Upon arriving to my first day at Fleetwood Bawden, my PSII placement, I was given 17 cards from each of my Grade 2/3 students. These letters were written by the students and were given to me to give me an idea about who they were prior to teaching them. This was a great feeling as it was my second day being in this classroom, and my first day as their teacher. This gave me information into who they are, what grade they are in, and what they like to do. This also was a great way for me to formatively assess the students' writing levels, as they were hand-written and students were only given one block to write these. This allowed me to understand which students were at what level, which is something that I am lucky to have been able to receive and understood so early into my practicum. These letters were very helpful with my lesson planning, as I had a better understanding of what these students were capable of achieving in one LA period.
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For my first LA lesson with my students I chose to introduce our poetry unit by using the book If Picasso Painted a Snowman by Amy and Greg Newbold. Although this book is not written in verse, my universal question for the poetry unit revolved around creativity and how we can be creative through art and through writing. Prior to reading this book I asked the students if they knew what creativity meant and we had a class discussion about how we can show our uniqueness through the way we creatively express ourselves. We explored different artists, such as Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dali, Claude Monet and many more. This showed students the way that when I ask them to draw something, it does not need to be what they think I want to see, but it should show their creativity. I asked students to draw their creative snowman and have it reflect their uniqueness and creativity. This creative snowman piece will be the first piece of creative work in their poetry portfolios they will be showing their parents at the end of my practicum. |
Being in a Montessori classroom gave me many opportunities to plan lessons that not only met curricular outcomes, but also gave students the opportunity to learn through hands-on experiences, learn through play, and learn to be independent learners. Throughout my Math and Language Arts lessons I aimed to make them engaging, as well as fun for students in order to ensure they would remember the fun lesson, and the material being taught throughout that lesson. Below is a lesson I did for my LA unit. At the same time I was completing my poetry unit our school began partaking in the One District One Book event throughout District 51. Each student in every school was given a copy of The Wishtree by Katherine Applegate. The pictures below are from my LA lesson in which I mixed our poetry unit with reading The Wishtree. Throughout this unit I encouraged students to use their poets eyes/lenses when observing things. This encouraged students to look at different objects or words in the most creative way possible. After reading a few chapters of The Wishtree each students was given a toilet paper roll to use as a telescope and we went outside to look and zoom into the details on trees, and then draw and write about what we noticed in our visual journals. This was a great way for students to get up and moving, as well as practice paying attention to detail. One of my final summative assessments for my Grade 2/3's was to have students write a poem about The Wishtree using any poetic style we had learned. When introducing this assignment I encouraged students to remember the details they noticed when we went outside and observed trees in order to practice using their poetry lenses. This lesson was great as it allowed me to do a lesson on The Wishtree and also be a good starting point for students later with our poetry assignment.
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During my LA unit I was part of the One District One Book District 51 project where every student in District 51 got a copy of the same book. Prior to beginning the book I made each student a bookmark they could colour in if they chose. This also was a way for me to give students who struggle to read and struggle following along when listening to me read the opportunity to use their bookmark as a way to follow along. These bookmarks were not used by all students, but I did see some students using them to follow along when we read in class. Giving all students something that only a few students may need and use is important, as these bookmarks were to make the students feel good, but also to help students read.
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Throughout my PSII LA periods I would aim to give students lots of time to write their own poetry and be creative through their words. Some students struggled to sit and stay focused for so long. After telling students what we would be doing that day and doing a brain-break or two to get them settled, I got into the habit of playing quiet classical music. This was one way I kept my classroom a calm environment during work periods. I noticed that this helped keep students on task as there were no words in the songs to pull their focus away from, and it created a calm atmosphere in the room. Students who did not want to listen to it were able to put on headphones to block out the noise, which also was a way of staying focused. I always kept the music on a low volume, so not to distract students. This was also a great way to meet cross-curricular goals and introduce students to one of my favourite genres of music.
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