Week 4 Activity and Reading - Portrait of a Reader

  
1. Phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and concepts of print

At the beginning of the year, Student 14 (even as a second grader) struggled with this component. He was able to correctly identify only 16 consonant sounds and 1 vowel sound. He was placed in a small group that was still significantly ahead of him but with the scheduling needs of the whole school it was the only place to put him. During small group time, I was able to spend a few minutes at the end of each session targeting specific skills he needed while other students would work independently.These skills included letter sound correspondence for letters he was still unsure of, blending sounds, and segmenting words.

2. The alphabetic code: Phonics and decoding

At the beginning of the year, Student 14 was able to correctly identify only 2/10 CVC nonsense words and 3/10 CVC words within 2 sentences on the PSI (Phonics Screener for Intervention). On DIBELS, he was only able to correctly identify 24 letter sounds (goal was 54) and 3 WWR (goal was 13).

This has been his main area of focus and instruction to date.We are slowly beginning to focus more on fluency than individual phonics skills.

3. Fluent, automatic reading of text

At the beginning of the year, Student 14 had a DIBELS score of 20wpm for fluency (goal was 53) and an accuracy rate of 65% (goal was 90). At that time, fluency wasn't an area to be addressed since there was such a struggle in phonics and decoding. In December, MOY Benchmark showed an increase to 34wpm for fluency (goal was 72) and an accuracy rate of 77% (goal was 96%). On February 6th, progress monitoring showed an increase to 52 wpm and an accuracy rate of 87%.

At this point, I would want him independently reading text which includes the following phonics skills, CVC, Blends, Digraphs, Long Vowels w/ Silent e, and Vowel Teams. His area of weakness is vowel teams. He also struggles using these phonics skills to decode multisyllable words. This roughly converts to a 1.6 - 2.0 AR level. Keeping within this range for independent reading will help strengthen his fluency rate and accuracy. 

Since he has a much higher comprehension level than his independent reading level, he often likes to use the tablets to access higher level reading material that has a read to me feature such as ebooks and News-O-Matic.

4. Vocabulary

His vocabulary is strong. He has a lot of background knowledge in various areas. 

5. Text Comprehension

He has good comprehension skills. If text is read to him, he is able to recall not only details but answer some higher order questions regarding the text.

6. Written Expression

His ability to write does not match his ability to generate thoughts and ideas. His written expression is limited by this.

7. Spelling and handwriting

His lack of phonics skills directly effects his ability to write.He is also using spelling games on my ipads for both phonetically spelled words and sight words.

8. Motivating children to read and developing their horizons

The fact that he is so far behind the rest of the class does seem to bother him. When he is in group, he is eager to read but struggles to stay focused if it is not his turn to read. It is encouraging that he is finally at a point where he can start to independently read stories that interest him.

The majority of the students I work with are with me because of a lack of motivation to read independently. What has surprised me the most is the fact that none of the classrooms from which they come from has a student friendly class room library. IF there are ANY books for them to access they are all thrown on a shelf. There is no sorting of topics or interests and no labeling as to book level. When I asked many of my students a while back about their reading for fun, most responded they have no idea how to find books they can read. They stated they get books off the shelf and can't even read the first few pages so they quit reading. We have a school library that is run by parent volunteers. Each student is allowed to check out ONE book a week. When I asked how they know which book to check out they all said a book that has orange duct tape (meaning it is an AR book) and a blue dot (which turns out to signify a second, third AND fourth grade level). I was completely blown away when I realized these kids had no way of finding a "Just Right" book so no wonder they were frustrated with reading. I immediately set up a mini library within my room. Every book is labeled with an AR level and AR quiz #. Books are then organized in bins by level. Many of my students are now taking 2-3 books per day, reading them and taking an AR quiz. We discuss the books they have read, whether they thought it was too hard or too easy. What they thought of the quiz that went with the book. Over time, we have narrowed their appropriate reading levels. It has been a great experience for them.

B1-b: What happened at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the story?
Kittens First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes   2.3
Charlie Needs a Cloak by Tomie dePaola  2.3
From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman  2.9

A4-a: Predict what will happen next in this story?
Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino  1.6
Arthur's Birthday by Marc Brown   2.3
The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble   2.2

A5-a: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language.
The King Who Rained by Fred Gwynne   2.1
All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle   2.3
All the Colors of the Earth by Sheila Hamanaka   2.2
In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming   2.0
Water Dance by Thomas Locker

Despite this student's background knowledge and vocabulary, he struggles with self correcting while reading. He often chooses a word which is visually similar yet makes no sense while reading. I think A5-a would be a good exercise for him to practice monitoring his reading for meaning.