Fieldwork Task 3

Chapter 3 of the textbook discusses social and moral development. The task for this chapter has us observe a teacher and classroom, and describe how the teacher uses child development characteristics in her planning and teaching. For task 3 I observed a third grade self contained classroom.  The room that the students were in were setup with round desks that had three to four students at each table.  The teacher stated that she found the students worked better when they collaborated and worked together in groups.  The peer to peer interaction in the classroom was really beneficial and positive. There were several individual desks setup around the room for some students that required individual attention or that worked better on their own.  The desks were arranged in a way so that students had plenty of room to work. 

The room had specific areas designated for specific activities such reading, technology, and math.  There were bulletin boards with positive phrases and quotes for the students.  Posted on one of the bulletin boards were the classroom rules that were designed by the students and the teacher at the beginning of the school year.  The teacher found that the students followed the rules and were held more accountable when they participated in creating the rules.  This way the expectations were extremely clear.