Justine Thimmel

Lesson #1

Introduction: I am placed at Joseph Cappello Elementary School where you walk into the school and it is warm and welcoming. The facility is nice with painted pictures on the wall. My classroom with Mrs. Jennifer Kochie has its door always nice and dressed up for either the season or the holiday. Then you walk into the class and it set up very simply; the desks are all aligned in the front right by the chalkboard, the cubbies by the door, and the teachers desk next to the cubbies. The classroom is open wide in the middle and there are sections for when they do groups and it also has a kitchen where they eat. There is one general teacher and two classroom aides. The class as a whole has five students all who are multiply disabled. One the main reasons they are in this class is because they have behavioral problems. There are two boys and three girls. One boy is five and the rest of the students are nine. They are technically in third grade but learn at a kindergarten level. They all have specific goals the teachers want them to accomplish. They all go to speech and physical therapy, and one girl is using assistive technology to communicate. The teachers highly emphasize manners, health, and safety to the students. For my lesson I decided to read a book that works on self-esteem to go along with the theme of the classroom. Along with the book, the students will do a craft that involves making a monkey sandwich. The goal of the lesson is to have the students interact with the story on comprehend to some extent what is going on and what the story is trying to relay to them. Also, the students will be able to enjoy a snack and while making a craft that helps them work on their motor skills. New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: K.RL.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. K.CC.4 Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality K.MD.1 Describe measurable attributes of objects such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object. K.SL.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. 1.RL.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe characters, setting, or events. 1.RIT.7 Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe main ideas. Materials: The book The Lovables in The Kingdom of Self-Esteem by Diane Loomans One loaf of bread

Nutella Bananas Clementine Chocolate chips

Objectives: Students will demonstrate their ability to listen to a story and answer questions about details of the story. Students will demonstrate their ability to count. Students will demonstrate their ability to recognize shapes. Students will demonstrate their ability to make a healthy snack. Students will demonstrate their ability to learn good behavior during story time. Activity/Procedure: 1. First, I will politely ask the students to get ready to listen to a story requiring them to sit in their seats quietly. 2. I will read the story The Lovables in The Kingdom of Self-Esteem out loud in front of all the students having the book face them so they can see the pictures and follow along. 3. While reading the short poems, I will stop and either ask one student a specific question or ask all the students one general questions as to what is going on to make sure they are following along. 4. After I finish the story, I ask the students one by one to come over into the kitchen so we can start our activity. I will only call the students over if they are seated properly and quietly. When they get up they will make sure to push in their chair and walk over. 5. Then I will show the students a picture of what the sandwich monkey they are going to make. I will ask questions about what the animal is, if they like monkeys, etc. 6. Then I will go through how we are going to make the sandwich. I do this by asking the students to count along with me the materials. 7. Finally I take the students through step by step, making my own sandwich as they all make their own. I refrain from helping because this allows the students to model what I have done on their own. 8. Lastly the students then get to eat their sandwiches. Assessment: I will assess the students understanding of this task by seeing if they can watch me and make the sandwich on their own. I will watch the students and see if they are struggling putting the materials the way I how. I assume that the students will able to do most of it on their own but may need help with the tedious items.

I will also assess the students during the story by seeing that the students are engaged and focused on the story and nothing else. I will adapt the story as well to make it easier for the students to understand by shortening the poems and making some words easier for them. I may need to skip some poems so I can keep the students focus. I will also assess myself by asking the general teacher about how I did the lesson and what she thinks I could have done better.

Outcome: The students overall enjoyed the story and the craft. Throughout the story, they were engaged and listened well. They were enthused when asked to answer questions and they loved the pictures in the book. The only problem I ran into was that I had to skip some poems in order to keep the students interest. When it came time for the sandwich, the students were a little riled up and were too excited. They started to act out by running over to the table so I had to ask them to go back to their seat and walk back over. When they were seeing the picture and such only two of the five students new what it was. While watching me put the sandwich together some students were able to put it together on their own while others had help from either the aides or me. Also while putting the sandwich together I got interrupted by the principal. This threw me off guard because I lost my train of thought and had to repeat things in the lesson that I just went over. This also affected the students because they then they started to act out again. Overall, the lesson in my eyes went okay but my teacher said I did a very good job. Reflection: I feel that I started off my lesson very well but as I went on and things started to not go as I planned I became anxious. Im proud that I was able to accomplish what I had wanted but how it played out wasnt how I imagined. I was able to adjust to the children well and keep their attention for the story but then when it came to the activity I had some difficulties. My strengths in this lesson were how I kept myself together. Having anxiety is something I am always going to struggle with but I was able to hide how I was feeling and persevere through the lesson. I also made sure that I asked questions and had the students attention so that my lesson would be affective. I also was able to read the books with some kind of expression so that the students would enjoy the story more. My weaknesses I feel did get the better of me. Since I was nervous I stuttered though out the story. I practiced reading the story so many times and I still ended up stuttering. Also when the principal interrupted me, I wasnt able to get the students to behave so I needed help from the aides. This just made me feel as if I was doing a bad job and that I had no control of the class anymore. Maybe if I had done the lesson earlier in the day during breakfast time instead of doing it in the afternoon the children would have behaved better.

In the future, I will try and learn to relax better. I feel that my biggest problem is my anxiety and which then makes me extremely nervous. I need to build my confidence up so that in the future I can be more of that leader in the classroom that I strive to be.