Week 8 Assignment 1

A hoatzin has a clever way of escaping from its enemies.
• After reading this sentence, I think that a Hoatzin is some kind of animal that is often prey for other animals.
It generally builds its home in a branch that extends over a swamp or stream.
• I think that a Hoatzin is some kind of animal that can climb a tree high enough to keep away from its predators.
If an enemy approaches, the hoatzin plunges into the water below.
• I now see that the Hoatzin is an animal that is smart and can also swim in the water.
Once the coast is clear, it uses its fingerlike claws to climb back up the tree.
• I now see that the Hoatzin is a smart animal and also has claws like a bear or big animal to climb trees from enemies.
Hoatzins are born with claws on their wings but lose the claws as they get older.
• I finally see that the Hoatzin is some kind of bird like animal that becomes big enough that they don't need their claws on their wings to get away from enemies.

I was really surprised to see what the actual bird looked like after reading about it. While reading each sentence separately, my imagination of the Hoatzin changed. After the first sentence, I knew it was some kind of animal. After the second sentence, I knew it was an animal that seems to live in a tree over some kind of water. When I finished the third sentence, I knew that the animal was able to spend some sort of time in the water. When I got to the fourth sentence, I realized that the animal had fingerlike claws to help them climb a tree. Here is where my imagination changed and I pictured a somewhat big animal climbing a tree. From this sentence, I was surprised to find that the Hoatzin was a bird because birds usually fly and I was thrown off with the climbing aspect of the animal. After the last sentence, I could see that the Hoatzin was a bird because it has wings. The picture I drew after all sentences resembled some sort of bat. I was picturing a bat like figure because it needed to be small and fast to swoop into the water.

Week 7 Assignment 1

Week 7 Assignment 3

The three levels of words include familiar words, words that appear often, and highly technical words. Familiar words are words like bad, look, and run that don't need to be taught. Words that appear often enough include words that are seen daily in print or on tv and could include words like freeway, hurricane, or democracy. These words are mostly words that need to be taught. The highly technical words like legislatures and unicameral are words that are often taught during science or social studies lessons. It is easy to develop 5-7 words in two 10 minute lessons a week. Students absorb more from words that are taken from materials that they are dealing with. By students finding words in their reading material, they improve the comprehension of the overall material at hand.
It is found to be ineffective to teach letter by letter and to increase the volume of reading for more exposures. Students will learn to use other words to learn new words. By “chunking” a word into individual “chunks” students can pronounce what they know to frighten out whole word. Students can be told to tear off the front, tear off the back, and pronounce the middle. There are times students might have to tear a word in half so help understand the meaning.
It is important in the classroom to keep a visual track of what words the students are learning. A highly effective practice is using a word chart. Students are instructed to figure out the meanings of new words by using context clues from their readings. Effective teaching isn't highly replicable and the one size fits all instruction is literally anti-scientific. We as teachers need to adopt needs for the students sitting right in front of us.

Week 7 Assignment 2

It is very important that students are given the proper materials to support fluency. The classroom should supply students with the appropriate texts, the opportunities to practice reading, and an effective non-interruptive reading strategy. The texts should math the appropriate grade level of reading especially in science and social studies. Students should read a lot because practice maters. It is proven that students with little practice are low level readers and students with a lot of practice are at a high success level reader. In Caroline Cockman’s third grade class, she had her students rate their books on three categories, too challenging, just right, and too easy. The just right books were chosen to meet the needs of each child. Struggling readers read about 20-30 minutes a day where as advanced readers read 1.5-2 hours per day. The goal of reading is comprehension but you want your students to receive goosebumps, giggles, or tears from what they grasp. As a teacher, I want to model what a good reader does and enforce that they should be self monitors and self regulating. I do not want to create word by word readers and make sure that I am expressive and use the appropriate innovation to reflect emotion.

Week 6 Assignment 3

Candidate’s Name: Michael Ambrogio

Grade Level: 1

Title of the lesson: The ir, er, and ur Girls

Length of the lesson: 40-60 minutes

Central focus of the lesson:            This phonics lesson will introduce the ir, er, and ur girls, but will focus on the /er/ sound. Students will learn that when found together the letters e and r make the /er/ sound instead of two separate sounds. Students will have the opportunity to make words with "er" on the smart board and will reinforce the lesson on the Internet.

Knowledge of students to inform teaching: I will purchase 3 baby dolls for $1 each at the dollar store or possibly parents can donate dolls. Make little nametags and pin them on each doll. (ir, er, ur) Locate any available text that children can decode which uses "er" in the text.

Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2 ·         Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.A ·         Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.B ·         Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.C ·         Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.D ·         Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).

Support literacy development through language: ·         Phonemic Awareness ·         Blending and Spelling Words

Learning objectives: Students will recognize and read words with "er." Students will segment, spell, and write words with "er."

Formal and informal assessment: The teacher should observe students' responses and check for application when students write the sounds correctly on the smart board.

Instructional procedure: 1.    Phonemic Awareness Warm-Up: Tell students the following story: This is a story about a mama who was so thrilled that she was going to have a baby. She like the name /er/ and planned to name her baby this name. But, much to her surprise, she didn't have one baby, she had three babies! She didn't like any other name but /er/, so she called them all /er/, but spelled them ir, ur, and er. Introduce the dolls. 2.    Explain to students that they will be learning about "er" today. Blending and Spelling Words: Explain that when er comes at the end of a word it should sound like a plain r /er/. Demonstrate by writing on the board: better, darker, over, thunder, and her. Ask students to think of other words they might use? (other, slower, faster, wetter, louder, softer, etc. Point out that the words all have er at the end. Demonstrate that there are words that have er in the middle. (Examples: fern and germ) Have students add to the list. 3.    Connected Writing Activity 1: Direct students to take out their dry erase boards, markers, and erasers. Dictate a word with the /er/ sound. Allow students time to sound the word out and write it on their boards. Have students display their written word so it may be checked for accuracy. 4.    Connected Writing Activity 2: Next have students list words that have er in them. The teacher should write this list on the board so all students can see it. Then have students write a sentence using some of the listed words. Students should circle the /er/ words in the sentence. Students should write their sentences on their boards. The teacher should remind students to check for capital letter and end mark. Students will display their completed sentence, and the teacher should check for accuracy. 5.    Reading: Allow students to read a decodable text that uses many er words. Have students make a list of all the er words they find in the text. 6.    Internet Practice: Once students understand the concept of er words, have them practice what they learned by completing the r-controlled game on the Internet. Students must chose the r-controlled game once they enter this site. (i know that .com) Students will play different games using r - controlled words. These games will reinforce the information learned during the lesson.

Instructional resources and materials used: ·         Three dolls labeled ir, er, and ur ·         ir, er, ur chart (1 poster listing several ir, ur, er words) ·         Dry erase boards ·         markers ·         erasers(one for each student and teacher) ·         Any available decodable text using "er" ·         Computer with Internet access

Reflection ●     Did your instruction support learning for the whole class and the students who need great support or challenge? ●     What changes would you make to support better student learning of the central focus? ●     Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your explanation from evidence of research and/or theory.

Week 6 Assignment 1

Candidate’s Name: Michael Ambrogio

Grade Level:3

Title of the lesson: Reading Fluency

Length of the lesson: 15 minutes

Central focus of the lesson: The students will reread familiar text to develop fluency. They will practice reading with accuracy, speed, and appropriate intonation.

Knowledge of students to inform teaching: Prior to lesson students should have been taught in guided practice what fluency is and how to use the graphs and tape player.

Common Core State Standards: ●     CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. ●     CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4.A Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding. ●     CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4.B Read grade-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings. ●     CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4.C Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Support literacy development through language: Be familiar with teaching fluency and what fluency includes (speed, accuracy, intonation), and also familiar with how to use a Timed Reading Chart. This strategy uses auditory modeling, timed self-assessments, and partner feedback to motivate students. It can be adapted by having students practice reading independently with an audiotape or do unassisted repeated readings, with partners providing word-identification help, feedback and encouragement. Partners need not be reading at the same level, or practicing their oral reading with the same passage.

Learning objectives: The ability to read at a selected target rate. The goal for the 4th Grade Core is 160 WPM.

Formal and informal assessment: Use the Timed Reading Chart and the passage to evaluate student's progress. Timed Reading Chart

Instructional procedure: Before activity: Help each student select an easy, interesting passage for practice reading. The passage should be too long to memorize: 150 - 200 words. Prepare an audio tape of the selected passages. Teacher models: Teacher will model reading aloud a passage, telling them that this is what a good reader should sound like. Discuss with the students what the reading sounded like: What was my speed? Was it accurate? Did it have a lot of expression? Do non-examples: Read too slow, inaccurately, no expression. Discuss what that reading sounded like. Tell the students that today they are going to practice reading so that they can become fluent readers. First Timed Reading: Using a one minute timer, have each student do an unrehearsed first reading of the passage. Have the student read the passage aloud, underline any word he/she doesn't know, and make a vertical line after the last word read when the timer goes off. Help the student count the number of words read correctly, and color the Timed Reading Chart with a blue pencil up to that number. Discuss the words that the student underlined, paying attention to letter or word patterns that were confusing. Work with a student to set a new target rate for the passage. It should be high enough that the student will need to read the passage several times. Reading Practice: Have the student read the passage at least two more times. Have pairs of students listen to an audiotape of the passage. Students should play the tape again, and this time the student who chose the particular passage should read aloud with the tape. Partners should listen carefully to each reading, and rate the readers improvement. The teacher circulates and monitors reading. After the first partner has practiced reading the passage three times, switch roles. Daily practice should continue for 1 or 2 days. Second and Third Timed Readings: Do a second timed reading of the passage and have the students record the results on the Timed Reading Chart with a red pencil. As the rate increases, help student set a new goal for their target rate and continue practicing the passage for several days. If the student is able to reach the end of the passage before the minute is up, tell the student to start again at the beginning and mark the last word read

Instructional resources and materials: 1.    Copies of short passages for practice reading. 2.    Audio tape of selected passages. 3.    A one minute timer. 4.    Timed Reading Chart (pdf). 5.    Blue and red pencils. 6.    Tape recorder.

Assignment 3 Running Record

Based on my student assessment, the students error rate was 48/3=16 so the error rate was 1:16. The students accuracy rate was 48-3 / 48= 93.75% accuracy rate. The students self correction rate was 3+2 / 2= 2.5 or 3 so the self correction rate was 1:3. The student read a book called What I See. The errors that were made include saying I see a noise instead of nose, I see a met instead of mat, I see myself instead of me. The student was able to self correct a couple words they came across, but overall was able to read the entire story at a reasonable pace. I did not need to interfere or push the student along at any time.

Whales & Fish Assignment 2

Based on the results of my assessment, the student reading Whales and Fish read at a 95% accuracy rate. Their accuracy rate was found by dividing the total words read minus total errors (201-9) by the total words (201) multiplied by 100. Their error rate was 1:22 figured out by dividing the total number of words (201) by the total errors (9). The student’s self correction rate was 1:3, which was found by taking the sum of the number of errors and number of self correction (9+6) and dividing that by the number of self corrections (6). I found this student to be an overall strong reader who was able to self-correct more times than not. The student was capable of sounding out most difficult words before needing complete help from teacher.

After listening to the students retelling of the story, I found that the student was able to absorb the knowledge they should have received from the text.  The student knew how fish and hales were alike and different. They knew that they were alike because they both have fins and flippers, and flippers are located on the sides. They knew that whales were big and fish were small, and that they were born in different ways. I found the student to do very well in recapping the story.

Whales & Fish Assignment 1