Social Studies Experience

This semester in my clinical placement Social Studies lessons are few and far between. On my first day at Olympia my cooperating teacher and I spent sometime going over their daily and weekly schedules. Social Studies was not a topic we covered during this time. We started to lay out the dates of my lesson plans and my cooperating teacher said that they generally have Social Studies lessons that revolve around important holidays. Since there aren’t any major holidays in the months to come I would not be involved in any of her social studies lessons. She also said that her clinical student last semester covered the topic of community helpers because she had to complete the same assignments that I am having to complete this semester. So overall I have not witnessed a Social Studies lesson so far in my clinical experience.

As I reflect on this I go back to what I have been taught in my TCH 277 social studies instruction class. I also spent a lot of time looking at the standards we have been provided with for that class. There is so much information we could be teaching a kindergarten class when it comes to social studies. Kindergarten is supposed to be about students learning about themselves and their place in the community. They could also be learning about the community they live in, their wants and needs, and other topics they would learn and grow from. The general social studies content in Illinois for kindergarten is suppose to focus on “Myself and Others.” This focus builds each year throughout the early childhood years until third grade when the standards focus on “Illinois: Part of My Country and World.” What my clinical placement is doing is just focusing on the holidays rather than supporting the individual and community growth of the students in the class.

It is unfortunate that I have not been able to witness or experience any social studies lessons so far in my clinical experiences. If I were going to add Social Studies into the curriculum as an everyday subject area I would do many of the things we have been taught in class. I would support my learners by having interactive workjobs they can use during downtime. For example In a kindergarten class I could use the wants and needs workjob I made for my TCH 277 class.

I have also included some examples my peers made for kindergarten work jobs:

I would also implement many classroom activities that would help incorporate all social studies subject areas into the curriculum, these include, civics & government, economics, history, geography, sociology & culture, and psychology. I would make time for this by making sure all other subject areas are scheduled for the appropriate length of time for a kindergartner. I think it is important to make time for this in a kindergarten classroom so the students begin to learn their place in the physical and social world. At this point in my education I want my social studies lessons to be very interactive and student oriented. I want to set up my learning environment so we can all be on the same level. I imagine a lot of my social studies instruction would be on the rug. During this time I hope to have students doing a lot of turn and talks, think-pair-shares, and classroom discussion. I will use knowledge checks that I have learned from my classes at ISU and from my clinical placement. Some quick and easy knowledge checks include thumbs up, thumbs down, whiteboard work, hands up, elbows up, etc. If students are introduced to these ideas at a young at age , they will have a much better platform to build off of form the more complex ideas they will learn in the future. 

I use the following sites for many of my social studies lesson ideas:
Scholastic
Pinterest

This is a direct link to my early childhood education pinterest board where I have compiled a lot of the ideas I shared in this blog:
Kelsey's Pinterest

Literacy Strategy and Assessment Reflection

After becoming familiar with the processes and routines that go on in my clinical placement for the spring of 2014 one subject area I would like to reflect on is literacy.

Literacy is done in many different ways in the kindergarten classroom I am placed in. I have witnessed lessons being taught in large group, small group, and individual instruction. So far I have personally participated in small group and individual instruction. As I observe and become familiar with the processes I have realized that my cooperating teacher has a lot of effective strategies that she uses with her students. When she is instruction large group she gives each student a chance to respond as long as time permits. As she is doing this she keeps the students interested by having them give signals or cheers to show if they agree or disagree with the student who is responding to the questions she provides. When the students are in a small group literacy instruction setting there is an adult at each table. At my placement the teachers are very lucky to have parents that are actively involved in their students’ education. They have parent volunteers they come in and work the literacy stations (along with math stations, classroom parties, other classroom activities, and completes the photocopying & laminating). These parents help teach mini lessons at each station or table. Since students are in such small groups at this time there is also an opportunity for individual instruction if needed. During these instructions the students are read to by the teacher, read on their own, and do some guided reading along with a teacher or adult. The teacher or adult asks the students questions throughout the reading to keep them engaged.

During my time in my clinical placement I have not seen a lot of formal literacy assessments. The assessments I have seen seem to be rather informal and formative. My CT does a lot of white board checks, hand signal checks, and other ways that keep the students active or engaged as she asses. By doing this she can see what the students grasp or what she may need to reteach or support them with. She does this by telling them if letters are “walking backwards” or if they need to make any other changes as they work.  My CT also collects student work on a regular basis. This gives her a chance to take the time to look over their work. One thing she does is has the students make corrections the next day. This is a way for students to learn rather than to just get a complete or incomplete mark on their paper.

The students in this are actively involved in their learning and in their assessments. My CT uses many signals as ways for the students respond. The signals may include: Hands up, hands on your head, cowboy cheer, thumbs up, etc. The students also use whiteboards. As the students work they can either hold up their board for the teacher to see or the teacher can walk around and see the students work.

I believe a lot of the strategies used in this class are more effective than I thought they could be. I never realized how much information you can take away from simple assessments like checking their whiteboards as they work. By doing this you can help plan for you next lesson or a follow up lesson. Many of these strategies I will carry into my future. The hardest task is going to be getting the parent involvement that these teachers have been able to get. By being at the school for 28 years she has made a lot of connections. Some people that come in to help are parents, grandparents, or even parents from past years that still enjoy helping in the classroom. There are also retired teachers from the district and the area that come in to support the learning. I am looking forward to finding good strategies to get parents involved in my classroom.

We have spent quite a bit of time learning about assessments and literacy strategies at Illinois State University. My CT demonstrates strategies that we learned and how important each type of assessments are. Although I have not been able to witness many summative assessments my CT has made it clear that they are equally as important. My CT also supports what I have learned at ISU by using literacy strategies that I have learned about in class. She uses haggerty phonics lessons, we practice handwriting, we practice sitting correctly while doing handwriting, and we support the students by including group work throughout the literacy lessons.
  As I go on to be a teacher there are many things I have learned from and that I will take away from focusing my attention the literacy in my clinical placement. I will remember that having students interact with their peers during literacy can be beneficial. I will also remember to keep all students involved and engaged during a large group lesson or reading. I intend to do a little more research about this though. I want to find more ways to keep the students engaged other than agreeing and disagreeing with the response of one student. I will also concentrate closely on formative and informal assessment. By doing these assessments I will be able to better plan my lessons and future activities for my students. I may also need to look at ways I need to differentiate for my students. Literacy is something I have always enjoyed as a young student and as an adult. I hope to teach my students not only to read but to love reading.

To give you an idea about some of the attention getters that can be used with young students I have included examples:

I have also included a link to some great informal assessment ideas that can be used in the classroom: Informal Assessments

I also included a link to another education blog that has great ideas for Literacy Centers.

Let me Introduce Myself...

Hello Fellow Bloggers!

My name is Kelsey Marlow. I am a 23 year old Early Childhood Education Major at Illinois State University. I've lived in the same small town in central Illinois my whole life. I have known that I want to be a teacher since the young age of 5 years old. I made this discovery when I was ahead of the game in reading. My kindergarten teacher let me sit in front of the class and read to them. At this moment my mom, my teachers, and I knew that I would become a teacher in the future. I am just 11 short months away from my graduation date. I'm starting this blog for my third clinical block of classes. During my clinical experience I will be placed in a Kindergarten class. I can't wait to start my journey in the education world.

Throughout my time in this clinical experience I have four main goals I would like to achieve. My first goal is to better my planning and differentiation skills. This would include making appropriate and effective modifications for my students. In my past clinical experiences I have not been in a situation where students needed any modifications or extreme differentiation. I'm hoping to be in a classroom setting where I can work on this skill. My second goal is to be able to effectively and professionally work with my colleagues  This would include my peers in my college classes along with my cooperating teacher and other faculty at my clinical placement. In my last clinical placement I witnessed teachers working very well together and relying on each other for support. I want to learn how to build a relationship with my peers that will be beneficial to all of us. It will be important for us to know how to work well with others and to effectively communicate with other teachers when we get out in the teaching profession. My third goal is to broaden my horizons when it comes to content areas. In the past I have only had experience in math or literacy lessons and lesson planning. I am looking forward to trying new subjects. When I was in clinical placements before I never got the chance to even observe a social studies or science class. I am excited to be able to add these subjects to the list of topics I have covered and taught. As I am implementing my lessons I hope to find topics that my students are interested in and can connect with. My fourth goal is to be able to better interpret formal and informal assessment data. Last semester we had some practice with this process, but I think this is a task that you get better at with time and practice. Throughout the semester I hope to take into consideration the students assessment results when I am implementing and planning my lessons. 


One final goal I have for myself is to become a compassionate teacher. Before I started my journey at Illinois State University I went to my community college to get my general education classes taken care of. During this time my cousin, Lisa Schmidgall, who was a 6th grade teacher got diagnosed with stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer (not caused from smoking). I was the family member with the most flexible schedule so I took care of her during her 10 month battle before she passed away. Lisa was a teacher with more compassion and love for than job than anyone I had ever met. She took me under her wings at a young age and let me help make bulletin boards or staple papers for her during the summer. She has had a huge impact on the type of teacher I want to be. If you follow the link below you will understand the type of person Lisa was and I want to be. 

Pekin Teacher Leaves Lifetime of Memories for Local School - CIProud