Day 6: What strategies does the teacher use to actively engage the students? How effective are these?

What strategies does the teacher use to actively engage the students? How effective are these?

After learning about the different strategies in the coursework, it was wonderful to see how the teacher I observe uses them in her everyday teaching. I was helping out in a second grade class.  I love how each student is very friendly and will let you help them finish an assignment. With the different strategies I will try to share explain examples of where I saw them being used:

*Withitness:  When I first got there, the teacher had all of the students reading to themselves in some part of the classroom.  At the same time she was working with 4 students at a time.  She was reading a certain book with the book.  Even though she was not with all of the students she was aware of what the other students were doing. 

*Feedback:  The students were helping the teacher write a story.  They were giving the teacher feedback at what she should do next.  Another way is there was parent teacher conference that was going to happen afterschool.  The teacher would be able to discuss with the parents what the students needs help with.  If the student was there, the teacher could talk with the student and help answer any questions.  This could be effective because the teacher could evaluate what needs to change and what they could work on together.

*Closure: In the class, they read two different kinds of books.  The both were about leaves.  One was nonfiction while the other was fiction.  At the end the teacher asked the students what fiction was and what nonfiction was.  The students were able to recognize the difference between the two.

*overlapping:  There is one of the students in the classroom that has autism.  When the teacher was helping the other students write steps to carve a pumpkin, she was able to talk to the student.  She was able to mange both the student who was getting frustrated and the other students who need help with spelling words. This was effective because she was able to still have control over the class.  But I do see how it is hard to be focused on both at the same time.

*Questioning Frequency:I did notice one day the teacher read a book out loud as a class.  The students were suppose to read along.  She asked questions along the way to make sure the understood.  The teacher asked quite a bit of question in the time frame when they read.  This strategy was effective because the teacher was able to ask questions and see if the students really understood what they were reading.

*Equitable Distribution: To make sure that every student got an opportunity to participate throughout the day, she had a little bucket full of sticks.  She would pull out names for volunteers.  It seem to work great.  Another example was she rotated who was able to help change the date or start the pledge of allegiance.  Someone different each day.  I felt that everyone thought it was fair so these worked great for the classroom setting. 

*Prompting:  When working on math, instead of telling the student that the answer is wrong and then telling what the correct answer is, the teacher asked questions.  Her questions helped trigger something in the student head to help remember what the correct answer is.  (The steps to get to the right answer). 

One example of active learning was the teacher set up some clocks on the ground.  They were not actual clocks but pieces of papers with clock numbers on them.  The teacher would have the students practice telling time.  One person would be the minute hand while another would be the hour hand.  The class would have to work together to find the right time that was desired.