Gia Shafer

ECE 251
Group Time Powerful Interactions
Group Time Evaluation
School: The Goddard School Phone number: 702-566-0255
Teacher: Ms. Emily & Ms. Ruby Age/Group: 4yr old Preschool
Group time Start time: 9:30am End time: 10:00am Date of Observation: April 6, 2017
Number of adults: 2 Number of children: 16
1. Group time description:

Students had finished eating a snack and were sitting at the tables; they are asked to raise

their hand to show they are ready for group time. Ms. Ruby called them by name one by

one to group time, to sit on their name on the carpet. Ms. Emily came to the group and

started with everybody’s “hands up,” “hands on your shoulders” and “hands on your knees”

to get students attention and focus. When the children were ready she went over the weekly

theme “Plants and Gardening,” discussed parts of a flower: stem, petals, and leaves. On a

wipe off the board, there were flowers drawn of various colors red, blue, yellow, purple

and orange. Students were asked what color was each flower. As the children said the color,

the flower was erased. Ms. Emily asked what number should we talk about? Shout outs

from students were 6, 10, 8 and 13. Ms. Emily then wrote on the board the number 13,

pointed to each number and said it is a one, and a three together make 13. Ms. Emily then

wrote the letter “T” and asked what the sound for “T” was. Students followed up with “T-

Tommy Turtle” followed by the next letter and sound for that letter until all the letters

spelled out “Thirteen.” What number should we talk about next? Shout outs for 5, 9, and

14. Ms. Emily then wrote the number 5 on the board students shouted out that it was the

number “5”. Ms. Emily wrote an “F” on the board and asked for the sound of the letter and
 students replied “Freddie Frog, f,f,f.” She used the same process for all the letters until they

spelled out the number “Five” when she was finished she said, “let’s do zoo phonics.” Ms.

Emily starts off with “Allie the Alligator A, A, A” she uses hand motions to make big

alligator mouth, goes through the alphabet with hand motions, students are interested in

the activity and repeat the letters and hand motions with her. When she is finished, she

announces that next, we are going to go over shapes. She has cards with the shapes on them

as she flips one over she asks “what shape is this?” Students say “triangle,” “What color is

it?” Students shout out “blue,” this process is repeated for each of the shapes. During this

time one of the students was not interested in this activity and choose to talk to other around

him; the assistant teacher looked over said his name and said “Shhhh.” One of the students

ask “Are we going to read Goldilocks?” Ms. Emily picks up the book and starts to read,

makes emphasis on sizes of big, medium, small throughout the book. All the children were

interested in the reading of the Three Bears. When finished reading Ms. Emily announced

“It’s time to go outside” All the students stood up and went over to the door for outside

playtime.

2. Appropriates of activities:

a. Theme review of plants and gardening- discussion about the aspects of plants,

their parts and what is needed for them to grow. Plants are relative to students

and their understanding of the world around them, how, why and the importance

of plants in everyday life. This activity was appropriate for this age group.

b. Numbers- Having the students randomly pick a number was acceptable, showing

the numbers that are used to make up the number 13 is acceptable and the word

spelling with sounding out the letters. What was not appropriate for the activity as
 it showed the number 13 but teacher did not quantify what 13 is. To enhance this

activity teachers should have items that students could hands on count out to 13.

c. Zoo phonics-an activity that uses body movement to encourage the learning of

letter sounds. This activity was appropriate for this age group; as children use

movements to remember the sounds of the letter, making it a fun way to learn.

d. Shapes- Shapes reviewed on cards, triangle, circle, heart, oval cards. Students

were asked “What is the shape?’ And “What is the color?” for each card this

activity took a few minutes to do. This activity was appropriate, it reviewed for

the younger ages what the shapes and colors are. For the older ones, not

appropriate as it was rote and most have knowledge of what that shape and color

are. To enhance activity for the older group can discuss sides of a shape and how

many sides there are. This encourages shape description and quantifies number.

e. Reading of The Three Bears-Teacher opened the book while reading the story she

made an emphasis on sizes of big, medium and small, asked questions about what

objects were big, medium and small. The students were engaged with the reading

of the story. The story was appropriate for this age group.

3. Longevity of group time: 30 minutes This is not Appropriate for children four years

old: group time should approximately be 10-15 minutes and this time frame depends

upon engagement of children.

4. Appropriateness of space: Large rug for the circle time area is appropriate in space for

the children. There is enough space so that the children can sit together without feeling

crowded or when standing participating in large motor development activities.

5. Bringing children together and beginning group time: As the students finished snack

they were to raise their hand to show they were ready for group time; the teacher then

called them one at a time to the carpet. Ms. Emily got attention and focus with hands in

the air, on shoulders and knees. Asking children to raise their hand, signaling they were

ready for group, then being called one by one. This style had an increased wait time and

was not DAP although, the attention grabber was DAP.

6. Children’s involvement in group time: During group time Ms. Emily had children

involved with discussion about the parts of a plant asking questions and students

answered. Students were involved when they discussed the number 13 and had to make

the sound of the letters for the word thirteen. Students participated when asked about the

shapes and colors and when it was time for zoo phonics the children were engaged with

movement with arms and legs to say the letter sound i.e. Freddie Frog F, F, F students

jump up and down. As Ms. Emily read the Three Bears book children were called out by

name to be asked if the chair she was pointing to was big, medium or small. The teacher

engaged each child individually and as a whole, this was DAP.

7. Percentage of actively vs passively in group time/is this appropriate?

a. Theme review of plants –students sitting, students participated with questions and

answers.

b. Number discussion – Students sitting, participated with what the number and

letters of the word thirteen were.

c. Shapes/colors – Students sitting, participated in saying what the shape and

coolers were.
 d. Zoo phonics – Students are engaged with this activity saying the letters, making

movements for each one ie. Allie Alligator using arms to make big Alligator

mouth open/close

e. Reading of the Three Bears – Students sitting but activity listening to the book,

involved with answering questions about big, medium and small.

Out of 100% of the time: 95% was sitting, listening and participating and 5% of the time

actively engaged in activity. This is not DAP and children should be active learners, if a

shortened group time was available the active vs passive participation would increase.

8. Children’s reaction to group time: Most of the children knew the routine of group time.

They went over to the carpet and sat on their names. Ms. Emily then had them raise their

hands, put them on their shoulders and knees to get the focused and ready. Going

through the activities they sat through but did not seem excited about it until they did the

Zoo phonics.

9. Flexibility of teacher: As Ms. Emily went through the group time routine, the students

sat and went through it with her, if they were uninterested Ms. Emily did not address it.

I.e. As the students did the shapes/colors one of the children was talking to others and

being redirected by the Assistant teacher she would look at the child say their name and

say “Shhhh” Ms. Emily continued with group, no changes were made for those not

interested in group activity.

10. Individualism to special needs/typically developing children: Individualization was

not address at this time.

11. Gender/inappropriate behaviors: The girls were involved in activities they participated

in discussions about the flowers, numbers, colors and shapes. boys were only interested
 during the zoo phonics and when doing number words as phonics was used at that time

also.

12. Description of inappropriate behaviors/behavior management techniques used: The

only behavior that was addressed was the student that was talking to others, behavior

management used was saying his name and letting him know to “Shhhh”

13. How does teacher end group time? At the end of group time Ms. Emily made an

announcement that “We are now going outside”

14. Activity that follows group time: Outside play

Evaluation of Group time:

Evaluation of group time is poor, the length and activates were not DAP, 30 minutes is to

long children to be sitting with little interaction to keep them focused. Authentic activities

were not used; group time felt rote, and the teacher was just going through the routine of

what needed to be done for that day. Group time can be improved at a shorter time span,

majority of activities can be interactive to make it more appealing. Not all activities that

were covered had to be covered at this time. Starting the group with the theme was good,

however teacher just mentioned that the theme was planting and a short discussion was

had about plant parts. This could have been more interactive with a flannel board in

which pieces could be passed out and then children can come up to the board to place

them making a flower. Teacher can then extend conversation about what a plant needs to

grow and what might happen if a plant does not receive these things. The principles of

learning were also poor, there was not a variety of materials, teaching to the individual

child’s, or taking the students interest into consideration. The students knew the routine

but time management and topics of intertest would have more appeal to the children and
 increased teachable moments. The pace felt drawn out and could be improved when

thinking about the needs and interest of the students.

Powerful Interaction Observation

Date: April 7, 2017

School: The Goddard School
Teacher: Ms. Crystal Total teachers in room: 2
Age of Students: 4 to 5 yrs Total students in room: 15
Time: 9:45-10:55

Summary of setting: There are 15 students age ranging between 4 years and 5 years old with 2

teachers in the classroom. Students are actively engaged in interest centers. The soccer coach has

come to the class to get a group of children to take them to soccer practice.

Interaction:
1. A group 4 students were getting ready to go with the soccer coach for soccer

practice. One of the students (I will call him Bob who is five years old) in the group was

not listening to Ms. Crystal for directions on getting in line at the door to prepare for

soccer. Ms. Crystal was located in the middle of the room as she was also giving

instructions to the rest of the students about the interest centers. The Teachers assistant

was at a table with the computer on the far wall helping a student with a math program.

Instead of lining up, Bob was jumping up and down and jumping into friends. Bob’s

friends verbally expressed they were unhappy with being bumped into and let him know.

One of the students said to the teacher "he is hitting us,” Bob’s response was laughing

and continuing jumping up and down and bumping into others. The soccer coach opened

up the door and called the group from the classroom and had them line up in the hallway,
so they could walk to the next room to pick up the other soccer students. While the

students were preparing to line outside of the classroom, Ms. Crystal observed through

the window that Bob’s behavior continued and witnessed the soccer coach talk to Bob

individually. Ms. Crystal walked out of the room and walked over to Bob; she said: “Bob,

I see you are not listening to Coach Brad, I need you to come talk to me.” Bob looked at

her and said "No!" Ms. Crystal took Bob by the hand and said: “Let’s go back to class

Bob, we need to talk about your behavior.” Bob reluctantly went with Ms. Crystal to the

classroom. In the classroom, Bob was very upset and loudly yelled “I wanna go to soccer

NOW!” while stomping his feet and his hands were in fists.

Ms. Crystal asked that he calm down first so that could talk about what was going on. He

had a hard time calming down and was still expressing loudly that he wanted to go to

soccer. Ms. Crystal let him know that he would not be able to go until he could calm

down and they could talk first. She gave him a minute or so to see that he was not going

to join the group until he was finished talking to Ms. Crystal. When he finally calmed

down. Ms. Crystal asked, "What was going on?" "Why are you jumping up and down,

hurting your friends and not listening to me or the soccer coach?" Bob shrugged his

shoulders and said, “But I wanna go to soccer!” Ms. Crystal said, “Bob, I know you are

excited about soccer, and you are not trying to hurt your friends, but when you jump into

them it hurts them.” Bob smiles at Ms. Crystal. Then Ms. Crystal says “Do you like it

when your friends jump into you and hurt you?” Bob said “No.” Ms. Crystal said, “And I

love you, and it hurt my heart that you were not listening to the coach and you are not

playing soccer.” Bob said, “I love you to Ms. Crystal, and I want to go to soccer.” Ms.

Crystal asked "Are you going to follow directions? Bob smiled and said “YES” while
 jumping up and down. Ms. Crystal said “Let's go have fun” she took Bob by the hand and

let him to the playground where soccer was taking place. She watched for a few minutes

and saw soccer coach was talking to him, then welcomed Bob into soccer practice.

1. PI observed Teacher using:

It is possible like Ms. Julia (PI pg. 15) that she was on auto pilot, having to manage

and complete daily learning goals for the children as well as getting or thinking about

tasks that need to be completed before the end of the day. She appeared to be

connected but not in the moment of things.

When she saw that she had to take charge of the behavior she became connected and

in the moment. She was on the child's level, and talking to him one on one about the

issue of his behavior on the strategies for connection she used #3 Listen to the

children-she gave him a chance to say why he was behaving that way and space/time

to answer without rushing for an answer from him. #4 Personalize your interactions-

giving him one to one attention he then knows that he has her attention and time to

talk about the issue without feeling rushed. #5 showed the student respect by giving

him the time alone, time to speak if he chose to. (PI pg 33)

2. PI behaviors if they were included:

If Ms. Crystal had been in the moment she could have been closer to the door as the

students were lining up to prevent behaviors. If she were closer and the behavior

continued she then could have stepped into the moment by: Taking a deep breath.

then stating what the rules were for leaving with the soccer coach. Ms. Crystal could
have also connected better with the assistant teacher to help with line management

out the door and to the next classroom. (PI pg 37)