Time to say goodbye

I would like to say thank you to all for your time and energy.

I wish you all the best as you continue your journey... and hope that great things come to you all. Enjoy your summer!

ELL Case Study Report (Click here to download/view Google Doc)

Week 12: Assignment 3- Using Technology in teaching.

Week 12: Assignment 2- Lesson plan

The introduction of digital technology into education has been one of the most fundamental changes the system has had. Its title wave effects have changed the way teacher’s teach, the ways students learn, and is currently shifting the patterns of how effective teachers can be with the available technology.
     Since I have been quite keen about the subject, and I have taken the time to read many scholarly articles about this current trend in education, its challenges, issues of implementation, and of course, its potential benefits, the articles that I read for this week were all excellent and definitely display the potential benefits and fantastic tools available to have students engage in deep way with digital tools, as well as fantastic strategies to teach students to master skills that will become fundamental for their lives. Being member of the technology committee for my district, and being the CLT (Technology lead for my school) and the website director, I understand the importance of assuring that technology becomes an integral part of how we teach. I am one of the biggest advocates in my district for the implementation of technology, and currently I find myself in the midst of working to shift teachers in my district to implement strategies for flipping components of their teaching. Therefore, the lesson for this week was important in that it is the area of teaching which I feel very familiar with, and which log to become more knowledgeable about as time goes by.

As stated in the articles, electronic publishing can be used to differentiate by allowing students to work with the various elements available.  Teacher can use graphic organizer (there are plenty of online ones now!). Teachers can have students peer edit other students work, and now there are also great tools available online!). This can be done for any subject that you may teach or any topic you may be covering with your students.

--Click here to see the lesson.
-1 Pager template 
-Rubric

-Real student sample #1
-Student Sample #2

Week11: Assignment 3 - Comprehension instruction lessons

Lesson#1 Description

Lesson #2 Cause and Effect

Lesson #3 Compare and Contrast

Week 10: Assignment 4 - Writting Lesson

Click here to see/download lesson

Keystone assignment: QRI-5 Assessment

Click here to see Finalized QRI-5 Report






Click here to see records from assessment

First Recommendation
Click here to see recommended lesson #1 (Identifying details with graphic organizer)
Click here to see recommended lesson #2 (Identifying cause and effect with organizer)

Second Recommendation
Click here to see recommended sample lesson (Past tense verbs)

Week 9: Assignment 4 -- QRI-5 vs D.I.B.E.L.S

Summary

     The DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) is a reading assessment used to calculate a student’s reading levels. The exam is created to assess fluency measurements used to monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills. The point of this assessment is to measure certain early literacy skills, focusing on a key part of phonemic awareness. The assessment does not measure all possible phonemic skills. The purpose of the DIBELS Benchmark goals is to provide educators with standards for measuring the progress of all or certain students. The calculated or benchmarked goals attained after assessments represent a level of performance for all students to reach in order to be considered on track for becoming a successful reader. What makes this assessment important is that it provides a benchmark to see where students are at in regards to important set of skills for accurate reading. That way, teachers can use students' performance in the test – not in class- to identify struggling students who will most likely require more intensive instruction.

     On the other hand, the QRI-5 is an informal assessment process which can be used to identify a student’s instructional level.  This assessment can also determine areas of reading that a particular students may be having difficulty with. The assessment opens up an opportunity to follow student progress by providing specific criteria as to the students reading level within each grade level. QRI-5 provides varieties of diagnostic options for students being assessed, since it has multiple steps. Identifying the reading levels of students allows the assessor to have information in order to match up the required materials needed for that particular student assessed.

Similarities and differences

     Both assessments (QRI-5 & DIBELS) can be used to provide data to drive instruction on a continuous basis. The data gathered from the assessments can be used to specifically determine students’ reading levels.  Both assessments can specifically point to troubled areas of reading and fluency in the child being assessed, thus giving the educator data to plan for skills to strengthen. The data can very easily guide the teacher as to what focus when strategically planning for a particular curriculum. The results from data gathered from both assessments can as well give the educator an idea as to the appropriate books, reading workshops, and even and provide ideas as to how to group students when working collaborative. Data from assessments can be used to construct and implement intervention instruction for students that may require such services. 

     The assessments are different in that one is formal, and the other one informal from that stand point, one (the DIEBELS) provides comparative data though standardized assessments. As such, the QRI-5 does not use comparative data and thus results are unique to the individual assessed.  Being that the DIBELS is standardized, it will be very similar to all the students being assessed. The QRI-5 does not contain time limitations when administered, potentially making it a time consuming task. On the other hand, the DIBELS is designed to be administered in certain frequencies that make it practical. The QRI-5 does not necessarily need to be administered more than once (unless, of course, teacher wants to follow though after a first assessment), therefore, it differs from the DIBELS in that this tool request assessments take place every three months to monitor student as the year progresses.  Practical use in the classroom

     Overall, both assessments are effective and useful tools for educators to use in the classroom. The QRI-5 would be an excellent tool to be able to diagnose students at the beginning of the school year, and to get a good idea as to where students are and what they will be able to handle in regards to material in class. This tool would be very efficient in helping the teacher make important decisions as to where every student is at, and how you are going g to group students, our how you can assign work individually. This would make a great predictor, as to the types of reading, and some of the skills you may want to focus throughout the schoolyear. On the other hand, the DIBELS can be a great way to formally assess student’s levels and use the data from assessment to drive the instruction. Since there is comparative data attained from the DIBELS, and the exams are easily administered, this can be useful assessment to be used in a frequent basis to monitor student progress.  Thus the DIBELS assessment demonstrates to be a more productive progress monitoring technique for educators. 

Week 8: Lesson Plan on Fluency

You can click here to see the document (or view below)

Week 7: Assignment 5 --Child's assessment & Learning activites

Assignment #5
For this assignment I assessed a second grade student, who I believe is a struggling student. We will call her Sarita, and she comes from a home where Spanish is the main language spoken.

Print Awareness
I gave Sarita a book and asked her to point out the following things:
The front of the book              --YES
The back of the book              --YES
The book title                          --YES
The Author                             --YES
The Illustrator                         --NO
The first word of a sentence   --YES
The last word in a sentence    --YES

Sarita did well the only one thing she could not identify was the illustrator. I pointed to the illustrator (right next to the author, in bold letters in the cover) for her.

The Sound of Speech
I used the Activity #4 listed under In Practice section of the Sound of Speech unit. I gave Sarita a list of words and asked her to change the first letter of each word to a sound I picked. Sarita was instructed to write the words down and vocalize them for me out loud. Sarita did well on this part of the assessment and to my opinion, she did not fail any of the prompts that I asked from her. Sarita demonstrated a good understanding of sounds of speech based on this part of the assessment.



Phonemic Awareness
For phonemic awareness I used the "Take a Sound Away" activity to check on Sarita's ability to recognize the missing phonemes on words I used. I used words from the book that we had on the table, and which is a common 2nd grade reading. Of 10 words used, Sarita was able to recognize 7 of the missing sounds that I used for the assessment. I realized that she needed bit of practice in this field.

Phonics
For Phonics, I created a quick and simple assessment based on words from the same book. I showed Sarita an image, with the expectation that she would look at a choice of 5 words, and choose which one would begin with the same sound as the word form the image. I showed her 10 images overall, and she failed to identify 3 of the words form the images. I realized that Sarita needs to work on her phonics skills based on this activity.


Learning Activities:
Sarita did relatively well on the first two activities that I administered. However, when it came to the Phonemic Awareness, She struggled to identify some sounds. My recommendation for S would be for him to practice his phonemic awareness skills by reading. The more he read the better his phonemic awareness will become.

Three Websites:




1) PBS Kids- the link has available games that focus on phonemic awareness. This is the second site I would recommend for Sarita to use to practice her
2) Magic Phonic wizard - Great activities to practice sounds with words. Sarita would benefit from this type of practice, as she seems to need a bit of help with this particular skill.
3) Scholastic: Help Nina -this website is very neat and helping with grouping words into categories. I Found that Sarita was weak on this side, and definitely needs some practice in the area of organizing words and finding patterns.

Week 6: Assignment 1 --Mary's QRI 5 results

Week 5- Assignments 1-4 -Aministering QRI 5

Calculation of Mary's scores
Miscues-8
Meaning-Change miscues- 5
Mary is at the instructional level .
Words Per Minute- 46 (45.99)
Correct Words Per Minute- 44 (43.65)


Mary did rather well overall, in my opinion. She repeatedly read the word "must" as "most" and she read "live" as "lived. Mary would benefit from a lessons in verb tenses, and specifically present and past. She seems to have a weakness in this particular field of reading and recognizing works.  Furthermore, I would recommend that Mary is to keeps practicing readings at a second grade level to monitor her progress with such texts.

Week 4: Assignment 2- Reading Interventions PowerPoint

You can click here to see full size

Week 4: RTI

RIT (Response to intervention) is an approach to identifying specific learning disabilities or issues that are holding back a student from achieving or reaching expectations at their level. In the process of RTI, students are identified by the teacher, and through a number of assessments, they students are given opportunities to demonstrate their skills –or current abilities- as well as their weaknesses in regards to the level they are in. The goal is to set up a plan that will help the students have academic achievement, when the regular class structure is not working for that specific student. After issues have been identified, students then are brought up to the attention of school administrators, other teachers and discussion take place as to the best way (s) to aid the student.

Week 3: Assignment #3 Introduction to QRI5

• What is QRI5?

The Qualitative Reading Inventory-5 (QRI-5) is an individually administered informal reading inventory (IRI) is an assessment designed to provide information about the conditions under which students can identify

words and comprehend text successfully and the conditions that appear to result in unsuccessful word

identification or comprehension. 

 • What is the purpose of using QRI5?

There are various purposes for using this assessment. One of the purposes of the QRI5 is to identify a

subjects’ reading levels which the fall at 3 levels: independent, instructional, and frustration. The

assessment also to provide valuable diagnostic information, so further instruction for that individual

student can be designed by those assessing the student(s). according to the article provided, results can be used to allocate students abilities and assign reading at proper levels. Finally, the QRI-5 can also be used to document student growth over time so that progress can be monitored.

 • Have you seen similar assessment activities like QRI5? What are they?

The only assessment that I have seen is the running record to determine what reading level is appropriate for a student. However, working at the 6^th grade, and coming from higher grades, (High school) I have not been seen running records being used in a school setting.

 • What is your impression of QRI5?

I think that the QRI5 is an effective way to assess a student’s reading levels. The assessments manages to make a very specific measurement on a students skills and abilities, and allows one to record, to monitor, and to assign readings that are in a correct level for that particular student. The QRI5 seems to be a very strong tool for determining a student, and placing him/her in the proper reading path.

Week 3: Assignment 2 - Reaching the Common Core

Teachers can assess a students learning outcomes through formative assessments in class. Educators can use literature circles and reflections on text in order to educate students and to scaffold them into important routines that will benefit their skills and ability to recognize complex texts. These assignments can be given through independent practice and even through group work, in order to allow students to work on various skills (the teachers should deliberately plan accordingly to his plan for every student).

Teachers can address and meet common core standards with students of various levels by implementing curriculum based work in an individualized manner. What this means is that teachers can (and should) assess a student’s skills and abilities in order to properly identify their levels of skills. Then, use the information gathered through assessments in order to teach students with information at their level, and in order to exposed them to text that are appropriate to their levels or skills.

Week 2: Task 3

After observing the videos in the Reading Rockets website under Reading 101, I noticed how many different aspects of print awareness are involved in becoming an effective reader at a young age. There is no doubt that Each and every component that was demonstrated is vital for success in reading at a young age. I found the research to be very interesting in regards to the importance of reading to babies at a very early age, and how this impacts their ability to succeed as well.  It's important for parents to encourage reading in the home and use samples from everyday normal routines. When a child comes into school having a supportive learning environment at home they get a big head-start in becoming great readers and learners. Parents taking time out even 20 minutes per day to help their child with their reading can improve areas mention in the print awareness above. This is information that is useful for parents, but also for teachers, who must keep such theories in mind when working o their practice and including such knowledge into their panning. Also, it may certainly be useful to keep these theories in mind as one speaks with parents about how they can support children at home.  

Here we go...