The Learning Academy is a private elementary school that provides students (grades second to sixth) the opportunity to learn techniques, by way of the Orton-Gillingham (OG) Approach, that will better assist them through their lifelong journey with their reading disability. Dyslexia is very hard to diagnose, but many of the students at this school are assumed to have this reading hindrance. Reading difficulties begin to arise and become recognizable in the first grade, which is why this outstanding school does not start until grade two.

 

Classroom Observation

Class began immediately at 8:00am, and we had another visiting student! Mrs. William said that he would not be able to attend The Learning Academy this year as there is not enough space; however, due to more teachers in the next grade, he can begin attending then. When class began to settle down, I quickly pulled my case study student as soon as the pledge and morning announcements ended. Unfortunately, I missed the first twenty or so minutes of OG instruction, but was able to enter when the class was working on their spelling words with my peer teacher. Joseph was given a “challenge” word to spell because “He usually always gets them right,” according to Mrs. William. Joseph’s word was “example,” and he spelled it correctly! The students continued taking turns spelling the words, rotating around the room, until all of the words had been spelled.  As the students finished this up, I looked around the room and noticed a “WOW Handwriting” poster at the front of the room. The poster explained the correct sitting position when writing and the proper way one is supposed to hold their pencil. Mrs. William came over to me and explained how I am supposed to hold my pencil- grip it with your pointer and thumb and let it relax against your hand. Despite the one-on-one attention, I continued to hold my pencil improperly as I have done for the past fifteen years.

 

The students then transitioned into small groups. I took one group, Mrs. William took another, and my peer teacher took the third. There were two groups of four and one group of three. My group played another “Moose game” with different content- closed one-syllable words. Each student took a turn reading the card and was able to keep the card they drew. The student who drew the moose card was able to collect all of the other student’s card. At the end of the fifteen minutes (rotation round time) the student with the most cards won. One student, Landon, consistently hid cards under him whenever someone else received the moose card. It was a constant battle between playing in order to learn and just playing.

 

After the center activities were Smart Board games: “Four in a Row” and “Tic Tac Toe.” Each student was paired against another student- due to the odd number, I was paired with Landon during both games. However, the pairs were on teams and each pair got two words. For example, I was on the black team and Landon was on the red team. “Four in a Row” required that each student roll the dice on the board, and the dice told them to find a word that either contained a suffix or did not contain a suffix. If the student found the correct one, they were then able to place either a red or black mark in the box. The person who got four in a row first won. “Tic Tac Toe” involved the same two partners reading a word correctly and then putting either an ‘x’ or an ‘o’ in the pre-made graph. Landon had the opportunity to win, but he decided not to put his mark in the winning square because he “wanted to keep the game going.” I then had the chance to go and placed my mark in a non-winning spot forcing Landon to win the game.

 

At the end of the games, it was time for the students to eat snack and head out to recess and my time at The Learning Academy ended.

 

Classroom Reflection

Being in the classroom with Mrs. William has been such a great opportunity as I learn new things every time I am in there. This time, I learned about the “WOW” writing position. It was fun to get to experience the way a pencil should be held, although it felt funny and I could not write as fast I normally do with my pencil sticking straight up in the air. I almost wish I had Mrs. William as one of my elementary school teachers. She is so wise and has so many cute engaging stories.

 

I also love the fact that Mrs. William changes her routine up from time to time- not doing OG for a straight two hours. Instead she plays games and does centers and then goes back to the traditional OG scenario later in the day. OG is very mundane- even for me- although, it is such an amazing opportunity for these young students. The center activities was quite an experience. I have done a game similar to the game played today, but I have not previously had Landon as he is relatively new to the school. I do not want to overstep my boundaries and tell Landon to stop. However, I feel as though my facial expressions got the point across to him when he finally stopped hiding the cards. I hope Mrs. William has not let the class take advantage of her. I am concerned that her management is starting to falter.

 

I absolutely enjoyed the Smart Board games! I have never seen anything like it before, and it was so enjoyable for both myself and the students. I cannot wait to implement the same thing in my own classroom!

 

Case Study Observations

I pulled Hannah to work with me right away, at 8:00am, as Mrs. William wanted to center activities shortly after OG instruction. Based on last week’s assessment results and communication with Mrs. William, it was decided that Hannah should move on to beginning blend sounds. I decided to pull the sounds from the original spelling inventory to work with her on. However, there are six blends at the lower level, so I decided to start with the first three (sl, bl, st).  The first assignment I provided Hannah was a “Word Make-Up.” I provided Hannah with three words with the three different blends. I explained the instructions to Hannah, and I told her that I wanted to her to come up with her own five words for each blend. She was able to come up with five words for “sl,” though some were nonsense words; three for “bl;” four for “st,” though some were nonsense words. Hannah and I raced each other for five minutes, and the person with the most words at the end of that time won. The second assignment I provided Hannah was a “running record.” I provided Hannah with three sentences with the three blends (one blend for each sentence). “Please read these sentences for me. If you do not know a word, then please sound it out.” After both of these assignments, Hannah and I buddy read, “Do Not Open This Book! By, Michaela Muntean. This book provided an ample about of blend words- some Hannah was able to read, and some she was not. This took up right until 8:20am, and I had Hannah return to her seat to finish out OG with the rest of the class.

 

When the class came to the word spelling section of OG, Hannah was given the word “front” to spell orally. She first spelled, “fruot,” then “fronte,” and then “front.” During the rest of OG, until the Smart Board games and the small group centers, Hannah colored a coloring page and rarely contributed to instruction. However, she contributed during both Smart Board games and got every question correct. She won her “Tic Tac Toe” round and won “Four in a Row.” For the “Four in a Row” game, Hannah was asked to find four suffix words and three no suffix words. Hannah was able to find all of these, but the game did not finish after just four tries because of moves made by her partner. During “Tic Tac Toe,” her words to read were “inquired, clone, explode, and stampede.”

 

Due to the fact that every group was able to rotate between the three centers, I had the opportunity to have Hannah in my group. Hannah needed assistance with about three out of the twenty words she had. After the three rotations, the students had snack and it was time to go to recess.  

 

Case Study Reflection

 I do not want Hannah to become overwhelmed too quickly which is why I decided to advance into blends working on only three types. I previously decided that I wanted all assignments to involve oral language either by Hannah or myself. However, looking at various assessments and activities online caused tremendous confusion. Many of these assessments are not oral or do not have a qualitative element that is needed in order to fully wrap-up and analyze Hannah’s growth throughout the semester.

 

Overall, I am very pleased with Hannah’s performance today. Today was another day for me to see Hannah’s standing when it comes to her knowledge on blends. I thought that the “Word Make-Up” activity provided great insight into her word background. I have come to the conclusion that Hannah had difficulty thinking of real words for each blend because she cannot pull previous words she had read before. It is well-known that she does not like to read on her own, probably because of the anxiousness she feels because she cannot read as well as other students her age. Thus, she has not picked up on words and has not put words into her memory, so she was unable to think of any real words. However, I just wanted to make sure that Hannah knew how to properly say the word and use the blend in a word. I was also looking to see that Hannah did not put the beginning blend at the end, but instead at the front which is what she did. She appears to understand that these blends would not make sense at the end of the word.

 

My oral component came into play with the reading of the sentences. I wanted to ensure that Hannah could read the “blended words” when presented in a sentence. She was able to properly read the words with the blends which is what I was mainly looking for; however, Hannah did get stuck on “flowers,” but was able to say the blend- it was the last portion of the word that tricked her. In this case, I considered this proficient on Hannah’s part as I want her to start recognizing the blends and their sounds when presented in real-world sentences.

 

Reading with Hannah has become a weekly routine. This week, though, I got lucky with the book! I randomly picked a book from Mrs. William’s book stash. I was lucky in the fact that the book had many of the blends we had just worked on. Hannah really enjoyed the book and reflected on the many funny parts. She also become really excited when we saw words that we could decode based on the skills we have learned thus far.

Despite gains made this week, I was a little disappointed to see Hannah coloring during OG instruction. However, I was even more stunned to see that Mrs. William ignored the behavior. Hannah could really benefit from the skills taught during this time as many of the parts include diagraphs (previously mastered) and blends (working on mastery). I am afraid that this behavior happens on days when I am not there, and now it has become a habit. I will talk with Hannah next week about her coloring during OG. She opened up with me during the first weeks about why she does not like to read on her own, perhaps she will open up about this, too.

 

I have talked with a student colleague about Hannah’s gains and losses. My colleague provided me with great insight into my next activity with Hannah. I do not get to work with her next week as she has spring break; however, I have an oral activity to do with her when I see her again. This activity asks that Hannah blend together whole words rather than letters. For example, I will provide Hannah with, “pur…ple,” and she will say, “purple.”  However, I will discuss this activity with my supervisors as I am unsure as to whether or not this activity will be appropriate based on the spelling inventory previously administered.