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.