Exit Slips for READ 436

#1 Describe the assessments you will use for instructional level readers, define the levels (independent, instructional, frustration), and explain the factors that will influence your grouping for instruction.

Independent: a student could read this text alone easily. The child would have one or less word errors for every 100 words and would be able to complete comprehension question with 100% accuracy.

Instructional: This level is where the best progress is made in reading instruction. This level is used to teach new vocabulary and requires the assistance of a teacher for children to get through it. There is usually 2 5 words in an 100 word passage that the student does not know, and they would have about 80% accuracy on comprehension questions .

Frustration: The text is too hard for the reader. Word errors are usually more than 5 words per 100 word passage, and comprehension is below 70%.

Assessments: There are many different assessments that can be used to find a childs instructional reading level. These include the DRA, QRI, PALS test and using running records. These assessments use comprehension, fluency,

words recognized in isolation and words recognized in context to determine which level each student is on.

Grouping: To put the students in my class into groups I would first assess their reading levels and break them into groups based on instructional reading level. Like we did in class it is important to look at WRC, Comp. and Fluency in a grade below, at grade, and above, to make sure the children are at an instructional level in all three so they do not become frustrated. It is also important to keep the number of groups fairly low so equal amounts of instructional time can be given to each group.

#2

Define fluency and describe how you will teach it, including examples and resources from class.

Fluency is when a child is able to read without word identification problems. They have auto recognitions of words, appropriate phrasing and expression, and they can focus on the meaning of the text or read for enjoyment instead of decoding the words. To teach fluency the text must be at an independent level for the students. Modeling what fluent reading sounds like is also important. Students should re-read the text at least once so they can become familiar with the words thus allowing them to read confidently. Some strategies that can be used in the classroom to teach fluency are Readers

Theater, Timed Repeated Readings, Visiting Readers to younger classrooms, and dictated experience stories.

#3

Compare word study to the method used when you learned to spell.

Word study is completely different from the method used to teach spelling when I was in Elementary school. The only way I remember learning how to spell was by memorizing spelling words every week and being tested on them every Friday. We would also have homework with these words every night, such as alphabetizing, writing sentences with the words in them, and finding dictionary definitions. I do not remember ever doing a word sort, which is a component of word study, or learning root words, or sound patterns. I love that word study allows children to classify like words, and that invented spelling is okay. I think that by letting children learn different parts of words, and words with similar parts and sounds they are much more likely to truly understand words, and how they are spelled and why as opposed to memorizing and eventually forgetting.

#4

Why do we use before, during, and after activities for comprehension? Name at least one comprehension activity for each (before, during, and after) with resources from class.

We use before, during, and after activities for comprehension to keep the students thinking about the text. Before strategies are utilized to help the students see why the text is important to them. Suring strategies are used to check for understanding, and after strategies can be used for assessment and to help the students to keep thinking about, and remembering what they read. A before strategy could be a Story Words list which would get the children thinking about what the story might be about. A during Strategy could be a DRTA in which the children would have to make a prediction before reading and then revise their prediction and give supporting evidence while they were reading. And an after strategy could be having the students write an alternate ending for the story, this would show they understood what occurred during the story, and how it could change.

#5

Compare our writing activities to what you see in practicum.

Our writing activities in class focus on creative writing and using different mediums to prompt creative writing. I loved the example of using books without words and asking children to write the story that goes with it. Or to ask children to continue a story that has a cliffhanger ending. My other favorite example is the Harris Burdick pictures that can be used as a creative writing prompt. Unfortunately, there is little to no creative writing in my practicum classroom. The only writing I see them doing is to answer comprehension questions on

some read-alouds. I think my students would greatly benefit from a writing journal that has a weekly or even daily prompt for them to answer. This would allow them to practice many different types of writing.