Field Notes: Trial 1

Field Notes- January 30th

Well.... field notes trial number 1 was semi successful!

I think I did very well writing descriptive notes about what was happening in my classroom during my focus group's daily five time. When I finished I had a page of total chicken scratch! I know if I did not go back to it within a few days, I would have had NO idea what my notes meant!

One thing that I was not very successful at was making observers comments while I was writing down what I was seeing. Next time, I will try to be better at noting both my observations and my thoughts about what I am seeing.

I went through and typed up my field notes in a word document with 2 columns. 1 side for my observations and one side for observers comments (this is what our reading this week suggested) so I thought I would give it a shot! I really liked it! Obviously since I did not make any observers comments, I had to go back in and add them in. But I feel like this might have been a good strategy for me. It gave me time to think about what I saw and evaluate it.

At the bottom of my typed field notes, I wrote just a couple of take aways. Here is what I said:

Overall, the students did very well today. Only a few off task behaviors, and they were all very short and did not interrupt either teacher’s reading group. These students seemed to be involved in their activities and working hard. Some even looked like they were enjoying themselves!

 I wish there was a way to upload/attach word documents to this blog! All it looks like I can upload are pictures. I might try to do this at school next week, because my computer there has a button to take a screen shot. Then I could upload a picture of my screen so you can see a visual of my field notes.

My biggest struggle this week was teachign while I was trying tot ake field notes. Next week, I plan to have an activity my reading group can do independently while I need to take field notes. This way I can give more attention to my field notes.