Tessa Swiger

Practicum PreK-4

Mrs. Spudys LS Classroom

3rd Grade ELA

Monday November 13, 2017

1:30-3:30 PM

While Mrs. Spudy was reviewing Austins behavior chart, she commented on

how well his behaviors were and what previous teachers had to say. There were

only three students on Mrs. Spudys side today. Student J was absent. I was

interested to see if Student J2 would be less distracted today since student J was not

in attendance. Mrs. Spudy passed out a list of ten new words (plus five bonus for

student J2 and A) for their homework to study. Girl student A forgot her homework

that was to be turned in for the day, but Mrs. Spudy didnt seem too worried about

it. She then writes tonights homework on the board, exactly how it should be

written in their planner. The visual she created was nice on the board. However,

these students appear to be heavily prompt dependent, and were still writing their

assignments on wrong dates or boxes. After this part of their afternoon routine was

done, all of the students got up to listen to their multiplication song. Today they did

the 3s again, because they had a short week last week (for parent conferences). For

this math practice, students were only given two and a half minutes to complete

instead of the typical three she gave them. Girl student A finished first, and got them

all correct, whereas student J2 and A did not finish. The two of them also struggled

with the ones they should know (such as three times five or three times ten).
 After, students were prompted to get out their reading materials. Students

only pulled out their reading books, so she had to prompt them again, and students

got out the remainder of their books. Student J2 took out all of his books and opened

them all up in a pile, and Mrs. Spudy asked him to clean up and get the appropriate

books out. She marked their point card/charts for this cycle of behaviors. The

students then go through taking turns reading the sounds that are underlined, then

the words themselves. Mrs. Spudy asked what does the word sigh mean. Student

J2 raised his hand, but she asked the other two if they knew what it meant. They did

not, so J2 explained the definition very well. His reading is not really on grade level,

however is comprehension is stellar. There were many instances that I have jotted

down in my notes about prompting and refocusing students throughout the entire

class time. Student J2, when reading, tends to leave out a lot of the last letter sounds.

Boy student A was also struggling with focusing on and reading the terms

(Car/care), which then progressed to (scare/scared). Girl student A kept trying to

read a word, but was making the sm sound instead of sl sound. She then went on

to struggle with aw sound. All of the students were not connecting the right

sounds to the word, so they all got up with Mrs. Spudy and references poster sounds

on the other side of the room. The picture was of a lion, in which the sound aw

helps us read the word paw. After they returned to their seats, the finished up this

work page. The group then opened to the appropriate chapter they were on in their

unit story books. Students took the time to silently read the story to themselves.

Once finished, she had Student J2 and Girl student A sit ear to ear and read to each

other. I have never seen this method of partner reading before. One student sat
normally at their seat, facing the board. But the other student turned their chair

around with their back facing the board. Students took turns following along and

reading in a whisper. While they did this, Mrs. Spudy helped Boy student A read

along, and then they took turns reading in a whisper to one another. Students then

read the story as a group. Each student read one of the paragraphs. Once this was

finished, the group worked on two comprehension worksheets, followed by a brief

unit test. Students had dividers between them while they worked on both the

worksheets and tests. Once finished, I worked with Girl student A on an oral reading

fluency assessment. After she finished, I worked with Boy student A on his ORF. He

unfortunately scored significantly low on his word count per minute. Mrs. Spudy

showed me how at the bottom of the sheet, it outlines where students should be

within their grade and age. He scored at about 52 words per minute, where he

should technically his grade level should be averaging at about 80 words per

minute.

After the students left, Mrs. Spudy and I discussed student Js progress, and

how he seems to be doing a bit better (he is also on new medications, so that seems

to be helping as well). We also discussed how parent teacher conferences went, and

she told me a little more about the families and the students situations. Next week

will be my final visit to this classroom.