Final Reflection

Purpose:
The purpose of this semester was to learn how to teach different strategies to help students become better readers. I had to learn what my students' needs are through different types of assessments and help her become stronger in areas in which she struggles. I did assessments including interest and motivational survey. From these, I learned that she enjoys free reading, especially graphic novels. She also loves going to the library and finding new books. She does not like reading aloud in class, though. I was able to determine my student needs most help with vocabulary and spelling. The assessments I used to gather that information was the initial spelling test, running records, and talking with her as she read a loud to me. Her vocabulary does not affect her comprehension or fluency at all, so it took a few times for it to click that that is what she needs help with. Both word sorts and vocabulary activities really helped her and by the end she was able to use some of the strategies we worked on without me having to prompt her. 

Recommendations:
Two recommendations for classroom teacher:
1. I would continue assessing her with running records to see what her frustration level is. 
2. I would also have her continue to work on some vocabulary strategies. This could include providing vocabulary flash cards, while reading aloud pointing out a few words and describe the meaning, have a graphic organizer for students to write new vocal words that they can reference back to, etc. 

Two recommendations for home involvement:
1. Work on vocabulary in daily lives. This could include parents trying to use words they don't usually use and then explain it to the child. (Make it an activity... Parent first provides a child friendly definition, use an example of how it would be in their daily lives, third have the student make up their own example, and lastly keep the word active in the house). 
2. Read before bed every night. As the child comes across vocabulary they don't know, discuss. Do the same activity above, but with the vocab straight from the book. Continue using those words in your daily lives. 

What I Learned:
From this case study, I learned that there are so many different ways to assess different reading skills. I also learned how important word studies can be for students and how much it can benefit them. There are many different ways to do word studies with the same set of words so it keeps it fun and interesting for the kids. I also learned that I need to always push my students so they can reach their full potential. If they act like it is hard or they can't do it at first, tell them to keep trying. My student did this the first lesson or two and by the end I realized she needed to be pushed way harder than I was pushing her. I never got her to reach that frustrational level and that is something they need to be at. As a teacher, I learned a lot of things. First being time management. Only having thirty minutes to work with my student (and being a regular classroom teacher I know it will be much less than that) made me realize that I need to get to work right away so we could get everything accomplished in that amount of time. Another important thing I learned was to teach student prompts they can use to decode words when reading individually. My students biggest downfall was not having a wide enough vocabulary, but if she had prompts/strategies to use when reading by herself, she would be awesome. Making an anchor chart or book marks for the students to have while reading with prompts on them would be super helpful. This was an amazing learning experience and I am excited to use what I have learned in this class in my future classroom. 

-Ms. A

Lesson 6

Objective: Good readers know that spelling patterns are important to decode words and can sort words with the –tion and -ize endings. Good readers use resources to increase vocabulary and gain deeper understanding by using context clues.

Assessment: Word Sort, running record (retell), Vocab Worksheet

Procedures

Welcome:

Opening: Today we’re going to start out by doing a word sort. We will then read a text called “Samson: A Horse Story”. I will do a running record on you during the first part of the book. We will then continue to read it to work on some vocabulary by doing a word study worksheet.

Purpose: The purpose of the word study is to help you easily recognize the –tion and –ize endings to easily use them as a spelling/reading strategy. The purpose of reading a new text is to work on vocabulary you may not know. You will learn different word study strategies to help you learn figure out unknown vocabulary.

Steps for first objective: Word Sort

My student and I will be sorting words that focus on harder suffixes. Last week she did a closed sort with them so this week she will be doing an open sort with unknown categories.

Steps for second objective: Running Record

I will be giving my student a running record to assess her reading, fluency, and comprehension.

Steps for third objective: Vocab

My student and I will continue to read the text I used for the running record. We will circle the words she stumbles upon. After we finish reading the text we will choose one word she circled and talk about the using clues in the text and prior knowledge to determine what it means.

Closure:

Thanks for working so hard with me. What did you learn about using clues and prior knowledge to determine unknown vocabulary? How can it help you become a better reader?

Reflection on Student:
My student continues to do very well with the items I bring for us to do. The word sort threw her off at first because I didn't give her categories, but after she read the first couple words she figured it out and got them all correct. During the running record, she only made one mistake. This was a level U book and I was told she was at a level Q before we started working together so she is doing awesome. If I was continuing working with her I would move her up two more levels the next time so I could pinpoint that frustration level. Because this book was on the easier side for her, she didn't have many words she didn't know. She only circled two so she chose "trough" to study. She was able to reread the sentence before and after to figure out what the word mean (a skill we worked on last time). She struggled with what part of speech the word was but ended up getting it correct when I reminded her a noun was a person place or thing. 

What I Learned About Myself:
Today reinforced that in my future I need to make sure I am challenging my students at all times. She did really well with all of this stuff, but she didn't really learn anything new that will help her in the future. Although, she did use a skill we worked on last week for vocabulary which I was proud of. Today was my last day with her and she was so sweet. She got me a gift which included a letter, a Christmas ornament that says "World's Best Teacher", some candy, and a picture of her in a little frame. It was so sweet. I am including a picture of the letter she wrote me below, it really made me realize how big of an impact I am able to have on my students. My heart was very happy.

-Ms. A

Lesson 5

Objective: Good readers know that spelling patterns are important to decode words and can sort words with the –tion and -ize endings. Good readers use resources to increase vocabulary and gain deeper understanding by using context clues.

Assessment: Word Sort, running record (retell), Vocab Worksheet

Procedures

Welcome:

Opening: Today we’re going to start out by doing a word sort. We will then read a text called “Sally’s Secret Ambition”. I will do a running record on you during the first part of the book. We will then continue to read it to work on some vocabulary by doing a word study worksheet.

Purpose: The purpose of the word study is to help you easily recognize the –tion and –ize endings to easily use them as a spelling/reading strategy. The purpose of reading a new text is to work on vocabulary you may not know. You will learn some inferencing skills to figure out what they mean.

Steps for first objective: Word Sort

My student and I will be sorting words that focus on harder suffixes. I have moved her up a level so this is the first time she will be seeing this list of words, but she has done a word sort before. So I will give her a stack of words and categories, but she will have to decide where they go without an example.  

Steps for second objective: Running Record

I will be giving my student a running record to assess her reading, fluency, and comprehension.

Steps for third objective: Vocab

My student and I will continue to read the text I used for the running record. We will circle the words she stumbles upon. After we finish reading the text we will talk about clues/evidence, shema, and inferencing, and how it all will help her figure out the meaning of a word.

Closure:

Thanks for working so hard with me. What did you learn about using inferencing with new vocabulary? Hw can it help you become a better reader?

Reflection on Student:
My student is continuing to impress me each time I meet with her. We started out with the word sort and she did awesome with this. I moved her up a level from the last word sort we did and she did really well. The only word that tripped her up was "organization". We were studying -ize and -tion so she thought it went with both of them. I had to explain that she needed to look at just the endings and then she knew it went in the -tion category. After the word sort we started reading a story called Sally's Secret Ambition. I did a running record on her in the beginning. She did really well with this. I moved her up to a T level and she only had one error. She also was able to retell all of the text. After the running record we continued reading the story to study some vocabulary. She circled about five words that tripped her up and i had her choose just one to do a worksheet on this week. She chose "ambition". We worked on inferring so she wrote down some clues/evidence from the story, wrote down schema she already had, and her inference of the word. In the beginning she could not use the clues in the text to help her so we really had to work hard on that. She finally understood the clues and inferred correctly. This is something we will work on next week. 

What I've Learned About Myself:

The biggest thing today has taught me is to always make sure I am challenging the student. It seems like a lot of the things we've done has been pretty easy to her. This is hard to judge how much harder of work to give her since I only meet with her 30 minutes twice a week, but in the future I need to make sure I am appropriately challenging my students. Also, it surprised me that she had a hard time using the clues and evidence from the story because she has such good comprehension. I always need to be making sure I'm assessing even the easy skills to be sure they are able to fully understand the text. 

-Ms. A

Lesson 4

Objective: Good readers know that spelling patterns are important to decode words and can sort words with the oi, oy, ow, and ou sounds. Good readers use resources to increase vocabulary and gain deeper understanding by using context clues.

Assessment: Word Sort, running record (retell), Vocab Worksheet

Procedures

Welcome:

Opening: Today we’re going to start out by doing a word sort. We will then read a text called “Wooley and Fang”. I will do a running record on you during the first part of the book. We will then continue to read it to work on some vocabulary.

Purpose: The purpose of the word study is to help you easily recognize the oi, oy, ow, and ou sounds to easily use them as a spelling/reading strategy. The purpose of reading a new text is to work on vocabulary you may not know. You will learn some context clues to figure out what they mean.

Steps for first objective: Word Sort

My student and I will be sorting words that focus on diphthongs. This will be the third time we study these so we will be playing memory with the words. I will have to words spread out and she will have to pick one up, read it, pick another one up, read that and see if they match. If they don’t she will put them back down and pick again until she has all matches.

Steps for second objective: Running Record

I will be giving my student a running record to assess her reading, fluency, and comprehension.

Steps for third objective: Vocab

My student and I will continue to read the text I used for the running record. We will talk about words she stumbles upon and we will fill a worksheet out on two words she thinks is tricky.

Closure:

Thanks for working so hard with me. What did you learn about using your context clues with new vocabulary? How can it help you become a better reader?

Reflection on Student:
I tried to bring some harder material for Lily today and she still did awesome with it. We started out by playing Memory with the words and that went by really quickly. We then moved on to the running record. I chose a non fiction story about the Ice Age and she seemed to really enjoy it. The first running record I did with her was a level Q and this time i moved her to a level S. She only made 4 mistakes during the assessment so had a 97% accuracy rate. She was able to retell what she read perfectly. Next time we meet I am going to try to move her up another level and see how that goes. After this we continued to read the book. When she came to a word that she didn't know the definition of, I had her stop and circle it. We only got to page 14 out of 24 because we were running out of time and I wanted to work on the vocabulary with her. We talked about what context clues meant and how she could use the while she's reading to help her understand the text a little better. I taught her four different types of context clues and she was able to look at the sentences of the words she circled and figure out what it meant and decide what type of context clue it was. After we finished that, it was time for her to go back to her classroom. I asked her my closing questions and asked if she had any other questions about what we talked about. She looked at me really worried and asked what happens to the wooly mammoth in the story we read because we didn't get to finish it. I gave her the book to take back to her classroom and read. I was so excited that she was so intrigued by what we were doing!

What I've Learned About Myself:
As she was reading her story aloud and we were working on vocabulary, I figured out it was hard for me to not just tell her what it means. I hadn't realized I was doing this so much before today. Using prompts to help a reader figure out the word they are stuck on instead of just telling them is so helpful. When she reads by herself she won't have me there over her shoulder to tell her the word, but she will have those skills in her brain to decode the word by herself. I would like to keep practicing some different prompt so this becomes an automatic skill with her. 

-Ms. A

Lesson 3

Objective: Good readers know that spelling patterns are important to decode words and can sort words with the oi, oy, ow, and ou sounds. Good readers can re-read the same text multiple times to gain a deeper understanding of the author’s message.

Assessment: Word Sort, kids write on their copy of the poem; using underlines, boxes, notes, etc. and answer questions to demonstrate understanding.

Procedures

Welcome:

Opening: Today we’re going to start out by doing a word sort. We will then read a poem called, “The Spider and the Fly” a few times to see if we can understand the author’s message for a reader. Good readers can re-read text to gain a deeper understanding.

Purpose: The purpose of the word study is to help you easily recognize the oi, oy, ow, and ou sounds to easily use them as a spelling/reading strategy. (The purpose for the poem is under each reading below).

Steps for first objective: Word Sort

My student and I will be sorting words that focus on diphthongs. This will be the second time we study these so I will be doing a blind sort with given categories. I will have the words flipped upside down and she will point to a card. I will pick the card up and read the word to her; her job will be to spell the word on her paper under the correct category.

Steps for second objective: Poem

Reading 1-

Purpose: What is this poem mainly about?

Questions:

1. How would you describe the fly? How would you describe the spider?

2. What character traits does the author want you to associate with the fly? What about the spider?

3. What happened to the fly? Why? Text evidence.

Reading 2-

Purpose: How is the poem structured or organize?

Questions:

1. What words in the poem indicate the tone the author was trying to use? Circle some.

2. How might the poem be different if the spider was the narrator?

3. How might the poem be different if the fly was the narrator?

Reading 3-

Purpose: What does the text mean? What was the author’s purpose?

Questions:

1. What lesson can you learn from the spider?

2. What lesson can you learn from the fly?

3. Have you ever seen or experienced a situation like this one in the poem?

Closure:

Thanks for working so hard with me. What did you learn about reading one text multiple times? Did this method help you? 

Reflection on Student: 

In this lesson, we did a blind sort to start out with. Lily did awesome with this! She only put one word in the wrong category and at the end I asked her to think about that one a little harder and she put it in the correct category. After our word study, we practiced closed reading. I told her the objective and explained that when you read a text more than one time you discover new things about the text and you have a better understanding each time you read it. For this close reading Lily read the poem The Spider and the Fly by Mary Hewitt. I chose a harder poem because I really wanted to challenge her. As she was reading through it the first time she was really stumbling over her words and lacking expression. I thought that she didn’t comprehend it at all. But after she finished she said "aww, poor fly" without any prompting. It kind of caught me off guard; I wasn't expecting her to understand the fly had died. But I asked her a few questions about what the poem was overall about and she answered them all correctly. She was able to describe each of the characters as well. We then went back through and read it again. I told her to really focus on what tone the author was using. After we finished reading it the second time, I had her circle some words that she though set the tone. She did awesome with this as well, she was able to tell me the tone was dark and mysterious and then go right to the text and circle the words that told her that. After that, we read it a third and final time. This time we talked about the authors purpose. She was able to connect the poem to not talking to strangers. She said if the fly wouldn't have talked to the spider, he might still be alive. That's just like what her mom taught her, if you talk to someone you don't know or if they ask you to get in the car with them, they might hurt you. She also told me she had a connection; how she watched a spider kill a fly in her basement before. Lily did awesome today, I was very happy with where she is. Next time we meet I am going to try to challenge her a little more. 

What I've Learned About Myself:

I learned that it is important to do word studies with the kids. It can make huge improvements in little amount of time. Being able to recognize spelling patterns is so important when it comes to reading, writing, and spelling. It can make all of those things so much easier for them if they use those as strategies. 

-Ms. A