Lilly's Lovely Learning Journey

As a high school student in an Intro to Ed class, I got the chance to teach a 5th grade literacy lesson. I was a little nervous, but also excited to work with younger students. I chose to teach two short passages that had some new vocabulary and graphic features like bold words and charts. I read the passage out loud while the students followed along. We paused to talk about some of the harder words, using context clues to figure them out. The students shared what they thought the words meant, and we discussed them together.  After the vocabulary, we looked at the graphic features in the text. I asked questions to help the students understand how things like headings and charts helped explain the passage. It was fun seeing them make connections and understand the reading better.

 From Mrs. Hall I learned the importance of building strong relationships with students. Mrs. Hall knew each student, creating a safe, supportive environment. Her passion for teaching inspired her students and pushed them to become lifelong learners, this left me even more motivated to become a teacher. Her classroom environment allowed her students to feel comfortable taking risks, sharing their ideas, and supporting each other. Through her words and actions, she encouraged valuing empathy, respect, and responsibility, which not only shapes their literacy skills but their character as well.

 The 5th grade literacy class I observed had a great atmosphere and learning environment, it had colorful posters and a bunch of student work hung on the walls which I thought was creative and made the environment more inviting. I really enjoyed Mrs. Halls room layout with her reading corner filled with different books for every student. Mrs. Halls students seemed to really love her class and they were very engaged the whole class.  Mrs. Hall gave instructions sternly to keep the students attention but she was still able to keep a fun environment. She would help each student individually if she thought they were struggling and she would challenge the kids who weren't struggling as much, I think that approach really helps runa classroom very smoothly.