Prezi URL: http://prezi.com/zzc86yz4ggic/semester-review/

Chana Feldman

May 9, 2012

Dr. Hsu

EDLI 635

Semester Review

     I remember exactly how I felt right before I was going to begin taking this course on Philosophy and Theories of Literacy Instruction. I was apprehensive because writing was never my favorite discipline. Now, at the end of the semester, I feel much differently toward writing. Writing should not be taught as a subject of its own. Writing needs to be part of every student - students of all ages, grades, and levels of ability. Writing should be integrated into most lessons that students will participate in. Interdisciplinary lessons are the best way to prove to students why each subject is taught. When students understand that everything is taught to them because they will probably be needed somewhere down the line, they be more eager to learn.

     I learned so much about teaching students through using the reading and writing connection. It took me awhile to realize just how interconnected these two subjects are. Writing helps students' reading skills and reading help students' writing skills. Writing activities that can improve reading skills are: keeping post-its in the books as references for new words, or for writing down questions, insights and information. This is a great tool for improving comprehension skills. I also thought that keeping a literature journal for thoughts, feelings and experiences while reading, to help students remember what they were thinking while they were reading, was a beneficial method of using writing to improve reading skills. It can also encourage students to think about and analyze their reading.

    When students draw pictures from the story, it can help them understand the reading because it is a visual representation of details from the story. Students usually enjoy drawing pictures and like to see their work displayed in the classroom or hallway. After students draw a picture, that picture can be used as a springboard to write about what they've read. An important thing that I learned is that it is okay to give students a head start on their writing activities. I used to think that the students should write their assignments completely on their own. Now I see that by helping students get started on their work, they will appreciate it and feel that the teacher is on their side and wants them to succeed.

    Discussion groups can inspire students to delve into their reading and help them understand the flow of what they read. Students enjoy discussing their own experiences of their reading and sharing their ideas with their peers. Rereading and retelling parts of the story in the discussion group can help students have a better understanding of the flow of the story. I hope to be able to implement productive discussion groups in my own classroom.

     I learned a great deal about various methods of assessment. It is important to do frequent and ongoing assessment to monitor students' progress. In order to give students work that is appropriate for them, teachers should know where their students stand, academically. It was a real eye opener for me that teachers can assess students' progress without the use of a written test (or an oral test, if a student needs it). An excellent way to informally assess students' development is through discussion groups. Teachers should administer running records to monitor students' reading development. So much information about a student's progress can be understood with the use of running records. I felt like a real professional whenever I administered a running record on a child. Fluency assessment is also a good tool to keep teachers aware of the fluency levels of students. Fluency is important for students to master in order for them to benefit from and enjoy reading.

     Reading together with students (shared reading) or directing the students while they read (guided reading) is crucial for teachers who are teaching reading. Teachers should model reading to point out the correct intonation to the students. I always thought that teachers read aloud to the students to give the students some down time while providing entertainment. Now I know another important reason for it. Teachers can share the strategies that they use while reading. Teachers should encourage students to share the strategies with their peers that they use to figure out what a word says or means. I realized that it does not take any authority away from the teacher when students “act as the teacher”. Students enjoy sharing what they know and will respect the teacher more for giving them that opportunity.

    Using trade books can enhance student's outlook on a particular subject. Through my own school years, I loved when teachers brought in other books to read aloud to impress a particular lesson the class. It was not done very often as text books were the main resource. I'm glad I learned about it so I can use them often with my students. The bigger the classroom library the better. I don't think going to the school library counts for this. Students should have a rich supply of high-success reading material readily available. The more students enjoy their reading, the more they will read and become better readers and writers. I hope that in my own classroom, I will provide my students with all the tools they will need to become good readers and writers. I want my students to experience success often and love being in my class. Thank you for everything you taught me this semester, I have learned so much!

Reading and Writing in Content Areas

3-2-1

Writing isn't a subject of its own. I wish this was taught to me when I was a student. When I used to write my history papers and the content was fine, but I got points taken off for my writing errors, I'd get so upset. I thought that only the English teacher should mark my writing. If I was told that subjects can be interdisciplinary, I would have been a happier student. Teaching students in a way that everything involves all subjects, helps students understand more clearly why they are learning. 

Teaching students the writing process can greatly enhance their writing ability. Even when students don't have an innate ability to write, if they follow the process, they will succeed. 

In order to get students interested in their writing, teachers can bring in published writing for students to read. When they understand that the struggles of the authors are the same as themselves, they will have more desire to write.

In my own classroom I would try to incorporate writing in as many subjects, lessons and as often as possible. When students are writing all the time, it will come naturally to them. It won't be a class on its own.

I would try to give the students a head start so that they don't become overwhelmed with the assignment. Giving the students the first sentence for their assignment is not letting them get away easy, it promotes further thinking and gives encouragement. The students feel that the teacher is there to help and wants them to put in effort and do well. 

My question is that if students get graded on their writing performance in every class and they find writing difficult, why should it show up on their grades in every class. What should these students do about it? 

 Reflecting on Running Record

It felt so good to be back in the role of a teacher because I enjoy helping students learn. When giving Sarah the running record, I experienced the feeling of guiding her in the reading process. It felt fantastic. Sarah was as eager to perform as I was to give the assessment to her.

She started the reading smoothly. She read the entire story with 96% accuracy. I thought that the reading would be on the level of independent reading until I asked her to retell the story. Then I realized that although she read the words just fine, she didn't really understood what she read. She was able to correctly answer some questions that I asked, but she needed the questions to guide her. Some questions she didn't answer correctly and it didn't occur to her to look back into the story for the answer.

I planned a lesson on comprehension for a students like her. She would benefit from practicing her fluency, but that will probably come with time. Reading for comprehension needs to be taught and practiced before fluency. Reading comprehension should be priority because without students aren't really reading.

Comprehension Lesson Plan

Author	Chana Feldman
Subject(s)	Information Literacy, Reading
Topic or Unit of Study	Comprehension
Grade/Level	Grade 1
Objective	Student will use graphic organizer to help understand the reading
Summary	After reading the passage, Show and Tell, student will fill out the organizational outline to promote comprehension.
IMPLEMENTATION
Learning Context	Students should practice reading for comprehension. Many times when students learn to read they are too focused on the phonics and not focused enough on the meaning of their reading.
Procedure	The student will receive a copy of the passage, Show and Tell, and a copy of the graphic organizer. The students will read the text silently and then the teacher will rad it aloud. The teacher will explain how to fill out the graphic organizer. Students will work in pairs to complete the outline. The teacher will review the outline to make sure they understood it correctly.
Differentiated Instruction	Students that are unable to complete the outline, can do a graphic organizer.
Collaboration	Students will work collaboratively & individually. Students will work in groups of 2.
Time Allotment	1 class periods. 25 Mins. per class.
Author's Comments & Reflections	This activity can be done with any text at any grade level.
MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
Instructional Materials	graphic organizers - http://printables.scholastic.com/printables/detail/?id=35510
STANDARDS & ASSESSMENT
Standards	Display: Collapse All Expand All USA- Common Core State Standards (June 2010) Subject: English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects Grade: Grade 1 students: Content Area: Literature K–5 Strand: Reading Domain: Key Ideas and Details Standard: 1. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text Standard: 2. Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson. Standard: 3. Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
Assessment/Rubrics	Teacher will assess students work by looking at how well they completed the outline.

Chana Feldman 

 EDLI 635

Dr. Hsu

April 15

ELL Case Study

Shani Gray was born in Israel and lived there until age 6. Her parents were Americans, so they spoke English at home. Shani attended an English-speaking playgroup, but she learned the Hebrew alphabet. She attended a Hebrew-speaking kindergarten where she continued learning to read and write in Hebrew. She spoke to her friends in Israel mostly in Hebrew. When she came to America for first grade, she could not read or write in English. She had never learned the alphabet. She didn't know what each letter was called and what sounds they made. It was a challenge for her to learn a new alphabet. The idea of speaking English in school was new to her too.

She started the year with no knowledge of how to read or write in English. She loved listening to the teacher read aloud, but reading alone or even shared reading and choral reading was not possible for her. The teacher told me that at this point in the year, in March, she is much better off than she was in the beginning. I can hardly imagine trying to teach a student the alphabet, while the rest of the class was already reading words and simple books. The teacher told me that Shani has come a long way and she is proud of her accomplishments.

Shani would leave the classroom, during class instruction time, and go to the resource room three times a week. In the beginning of the year, she was so behind that leaving for that part of the class did not make a difference to her; she would not have even understood the lesson. The resource teacher started off with the basics: she taught her the letters, the sounds that they make, and how to write her name. As Shani started to catch on, the resource teacher taught her CVC words, and then moved on to kindergarten sight words. Shani practiced with flashcards and reading simple sentences with the words that she learned. The resource teacher had a list of goals for Shani. When Shani acquired the knowledge of a particular goal, she would fill in a chart that led to a prize.

The resource teacher uses the reading a-z program with her. Shani's parents are very influential in helping with Shani's progress. They implement the review at home. The resource teacher said that Shani would not be where she is without the help of the parents. Shani would take home the flashcards and practice sentences and her parents would review them with her until she knew them.

I observed Shani in her classroom setting. Shani's first grade teacher, Ms. Griff, starts the day with oral reading. She chooses books that she thinks her students will enjoy and be able to connect to in some way. Shani enjoys this part of the day a lot, I can tell by the way she cooperates so enthusiastically. Before Ms. Griff reads the story, she reads the title, author and illustrator. Ms. Griff points to the words as she read them to remind Shani that the words are read from left to right. Shani sometimes forgets which way English is read. She is used to Hebrew which is read from right to left. Ms. Griff reminds her students that they were scheduled to meet the author the next week. I could tell that Shani was very excited about that. Even though she is a new reader, she enjoys reading to the extent of her ability.

Shani was able to answer the comprehension questions that the teacher asked after she read the passage aloud. She was not able to answer similar questions when she read a similar passage by herself. Her reading is too slow to grasp what is going on in the story while she stumbles over the words that she finds difficult. When someone reads to her, though, she understands much better. The teacher asked questions about how the story can apply to the students personal lives. Shani can benefit from this technique because she needs to feel connection in order to be interested in the reading that she struggles with.

The teacher emphasizes on what makes a good reader. She tells them explicitly what they should look out for and what to pay attention to. She told Shani, “good readers pay attention to the setting.” This way, Shani knows what to look out for as she reads. It is an important tool for all readers. Ms. Griff also told her students, “good readers ask questions” The teacher wants the students to feel comfortable to ask about anything that is unclear in their reading. The teacher also wants to promote further thinking by questioning why the author wrote something or why a character acted in a specific way.

Every day after oral reading the students have silent reading time. They know that after the read aloud, they need to go to the class library – which contains a few hundred books - and choose a book to read silently. They can continue to read a book that they previously began. Shani chose a book that had only about three words on a page. A different time, she chose a book that was above her level. Instead of reading the words, she took a “picture walk” through the book. The teacher encouraged students to take “picture walks” on days that they didn't feel like reading. During this silent reading time, the teacher would walk around and see how her students were progressing. This is when she gave Shani one-on-one attention to help her with her reading. She would do a lot of sight word activities with her, like flashcards or write and draw worksheets. These worksheets were good also to help her remember what the word was because there was a picture of it. She would complete a sentence by filling the word in the blank. Then she would read the sentence and practice writing the word a few times. Other activities that the class did for sight words were bingo, songs and circling the sight words that they found in their reading.

When the teacher gave a lesson to the class she specifically made sure that Shani was paying attention because she needs it the most. On the days that Shani does not get pulled out she does work that is more simple than her peers because she is not on their level yet. One day the class was learning the long e vowel sound during whole class instruction. First, Ms. Griff read a story to the students that had many long e vowel sound words in addition to the new sight words of the week. Then the students practiced reading the long e words from the words box that was written on the board. Next, they filled in a list of sentences with the appropriate long e word. I observed Shani having trouble reading the sentence, but after a peer read the sentence, she was able to fit the correct word in the blank. When the students do a word sort, they are supposed to use the words from the word box provided and put in under the correct long e spelling pattern. For example: e words are “me” and “be”; ee words are “meet” and “keep”; ea words are “meat” and “tea.” Shani worked slowly and with only a little bit of help from a peer, she was able to complete the entire worksheet. When the students complete their work, they read their work to a peer. Shani read her work to a peer that Ms. Griff specifically assigned to her because she was more focused on Shani's needs and could help her when necessary.

The students read a story together with the teacher– choral reading. Then they talked about the pictures and compared how the people were dressed in the book to today's mode of dress. Then Ms. Griff demonstrated how to summarize. Summarizing the text is a good tool for students to enhance their comprehension. After they summarized the story, they read it together with a peer. All of this work with the same text helps students better understand their reading. Shani had a smoother time reading the story with a peer because they had read it as a class, discussed it, reviewed it before she read it.

The students had a writing activity that was part of their reading theme. They were reading about scientists, and their assignment was to think of an invention that they would like to create and write about it. Writing is even harder than reading for Shani. The topic was so interesting and she came up with an idea right away. But she had such a difficult time putting her thoughts on paper. Her handwriting is very poor. She is so busy learning the letters and how to read that she hardly practices writing the letters. Ms. Griff helped Shani writing her idea down. When Shani is stuck on the spelling of a word, Ms. Griff said, “sound it out, if you get it wrong – you're supposed to in first grade.” Ms. Griff prepares her students to make mistakes. She says that they are supposed to and they shouldn't be ashamed. When the students know that making mistakes is okay, they are more open to try new words and think of new ideas.

Sometimes, Shani wanted to substituted a Hebrew word instead of writing the English one. Ms. Griff encouraged that because any language that would help Shani express herself was good. The resource teacher said that she doesn't work with Shani on writing. She is far below the level of her peers on writing and there is no emphasis on helping advance at the present time.

While observing Shani in the classroom, I scored her on the Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (SOLOM). Shani scored a 23 on the SOLOM that I administered for her. English is the spoken language in her house, so she can speak it and understand it very well. I believe that she scored in phase 3 instead of phase 4 because of the type of activities that she was involved in and the context in which the conversations took place. Shani is not as comfortable in an English speaking school environment. Although she speaks English fluently, her understanding in the context of school is not as good. She received a 5 on comprehension, fluency and pronunciation. Her vocabulary is not as good and her grammar has infrequent mistakes. Vocabulary for young children is picked up by reading books and because her reading is still slow and she reads less, she has a smaller vocabulary. Her grammar isn't as proficient as her peers. This may be attributed to learning in a Hebrew-speaking environment when she was in kindergarten, an important age for picking up correct grammar usage.

Shani has many friends. Although she hasn't been with the class since preschool, she has a charming personality and she tries hard to do well. Her peers don't make fun of her for being slower than they are. There are other special needs children in the classroom and it seems that the students understand the importance of treating one another with respect. Shani has an easier time communicating with her friends during recess than during learning time, because she is more familiar talking about everyday things than performing academic tasks in English.

It was interesting to observe Shani as she interacted with her peers and while she silently did her work. It looked like Shani wasn't always comfortable performing some tasks and she would look questioningly at the teacher until further instructions were given. For example, while everyone got to work right away on the worksheet for their particular reading group, Shani looked at the paper questioningly until the teacher came over to explain where she should start. When Shani used improper grammar, I observed a peer correcting her language usage in a sensitive way. I was impressed at how well Shani took it. She thanked her friend, corrected her mistake, and then moved on. Often when Shani read aloud, she was corrected. She took it in stride and tried to remember for the next time. For example, when Shani read the word knife and started to pronounce the k. She repeated knife after her friend corrected her.

I would recommend for Shani to receive future instruction in the area of writing. Shani should practice writing her sight words. This will encourage her to practice her handwriting while reviewing words that are important for her to remember. There are many writing activities that are fun for students. Shani showed interest in writing about fun topics. If she is given more opportunities to write while getting help in spelling and sounding out the words, she will greatly improve her writing skills. Students usually enjoy writing about themselves. I would recommend that Shani write one or two sentences about her day for homework and get credit for it. Alternatively, she could keep a journal in which she could write sentences and practice her spelling words. Spelling can be tedious for any student and especially for a struggling one. Teaching Shani how to spell should be done in a fun way. Giving her spelling quizzes while playing catch, or through an internet game, can prove to be beneficial.

To conclude, it was very interesting and a wonderful learning experience to observe Shani in the classroom setting. Shani has a lot of potential and once she puts her mind to it, she can do very well. The last day that I was observing in Shani's classroom, Shani ran over to the teacher with a beginning first grade reader and proudly told her that she had read that book at home the night before. Ms. Griff was very excited for her and told her that she was very impressed. “Keep up the good work Shani!”

Assignment 2

The ELL student in the classroom that I observed speaks English fluently but came into the classroom with hardly any knowledge of the abcs. As she tried to reach the level of her peers in reading and writing, she struggled with decoding words. She didn't have a strong grasp of sight words. Because she tried to decode everything she read, her reading was slow and choppy so it was hard for her to understand what she was reading. Her teacher put a lot of effort into her progress and now, in the month of March, she is reading like a beginning first grader. Her teacher gave her a lot of one-on-one time and gave her a lot opportunities to practice sight words. Strategies that I observed the teacher using with the ELL that I would want to use in my own classroom are: giving the students opportunities to draw what they want to write about and then use the drawing as a springboard to write; peer tutoring; and sight word games.