Overall, listening to the students take the running record and answer comprehension questions after, I think the student did pretty well. The student got a 97% for the accuracy rate, a ratio of 1:33 for the error rate, and a ratio of 1:2 for the self-correction rate. This information shows that the students made few mistakes, and many of the mistakes made were self-corrected. The student was able to answer questions like what was the story about, what are some differences, and what are some similarities? This means that the student did well in both word decoding and in reading comprehension. However, I noticed that some of the mistakes that the student did make involved substituting a word similar in terms of structure than the word on the page. Some examples include: “most” instead of “must”, “they” instead of “through”, “both” instead of “blow”, and “lived” instead of “live”. I believe that the student made these mistakes because of a focus in fluency in reading rather than accuracy. Perhaps if the student read a bit slower and concentrated on each word better, there would have been less errors. Therefore, I prepared a mini lesson to help students achieve this goal.

Learning Standards:

ü  Students will learn to improve their accuracy in reading, by focusing on each word.

Learning Outcome:

ü  Students’ accuracy rate in reading words that they already know how to read will improve.

Learning Task:

ü  First students will be given twenty flash cards with one word on each card.

ü  Students will work with a peer by taking turns reading what is says on the card and the other student double checking to see that the student said the correct word.

ü  Next, students will be given ten papers, each filled with many similar words.

ü  Students will be instructed to find a word, in which there will only be one of on the paper even though the rest of the words will look quite similar.

ü  Students will work with a peer taking turns and checking with each other to make sure that they got the correct word.

ü  In both these activities, there is no time limit, it is not a race; students can take how ever long they need to come up with an answer.

Assessment:

ü  The teacher will then read a few pages on a book with each students individually to see if this activity helped them focus more on each word by noticing if their accuracy rate went up.

Running Record
(I used a 4th grade girl for the running record not the video which was provided therefore, do not be concerned if your evaluation is different than mine.)

Student's strengths and weaknesses:
The student I worked with did pretty well on the running record based on the reading, "Whales and Fish." She had to repeat some words a few timed until she mastered them. I think that this is a good sign, because it means that she realized she is having difficulty and tried to figure it out herself without asking me to give her answers. I can see that she is determined to read well. Some of her difficulties included combinations like the word "Whale," the combination of "Wh." It also seems that she does not yet know how to pronounce the "Ough" combination. Overall, her decoding of the words in the passage was good with some errors, most of which she self-corrected.

Week 3, Assignment #1

There is much to discuss after watching the video on assessment-driven instruction. The activity Ms. Perez does engages students who are at different levels of literacy development because the class reads together and the class can learn from each other in the process. When a student gets stuck and tries to problem solve, Ms. Perez supports it by saying, “I love the way you are trying.” This motivates the child to keep trying until they get it. Shared reading can be used to promote literacy because a phonics lesson can be pulled out of it for example. Ms. Perez finds it important for her students to verbalize their strategies for reading because the more a child verbalizes, the more he/she internalizes. She also helps students build meaning in text by asking them questions on what they are reading. Ms. Perez has all kinds of different activities going on in her classroom to support the wide range of learners that she has like shared reading, guided reading, reading with a student teacher, and other fun activities. Ms. Perez connects reading and writing in her classroom constantly an example of this is that after two of the students read a book on bugs they tool notes while reading and then created their own book! Ms. Perez uses ongoing individual assessment to guide her instruction by assessing each student within the first two weeks of school then again in December, March, and June. She has the student read a book while she evaluates their reading level. The class profile can be used to help group students and differentiate instruction because she sees what level each student is on and then she can group students on the same level into the same group.

 

Week 2, Assignment #3

I found the sample lesson plan to be very well planned and thought out will clear goals that the children should reach. I like the fact that each child was a participant because it gives each of them a moment to shine. Sometimes when teachers create projects for their students like this one they drag them out too long and many of the students lose interest. This lesson plan however, I felt was not too long or short. It would be too much to stuff this into one single lesson, but it also did not take a half a year. Lastly, I think it was a great idea that after the performance the children were asked to reflect of their performance. It teaches children a valuable lesson that as great as they thought they were there is usually room for growth to develop further and perform better.

Week 2, Assignment #2

The video of Sheila Owen's kindergarten class, all five- and six-year-olds are "readers and writers from day one,” was quite informative. Ms. Owen seems like a fantastic teacher, but what I think makes her so incredible are some of the things I have learned from watching the video. First, I noticed she teaches the children in small steps at a time which they can grasp which allows them to reach big goals by the end of the year. The class never seemed like what they were learning was on too high of a level for them to understand, yet simultaneously, they did not seem bored either which means that what they are being taught is not below their level. This is an unbelievable balance for a teacher to reach, and Ms. Owen achieved this medium. Another method I picked up on is that Ms. Owen never spoon fed the information; she made her students think and come up with the answers she was looking for. This requires patience, but it is the best way for the children to learn; giving them answers will not teach them much skill. Throughout the whole video, the children were involved in the lessons and were enthusiastic about learning. I also appreciated how Ms. Owen took the opportunities she had of teaching things that were not exactly part of the lesson. An example of this is when she was reading them a story that had the word grin. She stopped reading to teach her students what a grin is and they even acted it out. These small lessons add up to a lot of “extra” learning. I was also very impressed that there was many different kinds of learning going on. Aside from the fact that Ms. Owen got all different kinds of learners involved like she had learning tools for visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile learners, the style of learning that went on was diverse and I think very beneficial. Ms. Owen spent time teaching her class, the students had independent learning time, and the children also worked together with each other. Every child learns a little different, and these diverse learning methods help out all kinds of learners. Ms. Owen is a very patient and professional educator who gives her heart and soul to her work namely her students. This video really taught me a lot of things that I would like to use when I am a teacher.

Week 2, Assignment #1

My understanding from the ELA instruction is that the purpose of teaching the five key features: reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language, to students is so that they not only have the skill, but they will be able to apply it to other things because they are supposed to have a complete understanding of these concepts. We do not like to learn things, just for the sake of knowing of for the test, we like to know the purpose and how we could use what we learn. By teaching these key features to students according to ELA instruction, the students will have skills that they understand and be able to further break down information on their own.