Sarah Hirsch

TLS 416 Fall 16

SEI Classroom Field Note Observation
Your Name: Sarah Hirsch
School: Drachman Montessori
School District: Tucson Unified School
District
Grade: Kindergarten
Program type (SEI orELD?): SEI
Subject being taught: All
Teacher: Elvia Rodriquez
Years teaching: 19 years

Trained in SEI/SIOP/Sheltered strategies: Yes

Where trained: Trained in district provided
continuing education program
Number of students in the class: 15
Number of ELLs in the class: 2
Their home countries: Somalia
Language background: Somali and English
Date of Observation: September 19, 2016
Day of the week: Monday
Time: From 8:30 a.m. to 9:40 a.m.

The classroom had an open floor plan with windows and areas for whole group
participation. There were two rectangular tables that had four chairs each, one table that was
circular with four chairs for the children to work and then there was one horseshoe table with
three chairs and one teacher chair. There was a giant carpet area in the center of the classroom
where the class gathered for their whole group activities. There were six shelves throughout the
classroom that had various materials and manipulatives for the children to work with. They had
a small classroom library tucked away in a corner and they also had two computers that the
children could access. There were windows along one whole side of the classroom that let in
plenty of natural lighting. They had a T.V. on the back counter of the classroom. The students
had a wall of cubbies in the classroom with all of the cubbies clearly labeled with their names.
There was a large white board along one side of the classroom that had their daily schedule
written on it in English. The content and language objectives were not posted on the whiteboard
or anywhere else in the classroom. There was an alphabet strip along one of the walls with
childrens names under the letter that their name started with. They had a large 100s chart on one
of the sides of the shelves. There was a calendar hanging off of one wall and there was also a
chart of common words used in their class through reading and writing.

Sarah Hirsch
TLS 416 Fall 16
SEI Classroom Field Note Observation
The teacher was a female of Mexican-American ethnicity. She was approximately in her
early to mid fifties. This classroom had seven girls and eight boys in it at the time of
observation. The vast majority of them were of Mexican-American ethnicity, with some white
children, and two Somalian children. All the children were in casual attire of shorts or pants and
a t-shirt. One Somalian child was wearing a hijab. The students were interacting in whole group
time and were sitting relaxed on the carpet. They were all participating in the morning routines
of the classroom and discussing what they did over the weekend.
All the instruction in this classroom was in English. When I asked why Somali wasnt
used in the classroom, I was told that they could not find anyone in the school who knew the
language so they werent able to use that language in the classroom. The teacher made sure to
model what she expected of the children and provided appropriate wait time when asking for
responses about a story being read. She used slower and enunciated speech when reading the
story and when giving instructions to the children. She made use of a pointer to point at letters in
the alphabet and words in the book they were reading so that they children could track what was
being said. The teacher had broad, exaggerated gestures when speaking about a topic and kept
an open body language towards the students.
The lesson I observed was a language arts lesson that began with a phonics exercise with
the alphabet strip in the classroom where the students said the letter, its letter sound, and then the
picture that accompanied it. For example, A, ah, apple. They then moved into the teacher
reading a big book to the class. Before starting to read, the teacher asked the students what they
thought the book was about based on the cover and what they could see. She also asked the
students what they thought was happening on each page based off the pictures before she read
the words. She would say, What could be happening next in the story?, and a student replied,

Sarah Hirsch
TLS 416 Fall 16
SEI Classroom Field Note Observation
The boy is going to school! Just like we are in school. By the teacher taking the language out
of the picture in some parts of the read-aloud, she allowed for different strategies of story telling
beyond knowledge of the English language. Almost all of the students participated in the
language arts activity with just one child who wanted to do something else and wandered to
another part of the classroom. The teacher called on all the students and made sure that those
who wanted to speak up were given the opportunity. The ELL students did not raise their hand
and the teacher respected their wishes to not speak and did not force them to speak up in the
lesson. The students spoke to each other about their different ideas and they all spoke to each
other in English. The one student who wandered off was coloring pictures at one of the tables
with the TA there to support him. The teacher tried to get him to participate in the lesson but he
would just become upset and disruptive so they allowed him to do the activity he chose.
I felt engaged and comfortable in this classroom. I feel that there should have been some
language supports for the Somali children even if it was just translations for the English words
throughout the classroom. I liked how the teacher tried to take some of the written language out
of the equation with her read alouds so that all the children were on the same level since the
Somalian understood and spoke English themselves. I could see myself teaching in a similar
classroom environments now that I have seen how it could potentially work and function with
the proper supports.