Today the students started out the day working on antonyms, homonyms and synonyms. They all seemed a little confused so Ms. Abdus-Shakur decided to work on the worksheet together. Some examples from the worksheet were give/take, right/wrong, buy/sell, afraid/scared, ate/eight, false/true, mail/male, add/subtract, polite/rude, small/tiny, fast/quick and jump/leap.
The vocab for this week, from Balto, is...
1. telegraph-a machine used to send messages in code
2. drift- large piles of snow blown by wind
3. trail- path
4. temperature- how hot or cold something is
5. guided- to be led, taken where needed to go
6. splinters- sharp, thin slivers of wood or glass.
I then got to meet one on one with C. Since she was absent the last 2 weeks I decided to review with her the story we have been reading. She read Lets Talk Abou Games nearly perfect, the best she has ever read it. Before reading I told her to track with her finger, take her time and focus on the ending of words. I explained how sometimes it can get confusing because words can end in -ed, -ing, -s and -ers. She self-corrected twice throughout the story, which she never use to do and I really was impressed with her reading. After reading I wrote the word "play" on a piece of paper and asked her to repeat the word. I continued with "played, plays, playing and player". I then had C write the word jump, jumps, jumped, jumping and jumper.
After reading the book we took out her summary we had been working on and I had her revise it. She corrected sentences with capitalizing the first letter of sentences and words that she mispelled. I had her look through the book to find the correct spelling of words she couldnt sound out. The words she needed to correct were soccer, special, favorite, wear, helmets and hurt.
During ELA pull-out class C and I got to work one-on-one with the same assigment as the rest of the group because she needs a little more help and guidance then the other students. The story we worked on was called The Scared Ghost. The story focuses on words with belends and digraphs suchs as -gh, -ph, -kn, -wr, ch (as in chick), ch (k sound), sh, and the. C had to first read the story out loud and cirlce words she didnt know. Next she had to count how many of each blend she found in the story. Some of the words she didnt know were crayon, globe, taught, couldn't, nephew and wrote.
After pull-out the students wrote sentences in their workbook using proper nouns.
Monday, December 8, 2008
December 1, 2008--> WEEK 8
C was absent again today so I observed Sharon and her student. They worked on the topic of a report with main ideas and details of a magazine article called Return of The Gray Wolf.
In class the students worked in groups on a ELA practice test for the 3rd grade NYS Test coming up. The test is based on reading comprehension and listening comprehension. The story they read today is called The Dog and His Pet Bird. The students got 12min to read the story on their own and then answer 8 questions based on what they read. While they read they use a few strategies to help with answering the questions. They first must underline key ideas in the text. Before answering the question they must box key words in the question. They then must answer what paragraph they found the answer to the question in. In some of the questions there are "TIP" boxes which give hints as to where to find the answer or what you must think about in order to answer it. Most questions are direct in questions about the story but a few have to do with cause and effect. For example question 8 the students were given the effect "Judy, a bird had a hurt wing". The students must write what caused this to happen.
After 12min Ms. Abdus-Shakur asks them some questions like "did you read most words. did it make sense to you, whats the title, what went through your mind when ....happened?" "What kind of story did you think this would be?" Then the students answer the questions from the story aloud. She asks them -where did you find the answer, and how did you know this was the answer? Throughout Ms. Abdus-Shakue prompts them with a lot of questions which helps the students comprehend the story.
After the ELA practice test the students did a "I wonder..." prediction of Balto which is the enxt story they plan on reading. Students work with partners to predict what they think the story is about and do a picture walk throughout the book.
*I am also observing a second grade class at New Visions for another classes observation hours. The class is bilingual and very interesting. I am working one on one with a student who was held out of school for a yaer and half for whatever reason. He is still learning the alphabet, simple words and sounds of letters. Our first meeting I did an assessment on letter names and letter sounds with him for his teacher Ms. Cruz. The letters he has trouble with are u, v, w and y. He mixes up the similarity between them. He also mixes up b, d and p. We read the book "The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat" together. I let him read the words cat, sat, mat, rat, fat, etc. "-at" words while he sounded out the rest of the word with my help. Afterwards we used letter cards (like index cards) to create words from the story and I showed him how the words can be sounded out. J is working at a K level and this is his second year in Ms. Cruzs class.
In class the students worked in groups on a ELA practice test for the 3rd grade NYS Test coming up. The test is based on reading comprehension and listening comprehension. The story they read today is called The Dog and His Pet Bird. The students got 12min to read the story on their own and then answer 8 questions based on what they read. While they read they use a few strategies to help with answering the questions. They first must underline key ideas in the text. Before answering the question they must box key words in the question. They then must answer what paragraph they found the answer to the question in. In some of the questions there are "TIP" boxes which give hints as to where to find the answer or what you must think about in order to answer it. Most questions are direct in questions about the story but a few have to do with cause and effect. For example question 8 the students were given the effect "Judy, a bird had a hurt wing". The students must write what caused this to happen.
After 12min Ms. Abdus-Shakur asks them some questions like "did you read most words. did it make sense to you, whats the title, what went through your mind when ....happened?" "What kind of story did you think this would be?" Then the students answer the questions from the story aloud. She asks them -where did you find the answer, and how did you know this was the answer? Throughout Ms. Abdus-Shakue prompts them with a lot of questions which helps the students comprehend the story.
After the ELA practice test the students did a "I wonder..." prediction of Balto which is the enxt story they plan on reading. Students work with partners to predict what they think the story is about and do a picture walk throughout the book.
*I am also observing a second grade class at New Visions for another classes observation hours. The class is bilingual and very interesting. I am working one on one with a student who was held out of school for a yaer and half for whatever reason. He is still learning the alphabet, simple words and sounds of letters. Our first meeting I did an assessment on letter names and letter sounds with him for his teacher Ms. Cruz. The letters he has trouble with are u, v, w and y. He mixes up the similarity between them. He also mixes up b, d and p. We read the book "The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat" together. I let him read the words cat, sat, mat, rat, fat, etc. "-at" words while he sounded out the rest of the word with my help. Afterwards we used letter cards (like index cards) to create words from the story and I showed him how the words can be sounded out. J is working at a K level and this is his second year in Ms. Cruzs class.
Monday, November 24, 2008
11-24-08 (week 7)
C was out sick today so I observed the entire class. First the students took a spelling test. They are given 15-20 words each week. They have dividers that go up around their desks to stop temptations to look at their neightbors papers. The words this week were: wrong, written, wrench, known, sphere, writer, enough, knocked, wring, rough, wrinkle, wrap, knot, laugh and wreak. The words all have silent sounds which I have found to be very difficult when reading and writing for C.
After their spelling test they were told to work on Lesson 5 which is a reading comprehension story called "The Pitcher Plant". After reading the story they are to answer 12 questions. In reading this story the students underline important facts and write #'s for each paragraph. The reason they do this is because next to each question they must write waht paragraph they found the answer in. In the questions students box important words or key facts before answering. Students then must meet one-on-one with Ms. Abdu-Shakur to go over their lesson.
After Lesson 5 the ELA teachers come in to continue a lesson about sea turtles. The last week or so the students have been reading different books about turtles, (Turtle Bay, Race to the Sea and Sea Turtles). Today one of the teachers will read Sea Turtles to the students. While she is reading the students are told to take notes in bullet form of important information they hear about sea turtles. Tomorrow they will write a report on sea turtles in paragraph form from their notes. While the teacher is reading she pauses to give students time to write. Sometimes she'd repeat long or important sentences. Afterwards the students are told to re-read their notes to see if they make sense. Next, using chart paper, the ELA teacher writes "sea turtles" in a circle. Students then volunteer the facts they wrote down, graphing off the circle the teacher writes the facts onto the chart paper.
After the ELA lesson Ms. A discusses what the plan is for the rest of the day. Later they will review for a science test they have tomorrow on invertebraes. They also have a reading response due tomorrow and will go over that. Lastly they will do a math lesson focusing on shapes, right angles and 3-dimensional shapes.
With 15min left before lunch the students again turn to work on Lesson 5 individually.
Next week:
Next week we would like to work in groups with our students. We want them to write information and ideas down. We have all noticed that our students need help when writing. Although C can read a lot of the words in the book we are working on when it comes to writing the words she mixes sounds and letters. I think having her read her work back to me will help her see where her mistakes are. I would also like to continue with ending sounds such as *er, *s and *ed which C usually skips when reading.
After their spelling test they were told to work on Lesson 5 which is a reading comprehension story called "The Pitcher Plant". After reading the story they are to answer 12 questions. In reading this story the students underline important facts and write #'s for each paragraph. The reason they do this is because next to each question they must write waht paragraph they found the answer in. In the questions students box important words or key facts before answering. Students then must meet one-on-one with Ms. Abdu-Shakur to go over their lesson.
After Lesson 5 the ELA teachers come in to continue a lesson about sea turtles. The last week or so the students have been reading different books about turtles, (Turtle Bay, Race to the Sea and Sea Turtles). Today one of the teachers will read Sea Turtles to the students. While she is reading the students are told to take notes in bullet form of important information they hear about sea turtles. Tomorrow they will write a report on sea turtles in paragraph form from their notes. While the teacher is reading she pauses to give students time to write. Sometimes she'd repeat long or important sentences. Afterwards the students are told to re-read their notes to see if they make sense. Next, using chart paper, the ELA teacher writes "sea turtles" in a circle. Students then volunteer the facts they wrote down, graphing off the circle the teacher writes the facts onto the chart paper.
After the ELA lesson Ms. A discusses what the plan is for the rest of the day. Later they will review for a science test they have tomorrow on invertebraes. They also have a reading response due tomorrow and will go over that. Lastly they will do a math lesson focusing on shapes, right angles and 3-dimensional shapes.
With 15min left before lunch the students again turn to work on Lesson 5 individually.
Next week:
Next week we would like to work in groups with our students. We want them to write information and ideas down. We have all noticed that our students need help when writing. Although C can read a lot of the words in the book we are working on when it comes to writing the words she mixes sounds and letters. I think having her read her work back to me will help her see where her mistakes are. I would also like to continue with ending sounds such as *er, *s and *ed which C usually skips when reading.
11-19-08-(week 6)
I changed days this week and came to New Visions on Wednesday 11-19-08. Due to the change, first period the class has computer lab. I observed C at her computer where she worked on a program called CPAA math Grade 3 Assessment. The students took a test of 23 math questions. I never observed C in math so it was good to see. She got 13/23 answers correct, although 4 were correct on her second try. Some examples of the math questions were..."How long did brownies take to make"? The question gave a picture of two clocks and the students had to pick the difference in time. Another question had to due with looking at a graph. A few questions had to do with finding the place number in large numbers. The last ten questions were adding and subtracting numbers. At the end of the test the teacher will get an assessment of the test to review/ When they are done the students move onto a program called FASTT math where they answer as many simple addition and subtraction questions in a given time. They then can continue on with different math games.
After math the students break up into their ELA groups to read a story. The story they were going to read is called Turtle Bay. They did a picturewalk of the story and made predictions of what they thought might happen. They then talked about the vocabulary words fo the week which are in the story, (message, litter, trained, patiently, wise and eager). They then discussed how these vocab words might come into play in the story. Before beginning the story they talk about how the genre is realistic fiction and are told to look for 1. characters who have special friendships. 2. events that occur in a real, but special setting. The students then take turns reading as they reading. As they read I notive Ms. Abdu-Shakue do a rough running record on each student.
Finally I get to work one-on-one with C, for about 30min. We read the story Lets Talk about Games again and although her reading is much better and most words are correct she tends to leave out or switch endings on words such as *s, *ed, *er and *es. When I stop her she then fixes herself. She knows the endings but leaves them out.
After reading we work on C's summary of the story. She writes her main idea for the first sentence and then 3 supporting details from the story. Her written work: "This book is about Reading Sports. Thay are man Games in This book. the Game like tinnes, Foot ball and sokare are spasl to me because they are my favetion to play. In Football you have to wrer hamits and pads for you dont get huet".
In upcoming weeks we are going to work on writing. Words she knows how to read she has trouble writing.
We didnt have time to wokr on the conclusion but next week I plan to:
finish conclusion
work on ending sounds
give her a copy of pg 12 to take home and practice
write final copy of summary
After math the students break up into their ELA groups to read a story. The story they were going to read is called Turtle Bay. They did a picturewalk of the story and made predictions of what they thought might happen. They then talked about the vocabulary words fo the week which are in the story, (message, litter, trained, patiently, wise and eager). They then discussed how these vocab words might come into play in the story. Before beginning the story they talk about how the genre is realistic fiction and are told to look for 1. characters who have special friendships. 2. events that occur in a real, but special setting. The students then take turns reading as they reading. As they read I notive Ms. Abdu-Shakue do a rough running record on each student.
Finally I get to work one-on-one with C, for about 30min. We read the story Lets Talk about Games again and although her reading is much better and most words are correct she tends to leave out or switch endings on words such as *s, *ed, *er and *es. When I stop her she then fixes herself. She knows the endings but leaves them out.
After reading we work on C's summary of the story. She writes her main idea for the first sentence and then 3 supporting details from the story. Her written work: "This book is about Reading Sports. Thay are man Games in This book. the Game like tinnes, Foot ball and sokare are spasl to me because they are my favetion to play. In Football you have to wrer hamits and pads for you dont get huet".
In upcoming weeks we are going to work on writing. Words she knows how to read she has trouble writing.
We didnt have time to wokr on the conclusion but next week I plan to:
finish conclusion
work on ending sounds
give her a copy of pg 12 to take home and practice
write final copy of summary
Monday, November 10, 2008
November 10. 2008 Week 5
Today we first met with the Vice Principal to discuss our progress in the observations. She gave each of us a Student Academic Profile of our individual students. The profile is very useful because it acknowledges not only the students strengths and weaknesses but it also addresses goals, strategies and materials. The students skills are rated 4-3-2-1 in different categories in both reading and math. A big thing I have talked about in the previous blogs is working on decoding with my student. On the profile she noted as partially meeting the standard (2). I strategy noted on the profile is the use of a graphic organizer to help her decipher information and note-taking. Today I did a summary with her and immediately thought that next week we would work with a graphic organizer to separate and organize her ideas because she has a hard time summarizing the book when writing. My goal is to haver her identify the main event of a story and then give me supporting details. I hope using a graphic organizer will help bring the ideas she says to writing.
Today my student and I started out by reading the rest of the story, Lets Talk About Games. Last week we read only the first four pages when I did a running record. Kai-Ting was kind enough to type out the story for us on a running record form so we could keep track of errors and accuracy. I was pleasantly surprised out how well she did with the words. Although I took note of her errors I had her take her time and repeat words when she inserted other words based on only the first letter. I would say 90% of her errors in reading this book were due to guessing based on the first letter of a word. When I have her slow down tracking the words and repeating them she is better at self-correcting. When she does not know a word she guesses rather then trying to sound it out. Sometimes the words are simple and she knows them but still throws in a different word, such as they for the or no for on. After reading the book I had her answer comprehension questions that are actually on the last page of the book. The questions asked what games were being played in the book and what she learned from the book. I also asked her to discuss the different games, which games she likes, and give reasons to why she likes them. She had no problem discussing how her brother plays football and her sister plays basketball. She said those were her favorite games and she explained the rules for me that weren't in the book. When I asked her what she learned from the book she had a harder time actually discussing what was said versus what she knew from experience. When I ask her to tell me about the book she seems to stall and not really answer. If I ask her specific questions she is better at answering in detail what was read. I asked her to tell me about hockey but she had a hard time getting started. I said what do they play on? Ice. What do they play with? A puck. What is the puck made out of? Rubber.
After discussing the book I had her begin her summary of the book. We only had about 6-8 minutes for the summary. This was more challenging for her and she only wrote down the main topic and one sentence. She knows what the book is about but has a hard time organizing her thoughts into writing a paragraph. In class they use the idea of bullets before writing. Next week I am going to use a graphic organizer to help her gather her thoughts and the use of bullets this way she can see where her summary is going before she writes it. I also am going to pull out words that she skips in reading such as wear, heads, tries, either, leather and exciting and work on sounds. She has a hard time decoding vowel sounds, final sounds and word parts (prefixes, suffixes and word families).
After our one-on-one time the students worked on a writing sample where they picked a topic sentence from a list on the board and wrote detailed sentences. My student chose the topic sentence "My favorite class is..." and she wrote gym. I had her use scrap paper to bullet out points before writing them into a paragraph. She skips a lot of sounds in words so we had to sound out revolution, dance, popcorn, basketball, etc. Although we didn't get to the actual paragraph writing she did come up with 3 bullets and a closing sentence. I had to ask her a few times "what's missing in this sentence" and "what goes at the end of a sentence", to remind her of her punctuation. In her previous writing sample that I looked at it was noted that she has a hard time with past tense. She tends to skip the "ed" ending and just say the beginning word, as she does in writing. So as noted before we are going to have to work on ending sounds as well.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Week 4: November 3, 2008
This week we worked on a book called Lets Talk About Games. We decided to do group work with the three students for the first part. Each student did a picture walk through the book writing a "I wonder.....because..." which is something they have previously used in class with other stories. They then each read aloud their I wonders. My student wrote " I wonder If they have deifdien Games and dad are The people Go to play They because on the fat page p". What she read was "I wonder if they have different games and the people play them because of the picture on the first page". Again this shows that we have to work on familiar sounds in words and sounding out words. If she had not read the "I wonder..." it would have nearly impossible to figure out what she wanted to say. After the "I wonder...because..." we did vocab with large paper taped to the wall. The five words we decided to focus on were dribble, tackle, puck, pitcher and leather. First we asked them if they knew what the words were then wrote the definition on the paper and lastly had them make sentences using the word. For the most part they knew the words, except for leather. Being the words are associated with sports I think they sounded familar to them.
After the vocab we broke up to do our reading records one-on-one. I had my student read a total of 114 words (first 4 pages) of Lets Talk About Games. She had a 1:10 error rate, a 1:7 self correction rate and 89% accuracy. Although the accuracy states that the book may be too difficult for her I believe it is at her level and we will work on it in the upcoming weeks. Most of her mistakes are words that she substituted rather then even trying and sounding out the words. With help decoding words and sounding out words I think the accuracy rate will increase over the upcoming weeks. Next week we will read the rest of the story and work on comprehension. She will have to summarize the book orally and written.
The next lesson was a class lesson-->Push-in-Program--> where the reading resource teacher came to the class to teach about writing paragraphs. The students were told about topic sentences, detail sentences and then closing sentences. Afterwards the students were given a worksheet on writing a paragraph and then actually wrote a paragraph in their reader response notebooks.
Before lunch Ms. Abdu-Shakur talked about election day. The students gathered on the rug in the back where they did a picture walk of a book called Grace For President. The students were asked "what is happening tomorrow that is really special and important"? "Who are the candidates"? "Which one is the democrat and the republican"? Since lunch was coming up Ms. Abdu-Shakur said she would read the book after they got back but she asked the students what the genre of the book was and how old they thought you had to be to run for President. She explained that since the girl on the cover looked to be a kid she was not old enough to run and the book was thus Fiction.
Week : October 27, 2008
For the first 50 minutes of class I worked one- on- one with my student. I let her choose one book that would be challenging to read. I had her start out by reading The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat that we had read the previous week. While she read I wrote down what words she substituted for words in the book. This book is at a frist grade reading level. She read 22 word incorrectly but for each word I would stop her, point to the word and say "lets try this one again". She self corrected 14 out of the 22 words. She knows the words in this book but she guesses the word instead of reading it based on the first/last letters of the word.
Some examples are:
said: correct word:
had has
his hers
hers her
bat brat
on in
goes got
sit sat
when then
will happen we have
fish dish
wont want
asking asked
I showed her to track the words one by one with her finger and then told her to think about the word before she said it. Since Halloween was that Friday she chose the book There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Bat. Although the book was more challenging she made less mistakes by taking her time and tracking the words with her finger. The mistakes were words that she didnt know rather then words she wasnt reading. She used picture cues for some of the words as well. After the story I had her tell me what the story was about. She simply said "about a lady who swallows a cat and a ghost". When I asked her quesdtions like "Why does she swallow them?" she is more inclined to answer. I asked her about 5 questions about the story and then had her write out some of the words from the book. If I hadnt written what words I asked her to spell I wouldnt be able to tell what she had written. For example, for swallow she wrote solow. for goblin she wrote gion and for bones she wrote bost. What is going to be very important to work on is sounding out words and sounds not only for reading but for spelling and comprehension. We need to work on putting sounds together and picking out sounds she knows in unfamiliar words to sound them out. After spelling the words I wrote down some of the words she had said and written incorrectly such as RATTLE, HOWL, THING, and CATCH. I asked her to find words she knew in these words and underline them. She underlined rat, how, in and cat. This helped because once she underlined words she knew, she was better at sounding out the other sounds of the words.
After the one on one time she had group reading with Ms. Abdu-Shakur and 4 other students. In group reading the students first asked what we mean by the word "I" and why it is capitalized in a sentence. Students understood that it talked about themselves and was different then writting the letter "i" in the word "in.
Mrs. Abdu-Shakur then introduced the students to a story they would be reading in their focus reading books. The story is about the Olympics with related vocabulary words. She wrote the vocab words on the board-ancient, host, stadium, medals, compete, earned, record and ceremonies. She then says the word, has them say it, gives the definition, explains the definition, gives the word in a sentence and then has the students come up with sentences using the word. The definitions were very simple. The students seemed confused with the words such as host however. They asked if the main character in a story would be considered the host. Ms. Abdu-Shakur gave the example of eating at Fridays and how the person who seats you is the host which the students then grasped.
After class we met with Ms. Abdu-Shakur to talk about where we would like to go from here and what she would like from us as teachers. She gave us a book to work on in the upcoming weeks and suggested we do some group work. Next week we, the grad students, decided we would do an "I wonder..." about the book, work on vocab from the book, and do a reading record of the first four pages of the book.
Some examples are:
said: correct word:
had has
his hers
hers her
bat brat
on in
goes got
sit sat
when then
will happen we have
fish dish
wont want
asking asked
I showed her to track the words one by one with her finger and then told her to think about the word before she said it. Since Halloween was that Friday she chose the book There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Bat. Although the book was more challenging she made less mistakes by taking her time and tracking the words with her finger. The mistakes were words that she didnt know rather then words she wasnt reading. She used picture cues for some of the words as well. After the story I had her tell me what the story was about. She simply said "about a lady who swallows a cat and a ghost". When I asked her quesdtions like "Why does she swallow them?" she is more inclined to answer. I asked her about 5 questions about the story and then had her write out some of the words from the book. If I hadnt written what words I asked her to spell I wouldnt be able to tell what she had written. For example, for swallow she wrote solow. for goblin she wrote gion and for bones she wrote bost. What is going to be very important to work on is sounding out words and sounds not only for reading but for spelling and comprehension. We need to work on putting sounds together and picking out sounds she knows in unfamiliar words to sound them out. After spelling the words I wrote down some of the words she had said and written incorrectly such as RATTLE, HOWL, THING, and CATCH. I asked her to find words she knew in these words and underline them. She underlined rat, how, in and cat. This helped because once she underlined words she knew, she was better at sounding out the other sounds of the words.
After the one on one time she had group reading with Ms. Abdu-Shakur and 4 other students. In group reading the students first asked what we mean by the word "I" and why it is capitalized in a sentence. Students understood that it talked about themselves and was different then writting the letter "i" in the word "in.
Mrs. Abdu-Shakur then introduced the students to a story they would be reading in their focus reading books. The story is about the Olympics with related vocabulary words. She wrote the vocab words on the board-ancient, host, stadium, medals, compete, earned, record and ceremonies. She then says the word, has them say it, gives the definition, explains the definition, gives the word in a sentence and then has the students come up with sentences using the word. The definitions were very simple. The students seemed confused with the words such as host however. They asked if the main character in a story would be considered the host. Ms. Abdu-Shakur gave the example of eating at Fridays and how the person who seats you is the host which the students then grasped.
After class we met with Ms. Abdu-Shakur to talk about where we would like to go from here and what she would like from us as teachers. She gave us a book to work on in the upcoming weeks and suggested we do some group work. Next week we, the grad students, decided we would do an "I wonder..." about the book, work on vocab from the book, and do a reading record of the first four pages of the book.
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