Week 3: Assignment Driven Instruction

11.      Shared Reading: Video Segment

How does this activity engage students who are at different levels of literacy development?

Every student is on a different level when it comes to literacy development. Yet, in this shared reading activity, all the kids are engaged even though some cannot read as quickly and as fluently as others. The fact that this is a cute and fun poem, with many repeated words definitely makes the students interested in the activity.

At first, when I viewed this shared reading activity, I thought that it is a great activity for the well-off readers, yet the lesser advanced ones get lost since they can’t read as fluently. However, when I studied the children carefully, I noted that all of the kids were following along with whatever they could, and even if they had to skip some words, they were listening and watching intently. I think this has a lot to do with that the poem was cute and age appropriate, which caught their attention.

During her explicit phonics lesson, how does Ms. Perez support students' problem-solving skills?

Ms. Perez guides the students to learn what she wants them to learn by modeling information and asking them what they think would be if…. She writes the word “hot” on the board, and says that if we know that this says “hot”, then what would happen if we would take away the “h”. Then she asks what would be if she were to add other letters or consonant blends. This allows the students try to think of what the answers to these “problems” are on their own. The teacher helps them through this learning process.

            Based on what you saw in the video, what are the different ways that shared reading can                   be used to promote literacy?

Shared reading gives the students practice in reading. Also, it can be used to bring out phoenix lessons.

22.      Guided Reading: Video Segment

Why does she think it's important for students to verbalize their strategies? What else do you notice about how she helps students build meaning in text?

Ms. Perez encourages the students to verbalize their strategies in reading because it helps them to internalize what they are learning. Also, it allows the other students to hear and learn from it.

She asks them questions about the story; what they think happened or will happen. She uses “masking”, where she covers one word and allows them to think what the word is based on the meaning of the sentence.

33.      Differentiated Instruction: Video Segments

How does Ms. Perez organize her classroom to support a wide range of learners?

Ms. Perez differentiates her classroom. At the beginning of the year, she assesses her students’ abilities and levels and she places them in groups accordingly. This ensures that all kids are able to learn on their level.

How are reading and writing connected in classroom activities?

Ms. Perez has a “Making Words” activity, where the students build words with letters. They read parts of words, such as “it”, and then she asks them to write “sit”, so they need to add a “s”. Here, reading and writing are directly connected. Also, in another activity, the students read a book about spiders and then they write notes about what they are reading. Here, too, the teacher links reading and writing.

44.      Assessment: Video Segment

How does Ms. Perez use ongoing individual assessment to guide her instruction? How can the class profile be used to help group students and differentiate instruction?

At the beginning of the year, Ms. Perez assesses each student individually to see where he/she is holding and what they he/she needs to work on. She tells each child to read a book, and she takes notes while he/she is reading. She then redoes the assessment after a few months to note the progress. By assessing the students, she can plan her instruction most effectively.

She also creates a graph demonstrating the level of each student’s reading abilities. This gives her a clear picture of where each child is holding according to his/her peers. By looking at this graph, she can group the students that are on the same level together. Then, once she sets up the groups, she can differentiate instruction based on the needs of each group.

How can ongoing assessment be integrated into your own classroom practice?

Ongoing assessment is extremely important since it gives the teacher an idea of what each child needs. In my classroom, I would continuously ask questions in class so that I can see whether the students understand what is being taught. If I would see that a student is struggling in any area, I would make a note of it and work with the child.

Lesson Critique

I read the lesson plan A Bear of a Poem: Composing and Performing Found Poetry and I was quite impressed. It gave me a feeling of excitement toward creating lesson plans because it showed me that there are original and creative ideas out there to present a topic.

The four session lesson plan implements several standards, which is what makes it a really smart lesson. After the students complete the entire lesson plan, they have gained knowledge and skills in many different areas. I think that it is genius to make one general lesson plan that includes so many standards. Many of the things that the students come away with are ideas and skills that they didn’t even realize they were learning.

The teacher guides the students to exploring what a Found Poem is, and then they slowly work on creating one. I like that the students are actively involved in the learning, as opposed to just accepting information from the teacher. I think that by learning in this way, they are able to understand the idea of Found Poetry most effectively.

I also like that the students work together as a class to create a poem. This gives them a sense of togetherness and importance. Making a performance out of the poem is also a great idea. It makes the students excited and engages them in the activity. If the teacher would just instruct the class to create a poem, it would be way more boring for the students, and they would view poems as a boring assignment. In this way, the teacher makes an exciting and fun activity out of creating a Found Poem. When students are excited about learning, they develop a positive attitude toward learning in general. This definitely improves the level of learning, which is what all teachers want.

As an addition to the lesson, I would allow the students to create any sort of action, motion, or sound to their line. Not all kids are linguistically talented, so this would give students that excel in acting, music, or any creative area to have a great outlet to express themselves.

All in all, this was a really good lesson plan. I look forward to working on creating lesson plans by myself, and studying this one definitely gave me great insight and ideas. 

ELA Instruction

ELA instruction is not limited to ELA teachers. Language Arts could be incorporated in many subjects.

There are four components of language arts, and the first is reading. Once the child learns to read, the ultimate goal of reading is comprehension, and the application of the reading to the world. The level of the reading increases from the lower grades to the higher grades, and while they enhance their level of reading, they learn to make a fuller use of texts, make connections, draw conclusions, and make inferences based on what they have read. As the students improve their reading, they also become sensitive to mistakes in texts and poor texts.

The next component of language arts is writing. The teacher needs to help the students improve their written communication, express their understanding, enhance their writing skills, and effectively express what they have researched. Students learn to plan, write, revise, edit, and publish to create a good piece of writing.

The third component is speaking and listening. Students learn to express their thoughts, while allowing others to share theirs too.

The last component is language. Students enhance their vocabulary, and gain an understanding of words and meanings.

Video Reflection

I was amazed by the video of Sheila Owen's Beaumont, California kindergarten class. Ms. Owen seems like an excellent teacher, and she has a great method of making all her students become readers and writers. I think that the main reason she is successful in teaching her class is because she views each child as capable of becoming a reader and a writer, regardless of his prior knowledge and background. Although her students each come to class on different levels in language; some have a good vocabulary and grasp on the English language, some have a smaller vocabulary, and some are English Language Learners, she believes that each can reach a high level, and works hard that each child can strive.

The method Ms. Owen uses to teach her students seems to work amazingly. First, she models the reading, by reading a story to the class. This gets the students engaged and interested in reading, and the work is done all by the teacher. Next, she has shared reading, in which she pulls back just a little, and the students put in some work to do a reading activity. Then, she does guided reading, where the students do the reading while she is there to help and guide them. Last, she does independent reading, where the students are reading on their own.

This method helps the students get eased into the reading slowly, so that they don’t get scared off. The teacher releases her help very slowly, and before they know it, the students are reading on their own.