Our LAST day!!! It makes me really sad, actually, to think that today was the last time I'd be working with those kids. Can't lie- I definitely had some favorites who will be hard to forget. First grade is such a fun, energetic age, and those children could entertain us for hours without trying.
Anyway, Kelly taught today, and it was a great lesson. In our lesson yesterday and today, Kelly and I both noticed such a huge change since the first time we've worked with those kids. I think this is a result both of their growing comfort with us and our own growing comfort with the process of teaching (looking back on that first time we taught, when I was probably shaking because I was so nervous, I know I've grown so much). So one big difference in the students was their meaningful participation. The students were almost all raising their hands again and again during Kelly's discussion, and they had great, thoughtful answers to provide. In the past, we've had to drag some answers out of them, much less expect them to be accurate. Looking at the progression just in this unit, I can tell that we really have taught them something about economics.
Speaking of the students' learning the material, we gave the summative assessment today, and I realized that we made some mistakes in the structure. During Kelly's review discussion, she asked students for explanations of goods and services, and buyers and sellers. Instead of definitions, they gave examples of each. They were very distinct examples, and it was clear that the students understoof the concepts. However, on the selected-response portion of our assessment, we gave questions that were aimed towards identifying definitions. Some students had trouble with this even though they were able to give examples during the discussion. This is a valuable discovery in terms of our assessment, showing that students' deminstration of their knowledge differed depending on how the questions were structured. This has also helped me see the value in giving formative assessments rather than placing all responsibility on the summative assessment. I feel confident that we will get a more accurate picture of individual students' achievement through the consideration of their combined work.
An activity Kelly had the children do was to draw an assigned establishment to contribute to a "class town." For example, each student drew a picture to represent one of the following: grocery store, police department, bank, toy store, etc. Afterwards, students got on an "Illustrator's Chair" to share their picture and identify elements such as goods, services, needs, wants, buyers, and sellers. Though this sounds like a simple activity, it was etremely effective. Our students enjoy drawing so they were dedicated to the assignment and no students got off task, drawing something unrelated. They really considered the different elements involved in each picture, both during their drawing and during their evaluation and discussion of others' pictures.
Overall, I was really happen with this last piece of our unit. The students were engaged and proved that they learned something from our lessons. I learned very valuable lessons as well and am excited to approach the mentioned issues in future teaching.
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