Week 6, Assignment #1

Overall, Ms. Caufal’s teaching I thought was incredible! From watching the video, I saw the different strategies she used to teach her students reading, and from watching the children, I saw that they really learned and even enjoyed reading.

Ms. Caufal used many instructional procedures throughout her lesson.  Some of them include “picture power”, a way of learning to read a word based on looking at the picture. She would have the children “pop” the word sounding out the first letter of the word phonetically. Ms. Caufal also made her students feel like “super readers” by having them identify what super heroes they are on the wall and she used a wand and the children used a witch’s finger to point while they were reading. The students were used to set procedures established by Ms. Caufal like getting their book baskets for independent and partner reading. The children knew to face back to back while reading independently and sit next to their partner during partner reading time. Last, I also noticed how Ms. Caufal rang a bell to get her students to stop the activity and regroup.

I noticed Ms. Caufal doing informal assessments on her students by floating around the class during independent and partner reading time. She observed their reading and gave them positive encouragement like a high-five. She also took notes for herself writing down the students’ reading level.