Kelsey Wheaton EPS 513 Planning Commentary October 24, 2012 In Kindergarten much of our focus is based on building

our students early emergent literacy skills. According to a publication from the National Institute for Literacy (who based their information of off the information from the National Reading Panel) there are 5 basic building blocks of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. These are five skills that children must learn in order to read well. The National Reading Panel published a report in 2000 that was meant to help parents, educators, and others single out the important skills that were essential to becoming sufficient readers by 3rd grade. The National Reading Panel reviewed more than 100,000 studies. These studies had to meet the following criteria: achievement of one or more skills in reading research had to be generalizable to the larger population of students research needed to examine the effectiveness of an approach research needed to be regarded as high quality (National Reading Panel (n.d)).

The National Reading Panel has helped drive my instruction. Throughout the course of the year I want to make sure that I hit all the five building blocks. Currently in my classroom we are busy building our students knowledge of phonics and phonemic knowledge. For this particular assignment I am going to be focusing on teaching rhymes (phonemic awareness). My teaching is directly related to this particular Illinois

Kindergarten Standard: 1.A.Kd Demonstrate phonological awareness (i.e., rhymes and alliterations). In order to be successful in helping my students become readers I need to make sure that the information is tailored to meet their needs. One informal way of gathering information about students is through whole class instruction. We always start our morning off with Heggerty which is a program that focuses on phonemic awareness. Most of the students enjoy Heggerty because it happens at a fast pace and hand motions are incorporated. While I or my co-resident and mentor teacher are teaching it provides valuable information and we are able to do a quick scan and see and hear who is grasping the concept at hand. The students who understand the concept are usually the most vocal. The others are able to listen to their peers and mimic. Usually all the students are 100% engaged in some way during this time.. Another great aspect of Heggerty is that you are able to incorporate hand motions while you are responding orally. This is very helpful for the students who are kinesthetic learners. I can tell that some students are unable to vocally tell the answer, but they are able to make the correct hand motions with the class. Some may be doing only the hand motions, others may be only vocalizing their answers, and some may be doing both. We do have a small portion of students who are not very vocal in a large group and it appears that they are not paying attention because they are not participating, but when we go back to our seats they are able to complete the task at hand. This fifteen minute morning activity is a great beginning place to gather informal data about my students current level of academic understanding. Heggerety does provide some quick academic development data, but it does not always provide the most reliable data. Sometimes it is hard to hear each individual

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student response or they are blindly mimicking their peers hand motion. Another way of assessment is the STEP Assessment. This assessment includes a rhyming portion where the students are required to identify the picture/word that rhymes with the target word. The students are given two practice rounds. I introduced this portion to my students in the following way: Now we are going to be listening for rhyming words. Rhyming words sound the same at the end of the words. Cat and bat rhyme because they sound the same at the end. Cat and ball do not rhyme because they dont sound the same at the end. Lets look at this practice example. You want to find the word that rhymes with King (point to the picture as I say it). Listen closely, king, leaf, king, ball, king, ring, king, chair (point to each individual picture as I say it). Which word rhymes with king? I repeat the same process with the second example and then I proceed to the ones that are actually recorded. The data that came from the STEP assessment was not only very informational, but a valid source of information. Students were able to complete this assessment one on one in a quiet setting. This allowed me to get an accurate snapshot of where my students were at that time period. From this information I was able to see that out of my twenty five students that twelve of them got less than 50% correct. From this information I created three groups of four that I will meet with at least once a week (in addition to the whole group activities). I will be recording notes during each of our session and hopefully after a while my groups will get smaller and smaller because the students have mastered rhyming. Another aspect to consider when planning instruction for students is their academic language development skills. One does not teach about photosynthesis if the

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students do not have the proper vocabulary knowledge to engage in the learning. I dont believe that any of the students have any problems with their academic language development that is hindering their ability to make and find rhyming words. I say this because my students are not required to work independently during my instruction time. Some students may not know the name of the picture that I show, but I always explicitly say the name and check for understanding by having the kids repeat the word back to me and to activate prior knowledge by asking them if they have seen that object before. With the concept of rhyming sometimes we use words that are nonsense words ( students are explicitly told that they are nonsense words), so naturally the students will not know what that particular word is, but it is not necessary for them to know the meaning, but rather for them to be listening for the same ending sound. One also needs to consider their students interests, life experiences, and community/cultural assets. I believe that an effective teacher is able to build a rapport with their students and with their parents. Building a rapport allows the teacher more insight into their pupils lives and allows them to better meet the needs of their students. There are many ways to build up a rapport with the students. During our morning message I sometimes ask the students to tell me their favorite color/animal/book etc. or to tell about what they did last night/over the weekend. We also send home a teddy bear with a journal every week with a different child so they can write and take pictures about what they did. This is a great way to build school and home connections. I believe that throughout the day a teacher should always be able to learn more about their children. During read alouds I ask the students to make text to self connections and it always amazes me what they tell me!

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Another way to get information about students is to send home paperwork with the students. At the beginning of the year my teacher sent home a survey where the parents wrote about their childs interests, medical needs, how they get home, siblings, and their strengths/needs. These sheets gave us helpful information when we were first getting to know the students. We also sent home an All About Me sheet where the students would write and draw about who was in their family, their favorite things, and even include pictures. This also showed which parents are actively working with their children and which parents are more hands off. We also send home homework packets every night along with different information in a folder. Sometimes the folders come back and nothing has been taken out of it. This really solidifies the thought that my teaching time is precious and that every minute of the school day counts. It is also very important to consider the community that you live in when teaching. Before I had never taught in an urban setting before and there are different challenges that present themselves when you are teaching in a community that is similar to South Shore. Some students are homeless. One of the students who was in my class for a week was living at a homeless shelter and had never met his mother before. Another young girl is living in a foster home and the foster lady only thinks she will have the girl for about a month before they move her to another place. The population is also highly transient. Since the beginning of the year we have gained and lost between six to eight students. I believe that this is important information to know because students may have missed great lengths of school because their parents or guardians are moving. It is harder to make academic gains with students if they are not in school for the majority of the year.

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I also take into consideration my students social and emotional development when planning. At this age, students sometimes struggle with sharing because this may be the first time that they have ever had any interactions with other kids their age. Students sometimes also have a hard time waiting for their turns and being able to see the situation from others viewpoints. When teaching it is important to stress that nice friends share and work together. I know that it is something that needs to be explicitly told and the students need reminders. It is also important to follow through with ones expectations while teaching or else the students become distracted and the objective of the lesson cant be met. Another important aspect to consider when planning is to think about the instructional strategies that work well with your particular group of students. After doing multiple observations I noticed that my students respond well to fast paced activities where they can respond orally and by movement. They also enjoy game like situations. When planning to help my students learn the concept of rhyming I will pull small groups and use game like concepts to help them practice rhyming. I also make sure that I try to do strategies as well that deepens their leanring experience. Instead of only having the students finding predetermined rhyming words in our activity I encourage the students to come up with other words that fit the criteria. I remind them that they can ever make up nonsense words if they rhyme. I make sure that I am explicitly clear that nonsense words are not real words that we use when we talk, but that they are fun to use when we are trying to make rhyming words. I think that this will help strengthen their skills because it is allowing a transfer of their knowledge of rhyming from just identifying the rhyming words to actually creating rhyming words. Students will also do well in this environment

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because it will be in a smaller group and they will be able to receive more individualized instruction. By knowing my students prior knowledge and their learning styles I am able to develop successful intervention lessons that will propel my students forward. When planning for my small group intervention I made sure that I pulled the students who were struggling with the concept of rhyming and needed more help than the whole class group. If I hadnt done the STEP assessment I would not have had enough information to plan a successful succession of intervention time. My hope is to meet with these students at least once a week for about twenty minutes each time. During this time I will be taking down my observations and noting whether they were able to rhyme. I will also be categorizing them into three categories: successful, demonstrated, and unsuccessful. Successful means that the students were able to rhyme without any coaching or scaffolding from me. Demonstrated means that the student was able to complete the task with my assistance. Unsuccessful means that the student was unable to complete the task with my assistance. None of my students who are in the small group need and accommodations or modifications to be successful with this At the end of the week I will look over my data and pull the lowest students and work with them in another group for about twenty minutes. I believe that the students will be able to make connections to my small group instruction because they will be receiving the whole group instruction everyday and that will be reinforcing what they are learning during our small group instruction. I also need to make sure that the students know exactly what rhyme is. At this point in time, some of

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my lower students think that rhyming means that the words sound the same at the beginning of the word. It is my job to make sure that I am very explicit with my students.

After completing my small group interventions I was pleased with the growth that my students had made (refer to pdf graphs). My beginning data that I used was my STEP assessment. When I first tested the students ( see 1st Assessment Scores graph) only eleven of my students were able to get 6/10 of the questions correct. 12 of my students were only able to answer 5/10 questions. From this data I chose to work with the students who knew 6 and below. After working with the students for about three weeks I re-tested the students and there was vast improvement (see Final Assessment graph). All but one student were able to identify rhyming words with at least a 60%. Five more students were able to answer 10/10. To see individual growth of the students that I worked with refer to the chart below.

Name A Bills B Butler L Cain J Fears D Fisher T Gilbert J Hayes J Henderson Y Jackson A Jones

First 4 4 3 4 5 5 2 6

Last 6 10 3 6 7 10 10 9

Growth 2 6 0 2 absent 2 5 absent 8 3

# of times they received small group instruction

2 3 2 2 1 2 2 0 2 1

6 Absent

6 Absent

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G Lawrence R Lewis B Mitchell M Robinson D Williams M Taylor

5 4 3 4 2

9 10 9 9 8

4 6 6 5 6

1 3 2 2 2 2

4 10 6 Average Growth= 4.4

I was very pleased to see that almost all of my students made some sort of growth. The one student that didnt grow is also noticeably behind a majority of her peers in all other academic areas thus far. The information above also shows how many times I met with the students. In the beginning of this intervention schedule I had hoped to be able to meet with each student at least once a week in a small group setting to supplement the whole group instruction that they were receiving (Heggerty in the morning and a few rhyming lessons throughout the course of the month), but the data shows that I was unable to meet with my students as much as I had hoped. I realize that being a teacher means that you never have enough time as you want! I believe that if I could have met with the students more that they would have all been able to score higher (if possible than they did). Overall their final assessment performance was consistent with how they performed during our small group intervention time. During my intervention time with L Cain I scored her as unsuccessful and demonstrated as her markings

(unsuccessful=unable to do it with assistance, demonstrated=able to do with assistance successful=able to do without assistance). J Fears also performed at the same cognitive level as L Cain did during our small group time. R Lewis- who made tremendous gain

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received small group instruction three times. The first time R Lewis was able to find rhyming words with assistance and the second and third time she was able to find rhyming words without any help from me. Since R Lewis was successful two times in a row I no longer met with her as she had mastered the skill. M Robinson also received instruction twice. During both of those times she was able to identify rhyming words with my assistance. I was pleased to see that she made such gains. B Butler and R Lewis were the only two students to receive instruction three times. Both students completely mastered the skill. While I was administering the final assessment one trend that I noticed with my lower students is that they were still listening for the beginning sound instead of the last sound. Another difficulty that my lower students ran into was that some students were listening only for the very last sound in isolation. For example the students needed to identify the word that rhymed with clap; their choices were rope, map, and fish. A lot of the students chose rope instead of map. In this case the students were listening to the very last sound in isolation and matching up the p sound instead of the second part of the word. I was surprised that this was an error because during Heggerty and my small group instruction I didnt encounter this misunderstanding with my students. It is possible that I overly stressed the final sound and some students relied on that when taking the test. I am attaching pictures of the ten question assessment that I used to complete with the students. Since this was an oral assessment there is no written work to accompany this data (other than the previously mentioned charts and graphs). Feedback was given to the students in the moment. My two students who I am submitting for feedback are my two lowest students ( L Cain and J Fears). L Cain and J

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Fears are among the lowest academic students in my class. They both still struggle to identify their letters (along with their sounds) and struggle with math concepts as well. Both students participated in Earobics (literacy based computer program) for twenty minutes a day. In my feedback that I gave to the students I tried to be very specific to their needs. L Cain kept listening for the beginning sound instead of the ending sounds. J Fears was doing that as well, but he seemed to also be listening to the last sounds in isolation rather than as a whole. When I meet with these students again I will do it in a one on one setting so I can really focus on them. I will also make sure that I constantly remind the students to be listening for the same ending sounds. I will use the same games as before because the students will be familiar with them and we will able to be able to focus on rhyming instead of learning how to use the supplemental materials. After analyzing my data I realize that I do not need to re-teach rhyming to my students as a whole class. We do Heggerety on a daily basis so I know that my students will be exposed to the concept of rhyme five times a week. I will make sure to sprinkle in rhyming Do Nows and Exit Tickets to keep the concept fresh and to make sure that my students still understand the concept. I will conference with L Cain and J Fears at least once (hopefully more often) a week. I also plan on meeting with J Henderson and D Fischer to assess them and check in with them. J Henderson doesnt come to school very often (1-2 times a week) so I have a feeling that I will want to meet with her on the days she comes to work with her one on one. If know that I will be teaching this concept to my students next year and I am glad that I analyzed this data because it will help drive my instruction next year. I do know that my small group intervention games worked well and the students understood how to

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play and were able to focus on the concept of rhyming. One thing that I will do different next year is to make sure that after I assess the students once or twice in their small groups I will rearrange the groups and pair the high and low students together to be able to even further help them. I noticed that during my small group instruction that my higher students did well and were moving at a faster pace and my lower students were always left behind. I believe that it would have been a more conducive learning if my students were all on the same pace. I believe that STEP worked well as an assessment because the students were able to orally hear the words and they also had pictures to help support their learning. I know that next year I will really focus in on being more deliberate with the planning of my small groups and that I will continue to use Heggerty and teach whole group lessons on rhyme.

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Feedback Clips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNjSntBjxDo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEsEQeBpuFg

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Works Cited National Reading Panel (n.d) Putting Reading First: The Research Building Blocks For Teaching Children To Read. Retrieved from http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/upload/PRFbooklet.pdf

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