Domain 4 - Vocabulary

 

Kimberly Taron
Domain 4: Vocabulary, Academic Language, and Background Knowledge
Competency: Vocabulary
2nd Grade


This week I observed the class working on vocabulary using words from their most recent literature that was read aloud by the teacher.  The teacher demonstrated instruction that fit the age and ability of the students because the words she selected were age-appropriate and she also had the students help her come up with definitions for the words one-by-one (rather than just pull them straight from a dictionary).  This helped students understand the vocabulary in a way that made the most sense to them (using "kid-friendly" definitions).   The definitions they came up with were simple and they also included synonyms and antonyms.  After writing down all the words and their definitions, the students were told they would be participating in a "super-star sentence show down."  Each table group was given two of the vocabulary words from this week and were instructed to come up with a super-star sentence as a group that included those two words.  The teacher modeled using two of the words for the students:  "When I cuddled my pillow and teddy bear it helped me feel settled in my bedroom." This activity helped students create and see examples of how the vocabulary are used in the context of sentences to deepen students' understanding of meaning. Instructional Setting: The instructional setting was helpful for the students because the teacher had her own graphic organizer with her vocabulary words posted and definitions for students to follow along.

Domain 3 - Fluency

 Kimberly Taron
Domain 3: Fluency
Competency 8: Fluency, Accuracy
Grade Level 2

This week I observed the teacher working with her second graders in Domain 3: Fluency.   She was working on reading fluency with specific words in small groups with her students.  This falls under Competency 8- Fluency: Role in Reading Development and Factors that Affect the Development of Fluency.  She was specifically working on accuracy with certain words based on phonics rules such as the final e and short and long vowels.  For students to be able to comprehend when reading, they will need to have good fluency so they are not focusing too much on figuring out the words. 

The teacher gave her second graders a list of words and would have a student who was in her small group one by one read the words aloud to her.  If they missed the word and did not read it correctly on the first try, she would circle or highlight it and that would be a word that they needed to master.  The students all needed to master all the words on the different lists by reading all the words aloud fluently. They would continue to practice reading the words that were highlighted until they had mastered the entire page.  This provides oral reading experiences and feedback and guidance from the teacher.

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:  The instructional setting provided some visual reminders for the students.  There were phonics posters posted on the walls with reminders of some of the rules that the students were working on such as short and long vowel sounds in words.  The paper that they were using to read the words aloud also had helpful reminders as well as some of the words used in sentences. 

Domain 1 - Reading Assessment

Kimberly Taron
Domain 1: Planning Organizing and Managing Reading Instruction Based on Ongoing Assessment
Competency 2: Reading Assessment
Grade Level: 5
ELD Class

I observed reading assessment in my 5th grade tutoring class.  The teacher in this class covers "monitoring of progress assessments" with her students by monitoring AR (Advanced Readers) test scores and the weekly progress made by her students.  After the students read a book of their choice, they take an AR test on comprehension.  The computer keeps track of all their scores and the level of difficulty gives a higher score.  She keeps track of if students are adequately progressing and meeting her standards and also if they are meeting their own goals that they set for themselves every week.  She prints out a list of all the student scores every week and assesses which students are not meeting the class standards.  The highlighted names are students whose scores are not up to what they need to be so she will have them do book club and have more time with me in the morning reading.  She also meets with each student individually every Friday to communicate with them about their assessment results and to discuss whether or not they met their goals for the week.  If their goals were met, they discuss what they did to meet their goals and set new and more challenging goals for the following week.   If the students did not meet their goals, they explained why they thought that happened to the teacher and then together the teacher and student came up with new goals to write down for the next week and talked about what they needed to do to reach their goals. Meeting with the teacher weekly to discuss goals and strategies gives the students a sense of responsibility and motivation because they need to monitor and assess themselves and report to the teacher. 

Instructional Setting:  The setting provides many supports for the students to meet their weekly goals.  They have a class library where they have a multitude of books of different levels, genres, and interests for the students to choose from.  They are given silent reading time in class every morning and opportunities to take AR tests throughout the school day.  They have teacher support and written goals to refer back to throughout the week. 

Domain 2 - Word Analysis

Kimberly Taron
Domain 2: Word Analysis
Competency 7: Syllabic Analysis
2nd Grade

INSTRUCTION: This week, I observed the teacher working with the students on vocabulary.  The teacher had the students open up their vocabulary notebook, where they fill in each vocabulary word, the definition, a synonym, an antonym and in the last part, they break up the word by syllables.  They do this both visually and as a listening activity.  She has the students clap their hands as they say each syllable of the word together.  She then says, how many syllables are there in this word?  How many times did we clap?  Sometimes the students have to repeat the clapping sequence before answering.  This is a way to show students how to find syllables in words.  They then draw a line in the word to separate the syllables.  Throughout this process, she reminded the students of some of the rules when dealing with multisyllabic words.  For instance, the students were reminded that when two consonants are in the middle of the word, they are twins and they fight so they need to be separated.  Therefore, that is the spot where the syllables are separated.  This was a great trick to help the students remember this rule.  She also helped them pick out prefixes and suffixes to separate the syllables.  She was reviewing and reinforcing things they had already discussed as a class in a prior lesson while applying it to these vocabulary words.  She wrote along with the students on her own vocabulary sheet on the overhead projector, so the students could follow along while listening and could write at their own pace by looking back at her sheet.   

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:  The instructional setting provided some evidence of support for this lesson.  The teacher was writing on her own sheet to help the students follow along on the overhead.  This was visual support and helped the students follow along and see the words and syllable separations that the teacher was talking about. 

Domain 5 - Comprehension

Kimberly Taron
Domain 5: Comprehension
Competency 14:  Instruction and Assessment-Understanding and Analyzing Narrative/Literary Texts
Grade Level: 2nd Grade
           

Story Map for "Sheila Ray the Brave"

INSTRUCTION:   I observed the teacher teaching her second graders "Instruction in the Elements of Story Grammar" including teaching literary genres and utilizing story maps to recall specific details.  This is part of Competency 14, Domain 5 - Comprehension: Instruction and Assessment-Understanding and Analyzing Narrative texts. First, the teacher read the students a story called Sheila Ray the Brave.   This story was part of a series that the students had been reading in their class with the teacher.  She read the story slowly and let the students look at the pictures.  Her reading pace was a form of scaffolding that aided her ELs in the room time to take in what she was reading. Seeing the illustrations while she read was a support for many of the students to help them follow along.  When she was finished reading, the class discussed the book for a few minutes.  They discussed the characters and what happened in the story. 
Then, each student was given a story map which had a spot to fill in the characters, setting, problem, and solution (see photo on right).   This story map visually provided the structure to work from when further discussing the story as a class.  The teacher provided support in this lesson by first reviewing the meaning of each of the elements of the story.  She asked the students, "Who can tell me what the setting would be for a story?" and the students would respond that it is where and when the story took place (this was also posted on a poster in the room).  This way everyone was on track and knew what they were looking for, and they were able to move on getting to the answers together.  The class-with help from the teacher on the overhead projector-filled in each of the elements on the story map by discussing and coming up with the answers for each together.  This story map is an way of organizing the information for students and is a great supportive material for the visual learners in the class.  This map provided an overall visual for the students so they could see the connections between the different components of the story, which is also a big help for struggling readers.


INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:   

The instructional setting I observed provided supports for the learning in terms of comprehension.  The story map was a supportive document that provided visual organization for the students.  There was poster with the definitions of the different elements of the story that students could refer to when discussing each element of Sheila Ray the Brave with the teacher and deciding what to put into their story map.