Franklin Teaching Journal

September 14,2009

Knowing your kids is a book I just finished by Chip Wood, Yardsticks - Children In the Classroom.  Some notes from this read.

5 Year Olds:

• Move kids calmly, and unhurried.  Rushing creates frustration.
• You need to manage their day in lower grades.
• Connect with parents.
• Reversal of letters and numbers common.  Accept without comment.
• Use finger as word separator.
• Learn best through repetition.
• Need books with few words, lots of pictures, and something the children are familiar with.
• Learn phonics in small groups or with buddies with similar skills.
• Label classroom things.

6 Year Olds:

• The process is more important than the product.
• Eagerness, curiosity, imagination, drive, and enthusiasm are very high at this age.  They perhaps will never again match the quantity or intensity of this time throughout their lifetime.
• Learn best through discovery, love asking questions, and trying out new games, and ideas.
• Partner read.
• Phonics learning through guided reading with the whole class, and in small groups.
• They are moving on to chapter books.Story development is influenced by draing first their ideas.

7 Year Olds:

• Show great interest in new words.
• Rely on adults for reassurances.
• Still may tattletale.
• Have strong likes and dislikes.
• Like to be read to, board, and computer games.
• Need a quiet classroom.  Need to know how much time they have before transitions.
• Need humor to moderate their seriousness.

9:05 Announcements, pledge.

9:10 Math

10:00 Book walk, book shopping, partner read.

10:41 Recess

10:56 All About Me time for student of the week.

11:20 Wash hands.

11:30 Lunch/Recess.

12:20 Writing Workshop.

1:00 Silent read , and match games. (Match face to name puzzle)

1:30 Computer lab.

2:03 Music

2:33 Recess

2:43 Daily agenda, pass back, pack up.

3:00 Read aloud.

3:30 Dismissal.

• Math - Story math work, and geometric shape addition.  Story math used some coins to help in lesson.
• Thinking about plants vocabulary.  Students recall the facts and vocabulary they know.
• Writing Workshop - Spoke about hard to read writing such as. Incomplete erasing, missing periods, spacing between words, and messy writing.
• Writing Workshop - Finish one story before starting a new one.  Write about something that is true and had happened recently.  MT used one students story to review with class on.