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INTERNSHIP REFLECTION

A Step Further: Observations and Involvement in Fourth Grade

Amelia L. Jennings

Providence Christian College

For my internship this semester, I observed and assisted in a fourth grade classroom at

Pasadena Christian School. Throughout the semester I observed a variety of subject areas,

including Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Art. In order to have time in

all these subject areas, I visited the classroom for about one to two hours at a time from the start

of the school day till almost the last period of the day. For a good part of my time in the

classroom, I observed instruction and work time, monitoring student work to check for

understanding and maintain order. On several occasions I worked with the students in reading

groups to review and teach grammar rules, vocabulary, and dictionary skills. I regularly observed

science labs and lessons to help answer student questions, stimulating thought on what they were

observing and curious about.

One of my goals was to observe classroom management techniques, general classroom

procedures and setup, instructional strategies, curriculum implementation, and differentiation in

practice. The difference between first and fourth grade classroom management struck me from

the first day. Part of this is that teachers have different styles. For example, Mrs. Ryors class had

a quiet policy, no or low talking in and out of groups, so my initial impression of fourth grade

was that they were much louder and chatty than the first graders. But really, Mrs. Bricker

focused on keeping the group relatively in check with the volume of the room and knew she

could reign in the class when they needed to refocus. This is important because these kids have a

high priority for peer interaction, and the energy of the class is positive and high. Thankfully, the

social drive at this age also significantly helps in group work, because students will help each

other out and answer questions before their peers have a chance to ask me or the teacher. Another

aspect of classroom management that I saw was the use of complex rewards and motivation

systems. In some ways, the fact that the rules of the rewards were so involved engaged the
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students more they were excited to ask questions and figure out what to do, and the process of

explaining and answering questions generated excitement. Overall, it is apparent that the

teacher/student relationship and attitude is important: Mrs. Bricker runs a tight ship, but they

laugh together, and she is open about mistakes.

During Social Studies and Science I observed instruction techniques and curriculum in

place. My teacher explained before a Science lesson one day that the curriculum they use

includes a science learning standard addition to the Common Core, and the main piece of this in

the lessons and labs came in the form of exploratory questions. Students were encouraged to

engage their own interests and theories about how things work. In the lessons themselves, Mrs.

Bricker read texts and instructions out loud and asked and answered student questions.

Differentiation is less present in that particular aspect of instruction, much more evident

in group work, but even then it is hard to know when to implement differentiated instruction.

This is part of another goal I set, of observing student progress and providing feedback to the

teacher while working with small groups in the classroom. It is really hard to keep track of how

every student is doing, and even on a one on one basis is seems difficult to know whether they

get it or not, because sometimes they appear to understand but have really just decoded the

task in front of them. There is a difference between doing work to show ability to learn and doing

work to show ability to mime. Another challenging aspect of working in the groups was the

process of helping students figure out what they are stuck on. In a close reading one morning, I

ran into the challenge of asking good questions to help students see how to read closely, instead

of asking questions that depend on what they can figure out. The students approach or answer to

my questions told me what they were doing to answer. While checking for understanding and

helping students understand, I also had to actively work on my goal of helping maintain order by
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upholding classroom procedures and rules. Distraction and rowdiness are usually problems for a

learning environment, and when I had a group of students under my responsibility I learned how

to interact with students in a way that garnered their respect to listen and their companionship so

they could trust me to help them, and get excited about doing well.

I aimed to connect with the students, learning their names and discovering interests or

qualities to help connect them with their learning and activities. There is so little time in a class

period to do this while teaching and observing, but some of the students make it easier by

integrating it into their assignments, such as writing assignments on opinion or science

worksheets that ask for students to think of things that fit different categories. They get to talk

about the things they love and include those, based on the fact that they relate to the science

lesson concept somehow. It seems that, in general it may not even matter so much that I know

what they like and dislike but that I can get them engaging on the basis of their interests. For

example, in Social Studies one day the California history lesson mentioned the Owens Valley

debate and the class got to stage the debate themselves. Students get engaged in that because of

the energy of that form of discussion and because of the impact that history has on their lives:

maybe they love living in L.A., or they have family that lived in the area of the Owens Valley

before the dam, or maybe they are passionate about nature or cities. When you can tap into those

interests, even indirectly, the result is a lesson that engages and sticks with students.

Working with Mrs. Bricker helped me grow in ability and confidence in the classroom.

Because she models classroom management that works, it was not difficult to take her approach,

apply it in a way that is consistent with her standards but works with my personality, and reflect

on how it works well for her and for me differently. I found it challenging to balance keeping the

students in line and letting them express themselves all the excitement, interests, and social
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energy they seem to exert and generate all day. In some settings, I was able to adapt the activity

we were doing to harness that energy, and in others I tried to redirect their attention to the task

before them in a less creative way. Much of the time, it seemed like they got a good grasp of the

content I or my teacher was teaching them. More often than that, I was able to identify things

they lacked in understanding or skill set, and simply knowing what they cannot do and why they

are struggling with a particular task can be helpful in adapting the way I instruct. All of these

thoughts and concerns were things I was able to talk to my teacher about periodically, since I

arrived a little early to discuss the plan for the day and she typically made a little time to debrief

at the end. Often, things I observed were things that pointed to things she already know about the

students, and it helped me to know some of the background information behind different

behaviors to better help students.

One of the valuable aspects of this internship experience was that my teacher aimed to

get me in the classroom for a variety of different subject areas and work times, so I got to be

involved in the full range of things. Obviously, the same kinds of management, involvement, and

instructional techniques apply across disciplines, but it is a challenge for the instructor to adapt in

the different situations, and I felt that was a successful endeavor.

I did not teach or lead whole class lessons, but I was able to do a lot of small group

instruction, and this was a helpful opportunity to practice independence as an instructor.

Compared to last semester, when I would often have to ask the teacher about students questions

or issues, I learned how to work with students on my own and help run things smoothly. Unless I

really did not know the answer or what to do in a situation and it required an immediate solution,

I felt comfortable and equipped with the instructions and material from my teacher to take

groups of students and work with them on my own.

that EDU 101 has continued to shape the way I think about learners and classroom success. One

of the things the course stressed was the importance of the implicit education that goes on in the

classroom, which is included in classroom management, but extends to all aspects of attitude,

approach, and method. As I worked with groups of students, I often struggled with feeling like I

lost sight of the whole picture, though, because I so strongly saw and desired to help students

through the behavioral, motivational, relational issues of each students time in the classroom.

This is a big obstacle to some kids, but the content is also important for them to learn. This ties

into the idea of motivation that we discussed in that class too, as there are many things that

students are motivated toward, even if it is not what the teacher wants them to be motivated

about. Another aspect of education that we discussed in Curriculum and Instruction Class which

I observed in this classroom was the balance of art and science in teaching. Given the difference

between first and fourth grade with different teachers, there is no clear formula, though there are

methods that work well for teachers of different styles. In Teaching Reading, we talked about

ways of gauging fluency, and it was interesting to see this at a different level in fourth grade. At

this level, students still struggle with fluency, and I could tell by the way that students read

without expression, or had to read texts aloud in order to do close reading questions, or even

based on a lack of willingness to read aloud. In the close reading activity I did with students one

morning, I found it hard to ask good questions to prompt them to ask the right questions. We

learned in Teaching Reading that students must ask questions of the text but I learned by

experience how to get students learn or at least clue into the right questions to ask.

In conjunction with this internship, I read VanDyks The Craft of Christian

Teaching: A Classroom Journey. Although much of its contents largely repeat

illuminate some points of interest to my observations and work this

semester. One of the things VanDyk notes is that students are very in-tune to

fairness.1 This is consistent with my observations in the classroom, especially

where prizes are concerned. The students would ask questions all day to

clarify the rules for behavioral reward systems, and this may be prompted by

a mixture of need for authority and to establish fairness. Another point which

VanDyk raised was a concern over the time on task model. He claims that it
2
is unfair to the way student brains work. While this is true for many

students, including my own, I found that a major part of the motivation

behind this kind of task planning is that students are highly socially

motivated and easily distracted by each other to talk about a variety of

things (not usually the subject of the task). There may be another method

that could harness instead of fight against this motivation in students.

VanDyk also discusses various aspects of group work and ways to use it well.

The last step in building good groups is to have students evaluate their own

work and discuss what went well for them as they cooperated and tried to
3
work together. This point interested me because the students worked

together primarily in science to accomplish experiments as groups.4 I wonder

2 Ibid, p 92.
3 Ibid, p 208.
4 Other instances of group work were more of a crowd control type of
strategy, not intended as much for the students to work collaboratively.
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if the students in my class would benefit from that kind of reflection, perhaps

in a guided discussion. From my observations of their work, some groups are

good at taking turns, and they naturally gravitate toward giving the students

who are skilled in certain things the tasks attuned to their skills, but most of

it is unintentional. It seems it would benefit them to discuss group work

strategies and reflect on what they do.