Running head: OBSERVATION #4 ELA 1

Observation #4 English Language Arts Lesson

Allison Gerlach

Raritan Valley Community College

Professor Kimberly Schirner

April 28, 2019

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EDUC 230 Education Field Experience

I. Observation #4:
Teacher-taught ELA lesson

II. Grade Level and Subject Area:

Third Grade

III. Setting:
The Third-Grade classroom is located in the half circle building at the Willow School.
This building is where the Preschool to Fifth-Grade classrooms are as well as the
Library. There are six students, ages 8-9 years old, with two girls and four boys in
this class. There is one teacher in this classroom where the children learn Math,
Writing, Reading, and Social Studies. Science is taught by a different teacher in a
different building as a special.

IV. Pre-Observation:
As I prepare for my first observation of a teacher-taught lesson, I have researched
what is the best way to teach a language arts lesson. There are many elements that go
into making an effective lesson in this content area. The main goal would be to get
students in third grade “using reading, writing, speaking, and listening to learn and
communicate effectively” (Pauley, Taylor & Jackson, 2018). On the topic of teaching
reading in third grade, it is important to “teach students academic language skills,
including the use of inferential and narrative language, and vocabulary knowledge,
develop awareness of the segments of sounds in speech and how they link to letters,
teach students to decode words and analyze word parts, and write and recognize
words, and ensure that each student reads connected text every day to support reading
accuracy, fluency, and comprehension” (Pauley, Taylor & Jackson, 2018). As I do
not know what the specific lesson will be about, I do not know what NJ Student
Learning Standard it will be aimed towards, but I expect that it will align with
standards for third grade.

V. Data:
 Sarah, Plain & Tall chapter book about a family living in the westward expansion
 Started the lesson by welcoming a new student to the class and explaining the
morning routines.
 Share their gratitude journal to acclimate the student into the class discussion
 Read chapter 4 of Sarah, Plain & Tall aloud as students read along in their own
books
 The book was selected to meet the topics for social studies and the skills of
language arts
 Students sit in a circle on the carpet
 One student summarizes the first few chapters to catch the new student up and to
refresh everyone
 Teacher explains the frontiers and the prairies
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 There was a lack of water that was accessible to them discussed habitats and
environment
 The topic of child-birth is brought up because in the story the mother died while
giving birth they discuss doctors and medicine and how it has evolved
 The father in the story wrote an ad to find a new wife and a woman from Maine
applied “Why would someone do this” discuss the role of woman in the
frontier era
 TAQ Turn around the question
 Homework: take the book home and reread the chapter
 The mother (Sarah) brought shells and a fish to remind her of home and to
educate the children
 Discuss who the narrator is “who is the I?” “This story is written from
Anna’s perspective”
 Explain the confusion with the set-up of the dialogue
 Sang a song from the book
 “Follow along with your finger”
 Different accents colloquialism
 Tells the students to read the book aloud so that they will develop good
vocabulary “You will enjoy it for the words”
 One student spoils the story for the others when they are supposed to predict what
they think will happen next in the book
 Teacher response about the structure of a language arts lesson and homework:
summarize prior knowledge, make textual connections, search for traits and
figurative language, comprehension questions

VI. Analysis:
The type of teaching method used in this lesson was a balanced literacy approach.
When the teacher uses guided reading, she is displaying proper reading techniques and
supplementing the students’ learning with meaningful discussions while the students
follow along (Scholastic Teachers, n.d.). She is using her class time to provide important
instruction support that her students may need in developing their reading skills but is
allowing the students homework to fill in the gaps so they have the opportunity to
practice these skills on their own. In addition to meeting her students’ reading standards,
according to the NJSLS, she is also providing them with important academic language.
As she reads, she extends the students vocabulary in the history content because she is
integrating social studies with literacy (Pauley, Taylor & Jackson, 2018).
This lesson met so many Anchor Standards for Reading in third grade. When the
students summarized the story at the beginning of the lesson they were meeting
NJSLSA.R2. When they discussed the motives for the characters in the story and the
reasoning behind the main plot of the story, they were addressing NJSLSA.R3. The
students were confused on the meaning of some slang words that the one character used,
so the teacher gave them context clues and explained colloquialism to them, meeting
NJSLSA.R4. The students discussed the point of view of the story and thus learned about
NJSLSA.R6. And mostly for NJSLSA.R7., the students were able to integrate the things
that they learned in social studies to the fiction that they were reading in language arts
and also evaluate the accuracy of the story itself (NJ Department of Education, 2016).
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VII. Recommendations:
“Teachers can no longer afford to squeeze a read-aloud book between
lunchtime and bathroom break. Because reading aloud is so important to language
development, we must systematically and explicitly plan for its use in the daily
routine” (Pauley, Taylor & Jackson, 2018). I think that this teacher did exactly
what the research suggests. It is important to integrate language and reading into
the daily schedule for students in elementary school classrooms. She smoothly
integrates subject areas and models proper techniques for active reading (NJ
Department of Education, 2016). The only critique that could possibly be placed
on this lesson is the lack of writing integration (Pauley, Taylor & Jackson, 2018).
The teacher mentioned that the homework was to reread the chapter out loud at
home to practice fluency and vocabulary, but she did not assign a writing
assignment. The students do a great job expressing their ideas in the classroom
when the teacher starts a discussion, but it would really round out this lesson if the
students had an opportunity to practice their written language as well. A possible
assignment could be to do a reading response after they read the chapter in class
where they note places that they were confused so they could revisit it when they
reread or one where they make formal connections between the social studies
content and the events of the chapter (NJ Department of Education, 2016).

VIII. Post Observation:

For the next observation, I want to focus on the way that the teacher
provides extra support to students in the classroom. While the class is small, there
is still a diverse group of learners that need different levels of support. I think that
this lesson was perfectly appropriate for all the readers, but in other content areas
the students have a wider range of needs and this will create a need for assistance.
By focusing on this, I think it will be more informational because differentiated
instruction in this setting is subtle and if you do not look specifically for it, you
can miss it.

IX. Citations:

New Jersey Department of Education. (2016). New Jersey Student Learning Standards for

English Language Arts. Retrieved from

https://www.nj.gov/education/cccs/2016/ela/g03.pdf

Pauley, G., Taylor, K., & Jackson, A. (2018). Strengthening Student Educational Outcomes-

English Language Arts: Menu of Best Practices and Strategies. Retrieved from

http://www.k12.wa.us/SSEO/pubdocs/ELAMenu.pdf
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Scholastic Teachers. (n.d.). What Is Guided Reading?. Retrieved from

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/17-18/what-is-guided-reading/