Standard Five: Literate Environment

• Understand the role of routines in creating and maintaining positive learning environments for reading and writing instruction using traditional print, digital, and online resources.

One way I create a positive and maintained learning environment is by sticking to the schedule. My students know what subject comes next and when we are close to the end of the day by the routine of our classroom. If I do things out of order, they can get out of hand. The like the structure of the classroom, and they are actually upset if I have to skip a certain subject. Another thing that our school does to keep a positive school environment is called Brave Bucks. They are used for outstanding behavior. I give mine out sparingly so my students must be on their absolute best behavior and go above and beyond for their Brave Bucks. I give them out for perfect reading scores occasionally, and I will not give them out if they ask for them. I will say that the best way to get students to do their best work is to believe in them. I have one particular student who I had to get on about his coloring because he would just put a few scribbles and say he was done. I told him that I knew he could do so much better than that and now he is very proud to bring his work to me and I make sure to let him know how great of a job he has done.

Artifact: This is another student's work that I had to have redo his paper because his first attempt was not his best work. I just tell my students that they are capable of anything they set their minds to and that I know they can do great things, and they will do whatever you want them to if you just show that you believe in them.

Standard Four: Diversity

• Provide differentiated instruction and instructional materials, including traditional print, digital, and online resources, that capitalize on diversity.

One of our standards is to provide students materials so that they can conduct research. We do this by reading non-fiction books about different animals that we may be focusing on, and by showing videos/slideshows of these animals. The students then write what they remember about our research and draw a picture of it. Not only do we provide research on animals and the way they live, but we focus on how Kindergarten students may live differently in other parts of the word. This is apart of our social studies unit as well as a Tech Step that we are required to complete. In the Tech Step, we are to watch and discuss a slideshow about how Kindergarten is different in other parts of the countries, and then we are to create our own slideshow about what we like about Kindergarten in our country. This is a great tool to get students familiar with the computer. We have also discussed different holidays that are celebrated and the differences between cultures. 

We also use our own experiences to see how we celebrate different holidays. I think it is very important for students to realize that we do not all celebrate holidays and other occasions the same way because as a child I did not realize those things. I was always under the impression that we all celebrated things the same way and it wasn't until later in life I realized that we are not all privileged the same as another person.

 

Artifact: I do not have any photos from a lesson we just completed on celebrations, but several students discussed some occasion where their families get together for different events and it was interesting to hear the things that they remember from those occasions. Some gathered at their grandparents, others had celebrations at their homes, and others went out of town to attractions.

Standard Three: Assessment and Evaluation

• Administer and interpret appropriate assessments for students, especially those who struggle with reading and writing.
• Analyze and use assessment data to examine the effectiveness of specific intervention practices and students responses to instruction.

During this course, I had already identified some struggles with a few of my students. I knew that one of my students was struggling with phonemic awareness. I had been working on alphabet flash cards with him as well as putting him on the computer to work on an alphabet site to hopefully increase his letter and letter sound knowledge. About halfway through the school year, I was introduced to an intervention called Great Leaps. We would work on this Great Leaps page for a minute a day to see if his letter knowledge would increase. I also find a short amount of time during lessons to just work on a certain letter that day, and I will ask him what the letter is and what sounds it makes a few different times. Through these assessments and evaluations, I have seen little progress. Although he is making some progress, it is not enough that he is where he should be. He has been placed in an IPAP group where he is taking out of the classroom for 40 min about 3-4 times a week to focus on phonemic awareness. I am also in the process of referring him for special education services, but am not sure whether it will happen due to parent consent. I know next year, he will be able to receive Title I services that will hopefully help him progress more rapidly.

 This was one of the better Independent Oral Reading tests for the student. Since the assessments have been getting more complex, he is able to identify less words.

This is the Great Leaps Assessment that we work on for a minute a day.

Another one of my students was struggling with blending. He can sight read very well and sound out the words, but has trouble blending unfamiliar words. We have been working on the "arm method" of blending words, and elkonin boxes. He will sometimes be able to sound it out and other times, he needs me to blend the first two sounds and he can get the rest. He also has some difficulty with rhyming which we are focusing on as well. This student's comprehension seems low as well when using questioning during reading. Many of these problems I think are contributed by his age. He is a young student so I think with maturity, it will correct itself, but in the meantime we are focusing on these skills to help.

This is an example of the elkonin boxes that I would use in the classroom with my student.

Standard Two: Curriculum and Instruction

• Provide appropriate in-depth instruction for all readers and writers, especially those who struggle with reading and writing.

From the courses I have taken this past semester and the activities I have conducted, I have learned that there is more than just one way to define a struggling reader. In this case, there is also more than one way to assist a struggling reader. Since I had never been a struggling reader, I had difficulty wrapping my head around the concept. I thought a struggling reader was someone who could not sound out words, and in some cases, that may be, but in several cases that is not the problem. A struggling reader can have difficulty with phonemic awareness, blending, comprehension, inferencing, character traits, etc. The most important thing is to pinpoint the problem to begin the assistance. During this course, I discovered that even though my one student had extreme difficulty with phonemic awareness when read to, he had average comprehension skills. I also discovered that my other student could sight read well and sound out words, but his blending was a little weak. He also had low comprehension skills. Using the answer frames from the book, I tried to build on their strengths to help with their weaknesses. I believe that some of these activities were a little hard for my students, but others helped them think a little deeper. I've made some of my own conclusions about how to help these students and the school has helped me decide what I can do to help them as well. For some of my students, further assistance from outside sources are needed, but for the other students, I can adapt my lessons to fit their needs.

Using questioning during reading is one way to help with comprehension.

Relating to how a character feels within a story is another strategy to aid comprehension.

Standard One: Foundational Knowledge

• Analyze classroom environment quality for fostering individual motivation to read and write (e.g., access to print, choice, challenge, and interests).

During my normal classroom routine, we start out the morning with a story. The story will go along with the weekly story from our reading series. We'll discuss different parts of the story; it could be things we know, things we've just learned, or things we found interesting. Also, during some free time, my students have a chance to pick out books from our classroom library to read. About once a week I have a "Reader's Choice" day where I will read one book that a student picks that morning. I've found that this motivates the children to read. They love seeing their books be picked that morning, and it makes them feel valued. 

I think it is very important to allow students pick their own books to read or be read to because from what I've learned with previous experience and prior knowledge from reading articles is that students are more interested in reading if they have an interest in whats being read. Not only will they be more interested in it, but they will comprehend it better as well. 

From this past semester's experience, I've also found that stories they can relate to help with their comprehension as well. My students' favorite story that I read while using the answer frames was "The Case of the Bad Stripes". They had asked me to read that book a few times during the week we were discussing it. I believe they enjoyed the colorful artwork, and they could relate to liking/disliking food, being sick, and being nervous to start school. We had several conversations on these different topics that helped them understand what was going on in the story.

From my experience of allowing the students to pick a book once a week, I believe I will continue this during the next school year. I may even allow the students to bring their favorite book from home that way they can explain to us what makes it their favorite book and it may give the students another reading series to consider.

Course Activity: Brief description and artifacts for Powtoon Portfolio

Standard 1: Foundational Knowledge

• Analyze classroom environment quality for fostering individual motivation to read and write (e.g., access to print, choice, challenge, and interests).
• I will reflect on our brain breaks where students are able to choose a book to "read" with their peers or by themselves, our reader's choice days where I allow the students to choose what book we read that day, and our journals (which will be my artifact) where some days students are given a prompt and other days they are given just a topic to write about.

Standard 2 Curriculum and Instruction

• Provide appropriate in-depth instruction for all readers and writers, especially those who struggle with reading and writing.
• I will reflect on our station portion of the day where they are broken in to three groups and one station changes throughout the week to fit the needs of the students. My artifact will be a variety of work that shows how I change the station to fit the needs of the students within the group I am working with.

Standard 3 Assessment and Evaluation

• Administer and interpret appropriate assessments for students, especially those who struggle with reading and writing.
• Analyze and use assessment data to examine the effectiveness of specific intervention practices and students responses to instruction.
• I will reflect on some of my struggling readers fluency assessments and how I have focused my station time to working with on flash cards, great leaps, or sight word study (which will be my artifacts).

Standard 4 Diversity

• Provide differentiated instruction and instructional materials, including traditional print, digital, and online resources, that capitalize on diversity.
• I will reflect on working with our tech steps, spellingcity website, and traditional worksheets on a variety of different instruction. I will provide pictures and student work as my artifacts.

Standard 5 Literate Environment 

• Understand the role of routines in creating and maintaining positive learning environments for reading and writing instruction using traditional print, digital, and online resources.
• Again, I will focus on our daily routine of morning meeting, station time, and journal time to focus on a positive reading and writing environment. I will provide pictures of our stations and student work as artifacts.

I will be using PowToon for my portfolio.

Word Study Instruction in the K-2 Classroom

Three important ideas/things from the lesson today are you can use a multiple of assessment tools to complete ongoing assessments on word work for example: journals, use small groups during centers and use a variety of activities to teach word work, and make word walls show word families and words that you use everyday, but the most important thing I learned today is allow students to explore real reading and writing. This means to allow them to explore where they would see the kinds of words they are looking for or to figure out how to spell certain words from using other words that they know.

I picked this article because I do a lot of word work within my Kindergarten classroom now, and I was interested to see if it would this article would give me different strategy ideas to use in my first grade classroom next year.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/word-study-instruction-k-2-classroom



I chose this image because I think it reflects my teaching philosophy, especially when it comes to reading and writing. I allow my students to explore writing on their own before I check their work and we will have conferences about their spelling or grammar (in their case, whether or not their sentence made sense.) I think it is important for the students to be able to teach themselves or each other because I believe it sticks in their minds better that way. A teacher must teach content as well, but after the main content is taught I give them the opportunity to explore the content on their own.

Ch 9 VoiceThread

https://voicethread.com/new/myvoice/#thread/6780003/

What Works in Fluency Instruction

Three important ideas/things from the lesson today are repeated oral readings have a positive impact with guidance from teachers, parents, or peers have a positive impact on word recognition, fluency, and comprehension, more independent silent reading is not always best, and independent silent reading should not be the only form of reading practice, but the most important thing I learned today is that this article was not very helpful. I think I have learned more from my course text books than from many of the articles I have read recently on this website. I am also learning more from experiencing struggling readers in my classroom and doing what works for them. I don't think there is ever only one strategy that fits every struggling reader so we research and try several until we can find some that truly helps a struggling reader. Even though this article states that there wasn't a correlation to more reading equaling a better reader, I do believe that the more you read, the better you will become and the stronger vocabulary you will have. I think reading more often to become a better reader is better than just throwing in the towel.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-works-fluency-instruction

Schools in Which All Kinds of Minds Can Grow

I decided to read this article because I thought it was going to give me some insight on different strategies to help me teach students whose brains are wired different. I can tell that some of my students are not all wired the same way and that they excel at different things, but when it comes to some topics, I have difficulty thinking of other ways to teach it so I normally go to a colleague; however, this article was not helpful. I decided to continue reading it to see what some of their ideas of a perfect learning environment looked like.

I thought some important ideas for a learning environment where minds can grow would be 1.) teachers would be well trained on how learning works for different brains, 2.) all students would be held accountable for being productive, and 3.) students would be diagnose according to their strengths, but most importantly, parents and teachers would be partners in education.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/schools-which-all-kinds-minds-can-grow

Chapter 9: Examining the Content and Structure of Text

For this chapter, I decided to only focus on one objective due to the subject matter being more difficult. I will focus on D1-e: Do you think the author made this story believable? Why? Or Why Not? I will read the book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" because the students were getting a little tired of hearing about Molly Lou Melon. I also just read about Alexander this past week so they are familiar with it. Most of this activity will be discussion based, but I did like the fantasy/reality cards. I think it will be a helpful activity that I can use with my students even past this upcoming week. It will also be an easy way to check whether or not my students are understanding fantasy vs reality.

Week 12 VoiceThread

https://voicethread.com/new/share/6735195/

Week 12: Types of Reading Disabilities

I chose this article because I have a few students that struggle with reading, but for different reasons. One student struggles with comprehending what he reads and another struggles with letter recognition, letter-sound recognition, and word recognition so because he cannot read, he struggles with fluency and comprehension in terms of reading. He can comprehend if read to, just not when he reads himself.

Three important things/ideas that I read from this article would be that 1.) 70-80% of struggling readers have difficulties with accurate and fluent word recognition that originates with weaknesses in phonological processing which is also often combined with fluency and comprehension difficulties, 2.) 10-15% of struggling readers have difficulty with speed of word recognition and automatic recall of word spellings, and 3.) 10-15% of struggling readers can decode words, but struggle comprehending what they read, but the most important thing I learned was that most students will have a double deficit, meaning that they will struggle in two areas rather than just one.


I chose this image below because even though a child may struggle with one of the above areas, it does not mean that they have only weaknesses. My most struggling student has strengths and I use those strengths to help build onto other skills. Even though they may make little progress, it is still progress.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/types-reading-disability

Week 11 Reading

For this week's reading, I read Seeking Help for a Struggling Reader: Seven Tips for Teachers. I was curious to see if it would give me any information that I didn't already know or that I haven't already tried. Three things that I did learn from this article is that: parents often need suggestions of what to do as well, so I should inform them more often of new ideas that I am trying at school, look for tutoring services if I cannot provide them myself, and attend professional developments in the area of need (which I have been doing and is why I choose to get my Master's in Reading), but most importantly, I learned that I should stay current on what resources are out there for me to use with my struggling readers. I have asked several other teachers of what methods they use and have used suggestions of theirs, but I should try to do some more research on my own.

It may seem impossible at times, but we cannot give up on our students! They make progress daily whether it be by great leaps or small ones.

Week 11 Course Activity

To continue with activities for Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon, I've decided to choose the following objectives: C1-a: Make a personal connection to an experience. Tell how that experience was like the experience of ________ in the story.
C1-b: Make a personal connection to an important feeling in the story. Tell about a time in your own life when you have had the same feeling.
C2-c: Did you like this story? Why or why not?

We have gone over these objectives orally during and after reading, but I have never had them write or draw it themselves. It has always been a discussion so I'm interested to see what their responses might be when I have them write it. I also think that these objectives are a very important part of comprehension for all ages, but especially for younger readers.

I will use the answer frames from pages: 205, 211, and pages 233 and 234.

Most of what I do during this time is group discussion, but 211 will be individual work and then they will have the opportunity to share it if they would like to. Page 234 will be done as whole class, but they will not be able to share their answers until the end.

VoiceThread Link

https://voicethread.com/new/share/6679511/

Week Ten: Why Some Children Have Difficulties Learning to Read

I chose this article because even though I have a pretty good understanding of why students struggle with reading, it never hurts to read further into issues. I found that three important concepts I read within this article are: students raised in families who have reading or speech disabilities are often at risk of struggling, students who are raised in poverty are often at risk, and students who haven't been engaged in the language play that develops an awareness of sound structure and language patterns will most likely be at risk as well, but the most important piece of information that I received from this article was that learning to read begins far before children enter formal schooling.

We often discuss at school how we will begin to see more students with speech and language problems because no one communicates anymore. Everything is done through text or on the computer. Children and parents spend more time on iPads and iPhones than having conversations.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/why-some-children-have-difficulties-learning-read

Week 9 Reading: Waiting Rarely Works-Late Bloomers Normally Just Wilt

I decided to read this article because I have a few students who I would consider "late bloomers". Whether it is because they have a late summer birthday, aren't as mature as their peers, or their motor skills are a little delayed, I can tell that this is affecting them academically. I have a student that I believe needs to be in speech because his speech is affecting his writing and spelling. He is pronouncing his letters wrong so he thinks that they make different sounds than they really do so this also affects his reading. They have told me that they are later developing sounds so I shouldn't worry about it, but I do because I do not want him to fall behind his peers because he cannot get the help he needs. I also have a student who only knows half of his letters in his second year of Kindergarten. He is on a SAT, but I believe he needs further assistance. Again, I am told that they really do not like to refer students until they are in at least second grade. They think it is too young to identify any learning disabilities at this age. I'm not an expert when it comes to anything in the special education field so I don't know all of the rules and regulations, but I just know that I want to help these kids and it can sometimes be frustrating when I cannot get them the help that they need.

After reading this article, I believe the three most important things that I learned were: students that we refer to as "late bloomers" most likely have a skill deficit that needs to be addressed intensively, the poor readers in this study lacked one important skill which was phonemic awareness, and the struggling readers improved some in elementary school, but not so much after sixth grade, but the most important thing that I learned was the overall message behind this article: we cannot just let these struggling readers slip through the cracks, we have to find a way to help them to close the achievement gap.

I found this article very interesting because this topic contradicts itself a lot within the school system. They tell us that some skills are later developing yet we are expected to teach them now and the curriculum is more demanding now than ever. Also, we are expected to close this achievement gap, but we cannot always get the help that we need to do so. I am not disagreeing that some students aren't just late bloomers with different things, but we cannot always rely on the fact that they will "catch on eventually" with certain foundational skills.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/waiting-rarely-works-late-bloomers-usually-just-wilt

Chapter 7: Developing an Interpretation

I absolutely agree with this chapter that as a teacher, I do not feel as if I hit enough of these objectives while reading with my students. I think it opened my eyes to different discussions that I can have with my students. I discuss characters with my students, and I always think "How hard can it be to identify the character of a story?" That is often what their "reading tests" consist of is testing them on a different skill each week. The skills are repeated throughout the school year. I often find them pointless. After reading this, it reminded me that there are so many other things that I can discuss with my students about characters. I decided that I am going to reread "Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon" to discuss the characters more in depth. This will cover objective B1-c: Compare these two characters ____ and _____. We discussed what the theme was and how Molly felt, but I now want to use the graphic organizers on page 154 and the T Chart on page 155 to discuss the similarities and differences between Molly Lou and the bully. I also want to discuss objective B3-a: Prove that (character/person) is very _________. This will get them started on proving their answers and looking for evidence in text which is something I have discussed, but probably not enough especially since it is a big part of Common Core. We will most likely complete page 188 together or I will help them write their sentences since their writing is limited.

10 Strategies to Enhance Students' Memory

The article I chose was "10 Strategies to Enhance Students' Memory" (http://www.readingrockets.org/article/10-strategies-enhance-students-memory). I chose this article because I have a struggling reader who struggles with remembering things, but once he remembers something, he doesn't forget it. I work on repetition strategies with him, and he gets on the computer everyday to work on listening to letter sounds and letter recognition, but I was struggling with finding other ways to help him remember things. I try to use songs or relate concepts to things that they are interested in and this works, but he sometimes will only remember half of what I said and not the whole concept. Last Friday, we were working on addition problems and he would have gotten most of the answers right but for 1.) his finger was moving faster than his brain when counting so he often skipped objects when counting or counted objects twice so I had to make him slow down, and 2.) he might have known the answer, but couldn't remember what that number looked like to write it. He could look at the number and know how many objects he needed for that number, but to tell him to write the number 8, he didn't have a clue what it looked like. Even though we use our number poems, he kept saying "Across the sky and down from heaven, that's how you make a number 8!" Even though I corrected him and made him repeat what I said, he kept saying the poem wrong. I was baffled because I thought he knew this information beforehand. That activity showed me that I must repeat concepts with him such as these daily.

Three important ideas/things from the lesson today are teach students to use visual images and other memory strategies, teach students to develop cues when storing information, and review material before going to sleep, but the most important thing I learned today is teach students to over learn material.

Teach students to use visual images and other memory strategies: I often have students draw a picture to go along with a sentence that they had to read or pick three words from the letter that we are learning this week to draw pictures of them that will help them remember what they are, but I know in the future this will really help my student with spelling and vocabulary terms.

Teach students to develop cues when storing information: This is something I use to teach new concepts by creating a song, or using information that they can relate to. This will be very helpful for my student in the future, especially if he can create the acronym himself.

Review material before going to sleep: This is not something that I can control, but I found the information interesting and I think I will mention it to my student's parents to see if it may help.

Most importantly, teach students to over learn material: This is something that I needed to learn myself. I thought that after he knew the material, he would continue to remember it, but I was wrong so I must keep on him about different concepts so he will not forget them for next year.