Kira Kalepp                        Week 14                 ENGED 463

Differentiation

• To differentiate instruction use a wide variety of materials, a wide variety of lesson formats, variety of student groupings, get students engaged, increase quality of reading and writing by letting students choose what they want to read or write, use their names for specific activities, differentiation is accomplished through quantity, variety and choice, assessment is essential to differentiation because you make choices based on what children can and can’t do

Targeted Tier 2 Interventions for Struggling Readers

• Determine areas of greatest need for struggling readers
• Tier 2 instruction is usually delivered to individuals or in very small groups of students that have the same targeted needs
• To determine which interventions are most appropriate for struggling readers, you need to do some individual diagnosis to determine their areas of greatest need
• You need to use some graded passages and determine the struggling readers’ comprehension, word identification and fluency levels
• Test their comprehension level-the highest level for which they score a level 3 or 4
• Test their oral reading fluency, again want to read a 3 or 4

Testing for Comprehension

• Have student read a passage silently that you think is at their instructional reading level
• Tell them to try and think about what they are reading so they can retell the major facts or events and answer some questions about it after reading
• When they have finished, take the passage away and ask the student to tell everything they remember
• After they are don retelling, ask follow-up questions for important ideas that they did not include in the retelling
• Make notes about their retelling and answers to questions
• Use a comprehension scale and rate their comprehension of that passage
• If they are 3 or 4 have them read at a book at the next higher level, if they are at 1 or 2 have them read at the next lower level

Testing for Fluency and Word Identification

• To determine their word identification level, have them read aloud a passage one level higher than their comprehension level
• Record the reading errors made and calculate the child’s word identification score, the highest level of text the child ca read with 95% word accuracy (do not count and self-corrections)
• Rate the child’s oral reading fluency on an oral reading scale
• Compare their comprehension, word identification and fluency scores to determine which of these areas is of greatest need for this child
• Provide tutoring or small group instruction targeted to the child’s area of greatest need

Classroom Application: After reading this chapter I learned how to differentiate and identify interventions needed for struggling readers.  Differentiation is essential because children differ on so many dimensions.  Teachers feel overwhelmed and frustrated that they cannot give every child the amount of individual attention they deserve, but differentiation needs to happen with a variety of strategies and programs. Using a variety of tolls and materials for instruction, groupings, and knowing that individuals learn differently, they can use a wide variety of lesson formats all students experience success and enjoyment as they participate in different activities.  Choice is another principle you can use to differentiate your instruction.  When students make a choice about what they want to read or write, they are more interested and responsible.  Increasing the quantity of reading and writing activities that students are doing as you teach different content areas is important because then you have additional opportunities to use a variety of lesson frameworks and collaborative groupings.  In spite of good balanced instruction, some students will need additional instruction beyond what they are provided in the classroom.  Tier 2 instruction is usually delivered to individuals or small groups that have the same targeted needs. 

Kira Kalepp                        Week 14                 ENGED 463

Assessments

• Is collecting and analyzing data to make decisions bout how children are performing and growing
• 4 steps for assessment
  • 1-identify what you want to assess
  • 2- collect evidence
  • 3-analyze that evidence
  • 4-make a decision and act on that decision

Determining Student Reading Levels

• Reading level is affected by individual factors within each child, such as prior knowledge and interest, as well as instructional factors, support provided by the reading format and whether a first reading or rereading is being considered
• You need to determine every child’s approximate reading level
• Knowing their reading level can help you decide how much support each child needs to experience success during comprehension lessons and reading
• To determine reading levels, have individual students read passages at different reading levels or RI’s (reading inventories)
• Students should be accurately reading 95% of the text and demonstrate comprehension 75% of the passage

Identifying Good Literacy Behaviors and Documenting Student Progress

• there are 3 types of assessments commonly used in classrooms
  • diagnostic assessments (determine reading levels)
  • summative assessments (end of a unit/lesson/weekly spelling test)
  • formative assessment (exit slip, checklist, writing sample, etc.)
• What makes all of these assessments formative is what the teacher does with the results
• Formative assessments are intended to inform instruction, they can tell you what strategies students lack, alert you what should be retaught, help document progress students are making and who may need small group interventions
• Assessing Emergent Literacy-emergent readers can pretend read, they can write and read what they have written, even if nobody else can, they are developing phonemic awareness and can blend and segment short words and tell you which words to rhyme.  You should keep a checklist of emergent literacy behaviors

• Assessing Word Identification Strategies-you need to monitor and assess their development of fluency, sight words, decoding and spelling strategies.  The assessment must take place when the student is actually reading and writing

• Assessing Comprehension Strategies-monitor and assess your students’ development of these behaviors as you interact with them during comprehension lessons and in independent reading conferences.  Because comprehension depends on prior knowledge and interest, its harder to assess.  Use and analyze anecdotal records and observe them more frequently

• Assessing Writing-observe students when they write each day, look at their first-draft writing samples and interact with them during writing conferences. Also observe many aspects of writing as you move around the room, and see if they struggle with identifying topics, do they have a plan, is writing easy for them, are they using resources in the room, are they using grammatical or mechanical conventions, etc.
• Assessing Attitudes and Interests-it is important that students like to read and their feelings when they read.  Encourage children to bring their own books, share them with the class, ask questions, etc.  your assessments of reading interests and attitudes should be ongoing and linking it to your instruction

Classroom Application:  From this chapter I learned how important the three types of assessments are used in classrooms.  For children that struggle with reading, I would use a diagnostic assessment to determine their instructional reading level and determine their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to reading.  Summative assessments are used to provide evidence of students’ achievements. They usually don’t lead to instructional changes because they happen at the end of the unit/lesson/etc. Formative assessments is what informs instruction.  You do this when you ask kids to write down the most important thing they learned, or how they can apply what they learned in their own lives.  By looking at those brief responses, you can figure out how well your students are learning and adjust your instruction of the next day accordingly.  There are a variety of ways that assessments take place in the classroom on a daily basis, the most important thing about assessments is that they are used to change or adapt instruction so students are learning what you are teaching them.

Kira Kalepp                        Week 13                 ENGED 463

Main Idea Trees

• Informational texts usually have several main ideas about a single topic.  A tree can help children visualize and organize information.  The topic you are learning about is the trunk of the tree and the main ideas about the topic are the large branches and details are the small branches

Time Lines

• Help us organize information in which the sequence of events is what is important
• Let students watch as you construct your timeline based on a paragraph of information

Compare/Contrast Bubbles

• Show the similarities and differences between two things can be demonstrated and organized in a Venn diagram or double bubble.  This type of graphic organizer is very versatile and can be used to teach students to compare and contrast two things-setting, characters, themes, versions of same tale and other traits

Think-Writes

• Are short, quick bits of writing that help your students focus and clarify their thinking
• Often completed in 2 minutes and never take more than 5 minutes
• They aren’t published, so they don’t require revising and editing
• Connection Think-Writes-before students begin to learn about a new topic in math, science or social studies, ask them to share what they already know, but instead have them answer a specific question and write it down.  During these connection think-writes, students are recoding their ideas on scrap paper which is essential to successful two-minutes think-writes because they don’t need much for this activity. 
• Prediction Think–Writes-when you can engage all students in using think-writes to have them predict what they think is going to happen or take place in the upcoming lesson.  Students can write their name on these small pieces of paper and can be referred back to during the lesson if they predicted right or were on the right path.  They work well in science and social studies
• Think-Writes for Summarizing-can also use think-writes to help your students do the thinking processes they use while they are reading.  Give them 3 minutes to mine the graphics and write down what they think that are going to learn about.  Then they will read the text then give them 3 sticky notes for making the 3 most important facts they learned about. 
• Think Writes for Concluding, Evaluating and Imagining-pose a question that requires students to draw conclusions by drawing on experiences and learning.  Tell them as they read, you want them to try and figure out how things are similar or different.  Then have them share their comparisons and support their ideas with information.

Classroom Application:  After reading this chapter, I learned that the more students read, the better and more fluently they will read, the more they write, the better and more fluently they will write.  These suggestions were to piggyback writing lessons to your informational text comprehension lessons. Writing paragraph summaries after construction of main idea trees, time lines or compare/contrast bubbles is actually easier for students than other writing because the information they need is available to them in an organized way.  The graphic organizer they refer to while writing also helps ease the spelling burden and allows them to write more fluently.  Think-writes are another way of connecting reading, writing and subject learning, which can be constructed to prompt students to make connections and predictions before they read and to prod them to use the thinking strategies of summarizing, concluding, evaluating and imagining as they read.  Lastly, research confirms that having students write during science, social studies and other subjects increases their learning in all these subjects and having them write regularly produces the greatest gains.

Kira Kalepp                        Week 11                 ENGED 463

Writers Workshop

• Is the term most commonly used to describe the process of children choosing their own topics and then writing, revising, editing and publishing
• You try to simulate as closely as possible the atmosphere in which real writers write and to help children see themselves as ‘real authors’
• Usually begins with a mini-lesson which you model writing
• Next the children write, you conference with them and coach them on how to revise, edit and publish
• It concludes with an Author’s Chair, in which children read their writing and get responses form the other ‘writers’ in the room
• Can be done in all elementary grades
• Minilessons take around 8-10 minutes
• Start students writing for 6-7 minutes and build up to 15-20 minutes when they get better
• GOAL-you want children to look forward to the writing time and you want them to see writing as a way of telling about themselves and the things that are important

Adding Editing to Writer’s Workshop

• Build your editors checklist gradually
• Teach children to peer edit-they can practice on a teachers’ piece ach day, then edit with a partner, then eventually they should be able to do it independently

Adding Conferencing, Publishing and Author’s Chair to Writer’s Workshop

• Author’s Chair-where students share their finished piece of writing.  They can also share a first draft or work in progress.  After each child has read, he or she calls on class members to tell things they liked about the piece and answer any questions
• Publishing-when students pick a piece of writing and take it through the process.  Many teachers post a chart to remind students of the publishing steps

• The Writing Conference-children will meet with the teacher, to fix ‘everything’.  Sit down with the student and do a final editing and do whatever else is necessary to help students produce a masterpiece of writing.  Make sure the student can read anything that is inserted and stopping to notice where to add punctuation, change spelling and make other needed changes
• Additional Support for Struggling Writers-make sure everyone feels like a real writer even if they can’t do as much as other students.  Work with the most avid writers first then work with the students that have not yet published anything yet.  Set down individually with these children and help them construct their piece. When they are telling you what they are writing about, write down their sentences by hand so they can use that when writing their own. 

Adding Revising

• Revising is making good writing even better!
• When teaching make sure students understand that revising is not editing.  Revising is making the writing more clear, more interesting, more dramatic, more informative, more persuasive, more something!!!

• Replacing Revising Strategy-makes writing better by improving the quality of what is already there.  When replacing a small amount of text, use the special revising pens to cross out the text you want to improve and then write the new text clearly above it.  When replacing large chunks of text in order to improve them, use the cut and tape procedure
• Reordering and Removing Revising Strategies-reordering should not be taught until students can revise by adding and replacing.  Children cannot learn to revise by reordering until they have a firm sense of sequence and logical order (3^rd grade).  Children are usually more willing ot replace something than remove it.  Removing is the last of the four revising strategies that should be taught.

Focused Writing

• Prompt-Based Lessons for Opinion Pieces-teacher begins by asking the class a specific question.  Then he allows some students to briefly tell about the topic.  Students suggest ideas and the teacher records their suggestions and makes sure that everyone understands the topic.  Next the teacher displays the prompt the students will write to in this lesson
• Revising Opinion Pieces-begins the revising lesson by explaining to the students the purpose of the lesson.  Then the teacher displays the opinion piece guidelines, which has the first two of four items students will learn to revise opinion pieces for

• Focused Writing Lessons for Informative/Explanatory Texts-follow the same sequence of steps the teacher did for opinion pieces.  Begin by teaching several prompt-based writing lessons in which students write informational pieces

• Focused Writing Lessons for Narratives-which are stories that relate real or imagined events or experiences.  As students go through the grades, they are expected to write increasingly sophisticated narratives with characters, settings and plots

Classroom Application:  After reading this chapter, I learned that writer’s workshop is a powerful and versatile structure for teaching children to write. It is important that in my future classroom, that I start writers workshop with a mini-less because children will watch my write, which allows me to model, demonstrate and think aloud about all the big and little components that constitute good writing.  The mini lesson should focus on just one aspect (choosing a topic, what to do about spelling, how to edit, how to revise, etc.).  as children write, it is my job to encourage them in their writing and conference with them about how to make their writing better.  Include an authors chair so students can share their writing with other ‘authors’ in the room and get feedback to make their writing even better or answer questions about their writing/topic.  

6+1 Trait Rubrics

• The six traits of writing are ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation.
  • Ideas—the main message-The Ideas are the main message, the content of the piece, the main theme, together with all the supporting details that enrich and develop that theme. The Ideas are strong when the message is clear, not garbled. The writer chooses details that are interesting, important, and informative–often the kinds of details the reader would not normally anticipate or predict. Successful writers do not “tell” readers things they already know; e.g., “It was a sunny day, and the sky was blue, the clouds were fluffy white …” Successful writers “show” readers that which is normally overlooked; writers seek out the extraordinary, the unusual, the unique, the bits and pieces of life that might otherwise be overlooked.
  • Organization—the internal structure of the piece-Organization is the internal structure of a piece of writing, the thread of central meaning, the pattern and sequence, so long as it fits the central idea. Organizational structure can be based on comparison-contrast, deductive logic, point-by-point analysis, development of a central theme, chronological history of an event, or any of a dozen other identifiable patterns. When Organization is strong, the piece begins meaningfully and creates in the writer a sense of anticipation that is, ultimately, systematically fulfilled. Events proceed logically; information is given to the reader in the right doses at the right times so that the reader never loses interest. Connections are strong, which is another way of saying that bridges from one idea to the next hold up. The piece closes with a sense of resolution, tying up loose ends, bringing things to a satisfying closure, answering important questions while still leaving the reader something to think about.
  • Voice—the personal tone and flavor of the author’s message-Voice is the writer coming through the words, the sense that a real person is speaking to us and cares about the message. It is the heart and soul of the writing, the magic, the wit, the feeling, the life and breath. When the writer is engaged personally with the topic, he/she imparts a personal tone and flavor to the piece that is unmistakably his/hers alone. And it is that individual something–different from the mark of all other writers–that we call Voice.
  • Word Choice—the vocabulary a writer chooses to convey meaning-Word Choice is the use of rich, colorful, precise language that communicates not just in a functional way, but in a way that moves and enlightens the reader. In descriptive writing, strong Word Choice resulting in imagery, especially sensory, show-me writing, clarifies and expands Ideas. In persuasive writing, purposeful Word Choice moves the reader to a new vision of ideas. In all modes of writing figurative language such as metaphors, similes and analogies articulate, enhance, and enrich the content. Strong Word Choice is characterized not so much by an exceptional vocabulary chosen to impress the reader, but more by the skill to use everyday words well.
  • Sentence Fluency—the rhythm and flow of the language-Sentence Fluency is the rhythm and flow of the language, the sound of word patterns, the way in which the writing plays to the ear, not just to the eye. How does it sound when read aloud? That’s the test. Fluent writing has cadence, power, rhythm, and movement. It is free of awkward word patterns that slow the reader’s progress. Sentences vary in length, beginnings, structure, and style, and are so well crafted that the reader moves through the piece with ease.
  • Conventions—the mechanical correctness-The Conventions trait is the mechanical correctness of the piece and includes five elements: spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar/usage, and paragraphing. Writing that is strong in Conventions has been proofread and edited with care. Since this trait has so many pieces to it, it’s almost an analytical trait within an analytic system. As you assess a piece for convention, ask yourself: “How much work would a copy editor need to do to prepare the piece for publication?” This will keep all of the elements in conventions equally in play. Conventions is the only trait where we make specific grade level accommodations, and expectations should be based on grade level to include only those skills that have been taught. (Handwriting and neatness are not part of this trait. They belong with Presentation.)
  • Presentation—how the writing actually looks on the page-Presentation combines both visual and textual elements. It is the way we exhibit or present our message on paper. Even if our ideas, words, and sentences are vivid, precise, and well-constructed, the writing will not be inviting to read unless it follows the guidelines of Presentation. These include: Balance of white space with visuals and text, graphics, neatness, handwriting, font selection, borders, and overall appearance. Think about examples of text and visual presentation in your environment. Which signs and billboards attract your attention? Why do you reach for one CD over another? All great writers are aware of the necessity of Presentation, particularly technical writers who must include graphs, maps, and visual instructions along with their text. Presentation is key to a polished piece ready for publication.
• The core of the 6+1 Trait® Writing Model of Instruction & Assessment is the set of rubrics that specify how to assess the quality of student writing and tailor instruction to students’ needs.
• In 2018, Education Northwest released refined rubrics that respond to feedback from the field and new developments in standards and assessments across the country.
• The K–2 rubric supports teachers and students as they are starting to write, creating classroom writing processes, building a common vocabulary, and establishing a vision for good writing. The 3–12 rubric is often used in late second or third grades and into higher grade levels.
• The rubrics are field tested, research-based, teacher friendly and designed for easier use across text types (i.e., informative/explanatory, argument, and narrative writing).

Common Core State Standards and the 6+1 Trait Writing Model of Instruction & Assessment

• Education Northwest’s 6+1 Trait® Writing Model of Instruction & Assessment can help teachers implement the writing standards included in the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and ensure that students are ready for college or careers.
• Our writing experts have analyzed the CCSS and developed crosswalk documents to assist teachers in understanding the relationship between the expectations in the standards and the elements of the 6+1 Trait model. These comparisons demonstrate how the traits can provide students of all grade levels with a solid grasp of high-quality writing and support achievement of the CCSS writing standards.
• In addition, samples of annotated and scored student papers show how the CCSS describe progress toward targeted writing objectives, while the traits assess the quality of that same writing.

Writing Workshop: Helping Writers Choose and Focus on a Topic-Lesson Plan

STUDENT OBJECTIVES

Students will…

• Learn a strategy (i.e., timeline) to bring greater focus to their writing
• Explore ideas on a topic by creating detailed illustrations
• Write about selected events with focus and detail
• Participate as members of a writing community, offering feedback to peers throughout the writing process
• Reflect critically on their writing during conferences, making revisions in response to peer and teacher feedback

SESSION 1

Note: This lesson should serve as part of an ongoing classroom workshop to develop writing abilities. Time estimates for each workshop segment are given in Session 1. As students become more familiar with the workshop setting and more proficient with the writing process, the session layout and the time given to each segment may be altered accordingly.

Minilesson

Expect to spend about 15 minutes on the steps in this section. During subsequent writing workshops, you would spend the beginning of the session teaching other writing aspects that suit your students’ needs.

1. Explain to students that they will be learning how to focus their writing on a specific topic.

2. Begin with a description of the difference between very general topics and more focused topics. For example, if a student were to write about a day spent with his or her grandfather, that could include many different things. But if the topic is about making biscuits with his or her grandfather on Sunday morning, then the writing is going to be about that one specific moment or event.

3. Explain that this kind of focused writing is often stronger than general writing and includes more details about the topic.

4. Provide students with a model by selecting a topic from your own life and creating a timeline on a chart, narrowing down the general topic into several specific events. (You may want to choose only a few events for younger writers.) Model for students how you are thinking through and selecting these moments and placing them on the timeline.

Depending on students’ needs and abilities, you might not want to focus on what time things happened. Instead, use the timeline to establish an order in which things happened and to emphasize the idea of specific moments and events happening within a general topic.

5. Next, select one of the events along the timeline to write about. Show students how you select a topic that is most meaningful to you or that you think would make the best piece for focused writing (you have enough to say about an event, for example).

6. Ask students for topic ideas from a shared experience, such as events in a day at school (e.g., recess, field trip, lunch), or choose an item from the Journal Writing Ideas webpage. Brainstorm possible events for a timeline. Work with students to select four or five of these events and chart them along a new timeline in sequential order.

(Note: If students are advanced enough, you might want to have them develop this second timeline in pairs or small groups.)

Drawing

• Independent work. From the class-generated timeline, ask each student to select one event that he or she wants to write about.
• Have each student draw a picture of the event in the illustration box of the journal paper. (This should take 10–20 minutes depending on grade level and ability.) Explain that drawing is meant to help them “rehearse” for their writing. It is a chance for them to explore and work out their ideas about the event before writing.
• With less experienced writers, you may want to model how you move from selecting an event to creating a detailed drawing. Use the event you selected from your personal timeline as an example.
• Collaborative work. Have students work with partners or in small groups to share their drawings. (Allow 5–10 minutes for this step, depending again on students’ needs.)
• Talking about their drawings further helps students prepare to write their pieces and often generates details they might not otherwise have included. Encourage students to add details to their drawings as a result of their conversations.

Sharing

Gather as a class and spend 5–10 minutes having students share selected topics and drawings. Talk with students about how, in the next session, they are going to take these drawings and move to a piece of focused writing.

SESSION 2

Minilesson

1. Gather students for a minilesson. Using your own example from the previous session, show students your drawing.

2. Model how you would look carefully at the drawing and think about the details you have included. Model how you would move from drawing to writing.

Your writing example should reflect the expectations you have for your writers. Younger writers may need support such as showing them how they might start their writing pieces. For older students, you might work on strategies for elaborating in their writing. For example, you can model for students how you would add description or dialogue to your piece and encourage them to try these strategies during independent and collaborative work time.

Writing

Independent work. Below the illustration box of the journal paper, each student should begin to write about the pictured event. Remind students to be specific and to include written details about what is happening in the story and in the picture. (As students progress in subsequent workshops, you may also want to make available additional lined paper for longer writing pieces.)

Encourage students to use their drawings and their experiences for ideas when writing. What is taking place? Who’s involved? Where is this happening? What sounds, sights, feelings might be involved?

Collaborative work. Have students confer with one another, possibly with the same partners or in the same groups as before.

Conferences

As students are writing and working together, conduct one-on-one teacher–student conferences. Each conference should take about 5–10 minutes. You may not have time to confer with every student in the same session; instead, plan to spread conferences across several workshop sessions.

1. In each conference, ask the student to reflect on his or her writing process. What does he or she notice about the writing? Is it on topic? How has the timeline helped him or her to focus? Are there details from the drawing that might be added? Are there new things that might be added in response to feedback from peers?
2. Give instruction about one specific item: perhaps on how the student has used the timeline to focus the writing, how he or she has used the drawing to support the writing, or other writing skills such as sentence construction, capitalization, or spelling.
3. Have the student make revisions. As he or she practices and masters a new skill or strategy, you can move on to other items in subsequent writing conferences. (Although revisions can be made during conferences, also let students know that they can continue to revise their writing if they finish their work early in later sessions.)
4. Place the revised entry in a folder or binder for the student as part of his or her ongoing workshop portfolio.
5. Keep anecdotal records of your conferences: What are students doing well? Where do you need to do more instruction? Do you see patterns in several students’ pieces that you can address in a minilesson?

Sharing

Spend the remainder of the session on sharing and feedback. You may want to have students share in the order the events are listed on the timeline. Depending on the number of students in your class and their level of writing, additional sharing time may need to be scheduled in subsequent sessions.

After each student reads his or her writing, make observations and provide feedback on the writing process. Ask other students to also share their feedback, which should include positive comments, thoughtful questions, and suggestions for improvement.

SESSION 3

Having developed a shared topic and timeline as a class, it is essential that students apply these writing strategies (timeline creation and illustrations as rehearsal for writing) to topics of their own choosing.

Minilesson

At the start of the session, review the use of a timeline to break a general topic into several moments or events. Then, review how to consider the items on the timeline and select one to write about. (Refer to charts from Session 1 as necessary.)

Timelines

Independent work. Have each student consult his or her own topic list, create a timeline on a self-selected topic, and choose a moment or event from this timeline for his or her next writing piece. If students finish early, they can try this strategy with other topics.

Collaborative work. After students have created the timelines and have selected their events, have them meet with partners or in small groups to share this work and make changes.

Conferences

As students work on their timelines, continue from where you left off with student–teacher conferences, keeping anecdotal records of student performance and allowing students time to make revisions.

Sharing

Have students share their timelines with the class. Encourage each presenter to talk about why he or she has selected a particular moment or event to write about.

SESSION 4

Minilesson

In a short minilesson, return to examples of drawing about a selected topic, then moving from drawing to writing. Again, younger writers may need modeling help with transitioning from drawing to writing.

Independent/Collaborative Work

Allow individual and group time for drawing and writing, as was done in Sessions 1 and 2. Depending on grade level and abilities, these steps might continue to be conducted across separate sessions.

Conferences

During the drawing and writing stages, continue to hold conferences with students.

Sharing

End the session with further opportunities for sharing and feedback.

EXTENSIONS

In subsequent writing workshops, second-grade students may enjoy creating their timelines using the interactive Timeline tool. This tool allows students to sequence and describe events, and can be printed for reference before writing. If use of the online tool detracts from the purpose of the lesson (i.e., having students choose and focus on a topic), a handwritten timeline should be used instead.

STUDENT ASSESSMENT/REFLECTIONS

Assess each student’s ability to:

• Narrow a general topic into several events using a timeline
• Create a drawing and use it to support his or her writing
• Maintain focus in his or her writing

When assessing students, refer to their written work (timelines, drawings, and drafts) as well as your anecdotal records from conferences. You will want to ask questions such as the following:

Has this student selected a topic?

• Has this student used a timeline effectively and selected a more focused event or moment within the broader topic?
• Has this student created a drawing that elaborates on the selected topic?
• Is this student’s draft a focused piece of writing?

For older students, is the piece written with added description and/or dialogue?

A rubric could be created with an area for students to reflect on questions such as those listed above and an area for your assessment of their work. Obviously, a rubric used for kindergartners will look different from one for second graders. A good rubric will be designed based on the work you have done with this particular group of students, your assessment of their strengths and needs, and the expectations you have for their writing.

Kira Kalepp                        Week 10                 ENGED 463

Reading Informational Texts

• Informational Texts provide focused instruction using leveled books for excellent opportunities to expose students to informational texts as stressed by the Common Core State Standards. The CCSS defines “informational text” as a broad category of nonfiction resources, including: biographies; autobiographies; books about history, social studies, science, and the arts; technical texts (including how-to books and procedural books); and literary nonfiction.
• Reading informational text requires many of the same strategies required in reading stories
• Students must accurately and fluently identify the words and access meanings for key vocabulary words and phrases
• Reading informational text requires the same comprehension strategies we use as we read stories
• When we read informational text, we…
  • Call up and connect relevant prior knowledge
  • Predict, question and wonder about what will be learned
  • Visualize and imagine
  • Monitor and use fix-up strategies
  • Summarize the most important ideas
  • Draw conclusions and make inferences
  • Evaluate and make judgements
• Reading informational text requires all these strategies and more
• We need to do close reading so that we learn not only the big ideas but the facts and details that support those big ideas
• Informational text has 3 common text structures
  • Descriptive
  • Sequential
  • Comparative
• They also have special features
  • Maps
  • Photos
  • Charts
  • Graphs
  • Headings
  • Bold words
  • Etc.

Lesson Frameworks for Close Reading and Making Inferences

• Close reading-students are expected to be able to explain what the text says explicitly and to draw inferences from the texts
• Guess Yes or No-focuses students’ attention on important details in informational text by having them predict, before they read ,which statements are true and which are false.  Some of the statements require them to make logical inferences the teacher follows the ‘gradual release of responsibility model’ when teaching comprehension lessons.  The class will watch and listen as she models how to figure out whether the first two statements are true or false.  They will help her figure out the text two, then students will work together to complete the final statements

• Find it or Figure it out-figuring out something based on information from the text is called inferring.  This lesson framework you can use to teach your students how to use the information in the text and their prior knowledge to figure things out

• Lesson frameworks for text structures-comprehending informational text requires all the strategies required for comprehending stories.  Readers must also be able to follow the 3 different text structures commonly found in informational text and use the special features of informational text.  Many informational texts follow a descriptive text structure, where they focus on a single topic and several main ideas.  The next compares and contrasts various members of a category.  Lastly, they organize ideas or events according to the sequence in which they occur.
• Main Idea Trees-informational texts usually have several main ideas about a single topic.  A tree can help children visualize and organize information.  The topic you are learning about is the trunk of the tree and the main ideas about the topic are the large branches and details are the small branches

• Time Lines-help us organize information in which the sequence of events is what is important
• Compare/Contrast bubbles– Similarities and differences between two things can be demonstrated and organized in a Venn diagram or double bubble.  This type of graphic organizer is very versatile and can be used to teach students to compare and contrast two things-setting, characters, themes, versions of same tale and other traits
• Preview-Predict-Confirm-teaches students to use the visuals in an informational text to build vocabulary and to predict what they will read
• Text Feature Scavenger Hunts-learning how to read visuals, pictures, maps, charts, graphs, and how headings, highlighted words, and other informational text features help us is not something most elementary children get excited about.  The questions on the scavenger hunt direct students’ attention to different text features of specific texts’

Classroom Application:  After reading this chapter, I learned that using effective instructional strategies in vocabulary or comprehension can improve students learning of subject matter.  Comprehending informational text requires the same word identification accuracy and fluency, meanings for key words and comprehension strategies required for stories.  Students need to do close reading and draw inferences so that to follow information presented in the three common text structures and use the special features of informational text.   My future instruction can help all children learning how to comprehend informational text by teaching students how to make inferences when reading and use evidence to support them, to organize information when reading texts’ that have several main ideas, how to organize information in which the sequence of events is important/happens, how to organize information when two ideas or topics are being compared and contrasted, focus students’ attention on how to use the visuals and special features of informational test and gradually release the responsibility to provide scaffolding to students so they can eventually work independently.

Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension

• Comprehension strategies are conscious plans — 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. These seven strategies have research-based evidence for improving text comprehension
  • Monitoring comprehension-Students who are good at monitoring their comprehension know when they understand what they read and when they do not. They have strategies to “fix” problems in their understanding as the problems arise. Research shows that instruction, even in the early grades, can help students become better at monitoring their comprehension.
  • Metacognition-Metacognition can be defined as “thinking about thinking.” Good readers use metacognitive strategies to think about and have control over their reading. Before reading, they might clarify their purpose for reading and preview the text. During reading, they might monitor their understanding, adjusting their reading speed to fit the difficulty of the text and “fixing” any comprehension problems they have. After reading, they check their understanding of what they read.
  • Graphic and semantic organizers-Graphic organizers illustrate concepts and relationships between concepts in a text or using diagrams. Graphic organizers are known by different names, such as maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames, or clusters. Regardless of the label, graphic organizers can help readers focus on concepts and how they are related to other concepts. Graphic organizers help students read and understand textbooks and picture books.
  • Answering questions- The Question-Answer Relationship strategy (QAR) encourages students to learn how to answer questions better. Students are asked to indicate whether the information they used to answer questions about the text was textually explicit information (information that was directly stated in the text), textually implicit information (information that was implied in the text), or information entirely from the student’s own background knowledge.
  • Generating questions- By generating questions, students become aware of whether they can answer the questions and if they understand what they are reading. Students learn to ask themselves questions that require them to combine information from different segments of text. For example, students can be taught to ask main idea questions that relate to important information in a text.
  • Recognizing story structure-In story structure instruction, students learn to identify the categories of content (characters, setting, events, problem, resolution). Often, students learn to recognize story structure through the use of story maps. Instruction in story structure improves students’ comprehension.
  • Summarizing-Summarizing requires students to determine what is important in what they are reading and to put it into their own words.

Effective comprehension strategy instruction is explicit

• Research shows that explicit teaching techniques are particularly effective for comprehension strategy instruction. In explicit instruction, teachers tell readers why and when they should use strategies, what strategies to use, and how to apply them. The steps of explicit instruction typically include direct explanation, teacher modeling (“thinking aloud”), guided practice, and application.
  • Direct explanation-The teacher explains to students why the strategy helps comprehension and when to apply the strategy.
  • Modeling-The teacher models, or demonstrates, how to apply the strategy, usually by “thinking aloud” while reading the text that the students are using.
  • Guided practice-The teacher guides and assists students as they learn how and when to apply the strategy.
  • Application-The teacher helps students practice the strategy until they can apply it independently.
• Effective comprehension strategy instruction can be accomplished through cooperative learning, which involves students working together as partners or in small groups on clearly defined tasks. Cooperative learning instruction has been used successfully to teach comprehension strategies. Students work together to understand texts, helping each other learn and apply comprehension strategies. Teachers help students learn to work in groups. Teachers also provide modeling of the comprehension strategies.

Strategies that Promote Comprehension

General instructional activities

• To correspond with a typical reading lesson, comprehension strategy instruction can be organized into a three-part framework, with specific activities used before, during, and after reading.
• Providing instruction such as the following example allows students to see, learn, and use a variety of comprehension strategies as they read. Note, however, that the framework is a general one and represents an array of strategies. All of the strategies in this framework do not have to be used with every text or in every reading situation.

Before Reading

Teachers…

• Motivate students through activities that may increase their interest (book talks, dramatic readings, or displays of art related to the text), making the text relevant to students in some way.
• Activate students’ background knowledge important to the content of the text by discussing what students will read and what they already know about its topic and about the text organization.

Students…

• Establish a purpose for reading.
• Identify and discuss difficult words, phrases, and concepts in the text.
• Preview the text (by surveying the title, illustrations, and unusual text structures) to make predictions about its content.
• Think, talk, and write about the topic of the text

During Reading

Teachers…

• Remind students to use comprehension strategies as they read and to monitor their understanding.
• Ask questions that keep students on track and focus their attention on main ideas and important points in the text.
• Focus attention on parts in a text that require students to make inferences.
• Call on students to summarize key sections or events.
• Encourage students to return to any predictions they have made before reading to see if they are confirmed by the text.

Students…

• Determine and summarize important ideas and supportive details.
• Make connections between and among important ideas in the text.
• Integrate new ideas with existing background knowledge.
• Ask themselves questions about the text.
• Sequence events and ideas in the text.
• Offer interpretations of and responses to the text.
• Check understanding by paraphrasing or restating important and/or difficult sentences and paragraphs.
• Visualize characters, settings, or events in a text

After Reading

Teachers…

• Guide discussion of the reading.
• Ask students to recall and tell in their own words important parts of the text.
• Offer students opportunities to respond to the reading in various ways, including through writing, dramatic play, music, readers’ theatre, videos, debate, or pantomime.

Students…

• Evaluate and discuss the ideas encountered in the text.
• Apply and extend these ideas to other texts and real life situations.
• Summarize what was read by retelling the main ideas.
• Discuss ideas for further reading.

Activities and procedures for use with narrative texts

• Retelling
• Story Maps
• Story Frames
• Direct Reading and Thinking Activity (DRTA)

Activities and procedures for use with expository text

• KWL charts
• Question the Author
• Reciprocal Teaching
• Transactional Strategy Instruction
• The I-Chart Procedure

Kira Kalepp                        Week 9                   ENGED 463

Comprehension Strategies

• The different kinds of thinking that we do as we read are referred to as comprehension strategies.  As you read, your brain uses these thinking strategies…
  • Calling up and connecting relevant prior knowledge
  • Predicting, questioning and wondering about what will be learned and what will happen
  • Visualizing or imagining what the experiences would look, feel, sound, taste and smell like
  • Monitoring comprehension and using fix-up strategies such as rereading, pictures, asking for help when you cannot make sense of what you read
  • Determining the most important ideas and events and summarizing what you have read
  • Drawing conclusions and making inferences based on what was read
  • Evaluating and making judgments about what you think (did you like it, did you agree, was it funny, could it really happen, etc.)

Think-Alouds to Teach Comprehension Strategies

• Think-alouds are a way of modeling or ‘making public’ the thinking that goes on inside your head as you read
• Tell your students what the voices in your head are saying
• Demonstrate for your students how we think as we read
• Try to include all thinking strategies like…
  • This reminds me of…
  • I read another book where the character…
  • I wonder if…
  • I think we will learn how…
  • So far in our story…
  • I know he must be feeling…
  • I wonder what it means when it says…
  • I don’t understand…
  • Even though it isn’t in the picture, I can see the…
  • I could hear the…
  • My favorite part in this chapter was…
  • If I were her, I would…

Comprehending Narrative Texts

• Consist of stories, plays and poetry

Story Maps

• Are popular and effective devices to guide students’ thinking when they are reading as story
• Many different ways to create one, but all help children follow the story by drawing their attention to the elements that all stories share
  • Main character
  •  Setting
  • Problem/goal
  • Main events
  • Solution
  • Theme/moral

The Beach Ball

• Helps students develop their ability to understand and retell stories
• Students would toss the ball and answer any question on the ball that their finger is pointing too

Themes, Moral and Lessons Learned

• When reading narratives, what we tend to remember are the characters and major events in the plot
• Ask yourself questions like
  • Who did what to whom
  • When and where did the events occur

Doing the Book

• Children who ‘do’ the book become more active readers
• Children remember the aspects of the story when they re-create the book in activities like…
  • Doing a play
  • Act out a story
  • Make a scene
  • Readers theater

Compare and Contrast Bubbles

•  Similarities and differences between two things can be demonstrated and organized in a Venn diagram or double bubble
• This type of graphic organizer is very versatile and can be used to teach students to compare and contrast two things-setting, characters, themes, versions of same tale and other traits

Classroom Application:  After reading this chapter, I learned that comprehension is the reason and prime motivator for engaging in reading.  Reading comprehension and how to teach it, is probably the area of literacy that we have the most knowledge and the most consensus.  But it is the area that gets the least attention in the classroom.  It is important for teacher to show and model how students should think as they read a text.  Good readers are active and have clear goals in mind.  They preview text before reading, make predictions and read selectively to meet their goals. They construct, revise and question the meanings they are making as they read.  They try to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words and concepts.  They draw from, compare and integrate their prior knowledge with what they are reading.  They monitor their understanding and make adjustments as needed.  They think about the author of the text and evaluate the texts’ quality and value.  Lastly, they read different kinds of text differently, paying close attention to characters and settings when reading narratives, and constructing and revising summaries in their minds when reading expository text.

Strategies that Promote Comprehension

General instructional activities

• To correspond with a typical reading lesson, comprehension strategy instruction can be organized into a three-part framework, with specific activities used before, during, and after reading.
• Providing instruction such as the following example allows students to see, learn, and use a variety of comprehension strategies as they read. Note, however, that the framework is a general one and represents an array of strategies. All of the strategies in this framework do not have to be used with every text or in every reading situation.

Before Reading

Teachers…

• Motivate students through activities that may increase their interest (book talks, dramatic readings, or displays of art related to the text), making the text relevant to students in some way.
• Activate students’ background knowledge important to the content of the text by discussing what students will read and what they already know about its topic and about the text organization.

Students…

• Establish a purpose for reading.
• Identify and discuss difficult words, phrases, and concepts in the text.
• Preview the text (by surveying the title, illustrations, and unusual text structures) to make predictions about its content.
• Think, talk, and write about the topic of the text

During Reading

Teachers…

• Remind students to use comprehension strategies as they read and to monitor their understanding.
• Ask questions that keep students on track and focus their attention on main ideas and important points in the text.
• Focus attention on parts in a text that require students to make inferences.
• Call on students to summarize key sections or events.
• Encourage students to return to any predictions they have made before reading to see if they are confirmed by the text.

Students…

• Determine and summarize important ideas and supportive details.
• Make connections between and among important ideas in the text.
• Integrate new ideas with existing background knowledge.
• Ask themselves questions about the text.
• Sequence events and ideas in the text.
• Offer interpretations of and responses to the text.
• Check understanding by paraphrasing or restating important and/or difficult sentences and paragraphs.
• Visualize characters, settings, or events in a text

After Reading

Teachers…

• Guide discussion of the reading.
• Ask students to recall and tell in their own words important parts of the text.
• Offer students opportunities to respond to the reading in various ways, including through writing, dramatic play, music, readers’ theatre, videos, debate, or pantomime.

Students…

• Evaluate and discuss the ideas encountered in the text.
• Apply and extend these ideas to other texts and real life situations.
• Summarize what was read by retelling the main ideas.
• Discuss ideas for further reading.

Activities and procedures for use with narrative texts

• Retelling
• Story Maps
• Story Frames
• Direct Reading and Thinking Activity (DRTA)

Activities and procedures for use with expository text

• KWL charts
• Question the Author
• Reciprocal Teaching
• Transactional Strategy Instruction
• The I-Chart Procedure

Comprehension Video Notes

• We have to teach them comprehension because it is more complex than just reading words
• Process works by building a structure-we have building materials that we need to organize, some comes from the text, but the rest come from their mind (background knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, knowledge of strategies to work things together)
• Very complicated and interactive process
• Its not just finding answers in the text
• Research says that each area can be developed (text structures, make inferences, word strategies and comprehension strategies)
• Good readers use these strategies during comprehension
• Comprehension should be stared in Kindergarten
• PICTURE
  • Predict (with use of background knowledge)
  • Imagine (visualize)
  • Clarify (make sense of everything)
  • Try (ask yourself how and why questions)
  • Use (use what you know, background knowledge)
  • Review (summarize and check)
  • Evaluate (how is it connected and talk about it)
• Classrooms with great comprehension should have language happening
  • Teachers are modeling and thinking out loud
  • Kids are asking questions
• Have children tell the teacher about the book/text-teachers ask questions
• The Theme Scheme
  • Helps struggling readers to move up in their basic thinking skills
  • We don’t want children to just read fluently, they need to understand what they are reading
  • Focuses on plot and underlying THEME of the story
  • Kids that use this program do better in comprehension
• Kids need to connect parts of a text as they are going along
• Oral language is limited, so it is essential to teach little kids big words and so they can learn them when/if they come up in a text
• Important to teach vocabulary (and hard words) to kids too during instructional time, but they need to be taught easily and in simple terms
• The relation between the meaning of words and comprehension is very closely related
• If students are struggling with something, have them picture what the word means
• Reciprocal Reading
  • Goal is to prepare students to run their own discussion
  • Teacher should the kids how it is done first (models)
  • FOUR steps-they first ask a question, then clarify meaning of unfamiliar words, then summarizing the main idea and lastly, prediction
• In schools, teaches need to collaborate together
• Schools are doing a better job teaching vocabulary than in the past and in interactive ways

Kira Kalepp                        Week 8                   ENGED 463

How Do We Learn All the Words We Know?

• Vocabulary is critical to reading comprehension
• Teachers should know/have an idea of what the meaning vocabulary development goal is
  • Kindergarten have meaning for an average of 3,500 root words
  • They add approximately 1,000 root word meaning each school year
  • The average high school graduate knows about 15,000 root words
• To help you understand how we add words to our meaning vocabulary stores, consider the analogy that learning word meanings is a lot like getting to know people.  As with words, you know some people extremely well, you are well acquainted with others, and some you vaguely know, etc.
• Literacy experts all agree on the need for vocabulary building for all students at all grades
• Teaching should be done throughout several days and weeks, which are most times learned through reading

Teach Vocabulary with ‘Real Things’

• We all learn best when we have real, direct experience with whatever we are learning
• Most vocabulary learning children do before they come to school is based on real things and real experiences
• The words we know best and remember longest are those we have had real, direct experiences with
• Some specific activities
  • Bring real things into the classroom and anchor words to them (ex. tools-hammer, screwdriver, nails, screws, drill, wrench, etc.)
  • “Mine” your school environment for real things (ex. look around your school environment and think about what objects students might not know-window, door knob, etc.)
  • Seize unexpected events as opportunities for vocabulary development-encourage the children to ask question and share their own experiences with different classroom occurrences (ex. someone breaks their arm, ask children about their own experiences)
  • Look for real-thing connections for new vocabulary words
  • Introduce science and social studies units with real things
  • Send students looking for real things in their home environment
  • Take advantage of media and technology

Talking Partners

• To own a new word, you have to use that word.  Incorporate the ‘turn and talk’ routine into vocabulary activities
• Simulate real experiences with dramatization

Maximize Word Learning from Reading

• Three read-aloud words-teacher reads aloud
  • Teacher identifies three words from the book
  • Read the book the first time
  • Show the three words to your students
  • Reread text and have the children stop you when you read each of the words
  • Help your students connect their own experiences to the three words
  • Display the title and the three word cards somewhere in the room
• Word detectives
  • From a text students will read, choose 6-10 words students’ will most likely not know
  • Seat students in trios
  • Show students the words and have them pronounce them
  • Have each person write two or three words on sticky notes
  • Give each trio a copy of the text to read together
  • They first have to detect the words and place sticky notes
  • Then they should use the clues to figure out the meaning of the word
  • Come together as a class and let students share how they solved the meaning of the word
• Sticky note day
  • Similar to word detectives, except one student is designated to find an interesting new word and present it to the class after using context clues to figure out the meaning
• Ten important words
  • Helps students learn to determine which words in a text are the most important words, seeing how many times a word is used in a text,

Teach Independent Word Learning Strategies

• Morphemes-when teaching morphemes to help students build meanings for words, begin with four common prefixes (un, re, in, dis) because students will encounter these more and they will have predictable meanings
• Context-teach students to use pictures and context to figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words
• Dictionaries-have one child look up the definition and compare to what the class figured out the meaning before if it is similar or not

Promote Word Wonder

• Enthusiasm is contagious!
• Teachers who are enthusiastic about words project that enthusiasm to students to learn unfamiliar words
• Display words in various ways
• Read books about words to your students
• Designate a weekly ‘words are wonderful day’

Classroom Application:  After reading this chapter, I learned how important it is for students to really understand the meaning of a word, which is known as vocabulary.  To close the achievement gap and make high levels of literacy possible for all children, we must pay attention to the issue of meaning vocabulary.  The lack of vocabulary is a key component to reading comprehension and literacy development.  Most meaning vocabulary is learned indirectly, through teacher read-alouds and independent reading.  It should also be taught directly through vocabulary learning strategies. The activities that were listed this chapter are designed to teach children some vocabulary directly and to teach children how content, pictures and morphemes give them clues to words and how to use dictionaries to clarify the meaning of words.  Teaching them these strategies for independent word learning will maximize their learning of words from teacher read-aloud and their own independent reading.

Kira Kalepp                        Week 8                  ENGED 463

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?

• Learning objectives is an important responsibility of teachers
• Learning objectives-specific statements of what students should know be able to do and understand at the end of a lesson
  • They describe outcomes NOT activities
  • Written in a specific and purposeful way
  • SMART
    • Specific
    • Measurable
    • Attainable
    • Relevant and result-oriented
    • Time-bound
  • Should be specific-description of what should be learned
• Use ‘bloom’ words to create learning objectives
  • Make sure you use specific words that are effective (action verbs)

More Notes

• Created in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom (educational Psychologist)
• Multi-tiered model of classifying thinking according to six cognitive domains are used to create learning objectives
  • Remembering-retrieving, recognizing and recalling knowledge (ex. define, identify, label, list)
  • Understanding-construct information from oral, written and graphic messages (ex. compare, discuss, explain, summarize)
  • Applying-involves carrying out or using a procedure through executing or implementing (ex. calculate, compute, manipulate, solve)
  • Analyzing-deals with breaking material into constituent parts or relate to one another (ex. distinguish, analyze, differentiate, investigate)
  • Evaluating-has the learner making judgements based on criteria and standards (ex. argue, concluded, critique, test)
  • Creating-or putting elements together to form a functional whole (ex. construct, design, invent, produce)
• It begins with lower order thinking skills and they need prerequisite knowledge before moving up a level
• Lower level is usually in the remembering/understanding stage where higher level is usually in the evaluating/creating stage (but all courses should have a variety in each stage)
• How to write a learning objective?
  • Step 1-start with the stem sentence (After this module, you will be able to:)
  • Step 2-determine the learning outcome
  • Step 3-consult the Bloom’s Wheel to select the appropriate level and verb
  • Step 4-write the verb and learning outcome into a statement that, when combined with the stem, forms a complete sentence (Classify learning objectives within the six cognitive domains of Bloom’s Taxonomy)
• Learning objectives are measurable, observable statements of what students will be able to do at the end of a unit of learning
• Bloom’s taxonomy is a powerful tool to help develop learning objectives because it explains the process of learning:
  • Before you can understand a concept, you must remember it.
  • To apply a concept you must first understand it.
  • In order to evaluate a process, you must have analyzed it.
  • To create an accurate conclusion, you must have completed a thorough evaluation.
• DO NOT use verbs like (understand, know, appreciate, become familiar with, learn or be aware of) because they are too vague

Kira Kalepp                        Week 7                   ENGED 463

Introduction to EdTPA

Purpose-to measure teachers’ readiness to teach elementary literacy.  It is designed with a focus on student learning and principles from research and theory.  Successful teachers develop knowledge of subject matter, content standards and subject-specific pedagogy, develop and apply knowledge of varied students’ needs, consider research and theory about how students learn and reflect on and analyze evidence of the effects of instruction on student learning

Overview of Assessment-is composed of 3 tasks 1-planning for instruction and assessment 2-instructing and engaging students in learning 3-assessing student learning.  You plan 3-5 consecutive literacy lessons (or learning segments).  This learning segment should include learning tasks, which students have opportunities to develop an essential literacy strategy for comprehending or composing text and the related skills that support that strategy. Then you teach the learning segment, make a video-recording of interactions with the kids.  You then assess, informally and formally, the students’ learning throughout the learning segment.  Once complete, you submit artifacts from the tasks (lesson plans, clips from video, assessment materials, instructional materials, student work samples) and commentaries that you have written to explain and reflect on Planning, Instruction and Assessment.

– Artifacts represent authentic work completed by you and your students. These include lesson plans, copies of instructional and assessment materials, video clips of your teaching, and student work samples.

-Commentaries are your opportunity to describe your artifacts, explain the rationale behind their choice, and analyze what you have learned about your teaching practice and your students’ learning. Note that although your writing ability

Structure of Handbook– The following pages provide specific instructions on how to complete each of the three tasks of the edTPA Elementary Literacy assessment. After an overview of the tasks, the handbook provides instructions for each task organized into four sections:
1. What Do I Need to Think About? This section provides focus questions for you to think about when completing the task
2. What Do I Need to Do? This section provides specific, detailed directions for completing the task.
3. What Do I Need to Write? This section tells you what you need to write and also provides specific and detailed directions for writing the commentary for the task.
4. How Will the Evidence of My Teaching Practice Be Assessed? This section includes the rubrics that will be used to assess the evidence you provide for the task.

Additional requirements and resources are provided for you in this handbook. Professional Responsibilities: guidelines for the development of your evidence. Elementary Literacy Context for Learning Information: prompts used to collect information about your school/classroom context. Elementary Literacy Evidence Chart: specifications for electronic submission of evidence (artifacts and commentaries), including templates, supported file types, number of files, response length, and other important evidence specifications.

Tasks Overview

Planning Task 1: Planning for Instruction and Assessment

What Do I Need to Think About? – Describe your plans for the learning segment and explain how your instruction is appropriate for the students and the content you are teaching. As you develop your plans, you need to think about the following:

-What do your students know, what can they do, and what are they learning to do?
-What do you want your students to learn? What are the important understandings and core concepts you want students to develop within the learning segment?
-How will you use your knowledge of your students’ assets to inform your plans?
-What instructional strategies, learning tasks, and assessments will you design to support student learning and language use?
-How will your learning segment support students to develop and use language that deepens content understanding?
-How is the teaching you propose supported by research and theory about how students learn?

What Do I Need to Do? – Select a class (either a whole class but have a minimum of 4 students).  Provide context information (no more than 4 pages).  Identify a learning segment to plan, teach and analyze (select a learning segment of 3-5 consecutive lessons).  Identify a central focus for the learning segment (the central focus, ex. retelling, persuasive writing) should include, an essential literacy strategy for comprehending text and the related skills need to develop and apply the strategy (ex. decoding, recalling, sequencing, etc).  Determine the content standards and objective for students learning that the essential literacy strategy and related skills will address.  Identify and plan to support language demands.  Write a lesson plan for each lesson (no more than 4 pages).  Respond to the commentary prompts, prior to teaching the learning segment.  Submit your original lesson plans, key instructional material, all written assessments, and provide citations for sources of all materials.

What Do I Need to Write? – A description of your context for learning, lesson plans and a commentary explaining your plans.  Planning Commentary In Planning Task 1, you will write a commentary, responding to the prompts below (should be no more than 9 single-spaced pages, including the prompts).

How Will the Evidence of My Teaching Practice Be Assessed? – Using rubrics 1-5.  When preparing your artifacts and commentaries, refer to the rubrics frequently to guide your thinking, planning and writing!

Kira Kalepp                        Week 6                   ENGED 463

Strategies Good Readers Use

• All proficient readers have the ability to look at regular words they have never seen before and assign probably pronunciations
• They use their phonics knowledge to read words they have not seen before, but his same knowledge also enables them to write
• They develop this ability to come up with pronunciations and spellings for words they have never read or written before
• They stop briefly and study the word and look at every letter from left-to-right
• As they look at all the letters, they are not thinking of a sound for each letter, because good readers know that sounds are determined not by individual letters but letter patterns
• They look for patterns of letters they have seen together before and search their mental word banks, looking for words with similar letter partners
• Sometimes they will ‘chunk’ larger words to break it down in familiar chunks
• Readers also must be able to automatically recognize most words and quickly decode them
• Writers must be able to automatically spell most of the words

Guess the Covered Word Activities

• Many words can be figured out by thinking about what would make sense in a sentence and seeing if the consonants in the word match what you are thinking of
• Struggling readers usually guess something that is sensible, but ignore the letter sounds they know or they may guess something that is close to the sounds but makes no sense
• Depending on the level of the student, you can cover an entire word in a sentence, part of the word, or even just the vowel in the word, for students to practice and figure out what is missing and if it makes sense

Using Words you Know Activities

• This activity is designed to help students learn to use the words they already know to decode and spell lots of other words…follow these steps
  • 1-show students 3-5 words they know, written down and said verbally
  • 2-draw 4 columns and heard each column with one of these words, have students set up the same columns on their own papers and write the words
  • 3-tell students that words that rhyme usually have the same spelling patterns.  The spelling pattern in a short word begins with the vowel and goes to the end of the word (have them underline the spelling pattern)
  • 4-tell students that you are going to show them some new words which they should write each one under the word with the same spelling pattern
  • 5-expalin to them that thinking of rhyming words can help them spell (this time don’t show them the words, just say them)
  • 6-end this lesson by helping students verbalize that words that rhyme often have the same spelling pattern and that good readers and spellers do not sound out every letter but think of a rhyming word and read or spell the word using the pattern

Making Words Lessons and Activities

• Is a popular activity with both teachers and children
• Children love manipulating letters to make words and figuring out the secret word that can be made with all the letters
• They are learning important information about phonics and spelling
• As they manipulate letters to make words, they learn how making small changes, switching one or two letters, results in completely new words
• They also learn to stretch out words and listen for the sounds they hear and the order of those sounds
• Making Words lessons

Decoding Big Words

• Big words present special decoding problems
• Decoding and spelling polysyllabic words is based on patters, but they are more sophisticated and require students to understand how words change in their spelling, pronunciation, and meaning (as suffixes and prefixed are added)
• To decode and spell big words students must
  • Have a mental store of big words that contain the spelling patterns common to big words
  • Chunk big words into pronounceable segments by comparing the parts of new big words to the big words they already know
  • Recognize and use common prefixes and suffixes
• Modeling is the most direct way to demonstrate to students of what to do
• Vocabulary introduction is a good place to model how to figure out the pronunciation of a word

Nifty-Thrifty-Fifty

• Teach students how to spell a Nifty-Thrifty-Fifty store of words to decode, spell and build meaning for thousands of other words
• They include 50 examples for all the common prefixes and suffixes as well as common spelling changes
• These words should be gradually introduced and students should practice chanting and writing them until their spelling and decoding become automatic
  • 1-display the words
  • 2-explain to students that many big words are composed of smaller words and/or prefixes and suffixes
  • 3-tell students that one way to practice words is to say the letters in them aloud in a rhythmic chant
  • 4-once they notice the composition for each word, help them see other words that work in a similar way and write the words
  • 5-pratice the words by chanting or writing them
  • 6-once they can automatically say and spell the words, use these words to help them decode other words
  • 7-continue adding words gradually

Classroom Application:  After reading this chapter, I learned that reading is a complex process in which students have to identify words in which they construct meaning.  Both reading and writing require the most common words be read and spelled automatically, so that the brain’s attention can focus on meaning.  Teaching students how to read and spell high-frequency words and providing a lot of varied practice will help children develop fluency.  As children learn high-frequency words and developing fluency, they also need to learn the patterns so that they can quickly decode and spell words they have not yet learned (ex. onsets, rimes, prefixes, suffixes).  Integrating phonics and spelling instruction with young children is important so they can be more successful when it comes to reading and spelling.

Video & Reading Notes

Phonemic Awareness

• Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. Manipulating the sounds in words includes blending, stretching, or otherwise changing words. Children can demonstrate phonemic awareness in several ways, including:
  • recognizing which words in a set of words begin with the same sound (“Bell, bike, and boy all have /b/ at the beginning.”)
  • isolating and saying the first or last sound in a word (“The beginning sound of dog is /d/.” “The ending sound of sit is /t/.”)
  • combining, or blending the separate sounds in a word to say the word (“/m/, /a/, /p/ – map.”)
  • breaking, or segmenting a word into its separate sounds (“up – /u/, /p/.”)
• Phonemic awareness and phonics are not the same thing. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words. Phonics is the understanding that there is a relationship between letters and sounds through written language. Children who cannot hear and work with the phonemes of spoken words will have a difficult time learning how to relate these phonemes to letters when they see them in written words.

Phonics and Decoding

• Phonics is the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. Children’s reading development is dependent on their understanding of the alphabetic principle — the idea that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken language. Learning that there are predictable relationships between sounds and letters allows children to apply these relationships to both familiar and unfamiliar words, and to begin to read with fluency
• The goal of phonics instruction is to help children learn the alphabetic principle — the idea that letters represent the sounds of spoken language — and that there is an organized, logical, and predictable relationship between written letters and spoken sounds
• Children are taught, for example, that the letter n represents the sound /n/, and that it is the first letter in words such as nose, nice and new. When children understand sound–letter correspondence, they are able to sound out and read (decode) new words

Put Reading First

• In today’s schools, too many children struggle with learning to read. As many teachers and parents will attest, reading failure has exacted a tremendous long-term consequence for children’s developing self-confidence and motivation to learn, as well as for their later school performance.
• While there are no easy answers or quick solutions for optimizing reading achievement, an extensive knowledge base now exists to show us the skills children must learn in order to read well. These skills provide the basis for sound curriculum decisions and instructional approaches that can help prevent the predictable consequences of early reading failure.
• The National Reading Panel (NRP) issued a report in 2000 that responded to a Congressional mandate to help parents, teachers, and policymakers identify key skills and methods central to reading achievement. The Panel was charged with reviewing research in reading instruction (focusing on the critical years of kindergarten through third grade) and identifying methods that consistently relate to reading success.
• These criteria offer administrators, teachers, and parents a standard for evaluating critical decisions about how children will be taught to read. In addition to identifying effective practices, the work of the National Reading Panel challenges educators to consider the evidence of effectiveness whenever they make decisions about the content and structure of reading instruction programs.
• This guide, designed by teachers for teachers, summarizes what researchers have discovered about how to successfully teach children to read. It describes the findings of the National Reading Panel Report and provides analysis and discussion in five areas of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. Each section defines the skill, reviews the evidence from research, suggests implications for classroom instruction, describes proven strategies for teaching reading skills, and addresses frequently raised questions.

Phonics

• Phonics instruction teaches children the relationships between the letters (graphemes) of written language and the individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken language. It teaches children to use these relationships to read and write words. Teachers of reading and publishers of programs of beginning reading instruction sometimes use different labels to describe these relationships, including the following:
  • graphophonemic relationships
  • letter-sound associations
  • letter-sound correspondences
  • sound-symbol correspondences
  • sound-spellings
• Regardless of the label, the goal of phonics instruction is to help children learn and use the alphabetic principle—the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Knowing these relationships will help children recognize familiar words accurately and automatically, and “decode“ new words. In short, knowledge of the alphabetic principle contributes greatly to children’s ability to read words both in isolation and in connected text.

National Reading Panel

• The National Reading Panel found that certain instructional methods are better than others, and that many of the more effective methods are ready for implementation in the classroom. To become good readers, children must develop:
  • Phonemic awareness
  • Phonics skills
  • The ability to read words in text in an accurate and fluent manner
  • The ability to apply comprehension strategies consciously and deliberately as they read
• The Panel found that many difficulties learning to read were caused by inadequate phonemic awareness and that systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness directly caused improvements in children’s reading and spelling skills.
• The evidence for these casual claims is so clear cut that the Panel concluded that systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness should be an important component of classroom reading instruction for children in preschool and beyond who have not been taught phoneme concepts or who have difficulties understanding that the words in oral language are composed of smaller speech sounds — sounds that will be linked to the letters of the alphabet. Importantly, the Panel found that even preschool children responded well to instruction in phonemic awareness when the instruction was presented in an age-appropriate and entertaining manner
• Other successful instructional strategies include
  • Systematic phonics instruction
  • Guided oral reading
  • Reading silently to oneself
  • Teaching vocabulary
  • Reading comprehension
  • Use of computer technology to teach reading

Phonics and Phonemic Awareness: Classroom Guide to Best Practices and Top 5 Phonics/Word Work Lessons

• Phonics instruction in the classroom should include
  • Analytic phonics (analyzing letters)
  • Analogy phonics (analyze unfamiliar words)
  • Embedded Phonics (during what is already being read)
  • Phonics through spelling
  • Synthetic phonics (changing letters into sounds and blends)
• Phonemic Awareness in the Classroom
  • Rhyming words
  • Beginning sound substitution
  • Sound isolation
  • Syllable segmentation
  • Phonemic segmentation
• Phonics and Word Work
  • Primary phonics during small-group instruction
  • Intermediate word work
• Guidelines for effective Instruction
  • Provide many opportunities for all students to read
  • Teach phonics and phonemic awareness skills in a logical sequence
  • Base instruction on student needs
  • Provide explicit, scaffolded instruction and model strategy use for students
  • Coach students during reading in the use of phonics/word strategies
  • Teach students to look for patterns
  • Keep a visual record of classroom words
  • Reinforce phonics and word work using game-like activities
  • Reinforce and teach phonemic awareness using silly word games, poetry and songs
  • Reinforce phonics and word work during writing
  • Provide manipulative to use during lessons