My Favorite Community Worker

Reflection

I created this lesson to allow the students to tell about their favorite community workers. This lesson, as well as other lessons in this unit, provided the students with an opportunity to see how the various community workers help in our community. Overall, the presentation and the independent practice activity of this learning experience went very well. The small group size worked well for managing the group behavior. The small group size also allowed the students who needed help to receive quality assistance from the instructor.

This lesson was conducted over a two day period. There were five mini-groups in all that I met with. I met with the groups at different time of the day as opposed to continually meeting with each group. Teaching at different times worked well for me. Teaching the same lesson back to back may have become an arduous task.

As a result of the lesson being implemented at various times throughout the day, I had an opportunity to work with groups of mixed ability levels. My groups usually consist of students with similar strengths and levels of ability.

The students appeared to enjoy the learning experience. Some students even wanted to draw a second picture after successfully completing the first. Due to their hectic schedules, the students rarely have an opportunity to draw and color pictures. In some cases, it seemed as if the students were rushing through writing their sentences to draw their pictures. The students liked using the boards with the sight words and the picture list of community workers. Both materials were introduced at the beginning of the community workers unit. Using these boards gives them a sense of independence. They did not have to ask the instructor for the correct spelling of the word. They can use the pictures to find the correct spelling on their own.

This learning experience was the last lesson in the community worker’s unit. The eleven lessons that came before this are as follows: Introduction to Community Workers; Mail Carriers, Doctors and Nurses, Chefs, Police officers, Firefighters, Construction Workers, Teachers, Bankers, and Soldiers. Each day, the students would learn about a different community worker. A story about the community worker was read; the group would look at pictures, and use materials that each community worker would use. The independent practice usually consisted of completing an activity associated with that community worker. For example, the students practiced dialing 9-1-1 when they learned about police officers. After learning about construction workers, the students wore yellow construction hats and pretended to build houses with blocks.
The students also visited a post office center during the implementation of this unit. The students were introduced to Boards A and B at this center. The students had to use the boards to write a letter about a community worker to their classmates. Two other boards were also utilized. A board with pictures of the students and names was used. As the students wrote their letters, they were to find the picture of the student they wanted to write to and write the name that was next to the picture. The fourth board contained sample letters for the students to copy.

At this center, the students used the boards to write letters to their friends. After writing the letter, they were to put it in an envelope and write their friend’s name on the front. Next, the students put stamps on the envelopes and placed them in the blue mail box. A different student was selected each day to be the mail carrier and deliver the mail.

Although there was not technology integration in this particular learning experience, technology was used throughout the unit. A CD player was used as the students acted out the stop, drop, and roll, procedure. The students also watched short age appropriate videos on police officers and firefighters.
Three guest speakers visited my class during this unit. The guest speakers were: the fire chief and a firefighter, a soldier, and a police officer. The guest speakers came in to tell the students what they do and how they help people.

A pre and post test was also included in this unit. This matching test required the students to cut and paste materials next to the community worker who would most likely use it. Refer to Attachment C to view the pre/post test. Eleven of the students received higher scores on the post test. Ten of the students received a perfect score on the both the pre-test and the post test. Two of the students received the same scores on both tests. Several factors may have affected the test results. The same test was given for the pre and post test. A majority of the students are repeating kindergarten with Mrs. Mackinnon and Mrs. Munoz. These students may have been exposed to these community workers during the previous year.

There were many things that worked well during this learning experience. As I mentioned earlier, the small group sizes and the usage of Boards A and B worked very well. Having the students repeat the directions back also worked well. The students understood what was expected of them. Materials were distributed only when the students were ready to use them. This prevented off task behavior. This also limited the confusion and opportunity for the students to become overwhelmed with having numerous materials to keep track of. Preferential seating worked with several of the students. I was able to provide immediate assistance as the students became frustrated with a difficult task. The usage of questioning helped to keep the students on task.

There are some things that I would change about this learning experience. I would have removed the list of sight words for the higher achieving students. These are words that the students are supposed to know how to spell. By providing a list of these words, this learning experience may have been challenging to these students. One of the students struggled with the independent activity. However, he did not want my help. He wanted to do everything by himself. If I could re-teach this lesson, I would allow him to work more independently.
Adding the usage of a piece of literature to this learning experience is another change that I would make to this learning experience. Books on community workers were used throughout this unit, however, the students were not read to during the culminating learning experience. By reading to the students, it may have helped them to remember the various ways that community workers help people.

The books that were read throughout this unit include: Jobs by Susan Canizares, What Do We Do? by Naomi Shiria, The Post Office Book by Gail Gibbons, Jenny’s in the Hospital by Seymour Reit, I Want to Be a Doctor by Liza Alexander, Walter the Baker by Eric Carle, Babar Learns to Cook by Laurent de Brunhoff, A Day in the Life of a Fire Fighter By Linda Hayward, Firefighters A to Z by Chris Demarest, Fire Engines by Anne Rockwell, I want to Be A Police Officer by Liza Alexander, Big Machines by Karen Wallace, The Teacher from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler, and I Want to Be a Teacher by Michaela Muntean. I created a book called All about Soldiers. The students read through this easy reader with me and colored the pictures.

I participated in a peer review session which occurred on Thursday, March 18, 2008. The focus question of this peer review session was “does my learning experience follow the congruency table.” The reviewers I my group was impressed with my lesson. One of my reviewers stated that “the drawing activity added a creative element to the learning experience.” I was given several wonderful suggestions. It was suggested that I providing a parent letter to allow the care givers to be a part of what their children are learning. The parent letter that I would have included can be viewed as Attachment M. It was also suggested that I ask the students higher level questions. In this way, I could challenge the students beyond recall of facts and comprehension. My peer review team suggested that I should include a piece of literature on community workers to refresh the students’ memories on the various helpers and how they assist people.

I would have also included a student friendly rubric. In this way, the students could be take part in the scoring process. They would be able to see exactly what they did right and what needs improvement. Providing a student friendly rubric may cause the grade they are given to have meaning. Due to the age of the students, the rubric would have to read and completed with the students. The student friendly rubric I would have included can be viewed as Attachment N.

My peer review group also suggested making changes to my rubric. It was brought to my attention that grading the students on their artistic capabilities may be unfair. My group suggested requiring the students to draw three materials or instruments used by their community worker. By making this change, I may have had more students in the distinguished range in the distribution of scores. The rubric I will use if this lesson is implemented in the future can be viewed as Attachment O.

Overall, this was a very successful learning experience. I was able to see the writing abilities of the students and also their knowledge of the various community workers. The students were able to successfully meet the objectives, and we reached the goal designed for this lesson. The peer review session also helped me to create a more effective and meaningful lesson.

I was given the opportunity to be one of two early childhood/special education students to take the Teaching to the Standards course. I was also given the opportunity to include my learning experience to the TLQP web site. My LE is currently located in the Fishbowl portion of the TLQP web site. A program called Dreamweaver was used to transfer the information from the electronic version of my LE to create the webpage. In completing my LE, I was able to see the work required in creating a webpage.

When I began to create the on-line version of my LE, I thought it was a lot harder than it looked. Mr. Arnold made the experience as easy and as smooth as possible. Any questions that I had, or any challenges I faced in completing the project were always immediately resolved. Once I became familiar with using Dreamweaver, completing the webpage became fun. It was difficult at first, but the final product is well worth any frustration.

I was given the opportunity to work with Jane Ross, who is a very talented art major student at Daemen College. I would like to thank her for all the help she has provided in completing the LE. I would also like to thank Mr. Arnold and Dr. Mary Fox for allowing me to take the Teaching to the Standards course, and adding my LE to the TLQP legacy.