Roberts TE 846 Literacy Analysis

TE 846 Literacy Analyses Kelli Roberts Michigan State University Background My name is Kelli Roberts, and I am a Masters of Arts in Education student at Michigan State University. I currently am teaching at Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids, MI. I teach middle to upper level math courses. I just completed my third year of teaching. I am currently enrolled in TE 846, Accommodating Differences for Literacy Learners, in which it is required to complete a literacy analysis. Being a math teacher, literacy is something I seem to overlook in my teaching. However, MandelMorrow & Gambrell (2011) argues much of responsibility in the hands of the classroom teacher (p. 58) as far as improving literacy skills for our students. Taking on this project will challenge me to think of literacy within my teaching, and also give me the opportunity to improving literacy of a selected individual for this case study. Home and Family With summer approaching in less than two weeks, I decided working with a student from my school may not be beneficial as many students will be preparing for exams and would not commit to extra work and time needed for this project. With this in mind, I have decided to work with my neighbor Lexi. Lexi is 13 years old and she is just finishing seventh grade. Lexi attends the local public school, where she has been tested to have met the grade level in reading.

Roberts TE 846 Literacy Analysis Lexi is a middle child from a family of five. She and her family are Caucasian who live in a middle class neighborhood. Lexi is a good student academically. She enjoys social studies and learning about history. Lexi is an athlete and participates in

violin lessons. When asked what she thought about reading, she responded Reading can be important because you can learn a lot about history through reading. But sometimes reading is not that important like reading fiction books. She recently just finished the book A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer. She said that was a book she could not put down. Other than that, there has not been any book she claims to have said she enjoys. One thing Lexi does like to do is to write. I love writing. I would much rather come home from school and write than read, she exclaims. Lexi told me she likes to write short stories, but right now she is doing a little poetry because that is what they are learning in English. Lexis parents are very supportive of their children and they understand that school is important. Both hold a Bachelors degree, and expect their children to attend college. Both of Lexis parents are avid readers, and they often encourage their children to read books. My mom will always say stuff like reading is important, said Lexi. I

responded with Does she have you and your siblings have set reading times? My mom would set the timer in our kitchen for reading time. No, she wont do that. But she does ask that we read in our free time, was her response. Emotional Climate As mentioned previously, Lexi would much rather write a story, than read a book. She does feel that reading is important, but not as important as what some adults always

Roberts TE 846 Literacy Analysis stress to her. She feels reading text of relevance is important, but to read a book series like the Hunger Games is not as important. Literacy History Lexis parents are very supportive of their children and they understand that school is important. Parental effort has significantly positive effects on student achievement (Houtenville and Conway, 2008, p. 437), and Lexis parents are very involved in their childrens education. They are involved in parent groups through the

school and will often attend parent teacher conferences to validate that their children are doing well. What is unique about Lexis school is that they have assigned reading everyday for about a half hour. The students are allowed to read whatever they want, and most of the time Lexi will read a book or some magazines. Tests Given and Test Results To get an idea of Lexis attitude towards reading and writing, I decided to administer the Reading and Writing Attitude tests (see Appendix A). These tests will be helpful to determine whether Lexis attitude towards reading and writing will have any effect on her performance on the more objective assessments. The first objective test we completed was Johns Reading Inventory (see Appendix B). Johns Reading Inventory is used to measure the grade level of a student by testing their ability to read a twenty worded list, which tests their ability to accurately pronounce words and identify their meaning. The second part of Johns Reading Inventory provides a short story in which students must read and be timed. This second part provides how fast a student reads and then measures their comprehension by asking

Roberts TE 846 Literacy Analysis them questions regarding the text they just read. Johns Reading Inventory meets the

Common Core Standard CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts (Common Core Standards, 2012). The second objective test I gave was the Written Expression Curriculum-Based Measurement (WE-CBM) Standardized Directions (Powell-Smith & Shinn, 2004) Test which measured Lexis writing ability to create a well developed paragraph supported by the the Common Core Standards Initiative (2012) : CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.1: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and wellstructured event sequences. This is a timed test where the proctor reads what the objective needs to be for the student to write about. After one minute to allow for think time and brainstorming, the student has three minutes to write a well developed story. The student is expected to write the whole time and the proctor is required to continually remind the student what the objective of the story is. Results of Pre-Test

Roberts TE 846 Literacy Analysis

I met with Lexi for an hour on May 24, 2013 to administer the first set of pre-tests that focused on reading ( see Appendix A). Once we completed this brief survey, we began to work through the Johns Reading Inventory (Johns, Jerry L., 1997, p. 135-137). We started off with the Reading Inventory Test which measured Lexis pronunciation and word identification. I began testing Lexi two grade levels below the grade she will be entering next fall. Lexi did very well with the sixth and seventh, lists. However the eighth grade list is when she slightly began to struggle, and then really struggled with the ninth grade list. On the ninth grade list she mis-pronounced words such as consecutive, vacate, debatable, detract, crochet, siesta, and bayonet. She also did not even attempt or know the definition of insomnia (see Appendix B). After completing the worded list test, we moved on to the oral reading test (Johns, Jerry L., 1997, p. 254-258). Again we started at a sixth grade level and worked up. Lexi averaged a reading rate of 8,122 WPM. So she reads at a quick pace and it was evident listening to her. What was astounding to me was that she did very well with the comprehension questions I would ask about the text. Lexi once again performed well on the beginning tests, but began to struggle with the ninth grade test. She noticed that the story was harder to read and understand, but she did recognize the character Apollo. We are learning a little a bit about Apollo now in school, she stated. Despite her struggles, she did fairly well on retaining the content of the story. This may be because of the familiarity of Apollo, which supports the benefit of having prior knowledge to improve literacy as highlighted in Samuels and Farstrup, 2011(p. 159-182). When the writing test was given, Lexi seemed to portray a more positive attitude and excitement, which now makes sense based off her responses to the Writing Attitude

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test. The Writing Attitude test also gave me insight into Lexis behavior when it comes to writing. She is not one student to organize her thoughts prior to writing; she just works on the fly. The WE-CBM test gave me a perspective into her writing style that showed me she has a lot of imagination. Lexi was given the prompt One night you look outside your bedroom window and a spaceship has just landed. Tell me what happens next. Lexi wrote a total of sixty-three words in the three minutes given. I noticed that Lexi has some weaknesses in punctuation rules, syntax, and spelling (see Appendix C). Post Test For the post tests, I plan to re-administer the oral reading test and the WE-CBM. Through the results of the pre-test, Lexi could use some reinforcement on comprehension of a story by drawing stronger conclusions. She also could use some reinforcement in her writing style and organization Post Test Results Appendix D shows the results of the post test. The prompt given to Lexi for the WE-CBM post test was You and your family are hiking in the woods and find very large footprints. Tell a story of what happens next. Although Lexis word count was much less than the pre-test, Lexis attention to detail of her writing was more evident. For example, I noticed she took some time to pause for a few seconds to reconvene her thoughts. There were less errors and misspellings from the previous WE-CBM test (see Appendix C). Lesson Plan Matrix

Roberts TE 846 Literacy Analysis My lesson plans with Lexi will focus on reading a story and developing an organizational method of writing an alternate conclusion to the story. The lesson will incorporate strategy and knowledge to develop Lexis literacy skills. Samuels and Farstup (2011) discuss in Chapter 7 the importance of knowledge and strategy to be

present in instruction in order to fully enhance student literacy. Strategies-absent some level of knowledge...will not take readers or writers very far (Moje, 2011, p. 52).

Lesson Plan Date

June 12, 2013 (45 minutes)

Objective (include performance conditions, and criterion. State the Common Core State Standard at the end of each objective) Student will combine the ability to read a short story and continue to develop this story by creating a new character that extends the story. CCSS.ELALiteracy.W.8.2 CCSS.ELALiteracy.RL.8.2 CCSS.ELALiteracy.RL.8.6 Student will extend her development from the previous day be sharing and justifying her Character Development. Using this, she will

Instructional Materials (what will use to deliver the main objectives of the lesson) Student will be given a story in which she will read aloud from Johns Reading Inventory. Once the reading has been completed student will complete a Character Development worksheet based off the short story.

On-going Assessment (to measure attainment of objectives)

Proctor will observe behaviors of student as she completes the Character Development worksheet. Student will complete a Character Development activity that focuses on re-thinking, reorganizing, and adjusting her thoughts as she goes. Student will provide a final copy of her Character Development. Student will write an alternate conclusion to the short story.

June 13, 2013 (45 minutes)

Student will share her final draft from her Character Development worksheet. Student and Proctor will discuss

Roberts TE 846 Literacy Analysis finish the short story Character by writing an Development and alternate ending. begin to develop a conclusion to the CCSS.ELAshort story from the Literacy.W.8.1 previous day. CCSS.ELALiteracy.W.8.2 CCSS.ELALiteracy.RL.8.3 Reflections After spending two days with Lexi in hopes of helping her refine her writing

Proctor will observe behaviors of student as she develops her ideas and argues her final decisions.

process, I do think she has started to become a better writer, and so my two mini lessons were meaningful in making her literacy stronger. One aspect of Lexis writing that was a weakness was her ability to organize her thoughts before writing and then take the time to proofread and edit her writing appropriately. My lesson was designed for her to follow a step by step process to think about her writing, and then make the necessary edits to develop a well rounded character sketch for a story (see Appendix E). By the end of the lesson, Lexi was given many tools and suggestions she can use to help her refine her writing process as she enters the eighth grade next fall. Her demeanor was positive throughout the lessons and her attention was very focused on the objective of the lesson. Her final product of the character sketch met the objectives set through the worksheets expectations. Her writing flowed nicely and fit perfectly into the story of a princess captured by pirates in Capture and Freedom from the Basic Reading Inventory by Jerry Johns (1997, p. 206). I gave Lexi freedom on which character she wanted to develop, so she decided to create the pirate character within the story given. When discussing her final product, I

Roberts TE 846 Literacy Analysis asked her whether she felt she gave enough details for the reader to picture her subject

clearly. From my perspective, a reader would not be able to describe the appearance of the pirate. Lexi responded that she wanted to focus more on the personality of the pirate. In Lexis story, the pirate is portrayed as mean, greedy, and controlling. These were all qualities Lexi said she wanted to portray. Lexi made a writers choice that it is more important to create a personality than an appearance because the reader can have that freedom to imagine. Through the lesson on day one, my personal objective was to model ways of thinking and visualizing the development of a character. I tried to help Lexi make connections to people she knows to help her develop this pirate character. She immediately said, Can I make my character based on Jack Sparrow? I asked her why Jack Sparrow, and she went on to tell me of how her little sister was obsessed with Jack Sparrow, so they would watch the Pirates of the Caribbean movies often. This is interesting that Lexi once again thought of her younger sister as she developed her story. In our pre-test she talked abut her sister within that story. It is important for writers to have a connection to their story, and it was at this point Lexi has a vision of what she wanted to create. As she began to write her character sketch I checked in with her to explain to me what her overall goal was for her sketch. As writers, I wanted Lexi to know how important it is to stay focused on her goal and to make sure the story flows nicely. All throughout this process, I had Lexi write down all her visions and goals before she began the actual creation of her character sketch within the story.

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I originally had wanted Lexi to come up with an alternate conclusion to the story of Capture and Freedom (Johns, 1997, p. 206). However after reading Lexis rough draft, Lexi decided to write a beginning to the story. Lexi felt her pirate character fit better at the beginning of the story, that way we can see why they took the princess in the first place. I was very impressed with this choice. This showed me that Lexi continually had the goal of creating her pirate and the flow of the original story in her mind as she was creating this sketch. She used her prior knowledge of the original story to develop her own story. This development gave me reason to believe that Lexi was beginning to realize the importance of having a vision when writing a story. Lexi commented to me that she would often think of Jack Sparrow as she was writing her story, and this helped her stay focused. I decided to read the final product out loud for Lexi to hear her creation. As I read the story, I noticed some spelling errors. And her original conclusion was very vague. So now I knew Lexi needed some guidance on how to create final product. I told Lexi to go through herself to make any spelling errors she sees, and she caught most of them. I guess I need to do a better job of looking over my work, she stated. She then went on to re-do the conclusion so that it fit better with the overall story of Capture and Freedom (Johns, 1997, p. 206). Once she went through and made her final corrections, I again read the story aloud. What were you thinking as I read aloud the story? I asked. I thought of ways I could make the story better. Of how I could add things, was Lexis response. I asked if she has ever read her writings out loud before, or had people read them out loud to her. She said no. I went on to tell her how my eighth grade teacher would have us read our

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writings out loud to classmates because writing, reading, and hearing your work all gives you different perspectives on improving your writing. Through this I modeled to Lexi ways writers can improve their strategy to produce an exceptional product based off my prior experience. Overall, the lesson went very well. Lexi seemed to enjoy working on her character sketch and was attentive to the feedback she was receiving. However, I do feel like she was a bit rushed when it came to creating her sketch. I do not think I provided any pressure to finish at a certain time. However it was a nice day, and I know the neighborhood kids were out playing, so maybe she was trying to move a bit quickly through the lesson. I also would have had Lexi do more proofreading the night between lessons by asking her parents to read over her story. Again, I do believe the more exposure ones writing has the better off the final product will be. Lexi knows this now, but I would have had Lexi actually take a night to actively participate in this revision process herself. Lexis ability to write and to create something is exceptional. There is no question Lexi is able to get her thoughts on paper. However, Lexi needs to continue to work on the ability to create a well developed final product. I would like to see Lexi continue to improve her tactic of adjusting her writing style to include more time for editing. Not only looking for spelling and grammar mistakes, but to read and listen for fluidity of her story as a writer and a reader. As I was creating my lessons to support Lexi with her literacy skills, I continuously was focused on wanting to make our time together relevant. In Chapter 7 of Mandel-Morrow & Gambrell (2011) they discuss ways to motivate students to read.

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Although my lessons did not focus on reading, it is just as important for students to have some sort of motivation to write. I wanted to motivate Lexi by finding ways to connect to her interests, such as writing fiction stories, to improve her tactics as she writes. Another technique I used within my lessons was to integrate reading and writing together to improve Lexis literacy. Not only did Lexi have to read a story of a princess and a knight and be able to comprehend this story, but she also had to read back what she had written. As she had learned though my lesson, reading out loud ones reading gives the writer insight make modifications to the original piece. Current understanding in the field of literacy dictates that reading and writing mutually reinforce one another and rely on the same cognitive process (Fitzgerald &Shanahan, 2000; Shanahan, 2006; Tierney & Shanahan, 1996, p.76). Recommendations to Teachers and Parents/Caregivers June 18, 2013 To Whom It May Concern: I had the pleasure of working with Lexi over the summer to analyze her literacy skills. Upon our first meeting, it is clear Lexi is a very good reader, as she does meet her grade level according to Johns Inventory Test from Jerry Johns (1997) Basic reading inventory pre-primer through grade twelve & early literacy assessments. Knowing that Lexi is an avid reader, I decided to test her on her writing ability by using the WE-CBM test. It was hear that I noticed Lexi struggled with developing a writing plan and using that to create a fluid story. Lexi enjoys writing short stories, but she struggles to take time to reflect on what she has written, so she does make grammar mistakes and fails to recognize gaps she

Roberts TE 846 Literacy Analysis developed in her story. Over the course of two days, I worked with Lexi to help her

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develop writing guidelines to develop a story and then we worked on her ability to revise her original pieces by working on proofreading techniques. Although Lexi showed much improvement and appreciation for developing her writing skills, I do believe Lexi needs to continue to work on her writing to make it cleaner and smoother. I think creating a writing circle would benefit Lexi. This writing circle would allow Lexi to receive support for her writing, but also give her the opportunity to be exposed to different writing techniques her peers use. Lexis attitude and demeanor when she engages in writing is very inspiring. To help develop Lexis writing will be a gift to Lexi that she will continue to use as she prepares for high school in two years. Sincerely, Kelli Roberts

Appendix Attached Documents

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References Common Core Standards Initiative (2012). English Language Arts Standards. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy. Fitzgerald, J., & Shanhan, T. (2000) Reading and writing relations and their development. In Samules and Farstup (Eds) What research has to say about reading instruction (4thedition) (p. 51-93). Newark, DE: International Reading Association Houtenville and Conway (2008). Parental effort, school resources, and student achievement. In Mandel Morrow & Gambrell (Eds.) Best practices in literacy instruction (4th ed.) (pp. 436-454). New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Johns, Jerry L. (1997). Basic reading inventory pre-primer through grade twelve & early literacy assessments (7th edition.). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. Mandel-Morrow, L. & Gambrell, L., Eds. (2011). Best practices in literacy instruction (4th edition). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Meyers, R.E.(2006). Time to Write. Character Sketch Worksheet. Retrieved from http://www.teachervision.com.au/writing/printable/50287.html Moje, E.B. (2011). Developing disciplinary discourses, literacies, and identities: Whats knowledge got to do with it? In Samuels & Farstrup (Eds.) What research has to say about reading instruction (4th edition). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Powell-Smith & Shinn. (2004). Administration and scoring of written expression

Roberts TE 846 Literacy Analysis curriculum based measurement(WE-CBM) for use in general outcome measurement. Retrieved from www.aimsweb.com Samuels & Farstrup. (2011). What research has to say about reading instruction (4th edition).Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

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Shanahan, T. (2006). Realtions among oral language, reading, and writing development. Samules and Farstup (Eds) What research has to say about reading instruction (4thedition) (p. 51-93). Newark, DE: International Reading Association Tierney, R.J., & Shanahan, T. (1996). Research on the reading-writing relationship: Interactions, transactions, and outcomes. Samules and Farstup (Eds) What research has to say about reading instruction (4thedition) (p.51-93). Newark, DE: International Reading Association