Christian

Gmez

1st observation
October 23, 2014
8:30
Meeting Christian in the office
Lesson plan included: The Dream Catcher
8:45
resource teachers also join in
4 students show
You indicate that 2 students are of slightly higher proficiency than the others. Such indicates occasional ventures into
differentiated instruction, even with a small number of students. Such often relegates us to extra work, though vale la
pena. The workload is front-loaded, but you can prep for one group, keep that lesson on file, and then apply it to and edit
it for the other students when they ultimately reach those lessons.
What does front-loaded mean?
8:50
You have a super easy voice, and the students are clearly already cool with having you about. They freely ask questions
straight away.

WonderWorks text
You start with a picture walk
Vocab: window wiper
What do you see here?
Students have already read Dream Catcher, so you nicely adjusted
Can you see out the window when theres water on it?
Long sentence?
See if you can repeat these sentences and then paraphrase it, especially for the lower proficiency students.
So, you identify onion as a key vocabulary word, even translating it. Be sure you get that repeated, even having the
student repeating it such that it gets a chance to get into LTM.
I really wanted to focus on all vocabulary by
Going over pronunciation of words
Going over definition of words
Having them write down the words on their cards
Having them say the word
Having them use it in a sentence

But time is not our friend in these situations. Plus, after a while, these activities tend to become tedious. I have to figure
out a way to make these not so tedious. Something Ive done with my lowest-level student is have them act out the word
(when possible) so that hes moving around instead of just sitting.
Really impressed
Mary Anderson: You have students repeat together.
Im really glad I found a story where the female protagonist is an inventor. This was a story I wanted my female students
to read.
Cognate: invention
What do you think that means?
Good: Youre making something new
You key into the cognate: inventar
Youre correct to look to the cognates and ask students how to predict them.
Youre fortunate to have all Spanish-speakers. You wouldnt be able to translate so regularly.
8:57

Lets do vocab together.

Good! I was looking for a warm-up
I never thought about how helpful warm-ups can be; Ill try to include them as part of the plan from now on.
New child, Ryan, enters new student just 3 weeks in the country.
You establish a relationship with him.
Youve got some academic vocabulary to deal with here:
Solution, encourage, investigation, substitute, quality, design
Teachable moment: qu___
Im going to say it, and youre going to copy me.
Point at the word, when youre going to say it.
Im wondering if you could spend a couple of minutes here and there, particularly at the beginning of class to deal with
some of these commands, thus allowing students a chance to get them, even our newbie.
I can make this part of the warm ups in the future
Such will then allow you to continue without translating so much.

On the other hand, Im kinda grooving with the relationship you get to maintain with a little Spanish in there from time
to time. Such, of course, is only available to you during a class full of Spanish-speakers.
Your read and students follow. This should help students with some of the pronunciation. Two students tend to
understand whats going on, but a couple of kids are asking confirmation questions in Spanish to see if theyre catching
on. One girl seems to be on target, and you kindly affirm such.
So, we have a read-aloud, which will help with pronunciation. Itll help with phonics some, but it wont help so much
with comprehension of new vocab.
We might here, for future incarnations of the teaching, look to tackle the vocab overtly ahead of this.
Cute: I wanna read it!!!
You so want this. Congratulations on having students ready to read out loud!
Yes, I, too, think its great that theyre enthusiastic about reading out-loud.
Your goal seems to be to get through the entire reading, but the students are aching to get going. At this age, they may
have a point, which means to shorten the passage into chunks and then work chunk by chunk. I think such should foster
the new vocabulary being used in a more contiguous fashion, thereby facilitating a greater likelihood that vocab will get
into students LTM.

Students are really excited to read aloud. Youve done a lovely job setting up a safe place where students are OK with
pronouncing out loud in front of their friends. I completely congratulate you here. This is super important, and youve
established this rapport.
I do my best to lower the affective filter. I toss the phrase its okay; its not a big deal a lot. Students tend to point out
others mistakes (maybe theyre trying to be helpful), this is bad towards creating a safe learning environment. It makes
other students withdraw. I had a girl whom is generally known for being bossy doing this to another girl who
enthusiastically read - struggle as she did.

The readers demeanor immediately changed to being serious and

withdrawn. The other girl insisted she was trying to help by pointing out her errors. I just smiled at both of them and
said that it was okay, that we all make mistakes and that we are all here to learn. I did this in the hopes that the
understanding would undo the damage the bossy girl caused.
In our pedagogy, especially with a larger class, perhaps in a class with less established relationships, wed have the
students read aloud in pairs first before putting them on the spot. You might still consider this so that all students get a
chance to practice more.
Reading buddies can be a great way to lower the affective filter. I do worry, however, of how they will be able to focus on
the task and not on just goofing around with their buddy.
Anyway, youre correct to follow the will of the students, but you might consider that such indicates a slight sacrifice
here.
I kind like the final l looking like the /o/. Other languages also try this, too.

Snow vs esnow.
Nice!!!
You can have students practice this.
Or in future incarnations, you have a set of data that students can refer to in order to understand the rule.
Snow, snake, snitch, snap, sneak
See if you can have a long /sssssssss/ ahead of the snow.
Ssssssssssssnow.
Next time I will be prepared with more examples.
Youre very attentive to the students, helping them identify where they are reading, especially with the newbie.
This is also a simple way to keep them on task and quiet.
Nice: Rule established to be polite during student reading.
Youre correct to establish the rule, but you already see the anxiety that students have to participating. Thus, this is a
clue that you might do a little pairwork or groupwork.
In addition, sometimes even before group work, we might consider a choral read aloud, where

1) They follow you: You state, and they repeat

2) You all do the passage together
And then they go into pair/group work
And then they can do single read aloud, where you assert your one person reads and others listen rule. To maintain
non-wiggleness, you can then keep the passages of solo reading short and sweet.
Yes, the idea of cutting down the work parts of the lesson is always good.
Good: You have Marcos work toward being the teacher of the others.
Indeed, you can have the high-proficiency students read aloud to the lower-proficiency students. For some reason, some
students enjoy this, though such still surprises me. It might be worth a go.
I was later told that Marcos is known for having behavioral problems. He also uses meds, but has been refusing them for
a while.
Students get distracted by the pencils and the pencil sharpener. I remember being so distracted.
In the future, I will have all the necessary materials ready so I can avoid distractions like this one.
Youre very kind in asking students to return. You dont get flustered, unlike me. I appreciate this skill tremendously.
They did test my patience Im not gonna lie.
Marcos has made flash cards. You now have something to do with them (a verbal focused activity).

SOLUTION goes on the whiteboard

Youre focusing on tion. Again, you can have a list of data for students to figure out the rule:
Solution, motion, condition, pollution, mention
And then see if the students can come up with the rule themselves.
Youre a little worried about the harried feel with students buzzing about. I think I would be too. Youre a little sabotaged
by having to improvise a lesson, but we face these moments all the time.
We can think about a blank lesson plan in mind that is likely to work more than not work and then hold to it. Right now,
youre stabbing at activities that you hope are pertinent, applicable, and workable. You also probably find yourself doing
a lot of the talking, which probably isnt your goal, since you want them to practice more than you.
Think about vocab first
Think about TPR of instructions at the beginning
Think about a logical order of progress for developing read alouds.
Think about comprehension questions that can happen at the end.
Think about silent reads for 20 seconds.
Think about elbow-buddy work, especially matching or mixing students of differing abilities, based on particular
objectives.

Anyway, well look for a warm up and attention to these lesson plan manifestations the next time.
Still, you clearly have a wonderful relationship brewing here with the students, and youre staying soft and kind. And I
really congratulate you for this. Its a treat to see you in action.
What I liked about my activity is the generally positive reaction the students had towards my lesson.
I also liked their enthusiasm towards reading.
I liked having something to do not just for me, but for the students, too at all times.
I liked the story I chose because it had a female protagonist who was an inventor whose invention can be observed in the
daily life of the students (windshield wipers and rain-driving).
I did not like not having all the available materials (sharpened pencils).
I did not like having a lesson that was heavy on me lecturing.
I did not like it when the students became distracted by pencil-sharpening (possibly because the lesson had become
stale).
In the future I will include warm-ups, more TPR, buddy-reading, and a less lecture-heavy lesson.