Claire Straub

ECI 508
Spring 2020

Background Information:
Miss. Abers (pseudonym) is a 2nd grade teacher with three years of experience. Miss.
Abers began her teaching career through DPI’s lateral entry program by earning a Master’s in
Education to compliment her undergraduate degree in communications. Miss. Abers enjoys
teaching but has often lamented that she did not gain a solid understanding of pedagogy or
foundational literacy instruction in her graduate program. 
I have previously taught with Miss. Abers for one year and had often helped to provide
her with suggestions, lesson plans, and opportunities to observe my instruction to help close the
gap in her teaching knowledge. I reached out to conduct this coaching cycle with her because it
would provide benefit for both involved and was an easy connection to make with our previous
experience with each other professionally. 
Miss. Abers currently teaches a second-grade regular education class of nineteen
students: eight girls and eleven boys. Using middle of the year MClass and DIBELs data as a
measure, two students are above grade level (blue), twelve students are at grade level (green),
three students are slightly below grade level (yellow), and two students are below grade level
(red). Prior to our meeting, I asked Miss. Abers to think about her current literacy instruction and
her student data to help guide her in creating a goal for our observation. 

Pre-Observation Meeting:
When I met with Miss. Abers, she presented me with groups of students she had been
working with during a twenty-minute intervention time they had towards the end of their reading
block. She explained that she wanted to focus our attention to one of her groups of slightly below
grade level students who were able to read the majority of a grade level text accurately, but were
unable to explain what they had read about. This comprehension obstacle made it difficult for
them to be placed at grade level during MClass. To help them overcome this challenge, she is
working with these students to refer back to the text and explain ideas in their own words. We
established that during the observation I would look for students retelling ideas in their own
words. In support of this goal, I would also be looking for Miss. Abers to remind students to
reference the text and provide scaffolding for students to explain ideas in their own words. 

Observation Notes:
I arrived about ten minutes before the observation was set to begin. I did this so that
students would become used to my presence in the room and so I could observe the transition
from large group literacy instruction to small group instruction. Miss. Abers wrapped up their
large group literacy instruction and students began different literacy-based stations. Miss. Abers
was surrounded by a group of four students at a horseshoe table towards the side of the
classroom. Two nonfiction texts entitled “Planets” were shared between two students in the
group of four and Miss. Abers held her own copy of the book. 
Prior to reading, Miss. Abers asked her students what it meant to give the “gist” some
students share out by saying “telling what we know” and “putting the facts into our own words.”
Miss. Abers reminded students that they can always go back to the text if they did not remember
what they read about. The group began on page five and began to choral read together. The
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students read pages five through seven. Miss. Abers stopped them at page four and asked if there
was any information or words that the students did not understand. The students all responded by
saying no, but Miss. Abers pointed out the word orbit and asked if students knew what that
meant. The students did not readily respond, but Miss. Aber’s asked if they knew about how the
earth moved around the sun. One student offered the response, “in a circle.” Miss. Abers agreed
and defined orbit as moving around something and used her fingers in an orbiting motion. After
demonstrating this, one of the students pointed out the definition of orbit in a text box on page
six. Miss. Abers then asked partners to discuss what they learned on these pages and tell each
other in their own words. She reminded students that they can go back to the text to remind
themselves about what they read about. During the partner discussions Miss. Abers took turns
listening to each partner set discussion. I was able to overhear her saying to one group “Can you
tell me more?”  I observed two students turning back to the previous page they had read and one
student pointing out specific sentences in the text. 
After a few minutes of discussion, Miss. Abers asked the partners to share their “gist”
that they had agreed upon. One group of students stated that “we learned about planets and
stars.” Miss. Abers responded by asking “What did we specifically learn about?” and the
students added the details that planets and stars are in the night sky and orbit. The second group
stated that they “learned about how planets and stars are the bright lights in the night sky” Miss.
Abers said, “I like how you put your learning into your own words, but can you tell me more?”
The students looked back at the page and read quietly to themselves. One of the students added
that stars create light and planets don’t.” The group continued reading chorally on pages eight
through eleven. Miss. Abers did not point out any unknown words this time. I observed her
looking at the clock during this choral reading session. She again asked the partners to talk
together to create a “gist” to share out to the group. 
One pair of partners asked each other what the word “millions” meant and “dwarf” on the
page after. One of the students replied that millions means “really big” but did not know what
dwarf meant. Miss. Abers stopped the discussions after about two minutes and asked them to
share out. One partner group shared that they learned about the “sun and solar system.” Miss.
Abers responded by saying, “Yes, good job!” The second group shared that “The sun is really
really big, like a lot bigger and hotter than the earth. There are also a bunch of planets in a line
called a solar system.” Miss. Abers responded by saying, “I like how you went back to the other
page to remind yourself about what you read, you also did a great job at putting it into your own
words.” She then asked students to give each other a high five and collected the books. 

What did you see the What did you hear the TEACHER  saying?
TEACHER doing?

Point out the table of
contents
Reading with group
(choral reading)
Rereading sentences for
students
Identifying words after
reading that might be
unknown for students
“What does it mean to give the gist?”
“Remember you can always go back to the text if
you forget”
“Do you understand all the words we read?” 
“What does the word orbit mean?”
“How does earth move around the sun?”
“Share with your partner about what you learned
from these pages.”
“Remember you can go back to the text to remind
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Looking at the clock yourself what you read about.”

“Can you tell me more about that?”
“What did we specifically learn about”
“I like how you put your learning into your own
words, but can you tell me more?”
“I like how you went back to the other page to
remind yourself about what you read, you also did
a great job at putting it into your own words.” 

What did you see the What did you hear the STUDENTS saying?
STUDENTS doing?

Sharing the informational “Putting the facts in our own words.”

text “Planets”  “Telling what we know”
Reading together as a
group (choral reading)
Pointing as they read
Turning back to pages
they have read
Observation Looking at the pictures
Talking with their partners
Agreeing with each other
Pointing to key phrases in
the text
“It moves in a circle”
“You can see that in this box”
“We learned about planets and stars”
“They are in the night sky and they orbit”
“Stars create light and planets don’t”
“What does millions mean?”
“Really big”
“What does dwarf mean?”
 “sun and solar system.”
“The sun is really really big, like a lot bigger and
hotter than the earth. There are also a bunch of
planets in a line called a solar system.” 

Data:

Observable Teacher Teacher scaffolding a Students Students

action: reminding to go verbal comprehension going back putting the text
back to the text response to the text in their own
words 

Number of 3 3 2 2
times
observed: 

Debrief:
Miss. Abers and I planned to debrief after the school day had finished and she had
returned from bus duty. This allowed me time to think about ways I could help support her in
this lesson as they continued on in the book. When we sat down, Miss. Abers looked anxious and
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said, “that was horrible, and we were in a rush.” I assured her that I saw a lot of really great
things going on in her small group and that the strong connection she had with her students was
apparent. From my observation, I could see that her students were excited to be reading with her
and that they wanted to do well. We began our discussion with the supportive feedback below
and framed the constructive feedback as small tweaks or additions to her practice that will
further enforce those behaviors she is hoping to develop in her students. 

Supportive:
Miss. Abers chose a text that was interesting to her students, it was evident that they had
some background knowledge because when she asked about the sun and earth, they were able to
describe its orbit. Miss. Abers also did a great job at reminding students about their learning goal
to describe what they learned in their own words by eliciting a student-led discussion and
reminding students to go back to the text. This set the tone for her students learning during their
group time. 
Additionally, she provided support when she identified a word that she thought her
students might not know, “orbit.” This allowed her students to further deepen their understanding
of the words meaning within the text before creating their verbal “gist” statement. Miss. Abers
also further supported her students by asking them to add specific details or more content to their
answers. Finally, Miss. Abers provided specific feedback to her students with the comment, ““I
like how you went back to the other page to remind yourself about what you read, you also did a
great job at putting it into your own words.” This specific feedback should continue to help
students understand and continue to use these types of reading behaviors. 

Constructive:
The students would benefit from more opportunities to practice sharing their learning.
One possible way to provide additional opportunities during this short intervention time would
be to break the text up into shorter chunks, depending on the text length and complexity, this
could be at the page or paragraph level. This focus on learning will allow the group to build their
proficiency in this practice by focusing on one topic, allowing time to clarify unknown words
and really build meaning from the text. This will also allow Miss. Abers more opportunities to
provide support and engage with each partner discussion to address their needs. Additionally, she
will be able to give consistent, specific feedback. 
Miss. Abers provided support by having students discuss in pairs before sharing. To
extend further support in their oral responses, she could provide a collection of sentence frames
to help her students begin their sentence and cite supporting evidence from the text. This practice
will need to be modeled by Miss. Abers but will provide students with a clearer idea and
structure to use when explaining their learning. This sentence structure can also help Miss. Abers
tailor her group support or feedback because it will provide her with a more direct goal of what
she would like her students to do.