Evidence report #2

Evidence Report #2

TC Name: Jamie Harris

RICA Domain: Comprehension

RICA Competency: Strategic Reading: Predicting, Visualizing and generating questions.

Grade level: First Grade

Additional Descriptors: SEI class

INSTRUCTION:

                I observed Mrs. R practicing Reciprocal teaching in her first grade class. The students were reading a story out of their Language arts books all in one huge circle on the carpet area on the side of the classroom. Before Mrs. R read the story, she showed the front cover of the book and showed it to the students; she then asked them to think about what this story will be about. The story is about a rabbit and a frog who decide to race because the rabbit is very disrespectful and makes fun of the frog because the rabbit is faster than the frog. Mrs. R then flips through the first few pages of the book and allows the students to see some of the pictures in the story by doing a story walk and then asks the students to make a prediction about the story. And then share it with their elbow partner.

                Mrs. R began to read the story after the students had made their predictions and as she read she asked the students questions in order to keep them engaged.  Since the story also ties into respect, she asks the students if the way the rabbit is talking to the students is respectful. The students have a conversation with their elbow partner why the rabbit is not being respectful and this generates questions about the story. Mrs. R then tells the students that the girls read the next sentence, then the boys read the one after that, then they all read the next sentence after that. When the students aren’t reading aloud she tells them that they must be following along in the story with their pointer fingers and reading the words in their head until it is their turn. This is keeping the students engaged and allowing the students to gradually receive some of the responsibility as well as keeps the reading rate adjusted to the students needs. Also, she clicks a button when she is ready for the students to turn the next page, making sure all students are paying attention and following directions. As the story continues and it comes to the part of the story where Mrs. R really wants the students to visualize what is going on, she draws a picture of the race, which shows the hill that the rabbit and frog are racing around, the beginning and the ending. This allows the students to picture exactly what is going on, she then put’s an x to represent the frog and a circle to represent the rabbit. Doing this, allows the students to visualize the race and visualize where the frog is being tricky throughout the race. The student’s predict who they think is going to win the race and why. The show with their thumbs up if it’s the frog and down if it is the rabbit.

                After Mrs. R finished reading the story, she asked the students to evaluate whether they liked the story or not, thumbs up, thumbs sideways if they kind of liked it and down if they disliked the story. Evaluating is a good tool for teachers and students because it allows both to see where the students are at with the understanding of the story and for enjoyment purposes. They then share with a partner why they liked the story or why they disliked the story. Mrs. R hands out a graphic organizer for the students to feel out about the story. This is a very simple graphic organizer that has students fill out only a few blank answers because all of the students in the class are second language English learners and they are only in first grade so something like this can be very tricky for them.

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:

I observed that the students were very engaged in this lesson. I liked that she chose a story to really draw the students in and keep them wanting to hear more. I also observed that there were many chances for students to practice paraphrasing, predicting and visualizing throughout the lesson. The main visual support for this reading activity was having the white board for Mrs. R to draw a visual for students to picture the race on. The students really enjoyed the “story time” and it was a great way to practice strategic reading.