Jill is a motivated learner and is engaged through mystery, adventure and fantasy. She enjoys writing and learning about new things; I have had a great time working with her. Jill has taught me a lot about how to facilitate the literacy growth of young budding writers and readers.
As I have mentioned before, Jill has expressed to me that she considers herself to be a “slow reader and writer,” she has also mentioned to me that sometimes while reading she “gets lost” in the words. I am not sure what it means when she says that she gets lost in the words, but I can summarize that because she sometimes gets lost, she reads slower to make sure that she catches all the words.
Interestingly enough, after I gave Jill the grade four reading fluency test, according to the Hasbrouck and Tindal Oral Reading Fluency Data, her performance in fluency (and speed) was right where it should be for the fourth grade winter months; she had a score of 114 WCPM. The reading that I had Jill recite was a narrative about Amelia Earhart. My goal from her reading this narrative was to see what her reading fluency was and also to see where her level of comprehension was. Though her fluency was age appropriate, her comprehension according to the retelling questions I asked of her that were either implicit or explicit, told me that she was in the frustration level of comprehension. Because fluency can be a predictor of comprehension, and her fluency rate was fine, I would like to see Jill read another four grade story, so I can retest her fluency in contrast to her comprehension.
Since I have begun working with Jill, I have collected a few pieces of information into her reading and writing abilities. I know that in relation spelling, Jill would benefit from working on digraphs and blends, long vowel patterns, and other vowel patterns. As a result Jill would fall into the writing stage of Transitional and the spelling stage of Within Word Patterns. As a result, being in the transitional stage of writing, and based on these predictors, I believe Jill is approaching fluency in reading and writing and she would benefit from work on her spelling, specifically long vowels with the aim that through knowing the correct spelling of words, the correct pronunciation of these words will also occur.
Therefore, I would like to encourage Jill to read books a little lower than her tested ability, to help increase her fluency as well as her comprehension.
Quirk,
ReplyDeleteYou said that your buddy's fluency seems to be just fine but that she has problems with comprehension and "gets lost in the words." With the questions that you used afterwards, was it just implicit or just explicit questions she had a hard time with? Is there a way that you can get her to better explain what she means when she says she gets lost? Is it that she is concentrating on getting the words right, or she is having trouble understanding individual words? One thing we did with our buddy was to have her read another 4th grade passage silently and then check her comprehension. We did this so we could rule out the possibility that she was not comprehending because she was reading aloud, as was mentioned by some people in class. Does she tend to reread? That could possibly be a skill you could work on with her if she is not understanding.
It sounds like Jill is blossoming into a wonderful reader. You mentioned her fluency level to be grade level appropriate, but you have some worries about her comprehension. Did she know you were timing her? I wonder if she was reading faster than she normally would because she knew you were timing her, causing her to get a lower comprehension score. I am curious as to what she means when she "gets lost" in the words. I like Gertie's idea mentioned above about have her read the passage silently and answer the questions again. I idea of having to read out loud may also affect her ability to comprehend the material.
ReplyDeleteIt is great to see you really getting to know your student as a reader and a writer! The more you work with her, the more you are able to try and pinpoint where she needs the most work.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Tessa said wanting to know what your buddy means when she "gets lost" in the words. Did you have an opportunity to ask her explain?
I do wonder why your buddy thinks she is a slow reader. Who is she commparing herself with? (Or who is comparing her.) If she is comparing herself with my buddy, then she might feel that way. (I am a slow reader compared to my buddy.) But, does she realize that if you are a fast reader that it doesn't mean that you are a good reader? It also sounds like she isn't confident in her reading abilities.
One of the things I've learned about teaching reading is to give students a compliment. Tell them what they do really well. We do this in my main placement and we start with a compliment and then will tell them (or they will come up with) a reading goal. Have you tried this with your buddy to build up her confidence?
Hello All,
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the wonderful comments! As for the question regarding what my buddy means when she gets "lost" in the words, I am not positive but she told me that sometimes when she reads she loses her place in a sentence and as a result has a hard time finding where she got lost. Due to the fact that I am not sure what is happening when she gets "lost" I am not sure what strategies I could assist her with that would help. Any ideas?
Self monitoring? Fix up strategies to help repair meaning when she gets lost? I wonder if there are connections between your buddy and the Tovani text...
ReplyDelete