It is the second period of the Teaching Practice on the
first semester and as much as I am thrilled to be back I found many
disappointing matters. Most of the disappointment were because of the change s
occurred in the annual planning and many themes have been deleted because of ADEC’s decisions. However, in order to avoid
such disappointments I had to create back up plans and adapt to changes.
Moving on, I did my first observation yesterday at 11:00
am during the whole group time of numeracy lesson and I could not determine who
is answering Ms. C’s questions. Further, children were supposed to meet this
week’s outcome which is “ distinguish between letters and numbers” or a more
specific concept. Anyway, my findings are the following:
1-
Most
children can distinguish between letters and numbers.
2-
Most
children an recognize Upper and Lower case letters.
3-
Some of
the children can count up to the number 20.
4-
Despite
the differentiation in student abilities, it is hard to closely monitor who is
participating and answering questions.
I interpreted the above observation by recording the following
evaluations.
1-
Children
have some problems understanding questions because of the language barrio.
2-
Children
can be assessed better if the same activity took place in the focus group time.
3- Any educational and social support a child gets
at home help will help him/her to develop. So, Vygotsky believed that “social and cognitive
development work together and he emphasized the importance of families,
communities and other children” (Pound, 2005, p. 43).
4- Some children
learn by using manipulatives to understand some concepts.
I planned to teach a numeracy lesson by making the following
changes:
1-
Explain
the task in English and wait for the student to answer, if he faced a problem
understanding I will repeat the question in Arabic.
2-
Allow
children who understood the question to explain it to their peer.
3-
Provide
manipulatives to solve the question. Also I guided students to use their hands
to count.
All the actions the I planned were successful and I intent to use
them in my future numeracy lesson in the focus groups.
Yes, the importance of support at home cannot be overstated and, to be honest with you, I am sometimes surprised how little support some children in Al Ain receive.
ReplyDeleteI'm also interested in one of your other points where you explain the task in English, wait - and of there is a problem to repeat in Arabic. I think this is a good first stage, but take care that the students don't get too clever for you and decide to not answer and to wait because they know that you will clarify in Arabic soon! Have you considered, speaking in English, then eliciting the Arabic from the students instead?
I will think about the last sentence you suggested and I will try it for sure. Thanx. :)
ReplyDeleteDon’t do the same mistake that I have done which was ask the question and wait for someone to respond. but ask and put your hand up so they know that you want them all to think and share their answers as well you should give time for thinking.
ReplyDeleteGood luck
Explain the task in English and wait for the student to answer, if he faced a problem understanding I will repeat the question in Arabic.
ReplyDeleteI liked this idea of giving the students the chance to think and answer also try to ask specific child so he/she will try to think and answer the question rather than ask all the students. When you will ask all the students they may not answer and you will think that they do not understand what you had said however, they will wait for a translation or for some clever students that they always answer. This is Dr Neil suggestion and I liked it and I may use it next week.