Literacy Observation 3: Domain 5: Comprehension

TC NAME: Lacey Bridges

RICA Domain: Comprehension

RICA Competency: Instruction and Assessment—Understanding and Analyzing Narrative/Literary Texts

Grade Level: 5th

INSTRUCTION:

            The students in this fifth grade class were getting ready to read The Princess and the Warrior: A Mexican Folktale.  Mrs. X started by explaining that they were about to read a pourquoi story, which is a folktale that explains the origin of something in nature. The students were asked if they knew of any other pourquoi stories, and one student said that they read about why the coyote howls.  As a class they discussed how pourquoi folktales are not really true, but rather a stories used as explanations.  The pourquoi was contrasted with the non-fiction story Volcanoes they had read the week before, and they pointed out how both stories are both about volcanoes, but they will be very different.  Mrs. X told the students that the plots of folktales are traditionally about a conflict between good characters and evil characters and that they needed to be looking for which categories characters would fall into during their reading.  She also prepared them for the story by discussing the setting of the story, ancient Mexico during the time of the Aztecs. 

            The students read the folktale in the popcorn fashion.  The story was about a warrior, Popo, and a princess, Ixtaccihuatl, who were in love.  The warrior was going to be appointed chief upon his return from battle, when he would marry the princess.  However, the character called the “jealous warrior” tricked the princess into thinking her lover was dead, and she died of a broken heart.  When Popo returned to find his princess dead, he never wanted to be apart from her.  So, the gods turned them into volcanoes so they could be together forever.  Popo became an active volcano, spewing lava and the princess became an inactive volcano.  The purpose of the pourquoi tale was to explain how these two volcanoes came to be in Mexico.

            During the story Mrs. X asked the students who they thought was a good character and who they thought was a bad character. Mrs. X then discussed some foreshadowing, and asked what in the text may indicate something bad was going to happen.  The students discussed the character called the “jealous warrior” who did not like the main character, and how he thought he should be chief, not Popo, and the possibility of the jealous warrior bringing harm to Popo.  Through the discussion that occurred during this lesson on pourquoi tales, plot, setting, characters and foreshadowing, the teacher was building her students’ comprehension.

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:

            The lesson was conducted with the entire class at once.  The students were all sitting at their desks, each with their own Houghton Mifflin textbook that contained The Princess and the Warrior.  The teacher was also displaying the text on the document camera, which was projected in front of the classroom.  Illustrations were provided within the text that went along with the story.

Field Observation 2: Domain 4: Vocabulary, Academic Language and Background Knowledge

TC NAME: Lacey Bridges

RICA Domain: Vocabulary, Academic Language and Background knowledge

RICA Competency: Role in Reading Development and Factors That Affect their Knowledge

Grade Level: 5th

INSTRUCTION:

            I observed Mrs. X give a lesson on vocabulary and background knowledge.  The class was about to read the story Volcanoes by Seymore Simon.  The teacher began by building the students’ background knowledge.  First she showed the students a short video about volcanoes.  Through the video, students were able to refresh their memory on what they knew about volcanoes, and they were able to build on their previous knowledge, and learn some new things that would help them with their reading comprehension.  They were also getting good visuals of volcanoes.  After the video, Mrs. X showed the students different volcano books and magazines she had brought in for them.  As she did this she mostly focused on the pictures and covers of the books and magazines.  During her discussion of the literature she had brought in, the teacher was talking about some of the different volcanoes around the world, both from the past and present.  When she was talking about Mt. St. Helens, Mrs. X showed the students realia.  She had brought in a jar full of ash from the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, and she also had the Time magazine issue about the eruption. 

            Following the discussion about volcanoes, Mrs. X led the students in a vocabulary lesson, which would help them with their meaning vocabulary  and thus their reading comprehension as they read the story Volcanoes.  The teacher had already written the vocabulary words on the board.  As she got to each word she asked the class what the word was.  The students would raise their hands, and Mrs. X would call on one or two students for their answers.  She would then write down the definition they had come up with as a class on the white board.  For many of the words she would provide the students with visuals, give them examples, or have the students draw upon their prior knowledge on the subject.  Once the vocabulary lesson was done, the class began reading the text.  They entered the reading process with a stronger foundation for the story than they would have had fifteen minutes earlier.

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:

            The classroom setting was well prepared for this lesson on building background knowledge and meaning vocabulary for the story Volcanoes.  The video she showed provided both audio and visual support.  Mrs. X had at least fifteen books and magazines about volcanoes, which were placed on the tables and up on the board.  There was a volcano poster placed up on the wall in the room.  The vocabulary was written on the board, in large print, making it visible to all of the students.  These words stayed up on the board for the entire week, so it was easily accessible for the students because they worked with the topic of this story throughout the week.  The students were well supported by their instructional setting.

Field Observation 1: Domain 1- Reading Assessment

TC NAME: Lacey Bridges

RICA Domain: Planning Reading Instruction based on Assessment

RICA Competency: Reading Assessment

Grade Level: 5th

Any Additional Descriptors: Entry Level Assessment

INSTRUCTION:

            I observed Mrs. X conduct two reading assessments for a student who entered her class as a new student during the second week of school.  These were entry-level assessments that would help Mrs. X gauge the reading level of her new student.  From the results of these two test as well as the student’s results from the STAR test, Mrs. X will know what level of books Student Y should be reading, and what group he will be placed in for reading and language arts groups.

            The first assessment was the McLeod Assessment of Reading Comprehension, Elementary Level.  As the title suggests, this test aims to assess a student’s reading comprehension level.  The student was brought over to a table on the side of the classroom to work on the assessment individually.  The assessment has a series of passages that get increasingly difficult.  Within the passages there are blanks that the students must fill in with the appropriate words, which is known as a cloze technique.  In this technique the student must use the context of the given words to determine which words best fit in the blanks.  Student Y had fifteen minutes to complete as many of the passages as possible.  The McLeod Assessment has a grade equivalent scoring system.  The student gets a point for every blank he fills in correctly.  Then, his raw score falls within a rage for a particular grade level score.  Student Y’s score fell within the Fifth Grade Early grade level, which is right on track.

            The second assessment Student Y was given was the San Diego Quick Assessment.  Mrs. X called Student Y over to her table.  She gave him a paper with a series of word lists.  The teacher had a scoring sheet.  As the student read through the lists in order of increasing difficulty the teacher marked words he got correctly with a check, words he got incorrectly with an open circle and words he went back and self-corrected with an “SC”.   As the student goes through the list, the list they read with only one error is their independent reading level, the list they read with two errors is their instructional reading level and the list they read with three errors is their frustration reading level.  Mrs. X started Student Y with the first grade list.  He made it through the fifth grade list with no errors.  On the sixth grade list he got two errors and on the seventh grade list he got one error and he self corrected on word.  Mrs. Y stopped the student after the grade seven list.  Although the results are not as clear-cut as the grading scale, sixth grade would clearly be the instructional level, which would make sixth grade the independent level and seventh grade the frustration level.

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:

            During Student Y’s assessment, he was taken from his regular seat at his desk.  For the McLeod Assessment of Reading Comprehension he sat at the table on the side of the classroom.  During the San Diego Quick Assessment Student Y sat on a stool next to Mrs. X at Mrs. X’s table connected to her desk.  During both assessments the rest of the class was working on seatwork, and there was a low murmur of sound.

McLeod Reading Comprehension Assessment Scoring Criteria