Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith,

            For the past four months I have had the joy of getting to know Conor. He is very pleasant to work with and gets along well with his peers. He is very motivated in mathematics and enjoys playing academic games on the computer. In addition, I have been able to see and assess Conor’s literacy progress. Conor is an emerging reading and I am excited to see him continue to excel. To aide in his growth there are a few areas of literacy in which both you and I can work with. I have noticed that when Conor reads a book out loud he is unable to answer some of the comprehension questions post reading. This is not uncommon for students and there are ways in which we can help him.

            First I am planning on working with him with small groups during our literacy centers. During literacy centers children are either working with me or working with literature games and activities in small groups. When Conor is with me I plan on teaching him comprehension strategies such as communicating background knowledge, retelling, and think-outlouds. When working with me he will be with children at the same level. However, when he is in other centers I plan on having him engage in the various activities with students who will challenge him just a bit! Lastly, I want you to know that I will be starting an after school program for students who want extra time working on comprehension and other reading strategies. If this is something you would be interested in let me know!

            I am confident that Conor will grow from these various instructional strategies. I encourage you to read Conor’s library books at home and talk about them afterwards. Since he is extremely motivated by the computer I have included a few websites you can introduce to him when he is playing at home! If you have any questions feel free to contact me by e-mail at msyassick@elementary.edu or by my school phone at (555-5555). I am also available before or after school.

All the best,
Ms. Yassick

Websites

 http://www.zoodles.com/free-online-kids-games/kindergarten_reading-comprehension

http://www.jumpstart.com/parents/games/reading-games

Kusek_Reflection1

I had the chance to teach the first ELA mini-lesson this morning in my placement classroom to Louis* and Trevor*. I worked with the students for about fifty minutes, and it was a great experience for me to be able to see how these two individual students reacted in response to the lesson that I prepared for them. As a quick summary, we read a book about the different kinds of jobs adults have and we practiced the comprehension strategy of connecting by filling out a double-entry journal.  

Both Louis* and Trevor* were not excited to be pulled out of the classroom to work on reading. This is not something that I think either of them enjoy doing, and they are pulled out multiple times during the week to work on reading with both TE301 students and a resource room teacher. In addition, the students were practicing a play that they have been working on in the classroom, and the boys really wanted to be doing that instead of working on comprehension. Nonetheless, I tried to be as motivating as possible, and I think the boys liked having pieces of construction paper to be able to write their thoughts on. 

I worked really hard to model for them what the double entry journal was and what was supposed to go in each column. The boys really struggled with the first column, where they had to put an idea from the book into it, and then move to the second column where they were supposed to connect a thought. They really wanted to skip right to the personal connection part, which is good and bad. Good, because they were already thinking ahead and making connections, but not so good because when I asked them to point to the spot on the page where they were connecting their idea to, they had a difficult time. 

The strength of my lesson was that the boys knew that they had to pay attention to the content because they would be asked to write down a connection to it each page. I think this kept them a little bit more focused, even though I definitely observed how easily it was for either of them to get distracted and how many times I had to urge them to re-focus. The biggest limitation of my lesson was that I don't think I fully got them to comprehend the main ideas of the text. With this double-entry journal, they were focusing in on certain details that they could connect to, but when I asked them about the main idea of the text at the end, the boys were still missing a good chunk of the main idea. I think a lot of this had to do with their desire to go back in the classroom, however. 

In regards to myself as a teacher, I liked having the construction paper so that I could quickly scan the connections that the boys were making in the journal. I noticed that I had to explain the purpose of the journal in a couple of different ways, and I was proud that I was able to do this in Spanish. I know that I had to use a lot of patience in this lesson, as it was a little discouraging that the boys really didn't want to participate. I am still wondering if this was a good strategy in helping the boys develop comprehension skills. Comprehension is such a big idea, and breaking it down into teaching different strategies was the way that seemed the most logical to me. I am wondering how I could use the strategy of connection to help the boys focus more on the main ideas rather than the minute details. 

Overall, this lesson was insightful and helpful in my teaching development. I am excited to see how the questioning technique works with the boys next week on an expository text, and I hope that I won't have to pull them from something that they want to be part of in the classroom again! 

Preston Lesson Plan 1

Rationale:  When reading new text, the children in my classroom often hesitate when they come across a word that they don’t recognize.  The students will immediately look to the teacher for help.  The students attempt to guess the word based on the picture in the book.  Most of the time the word they are guessing is not even based on contextual clues, such as the first letter in the word, but is based exclusively from the given picture.  For example if there is a picture of a hen next to the word “hen” they instantly read the word as “chicken” basing their knowledge on the picture.  When I ask them to sound out the word they are able to identify that the first letter begins with “h” but still will resort to guessing the word as “chicken”.  This tells me that the child is not using the letters in the word as a clue to help him decode the word. This strategy hinders the children’s comprehension of the text.  During this guided reading lesson I will work on the strategy of combining both prior knowledge of sounding out words with the use of context clues to enhance their reading abilities and guide them to becoming more independent readers.

Objective for this lesson:  Students will develop word knowledge and comprehension skills by reading s selection and using context clues to identify unknown words. 

Materials & supplies needed: 5 copies of the book Spring will Bring (printable book from www.kinderblogger.org) 

***PROCEDURE***

Introduction to the lesson  (3 minutes):  

My guided reading lesson will take place during literacy centers, in which I will call the four students over to work with my a separate table.  Each student will have their own copy of the book and I will also have a copy. 

•   I will begin the lesson by tapping into the children’s background knowledge.  I will ask, “Tell me what you know about spring? What do you do in the Springtime? How do you know that it is spring?  Anticipated student responses include, "It's warmer outside" "There are lots of flowers."

• I will introduce the activity by saying, "Today we are going to be reading about the things that happen in the spring.  Sometimes when you read something, you come across a word that you don't recognize.  When this happens, it is your job to be a detective and look for clues in the book to help you figure out the new word.  Book have clues to help us learn.  Today we are going to be reading detectives.  Detectives have a problem or a mystery to solve.  Out questions that we are going to investigate is 'What will Spring Bring?'  As we read this book we are going to look for clues that will help us identify the new words on each page. Clues we will look for include the letters in the word and the pictures on each page." 

 OUTLINE of key events during the lesson  (10 minutes): 

I will first model how to use context clues to figure out unfamiliar words. the strategy by "thinking

aloud" as I read the first page to the students.  I will start by saying "The title of this book is

'Spring will Bring'".  I will point to the words as I read them.   

• On page 1 I will read "Spring will bring....”  and I will stop on the word “colorful.”  I will say "hmmm I don’t know what this word is so I will first skip it and keep reading.”  I will then read the next word which is "flowers."  

• I will say, “ So far I know this page says 'Spring will bring blank flowers'.  Hmmmm lets look at the clues to figure out what the unfamiliar word could be."

• I will go through where to look for the different clues on the page. 

•  "The first place I will look for clues is in the letters in the word.  I notice that the first letter is a C.  Hmmm what do I know about the letter C? It makes the sound /k/.  The next letter in the word is an O.  I know an O makes an /u/ sound.  Now I know this word starts with the sound /ku/. 

• "The next place I will look for clues is in the picture. I notice that the picture has lots of flowers.  The flowers are different colors. One is a yellow flower, a blue flower, and a pink flower.  Remember the word I am trying to figure out starts with the sound /ku/.  I will reread the sentence, "Spring will bring something flowers. Maybe it's blue flowers. Spring will bring blue flowers.  Does that make sense? Does blues start with the sound /ku/? No. May  is color.  Does color start with the sound /ku/?  Yes.  The word could be color." 

•  I will reread the sentence to see if it makes sense. "Spring will bring color flowers. Does that make sense? No. Les’t look at the word again." I will sound out the word color and look at the end of the word-ful. I will sound out the end of this word.  "This part says color.  What is this ending part say. /f/, /u/, /l/. I will blend the sounds together to say "ful".   "Color-ful. I think I got it! Let’s reread the sentence to see if that makes sense.  Does that make sense? “Yes it did!”   I used the clues on the page to figure out the word I didn't know. 

For the rest of the book I will explain that the children will take turns reading each page. 

• I will have the children to point to the words as they read. 

•  If a student stops on a word that he doesn't know, I will encourage all students to look for clues to help them figure out the unknown word. “What clues on the page can help you figure out the word.”  This will support the gradual release of teacher led instruction and guide them to use more independent thinking. 

Closing summary for the lesson (5 minutes): 

• I will reread the book with the students using choral reading.  This repetition will build the readers confidence and further familiarize them with the new words they are learning. 

• While the students are reading I will point our one or two words that each child struggles with and ask them to explain how what clues they used to figure out the word.  For example I will say, "Remember Joseph when you first read this page you didn't know the word ladybug.  You used your detective skills to figure out what word it was. What were the clues that helped you figure out the word?" 

• At the end of the lesson I will review the different context clues to look for when you come across an unfamiliar word: 
• Looking at the letters at the beginning of the word.
• Looking at the pictures on the page
• Rereading the sentence to see if the word they think it is makes sense based on the clues. 

• I will discuss with the children how all of the "detective skills" we used when reading this book can be used when they are reading any book. I will explain, "All books have clues to help the reader learn new words all you have to do is use your detective skills to figure them out." 

• I will give the books to the children to take home with them and challenge them to read the book to someone in their family. 

Ongoing-Assessment: I will observe what strategies the children use when they come across a new word. Are they able to identify the context clues that will help the determine the word?  Are they successfully able to apply the new information?  I will take notes of the words that the student originally struggled with but were eventually able to figure out using the context clues and apply them to to future reading lessons to see if they are able to recognize the word. 

Adaptations: Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson?  To support the students during this lesson I will provide each with their own copy of the book.  If student don't know what to do when the come across an unfamiliar word I will support their recognition of the steps to use the new learned strategy by asking them guided questions such as "Where should you look for the clues first."  In addition I will encourage all students to look to clues and work together to figure out the unfamiliar word. 

Preston Guided Reading Lesson Overview

For my two guided reading lessons I will work with a group of four boys in my kindergarten classroom.  These students were selected by my mentor teacher because they scored low on the informal reading assessment that my teacher implemented a couple weeks ago before parent teacher conferences.  When I talked to my mentor teacher about what specific skills these students needed to work on she said using context clues to figure out unfamiliar words and blending sounds together to make words.

Kenny, Joseph, Javier, and Omar are all five year old students who scored low in phonemic awareness and vocabulary.  Throughout the year I have worked with these students individually during literacy centers.  I have noticed that these children all have a tendency to guess words when they are reading.  The only context clue that they use when they are guessing is the picture on the page.  For example, if there is a picture of a hen and the word "hen" is written below it, the students will instantly guess chicken (thinking it is a picture of a chicken).  When working with these students I encourage them to read the letters on the page and not just guess.  Even if they are successfully able to sound out each individual letter they struggle with being able to blend the individual sounds together to make a word.  I want to work with these students on how to use multiple context clues, such as the letters in the words and the illustrations to figure out unfamiliar words.  In addition I want to work with the students on segmenting and blending sounds in words to further support their developing phonemic awareness.  This is a fundamental skill for student to be able to "read" unfamiliar words (Tompkins, p. 155). 

For my first lesson I will focus on using context clues to figure out unfamiliar words.  Different types of context clues that readers use include using grammar, illustrations, and thinking of what word would logically fit into the  the given sentence.  According to Tompkins, doing a “think-aloud” to modeling strategies on how to use context clues to figure out unknown words is very beneficial when teaching students this skills to children (Tompkins, p. 245).  For the second  lesson I will focus on building the students phonemic awareness.  Phonemic awareness focuses on two main strategies; segmenting and blending.  The students I will be working with students are able to segment words into individual sounds when decoding words but have difficulty blending sounds the sounds together.  Instead of blending the sounds together the students attempt to guess the word, often guessing words with no phonics relation.  According to Tompkins, phonemic awareness requires students to focus on the linguistic features of speech rather than the meaning of each word (Tompkins, p.147).  I am excited to implement these two lessons and teach these four students reading strategies that will help them become more independent readers. 

. 

Kusek_ReadingLessonPlan2

Reading Lesson Plan #2  Rationale: The two boys that I am working with, Louis* and Trevor* are behind in comparison to the rest of their classmates in reading. Their particular struggle is comprehension. Since comprehension is so vast, I want to use these lessons to at least provide them with two strategies to help them stay focused on reading. Last week we used the strategy connecting, and this week we will use the strategy questioning. Objective for this lesson: Performance: Students will be able to ask a variety of questions about the bald eagle and work to find answers to those questions.  Conditions: Students will ask questions before and during the reading of "Salvemos el aguila calva" by Val Montegnana Walla, which is all about bald eagles.  Criterion: Students must ask three to five questions before reading, one question per page of reading, as well as looking at the list of questions and identifying which questions were answered in the text. They will also use a dictionary to define words that they have questions about and aren't able to answer through context.  Materials & supplies needed: Three copies of the book "Salvemos el aguila calva" for each student and me  A large piece of easel paper and marker to write the questions on  Another color marker to write the answers to the questions   A quite spot in the classroom or hallway to work   A Spanish-English dictionary

Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event  • Introduction to the lesson: (7 minutes)   I will remind students of what strategy we worked on last week and ask them if they remember why they learned how to connect. I will then tell them that they are learning a new strategy this week, questioning. I will ask them to look at the cover of the book we are reading and come up with at least three questions regarding bald eagles that they want to know. I will write these questions down on the easel paper. I will also explain to them that they need to be looking for the answers to these questions, as well as asking more questions throughout the book. I will tell them to point out words that they don't know and that they can ask questions about the meaning of those words, as well.  • OUTLINE of key events during the lesson: (40 minutes)  We will go through each of the pages slowly in the book. After each page, I will ask them if there are any questions on the easel paper that can be answered. I will also ask them if they have more questions about what we just read, as well as if there are certain words that they don't understand that is preventing them from understanding the book fully. I will tell them that questioning is a good strategy to help them stay engaged and understand that it is important to ask questions and dig into the book to find the answers. Students will probably not have behavior issues, as we are just working two on one and the boys are respectful. I will make sure they know that they are to read, speak and write only in Spanish. As we go through the pages, the number of questions on the easel paper will grow, and hopefully so will the answers. Students will be able to see the questions in one color and the answers in another. We will also use the Spanish-English dictionary for words that a student doesn't understand. For the answer to those, instead of writing the English translation, I will ask the student to explain the definition in Spanish and write that on the easel paper.  • Closing summary for the lesson: (10 minutes) As we finish the book, I will ask students to go through the unanswered questions again and see if they can find any clues to the answer in the book. We will try and fill out as many answers as we can. I will then ask them how they think this helped them in comprehension. I will ask them if there was anything new they learned about eagles through this book. Ongoing-Assessment:  I will be able to see through the amount of questions the students asked as well as the answers how engaged they were in the reading and in the strategy. This will help me see if they were able to learn a strategy that will help them in their comprehension. I will have the easel paper as evidence in being able to report back to my MT and in helping her prepare future lessons for them in regards to comprehension.

Adaptations: Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson? While the boys don't have any specific limitations, the Spanish-English dictionary will be an accommodation that will help them when they don't know some of the Spanish vocabulary. As I see how they are doing on this assignment, I will know how much support and scaffolding to provide during the lesson.

Kusek_ReadingLessonPlan1

Reading Lesson Plan #1 Rationale: I will be focusing on the comprehension strategy of "connecting" because my two students, Louis* and Trevor* are way behind from the rest of their class in their reading level and most of this comes from their struggle with comprehension. They both struggle with staying focused in on the content while reading, so teaching them a strategy to help them stay engaged will work towards boosting their comprehension levels. Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria): Performance: Students will fill out a double-entry thinking journal.  Conditions: Students will fill out this journal while reading non-fiction book "Gente que trabaja" by Anne O'Brien. Criterion: Students will write down an entry per page, including a quote or idea from the text and an original thought from the student corresponding to the quote.   Materials & supplies needed:  Three copies of the book (one for each student, one for me)  Three large pieces of construction paper (one for each student, one for me) A writing utencil for the students  A quiet spot in the hallway or classroom

Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event  • Introduction to the lesson (5 minutes)  We will be working together a couple times to work on different reading strategies. Today, we will read a book, but fill out a journal while we are reading. This journal will help us relate the ideas in this book to our own lives and thoughts. The book has to do with different kinds of jobs, so you can think about people that you know that have these jobs or what kind of job you might want to have when you grow up. This column on the journal is for you to fill out what quote you can relate to or have a thought about, and this column is for you to explain what you thought about the quote. We will take turns reading and will share our thoughts. I will be filling out a journal too!  • OUTLINE of key events during the lesson  (40 minutes)  As we read each page in the book,we will stop and take a couple minutes to write an entry in our journal. I will give them each a piece of construction paper and a writing utensil to use. We will then quickly share them out to each other. I will be modeling how to do this journal, so that the boys understand how to make connections. These connections will help the boys focus on the reading, see how they can relate the reading to themselves, and stay engaged rather than drifting off and losing comprehension. I don't anticipate any behavior issues because both boys are very respectful and I am only working with the two of them, so there won't be many distractions. Once they see me model how to do the journal and know that they have to write an entry after each page, they will get the hang of staying focused in on the page and what is expected of them. I will also make sure that they know they are required to read, write, and speak in Spanish.  • Closing summary for the lesson (5 minutes) After we have read the whole book and written journal entries for each page of the book, I will give the boys a couple minutes to look through their entries and share the one that they think they made the best connection to. I will have them share those out. I will also ask them why they think I had them connect the book to themselves. I will explain that it is to help them stay focused on the text so that they understand what happens.  Ongoing-Assessment:  The last question I will ask them is what do they think the main idea of this book was. I will have them write their answer on the back of their journal and then have them share it out. This will help me see if they understood the general gist of what the book was about. Sharing the connection that they think they made best also gets at how well they accomplished the comprehension strategy of connecting. I will be able to look at their journals to see the depth of their connections and this will help me plan the questioning strategy lesson.

Adaptations: Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson? Both boys are able to understand Spanish and do not have any specific impairments I will have to accommodate. I will be able to tell if they are following along with the journal and working toward understanding the strategy. If I think they need some extra support or scaffolding, I will provide it when I see it.

Kusek_ReadingLessonOverview

My Mentor Teacher was thrilled when I told her of our last assignment for the ELA portion of TE402. She is always trying to use me as much as possible when I am there, specifically to work with individual students in areas that they are struggling in. I have pulled many students out in the hall to work on their multiplication tables, as well as others to work on reading fluency. The number one concern of my MT is probably the reading comprehension of two of the students in class.

My classroom is a 3rd/4th grade Spanish immersion split class, but two students stand out against the whole class in regards to reading comprehension. My MT has DRA tested all of the students, and all but two are reading above or at least on their grade level. Louis* is a fourth grader and Trevor* is a third grader, but both are reading at about a second grade level in both Spanish and English. Their accuracy in fluency has been improving, but both students really struggle with comprehension. They cannot retell what happened in a story they just read or answer comprehension questions in much detail. My MT is concerned that they are falling even farther behind in Spanish in comparison to English. She has noticed that Louis gets really distracted easily and zones out during a reading, whether it is an all class reading or if it is reading by himself. Trevor, on the other hand, seems to be in his own world much of the time, as he rarely participates in class and seems to be in a shell of sorts.

I will be working with these two students for both of the reading lessons. We will be focusing on comprehension both times. Comprehension is an extremely important factor in literacy development. If a reader doesn't comprehend what they just read, then there is no point in reading. In addition, Thompson explains that there are many factors that go into reading comprehension. The factors he mentioned includes "background knowledge, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension strategies, comprehension skills, motivation, genres, text structures and text features" (Thompson, p259) This is a large area of literacy development to work on, so I will do the best I can in focusing in on a couple skills and strategies to help equip the boys.

While comprehension includes both reader and text factors, I will focus on reader factors. My teacher wants me to use Spanish non-fiction books. I don't have much influence on motivation or text factors here, so I will focus on a couple different comprehension strategies. The first lesson will focus on what Thompson calls a "double-entry journal" (Thompson, p256), relating to the comprehension strategy of "connecting" (p273). We will read a book together and I will have the boys fill out this journal throughout the reading. The second lesson will focus on "questioning" (p273). I will have the boys read another book and they will be required to ask questions before reading, during reading, and we will work through the answers together. I want this lesson to also have an emphasis on questioning vocabulary, since Thompson states that vocabulary comprehension is important to overall comprehension (p260). Both of these strategies have to do with responding to the text, which is something that my MT sees doesn't happen when Louis and Trevor read a book.