Running Record

TC Name:  Sarah de Almeida

RICA Domain: 1 Planning, Organizing, and Management Reading Instruction Based on Ongoing Assessment

RICA Competency: 2 Reading Assessments.  5. Students’ Independent, Instructional, and Frustration Reading Levels. Miscue Analysis

Grade Level: 2nd

Instruction:

I observed my tutoring teacher give a reading assessment.  She used the running record strategy to get a general idea of the students’ reading levels.  She starts with the lowest level book for the grade level.  As the student reads, she is following along on her own printout of the book.  Mrs. P listens carefully to the student’s pronunciation, fluency and accuracy.  As the student reads each word, she makes a notation above the word.  The notations will be defined in the key.  For every word they read correctly, she makes a check mark above the word.  If the student repeats a word, or self corrects, she makes a notation above those words.  At the end of the reading, Mrs. P adds up all of the miscues and that completes the first part of the reading assessment.  The second part of the reading assessment consists of reading comprehension.  She asks the student to re-tell the story or key points in the story.  If the student is having difficulty, she prompts them to stimulate the discussion about the book.  The prompt for this particular book asks student to tell her what happened at the end of the book. 

Depending on the student’s answers, Mrs. P will determine the score the students earned. She will combine the first score with the second score to decide what reading level the student is at.    Patterns of errors will emerge and reveal how the child goes about decoding print. 

Instructional Setting:

During the first few weeks of school, parent volunteers are responsible for performing a running record on each student.  They will start with the basic level of (E).  If they have few to no miscues, they will continue to the next reading level of (F). 

Give Me 5! Retelling the Story

TC Name:  Sarah de Almeida

RICA Domain: 5 Comprehension

RICA Competency: 13 Comprehension: Instruction and Assessment- Before Children Read, While Children Read, and After Children Read.  Retelling

Grade Level: 2^nd

Instruction:

I observed Ms. Danielson teaching a Post Reading Task with the use of retelling.  Up to now, students have been practicing fluency and reading for comprehension.  To practice fluency, she divides the students into small reading groups. There are four groups of seven.  Each groups is a different level and are labeled by colors.  When it is a group’s turn to read with the teacher, she gives them a reading finger (green rubber witch finger they put on their finger) and an “eye lighter.”  These tools help the student focus on one word at a time. She has been using this technique the whole year and students are expected use their tools properly.  The next step she introduced was “pass the question”.  There is one flashcard with questions on it about the story they just read.  The first person asks the second person the question that is on the flashcard.  The second person answers the question, then they ask the third person a question and so on.  Before introducing the third techniques, Ms. Danielson shows the class the new objective they will learn.  “I know and can talk about the parts of a story (plot, setting, characters).  I know the beginning, middle and ending of a story.”  The third technique Ms. Danielson introduced was Retelling the Story, Give Me 5!  Students use the Hand Chart to retell the story.  Each finger represents different parts of the story.  Once the students are finished in the reading group, they are to take an empty Hand Chart back to their desk and work individually on retelling a short story the teacher has placed on their desks.  All students have the same story, but must work individually to find the answers.

Instructional Setting:

While working with the teacher at the reading table students are learning, and practicing a new skill.  Once back at their seats, students are practicing the new skill individually.

Pronouns

TC Name:  Sarah de Almeida

RICA Domain: 3 Fluency

RICA Competency: 8 Fluency: Role in Reading Development and Factors that Affect the Development of Fluency

Grade Level: 2^nd

Instruction:

I observed Ms. Danielson teaching prosody with the use of pronouns and punctuation. Prosody means to read with appropriate “expression,” and includes emphasis of certain words, variation in pitch, and pausing.  During the last few weeks Ms. Danielson has filled many posters with nouns.  She has four posters one for each type of noun: person, place, thing and animal.  The class worked together to fill the posters with the appropriate nouns.  She displays these posters for the students to reference at any time.  After checking their homework, she hands out an ELD worksheet.  There are five sentences that the students must edit.  She tells the students how many corrections need to be made in each sentence.  Students should be looking for: comas, capitol letters, spelling, and punctuation.   After ample time of individual seatwork, she invites the students to help her edit the sentences.  This ELD is nothing new for the students; they know what is expected of them during this time.

Ms. Danielson reads the new objective to the class and they all repeat it three times together.  Last week they were introduced to pronouns.  A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun (he, she, it).  Today, she is introducing other types of pronouns.  She uses her ipad to show a School House Rocks video to help explain the other types of pronouns.  “Pronouns take the place of a noun because saying the noun over and over again can really wear you down!” The first new type of pronoun she introduced was special pronouns- which, who, and what. The second new type of pronoun was object pronoun- me, you, him, her, us, them, and it.  The last new type of pronoun was subject pronoun- he and she (these go at the beginning of the sentence).  Ms. Danielson shows another video on BrainPopJr.com that also helps explain pronouns. After the video Ms. Danielson models (I do) what she wants the students to do.  She projects this sentence on the doc.cam, “Sarah loves to go to the zoo to see the lions.”  The teacher asks to replace “Sarah” with a subject pronoun. Most of them respond (we do) in unison “she”. If most of the students respond she rewards participation not perfection with moving marbles from the jar to fill the good behavior/participation jar.  She models a few more examples, then they move to the individual workbooks (you do).

They open their ELD journal to page 14.  All of the sentences on this worksheet are question.  On this page the students are responsible for replacing the noun with the correct type of pronoun.  Once they have finished this portion of the task, she invites the students to get in pairs and read the question to their partner.  She wants them to change the tone in their voices to emphasize their question.  The teacher monitors the students by walking around the room and observes their responses.    

Instructional Setting:             

Ms. Danielson encourages all students to participate whether they have the right answer or not.  She wants the student to try to do their best each day.  She rewards effort even if it may not be perfect.  She supports each student and their personal ways of thinking.

When to use A or An

TC Name:  Sarah de Almeida

RICA Domain: 2 Word Analysis

RICA Competency: 3 Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

Grade Level: 2^nd

Instruction:

I observed Ms. Danielson teaching phonological and phonemic awareness with the use of vowels and consonants to help distinguish when to use a or an.  Ms. Danielson’s students know buy now what is expected of them for the morning routine.  They quietly enter the classroom, put their clipboards in the bin, sit down and take out their journals.  Ms. Danielson asks them to turn to page 12 with the title Use of A or An.  She does a quick review of the difference between a vowel and a consonant.  “What are the vowels!” she says.  The students respond with a jumbled sounding, “A,E,I,O,U!”  Ms. Danielson’s favorite response for the students to all be involved is the choral response.  She likes them to be able to wiggle and giggle and be vocal.  She doesn’t start the year with this kind of response technique she lets them earn it.  They all sing in unison a song about the consonants.*  As she is singing the song, she points to the alphabet letter line on the wall.  All of the consonants are shaped as orange fish; all of the vowels are shaped as yellow starfish.   
Todays objective she explains is the when to use a or an.  If the word before a or an is a vowel or silent h, then you put an.  If the word before a or an is a consonant, then you put a.   She models how to figure out when to use the right word.  On the doc.cam, she has a sentence that reads, “I kicked ___ ball over the fence.”  She reads it first, then they all read it together with choral reading, then she gives them wait time to come up with an answer.  She does a “pepper” type response technique to check for understanding and does not stop to correct the answers.  If she sees that there are a few mistakes, she has a student with the right answer explain how they got it.  Then she wrote another sentence on the doc.cam to continue with guided practice. 

Ms. Danielson invites the student to continue their worksheet with a partner.  After working in pairs to answer the next few questions, the students are to work on their own. 

After 10 minutes she invites them to come to the front of the class and share their answers on the doc.cam. This is another way to have students participate in the lesson and to check for understanding.

 Instructional Setting:

Ms. Danielson uses the before during and after techniques often.  Before a lesson, she does a review of: Know, What to know, Learned and sometimes Still want to know. She generally reviews what they have learned on the previous day and adds it to the current days lesson.  She frequently checks for understanding and will modify techniques until she feels that they are ready to move forward. She tries to incorporate as many songs, movements, and visuals as she can to help with memorization. 

*Do you know the consonants, the consonants, the consonants, Do you know the consonants of the alphabet? There’s: BC&D, FG&H, JK&L, MN&P, QRS, TV&W, XYZ Boom Boom!

 

Designed Video For Learning

In this article, The author describes the importance of video and multimedia not only for students, but for teachers ans parents.  When I was in school, elementary through High School, we had very few multimedia tools would use.  We had an over-head projector, computers for word processing only and movie reels for the projector.  We did not have the internet, video cameras, editing tools, etc. 
This author breaks down the importance of video into four categories.  First one is Seeing.  Seeing is a way to show people something they might not have seen before.  The second one is Engaging.  Engaging is a way to pull a person in to a situation or topic and keeps them interested.  The third one is Doing.  Doing is the attitude-watch and doing what others do. And skill-intentional effort and practice.  The last one is Saying.  Saying is why and how, facts and ways to tell the information.  The use of video and multimedia are important to all types of learners.  I would have liked to have an option on how I could learn.  Teachers can also benefit from computer use in the classroom.  Videos can be used for teaching the class as a whole or specific for one student. 
Not until I was in college did I use the video for learning. I as a pole vaulter at SDSU and we would video tape our selves vaulting.  After each jump we were able to see what techniques we were doing and not doing.  This helped me improve my vaults.   
Designed Video will definitely improve the teaching and learning in the classroom. 

Computational Thinking. Are computers or humans better problem solvers?

In the article, “Computational Thinking” the author describes the similarities and differences between human and computer computing process.  Computational thinking is a skill that children and adults should possess.  I thought you needed a computer or be a computer scientist to figure out the answer.  Nope, just a background knowledge and a little planning.  Statistics, algorithms, patterns, mathematical engineering.  What?!?  What do these words have to do with thinking? 

These different types of thinking occur in our everyday life.  What line is shorter at the gas station?  Where did I leave my keys?  How many times should I rent a steam cleaner before I buy one?  We have been taught to take a step back and analyze a situation and try to create a desired outcome.  Does it always go our way?  No. 

So, are humans or computers better problem solvers?

1.     Humans:  multi level thinkers, clever and imaginative, make computers exciting, and communicate and interact with other humans (emotion).

2.     Computers: dull and boring, restricted to software and programs (no emotions or feelings).

I think combining the two will create a greater learning experience.  Today the computer is so important in schools. 

NETS for students is #4 Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making.  Students are expected to plan, collect data, and analyze data to come up with an educated solution to a problem.  Students should be able to understand different perspectives to the solution. 

In elementary and high school, our type of thinking was very limited and narrow.  We did not have the of the internet, we only had books in the library.  I think that is so important to require students to be familiar with information in the internet and to show them how computers and humans can work/think together.

Understanding Rubrics

Understanding Rubric by Heidi Goodrich

In the article Understanding Rubric the author not only defines what rubric is, she tells why you use it and how you use it.  So what is rubric?  It is a list of criteria for what is expected in a piece of work.  It is use to support and assess students learning.  A rubric generally tells you exactly what the teacher is looking for.  Do teachers like it?  Do students like it? Yes and no. 

What is a rubric?  A rubric is a list that is divided into columns labeled from excellent to poor.  The columns are divided into a grid.  Each box provides an explanation of what is expected in each column.  Some examples might be: purpose, organization, details, voice and mechanics.  Each of these examples should be specific on what is considered a good piece of work. 

Why use rubrics?  The author gives five reasons of why teachers should use a rubric.  First, they can improve student performance as well as monitor it by making teacher’s expectations clear.  Second, they help students become more thoughtful judges of quality of their own and others’ work.  Third, it reduces the amount of time teachers spend grading students’ work.   Fourth, it promotes flexibility in learning styles.  It can accommodate all type of learners from gate to special needs.  Last, they are self-explanatory.  It should be easy to use and easy to explain. 

How do you create a rubric?  A rubric should be modified to each instructors teaching style.  Here are the author’s seven steps to creating a quality rubric. 1.  Look at models: provide students with a good paper and a bad paper.  2.  List criteria: what is important in a project.  3. Articulate gradations of quality: Describe excellent and poor levels of quality.  4. Practice on models: Practice on example papers.  5. Use self- and peer- assessment: Have the students get started and observe their assessments.  6. Revise:  After feedback, let students revise their work.  7. Use teacher assessment: Use same rubric as students to assess their work.

A 2^nd grade teacher used a rubric for assessing a “book talk.”  She wanted students to help her create and use a rubric to describe a book.  The students were responsible for defining the excellent to poor criteria.  They also performed a self and peer assessment on their reports. 

The NETS for students would fall under Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making.   It is this standard because it teaches to students to find out what is expected of them for each project.   

I think a rubric is beneficial to teachers and students because if made correctly, it will be an important tool to support and evaluate learning.