Classroom: Ms.

Doyle

Observer: Kyndal Petrie

Grade: 4th

Date: October 24th

Curriculum: ELA

Time: 11am

Observations/What I saw:

Reflections/ connections/comments:

As students come back into the classroom,

she tells students I know youre ready when
youre reading your book

Students already know what is expected of

them at the very beginning of class, before
the lesson starts.

She has students write out their homework

and upcoming tests

She only puts through wednesday on the

board

When they are reading, she comes to them

and stamps their agenda.
I need your eyes and ears on me
By the time I count down from five.
She calls out students who are still not
looking by the time I get to zero.
She goes over the helpers for the week

This is for lunch, recess and class helpers.

She goes over to the wall where it shows who
the helpers are- visual.

She uses thumbs up for clarification of when

they are ready
She goes over the character study guide
(their homework. They have a test tomorrow)
The first question is about finding themes
She goes over it and that they should expect
the same format as they did in class.

She reflects to specific days that they went

over it, and specific themes that they talked
about to

Group lesson in on the carpet.

Tourtis and hare- a fable.
The moral of the story)

They start talking about Theme vs. Main Idea.

She asks them if the remember the story. Ask

asks what they moral of the story- this is a
story they havent actually read in class. She
mentions that its okay that there might be
more than one lesson in a story.
She uses a T-chart to get across that the
Theme is the lesson and the Main idea is
what the story is about.

She reads a book Boris and Bella

Asks them to be thinking about what they
theme might be while reading.
During the reading she stops
Persnickety was the word she asked a
student what they thought it meant.

She makes a comment about not getting too

crazy about the love story of this specific
book before she started reading- behavior
comment.
She stops for clarification on vocab.
She read the page first and asked them if
they thought they knew what it meant- she
wanted using them context clues.
I like that it is a monster book since its so
close to halloween.

For the most part students are quiet and

engaged.

During picture shows (while reading) she

checked to make sure there was still focus.

Students getting up for tissues or making

small comments about the book dont get
attention from the teacher, which helps
students stay focused, or regain focus.
Shell make eye contact with students who
seem to be losing interest or concentration.

She recaps first thing

Guides them through the recap, letting the, fill
in the blanks here and there but for the most
part retells the main parts of the story.
She does a turn and talk about what they
think the theme is
She listen ins and contributes to a few groups
while they are talking
Students talk about it in their turn and talk, but
some get it over with fast and then get off
topic.
She uses a beany baby to toss from student
to student when they have the floor
Students seemed to get that they are to be
silent and let that person talk, but can raise
their hand if they have something to
contribute.
When they come back together, shes leaving
it open ended
She reasons with them

She sends a student back to their desk for

misbehaving

They talk about it, and she guides them to the

correct answer, allowing them to say what
they think. If they were wrong or not fully
there, she would use something that they said
in their answer to try and get them pointed in
the right direction.
He continues to be off task and slightly

disruptive during the rest of instruction. But

she doesnt draw attention to it.
They read a quick story (a paragraph) and
then she gives them three ideas- they are to
pick which is the theme and which is the main
idea.
She has them all go back to their desks. And
she uses the doccam to show them what
exactly they should be doing.
The groups are to work together. She is
passing out the tasks to designated readers
for the group
She pulls one group to the carpet with her to
work through them all with her.
She reads to them.

They do one of them together.

This is a good visual especially because they
were given task cards but there were to write
on a response page.
She mentions nothing personal but I know it
was strategically doing it so that reading
wasnt the problem and they could get
through the task.
Low students?
New student is in this group.
Some groups finished way sooner than
others. while waiting for their next task, they
knew to read a book they have.

She has the students move to a new station

instead of passing the paper.

Since she is working with one group

specifically, she isnt working the room.

They only get time to do two. She has them

return to their desks and goes over the
answers
She raps up saying that they will talk more
about theme next unit. But again goes over it.
She talks about that theme is going to be on
their test tomorrow. (for the book they have
just finished)

This probably helps some students so they

arent having to stay seated for the whole
class period. Sometimes a change of sensory
will help focus them back in.
For the most part, students are able to stay
focused and get the job done. It probably
helps that they are working with the groups
that they sit in
Students seem to have a sense of joy when
getting the answer correct.
They seemed more secure on theme then on
Main Ideas -which makes sense since
recently they have been talking about theme.

They then play a review game on Kahoot.it

They are abusing the power to create their
own names.
16 questions. After the results are up, she
goes into the right answer and if there is a
common incorrect answer, she asks what that
response is actually defining.

She mentions how many people are in class

today so that they know they are waiting for
the number on the screen
She threatens to take away their games , and
reminds them they are wasting their own
time.
They students get to compete- the faster they
answer the more points they get.
I like how she points to where in the room
they can find the answer, but reminds them
that they wont be up for the test. However,
just having a visual of where it was, may be
enough to jog their memories while they are
testing.

After almost every question, she would

pause.
Students are able to regain focus once they
realize she is waiting for them to get quiet so
she can go to the next question.
With questions that are more divided ( got
wrong) she would stop and take a moment to
reteach (quickly) or refer back to when they
were learning something

They were both asking about external traits,

one was one wasnt

This let them to react to the answer and what

place they are in. This is important, otherwise
they are going to stay off topic.

This happened with internal and external

traits.
There were two questions back to back about
external traits. She paused in between
questions to address it, but still the same
number of students got it wrong
True/false. One was true one was false. This
shows that maybe they didnt all fully
understand it.

There are two more questions about it

They seem like they are still struggling with it
because it would be (16 right 5 wrong, then
12 right and 9 wrong)
The winner (and second place) gets Smarties
Asks them to save it for Lunch.
She has teacher helpers hand back papers
and haves them out away their chromebooks.
This is also time for them to finish up things
that they may have not finished.

Thats a cute type of candy to give.

Still requires management, to make sure they
are on task- allows them to be a little louder
during this time. She uses a bell to get there
attention since it is louder at this time.

NEW LESSON
She gives them 10 minutes to do a warm up
She brings in vocabulary, social studies, and
critical thinking.
They talk about civil rights movements across
multiple cultures.

She does these everyday this week. She

uses a timer to keep track of time, that way
she doesnt have to tell them when times up,
when it rings, they know to put things away
and that they would be going over it as a
class
This is such a good opportunity to squeeze in
social studies.

Summarizing across out hand

Fist (box)- main idea
Fingers/Bullets- supporting evidence/details
Talks about goal today: I will identify main
ideas/topics and details using boxes and
bullets.

Today they are using multimedia to find main

ideas and details. First they are previewing,
and making inferences, and questioning.
Then they go into the overview. She talks
about since there arent any subtitles, they
would use box and dots. She talks about how
the overview is in paragraphs and how the
info in each paragraph is related.

Together they box and bullet one paragraph

together.
While continuing the box and dots, she
mentions that they can make notes that
reminds them what they sentence said
without writing the whole sentence.
She talks about compartmentalizing- refers to
going shopping at TJ Max when there are too
many things to look at and they need to focus
on one thing specifically.-- what they are
doing with their whole book.

The goal is written on the board, and when

referencing it, she points to it. Students are
able to be held accountable

Group lesson on the carpet

She models metacognition

Turn and talk to get them thinking and that

way they are held accountable and are ale to
reference this moment when working on their
own- they are coming up with titles for each
paragraph.
She guides them through it, using
metacognition and the steps they have been
using.
She doesnt use the word paraphrase at first
She throws it in their once they can infer that
paraphrasing is what they are doing.

She leaves the agenda on the board and

explains in detail what they are to be doing
and then allows them to be on their own.

She also leaves the example they did

together up- I see students continue to
reference it (looking up at it) during their
independent work.

SMALL GROUP
Nonfiction book.practicing the skills that they
just had a lesson on-

The same skills the rest of the class is

working on

Preview
She shows them how to use subtitles in order
to find what places they will be reading.
Looking at pictures
Any connections you can make after this
preview?

She tells them to preview and has them do it

independently

She gives them an example so they know

what kind of a connection she means- she
makes a text to self connection.
When they struggle to make a connection or
they arent fully getting it, she pushes them in
the right direction- for example a student
makes a connection to Mexico through one of
the pictures, and she says, because you eat
Mexican food?

Even though the book they have doesnt have

one, she talk about a glossory and index and
how they can help with previewing the book.
She does this the same thing with the next
group, but a different book.
She shows me the diagnostic test that they all
use. Its a software that groups the students
according to how they did on their test- they
take it once at the beginning of the year and
once in the middle of the year.