Lee, L. K., Chau, C. H., Chau, C. H., & Ng, C. T. (2017, June). Using augmented reality to teach kindergarten students english vocabulary. In 2017 International symposium on educational technology (ISET) (pp. 53-57). IEEE.

Connection #3

The assessment of student learning progress. Can you say more about assessment of student learning? More is needed here. Again—how does this relate to what we’ve been discussing in class/reading in texts? The citations should come from our class texts.

APA Citation #3

Papadakis, S., & Kalogiannakis, M. (2019). Evaluating a course for teaching introductory programming with Scratch to pre-service kindergarten teachers. International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 11(3), 231-246.

Literacy instruction is a program initiated at an early stage of the student to help them master the skill that is necessary for their academic, professional, and personal success. This should be noted above regarding literacy instruction.

This literacy instruction survey is conducted at Starms Elementary with Mrs. Megan Krell, the K4 Special Education teacher. The classroom contains 25 students. The classroom has sections where students can seat individually or as groups and Brick and mortar. The class set-up is designed to aid kids solve various puzzles and is conducive for the learning of the kindergarten learners.

Mrs. Krell specified the literacy instruction applied in her lesson is in the field of fluency, comprehension, and writing. The previous sentence would fit under the section about literacy instruction above. According to the observation, the students are really improving in the stated field where the literacy instruction is being applied. The interactions applied in this case involve the teacher engaging one student at a time, paying more attention to the ones who are struggling ones. She has also formed groups, where the struggling and the high-performing students are placed together to help each other. In the groups, more attention is paid to struggling students who had been mentioned. You could mention this above where it’s asking about high-performing versus lower-performing/struggling students.

Very young learners are developing their understanding of the alphabetic principle. The understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Teachers can help students develop this understanding through lots of fun activities that help students explore the alphabet letters and sounds. This would be great for one of your reflections/connections above!

From this lesson, it is concluded that the literacy instructions given were very effective. Learning letter names helps a child learn letter sounds. It helps students develop their understanding of the alphabetic principle

Hi!

I would like to give you the opportunity to add a bit more to your template above. More details are needed to make the information about the observation clearer for the reader. I have asked questions and added information to help you enhance your template questions.

If you choose not to “tweak” the above template, let me know and I will then grade your template as is. OK?

Thanks!

Lori

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