Video Reflection

Week 5
Goals:
1. John will understand that reading can be valuable even for children for entertainment and learning.
John will also gain confidence in his own reading skills. This will result in an overall MRP score of
80% by December.
2. John will be able to identify words out at an instructional 2nd grade level on the San Diego Quick
assessment by December
3. John will reach independent first grade reading level reading words in context on the QRI by
December
4. John will improve his reading rate to 45 WPM on first grade texts CORE assessments by December
5. John will improve in spelling vowel digraphs and igh/ough word teams, reflected by a move to late
within word pattern on the Words Their Way spelling inventory.
6. John will write a 3 sentence paragraph without help. Each sentence will contain an

independent clause. All sentences will be on topic, and will not repeat ideas. The paragraph
will be legible.
Background of the student: John is a second grade student who attends a private Christian school. He
has two older siblings, a sister and a brother, who both enjoy reading and have always read above grade
level. John is the only child in his family who struggles with reading. Though John has been well behind
his classmates in reading skills since kindergarten, he did seem to make some strides in his first grade
year, catching up in decoding (phonics skills) and comprehension. He is still behind in fluency and
writing. While his teacher from last year indicated on the classroom report that he was only one year
behind his classmates in these areas, I later learned that she was under the impression that the form
was going back to Johns mom and was not as honestly critical as she would have otherwise been. My
initial assessments indicate that Johns fluency and writing skills are at the primer level. The initial
assessments also indicate a weakness identifying and spelling words with vowel digraphs and igh/-ough
teams.
John has always been above grade level in oral language, which was evident also by the CORE
vocabulary assessment I gave him on which he scored independent at a 3rd grade level. As his classroom
report indicated, John also has strong comprehension skills despite his low fluency scores. He has the
advantage of being part of a family that often travels and has exposed him to various cultures and
experiences. His rich background knowledge seems to play a role in helping him to comprehend texts,
though his reading is so labored. John has never had behavioral problems in school, though he is easily
distracted when completing less desirable tasks (like those involved with language arts). He sees himself
as an okay reader, but he believes his friends are much better readers. Though he knows reading is
important for adults, he does not yet see the value of reading for kids except as it helps them later in
life.

Week 5:

What did he learn before this lesson?

Up to this point, John has been learning about writing strategies such as making short, focused
paragraphs with separate sentences using proper punctuation and capitalization. He has also been
learning about reading with tone and expression. He has also been indirectly learning to increase his
reading rate and identifying words in context. The following lesson is part of our first direct practice with
words out of context. He has also practiced identifying digraph vowels and gh words out of context. He
has also learned how to use the context of a sentence to help decode very difficult words. In addition,
he has been able to see repeatedly that reading can be valuable as means of fun and entertainment.
Video lesson/ focus
Objective: Now that John knows how entertaining reading can be, he will also see that it is useful for learning new
concepts.

Description of activities in the video:

Background:
One part of my goals that I have not yet covered at this point is showing Johnny that, even as a kid,
reading can be useful to help him learn things he wants to know about the world. Therefore, the last
part of todays plan was to let Johnny ask two questions about things he wonders about so that I could
be ready with texts for next time that help answer those questions. At first, he could not think of a
question. I offered some suggestions like, Do you want to know what the fastest animal in the world is
and just how fast they can run? He was not interested in that. Then he said, I want to know, how was
the universe made? Where did it come from? And when were dinosaurs here? I dont get where they fit
in in the bible. I had certainly lead myself into a trap by opening up any question to him. I know
Johnny comes from a very conservative Christian family, and I did not want to expose him to what they
might find to be objectionable ideas. I asked his parents what they would like me to cover, and how they
had addressed these issues with the older children. Because their older children had never asked these
questions, Johns parents had never discussed how to approach the subjects, so they said they would
leave it to my judgment. I asked if it was okay if I presented a few of the most popular theories, and they
agreed.
At home I began researching websites for kids that discussed these questions. I cut and edited down
information for 3 theories. The first is what I call the standard textbook answers, which explain the big
bang and the existence of dinosaurs more than 60 million years ago. The second theory is a popular
Christian theory called Young Earth Theory. It attempts to explain how dinosaurs lived with people on
Earth, and it fits everything into the biblical genealogies which go back about 6000 years. Everything by
this theory must fit in to chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis when it is read literally. The third theory is Old
Earth Creationists theory, which also fits everything we know into the first 2 chapters of Genesis, which
they also claim to take literally, but certain words like day are translated more loosely. This theory
allows the scientific textbook theory to fit into the parameters of the bible. I ran these by Jonnys mom
before the next session, and she accepted them.
I came prepared with my material I had gathered on the three theories, plus a copy of Genesis 1 and 2. I
began reminding Johnny what his questions were, and explaining that, since no one today was around

when these things happened, whatever we read about it is just the best guess people have based on
evidence, and that these guess are called theories. So, all we can do is look at the different theories to
see what makes the most sense to us, and pray about it.
I had Johnny make a KWL chart so he could keep track of what he learns. This proved to be kind of
fruitless. In retrospect, this would have been easier if we practiced KWL charts with a simpler topic. As it
was, John could not recall what he already knew. Then, as we read, he seemed to have already known
everything (or so he claimed), and he needed a lot of prompting to add things he had learned.
On video:
Finally, we moved on to the reading. I went over some of the hard Tier 3 words with John first, and then I
had him read the first part about Big Bang Theory to me. Because this reading, though meant for kids,
was still above grade level, I told John the difficult words rather than making him decode them. I focused
more on the content than on the reading itself, and stopped frequently to clarify and ask comprehension
question as we read. I had him read Genesis 1:1-1:2, which he was familiar enough with to read without
too much trouble. I read the next two theories aloud to him, letting him pause me when anything was
interesting so that he could highlight it. I still frequently stop to ask comprehension questions and explain
concepts and vocabulary as we went.
Questions for Reflection
1. Was the objective met? What evidence from your video demonstrates this? If not, what would
you do differently?
John was clearly learning as is evidenced by what he chose to add to his KWL chart as well as
what he underlined. Whether or not he recognized the value in reading as a way of getting
answers to his questions, I cannot be sure. I should have taken the time at the end to lead him
towards this idea. Still, I can refer back to this lesson and reflect on it with him next time we
meet to make sure he comes to recognize this and add it to his value for reading in general.
2. Identify areas of teacher talk that scaffolded, extended, or redirected the student response.
I scaffolded this complex reading by stopping though out to explain words and concepts. When
the reading got a little more complex, I read to him while he was responsible for identifying
interesting facts. In addition, I tried to help extend his comprehension by asking both explicit
and implicit questions as we read together.

3. What is a possible alternative approach/strategy for follow-up?

Before we began, I went over the vocabulary for only the very first bit of reading. I wish I had
highlighted the difficult vocabulary in each of the sections to discuss before reading each
section. Another approach to this topic would have been to not try to tackle such a complex
topic at all, but to have predetermined something more age appropriate.
4. If you were acting in a coaching role- what question/s would you have for the teacher (you)?
I would ask why the teacher would add to an already difficult topic by bringing in 3 theories
instead of coving 1 obvious theory. I have several reasons for this decision. The first is that I do
not believe there is a more fair way to deal with questions of theory. To bring only one theory to
the table is misleading, especially for a young child who will accept it as fact if the idea of what a

theory is isnt explained. My second reason is because the parents in this situation also did not
know how to approach the question, and I did not want to lock them into a single approach they
may disapprove of. Another reason I took this more complicated approach is because presenting
multiple point-of-view and promoting critical thinking about what we read is in line with the
Common Core standards.
5. What is a key learning you achieved from this teaching episode?
First of all, I do not think I spent enough time editing the information down to Johns
instructional reading level. While I pieced together the minimal amount needed and took out
the more complicated concepts, I should have taken it a step further by rewriting portions to fit
his reading level. While he was certainly exposed to new words, he did not get much practice
actually reading for himself. If I had made the appropriate changes, he might have accomplished
the original objective and continued to work toward some of the fluency related goals.
The other key learning, which should have occurred to me before, is that it is very unwise to tell
a child to ask about anything at all they want to research. This was a delicate enough
conversation to have with a child of very conservative parents. I shudder to think of other
questions he might have asked. Next time, I would certainly set parameters by asking the child
what questions he or she might have about a predetermined (and safe) topic.