Module 2 - Reflections on both PowerPoints

Strategies that Support Emergent Readers PowerPoint Reflection

            The first slide made me smile because I use quick writes with my own students. However, it was difficult when I tried to reflect on my own literacy experiences in my past. I cannot remember anything significant before the fourth grade. I know that I did not like to read or write when I was younger because I had a speech impendent. I had difficulty with fluency and comprehension because of this. I feel that the three predictors of early success in reading are alphabetic/letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and the formation of writing letters. I think all three of these are important for a child to be successful with literacy. I enjoyed the slides that refreshed my memory about Piaget and Vygotsky because I tend to agree with Vygotsky that “language comes out of a need to communicate with others.” I always enjoy reviewing the stages of literacy because it is interesting to observe a child and see which stage they are currently characterized as and see if they move back or forward between the stages. It is vital that all students understand the concepts of print so they can read texts. However, I find the Yopp-Singer Segmentation Test to be difficult because, like me, some students have never learned phonics. I found it interesting to read about the different strategy activities for phonemic and phonological awareness. I still use reading aloud in my fourth grade class to build on the students’ vocabulary knowledge along with reading strategies/skills.

 

Assessment of Reading and Writing Process PowerPoint Reflection

            I appreciated reading this PowerPoint slideshow because it helped me review the different assessments that can be employed for reading and writing. When I assess a child’s vocabulary knowledge, I often catch myself listening to their everyday conversations to hear the words which they are the most familiar. This also allows me to hear if there is a dialect present with the student’s language. I have never heard of the “Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test” but I wonder if that is because I am an intermediate grade teacher. I agree that writing can be an assessment in itself. I often use journals in my class where students complete quick writes which helps me assess their process with writing. I often will use the county rubrics or use a holistic scoring. I frequently let me students see the rubrics before publishing a piece so they know how I will score their writing. The slide detailing the Analytic Scoring Rubric for Expository Prose reminded me of the 6+1 Writing Traits that I use during writing workshop. I make sure to focus on ideas, organization, voice, fluency, word choice, conventions, handwriting, and presentation throughout the entire school year. I have always kept portfolios for students but mine include all academic areas. I want to see my students’ growth in all areas, especially reading and writing. The students even enjoy reviewing their portfolio to see how much they have grown through the school year. This year I am having my students keep a binder of all their writing since I have 31 students. We review their writing samples throughout the school year and I copy any that catches my eye for my personal portfolios.

Module 2 - Emergent Writing in the Primary Grades Article Reflection

            I completed an undergraduate class at KSU that focused on analyzing students’ writings and drawings. I cannot remember the specifics of the class but I remember looking at students’ sentences/drawings and predicting which stage they were exhibiting. Marie Clay wrote a book called What Did I Write? which sounds like a great examination of children and their writing development.  I agree that children (English and Spanish speaking) grow immensely through the primary grades in their reading and writing skills. At times, it can be difficult to decipher their words and sentences but with practice/experience it becomes easier. This article had two tables from the Blackburn-Cramp Development Writing Scale (which we will use in this reading endorsement class) and the Ferreiro-Teberosky model. Blackburn-Cramp is used for English speaking students in grades one and below, whereas the Ferreiro-Teberosky model is used for students learning to write in Spanish. Both of the charts showed similarities. I agree that language is social and we use it to communicate which relates to Vygotsky’s theory. Language activities are vital for emergent readers and writers, which is why building a writing community in the classroom is essential.

Module 2 - Making the Most of Assessments to Inform Instructions Article Reflection

I thought this article about assessing students’ performances was informative. As teachers, we are continuously assessing our students via informal and formal assessments. We need to know our students’ strengths and weaknesses as well as how to improve our instructions so as we meet every child’s need in our classrooms. I agree that there is too much attention on testing and I fear that sometimes I am not collecting data correctly or even using it effectively. My class size increased from 20 to 31 students in the past two years of teaching and collecting/analyzing data scares me this year because of the amount of students and their individual needs and weaknesses has a wide range. I enjoyed reading that Popham and others still agree that formative assessments help with large student gains when used appropriately. I buy sticky notes by the bulk because my students and I use them constantly. My students use them to record their thinking while reading. Also, I use them to record data, their thinking, reminders, etc. However, I am searching for a new method to collect data because I have so many sticky notes and have not found an efficient way of arranging them in a data notebook. I agree with Risko when she explained the design of multimodal assessments. I recently completed a literature review on the “Internet Generation” which included what the students’ elementary teachers are currently teaching. These students need the use of technology throughout their education which means teachers need to utilize and understand technology, also. Overall, the goal for collecting data is to identify our students’ learning conditions and tailor our instructions to meet their needs, so we can promote their highest level of thinking while learning new information.

Module 2 - Chapter 5 & 6 of the Opitz book Reflection

       Chapter five was a great review of several informal assessments that can be used for a variety of ages. The three main questions that need to be asked and answered when selecting the best method are: What do I want to know? Why do I want to know? How can I best discover the information? I enjoyed reading the scenario at the beginning of this chapter because I can relate to it this year with one of my students. However, this student’s teacher from last year experienced the same behavior that I have been seeing and the parents agree that this behavior is present at home. I plan on using some informal assessments on him throughout this school year to help find his strengths/weaknesses since he is already on tier 3 for RTI. I enjoyed reading about the portfolios since I have always kept a personal portfolio to watch a students’ growth. I keep writing samples, tests, e-mails, etc. in their portfolio and share parts of their portfolio with the students at the end of the school year so they can also see their growth. I use observations, checklists, and anecdotal notes the most. I use observations because I want to know how children perform in a variety of contexts. Also, I use anecdotal notes because it is impossible to remember everything I see throughout the school day with every student. My anecdotal notes are taken on sticky notes, ripped out sheets of paper and my phone’s notepad application. It is difficult to organize all of my notes into one area. One of my goals this year is to keep my anecdotal notes on one clipboard so they do not become misplaced or disorganized. Overall, informal assessments offer valid information regarding students’ characteristics.
       I can relate to the opening scenario in chapter 6 because my fourth grade teacher was the reason I wanted to become a teacher. I have always wanted to work with children and make a difference. I am always happy to talk about my teaching profession with others. I initially taught second grade, but in 2011 I became a fourth grade teacher. Fourth grade students have to take the dreaded CRCT in Georgia. This frightened me because there is a lot of anxiety surrounding standardized tests. First, it is problematic for the students because there is a lot of pressure on them to pass the test which may cause test anxiety. And secondly, in addition to feeling as if they failed their students, the teachers are apprehensive about their students’ scores because of the impact it may have on them if their students do not meet the standards. Optiz mentions the TerraNova CAT, Metropolitan Achievement Tests, and the Stanford Achievement Tests. However, I have never heard of any of these tests. In fact, I am still learning about the standardized tests that are given to our students at my current school. I know the students in third and fifth grade take the CoGAT and ITBS but I am not familiar with the scoring or reasoning for those tests. I enjoyed reading the section about criterion-referenced tests because that is what my fourth graders take every April.

Module 1 – PowerPoint Response

I thought the PowerPoint was informational, helpful, yet surprising. This is my third year of teaching. I believe that it will be a fun year but different because this is my first year that I have ELL students. I agree that “ELL students’ achievement in reading is limited by their command of the English language”. It is difficult to translate or relate the materials I am teaching to those students since there is no direct connection with English and their native languages (Japanese and Korean). This can cause the students to become frustrated and they might give up, which is one of my fears.  However, I plan on utilizing my ESOL teacher as a resource and work on our own separate level that will include numerous visuals and explanations.

            I really enjoyed the slide entitled “Nothing Succeeds like Success” because I certainly believe that everyone enjoys life more when they succeed at their tasks. We, as a class, make (realistic) goals at the beginning of the school year and check them off as we reach them throughout the school year. I allow the students to share their goals and successes so we can celebrate the victories. I feel this helps build their confidence as learners. I help build the students’ background knowledge/schema, if necessary, before a unit so we can dive deeper into the knowledge of the specific curriculum.

            I was not surprised by the statistic that “40% of all students are diagnosed with some type of learning disability and 80% of those disabilities are reading related” because in my three years of teaching I have seen numerous students struggling with reading. Reading is a vital skill that is not only required in our everyday life but is an essential part of every subject during school. I believe this statistic might be so high because every school and even teacher employs different methods when teaching and assessing reading. Some of my students, who are new to Georgia, explained that they only read when they had free time at their prior schools. This was disheartening and upsetting. I hope the Common Core Standards will help all teachers get on the same “playing level” with reading so that we can lower this statistic. I want to instill a love for reading with my students. Moreover, I want us to work as a team so they can become proficient readers who use various strategies to acquire new knowledge throughout their lives.

Module 1 – Activity 4

The reader that I observed is a fourth grade male student. I decided to choose this student because he was newer to our school and has had difficulty sticking with a book for more than a couple of days during the first week and a half of school. I know he had difficulties in reading and writing last year. Also, he is on tier 3 for both reading and writing. However, I noticed when I listened to him read his text aloud to me that he exhibits behaviors from both the proficient and less proficient reading behaviors. After reading aloud, he quickly reassured me that he reads better in his head. I believe that he has never been told that he can read well, which he actually can. Additionally, I’ve noticed that many of my students this year are afraid to read to me which makes me sad. We will have a lesson on building reading confidence and stamina this week.

                This student displays behaviors that fall on both sides of Table 1.1. He was less proficient because he was “monitoring what is read for correct letter/sound and word identification”. He stopped and thought about the difficult words before saying them aloud (fear of getting them incorrect). However, he did try a “variety of different strategies when meaning breaks down”. I think his previous teacher(s) might have focused on fluency/getting the words correct rather than comprehension.  I observed him “attempting to identify all of the words correctly” instead of reading to make sense of the text. I stressed to him that we read for meaning of the text and it is okay to miscue as long as it makes sense. I want to implement a couple of mini-lessons that employ this strategy because he as well as several of my other students who have lower reading levels, are still focusing on every single individual word on the page rather than the story as a whole. This made it difficult for him to build meaning of the text and therefore, comprehend the text. However, I see him as a proficient reader when attempting to correct his miscues, chunking words, varying the manner in which texts are read, etc. He enjoys reading nonfiction books about sports which can be a little more challenging. But, we are working on “talking back to the book” this week and I think this will help him focus on making sense of the text as a whole. Also, we will work on monitoring his comprehension since he said that he easily forgets what happens in the text. Overall, I want to organize some strategy groups during reading workshop so I can focus on moving students to the proficient reading behaviors.

Module 1 - “Watch & Learn: Assessing Reading Skills” Video Response

I remember watching several of these “Reading Rocket” videos when I was pursuing my undergraduate degree at KSU. They do help teachers learn what to look for with students. I have noticed, though, that fluency is an argumentative topic between reading researchers/teachers. In our EDRD 7715, our book and much of our research information, we’re led to believe that reading’s sole purpose is to make sense of the text (comprehension). However, the Stern Center places emphasis solely on fluency. I agree that children who read with a choppy pattern will more than likely have a lower comprehension. Yet, I think if a classroom is based solely on improving a child’s fluency rate, it leads to the students “racing” each other during reading which can also cause confusion. This is why I feel that it is important to find a balance between comprehension and fluency. Many of my students who have a lower reading level are those who struggle with decoding and they are in fact struggling with maintaining comprehension.  This is why I model consistently throughout the day with my read aloud texts during mini lessons, read aloud times, and small group instructions.  I evaluated my students on a regular basis last year with individual conferences and DRA assessments. This year will be a challenge for me since I have 31 students and I will be using a new assessment tool. However, I will continue to assess my students’ fluency and comprehension through conferences and small group instructions (i.e., strategy groups, book clubs, and guided reading groups). I always begin my individual conferences by having the student read to me so I can informally assess the students’ fluency after which I follow-up with a few comprehension questions. We also will be working on Words Their Way spelling which will help with students’ word recognition. My goal this year is to assess all of my students on a regular basis as the video stressed.  Continual assessments will be vital to my small group instructions and reading plans.