I am observing a fifth grade classroom with a small group of children involved in a program called "double dosing". It is scheduled 40 minutes before the start of school and lasts 30 minutes. This extra learning time is for children that are struggling in the core areas of math and literacy. In this class the children study the subjects that will be covered in the classroom during the same week. It also covers areas that the children have struggled with on previous tests thus receiving a "double dose" of the same lessons they will have in the classroom during regular school hours.
One of the developmental differences that I have seen so far with this group of children is difficulty reading aloud fluently. When practicing with reading, the children are doing fry phrases while being timed. Fry phrases are common sight words that the children will see in any of the reading they will do in life. Being able to learn these common phrases and say them quickly will help with their fluency. It's amazing how different something sounds when it is read out loud. After this activity the teacher models a guided reading page by reading a passage out loud as the children follow along visually. Then he asks the children to all read the same passage, out loud, with him. I've noticed some of the children really have a difficult time reading out loud. Both of these techniques really involve visual and auditory learning styles.
Another developmental difference I've observed is the speed with which the children do their math problems. Some of the children are pretty fast, while others have to really think and take some time. One of the things that the teacher does when working with the children in math is he teaches them a couple of different ways to solve their problems. This helps them to be able to work their problems to the best of their ability. They are currently working on place values, multiplication with multiple digits, and exponents. They have been using either the box method, i.e. array method, or the algorithm method for multiplication. Each of the children have chosen their favorite way to do it. I did not see any of them be able to solve their problems faster with one method or the other. I think the speed of solving their problems will come with practice. The teacher did make them use both methods to check their answers. They use their own white boards to work out their problems and this seems to be the preferred method for the kids. Today they began doing division and working with math manipulatives. The children were able to take 50 cubes and put them into one large group. Then they learned how to divide the cubes into smaller groups. The teachers methods were diverse in using kinesthetic and visual learning styles. All the children in the class really liked using the math manipulatives.
