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During this lesson, I was able to see firsthand how Ms. Lauren introduced a new vocabulary word relating to their new reading called “Me…Jane.” As Ms. Lauren is speaking about their new book, she’s asking the students to turn and talk about what they noticed based on the pictures in the book. She proceeds to go over their vocabulary word from the previous day, which was “observe.” She connected it to the book and even to what the students were currently doing, as well as the character, Jane, and the storyline. As Ms. Lauren is displaying pages of the book on the board again, she has certain pages with the word “curious” circled in red. Students are asked to take notice of this, and “tap your head if you know what the word curious is” is said by Ms. Lauren. Resulting in numerous heads being tapped, as she looks around, she adds, “I’m going to read some sentences that show being curious, so we make sure we know what it is.” Referring back to the book, she reads out some sentences and then asks the students to have a turn and talk about what they believe the word curious to mean. As im listening to the students, I notice that one child struggles with defining what curiosity is outside of just saying the word “curious” itself. Some students are also having trouble separating the word from the context of the book. Ms. Lauren writes on a blank vocabulary card exactly like the one on the word wall image, the word Curious. She writes, “Curious: You don’t know something and you want to figure it out.” The last part was suggested by a student who was eager to participate. The students also suggest ideas for Ms. Lauren to draw, they suggest eyeballs looking and a thinking bubble as well. Learning the word curious allowed the students to see it in sentences, learn the context, and how it can be applied to them, really understanding and analyzing the meaning. Overall, it was very informative and interesting.

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During my fieldwork observation, I noticed strong connections between vocabulary learning and reading comprehension as students explored feeling words such as happy, sad, mad, scared, excited, nice, kind, brave…

When students understood these words, they were better able to comprehend stories and explain how characters felt or why they acted a certain way. The teacher intentionally taught vocabulary by using a word wall that displayed each feeling word alongside pictures and expressions to help students visualize meanings. Lessons included acting out emotions, writing about personal experiences, and discussing how they felt during different activities. Most of the words taught were Tier 1, like happy and sad, but some Tier 2 words, such as brave and excited, helped expand students' emotional vocabulary. The teacher naturally used these words in conversations, like saying, "That was kind of you," or asking, "How did that make you feel?" The students picked up on the words quickly and began using them on their own. Most of the words were simple ones they already knew, but some were new or deeper. I also noticed the students using clues from pictures or the story to figure out how a character felt. They often made connections to their own experiences, which made the words feel more real to them. It was nice to see how learning these feeling words helped them not only understand what they read, but also express themselves better, too

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During this observation, I saw that the teacher was going over a few vocabulary words with the students to prepare them for the activity that they were going to do. The teacher had students take out their whiteboards and write out the word that she said, such as bucket. As I walked around the classroom, I noticed that none of the students wrote "Buckit" and spelled the words correctly. During this, the students were constantly repeating the words quietly to themselves and tapping the words outs. The teacher would also tap out the words multiple times before the students started writing them and had them repeat after her and she said it rhymed with jacket. I thought that the word bucket was pretty tricky and expected students to trip up over this word because when you sound out the word "buck"-"et" the et sound can be very misleading and students can write "it"

As the students moved onto their reading the word environment was pretty tricky for most students. The teacher didn't go over that word with them before the reading. The student came up to me to ask for help . "En-vi-ron-ment" was How I tapped out the word for her, although she knew what the word meant from the reading, she didn't know how to pronounce it.

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During my observation, the teacher had all the children retell the story Green Eggs and Ham in their own words by writing a short story that included the setting, problem, and resolution. As students wrote, the teacher encouraged them to express how the main character felt. whether angry, upset, or happy. This activity demonstrated how vocabulary learning directly supports reading comprehension, as students had to understand the story’s language to describe events and feelings for their own story.

The teacher supported vocabulary development by encouraging students to use the posters posted around the classroom to support their story. Around the classroom, there were adjectives and nouns posters, and she reminded students to use these words to add more detail to their stories. She would tell the students, If you’re done, go back and add more adjectives from the poster.

When students struggled with spelling or remembering certain words, the teacher referred them to the trick words displayed on the board and the trick words in their folders were words they had learned in previous lessons. This practice helped reinforce Tier 1 and Tier 2 words, supporting both everyday and academic vocabulary. Tier 1 words were simple sight words like the, to, into. while Tier 2 words on the posters like frustrated, disappointed, and sad.

The teacher would go around the room, she would spell out difficult words for children and asked them to write it in their vocabulary words in their notebooks. She would also encourage students to use more tier 2 words like students will write mad and she would say use frustrated.

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For my field work I observed the teacher  read aloud of “The Leaf Thief” by Nicola. The teacher began by introducing a few new vocabulary words before she began. She introduced the words “scurry,” “rustles,” “flutter,” “mischievous,” and “autumn.” She had them written on a small white board and asked the class if they knew what the words were and went over them one by one. After getting a couple of answers from the students she helped them explain the words using hand gestures, and had the students repeat each word with her. When it came to the word Autumn the kids were already familiar with this word since they spoke about it before but she wanted to make sure the students remembered what it meant. During the reading the teacher stopped to ask questions like “what do you think the owl likes to do for fun?” “What are some things you guys do to relax?”  . While the teacher read she used a lot of movement to show squirrels worriness and him being anxious and she made a lot of facial expressions depending on the story. After reading, the students took out the leaves that the teacher had asked students to collect outside on their way to school. The teacher also had a few leaves on her desk in case some students didn’t get the chance to get leaves or simply forgot. They then compared each other's leafs with the people at their table. The teacher asked them to write down what colors they see, what kind of sizes. The teacher asked them to sort out the leafs one side where the leafs are the same and then the other sides if they are different. The teacher kept using the new words during the activity, which helped students remember and use them naturally. I noticed that going over  these words helped the students understand the story better and talk about what was happening. The teacher taught the vocabulary clearly and intentionally, showing movement, giving examples, and repeating the words often. She used a mix of Tier 1 words like “leaf” and “tree,” Tier 2 words like “flutter” and “breeze,” and Tier 3 words like “categorize” or “autumn”. There were also times of incidental learning, like when she would remind students  that “breeze” means a “gentle wind,” when one of the students compared a breeze to a tornado she also mentioned  that “mischievous” can also mean “playful” or “silly.” . As I walked around observing the kids do this activity some children used words like  “drifting” instead of “falling,” and “rustling” to describe the sound of the leaves they stepped on this morning which I believe to be $10 words. Overall, the lesson was very engaging and full of vocabulary practice that supported both reading and understanding.

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This is a photo of the power words, and the anchor chart the teacher used during the lesson. 

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During my observation in a second-grade classroom, I observed a lesson focused on using text features, pictures, and words to figure out unknown words. First the teacher explained the vocabulary for that day which was a context clue. She explained that context clues are the words and sentences around an unknown word that can be clues to its meaning. Then the teacher asked the students to take out their Many Kinds of Matter reading. Which is a reading that talks about matter like solid, liquid, and gas. Also, the kids of matter we see in our everyday life. In my second fieldwork observation Padlet I talked about the lesson where the teacher taught power words like amount, matter and space. Those words came back today since they were all included in the reading. The teacher explained that some of those words they learned before were going to appear in the new reading they were going to do. She pointed the students to a chart with a title that said content area words. As a class they read this chart which said that you can figure out the meaning of a word by looking at text features like titles and headings, looking at pictures, ask answers and questions and use context or the words near the word. While reading Many Kinds of Matter the teacher would ask questions like by reading the text and looking at the picture what do you think boils mean? The picture showed water with bubbles in a pan and the text said “water turns into steam when it boils. Water boils when it reaches a temperature of 212 F (100 C)". The students were able to identify that when something it's boiling then it means it's extremely hot. The power words that they had learned before like amount, material, space, example, easy, forms, planet, and tasty were in the text. While reading the teacher would remind the students of the words and their meanings. I remember that the day after this lesson when I came back, as a review question the teacher asked, how can water become a gas? one student answered very proudly saying that they remember from the day before that water becomes a gas when it boils.

I saw the teacher explain that when they don't understand something while reading, they should use context clues and content words. She pointed them to the anchor chart she has in the classroom which, like I said before, has four examples of what they can do to be able to comprehend what a word means.

The teacher has the power words that they need for the reading of the Many Kinds of Matter in the ELA chart. Which can help the students remember the vocabulary.

I believe that since the lesson was focused on the Many Kinds of Matter reading some of the words were subject specific while other ones were everyday use. The teacher taught tier 1 words like easily and tasty. Tier 2 words like example, material, planet, and form. Finally, tier 3 words like amount, matter.

Teaching students to use content words and context clues while reading is an example of incidental vocabulary instruction. One example I can give is from Many Kinds of Matter where students learned two new words: Evaporation and condensation. They learned these words and their meaning while reading.

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This a photo of the Sentence starters for different parts of the essay that the teacher was using to speak with her class about the structure of the writing they were doing. The class sat down on the rug and discussed ideas and examples of what they might write and how to incorporate these starters. They practiced saying these sentences out loud. There are also conversation starters on the side of the board to help the students.

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I observed a writing lesson that focused on helping students strengthen their informational writing about places to visit. The teacher guided students in organizing their writing into an introduction, body, and conclusion, while encouraging them to use descriptive language to help readers imagine the places they described.

The lesson began with whole group instruction using sentence frame chart on the smartboard (Photo above). The teacher reminded her students that they have to introduce their topic before giving details. She modeled topic sentence frames like “Can I tell you about…?” and “Did you know…?” Students practiced reading these out loud. Saying the sentence starters out loud helped students connect print to speech before making it speech to print (writing).

To help her students with ideas, the teacher asked them to imagine a place they enjoy visiting and describe what someone might do there. She used examples like describing a movie theater. She said, “Before going into the movie, I bought buttery warm popcorn. The smell traveled through the entire theater.” She pointed out the descriptive words “buttery,” “warm,” and “smell” to emphasize the descriptive vocabulary. This served as vocabulary instruction and helped students understand how details support a reader’s understanding. She also showed them sentence frames like “It has…,” “You can…,” and “It is….”

To plan their writing, the students created concept maps in their notebooks labeled “Places to explore,” with words like park, soccer, food, pool, Burger King, or chuck e cheese connected around the topic (the specific student I’m referencing couldn’t make up his mind on the specific place to write about so he brainstormed). While walking around the room, the teacher asked questions like “What can you do there?” and “What does it look like?” to help students deepen their descriptions. She occasionally offered synonyms or expanded on words students used. For example, helping a student turn “fun” into “exciting” or “active.” This was an example of incidental vocabulary instruction.

Once finished brainstorming, they transferred their ideas into full sentences. One student selected the “Do you want to learn about a fun place to visit?” as his introduction sentence. Students then worked to complete body sentences using the detail frames. The teacher teacher looked around and spoke with students individually. These conversations encouraged students to think more deeply about vocabulary and imagery. It was clear that talk supported writing development and vocabulary. The teacher used students’s writing to watch for understanding of descriptive vocabulary, sentence structure, and use of topic and concluding sentences. For students who struggled, she provided guided support. I observed some students asking her about spelling and the teacher helping them sound it out. This demonstrated that students were interacting with new words and developing phonemic awareness.

This writing activity allowed students to practice using Tier 1 every day words like park, food, pool etc. Tier 2 descriptive words like warm, explore, exciting, and some Tier 3 content specific words like descriptive, structure etc. The sentence frames and conversations with their teacher helped students build their word knowledge.

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This is an image of their vocabulary words that relate to their Exploring Habitats unit. They add words as the lessons progress.

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When observing this second-grade classroom, I observed two different portions of their schedule, which focused on phonics and then literacy. The time dedicated to phonics is referred to as “LAB,” and the time dedicated to more reading comprehension and literacy is referred to as “Fish Tank.” During LAB, there are two teachers. Both teachers have a group of students with whom they practice phonics, while the rest of the class focuses on independent work on two apps: Amplify and i-Ready. During Fish Tank, it is more whole-group instruction and some independent work, where they read together and answer questions based on the reading on their own.

While walking around the classroom during the LAB portion of the schedule, I noticed how each student had different lessons they were working on. During this day, the teachers were also progress monitoring one student at a time, therefore most of the class was on Amplify or i-Ready. The students on the computers were each encouraged to complete at least 27 lessons. During my walk around the classroom, I noticed one of the students’ lessons prompting him by asking questions like, “What do you call someone who makes things easier for you?” and there were two answer choices. For this particular question, the answer choices were “Honest” or “Helpful”. I felt it was a good way of assessing the student’s understanding and comprehension of the meaning of a word in a different context.

During the Fish Tank lesson, they continued with their Unit 2 topic, which was focused on Exploring Habitats. Today, they focused on the book called “A Desert Habitat.” Previous to the reading, the teacher reviewed their vocabulary list related to the reading, which the students had previously practiced a variety of times. They reviewed words like “desert”, “herbivore”, “carnivore”, and more. Their review of the words before the reading helped the students to have a better understanding of what the text was referring to when it referred to the animals in the desert habitat. During the reading, the teacher also asked the students various questions about the animals and their connection to the habitat based on the vocabulary words they reviewed and what they knew, which helped the students to comprehend the reading better because they were able to deepen their understanding of the word in a different context, which we have talked a lot about in class. The idea that students or anyone really learns more and more through more interactions and experiences, in this case, the readings for these units using the vocabulary in different ways, is helping them to reinforce the meanings that have previously been taught, so they have more time to focus on the message presented in the reading rather than being confused about it.

There were several ways in which the teacher intentionally taught students challenging words. One of the strategies I enjoyed was how she directly defined the word and created repetition. She had words on a wall that are removable. She pulled each word off the wall and put it under the camera, which projected it onto the big screen. She reviewed each key term related to the book and asked students to repeat not only the words but also their definitions so that, in the long run, it would be easier for them to remember the words and even their definitions. I found that over the course of a few days, the repetition did help the students remember. Another strategy was the use of connecting the words to their background knowledge. The teacher asked the students to recall what they knew beforehand about the desert, and that helped them to form connections between their own knowledge and the vocabulary words they were learning.

During the lab portion of their schedule, they focused on more tier 1 words. In those lessons, the identification of words like beautiful, early, helpful, and more was reinforced. While during their Fish Tank lesson, the students explored more tier 2 words in connection to the topic of the lesson, which was Desert Habitats. During this lesson, the students explored words like herbivore, carnivore, habitat, and more, which are words that they will come in contact with as they progress through different grade levels, because it is correlated with the subject of science and others.

The teacher encouraged and modeled academic language and the use of the vocabulary words through asking questions like “Who lives in the desert?” or “Why do they live in the desert?” The students were expected to answer in complete sentences with the use of the vocabulary words they were learning at this time. The teacher also provided explanations that related to their understanding of “What is a Desert Habitat like?” She used words like hot and dry which are words the students are familiar with. In a way, she used tier 1 words to help them understand more in-depth the tier 2 words.

Another learning strategy that the teacher used was acknowledging the book’s headings and subheadings and using them as context clues for the students. She would prompt them to see what they thought the section would be about in terms of what they knew about the heading or subheading, and relate it to the words they were learning.

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In today’s lesson, I observed clear connections between vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. The teacher began by introducing the book “The Book Woman” and asked students what they noticed about the cover. Students raised their hands and mentioned seeing a “horse, kid, and house.” I noticed that the book included several big words that students might not understand, so the teacher displayed some of them on the smart board. Words such as Appalachian Mountains, librarian, dusky, and greenbacks appeared along with images and definitions. She went over each word carefully, explaining its meaning and giving examples to make it easier for students to understand. This direct teaching of vocabulary helped students prepare for reading, so when they encountered those words in the story, they could better understand what was happening.

As the teacher read the book, she paused whenever she came across difficult words, such as scholar or yearn, and asked if anyone knew what they meant, which can be seen as incidental vocabulary. Some students tried to use their background knowledge to figure it out. For example, one student said that scholar might have something to do with school because it looks like the word school. The teacher praised the student’s reasoning and explained that a scholar is someone who loves to learn and is good at studying, like a “super student.” She also connected the word to the story by saying that the main character’s sister could be seen as a scholar because she loved to read. Later, when they came across the word yearn, the teacher explained that it means to “really, really want something” or to “feel a strong desire for it.” She then tied it back to the book by explaining that when the author wrote, “Cal’s heart did sort of yearn to learn his letters,” it meant that Cal had a deep wish to learn how to read and write. This kind of explicit vocabulary teaching helped students understand not just know the words, but how they added meaning to the story. The teacher also focused on different levels of vocabulary. Horse and house were Tier 1 words, simple, everyday words students already knew. Scholar and yearn were Tier 2 words, more advanced and useful in many subjects. Appalachian Mountains and librarian were Tier 3 words, specific to the topic or setting of the book. There were also examples of incidental vocabulary instruction throughout the lesson. The teacher naturally used rich language, gave synonyms for difficult words, and encouraged students to use context clues. After finishing the story, the teacher reviewed adjectives by showing examples on the smart board. A picture of a necklace appeared, and students described it using words like “shiny,” “big,” and “bright.” She played a short video about adjectives, which kept students engaged, and then had them apply this knowledge in a writing activity about The Book Woman. There was also an anchor chart provided on all sorts of adjectives they can use in their writing. Overall, I think the lesson showed how teaching vocabulary directly and through context can help students improve both their word knowledge and reading comprehension.

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The class has a vocabulary word wall, but they look to this IB Learner Profile chart the most. Every week, students pick a new profile to work on and write about. For example, they compared/constrasted themselves to a dinosaur in the book they read using the profile words. These are pretty big words to use, I think for the most part the students used them accurately by definition in their writing (perhaps because the definition is not only there, but they reinforce the profiles often), but not in the colloquial sense. Students are using these tier 2 words much more casually as a basis for everyday instruction.

Students also learn vocabulary through Scholastic magazine readings every week. This week, they did one about Veterans Day. The teacher first asked them if they know what it is before playing the video on the Scholastic website. It explained the different military branches and what the holiday is for. I think it helped students visually, but some details might get lost. Students and the teacher talked about their relation to the military personally. Afterwards, the magazine was displayed on the smartboard and read it aloud to them. The teacher focused more on having students identify its genre and text features associated with them. Afterwards, they went over the dictionary definition of highlighted words from the magazine. It was read aloud to them via the board for words like veteran. Questions about the reading were asked as well. It's a very explicit way of teaching using technology. I am unsure if the vocabulary from that video is practiced with more throughout the week or not.

Finally, a major part of their vocabulary learning is during the French morning routine. They have their monthly French journals where they write a sentence using a word bank on the page to describe the picture on it. The teacher doesn't explain the vocabulary to the students, they either know it or they don't (half the students are francophone other half is anglophone).

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"Digraph Detective" worksheet, showcasing students' knowledge of digraphs, and ability to write words containing them. 

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For this lesson, students were tasked with both reading and writing words that contained digraphs. This lesson’s standard was “I can spell and read first grade words with common blends and consonant digraphs” (1RF.30V). The lesson began with the reading of the story “Officer Buckle and Gloria”. Throughout the read aloud, the teacher made sure to stop when she got to some Tier 2 words that would be encountered frequently, but weren't basic. When she got to these words, she would pause, either to ask questions about the word and what it meant, or to give an example of it. The words that stuck out to me during this were “Swivel Chair” and “Thumbtack”. Since these words were not basic in nature, the teacher made a clear effort to pause and explain not only the word’s meaning, but give a visual example from the classroom as well. This to me, was an example of Incidental Vocabulary Instruction, along with a clear connection between vocabulary and reading comprehension.

After reading, students were then told to look up at the smartboard to practice some “Trick Words”. These words were defined as words that were one syllable and did not have the ability to be “tapped out” on your fingers when reading them. The words were heavily aligned with Tier 1 vocabulary, being very common and basic words that you’d see on a day-to-day basis. For example, the first word was “We”, and then the next words were “Has”, “Me”, “He”, “For”, “To”, “She”, “Into”, “Be”, and lastly, “As”. The teacher had the students practice these words by first saying them out loud, writing the word in the air with their finger, closing their eyes and “writing the word in their head”, and then writing the word with their finger on their desk. I thought this was an interesting way of teaching Tier 1 words, as it helped students to feel how the word, and every letter was written for themselves, as opposed to just reading it off of the smartboard.

The final portion of the lesson was a digraph worksheet (Shown Above). This “Digraph Detective” worksheet had students underlining the digraphs in each sentence, circling the buddy letters, and then writing the words containing a digraph under the sentence. This worksheet seemed to be a great way of connecting both vocabulary and writing, as students were completely on their own with the identification of the digraph, along with the actual writing of the word. These words were also fairly common, continuing the teaching of Tier 1 vocabulary in the classroom.

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In my first grade classroom I observed that the teacher used pictures and gestures like pointing to pictures, acting out the meaning of words, or using hand motions to show actions, to teach new words. Students practiced saying and using the words in sentences and also had a worksheet in front of them. The General Education students had regular worksheets. However, for Special Education, the students had highlighted phrases and pictures on their worksheets.  This helped them understand the stories they read better. I noticed that when students knew more words, they could answer questions about the story more easily because most of the vocabulary words came from the text they were reading.  The teacher helps students learn hard words in simple, clear ways. She puts important words on a word wall so students can see them all the time. She uses gestures and actions to show what words mean, like the word worn, she would point to her shoes saying it's worn a lot that's why they look a bit messy and then would joke about how she needs to go shopping this made students feel more engaged. Students practiced writing sentences with the new vocabulary words and talked with their groups and shared their sentences using new words while the teachers would walk around making sure the words the students used are in the correct way. A few students were having some trouble but the teacher went to them and explained how this wasn’t the meaning of that word and gave her a simple example of a sentence and then asked her to make one on her own.  She also makes concept maps to connect words and ideas. These strategies help students understand and remember new vocabulary, which makes reading easier.  I noticed the teacher using the tier 1, and tier 2 words.  In the first-grade class, the teacher teaches Tier 1 words like run and happy through daily talk and reading. Tier 2 words like gigantic are explained with pictures and actions. I also noticed examples of incidental vocabulary instruction in the class, when the teacher uses rich words in daily talk, or gives a quick synonym like saying “huge means really big.” The teacher also praised students for using strong “$10 words” in their speaking or writing by saying wow that's a huge word meaning that's a “$10 word”. In the classroom, students learn new words by using context clues from sentences and pictures. The teacher helps them look at word parts to find meanings. They also practice breaking big words into smaller parts and talking about word meanings together to understand better. Overall, the strategy of these teachers was great, the students were engaged and were able to understand the vocabulary that was being taught.

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Word Wall with Red Words and Vocabulary Words

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∴☆ In my class, I observed that we had this word wall that had two sections. One was labeled as Red Words which had words like: the, to, do, was, or, for, has, his, is, of, and another labeled as Vocabulary with words like: perseverance, collaboration, initiative. As well as question words such as when, why, how, who, where, and what.

∴☆ When categorizing this word wall example into the three different tiers, I organized it in such way that the red words would represent tier #1. These are like everyday words that students will need to comprehend in order to read and write! For tier #2, I chose the vocabulary section because although they are more difficult and academic words, they do help students understand the themes in the books that they are reading (The Little Red Pen).

∴☆ In terms of intentional teaching, reinforcement of word recognition, and word meaning through constant exposure, my CT was able to integrate this word wall with her read aloud sessions! For example, the difficult words such as perseverance and initiative were used vocally. The teacher did not have the student write these words but rather used them repeatedly when explaining the scene to the children/asking them follow-up questions. For example: "How did the little red pen take initiative?" or "Class, do you think that the desk supplies persevered at the end of the story?"

∴☆ Additionally, when it came to the Red Words, the students actively used these words in their writing time. They are beginning to learn how to create sentences by using the "First, then, and" sentence structure. They are able to look as their word wall / at their sight words in their booklets and use them to create sentences on paper and use them vocally.

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Students were learning new vocabulary words to talk about how they can be effective learners in the classroom.

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During this observation, the teacher taught the class three new vocabulary words that they could be used to describe how they could become effective learners in the classroom. The teacher asked the students if they knew what an effective learner was and not much of the students responded. Seeing that the teacher explained how an effective learner was someone who uses what they learn to solve problems and future work to their best ability. A effective learner was not someone who gave up, does not want to work with others and does not ask for help when needed. The teacher then orally read each of the three words and asked students to repeat after her.

After, teacher then read the definitions and asked students to give an example for each of the words. For example, for the word, collaboration, a students gave an example of how they work with their friends to find details in a video they watched in their last social studies class. The teacher then wanted all the students to use at least one of the vocabulary words using the sentence starter, “I show…by…”. Some responses included:

-“I show perseverance by trying to sound out words when I don’t know.”

-“I show initiative by asking Ms.[Teacher’s last name] for help.”

-“I show collaboration by helping [Student’s name] after I finish my workbook.”

During this lesson I was able to identify some tier 1 and 2 words. The three vocabulary words were the tier 2 words and the definitions and examples used to describe those words were made up of tier 1 words. For example in order for the teacher to describe the tier 2 word, perseverance, she used familiar and basic words such as hard and trying. The same could be said with the word, collaboration, with the words, work, others, ideas and nicely.

Some teaching moments that reminded me of some ideas we learned in class occurred after the short lesson of the vocabulary words. Throughout the day the teacher used these words when speaking to students even in lessons that did not pertain to literacy. If she noticed a pair of students working together during a turn and talk to would announce how she loved a pair of student’s collaboration. For example during their math lesson, the teacher noticed how student A and B were talking about their ideas for a number sentence and announced how she loved student A and B’s collaboration and how they were sharing their ideas nicely by taking turns. This reminded me of some of the podcast and chapters that we’ve read that talk about being intentional with our teaching, especially when it came to selecting vocabulary words for students. The teacher was able to use these vocabulary words contextually in the classroom with the students so that they can better understand and become familiar with the words.

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This is two posters where the teacher has synonyms for some words. It helps so when they read and see different variations like they read “ the child was blue” they will understand they aren't speaking about the color but instead the emotion.

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In this session, I observed multiple connections between vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. Explicit vocabulary instruction played a key role in helping students recognize, pronounce, and understand words, which directly supports their ability to comprehend texts. The teacher intentionally used strategies such as a word wall for students to reference key words, gestures and movement to demonstrate sounds (for example, tapping one finger to the thumb for the “F” in fang and two fingers together for the glued “ang” sound), and repetition of sentences to reinforce meaning, such as having students say “Shall we go to the dance?” to learn the word shall. Students were also encouraged to look at the word while saying it aloud, linking the visual spelling with the sound and meaning, which helps solidify memory and comprehension. The teachers also have synonyms placed in the classroom for some words so that the students can build their vocabulary and are encouraged to do so. Tier 1 words, like basic sight words, were included in daily practice; tier 2 words, such as shall, were taught through repeated phrases and explicit instruction; and tier 3 words, including those specific to Veterans Day letters, were displayed on the board so students could reference them during writing. Incidental vocabulary instruction also occurred through the teacher modeling vocabulary in context, providing synonyms for challenging words, and encouraging students to use richer or “trick words” in their own sentences. Additional word learning strategies observed included using phonics and glued sounds to decode words, employing context clues from sentences to infer meaning, and connecting vocabulary to meaningful sentences and visual cues.

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During this observation, the second-grade students were practicing how to build a descriptive essay about their favorite place. Prior to this lesson, they completed a worksheet titled “Details for My Descriptive Essay,” which helped them brainstorm ideas by answering guiding questions such as: Where is this place? Who could you go with? When is a good time to go there? What food, snacks, or drinks can you have there? What are the three best things about this place? What are four words that describe this place?

This pre-writing activity supported students’ vocabulary development and comprehension by encouraging them to make personal connections between their experiences and descriptive language. Many students wrote about familiar Tier 1 concepts such as school, carnival, or Chuck E. Cheese, which helped anchor their understanding. However, the activity also encouraged them to use richer Tier 2 words like exciting, delicious, crowded, or peaceful to describe their favorite places, and even introduced some Tier 3 academic vocabulary related to writing, such as introduction, adjective, and descriptive essay.

The teacher had several vocabulary-building tools posted on the wall under the heading “Building Vocabulary.” These included:

A “Be More Descriptive! Use Colorful Words!” chart, showing students alternatives for basic words (instead of happy, use joyful or cheerful).

A prefixes and suffixes chart that explained how adding parts to root words changes meaning

A linking verbs chart, which supported correct grammar and sentence construction in their stories.

The teacher also modeled writing her own descriptive essay about Jenkinson’s Boardwalk on the projector, using a Descriptive Essay Introduction Checklist to guide students in crafting strong introductions. This checklist included prompts such as writing a “catchy lead question” (“Did you know…?” or “Have you ever…?”), using descriptive details, and concluding the introduction with transition phrases like “Today I will tell you about…” or “Keep reading to find out more about…”

There were also examples of incidental vocabulary instruction during the lesson. For instance, when the teacher reminded a student to use the vowel team chart to find which letters make the “long e” sound in beach. Although her tone could have been more supportive, this exchange still demonstrated an emphasis on using phonics and word structure clues to figure out spelling and pronunciation. Other incidental vocabulary exposure came through the teacher’s modeling of rich language in her own writing and discussion.

Overall, the lesson integrated multiple word-learning strategies, including:

Context clues from the teacher’s model essay, which she also printed for them to have a reference during independent writing

Word parts (prefixes, suffixes, and vowel teams)

Synonym charts and writing stems for descriptive sentences

While the lesson was strong in explicit vocabulary support, I noticed that some students struggled with spelling and word choice during independent writing. Greater teacher presence during that stage could have provided on-the-spot reinforcement of vocabulary and spelling strategies, deepening their comprehension and confidence.

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For my observation, I have been observing a 1st-grade class at PS 748 in Brooklyn. For a while, I have been observing how reading comprehension and vocabulary learning are connected. During the last lesson, the class was doing a read-aloud: the teacher read first, and the students followed along. However, before reading the story, the teacher introduced the students to some vocabulary words such as “hall”, “mess”, and “mud”.

While introducing new words, the teacher used a variety of techniques to help students understand and learn them. The teacher wrote the word on the board, gave the students a definition, showed a picture to help them understand it, and used it in a sentence. I recognized that those techniques were beneficial to all the children, especially ELA students. In the classroom, there are 17 students altogether; 16 were present during the observation. A few ELA students speak Russian, Spanish, and Chinese.  One of the students said that seeing the pictures was very helpful for understanding the word “hall,” since he had never heard it before.

During this reading, I observed indirect vocabulary learning: after reading the story, some students asked what the word “fuss” means. The teacher asked the students what they think the word may mean by using a context clue. One of the students said it means that kids “rolled their eyes.” The teacher asked, “What do they think that?” After that, she asked if students had any other definitions. When they said they didn't, she gave them a simple definition of the word and asked them to use it in a sentence to see if they were able to understand what the word ‘fuss’ might mean.

However, I observed that reading, writing, or foundation is not the only time when children learn new vocabulary. The teacher uses different levels of vocabulary throughout the day. Children are exposed to Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 words throughout the day in most classes, such as reading, writing, math, and science.

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This images shows the Ms.Ferris' classroom Reading Focus Wall and student work of graphic organizers that demonstrate how students used vocabulary, context clues and previously learned skills to make inferences after the read-aloud and teacher modeling.  

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Description:

For this fieldwork observation, I observed Ms. Ferris’ 2nd grade class’ literacy lesson on vocabulary and reading comprehension. She begins the lesson by saying, “Today, we will be reading a new book called “Many Kinds of Matter”. Let's repeat the title together.” To help students grasp what they will be reading. She then transitions into introducing the power words before the read aloud. She begins by modeling. She first says the word and has students repeat it, then reads the definition, goes through digital flash cards and shows the image corresponding to the word.  She begins with the word amount, has students repeat it, and provides the definition, “how much there is of something”. She then says, “these glasses have a different amount of orange juice” as an example sentence. She continues this process with the material, space, example, easily, forms, planet, and tasty, using visuals and example sentences to provide context clues and meaning making. This method of intentional, explicit instruction is achieved through modeling, repetition, visual images and conversation. A word wall is posted at the back of the room, to provide  ongoing support with vocabulary and reading comprehension. Students are able to refer to it when the text is discussed or to make inferences. Ms. Ferris also showed some examples of incidental vocabulary instruction as she provides synonyms for the words easily which she says is “not hard”, and tasty which she says are “yummy”, “delicious”, and “good.”

The vocabulary words being taught in this lesson demonstrate a variety of tiers in word knowledge. For example words such as tasty, easily, and  space (which the teacher clarifies is not outer space but rather an open area or place), are considered tier 1 words as they are common in everyday life. The words amount and example represent tier 2 words as they are more sophisticated, used by adults and are seen in various texts. For tier 3 words, the words are planet, forms and material, as they are words with specific roles in the Science context. By incorporating vocabulary from all three tiers, Ms. Ferris supports her students in developing everyday and academic language needed to understand informational texts.

After teaching the students the power words, she then asks the students what they think the book is about and gives them clues using the cover of the book, as well as the vocabulary words, to help build the students' curiosity. They are then reading the book aloud, where Ms. Ferris reiterates the vocabulary words such as stopping to ask questions like: “what examples of solids do we see on this page?” To help build the students' understanding of defining the word using clues from the text which improve reading comprehension as well. Ms. Ferris models making inferences using a 3 part organizer: “clues in the text”, “what I know”, and “inference.” She then asks: “why can't I fill the milk into the carton?” prompting students to find clues in the text, one says: “liquids are not easily compressed” which the students get from the text. She moves to the “what I know” section and asks students to share what they know about a jug compared to a carton. Students then write the inference independently based on their discussion. Ms.Ferris then asks another question for students  to make an inference independently using the same method she modeled.

To end the lesson, Ms. Ferris does a quick review of the homework on the suffixes -er and -est. Ms. Ferris goes over the word tasty and its definition, explaining they can use the suffixes -er or -est to form new words that are used to compare. She then explains that suffix -er means “more” and models with pictures of different baskets of fruits. She then adds the -er to tasty saying “tastier”. Finally, she models with the suffix -est, with the word “tastiest”, then asks the students: “which of these fruits is the tastiest?” This demonstrates how Ms. Ferris supports vocabulary learning and word knowledge by teaching students how to use suffixes to form new words and understand their meanings.

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vocabulary learning connects to students’ reading and writing comprehension

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In this observation, I focused on how vocabulary learning connects to students’ reading and writing comprehension. When the teacher read aloud to the class and students didn’t understand some words, she reminded them to look at the vocabulary wall. The wall helped students identify the meaning of new words as they learned, which made it easier for them to follow the story. I noticed that when students understood key vocabulary, they were able to read more confidently and include more details in their writing. The teacher used a variety of strategies, like reviewing words before reading and encouraging students to use them in their essays, to help students learn and remember new vocabulary.

The teacher was very intentional about teaching new words. She had a vocabulary wall with words like rain forest, tent, and wildlife. When students were writing their one- to two-paragraph essays, they could look at the wall if they needed help spelling or remembering how to use a word. I thought this was a great idea because it helped students become more independent and confident when writing. The teacher also went over the words together with the class before they started writing, making sure everyone understood what each word meant.

I could tell she was teaching different levels of vocabulary too. The tier 1 words were simple, everyday ones like tree or sun. The tier 2 words were a bit harder, such as explore or discover, and she used those often in different subjects. The tier 3 words were content-specific, like habitat or ecosystem, which came from the science lessons.

There were also times when vocabulary was taught indirectly. For example, when a student didn’t understand a word, the teacher would explain it using a simpler word or a synonym. She also liked to model new and interesting words during conversations, so students could hear how they’re used in real sentences.

Another thing I noticed was that she encouraged students to use context clues or look at parts of the word, like prefixes or suffixes, to figure out meanings. When the class read the word unfriendly, she asked, “What does the prefix un- mean?” and guided them to see how it changes the meaning of the word. This helped students feel more comfortable solving word problems on their own when reading.

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This vocabulary sheet pre-teaches story words with simple definition before reading

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During my fieldwork, I observed how vocabulary learning and reading comprehension are connected in the classroom. Before reading the story "Dan Had a Plan," the teacher used different methods to help students learn key words. He explained word meanings using simple language that children could easily understand, and showed pictures for each word. For example, when teaching the word "market," he displayed a picture of people buying fruits and vegetables while explaining, "This is a place where we go to buy things."

The lesson included interactive games to help students learn vocabulary better. In the "Froggy Game," the teacher read several definitions for one word. When teaching "mess," he read descriptions like "Everything is neatly in its place, and it looks very organized" and "There are toys all over the floor, papers are everywhere, and nothing is in order." Students had to listen carefully and only jump up when they heard the correct definition. This game helped students practice listening and understanding word meanings. Then, in the "Word Play - Tapping" activity, students tapped out word parts while repeating both the words and their meanings, which helped them remember through multiple senses.

Through observation, I noticed that the teacher intentionally differentiated vocabulary instruction based on word tiers. For Tier 1 words such as mess and sell, he used clear examples and visual comparisons to help students connect the words to familiar, everyday situations. For Tier 2 words like market and setting, he provided visual supports, real-life contexts, and explicit explanations to deepen students’ understanding. In addition, the teacher incorporated incidental vocabulary teaching by introducing synonyms such as trade and exchange, which helped students expand their word knowledge naturally and meaningfully.

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Word wall sheet that shows adjectives and verbs organized into categories with emojis is later being print out for every student to keep in their folder. This visual tool supports students’ vocabulary learning by clearly showing meaning and usage, making it easier for them to select words for their independent writing.

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In today’s lesson, students focused on writing a descriptive essay about a special place, specifically a bakery. The teacher emphasized using adjectives and verbs to help students add detail and make their writing more expressive. And I observed that by learning these vocabulary words, students were able to describe objects, actions, and feelings more clearly, which strengthened their comprehension. For example, when students wrote sentences like “the puzzles are fun and colorful,” they successfully connected vocabulary knowledge to describing their experiences accurately.

During the lesson the teacher used several strategies to explicitly teach vocabulary. Students had a printed word wall sheet of verbs and adjectives to reference while drafting their sentences. The word wall was organized into categories with emojis to help students easily understand word meanings. For adjectives, categories included words describing appearance (colorful, special, pretty) and words describing feelings (happy, calm, busy, warm). Verbs were organized into categories like things people do (talk, eat, read) and things you might see happening (grow, sing, run). The teacher also used gestures, such as waving, to demonstrate an action and asked students to identify it as a verb or adjective. Modeling was another key strategy and the teacher demonstrated the “touch it, say it, write it” approach to show how to use words in context. Additionally, during the lesson students participated in turn-and-talk discussions to practice using those new words, while one the side teachers observed and provided scaffolding by asking guiding questions to support students who seemed to be struggling.

This is a second grade class so the vocabulary words they are learning mostly all fall in Tier 1 words with very few tier 2 words. I also find it interesting how the teacher incorporated incidental vocabulary learning by expanding on students’ responses and reinforcing the word meanings in context. For example, when a student suggested a sentence, the teacher helped to add appropriate adjectives from the word wall, providing a natural opportunity to learn new words.

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This is the vocabulary word wall where the teacher adds new words each day that the 1st-grade students learn from the story. Each card includes a picture, the word, and its meaning so students can easily connect the vocabulary to what they read.

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During this observation, I noticed several strong connections between vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. The teacher used a story map chart to help students identify and discuss the main elements of the story: character, setting, problem, and resolution. As the teacher read the story aloud, he guided students by saying things like, “Tap your head if you hear a character as I read this page,” or “Tap your head if you hear a setting mentioned in the story.” These prompts prepared students to actively listen for key details and vocabulary actively, helping them connect new words to story elements and improve their overall comprehension.

The teacher intentionally taught “tricky” words through explicit vocabulary instruction. He modeled how to use the story map chart and guided students in identifying and spelling words like mountain and storm. Students sounded out the words by clapping or tapping out syllables before writing them down. The teacher also referenced the classroom’s vocabulary word wall, emphasizing words mentioned in the book that helped describe the setting or place. This word wall served as a support for students as they filled out their story map charts and wrote their sentences, allowing them to reference correct spelling and understand the meaning of descriptive words.

The teacher also modeled on the whiteboard how he would describe the setting of the book. He encouraged students to use adjectives in their sentences to make their writing more descriptive and engaging. For example, when writing about the “mountain” or the “storm,” students were asked to think of words that described what the place looked or felt like. Then he had students use the adjective and say the sentence out loud. In which one replied, “It started in a village, on a mountain.” This modeling helped students visualize how to expand their vocabulary and apply it in meaningful ways.

I was also able to identify the teaching of Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 words during the lesson. Tier 1 words included familiar vocabulary such as “book” and “house.” Tier 2 words were academic and literary, such as “setting,” “character,” and “resolution,” which are key to understanding stories in general. There were a few Tier 3 words tied to the story’s content, such as “winter,” “village,” and “storm,” which helped students describe specific details about the environment and season.

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During a read aloud, the teacher would connect words that the students learned in class (as seen above the image) to the words that were being used throughout the story.

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Masuma Begum

EDCE 32300

Megan Blumenreich

Fieldwork observation 3

October 30,2025

In class, the teacher did a read aloud on the book, “Disney: The Hunchback of Notre Dome.” After reading the title, he asked the students “what words do we see here in the front of the book cover ?” The whole class then yelled out the word “the” and he asked “where in the letters across the classroom poster, do we see “the?” One student raised his hand and said “it's near the letter “T.” After the teacher had ensured that the students understood the words they were learning in class, he turned the pages and began reading. By demonstrating pre-reading understanding, the students can recognize familiar words in texts, which encourages fluency and engagement.

As the teacher continued reading, he asked the students “do we notice any other words that we learned in class?” In response, one student raised her hand and said “is?” While another student said “for” and lastly, the third student said “I.” By incorporating these words into the story, the students will understand the importance of connecting known words to new words as they read, which supports their comprehension and vocabulary development.

Furthermore, after the reading, the teacher began the foundations of connecting words to new words through sounds, blending, and suffixes. He used the words, a, and, are, as, be, by, do, for, from, his, have, has, he, is, into, in, and I to build sentences as students write it down on the worksheets that were placed on the table. This activity helped students recognize how familiar words can be combined to form meaningful sentences, reinforcing both their vocabulary knowledge and written language skills. By blending sounds and identifying words, students learned how small changes in words can affect sentence structures and meaning. By doing so, the teacher would guide and encourage students to make connections between the words they read, write, and hear to support their reading fluency and comprehension development.

This example connects to the principles outlined in the reading, Shifting the Balance  chapter 4, which highlighted that “learning the sound-to-spelling alignment, or “mapping”, of the word, “was” can make it easier for children to learn “want” and “wash."Learning the sound-to-symbol mapping for “should” can make it easier to learn “would” and “could.” (Burkin and Yates, 2024). By connecting this to the classroom activity, the teacher showed how identifying patterns in sounds and spellings helps students expand their word recognition skills. Through repetition, blending, and visual cues, students began to notice how familiar letter patterns appear in multiple words, allowing them to make associations and decode new words more efficiently. This not only strengthens their vocabulary but also deepens their understanding on how written language represents spoken words in consistent and predictable ways.

Overall, this observation demonstrated how effective teaching strategies through read alouds, connecting it to sight words, and writing can support student’s understanding of literacy concepts visually, auditory, and kinesthetically, to build stronger conceptual understanding. This lesson can further impact and connect classroom practice beyond the learning goal (conversations, writing, engagement in the classroom etc).