Week 7, Assignment 3

1. Explain the three levels of words and how you can use word levels to decide which words to teach.

Vocabulary words do not have to be exclusively from exterior lists. Rather, vocabulary words can be taken from literature that students are already reading. There are different tiers of word levels. Some words are extremely complex and are only applicable to certain subjects such as chemistry and geometry. These types of words can be taught by the teachers of those subjects. Other types of words are uncommon but students should still know them. In the video the teacher decided to discuss the word "reassure". This word was above the students' grade level but since it is a word that is used the teacher chose to teach it. The next level of words are simple words that the students are familiar with. The key to know what to teach your students is based upon your students' backgrounds and needs. Every lifestyle comes along with a unique set of words that are practical and it is up to the teacher to chose which words are the most helpful for her students to know.

2. How do you teach your students to "chunk" words as a strategy for decoding unfamiliar words? When do you provide this instruction?

For beginner readers, students sound out each letter of the word. As their reading progresses, students should be trained to sound out larger units of the word. For an unfamiliar word students can just look at the middle of the word to see if he can pronounce it. If he is having trouble, he can look at the beginning of the word or the end to see if he can pronounce any of those parts. Eventually after dissecting the parts of the word the student should be able to sound out the entire word. Students can do this process through using their thumbs. Eventually the goal is for students to drop using the exterior reminders of chunking and for this process to become automatic thereby increasing fluency.

3. Based on Professor Allington's comments and the classroom examples, what are some ways you might foster word study in your classroom?

I really liked how one of the teachers spent a few minutes each day discussing new words. These words were taken from the students' reading and added to a word wall. The class discussed each word coming up with different synonyms for the word to increase their vocabulary. Encouraging students to describe things using paragraphs in stead of sentences will expand their understanding of words and their appreciation for the item being described. In my classroom what I could do is first ask the students to describe something using one sentence. Next I can ask them to describe the same thing using a paragraph. Next I can ask them to go even deeper and describe the item using an entire page. This would help expand their vocabulary and writing skills.

Week 7-Assignment 2

1. How can you ensure that your struggling readers have access to texts they can easily read?

As seen in the video, teachers need to make sure that their classroom library is fully equipped with books of all reading levels. Professor Allington pointed out that it costs the same to buy twenty-five different books as twenty-five of the same book. With this mindset, teachers should try their upmost to stock their classrooms with reading material that is reader friendly even to the struggling reader.
It is important though that struggling readers also have some challenge to stimulate their minds. A "just right" balance is the key to ensuring that all readers' needs are being addressed.

2. How can you foster a learning environment in which students have many opportunities to practice reading?

As mentioned before, having a classroom library is extremely important. Making the library a pleasant and welcoming place to be is also important. Allowing children to go to the library after classroom assignments are completed or as a treat for students are ways for students to practice reading. In addition, creating activities that incorporate reading is also a way of enabling students to review their reading skills.

3. Describe ways in which you can model fluent reading in your classroom throughout the day?

Students gain so much for hearing the teacher read out loud. In addition to the enjoyment of listening to an interesting story, students are exposed to fluent reading. Weak students who are grouped with other weak students hardly ever hear what fluent reading sounds like. Therefore, it is vital for teachers to model fluent reading to show their students the level they should be striving towards. In addition to reading books out  loud, teachers can read directions for activities out loud, signs, rules etc. out loud for their students to hear fluent reading.

Week 7-Assignment 1

 

What texts and materials do teachers have in their classrooms that support students' development of fluent reading?

I am apart of a group of teachers that teach English to children in Israel. We follow a curriculum written by a professional educator with a lot of experience in teaching ESL, especially to Israeli children with unique backgrounds. Since the students that we teach come from ultra-orthodox homes, what they are allowed to read is limited. Students are not allowed to read books with magic, secular concepts, social interactions between girls and boys etc. Despite the restrictions, the head of our program provides an array of books from religious sources. She has around four books per reading level. This is a good amount for the weak readers, but for strong readers, they run out of reading material quite rapidly. Easy novels as well as religious readers are used to support students development of fluent reading.

 

How do they select vocabulary to teach in all areas of your curriculum?

Since these teachers are teaching English as a second language to younger children, they focus the most on letter recognition, reading then writing. These teachers main priority is not necessarily that these students should be on the same grade level as children the same age in America. Rather these teachers job is to equip their students with the tools to read and write English on a basic level. Therefore, the teachers try to chose the most practical vocabulary to help their students gain a basic hold of the language.  However, with children who are more advanced, vocabulary building is done through writing activities. Teachers give students vocabulary lists to learn and build on these lists through exciting writing activities. In addition learning units in grammar such as synonyms and antonyms also build students vocabulary since they learn new ways to say words that they already know.

 

 

  How much time do they allocate to word study?

The English classes that I am discussing take place between once to twice a week for forty-five minute sessions. Of these forty-five minute sessions two thirds are dedicated to word study. First the students review their sight words. Next students study their vocabulary words that fall under different rules, for instance the long a rules etc.

 

What word study routines do they teach and encourage their students to use?

The word study routines as mentioned above is that each lesson begins with a sight word test. Next  students are tested on vocabulary learned in previous classes. Following learning a new set of vocabulary words students usually complete a writing assignment having to do with the new set of words. Finally, students read from a book selected by the teacher. While reading students are encouraged to identify words and the rule they fall under. This way students are applying previous knowledge and hopefully building their vocabulary.

 

How do they differentiate instruction and tasks based on their students' needs?

The level of the words are based on the learning level of each child as a way of catering to each individual student's needs. Furthermore, if a student is weak reader, the teacher will allocate more time for reading practice to improve his fluency. Students will also do more exercises to  review their vocabulary if needed.

Fluency and Word Study Chart

Reading Element	Instruction	Opportunities for Practice	Text/Materials
Fluency	Teacher read-aloud	Reader’s Theater	Plays, scripts
Vocabulary	Vocabulary word tests, learning “rules” in the English language i.e.-long a	At the beginning of every class, while reading	Vocabulary lists, rule lists, readers
Decoding	While reading students need to decode unknown words	At the end of every lesson, and for homework	Readers, books

Week 6-Assignment 3

Phonics Lesson-Learning Blending sounds, bl/pl/

Objective: Students will apply their knowledge of the phonetic sounds of each of these letters and blend them to make a single sound and to read real words.

Grade Level: 1st grade

Standards:
 phonological awareness:

2. Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes). a. Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words. b. Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends. c. Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words. d. Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).

phonics and word recognition:

Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. a. Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs. b. Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words. c. Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds. d. Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word. e. Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables. f. Read words with inflectional endings. g. Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

Materials:
Smart Board, ABC chart

Procedure:
Students have been learning the sounds of each of the letters of the ABCs and are familiar with each of the letters. The teacher will bring in a smart board and display an ABC chart that the students recognize with pictures next to each letter corresponding to the sound of the letter. After the teacher and the students sing the song of the ABCs, the teacher will call on  a student to come up to the smartboard and point to the first letter of her name. After she points to the letter she will discover that the teacher put a sound clip linked to every letter that when selected sings the sound of the letter. At that point the teacher will ask the student to point to each letter in her name, then the teacher will give the student the word dog to spell. When the student points to each letter on the smart board the sound of the letter is heard. After the teacher calls on a few students to repeat the same procedure with different phonetic words (ie cat, big, dad, etc.) then the teacher will try to teach how to blend letters to make the sound "pl" as in play, plate, etc. The teacher will ask the class what letter makes the sound pl. After a little discussion the teacher will show the class that the sound pl is a blend between two letters, p and l. The teacher will then point to each of the letters on the smart board to hear the sound of each of these letters. Next the teacher will ask the students to come up to the smartboard to continue to practice this activity.

Using the smartboard that calls out the sounds of the letters when selected is beneficial because it allows students to reinforce the phonetic connection in a exciting and technologically advanced way. Students are able to trigger the sounds themselves which gives them ownership over the words and motivates them to perform more. In addition hearing the sound of each of the letters out loud provides a different dimension of learning as opposed to just seeing this rule. Each of the phonetic sounds are clearly identified which makes it easier for students to decode words.

(tumblebooks did not allow me to signup on to their website)

Week 6-Assignment 2

Assignment#2 On your blog, discuss in details on (a) what you’ve learned about “reading fluency,” (b) how you can apply “fluency assessment” in you classroom, and (c) how you will plan your “fluency instruction.”

a. Reading fluency is the step beyond reading accuracy and reading comprehension. To read fluently means that the reader is able to dedicate the majority of his thinking power towards understanding the material as opposed to decoding. When a child is unable to read fluently, his mind is occupied with the technical details of trying to decode the words while ignoring the bigger picture of understanding. That is why teaching reading fluency is so important.

b. Applying "fluency assessment is now a must in every classroom as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act which requires all teachers accountable for what their students are supposed to be learning. The fluency assessment tests how many words per minute a student can read accurately. To increase a child's fluency, teachers can have the child reread the material thereby improving the child's reading each time. The repetition can be done in a variety of ways. For instance through choral reading where the teacher reads aloud then the students repeat is one way for students to repeat the material. Through choral reading students are given a model of what the words should sound like then they are given the opportunity to copy it. Other ways is through script playing when students need to act out a script. This helps with fluency since this activity requires students to practice the material until it is mastered. Reading should be read in a way that is as fluent as a person speaks. Therefore, doing activities as mentioned above will be sure to increase students' fluency in no time.

c. My fluency instruction would be similar to what was mentioned above. The first step would be to introduce a story and discuss some main points about the story with the class before hand. For instance if the story was about butterflies the class would talk about different things having to do with butterflies. Next I would have the class follow along with the words of the story as I read each line aloud. Following my reading the class will be expected to repeat each line together (choral reading). This way the students are repeating the story twice which will increase their fluency. The next step would be to break up the class into heterogeneous partners where strong readers are matched with weaker ones and have them take turns reading to each other. At this time the partners should be providing feedback to each other on their reading. Next the students will have to do an acting activity based on the storyline. Students will have to practice their parts repeatedly before their lines are perfected then they will have to present the play to the class.

Week 6-Assignment 1

Based on the student's results, I would like to make a mini-lesson to teach the difference between the words "most" and "must". To begin, I would have the student make two puppets on popsicle sticks, one puppet will be the most puppet, and the other will be the must puppet. We will then discuss the differences between the words. We will talk about how they are spelled differently and therefore look different. We will also talk about their difference in meaning. Most means not always but in general, and must is another word for needs. After these definitions are discussed and are clear, I would then tell a story about a boy named Mo. In each sentence I would make sure to have the word most or must and when I get to the word I would pause and have the student lift up the appropriate puppet that fits into the sentence.

Week 5- Assignment 3

For my running record I asked a fourth grade boy to read a passage for me from the book "The Terrifying Trap of the Bad Mddos Pirates" by Barch Chait. I had been told that this book is rather difficult for the typical fourth grade student. The student that I had tested however was rather advanced and read through the passage quite easily. The following are the running record results:

Name of student: Michoel Jacobs-fourth grade
Total Number of Words-232 words
Error Rate-1:232
Accuracy Rate-98%
Self Correction Rate-1:2

Michoel was able to read the passage extremely fluently only mispronouncing one word and correcting himself twice. As an afterthought I probably should have chosen something harder for this student to read in order to gain a better understanding of his weaknesses. One of the things that Michoel lacked was expression when he read. For instance, there was little difference in his tone of voice when he was reading narration and dialogue. Additionally, when questions were asked he failed to raise his voice slightly at the end of the question to indicate that he was asking something. Although the boy lacked expression, he was able to retell the content of the passage extremely accurately.

Model Lesson-
Learning Goal-Student will enhance his expression while reading.
Procedure-Student will record different conversations taking place among his friends (with everyone's knowledge and consent of course). After listening to these recordings, student will create a sort of humming tune that is identical to the "tune" of which people are talking and record it. Next the student will ask his peers to listen to his "hum" and guess  if he was mimicking an informative sentence, a question, an exclamation, a fast conversation, a slow conversation. The guessers will fill in a questionnaire and will be told after the correct results.
Learning Outcomes-Students will be able to identify that the different tone of voice indicates a different form of communication. These differences enhance conversations and reading, and reading comprehension.  

Week 5-Assignment 2

Assignment#2 After watching the video, answer the following questions on your blog. (due Oct. 14, by midnight, on blog)

<!--[if !supportLists]-->a. <!--[endif]-->What surprised or interested you?

After watching the video what surprised me was the amount of English language learners there were in the classroom. It was extremely helpful to have a bilingual assistant who was able to relate to these students and their families.

 

<!--[if !supportLists]-->b. <!--[endif]-->What did you find that affirmed what you already knew or had been doing?

I always knew the importance of training students to become independent was important, and to see this in action was very gratifying. The students in the video knew exactly where to go during center time and they knew what was expected of them and behaved accordingly.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->c. <!--[endif]-->What new approaches or ideas will you try?

A new approach that I can try is to incorporate more of the secondary culture into the lesson to enrich each lesson's content. Not only will the English learners benefit, but the "English natives" will gain as well from learning about different cultures.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->d. <!--[endif]-->What questions do you have?

My main question is how to address a class with more than one second language learners. Meaning to say, Ms Wilson managed well with just a Chinese speaking assistant. However, what if she had Spanish speakers, Hebrew speakers, French speakers, etc, would you need a bilingual assistant in each of these different languages?

<!--[if !supportLists]-->e. <!--[endif]-->After watching the video, do you think differently about classroom practices you observed through field experience?

It is hard to draw a correlation between the video and my observations since the class that I watch is much smaller. Furthermore, although there is somewhat of a language barrier between the students and teacher, their culture is the same. Additionally, all of the students in my observations speak English at home and are encouraged to do so by their parents.

 

 

Week 5- Assignment 1

This is the observation sheet taken during the video with the added comments on the bottom.
The essential components: Oral Language-Ms Wilson led a conversation at the beginning about dragons and later about Chinese rice cakes. Phonological Awareness-Ms Wilson read the poem about the queen of hearts with her students to emphasize the sounds "art'. Phonemic Awareness-When the students were asked to write Ms Wilson asked the child to describe his illustration then break down the words he said in order to be able to write it. Word Identification-For English learners Ms Wilson asked her bilingual assistant to translate words from English to Chinese. Composition-Ms Wilson first asked the student to tell over the story. Next she asked him to make a picture of the story he told. Finally, she helped the student formulate short sentences describing was is depicted in the picture. Comprehension-Ms Wilson during guided reading asks students questions on the content of the story. Vocabulary-Ms Wilson in her read aloud of the Chinese Rice Cake taught the ESL students English vocabulary and how to relate it to Chinese. Fluency-Ms Wilson encouraged fluency during independent reading time when children read books on their own. Automaticity -Through interactive read alouds students repeated content to the point of automaticity.  

Week 4-Assignment 2

Based on hearing this student reading the passage "Whales and Fish" that the student is an intelligent girl who is a strong reader. Since the age of the student is unknown truthfully it is hard to say whether or not the student is a strong reader in comparison to her grade level. However based on her accuracy rate of %94 it seemed that the passage was at the perfect level for her to be reading with a teacher. In addition her self correction rate of 1:4 indicated that she self monitors her reading.When the child read it words seemed to flow for the most part. When the child got stuck she struggled a bit and either was able to figure out the word on her own, or rarely needed the teacher's assistance. It is interesting to note that when the child was asked the differences between whales and fish, the first thing that she mentioned was their difference in size which ironically was not mentioned at all in the passage. This indicates that the child was responding based on prior knowledge and not based on her reading comprehension. In addition she was able to recall that the babies of whales and fish were different and that they both had flippers. Both of these points were mentioned at the end of the story. Therefore this leads me to believe that either these points were the ones that the deepest impression on the girl so she remembered them. Either that or these points were mentioned at the end of the story  and therefore the girl was able to recall them easier. If that were the case I would also suggest that at the beginning of the story the girl was focused more on the technical aspects of reading more than the content. Once she got to the end she was able to also internalize the message that the words of the passage were trying to convey.

Week 4-Assignment 1

This is the running record that I took for the child reading the short passage "Whales and Fish".

Total Error Rate: 1:18
Accuracy Rate: %94
Total Self Correction Rate: 1:4