Observation Report

Part I: Observation

For my observation, I chose to observe a third grade class at Lehigh Elementary School. This is a public school operated in Lehigh Acres in the county of Lee. The school educates students from K-5^th grades. I observed a third grade intensive reading class preparing for FCAT this year. The class consisted of approximately 13 students with a make-up of eight girls and five boys, whose problems consisted of very poor or very low reading scores. There were no fans in the classroom or in the school nor were there any colorful posters. The posters that were around had moral themes attached to them i.e. Respect self, others and school, Do your best and We are Family, which is a part of the Social Reconstruction Philosophy

I spent all of my observation hours in Mr. Luchauers’ class who was the teacher for those students who performed poorly on the FCAT, which consisted of reading for most of the day with other studies taking place in the latter part of the day. Mr. Luchauer stated that because of the poor scores that it necessitated this drastic course of action. Mr. Luchauers’ consists of approximately 13 students who were actively involved in the learning process during my observation of his class. Mr. Luchauers’ reading group consists of approximately five (5) students who participate in “Centers” who practice main ideas and details. They go over a story in the textbook for two weeks and take a test on Friday. The paraprofessional was also actively involved in the educational process, by working with approximately five (5) students as well on activities that consisted of going over possessive nouns and apostrophes to make new plural words. A third group was actively involved in computer studies and who were independently working before the third paraprofessional joining them. This demonstrated that instruction was possible absent teacher involvement/interaction. The paraprofessional who arrived late worked with the student who were completing assignments that consisted of FCAT explorer on the Internet each of whom continued to work independently on the computers

The Centers are approximately 15 minutes in length after which the student’s switch/rotate to another station where there was a repeat of this process until all of the student’s participation in the Centers was accomplished. Mr. Luchauer reads a text book with the students reading along with their fingers tracking the words asking questions i.e. what the picture and paragraph tells us as well as summarizing the story that was read. Mr. Luchauer also teaches the students how and where to find the main idea of each story that read to them. Fluency and comprehension was an area that one of the paraprofessionals worked with the students on because of their lack of consistent comprehension of things that they read. Review took place going over previous day reading assignment refreshing those instructions taught the day before. There is the necessity that the students learn to pause and stop for commas and periods which was something that most of the students in this class could not do. Correction of reading and vocabulary skill is accomplished with praise so as not to alienate the child, further handicapping the academic progress of the child. Mr. Luchauer teaches from a “Strength based Perspective” which allows the child to determine the next course of action. Mr. Luchauer had one incident where he allowed the student to reflect on the possible outcomes for noncompliance after which the child makes a choice that everyone was agreeable with. Mr. Luchauer summarizes with a review of all three of the centers that the students were involved in confirming what was taught and instructing in other areas where the students need improvement.

Part II: Reflections

Over all I enjoyed my experience at Lehigh Elementary School. The school was cheerful and the staff was friendly during my visit I received a badge. The school was very clean with everyone from staff to students being kind and cordial. The principal visited with the classes observing the teacher-student interaction.

I enjoyed Observing Mr. Luchauers’ class because of the personal approach that he uses to engage his class. Mr. Luchauer acknowledges everyone in his class recognizing that everyone will always have something important to add to the instructional experience of the class as a whole. Mr. Luchauer also teaches his class how to decompress after class and before lunch where he sets aside eight (8) minutes where his class participates in an outside physical activity. This principle is termed the Kagan Cooperative Learning Purposeful Physical activity. During this activity there was a theme attached on this day which consisted of the students being divided into two group during which time Mr. Luchauer used this activity to go over multiplication problems that most of the students were experiencing as well. Mr. Luchauer also talked about the need to maintain control over the class and illustrated this during the lunchtime activity when the class was going to lunch and returning from lunch. Mr. Luchauer informed that when there’s a lack of control, this becomes evident at this time because there will be talking in line as well as horse play which speaks to the teachers ability to not only gain control of the class but to maintain this control through out the day.