Supervisor Observation #1

This lesson's objectives was to teach students to analyze story details in order to identofy the main idea. Prior to the fay of my observation, I asked my supervisor to pay close attention to my classroom management. My class is very chatty, and they often call out and can get out of hand very quickly. This particular day was no different. Before reading the story, "It is the Wind," I asked the students to turn and talk to a partner about a time when they were in bed and heard a sound outside their window or bedroom door. Did they ignore it? Did they investigate? Were they scared? I do not believe the students have very much experience with turn and talks prior to my arrival in the classroom. Some of them were on task, and some were not. Some listened to their partner enough to retell their story, and some did not. Since this lesson and after watching this video, I have explicitly taught floor time etiquette and have seen some improvement overall. In this video, students were occupied with this that had nothing to do with the lesson, they were calling out, and talking with friends. I now remind the students of the rules at the beginning of the lesson. Most of these behaviors have improved, but we still have a little way to go. I do not know if it will ever be close to perfect, but that's what I am aiming for. I found that it has been extremely difficult to walk into a kindergarten classroom halfway through the semester and introduce new procedures.

After reading the story, the students had to think of all the sounds the boy heard and draw/write about one on a sticky note. As a class, we reviewed the sounds and the stuck the notes on our main idea flower. The students then turned and talked, to discuss what they thought the main idea was. The more I work with the students on main idea, the easier it has been for them to identify it. I do believe it is important to make sure students understand what the main idea of a story is. I have interned in a 5th grade classroom in the past, and have witnessed how difficult it can be for intermediate students to master reading comprehension, particularly main idea/theme.