Kristy Westfall

Journal Entry #2
EDF 4467: Learning Theory and Assessment

Date: Friday, September 7, 2007
Time Spent: 8:15 to 11:15; 3 hours Total hours to date: 6 hours
Grade: First
ESOL: 0
Autistic: 2

Today was my second visit to Mrs. F first grade class. I was there right when the students began coming in. Their first task in the morning is to take out their “Morning Journal” and fill in the phrase that is on the board. Today’s phrase was:

Today is ______________.
Today is a new day.
Today I want to ___________ and __________.
Then I will feel _________________.

I had a chance to speak with Mrs. F about lesson planning and how she does them. She said it is hard to plan way in advance because you never know what will happen. For example, while I was there today, one of the autistic children (“A”) became very upset when people came in to take a picture of the students who wore their school shirt. “A” did not have her school shirt on and she wanted them to take a picture of her Pokemon shirt instead. Mrs. F said it is a constant moving forward and going back motion; you never know when you might have to spend extra time on something or sometimes the students will get it right away.

Later on, “A” was able to show her shirt to her classmates. All of the students made such nice comments and really made “A” feel good. Mrs. F said that all of the students are great with her and seem not affected by her occasional outbursts.

Mrs. F introduced Accelerated Reader today and told the students they would get a $10.00 gift card to Wal-Mart, AMC Theatres, or Target once they read twenty books. I asked her if she would spend her own money on that and she said, “Yes.” She told me she probably spends about a $1,000.00 of her own money during school year. She said it is a small price to pay to get the kids to read. She had a student one year that went from a first grade reading level to a fifth grade reading level. She also had a student that went from a fifth grade reading level (who was in second grade) to a twelfth grade reading level.

A side note: Mrs. F told me that she had an intern who came to visit. “A” went up to her and told her to “Get out of the classroom; I will hurt you.” “A” did this because it was someone new coming into her environment that she did not know. “A” remembers me from last year when I worked with her so I think that is why she talks to me and comes up to me with no problem.