Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Week 6: Chapter 3 Reading
Three important ideas/things from the lesson today are to remember to not only model the instruction but to explain how you got to that conclusion or how you decided to use that strategy, give students the opportunity for independent work by bridging (or how I look at it, slowly weening them off of relying on the teacher), and knowing that practice only makes perfect if they are practicing it the correct way every time and they are getting meaningful instruction from it, but the most important thing I learned today is to give the students an opportunity to talk. This talk can be with the whole class during whole class instruction, with each other during small group instruction, with the teacher during one on one time, or with themselves during a think aloud. As long as they are given the opportunity to discuss what they have learned, discuss their concerns, or ask questions it will help them better understand the material which is what giving great instruction is all about.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Book Review: A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
David Shannon was born in Washington D.C. but grew up in Spokane, Washington. He wrote and illustrated his first book at the age of five; it was a book with pictures of all the things that he should not do with the only two words he could spell at the time: No, David! Later on in life, his mother found it and sent it to him. He decided to revamp his first book and turn it into his now classic best-selling, Caldecott Honor Book. David uses his real life experiences within his books. He has written many books in honor of his daughter such as Duck on a Bike (because his daughter made animal noises before she learned to talk) and Too Many Toys (which explains itself). He has also written stories about his West Highland terrier such as Good Boy, Fergus! Just like his first book, he has written three more books featuring David: David Gets in Trouble; David Goes to School.; and most recently, It’s Christmas, David!
A Bad Case of Stripes is about Camilla Cream who loves lima beans, but won't eat them because the other kids will think she's weird. As she is frantically trying to find the perfect outfit for the first day of school to impress all the other students, she breaks out into a bad case of stripes! None of her clothes will match her multicolored stripes! What is she to do now?
According to both rubrics, I believe that it is a really great book for its reading level. It says that it would interest PreK-3rd which I believe is accurate due to its colorful illustrations to entertain the younger crowd, but the vocabulary is strong enough for the older grades. Another strength about this book would be the message behind it which I will not share for those of you who have not read the book! I don't really have weaknesses for this book, but if I had to choose one, it could be a little more multicultural. There are illustrations of students from other cultures, but it doesn't really discuss anything cultural so maybe that could be a weakness if you were looking for a book with more cultural information in it.
Week 5 Reading: Finding the right text
Because this is my first year of teaching and I am limited on my resources, I use whatever books are available to me. My classroom library is not very full and the books I do have are very outdated. The other Kindergarten teacher checks out books from the local library each week on the topic of our main book (both fiction and nonfiction) so we share those, but I do wish I were able to find interesting books that my Kindergarten students could read on their own. I have decodable and independent readers, but they are not always very exciting. I would like to be able to give my students an option of picking up books that they can read on their own and that interest them. When reading books to my students, I have noticed that they like listening to books that rhyme and books where I can change up my voice to become the characters. They also enjoy books with onomatopoeia words within them, and they do love to read nonfiction books about animals. The problem is not that I do not know what interests them, but I just don't have the resources to provide those books for them to read. The books I would provide are too high of vocabulary for them to read and comprehend, but if read to, they like to discuss unfamiliar words.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Suggested Benchmarks and Books for my Readers
I've spent a lot of time focusing on the fact that my readers struggle with phonemic awareness, fluency, decoding, and letter knowledge. This all affects their comprehension when reading independently, but I haven't focused on how they comprehend when being read to. It didn't occur to me to think about their comprehension when being read to because our main goal is to be able to teach our young readers to do this all independently. I decided to think about this when reading over the Anchor Standards because none of them really address the fact that my students cannot read on their own; they want students to build comprehension skills even if they are not the ones comprehending the text on their own.
Boy 1 does have some comprehension skills. He often answers questions when asked about a book we had just read. His answers may not always make the most sense, but I can usually piece together what he is saying.
Girl 2 does not usually answer questions during our morning reading time so it is hard for me to determine how she is on a comprehension level. When asked questions, she sometimes answers and sometimes she just says that she doesn't know which could either mean she a.) really doesn't know, b.) wasn't paying attention, or c.) doesn't want to answer. I would say from observations that she struggles with comprehension because of her lack of participation in that area. I will need to focus more on this issue this coming week.
Boy 2 does struggle with comprehension from reading with him in reading groups. When reading fluently, I will ask him to repeat what he just said and he will give me a blank stare. I know he is memorizing the words, but not recalling the meaning of the sentence. I also notice this in morning reading time when we are discussing a book whole group. He will often repeat an answer that someone else has said or repeat the same kind of answer in a different way which shows me that he isn't comprehending the book on a level where he can answer the question himself. When discussing different topics, he often has a go-to answer that he knows will be right, but often cannot give me other examples.
Some goals that I have picked for Boy 1 to work on would be:
1. Boy 1 will describe the theme of the text with some prompting (A1-b).
2. Boy 1 will describe what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of a text with some prompting (B1-b).
3. Boy 1 will use facts/details to describe why something happened in a story (B3-b).
Some goals that I have picked for Girl to work on would be:
1. Girl will describe the theme of the text with some prompting (A1-b).
2. Girl will describe what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of a text with some prompting (B1-b).
3. Girl will be able to predict what happens next in a story by recalling previously known facts with some prompting (A4-a).
Some goals that I have picked for Boy 2 to work on would be:
1. Boy 2 will describe the theme of the text with some prompting (A1-b).
2. Boy 2 will describe what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of a text with some prompting (B1-b).
3. Boy 2 will be able to predict what happens next in a story by recalling previously known facts with some prompting (A4-a).
I kept most of them the same because I feel that they are all on the same comprehension level, but I changed the third goal for Boy 1 because I believe he is comprehending what is read to him so I think he can recall details a little better than the other two. This is something that I will have to monitor closely this coming week.
Suggested books for these activities would be:
1. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst (A1-b)
2. A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon (B1-b)
3. No Jumping on the Bed! by Ted Arnold (A4-a)
3. Never Smile at a Monkey by Steve Jenkins (B3-b)
Boy 1 does have some comprehension skills. He often answers questions when asked about a book we had just read. His answers may not always make the most sense, but I can usually piece together what he is saying.
Girl 2 does not usually answer questions during our morning reading time so it is hard for me to determine how she is on a comprehension level. When asked questions, she sometimes answers and sometimes she just says that she doesn't know which could either mean she a.) really doesn't know, b.) wasn't paying attention, or c.) doesn't want to answer. I would say from observations that she struggles with comprehension because of her lack of participation in that area. I will need to focus more on this issue this coming week.
Boy 2 does struggle with comprehension from reading with him in reading groups. When reading fluently, I will ask him to repeat what he just said and he will give me a blank stare. I know he is memorizing the words, but not recalling the meaning of the sentence. I also notice this in morning reading time when we are discussing a book whole group. He will often repeat an answer that someone else has said or repeat the same kind of answer in a different way which shows me that he isn't comprehending the book on a level where he can answer the question himself. When discussing different topics, he often has a go-to answer that he knows will be right, but often cannot give me other examples.
Some goals that I have picked for Boy 1 to work on would be:
1. Boy 1 will describe the theme of the text with some prompting (A1-b).
2. Boy 1 will describe what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of a text with some prompting (B1-b).
3. Boy 1 will use facts/details to describe why something happened in a story (B3-b).
Some goals that I have picked for Girl to work on would be:
1. Girl will describe the theme of the text with some prompting (A1-b).
2. Girl will describe what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of a text with some prompting (B1-b).
3. Girl will be able to predict what happens next in a story by recalling previously known facts with some prompting (A4-a).
Some goals that I have picked for Boy 2 to work on would be:
1. Boy 2 will describe the theme of the text with some prompting (A1-b).
2. Boy 2 will describe what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of a text with some prompting (B1-b).
3. Boy 2 will be able to predict what happens next in a story by recalling previously known facts with some prompting (A4-a).
I kept most of them the same because I feel that they are all on the same comprehension level, but I changed the third goal for Boy 1 because I believe he is comprehending what is read to him so I think he can recall details a little better than the other two. This is something that I will have to monitor closely this coming week.
Suggested books for these activities would be:
1. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst (A1-b)
2. A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon (B1-b)
3. No Jumping on the Bed! by Ted Arnold (A4-a)
3. Never Smile at a Monkey by Steve Jenkins (B3-b)
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Portrait of My Readers
Boy 1 is always happy. He never shows any frustration at school (although his mother says it is a different story at home), but he has made comments about "his friends being really smart" and "his friends knowing more than he does". This breaks my heart to hear that. His main struggle is in reading; specifically with phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and concept of print. He knows about half of his letters and even the letters he does know, he doesn't know all the sounds they make. If giving the sounds, he can blend some words together. He knows a few sight words really well and those are usually the only words I can get him to recognize when testing him. When reading a story to him, he can recall most of the facts about it. He has some trouble communicating his thoughts, but I can normally piece together what he is trying to tell me when discussing vocabulary terms or recalling facts from a story. I think it is safe to say that he also struggles with motivation a little. He doesn't really seem to care about reading, but this might be because he knows he struggles.
Girl struggles with phonemic awareness and letter knowledge as well; though it is not as bad as Boy 1. She can decode and blend CVC words, but more complex words are a struggle for her especially if it contains letters and sounds that she does not know. When testing her on fluency sentences, she reads well, but I've noticed that her finger does not always follow along with the words correctly. Also, when repeating the sentence she doesn't always repeat it correctly. This may show that she is understanding what she reads on a comprehension level, but I think it also shows that she is memorizing the concept of the sentence more than the actual words.
Boy 2 does not struggle with phonemic awareness or letter knowledge. He does very well sounding out the words, but he is struggling with blending the words together. We have been working on this skill recently and I believe it is improving. I've also noticed that because when he decodes an unfamiliar word and cannot always blend it, he cannot put meaning to the word. This shows that he struggles with phonics and decoding as well. If he can practice the words, he can read fluently by sight, but when asked what word he just said or to repeat the sentence, he often gives a blank stare. I have a strong suspicion that he will struggle with text comprehension as well.
Overall, my struggling readers are struggling with different concepts, but the concepts are causing other areas to be affected as well. If the first area can be fixed then hopefully with a little bit of help, the rest will fall into place!
Girl struggles with phonemic awareness and letter knowledge as well; though it is not as bad as Boy 1. She can decode and blend CVC words, but more complex words are a struggle for her especially if it contains letters and sounds that she does not know. When testing her on fluency sentences, she reads well, but I've noticed that her finger does not always follow along with the words correctly. Also, when repeating the sentence she doesn't always repeat it correctly. This may show that she is understanding what she reads on a comprehension level, but I think it also shows that she is memorizing the concept of the sentence more than the actual words.
Boy 2 does not struggle with phonemic awareness or letter knowledge. He does very well sounding out the words, but he is struggling with blending the words together. We have been working on this skill recently and I believe it is improving. I've also noticed that because when he decodes an unfamiliar word and cannot always blend it, he cannot put meaning to the word. This shows that he struggles with phonics and decoding as well. If he can practice the words, he can read fluently by sight, but when asked what word he just said or to repeat the sentence, he often gives a blank stare. I have a strong suspicion that he will struggle with text comprehension as well.
Overall, my struggling readers are struggling with different concepts, but the concepts are causing other areas to be affected as well. If the first area can be fixed then hopefully with a little bit of help, the rest will fall into place!
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Running Record
When conducting the running record for this week, I used the Independent Oral Reading test that I give my students every Friday. I have a training at the board office tomorrow so I gave my test a day early, but the students have been practicing these sentences for two weeks now. I give the students a list of ten sentences that have common letter sound patterns in them. I test them on four one week then four the next week then we move onto new sentences for the next two weeks. I look for several things when testing the students. I look for how fluent of a reader they are, do they have to sound out the words, do they know the sounds that the letters make in the words, are they memorizing the sentences, do they self correct when a word doesn't make sense, and do they comprehend what they are reading.
Boy 1 is my most struggling reader. He has trouble identifying all of his letters which causes him to not know all of the letter sounds which causes him to struggle when reading. He can be a little inconsistent when reading. Some days he might know a word, the next day he might not. Even when sounding out some of the words correctly, he could not blend them to put the word together. He thought "sad" was pronounced /s/ /e/ /d/ which he thought was the word "seed". He also thought "cap" was pronounced /k/ /i/ /d/ which he said was "kid". He is very visual and oral so he does not remember all of his sight words, but the ones he does know he can point out every time. He also tried making sense of one of the sentences by saying "a little boy", but I told him to look at the sentence one more time because I knew he would know the word so the second time around he corrected himself because the sentence really said "a little cat". Towards the end of the assessment I knew he was getting a little frustrated so I just let him tell me what he thought the words were without having him sound them out. If I thought he might be able to sound it out, I asked him to, but overall he scored a 9/23 on the assessment which is a 39%. If I scored this correctly according to the running record, it says that the assessment was too hard, which I can obviously see that it is. Some things that I try with him are to put him on the computer using the starfall program because he can watch videos about the letter and click on the words for them to be read to him. He enjoys the computer station very much so I make sure to put him on it first thing. I use flash cards with him to try to build his memory on letters and sight words. After parent/teacher conferences, I decided that I'm going to try letting him use the LeapFrog Leap pads that were left in my classroom to see if those might help with word recognition.
Boy 2 seemed to be on level at the beginning of the year, but after a mistake that I made I realized that he was struggling a bit. The sentences that another Kindergarten teacher and I sent home did not match the sentences that we used for the Independent Oral Reading test, but we decided to give the test anyway because this would truly test the students on whether they could sound out or recognize the words without being in their memorized sentences. This is when I found out that Boy 2 was memorizing the words. He knows all of his letter sounds, but he was struggling with blending them together to make a word. During this test, he saw the word "cot" and thought it was "cat". I asked him to take another look at the word, and he sounded it out but could not figure out what the word was. In the next sentence, they used the word "cat" which he knows but after I corrected him the last time, he decided that he was unsure of what the word was. We tried a blending activity, and I showed him how to sound out the word by patting his arm and stretching the sounds together. He successfully used this strategy twice during the reading. He scored a 21/23 on this assessment which is a 91%. Even though he does well on this, I know it is because he is practicing the sentences at home and can memorize the words. If he has to sound out a word, he can't always blend the word together. According to the scores of a running record, this is a challenging instructional test which I can agree with for this student. Even though he recognizes almost all of the words, I'm not sure he could go back and quickly read the sentence or tell me what the sentence was talking about. When he sounded out a word correctly, I asked him what he just said and he couldn't tell me so I think there is a little comprehension trouble following his inability to blend words together.
Girl scored an 82% on the Independent Oral Reading test. She has to sound out most of her words, but she can blend them together. She doesn't know all of her letters or correct letter sounds so I notice that when she reads sometimes. I think she memorizes the sentences a lot of the time because when she was reading the last sentences during the test, her finger was not keeping up with the correct words as she read it. Also when she read the sentence "You are a little cat." by reading each word individually, she reread it to me as "That is a little cat." I think she is progressing from the beginning of the year, but I still monitor her because I still think she is struggling a bit. This text tested as too hard for her from what I concluded from the article. I do not know if I necessarily agree with that. I think it is challenging, but I wouldn't say too hard.
Boy 1 is my most struggling reader. He has trouble identifying all of his letters which causes him to not know all of the letter sounds which causes him to struggle when reading. He can be a little inconsistent when reading. Some days he might know a word, the next day he might not. Even when sounding out some of the words correctly, he could not blend them to put the word together. He thought "sad" was pronounced /s/ /e/ /d/ which he thought was the word "seed". He also thought "cap" was pronounced /k/ /i/ /d/ which he said was "kid". He is very visual and oral so he does not remember all of his sight words, but the ones he does know he can point out every time. He also tried making sense of one of the sentences by saying "a little boy", but I told him to look at the sentence one more time because I knew he would know the word so the second time around he corrected himself because the sentence really said "a little cat". Towards the end of the assessment I knew he was getting a little frustrated so I just let him tell me what he thought the words were without having him sound them out. If I thought he might be able to sound it out, I asked him to, but overall he scored a 9/23 on the assessment which is a 39%. If I scored this correctly according to the running record, it says that the assessment was too hard, which I can obviously see that it is. Some things that I try with him are to put him on the computer using the starfall program because he can watch videos about the letter and click on the words for them to be read to him. He enjoys the computer station very much so I make sure to put him on it first thing. I use flash cards with him to try to build his memory on letters and sight words. After parent/teacher conferences, I decided that I'm going to try letting him use the LeapFrog Leap pads that were left in my classroom to see if those might help with word recognition.
Boy 2 seemed to be on level at the beginning of the year, but after a mistake that I made I realized that he was struggling a bit. The sentences that another Kindergarten teacher and I sent home did not match the sentences that we used for the Independent Oral Reading test, but we decided to give the test anyway because this would truly test the students on whether they could sound out or recognize the words without being in their memorized sentences. This is when I found out that Boy 2 was memorizing the words. He knows all of his letter sounds, but he was struggling with blending them together to make a word. During this test, he saw the word "cot" and thought it was "cat". I asked him to take another look at the word, and he sounded it out but could not figure out what the word was. In the next sentence, they used the word "cat" which he knows but after I corrected him the last time, he decided that he was unsure of what the word was. We tried a blending activity, and I showed him how to sound out the word by patting his arm and stretching the sounds together. He successfully used this strategy twice during the reading. He scored a 21/23 on this assessment which is a 91%. Even though he does well on this, I know it is because he is practicing the sentences at home and can memorize the words. If he has to sound out a word, he can't always blend the word together. According to the scores of a running record, this is a challenging instructional test which I can agree with for this student. Even though he recognizes almost all of the words, I'm not sure he could go back and quickly read the sentence or tell me what the sentence was talking about. When he sounded out a word correctly, I asked him what he just said and he couldn't tell me so I think there is a little comprehension trouble following his inability to blend words together.
Girl scored an 82% on the Independent Oral Reading test. She has to sound out most of her words, but she can blend them together. She doesn't know all of her letters or correct letter sounds so I notice that when she reads sometimes. I think she memorizes the sentences a lot of the time because when she was reading the last sentences during the test, her finger was not keeping up with the correct words as she read it. Also when she read the sentence "You are a little cat." by reading each word individually, she reread it to me as "That is a little cat." I think she is progressing from the beginning of the year, but I still monitor her because I still think she is struggling a bit. This text tested as too hard for her from what I concluded from the article. I do not know if I necessarily agree with that. I think it is challenging, but I wouldn't say too hard.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Week Three Reading
As I was reading over the Introduction and skimming through the chapters of the book, I discovered how easy this book is to read. I enjoyed the conversational tone of the text and the book's layout. It is easy to navigate a certain concept that you may want to revisit later on just by looking at the subcategories within the chapters. Although I have only read the Introduction, I believe this text will help provide a clearer picture of the dreaded Common Core Standards. Every interview I had this summer asked me what I knew about the CCSS, and even with some research, I couldn't give them a straight answer. I know parents are outraged with these new standards that their children are being held to, but from my experience, I haven't had such a problem with them. Our students aren't going to be able to tell the difference in learning from these standards and the old standards because as far as they are concerned, these are the only standards that they know. I try my best to be a very "go-with-the-flow" teacher because I know this field is ever-changing and I don't mind learning new concepts if its going to help me become a better teacher.
I also think this book has some great resources for reading specialists. By just looking within the book, they look like regular "busy work" worksheets, but with the correct instructions they can become enriched conversations. I personally do not like giving students worksheets, but if they have a great lesson that goes along with them then the worksheet just serves as recorded data. I thought about looking over the worksheets, but the Introduction advised us to read the first part of the book first so I figured I should hold off until I familiarize myself with the CCSS more.
I don't have any concerns about this book because I feel as if it will be easy to read and relate to. I have enjoyed several reading related books in the past so I believe I will enjoy and revisit this book as well.
I also think this book has some great resources for reading specialists. By just looking within the book, they look like regular "busy work" worksheets, but with the correct instructions they can become enriched conversations. I personally do not like giving students worksheets, but if they have a great lesson that goes along with them then the worksheet just serves as recorded data. I thought about looking over the worksheets, but the Introduction advised us to read the first part of the book first so I figured I should hold off until I familiarize myself with the CCSS more.
I don't have any concerns about this book because I feel as if it will be easy to read and relate to. I have enjoyed several reading related books in the past so I believe I will enjoy and revisit this book as well.
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