Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Vina Phong
EDCS 605
The literacy support activity I choose to provide was having a conversation with the
teacher to identify the issue, needs, set goals, and problem solve. The second support activity
We met and had a pre-coaching session to find out her needs and concerns. Aria wanted
to focus on writing since she didn’t receive any formal training with writing. She shared from
her own personal experience she knew what the standards were and the basic components that
made up a paper.
development) for narrative writing. I explained the method of POW +WWW. POW stands for
pull apart the prompt, organize my notes, and write. WWW stands for who is the main
character, when did the story happen, and where did the story take place. SRSD is a proven
peer-reviewed strategy that proved effective for students with and without learning disabilities.
Baker and Chard (2009) studies showed the quality of evidence for self-regulated strategy
development to be effective for at-risk students. SRSD effectively breaks down narrative writing
into achievable steps. This strategy provides students the opportunity to see and determine key
components of a well-written paper contains. After completing it with the teacher and
determining key components students practice filling in graphic organizers. The next step for
these students is to start writing a narrative draft with a process of reducing support given over a
period. Eventually, the student will be equipped with the ability to identify what their writing
prompt is seeking and select the correct writing strategy to construct their response.
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I went over a sample fourth grade paper and modeled how I used the “think aloud”
strategy. I wondered aloud and showed my thinking when I searched for components of a
narrative paper. At this time Aria started talking about the importance of narrative writing. I
shared with her how narrative writing is like talking story with a friend. I modeled how to
explain to students why narrative writing is powerful. You must tell your friend who’s in it,
where it’s happening, and what’s going on. In Hawaii, we use a lot of storytelling to build bonds
and connections.
To help the teacher address the cultural and language needs of the student, we both
agreed that pidgin is a useful way to allow students to express themselves. After giving the
student some explicit instruction on how to use quotation marks and addressing the fourth-grade
standard regarding grammar at the same time, students would be encouraged to write pidgin in
quotation marks when writing their narrative stories. It’s a fun way to have students feel like
they are part of a literacy community because they won’t be punished for the way they talk.
Students who speak different languages can share what they said with quotation marks too. I
created a short paragraph where a customer and the cashier were talking to demonstrate where
quotation marks should be placed. It would be a good activity for students to practice their
As we were discussing Aria shared with me how she wished her classroom wall
decorations benefited the students. I shared with her she could have a word wall. This way
language needs would be addressed if students were able to look at the word wall and not be
concerned about spelling or when they need the inspiration to use a different type of vocabulary.
As we were talking, Aria thought it would be a good idea to have a poster with transition words.
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We talked about where she could place the transition word poster in her classroom to best
At the school level, there are no formal or standard literacy assessments specifically that
address writing progress. I also am unable to provide a copy of the writing literacy assessment
without violating copyright laws. With more discussion on how to check students’ progress, we
both agreed on an informal summative literacy assessment. The Wonder formal assessment does
require the students to write a written response to a writing prompt, however, it doesn’t directly
address narrative writing. As a result, we decided the Wonders assessment wasn’t approximate
to measure student’s progress on narrative writing. The informal writing literacy assessment we
decided on is to check students’ ability to determine the components of a good narrative paper.
The formal literacy assessment would be the student’s final narrative paper they need to
I put together an online word document containing links to literary resources. Please see
figure six-under Appendix B. One of the resources listed was reading rockets. This website
offered tips to support students up to third-grade writing skills. These tips from reading rockets
could support her lower-performing students. “Read Write Think” is another website I linked in
and showed examples of possible graphic organizers that could be applied for narrative writing.
Aria ended up bookmarking the narrative pyramid graphic organizer because it could be easily
applied. Another wonderful resource I added was the Cult of Pedagogy. She was surprised by
how long some of the podcast was, but I suggested she could listen to the podcast into segments
while driving, doing chores, or even when riding a plane. This is more effective and reasonable
with our schedules. I included links to the notetaking, narrative writing, grammar and spelling
While we went over the timeline to implement the SRSD within the first quarter Aria
shared with me how one of the teachers used narrative writing to communicate with the parents.
The students wrote a narrative of what they did during the school week and brought it home to
their parents on Friday. I thought it was a cool idea and asked her how she would implement it
in her own classroom. Aria shared with me she’ll have parents write a response to their child.
The kids will be given class time to read the responses and volunteer to share aloud. We both
agreed it would be a good way to build communication with parents and practice narrative
writing skills throughout the year. This idea of writing a narrative of what they achieved and did
in school reminded me of the portfolio for the students in the bubble. Students in the bubble
could also be described as at-risk students. Allen (2016) explained how it was important for
students to be immersed in literacy and ways to support students in the bubble. Using this
narrative writing strategy to talk about the student’s accomplishments and what they did is a
Aria was very open and eager to try out the SRSD writing strategy to support her students
with narrative writing. I found it challenging to find specific writing resources at the top of my
head. I had to investigate my toolbox and do a little digging. After checking out the websites I
was able to find resources that directly addressed Aria’s goals with teaching writing. I learned
that coaching is an ongoing process. Meeting up once or twice isn’t enough. Allen (2016)
shared support for new teachers and veteran teachers were different. Aria was a new teacher, but
she does have two years of teaching under her belt. Meeting biweekly or once a month would be
had to offer support of some sort immediately. Now I understand a listening ear can be very
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powerful. Toll (2014) mentions in chapter five powerful ways to be an effective communicator.
Listening in silence, questioning, paraphrasing, clarifying, and summarizing are the steps to
communicate well. Every time we met, I tried to follow these five steps. These five steps
allowed me to understand what Aria wanted to enhance in her classroom and time to digest the
information.
Through discussion, the teacher might arrive at their own solution and that’s great. Toll
(2014) explained in chapter six how it’s important to explore possible solutions. It was neat to
experience a teacher coming up with solutions after we examined the information. I always
thought coaches should give resources and provide materials to teachers. I continue to believe
this but as a coach, I must be wary of what materials were promised to teachers. It would be bad
if a coach promises to give these tools and resources but is unable to. Ensuring there is enough
time to prep it, delivering it to the teacher, and addressing everyone's concerns takes time.
During our final coaching session, Aria informed me how the resources gave her the courage to
try it in her class. I asked her if she had any questions, and we talked about ways to help ELL
students learn grammar and keep up with the narrative writing process. I wanted to promise her I
would be there, but that’s unreasonable. We both worked at different schools now, and we
agreed we would keep in touch to talk about the progress with writing.
As a coach, I learned it’s best if you’re very honest with whether you could provide your
support. It is suggested that “literacy coaches, please take a few minutes every week to note the
things you have accomplished. You might begin a team and individual meetings with such
observations too, so everyone in the school can acknowledge the hard work that they do” (Toll,
2014, p. 131). Overall, I learned it’s vital a coach listens to the teacher, provide them the help
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they need, and take care of themselves. It’s a long process and success can’t be measured in