When Ms. Tammy, the Coordinator at Alpine Elementary School, assigned me to tutor Mrs. Sherwin’s fifth grade class I was anxious at first. In the past I have worked with children between the ages of zero months up to three years of age, students in kindergarten, first grade and third grade, but not fifth grade. Due to lack of experience working with fifth grade students I was not sure of what to expect on my first day of observation. What do eleven-year-olds even like? Do they still read picture books or do they read chapter books now? Do they like having someone read them a picture book aloud? Throughout my observation hours my questions were answered. Upon arrival my first day the students bombarded me with questions such as what was my …show more content…
They sat on the floor around Mrs. Sherwin with their social studies textbook. Mrs. Sherwin had them read over the boldfaced vocabulary words before they began reading. In my EDS class, my professor stressed the importance of vocabulary since vocabulary is one of the five big ideas of reading. Understanding vocabulary helps with students’ reading comprehension. Mrs. Sherwin started off reading and then called on students to read. Students seemed to stare off into space, talk to their neighbors, but when they were called on they focused on the reading. Maybe since it was Friday they were distracted. After they finished reading the chapter they were given a worksheet that went along with what they read. I walked around and listened to their responses. Tuesday when I arrived they were eating snack. After snack, they went outside for recess for fifteen minutes but by the time they put on all their winter clothes and took off all their winter clothes there were about twenty-five minutes invested into recess. Once all the winter clothes were off and put away Mrs. Sherwin had them read a Scholastic News article online and gave them a list of question that she had them look for in the readings. She called the activity a scavenger hunt because she wanted students to look for the