Part 1: Strategies to assist
| Area | Areas of Need & Strategies to Assist- Proposed standard | Explanation |
| Interest & motivation | I do not see any specific areas or strength or need for improvement based on his attitude and interest inventories. | I do not see any specific areas or strength or need for improvement based on his attitude and interest inventories. |
| 1.Phonemic awareness | Mason was able to correctly identify and separate words in speech scoring 5/5. He was able to correctly identify 4/5 rhyming pairs, missing “ball/tall”, but was able to successfully create 5/5 rhyming pairs. He was able to correctly count the syllables in all 5 words. Mason also completed the Blend Onset and Rimes section scoring 100%, but missed one on blending individual phonemes. He was able to identify the initial sounds of words, but struggled with the final sounds (2/5) and middle sounds (2/5). Below are 3 strategies that could aid Mason:
Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. Use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology (e.g., roots and affixes) to read accurately unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context. |
1. Phoneme Manipulation cards would be very helpful to Mason. Not only to identify specific sounds, but he could lay the cards out to create both real and nonsense words, identifying each sound in the word as he creates. This would be a great activity for him to do alone or during small group. 2. Rhyming games would be very helpful to Mason. As he struggled with the ending sounds of words, doing rhyming activities, reading rhyming books would allow him to have more practice and be able to recognize more easily the final sound in a word. The repetition would also help Mason as he is exposed to the sound continuously, thus able to recognize it more easily. 3. Identification sounds via the train model would be very beneficial to Mason. We’d start by reviewing that each word is made up of different sounds and these sounds fall in different places. From here, we’d have a picture of a train with 3 different parts: an engine, a passenger car, and a caboose. Three connecting boxes can be drawn under each component: one under the engine, connected to one under the passenger car, connected to the one under the caboose (use poster board and laminate). Explain that words have a beginning, middle, and end sound just like the train has a beginning, a middle, and an end part. Demonstrate by slowly articulating a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant words (e.g., /p/-/i/-/g/) and pointing to the box corresponding to the position of each sound in the word. Once the student masters CVC words, the teacher could move onto higher tier words.https://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-now-brown-cow-phoneme-awareness-activities |
| 2.Phonics | Mason’s instructional level is at Grade 4, which is on grade level. Mason missed 3 words that end in “ed”, 1 on the third grade level and 2 on the fourth grade level. For the fifth grade level, mason missed a myriad of different words, nothing that I could make a connection between. Below are 3 strategies to help Mason review inflection endings and overall spelling.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.5.3.A |
1. Inflection ending flashcards will have the root word on one side and the inflection on the other. Mason will be able to practice saying the 3 different /ed/ endings, as well as spelling and saying both the root word and the word with the proper inflection. 2. We will do a variety of worksheets that go over the sounds /ed/ endings make. These worksheets will give Mason the opportunity to write different words with the -ed ending, as well as saying them aloud and spelling them. 3. Inflection ending dice would be another great way for Mason to practice and review inflections and how to correctly join them to words and say them aloud. These dice would have a different word on all 6 sides; each time it was thrown, a different word would appear and Mason would sound out the individual sounds in the word and add the inflection to the end.https://www.education.com/lesson-plan/inflectional-endings-lesson-two-inged/ |
| 3.Spelling | Mason spelled 12 of 25 words correctly on the ESI assessment. He was very strong with short vowel and long vowel words. As the words got more complicated, the more Mason missed- which is to be expected. However, Mason did miss words with similar properties, such as advanced affixes and some words with digraphs. Below are 3 strategies to help aid Mason:
Spell grade-appropriate words correctly, consulting references as needed. |
1. Word Sorts: Put lots of words with paired initial sounds in squares. Have them cut out the words and paste them under the consonant digraph, i.e. ch-chap, chart, chink, chop, chip and then sh-ship, shop, sheep, sharp, etc.
2. Word Building: Create worksheets where students choose from two digraphs to build words, such as ship, sheep, shop. Some should have more than one of the same endings (chop, shop) and others should have only one ending (chin, sharp, etc.) 3. Word Games: Create bingo games, especially with more than one word from a word family, to help students focus on the digraph. Examples include chip and ship, shop and chop. https://www.thoughtco.com/digraphs-supporting-spelling-and-decoding-3111053 |
| 4.Vocabulary | Mason was able to correctly identify almost all of the grade level words. He struggled with many of the more advanced words and words that have multiple meanings, such as seller vs. cellar. This is more of a comprehension issue than a vocab issue. The student was provided a sentence with the word and could not correctly identify the meaning, signifying that he is unable to infer the word based on context.
Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal precise actions, emotions, or states of being (e.g., quizzed, whined, stammered) and that are basic to a particular topic (e.g., wildlife, conservation, and endangered when discussing animal preservation). Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 4 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. |
1. Students can play homophone Pictionary by showing the two people at the board a homonym pair on an index card and having them race to illustrate the words. The first team to guess the homophones correctly scores a point. This is great for whole class instruction and will allow other students struggling to practice as well. 2. Go Fish cards (or Flash Cards): Write pairs of homophones on index cards. Teach your students how to play the game if they do not already know how then use your cards to make matching pairs. This is great for small group/partner work and will give Mason and others the opportunity to identify homophones. The person who has the pair must say the definition of each homophone set. 3. You can give your students practice matching homophones with the correct definitions by creating your own crossword puzzles. Simply give the definition of the word as the clue and have your students fill the answers in the chart. This would be great for Mason to do in his free time or at home for practice. He will be able to work on spelling as well gaining clues from the context. https://busyteacher.org/8185-tips-for-teaching-homophones.html |
| 5.Fluency | Mason was able to read 127 WCPM. This places him around the 50th percentile for a 4th grader. He struggled with pronunciation of words and stopped frequently to re-read a word. He read very quickly, but made quite a few errors and wasn’t able to answer all of the comprehension questions at the end.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.5.4.B |
1. Promote phrased reading: Fluency involves reading phrases seamlessly, as opposed to word by word. To help students read phrases better, begin with a terrific poem. Two of my students’ favorites are “Something Told the Wild Geese” by Rachel Field, and “Noodles” by Janet Wong. (See resources below.) After selecting a poem, write its lines onto sentence strips, which serve as cue cards, to show students how good readers cluster portions of text rather than saying each word separately. Hold up strips one at a time and have students read the phrases together. Reinforce phrased reading by using the same poem in guided reading and pointing to passages you read as a class.
2. Reader’s Theater in Class: Because reader’s theater is an oral performance of a script, it is one of the best ways to promote fluency. In the exercise, meaning is conveyed through expression and intonation. The focus thus becomes interpreting the script rather than memorizing it. Getting started is easy. Simply give each student a copy of the script, and read it aloud as you would any other piece of literature. (See script resources below.) After your read-aloud, do an echo read and a choral read of the script to involve the entire class. Once the class has had enough practice, choose students to read the various parts. Put together a few simple props and costumes, and invite other classes to attend the performance.
3. Choral Reading: It can provide less skilled readers the opportunity to practice and receive support before being required to read on their own. It provides a model for fluent reading as students listen. It helps students like Mason improve their ability to read sight words.
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| 6.Comprehension | Mason scored 50% on the reading comprehension test. He was unable to answer most of the reading comprehension questions, and while the answers he did choose were mentioned in the text, the were not the answer to the question. He needs to take his time reading and pay more attention to what he is reading. He reads the words very quickly, but he does not pay attention to what the words mean, he just reads them. Going forward, this will make reading much harder for him. He would benefit from a Read Naturally strategy that allows him to step back and think about what he is reading before moving on. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions). |
1. Graphic and semantic organizers: Graphic organizers illustrate concepts and relationships between concepts in a text or using diagrams. Graphic organizers are known by different names, such as maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames, or clusters. Graphic Organizers can help Mason to focus on concepts and how they are related to other concepts. Graphic organizers help students read and understand textbooks and picture books.
Graphic organizers will help Mason to:
2. Summarizing: Summarizing requires students to determine what is important in what they are reading and to put it into their own words. Practicing summarizing will help Mason:
3. Ask Questions: By having a set of questions to ask before, during, and after, Mason will be able to better keep track of what is happening in the text, and eventually no longer need the list. Below are some examples of what type of questions to have prepared?
https://www.readingrockets.org/article/seven-strategies-teach-students-text-comprehension |
| 7. Writing | Mason did well on his writing test. He knew many words and spelled most of the words he knew correctly. Most of the words written were very basic words. He did not include many advanced words. He could benefit from more practice with upper level words, what they mean, and how to spell them. Below are some strategies to help Mason:
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.) |
1. Word lists: Mason will be given a word list of words at his instruction and frustration level and told to use these words (correctly) in his writing as many times as possible. These words could range in difficulty and length. 2. Journaling: This would be a good way for all students in the class, Mason included, to have daily writing practice. Each day they could be given a different prompt- one that focuses on the writing style they are currently learning- in order to better practice that specific style along with growing their own writing skills 3. Review the basics: One strategy I’ve used with students is the Paragraph Hamburger which visually outlines the key components of a paragraph. Topic sentence, detail sentences, and a closing sentence are the main elements of a good paragraph, and each one forms a different “piece” of the hamburger. This would help Mason to develop more complex paragraphs and could be combined with his word list. |
Reflection
I found this assignment to be quite challenging overall. While some aspects were easy, like giving the tests, others where significantly harder, identifying areas of need and coming up with strategies to help the student grow in that area.
As stated in part 1 of this assignment, I thought I did well on giving the tests, but I could have been more organized and could have made the process more streamlined. For grading the assessments and coming up with strategies, I felt like I did quite well. I was able to identify the areas of need, come up with multiple strategies that are both specific to Mason, but could also be used with other students or even as whole class instruction. Additionally, I was able to relate the areas of need and strategies to assist to common core standards at his grade level.
Additionally, I felt as though I have grown in my ability as an educator. I am much more confident in my test-giving skills, as well as my ability to come up with realistic strategies and goals for a specific student’s needs. I feel as though I made Mason feel comfortable while taking the tests, which in turn made me feel more confident. However, I found it extremely challenging to not help the student if he got stuck on a word or didn’t understand the sentence. It was really challenging for me to not step in and teach Mason what a word meant or offer additional explanations. As stated in part 1’s reflection. I fully understand the importance of these assessments and know why helping the students through the tests would not be helpful to their education. However, it’s still a challenge for me, but I will continue to work on this going forward.
Overall, the main thing I can do to better my test administering skills, my grading skills, and my ability to come up with specific strategies for individual students is to keep practicing. I am a firm believer that you learn by doing, by continuing to practice and gain hands on experience. The more opportunities I have to be in front of students, teach lessons, and give tests, the more refined my teaching skills become. Overall, this assignment has allowed me to get one step closer to my dream of teaching and make me a more successful and intentional educator.
MCKENNA HAYDEN 
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