Building Comprehension

Assignment: Watch video on building comprehension with Professor Duke and write a summary using the following guided questions:

• Which ideas from the video struck you as most relevant to your teaching of comprehension?
• What new instructional practices will you implement in your classroom?
• How will you use the ideas presented in this video to improve the comprehension of your struggling readers (students you are observing)?

            As the video with Professor Nell Dukes emphasizes, comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading. Young students in particular need to develop strategies to assist them with comprehension. These strategies are learned rather than innate, and teachers should use explicit instruction to better help students develop these skills and strategies. Multiple strategies should be taught using modeling, think alouds, small group instruction, peer strategy sharing, and other coaching methods. For example, one effective technique mentioned is the think-aloud, where the teacher verbally tells the class his/her thought process of how he/she reached a conclusion after reading a passage. This modeling behavior of demonstrating a particular strategy is an effective instructional technique. Class discussion of a text and sharing meaning with others in a social context are other examples of effective instructional techniques that will provide students with opportunities to develop meaning and comprehension. Teachers can guide class discussion using open-ended, thought provoking questions that help students interact with the text on a deeper level. Teachers and good readers can share their strategies with the class and describe the strategies they use to decode and comprehend a reading selection. I will emphasize vocabulary with every lesson taught. As a student increases his or her vocabulary and unfamiliar words become familiar, students will spend less cognitive resources on decoding unfamiliar words and more cognitive resources on comprehension. The type of reader that stood out for me in the video was one where he/she was interactive with the text, re-reading, asking questions, making predictions, forming opinions, and making meaning as they go. These students also tend to use discussion and previewing of the text to activate their prior knowledge and make personal connections. This is in contrast to those struggling readers who may just open the book and begin reading without an authentic purpose just to get the bare minimum out of the text, without engaging in discussion or engaging their prior knowledge. An emphasis on reading writing and discussion skills would be something I would employ in my classroom. These are life-long skills that will serve the students will within my classroom environment as well as the world after graduation. In the primary years however, it is important that students understand the basic skills of forming and sharing an opinion, writing a main idea with supporting details and comprehending what they read. Other ideas worth noting are providing texts and real world, hands-on experiences to build world knowledge, and teaching about text structure, which can differ between various forms of expository and narrative texts. For example, students will need to learn how to read graphics, charts and tables in a science textbook. I will also emphasize and provide opportunities for students to read (DEAR, recess, breaks, etc) and write. One goal I have in mind is to find content that will engage every student so that they have an authentic reason for reading. This will depend on each student’s particular interest and motivation.  

DIBELS and the QRI-5

I first approached this assignment trying to prove one assessment's worthiness over another. In truth, both assessments can and should be used because they complement each other and provide unique information. Having a variety of assessments and individual student profiles are important to get a well rounded perspective on each student in the classroom.

The DIBELS focuses more on letter/sound association and phonemic awareness. The DIBELS assessment only goes up to grade six and  measures a student's fluency with regard to Initial Sound Fluency (ISF), Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF), Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF), Oral Reading Fluency (ORF), Retell Fluency (RTF) and Word Use Fluency (WUF). The DIBELS software was cumbersome and somewhat frustrating, but over time with updated (iPOD touch) software some of those issues can be resolved. The DIBELS is a very quick screening tool and can help provide teachers and administrators with measurable results in terms of a student's phonemic awareness and approximate reading level. Because of the speed of this assessment, it can be done quickly to accommodate large numbers of students. DIBELS can help identify any potential letter/sound recognition problems which would be scored as a miscue on a QRI assessment. The information gathered by administering DIBELS can hep guide instruction for those students who may need additional instruction on letter/sound associations. Students who improve on their phonemic awareness will improve on the QRI miscue analysis assessments as well.

The QRI-5 is a much more in-depth and comprehensive assessment which measures a variety of literacy factors including prior knowledge, miscue analysis, re-telling, and comprehension by answering explicit and implicit questions. With practice it can be administered rather quickly but the scoring of the QRI is a time-consuming process. Due to the time factor, it would be impossible to administer the QRI- more than three times per year. However, the information the assessment provides on the student is comprehensive. I noticed the reading selections of the QRI-5 are very similar to reading selections found on ELA state exams. I would encourage my students to use reading selections from previous ELA exams to help them prepare for the state ELA exam.

I think DIBELS would be more effective to develop basic literacy skills for young readers whereas the QRI-5 would seem to be more effective to administer to students with more advanced literacy skills.

Observation Update

Monday -  4/11 - I administered the second QRI assessment to Jane. This time I limited the choice of reading selection to just two. Jane chose the selection entitled: "Cats: Lions and Tigers in Your House". I asked her why she chose this selection and she told me she likes cats. Jane continues to struggle with plurality, reading the "s" on certain words but not others. Jane is a shy, soft-spoken, but consistent reader with good self correcting skills.

After the QRI was finished, I worked with Jane on her writing sample to complete the requirements of the field experience. The ESL teacher had been working with Jane on writing a paragraph using a main idea, supporting details and a conclusion. To help offer a choice of topics, the ESL teacher suggested I use a commercially available box of writing prompts called "Ready to Write" from a company called Lakeshore.

These prompting cards were indexed by the type of writing style such as: descriptive, narrative, persuasive, informative and imaginative. Some examples of writing prompts include:

• Be a Restaurant Critic
• The Perfect Birthday Party
• My Magic Sneakers
• I Accidentally Shrunk My Best Friend
• Music Makes Me Happy
• May I Go Skating
• How To...
• My Two Favorite Sports

Each one of the prompt cards came with a set of directions and suggested graphic organizers to help the student organize her thoughts and ideas.

Jane finally chose a card which prompted her to design and write about a new type of Car of the Future. As she thought of ideas for the car, she verbalized them to me even before writing anything down on the graphic organizer. I think she was looking for approval or a prompt before moving on with the next step of her task. As Jane described some unbelievable features of her car, my reactions were very animated which kept her smiling and engaged. The ESL teacher later complimented me on what a great lesson it was as she heard Jane laughing and participating, whereas Jane is normally an extremely shy student. 

Observation Update

Wednesday April 6th - administered one QRI reading assessment. The word lists indicated Jane is on a 3rd grade reading level. As I had prepared photocopies of five different 3rd grade reading selections, I made the mistake of offering Jane her choice from all five selections. I think she was a bit overwhelmed with the various choices. The next time I administer the QRI I will ensure to limit the choices to just two reading selections. Jane finally chose "A Birthday Present for Rosa". Jane was shy and read with a soft spoken voice. I think I have built up somewhat of a rapport with her but she was still kind of shy. As the ESL teacher mentioned, Jane did not open her mouth much to enunciate her words. This affects her pronunciation. As she was the only student in the room it was not as difficult to hear the student as it would be if there were other students and/or noise in the room.

Jane's reading characteristics - she had trouble with similar words like though, tough, through. Student mispronounced the name Jose' but the name may have been unfamiliar to her. The student left the letter "s" off of some words but not others. However the meaning of the content did not change. When offered a look back Jane did look at the story but was just kind of scanning the page. It seemed like she was waiting to be prompted in some way. She did not offer any new information during the look back. I found scoring the re-telling portion of the assessment a little difficult. As Jane rattled off what she remembered from the story, there were multiple phrases for very similar ideas on the scoring sheet. I'm sure with more practice, it will become easier.

After administering the QRI, there was time left over in the period. The ESL teacher and I decided it would be smart to wait until the next session to administer the second QRI. With the remaining minutes of this period, the ESL teacher introduced Jane to some illustrated books and student-created projects on idioms. Some examples were "bright eyed and bushy tailed" and " "Jane liked to 'lock horns'". The student browsed through the book and chose an expression, then had a choice to draw or clip pictures from a magazine to help illustrate the meaning of the expression. 

Assignment: Video Reflection

Assignment: watch video and answer the following:

Q:            Discuss the components of an effective writing program and why they are important.

A:            The 3 main components of an effective writing program are: personal connections, writing conventions and inventions. Personal connections are important because even at an early age, every student has experiences he/she can draw from to help them with his/her writing. A writing project such as a family history report or essay on a parent or family member can help motivate students, including English Language Learners (ELLs). Children also have a noted ‘kid culture’ that contain areas of knowledge brought forth by the students. Discussion and writing about this ‘kid culture’ should be encouraged, as this points towards motivation for many students. Another component to an effective writing program is writing conventions. Students must follow the rules of language such as orientation, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, paragraphing, including the main idea and supporting details. In addition, students should not be encouraged to copy their work, but to re-read, edit, revise and add detail and depth to their writing. This is an area where revising, adding detail, and sequencing of the writing assignment are important. When students read their work aloud, it presents an opportunity for the student to catch any errors or mistakes.

Q:            How might you rearrange your schedule to create more time for students to write in general and, in particular, for students to write about their personal experiences?

A:            As noted in the video, a ‘kid culture’ exists outside of the classroom. This is the content area that kids are already engaged and familiar with. Many students would find it enjoyable to write about their favorite thing and how it relates to them. I would enlist the help of the kid culture with some assignments to help with student interest and motivation. I think tapping into kid culture can inspire students to read and write independently, away from the classroom setting. Many classrooms I have observed use a strategy called “Drop Everything And Read” (DEAR). I might incorporate a similar strategy in terms of writing. Maybe on Friday afternoons and any down time, I might incorporate a similar type “Free Write” session where students are prompted to write in their journals that are shared with the teacher. To help students relate their writing to their own personal experiences, I will incorporate lessons such as “What I did on Vacation”, personal interests and family ancestry where students will be required to document family members. These strategies keep the personal experiences of students into account.

Q:            How can you create ways for students to make personal connections in different subject areas through writing?

A:            Students seem to respond to activities that have an authentic purpose. When they know their work will be published and read by others, students are encouraged to edit and revise their work. After performing an experiment, I would prompt students to write about the experiment, their observations and conclusions. As discussed in the video, there should be a doubling up on curriculum content while working on literacy. For example, during a social studies lesson, I may incorporate a mini-lesson and assignment for students to write an essay using the 5W’s and H questions. I would prompt students to read their essays aloud to catch any grammatical, punctuation or agreement mistakes and to determine if what they wrote was exactly what they meant to say. If possible, I would try to tap into any movies or media the student may be familiar with. For example, during a recent observation, I helped a student understand the science concept of adaptation by referring to the Disney movie “Finding Nemo”. The student had seen the movie, remembered the scene and I think the reference helped him create a mental picture. I would incorporate assignments that will allow students to actually publish their writing as a book to be shared with an audience. This will help will motivation.

Q:            How can student work help you decide which conventions to teach?

A:            The student work is hard evidence of the student’s language proficiency and can help provide some insight as to each student’s writing tendencies and particular weaknesses. For example, a student may have issues with articles of speech (of, the, an) or pronoun agreement, i.e. “It (a car) washes himself”. Other specific examples will make themselves apparent. As always, having a variety of assessments on hand in a student profile is recommended to get a well rounded view of the student’s writing proficiency. Writing an informative paragraph or essay is an important skill, however, certain lessons may require a certain format or use other types of conventions such as writing an outline, poetry, a scientific report. 

Q:            When can you promote student inventions and experimentation with different formats in writing?

A:            Students often bring their own original ideas to the classroom and this presents teachable moments in terms of student invention and experimentation. There are many different types of children’s books (accordion books, digital books) that successfully bend the conventional rules of writing, including page orientation and use of different sized fonts to help with contextual clues. As students create their own original work, they have a sense of ownership and choice over their writing. This is a powerful motivator. As mentioned above, different lessons may incorporate different writing styles and formats. Note taking, creating an outline, writing poetry, a play or a scientific report each require different writing styles and formats.

Observation - Project Beyond con't

I observed Jane in the Project Beyond class again, as they continued with their crime scene investigation. Apparently Jane had been absent from the last Project Beyond class, so she did not have time to work on the assignment. The other students had begun to write up a report from a detective's point of view. The students included notes on the experiments they had conducted in earlier class sessions. The teacher reminded students to include information about all of the evidence and come up with a theory as to what exactly happened and who was responsible.

The teacher prompted the students with some questions like:

• If there is a trial, what happens to the forensic report and the detective's report?
• Who will question the suspect?
• What are the roles of the prosecutor and defense lawyers?

The teacher prompted students to re-read and edits their stories, share their stories with a partner for critical analysis, revise and edit, and read their stories to the class. As Jane was absent last session, she was instructed to read her parter's story and discuss with her partner. The partner explained a few points before Jane started reading. Jane again exhibited shyness.

Jane asked her partner a few questions to help with comprehension. The partner had to come close to Jane, ask her to repeat. It was a struggle to hear Jane, even right next to her as she talks with such low volume. The partner prompted Jane to see if there were any points in her story she wanted clarified. The partner was active in trying to engage Jane by asking her about what Jane had written in her own investigation packet. The peer-to-peer sharing activity lasted about 12-15 minutes.

The teacher had to prompt some students to stay on task and finally asked "Who will come up and read their story NICE AND LOUD?"

After one student read her story, other students raised their hands and offered suggestions to improve the story. 

• "You forgot to mention about the all of the evidence."
• "You didn't mention the perfume."
• "What happened to the dye?"

Other students took a turn reading their stories as well. In the remaining minutes, there was a class discussion about the students' frustration at not being told who exactly committed the crime. They wanted to know what the teacher's edition said. The teacher responded by telling students that the teacher's edition does not have an answer, but says to conduct the experiments to find out who did it. 

I really enjoyed observing this lesson and was amazed at the intelligence of these 4th grade students. I was impressed with the concepts taught including: the process of an investigation, and criminal trial, and  forensic science. I will try to use this lesson in my classroom.

Interview Questions with ESL Teacher

Here is a transcript of the interview I had with the ESL Teacher at my observation site.

Q: Please describe your ELL teaching experience.

A: My ESL teaching experience has been extremely rewarding. It is such a pleasure to watch ELLs become more and more comfortable using the English language.


Q: What is your perception on ELLs in terms of their learning motivation and performance (especially in reading and writing)? What learning difficulties do ELLs usually encounter in schools? What is the role of the family and community in helping ELL's learning?

A: One of the most motivating aspects for an ELL is the process in which they feel part of a group, or welcomed. It takes each child a different rate to feel comfortable in various language components. Reading, writing, listening ad speaking all vary in terms of proficiency for the child.


Q: In your opinion, how do classroom teachers resolve ELL's learning difficulties? What strategies do you adopt? Are they effective or not?Do you participate in on-going professional training for teaching ELLs? What if your experience in terms of working with students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds? How do you make sure that your teaching is culturally responsive? How do you go about reaching out to the family and community?

A: We have strong parental support within the ELLs in the community; how it is usually difficult for the parents to help the child with homework or independent work because they are English language learners as well. The parents are unfamiliar with the content language used n the curriculum. I stay in close contact with my ELL students' families by always keeping an open line of communication. (phone calls, notes and letter home - translated versions if necessary)

Classroom teachers resolve ELLs' learning difficulties by utilizing another student who may speak the same native language, or can help the ELL feel more comfortable in an unfamiliar setting. As the ESL teacher, I will take pictures of the classroom and make index cards with words and photographs. This helps the ELL become more familiar with commonly used terms in the classroom. The classroom teacher and I usually discuss ways we can make the child feel more comfortable, including a "buddy" in the class that can help them along.

Yes, I participate in on-going professional training workshops through the Nassau BOCES program. There are various kinds of workshops that focus on the areas of difficulty an EL may have. For example:

• "Vocabulary Tiering and Teaching Strategies for LEP/ELLs"
• "Supporting Academic Success for English Language Learners"
• "Second Language Acquisition vs. Learning Disabilities"
• "NYSESLAT Turnkey Training"

Q: If you have an ELL in your class whose culture you are not familiar with at all, how do you go about teaching the child?

A: The diverse cultures in my program include Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Urdu, and Spanish. I try to incorporate multicultural lessons within my program to make the students feel more comfortable. I try my best to become familiar with various cultures as well. In the past, I have asked parents about their culture and traditions, I have also done research on my own, as well as asked the ESL team of colleagues for input.