Field Observation #4 - Domain #2

TC NAME:  Sheila Lowe
RICA Domain 2:  Word Analysis

RICA Competency 3 & 7:  Phonological and Phonemic Awareness and Syllabic Analysis, Structural Analysis, and Orthographic Knowledge

Grade Level:  4th grade

An Additional Descriptors: Tutoring teacher, Mrs. Wickman

Instruction:

In my tutoring teacher's classroom she uses what is called Mountain Language with her students. She has a variety of colorful cards hanging on one of her windows with 20 different words, phrases, and sentence structures for the students to use in completing their assignments.  This is an excellent example of competency 3 and 7.  The students are given a worksheet that they have to fill out using the mountain language cards.  Some of the tasks listed include writing two words that make the compound word, which is an example of word blending as described in competency 3, section 2 part A3; write the prefix, suffix and the base or root word - this is an example of competency 7 section 2 part A3; divide the word into syllables, which is an example of syllable awareness in competency 3 section 2 part A2; and choosing the misspelled word - this is an example of competency 7 section 6 part A3.

Mrs. Wickman gives the students the same worksheet each week but changes the cards on the windows that they work of off.  Each day the students are to do 5 of the tasks.  So on Mondays they do questions 1 - 5, Tuesday they do 6 -10, Wednesday they do 11 - 15, and Thursday they do 16 - 20.  This is done as they work through different tasks and centers throughout the first part of the morning.

Instructional Setting:
In Mrs. Wickman's classroom she uses her windows as a display board to hang the various mountain language cards that the students use to fill in their worksheets.  They are colorful cards with a wide range of tasks and skills the students need to demonstrate knowledge and understanding on.