Thick Description 2

Gabby is a 3rd grade student that struggles with fluency and comprehension. She is in a SRA decoding group with six other third graders. The group occurs during Eagle Intervention time (1:30-2), which is our school wide intervention block. All students in the school receive a reading intervention during this 30 min block.

Gabby is the first to enter. She sits down at the kidney shaped table in the chair closest to me. Gabby asks three questions before I have a chance to respond. She asks if she can help me with something, wants to know where our high school helper is, and then asks what we are doing today. She is very energetic and doesn't pause between questions. She doesn't seem to notice or care that I haven't responded. The group has just left recess and students come in one by one. We are supposed to start at 1:30. At 1:34 all students are settled and ready to begin the lesson. Gabby asks another question after the students arrive. Again she asks, "What are we doing today?" I respond this time and let the group know we will be completing a written probe. Gabby gets distracted by the snow while I am talking and doesn't seem to listen.
 (The writing probes are part of the district RTI requirements. All students in tier 3 for reading are also monitored in written expression. The data is used if students are referred to special education)

I hand out the writing notebooks and have students turn to the next uncompleted sentence starter. Gabby asks to read the prompt aloud. She laughs after finishing.
The prompt: Toby and his friends were walking through their neighborhood. They passed a yellow dog that first began to talk to them and then...
Gabby really seems to like the prompt and is eager to begin. I create a model for the students and remind them of the expectations to write 5 complete sentences using correct punctuation, capitalization and grammar. Students are then asked to think about what they want to write for one minute. After thinking, I ask students to begin writing. I start the timer for five minutes.
Gabby and the other students begin writing. Gabby writes for the entire five minutes and is engaged for the entire time. When the timer goes off she asks to complete the sentence she has started. I give the students a few more seconds. Gabby asks to read her story aloud to the class. She has never asked to share in the past. Her spelling is correct and their are few punctuation errors. Gabby has written an entire page, which is much more than she typically writes. She reads her own story with expression and fluency. I am not sure if the positive and engaged behavior is due to her interests in dogs or the humor in the unrealistic sentence starter. Her story is funny and clearly expresses her ideas. The other students clap and laugh at the end. Another student then asks to share her story. Gabby doesn't seem to be paying attention to the reading. She is looking at her own paper and smiling while the other student reads. When the student is finished, Gabby looks up and starts clapping.

Gabby was distracted when the attention wasn't on her, but appeared engaged during the writing.

Observation Notes