Analyzing Running Record

According to the Running Record I have taken of the student GItty Bochner, her strength lies in the fact that she reads quickly and fluently. Gitty seemed to be running through the sentences, with only some mistakes mainly based on pronouncing words incorrectly. Gitty's strength though, although createds her weakness, which is that she reads too fast and is reluctant to slow down. She doesn't seem to focus on comprehension at all. In addition to the obvious issue of not comprehending what she is reading, Gitty's mistakes in reading hardly get self-corrected even if the word doesn't make sense in regard to the sentence she is reading. This is because she is more focused on reading and getting done quickly, then she is on focusing on the text and what it is conveying. Gitty would benefit greatly from learning to comprehend what she is reading, and on focusing on each word to make sure it is read correctly. Her visual mistakes are a result of her quick reading and her lack of focus. Gitty would need a teacher to focus on the actual stories and texts that she is reading, and its' meanings. That would also help her to avoid making mistakes that are due to lack of focus, comprehension, and patience.

Running Record 3/3

Ms. Perez's Reading Classroom

I truly enjoyed watching Ms. Perez teaching children how to read. I loved how she incorporated activities that included all the students, although they were at such different levels. It is the challenge of the teacher to motivate, include and teach so many different levels at the same time. When Ms. Perez does shared reading with her students, she engages them all. While some students didn't read that fluently, they gained from hearing the words and seeing the pointer at the same time. Other students, who read more fluently gained from the flow of the poem, and the different rhyming words. Ms. Perez has an amazing word wall technique, where she puts words that rhyme. This is good for students to see the different sounds of the letters, and clearly helps students focus on those sounds!
Ms. Perez supports her students in learning, and encourages them to use their problem solving skills. Mainly Ms. Perez asks pointed questions, to get her students to think. For example, she asked students what was different between the words 'hot', in different places in the poem, instead of pointing out to them that one has the uppercase H, while the other the lowercase. In this way students learn to look carefully at the words, notice their nuances, and so on. She also is constantly showing her students how she appreciates their skills, and praises them often. When a student was struggling with pronouncing a word, she gently proddeed the student to think about the letters, and together, with the right amount of encouragement, the student felt like he 'got it'. I think her patience with the children, so that they can really learn to read on their own is amazing.
Based on the video, shared reading can promote literacy among all students. As I mentioned above, students get the practice, as well as the visual cues at the same time, in order to increase fluency in reading. When properly guided, students can also learn new sounds, patterns, and so on, through readin aloud with peers. Teachers get the oppportunity to guide the class in new knowledge, and to create a lesson based on words and new skills.
Ms. Perez helps her students verbalize the strategies they are using, in order for them to internalize them better. When a student actually verbalizes about the strategies she uses, the student can recognize the strategy, and can internalize at other times as well. Students learn to use strategies better and at other times, when they recognize their own strategies.
In the classroom of Ms. Perez, students are divided according to their abilities, and work on different activities. This is a great time for students to work on individual skills, and on individual levels. A student that needs to work on the sounds of letters works with a teacher to create words with different sounds, while a student who can read independently, works on the comprehension of the reading. In addition, both of these students, worked on writing skills simultaneously. The first student was actually creating words based on the letter sounds, and the second student was writing notes and facts about her reading. Both are great ways for students to integrate writing skills with reading skills and to connect with both at the same time.
Ms. Perez uses individual assesment, to learn about each child's ability. She asseses her students in September, and then again in December, in order to see their progress. She also uses ongoing assessment in the classroom, by spending time and listening to each student read. In the video we see a student being assessed in September, and I loved how Ms. Perez asks the child in general, if he would like to speak about what he read in the book. The student eagerly shares what he read, and this gives Ms. Perez a very clear picture about what the student understood from the text. Instead of asking a direct question, Ms. Perez wanted to gauge his comprehension, and got a very clear answer. She also uses a graph at the beginning of the year, in order to generalize her students into categories. Students are leveled on the graph based on the books they were able to read. In this way, Ms. Perez can organize her students into groups, each according to its level, in order to work on the same skills needed by different students. Each group works on activities, that benefits the students with the same skills within the group.
I would like to implement assessment in my classroom, and I found two ways to do this based on the video we have seen. One is through periodic assesment, so that students' progress can be carefully seen. I like the way Ms. Perez assesses her students in September and then again in December, and compares their skill. Another way is ongoing assessment. Ms. Perez floats around her classroom during center time, and listens to individual studnets reading. While she is not working on a specific skill, she can listen in general to her students, and see which skills they each need to work on.

Lesson Plan Critique

Reading the lesson plan Carolyn Wilhelm, created for grade 2, I had some good and not such good opinions of the lesson. While it is well planned out, with great resources being used, I imagined that as a child in the classroom I might have spaced out, since it feels too technical. The students must focus on the reading, and then finding words and writing lines. These are great activities which are perfect for the lesson! But before doing that, I would try to discuss the relevance with students, so they can compare the story of the book to their own past experiences (although the teacher does lead the class to discussion, she explains that it will be about the words and phrases etc.) This would infuse any second grader with more enthusiasm, and they can even use their suggestions in the poem they will write on the board later on. Or use a topic for the poem that the class discussed which the students seemed excited about.
In session three, I think it is very good that the teacher writes that she would role play and model speaking in front of a group, in order to present good oral presentation. This is very important, as second graders need that role play in order to perform.
 I would also use more role play in the beginning when students are starting to write the poem. I would say my thoughts out loud, while creating random poems, to show the students how a poet thinks. I would experiment with different lines together with students, and come up with many ideas. This would help the students later on (by the extension lesson), where they come up with their own original poems. I think they can use a little more background.

Video of Ms. Owen

What an amazing video! I was truly inspired by the teacher Ms. Owen, and the way she created a true reading/writing culture in her classroom. Ms. Owen integrated the idea of gradual release of responsibility so well. She starts with reading activities, and writing activities, and slowly leads her students to independence. What I found I learned most from hearing from Ms. Owen is that she says that although sometimes when she reads to the class, or they are being guided to read, some students are not yet able to follow along fully. Yet, she tries to have a discussion with her students, regarding the topic they are reading about. This creates a relevance between the reading the students are doing, and real life. Students feel motivated and connected to reading when they find connection! And this way, as Ms. Owen says, her goal is to get students to love to read! She infuses in her students a willingness and excitement to read and discover, and this is always so much more effective than just having students read or write because now is the time and so on...
Ms. Owen teaches her ELL students through gradual integration. She begins singing the good morning song in Spanish as well as English, which makes the students feel safe to express words in both languages, as well as gives them more vocabulary words in the English language. She also uses visual aid for the ELL students, such as putting red 'A's in on the board in a few words, so that they can clearly see the alphabet in the words. Ms. Owen also does a few reading activities every day, and guides her students to independent learning. Because the students gradually become more independent in their reading, they can learn lots of new vocabulary words along the way, and they get the right amount of scaffolding necessary to guide them to better language.

The ELA instruction integrates all areas of Language Arts, and is a complete, comprehensive guide for the expectations of students in regard to reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language. ELA provides clarity of each of these separate skills, and how they are related. It explains that good reading means good comprehension, and then writing means being able to reflect in writing the knowledge gained by the written text. Speaking and listening include oral communication and collaboration. Integrating information and expressing ideas from different resources as well as listening to others are part of the speaking and listening standards as well. Language skills as explained through ELA include understanding language, vocabulary and nuances in the written and spoken word. In general, the ELA standards include all the above skills, and how they are integrated with one another.