Week 4 - Assignment 2

Based on the running record, the student has average reading fluency. She paused in many areas and sounded out the words. In a couple of instances, the teacher assisted her to say the words. Her error rate was 25 and self correction rate was 3.6. Her accuracy rate was 95%.

She was able to tell what the passage was about in her own words. She identified that there are similarities and differences between he fish and whales. She mentions that they are born differently. She also states that in terms of size, whales are bigger and fish are smaller. The student recognizes one of the key differences between fish and whale and state that when whales are babies, they drink milk from the mother and later learn to find food on their own. Fish however must find food on their own from the time they hatch. The student includes details from the passage such as both fish and whales have fins and flippers. These statements indicate good comprehension and summarization skills. The student uses appropriate vocabulary from the text and demonstrates a complete understanding of the passage.

Week 4 - Assignment 1

Accuracy rate - (198-8)/198x100= 95% 

Error rate - 198/8= 25

Self-correction rate - (8+3)/3= 3.6

Week 3 - Assignment 2

Informal assessments are very important for students and teachers in the classroom. For a teacher, the informal assessments can be helpful in determining if a specific lesson is successful or not. A simple strategy such as an exit ticket can help teachers identify which strategies are successful and which are not.  Another way informal assessments can be helpful in the classroom is by helping the teacher determine if a lesson needs to be retaught. Many times a specific topic is difficult for students to grasp and in such cases the informal assessment would reveal where students are facing difficulty. Informal assessments can also help teachers identify where in the curriculum students excel and where they need more attention. The teacher can then use that information to create activities and lessons that address those specific strengths and weaknesses. The main goal of informal assessments is to detect where students are struggling so that teacher can address it appropriately.

Week 3 - Assignment 1

Segment 1 

The essential components that are addressed during the first part of the shared reading activity are oral language, phonological awareness, and word identification. The shared reading activity engages students who are different levels of literacy developments. In this video the students and the teacher read a poem about hot dogs. The poem is enlarged for the whole class to see and read. This engages students by allowing them to read the words they already know and trying to read the ones they don’t know by following their peers and the teacher.

During her explicit phonics lesson, Ms. Perez supports students’ problem solving skills by working on the “–ot” spelling pattern and rhyme. She demonstrates to the students how replacing the first letter with the “– ot” sound gives her new words. She then adds a consonant pattern “sp--” to the students. She emphasizes that some students need the have the vowels introduced in systematic manner to help them read. She helps students sound out the words by helping them with the vowel and consonant blend sounds.

Based on what I saw in the video, there are different ways shared reading can be used to promote literacy. One of the benefits is that the shared reading creates a safe, nonjudgmental environment for the students to read out loud. Shared reading encourages students to focus on new concepts about print and take special notice of words that may be repeated and/or how they are written. For example, one student in the video noticed how the word “hot” was capitalized in one sentence and lower case in the next. Another benefit of shared reading is students observe what the reading process is like and practice strategies as a whole group. The teacher can point out specific words that rhyme or follow a spelling pattern and using that to broaden students’ word recognition. 

Segment 2

It’s important for students to verbalize their strategies because it helps them internalize them. Ms. Perez believes the more students verbalize the strategies they are using, the more it helps them when they read independently.  She points how one student used a specific strategy to sound out a word she didn’t know and she asked if anyone else had noticed what she had done. This strategy is effective in helping her determine who is attentive and following along with the group. 

Another strategy Ms. Perez uses is the “masking” technique where a word is covered up in the passage. This strategy helps students guess what word would make sense base on the pictures and other words around it. She allows students to briefly look at the first letter to make prediction about what the masked word could be. Her goal here is to teach students how to rely on different strategies when they read to decode unknown words. In addition, the teacher also wants her students to develop fluency, expand their sight word vocabulary, comprehension and make sense and make connections to what they read.

Segment 3 

Ms. Perez organizes her classroom to support a wide range of learners. One part of the video explores how students learn to make words with cut out letters with the help of a student teacher. The student teacher gives feedback to help the student figure out the words she is creating. This activity specifically works on sound sequencing, high frequency words and consonant sounds to help students create specific words.

In another segment of the video, Ms. Perez works with two fluent readers and teaches them how to take notes. The students read a book on Spiders, writes down what they think are important ideas and create a book. In this process the students learn about how to categorize their writing into three different themes. They go back to their notes and arrange their ideas in a way that fits into one of the themes. These two segments emphasize how reading and writing are connected in all areas of learning.

Segment 4 

Ms. Perez uses ongoing individual assessments to guide her instruction by taking a running record several times in the school year, September, December, March and June. She uses the class profile to help group students and differentiate instruction. The assessments allow her to track each child’s progress in a simple way. The running records help her groups students that have similar needs and think of activities to implements in the classroom. The data she gathers helps her determine her instructional goals and the strategies she will use to achieve those goals.

Similar ongoing assessments can be integrated into my own classroom to keep track of students’ progress and differentiate the learning activities. It would help me see what areas my students need help in and create activities to accommodate those needs. In addition, it would also help me determine if the strategies I am using are effective in the classroom. If the strategies were not effective, I would look for alternative activities and assessments methods to implement right away.