RICA DOMAIN 4

TC NAME: Melissa Pitcher

RICA Domain: Vocabulary, Academic Language, and Background Knowledge

RICA Competency: Instruction and Assessment

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Any Addition Descriptors: SEI Class

I observed Ms. F. demonstrating an instructional activity to support what students have learned through listening and speaking. Ms. F sat in a chair in the middle of the carpet while the students sat at their group tables. She turned out the most of the lights to calm the room and the students could focus. Ms.F.  did a quick “book walk”, she read the title, asked what they thought the story was going to be about, they were to raise their hands if they had an idea, she called on them to share. Then she looked at the front cover picture and asked the student to tell their “eye” partner what they thought the picture was about. Then she read a story while the students sat quietly activity listening. When it came to a new vocabulary word she would write it on a board that was next to her, ask the students if they knew what it meant, reminded/gave a quick definition then moved on to the rest of the story. The students could draw pictures of key ideas they had from the story to refer to later. After the story was done Ms.F. asked the student to “think in their brains” (close their eyes, touch their temples and lead forward) about what they had just listened to and how they want. When she gave the cue they turned to their elbow partner and they each had a turn recalling the story.  She walked around the class and listened to what the students were telling each other.

Instructional Setting:

Ms. F. then had the students open their journal and write two sentences trying to use the new vocabulary the she had written on the board. The students could talk, look around the room for more ideas and refer to the white board to finish their thoughts. When the class was done, she called on the students that wanted to sharetheir work that the teacher would display on the doc.cam for the whole class to see, then they would discuss the idea as a class.

RICA DOMAIN 3

TC NAME: Melissa Pitcher

RICA: Fluency

RICA Competency: Fluency

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Any Additional Descriptors: SEI class

I observed Ms. E teaching Fluency. The teacher sat at a rainbow shaped table-she sat on the inside and the students sat around it. There were 6 students at her table and there was a white board behind her to draw, write and put up pictures. Ms E. first gave each student the same book. It was an “I See a_____,  The______ eats_______” book. The teacher looked at the front page and asked what  the students  thought the book was about in their heads. She modeled reading the book with fluency, she spoke clearly and at a slow pace for every student to follow along. She also used a lot of expression. She repeated to the students that she was looking for them to read just like the way she did and wrote on the board the key ways she wanted them to read: Clearly, slowly and with Expression. One at a time she read with the students. The students that were not reading with her at that time were to read in a whisper voice until she got to them.  The whisper voice was for them to still hear themselves and she could keep an eye (ear) on them too. Ms E. would make markings on each students page of their book, where they had trouble with a word, if they tried sounding it out, said something else, skipped a word, etc.( a modified running record). If the students read too fast she held up her hand a fanned it forward at the reader(hand signal “slow down”)to slow down. If the student got stuck on a word, the teacher would say” look at the picture” or “think about what you just read or what word do you think will be next”. She gave instant feedback. This would happen fast so the student would correct the mistake and not have enough time to think about the mistake or dwell on it. Ms. E had the student read a sentence, she would repeat it the way she wanted it to sound, then student would repeat the teacher again the right way. When the students were done reading one on one with Ms. E, she would have them read to each other.

In this lesson the teacher read first, had the students read-she gave immediate feedback if needed, repeated what the student read (correcting if needed ), the student repeated the correct way and then  let the students read to each other.

Ms. E had many different level reading books and gave each student the appropriate one. Some had shorter sentences, smaller words, one sentence, fill in the blank and bigger print. Each group was at similar reading levels.

 

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:

The activity that I observed was for all the students. Ms.E  had five sentence strips that were from the books they had just read that were also numbered. Each student received one strip of paper with the number and sentence on it. The teacher numbered five tables with a numbers one through five. She then explained that she will play music for the students to dance, when the music stops then she wants the students to make their way to the table with the same number on their paper sentence strip. When everyone gets to the table they see their names on a list, this will tell the students the order in which the students can say their sentence. All the other students had to look at the paper and read along in their head while the student read it out loud, if they had a mistake the other students would help correct it immediately. The students felt confident in reading their sentence because it was specially picked for each students reading level.  

RICA DOMAIN 5

TC NAME: Melissa Pitcher

RICA DOMAIN: Comprehension

RICA COMPETENCY: Comprehension

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Any Additional: Descriptors: SEI class

 

INSTRUCTION:

I observed Ms.F teaching Comprehension. She started the lesson by asking what they thought about when they heard the word “gingerbread”. Ms.F asked the students to raise a thumb if they thought of something they wanted to share with the class. She then showed a picture of a gingerbread cookies and had the students to talk to their “elbow partner” about what they knew. She asked them to raise their hand and share with the class. She then showed a picture of a Gingerbread man and ask if anyone has ever seen one. (Only two students had ever heard of it). Ms.F then started her picture-walk . She held up “The Gingerbread Man book” for the class to see and asked what they thought was happening  on the front cover. She went through every page and asked the students to tell her what they thought was happening and to predict what might happen next. Last she stated the reason why they were going to read the story, ”Class today we are going to read a story about a Gingerbread man and follow him on his adventure, let’s see what happens next!”

Ms. F starts to read the book and on each page she asked a question about what they just read. (The answer to her question was on the page they just read). Ms.F asked the class if they know the answer and to point to the top of their head if they do. If they answered wrong she would immediately pick the student next to them, let them discuss it for a few seconds and they would give her the answer. When the teacher would come to a new vocabulary word, she stopped, asked them to think “ in their brains”(lean forward, eyes closed and touch their temples and concentrate) if they had heard it before, she then would give a brief definition, tell them to think” in their brains” about the new definition and then move on with the story.

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING

When the story was done, she asked the students to turn their elbow partners and have them tell each other about the story they just read(summarize). She asked the students what their favorite part of the story was and why(sharing personal perspective). She called on a few student for their answers,  then asked other open ended questions for the student to relate (connect) with.She also asked if they knew about any other stories, books or video that might be similar(text-to-text, text-to-text and text-to-world connection) The teacher then summarized the story and passed out a picture of an outline of a gingerbread man to each student. The students then colored the outlined gingerbread man (visual/graphic representations of what was read)and wrote what they liked most about the book on the back(one sentence).

I got to observe the beginning, during and after reading strategies, she was also constantly checking for understanding. Not only did she assess them for understanding, the other student got to assess each other.( young students are quick to correct each other and like to talk)

This lesson went on for a few weeks and they would read different versions of the gingerbread man and discuss how they were different or the same.

 

                 

RICA DOMAIN 1

TC NAME: Melissa Pitcher

RICA Domain: “Planning Reading Instruction based on Assessment”

RICA Competency: Planning Reading Instruction

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Any Additional Descriptors : SEI class

INSTRUCTION:

I observed Ms. F during her Planning Reading Instruction. She does a math lesson first thing in the morning. First she reviews the numbers that they have already learned, in this case 1-3, to get them oriented  and ready to for the lesson. She does a “book walk” on the same book that they have been reading before they move on to the next number. They talk about what numbers they know and the different ways they can write it (with dots, addition problem, symbols, tallys, number itself, what it looks like on a die and  fun drawings). Ms. F then began her presentation on the number four. She puts up a piece of big poster paper on the board so everyone can see it and they talk about the number four. Ms. F  slowly writes the number four as she talks her way through it “start at the top line, go down to the dotted go right , stop. Start at the top line again then draw straight line all the way to the bottom line”, she makes four dots on the number she just wrote  and has the class counts them all together. She asked them to show her how many fingers four is, how they can write it (dots, addition problem, numbers, tallys, pictures and what it looks like on a  die)and they have to explain to her how they came up with their idea on how to write the number. For structured practice, the students are grouped at tables so they can talk about what they just learned with the other students, then she gives each student a work sheet that has four pictures at the top to color, two lines that have the number 4 dotted on it to trace and the last line is blank for them to write their own number four, to me this reminded me of a small version of scaffolding. For guided practice, Ms. F walks around the class and looks at every students work as they work and re-models if necessary, asks questions and gives feedback “make sure you don’t have any  ghost numbers”(meaning  the number didn’t touch the top and/or bottom line).  When they are done writing out their numbers, for independent practice she has them flip over their paper and make groups of four  with any symbol, shape or number they want and circle it so she can come back around and count with them.

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:

I learned that Ms. F uses many different types of strategies and supports to teach her lesson: a review in their heads, a book, poster-the many different ways to write the number, addition problem, coloring, writing the number and making groups of four on the back of their paper. This lesson will affect ALL students learning styles.