My Fieldwork Experience!

As a requirement of the course, each of us were to do 10 hours of fieldwork at an Elementary School. Of those 10 hours, we were each assigned to teach 3 lessons. We were to teach one Direct Instruction lesson, one lesson using inquiry and a lesson using cooperative learning.

 I chose to do my lessons at the elementary school that I went to, for a fourth grade class. The teacher was very excited to have to me teach, as were the students. I was both anxious to get into the classroom yet also very nervous, in that besides substitute teaching, I had never taught any of my OWN lessons before.

As a way to keep me on track, the teacher allowed me to bring in my lessons prior to teaching them, to make sure they were appropriate for her class. She modified them according to how well her students would be able to learn the material, and gave me advice as to how to give a successful lesson.

The first lesson I did for her students was a Direct Instruction lesson on the American Revolution. The teacher felt that a lesson on the causes of the Revolution would be a great lesson for me to instruct. Although it wasn't the Direct Instruction lesson that I had created, I still felt that I did a great job. The teacher filled out a rubric in relation to my performance and knowledge, which allowed me to reflect on which areas I need improvement and which I had fully grasped.

My inquiry lesson was also given to the same fourth grade class. This lesson was based on my WebQuest, which I had created during the beginning of the semester. The teacher allowed me to take advantage of the computer lab during their classroom lab hours, to allow me to teach the students about inquiry and webquests. This lesson also went better than I expected because not only were the students familiar with endangered animals and brochures, but they were eager to learn and allowed me to be their guide.

Lastly, my cooperative learning lesson was based on the Jigsaw strategy. This lesson involved the different types of pollution that our world faces, as well as what we as humans can do to prevent these pollutions from reoccurring. Before we began this lesson, students and I discussed what the word 'TEAM' stands for, which would allow for me to see how familiar the students were with social skills. Students gave me keywords based on the word team, and I wrote them on the blackboard for the entire class to see.

Students were broken up into 6 groups of 4, and were given the topic of air pollution, water pollution, land pollution, noise pollution, radiation and thermal pollution. Each member of the 6 groups were given a specific role, as well as a topic folder that contained information on their pollution type, as well as 4 graphic organizers per folder, which the students had to fill out based on the given information.

At the end of this lesson, students were then placed in home groups, to discuss their findings with their new group members. Four home groups were created, consisting of 6 members. Each member had researched a different pollution type so they had to then teach each other their new found information.

Students were used to working in groups, as their teacher used cooperative learning methods throughout the school year. Students were excited to work in groups and worked respectfully and cooperatively with each other.

I feel fieldwork is a necessity in the teaching process because it gives eager teachers several different learning experiences, both good and bad. By being placed in a classroom full of students, one becomes aware of what is expected of them, as well as their students, and they learn how to become an effective teacher. I appreciate the time schools allow for college students to observe their students, as well as to be given the chance to teach them, because it gives us as aspiring teachers the chance to interact with students and to be faced with real classroom situations. It is a great learning experience and I love every minute of it!!