Week 3 Observations - Learning Tools

Every day students walk through the doors of the school to build their knowledge. Some of these students must overcome a variety of obstacles just to enter into a zone where they can learn. Teachers prepare lessons each and every day to help students overcome these obstacles and learn something new (or even just retain what has been learned). We are fortunate to live in a time with many learning tools that are available to support students. The fifth grade students that I work with had a wide variety of tools to help support their learning this week. 

First thing in the morning, each class holds a morning meeting. The classrooms have posters on the wall called "accountable talk" to help the many second language learners practice their conversation responses. Below is a picture of the ones we use from Really Good Stuff.

During their math time, I observed several more learning tools. They are working on fractions and the lesson was finding common denominators. Many of the students used multiplication charts, allowing them to learn the new skill, even if their knowledge of multiplication facts were lacking. Students worked in rotations spending some time doing a fraction game with a partner (which helped them to catch mistakes), some worked in a small group with a teacher or interventionist helping solidify the skills they had been learning and others used Chromebooks to access lessons on I-Ready and Woot Math. All of these tools worked together to enhance student learning.

I also observed teachers using videos to share information on topics they were studying. The teacher reminded me that it is important to view the videos personally to ensure they are appropriate and that for some students it is helpful to show the video twice if it is short to help them retain the information.

One last thing I saw was a very low tech tool. I took a professional development class during our late start time last week and they highlighted the importance of phonemic awareness for second language learners. We created a tool with post-it notes that looked similar to this.

The teacher says the word, the student repeats the word and then taps each square to help identify the individual sounds. We learned that using hand motions and tools like this help solidify learning.

I look forward observing and learning about many more tools in the future.