Johnny Appleseed Day
For this last lesson, my teacher let me know that the students would be learning about Johnny Appleseed the day of my visit. And so, we were able to continue to work on the concept of taking on characters by taking on the character of growing trees! The kids were able to be creative, come up with character traits for their trees, and I was able to experience quite a bit in relation to teaching and understanding how these first graders learn.
We began the lesson with a game of character rock, paper, scissors. (see the attached lesson plan for details on how to play) During this warm up, we were practicing taking on one of the characters in the game, supermodel, when I noticed a boy who had crouched under one of the tables and wasn't participating. I started worrying about what I could say to convince him to join us, but I was at a loss because I don't know these children very well yet. But instead of drawing attention to his lack of participation, I decided to invite him to participate in a different way. I asked him if he would be one of our photographers for our supermodels and pretend to go around and take pictures of his classmates. He was so excited to have his special role and eagerly got up and started pretending to photograph his fellow students. I loved seeing that first graders are so eager to help out and when I gave him a special job, whatever inhibitions he had about being a supermodel went away.
The most difficult thing I noticed in this lesson was helping the students stay interested and involved, especially when their classmates were answering questions. I tried to ask each student a question about how their trees felt or moved or looked. However, I started getting very similar answers and students who weren't answering seemed to be losing focus and interest. Next time, I think I'll give the students more opportunities to share ideas with their neighbors or to show some sign of agreement if they have the same answer as somebody else. Hopefully, that will help them stay involved and interested throughout the lesson.
Later on in the lesson, I "planted" each student as a seed and then we all grew together into full adult trees. We then continued our lesson by demonstrating how our trees would act and feel in each of the four seasons. At one point, one of the boys crouched down on the ground again while the rest of us were still standing, showing the seasons in our adult trees. The substitute teacher that was there helping out tried to help by calling out the boy's name and telling him to stand up with the rest of us. When he didn't listen to her, I walked over and said, "Oh it looks like you're a seed again! Well, let's water you to help you grow back into a full tree like the rest of us." I mimed "watering" him and he smiled up at me while he grew back up to be standing with his classmates. I learned that these students have no problem with pretending! We just need to enter their world and join with them to help them sometimes. My job is not to squash his creativity if it interferes with my lesson plan. I need to listen and watch how the students react and pretend so that I can play off of their ideas. That's where the most learning and creativity can occur.
I have a hard time keeping 1st graders interested when I allow just one student to answer a question as well. I think this shows us that developmentally 1st graders are still developing focus skills. I have found that finding ways for all students to answer my questions at the same time is the best strategy. Often I have them all draw their answer, whisper their answer into the air, or say it with the movement of their feet. Then while they are working on communicating their answers I can travel around the room asking students to verbally respond individually while keeping an eye on everyone'e participation simultaneously.
ReplyDelete