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.