Demographics in the Classroom

According to the demographic data, Mrs. Akins class is not very diverse. There is more boys in her classroom than girls. As Lemlech (2006) notes, Sex-role bias has been documented in the curriculum, in materials of instruction, and in the ways teachers treat children” (pp. 16). With girls being in the minority in this class, it’s very important for Mrs. Akins to include all the student in activities. On the first day of my arrival all the girls in the class were interested in knowing things about me but the boys acted as if we weren’t there.

Mrs. Akins has several students with special learning needs. For example, one of the students have a speech problem. Lemlech (2006) states that “Special education programs have been designed to meet their needs. Mrs. Akins has to “sound out” words to him during spelling test. Half of Mrs. Akins class leave for the day to get outside help in certain subject areas. Mrs. Akins class also include a lot of students that are fast learners. Mrs. Akins lets the stronger learners play games but they are learning games. For example, the stronger learners played a game puzzle game that included the states of the United States of America. Mrs. Akins class is not racially diverse. All of the students are Caucasians.
The dynamics of the class vary widely among the students, but I observed that five students had high levels of independence and level of participation. These students are very confident in their work. Two of the students has low level of participation and independence. Mrs. Akins should make sure that she include all of the students in acti

Dynamics In Mrs. Akins Classroom

In my observations of the teaching practices utilized by Mrs. Akins in her first grade classroom. I have noticed that she uses a variety of instructional strategies. She divides the class into two groups; seven students in the higher reading group and five students in the lower reading group. The paraprofessional works with the students in the higher reading group and Mrs. Akins works with the students in the lower reading group. When the students in the higher reading group completes their assignment they play games that relates to reading. The students in the lower reading group rarely finish their assignment early. Mrs. Akins uses lots of diagrams to help the students with their reading and vocabulary. She has diagrams of the different sounds each letter make. She often points to the diagrams and ask the students to tell her the sound. According to Lemlech (2006) “products are differentiated by providing choices for students to demonstrate learning. (Pg.35) Mrs. Akins provides different choices for the lower reading group by allowing them to use diagrams.
Mrs. Akins use many different resources. She uses worksheets, the CRCT Coach book and she also uses letter cards with the slower reading group. The worksheets Mrs. Akins use includes a story and at the end of the story the students have to answer questions about the story and they also have to explain certain things that happened in the story. The CRCT Coach book covers main concepts that is actually on the CRCT state test, it provide practice test for the students, it provide the teacher with the means for evaluating the student’s progress in learning the standards and it help the students approach reading and writing skills confidently and creatively. According to Lemlech (2006) “the environment for learning can be differentiated by providing different resources and tools for students to use and by modifying learning centers and workstations.” (Page 35) Mrs. Akins differentiate the learning environment b providing different resources for the students to help them in certain subject areas.

First Blog Post

I'm Jontia, I attend Georgia Southern University. I am a Curriculum Student at Stilson Elementary School this semester. I did my PPB at Brooklet Elementary School last semester.