Reflection- Prezi

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ELL Running Record

ELL Worksheets

ELL Case Study

Sarah Kovalenko

EDLI 635

Dr. Hsu

ELL Case Study

Dena is an adorable third grader at Gan Yeladim Bais Yaakov in Jerusalem. She is an Israeli, yet her parents are originally from the States, and moved to Israel before Dena was born. She grew up among Israelis and all her friends and teachers speak Hebrew, so Hebrew is her first language. However, it is very important to her parents that she speak English correctly and fluently. Therefore, they sent her to this specific school, since they cater to such girls; they have the proper staff, programs and tools to help girls like Dena learn the English language.

Dena is a quick and motivated learner. Over the past few years at Gan Yeladim, she picked up the skills to decode words, read with average fluency, and write age appropriate words. She can read a text given to her with minimal mistakes and she can write words and sentences correctly. However, Dena has great difficulty when it comes to comprehension. She reads, but cannot fully understand what she is reading. She understands some details, yet she misses important parts of the text because of her inability to comprehend the reading. She cannot identify the main components of the text, such as the storyline or main idea. After reading a story, she is unable to answer literal or evaluative questions.

Because of her comprehension issues, Dena has little interest in reading. She is not motivated to keep reading. She views reading as boring, since it is just a jumble of words that mean little to her. She needs the proper assistance so that she can build her comprehension skills. She must want to read so that she can get the practice she needs. She’s a good reader, and once her comprehension skills are strengthened, she will become a great reader.

Dena also has some difficulty with spelling. She is used to Hebrew, where words are spelled pretty much the way they sound. In English, the pronunciation of a word can be entirely different from the way it sounds, so she finds this new and challenging. For example, she often misreads words with the ‘gh’ since the ‘gh’ combination may be one of several sounds. When she hears a word that is a homophone, such as “through”/” threw”, she has trouble writing the correct spelling of the word.

A great benefit that Dena has is tremendous support from her parents and family. Since her English education is extremely important to them, they have a positive attitude toward her learning. Therefore, Dena displays a similar attitude; she strives to do well. Her parents are eager to assist her with any homework or assignment that she needs to do. They encourage her to practice and to excel. This factor plays a crucial role in Dena’s learning experience.

          Fortunately, I was able to interact with Dena one on one. This gave me clear insight about her strong points, her needs and struggles, and her progress. For a reading activity, I had Dena read an excerpt from the book James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl. She had an easy time reading the story. She pronounced the words correctly, and read with decent fluency and expression. However, she had trouble decoding many of the words. After she read to me, I asked her to retell the story and this was difficult for her. She stated some correct details, but she missed the main idea of the story. She did not know the sequence of events that occurred, and she could not tell me who the main character was, or what the setting was. I did a running record and concluded that her phonics level was high, while her comprehension level was low.

          I noticed that in class, when the teacher is presenting material, or reading a book, she seems to be following along pretty well. I think that when she listens, rather than reads, it is easier for her to understand the language. She picks up cues that help her understand, such as the teacher pointing, her expressions, or pictures in a storybook. She is able to get the gist of what is going on even though she does not understand all the words. The teacher speaks clearly, with expression, and with visual aids to help students like Dena understand what she is saying.

I did a social studies worksheet with Dena, focusing on the differences in language, tradition, and foods of different groups living in the community. It was a worksheet that had lots of pictures based on what they learnt about aspects of different cultures. It required a little reading and writing, and mostly drawing. Dena did very well with this activity since she was able to understand everything by looking at pictures or reading simple, and few words. This gave her a chance to express her understanding of the lesson.

I had Dena read from her science textbook, about the parts of a flower. Although I helped her with some difficult words, she read fairly well. When she came across a word that she had trouble with, like “filament”, she sounded it out slowly, which is a great method.  However, when I asked her questions about what she read, she did not know. She had no idea what the functions of the parts were. I think that she finds textbook reading especially difficult since it is heavy reading. There is a lot of information in each paragraph. Also, the paragraphs and words are condensed which is overwhelming. owever

          I did some math practice with Dena in her math book. The class was learning multiplication, and Dena was good at the computations. We did some pages that had just number computations, and she had no problem doing the examples. Then we did word problems and Dena had a harder time with that. She couldn’t quite comprehend what the question was asking. She needed help with words like “twice as many”, “altogether”, or “in total”. Once we went through the word problem together and wrote it down in numbers, she was ok.

          Dena’s spelling is not on a very high level. When she writes, the reader can usually comprehend what she wrote, since she writes words the way they sound. The teacher introduces one spelling word at the end of each day. She writes it on an index card and hangs it up on a wall in the classroom. Throughout the days, whenever any of the spelling words come up, she practices it with them. She also reviews any rules of spelling that the word follows, and gives other examples. For example, when she teaches the word “photograph”, she teaches about the “ph” sound, and tells them words like “laugh”, and “paragraph”. Dena constantly refers back to these words, as they are commonly used words.

          According to the SOLOM ratings, Dena is in Phase 2, with a 15 as her score. Her comprehension skills are below average. Her fluency and vocabulary skills are not too high, and her pronunciation and grammar skills are better.

          I watched how she interacted with the teacher, and I saw that her comprehension skills are low. Then I watched her in a social setting, when speaking with her peers, since she is more relaxed when speaking to peers rather than when speaking to her teacher in class. I found that she showed more signs of increased comprehension when around her friends. She shows better fluency and vocabulary skills when around her friends too. Her peers have an easy time understanding her. Dena’s English is well enough to speak to peers on her level.

Reflection:

Dena’s reading is passable for her age and grade level. She makes a few mistakes in pronunciation and grammar, but it does not interfere with the listeners understanding. Over the time that I observed her, I saw her develop in areas of reading such as in recognizing vowels and consonants and identifying sentence structures. The area in reading where Dena needs to improve the most is in her reading comprehension. After reading a passage, Dena finds it hard to retell what went on. She may confuse characters, events, and places. Mostly, she doesn’t understand when imagery and personification is used, since she takes things at face value. Idioms, similes, and metaphors mix her up too. She has shown some improvement in this area as well, though. She has learned to identify major events and put them in order by asking herself “what happened first?” and so on.

Dena is below average in her reading and writing, but with steady help and learning of new techniques, she is showing improvement and is able to keep up with the class. When it comes to academic language, Dena is behind. She gets confused with new words, technical details, and grammar. It’s hard to engage Dena in literacy tasks. Since she feels that it’s too hard to learn, she has no motivation to work. When she is assigned a task, she will attempt to procrastinate before she starts. Then, she does the work listlessly and carelessly. While she may be able to do better work, her lack of motivation severely undermines it.

According to both the SOLOM rubric and the LEP/ELL rubric show that Dena is lacking in reading skills. Primarily, she needs the most help with comprehension. They show that she is below average in reading comprehension skills but in general her reading skills are promoted by her good fluency. Dena has a good imagination and loves to write, but sometimes teachers and peers find it hard to understand what she is trying to portray because of her weak spelling and grammar. She uses inventive spelling which means that she writes based on what the word sounds like. Her punctuation and sentence structures also hinder her writings.

Tone and sentence structure impede Dena’s oral and writing skills. When she interacts with her peers, she may phrase sentences in the wrong way, making a statement, a question and vice versa. When writing, her punctuation is wrong and she tends to write run on. She will pack her many different ideas into one sentence, leaving it to the reader to differentiate.

There is one specific and helpful transfer skill that Dena uses. When she is confronted with a long and challenging word when reading, we expected her just to give up, since that is what she tends to do when challenged. However, upon observing her, I realized that Dena uses techniques that we try to ingrain in our students, too. She knows what sound each letter makes. She will sound out each letter until it forms a comprehensible word. I noticed her do this when reading in her native language of Hebrew, too.

Dena is more animated and shows more progress when interacting with her friends. She is less guarded and is more likely to try new words. This may be that since she is in an informal setting, she feels more relaxed and comfortable. She is quite popular with her peers, due to her good looks and charming disposition. This confidence allows her to stretch her boundaries and try new things that she may not in class. This helps her with her writing skill since we noticed that she incorporated words that she learned from her friends into her assignments and worksheets.

Dena has a wonderful grasp of phonics. Her phonetic skills are the key aid to her relatively fluent reading. She applies different techniques to her phonics skills such as sounding out letters and syllables to help her read. She has good word recognition skill and many words that she reads are ones that she knows from being “sight words” or from being ones that she’s encountered a lot of times from her readings. Dena’s comprehension is what makes her lag the most. However, she has learned to implement strategies such as rephrasing paragraphs in Hebrew, and writing down short points of key ideas and events. These have helped her progress nicely in this area.

Dena has shown a clear preference to narratives as opposed to content area texts. She has an active imagination and needs a lot of stimulation. If she labels something as “boring” in her mind, she is highly unlikely to want to do something with it. That’s why it’s important for her to develop a love for reading and this for her, is through narratives, preferably ones that she can relate to and are not too difficult for her to read on her own. Content area texts are too monotonous for her and she phases out in middle and daydreams.

Strategies to help Dena’s oral language is having her learn with her peers. She shows a clear preference to interacting with her friends as opposed to one on one where she clams up. She needs to be in a group setting in order for her to express herself more and to be able to learn and absorb. For her phonics skills, Dena can implement strategies such as having flashcards with letters and practicing their sounds. Simple words, rhymes, and short sentences on flashcards can also help. For word recognition, a word wall and a word a day will help her learn commonly used words and how to use them in her oral language and when reading and writing. Overall comprehension can be improved with strategies that we have taught her such as drawing pictures to portray ideas in the story, rephrasing and paraphrasing, sequence charts, and jotting down short points.

The most important thing that I have learned from this experience and one that I will implement for my future students, is catering to the student’s whole character. Instead of just looking at the child, and saying “she needs help with grammar” or “his problem is comprehension”, look at the child and try to find what he or she is good at and play on that. If we nitpick on the negative, we are just airing out their dirty laundry as opposed to showing them how great they are. Children need to know that we respect them for who they are and we love them no matter what. By using their strengths to help their weaknesses we are showing that they can become something great by using their talents.

Week 11: Assignment #2

A great literacy strategy for a teacher to implement in the classroom is read alouds. Students improve comprehension and literacy, as well as build many foundational skills. They get to see the teacher model fluent and expressive reading. They also enrich their vocabulary and grammar when hearing the teacher read to them.
Teachers should read to students and ask questions while reading. Teachers can stop at certain points of the book and ask the students what they think will happen next, why did this event happen...This engages the students and provides great opportunity to improve their comprehension skills. 

http://www.examiner.com/article/asking-questions-while-reading-out-loud-improves-literacy-new-study-reveals

Ask Students Questions While Reading Aloud to Improve Literacy

The University of Virginia's School of Education conducted a study and found that when teachers read aloud to students and asked questions during the reading process, students showed improved reading comprehension and literacy skills. The study also found that students' literacy improved when they were asked questions and actively engaged with the text, rather than just looking at the pictures while teachers were reading aloud.

I found a great lesson plan for first graders where the teacher reads The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein aloud to the class and turns the reading into a lesson.
http://curry.virginia.edu/reading-projects/projects/garf/First%20Read-alouds/The%20Giving%20Tree.doc

 

Week 10: Strategies for Teaching ELLs

http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cDXbYMQVMn

Week 9: Lesson on Comprehension

Candidate’s Name: Sarah Kovalenko

Grade Level: 2

Title of the lesson: Comprehension

Length of the lesson: 40 minutes

Central focus of the lesson (The central focus should align with the CCSS/content standards and support students to develop an essential literacy strategy and requisite skills for comprehending or composing texts in meaningful contexts) Read a text and comprehend it fully. Use different strategies and methods to help comprehend.

Knowledge of students to inform teaching (prior knowledge/prerequisite skills and personal/cultural/community assets) Students can read age appropriate texts. Now they will focus on comprehending what they are reading, analyzing the text and answering questions.

Common Core State Standards (List the number and text of the standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the relevant part[s].) Common Core Learning Standards for ELA and Literacy) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.

Support literacy development through language (academic language) Students will analyze a text, make inferences and draw conclusions. Read and write.

Learning objectives Students will learn to comprehend a text. Students will ask and answer questions to help themselves comprehend a text. Students will practice reading and writing.

Formal and informal assessment (including type[s] of assessment and what is being assessed) Informally, ask questions throughout reading to make sure that they understand the text. Also, check on them during the group discussions and assess. Formally, take a look at the drawings and the letters that they wrote to the author.

Instructional procedure: Instructional strategies and learning tasks (including what you and the students will be doing) that support diverse student needs. Read the book Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes, aloud to the class. Ask questions about the story while reading. After each page, have the students draw a picture to demonstrate their understanding of what occurred in that segment. In groups, have the students share ideas and facilitate a discussion in which they discuss how they think the story would continue. (How would the character change? What might he/she do next? Why?) Then have the groups present their ideas to the class. Next, have the students work in pairs to write a letter to the author explaining what they liked about the book, and what their favorite part was.

Instructional resources and materials used to engage students in learning. Book: Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes

Reflection This lesson has many entry points- drawing, reading, writing, working with others.. This allows for each child to learn effectively. I would put more emphasis and focus on teaching vocabulary. I might stop while reading to explain difficult words. This would definitely help ELLs and struggling readers, who need more practice and attention.

Dr. Hui-Yin Hsu Spring 2014

Reflection on Running Record

My experience using running records has been a wonderful one. I have never used it before and at first I was confused about what to do, what it's purpose was, and how to go about doing it. However, after learning about it and practicing how to do some, I've learned that it's an effective and accurate way to assess students' fluency levels.

The first running record I gave was on a pre-recorded reading. I found it pretty hard to catch every nuance and I had to keep on checking myself and resources. I did find it pretty cool the way the student actually did the things (i.e. errors) we learned about!

The next running records were on students. Here, I was more adept at listening to them and recording at the same time. Again, I was amazed at how much I gleaned about the student from one running record alone. I learned, besides for their level, what techniques they use, how they deal with difficult words and how well they understand the text.  Running records give so much insight into a child's reading.

I think running records should be used by all teachers. As a teacher, I would ensure that all students are assessed at the beginning of the year so that they can be addressed accordingly. Based on this, I would form literary groups and leveled reading.

In all, running records have given me a fresh way to analyze my students' fluency levels. It's consistency as well as accuracy and easiness to record make it an ideal tool for all teachers.

Mini lesson on running record

Name: Sarah Kovalenko

Grade Level: 2

Title of the lesson: Comprehending a Text

Length of the lesson: 20 minutes

Central focus of the lesson (The central focus should align with the CCSS/content standards and support students to develop an essential literacy strategy and requisite skills for comprehending or composing texts in meaningful contexts) Key questions: ●     what do you want your students to learn? Comprehension ●     what are the important understandings and core concepts you want students to develop within the learning segment? How to read a text accurately and comprehend the text fully, to be able to retell, answer questions about the text.

Knowledge of students to inform teaching (prior knowledge/prerequisite skills and personal/cultural/community assets) Key questions: ●     What do students know, what can they do, what are they learning to do? Students know how to read age appropriate words and sentences. They are learning to understand what they are reading. ●     What do you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices, and interests? Students come from different backgrounds. All have families that encourage and support education. A small percentage are ELLs.

Common Core State Standards (List the number and text of the standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the relevant part[s].) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.2.4.A Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.

Support literacy development through language (academic language) ●     Identify one language function (i.e. analyze, argue, categorize, compare/contrast, describe, explain, interpret, predict, question, retell, summarize or another one appropriate for your learning segment) Retell a story. ●     Identify a key learning task from your plans that provide students opportunities to practice using the language function. Teacher will read a text and ask the students to retell what happened in the story. ●     Describe language demands (written or oral) students need to understand and/or use. Know vocabulary in order to read, understand, and explain. ●     General academic terms: analyze, argue, categorize, compare/contrast, describe, explain, interpret, predict, question, retell, summarize or another one appropriate for your learning segment. Explain and describe what happened in a story, predict what might happen, summarize a story.

Learning objectives 1.     Students will learn how to read and understand a text. 2.      Students will be able to answer questions about a text, and explain and retell a text.

Formal and informal assessment (including type[s] of assessment and what is being assessed) ●     Explain how the design or adaptation of your assessment allows students with specific needs to demonstrate their learning. Consider all students, including students with IEPs, ELLs, struggling readers, and/or gifted students. Informally, I will ask frequent questions to see what the students understand. Formally, I will check their work and see if they have comprehended what they have read.

Instructional procedure: Instructional strategies and learning tasks (including what you and the students will be doing) that support diverse student needs.  First, I will read Monkey To The Topaloud to the class. I will ask questions throughout reading, to help the students understand what is going on. I will have the students answer lots of questions and try to retell the story. Then I will read another text, A Dog For Sally. I will have the students draw a picture for each page that I read. This will allow them to think about what I have just read. It also allows me to check whether they understand the text.

Instructional resources and materials used to engage students in learning. Monkey to the Top A Dog for Sally

Reflection ●     Did your instruction support learning for the whole class and the students who need great support or challenge? There is a drawing activity which most children enjoy. This is especially beneficial for students that are not great in expressing themselves through language. ●     What changes would you make to support better student learning of the central focus? More help for ELLs ●     Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your explanation from evidence of research and/or theory. ELLs need extra assistance and attention since the language is more difficult for them.

Running record and miscue analysis

Fluency and Word Study Video (Part 2)

1-     There are three levels of words. The first group is words that come up very frequently and do not need to be taught. The second is words that are read pretty often but they need to be taught. The third group is words that are more technical and they relate to a specific topic.

2-     Children should be taught to “chunk” when reading. They should take off parts of a word and read a part first, and then add on another. This helps them decode words slowly and carefully.

3-     A teacher should encourage lots of reading in the classroom. Practice will help them learn best.

Fluency and Word Study Video (Part 1)

1-     A teacher should make sure to have texts on all different levels available for the students.

This way, every child can find something that is appropriate for him. Struggling readers will not be left behind since each child will choose a text for himself. 

2-      A teacher should have a library in the classroom where every student can choose any book they want. A teacher should also incorporate reading throughout the day.

3-     The teacher should read aloud with proper fluency. By modeling fluency, students will definitely gain. Even when reading instructions to a task, posters, a teacher should ensure to model fluent reading.

Fluency and Word Study

·        The teacher should make sure to have texts that are applicable and geared toward all levels of the students in the classroom. This way, every student will have access to materials that are appropriate for them, and will be able to practice reading and improve fluency.

·        She teaches vocabulary based on what they are reading in class. As they go through the text, she focuses on specific words, and turns that into a vocabulary lesson.

·         On average, she focuses on word study for 15-20 minutes, but students that need more time get more one on one with the teacher.

·        She uses hands on activities and small group approach. Additionally, besides for knowing how to read the words, the teacher teaches comprehension. She uses different assessments to assess their different levels and see how much more practice they need.

·        In order to accommodate the different needs of every student and multiple intelligences, the teacher makes use of songs, activities, flashcards, physical activities, chants, rhymes, etc.

Week 6: Asignment #3

Candidate’s Name: Sarah Kovalenko

Grade Level: 3

Title of the lesson: Phonics - Homophones

Length of the lesson: 60 minutes

Central focus of the lesson (The central focus should align with the CCSS/content standards and support students to develop an essential literacy strategy and requisite skills for comprehending or composing texts in meaningful contexts) Key questions: ●     what do you want your students to learn? I would like the students to learn about phonics, specifically homophones. ●     what are the important understandings and core concepts you want students to develop within the learning segment? In this learning segment, I would like the students to learn what a homophone is, to be able to recognize and give examples of homophones, and to spell homophones correctly according to the meaning that is being used.

Knowledge of students to inform teaching (prior knowledge/prerequisite skills and personal/cultural/community assets) Key questions: ●     What do students know, what can they do, what are they learning to do? Students know how to read and write age appropriate words and sentences. Now they are learning about words that sound the same but are spelled differently. They are learning how to recognize these words, and to note the spelling and meaning of them. ●     What do you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices, and interests? Students in the class come from diverse cultural backgrounds, and a small percentage are ELLs. These students need extra help in learning the English language. However, the students are mainly from families that support education greatly.

Common Core State Standards (List the number and text of the standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the relevant part[s]. 3.SL.1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly. 3.SL.1.b. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion). 3.SL.1.c. Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.

Support literacy development through language (academic language) ●     Identify one language function (i.e. analyze, argue, categorize, compare/contrast, describe, explain, interpret, predict, question, retell, summarize or another one appropriate for your learning segment) Students will recognize, identify, categorize, compare, and contrast words that are homophones. ●     Identify a key learning task from your plans that provide students opportunities to practice using the language function. Students will listen to a song and recognize and anayze the homophones. They will state the word, spelling and meaning. ●     Describe language demands (written or oral) students need to understand and/or use. Write words they hear, read, ●     General academic terms: analyze, argue, categorize, compare/contrast, describe, explain, interpret, predict, question, retell, summarize or another one appropriate for your learning segment. Analyze words, answer questions.

Learning objectives Sample: 1.     Students will learn the definition of a homophone. 2.     Students will recognize and give examples of common homophones. 3.     Students will listen to a song about homophones to extend their understanding. 4.     Students will learn how to decode and recognize new words.

Formal and informal assessment (including type[s] of assessment and what is being assessed) ●     Explain how the design or adaptation of your assessment allows students with specific needs to demonstrate their learning. For informal assessment, I will observe the students during the lesson to see whether they are grasping the concepts. I will frequently ask questions to make sure the students are following along. As a formal assessment, I will collect the comic strips that the students created using homophones and grade to determine their understanding.

Instructional procedure: Instructional strategies and learning tasks (including what you and the students will be doing) that support diverse student needs. Your design should be based on the following: ●     understanding of students’ prior academic learning and personal/cultural/community assets ●     research and/or theory ●     developmental ●     appropriateness Modeling New Knowledge: Introduce the word “homophone” to the students. Explain that they are words that sound the same yet they have different meanings and spellings. Ask the students to brainstorm some homophones and write them on the board so all can see the examples. Provide Guided Practice: Play a song for the students – Between the Lions’ Homophones Song. Ask the students to say the homophones in the song. Then give out a paper with the lyrics of the song so they can sing it together. After the students have identified the homophones in the song, discuss the words; the meanings and spellings. Provide Independent Practice (In this case, Collaborative Work): Divide the students into groups and explain that they will be acting out homophones to the class. Each group will pick an index card that has a homophone written on it. They should create a short skit acting it out. The rest of the class will have to identify the homophone and give the correct meaning and spelling. To add in technology, have each group use Comic Creator online to create a comic strip from their skit. Display the comics on a poster in the classroom once they are complete.

Instructional resources and materials used to engage students in learning. Between The Lions’ Homophone Song Comic Creator

Reflection ●     Did your instruction support learning for the whole class and the students who need great support or challenge? Several methods of learning are addressed in this lesson, such as acting, singing, working in groups, writing. This gives each student an opportunity to use the skill he excels in to learn most effectively. ●     What changes would you make to support better student learning of the central focus? I would implement more reading activities, where the students read a short story on their own and identify homophones or fill in blanks with homophones. ●   Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your explanation from evidence of research and/or theory. This would help them realize that there are always homophones in texts, and it will make it more applicable for the students. When students see that what they are learning is applicable, they gain a better understanding and interest.

Dr. Hui-Yin Hsu Spring 2014

Week 6 Assignment #1

Candidate’s Name: Sarah Kovalenko

Grade Level: 1

Title of the lesson: Phonics - The reading of /o/ in words, sentences, a paragraph, and story.

Length of the lesson: 40 minutes

Central focus of the lesson. Key questions: ●     what do you want your students to learn? I would like the students to learn the sound of a ‘o’ when it is followed by a consonant and a silent ‘e’. ●     what are the important understandings and core concepts you want students to develop within the learning segment? In this learning segment, I would like the students to learn letter recognition.

Knowledge of students to inform teaching (prior knowledge/prerequisite skills and personal/cultural/community assets) Key questions: ●     What do students know, what can they do, what are they learning to do? Students know the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make. Now they will learn what sounds letters make when combined with specific letters. In this lesson specifically, they will learn to decode words containing the letter o when it is followed by a consonant and silent e. ●     What do you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices, and interests? Students in the class come from diverse cultural backgrounds, and a small percentage are ELLs.

Common Core State Standards (List the number and text of the standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the relevant part[s]. Know and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. a)     Know the spelling sound correspondences foe common consonant diagraphs.

Support literacy development through language (academic language) ●     Identify one language function (i.e. analyze, argue, categorize, compare/contrast, describe, explain, interpret, predict, question, retell, summarize or another one appropriate for your learning segment) Categorize words based on their beginning sounds. ●     Identify a key learning task from your plans that provide students opportunities to practice using the language function. They are given groups of words and they have to recognize which words begin with the same sound. ●     Describe language demands (written or oral) students need to understand and/or use. Letter recognition and the sounds they make. ●     General academic terms: analyze, argue, categorize, compare/contrast, describe, explain, interpret, predict, question, retell, summarize or another one appropriate for your learning segment Describe what happens in a story, retell. Categorize words based on sounds.

Learning objectives Sample: 1.     Student will discriminate the letters in the o consonant e pattern. 2.     Student will read words that have the o consonant e pattern. 3.    Student will read grade appropriate sentences. 4.    Student will learn how to decode and recognize new words.

Formal and informal assessment (including type[s] of assessment and what is being assessed) ●     Explain how the design or adaptation of your assessment allows students with specific needs to demonstrate their learning. I will assess each child’s level in reading and I will give each child sentences and stories according to his ability. To assess each child, I will have him complete a page from a phonics book before I begin the lesson. I will note whether he completed it accurately. Also, during the lesson I will make sure to ask questions to see that the students are following along and understanding.

Instructional procedure: Instructional strategies and learning tasks (including what you and the students will be doing) that support diverse student needs. Your design should be based on the following: ●     understanding of students’ prior academic learning and personal/cultural/community assets ●     research and/or theory ●     developmental ●     appropriateness As an anticipatory set, I will read a short story (The Berenstein Bears Ride The Thunderbolt by Stan and Jan Berenstein) with the students and I will ask them to retell the story. We will then discuss the theme.  I will tell the students that we will now learn how to decode new words. Next, I will display a visual stimulus- a poster of a train. I will label the front, middle, and end of the train. I will then randomly read words that start with different vowel sounds. As we read words, I will point to the three parts of the train to help the students recognize the different sounds in the word. I will then say pairs of words and ask if the two words begin the same way. (For example, apple and open) I will give a list of words and ask the students where they hear the o sound. I will have some students read the words, some will listen to words playing on a recording, and some students will have visuals or images to help them with the reading. This way, every child’s strong intelligence will be addressed. (Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences) This will help accommodate the needs of struggling readers and ELLs. Then, I will go through different words that begin with different vowel sounds, and I will ask the students to think of a word to remember each of the sounds. (For example, o, open)

Instructional resources and materials. The Berenstein Bears Ride The Thunderbolt by Stan and Jan Berenstein.   Visual posters.

Reflection ●     Did your instruction support learning for the whole class and the students who need great support or challenge? I will work individually with each student’s needs individually when providing practice. Each will have a method that works for him. ●     What changes would you make to support better student learning of the central focus? I would add some group work activities. ●     Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your explanation from evidence of research and/or theory. Students learn greatly when they learn collaboratively. Each child adds in his own way, so they learn a lot from each other.

Dr. Hui-Yin Hsu Spring 2014