Sunday, April 17, 2011
4-17
When evaluating my focus students' literacy learning, I was very impressed! My lesson plan went perfectly because we did a reading, and I watched their literacy skills with sight words, etc... and then afterwards my CT actually had me work with my two focus students to practice for the spelling test they were going to have that afternoon. Jake* did really well, he exceeded and ended up memorizing all eleven words! He was motivated throughout the entire time we were practicing and memorizing, and I was very impressed and proud of him. *Bruce was another story. He wanted to do well himself, but he did not want to put in the work. When he actually focused and looked at the words, he could memorize them... but it was a task to keep him engaged and motivated. He gets distracted VERY easily and the classroom was very rambunctious and roudy! I ended up getting him back on task by makign a game out of it.... I made up songs and riddles and beats that would help him to memorize the words. Although he did not get through all of it, he did memorize the first six before we ran out of time. This proved to himself that he could do it if he put the time into it, the only problem was that he usually takes a longer amount of time to get through his work because if he is uninterested, he zones off and it's hard for him to bring himself back. When he does, he is very intelligent and an excellent student. I think this will be solved with his own practice and self discipline. As he continues through school, I think he will get into a routine and that will help him out when it comes to the attention span.
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Hinz,
*Bruce* has shown a tremendous amount of improvement when it comes to his literacy. He is able to read without difficulty, is familiar with the sight words, and has fluency with reading and writing. One thing that I have noticed that affects Bruce's literacy in a negative way would be his lack of attention. He is a very positive and energetic student, and if he could find a way to use this energy into his learning, I think he would be very pleased with his accomplishments. Ways to help him over the summer continue to develop his literacy skills, yet keeping his attention would be to allow him to pick the books he wants to read over the summer. Encourage him to read by bringing him to the library, yet allow him to choose something he is interested in, so he will be more attentive and interested in what he is reading, and it won’t be as easy to distract him. At this time, it is very important for him to continue practicing his reading, and if we are able to show Bruce that reading can be pleasurable, I believe that he will excell and stay on track for 2nd grade next year.
Some ways to enhance his learning would be to have discussions about the books he is reading. Ask him for a summary every few chapters, ask him his favorite parts of the book, etc. Get him discussing the book with you. It may even be a good idea to read that book also so you can enlighten him in your book discussions with him.
If you want to assess his improvement, ask him to write a summary, rather than discussing it. Let him draw a picture too, to make it more entertaining for him, since I’ve noticed he loves to draw! Keep him involved in reading, and lets try to make reading an every day thing, so it is a fun routine. I think this will help him develop into a phenominal reader, and will help him to stay focused and on track, and eliminate the “spacing out.”
If you have any questions, email me.
Have a great summer,
Gabrielle Giles
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Gabe, I think you did a great job capturing the students attention as well as modeling different ways to think about memorizing/learning their vocabulary words! I know Bruce is one of your more easily distracted students, and reminds me of myself a little:) I am glad to hear you say with his self discpline and aging, hopefully he can learn how to manage his (what it seems like to me as ADHD). Although I think he also needs support from his teachers, this is a much more positive way of going than medications for the remainder of his school life.
ReplyDeleteOn to your letter... I thought overall, it was a good letter. What do you think about including what Tompkins has to say when refering to "daily opportunities to read and write." Like we have been learning in lecture, and from our readings, having writing time is essential to the development of reading, since they go hand in hand. This is not known by many "lay" people, so I think it is imperative to explain these processes to our student's parents. I would have asked Bruce's parents to make it a daily requirement to read anything he wants for ten to 20 min as well as daily journaling or anything he wants to write and/or draw about for another 10-20 minutes a day. I would of course, not be so blunt and allow the parents to have as much or more input as me, since they know their child more than anyone, other than himself! Rose, what do you think you would say?
Gabe, I think your letter is well written, and hits on a lot of important aspects of your study child. I liked how you started off with a positive note, saying “Bruce has shown tremendous amount of improvements when it comes to his literacy.” I would however, add in that he is fluent with the literacy at whatever level he is. What I mean by this is, students will master different levels of fluency, I think its important to state at which level he is at. It is unclear in your letter; I was left wondering is he fluent at the level that he should be at according to where the school district wants him to be. Where does he fall in regards to other students? This does not mean that if he is in the middle of the road, or even below that you need to tell them, but I think it’s important to let parents know where students fall, in a positive way. I think it was great that you gave the parents ideas on how to work with Bruce over the summer. Allowing him to pick him own books is a great start! I know from personal experience that when my mom would pick out books for me I never wanted to read them, and it was a struggle to get thought; however, when she let me pick out my own books it made reading fun, and I wanted to read. This is a simple trick that parents over look because they just want their children to read, and they think if they put books in front of them that they think their child will like it will motivate them. When in fact it can push their child away from reading even more. Your letter was to the point, and gave great advice! I would be happy if my child came home with a letter like this.
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