Beruflich Dokumente
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Student Description:
I chose a student whom I have been seeing issues with. She struggles with the weekly
vocabulary lessons and whole-class read aloud sessions. This student has articulated
to me that she studies very hard for the vocabulary quizzes, yet she still does quite
poorly. Also, while reading aloud, something that she seems to enjoy doing on a daily
words in the text. With that in mind, she is not a low-achieving student. I chose her, not
to research her grades, but to attempt to figure out ways to better understand a
moderately achieving student and the issues that she is having with the texts we are
reading and the vocabulary words that they are learning. In doing this, I will better
understand how to assist my lower-level students that are having the same issues as
her. I want to understand where the disconnect lies between her comprehension skills
Lesson one occurred at the very beginning of a new unit. We had just finished
reading The Giver, by Lois Lowry, and the students were working on an opinion paper;
they were asked to decide whether they would rather live in the main character’s world
or ours. Simultaneously, we were beginning a unit where we were going to read The
Skin I’m In, by Sharon G. Flake. My reasoning for teaching this book, an easy read, is
due to the fact that it offers up quite a few opportunities for theme-based discussions.
The themes within this book are numerous. I chose to focus on individuality, conformity,
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and decisions. “Teachers in the upper-elementary and middle grades may be unaware
of certain easy-to-read chapter books that are also complex and engaging enough to
provide students chances to develop and practice their comprehension strategies” (Ivey,
2002, 237). I believe that this book falls under this category. As far as the exploration of
• What are some important decisions that you regret or would change from your
past?
anticipation guide. “Anticipation Guides are used to make students aware of what they
know and do not know about a topic or text under study. Typically, they are used as a
pre-reading strategy, they help students access prior knowledge. Used with
Learn:English Language Arts, date unknown, 9). Each of the guides that I create asks
questions that relate to the themes within the book. Also, they ask the students to relate
their own experiences to certain themes within the book; themes that they have not yet
read about or explored. “A number of theories and studies support the notion that
students are more motivated when the literacy activities they engage in are connected to
their own lives and their cultural identities” (qtd. in Gambrell, 2004, 197). I learned about
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anticipation guides from my mentor teacher, during my internship year at MSU. Since
then, I have used this tool religiously. At times, I find that my students do not grasp the
reason for these guides, but after diving into the books, they are able to pick out the
themes, which have already been discussed in class. These moments are called “ah-
ha” moments, and they are created (or come about) because the students have been
provided with a solid base of background knowledge about the themes within the book.
1. Simply knowing more about the topic makes reading easier; there is less new
information to process...
3. Knowing about the topic helps readers know what to notice. Therefore, it
is possible that [all] literacy students could monitor better if they had enough
background knowledge to allow them to make inferences and knew what to pay
The proper use of this prior knowledge then leads to the “ah-ha” moments that I spoke
of above. These “ah-ha” moments are ones that show me that anticipation guides work.
After taking this class, my love and devotion to anticipation guides have been further
solidified. I have learned that “substantial evidence shows that activating and building
students’ prior knowledge before reading a text improves their reading comprehension”
(qtd. in Ehren, 2005, 315). With that said, when my students are able to remember the
questions and discussions from the guides, they are proving to me that they are
comprehending the major themes within the book, as well as the book itself. “Unless
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teachers employ instructional practices that support the solid construction of
(Ehren, 2005, 312). That is a big reason why I push myself to create anticipation guides
After discussing the anticipation guide, we moved right into reading the book.
Before passing out the books, I passed out the chapter handout for Chapters 1-3. This
handout served many purposes. The first purpose was to introduce new vocabulary
from the reading. “Reading is probably the most important mechanism for vocabulary
development as children get older” (Ehren, 2005, 312). That is why I draw vocabulary
words from the reading that the students will be reading in the near future. I know that
the best way to learn and understand vocabulary is to learn it in context. Also, this
technique helps students to become independent word learners by showing them how
to learn the meanings of words by breaking down their meaning within an individual
sentence. This idea was discussed by Barbara J. Ehren when she said, “Vocabulary
instruction...should include skills and strategies that help students become independent
word learners” (2005, 313). Also within this first packet is a section that asks the
students to recall the characteristics of new characters within the three chapters that
were read. Also, they must provide at least five significant events and place them on the
timeline. I include this section so that the students have a reference, for each chapter,
when they are asked to fill-out a timeline for the book as a whole. Lastly, they are asked
questions that help them to test their comprehension of the reading. After I have gone
over each component of the handout, students are given the choice to read aloud or
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silently. Most often, my students choose to read aloud. As this occurs, I help my
students to fill-out their handouts. Also, before students dive into this packet
individually, we work together to sift through any issues that they may have with each
section. Working together will also teach those struggling readers how to thoroughly
complete the handout. For instance, when students must choose significant events for
the timeline, they must know which events are truly significant.
“Poor readers often choose important information on the basis of what is of high
interest to them. They may make decisions about what to include in summaries
In most cases, modeling how to pick out important information will serve in correcting
this issue.
As for the effectiveness of this first lesson, I feel as though it went quite well.
Most students were able to fill-out the anticipation guide and handout #1 (Chapters 1-3)
without any major issues. The selected student did a good job responding to the
anticipation guide. I would have hoped to have seen more self-reflection, but it still
served the purpose, for the most part, that it was put together for. The purpose of this
guide was to teach the students about the themes in the book (individuality, conformity,
and decisions). Also, each of the questions dealt with issues that the main character, in
The Skin I’m In, had to face. In a perfect world, this student would have thought
critically about how she felt about each of these questions, in turn, helping her to better
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understand her feelings about the book’s themes. Also, she would have answered them
thoughtfully, and she would have dug deep into her feelings about each question. For
example, there was a bit of disconnect between the student’s choice on question
number three (a multiple choice question about what she would do if she was bullied)
and her explanation. Despite her choice, which did not surprise me because I know her
and her personality, she seemed to be able to articulate her reason for this choice. I
feel that I could take care of this issue by explaining, in greater detail, my reasons for
using this tool; that way, students will find it more meaningful, she will think more
critically/thoughtfully about her answers, and it will become even more effective.
According to Jennifer G. Cromley, “Students need to know not only how to use the
strategy, but also why it will be useful because they will put a lot of effort into learning it”
(2005, 198). Also important is the fact that I may not have followed the guidelines for
following elements: (a) Explain how to use text structure awareness strategically
to assist with comprehension; (b) Tell the importance of the strategy; (c) Model
how, when, and where to use the strategy and how to evaluate the effectiveness
of its use by including “think alouds”; (d) Provide guided and independent
practice in strategic use of text analysis; and (e) Teach for transfer and evaluation
by making sure that you have students independently apply new strategies while
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To clarify my placement of this information, and my lack of explicit instruction, I
introduced this strategy, very briefly, expecting that handing them this guide, and telling
them that the questions/statements dealt with themes from the book, would be enough
to get set them on the right path toward critical thinking. What I did not do was help
them to see why this technique is important. Also, I did not further teach them why it is
important for them to ask themselves questions of this nature while reading the text
(The Skin I’m In) and their independent reading novels. If I would have done this, I think
that they would have put a bit more effort into completing the task. For instance, the
student that I studied only provided surface answers; ones that almost seemed
expected. If I would have scaffolded her learning of this task better, she may have dug
deeper into her prior knowledge and given answers that truly critiqued the
questions/statements. For example, when she was asked to complete the statement for
said, “Express myself.” This is a thoughtful answer. But, with a bit more scaffolding,
and attention to my expectation of the task, she may have gone deeper and explained
As for the handout. I feel as though this student did a good job answering the
questions and filling-in each required section. I feel that her success was due in part to
the fact that the work was modeled first. “Teacher read-alouds can be a good starting
point for comprehension. That is, by just listening first, students can focus on the
strategy being introduced without actually having to read.” A plan that works well “is for
the teacher to model his or her own mental process as he or she reads aloud to
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students” (Ivey, 2002, 241). Although each section of this handout did its job, I decided
to add a few to the next handout in order to incorporate literacy strategies that are
my incorporating these strategies would further assist this student in understanding the
text.
Lesson Two was carried out in much the same way as Lesson One. For starters,
a discussion was held at the beginning of the class period. This time, the discussion
was over the handout from Lesson One (Chapters 1-3 handout). We went through each
section, in order. Students offered up their answers as I helped them to muddle through
any mistakes they made or any quick fixes that they could make to enhance their
thinking, with regards to each question. After a thorough discussion, students were
given the handout for Chapters 4-6. I proceeded to go over each section of this
handout, focusing more closely on the new sections (prediction and visualization). After
all sections were discussed, and questions were answered, students were given a copy
of the book, and Chapters 4-6 were read aloud. During reading, I stopped to ask
because “One way to measure metacognitive monitoring is to ask people to “think out
loud” while reading” (Cromley, 2005, 191). Also true about this tool is the fact that
“Evidence shows that talking about what has been read increases the readers’
interpretation of text” (qtd. in Gambrell, 2004, 196). These reading sessions also
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consisted of time where I would read aloud (at the beginning), in hopes of getting the
students into the day’s reading. This is effective because when teacher do this it
“Makes books more accessible to their students” (Gambrell, 2004, 194). After reading
has been completed, students are then asked to complete the handout (Chapters 4-6
handout). Within this handout, students were asked to define vocabulary words, list
section of the reading. I feel as though the tasks of prediction and visualization (two
strategies which I have not utilized in about 3 years) have the potential, and may have
been the most effective. After analyzing the responses from my students, with regards
to the questions that contained these tools, I noticed that I could gauge their
comprehension skills quite effectively. With that said, most students predicted what was
to come very easily and correctly. Also, they drew pictures, although not very detailed,
about the most important events in the day’s reading. I used these two techniques for
• “Good readers create pictures in their minds. They use their senses to connect
to the characters, events, settings, and ideas. While reading students should
note the places where images are clear and distinct” (Writing to Learn, date
unknown, 65).
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Although I was not sure if these reasons would hold up and stay true with relation to my
students, I was able to prove the research correct and find that these strategies do in
fact work.
I have already discussed my thoughts, about parts of this unit, in the above
paragraph. Now, I want to take the time to discuss the individual student’s (the one that
I observed closely) progress during this lesson. For the most part, I feel that she did a
good job as far as comprehension goes. She was able to answer, accurately, each
question that I asked. With that said, she did not answer them as thoroughly as I would
have liked (a fact that I stated during my critique of Lesson One). For instance, when
filling out the timeline, she seemed to choose random events that may not have
contributed to the overall meaning of the reading. An example is the first event. This
student wrote, “Goes to class.” Although this is true, the main character did go to class,
it was not at all the most important fact during the close reading that we did. Also
missing is a better explanation of the event; important or not, the event should at least
have a character’s name with a more thorough explanation of what happened. I feel as
though this lack of critical thinking and thorough explanation is due to the fact that I did
not, yet again, scaffold this student (all of my students for that matter) enough to train
her how to choose significant events from a text. I needed to train my students how to
find meaning in the text and understand what events created this meaning. “Simply
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(Cromley, 2004, 190). It is my job to help my students to see the significance in all of
the text that they are reading. This cannot happen if I do not equip them with the skills
to do so on their own. As the timeline entries progress, this student’s responses get
better. When the teacher, Miss. Saunders, asked the students, “What does your face
say to the world?” a light bulb should have gone off in this student’s head that this was
a significant event; I am assuming that this happened. My reasoning for this is because
this question was on the Anticipation Guide. This fact is also important because it has
the potential to prove that the anticipation guide’s purpose was hard at work; the student
used her prior knowledge from the guide to realize that this event was significant.
Lessons One and Two employed two similar handouts. My reasoning for using
two lessons that were so similar was because I wanted to compare the changes in
comprehension after incorporating new skills (prediction and visualization) into the
second handout. As for my findings, I noticed that my students, including the one that I
was monitoring more closely than the others, seemed to gain more insight into the text
after completing the second handout. This insight came from the prediction and
visualization questions (numbers 11 and 12) on the second handout (Chapters 4-6) . As
I had stated earlier, my students chose important events to draw for the visualization
question. These choices can be compared to the timeline events that they chose to
place on their Chapters 1-3 timeline. On this timeline, the important events that they
chose were not always important. After some thought, a few more chapters read, and a
bit more practice, my students were beginning to learn what important events consisted
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of (occurrences which had the potential to make a wave for the protagonist, for the bad
or good). Although this was not my main goal for using these handouts, it was a goal
that contributed to the bigger picture (comprehension and hightened literacy skills).
Side Notes:
During the first novel unit, this year, I used reading logs to keep track of students’
reading and their comprehension. Within these reading logs, students were asked to
provide explanations of three significant events from their reading. Also, they were
asked to provide two thought provoking questions about the reading. In theory, this tool
should have worked quite well. I scaffolded the use of this tool, and gave them a
significant amount of time to complete their reading during class time. With all of that
said, I found that students were simply copying random events from the reading, as
chapter(s). Also, they generally did not come up with questions that were thought
provoking; they asked ones that were surface and generally could be answered with a
simple, “Yes” or “No.” I feel that the problem with this tool was in the fact that I did not
reiterate, enough, how to use these reading logs. “Students need support, or
scaffolding, while learning to use strategies. Scaffolding may include hints, questions,
have taken more time to re-teach the use of reading logs, I would have found them to be
more useful, and I would have used them during this unit. For that reason, I changed-up
my approach for this unit, and I restructured my reading comprehension tools. I took
from my reading logs the choosing of significant events. I changed them from summary
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to putting them in timeline form. As the unit progresses, I will be able to see more
clearly if this change has become effective. In order to gauge their effectiveness, I will
have to check to see that my students are choosing significant events. The element of
these reading logs, which I did not transfer to these chapter handouts, for The Skin I’m
In, was questioning. Although quite important, I felt that it would be better if I asked the
questions in order to ensure that the right questions were being asked.
References
literacy.
Ivey, G. (2002). Building comprehension when they’re still learning to read the words. In
1-148)
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