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Kira Carico

ECE 251 Spring 2017

April 9, 2017

GROUP TIME EVALUATION

School: Roger Gehring Elementary Telephone number: 702-799-6889

Teacher: Ms. Lovan Age/Grade level: Kindergarten

Group time: 8:35-9:05 Date 04/07/2017

Number of adults: 1 Number of children: 19

1. During the group time that I observed the children sang a song to go to the

carpet, by the time the song was finished the students were expected to be on

the carpet in their assigned squares. The group time started with the teacher

writing the letters “in” on a white board and having the students think of words

that had those letters in it. The activity lasted 90 seconds and students were

encouraged to come up with more words than they did the day before (which

was written on the board as “12”). The students raised their hand and gave

different words that had “in” in the word. They were only able to come up with 9

different words. The teacher then gave the instruction that it was time to do the

blue book activities. The first activity was changing the beginning sound to make

a new word. The students did hand movements and recited after the teacher.

The teacher started with a word “bud” change the “b” (b sound) to a “r” (r sound)
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the students put one hand out and said “r” (r sound) and put the other hand out

and said “ud” then clapped their hands together and said the word “rud”, the

teacher then said change the “r” (r sound) to a “f” (f sound). The students again

put out one hand and said “f” (f sound) and then the other hand with “ud” and

clapped their hands together and said “fud”. This activity was done very quickly

and the teacher changed the beginning sound 6 to 8 different times. They went

directly into the next activity which was cvc (consonant vowel consonant) word

blends. The teacher spell the word pointing to her wrist for the first letter, her

inner elbow for the second letter and her shoulder for the third letter. Then

students would join in saying the sounds of the letters and then pointing to the

parts of their arm. The students said the sounds of the letters two times and then

slid their hand up their arm and said the word they were sounding out. This was

also done quickly and the teacher did this with 6 to 8 different words. The

teacher then moved to a board that had multiple letters she used to create cvc

words. She would place all three letters on the board and then help the children

sound out the word using blending techniques. Then the students had to decide

if it was a real word or a nonsense word. This was again done at a quick pace

and the teacher changed the word 6 to 8 times. For the next activity, the teacher

had the students sit in a circle to review sight words. The teacher passed out

index cards that had sight words on them and then played a song and the kids

passed the words in a circle until the music stopped. The teacher then had the

students read the sight words that they had in their hands. Each student read

their sight words (unless they needed help) and showed their classmates the
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word then the music started again and they passed the words around, read their

words when the music stopped, and then repeated 3 or 4 times. The last activity

that was done during this large group time was reading a poem that was on the

board. They read the poem together out loud two times, and then discussed how

many lines it had, how many words in each line, and what kind of punctuation the

poem had. The students were given a copy of the poem and the instruction to go

to their desks and glue them into their poem notebooks.

2. The activities were appropriate for kindergarten aged students. The activities

included movement which helped the children stay engaged in the activities. The

activities were fast paced and changed frequently to hold the children’s attention.

Kindergarten students should be learning sight words to prepare them to read

and should be practicing sounding out and blending words. The students

seemed to understand what was expected of them and most participated

throughout the entire group time.

3. The group time lasted about thirty minutes. This time frame is appropriate for the

age group of 5 to 6-year-old children. Although the group time was a longer

period of time, it was broken up into several different learning experiences which

made it easier for the children to keep their attention on what the teacher was

teaching.

4. The space used for group time had plenty of room for the children. There was a

large carpet on the floor that had squares for each of the children to sit on. The

teacher sat in a chair while leading the activities so she was visible to all
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students. The students had enough room to do the movements that went along

with the activities without intruding into their peers personal space.

5. The teacher brings the children together to begin group time by announcing that

it is time to go to the carpet. The children take this que and start cleaning up

whatever they are working on and singing the song “this is the way we go to

carpet,” most of the students sing along and get their things put away and to the

carpet in their spots before the song is finished.

6. The teacher involves the children in group time in many different ways. For their

first activity, one student is picked to tally all the words the other children come

up with that have the letters “in” in them. The next activities have the students

repeating and doing movements to make new words. All children are expected to

do the movements and figure out the new words and sounds. During the sight

word activity children are actively switching their papers and then everyone has a

chance to read their words.

7. The percentage of the time that the children are actively involved in the group

time is 80-85%. The activities involve the children by having them move and talk

for almost every activity. The only time the children were not actively involved

was when they were waiting their turn or listening to instruction. The time frame

that the students were passively involved in the group time was minimal and

lasted no more than 2-3 minutes. The children should not be sitting idly for too

long so this group time’s amount of activity was appropriate.

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8. The children reacted to the group time differently. Some were enthusiastic and

put their things away fast and were ready to start in just a few seconds. While

others slowly put away their things and dropped a few things and had to pick

them up and put them away before throwing away a piece of paper and then

finally making it to join the group.

9. There was no evidence of flexibility from the teacher displayed while conducting

the group time. She did not have to change or deviate from the lesson she had

planned.

10. The individualization to accommodate special needs of children during the group

time was the assigned seating on the carpet. Children that participated most

were spread evenly around which allowed them to be available to help their

peers if needed. The seating also allowed the teacher to seat children that

needed reminders more often closer to where she was. Two students that had a

hard time sitting still and participating were in the front row where the teacher

could make eye contact and give gentle reminders to them along with the rest of

the class.

11. In this classroom one gender tended to engage in inappropriate behaviors more

than another gender during the group time. Although there were a few girls that

had a hard time not talking out of turn, the children that needed the most

reminders to stay on task and sit still were boys.

12. The inappropriate behavior that I observed during group time was a child that

kept poking the student sitting next to him. He would watch the teacher and poke
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his peer when she was not looking. The student he was poking told on him to the

teacher. The behavior management techniques the teacher used was a verbal

warning, reminding him that they keep their hands to themselves. She also

reminded him that if he did not follow the rules, he would lose a point on his

“dojo.” The tone of voice she used was very calm and was a reminder more than

a reprimand. The student did not want to lose points because his parents would

be aware of his behavior and he did not poke his peer the rest of group time. He

was student that had a hard time sitting still and the teacher allowed him to get

up and get a drink of water a few times during group time. The appropriateness

of her technique worked well with the student and provided minimal disruption to

the class.

13. The teacher ends group time by dismissing the students to their desks with the

materials they need to start the next activity in their schedule.

14. The activity that follows group time is writing time at their desk. The group time

ended with reading a poem together and that poem was printed on a sheet of

paper that was handed out to the students before going to their desks. They

were instructed to glue the poem into their poem notebooks and to circle the

capital letters and the punctuation in the poem. The transition from group time to

writing time was smooth for the students, they knew what was coming because

they ended group time with the poem that they would transition to writing with.

The transition was appropriate and allowed for some quiet work time after a

noisy group time.

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Evaluation:

• Use of DAP philosophy – During my observation the group time activities were

all within the developmentally appropriate practice for kindergarten aged

students. Students were engaged in learning while able to move and verbally

participate in the activities. The teacher used teaching techniques that the

children were able to understand and follow along with.

• Use of authentic activities – The activities that the teacher planned for the

students had authentic attributes to them. They thought of words that had certain

letters in them, which is not authentic, but the teacher made it authentic by trying

to come up with more words than they did the day before. The sight word activity

was authentic because they made it a group activity by passing the words

around in the circle instead of the teacher holding up the words and having the

students read them.

• Principles of learning utilized – The principles of learning that were utilized in the

group time I observed were readiness, and motivation. The children were ready

and able to participate and learn from the activities. The activities are repeated in

different variations so the information is exercised by repetition. The children

enjoyed the movement that was part of the activities so they were motivated to

participate.

• Appropriateness of teacher’s interaction with children – The teacher’s

interactions with the children were appropriate for a kindergarten setting. She

spoke to her students in a calm soft manner and most of the children responded
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to her with a calm manner in return. She showed respect to the students

regardless of their actions and most were respectful in return.

• Routines involved – The routines involved in the group time started with the song

that they sang to go to the carpet. The activities they did they were activities that

they had learned and done previously, all of the students knew what she meant

when she said we are going to “arm blend” and they knew what motions to do

with their hands to change the beginning sound of the word without instruction.

• Pace of activity – The pace of the activities went pretty quickly, the teacher

explained what they were doing, the activity lasted between 5 and 8 minutes,

and then a new activity was introduced. The fast pace kept the kids moving and

interacting. Most of the children had no problem keeping up with the pace.
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POWERFUL INTERACTION OBSERVATION

Date: 04/07/2017 School: Roger Gehring Elementary

Teacher: Ms. Lovan Age of Child: 6 Time: 9:10-9:15

Setting: The interaction occurred while the student was at her desk working on a writing

activity. The students were independently on circling the capital letters and punctuation

in a poem they had read. The teacher was at her laptop setting up the next activity they

would be doing.

Interaction:

1. The student raised her hand after working independently for approximately three

minutes. The teacher noticed she had her hand raised after twenty to thirty seconds

and walked over to the student. The teacher said “Samantha, I see that you have

finished circling all the capital letters in the poem, and you also circled the

punctuation. Do you remember what the poem was about?” The student responded,

“Yes, it was about five Easter eggs and the family ate them.” The teacher

responded, “That’s right Samantha, you were paying attention to the poem and

remember correctly, since you finished your work so quickly can you draw a picture

of what the poem was about on the top of your paper? Maybe draw your family

members eating the eggs?” The student responded, “OK, can I pick what color the

eggs are too?” The teacher responded, “Of course, you can add patterns or make

the eggs have different colors if you would like as well.” The student then started

drawing on her paper, and the teacher started walking around the room, helping

other students.
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2. The Powerful Interaction (PI) behaviors that I observed the teacher using were:

being present, she was available and ready for the student to interact with when she

raised her hand. (p.11). She also personalized the interaction by using the students

name while interacting and by giving the student her full attention. (p.51). The

teacher showed respect for the student by using her name multiple times, listening

attentively to what the student had to say, talked with her instead of at her, and used

a calm tone of voice while communicating with the student. (p.55) The teacher had a

short conversation about the students work and the poem they recently read. (p.96)

The teacher also asked the student questions about the poem and answered the

student’s questions about the drawing. (p.125) The teacher also linked the new

poem they just read about a family and the color of eggs they were eating to a

familiar, her family. (p.130)

3. The PI behavior, that if included, would have improved this interaction would be to

use rich vocabulary, the student seemed higher than her peers and would benefit

from new and interesting vocabulary. (p.114)