Section 2: October 9, 2013 When I walk into the first grade classroom at Thomas Jefferson in Washington Township around

12:30, the students are all coming back from lunch and settling back into their routine. They place their lunch boxes into their backpacks and wash their hands before they sit down at their desks. Once they all settled in their seats, Mrs. Buono began her lesson at about 12:35. She starts teaching them about fundamentals and the basics of writing letters and words. On the front board they have a list of words from their word wall. It contains words like his, is, and of. Mrs. Buono asks each of them to write each word multiple times on a sheet of paper at their desks. As they write, the two teachers and two helpers walk around the room to make sure each student is writing what they are supposed to and that they are spelling everything correctly. If one of them wrote a word wrong a teacher would help them sound it out and show them the word again until they figured it out. Once everyone wrote everything correctly two students passed out white boards and a sock to each of the students. When they receive the white boards the students know not to write or draw anything on them until the teacher instructs them to. However, there were a few students who decided to draw on them and so Mrs. Buono had to yell at them and told them to erase their boards and to not touch until they wer directed to. With the white boards they went over letters and sounds. Mrs. Buono would say a sound and the students would write what letter they thought she was saying. Once they all wrote down the letter, the teachers would go around checking if they got the right answer. They also told them to only write in lower case letters because they werent starting a sentence. Once they went through sounds they moved onto whole words. Mrs. Buono would say a word and then the class would repeat it and write it down. Some examples are of and is. In between each word they were reminded to use their fingers to create a space in between words. They then moved onto harder words. With the harder words Mrs. Buono would say the word, and then tap it out. The students would repeat what she did and

would write it down on the board. Most of them tapped out the words a few times to really figure out what letters were in the words. After they tapped out a few words, they moved onto writing a sentence. The sentence they had to write was, His pup and cat had fun. Mrs. Buono said it to them and then they said it together and determined how many words were in the sentence. Once they figured that out they were on their own to write the sentence. Most of them were at their seats tapping out each word or were stretching out the word using phonics. Mrs. Buono also told them they could look up at their word wall for help with the trick words. They also made sure they used their fingers to create a space between each word. And they all used a capital letter to start off their sentences and a period at the end. Once they finished their sentences, each of the four teachers chose a student they thought had the best sentence. The students chosen put their names at the top and put their board up on the ledge of the white board at the front of the classroom. They were rewarding those with neat handwriting and good spelling. Mrs. Buono then ended the lesson on fundamentals and Mrs. Hanrahann took over to read a story.

Section 3: October 9, 2013

According to Morrow, phonics is necessary to learn how to read and write (Morrow 19). Throughout my observation in my first grade class at Thomas Jefferson in Washington Township, I noticed that all of the students use phonics and they all have phonemic and phonological awareness. They all know the association between the letter sounds and the visual of the letter. Mrs. Buono has them tap out each of their words so they can hear all of the individual sounds that the letters make. This also helps them with letter recognition and alphabet knowledge. Each of the students quickly picked up on what letter and what word Mrs. Buono was saying. After she would say it out loud, they would repeat and write it down really quickly. As the students wrote down their sentence they were in a print enriched environment. The students were able to look up the word wall for any help spelling certain words and they were rewarded for their good writing. The rewarding of writing will help encourage the writing of others as well. In order to be picked they know that they need to learn to write well and they become determined to be one of those students one day. It also helps show the students who are doing well and accomplishment. It helps show them that they are appreciated and doing well and that they should keep up the good work. There is also a down side to this tactic. The teachers have to make sure they dont pick the same four students every time or else the same students would be left out and not want to learn or write anymore. Its always better to reward everyone by hanging up all of their work at such a young age. Overall, I think that this classroom is encouraging to students and helps them learn phonics and how to relate those sounds to writing. However, Im not sure why it is necessary to have so many adults in one classroom, considering there fifteen students in the room. Then there are three Rowan students, so we are unable to always be fully involved with the students. One question that came up was, Does having two main teachers for a first grade class really add to the students learning experience or does it distract and in return

hinder their learning process? I will hopefully be able to answer this question after more observations. Section 2: October 16, 2013 As I walk into the room at 12:30, the students are going along with what they are supposed to do once they come back from lunch. I say hi to the class and teachers and settle into the back of the class to begin my observations. Once the whole class is settled, Mrs. Buono starts up her lesson for the day. They are running behind today because they had an assembly earlier and werent able to get everything done. Mrs. Buono starts with her lesson on fundamentals. She starts with diagraphs, which are two letters together, such as th and ch. This is the first day that they are learning these, so this is a new concept for them. Some of them asked why they are together and why the cards they are on dont have pictures. Mrs. Buono quickly answers their questions and starts to introduce the new sounds to them. Mrs. Buono says the diagraph and the students follow. One little girl is helping Mrs. Buono. They have an owl that they use to show when the students should repeat. When the owl is lifted up the students repeat what the teacher just said. The cards that Mrs. Buono is using are also mixed with regular letters from the alphabet. She asks the students to sign each letter except for the diagraphs because those are two letters. She says the two letters, ch, then she says a word that starts with it, chin, and then she says the sound it makes. The students repeat everything Mrs. Buono says. Once they go through the whole alphabet, Mrs. Buono moves onto trick words. She has cards with the trick words on them, and the students say what word is written on each card. Some examples are and and the. There is a card that has his and is on the same card. Mrs. Buono tells the students that they are on the same card because they are from the same family. Both of them have the is sound in them and they both consist of is Mrs. Buono then transitions into tapping out words. She puts up a word on the front board and they students have to sound out each sound. They tap the sounds on their fingers and then they say the whole word. Once they go through easy ones, Mrs. Buono moves

onto ones with diagraphs. They do the same routine as the other words. After every word that they tap out Mrs. Buono calls on a student with their hand up to tell the class what the word means. Many of them have a story to tell or relate it to something they personally have or that their parents have. If one of them doesnt know the answer Mrs. Buono asks if they would like some help and if they say yes, she calls on another student with their hand raised. After they finish that, two students pass out magnet boards to every student. Each magnet board has all the letters of the alphabet on them and the new diagraphs that they just learned today. Mrs. Buono first starts off with letter sounds. She says a letter and they have to choose what letter she is saying. For some of them there are two answers such as, c and k. To let them know when they got the right answer, a teacher taps on the students heads. Once they do that they can clear their board and wait for the next letter. After a few letters and after she knows everyone understands, Mrs. Buono moves onto words with diagraphs. She used thud as one of the words and one little girl put thub on her board. When Mrs. Buono came to her spot, she told her to sound it out again. Mrs. Buono helped her and put extra emphasis on the d sound. Once the little girl realized her mistake, Mrs. Buono gave another one to do herself. Once they finished with the magnet boards they moved to the back carpet for a story.

Section 3: October 16, 2013 In chapter 6, Martens writes about keeping language whole and that personal and social experiences are important when children are learning how to read and write. (Martens 93). Throughout class today Mrs. Buono allowed them to share their personal stories when she asked them to define the words she was telling them to spell. Most of the students that answered had some sort of story or connection to the word that they shared with the class. This made it more relatable to the kids and allowed them to see how what they are learning is important to know for the real world and the future. Also the evolving of phonics and phonemic awareness was present again throughout class today. The introduction of a new concept like diagraphs and the explanation of why they are together helps the students learn more about their language and spelling. They also tapped out words and used magnet boards which all elaborated more on their phonics and understanding of language and writing. This shows the importance that Morrow relates towards the learning of phonics. I also liked how Mrs. Buono helped the one little girl when she spelled the word wrong. She didnt just tell her she was wrong and leave, she helped her realize her mistake and made sure she understood why she was wrong. She helped her with phonics and emphasized how to say thud. Overall, I thought that the activities that they did were helpful and engaging for the students. The teachers always make sure that all of the students are on the same page that they all understand. However, I do have a few questions, How can they tell for sure if every student understands? How do they know that the student isnt just looking off of whoever is sitting next to them since four of them sit at one table? Im sure as my observations continue I will learn the answer to these questions.

Section 2: October 23, 2013 When I walked into the classroom at 12:30 the students are already engaged in a story that Mrs. Hanrahan is reading to them. The book they were reading was On the Move and it was about the wind. Each of the students gets to read one page in the book. Mrs. Hanrahan is pointing to each word so they can follow along easily and not lose their place. She is also putting emphasis on the punctuation at the end of each sentence. If there is a question mark or an exclamation point she asks them to put emphasis on their words so we can tell whether they are asking a question or exclaiming something. One student had an exclamation point at the end of his sentence and decided to yell they end of his sentence. As they are reading, Mrs. Hanrahan helps them with each word that they dont know. She first tells them to look at the pictures on the page to help them see if they can figure out the word and the sentence on their own. If not, she starts to sound out the word phonetically. They all mostly got the word when she did that, however for some words she just told them what the word said. Most of the students kept messing up the same word so Mrs. Hanrahan pointed out the word to them and took the time to go over the word and break it down and tell them what it means. There is a wide range of reading levels in the class. Many of the students were able to read the pages perfectly with no problem, however, the rest of them were struggling with most of the words and needed Mrs. Hanrahans assistance. Once they finished with that story, they moved onto another story called Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. Mrs. Hanrahan only read them a small part of the story. Once she finished, she asked the students who the characters are and to tell her a little bit about them that they learned from the story or from the picture. She then asks them whether the story was fiction or nonfiction, and they all answered fiction. Then they all read the story together. Mrs. Hanrahan would read a line first and then they would repeat after her. When they finished with the story they had the students break off into different stations. The stations are relatively new for them, because they were just introduced to them the week beforehand. At each station there were two students. Some of the stations

were puzzles, creating a story, matching a word to the corresponding picture which they then had to write and draw, coloring a bat and making a word family using the ending at, finding words in a sand bottle, and reading. Once they were all finished their stations they had to check their catch-up folder to finish up work they did not have time to finish earlier. If they do not have any make up work they were able to color/draw, play with clay, or read a book.

Section 3: October 23, 2013 According to Morrow, knowledge of the concepts of books, the ability to comprehend, and the ability to read fluently are all things that lead students to become successful readers (Morrow 203 and 206). Throughout the lesson today, Mrs. Hanrahan expressed all of those concepts in their own way. She helped the students express their knowledge of the concepts of books by telling them to look at the pictures on the page to help them to figure out the words in the sentences. All of them were able to connect the pictures to words represented the page. All of the students also knew where they had to start reading and knew to read from left to right, which is also one of the concepts of books and print. The students expressed their fluency of reading as well. Some of them were to read the pages with no problem and then some of them were struggling with simple words. With the struggling students the teacher basically gave away the words right away and didnt help them sound out the words on their own. I feel like the only way that they will really learn the words is if they try to figure them out on their own with help only sound out and stretching out the words. Mrs. Hanrahan also made sure they were able to comprehend what they read. She asked them questions after they read every page and made sure all of the students were paying attention. Comprehension is necessary for a child to be successful reader (Morrow 206). By the students showing their understanding of the stories they read shows that they are on their way to becoming successful readers. She also made sure to point out the punctuation of each sentence to help expand their understanding of what each ending means. The students expressed when they understood when they reflected the punctuation on their own without her help at all. Overall, I thought that the activities they did today were beneficial towards their reading abilities. Having each student read their own page allowed the teacher to see where each student is at in their reading ability and be able to compare it to others. One question that I have is, How do you help the students who are below everyone else in the class with reading without making everything too simple for the students who are above? Im hoping

that I will be able to answer my question by observing the classroom and the teachers within these next few weeks.

Section 2: October 30, 2013 When I walked into the first grade classroom at Thomas Jefferson in Washington Township around 12:30, the students were all settled in their seats after lunch and were ready to learn. Mrs. Buono had them get out their list of trick words so they could add a few new words to the list. She was having them write the words you and your onto each of their lists. They are going to be the new words that they start to focus on. Once they finished up with their lists, two students passed out the white boards. When everyone received their boards, they have to tap out the word will. They tap it out as a class together and then they have to write it out on their boards. This week they are focusing on words that have bonus letters, such as will has two ls but you dont necessarily hear both of them. When the students noticed that it had a bonus letter they all pointed it out to the teachers. Mrs. Buono told them that they should be writing all of their words in lowercase letters because they arent starting a sentence and they arent names. The next word they tap out is mess which also has a bonus letter. A few students started to color on their boards so Mrs. Buono and Mrs. Hanrahan had to yell at them and tell them that they only things they should be writing are the words. She also points out that they shouldnt be drawing hearts or circles above their i, they should put a dot. Once they finished with their words, Mrs. Buono gave them a sentence to write. The sentence was, I will huff and puff up the big hill. First they count the number of words in the sentence together, which there were nine words. Then they had to try to write out the sentence on their own. She reminded them that they have to start their sentence with a capital letter and end with a period. The teachers are going around helping out the students with sounding out each word and helping them spell the words. Once some of the students finished writing their sentences they started to read them out loud, but the teacher told them to read them in their heads so everyone around them who isnt finished can concentrate on their sentence. Then each teacher chose a student to put their name on their board and place on the front wall to display their writing.

Then Mrs. Hanrahan had the entire class move to the back carpet where they were introduced their new unit. The new unit was called How Does Heat Cause Change. On the page there are three pictures of heat and things that give off heat. Mrs. Hanrahan asked everyone to point out what represents the heat. One student replied that the steam from the hot kettle was giving off heat. Another pointed out that the heat outside would melt the icicle on the house. And the last picture was of a child licking a popsicle and someone said that the heat from the sun would melt it. Once they went through all of the pictures they ended their lesson to move into their stations.

Section 3: October 30, 2013 According to Feldgus, phonics is an effective way to teach students how to write using conventional spelling (Feldgus 11). In this first grade class, they students are all encouraged to write words by their conventional spelling, which is the correct way to spell a word. When the students have to write down words the teachers help the students sound out the word together and then they write the word on their own, but if one of them spells a word wrong they help them resound out the word. Feldgus also points out that teachers should encourage the students with praise even when they spell a word incorrectly (Feldgus 12). Normally when a student spells something wrong the teachers dont necessarily praise them beforehand, they just tell them to try again and help them figure out the correct spelling. Feldgus also points out that there is a correct and incorrect way that a teacher can help a student sound out a word. Feldgus states that the correct way to sound out a word is by having the student say what they hear when they say the word. The wrong way is when the teacher sounds out each letter but not in the way that they sound in the word. (Feldgus 39-40). When Mrs. Buono helps the students when sounds out words, she lets them take the lead. She tells them to sound out what they hear in the word and if they need help she stretches out the word for them. Once she does that they normally can figure out how to spell the word. So according to Feldgus, Mrs. Buono is using the right way to sound out words. Overall, I believe that Mrs. Buono and Mrs. Hanrahan have an effective learning environment for the students. They try to make sure that each student stays on task and that they are learning to spell every word the correct way. My only critique is why are the students not allowed to put circles or hearts above their i? Personally I always put open circles above my is and I really see a problem with it. But I guess with them just learning how to write correctly it could affect their writing in some way.

Section 2: November 13, 2013 When Mrs. Buono started the lesson today she started by writing a sentence on the board. She wrote, Meg was the first one to fall. She introduced them to the new trick words that were in the sentence, was and one. The students read the sentence with Mrs. Buono. They the teacher called on the students for them to come up with a sentence involving one of their new trick words. One student said, I have one nose., another said, I was eating lunch. She tried to call on all of the students so they each could have a turn and to make sure all of the students understood the new words. The students then had to write the new trick words on their paper with all of their trick words. They have to write each word two times to practice. Once they are done, they raise their hand so the teachers knew when they were done. They then had to read the words they wrote to a teacher and they collected the papers afterwards. All of the students seemed to understand how to do this and all seemed to not have any problem with writing down each of the words. They then move onto the whiteboards to write more words. Mrs. Buono told them they have a test coming up in a few weeks so everything they are doing today will be on the test. She then says a letter sound and the students have to write the letters that correspond with the sound. She also reminds them to put a finger space in between each letter or word. Then they move onto the next line where she has them spell out words. The first word is fall. They tap it out together and then the students spell it out on their own. The next

word is lash. They again tap out the word together and then spell out the word. Then on the third line they are going to write a sentence. They write down, They will toss the ball to me. They say the sentence out loud together and then count how many words are in the sentence together. She asks a student how the sentence should start and he says with a capital letter. She then asks another student how the sentence should end, and the student says with a period. Mrs. Buono noticed that some students werent paying attention so she asks them what they are supposed to be doing and they pause and tell her the sentence they are supposed to write. Mrs. Buono told them to pay attention and stay with the class or else she was going to rearrange their seats. She also told them that they were distracting the learning of the rest of the class. Once they finish their sentences the teachers each choose a student who had the best handwriting and the best sentence to put on the wall of fame.

Section 3: November 13, 2013 According to Martens, it is important to keep language whole and that personal and social experiences are important when children are learning how to read and write (Martens 93). During class, when Mrs. Buono asked the students to come up with their own sentences containing their new trick words she helped them connect these words to their personal life and their personal language. This connection will later help them with their reading and writing abilities because they will know how to use the words. This also helps show their understanding of the word. If a student ended up using the word incorrectly the teachers would have been able to help with their understanding. But since all of the students were able to use the words correctly the teachers were able to move on with their lesson. Every day in class the students utilize phonics and phonemic awareness. This strategy will help with their full understanding of words and the full understanding of the connections between the sounds and the written letters. According to Morrow, phonics is necessary to learn how to read and write (Morrow 19). The connection between the sound and the visual of letters and words will further help the students learn how to read and write. All of the students were able to tap out each other words that Mrs. Buono gave them easily. After they tapped the word out together as a class, I could see some of them tapping it out again as they wrote down each letter making the connection between the sounds and the letter. Also with the teachers pointing out how to start and end a sentence will also help with the continuous growth of the students learning. Punctuation is an important part of a

sentence and allowing the students to understand this aspect of writing will encourage them to always use it. Overall, I believe today was an effective day with learning for the students. They learned new trick words and were able to connect them and use them correctly in a sentence of their own. Also, with drawing attention to the two students not paying attention helped the rest of the class to pay attention and it helped the rest of the class focus. Mrs. Buono was trying to make sure that they were learning everything that she was teaching them and that even though they may know what they are doing they still need to focus for the sake of the rest of class. With the wall of fame, Ive always wondered how they keep track of which students they call up to the board. I feel like every time I am there it is always the same students boards up.

Section 2: November 20, 2013 When I walked into the classroom at Thomas Jefferson, in Washington Township, I was greeted by two substitute teachers. The students were a lot louder than they normally are and they were all shifting in their seats. The substitutes were trying to calm the students and told them they could potentially lose their ice cream party because they would not be getting any compliments from them if they did not settle down. Once the students calmed down they started the lesson. They started by going through a stack of cards that had the letters of the alphabet on them and some diagraphs. First the teacher would say it then the students would repeat. They had to the ch one over again because the class was off. Some of them started to early causing the rest of the class to get confused. They then moved onto the word of the day, which was ham. They had to write ham on their sheet of paper and circle the am in the word because that is part of a word family. The teachers told them to write with their best handwriting and that if any of the other teachers and aides noticed their handwriting could be better to erase it and have them rewrite it. They then went over their new trick words, from and have. One of the girls in the class wrote form instead of from so the substitute told her that was a different word and to rewrite it so that it says from. The girl eventually understood the difference and rewrote the word. They then moved onto sentences with their new trick words. This present is from Jan. and Do you have your own ticket? They went over each word in the

sentence and then read it all the way through. The students then made up their own sentences using the words. Most of their sentences were just like the examples only with a few words different. The substitutes tried to tell them to make up their own and to not just use the sentences they gave them as a template but the students were not able to think of their own sentences. They then wrote down the new trick words on their papers and once again they were telling them to use their best handwriting. They also went around making sure all of their letters were in the correct order because the girl earlier had hers backwards. This time they did not have to erase anyones papers but earlier they erased a few students papers and the student looked upset because they had to rewrite everything they had just written.

Section 3: November 20, 2013 According to Morrow, legibility needs to be the main goal for handwriting and children need to learn that neat handwriting is a form of courtesy for those who are reading it (Morrow 302). When the substitutes were telling the students to write with their best behavior and that they were going to erase it if it does not meet their standards, I thought it was a little harsh because they would be erasing everything a student just tried their hardest to write. However, after I read what Morrow says, it was good for the students to learn how to write neatly. This is the stage where they are just learning to write and they need to learn the correct ways to write letters and words. The substitutes tried their best to stick to the schedule of the class and followed it well. The students were not cooperating fully with them so they had to tell the students a few times to calm down. Telling the students theyll lose a compliment from them had an impact on the students. The teachers at Thomas Jefferson use the light system for behavior as well. So they had to move some students eye throughout the day but once they did that they students began to take them more seriously. Overall, I think the substitutes tried their best to keep the students engaged in learning and tried to keep them in line. I do not know if they know completely how to deal with children this age and how to manage their behavior. The students have had them before when I was there and one of the students ended up crying because the one teacher told her that her drawing was not good because it looked rushed so she had to redraw

everything. So I was wondering if these substitutes are trained in early childhood education or if they are used to dealing with older children who can handle criticism better.