ELIS 3703

Preclinical Observations
Carly Houser

Child 1 Day Content Observations Additional Thoughts

Strengths/Weaknesses
Child 2

Week 1: January 29 - February 2

Child 1 January 29 ELA: The class was

reading and analyzing
the story, Last Stop On
Market Street. Students
had to pair up and
retell what happened in
the story, trying to
remember the
beginning, middle, and
end.

Math: The class was

telling time to the
nearest 5 minutes.
They had to complete a
worksheet. The
worksheet had 10
clocks with a specific
time to the nearest 5
minutes.

ELA: This child is very bright,

Strengths: Child 1 was and always eager to
able to recall key learn, but has some
events that happened obvious, identified
in the story (e.g. how learning needs. This
the young boy in the student can’t really
story, CJ, rides a bus read on his own. His
everyday and how he comprehension levels
volunteered at a soup are average. Although
kitchen). this student is very
Weaknesses: Although eager to learn, he often
Child 1 could point out drifts off toward the
some of the key events end of most lessons
that happened in the and stops participating.
 story, he didn’t tell his I notice him flipping his
peer what happened in water bottle or playing
the beginning, middle, with pencils during the
and end of the story. middle of lessons.

Math: I would say math is

Strengths: Child 1 was Child A’s strongest
consistently getting the content area. During
minute hand reading math, my students get
correct. a lot of opportunities to
Weaknesses: Child 1 go up to the board to
was struggling with the solve problems. Child A
hour hand. One of the gets really excited to go
clocks read, 6:55 pm, up to the board and
but since the hour solve the problems on
hand was so close to 7, his own.
they wrote, 7:55 pm.

Child 2 January 29 ELA: As you can see, Child 2

Strengths: Child 2 was is a great student who
able to recite key strives to do his best
details and events from everyday in school. He
the beginning, middle, is at or a little bit above
and end of the story. grade level
They did extremely well expectations. One thing
and even used to note about Child 2 is
transition words like, that he participates in
first, next, and then more challenging
Weaknesses: No morning work on his
weaknesses from computer than that of
specific observation his classmates. On
eSpark, a technology
Math: math platform, he was
Strengths: Child 2 got working on equations,
all of the time-telling while his peers were
prompts correct and working on adding,
seemed to understand subtracting, and
the role of the hour regrouping.
hand and minute hand.
Weaknesses: Child 2
was the first one out of
all of his classmates to
finish, so he was left
with nothing to do. It
seems like Child 2
needs more challenging
assignments.
Week 2: February 5 - February 9

Child 1 February 6 ELA: The class had to

break up words into
syllables in their
workbooks (e.g. How
many syllables does the
word magic have? Use
a line to break the word
up into their syllables.
ma|gic) The teacher
went over a few
examples of the board
before having the
students independently
work on the words in
their workbook.

Math: The class was

continuing instruction
for telling time.
Students had to now
draw the specific time
on a blank clock in their
workbooks (e.g. The
time is 8:55 pm. Show
8:55 pm on the clock
above).

ELA:
Strengths: As I After my second
observed Child 1 work observation with Child
in his book, I saw him 1, I know that I am
saying the words out going to need to
loud to break up the differentiate
syllables. He also assessments by giving
clapped to break up the him visuals.
syllables.
Weaknesses: When
analyzing Child 1’s
work, he split up the
word into sounds, not
syllables. For example,
one of the words was
caring. Instead of
 writing car|ing, they
wrote c|a|r|i |ng.

Math:
Strengths: Child 1 was
able to draw the
correct minute hands,
but all of his hour
hands were incorrect.
Weaknesses: He
pointed the hour hand
directly on the hour
time (e.g. Child 1
pointed the hour hand
at 8 for the time 8:35
pm, when he should
have pointed the hour
hand between 7 and 8).

Child 2 February 8 ELA: I see that Child 2 just

Strengths: Child 2 could needs extra practice
divide the majority of with the
words into syllables. vowel/consonant
There were 10 words patterns when working
and he got 3 incorrect. on syllable
He also sounded out identification.
the words and clapped
for syllables.
Weaknesses: Some of
the words were
incorrect because of
incorrect syllable
division. One word he
incorrectly divided was
comet. He divided it
like, co|met. It’s
supposed to be
com|et.

Math: Address the concept of

Strengths: Child 2 the hour hand being
grasped onto the between the two
concept of drawing the numbers when giving
correct time on the support.
clocks, as he got all of
them right in his
workbook.
 Weaknesses: Child 2
needed some
assistance with drawing
out the hour hand. For
a couple of the
problems, he had the
hour hand incorrectly
drawn out, but I
corrected him as he
asked for help.

Week 3: February 12 - February 16

Child 1 February 13 ELA: Students had to

write an opinion piece
using a guided writing
strategy. The worksheet
had a picture of
spaghetti and a picture
of pizza, and the
students had to choose
the one they liked
better and write why
they chose one over
the other. The teacher
wrote on the board, “I
choose pizza
because…” and “I
choose spaghetti
because…” The
students could use that
as a guide, but then
they would have to
write their reason(s) on
their own.

Math: Students were

comparing three-digit
numbers using >,<, or =
in their workbooks.

ELA: It appears that Child 1

Strengths: There were, needs one-on-one
unfortunately, not instruction with an IS or
many strengths in this his teacher for reading
guided writing activity and phonics.
 for Child 1. The only
thing he could do on
his own was circle the
pizza picture. He could
also tell me why he
preferred pizza.
Weaknesses: Child 1
couldn’t even copy the
guided sentence off of
the board. Since this
student can barely
read, I had to help him
spell every word to
finish his opinion
sentence. I tried to
have him sound out
each letter in each
word, but he still
couldn’t spell the
words.

Math: Child 1 could benefit

Strengths: Child 1 could from the “alligator
identify comparisons concept” when
that were equal to each comparing numbers.
other. The alligator eats the
Weaknesses: Child 1 number that is bigger.
clearly didn’t
understand the < or >
symbols because he got
none of those right.
The teacher also had to
continuously tell him to
focus, as he was playing
with his pencils and
drifting off.

Child 2 February 15 ELA: Child 2’s

Strengths: Child 2 was comprehension is
able to use the guided great, but he might just
sentence starter to need extra practice in
begin his opinion spelling and decoding.
sentence and he was
able to finish it on his
own.
Weaknesses: Many of
the words after the
 sentence starter were
incorrectly spelled.

Math:
Strengths: Child 2
labeled all of the
comparisons correctly
and was clearly able to
move on to comparing
four-digit numbers.
Weaknesses: No
weaknesses identified
for this observation.

Week 4: February 19 - February 23

Child 1 February 20 ELA: Students got to

sort words into the
hard c/soft c and hard
g/soft g category.
Students came up to
the board one by one
and the teacher
assigned them two
words to drag into the
correct category.

Math: Students had to Child 1 needs some

write numbers up to sort of fidget/sensory
1,000 using expanded toy for focusing during
form. They came up to instruction time.
a large piece of anchor
chart paper and wrote
a number in expanded
form. Their peers could
help them if needed.

ELA:
Strengths: Child 1 was
able to put his two
words, central and
ghost into the correct
categories (soft c and
hard g).
Weaknesses: If Child 1
had to do this on his
 own from a word bank,
he wouldn’t be able to
read the words.

Math:
Strengths: Child 1 was
able to write the
number he was given,
which was 987, but he
could not write it in
expanded form.
Weaknesses: One of
his peers had to come
help him write the
number in expanded
form. When the
teacher was instructing
about expanded form
before the activity,
Child 1 wasn’t really
paying attention and
was distracted by his
peers.

Child 2 February 22 ELA:

Strengths: Child 2 was
able to read the words
and sort them into
their correct category.
He had the words,
crate and gem.
Weaknesses: No
weaknesses identified
for this observation

Math: It seems like the whole

Strengths: Like Child 1, class was struggling
Child 2 was able to with this concept, so
write his given number, it’s possible that they
which was 976. He all just need more
could not write it in guided practice with
expanded form. the teacher on
Weaknesses: Support expanded form.
from his peers was
needed.

Week 5: February 26 - March 1

Child 1 February 27 ELA: Students worked
in groups to complete a
text feature scavenger
hunt for the story, Just
Like Me, after it was
read aloud. The graphic
organizer included
characters, setting,
plot, problems, and
solutions.

Math: Students had to

subtract three-digit
numbers using
regrouping in their
workbooks.

ELA: It is possible that Child

Strengths: Child 1 was 1 needs a text feature
able to identify the word bank with picture
characters and settings. definitions.
He raised their hand; as
I walked over to him,
he asked me what a
plot was. I tried to help
him understand the
plot of the story, as well
as the problems that
arose during the story.
Weaknesses: Child 1
had to be taken out of
a group to work on his
own because he was
off task and distracting
other groups.

Math:
Strengths: It appeared Child 1 needs a packet
that Child 1 understood with step-by-step
the concept of regrouping instructions
regrouping, but there with examples.
were multiple mistakes
after changing the ones
place to be able to
subtract. One of the
problems was 190-167.
 He understood that he
needed to change the 0
in the ones place to a
10.
Weaknesses: Child 1
didn’t know the next
steps after changing
the ones place to be
able to subtract, so he
needed support with
most of the problems.

Child 2 February 27 ELA: I enjoyed watching

Strengths: Child 2 Child 2 lead his group
acted as the leader of in the right direction.
his group and led his He could be the
group to find all of the designated group
text features in the leader for group work.
story.
Weaknesses: Although
most of the text
features were found,
some of the plot was
missing. A lot of Child
2’s group was
distracting and off task,
as much as Child 2 tried
to be the leader.

Math: Remind Child 2 to

Strengths: Child 2 was change hundreds digit
able to regroup and after borrowing.
subtract very well.
Child 2 got 8/10
problems correct.
Weaknesses: For the
two problems that
Child 2 missed, he
forgot to change the
hundreds place after
borrowing.

SPRING BREAK

Week 7: March 11 - March 15

Child 1 March 12 ELA: Students have to
sort words into the
correct long and short
vowel sound using a file
folder. Students worked
independently to glue
their words under the
long a or short a vowel
sound.

Math: Students had to

find the amount of a
collection of pennies,
nickels, dimes, and
quarters in their
workbooks.

ELA:
Strengths: Child 1 did
this activity really well.
They sorted many of
the words into the
correct category. He
stayed on task and
wasn’t too distracted.
Weaknesses: No
weaknesses identified
for this observation.

Math: Child 1 needs a visual

Strengths: Child 1 for what each coin
understood the values represents.
of pennies and
quarters.
Weaknesses: Child 1
got confused because
nickels are bigger than
dimes, but are a
smaller amount than
dimes. Most of his
answers were incorrect
because of this.

Child 2 March 14 ELA:

Strengths: Child 2 got
all of his word sort
correct. He seemed to
understand the
difference between the
vowel sounds in, for
example, cat and cape.
Weaknesses: No
weaknesses identified
for this observation.

Math: Child 2 could be given

Strengths: Child 2 an extra sheet of paper
excelled in this activity, to show his work.
too. He understood the
amount of pennies,
nickels, dimes, and
quarters. His adding
was a bit off on some
of the problems.
Weaknesses: The
teacher had to remind
him to check his adding
on some of the
problems. It seemed
like he used mental
math on some of them
and made mistakes
that could have been
prevented by just
showing his work.