Assignment 2 Importance of informal assessment:

Assignment 2 Importance of informal assessment:

The importance of informal assessment is to diagnose the normal development of a student. It will also detect which errors are not signs of normal development and helps determine where student should be during academic development. If the student is diagnosed through informal assessment and needs academic help the teacher can proceed with interventions supporting students in class or refers student for additional remediation.  Informative assessment should be non-stressful and the student should know what is expected of him/her. The student should know what to do during an informal assessment and the student should be at his/her personal best.

Assignment 1 Looking Closer:-blog

Assignment 1 Looking Closer:-blog

Focus: Miscue Analysis/running Record (informal assessment)

Cueing System (students use three cueing systems to decode printed words: syntactic, semantic and phonic.

Look Closer questions:

1) Shared Reading

On your observational checklist (PDF), note the Essential Components that are addressed during the first part of the shared reading activity. How does this activity engage students who are at different levels of literacy development?

 During the shared reading phonological awareness was demonstrated by sounding out the correct vowels sounds and relating them to the new vowel sounds found on the word wall. Vowels were also related to consonants already on the word wall this helped develop student word identification/recognition. Ms. Perez used systematical ways to sound out vowels and upper case/lower case words.

During re-aloud word identification/phonics was used by rhyming the words of the Hot Dog Poem.  Comprehension and fluency/automatic, was implemented by reading and re- reading the poem with the students. The Hot Dog story related to most of the children’s diverse backgrounds enabling them to semantically relate to the text. Ms. Perez picks stories that children might like and user’s high frequency words, site words and rhyming words. The children were able to gauge prior knowledge about the hot dogs linking it to the text that was being read aloud.

During her explicit phonics lesson, how does Ms Perez support students’ problem solving skills? Ms. Perez sounded out the short /o/ sounds and long /o/ sounds for letter sound vowel association. Ms. Perez used consonants blends by replacing the beginning of the words and configured the words. By placing a different letter of the alphabet in front of /ot/ (H/ot/, G/ot/, SP/ot/. When one of the student confused /d/ with /b/ for d/ot Ms. Perez, put emphasis on the on the vowel sound until the student got the consonant blend correct. Then the children were asked to identify were to place the new learned words-under octopus /o/ vowel, the new word was placed on the wall-

Based on what you saw in the video, what are the different ways that shared reading can be used to promote literacy? Students will gain phonological awareness of vowels, consonants, word order and word recognition. Students were able to recognize if what they were reading-made sense. Also, phonological awareness promoted English oral language for Ms. Perez’s ELL students.

2) Guided Reading:

Why does she think it’s important for students to verbalize their strategies?

Once the students start verbalizing strategies the more internal they become and then the children start to use new strategies.  

  

What else do you notice about how she helps students build meaning in text?

Ms Perez helps the group build meaning by covering up one of the words with a post it-the children have to predict what the covered word is and does it makes sense in the sentence. The students have to make sense of the story in order to replace the missing word.

3) Differentiated Instruction: Video Segment

Ms. Perez sets up different centers in the classroom based on student capabilities. Students were also given a choice of what to work on by pulling a card with an activity. Ms. Perez had different levels of literacy. The fluent students worked on reading, writing and computer work. Some of the centers were working on portrait folders for comfort level readers. The student teacher was building on sound frequency in one activity.

Ms. Perez also floats around the room to each center making informal assess as she goes along and works one on one or with each group.

Reading and writing was connected by a shared reading activity of the Fish-The Fish reading was transposed in to a writing extension where the children had to write their our ideas about what “silly things the fish could do”. The writing extension was also turned into a class book with illustrations.

4) Assessment Video Segment

Ms. Perez individualized assessments guides her instructional decisions of how to teach during the year. Her assessment also, helps track individual student progress using RR and marking miscues based on a benchmark books.  The benchmark books are read the first week of school and in December, to plot the student’s progress on a graph. The graph also tracks student progress in March and June; by June students are suppose to reading at the level of the benchmark book on top of the graph. The assessments will gauge where the students are and what level of help they need throughout the year.

I am defiantly going to add an assessment questioner the first week of school. The assessment questioner will include what students have learned last year and what they interested in learning this year in my class. This will also guide my instruction during the year. Students also come to me with varied levels of knowledge and my assessments can help me focus on the students that need help.

I would also include on going research journals of what of interest to the student-This will give the students more time to develop their science ideas. 

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Assignment #3

Assignment #3 Critique on the sample lesson plan on your blog

The lesson plan is infused with the essential component of literacy development and is well put together. Students are required to look for 50-100 words that stands out to them in a poem-they are also asked to highlight or underline detailed words that are moving or find interest. This task requires the students to practice word identification strategies along with independent reading skills. The student is also configuring the found words in to different shapes to make a poem. They read different types of texts and apply new concepts in word relationship. I think word configuration is a fun way to get into character with words. I once saw a poem shaped like a fish this was very word pictorial and the students were so proud of their accomplishments. Students are also involved in grammatical changes while creating their poems, with changes made to punctuation, tenses, possessives and word capitalization's. Independent writing is also carried out through journal writing, were students copy their words and phrases into a journal emphasizing important words or ideas in the poem. Read-aloud and shared reading is conducted during the final revision of the arranged words. 

During the performance to the family member’s student practice shared reading from with in a circle passing the poem around so each student can take a turn reading. This strategy has important element of direct parent involvement and shared reading elements. Parent involvement bridges many gaps by involving them in their child's education. Students get to feel like authors and they can discuss with family members the procedures and ideas be-hide their poems. 

Assignment # 2 wk-2

Write a brief reflection on what you learned from the video and post it on your blog.

The kindergarten class had an established route in place. The ultimate goal of the class was to internalize reading and have a love of reading by the end of the school year. Theses goals were being accomplished with read aloud, shared reading, independent writing and interactive writing. The read aloud motivated the children to get involved in the story they were reading. The independent reading and partner read aloud also helped the children to predict/imagine the events of the story before it unraveled. I also believe that the read aloud aids in the development of  critical thinking skills. I observed during the shared reading the student where also writing on a chart-further developing writing concept by connecting it to words which was read. The guided reading involved partner reading from a wall and interpreting the word as they were read. The interactive writing is an integral part of student connection to words being written in expression of their own ideas. After viewing the kindergarten video I now realize the importance of the implementation of a word wall with words that focus on words and sentences. Ms. Owens tries to meets the needs of the diverse ELL’s students by singing a good morning song in both languages. This served as a hook to decrease the cultural dived between the learners. To further facilitate the ELL students and perhaps struggling students a chart was developed. The chart focused on all level readers by using pictures and emphasizing the A in each word. This strategies linked the A usage and placement along with the sound in a word. The students were also verbally engaged and seemed to enjoy this activity.

Assignment # 1 wk-2

Write a short reflection on your understanding of ELA instruction and post it on your blog.

My reflection of ELA instruction involves five essential components reading, writing, speaking, listening and English language. Each component has different key standards with interchangeable cohesiveness for comprehension and critical thinking. The standards for ELA has 12 functional standards when implemented correctly will yield tremendous results in student academic achievements. However these standards are not to replace the content area’s standards scope and sequence for science, math, social studies and the other special subjects. The purpose is to use the ELA standards in conjunction with specialized content areas. Upon careful analysis of the ELA stranded functional standards there are connections to the NY state science content area standards-which are not used in isolation and are interchangeably cohesive-The direct correlation I found are reading analysis, interpretation, hypotheses, inferences and investigation just to name a few.  Also, these standards are not a replacement for the schools districts curriculum's. The ELA standards when implemented can be used across content areas as a guide to indicate what students should know and be able to do. The hypothesis of the ELA standards is to prepare CCR-students to function in society. 

Define Literacy (what is literacy?) wk-2

Define Literacy (what is literacy?).

1)      What is the process of becoming literate? The process of become literate involves 5 components-reading, writing, speakers, listeners, and language. With key features of reading comprehension, speaking and listening, and English language. Each component and key feature is interchangeable and cohesive as a whole-leading to comprehension in all critical areas of ways to solve problems and think critically.  

2)      How did you learn to read?  The path of which I learned how to read is somewhat hazy because it was so long ago. However if my recollections process is correct it started with learning the alphabet and rhyming the alphabet. By learning the alphabet I became aware of the sounds letters made and then begun matching the sound to letters. Also, while learning to read I became aware of the syllables in words and the way theses word where segmented. Along the way, I also learned how to manipulate words using different sounding. By learning the ability to manipulate the phonics in the words I was able to change the meanings of the word while reading. Also, while learning how to read I had to write the letters and words for homework. Our homework was read out loud in the classroom. Needless to say if I did not read a word correctly I would have been hit in the back of my knee with a ruler. Put it this way I learned how to read very quickly at very young age.  My learning how to read was in close association with learning how to spell words and write.

3)      What are the best approaches to learn to read in your personal experience (based on your personal experience and observation)?

The best approaches to learning how to read and write is to associate words with phonic sounds. The ability to discriminate between letters and the sounds they make is one of the basics necessary to learn how to read. Also, the association of pictures and symbols representing letters is also helpful for word diagnostics. For whole word recognition sounding out the words syllables is also necessary. For example, if teaching a child the letter A-I would make the phonics rhythmic   sound A- and perhaps show a picture of A-Apple. I would also make learning new word sounds fun and enjoyable. When a child becomes aware that words have sounds this becomes a pre-cursor for learning how to spell and read words. I believe that learning how to read is in connection in learning how to write and spell.

Hi every one,

My name is Joan Shakes and some of my interest includes reading, mostly science journals and magazines. I have also been known to read the occasional mystery novel-the last mystery novel I read was Dan Brown’s “Inferno” and his novel before that which was the “The DA Vinci Code”. Some of my hobbies include traveling and planning for my next get away. I have traveled to quite a few countries over the years-such as, China, Spain, England, France, Jamaica, Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas. Originally I am from a town called Croydon just out side of London, UK. I also have a daughter who likes to travel. My daughter is currently a college student studying in Paris and having a blast! I do miss her. I also enjoy hanging out with my family and friends-some of our activities include dinning, nature hikes, and shopping. I have been teaching and substituting science classes for a little over 3 years. I also tutor/teach after school home bound students, in Science Regent, Physical Science, Earth Science and Forensic Science in my immediate school district.