Abby Markert

Noticing Blog

TE 801/802

This past week has been somewhat hectic to say the least. We are finally back in the swing of things in the class and now we have a lot of testing and assessments that need to be completed. As a result my MT and I have both been doing DIBEL testing on the students and switching off the teaching. This works rather efficiently because we are able to multitask with two teachers.  However it does cause a disruption within the class and I think the student’s are also aware of it. One task that the student’s did this week was a writing and reading comprehension test on the story Big Al. This assessment asked the students a variety of questions that related to the story and also asked the student’s to draw a picture. The assessment was not many questions, I believe 4 or 5, but they were all short answer responses. For my first grade class this task seemed to be rather difficult. I know that the majority of my students are more than capable of making an effort to answer these questions and write the words even if they are not spelled correctly. However, what I have been noticing is the lack of motivation in a handful of my students. I am not sure if it is the amount of testing that has been done with the students or that they just don’t care. My MT and I have also noticed that the jump from kindergarten to first grade has been particularly difficult for this particular group of students. Many of the student’s feel that they do not have to do work if they don’t want to or don’t follow rules if they don’t want to. It is something that they were able to get away with in kindergarten and I think they are having a rough time adjusting to a more structured environment. So as a result the lack of motivation to test may be another factor from the previous year. One student, who I have seen write before and is maybe a little below average in terms of literacy and writing, is particularly unmotivated in his work. I noticed after looking over his assessment and his writing that there was no effort made to spell words or attempt any structure. The paper strictly had sloppy letters of the alphabet strung together. This made me a little upset because I know that he has more to offer and that he is capable of doing a better job. This isn’t the only case that I have noticed but it was one that stood out. I want to be able to inspire my students somehow give them some internal and or external motivation. I am hoping that the students will begin to learn that their work matters and that what they do does get graded. This lack of motivation is prevalent in all subject matters not just language arts and my MT and I have been trying to think of ways to encourage students to do the best they can. We don’t want students to feel that there are very high expectations but we do expect the students to do their very best work. Most students have even admitted when asked if they have done their very best, the answer is no. I wonder if this is going to be an issue we have throughout the school year or whether the students will change their thinking and attitude as the year progresses. Even with the NWEA testing the students flew through the 57 questions in a pace that would imply they didn’t even try to read the question. I have just noticed this and I think other interns may be experiencing the same thing in their classrooms.