Literacy Update: Moving from Assessment to Instruction

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. 

Math Blog 4

1.  What did I learn?

Class today began with an overview of creating a lesson plan. From this discussion I picked up some key ideas that I appreciated.  The first was that when planning a lesson always make sure that the objective is measurable; if the objective is not measurable it can be extremely hard to know whether or not the students have learned anything.  The second idea was that through planning a unit in mathematics it is helpful to follow these tips; take problems out of the text book that are not required as homework and use them on a test, create your final test first and work backwards based on what you want your students to know, and make sure to always do the homework problems that your students do.  I also enjoyed the ideas shared from the book called “What’s Math Got to DO With It.”  One of the ideas from this book states that students are motivated by their intrinsic success, or in other words when they feel successful. Therefore, as a math teacher it is incredibly important that I set up my students for success and help facilitate their own learning while doing my best to explain the same problems in multiple ways because no learner will be the same. 

2.  What do I still have questions about?

After class, I was left feeling overwhelmed at the task at hand.  I have many questions regarding how I will ever learn teacher strategies to all the concepts that my students need to know.  Fortunately I am learning that I will not know everything right away and my learning as a teacher will be a climb, therefore my goal will be to not become discouraged and frustrated at the challenge and instead take every challenge as a learning opportunity to improve myself as a teacher.

3.  What are the implications for classroom practice?

The implications these ideas will have on me as a teacher will be huge.  I understand that as a new teacher I am going to be at a disadvantage over any teacher who has taught before based solely on fact that I lack experience, but I have to remember to put it into perspective and to think back upon how far I have become since last spring and the leaps and bounds I have made since then.  I have accepted that I will be a life longer learner as well as a lifelong student and I believe in myself.   

Writing Analysis Update

First I want to thank everyone for their thoughtful as well as helpful comments.   I have spent a lot of time thinking about the questions that were brought about regarding my choice of lesson plan, and based on the rough draft that I had of Jill’s work, I felt that paragraphs and run-on sentences were a real issue in her writing.

The interesting thing about this student was that her final draft was actually edited and typed by her teacher, which I found surprising.  I had my buddy read out loud her final draft to me, while I followed along on her first draft and I had a hard time following because the final draft was so different.  Initially, I was not aware that her teacher had typed her final draft, but when Jill was reading the last paragraph she fumbled with the words because the teacher had used the wrong name in the story.   At this point I realized that my buddy had not even read her final draft, in addition to not having the opportunity to create a final draft.  Jill told me it was because she was a slow writer and that it would have taken her too long to publish. 

Therefore when analyzing my buddies work, I felt that her writing could use some help regarding editing, and focusing ideas.   This made me think about paragraphs, but I feel that I could even go further and begin with sentence structure like Tess mentioned.   But my goal is that through working on creating a strong paragraph my student will also practice sentence structure.  Jill is very sharp and can comprehend really well, even though her reading and writing skills are fairly low, therefore I am thinking that working on paragraphing, sentence structure will also be gained through this activity. 

As for spelling, I really struggled with whether or not I should focus my lesson plan there, but I decided that both spelling and paragraphing were places that she needs help with, and I was more inclined to work with paragraphs than spelling.  I based this decision on what my buddy told me about the words she misspells or misreads, she is not familiar with those words, and they are not in her vocabulary. 

I have decided to maintain my original lesson plan, but I hope emphasize the concept of sentence structure into the lesson as well. 

Math Blog 3

1.  What did I learn?

In class today, our groups finished our GapMinder data tables and placed them on display for the class to see.  GapMinder is a virtual program that contains data on various things from around the world.   As a group, we each choose data to represent a story and then worked to compile a visual that would represent that story.  The purpose of this assignment was made very clear at the end of class when we debriefed about what we gained from this activity.  The end result was as follows: people construct data differently and people present information differently.  The lesson learned is that as a teacher it is very important to clearly present; just because it makes sense to you does not mean that it makes sense to everyone else.   

2.  What do I still have questions about?

When group members have completely different outlooks for presenting something visual, how do you help to facilitate the situation so that both views are included? Or can they?

3.  What are the implications for classroom practice?

The implication for the classroom is that required knowledge can be learned and taught in fun, interactive ways.  As a class we were given the lesson of producing a story through a data table; what the story was was left to our own interests.  This gave us, the students the ability to take our own interests and incorporate it into what the teacher wanted us to know.  Giving the student choice in their learning can be a very powerful tool. 

Analysis of Student Writing and Lesson Plan

Analysis of Student Writing and Lesson Plan

Part 1: Analysis

This analysis is based on one piece of writing from my 4^th grade buddy (which I will give the pseudo name Jill) , one 25 word spelling inventory, and an informal reading conference. 

Meaning:

                The piece of writing that my 4^th grade buddy shared with me is a short story called “Blabbing Max.”  The story is fictional, but based off of real events in her life.  The idea for this story was prompted by the teacher whom introduced several optional ideas to write about; Jill chose the writing prompt, “When Pets Can Talk.”  Within Jill’s story, Max is the main character and also her pet; Max loves to eat.  One morning Max wakes up talking, but only to Jill.  Max tells Jill he is hungry and excited to eat breakfast.  The plot thickens when Max decides to take a nap to waste time until Jill’s mom gets home, but ends up sleeping through the night.  When Max wakes up, it is morning and he is hungry and no longer can talk.  This story is a fun and lovable interpretation of what Jill’s dog experiences throughout the day. 

                Within Jill’s writing is it obvious that Max is a well loved family member.  There is a deep connection between Max and the author; the interactions that take place in her story reinforce what Jill told me about her relationship with her dog, that Max is her best friend. 

The 6 Traits of Writing:

Ideas: 

When looking at Jill’s ideas within her writing, everything seems as important as everything else; I had a hard time sifting out what was important.  In addition support was attempted, but Jill didn’t go far enough in describing the key issues.  Here is an example of this:

Ex: Instead of chasing for the blue jay he stared rolling in the flowers and finally he went to the bathroom.  He went in the flufy flower and the bushy bushes when was done he pranced on the window and put his mudy paws on the window because he steped in a mud pudel.   

Organization:

In terms of organization, Jill had a hard time making connections between ideas.  Therefore the sequencing of her story shows some logic, but not under control enough that it consistently supports the development of ideas.  Here is an example that supports this:

Ex: When Max whent to bed he woke up to eat agin. I stared to star at him. I was hoping he would not see me. But just then he turned around and he cout me looking at him quckly.  Max went to his bed and dragged it to me . 

Voice:

Jill has written a story with a sense of purpose, but needs to work on selecting content and structures that reflect it. Here is an example of her voice:

Ex: I feel on the flor.  Max pranced and yelled in my ear, saying “Get up lazy head.” I said ok Scardly. I thought this was a dream. So I pinched my self and I said that hurt really bad.

Word Choice:

Within Jill’s story, she typically used familiar words and phrases to write her story. At times word choice appears to have developed from the first thing that popped into her head.  Here is an example of word choice used in Jill’s story.

Ex: He was done before you’d know it he ran out of breth he was thirsty and he was really really tyerd so he got a drink of water.

Sentence Fluency:

Jill’s phrasing of sentences does not sound natural; she needs to work on run-on sentences and the word choice in which she begins her sentences; many of the sentences in Jill’s story beings the same way, with an “I” or an “after.”

Conventions:

Jill’s story contains spelling that is usually correct or reasonably phonetic on common words, but more difficult words are problematic.  Her story also contains missing paragraphing as a result it becomes difficult to follow the structure of the text. Here is an example of commonly misspelled words:

Ex:  screming, racoona, agin, quckly, flor, feelt, and feel (instead of fell).

Ownership of writing:

After speaking to Jill about her writing, I know that she enjoyed writing about her dog Max. When I asked her about how she felt about her writing she responded that she “is a slow writer.”  I told her that speed does not matter and I pointed out to her the amount of pages she had written in her short story; she had written 6 whole pages!  She started to smile and told me that when she took her story home to finish, she worked on it for a long time, she only stopped when her wrist began to hurt from holding the pencil.  I have yet to get a good understanding of how Jill feels about herself as a writer, but I fear that because she thinks that she is slow at writing her confidence as a writer might be affected negatively.

Spelling:

During my first meeting with Jill, I administered a spelling inventory.  The inventory contained 25 words beginning with sight words and moved up to more challenging words; the score that Jill received was 11/24.   Jill seemed nervous when I told her we were going to take a spelling test, but I explained to her the purpose and she seemed to relax a little.  After analyzing the words misspelled, 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.  Being in the transitional stage of writing, 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. 

Lesson Plan: Writing a Paragraph

Objective:

Student will be able to define a paragraph including the proper parts and structure.

Student will be able to write a paragraph that includes a main idea and topic. 

Standards:

EALR: 3. The student writes clearly and effectively.

Component 3.1 Develops ideas and organizes writing.

3.1.2 Organizes writing using a logical organizational structure.

Materials:

Pencil

Paper

Paper with paragraph definition and paragraph rules.

Instructional strategies:

-Begin by talking about what a paragraph is; asking what is a paragraph? and what pieces of information need to be in a paragraph?

-Introduce the definition of a paragraph: A paragraph is a group of sentences that tell one idea. Then I will introduce a sheet that contains the rules of the paragraph, we will talk about each rule and what it means.

-Paragraph rules are as follows:

·         Indent the first word in a paragraph (start the first word of the paragraph a little to the right of the left-hand margin.

·         Start a paragraph with a topic sentence, which states the main idea of that paragraph.

·         Any time you begin writing about a new idea, begin a new paragraph.

·         Paragraphs answer questions about a certain topic

-I will introduce an example paragraph and talk about how it follows the four rules of a paragraph.

Example Paragraph:

 (indent) → Skiing is a sport enjoyed by many people. One kind of skiing is called downhill skiing. Skiers ride up a ski mountain on a chairlift or gondola. Then they ski down the mountain on ski runs and start over again on a chairlift.

(new idea) → Another type of skiing is called cross-country skiing. Skiers begin skiing on flat ground and continue gliding their skis through the backcountry. They don't need a chairlift to take them up a mountain. They stay on a trail or make their own trail in the snow.

I will work with the student to write a paragraph describing their favorite animal. She will use 3-5 sentences in her paragraph. I will emphasize the importance of making sure the sentences stay on the subject of their topic sentence.

Assessment: 

Teacher will assess whether the student was able to define a paragraph including the proper parts and structure by checking her 3-5 sentence paragraph looking for a paragraph that includes a main idea and topic and follows the four paragraph rules. 

Apps in the Class

The classroom that I am student teaching in has a range of abilities; the range of ability levels is what I feel would be comparable to most classes within the general Seattle area.  Recently, I have received an IPod Touch from the University of Washington Bothell to use with students to help differentiate instruction in the classroom.  I have personally owned an IPhone since their first generation, and I am very comfortable with the ability of functions that this form of technology contains.  I learned early all about the educational value that IPhones or IPod Touches contain from my son.  My son just turned four and is a complete wiz using all the applications this technology offers.  I began purchasing letter games and virtual story books when he was younger, and now he uses different phonics reading games as well as puzzles.  Therefore when I considered ways to use this piece of technology in the classroom, I thought of three particular ways that would be helpful in my 5^th grade class:

1.       Working with kids with special needs.  The Itouch contains a stop clock, some students with special needs are very particular to time and need timers to help them transition into the next activity.  The Itouch has a stopwatch feature that is very easy to use; the student could even start it themselves.  (This feature could also be used in whole class instruction when students are given a specific amount of time to individually or pair-share).

2.      Working with students whom need extensions.  For this example I am thinking about a student very strong in math, if he was to finish early he could use the Itouch to graph date tables from data he collected in class.  We are currently working with stem and leaf plots and it would neat to allow this student the ability to take that information further and input the data into the graphing calculator application, allowing him the ability to see the data being graphed in multiple ways. 

3.      Working with students whom need a little more practice with their math facts.  There are a few students whom need a little more practice with their basic facts.  So to help them move from the counting stage to the recall stage, practicing these problems would help.  There is an application called Math Drills that offers students extra practice with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  The app offers a review section and a practice session.  The review section is really nice because it uses a number line to visually show how 3+5= 8!

As the needs of my students become more apparent to me, I know I will discover many more helpful ways to utilize the Itouch in the classroom. 

Week 2 Blog

1.  What did I learn?

I was able to take a lot of useful ideas from the assigned reading for class; the reading was titled “Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say.” This is an article written by a practicing teacher regarding what she has learned, and seen to work, when teaching children.  The main idea realized by this teacher was that by merely telling students the answer or showing them short-cuts, students don’t learn; therefore she believes that real learning occurs when students are able explain and make sense of their own ideas.  One quote that I really liked from this articles states, “my definition of a good teacher has changed from ‘one who explains things so well that students understand’ to ‘one who gets students to explain things so well that they can be understood.”  I have interpreted this to mean that students need the opportunity to explore and discover the answers themselves allowing them to actively think and become engaged; students are able to help each other and share their thinking to one another.    

2.  What do I still have questions about?

When students are exposed to new ideas or concept, shouldn’t the teacher model different strategies in the beginning to help them get started?

3.  What are the implications for classroom practice?

The largest implication this methodology would have on the classroom would be that the focus would be taken from the teacher and placed onto the students.  The teacher would help facilitate their learning by asking them the best possible questions and encourage students to listen to fellow classmates for strategies.