December 1, 2008--> WEEK 8

C was absent again today so I observed Sharon and her student. They worked on the topic of a report with main ideas and details of a magazine article called Return of The Gray Wolf.

In class the students worked in groups on a ELA practice test for the 3rd grade NYS Test coming up. The test is based on reading comprehension and listening comprehension. The story they read today is called The Dog and His Pet Bird. The students got 12min to read the story on their own and then answer 8 questions based on what they read. While they read they use a few strategies to help with answering the questions. They first must underline key ideas in the text. Before answering the question they must box key words in the question. They then must answer what paragraph they found the answer to the question in. In some of the questions there are "TIP" boxes which give hints as to where to find the answer or what you must think about in order to answer it. Most questions are direct in questions about the story but a few have to do with cause and effect. For example question 8 the students were given the effect "Judy, a bird had a hurt wing". The students must write what caused this to happen.

After 12min Ms. Abdus-Shakur asks them some questions like "did you read most words. did it make sense to you, whats the title, what went through your mind when ....happened?" "What kind of story did you think this would be?" Then the students answer the questions from the story aloud. She asks them -where did you find the answer, and how did you know this was the answer? Throughout Ms. Abdus-Shakue prompts them with a lot of questions which helps the students comprehend the story.

After the ELA practice test the students did a "I wonder..." prediction of Balto which is the enxt story they plan on reading. Students work with partners to predict what they think the story is about and do a picture walk throughout the book.

*I am also observing a second grade class at New Visions for another classes observation hours. The class is bilingual and very interesting. I am working one on one with a student who was held out of school for a yaer and half for whatever reason. He is still learning the alphabet, simple words and sounds of letters. Our first meeting I did an assessment on letter names and letter sounds with him for his teacher Ms. Cruz. The letters he has trouble with are u, v, w and y. He mixes up the similarity between them. He also mixes up b, d and p. We read the book "The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat" together. I let him read the words cat, sat, mat, rat, fat, etc. "-at" words while he sounded out the rest of the word with my help. Afterwards we used letter cards (like index cards) to create words from the story and I showed him how the words can be sounded out. J is working at a K level and this is his second year in Ms. Cruzs class.