Activities for Video Thread
Objective A4-a: Predict what will happen next in the story
I think this activity is a good starting point for my student. Up to this point we have focused on Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, lately fluency, and now we are ready to begin applying comprehension. Another reason I chose this activity, I know my student's background knowledge is strong and he enjoys self to text connections but at times he expands way beyond what the story is about. This would be a good activity to teach and demonstrate the importance of focusing more on the information within the text rather than embellishing with things that do not relate.
I plan to use this activity with the book chosen earlier:
The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble
Objective A5-a: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in text, including figurative language.
This would be another great activity to use with my student. His phonics skills are still below grade level and when he reads he still replaces words with similar phonetic patterned words. These words typically fit grammatically, replacing nouns with nouns and verbs with verbs and for a stand alone sentence they may make sense but the replacements often change the context of the story.
Texts I am considering for this activity:
All the Colors of the Earth by Sheila Hamanaka
All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle
Gina,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you really know your student! I think your justification for your activities is spot on.
Regarding the questions you asked in your comment in my blog post, I really like the Fontas and Pinnell Assessments. They usually match my informal assessments and really help me focus on what my students need to work on as readers. My school is a Title One School so those resources are funded through Title One funds. We also use the Phonics Screener Assessment, which is also very helpful.
Have you ever heard of Reading A-Z? It's another wonderful site that some grade level teachers at my school have purchased for guided reading resources. All of their books are leveled and they even offer benchmark texts, like Fontas and Pinnell. This may be a more affordable option.
As for STAR, I'm not as fond of this assessment as F&P. Many times, my students score lower on these assessments then I feel they should, especially my struggling students. I have a few students who are on grade level; however, they score in the red areas, which suggests that intensive instruction is needed. In my opinion, these tests are too long and students staminas starts to run out, which leads to guessing. On the flip side, the data can be very helpful for SAT purposes and documentation purposes. I guess it depends on how well your students test.
Regarding my library, I personally leveled all of my books. You can find the levels at http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/. It's a lot of work; however, it's well worth it. This year, I attempted the Daily 5/CAFE and went to categories versus levels because the sisters believe that students become to dependent on levels. I have mixed feelings. My students LOVE knowing their reading levels and are constantly using them to set goals. I think it's all about the way you present it.
Hopefully this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. This is only my 3rd year teaching so I'm still learning a lot!