Angie Somers
Practicum Notebook RE 5725 & 5531
Adaptive Instruction
The reading clinic was very valuable to me as a kindergarten teacher. I found that the primary lesson plan was very effective and the sequence of instruction was engaging for my tutoring student. I began thinking about how I could use the activities that I implemented in my tutoring into my kindergarten classroom with small groups. I would like to use the emergent/primary lesson plan in guided reading with my ability groups. I would like to add picture and word sorts into my literacy center activities each week. Last I would like to add book talks with independent reading into my Silent reading time.
I liked the lesson plan format that was used in the clinic and I would like to modify my guided reading lessons to use all of the components of rereading, word study, sentence writing and introducing a new text. Of course I do not have and hour for each guided reading group so the lesson would have to be modified to fit into my time slot. Between me and my cooperating teacher we meet with each guided reading group everyday. I meet with two each day and she meets with two. The other students are engaged in literacy centers around the classroom and then they have their guided reading instruction. I would like to set up my guided reading lesson next year for rereading and introducing and new book everyday. On Monday Wednesday and Friday I would add word study in small group and on Tuesday and Thursday I would add sentence writing. This would allow each group to have word study cards based on their level, after guided reading they can partner sort their cards and play a game with the sort and then complete their literacy center activity. This would allow for guided practice and independent practice each week in word study.
Kindergarten students have difficulty with silent reading especially at the beginning of the year. I would like to introduce book talks during silent reading to promote independent reading and to also build fluency. In past years I have had book baskets that the student selected independent reading books during silent reading from. I have found that it is very difficult to keep the books leveled in the appropriate box and that often students do not pick a book that is on their independent level. This year I would like to try individual book bags for independent reading. At the beginning of each week students would select books that were on their independent level some they may have already read and place them in their book bags. During silent reading the students would read the books from their book bag and each day at the end of silent reading a student would do a book talk, sharing a passage from one of their independent books I would give that student time to practice reading the passage they chose prior to reading to the class. I believe that this would help fluency because they are rereading the same three books for a week and also sharing with classmates. This would also make sure that each student was reading a book on their independent level and not allow the constant switching of books from the book baskets.
I would like to implement all of the modifications that I have mentioned and hopefully they will be successful. The reading clinic experience has opened my eyes to new ideas and possibilities in my classroom and I am excited!
Adaptive Assessments
I am a kindergarten teacher in ForsythCounty; we are required to do many different assessments for each individual child. The assessments that we complete for each student take a lot of time. For each student I complete Concepts of Print, letter ID, High Frequency Running records and retell as well as Dibels. I would like to add some of the assessments that we used in the reading clinic to help me as a teacher decide what guided reading group a child should be placed in and when a child should move up to a new group. To my regular classroom assessments I would like to add word flash, mini IRI and timed reading for high frequency words.
I would like to assess each of my students in word flash after concepts of print to place them in a guided reading group. By assessing word flash I would be able to see the readers and the non readers in my classroom. Kindergarten students come in at a very wide range. The word flash would show if I needed to assess a student with an IRI. If a kindergarten student comes into my classroom and they are able to read the first list then I know that they are a reader.
I would also like to complete mini IRI’s during guided reading for those students that I think are ready to move up to the next level. This could be done with the guided reading materials in small group. Other students in the group would continue to mumble read and I would have that student read for one minute listening for accuracy and timing for rate.
High frequency words can be very difficult for some kindergarten students. I would like to do Timed Reading for high frequency words and chart student progress. In past years I graphed student’s progress with high frequency words at the end of the quarter and compared their chart to the following quarters. I did not use the flash method for the high frequency words. This year I would like to flash the high frequency words and time the students to see how many words they could automatically read in one minute and chart their progress.
I found that all of the IRI assessments very effective and gave a clear picture of each student. I look forward to the day our school system sees the value of other forms of assessment that are much faster and give a clear picture of a good reader with balance of accuracy, rate and comprehension.