Week 2 Reflection

This past week was the first week that students were in the classroom. I spent the week observing both my students and host teacher. During my observations, I had the opportunity to get a feel for how my host teacher's language arts-based classroom is run and was able to get to know students that I had not worked with in prior placements. Learning more about the students through "Getting to Know You" activities, I feel, not only helped build a sense of classroom community, but gave me some insight to their interests and learning styles, which will likely help me when it comes to implementing motivational strategies in the classroom. For instance, many of the students thrived off of competing for a prize from the prize box by completing a word scramble before any of their peers. Some students, on the other hand, responded well to individual attention and praise for positive behavior and exemplary work. In addition, I have identified some individuals from each class period who have already exhibited difficulty in keeping themselves organized and on-task. I am in the process of creating some type of contract or management plan for these students to assist and motivate them to succeed. This system will likely be in the form of a checklist or some sort of self-reflection for the students (e.g., reflecting on what is difficult for them during the week, what they feel would help them simplify tasks they find difficult, strengths and weaknesses). At the end of each week, students will be rewarded if they make progress and/or meet goals that have been developed through the plan. Rewards might be small prizes such as books, pencils, or erasers in addition to parent notification of the positive progress being made. It is my hope that implementing such plans early on in the school year will prevent these students from falling behind. Next week, I will be administering a pre-test on vocabulary words to identify target groups for my action research project. I am anxious to find how much the students already know!