A Final Thought: Reflection 2 (Fluency Lesson Plan)

Well here it is, the final blog post reflecting on my last lesson of this year. This was a fairly simple lesson to perform and it went well. I had students take their independent reading book and then recorded them reading. This way they could hear themselves as they read, and we could talk about ways to improve their fluency. I noticed that students had a fun time doing this lesson. They enjoyed hearing themselves, and were able to improve their prosody within just a short time period of working with me. I think because I modeled the proper reading fluency, and then allowed the students to practice and hear themselves they were able to understand and hear where they needed improvement. This was a cool lesson, because I was able to see improvement happening and the students could tell they were improving in their reading fluency skills.

I think one limitation of this lesson was not having students read from the same text. I think that if students could have been able to read in a small group aloud and had their voices recorded on top of that, the lesson could have been a lot more beneficial. It would have been a great way to utilize other student’s reading skills during my lesson, but I did not have the resources in order to do this, so for what the lesson was, it went well.

I feel a strength to this lesson was the individual support that these students received. The students seemed to understand my objectives, and because they were receiving direct attention they were able to practice and adjust with little time in between. If this was a whole class lesson, students would have to of had to wait until they could have their voice recorded, talk about their reading strengths and weakness, adjust, and then after all that read and record themselves again. The small group element added ease to the lesson, and as a result I feel made the lesson stronger.  

I noticed that I am getting stronger in lesson planning. My lessons are starting to be more concise and follow a set protocol. I am pleased in my growth, although I know I still need a lot more practice and guidance in order to become a great teacher. I also noticed that my patience and problem solving skills are improving greatly. A few times I thought I was asking a question to the students clearly, but I could tell after a quick assessment for understanding that I needed to reword my question in order for the students to understand what I was asking. I think this is a great thing to be aware of, and takes practice to master.

I would like to continue to monitor these students reading fluency’s. The students did a great job during my lesson, and it would be great to see if they transferred what we talked about during my lesson to their everyday reading. With the end of the year approaching I can only hope that these students will continue to practice what they learned during these mini lessons, because I feel it can be incredibly beneficial to their future literacy development.

Nothing wrong with being different

This was a great chapter in the Tompkins book. It did a nice job outlining, and refreshing the facts that students in the classroom learn at different levels, and will be at different levels instructionally. I like how Tompkins defined differentiated learning as “Teachers providing specific ways for students to learn as deeply as possible without assuming anyone’s road map to learning is the same as someone else’s.” This is a great thing to remember. Every student brings strengths to the classroom. We as teachers must discover those strengths and then utilize methods that we have learned in order to benefit the education of all students. With that being said, here is my letter to a hypothetical parent during my internship year.

Dear Mrs. Smith,

I am writing you this letter as an update on the progress of George. As you know, George has been making great progress in his literacy development. However, as we have talked about in our prior conversations we have noticed that George is still below grade level in his reading. As a result we are going to be utilizing an effective teaching technique known as differentiated instruction. This technique is simply a way that teachers provide students, and their different learning needs, a way to not only access the information, but excel in the process. We will be expecting the same out of George as every other student, but we will be providing George with instruction that fits his particular reading needs.

For instance, during the morning reading time students are allowed to read in small groups. Most students are reading the same books and we simply pair those students together.  As you know, George is not the only student his age struggling with reading, because of this we will be forming a small group that I will be in charge of. We will be reading a book selected by me that is in George’s instructional reading level. The instructional reading level is the level where a student is not becoming frustrated by a book because it is too hard, or becoming bored with it because it is too easy. Think of this level as the just right level, where great learning can take place.  George, a few other students, and myself will be sitting down and reading together. First, I will read a passage as the group follows a long. The group will be reading under their breath, as I read aloud. This way we can stop if the students come to a word they don’t know, discuss it, put it on our word wall (which I know you are familiar with from all your help in the classroom) and then continue with the reading. This group reading will give the students exposure to proper reading technique. It will not only help them to gain letter sound awareness, but will help build their comprehension as we review what just read and of course help them become fluent readers. Next, students will take turns reading to me. As one student reads aloud to me, the others will follow along. This way I can monitor student’s progress and correct any mistakes that may be made. This will help George and the rest of the group with fluency and letter sound awareness. We feel that this guided instruction will greatly benefit George. It will allow him the opportunity to be challenged intellectually at a level that will not exceed his strengths at this time.  I always like to tell the students that there is no “I can’t do it,” there is only at this point “I am struggling with.” This helps keeps students motivated and helps us all remember that we are a community of learners. We are not the same, but we all have endless potential.  

I have no doubt that George’s reading will become stronger as the end of the year approaches. This close instruction will only help. However, with summer approaching it is important to remember that reading is just like any other skill, practice does make perfect. The more George works with books at his instructional level, the stronger his reading will become. If you would like I would be more than happy to put together a list of books that he could read over the break or that could be read with him. Also, there are great reading programs every summer put on by our local library here that may be fun for George to attend. If you want any information on that, feel free to let me know.

Lastly, I appreciate your time in reading this letter. George is a great young man, who has an endless amount of potential. This form of instruction will truly help George become a stronger reader. I look forward to all the positive progress that he will be making, and I am sure you do as well. If you have any questions, concerns, or want to know more about differentiated instruction please feel free to get a hold of me. As I tell all the parents, we are all in this together.

Respectfully,

Matt   

Lesson 2, Step 1: A Plan Doth Taketh Shape....(Lesson 2, fluency lesson)

Lesson objectives/goals-Students will increase their reading fluency specifically in the area of prosody.

•      Introduction to the lesson

•      Today we are going to be doing a lesson with fluency (explain what reading fluency is).

•      *Explain the importance of fluency as a reader, and discuss the three important areas of fluent reading (accuracy, rate, prosody)

•      We are going to be recording ourselves as we read a passage.

•      Then we are going to play it back and discuss what we hear.

•      First I will model important aspects of strong reading fluency.

•      During the lesson

•      What the strategy/skill is and why it’s important

•      The specific skill being worked on is prosody. Students will be able to hear themselves as they read and then we will be able to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their reading.

•      How to use the strategy/skill

•      Students will learn the importance of using prosody as the read. They will learn that in order to be an effective reader, fluency is important in effectively relaying the intentions of the passage being read. Students will learn that in order to be effective/strong readers fluency is necessary.  

•      When to use it

•      Students will learn that it is always important to read with prosody. This lesson is mainly focused on prosody, and for that reason it is important to inform the students that strongest readers always read with “feelings.”

•      Closing summary

•      Involve children in reflecting on the experience

•      To wrap up, what did we talk about today?

•      Why is reading fluency, specifically prosody important?

•      When do we use prosody?

•      What are some ways that we can increase our prosody as readers?

•      Any other questions?

•      Making connections to prior experience or prepare for the future

•      We read a lot in our classrooms and I have heard that most of you read a lot at home. It is important to keep these elements we have talked about today in practice as we continue to grow as readers.

•      Elicit feedback about the lesson

•      I will review the great work that students have been doing

•      I will clear up any misconceptions

•      I will allow for an opportunity to answer any questions.

•      Ongoing Assessment

•      How will you know if the students are progressing toward your objective?

•      I the year finishes up, students will have more opportunities to read aloud, as they do, I will monitor their prosody as readers, and assess if they are putting to practice what they learned in this lesson.

•      What will you observe and/or take notes on to help you plan follow-up instruction?

•      I will keep the recordings that students make during their readings

•      I will keep notes on accuracy, rate, and prosody to further inform myself on any follow up lessons that I will construct.

Step 3, A Moment to Reflect (Lesson 1 reflection)

My writing lesson was awesome. I was incredibly pleased with the amount of student involvement and the level of understanding demonstrated by my students. Each student had plenty of input to add to the lesson, and I think because there were only three students involved in the lesson, each student benefited from the individual 1 on 1 instruction. I could tell that students were on track with my lesson objectives as they filled out their story maps individually. I first modeled using the think aloud strategy how to fill out the story map outline when thinking about writing. The students asked good questions here, and successfully transferred my modeling to their own story outlines. It was great to see them understanding the importance of organizing your writing before you write.

I think one of the biggest strengths of my lesson was the how prepared I was to teach the students the prewriting strategy of outlining. I spent a lot of time preparing a prompts for the students, and finding a great lesson outline that they could fill in with their ideas. This level of preparation made the lesson run smoothly and helped prepare me for any questions students may bring have brought up during the lesson. The biggest weakness for this lesson I feel was the limitations of the story outline map that I brought the students to fill in. I made it clear to the students that there are more than one type of outline style that can be used, and it was really up to their own personal preferences which one they used. However, after saying this I realized that I limited their learning by not allowing them to select how they wanted to outline their story. I wish I would have thought this element through a little more in order to help meet every students need and learning strength. This limitation/weakness wasn’t the worst thing that could have come up in my lesson, but it is still something to be aware of in future lessons.

I was pleased with myself as I was teaching this lesson. I must have had a great breakfast or something, because I really brought my “A” game for this lesson. I was communicating clearly my goals and objectives for the students, and as a result they understood what I was asking and demonstrated their understanding through their outlines. I have taught a few lessons at this point, and I really feel like this one has been my best yet. I took all the other teaching moments I have had and I applied it to the construction and instruction of this lesson. I don’t think this lesson could have gone better for me. The only thing that would have been nice would have been to have had a little more time to discuss transferring the information from your outline to your draft. Now that I know this though, I could easily construct a follow up lesson to this prewriting lesson.

Looking back over this lesson, and the lessons I have taught in the past I am still a little unsure of how to transfer my lesson objectives to a great lesson. I know that I want the students to learn certain things, but I seem to struggle with conveying what students should be learning or what I want them to learn to my lessons. I think what I need to do is create a checklist for myself. This way when I create lesson plans I can think to myself “I want students to learn A,B, and C,” then I need to do design a lesson surrounding those elements to ensure that students are not only engaged, but are being educated. I think this something that will come in time, but any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to teaching my other lesson, and can only hope it goes as well as this one did.

Step 2, A Plan for Writing (Lesson 1, pre-writing lesson plan)

This is the first of the two lessons I will be teaching. The second lesson will either be a fluency lesson or a follow up to this lesson.

Students will be partaking in a creative writing workshop/lesson

Objective- Students will be able to understand the importance of the first two stages of writing (prewriting and drafting). Students will also be able to successfully do these first two stages.

•       Introduction to the lesson

•       Today we are going to be doing some creative writing.

•       What is creative writing?

•       Why do you think it is important for us to be able to write in this style?

•       Make connections to prior experiences

•       I brought a long some prompts that could help us with our pre-writing stage and a graphic organizer to help us out further (explain both if students need)

•       (guide students through filling out their own organizer to model how and why it is important to connect prior experiences for the creative writing process)

•       Activate prior knowledge

•       Student will be asked to select a topic from either a prompt or one of their own. After they have done this they will fill out a graphic organizer to help activate their prior knowledge.

•       During the lesson

•       What the strategy/skill is and why it’s important

•       The skills that are important for this lesson are the first two stages of the writing process, prewriting and drafting. Students will be learning a prewriting technique they can use in the future to help get their ideas on paper before writing. Also, students will be working on a draft of their creative story to help transfer their ideas from the organizer to a first copy of their own original work.

•       How to use the strategy/skill

•       Students will know that they can use the graphic organizing strategy before they write. They can use this as a way to outline their writing, and put ideas down in an organized way.

•       Students will also learn that writing is a multi-step process by writing a draft. Students will later be able to rework their piece through the other stages of writing, until they have a completed work which is ready to “publish.”

•       Closing summary

•       Involve children in reflecting on the experience

•       What is something we learned from this lesson?

•       How can we use what we learned in the future?

•       Is there something else you would like to know about these first two writing process?

•       Making connections to prior experience or prepare for the future

•       Now that we have learned the importance of creating a draft, and outlining our ideas we can use this method in our future writing. Instead of just writing down the first things that come to us, we can carefully outline our thoughts and ideas to help strengthen our writing and produce the best possible end product.

•       Ongoing Assessment

•       How will you know if the students are progressing toward your objective?

•       I will be reviewing student’s drafts and graphic organizers to see if they are progressing toward my objective.

•       What will you observe and/or take notes on to help you plan follow-up instruction?

•       I will be observing how well students fill out their organizers, and how well they are able to transfer their outlined ideas onto their first copy of their draft.

Step One: Pick your crowd (Lesson Plan Step 1, Knowing your students)

With the help of my mentor teacher I have selected three students to teach my mini literacy lesson to. The three students are Billy, Bobby, and Brenda. They will be taking place in a fluency building lesson, and a pre-writing lesson that I am continuing to plan, to ensure it meets their needs.

I have selected these three students, because of their struggle with fluency and the importance of building pre-writing strategies like creating an outline. Each student seems to struggle when it comes to reading fluently. All three are good students, I have corrected their work before and have no worries that they will be able to gain a lot of information from these two lessons.  I have noticed that when these three students read aloud, they seem to read quite a bit slower than the rest of class, and seem to struggle with some site words. I will be conducting a fluency assessment to find each one's instructional level, and from this will design a lesson to fit their needs.

Each student is a strong writer. However, I have noticed that these students seem to struggle with organization in their writing. Their writing seems to lack coherency and I feel that if they are taught how to outline their writing, their skills as young writers will greatly improve. 

I look forward to working with these three students. I think that these lessons will benefit them, and hopefully help them grow in their literacy development. Also, I know my MT will be pleased with the progress they make. She has mentioned a few times that she wants to focus and work with these three individuals, but doesn't have enough time to do so. She is excited that they will be receiving some individual instruction time, and as a result, I will make sure that they benefit from the lessons.

I look forward to taking the next step of assessing and finding their instructional level. Once I do this, a fluency lesson will be no problem to plan. I hope to make it engaging and educational, and the same thing with my writing lesson. I will keep you posted, not only because it is part of the assignment, but because I know you truly care about the growth of these students. Until then, "Keep calm, and carry on."

Reading, Writing, and Comprehension, OH MY!

This week’s reading was great review. I remember last year having to put together a portfolio for my TE and CEP 301 class. This portfolio was of a number of reading assessments, many of which were mentioned in Tompkins chapter 3.

If I were going to use one form of assessment for the students in my classroom I believe I would use the good ol’ running record.  I would use this type of assessment to focus mainly on fluency. I have noticed and have been told by my MT that some of the students in my placement struggle with fluency. For this reason, I believe I will be developing my mini lessons based on a fluency running record assessment. 

I of course have not yet seen or taken part of any formal reading assessment for students in my classroom, so to judge their development in word identification and fluency is strictly opinion based, and not backed by any assessment evidence.  That being said, I believe that most students’ would be considered to be at grade-level in regards to their word identification and fluency development. However, I can think of at least four students who struggle in this area.  These three “target” students all seem to have trouble reading words smoothly and accurately when I help them during their small reading circles that occur when the students have independent reading time.  This is not to say that they are “bad” readers or below grade level, but they simply may be reading at what Tompkins refers to as their “frustration level.” My goal would be to assess their actual fluency and word identification knowledge to help get them to their “instructional level.” This will be my overall goal for my mini lesson. I know that I may not be able to get students to that level with just one lesson, but I can hopefully gather some useful information for my MT that she can then assess and handle appropriately to ensure these students are getting the most out of their reading time.

Before I write a brief mini lesson, I wanted to mention something I really liked about the Tompkins reading. I liked how Tompkins gave an example of the teacher sticky notes. This was a great idea from the teacher to help keep her on track with what was happening during her lesson time. It was a great way to remember her informal assessments as she monitored student’s progress. I know that in one of my classes, either my special ed class, or this one, we have talked about similar methods. I just think something like this is a great idea in order to keep track of your students and your individual teacher progress. It is a great way as a teacher to make sure that your lessons are benefiting students, by forcing yourself to write down what things stand out to you during a lesson.  I think reading examples of things like this are good examples of ways to continuously push ourselves to be the best teachers we can. If we continue to strive for improvement, not only will we benefit, but our students will benefit as well. Great stuff….

Alright, now back on track. I am not sure how long this is supposed to be, so I am going to make it brief, and to the point.

The following is a quick lesson plan to test fluency using a passage from the book “The Watsons Go to Birmingham” by Christopher Paul Curtis.

Lesson Topic/Goal- Smooth reading,

1.       This lesson will be to assess student’s fluency by performing a running record from the book “The Watsons Go to Birmingham” (Curtis, 1995).

Rationale- Three target students’ have been selected based on the need to test their fluency and word recognition ability. It is my belief that this three students may not be at their “instructional level” for reading, and as a result their ability to read with fluency is being hindered.

Lesson Procedures

1.       Students’ will be given the following passage from The Watsons Go to Birmingham

“I could have done a lot of stuff to him. If it had been me with my lips stuck on something like this he’d have tortured me for a couple of days before he got help. Not me, though, I nearly broke my neck trying to get into the house to rescue Byron.  As soon as I ran through the front door Momma, and Dad and Joey all yelled, “Close that door!”

2.       Students’ will be given one minute to read the above passage.

3.       A running record will be kept based on the number of words they read correctly. Self corrected or omitted words will not be scored against them.

4.       The number of words read correctly will be calculated with the total number of words to discover the student’s fluency level.

Findings

                Based on the results of the assessment, students should be given the appropriate text that fits their reading level.