Field Observation Evidence Report #5

TC NAME: Ashley Guile
RICA DOMAIN: 4:Vocabulary, Academic Language, and Background Language.
RICA COMPETENCY: 10-5.a: a. recognizing that not all words should be given equal emphasis (e.g., the importance of evaluating the usefulness of a word and the frequency with which students will have opportunities to read it and apply it)
GRADE LEVEL: 1st.

INSTRUCTION:
I observed Mrs. Burrows introducing a story, "Frog is Hungry," to the students.  She asked the students to demonstrate how they think that a frog would sound if it was going to talk.  After the students demonstrated their frog voices, she introduced them to quotation marks.  She informed the students that when the see quotation marks in story, that it means that someone else is talking and that it should be expressed in a different voice.  She then asked the students if they were to see quotation marks and the words "frog said," if they should read the story in their voice, or in the voice that they believe a frog would sound like.  By asking the students to come up with their own idea of how a frog would sound and asking them when it would be appropriate within a story to use that voice, she was making connections to the text and applying knowledge and understanding about academic language and grammar symbols.  When the students told her that they should speak in a frog voice when the quotation marks appear in the text, she used an example from the book and read it aloud for the student's to hear the emphasis and stress on the words she was saying.

As she was reading the passage from the book, she asked the students if they noticed anything else that was different while she was reading.  One of the students told her that she sounded happier and more excited when she said certain words.  She explained to them that when she says a word in a different tone, she is placing emphasis on certain words to make the story more exciting.  She then asked the students to identify markings that would tell her to use emphasis on a word.  The students had learned previously that exclamation marks tell readers that the character is mad, or excited, or sad; exclamation marks add emotion.  By checking for the understanding and use of exclamation marks, she was activating their background knowledge.

She then told the students that they were going to read the story out loud together and instructed them to use their frog voices whenever they saw quotation marks, and to use emphasis when they see exclamation marks.  The students read the story with her and used their frog voices and emotion to bring the story to life and give it excitement.

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:
The students were in a self contained classroom during Team Time.  There are 31 students in the Team Time group.  The students were seated on the carpet in one large group and were reading along to the story with Mrs. Burrows.  They were looking at the story on the large projection screen.  The story was projected from the computer onto the projection screen using the docucam.