Urban Education, post 6

     This week, I assisted second grade students. While I was present, the students worked on writing and math. During writing, some students stayed with the teacher, while others moved to a small group with an Exceptional Student Education (ESE) teacher. The students had previously read multiple books written by Dr. Seuss. Today, they had to write an essay about their favorite Dr. Seuss book and list reasons why it was their favorite. I walked to different students’ desks to assist them with their writing. I spent the majority of my time where I was most needed, helping the ESE teacher with the small group. The students all quickly chose a favorite book, but struggled to write the reasons why it was selected. When I asked them why they liked the book, they could easily discuss it, but had difficulty conveying their thoughts in writing. This shows me that they are struggling with how to organize and express their thoughts and ideas onto paper.

     Later, I helped a small group with a lesson about counting coins. I had a bag of fake coins and I passed out some to each student to count the value. When they correctly counted the value, I gave them another group of coins. One student was struggling more than the others. He started off by organizing the coins from greatest to least, which was good, but had trouble counting by 25, 10, or 5. This shows me that the student was giving effort and understood what he needed to do, but struggled with counting them correctly. I assisted this student by letting him know when his counting of each coin was correct and counting with him when he had trouble. By the end of the session, I noticed a significant improvement in his ability to correctly count by 25. I am hopeful this student will continue to progress quickly, due to his strong effort and listening skills.