Week 12: Metacognitive Assessments and Comprehension Video

This video was extremely informative. It offered vital information and strategies that should be taught to students in order to help build their reading comprehension. In the video, Professor Duke explains why teaching comprehension strategies becomes very important in elementary grades 3-5, because it is at these grade levels that students are exposed to expository text, and when a student is reading an expository text the teacher can not assume that the student has prior knowledge or prior understanding of the topic that is being discusse, so that is why comprehension of the text is important.
I really like the idea of having a poster in the classroom listing a variety of strategies (such as thinking aloud, creating inferences, building predictions, rereading, looking for context clues, breaking down unknown words) that students could use to guide their thinking about text. I also liked how the teacher consistently modeled and guided students through these strategies and how to use them; this is definitely an instructional practice that I will implement in my future classroom.

I would definitely use many ideas in this video in my future classroom to help students build their comprehension. I would help my future students learn how to build on their comprehension skills by through discussion, writing along with explicitly teaching comprehension strategies, teacher modeling of these strategies, as well as guided use of these strategies. Comprehension strategies are basically sets of steps that good readers use to make sense of text. Comprehension strategy instruction helps students become purposeful, active readers who are in control of their own reading comprehension.

QRI-5 vs. DIBELS

The Qualitative Reading Inventory-5 can be used to provide appropriate information in

three areas:

1. To identify a student’s instructional level

2. To determine areas of reading in which the student is having difficulty

3. To document growth based on a type of instructional program or intervention

When used to determine a student’s reading levels, the QRI-5 can help find the levels

at which a student can read independently, read with instructional guidance, and read

with frustration. The QRI-5 can also be used to determine if a student’s reading levels are

below his or her chronological grade level, and this goes from K-12.

The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of early literacy skills from kindergarten through sixth grade. They are designed to be short (60 seconds) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills. These assessments are performed using a computerized handheld device such as a palm or IPod touch.

DIBELS are comprised of seven measures to function as indicators of phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency with connected text, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. The measures that encompass Dibels are Initial Sounds Fluency (ISF), Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF), Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF), Oral Reading Fluency (ORF), Retell Fluency (RTF), and Word Use Fluency (WUF).  DIBELS were designed for use in identifying children experiencing difficulty in acquisition of basic early literacy skills in order to provide support early and prevent the occurrence of later reading difficulties.

QRI-5 vs. Dibels: The first difference between the two is the grade levels in which each assessments aim towards. The QRI-5 offers assessment materials for students in grades K-12, while Dibels is from only K-6. Dibels also has a time limit for each assessment, which 60 seconds. The QRI-5 also has timed assessments but it is not used on all grade levels.

Both the QRI-5 and Dibels be used to identify reading levels and match students to suitable text, verify a suspected reading problem, determine strength and needs of a student, and recommend paths for interventions. The QRI-5 and Dibels are designed to identify students having difficulty in achieving basic literacy skills, however, Dibels is more specific; it assesses issues such as phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The QRI-5 is a little different; it has word lists, concept questions (accessing prior knowledge), miscue analysis, retelling, and comprehension questions.

I really enjoyed using the QRI-5. So far I only had the opportunity to practice on my friend’s kid, but I think it is a great assessment tool, and is overall student friendly. However, I feel that the Dibels can be quite challenging for the student and the teacher. I did find some difficultly on the palm with pressing the buttons, so that was a little upsetting; hopefully, when it comes out on the IPod touch that will not be a problem. Also, I can see how it can be frustrating to the student because of the time allowance. Students may feel pressured knowing they only have 60 seconds. In conclusion, I really enjoyed learning how to use and administer both assessments and will certainly use them in the future when I teach.

Observation Update

During my second observation this week, I had the opportunity to speak and interview the ESL teacher. My interview transcript is below. I also had the opportunity to sit with my student Socrates. Socrates is in fifth grade. He is an ELL student and also has special needs; he has ADHD. His parents were born in Greece, and Socrates was born here. However, he told me that his parents speak only Greek at home so that is how he communicates with them. Also his grandmother was his baby sitter since he was born and also only speaks Greek. So he learned English when he was in kindergarten however, due to his ADHD he is having trouble with English. His teacher told me that he does read and write on 4th grade instructional level.

I tried to administer the QRI-5. Unfortunately, Socrates did not want to do it. He kept getting up and walking around the room. So the teacher and I decided not to push the issue and try it another day. I was not able to set up another day to observe this week due to the school schedule and the fact that the schools will be closed next week for spring vacation, I will be hopefully going back on Tuesday April 26th. I will keep you all posted!

Interview with an ESL Teacher

Interview Questions with ESL Teacher

Q: Please describe your ELL teaching experience.

I have been a ESL teacher in this school district for 10 years now. I got this job straight out of school so I was very lucky.

Q: What is your perception on ELLs in terms of their learning motivation and performance (especially in reading and writing)? What learning difficulties do ELLs usually encounter in schools? What is the role of the family and community in helping ELL's learning?

I feel that an ELL student learns better and is motivated when learning is engaging, fun and they feel like they can contribute to the classroom. That is a hard question to answer because each student is different. Some students have trouble with pronunciations. It is extremely important that the family becomes involved in the student's learning. I feel that students whose families are involved do better in the classroom. It is also important to have community support.

Q: In your opinion, how do classroom teachers resolve ELL's learning difficulties? What strategies do you adopt? Are they effective or not? Do you participate in on-going professional training for teaching ELLs? What if your experience in terms of working with students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds? How do you make sure that your teaching is culturally responsive? How do you go about reaching out to the family and community?

Classroom teachers do try to resolve ELL student learning difficulties as best as they can. Some teachers learn some basic words of the ELL student's native language, and are able to communicate with them in difficult situations. Some teachers use pictures to help students understand words. However, it is often hard for them to spend too much time when they have 22-25 students to teach; that is where the ESL teachers come in. I make sure that my teaching is culturally resonsive by doing my research on it. I also frequently attend seminars and workshops.

Q: If you have an ELL in your class whose culture you are not familiar with at all, how do you go about teaching the child?

If I have a an ELL student whose culture I am not familiar with, I do research on it.

Week 8: What contributes to an effective writing program?

1. Discuss the components of an effective writing program and why they are important.

The main components of an effective writing program are personal connections, writing conventions, and inventions.  For one, I feel that personal connections are extremely important for students when writing; students can become more engaged to write more apt to write when they can relate to a topic through a personal experience.  I believe that if students are encouraged to write about a topic using their own experiences, then their will be more creative with their writing. I feel that these components are important to have in an effective writing program because they keep students interested and they also greatly help them with their writing.

2. How might you rearrange your schedule to create more time for students to write in general and, in particular, for students to write about their personal experiences?

  

I would rearrange my class schedule and set aside 10-15 of class time each day for writing. During this time students would write in their write in their journal or scrapbook. The topic can be either something related to the lesson or free writing where students just write creatively about anything they find interesting. I would then set aside one or two days a month where students who choose, get to share their writing in class and read aloud to the class.

3. How can you create ways for students to make personal connections in different subject areas through writing?

 Depending on the subjects, I would ask students if they can relate to the topic through something they experienced, heard or saw, and write about it.

4. How can student work help you decide which conventions to teach?

Through the observations of student writing the teacher will be able to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of the class. So for example, if the teacher finds that a bulk of the class is having problems with certain verb tenses, then the teacher will know to focus more on making sure that the students are familiar with that.

5. When can you promote student inventions and experimentation with different formats in writing?

A teacher can promote students to use invention and experimentation with different formats in writing creative writing during writing time, language arts, and basically throughout the day when she/he feels it to be necessary

Interview with ESL teacher

I will be interviewing the ESL teacher from the Harbor Hill Elementary School next Monday April 11th, I will keep you all posted.

QRI-5 Assessment

For the word list he did fabulous! He got all of the words right on his level, and on the level below. However, when he was reading the level above, I noticed that he was hesitating a lot. He knew all the words, but I think because I told him that these words are a level above his he started to get nervous and lose his confidence. I had to re-assure him that he was doing a good job, and then he really did, read all the words. For the narrative text I had him read "The trip to the Zoo." I started with the pre-knowledge questions and he did very well, he knew all the questions100%.  On that reading passage he only had 6 miscues which made him an independent reader on that level. On the retelling he recalled 40/ 55ideas.  On the questions he got all but one correct without look-backs, and only looked back for one question.

For the expository he read"Cats, lions and tigers in your house." For the concept questions he scored 9/12. On the reading passage he had 7 miscues, so once again he is an independent reader for that level.  He did pretty well on the retelling knew 38/47 ideas. On the questions he got all but one correct without look-backs, and only looked back for one question, same as the narrative text.  So my guess on how he reads was right, he is an independent reader for his level.

Observation Update continued...

Hello again everyone..I didn't finish my post from yesterday, had some computer issues and had to log off, but everythnig is resolved now. So as I was saying, the student that I will be working with is an ESL student whose primary language is Greek. He speak English but is not on his level yet. From what the teacher told him he reads on 4th grade level and is in 5th grade, so that is not so bad. He also has ADHD so he is considered a special needs student as well. The classroom he is needs which I observed for the day is a co-teaching classroom. There are 22 students and five are special needs and five are ESL. The teacher is wonderful. The day I observed was the day before their parent-teacher conference, so the teacher was hacing the students catch up on assigngments that were due. I didn't get a chance to do the QRI-5 on my student, whom I will refer to as Socrates becuae they were doing catch-up that day. The teacher did allow me to walk arounf the room and help the students with an essay they were writing and I had the opportunityto sit with Socrates and help him with his writing assignment.

Observation update

Hello Everyone!! Sorry for the delay in blogging. I have been dealing with a medical issue. I actually did get a chanceto observe for a full day at Harbor Hill Elementary School, in Roslyn. I observed a 5th grade classroom for theentire day. The cooperating teacher is great. The student I am working with is an ESL 5th grader, whose primary language is Greek....which is great because I am fluent in Greek, so I bonded with him quickly!

COCA Assessment System

The COCA assessment system differs from the QRI-5 in the sense that the COCA does not utilize word lists to define comprehension or reading passages in the conventional way. Instead, COCA uses an unconventional method of no words on a page to assess four different dimensions of informational comprehension through the use of vocabulary knowledge (V), the use of comprehension strategy (CS), comprehension of graphics in the context of text (GCT), and knowledge of informational text features (TF). In order to assess each of the four dimensions, questions and prompts are used by the instructor. 

Students are then instructed to answer some questions by stating a missing word in a sentence or provide an answer based on what he/she heard. Graphics or pictures on the page help students to figure out the answer. Scoring for this assessment ranges from 0 – 2. If a student has several 0’s on questions assessing informational text features (TF) such as table of contents, index, glossary, labels, or pronunciation guides, the instructor can then provide additional instruction for that student. If a student scores below a 1 on several questions pertaining to vocabulary words used in informational text, such as examine, observe, and kinds, instruction can be given to improve students comprehension in that area. So basically, with each dimension, the instructor can teach to improve a student’s skills or knowledge in that area.

The COCA assessment system is an effective tool to measure student informational comprehension early elementary graders such as first and second graders, who show signs of poor comprehension. Knowing that a majority of students have a more difficult time with comprehending informational text, COCA addresses these issues by concentrating on assessing the skills and strategies needed to improve comprehension. This is definitely a system I would like to utilize as a future educator to help struggling students.

Hey guys,

As you all may have heard, I was in a car accident this past Monday evening while on my way to class. The accident happened on RT 107 right before the turn onto Northern Blvd. I was hit on my side front and back passenger doors, by a truck that coming out of the gas station and trying to make an illegal left turn. Apparently, the driver didn't see me. Luckily, I will be fine.I just hurt my back and neck but nothing is broken. However, can't say that about my car! It had to be towed away. Check out the picture of my car =(

Question for my classmates

Hey guys, after watching this video, what would you do if you asked your students if they like reading and one student responding " No, it sucks!!" How would you handle that?

WEEK 5: Reading & Writing Connection

This was a very interesting video clip to watch. Christopher Myers messages sends a wonderful message to kids.  I never knew of this author before, but I am definitely planning to incorporate his books into my future classrooms.  Having self confidence is the single most important trait that a student needs to have to achieve in the classroom, and this author validates to students that even though they may all be different in their own way, it is important to realize it is all about  who they are and that they are all COOL!!! I also liked the way Christopher Myers approached the students on reading. He actually asked their opinion on it. Great strategy; it keeps the students feeling that their opinion does count!

Observation Update

Hey Guys,

So it is confirmed, I will be observing at Harbor Hill Elementary School in Greenvale (however it is Roslyn school district). I will be observing either 4th or 5th grade. I am waiting for the teacher to contact me. In the meantime I am supposed to make an appointment to meet the Assistant Principal first. I will keep you all posted!

Week 4- Transcript Interview

I am still waiting to hear from the teacher I will be observing, all my paperwork and fingerprinting was completed over a week ago, but with schools being off last week, everything was put on hold for me. I am hoping to be in to observe hopefully later sometime this upcoming week. I will complete this assignment as soon as possible.

Week 4- Podcast

This podcast "Creating a home reading program, the R4 reading program" is basically about how teachers should educate students on independent reading, to make then better readers. The term  "R4" stands for read, relax, reflect and respond; these are the four things that students need to be doing in their home reading program. I really enjoyed watching this podcast. It helped me acquire important strategied on how to help my future students with reading. Basically, this reading program requires that the teachers, parents, and students are all involved to successfully achieve the reading goals, which are to identify and understand the big idea or theme of the given reading selection. 

First, it is important for the teacher to select the appropriate reading material for the classroom to ensure that the students are engaged in the text and are interested to learn more about that topic. Next, it is important that students find a quiet place at home to read every night and log their minutes into their reading log. Parents need to be involved in this as well; they initial the log to confirm that the reading was done. For the reflect and respond part, students are given a list of reflection topics called prompts once a week. They choose a prompt and reflect on what they have read in a journal. The teacher then works with students to achieve high quality responses by modeling and reviewing examples. To keep students motivated, it is important for the teacher to comment in the journal entries, and give the students feedback. 

Once again, I thought that this podcast was extremely helpful to me as a future educator, because it provided me with specific strategies that I can use in my future classroom. It also helped me to realize that parents also need to be involved and work with the teacher to help the students learn.

Article: Article - Response to Intervention (RTI): What teachers of reading need to know

In this article the authors offer understandable definitions and processes of RTI in the method of identifying and supporting struggling readers. RTI signifies a key change to the Individuals With Disabilities Act (IDEA) by changing the process of which students are identified as special education and providing early intervention to those students in need of special instruction. This law is designed to encourage school districts to provide additional support for struggling students within general education. This support should be provided as early as possible, for example when students show the earliest signs of difficulty. While schools have attempted many ways to help struggling students, including those with disabilities, the current focus is on an improved, research-based process, Response to Intervention (RTI). In this article the authors discuss RTI's five step process  and then validate how the RTI process is used to

 help a struggling second grade student. This student is given initial intervention, assessed and monitored, then individualized instruction. At the end, the student responded to the individualized plan by meeting the benchmark, reading instructionally at grade level with comprehension, and reading. The RTI process was effective for this student, had the student not received RTI, he would have had to fail before receiving additional support. The beauty of RTI is that it removes that it really doesn’t allow the student to fail because he/she will receive proper instruction problem by providing instruction as soon as a student displays signs of difficulty.

Article - The assessment of thoughtful literacy in NAEP: Why the states aren’t measuring up.

In 2005, numerous states reported students achieving proficiency at an average rate of 40% higher than NAEP standards. This article states that these exaggerated levels of achievement are perhaps due to states “lowering the bar” due to the stress of the No Child Left Behind Act. In this article, the authors conduct a study in an effort to figure out the differences between the state achievement tests in reading comprehension and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Framework.

It is assumed that these state achievement test are fairly comparable with the NAEP since the educational community agree that reading comprehension involves the reader to use prior knowledge to attain thoughtful and logical answers, thus becoming mature readers. However, this is not the case. Researchers have observed several teachers who were  teaching to the test, and results showed students are in fact memorizing and reciting details instead of thinking and responding to text. In 2005, many states have reported students achieving proficiency at an average rate of 40% higher than NAEP standards.

This article states that these exaggerated levels of achievement are possibly due to the states “lowering the bar” due to the stress of the No Child Left Behind Act. The authors then determined that there is a substantial difference between the NAEP tests and the state test. NAEP assigns more open-ended items for reading assessment, higher order thinking responses, and less genre and vocabulary items for comprehension. Furthermore, the authors propose that teachers who encourage and support students to reach a mature reading level will better prepare them for state and national accountability assessments.

Week 3: Question for my classmates

Hey everyone!!! Schools’ use of RTI tends to be focused on the early elementary grades and limited to the academic area of reading, with some focus on early math. Why do you think that is so??

Video Summary: Using Assesment to Guide Instruction

Hello Class!!! I really enjoyed watching the video “Using Assessment to Guide Instruction,” because it helped me to gain a better understanding of what we have been learning and reading about in class. The video demonstrates how teachers measure student performance through the use of assessment.  In the video, Dr. Jeanne Paratore leads a workshop of practicing teachers. In this workshop, they discuss assessment strategies that they use in their classrooms. The teachers make known of how, when, and where they assess their students, while on the other hand, Dr. Paratore shares how these assessments direct instruction.

This video taught me a lot about how assessments should be performed. First and foremost, it is vital that assessment is done in formal ways, such as running records; however, assessments must to be done throughout the day during daily classroom routines. Second, assessments should indicate how students are learning. Assessments should give teachers information about their students on the following:

How they are interpreting and using language.

How they understand language and meanings of texts.

Which word level they are on? Do they read alone or with their peers? Are they utilizing reading narratives and expository texts?

Finally, these assessments should be collected during the lessons, so therefore they need to be ongoing assessments which must be used to dictate what is being taught in the classroom.

During my observation of an ESL elementary school teacher last semester, I noticed how she did assess her students throughout out the lesson. She would have about 5-6 students during any given class period. She would first present the lesson give them activities to do, and while the students were working on the activities she would go to each student, sit with them, perform (informal) running records where she would ask them to read a paragraph or a few sentences for her, ask them questions about what she was teaching to see if they were on task and if they were understanding. I thought this was wonderful. I guess for an ESL teacher who only has a handful of students each period, this would be much easier to do and manage, in comparison to a regular classroom teacher that has anywhere between 22-25 students, where it would be more difficult to manage time and be able to control the classroom while trying to sit with each student individually.  Do you guys agree?

Observation Update

Hey everyone!! Looks like I will be observing in Roslyn elementary school. I am going to get fingerprinted on Friday. So hopefully, I can start observing in a week or so. I will let everyone know how it goes!

Week 2: Reader's Response

In the first article" Organizing Instruction for Struggling Readers in Tutorial Settings," the authors suggest that many of the problems struggling readers face while reading stem from distinct yet fundamental sources of difficulty related to the types of text read (either printed texts or online), the tasks or activities readers engage in, and the sociocultural contexts of reading. The authors also state that even though these problems are varied, most struggling readers can be taught to read successfully when instruction is thoughtfully organized with their specific needs in mind. The authors do this by using a case scenario of a third grade struggling reader named Alyssa. They share guidelines with an example of how her tutor planned, and organized her instruction in a one-to-one tutorial setting.

In the second article "Linguistically Responsive Teacher Education," the authors identify a small set of principles that can serve as a linguistic foundation for the teaching of English language learners in mainstream classes. The authors outline linguistically responsive pedagogical practices that flow directly from those principles.