Heather Coulter

EDU 474

Self-Evaluation

Strengths During Process

A strength that I have identified in myself this semester is my patience and flexibility.

While student interning during a pandemic, being flexible and patient have helped tremendously.

Another strength that I discovered in myself is providing positive and affirming feedback to my

students. I find it so exciting to be there biggest cheerleader when learning how to read and in

teaching them to become better readers. I discovered that a strength that I have is encouraging

my students and building up their confidence in their reading abilities as they gain skills. I have

also discovered that a strength of mine is making reading fun and engaging for students through

hands on learning and activities. Another strength that I have gained is learning how to

differentiate instruction for students and their needs, to help them progress in their skills and

abilities. Another strength I have used throughout this semester is quickly learning how to use

tools such as letter tile boards, Fundations, Heggerty, and Edmark in a variety of ways for a

variety of student needs.

Weaknesses During Process

A downside to working with students during COVID, was the hybrid and remote learning

models that took effect this semester. Because of the hybrid school schedule, all students began

the school year coming to school only twice per week. With the class schedule and half day that I

was at the elementary school, I had limited access to my student, and saw her once a week. My

co-op only taught learning support math at the beginning of the semester, and at first, I had

access to the student in the morning learning support reading session with another teacher.

However, the schedule then changed and her reading instruction time conflicted with my co-op’s

schedule, and who he wanted me to be working with at that time. They both had such limited
Heather Coulter

EDU 474

Self-Evaluation

instructional time available with the hybrid schedule, that they needed to utilize me for other

student support. So, it was difficult to meet with the student, but I would stay late some days to

be able to work with the student. Had we known that the schedule would change the way that it

did, I would have selected one of the student’s that I worked with more intensely for reading

support to begin the case study on, but once the scheduled changed we were already halfway into

the semester. So, a weakness was that I was not able to work with my student as much as I

wanted to or was needed. Another challenge I encountered was that my co-op had a family

emergency and he had to take off work for 2 weeks. At that time, it was difficult to work with

my case study student, as he had no substitute, and the other learning support teacher needed my

help with her added caseload with my co-op out. At that time, I had to help support his caseload

of students while he was out. After that, the school went virtual for the last 2 weeks of my

internship. This made it even more difficult to work with the student, but her learning support

teacher did allow me to create and add support lessons for her on a virtual platform called

Classkick. I wish I had been able to give my case study student more support this semester than I

was able to.

Lessons Learned
I have learned many lessons during this semester and project. When I began this

semester, I was not confident in my knowledge of how to teach children to read. It has been an

eye-opening experience working with students in the K-2 learning support classroom, working

on their reading skills. I was unsure of actual letter sounds when I started this semester. I have

learned true letter sounds and phonics through Fundations curriculum. As students were drilled

on letter sounds, I learned letter sounds. As students were drilled on digraphs, blends, and their
Heather Coulter

EDU 474

Self-Evaluation

sounds- I was learning digraphs and blends. I also learned phonemic awareness skills and how to

teach them through Heggerty curriculum. This includes identifying and manipulating onset and

rime, syllables, and adding and deleting sounds. I learned how to determine what reading level a

student should be on- through the QRI assessments. I learned that these word lists and passages

can provide much more information about a reader besides a word missed. I learned that they can

also provide information about fluency, accuracy, comprehension, areas of weakness, identifying

patterns, and prosody. Another skill that I learned was how to prepare students and build

background knowledge before reading a text. I learned how to gauge what readers know, and

how to bridge the gap for student through pre-teaching key vocabulary. I also learned how to

help students identify key parts of a story, starting with the basic elements of a story and working

up toward more complex concepts. I learned that a teacher cannot ask students who, what,

where, when, and why questions about a story’s details if they do not first understand what those

words mean. Most importantly, I learned how to help a reader figure out unknown words

encountered in a text besides “sound it out.” This semester and this project have been a truly eye

opening and beneficial learning experience for me. I have learned how to be more engaging in

reading instruction and making reading more fun for students.