Field Observation # 5 - Domain #5

TC NAME:  Sheila Lowe
RICA Domain 5:  Comprehension

RICA Competency 12:  Concepts and Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension

Grade Level:  4th grade

An Additional Descriptors: Cooperating Teacher, Mrs. Boss

Instruction:

In my cooperating teacher's classroom I have the privilege of working with small groups of students for reading. When we are focusing on reading the overall story we work in heterogeneous groups that way students can listen and learn from each others reading.  When we are working in our practice books we are homogeneously grouped that way students needing additional help and time are grouped together and receive the assistance they need.  In our small reading groups I have the students take turns reading the assigned story for the day then we discuss the questions that go along with the story.  When we work in our practice books I do the same thing with the reading - I have the students take turn reading the short story. and then we help each other fill in the worksheets that go along with the story in their practice books.  

One of the stories we read  was "Elena's Move" and the tie in story was called "A Moving View:  Saying Good-Bye, Saying Hello."  The main focus of these stories was to teach the students how to make inferences about what the author was feeling by looking at phrases and words used in the text.



Instructional Setting:

I work with small groups of 8 -10 students in reading groups as a pull out from the main classroom.  We meet in the enclosed central quad of the building around tables that are set up in this area.  We do this every Thursday morning and do any catch up work in the afternoon.

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.

Field Observation #3 - Domain #1

 TC NAME:  Sheila Lowe
RICA Domain 1:  Planning, Organizing, and Managing Reading Instruction Based on Ongoing Assessment

RICA Competency 1:  Planning, Organizing, and Managing Reading Instruction

Grade Level:  4th grade

An Additional Descriptors: Cooperating Teacher, Mrs. Boss

Instruction:

In my Cooperating Teacher's classroom I observed many important details that help engage and motivate her students.  She explained to me that all the reading books in her classroom library are AR books that the students can check out, read, and then take an AR test on.   She has books above and below the 4th grade reading standard to accommodate all the different levels of learners in her classroom.  She has them all color coded for the different levels so the students will know what book grouping they can chose from.  This shows she has appropriate reading materials as described in competency 1 section 5 part B.  

She also has a display wall that has everyone's name on a tracking sheet.  Every time they pass an AR test they get to place a star on their tracking sheet.  

She has a bulletin board that displays students artwork based on the readings in the classroom, which is an illustration of competency 1 section 5 part A.

She also has numerous posters hanging around her classroom that describe and illustrate various punctuation, parts of speech, the writing process, and types of writing. 
These posters give the students plenty of information to work off of it they need additional help and support.  

Instructional Setting:
In my cooperating teacher's classroom she has lots of colorful and informational posters hanging around the room to provide additional support to her student's learning.  She has a large variety of books in her classroom library that the students can use.  And she has a nice visual display of students work related to the literacy works they are reading from. 

Field Observation #2 - Domain #4

TC NAME:  Sheila Lowe

RICA Domain 4:  Vocabulary, Academic Language, and Background Knowledge

RICA Competency 11:  Instruction and Assessment

Grade Level:  4th grade

An Additional Descriptors: This project took the class a week to complete.  From my tutoring teacher, Mrs. Wickman

Instruction:  
For this lesson the students read the story "Grandfather's Journey" from their California Reading books.  Mrs. Wickman, my tutoring teacher, gave them all a graphic organizer to fill in as they read.  The story was about a man's grandfather's travels to America and back to Japan again.  The students learned about the Japanese way of writing poetry, haiku, from examples in their text.  Students were to write their own haiku based on something from the story, then type them up on the classroom computers.  This activity caused the students to be creative and to carefully consider what word would fit into their poem, which in turn also expanded their vocabulary.  Since origami is Japanese paper folding the students were shown how to fold their paper into the shape of an owl.  They then pasted it on some black construction paper and pasted their haiku underneath the owls.

Instructional Setting:  

Mrs Wickman has a literacy wall in her room above the computers.  This is where she displays the story that they students are working on for the week.  On this wall she has a picture of the story, the theme they are following, the genre and the definition of the genre, and their strategic focus. The students copy this information down onto their graphic organizers, which are then used as they read the story to take notes on.

Field Observation #1 - Domain #3

TC NAME:  Sheila Lowe

RICA Domain 3:  Fluency

RICA Competency 1:  Fluency:  Instruction and Assessment

Grade Level:  4th grade

An Additional Descriptors: This project took the class a week to complete.  From my tutoring teacher, Mrs. Wickman.

INSTRUCTION:

I observed my tutoring teacher, Mrs. Wickman, engaging and motivating her students to be involved in their own reading.  This was done in a type of “readers’ workshop” method.  She read enthusiastically with them in small groups the story of Akiak from their California Reading books, which was about a lead snow dog and the Iditarod race.    The students followed along in their textbooks and took turns reading the story together.  Once the reading was complete the teacher guided them in discussion about the story. 

The students were then given a graphic organizer to fill in about the story.  It asked the students for the following information:  theme, title of the story, genre and definition, strategy focus, comprehension skill.  There was also space for the students to write in vocabulary words and next to the words space to write the definition and another space to draw a picture of the word.

After the students completed the graphic organizer they were then given an Akiak picture frame to complete as a book report.  There were four questions the students were to answer. The questions included the following:

1.  What qualities make Akiak such a good lead dog?

2.  What are some questions you still have about the story?

3.  How do different characters in the story view the Iditarod race?

4.  According to the Iditarod rules, once a dog drops out of the race it cannot re-enter it.  Share your views on the importance and fairness of this rule.

When students completed answering the questions on the picture frame they were then instructed to color the worksheet.  The teacher looked over the answers and when they were completed the students were then allowed to hang their completed report on the display wall.

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:

This classroom setting has lots of windows so there is not much space for displaying student work or additional supports. She does have one wall where she has students display their work based on the literacy lessons that have been completed.  The completed Akiak picture frames and graphic organizers are displayed on this wall. There is another wall above the computers where she has displayed the literacy lesson that they are working on. This includes the theme, title of the story they are working on, the genre that is being talked about and a definition of what that genre means.  This supports the students learning and helps them get organized when reading the story for the week.