Erin - TP 3

Last Thursday, I had a great time at PAEC and helped one of the teachers with two of her 6-year-old students. I realized that it is much easier to either teach to an entire class of children in a somewhat structured setting, or to work with them one-on-one, but working with small groups of children is very difficult. This is because there are only a few, so I tried to oversee and walk between them, but as soon as I focus attention on one of them, the others lose focus almost immediately.
When the two students each had a worksheet to work on, I noticed that each would ask for my help incessantly and would stop trying as soon as I started to help another. So, I set their desks so that I was evenly between the two of them and helped them read the directions at the same time. This helped somewhat, although they still had a very short attention span, but I had to make them complete the worksheet that the teacher wanted. Then, it was reading time, when they were each supposed to pick out a book and read it to me. Both of them were shy with reading, and it took them a while to start. They were both very great at sounding out words, although it took much encouragement for them to say the words out loud; I had noticed, especially with the little girl, that she was pronouncing words correctly, but under her breath. I discovered that it was impossible for them to both be reading books to me, and they become very distracted…so I decided to have them pick one book and read it together. They were both at about the same skill level, and they were excited to do it together, so this worked really well; they contributed about the same amount, neither one of them was really taking over, and knowing that the other one was reading helped motivate each student.
The teacher told me that several of the children were going to return home this weekend because many of them are from other states, so I’m not sure what students I will be working with when I return this Thursday. I am excited to keep learning about working with kids and how to keep their attention and motivate them to learn.