Alideschenes's Blog

Book #15

Your Best Friend, Kate

Written by: Pat Brisson Illustrated by: Rick Brown

Grade: 3rd-4th

ISBN: 0-02-714350-3

Kate and Lucy are best friends so when Kate’s family leaves for four weeks to travel Kate promises to write Lucy. Kate and her family travel to 13 different states on the East coast and Mid West. In each state Lucy receives a letter from Kate giving her interesting facts about the state she is in.

This book would be good to use when studying the different states and how they are all different.

Book #14

Arthur Meets The President

Marc Brown

Grade: 1st-2nd

ISBN: 0-316-11265-8

Arthur Meets The President when his essay on “how can I make America great ” won? Him and his class get to travel to Washington DC to travel the city and listen to Arthur give his speech for the President. But Arthur is scared and does not know if he will remember his speech.

Arthur books are always good to use in the classroom because not only do they have good lessons but children really enjoy them. I would use this book as a text talk because we can discuss DC and the emotion Arthur is feeling about giving his speech in front of the President. I would also have my children answer the question “how can I make America great?”

Week Reflection #4

This week I went into the English classroom to do some observations. They had a substitute teacher but the special education teacher was in the classroom doing to lesson also. Two students shared one book about famous minorities in America. They went around the room and each child had to read a paragraph aloud. The book contained people like Jennifer Lopez, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King Jr. When the students finished reading the passages on Chavez and Dr. King the special education teacher did a lecture on how slavery is not dead in America. She did not sugar coat the lesson on African American slavery at all. She stated “African American were chained together, they had no bathrooms so they sat in their waste and other people’s waste and if they died they were thrown over.” This really got me thinking because this is a very diverse classroom; I really struggle with this in my mind about how I would teach this lesson. Do I teach it like the special education teacher or in a more sensitive way that might be making the situation look better? She also talked about how immigrant workers are slaves and we need to fight for their rights also.  I noticed that the English lessons are really integrated with social studies.

I also for the first time saw a Weekly Reader. This is a magazine that the children receive every week about current issues going on in America and around the world. At the end of the magazines it has comprehension questions about the articles.

Book #13

Three Wishes

Written by: Lucille Clifton Illustrated by: Michael Hays

Grade Level: 2nd-3rd

ISBN: 0-385-30497-8

Three Wishes is written about a little girl and boy, Victor and Lena. On New Year’s Day Lena finds a lucky penny that she can make three wishes with because it has the year she was born on it. When her wishes come true she begins to see what is really important in life.

This book could be used in a lesson about language because this book is not written in Standard American English. You could discuss how we all speak English but different people it speak English  differently. It would also be helpful to take about the time Standard American English must be used.

Book #12

I Am Too Absolutely Small for School

Written and Illustrated by: Lauren Child

Grade Level: 2nd-3rd

ISBN: 0-7636-2403-9

I Am Too Absolutely Small for School is written about a young girl, Lola who does not want to go to school. She believes that she knows all she needs to know and does not need to learn anything at school. Her brother tells her all the interesting things that she can learn and do at school that will help her.

This would be a wonderful book to read on the first day of school. It helps bring into perspective school for younger children.  This would also be a great book to pick words from because it has a lot of great adjectives that younger children might not be familiar with yet.

** this book is also really neat because Lola has an invisible friend and if you turn the pages certain ways you can see her friend**

Book #11

The Meanest Thing to Say

Written by: Bill Cosby Illustrated by: Varnette P. Honeywood

Grade: 1st to 2nd

ISBN 0-590-13754-9

The Meanest Thing to Say is about a boy named Little Billy. A new student comes to his classroom named Michael and he is a trouble maker. When recess begins Michael tells his new classmates that he has a new game to play. The game is whoever can say the meanest thing wins. Michael was so mean to Little Billy that he did not even know what to say. At dinner that night Little Billy’s dad taught him to just say “so” to anything Michael said. The next day at recess Little Billy tried his Dad’s trick and it worked Michael got really mad and had nothing else to say. Little Billy felt bad for him and invited him to play basketball with them and they became great friends!

This is a great book to teach children about teasing each other and how it can really make someone upset. I would also take words got of this book and do a word lesson with it. It is a great book for beginning readers.

Book #10

The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food

Stan and Jan Berenstain

Grade Level: 2nd-3rd

ISBN 0-394-87217-7

The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food is a book about how brother and sister bear eat too much junk food. Mother bear takes them to the store and they buy food that is healthy for them. Father and Mother bear give brother and sister bear a lesson on being healthy and why are bodies need healthy food and exercise.

This is a great book to use because it can easily be used in a health lesson about eating healthy and exercising. I would also do a text talk with this book to get children talking about eating healthy.

Week #3

The D.A.R.E officer came in this week and started talking about the paper that the children have to write in order to graduate from D.A.R.E. I observed his class three times because he stays in one classsroom therefore the children had no math class on Monday. In every class I noticed that more than one child in each class asked “what is going to happen if we don’t do it” and/or “what do I get for doing this?” It just showed that the children are more concerned with why they have to do something or what they will get from it rather than what they will actually learn and gain from it.

This week I got to go into an ESL classroom and observe four students, 2 Hispanics and 2 Asians. The children for forty five minutes sat at a table and read from a science textbook. They went around a table and each child had to read a paragraph. They discussed vocabulary words and other everyday words they might not truly understand. I saw an example of the Multidimensional Fluency Scale one child was at stage one in all three dimensions, she read very soft, in a monotone voice, very slow and with many hesitations. I also could tell that ESL is a very important part of this school because the teacher had an entire very large classroom!

I feel like I am limited on the things I can post to this blog because I am in a Math classroom all day; is there anything I can do to make this better because I hardly see reading instruction?

Week #2

On Monday I did my first reading assessment. I was very nervous doing this not only because it was my first one as the instructor but because I remember how it felt when I was being assessed in these situations and I never want a student to be as scared and nervous as I was. I believe I stopped the lesson short because I felt like she was getting nervous and this made me nervous. I did learn a lot from this short first assessment. First I believe it will be easier for me if the students are mine and not a stranger they have never seen before. Also I think that a short conversation with them at the beginning will help both myself and the student not be so nervous. Most of all I believe I just need some practice.

There is not much instruction I can do because I am in a 5th grade math classroom. The students here switch classes so my observation of reading instruction is very limited. Also by the time the children are in the 5th grade here they are doing a lot of individual A.R. reading.

Also in the 5th grade I really feel like I am always in the way. The teachers actual instructional time is very limited between switching classes, children being taken out of classes and handling children’s questions as they come into class. This also showed me I have a lot to learn about classroom management.

Creating Fluent Readers

1. What are the three dimensions of fluency? How can you assess each dimension?

a) Accuracy in word decoding- Readers should be able to sound out the words in a text with minimal errors. To assess this dimension calculate the percentage of words a reader can accurately decode on grade-level material. An accuracy level of 90-95 percent is usually considered adequate.

b) Automatic processing- Readers should expend as little mental effort as possible in the decoding aspect of reading. Automatic processing can usually be determined by looking at a reader’s reading rate. This can be done by having a student read grade level material for 60 seconds and calculate the number of words read correctly.

c) Prosodic reading- Readers must parse the text into syntactically and semantically appropriate units. Prosodic reading can be assessed by giving a child a grade level reading and just listen to the quality of reading using a rubric based on the elements of expression and volume, phrasing , smoothness, and pace.

2. Rasinski refers to fluency as a “bridge” between decoding and comprehension. What does he mean by the “bridge” metaphor?

The metaphor “bridge” means that in order to truly have fluency you must have decoding and comprehension. Decoding and comprehension are linked to fluency, without one you do not have the other.

3.    What instructional methods does Rasinski suggest for students with difficulties in automatic and prosodic reading?

Assisted readings and repeated readings with help students with difficulties in reading improve. Students need to hear what fluent reading sounds like and how fluent readers interpret text with their voices.

4.    Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MFS) is used to measure prosodic quality of oral reading. List components of the MFS and describe what each refers to (p. 49).

Multidimensional Fluency Scale

A) Expression and Volume— reads words to simply get them out and tends to read in a quiet voice. — begins to use voice to make text sound like natural language in some areas but not others, still reads in a quiet voice. — reads the text in natural language and occasionally slips into expressionless reading and volume is generally appropriate. —reads with good expression and enthusiasm throughout the text.

B) Phrasing– reads word-by-word. — reads in two-and three-word phrases, and has choppy reading.– reads with a mixture of run-ons. –generally reads with good phrasing, mostly in clause and sentence units.

C) Smoothness–makes frequent extended pauses, hesitations, false starts, sound-outs, repetitions, and/or multiple attempts. –has many “rough spots” where extended pauses are more frequent. —occasionally breaks smooth rhythm because of difficulties with specific words and/or structure. –generally reads smooth with some breaks but resolves words and structure difficulties quickly, usually through self correction.

D) Pace— reads slow— reads moderately slow– reads with uneven mixture of fast and slow pace — appropriate rate throughout reading.