Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Prof. Gray
ECE 251
26 March 2018
4. Group time: After gathering the children to the large area rug for group time, the teacher led
them in calendar time – recognizing the month, day, and year, then recognizing the season and
weather. This involved a poster of the month and year, and little stick-on papers for the day, the
season, and the weather. The chosen child (it seems they have a different child lead calendar time
each day) was asked what month it was, then asked what day it was. As a hint, the teacher said,
“Yesterday was the 20th. What number comes after 20?” With some prompting, the girl chose the
number 21 and pinned it onto the calendar poster. She then said, “Today is February 21st, 2018.
The weather is cold, cloudy, and windy, and the season is winter.” After she went and sat down,
all six of the remaining children went through the same process – identifying the month, day,
year, weather, and season. All were instructed to stand, point to the words and numbers as they
After this was “talk time”. Each of the children had a turn to stand next to the teacher and tell her
(and the class) something that happened to them, something interesting about their week,
something new going on, etc. They stood up next to the teacher’s chair, talked about whatever
they wanted, and answered the teacher’s questions. One boy, when it was his turn, said that
nothing had happened and he had nothing to say. He said this twice. The teacher then said, “Oh
surely something’s happened! Tell us about your new baby brother.” The boy talked about his
After this portion, the children sat back down and the teacher pulled out a large flip book with an
uppercase and lowercase “W” on the front. She said, “Now yesterday we talked about what
letter? V-v-vah?” A child says, “V?” Teacher: “That’s right, V. Today we’re talking about w-w-
wah…. W.” The teacher flips open the first page, which has pictures of a watch, waterfall,
watermelon, and well, including a written label for each. She points to each picture, waits for the
children to call out the name, prompts them if necessary, or says the word if no child can say it.
She flips through the rest of the book in the same manner. The end of letter time consisted of an
alliteration song containing several “w” words, which the teacher read from a different flip book.
Letter time segued into a brief counting time. The teacher asked one girl, one of the 5-year-olds,
to count the number of children that came. She counted 7 children, including herself. Each child
went around the circle, put their hands on each child’s head, and counted. The 5-year-olds were
told to go write the number 7 on the chalkboard across the room. They were instructed in their
form “a hat, then a stick”, and practiced their number form for a bit before the teacher called
Group time was briefly interjected with coloring pages – big Ws for the younger children, and
object to count and color for the 5-year-olds. This I believe would qualify for “individual
After coloring, the children were gathered back together for more group time. The next portion
was group exercise. The teacher led the group in “Johnny Plays with One Hammer”, a song and
dance that involves the entire body. By the end, the children were jumping and moving across
the rug, laughing and smiling. They were also led in more general movements, stretches, and
After exercise time, the children collapsed on the rug, the teacher sat down, and she pulled out a
book from a bag. She described it as a “new” book. She read the title, “Grumpy Pants”, and
showed the cover to the children. She held the book open so that the children could see the pages
as she read. She read loudly, clearly, and with enthusiasm. She also pointed out details about the
pictures and asked questions to the children, such as, “You see, he’s taking a bath now. A nice,
warm bath. Do baths ever make you feel better?” When she finished the book, she put it away,
then rested for another moment before getting up and moving to the piano.
Music time was a short distance away from the typical group time area rug. The teacher sat at a
piano, and the children sat on the floor nearby. Music time started with the teacher playing piano
and leading the children in singing their Oaklane school song. Following this, they sang a song
about brushing your teeth, which included the children making hand motions similar to tooth
brushing. The teacher then switched gears and played “Hickory Dickory Dock”, while
instructing the children in hand motions. After this, she played “Jack Be Nimble”. She told an
older girl to get a bottle of hand sanitizer, which they would pretend to be a candle. They then set
it on the ground, and the children took turns jumping over the “candle” to the music while
pretending to be Jack. During this time, the teacher was very specific in how the children
jumped. If they didn’t jump high or low enough when the song said “Jack jumped high, Jack
jumped low”, she would tell them to do it over. Almost every child took two turns at being Jack
for this song, which contributed to this portion of music time running rather long. The next song
played was “Little Miss Muffet”. The teacher again played the music for the song on the piano,
and had two girls sit in chairs and act out the song. Only the teacher sang this song for some
reason. When the girl playing the spider sat down too late, or didn’t “frighten Miss Muffet”
dramatically enough according to the teacher’s standards, the teacher told them to do it again.
They repeated this song three or four times, with both girls playing each role twice. No other
children were involved in this song. The others just sat on the floor and watched. The next song
was “Jack and Jill”, where the same two girls played the parts of Jack and Jill. Again, the teacher
played the music and sang, and the other children were not involved. The two girls acting out the
song held hands and pantomimed holding a bucket. When the song said, “Jack fell down”, one
girl threw herself on the floor, and when “Jill came tumbling after” was sang, the other girl did a
summersault. The teacher had them perform a few more times, alternating roles, and she
instructed them on how to “tumble” and when. The last song done was “The Muffin Man”. For
this song, the teacher did not play piano. She told a girl to find “the muffin hat” amongst a pile of
play hats on a table near the piano. The “muffin hat” was what looked like a chef hat. The
teacher placed this hat on a child, then she and all the other children held hands in a circle around
him and sang “The Muffin Man”. This was repeated with every child, each one wearing the hat
and standing in the circle, being sung to by the teacher and the other children.
Following this last song, the teacher asked a child to put away the hat, and declared that it was
5. Appropriate: I wouldn’t judge these activities as appropriate for preschool, and potentially not
even for kindergarten. Starting with calendar time – children this age are just learning about time
and seasons as a concept. It’s inappropriate to expect them to understand and demonstrate
knowledge of adult concepts like dates. What would be more appropriate is for the teacher to just
say what day, month, and year it is, and to talk about what kind of weather is out there in a much
less formal setting. Ask what kind of weather the children saw outside, instead of having them
memorize seasons and numbers that don’t connect to their daily lives.
Talking time, while not blatantly inappropriate, is forced, when conversation should just flow
The letter time, involving the “letter of the week”, is inappropriate. We discussed this topic
frequently in the ECE 155 literacy course. Letters for the week or the day don’t connect to
children in a meaningful way. It leads to memorization and the illusion of learning for a time, but
that memorization will fade once a new letter is introduced. It doesn’t personalize learning for
children and it doesn’t connect letters and words in a meaningful way to a child’s learning
experience.
Counting and writing numbers is also advanced for this age group and not connected to anything
else in a meaningful way, making it less likely that the children will retain that information.
The exercise time was planned, but that seemed to work out well versus having children pick
whatever exercise they felt like doing. The children were all eager to get up and move, and were
Reading time was exceptional. Out of all the activities, I can’t find anything wrong with this one.
The teacher read loudly and in an animated voice; she showed the pictures, discussed them, and
asked questions; and she talked about the book when it was over. She involved the children in
reading time. It was an appropriate book as well – colorful, funny, and relatable for this age
group.
Music time wasn’t appropriate. The teacher didn’t involve the children in the making of the
music, in the selection of song, or in moving how they wanted to the music. Singing and dancing
shouldn’t be dictated. This prevented the children from experiencing the aesthetic appeal and
pleasure of music. It also taught them that instruments are for adults, not children. There were
For almost all of the activities, their flaws include expecting too much of the age range, limiting
6. How long/appropriate for the age: This group time went for 2 hours, which is far too long for
3- to 5-year-olds. If it were to be that same length, it should be cut up into smaller segments with
other activities in between, such as free choice time or outside time. The online handout
Elements of Daily Schedule tells us that for 3-year-olds, meeting times should be limited to only
10 minutes, and extended to 10-20 minutes for 4-year-olds. This makes the 2-hour session twelve
times as long as it should be for 3-year-olds! This is inappropriate for this age group, though the
5-year-olds in the group seemed to be managing the time better than the younger children.
Also, as further evidence that this group time was too long, a couple of children complained
about being hungry and asking when lunch was. This was when there was still about 30 minutes
left in the group time. The teacher told them to wait, be patient, and that lunch would be soon.
7. Space: The space used was of a good size, large enough to holds a bigger group of children
than was present. It consisted of a large area rug of the United States, which the children sat on,
and a chair for the teacher. There were books within reach, and several posters on the wall
This space sets up the group time to be teacher-directed, having her sit separate and above where
the children sit. It’s also not the most comfortable area to be in for two hours straight. This area
should have some softer seating and a more inviting atmosphere. It doesn’t foster a sense of
security, warmth, or individuality. It is large and open. From a physical standpoint, it’s adequate
said, “Okay every gather on the rug! We’re going to start our group time.” As more children
were dropped off, the teacher instructed them to come “join the group and sit down”.
9. Percentage of the time actively vs passively: A rough estimate of 75% of the children’s time
was spent in passive activities. For most of the time, they watched the teacher explain something,
then watched all of their peers complete the task before they actively participated. Even with
music, a lot of it was sitting, watching the teacher play the piano, and waiting for the music to
start or for a turn at acting out the song. The only active participation parts included having a
turn at the calendar board, having a turn talking to the teacher, coming up with “w” words,
This wasn’t appropriate. Children should be active participants in their learning for most of the
day, not a small portion. Most of the time was spent watching peers participate, which can be
helpful in some scenarios, but children learn best with hands-on experience. Also, with so much
time waiting for turns, watching, needing to sit and listen, the children get bored. They get bored,
lose interest, and stop paying attention. If they actually do learn anything new, they’ve been
10. Children react: For much of the group time, the children fidgeted, got up and walked around,
touched their peers, or even hit one another. They looked uninterested and uncomfortable, and
seemed restless. This behavior was less frequent with the five-year-olds.
11. Flexibility: I saw little evidence of flexibility in the teacher’s implementation of the schedule.
For example, when there was perhaps 20-30 minutes left in the allotted group time, at least one
boy (maybe more) complained about being hungry and asking about lunch. The teacher
explained once that lunch would be later, then ignored any other comments the boy made on the
subject. I feel that a flexible teacher could say, “Hey, if everyone else is really hungry, we could
have lunch early today.” The schedule could be slightly adjusted each day to suit the children’s
interests or the environment. Instead, the teacher followed the schedule like clockwork, which
makes for a consistent, easy day to predict, but does not adapt for children’s needs.
The teacher had planned all of the curriculum in advance. There is no flexibility for the
12. Individualization – special needs and the typically developing: I did not observe any
evidence of individualized teaching during this group time. 3-year-olds were expected to
accomplish the same activities as the 5-year-olds, which I found to be perplexing and
inappropriate. These activities were not adjusted for individual interests or skill levels. The
teacher also seemed to give approximately the same amount of guidance or attention to all the
children.
13. Gender – inappropriate behaviors: There were no gender slants in the inappropriate behaviors
viewed. One girl, four years old, and one boy, also four, hit one another during music time. The
girl was staring into space for much of music time, and the boy looked around the room with a
distracted air. It’s likely that they began hurting each other out of boredom on the girl’s part and
incident between the boy and girl, the girl walked close to the teacher and said, “Mrs. Gordon, he
was hitting me.” The teacher turned away from her and said, “I don’t want to hear any tales.”
She didn’t acknowledge that the boy’s behavior was inappropriate, she didn’t help him find a
better behavior to engage in, she didn’t make the girl feel safe. She just ignored bad behaviors,
which is effective to some extent; if poor behavior doesn’t get attention, that’s one way to ensure
it doesn’t get repeated. But if the behavior is connected to an underlying issue other than
15. Ended group time: Music was the last part of group time, and after the last song had been
sung, the teacher said, “Okay, we’re going to have our lunch now!” Lunch time immediately
followed group time, so the teacher dismissed the children one at a time to go get their
lunchboxes out and to sit at the table. This was a good way to lessen chaos in shifting seven
children from group time to lunch time, by gradually sending them to the snack area.
16. Activity followed: Lunch time followed group time. This seems appropriate to me, but
another great option would be an outdoor time. The children have been sitting inside for at least
two hours, not being very active, not being loud, and likely have a lot of energy to get out. Even
if the outdoor break was a short one, it would be a good idea to get that energy released before
EVALUATION
This group time doesn’t support a sense of community. It doesn’t foster relationships between
the children or with the children to the teacher. This is because children are not allowed to
interact with each other or with the teacher except when allowed, and when they are “allowed”
participate, they are in reality demanded to (like with the boy during talking time).
The pace of activities is entirely teacher-directed. She has planned the entire day and has no
room for flexibility (note the boy who was hungry). Children were often rushed through their
turn during activities, then sat on the floor watching their classmates take their turns. They could
not even do these forced activities in the time and manner they wished to (note the needless nit-
If these were DAP-appropriate activities, this pacing might be forgivable. However, the teacher
had high expectations of reading, writing, rote memorization, sitting still, being quiet, and
listening for 3- to 5-year-olds, which is completely inappropriate for these age groups. There
were little to no hands-on experiences, and they were not tailored to the interests or skill levels of
the children, but were instead tailored to the teacher’s agenda – preparing her students for
The group time was two hours long, which as stated previously is far longer than the
recommended ten minutes for three-year-olds and the twenty minutes for four-year-olds. Not
only was it far too long for young children, but it also did not involve active participation for
much of that huge time. It also didn’t involve small groups or any sort of cooperative activities;
There wasn’t a good balance with the group activities. Many, many quiet, sitting activities were
followed by a brief exercising time, and group time ended with an active song and dance time.
The group time could have benefitted by being balanced with the active times more evenly
interspersed between the passive ones. The experiences were not only balanced, but they were all
skewed toward certain types of learners, instead of encompassing many to include more
diversity. The experiences relied on visual cues the most (such as the “W” flip book), as well as
some aural cues (such as during the song time or with verbal reminders), but very few physical
cues. They catered most to verbal, spatial, and intrapersonal learners, with disregard to those who
The group time area was also for the benefit of the teacher. She had a comfortable chair, sitting
high above the students sitting on the floor, able to see and correct any behavior of theirs she
didn’t allow. It wasn’t comfortable or inviting to the students and lacked visual appeal.
In conclusion, the group time was too long, not appropriate for the age group, and not engaging
enough to hold the attention of the students, much less deepen their understanding.
Powerful Interaction Observation
Setting: One teacher overlooks about fifteen children during a kindergarten’s station time.
There’s a group time area with a large rug near the front of the room by the door. Whiteboards
line the wall on the right. Several chairs and two long parallel tables take up the middle space.
The left wall has cabinets for storage, small drinking fountains and sinks, and the teacher’s desk.
The back wall has another door (presumably to the outdoor space), a kitchen play area, a small
circular table, and an electronic area with iPads and soft chairs.
The child in this interaction is a 7-year-old boy standing near the writing station.
Interaction: A 7-year-old boy stands close to the writing station, holding a marker and a
clipboard with a piece of paper. He doesn’t move, or use the marker, or look at the paper. He
The teacher looks at him, pauses, and watches him for a moment. She then approaches slowly
and touches his shoulder gently. He looks up at her. She leans down next to him and says, “You
look like you’re thinking about something, Matt. Will you tell me what you’re working on?”
The boy looks at the floor and says, “Don’t know what to write.”
The teacher makes an exaggerated surprised face. “You don’t know what to write?! Well, let’s
think about what you could write.” She makes a concentrated face, putting one fist under her
chin and moving her eyebrows together in a furrow. “Are you thinking with me? Do you have
The boy throws his hands in air. He says with his voice raised in pitch, “Nothing!”
The teacher puts her hands on her hips. “Nothing! Well, I’m thinking you could write about what
you did yesterday after school, or you could write about the rabbits we’ve been learning about!
Could you pick between those two? Which one is more interesting to you?” She looks at the boy
and waits.
The boy looks at the ceiling, then at the teacher. He pauses a moment. “Uhhhhh, rabbits. Like
The teacher says, “That’s a great idea! Let’s go sit down at the table and write about rabbits. You
can even get out the book on rabbits and look at it again if you need more ideas.” She stands up
and puts on hand on the boys back, then guides him to the table, pulls out a chair, and watches
him get settled. She then moves on to another part of the room.
PI Behaviors: The teacher observed the child before going up to him, and she approached him
slowly. She then got down to his level instead of remaining standing. This is reflective of the
“slow down and stay in the moment” principle (Powerful Interactions 35-37) which helps
teachers to really connect to the child before attempting to expand their learning.
She personalized this interaction (50-51) by using the child’s name and slowing down her
behavior to match his. She also used mirror talk (90-91) when she pointed out that he looked like
he was thinking. In regards to thinking, the teacher helped the child to notice the word and
process of thinking (82) by modeling with her face what thinking might look like, as well as
At the end of the interaction, the teacher bridged the new (today’s writing) to the familiar (a book
they had read the day before). She connected the child to something he could remember and be
inspired by to help him write, building links like the book describes (130-132).
Improvement: There are a few ways this interaction would have been improved. For example,
the teacher could have stayed in the moment longer to learn more about the child’s situation (40-
41) and to listen about what’s going on behind the scenes (46-47). She didn’t really stay quiet
long enough for the child to volunteer any information, so she didn’t find out what might have
truly been the disconnect for him. Yes, it’s possible that he just couldn’t think of what to write.
But something else might have happened – the area he wanted to be in had too many children, he
was bored, he wanted to go outside, he found writing to be difficult and wanted to dictate
instead, etc. There are so many possibilities, but we didn’t get to find that out because the teacher
For children who may be reluctant to talk like this boy, a bit of humor might have helped him to
open up to talking to the teacher (119-121). Jokes and laughter can go a long way with children
to ease their discomfort and allow them to be receptive to what a teacher might say.