Field Observation- Domain 3

TC Name: Heather Taylor

RICA Domain: Domain 3 “Fluency”

RICA Competency: Competency 9: Fluency: Instruction and Assessment

Grade Level: Second Grade

Any Additional Descriptors: Mainstream with five EL Students

INSTRUCTION:

I observed Mrs. X teaching her students fluency including the key indicators of fluency including accuracy, rate, and prosody. I have witnessed Mrs. X work on fluency one-on-one and in small groups. First, Mrs. X reads a short story to the students with proper rate and expression. This way, the students can hear how the story should be read. Mrs. X then has the students read the same short story and read it out loud. She gives them one minute to read the story to their best ability. Once the minute is up, she has a grid that she colors in a blue shade up to the amount of words the student read (for example, if they read 50 words in one minute she would shade up to 50 on the chart). From there, Mrs. X gives the students feedback as to how well they did or what they need to improve. She reminds them to pause and commas and to take a breath at periods. After she tells them their feedback, they then read the short story together at a proper rate and with proper expression. After this is done, Mrs. X tells the student that they will then re-read the story out loud on their own. She gives them one minute to read the story. She then shades in all of the additional words the child read in red. This way the child can have a visual to how much their fluency has improved. They have a boost of self-esteem when they can see their improvement right in front of them. This strategy allows Mrs. X, to focus on her “struggling” readers (most of whom are ELL students). She is able to give individualized instruction on expression and rate. This is especially beneficial for her EL students because they are able to hear the English language over and over including proper punctuation pauses and the proper English speaking rate. 

Mrs. X continually assesses her students’ fluency through oral reading. She pulls “popsicle sticks” through out her class to give everyone a chance to read their text. This way she can see who is improving and who still needs more individualized help throughout the year. 

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:

Mrs. X has a variety of support for her students to learn fluency in her classroom. She has a wide-range of books in her classroom library along with a listening center  where students can listen to books over-and-over. This, again, is extremely helpful for EL students because they can hear how words are pronounced and how punctuation is used in the English language. 

TC Name: Heather Taylor

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

RICA Competency: Competency 11:Vocabulary, Academic Language, and Background Knowledge: Instruction and Assessment 

Grade Level: Kindergarten 

Any Additional Descriptors: Mainstream with three EL Students

INSTRUCTION:

I observed Mrs. X teaching her students vocabulary, academic language and background knowledge. The day I observed her lesson on certain vocabulary, Mrs. X, was focusing on the word “run.” The students are presented with a new word every day.  Mrs. X presents the word to the class during their morning meeting. She firsts asks the students if they know what the word means, then she uses it in a simple sentence, for example, “I like to run.” She then writes the sentence on the board so her students can visually see what the word looks like. Mrs. X also models the word. This is key to helping her EL students and struggling readers to better grasp the word of the day. Later during the day, the students participate in their centers. One of the centers is a reading center where the students are re-introduced to the word of the day. In this observation, the students read the short story, “I Like to Run!” The students read along with the teacher and were directed to circle “run” every time it appeared in the story. At the end of the story there was an activity page to further their understanding of the word “run.” In this short story, the activity was to trace the sentence, “I like to run.” They were also tasked to circle and match “run” to “run” that were written in two separate columns.  By having the children actually use the word in activities such as writing sentences, Mrs. X helps improve their understanding even more. From activating background knowledge in the beginning of the lesson to reading a story that incorporates the word on every page, and finally having the students use the word “run” on their activity page, Mrs. X comes full circle in her instructional activities to support what students have learned. 

Mrs. X, also has her students’ “rainbow” (AKA sight) words posted on the white board. Every week students are tested on a different colored column of words. As the weeks go on, the words get harder and more challenging. In order for her students to learn these words, Mrs. X uses them in similar activities such as the one described in the “I like to Run!” short story. She also makes sure to read her students books that incorporate these sight words as well. 

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:

Mrs. X has a variety of support for her students to learn key vocabulary in her classroom. For example, she has her sight words posted on her white board. These words are kept there all year. Additionally, whenever there is a new word presented she writes it on the board in big, visible, letters for the students to reference throughout the day. 

Observation Number 3- RICA Domain 5

TC Name: Heather Taylor

RICA Domain: # 5 “Comprehension” Instruction and Assessment- Understanding and Analyzing Narrative/Literary Texts

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Any Additional Descriptors: Mainstream with three ELL Students

Instruction: 

In Mrs. X’s Kindergarten class she continuously teaches her students how to comprehend narrative stories she reads daily. She also consistently assesses their comprehension of the text by asking frequent questions and also has them create story maps after the story has been read. For example, she recently read her students the story, Rosie the Hen. Prior to reading she conducted a picture walk with the students. The students predicted what was happening on every page through a series of questions Mrs. X asked, such as, “Do you think Rosie scared?” or “What do you think Rosie is thinking?” Once the picture walk was complete Mrs. X began reading the story. During the story she would stop and ask questions, such as, “where is Rosie at?” “why is Rosie doing that?” and many more similar questions to check for understanding and comprehension. Through her series of questions she is giving her students an introduction to instruction in the elements of story grammar. Her questions reflect the main points of story grammar including, identifying the characters, the setting, the problem, and the solution. Prior to having the students create their own story map for Rosie the Hen, Mrs. X went over the key elements such as plot and characters once again with her students. She did this by writing it on the board and drawing corresponding pictures. For example, when she asked, “who are the characters?” the students replied, “Rosie and the Fox.” From there she wrote Rosie and Fox on the board and drew pictures of Rosie and Fox next to their names. After she went through every element, showing the kids pictures and writing their suggestions on the board, she allowed them to create their own story map as a form of assessment. The story map was a skeletal outline which had four boxes and included a space for characters, setting, problem, and solution. The students were tasked to draw a picture of each in its given box.  It was beneficial for the students, especially EL students to have Mrs. X’s pictures on the board so they could reference them throughout their assignment. Creating a story map was also beneficial for struggling readers as it provided a great visual to better understand parts of a story. 

Instructional Setting: 

Mrs. X did not have many supporting visuals for story comprehension throughout the room; however, she has a wonderful library full of age-appropriate books. She also keeps pictures of the main characters for that week’s story hanging around the room as a reference and daily reminder for her students.

Field Observation # 2- Domain 1

TC Name: Heather Taylor

RICA Domain: Planning Reading Instruction based on Assessment

RICA Competency: Planning, Organizing, and Managing Reading Instruction 

Grade Level: Kindergarten 

Any Additional Descriptors: Mainstream with three ELL Students 

INSTRUCTION:

In Mrs. X’s Kindergarten classroom she makes a cautious effort to plan, organize, and manage an instructional program that helps every child achieve class ELA standards. In her classroom I have observed organized instruction to meet the needs of all students.  Mrs. X implements groups based on ability levels. For example, during “center time” she has students in homogeneous groups. During center time, there are several different reading stations. This allows Mrs. X to allow the “red” group (those who are more advanced) work independently while she helps with the “purple” group (those who need more attention and one-on-one instruction). Although, she has the children pair in their homogeneous groups for center time she also combines the “red” and “purple” group so that the more advanced students can help the students who are struggling with given topics. I have witnessed the heterogeneous groups mostly in math lessons so students can explain how they got the answer they did, but she has also had the heterogeneous groups work together during activities such as matching letters to pictures or cutting out pictures that begin with a certain letter.

Mrs. X also has a very engaging and motivating classroom. Her classroom is full of age-appropriate books, a full class library, a listening center, and student work such as paintings and drawings related to their reading are hung throughout the classroom. This past week, Mrs. X read  Rosie the Hen, to her students. She read the book with enthusiasm and excitement which gets the students very intrigued and interested in the story. After the book was over they were able to paint their own “Rosie” and hang it on the wall. This allows the students to reflect on the days reading and brings so much community and color to the classroom. Mrs. X reads aloud daily to her students which allows the children and EL learners to grasp the excitement in story telling and books. She also has listening centers which children partake in daily. This is extremely important, not only for the english speaking children in the class, but for the EL learners to continuously hear the english language while following along in a book. 

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:
As mentioned, Mrs. X, has a very engaging classroom that motivates students to want to read. Along with her amazing library full of age-appropriate books, she also has a personal listening center which allows her students even more reading time during centers. She hangs student-made art work around the classroom that models key topics from the story they just read. She also has every letter of the alphabet bordered around the room, promoting more reading and understanding. 

RICA Domain 2: "Word Analysis"

TC Name: Heather Taylor

RICA Domain: Word Analysis 

RICA Competency: Phonemic Awareness 

Grade Level: Kindergarten 

Any Additional Descriptors: Mainstream

INSTRUCTION:

I observed Mrs. X, teaching phonemic awareness to her Kindergarten class.  The day I observed phonemic awareness, the letter the class was focusing on was “M.” To begin the day, Mrs. X, gave a lesson on the letter “M” through sound isolation. She would give the class a word, such as “mittens,” and ask them what the beginning sound was. When the class responded with /m/ as the answer Mrs. X also incorporated a total physical response (TPR), by rubbing her stomach emphasizing the /m/ sound. The children caught on quickly and then copied her motion. Incorporating TPR was especially important for the one ELL student, in the class. He was able to catch on quickly once he saw his classmates all making the same motion. After modeling the TPR for /m/ in the word mittens, Mrs. X continued to give the children words such as “muffin” and “mailbox” and asked them what the sound of the beginning of the word was. The students continued to respond with making the sound /m/ and incorporated the movement of rubbing their stomach. At the same time Mrs. X was teaching sound isolation, she also was teaching to sound identity. She did this by giving the students several different words that started with the sound /m/, but that was the only shared sound. A few of these words included “moon,” “make,” and “mustache.” After she stated these words she asked the students what sound all of the words had in common. Again, when they made the /m/ sound they all incorporated the TPR movement of rubbing their stomach. This promoted understanding and interaction. 

Moving on to incorporating more letters into her phonemic awareness lesson, Mrs. X, then dismissed the class to the “letter chart” which is a pocket chart located in the back of the classroom labeled with every letter of the alphabet. Each letter also has an attached pocket. She passed out cards with different pictures and words on them and every student was to approach her with their card and tell her which pocket they wanted to put it in. Before they could put it in the pocket they had to sound out the word and blend it with another word. Therefore, blending was an additional technique Mrs. X, used in her classroom. Once they got it correct either independently or with guidance, Mrs. X dismissed the student to their desk to complete an activity. 

The activity reverted back to the day’s letter “M.” The students were given a worksheet which contained several different pictures. The pictures included a moon, mailbox, drum, hammer, and several more. The goal of the assignment was to have the children, on their own or with a partner, circle which pictures began with the /m/ sound. Not only did this activity allow the students to isolate the /m/ sound they were also able to blend the rest of the word on their own. 

Once students completed the first worksheet, they were give a paper with the outline of an “M” and an “m.” The students were directed to say the letter on the sheet and the sound that it makes. After, they were to trace the letter seven times with different color crayons and then they could glue macaroni on the letter. This was a fun and engaging way to continue the lesson of phonemic awareness. 

While the students were completing their worksheets, Mrs. X circled the room specifically focusing on and helping students who were struggling with the worksheet. By allowing the students to work independently, she was able to focus on those students who needed extra help. 

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:

Mrs. X has a variety of support for her students to learn phonemic awareness in her classroom. For example, she has posters with pictures of people making sounds such as “th” and “sh.” She also has a visible alphabet with corresponding animals (for example, a lion is pictured next to the letter “L”), a pocket chart of letters (the same one as referenced above), along with other visual cues the students can look at to make connections between phonemic awareness and words. 

PLN

A PLN is an information hub you can share with, gather from, or connect with others who are interested in the same topics as you are. Some of the most common ways to share information is through social networking sites, for example LinkedIN, Facebook and even Google docs. Having a PLN will help me as a teacher by allowing me to share and gather information that is relevant to the course or grade level I am teaching. 

I subscribed to several different RSS feeds that related to using iPads in the classroom. This topic has been a hot discussion in some of the recent journal entries I have read so  I decided to subscribe to these feeds to learn more information. One specific blog I subscribed to was “Apps in Education” seen here: http://appsineducation.blogspot.com/. This site provides tips and reviews on the latest apps to use in the classroom. 

I have used Twitter for many years, mostly to connect with others who were working in Public Relations. I used to work in PR so it was relevant for me to network with others in the field. Through this project I began following several of my EDUC 422 classmates. It was interesting to see what they were posting about education and their experience so far at Cal State San Marcos. I look forward to following more education based Twitter users for more insight into my future career. 

My library in Diigo is compiled of articles based on using iPads in the classroom. This site is very helpful in finding relevant information on specific topics. I follow four of my classmates who also researched iPad use in the classroom. Because we were all able to gather different articles on the same topic I was able to greatly expand my knowledge base all through the Diigo website which was really simple to use. 

I chose to join the Classroom 2.0 discussion on Ning. The blog post I chose to read was “Why Districts Need to Adopt a Year Round Program.” I thought this article was interesting because when I was growing  up I attended yea-round schools and thought it was great. Although, I thought it was great I don’t think it would be rational to require students to participate in an online session as this article suggests. The blog post can be seen here: http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/why-districts-need-to-adopt-a-year-round-program. 

My overall PLN experience was great! I learned of many new ways to share and gather information and I plan on using them throughout my career. My favorite network so far has been Diigo. I found it the most relevant and easy to use. 

Blog Post #8: Right on Course

In the article, “Right on Course,” talks about the 16 school districts of Lane County, Oregon and its new online learning program. The online program acted as “go-to” support center for all the districts and provided correspondence courses along with online curriculum delivery. Because the interest was extremely high, it resulted in many changes for the 16 districts. There were more part-time teachers than full-time and there was a desperate need for technological infrastructure and communication to maintain these owned online courses. In order to make this program successful there were a number of things that had to be done. For example, they had to expand course offerings, improve student retention, increase options for non-traditional students, and establish regional oversight. They also began to run into some problems, for example some principals and superintendents felt that the only subjects that could be taught online were language arts courses and they were afraid to have high school students solely rely on online courses instead of an in person teacher. The next step they took was to partner with a local community college for advice and tips. The first tip was to use Moodle and they continue their partnership by using this site. They then selected different course plans, pricing, and teachers willing to run the online programs. After their first year of using the program and over 525 individual enrollments, they found that online learning can be very successful and they have a 75% passing rate of students. 

I never would have wanted an online course in high school. I think that at that age most students aren’t motivated enough to participate in Webinars and respond to online curriculum. While I think it could be a good experience for high school students to prepare them for college course and introduce them to new technologies, I do not think that a 75% success rate is an OK number to continue the program. I also think it sounds like an easy way out to get more part-time teachers rather than paying for full-time. Again, while I think most students wouldn’t be ready for online courses in high school, i do however, think it benefits them by learning how to use the internet and computers more efficiently. 

This article related to NETS Standard number six “technology operations and concepts.” Through using online courses students are able to select and use applications effectively and productively. They are also able to get a better understanding of technology systems and applications. 

Brown, Don. "Right on Course." Learning & Leading. ISTE, n.d. Web. 2012. http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Feature_Right_On_Course.aspx.