No Reminder Tuesday
THEME 3 PRE-ASSESSMENT
Our Pre-Assessment Activity for the new theme was No Reminder Tuesday.
It was the first day of school and the children were a little confused. Why was Ms.Shingam not telling us what to do? Do we sit on the carpet when we get into the classroom? What do we do next? Lots of questions were flying around but no answers were coming.
There were no reminders for tidying up, putting things away and where to go next for the whole day.
We wanted to assess if the children were aware of the organisation and system in the classroom and also make them think about responsibilities.
Will the children realise that the teacher is not prompting them and organise themselves?
What will their reactions be when coming to a messy class the next day - (the cleaning ladies were told to leave classroom alone)
Can they look at each area in the classroom and talk about what might be wrong in that area and how it might affect how they use the space? How will that affect their learning? Can they talk about responsibilities - whose responsibility is it to tidy up and put things away?
The focus on of this pre-assessment activity was to find out the following:
Do the children understand their responsibility?
Do they know about the classroom systems that are in place?
Do they know who is responsible for the different parts of the school system?
Did they behave responsibly with regards to their roles in the system?
They came in and unpacked, remembering their morning routines.
With one child sitting on the carpet, the rest took his cue and came to the carpet for our read-a-loud session. It all went smoothly until after Maths, when they were allowed to explore. They forgot to meet at the carpet for Literacy. Only two children came to the carpet. The rest were so engrossed in their constructing and exploration, that they did not notice the lesson that was going on and that two of their friends were busy working with the teacher.
OBSERVATIONS
The children were aware that certain systems like the time-table and rules help keep them safe and allow learning to take place.
They started the day well, needing no reminder about the morning routines.
They were aware that they were responsible for their own learning and needed to regulate their own behaviour. It was interesting to note that they mentioned that it was not the teacher’s responsibility but their own to find out what to do.
There was no obvious leader in the class. The few who were more self aware were too timid to round up the class or remind them. They regulated themselves and whispered to a few but did not take charge.
REFLECTIONS
“We didn’t tidy up.” Maori
“Everyone played with the things but they didn’t tidy up.” Daisuke
“If nobody says to you… you will do the wrong thing.” Daisuke
“We have to remind ourselves.” Mia
“If you forget what to do, you can look at the time-table.” Maori
“Maybe we can have the time on the schedule so we can look at the clock.” Daisuke
“I know the rules but I got angry and didn’t follow the rules.” Adam
“ I need a friend to remind me…” Sohum
“The cleaners cannot do their work because we did not tidy up.” Yuma
“We just want to play and stopped listening.” Ryuki
“I need reminder to know what will happen next” Takeaki
"We also did not put the chairs up!" Anika
"We forgot to take our homework home!" Sohum and Adam
"It was confusing." Gabriel
FOLLOW-UP
The children came up with a few suggestions to improve our current system to foster responsibility and accountability.
Have the time written on the daily schedule so that they can refer to the clock.
Have a friend (buddy) who is sensible who can help to ‘read’ the room and remind them when they need to listen or to transition.
The next day, they started regulating themselves. A few were checking the time table, looking at the clock and reminding themselves about their next lesson. Also, a few children took charge and helped to tidy up the classroom in the morning so that we could commence learning.
