Week 5 Assignments

Week 5 Assignments Below:

Assignment#1 Use p.106 examiner’s word list, QRI6, page 87, to calculate Mary’s level in word identification.

Decision examiner made: Since Mary was reading at independent level in Level 1 Word List (with 18 words correct, out of 18, 2 identified), she was given Level 2 Word List (see QRI5, p101, QRI6, page 87, subject word list and p.107, QRI6, page 93, examiner’s word list to read further (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqj3ZVerm_g).

Results: In this passage Mary read 15 out of 20 words correctly. She did however skip words at the end, but when prompted she went back and answered 2 out of the 3 words correctly. This will put her at an instructional reading level.

Assignment#2 Use p.107, QRI6, page 93, examiner’s word list to calculate Mary’s level in word identification.

Decision examiner made: Since Mary was reading at instructional level in Level 2 Word List (with 17 words correct, on the borderline of instructional and frustration), so she was given Level 3 Word List (see QRI5, p102, QRI6, page 88, subject word list and p.107, QRI6, page 93, examiner’s word list to read further to make sure Level 2 is the right passage to begin the assessment (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TED2ZGSD0S8).

Results: It was clear that Mary struggled with the Level 3 Word List, only reading 3 out of 16 or 17 words. (I was unclear of which number Mary was instructed to stop one.) But, the instructor realized that Mary was having difficulties at this level. Mary would be better suited to continue to work with Level 2 Word Lists for now.

Assignment#3 Use p.107, QRI6, page 93, examiner’s word list to calculate Mary’s level in word identification.

Decision examiner made: Since examiner sensed that Mary started to struggle and was reading at frustration level in Level 3 Word List, the examiner immediately stopped and decided to begin comprehensive assessment with Level 2 (2^nd grade) passage.

What types of passages should I start with?  

Determining the student’s instructional level for familiar text is the first step. Within this parameter, an examiner can select either narrative (story) or expository (informational) text.

Decision examiner made: In this case, the examiner decided to start with Level 2 expository passage, Whales and Fish (see student text QRI5 p.209, and examiner copy p.223, QRI6, page 187, examiner's copy, page 198 ) because normally students do better with text with story structure. 

Part#1:Mary could only answer 1 of the 3 questions during the prior knowledge assessment

Part#2: Mary appeared to struggle with the same words. I also noticed that she lost her place more than once.

Part#3: Mary was able to recall a large amount of information from the story. Stating differences and similarities when prompted.

Assignment#4 Use examiner’s scoring sheet (pp.223-225) to calculate the scores and to determine Mary’s strengths and needs (I will share with you the examiner’s results and analysis next week, week 6)

Results:

Total Accuracy: 11 Miscues

Total Accept abilities: 3

From this evaluation, Mary is at an acceptable reading level.

WPM: 46, WCPM: 46

Conclusion: Mary demonstrates a weak ability to show prior knowledge on this particular subject. She is able to recognize and say words from the Level 2 Word List without a great struggle, however became frustrated with a Level 3 Word List, indicating she is still reading on target as a Level 2. Mary’s WPM and WCPM are also on target for a Level 2, but did demonstrate a struggle to read without losing her place and needs guidance.

Week 4 Assignment #2

Here is my PowerPoint

Week 4 Assignment #1

After watching the three video; I found the first video from Iron Springs Elementary to be the most helpful. He broke the tiers down using through a pyramid diagram, where the other two videos were voice overs of students and teachers interacting. While they were very informative,  being a visual person, the pyramid diagram really helped me. With that:

Tier 1: This involves all students in the classroom, with a general education teacher. The teacher provides differentiate in their instruction and uses evidence based core curriculum. While 80-85% of the students in the classroom will understand the teachers instruction, 15% will not and will need the intervention of Tier 2.

Tier 2: This is built on tier 1 and uses various strategic and evidence based intervention to help the students. The 15% that was mentioned in the Tier 1, will break into smaller groups, usually in their classroom to receive further instruction; either from their classroom teacher or from an additional teacher in the room. It is important to note that the students in Tier 2 will participate in Tier 1 activities for the regular 90 minutes in addition to the 30 minutes of RTI extension.  For those students who fall into the remaining, potential 5% of students who still need further assistance will need intervention in Tier 3

Tier 3: This is the most intense Tier of them all. Students will either be in a one-on-one or very small group setting. This allows the students opportunities to increase using specialty strategies and allows them to remain unclassified.

However, since this is not a supplement for general instruction, students will be removed from other core or encore subjects.  I feel these will be a common questions among us:

#1 How will students make up the work they have missed while receiving these extra services? Being an encore subject myself, my students are often pulled out to receive additional services. I often hear " I had to go to so and so, why do I need to make up your work? It doesn't matter."
In video #2 it is mentioned that ELA is addresses in every subject, I agree with that. However, going back to the being an encore subject, when I ask students to write complete sentences in their responses I again get the response, "Why? This isn't English, or Social Studies, or Science. I don't have to use them." I do everything I can to tell them that practicing will only help them.
#2 How do I encourage students to understand that ELA is important in every subject?

Week 3 Assignment #2

Teachers have the ability to assess students in various forms, the main two being informal and formal. The article describes one scenario of students for an ELA class; the students are reading in a literature circle, where they address open-ended questions.  They record themselves, play it back, and evaluate how they answered the questions. To me, this would be considered a formal assessment because it is being documented, with the possibly of continuous replay. This example, as well as others shows that students can also be assessed on their social skills.

Each example given in the article provides evidence of the CCSS being used, and most along side the use of technology. Teachers who have students are different reading levels can often use technology to their advantage. They can assign and arrange students to work in high-low (to assist each other), or in smaller groups of similar reading levels, meeting with each group for assessment.

Week 3, Assignment #3

 Week 3 #3

What is QRI5?

QRI5 is an inventory, which individually administered informal reading, providing information about the conditions in which students can comprehend text through properly identifying words. In addition to conditions, which appear, result in not identifying the word or comprehension     properly. Ultimately, identifying the students reading level through instructional, independent, and frustration.

What is the purpose of using QRI5?

QRI5 is used to provide various assessment options, with results aiding in find the students reading level, selecting books for group or individual work sessions. The QRI5 can also aid in helping to design and execute intervention instructions.

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

The only similar assessment activity that I can think of seeing was when I observed a 1^st grade class. Unfortunately I cannot think of the name of the program, I tried to look through my notes but could not locate it. The students would access the Internet, and read short stories online. At the end the students would answer questions, the data would then be sent to the teacher and she could see which words the students had trouble with. Other than that I do not recall anything else.

As for the survey’s; I have seen it in various forms, for various subjects or overall days from K-8^th. The ones I have come into contact the most are for my students, you simply write how their behavior was in class. Something as simple as good, on task, focused, unfocused, disruptive, etc. This semester I started handing out a “Welcome Survey to each student on the first day of class to help me get to know them better.

What is your impression of QRI5?

My impression of QRI5 is that it will be very helpful in assessing students, identifying where each student struggles the most, and how to assist them better. As I was going through the material, I was honestly thinking that I would like this in an actual classroom, being used in my district or one that has a similar demographic.

Week 2 Assignment #3

After looking over the site and watching the short videos, I now have a better understanding of the basic principles of how to teach students to read and write, as well as how the students comprehend it all.  Below are the ones that I found to be the most "forgotten," or ones that need more attention.

Print Awareness: Students can identify that their are differences in types of print. A sign for a bathroom indicates a bathroom, a storybook will tell a story, a list of ingredients will produced a type of food.

Sounds of Speech: I struggled with speech as a child, and still often confuse my students with I say "swirl," they all think I am saying "squirrel." It's important to be able to identify if a student is struggling with speech at an early age to help them correct it. My parents and teachers detected that I had trouble pronouncing certain words and phrases, I was lucky and attended speech at school and outside of school. But, even with help I clearly still have some difficulty with speech. 

Spelling:  In this day and age we really need to focus on spelling words correctly, and not depending on spell check or auto correct. Many of my students cannot spell average words like font, color, theme, etc. Introducing technology is great, but we really need to something to turn inaccurate spelling around.

I feel every subject area covers some aspect of Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, Comprehension, and Writing and it will continue to grow.