Week 7 - Assignment 3

There are three levels of words. The first is words that are commonly used and students already know. These words do not need to be taught since students know these words well and use the in context correctly. The second level is words that students do not yet know but they will come up frequently throughout student’s future lives. These words will be part of their society. A teacher should focus on teaching these words and encourage students to use them in their dialogue and writings. The third level is words that will not be used in everyday speech and are considered high vocabulary words. These words are used within specific topics. Teachers should not focus on such words, however if they are subject related the teacher shall explain them.

When a student comes across a unfamiliar word a great stradegy to help them decode it is called chunking. Chunking is when you take a word and break it up into as many parts as needed. A student can divide the word into beginning middle and end decoding it slowly in segments. You can show your students how to chunk the words using their pointer finger as a blocker to the surrounding letters.  Students can chunk two letters as a time and decode the letters. With time the student will be able to put the entire word together reading it accurately.

Based on professor Aliington’s comments and classroom examples I would teach students how to use context clues to figure out the meaning of words they don’t know yet. By modeling to the students you can show them how to figure out new words by using context clues.

Week 7 - Assignment 2

How can you ensure that your struggling readers have access to texts they can easily read?

To ensure your struggling readers have access to text they can easily read make sure you have a classroom library that includes books for all types of reading learners. There should be various levels of books and reading materials. Additionally students should be paired for reading instruction with another student on the same level and be given a book by the teacher that is appropriate.

 How can you foster a learning environment in which students have many opportunities to practice reading?

Make your classroom a reading environment. Your students have to know they are readers. There should always be reading opportunities. Students should be allowed to borrow books from the class library and read on their own time outside school. There should be independent, shared and guided reading in the daily schedule.

Describe ways in which you can model fluent reading in your classroom throughout the day.

Modeling reading to students is extremely crucial. Children need to hear the correct pronunciation of words. Many students especially those from parents of immigrants never had the chance to hear a book being read properly. When a student hears the teacher reading they pick up vocabulary, pronunciation and many new words. You can model fluent reading while reading the instruction of a worksheet, while reading a passage in a textbook. A teacher must model fluent reading throughout the day whether by guided reading or independent reading by helping students with unfamiliar words.

Week 7 - Assignment 1

What texts and materials do teachers have in their classrooms that support students' development of fluent reading?

There is a reading corner filled with many age appropriate reading materials. Children are encouraged to read as many books as possible. These books are exciting and interesting making it a classroom favorite hangout. In addition there is a vocabulary word wall. Every week we add new words to the wall and encourage students to use these words in their conversations and writings. The students can use the wall as a reference for spelling and meaning.

How do they select vocabulary to teach in all areas of your curriculum?

When the teacher comes across a word in a piece of literature and realizes the class doesn’t understand the meaning she will go ahead and teach the new word. Also the teacher picks words that are commonly used vocabulary that the students can use in speech and writing.

How much time do they allocate to word study?

Word study is incorporated into many aspects of the curriculum and the time allocated varies from subject to subject.

What word study routines do they teach and encourage their students to use?

They teach and encourage decoding and sight words. These methods help students read most words at their grade level. Every day a new sight word is added to the sight word wall and students become proficient in reading and writing these words.

How do they differentiate instruction and tasks based on their students’ needs?

In the beginning of the year there is a formal assessment, based on this the class is put into groups of 3 for reading instruction. This helps students on the same level and needs collaborate while reading.  We also have different ways we allow students to learn by focusing on their needs such as 1 on 1 instruction, fun worksheets and educational games for students that need extra motivation.

week 6 - assignment 1

Candidate’s Name: Malka Wallersin

Grade Level: 1

Title of the lesson: Word pairs

Length of the lesson: 30 min

Central focus Phonics and decoding

Knowledge of students to inform teaching Students are reading on grade level and can comprehend sentances.

Common Core State Standards   CCSS RF 1.3 (Reading: Foundational Skills, Phonics and Word Recognitions) 3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. a. Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs. b. Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words. g. Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

Support literacy development through language (academic language) Recognize and decode similar words.

Learning objectives Students will recognize commonly used words. Students will be able to read word pairs accurately. Students can write their own word pairs.

Formal and informal assessment Students will receive a keychain ring with different word pairs and they will read it aloud to the teacher and read it to an adult for homework.

Instructional procedure: Most of Mary’s mistakes were visual errors. Therefore in this lesson i will focus on common visual errors using word pairs. On the smartboard i will post many different word pairs in random order. The teacher will circle a word pair in the same color example : whale and while. She will then ask the students if they can find their own word pair.  Students will then be grouped in pairs and have to find the words that are visually similar from the smartboard list. They will write each pair using a different color marker or crayon.

Instructional resources and materials Smartboard Markers Crayons Paper Word ring

Reflection I think this lesson helps students recognize the difference between word that are similar in spelling yet different in meaning. This activity allows students to practice reading and writing common visual miscues.

Week 6 - Assignment 3

Malka Wallerstein

Grade Level 1

Phonics and vowels

Length of the lesson 45 minutes

Central focus Phonics and vowel recognition

Knowledge of students to inform teaching (prior knowledge/prerequisite skills and personal/cultural/community assets) Students are familiar with the different vowels and the sounds they make. Students know that every word needs a vowel.

Common Core State Standards (List the number and text of the standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the relevant part[s].) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.A Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

Support literacy development through language (academic language) Recognize and differentiate the impact vowels have on word pronunciation.

Learning objectives Students will be able to pronounce all 5 vowels correctly Students will understand that vowels can change the meaning of words even if the same consonants remain. Students can write their own words with the same consonants yet switch the vowel to create a new word.

Formal and informal assessment (including type[s] of assessment and what is being assessed) Students will show their understanding by completing a worksheet on the different vowels. The teacher will have students record themselves saying the vowels and their sounds.

Instructional procedure: the teacher will begin with a short video clip introducing vowels and their function. Next the teacher will read aloud a tumble ebook that stresses the importance of vowels, especially when you have the same consonants. Students will then have a guided discussion on the different vowel sounds. Students will be paired in groups of two and will come up with 2 words using the same consonants yet different vowels thereby creating a new word. Students will type up their words and add graphics the teacher will print out their work and they will present it to the class.

Instructional resources Smart board for video clip Computer Printer

Reflection My lesson uses differentiated instruction so each student get the chance to learn. Students also are paired for the last activity which helps learn from your pairs. I would maybe add a game of vowels to make the lesson more exciting and as a good review.

 

Week 5 - Assignment 3

The student had a fairly easy time reading this passage. He however was having a difficult time with punctuation marks. He was just reading the passage as if one run on sentence. I would conduct a mini lesson focusing on the importance of punctuation and going over the different markings. We can do a small activity where I will read a paragraph and the student will have a separate copy and highlight the punctuation mark when I stop. He will also tell me which punctuation it is and the purpose. I would also have him highlight some sight words that need to be worked on. overall the student had good comprehension and was able to retell most of the story. I think with better use of punctuation marks he will have even better comprehension.

Week 4 - Assignment 3

1. Ms. Gaten's students looked for Imagery and figurative language such as similes and metaphors
when analyzing poems.

2. Ms. Gaten's had students analyze their poems line by line so they can grasp a deeper understanding
of the poem and focus on the meaning of each line rather then as a whole general poem.
Focusing on a poem line by line, helps students better understand the authors feelings
and message.

Standards
ELA W5.1  Students share opinions from their quick write which is a short writing activity where students write down their thoughts and opinions of what they just read while backing it up from the text.

ELA RL 5.4 students engage in creative problem solving using a graphic organizer called
an Imagery Think Sheet. students note their findings of figurative
language such as similes and metaphors on a graphic organizer.

Week 4 - Assignment # 2

This was my first time taking a running record and I think it is a very accurate way of assessing
a students reading level. The running record showed that the student had a 95% accuracy rate reading Whales and Fish. She made a mistake for one out of every 20 words she read. She corrected herself one out of every 3 mistakes she made. She read nicely and paused a few times to think of the correct  word. There was a point that she lost her place, so I would encourage her to point with her finger when reading. In all the student read fluently and made it seem easy for her.

When asked to tell over what she just read she was able to recall the story and explain the differences
between fish and whales and also their similarities. She remembered small details about the different way they are born, get their food and where they have their fins. This showed she comprehended what she just read and was able to tell it over.

Week 4 - Assignment #1