Melanie Tuma

November 2014
Left to Right Directionality
- Lesson Objectives:
When given one line of text with a green dot at the front of the line and a red dot at the end
of the line, students will point to where they are supposed to start reading and move their
fingers from the left to the right to demonstrate which way to read 100% of the time.

- I Can Statements:
I can point to where I should start reading and move my fingers in the direction I should
read.

-Pre-Kindergarten Ohio Early Learning and Development Standard:

Language and Literacy Development-Print Concepts: Demonstrate an understanding of
basic conventions of print in English and other languages.
On Tuesday, November 4, I asked six students (about half the class) to answer three
directionality concepts about print questions. I pulled each student aside, gave them a page
of text from the book Stones by Marie Clay, and asked, Where do I start reading? Which
way do I go? Where do I go when I reach here (I pointed to the last word on the first line of
text)? These three questions assess knowledge of where to start reading, which direction
to read in, and return sweep. I chose a variety of children for my sample, ranging from the
lower achieving students to the higher achieving students. This allowed me to get a more
accurate view of what the entire class needs to know.
Out of the six students, only half of them were able to show me where to start
reading. For this question, I counted their answer as correct if they pointed to any word on
the top line. Only three of the six students were able to correctly tell me which way to go
once I started reading. For this question, I was looking for them to point from left to right.
When I pointed to the last word on the first line of text and asked where to go next, only one
of the six students answered correctly. For this question, their response was correct if they
pointed to the first word on the second line of text.
In general, learning concepts about print is vital to a childs literacy development.
Research has proven that learning concepts about print effects a childs ability to read
environmental print (Reutzel, 2003). It is important when teaching concepts about print to
start with the basics. If you begin to by teaching challenging concepts, such as 1:1 matching,
the students will be confused. Gupta (2012), argues that one of the most basic concepts
about print that children must understand is directionality. Because of this research, along
with the fact that the majority of the six students I assessed struggled with directionality, I
know that teaching directionality is a good starting point in teaching my students concepts
about print.

-Formative Assessment:
During the lesson, the teacher will assess student understanding when the students come
up to the board and point to where to start reading and which way to read on the turkey
poem. If they struggle, re-teaching will occur.

Melanie Tuma
-Summative Assessment:
The summative assessment is a worksheet that contains the turkey poem. The teacher reads
aloud the sentence without pointing to the words, and then the teacher asks each student
where to start reading and which way to go. The teacher will keep track of student
responses on a data form. If the student answers none or only one question correctly, they
have not reached the learning objective. If they answer both questions correctly, they have
reached the learning objective.
-Poem (J. Williamson, 2011): I am a long legged turkey as
worried as can be. Eat some (picture of food) but dont eat me.
-Picture of an apple, hamburger, pizza, and carrot
-One red and one green dot
-Worksheet (Mrs. Wood., 2010): Eat some (picture of carrots)
but dont eat me.
-Reading stick

-Front
-End
During the formative assessment when students are coming to the board to practice, I will
look for misunderstandings to see if I need to reteach the lesson. A common
misunderstanding might be a student starting at the red dot and moving towards the green
dot. In this case, I would point to the green dot and say, This is the green dot. We start here
and move towards the red dot. I will model it and have them try it again. If the student
continues to struggle, I will try HOH.

Procedures

-(Day 1) Introduce Turkey Poem:

Teacher introduces turkey poem by asking students why we
would be talking about turkeys in November. Teacher calls on

Scaffolding,
Supports, &
Differentiation

Melanie Tuma
student to respond. If incorrect answer, teacher explains that
Thanksgiving is in November, and we eat turkey for Thanksgiving.
Teacher holds up a hand turkey and picture of carrot and says
poem aloud twice (no words are shown to students at this time).
When its time to say carrots in the poem, teacher emphasizes the
carrots in her hands. Note that the goal is to get the children
familiar with the poem so that the teacher can use it to teach
directionality at a later date. Teacher then invites students to say
poem aloud with her. Teacher asks, Did you notice how I was
holding up a picture of a carrot as we said the poem together? This
time, I am going to hold up a picture of this (hold up picture of a
hamburger). Can you tell me what this is? (Choral response) Its a
hamburger. I am going to hold this up and instead of saying
carrots, we will say hamburgers. Are you ready to try? (Choral
response). Teacher says poem aloud with students, then she
repeats the poem aloud with students using a picture of pizza and
an apple.

-(Day 1) Discussion of Foods:

Teacher asks which foods in the poem were healthy, or good for
you, and calls on students to share. Teacher asks which foods in
the poem were unhealthy, or not good for you, and calls on
students to share. Teacher asks if it is okay to eat unhealthy food
sometimes, and calls on students to share. Teacher explains that it
is okay to eat unhealthy sometimes, but most of the time you
should eat healthy foods like apples and carrots. Note that
although it is not helping the students reach the learning objective,
this conversation provides an opportunity for a short conversation
that fits into the theme of the week (healthy vs. unhealthy foods).

-(Day 2) Turkey Poem Review and I Can Statement:

Teacher displays the words to the poem on the board. The first
sentence of the poem will be on one line, and the second sentence
will be on another line. Teacher reviews poem by saying,
Remember the turkey poem we learned? How does that go again?
Lets say it together. (Say poem together while holding a picture of
a carrot) Wow! You have great memories! Teacher explains that
today they will practice the poem some more because it will help
them learn to read. Teacher reads I can statement for the lesson.

-(Day 2) Modeling Directionality:

Teacher asks students to say the poem while she points to the
words. Repeat with a picture of a pizza, apple, and hamburger.
Teacher takes down the second line of text and puts a green dot to
the left of the first word in the line of text. Teacher asks students
to point to the green dot. Teacher says, Do you see this line?
(Point to line of text) The green dot is at the front of the line. If I
put the green dot here (put green dot in the middle of the line),
would that be correct? (choral response) No, it would not be

Melanie Tuma
correct because it needs to be at the front of the line. What if I put
the green dot here (put green dot at the end of the line)? (choral
response) No! Thats not right either. Can someone show me
where the green dot goes if it belongs at the front of the line? (call
on student to put green dot at the front of the line). This green dot
is very important. It shows us where to start reading. Now that we
know where to start reading, we need to know which way to read.
To help us, lets put a red dot at the end of the line. Hmmis this
the end of the line (point to the front of the line)? (choral
response) No! Thats the front of the line where the green dot is. Is
this the end of the line (point to the middle of the line)? (choral
response) No! Thats not the end! This must be the end (put red
dot at the end of the line). Am I correct? (choral response) Yes!
Now the red dot is at the end of the line. The red dot is also
important. It tells us which way to go. We are going to start at the
front of the line where the green dot is (point to green dot) and
move towards the end of the line where the red dot is (drag
reading stick toward red dot). Watch where my reading stick goes
while I read this. Im going to start at the front with the green dot.
Ready? Teacher reads the line of text, pointing with the reading
stick left to right as she reads.

-(Day 2) Student Practice of Directionality:

Teacher calls on students to come to the board and use the reading
stick to read the text aloud. After everyone has had a turn, the
teacher asks where the green and red dots belong by pointing to
different spots in the line of text and waiting to hear if students
shout yes or no. Teacher also asks where to start reading and
which way to go.

-(Day 2) Summative Assessment:

The assessment is at a center. Each student gets a worksheet, and
the teacher reads the sentence aloud without pointing to the
words. Teacher reminds students that its the same sentence as
the turkey poem. Teacher asks students to draw a hand turkey on
the worksheet. As students are working, teacher calls on students
individually to answer two questions: Where do I start reading?
Which way do I go?

-(Day 2) Wrap Up:

When its almost time to switch centers, teacher says to students,
What great readers you are! Next time you pick up a book, you
will know where to start reading and which way to go.

-Teacher models
the assessment for
Student J and asks
him to repeat the
motions. If
necessary, use HOH.
-ELL Students:
During the
assessment if
students struggle,
tell them to start at
the green dot and
end at the red dot.

Melanie Tuma

Gupta, R. (2012). "Which Way do the Letters Go?" A Study of Children Learning about Print
Directionality. Language In India, 12(4), 1-16.
J. Williamson. (2011, December 2). What we did in November. Retrieved from
http://mrswilliamsonskinders.blogspot.com/2011/12/what-we-did-innovember.html.
Mrs. Wood. (2010, November 13). Save a Turkey. Retrieved from
http://woodkinderclass.blogspot.com/2010/11/save-turkey.html.
Reutzel, D.R. (2003). Reading Environmental Print: What is the Role of Concepts about Print
in Discriminating Young Readers Responses?. Reading psychology, 24(2), 123.

Melanie Tuma

Commentaries for Left to Right Directionality Lesson

Based on my formative and summative assessments, I know that the majority of the
students understood and benefitted from this lesson. For the formative assessment, I asked
each student to come to the front of the room individually and point to the words of the
poem while reading the poem aloud. Out of twelve students, only two seemed to struggle
with this. When Student L, a typically developing student, came to the board, I was not
expecting him to have any problems. However, he looked a little bit confused when I handed
him the reading stick, even though several children had gone ahead of him giving him
multiple models. I asked him where to start reading, and he said the green dot while
pointing to the first word of the line of text. I then started reading the line of text aloud with
him to assist him with the task. As soon as I started reading, he no longer looked confused
and was able to drag the reading stick to the right.
The second student that struggled during the formative assessment was Student B,
an ELL student. Much like Student L, Student B looked confused when he came up to the
board. He pointed to the first word in the line of text without my prompting, but he did not
say the poem aloud. I started to read, but he did not move the reading stick. To help him, I
got up and started pointing to the words as I read. When I started doing this, he began to do
the same. When he was done, I repeated (while pointing), We start reading at the green dot
and move towards the red dot.
Shown above is a picture of the data I collected during the summative assessment
when students were given a worksheet (see Materials section). I asked each student,
Where do I start reading? Which way do I go? In order for them to meet the learning goal,
they needed to answer both questions correctly by pointing. Twelve students participated

Melanie Tuma
in my lesson. The thirteenth student in the class was absent. Out of the twelve students,
eleven of them met the learning goal.
The one student who did not meet the learning goal was Student B. Because Student
B is an ELL student, I differentiated the summative assessment for him by saying, I start
here (point to green dot), and I go this way (move finger towards red dot). I repeated this
twice and asked him to try. Unfortunately, he was unable to do it. When I asked him the two
questions, he looked at the paper and was silent. This is an indicator that he may not have
understood the language I was using.
Since 11/12 students met the learning goal of my lesson, I know that the students
understand left to right directionality on one line of text when given a green and red dot to
use as guides. Student B was unable to meet the learning objective, so I know that he needs
more assistance with this concept. Perhaps he needs someone to use simpler language
when teaching the concept. Overall, the lesson was a success. Based on the data I collected, I
believe the students are ready to move onto learning return sweep using green and red dots
as guides. Eventually, when return sweep is mastered, the students should be weaned off of
using the dots as guides.
At the beginning of the lesson, I taught the academic language targets, front and end,
by saying, Now we are going to do an activity. Do you see the green dot on the board? Can
someone come show me the green dot? (Call on student and hand them the reading stick so
they can point to the green dot). Do you see this line? (Point to line of text) The green dot is
at the front of the line. If I put the green dot here (put green dot in the middle of the line),
would that be correct? (choral response) No, it would not be correct because it needs to be
at the front of the line. What if I put the green dot here (put green dot at the end of the line)?
(choral response) No! Thats not right either. Can someone show me where the green dot
goes if it belongs at the front of the line? (call on student to put green dot at the front of the
line). This green dot is very important. It shows us where to start reading. Now that we
know where to start reading, we need to know which way to read. To help us, lets put a red
dot at the end of the line. Hmmis this the end of the line (point to the front of the line)?
(choral response) No! Thats the front of the line where the green dot is. Is this the end of
the line (point to the middle of the line)? (choral response) No! Thats not the end! This
must be the end (put red dot at the end of the line). Am I correct? (choral response) Yes!
Now the red dot is at the end of the line. The red dot is also important. It tells us which way
to go.
Throughout the lesson, I used the academic language targets by saying, I start
reading at the front of the line near the green dot, and I move towards the end of the line
where the red dot is. When a student struggled during the formative assessment and when
I differentiated for some students on the summative assessment, I did not use the academic
language targets because I wanted the directions to be as simple and precise as possible. I
took out the language targets by saying, I start at the green dot and move towards the red
dot. By taking out these language targets during the assessments for those who were
struggling, the lesson became a bit easier to comprehend.
At the end of the lesson, I assessed the students knowledge of the language targets
by saying, You did a great job with this activity! Tell me again where this green dot goes.
(choral response) Good! At the front of the line. Here (point to middle of line)? (choral
response) Here (point to front of line)? (choral response) Where does the red dot go?
(choral response) Nice job! Its at the end of the line. Here (point to the end of the line)?
(choral response) You are so smart! Because the students answered all of the choral
responses correctly, I know that they understand the academic language targets.

Melanie Tuma

If I could teach this lesson to the same students again, I would do a couple of things
differently. First, I would put the poem on a pocket chart instead of on pieces of paper on
the board. When students came up for the formative assessment and were pointing to the
words using the reading stick, the papers began to slide around because they were only held
up by magnets. A few times, the papers fell off the board because the magnets were not
strong enough. A pocket chart would have been sturdier and prevented unnecessary
distractions to the students, but my CT did not have a big enough pocket chart for me to use.
Another thing I would change about my lesson would be to use HOH on Student B
during the summative assessment. After seeing the way he struggled with the formative
assessment, I should have known that he would need even more support than I originally
planned to give him during the summative assessment. By using HOH, at least he would
have been able to gain more practice rather than not being able to answer either of the
questions in the summative assessment. I also wish I would have been able to word my
lesson in a way that made more sense to him so that he would have grasped the concept.