Weekly Blog Post 8

Sometimes I feel like it is hard to assess my students constantly. Last week during one of my lessons I realized I did not know how low one of my students was in math. During this lesson I had instructed them to complete an activity on their own and it included numbers. I thought that this student knew his number one through ten. As I was monitoring the class I began to notice that he has no idea what each number was called. He could count one to ten but if you held up the number three he was not able to tell you that number. We are constantly using numbers in everyday activity. I was so surprised that I had overlooked how low his math skills were and I thought he knew the majority of his numbers. I decided I would pull him aside to assess his numbers one on one and I came to find he cannot tell the difference between a three and a ten. I do not know how I did not realize before this that he was so low. When you are not working individually with students, it is really difficult to keep up with their progression. I also find it hard to understand how he is still so low when we work with numbers on a regular basis. This worries me because I am so afraid that I am leaving some students behind in my instruction. I know that I will have students that are below level, on level, and above level at any time it just worries me with how low they might be and I seem to be overlooking them. I have been having some trouble with my students blurting out while I am trying to teach. I have come up with a contract that I think will contain the blurting with my higher level students. These students are well aware of the classroom expectations and they still have difficulty staying quiet during instructional time. I created a contract that the student, their parent, and I signed stating that after five warnings about blurting they must change their light which ultimately means five minutes off recess or no star card for the day. These students are good students and know what is expected of them in the classroom. I am going to try to see if I can change their behavior with this contract. I am starting to feel like I need to differentiate my lessons more. All of my lessons so far have been on level and I do not feel like I have challenged my higher level learners enough. I have some very intelligent students that need more difficult work. I am going to start including a higher level piece into every lesson that I create. I want my students to be working to their full potential.