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Instructional Context (1pg-delete 2.5pgs from total for final pg count of 12)
What are the number, ages, and grades of the students in the class featured in this entry, and what is the subject matter of the class?
The class featured in this entry is 3rd grade students, ranging from ages eight to nine. In the class there are a total of 16 students, but this entry features a small group of five students. The students are being taught the subject matter of English language arts, specifically reading literature.
What are the relevant characteristics of this class that influenced your instructional strategies for this period of instruction: ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity; the range of abilities of the student(s); the personality of the class? What are the relevant characteristics of the students with exceptional needs and abilities that influenced your planning for this period of instruction (for example, the range of abilities and the cognitive, social/behavioral, attentional, sensory, and/or physical challenges of your students)? Give any other information that might help the assessor “see” the class.
In my class, 15 out of 16 students are high needs because they either receive free or reduced lunch, special education services, are English language learners (ELLs) with limited English proficiency, school-based early intervention services for social and emotional behavioral issues, and/or performing 1-2 years below grade-levelacademic expectations.
In the video segment, the girl in purple is able to read on-grade level texts fluently, can discuss what she has read, but has difficulty organizing her thoughts into writing. The boy in red is an ELL, he reads approaching level texts with some fluency, but has difficulty understanding vocabulary and story elements. The girl in green is able to read on-grade level texts fluently, but has very little comprehension strategies to be able to discuss or recall details from texts. The boy in gray receives special education services in English language artsfor phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing;he has very little decoding and phonics skills so his word reading is instructionally at a beginning first grade level. However, his listening comprehension is much greater; he can respond to questions about text orally, but does need assistance to write it down. The boy in teal is also an ELL, he reads on-grade level texts fluently, but has little comprehension strategies to help him to respond to questions about text or to even discuss texts. His limited English proficiency hinders his participation in discussions because of a lack of vocabulary or how to structure his answers. All of the students are still developing in attending to texts and in building their stamina of rereading texts for different purposes and are not always engaged with the texts, which was expected.3 students are approaching and 2 students have met the minimal requirements on the state reading assessment and are with me to focus on skills that are necessary in improving their performance for the last round of statewide testing.
What are the relevant features of your teaching context that influenced the selection for this period of instruction? This might include other realities of the social and physical teaching context (e.g., available resources, scheduling of classes, room allocation-own classroom or shared space) that are relevant to your response (whole class, small group, one on one, inclusive, pull-out, in-class support, etc.).
I teach in a shared space or classroom, which is physically divided by rolling bulletin boards that do not eliminate extraneous noises from the adjoining class, so I strategically met with my small group of students at the farthest end from the adjoining class in a small group configuration. I was also close enough to my high-needs group at the computer center; theyhad assistance from an educational assistant and were having the same shared-reading text read-aloud to them digitally. All students have access to the printed copies of the Reading/WritingWorkshop book and their reader’s notebook, as well as digital access to the same materials. Although students have digital access to all literacy instructional materials, there are a limited number of computers. I have 4 computers, 3 laptops, and borrow 3 more laptops from the adjoining class’ teacher so that all small groups not meeting with me have access to the same literacy instructional materials digitally. The digital component has helped to increase enrichment and engagement for the independent, higher reading level students or access to complex texts forstudents with lower reading levels.
Planning and Instruction (5pgs)
Cite the current reading theory(ies) or research finding(s) you used to plan and implement your instruction in this lesson. How did the theory(ies) or research finding(s) inform instruction in this lesson? Note: to cite a theory or research finding, briefly describe the theory or research finding in one to two sentences.
Research findings indicate that ELLs benefit from instruction in the key components of reading, including text comprehension (August & Shanahan, 2006; Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2008; NICHD, 2000). The reading theories or research findings used to plan and implement this lesson were in text comprehension, specifically through a close reading routine and asking text-dependent questions. Close or analytic reading is an effective way to engage students in purposeful rereading for deeper meaning of a text. Students engage in repeated reading using specific key features in a text that invite the reader toexpand their own knowledge of the text as a whole. This instructional routine is structured support to help students access complex texts (Boyles, 2012; Fisher & Frey, 2012b; Frey & Fisher, 2013; PARCC, 2001; Shanahan, 2013).
Text-dependent questions are a thought-provoking instructional strategy that builds habits of critical thinking. These questions lead students to deepen their understanding of text throughtransactional reading of justifying their responses using text evidence and prior knowledge (Boyles, 2012; Coleman & Pimentel, 2012; Fisher & Frey, 2011; Fisher & Frey, 2012a; Fisher & Frey, 2012b; Frey & Fisher, 2013; McTighe, 2004; Shanahan, 2013).
Students struggle with reading and effectively understanding on-grade level complex texts; I chose the use of the close reading instructional routine, including text-dependent questions to support the students’ needs and still required of them to productively struggle with the complex text related to the essential questions of how different cultures can contribute to their communities. The lesson was structured to provide students the time and guidance to locate evidence from and understand a complex text.
What assessment(s) did you use to gain insight into student ability in planning instruction? How did you use data generated by the assessment(s) to plan instruction?
I used formative assessments, like reading constructed responses, daily observations, and standardized reading assessments like running records, a developmental reading assessment, and statewide reading assessment to plan for this small group instruction. When analyzing all of the assessments, I noticed that the students had difficulty citing evidence from text to support their answers, so the lesson’s focus was to answer questions and support their answers using evidence from the text. From daily observations, I found that these student’s also had difficulty following along with the class during whole group instruction, so I planned for small group instruction in the farthest end of the room to minimize noise and distractions from other students in the class and the adjoining class. I also found from running records and a developmental reading assessment that although reading fluency differed for all of the students, some better than others, they were all reading below grade level reading expectations. Along with small group instruction, I planned for a mixed ability of students’ reading fluencyso some students were models for their peers and other students were provided opportunities to practice and improve fluency in a safe, small group setting.
What were the reading goal(s) for this lesson, and why were they developmentally appropriate for the student(s)?
The reading goal for this lesson is a Common Core State Standard in reading literature, which was for the students to be able to ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of the text, while referring explicitly to complex text or the literature as the basis for their answers (Litearcy.RL.3.1); although the focus is to answer questions, rather than asking which is later in the instructional sequence of this standard. These students are confident in answering basic story element questions like, who, what, where, when, why, and how based on what they’ve read or have listened to. The focus of this lesson was the next step in answering an array of text-dependent questions or questions in which the answers need inferences based on precise attention to the text. The inferences that the students make based on the text are related to a deeper concept, underlying theme, or answers an essential question that is the purpose for reading; this lesson provided the students an opportunity to understand a text more deeply and purposefully.
What were the specific reading skills or literary concepts you selected to present at this time? What instructional strategies did you use to enhance student ability to construct meaning from reading?
The specific reading skill that was presented at this time was answering questions about literary text using evidence directly from the text. Students used the close reading instruction routine to find text evidence. Instructional strategies used to enhance students’ ability to construct meaning from reading were small group instruction including collaborative conversations, choral reading, text-dependent questions.
Small group instruction is guided or tailored instruction based on specific students’ abilities or skills. This strategy was critical for these students because it provided them the opportunity for differentiated instruction and collaborative conversation or speaking and listening skills. My small group instruction was able to scaffold for the students the kind of questions and thinking they were going to need to do when meeting with the whole group. I was proactive when planning for small group instruction because I knew that these particular students would have difficulty attending to and accessing the text when in a whole group setting. I wanted to prepare them for the text-dependent questions that were going to be discussed in the whole group discussion and provide them a reference point in which to draw on. Students needed to discuss and listen within the small group to understand and be able to answer questions about the complex text.
Choral reading and reading aloud is when students read together with the teacher or when texts are read out loud by the teacher or a student. This strategy helped the students not only with developing fluency, but also provided multiple reading opportunities to look deeper into the text for increased understanding. I incorporated choral readings and reading aloud so the students who already read fluently would take the time to read carefully and use higher-level thinking skills to find the answers to text-dependent questions, while students who have difficulty with fluency could use the time to reread the text and practice their fluency.
Applying the close reading instructional routine to understand texts is when you repeatedly re-read texts for specific purposes and cite evidence from the text to answer text-dependent questions. I planned multiple readings of chunked texts for these students to develop thinking critically and how to locate text evidence to answer text-dependent questions related to the overall meaning or purpose of the story.
How did you integrate this reading lesson across other areas of the language arts and/or other content areas?
This reading lesson integrated speaking, listening, writing, and social studies.All of the integrated activities were based on the essential question of the lesson which was how do people from different cultures contribute to a community? I integrated speaking and listening in the reading lesson by initiating choral reading and reading aloud to the student’s especially for the boy in gray who has very limited fluency and decoding skills, as well as my ELLs who need more language support in understanding context and accessing complex texts. I also integrated speaking and listening in the reading lesson by asking text-dependent questions that required the students to determine the main ideas and supporting key details from the text and present or share their understanding in our small group discussion. I integrated writing in the reading lesson by having the student’s practice analytical writing by responding to text-dependent questions in their reader’s notebook, as a record of their thinking in writing. This is critical in improving the students’ reading comprehension as well as their writing skills when they respond to text in writing. I also integrated social studies in the reading lesson by incorporating a political science or civics concept of describing the roles and rights of citizenship and demonstrating responsibilities of citizenship by discussing how different cultures can contribute to a community through sharing photos, foods, businesses, etc. This helped the students to make connections to their prior knowledge of how they or their family have contributed to the communities they live in because of their cultural traditions or practices; these connections help to better their understanding of the text, whether it’s through reading, discussion, or writing.
How did you foster an environment that allows the student(s) to actively and purposefully construct meaning from reading? How did you ensure that the student(s) had the opportunity to reach high standards and expectations?
During this reading lesson I fostered an environment that allowed the students to actively and purposefully construct meaning from reading and have an opportunity to reach high standards and expectations by having flexible grouping, enforcing extended time, and requiring persistence from the students when accessing complex texts.
The students in the class are grouped by their learning needs; the small group of students I’m teaching the reading lesson to need help using evidence from the text to support their answers, while the other groups are developing their reading fluency through digitally rereading or reading and answering questions independently about the text in their digital binders. Flexible grouping based on students’ learning needs also ensures that the students receive instruction that scaffolds their learning to reach the grade level expectation of independently citing evidence from the text to support their answers. Instruction in a small group also helped the students to stay actively engaged with my instruction and the text because they have many opportunities to share or at least feel comfortable to take the risk in sharing what they would have hesitated doing in the whole group setting.
All of the students in the small group require extended time to read and understand texts. The small group instruction was additional time to instruct and scaffold for these students on the lesson goal of how to answer questions based on text evidence. As I was teaching the reading lesson I also ensured that I allowed for enough wait time to give the students the opportunity to reread the text and think about what they were looking for when answering higher-level, text-dependent questions, a strategy I planned to use to address their reading comprehension needs. I also found that extended time to model how to find text evidence in different chunked sections of the text provided the students with the opportunity to reach the expectation of doing it during guided practice in the reading lesson, which will result in reaching the grade-level expectation when doing it independently.
When teaching the reading lesson I also spent a considerable amount of time on the skill of finding text evidence for each text-dependent question because this is a skill all of the students have difficulty with; this required the students to be persistent in their finding and understanding of what we read. This was the first time really focusing on this skill and it was a productive struggle for the students because they are still developing their stamina and engagement in close reading strategies, like rereading chunked texts for specific purposes, or in this case, text-dependent questions related to the underlying theme or message of the literary text. So, taking the time to guide the students to make connections through text evidence required all students to meet high-level standards and expectations of answering text-dependent questions.
Video Recording Analysis (4pgs)
In the first segment of the video recording, discuss how your classroom environment encourages reading development. Provide evidence of how your classroom resources appropriately reflect the needs (highlight needs since it’s a state-mandated program) and interests (literary texts, layout of curriculum is visually appealing, relative to students’ prior knowledge, and simple for students to understand) of your students?How was this reflected in the video recording? Cite specific examples in the video recording.