Context for Learning Reflection

Stephanie Sparks

Math – 1st Grade

Academic development was addressed when I picked which content area I would work

on during my time there. I chose math because my practicum teacher told me she picked and

choose which lessons she would teach from the literature book, but math was more week by

week, day by day. I knew that no students were pulled from math during instruction and there

was no grouping of students by level. I knew they had been working on tens and ones before I

came in and they grasped it pretty well. Skills they were working on were identifying how many

tens in a number, how many ones were in a number, how many in all, and what the number was.

I was told from the beginning there were two students who might get anxious. A boy who could

do the math but would get anxious, teary, and upset if he didn’t understand. A girl who would

give a panicked look if she didn’t know how to do something. As well as a few students who

would need extra support.

Language development was fine, the class does better overall in reading. Most of the time

the students could read the problem and be able to do the work. But sometimes there were a

handful of students that would need to be re-read the questions and referred to the examples to

help them understand what would be asked. They however were not required to write out

sentences for their answers sometimes because they are still developing their writing skills and

have goals to work on there.

Socially and emotionally I knew there were some children who would try to work

together on individual work, or students who couldn’t work together due to their relationships
with one another. Overall they all usually got along fine but there were some students who would

get a little upset or irritated with each other. Knowing this I kept work individual except for

whole class instruction and the I Do / You Help sort of model. As stated above I knew there was

one boy who would become emotional and cry if he couldn’t understand something and he

would need help understanding what was asked of him a few times once they were on their own.

As well as the girl who would begin to get a panicked look on her face once she became

confused.

The community is very agricultural. A lot of the students have parents who farm, some

had parents who work at the University. But, a lot of them had family who has been in Colfax for

years. The students were very interested in ag subjects like cows, or farming. But they all seemed

to really be interested in science. One of the lessons I taught, the dime lesson was set up around

dimes and snowflakes to connect the two topics and because the students had an interest in it. We

also had one ELL student, I did my best to try and include him when he wasn’t raising his hand

and coming over and working with him if I noticed he wasn’t doing anything, or he raised his

hand.