OMIE's and Reflections
SOMIE 1 | Class Birthdays
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SOMIE 1 | Reflection
For this lesson I taught students how to use pictures to represent the number of student birthdays that were in each month. One of the aspects of the lesson that surprisingly worked well was having the students take turns to come up to the SMART Board and move the candle to the month of their birthday. It took a bit longer than I had anticipated but I was shocked at the engagement and self-control that every student was able to demonstrate during the lesson. They all had to patiently wait for their turn and for the rest of the class to finish once their turn was over. I tried to maintain their attention with comparison questions as the months were completed. The students did become a bit restless once we began transferring the data we collected into a pictograph. While the activity allowed for students to continue participating at the SMART Board for this portion, time constraints forced me to be the one to graph. I believe that allowing students the option of being able to use the SMART Board was motivation for them. For my future classroom, I will do my best to continue incorporating components that interest them to foster greater participation and focus.
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SOMIE 2 | Class Age
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SOMIE 2 | Reflection
This lesson was a continuation of the Class Birthdays lesson as we discussed how the previous lesson's graph didn't give us enough information to know how ages of the students. It was great because we incorporated a creative element which was that the students were able to make self portraits for the graph in this lesson. The students were proud of their drawings and it added a more personal touch rather than just taking a picture. This lesson is revisited each time there is a birthday as the birthday student is able to move from the five-year old category to the six-year old category. Then we would discuss which age had more students in it. This lesson and graph add to the excitement of the birthday celebration in the classroom as students are welcoming the newcomer to the older age category. One negative side is that a few of the students were impatient and become irritated that it wasn't their turn to move their picture. This didn't happen often and generally students are just more full of anticipation rather than jealousy, however, it was good to observe so I could anticipate that in my future classroom. I would add greater emphasis on showing support for our classmates.
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SOMIE 3 | Number Stations
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SOMIE 3 | Reflection
This lesson had students working together in small groups to represent numbers in several different ways. After a whole group demonstration the students got to work with their assigned number. The groups were generally based upon the skill level of the students to allow the higher achieving students to work on more challenging numbers. There was mixture of personalities and work ethic within the groups to encourage those who were more reluctant to have greater participation. This seemed to work in their favor as the more focused students helped the lower achieving students by encouraging them, helping them if they got stuck, and giving them a model to deepen their understanding for the specific number they were given. Some tempers flared as not every student shared responsibility and others became bossy and took charge. Once we gathered to share our work with one another, I was able to notice that the content was still difficult for them to comprehend. I should have spent more time giving better instruction of what my expectations were and modeling again the different ways I expected them to represent their numbers since many of the concepts were new.
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SOMIE 4 | Sound and Motion Patterns
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SOMIE 4 | Reflection
The activity in this lesson was incredibly engaging and entertaining. The students were introduced to patterns using sound and motion while remaining active throughout the activity. It worked well to have them sit while we talked as a whole group about the missing chunks of the patterns. Once they thought they had it correct, we stood up and tried it together. The constant sitting and standing combined with the clapping, jumping, and humming of the patterns had the students focused throughout the lesson. A few students became tired and just half-heartedly did the actions. Also, the students had a difficult time identifying the stem of the pattern because they assumed it was always a two part or three part stem. When we came to some of the more varied pattern styles I tried to explain how to check their work but there were a couple students still perplexed by the concept. One follow up activity to help them better understand could be putting more pattern work activities in their math tubs as the teacher had done. I believe this helped many students by allowing them more practice using concrete, visual manipulatives to accommodate different styles of learning.
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OMIE 5 |
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OMIE 5 | Reflection
This lesson is a daily morning routine. It was a wonderful way to gather together and start the day. The highlight of the activity was finding out who was chosen to help out. There was a cup of names on sticks, and once the students had a turn as the calendar helper, their stick was placed into a different cup to allow everyone a chance. While the structure of the lesson stayed the same each day, there were several aspects that were adjusted to keep the students engaged. There was usually a survey at the end of the morning message that would ask a question related to something they would be learning that day. This survey was an effective way to get them thinking about the day ahead. As we progressed through the weeks, the students were being stretched academically in subtle ways. We added the concept of greater than, less than, or equal to symbols. We also worked on counting by tens as more school days had passed. Calendar time was a wonderful way to integrate new concepts into familiar ones in order to better prepare students for future math lessons. It was also helpful in the area of reading, as the students had the same core message each day and then we worked together to sound out the names of colors. I will include this routine my future classroom and adjust it to whichever grade level I teach. I think it is adaptable and helpful for students.
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