Today, when I went to get my first graders for TAG, their teacher invited me to be part of their class discussion instead of taking them.  What I witnessed was so simple, yet so amazing. 

Ms. G is one of the more tech-savvy teachers in the building, and her class is structured around the use of her laptop and projector.  She began by asking her students to think of three things they knew about spring.  After giving them time, she asked them to raise their hands if they had three things, then two things, then at least one thing.  Then she said “Good!  Everyone has at least one thing, so I can ask each of you without you raising your hands.”  She then brought up a simple Excel spreadsheet and typed “Spring” in the first cell.  As she adjusted the size of the cells, she talked about what she was doing with the students and talked about how the program was different on her new laptop, compared to the program they had been using. (Yes!  Her class of first graders uses Excel, Word and Powerpoint more fluently than some of the teachers!) She showed them step-by-step how to do the adjustments she was making in a kind of “think aloud” process.

After the page was set up the way she wanted, she asked each student for their response.  I know this may not seem that amazing yet, and part of the magic was actually being there, but it gets better.  The class was so engaged in what they were doing that they could hardly contain their enthusiasm.  After they came up with a list that including every student’s knowledge of spring, she showed them how she was going to put “boxes” around all of their answers, and sent the list to the printer. Before they left their carpet area, she gave them further instructions for the next task.  They were to read through their list and find the things that seemed to go together, like flowers blooming with trees budding.

While the student helper came back with the pages, she had them each get a large sheet of construction paper, scissors and glue and go to their “offices”. (This is what they call their table areas. They each go to their office to do their work.) The students immediately got to work, sharing supplies at their tables, with very few questions. 

What a great example of classifying!  They were engaged, using their own ideas, and showing their thought process with a finished product to share with the teacher and their families.  I had done a similar classification exercise for a TAG project, with ready made pictures copied from a book, but I much prefer the lesson I saw today, where the students made their own list to sort.

The best part for me was watching another teacher in action.  She never raised her voice, handled all problems as they occured in a calm manner that didn’t draw attention to the infraction, and kept the students on task throughout the whole lesson.  I’m so glad I had the chance to experience the artistry of a well-constructed lesson.  Anyone who has ever worked with first graders will understand why I was amazed.