Mrs. Nelson chose to read her students a story that, judging from the reactions of the students, catches their attention quite well. She also makes sure to stand in front of her students and read the story to them. After the story Ms. Nelson has the students look up word definitions from the story, write a sentence and draw a picture. This creates an engaging activity because the students are comparing definitions to the book and drawing what they find the definition to mean. It gets the students active and actively thinking. While most of the students are paying well attention, two are not. Stephanie and Oscar are both not paying attention to the story and when the teacher gives the assignment they are seen not working on it. If this were my classroom and I saw the students not working on their assignment the first thing I would do is ask them why they are not working on it. I would also ask them if they heard the story and I would ask them questions to make sure they are telling the truth. If I find they didn’t I would have them read it again to themselves and complete the activity under my occasional supervision. In order to get them motivated I would talk to them about the story and get an interest from them. I would try to get them excited about the task by talking about it and showing other students work to them so they could see how fun the activity could actually be. The last thing that I would do for the distracted students comes from Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J., Jr. (2007). Elementary classroom management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed), I would allow them to work with their peers to compare their pictures and definitions to get them motivated and eager to do the work.
Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J., Jr. (2007). Elementary classroom management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: