Jaime Jones Reflection 2 SE 591 Winter 2014 On Wednesday, March 26th, I spent an hour observing in Colleen Krafts ASD

D classroom. Her seven students are in 4th and 5th grade. On this day, I observed a whole group science lesson. In addition to Mrs. Kraft, there are two paraprofessionals who were working in the classroom, Ms. Angela and Ms. Linda. The lesson began with Mrs. Kraft calling the students to the bench in the front of the classroom. She went over the schedule for the afternoon, posting visuals of each activity. She then broke down the schedule for the next hour. She told students that they would be staying on the bench to watch a video on the states of matter. She began the lesson by asking students to remember the definition of matter. After that review, she started the video from Brainpop.com on the states of matter, pausing for questioning. During the video, she used visual reminders rather than verbal reminders to stay quiet, keep hands to self, etc. When the video was over, she reviewed the information with students, the students then took a quick quiz to assess learning. She then instructed the five fourth graders to go to the back table for an experiment. She instructed the two fifth graders to get their science journals and go to work with Ms. Linda. Ms. Angela helped Mrs. Kraft with the experiment. During the experiment, Mrs. Kraft again used visual reminders for behavior rather than verbal. She questioned the students and asked for their predictions of the experiment. When one student became disruptive, Ms. Angela showed him his behavior sheet and instructed him that this type of behavior would get him an x. The student then stopped engaging in the behavior and listened quietly and participated in the rest of the experiment. Mrs. Kraft then told students that it was time for gym class, directing their attention to the visual schedule. She gave the students directions to put their papers in their science folders then line up by the door. Before they left the table, she had them repeat the direction back to her. One thing I noticed that I think I might try is breaking up my science and social studies instruction into smaller group activities. Currently, I teach both as whole group. However, seeing Colleen break up her class into small groups for the second half of the lesson seems to work better. After the lesson, she told me that students would switch activities the next day: the 5th graders would do the experiment while the 4th graders would work with Ms. Linda on their science journals. I feel this would be better for my students. The lesson observed addressed many competencies, but specifically competency 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 were displayed.