Purpose

My name is Ashley Cupp and I am an Elementary Education major at Grand View University- www.grandview.edu. I am currently in a Special Education practicum at a large public school district. I am working in a self-contained classroom with two fourth grade boys and one third grade boy. This semester I am taking a class called teaching literacy to 3rd through 8th grade. For this class, I am expected to work with a struggling reader five times. Over the course of my time with the student I will be getting to know him and teaching him lessons that will help him to improve in his reading. The student I will be working with is the third, grade nine year old boy from my practicum placement.  The reason I chose to work with this particular student is because he seems to be able to comprehend what he reads very well even though his fluency suffers. My hope is that after working with him I will be able to understand why this is the case.

Mini Case Report

Instructional Needs       

The student I worked with this semester is a 3^rd grade boy reading at a 2^nd grade level.  I truly believe that the root of this student’s reading struggles is his behavior problems.  He is a very bright student, but his unwillingness to do what is asked of him in the classroom really interferes with his learning.  I was very impressed with his overall ability to comprehend what he was reading each time I worked with him.  However, his fluency suffers which makes reading difficult for him.  One specific area in which the student seemed to struggle was reading words that contained vowel digraphs.  After conducting multiple running records, I noticed that he was consistently misreading these words. 

Future Needs

After spending time with working with this student, I think there are steps that can be taken to help him improve his reading skills.  I realize that time is always an issue when trying to work with students one on one, but I think one on one instruction would be very beneficial to this particular student.  If I were to have this student in my own classroom, I would be sure to continue to practice words with vowel digraphs.  One way I might do this is to have the student do word sorts of multiple words with different vowel digraphs.  I would ask the student to read each of the words aloud as he sorts them.  This would even be something the student could do on his own during a free moment.  Another thing I would do as this student’s teacher would be to have him practice reading high frequency words.  This would really help improve his fluency.

The student and his parents could also take steps at home to improve his reading.  One thing I would recommend is for the student to read aloud to his parents.  Even if it’s only three nights each week, the extra practice would definitely benefit him.  I would also recommend that the parents read aloud to the student on a regular basis.  Hearing fluent reading will help the student to become more fluent as well.

What I learned

Overall, I have learned a lot through this experience.  One very important lesson that I have learned is that not all students are motivated to learn on their own.  Some students need a lot of praise and rewards in order to complete a task.  Knowing that doing the task will help them learn isn't enough motivation for some students.  In these cases it's extremely important not to give up on the student.  It is so rewarding to see students grow and progress in their learning!

I am very thankful for having had the opportunity to work with this student over the course of the semester.  I have learned multiple different strategies that I can apply when I become a teacher and have a struggling reader in my class.  Not only that, but I have also learned the importance of building a relationship with each and every one of the students that we work with.

Lesson #5

The final lesson with this student went really well.  He was doing a great job of following directions and completing everything I asked him to do.  The goal of today's lesson was to see how the student had progressed and practice some of the phonics skills that he was still struggling with.

Running Record
The student was reading a level K book.  He read with a 96% accuracy rate.  However, I noticed that he wasn't self correcting at all.  This led me to believe that although he was reading with good accuracy that maybe he isn't ready to move up to the next level.  I talked to the student's teacher and she said she wasn't going to move him up quite yet.

One thing I noticed about the student's running record is that he very rarely uses the structure cue system.  However, he is now using meaning much more often than he used to which is wonderful to see!  One thing that I feel the student did really well during the running record was his use of expression.  A specific example was that when he came to an exclamation point, his voice went up to show excitement.  One thing we talked about that he needs to improve on is looking through the entire word when he comes to a word he doesn't know.  We then talked about how he can "chunk up" the word to help him.

Phonics Practice
To work on the student's phonics skills, we clapped multisyllabic words together.  He did a wonderful job with this and I could tell this came very easily to him, so I explained to him that he can use this method of chunking up the words to help him with his reading.  Instead of clapping the words aloud, he could separate the syllables by pointing to each syllable in the word.

We also did a Systematic Sequential Phonics lesson.  The lesson focused on words that included vowel teams, which is something the student is still struggling with.  He is able to pick out the vowel that makes the sound, but he has a very difficult time knowing when to add a second vowel.  I think this is something that will come with more practice.

What I learned
Overall, I have learned a lot through this experience.  One very important lesson that I have learned is that not all students are motivated to learn on their own.  Some students need a lot of praise and rewards in order to complete a task.  Knowing that doing the task will help them learn isn't enough motivation for some students.  In these cases it's extremely important not to give up on the student.  It is so rewarding to see students grow and progress in their learning!

I am very thankful for having had the opportunity to work with this student over the course of the semester.  I have learned multiple different strategies that I can apply when I become a teacher and have a struggling reader in my class.  Not only that, but I have also learned the importance of building a relationship with each and every one of the students that we work with.

Lesson #4

GV Daily Lesson Plan

Student Name: Ashley Cupp                                 Course Title; Semester: Spring 2013                 

 

Title of Lesson: Reading #4                            Total Lesson Time: About 30 Minutes           

Grade(s): 3rd This lesson is free-standing lesson 4 of 5 Subject Area: Reading/Phonics       

 

Learning Goals:

Today the student will learn to read and spell words that include five different vowel teams that make a long vowel sound.

 

Curriculum Standard(s):

English Language Arts Standards » Reading: Foundational Skills » Grade 2 Phonics and Word Recognition  •RF.2.3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. ◦Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams.

 

Learning Objectives and How Assessed:

Learning Objective(s)	Assessment Plan
Student will be able to: 1. Identify the sounds of each of the following vowel teams: ai, oa, oo, ee, and ea.  The student should identify 80% of the words including these vowel teams correctly.   2. Spell 8 out of 10 given words that include vowel teams correctly.	1. This will be assessed during the word sort.  I will observe the student’s sorting process and listen as he reads each of the cards.     2. At the end of the lesson I will ask the student to write 10 of the words we worked with today.  I will explain that I want him to spell them correctly.

 

Materials Needed:

Bingo Cards Calling Cards

 

Lesson Procedures:	Time	Differentiation (Adaptations for Diverse Learners, ELL, Gifted)
Anticipatory Set/Activating Prior Knowledge: To begin the lesson I will ask the student to read through all the words on his bingo card.  If there are any words that he doesn’t know, I will ask him what he thinks they mean.  If he doesn’t have any idea I will help clarify them. Introduction: Once the student knows all the words, I will tell him that we are going to be working with words that have vowel teams in them.  I will explain that this means that there are two vowels right next to each other in the word.  I will then tell him that we are going to start by playing a game of bingo. Teaching Procedures/Direct Instruction: -I will tell the student that I want him to be the caller.  (I will also have a bingo card, so we will both be playing the game.) -The student will draw from the pile of calling cards and read the card aloud.  I will ask him to read the word aloud again if he has it on his card. -Each time the student draws a card with a different digraph, I will ask him whether the vowel team makes a short or long vowel sound.  If he is incorrect, we will discuss the correct answer. -We will continue to play bingo in this manner until one of us gets a bingo. -After we have finished the game, I will ask the student to read through all of the calling cards aloud. Guided Practice: -At this point, I will have the student sort the calling cards based on the sound the vowel teams make. -I will ask him to read the words aloud as he does his sort. -After he has sorted all the words, I will ask him why he organized the words the way he did. -If there are any words in the wrong spot, I will use prompts such as: does that sound match the rest of the words, or does that make sense? Independent Practice: -After the student is finished with the sort, I will choose ten of the words from the calling cards.  The words I choose will be based on what I think he needs more practice one. -I will then ask the student to spell each of the ten words. Closure: To end the lesson, I will ask the student to check his words by looking at the calling cards and make the necessary corrections.	2 Min           1 Min             5 Min                             8 Min                   10 Min           2 Min	Not Applicable

 

References:

www.bogglesworldesl.com

 

Reflection on Student Learning:

This lesson with the student started out very well.  I think he was just excited to be able to play a game and do something fun.  However, once I asked him to read the words on the calling cards and sort them, things started going downhill.  He was very unwilling to do much, so instead of asking him to sort all the words, I picked about fifteen of the words for him to sort.  He still wasn't happy about it, but he did it.  We didn't get to practice the spelling of the words because I thought it was best not to push him any further; he had already reached his limit. The student didn't do very well with reading the words when he was asked to do so.  In order for him to read the words correctly, I had to give him a lot of prompts such as: what sound do those to letters make together, does that make sense, etc.  I think part of the reason he got so upset is because he knows this is something that he struggles with and he felt very anxious.  After talking to one of the teachers who works with him, I learned that he has pretty much learned to read this year as a third grader.  This really helped me to better understand where the student was coming from.  While the concept of vowel teams isn't completely new to him, it is something he hasn't had much practice with so he felt very uncomfortable.  He was very unsure of himself. I learned a lot through teaching this lesson.  It is so important to learn everything you can about your students so you can have a better understanding of why they do some of the things they do.  For instance, if I had known that the student didn't really learn to read until third grade, I would have simplified the lesson a little bit.  I would have used fewer words to begin with for the word sort instead of using so many, which caused a minor meltdown.  Things that we as teachers think are simple can be very overwhelming to kids, so it's important for us to think about that as we plan our lessons.

Below is the student's bingo card:

 

Lesson #3

The purpose of today's lesson was to see if the student was making any improvements in his fluency.  While the student's lack of fluency doesn't affect his comprehension, it is the cause of discrepancy between him and his peers.  I really feel that if the student were able to read with better fluency, he could be back on grade level with his reading.

Running Record
The main thing we did in our lesson today was a running record.  The student read a level K book with 95% accuracy and a self correction rate of 1:5.  In the past, he has always done a lot better with self corrections, so I have to wonder if the level K books contain some words that he is unfamiliar with.  As was the case with the last running record I conducted with this student, he used his visual cues the most.  This is interesting to me because the student does a great job of reading for meaning.  However, when he comes to a word he doesn't know, he forgets about the meaning cue system completely!  What is even more interesting is that the student is still able to tell me everything that took place in the story.  His missed words don't affect his ability to comprehend what he reads.  Every question I asked the student about what happened in the story was answered correctly. 

One thing the student is still really struggling with is motivation.  In order to get him to read today, we had to take turns reading every other page.  I would read a page, then he would read a page.  This was okay with me because he was still reading, but I want him to get to the point where he will read a book all on his own.

Dolch List
Today, we also read through Dolch list number 9.  The student read this list with 85% accuracy.  I would have liked for the student to continue reading through the lists, but he was unwilling to do so.  The reason I thought we should read through these lists is because maybe part of the reason the student's fluency is suffering is because he doesn't know all of the high frequency words.  After working on the Dolch list, I believe this could very well be the case.

Below is a photo of some of the words in the Dolch list the student read through:

What I Learned
This lesson taught me that while it is important for students to read fluently, they might still be able to comprehend what is being read.  I know this isn't the case very often, but it's important to keep this in mind as I work with future students.  This will help me to better understand that even if two different students both struggle with the same issue, they might not need the same type of instruction.

Lesson #2

GV Daily Lesson Plan

Student Name: Ashley Cupp                                 Course Title; Semester: Spring 2013                 

Title of Lesson: Reading #2                            Total Lesson Time: 20-30 Minutes                

Grade(s): 3rd This lesson is lesson 2 of 5 Subject Area: Reading 

Learning Goals:

The student will grow in his ability to read fluently and comprehend what he reads.  He will also be able to put his thoughts about his reading into writing.

Curriculum Standard(s):

English Language Arts Standards » Reading: Foundational Skills » Grade 3 Fluency •RF.3.4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. ◦Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding. ◦Read grade-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression. ◦Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary. Key Ideas and Details •RL.3.1. Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. •RL.3.2. Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text. •RL.3.3. Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events. •IA.1. Employ the full range of research-based comprehension strategies, including making connections, determining importance, questioning, visualizing, making inferences, summarizing, and monitoring for comprehension.

Learning Objectives and How Assessed:

Learning Objective(s)	Assessment Plan
Student will be able to: 1. Read aloud using the punctuation to guided his phrasing as he reads.  Student should be able to use correct phrasing at three out of every four punctuation marks. 2. Demonstrate his comprehension of what was read through summarizing.	1.      I will conduct a running record with the student to monitor his progress in fluency. 2. The student will write a short journal entry summarizing what he read.

Materials Needed:

Level K book Pencil Paper iPad

Lesson Procedures:	Time	Differentiation (Adaptations for Diverse Learners, ELL, Gifted)
Anticipatory Set/Activating Prior Knowledge: I will start by giving an exciting book introduction for the book the student will be reading in order to get him interested in the story. Introduction: I will then explain that I am going to model fluent reading for him before he shows me how fluently he can read. Teaching Procedures/Direct Instruction: 1. I will read the a few pages of the level K book that the student will be reading for his running record. 2. During this time I will point out how I pause when there is a comma or a period.  I will also demonstrate how my voice changes based on what type of punctuation is at the end of the sentence (goes down at a period and up at a question mark). 3. I will also tell the student that I am going to summarize what I just read.  I will explain that when I summarize what I read, it helps me to better understand what the story was about.  I will then summarize the portion of the story that I read. 4. I will then tell the student it’s his turn to show me his good fluency and that after he practices reading the book once, we are going to record it on the ipad so we can go back and listen to his good fluency after he is done. 5. I will then give the student time to practice.  Then, I will conduct a running record as the student reads and record his reading on the ipad. Guided Practice: 6. When he is finished we will watch it on the ipad.  During this time I will ask him to point out any strengths he demonstrated during the reading.  I will also use this time to review any words that he was unclear on.  7. In order to review the words he struggled with, we will go back to the words after he is finished reading and chunk the words up and work together to sound them out. Independent Practice: 8. After we have worked through all the tough words from the story, I will pick one page for the student to read to me again.  I will explain that I want him to really focus on pausing at the punctuation marks when he reads. 9. Next I will have the student get out a piece of paper and pencil. 10. I will then have him summarize or write in his own words what happened in the story. Closure: After the student has written in his journal, I will then ask him to tell me why he thinks summarizing helps him to be a better reader.  If he doesn’t know, we will discuss this.

References:

Reflection on Student Learning:

The lesson I taught today was not what I had expected to be teaching.  The student was very unwilling to do much work.  However, I was able to model fluent reading for him and take a running record.  I was not able to record his reading, but I was able to ask him when he finished what he felt he did a good job of and what needs work and I completely agree with what he said.  The student said he thinks he did a good job of sounding out words, but needs to work on some of his sounds.  This particular student really struggles with vowel combinations.  The combination that kept popping up in our reading today was ea.  This is something that we will definitely work on in the next lesson.  One thing we didn’t get to was the summarizing.  The student was having such a difficult time reading fluently, that he was unable to gain any meaning.  I have to wonder if this book was too difficult for him.  The book is at his instructional level, but maybe the vocabulary is too difficult.  The level below is too easy for him.  I think next time I am going to try to move him down a level and see how he does.  This student is also usually very good about self correcting during his reading, but this was not the case today.  He didn’t even realize that what he was reading didn’t make sense because he was so focused on sounding out the unknown words. Based on my observations, I don’t feel the student mastered either of the objectives of this lesson.  That being said, I am going to drop him down a level for the next lesson and see if he is able to read fluently enough to comprehend what he reads.  If he shows that he is able to read with good fluency and able to comprehend what was read, we can try moving back up to his instructional level and use a different book.

Below is a photo of the level K book we read.  As you can see some of the vocabulary may be unfamiliar to a 3rd grade student.

 

Lesson #1

The first time I worked with my struggling reader for this class was not the first time I had ever worked with him.  This was good because we had already developed a sense of trust, which allowed him to feel comfortable with me.  However, that doesn't mean he was always willing to do what I asked.  He did the spelling inventory and the reading interest inventory with few complaints, but the running record was a different story.  The purpose for this lesson was to see where the student was in terms of his spelling and reading levels.
Spelling Inventory
After administering the spelling inventory to the student, I believe this is an area in which he really struggles.  The area he really struggled with was the long vowel sounds that consisted of two or more letters.  I think word work would be really beneficial for him.
Reading Interest Inventory
After administering the reading interest inventory my thoughts about the student's view on reading were confirmed.  He doesn't like to read and if he wasn't forced to read, he probably wouldn't do it at all.  He would rather play Xbox or watch television.  However, I did find that books about animals, science, art, and funny books are interesting to him.  I will definitely use this information to help me pick out books for future lessons.
Running Record
The student really fought doing the running record for me.  At first, he completely refused to read for me at all, so I tried to make a deal with him.  I asked him if it would help him if I read the story first and then he could read it.  This wasn't something he was interested in, but he suggested that we take turns reading every other page.  I agreed to this and I told him if he worked hard, we could just read half the book and then we could be done.  He finally agreed to read for me. 

This isn't the first running record I have done with this student.  He usually does a pretty good job of self correcting during his reading.  However, he struggles with looking all the way through the word.  He sees the first letter and guesses at the rest of the word based on what would make sense.  This tells me that he is using his meaning cues and some visual cues as well.  However, he rarely uses structure cues.  On this particular running record, the student had an accuracy rate of 97% and a self correction rate of 1:2.  This tells me that he can probably move up from a level J to a level K.

What I Learned
This lesson really taught me how important it is to be flexible with our students.  This is especially important when we are working with special education students.  Sometimes the students just aren't willing to cooperate and we have to be patient and take what we can get.