For my two
mini-lessons, I decided to use four students who struggle with fluency and
reading comprehension. Throughout
the year, my MT has had me conduct assessments with all of the students, which
allowed me to get an understanding of where each student’s reading level
was. From each assessment I was
able to narrow my decision for which students to teach in my lessons. I decided to pick four students from
the second grade classroom, whose names were Andrew, Jane, Cale, and Joe.
The Students!
Andrew is a second grade student who
loves to share his opinion on everything!
He has innovative ideas, but sometimes strays from reality. When I have observed his comprehension
instruction, I notice that he “tip toes” around questions being asked about the
text and compares the questions to his life or the world around him. When I observe Andrew reading, I notice
when he struggles with words, he just skips them and moves on to the next word
he knows. I have noticed this
multiple times when Andrew attempts to read something or complete a homework
task. Not only do I see this in reading,
but I have also noticed this type of behavior in other subjects. If Andrew finds something to be
difficult or he does not understand something, he moves onto something new. I think Andrew will benefit greatly
from the lessons I have planned.
In a smaller setting, the pace of the lesson can be set at each
student’s individual need, which will benefit Andrew’s learning style.
The
second student I used for my lessons was Jane. Jane is one of the spunkiest second graders I have ever
met! One struggle I have had with
Jane the entire year is getting her to work on her assignments. My MT struggles in the classroom
management department, leaving her and Jane to an up and down
relationship. However, throughout
the year, Jane has grown accustom to the routines set in the classroom and is
starting to respect my MT more and more.
As far as comprehension is concerned, I have noticed that Jane struggles
with reading and writing. She can
read some sight words, but reading a sentence takes her awhile depending on
what words compose the sentence.
After she makes a few mistakes, she usually gives up and says she
“can’t” do it. I think she needs
the motivation and “push” to read and work with her other classmates. Like Andrew, Jane seems to misunderstand
comprehension questions. Having a
smaller lesson based on comprehension can give me time to work with Jane on a
one-one-on-one basis.
Cale
is a “newer” student who started attending Elliott Elementary School in
January. He is in the “weaker”
group of readers and has been ever since he has been placed in the second grade
classroom. When I observe Cale in
the classroom, I notice that he talks out of turn many times throughout the
day. However, I have not had many
interactions with this student except one time when I was working on a
worksheet about comprehension.
When I talked to him about the worksheet, he seemed to know what he was
talking about and seemed to answer all of the questions correctly. To better understand Cale’s ability, I
wanted to include him in my lesson and see if his ability is truly represented by
his place in the classroom.
The
last student included in my lesson is Joe, who is the popular student in the classroom. Joe is usually involved in classroom
disputes and always tells my MT, “I didn’t do nothing.” I have observed my MT constantly
telling Joe to stop behaving in a particular way and to get back to work. Joe’s participation in discussions
about texts can be closely related to Andrew’s participation. He usually avoids comprehensions questions
about text by coming up with answers related to his life. I think Joe will benefit a great amount
from the comprehension and fluency lessons. He has struggle reading and takes many attempts to read
certain words correctly. He will
benefit from the lessons a great amount.
In this classroom, one of the
assessments I was able to proctor was the running record with high frequency words
for second graders. As I was
assessing these students, I noticed that they had trouble moving on from the
first three words. After I had
assessed them, I was able to conclude that these particular students were below
grade level regarding fluency. As
the year progressed, I was able to pay close attention to the student’s
comprehension skills and really hone in on what the students needed work
on. Throughout my MT’s
comprehension lessons, I noticed that Andrew, Jane, Cale, and Joe were not
participating in the discussions as much as other students. When these students did participate,
their answers seemed unrelated to the question being asked. After observing these students in the classroom
environment, I decided to see how they were involved with my discussion
lesson. I noticed that of these
students, Andrew participated the most, but gave answers that were unrelated to
the questions being asked. He
seems to answer questions about the text with questions about real life or his
life. After analyzing the video a
little bit more, I decided to create a lesson around comprehension and I
thought these students would be great for the lessons.
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