Week 3 Assignment 1

Week 3 Assignment #1

Looking Closer

Shared Reading: The essential components that are addressed during the first part of the shared reading activity include phonological awareness, word identification/phonics, and fluency/automaticity.

1. How does this activity engage students who are at different levels of literacy development? 
Every week the class does a new shared poem reading picked as something they might like that consists of high frequency words and sight words. Right off the bat the poem is engaging because it is about a hot dog and most kids like hot dogs and or know about hot dogs. After Ms. Perez read aloud with the class, she asked different students questions about the poem. This activity engages students at different levels of literacy because students that might find the poem difficult to read, can read along with the class and figure out words they might not get on their own.

2. During her explicit phonics lesson, how does Ms. Perez support students’ problem-solving skills? 
Ms. Perez supports students’ problem-solving skills during her phonics lesson on the short “o” by pointing out to them one of the high frequency words “hot”. She asks the students what would happen if she removed the “H” from hot. She then goes over “ot” by adding different letters in front of it such as g,d,l,and p. She then goes over how the word becomes another by adding a consonant blend before “ot”. Ms. Perez also took her time and let one student sound out the word “spot” until he was able to read it.

3. Based on what you saw in the video, what are the different ways that shared reading can be used to promote literacy?
Shared reading can be used to promote literacy  by picking poems/readings that engage the students interest and keep them interested in the topic. Ms. Perez said that “In order to achieve mastery of vowels, they need to have vowels to be introduced in a systematic way.” In her classroom, she had a building word wall where students learned short vowels and spelling patterns and rhymes. She taught students how they can  associate a  vowel sound with a specific word which will help them sound out a vowel. These specific words included “e escalator e” “a apple a” i itchy i” and “o octopus o”.

Guided Reading

1. Why does she think its important for students to verbalize their strategies? What else do you notice about how she helps students build meaning in text? 
Ms. Perez thinks it is important for students to verbalize their strategies because her overall goal of a guided reading is that students receive a balanced cuing system and they receive different strategies to rely on when reading a text. She wants students to develop more fluency, expand sight word vocabulary and comprehension on what they read. Students should be able to make connections with the text they are reading. Ms. Perez said that, “The more you verbalize, the more it gets internalized.” Students are grouped according to reading level, having the same needs, and needing to work on same skills. As students were reading, Ms. Perez would them cover part of a word to help the student sound it out. It is very important to pick the right text and know the childrens’ needs.

Differentiated Instruction

1. How does Ms. Perez organize her classroom to support a wide range of learners? 
Ms. Perez supports a wide range of learners by providing one-to-one help for students. She has a “Making Words” activity where her student teacher works with students on sound sequencing and high frequency words. This specific activity was on words with “i”.

2. How are reading and writing connected in classroom activities?   
How reading and writing is connected in the classroom activities is shown when very fluent independent readers read a third/fourth grade explicatory text and are shown how to take notes to share their knowledge through a poster or book. I like how Ms. Perez gives these fluent readers their choice of what they want to read about and what activity they want tousle to express what they learned.

Assessment 

1. 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? 
Ms. Perez uses ongoing individual assessment data to inform her instructional decisions. She wants to know what she is going to teach and how she is going to teach it. In the first two weeks of the school year, she finds out where they are at, what they are doing, what they can do independently, and what they need to work on. She can differentiate activities to implement after assessments.

2. How can ongoing assessment be integrated into your own classroom practice?
When I have my own classroom, ongoing assessment should be integrated into my own classroom practice  because I will be able to see where my students currently are and where they should end up.

Assignment #3

Assignment #3

A Bear of a Poem: Composing and Performing Found Poetry

Lesson Critique

I found the sample lesson plan to cover all of the appropriate literacy elements including reading, writing, speaking and listening and language. These elements included identifying words in read-aloud books, create a class poem, performing their poem in front of others, listening and critiquing others performance, and assessing their efforts using a checklist.

Session one: The lesson begins with a read aloud from the Berenstain Bears series. The students share any thoughts or comments they have about the story. The lesson jumps right to a found poem being shown that was wrote by the teacher. I feel it would have been more effective to write your found poem along with the students for a better understanding.

Session two: I like how the class is session two is started with a review of a found poetry. I agree with having the students take notes of words or phrases that interest them to use in their own class found poem. This engages the students and keeps them interest in the topic at hand. Using a line from students and having him or her read their selected line is a good classroom group activity. 

Session three: Session three is a good way of assessing what the students absorbed from the lesson. Having them prepare a oral presentation is a good way to practice language, speaking and literacy.

Session four: Session four is a final and last assessment to assure that all teaching objectives were reached. Having students share thought and reflections as a final task is a good way to assess final learning outcomes.

Assignment #2

Assignment #2

Becoming Readers and Writers Video Reflection

Sheila Owen’s California kindergarten class is built around the students reading and writing needs. Her classroom consists of twelve English language learners, some that come in with a vast vocabulary and great print experience at home and she has students come in with a small vocabulary and less print experience. I liked that she started her day with a good morning song and incorporated a Spanish “Buenos Dias Buenos Dias Buenos Dias a ti” version into the song. This gives her ELL a chance to identify with familiar language.

Sheila Owen had a literacy routine that didn’t vary much day to day. This routine included read aloud, shared reading, guided reading and independent reading. As these techniques went on throughout the day, the teacher involvement became less and less whereas student involvement became more and more. I liked that during read aloud, Sheila Owen read a book that was too hard for them to read alone, so it sparked discussion and student involvement.

Along with reading, Sheila Owen had two stages of writing as well, interactive writing and independent writing. During interactive writing, students shared pens to create text. In independent writing, Sheila Owen wanted to see if they can express to teach what they are learning. Sheila Owen’s ultimate goal was that by the end of the year, every student had an internalized love for reading.

Assignment #1

Assignment #1

Understanding ELA Instruction

After reading this week articles, I found that the Common Core State Standards for ELA and Literacy in Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects “represent the next generation of K-12 standards designed to prepare all students for success in college, career, and life by the time they graduate from high school.” It is nice to see that the standards are being aimed for not only for succeeding in school, but are being designed for a student’s success in life and profession. Students need to be prepared to read, write, speak, listen, and use language effectively. I found that in the middle grades, English language arts change radically and that children learn to read in elementary school and read to learn in middle school.

The four key features to teach language arts are reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language.

·       Reading: Text complexity and the growth of comprehension.

Students must ultimately show a growing ability to absorb more and make use of certain texts where they can make connections between different texts.

·       Writing: Text types, responding to reading, and research.

The writing standards acknowledge that some writing skills are applicable to many types of writing. These skills include the ability to plan, revise, edit, and publish. Specific writing types include arguments, informative/explanatory texts, and narratives. It is important that students make connections between reading and writing and can write about evidence obtained from literary and informational texts.

·       Speaking and Listening: Flexible communication and collaboration.

The speaking and listening standards include skills necessary for formal presentations. Students must develop skills for oral communication and interpersonal skills. A lot of important common abilities come away from this standard including working together, expressing and listening carefully to ideas, integrating information from oral, visual, quantitate, and media sources, evaluating what is heard, and adapting to speech to context and task. These abilities are important not only in the school system, but in the professional and business world as well.

·       Language: Conventions, effective use, and vocabulary.

The language standard focuses on the conventions of writing that include mechanics, usage, and sentence formation. Mechanics could include spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphs. Usage refers to word order, verb tense, and subject-verb agreement. Sentence formation refers to the structure of sentences and the way that simple and complex sentences are formed. The effective use of language is a very important skill to learn because if language is not used in an effective way and attention is not on proper word choice, communication is interrupted.