KRUEGER’S MASTER PORTFOLIO

English Language Arts: Literacy

A balanced approach to Language Arts includes reading, writing, speaking and listening,

and word study. To support student growth, rather than merely delivering reading and writing

curriculum, my professional goal is to engage in a practice of intentional teaching and assessing

in all of these areas. My ideal literacy program reflects the foundation of my philosophy of

education.

It is essential to acquire an understanding of individual student ability and areas in need

of support in order to keep them at the edge of their greatest potential. Vygotsky (1978) calls this

the Zone of Proximal Development. To assure comprehension and transfer of knowledge a

diversified set of summative, formative and performance assessments should be offered. My

pursuit to earning my Master’s in Elementary Education allowed me to perform a myriad of case

studies. These gave me the opportunity to gain a depth of understanding and practices to best

support the learner. In this Case Study, I was able to put together an Individual Literacy

Assessment Portfolio for a first-grade student (pseudonym was used throughout) through a

process called Culminating Performance Task (CPT).

First, in the introduction of the CPT I explored the students’ areas of interest which is

beneficial to understand this learner in a holistic way. The benefit of a holistic approach to

teaching is that it supports learners beyond mental development, by encompassing social,

emotional, and psychological growth. This approach encourages and motivates children to learn

about a concept or subject through curiosity and creativity, rather than obligation (Aykut, 2008).

I learned that although assessed as below-grade level, this student did not perceive herself as

having difficulty in reading or other areas of literacy. When a student is allowed to feel confident
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in their ability without fear of failure or judgement, they are more successful in progressing. This

is the embodiment of the growth mindset (Johnston, 2012).

Next, the student was offered several pre-assessment tools in order for me to identify

areas of strength and areas still progressing. The Concepts of Print (COP) assessment allowed

me to understand where the student stood in the area of understanding basic concepts of reading

text (Clay, 2014). It was surmised that she had command of capital and lowercase letters and that

books are read from front to back. This COP assessment also allowed me to isolate several target

teaching points such as regard for the print, ending punctuation, and identifying letter and word

order and offer guided learning strategies to attend to her gaps.

I was able to use her writing samples to qualitatively asses and analyze her proficiency in

writing through a process called Analysis of Student Writing. This assessment allowed me to

gage her writing objectives as met, developing, and not yet met. By noting that she is able to

produce appropriate space between letters, word spacing, proper use of high frequency words,

and her print contains a message, I was able to place her as developing the writing objectives of

the first-grade common core standards. Many other students in her class also fell into this

category which allowed me to provide peer/peer small group practice opportunities so that

students could co-construct knowledge about writing. I was also able to identify instructional

next steps to keep her writing skills developing appropriately to meet objectives, such as using

lined paper to practice letter size, and sentence composition.

The last assessment in this portfolio, Oral Running Records (ORR), was also developed

by Mary Clay (2014). ORR are a quick way to assess what the syntax, visual, and meaning cues

the reader is using to decode at any given moment throughout the year. Through this assessment

it was clear that this student engages in self-monitoring while reading as evidenced by many
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pauses surrounding her reading errors. This is a wonderful thing because it shows that she can

distinguish what sounds right (syntax), looks right (visual), and makes sense (meaning)

according to the story. Being able to encourage her to keep up the good work using these

multiple forms of information to decode will assist her in further developing her reading skills.

Together the assessments created an image of possible learning gaps and can assist in

choosing an instructional strategy to narrow such gaps. By having a strong pre-assessment

strategy in place, I can appropriately offer opportunities that engages prior knowledge and

connects it with new information (Piaget, 1964). I can offer an appropriately scaffolded approach

to teaching any given concept lesson. An example of this may be the familiar: I do, we do, you

do model, in which the gradual release of responsibility is achieved (Pearson & Gallagher,

1983). Reading and writing workshops including individual conferencing offer peer

collaboration. Guided reading can reveal which context cue strategies a student is practicing.

Read aloud can model and reinforce these strategies. Small group work opportunities build

student collaborative skills. All models can also be used in speaking and listening as academic

discussion, and word study, which is learning word patterns rather than memorizing unconnected

words. All four domains of literacy can be embedded in one-on-one, small-group, and whole-

class.

Each student is worth the effort, time and must be treated with dignity and respect

(Coloroso, 1995). Once a trust-based relationship is forged, instruction, motivation, guidance and

classroom management techniques can flourish to create a positive learning environment. This

philosophy is ever evolving and shaped by the needs of the students. Weaver (2009) defines

reading as a socio-psycholinguistic process in which the cultural schema of each individual

reader has the strongest bearing on how they will be able to decode, predict and connect with the
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content of what they are reading. I believe the genesis of reading and writing processes is

achieving a link between groupings and order of symbols, and a communicated idea or thought.

From there fluency and comprehension increase through a myriad of context clue strategies. A

person further gains literary proficiency by asking questions about the content of the text,

gaining understanding of implicit meanings, and discerning and evaluating. Some define literacy

as possessing the ability to read and write, however I find literacy to be much richer in its

complexity.

I learned through my student teaching that “classroom environments are effective when

they are literate, purposeful, organized and accessible, and, most of all, authentic” (Miller, 2008).

Having a range of reading materials to suit each reader’s skills, organized and available

throughout the classroom, and routines for students to engage in these materials promotes a

culture of literacy. The same is true for writing by offering several diverse access points for

student to engage in writing such as writer workshops, genera writing (poetry, how-to, fiction,

research, graphic novel), and computer-based writing programs. Because facets of English

Language Arts are embedded across all content areas, students can be given opportunity to hone

these skills across all curricular arenas.

Intentional teachers are constantly evaluating to assure that they are providing optimal

support in literacy development through scaffolded lessons in reading, writing,

speaking/listening and word study. Literacy is an essential component to being human. It offers

the ability to construct and communicate understanding in all areas of daily life and it is essential

that students become effective and competent users of language. To support student literacy my

professional goal is to engage in a practice of intentional teaching and assessing in all four

strands of literacy.
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References

Aykut, Arslan (2008): Implementing a holistic teaching in modern elt classes: Using

technology and integrating four skills. Published in: International Journal of Human

Sciences, Vol. 5, No. 1: pp. 1-21.

Clay, M. M. (2014). Concepts about print: What have children learned about the way we print

language? Auckland, New Zealand: Global Education Systems (GES) Ltd.

Coloroso, B. (1995). Kids are worth it: Giving your child the gift of inner discipline. New York:

Avon Books

Johnston, P. H. (2012). Opening minds: Using language to change lives. Portland, ME:

Stenhouse.

Miller, D. (2008). Teaching with intention: Defining beliefs, aligning practice, taking action, K-

5. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Pearson, P. D. and M. C. Gallagher. (1983) The instruction of reading comprehension.

Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8 pp. 317-344.

Piaget, J., (1964/1972). Development and learning. Reprinted with permission from R.E. Ripple

(ed. with V.N. Rockcastle) from Piaget Rediscovered, 7-20.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological process.

London: Harvard University Press.

Weaver, C. (2009). Reading process: Brief edition of reading process and practice. Portsmouth,

NH: Heinemann.