On March 8th Jillian came in to my classroom and watched me teach a lesson on inferences while reading a text. I asked Jillian to do a shadowing form on my above level student to help with my inquiry. When talking to her about my lesson, I learned that the type of reading I did with the class did not work out well. The students chorally read the passages. I agree that this was not the best way to do it because some students were not reading at all because they could not keep up and one student was reading way to loud and almost a full sentence ahead of the class. Next time I do a lesson like this, I will have my on and above level students read quietly at their desk while I pull a group of my below level students to read aloud with me at the “rainbow” table in the back of the room. This will allow me to keep an eye on all the readers and make sure that the below level students are reading and understanding the passage. I did like having the students use their reading journals to write down the words they did not know. This gave us a chance to go over them at the end of each paragraph. The students better understood the paragraph once they knew the definition of the words, helping them comprehend what they were reading. I was very thankful for my CT stepping in during this lesson when one of the students wanted to know about how it was possible for us to all start out as eggs. She told them it was nature and left it at that. I moved on in the reading and they just forgot about it from then on. Overall, I feel that this lesson went well and that the students got some practice with inferencing while reading. I do, however, feel that because this was a whole group lesson, that some students did not get the help that they needed and that they will still have a hard time making inferences. Next time, I do a lesson like this, I would like to work with a small group of students I feel are not understanding and give them the extra help that they need.
Since the beginning of the semester, I have been collecting data on my three inquiry students. I began by talking with my CT about which students she recommended I choose. She gave me a list of students who were above level, on level and below level for me to choose from, however, she did recommend that I work with a certain below level student but left the other two up to me. Since I have begun working with these students, I have collected data in the form of Spelling Inventories, Running Records, Interest Surveys, observation, field notes and conversations with my CT. I have learned while doing the assessments that my above level student in not being challenged enough in the classroom. I feel that once she reached the level needed to pass 4th grade my CT did not try and push her further. I gave her a higher Running Record and learned that she has a hard time with comprehension when the texts become more challenging. That gave me a good starting point to find strategies to help her out when the readings got a little harder. I have already worked on inferencing with two of my focus students. I have observed that my on level students tends to get bored in the class and does a lot of walking around during independent work. He does complete it all and for the most part he gets all the answers right. This seems to work for him and my CT because she rarely gets on to him unless he is disturbing other students. My below level student has proven to be the most difficult to work with and finding strategies to help her with reading comprehension. She is reading at a third grade level, so all reading in the class is hard for her to comprehend. I have worked with her one-on-one many times and even though she has no problem reading the words on the page, she has no idea what she is reading. When answering questions about a passage, I have observed that when talking about the answers she does better at answering them but you have to almost pull the answers out of her. Her problem occurs when she is trying to the write the answer she just told me on the paper. It appears she forgets what she just told me because most of the time the answer on her paper is not the one she told me. When working with her while reading, I have tried stopping many time throughout the passage and ask her to summarize for me what is happening. This seems to help her a little but she has to look back in the text to tell me what has happened. This is a strategy that my CT teaches her students to do while answering questions. Over the next few weeks, I plan on working on strategies such as working with ambiguous words and phrases. I feel that this will help both my on and below level students with understanding what they are reading. I would also like to work on strategies to use before reading and during reading such as a KWL chart and questions that should be ask. My students were given an article about Cal Ripken Jr and many did not know who he was. Helping them build background knowledge by creating a KWL chart will help with their comprehension. Modeling questions that they should be asking while reading and providing them with a reference sheet to keep at their desk will also be helpful while reading and assist them in being able to re-tell the story at the end. At the end of the semester, I would like to give each student a higher Running Record and see how much they have improved in our time together. |
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April 2016
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