This is the third week I went in for an observation. So far I have been observing how students interact with each other and with teachers. I haven’t had a chance to observe lessons – students are constantly working on math and phonics worksheets. This puzzles me a little because I’m not too sure how these students are learning new concepts.

Math

I noticed how students are using different methods in solving math questions. Some use their fingers, some use their rule measures, and some use tiny building blocks.
I also realized some students haven’t really grasped the concept of a number line. For example, a girl raised her hand to ask for some help with a question she was having trouble with. The question asked her to write down a number that comes after 86. She had the hardest time understanding what the question was asking her, and even after I tried to explain using 1-100 number line in their booklet, she could not quite understand. It puzzled me as to why she was having such a difficult time understanding this simple concept. Number line concepts are so ingrained in me now that I never really thought about the way it works. Thus, trying to teach this concept to her was a challenge for me.

Phonics

Unlike math, phonics can’t be solved using different methods. It’s either you know it or you don’t. There are many students with low phonemic awareness. For example, these students often confuse ‘b’ and ‘d’ and ‘p’ and ‘q’. For these students, they are not quite ready to learn blend sounds such as ‘sh’ and ‘ch’. During guided reading, these students tend to guess the words by referring to the pictures rather than actually reading them. On the other hand, there are students who are reading chapter books and have absolutely no problem reading. Managing lessons that are suitable for these varying levels are extremely difficult.

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Question: I’m wondering how effective worksheets are for students who hasn’t quite developed the basic building blocks of math (number concepts) and reading (phonemic awareness).

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