Week 3:

Wednesday

Cassie Koja
SPED 444
5/10/15
Students are practicing how to determine the theme of a story.
Determining theme requires students to comprehend and analyze
a story. I used a graphic organizer to help Cathy organize her
thoughts as she reads, in hopes of improving her reading
comprehension and ability to determine theme. We read a story
from Wonders, The Friend Who Changed My Life. We discussed
the important actions and words of the main character, which we
later used to determine the theme. This helped Cathy link the
main idea and key details of the story.

Cathy was able to point out important characteristics of the main

character. She was able to independently fill out the graphic
organizer to better understand the story. We had multiple
discussions throughout the story, and her answers showed growth
in reading comprehension. She correctly determined the theme of
the story using the notes she took from the graphic organizer.
Cathy is definitely showing growth in using reading strategies to
better understand a text.

Week 3:
Thursday

Students are practicing how to determine the theme of a story.

Determining theme requires students to comprehend and analyze
a story. We practiced determining the theme of a song using close
reading strategies. Close reading helps students to focus on and
analyze key parts of a text. Cathys annotations display her
questions, connections, and explanations of the lyrics of
Firework by Katy Perry.

Cathy was able to correctly determine the theme of the song. Her
close reading annotations show that she is able to dissect a text
and determine its meaning. Close reading seems to be an
effective reading strategy that helps Cathy to comprehend a text.

Week 4:
Wednesday

Students are practicing how to determine the theme of a story.

Determining theme requires students to comprehend and analyze
a story. I used a graphic organizer to help Cathy organize her
thoughts as she reads, in hopes of improving her reading
comprehension and ability to determine theme. We read a The
Empty Pot by Demi to practice how to analyze a story. We
discussed the important actions and words of the main character,
which we later used to determine the theme of the story. This

helped Cathy link the main idea and key details of the story.

Cathy was able to use the graphic organizer to organize her

thoughts into what she knows about the character, the important
words and actions of the character, and the new thinking (theme)
of the story. She was completely engaged throughout this story
and showed growth in reading comprehension. Her answers in
our discussion displayed her use of reading strategies to better
understand the text.
Week 4:

Post-Test

Post-Test

Thursday
Post-Test

Cathy showed extreme progress between her pre-test and post-test. I used the Wonders
Weekly Assessment as her post-test because it shows direct relation to her pre-test. She received
a 70% for reading comprehension and 70% for vocabulary. Her total score for this weekly

assessment is 70%, which shows improvement compared to her 50% score in her pre-test. The
passage given to her for this assessment was completely marked up with annotations, which
shows she used the close-reading strategy we worked on during the Tier II instruction. She used
the reading strategies learned throughout Tier II instruction to help improve her reading
comprehension of the story.