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

 

Today at The Learning Academy I presented my fluency lesson to my third grade students. I arrived at The Learning Academy around 7:30am in order to make my final copies of my activity and rubric. I was required to record myself teaching the lesson, so I also had to set up my two cameras at an appropriate angle in order to not film a specific student.

 

I started my lesson at 8:10am, right after the morning announcements, pledge of allegiance, and lunch count. I began the lesson by saying, “Okay everyone look at me.” The class immediately became quite. Before I began the lesson I wanted to ensure a warm learning environment and get all of the students comfortable with me and with each other. I asked each student a good thing that has happened to them this week; however, I gave them a chance to pass in order to make them not feel uncomfortable. After each student went I said, “The greatest thing about this week is that I get to teach you all about fluency. Can someone raise a silent hand and tell me what fluency is?” Johnathan raised his hand and said, “Fluency is reading good.” I then started the actual lesson by reading, “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” to the whole class. I read the book in a robotic tone, with no emotion or volume, and I did not stop at the punctuation. I stopped towards the middle of the book, and looked at the students. I called on students randomly, and asked them questions about things I did wrong. Whenever the students gave a response to what I did wrong, I used a vocabulary term in order to pull background information. I then read the whole book using emotion, volume, pace, and stopping at the appropriate punctuation.

 

After the introduction to the lesson, I had a series of vocabulary terms to teach the students on five slides along with practice opportunities. The vocabulary terms used were pace, punctuation, expression, and volume. For example, slide two had the vocabulary term, pace. The term came up before the definition. I first showed the term, and the students provided their own definition when randomly called upon. I then provide the definition on the slide. After each term was a practice opportunity for the term itself. Using pace as example, a short reading passage was provided on the screen. I randomly called upon a student to read the passage with the proper pace. I then asked the rest of the class to give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down if the student read with proper pace. The presentation itself took about 30 minutes.

 

The students were then given a reader’s theater article according to their ability levels.  The two articles were, “If You Take a Mouse to School” and “If You Give a Pig a Pancake.” The students were split into groups, and were given 15 minutes of practice opportunity. “If You Take a Mouse to School” had five members, and “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” had four members.

http://www.thebestclass.org/uploads/5/6/2/4/56249715/if_you_give_a_pig_a_pancake.pdf

 

http://www.thebestclass.org/uploads/5/6/2/4/56249715/if_you_take_a_mouse_to_school.pdf

Due to an absence in the class, I was a substitute to “If You Take a Mouse to School” group. Within their groups, I decided who got what part based on their ability. The class had a visiting student who is supposed to come to The Learning Academy within the next year. I gave him the opportunity to participate; however, he did not want to. He joined my practice group and observed. The student’s also made name tags so that the audience knew who is talking and who the character was. At the end of the practice within their groups, I called on a group to come to the front of the room to present their readers theatre. The audience reflected on how the students did- using the terms previously taught. For example, Benjamin said, “Anthony used excellent pace when reading his part. He read at just the right speed.” After each group went, the audience reflected on what the presentation was about. The visiting student raised his hand multiple times to reflect on each reader’s theater. I also went around the room and called upon each student (in order of seating position) and asked them to tell the class one detail from the reader’s theater. Many students said that they wanted to pass, but I said, “You do not get to do this with this question.” Each student was then able to provide an example.

At the end of the formative assessment/practice opportunity, the students formed a circle on the carpet. I will did a rendition of “Hot Potato.” The students passed the ball. I turned my back to the group and randomly said, “Stop.” The student with the ball was asked a question regarding the vocabulary previously taught. For example, I asked, “What does expression mean?” or “Name a punctuation mark.” When the student got a question correct and/or had a turn, they went back to their seat. While the other students finished the game, the students at their seat wrote down the answers to the questions asked in the circle on a piece of paper so that I could check for further understanding. When my group presented, I made note of any struggling students, and then wrote it on my reading rubrics when we finished. When the second group went, I did the same thing. Each student had a rubric that I filled out.

 

After my lesson, which ended around 9:00am, the students were given a short snack break and rest time before heading to music class where the students began rehearsing their musical. Their musical will be performed for Laura Bush when she comes to The Learning Academy later on in the year. While the students were in art class, I was able to sit down with Mrs. William and see how she creates newsletters for parents.

 

The students got out of music at 10:00am, and then I worked individually with my case study student until 10:20am. At 10:30am the students headed to recess, and my day at The Learning Academy ended.

 

Classroom Reflection

 

Any type of lesson presentation makes me anxious and nervous, especially a lesson regarding Language Arts. Maybe it is because I do not know how to teach it or maybe it is because language arts is a subject in which I have struggled with myself. Either way, language arts instruction is stressful, and I always critique myself hard. Knowing that the in-classroom teacher, my teacher-candidate peer, and my supervisor were all watching me at one point does not help either.

I had two cameras set up in order to ensure that I had a solid piece of footage. One of my biggest fears is having to record an assignment, and then the recording either stopped halfway through or did not record at all. I also had to ensure that both camera angles were directed towards the front of the room and not towards a student who cannot be photographed or filmed. This was my first big challenge of the day, but it all worked out even though I will have to edit certain parts of the footage because the student crossed in front of the camera.

One thing I need to work on as a teacher is following my lesson plans more directly. I tend to veer off the path, catch myself, and then re-guide my activities to fit what I wrote. For example, in my original lesson plan I did not have a pre-introduction to the lesson (a good thing that has happened this week). Although, now that I reflect back, maybe this was not a bad thing as I do think it adjusted the students minds and allowed them to develop a positive attitude.

Mrs. William does not use name sticks; thus, I did not use name sticks in during my lesson. After watching my video, I noticed that I tend to call on the same students when looking for an answer to a question. I think that using name sticks in the future would prevent me from reverting to this habit. Whenever I teach, I do not realize that I am doing this, but I will be more alert in the future.

Within each of the reader’s theater groups, I was able to listen in and help when necessary. I gave the students in my group time to make their name tags while I went over and helped the other group.

 

The students appeared to love this reader’s theater activity because they were all smiling and answering questions- if they did not enjoy it they would not have portrayed these things.

I believe that reader’s theater is a great way for a teacher to check for oral reading fluency as they are able to check each student’s ability.

 

Having a guest student in the classroom was a new experience for me. I was at a loss for how to incorporate him into the lesson- I did not want him to feel out of place or uncomfortable. It is obvious that he struggles with reading or his parents would not be encouraging The Learning Academy. However, now that I look back on the lesson, I would have tried to get him to read part of the reader’s theater so that Mrs. William could make note of his abilities.

Overall, I think that my lesson went well. The students were able to answer the objective question provided in my lesson plan through the answering of my “Hot Potato” questions. The objective question was, “How can I read a text fluently and accurately?” I pulled this “Hot Potato” game from a previous observation in Mrs. William’s class.

 

Case Study Observations

Due to my fluency lesson, I was unable to fully observe Hannah during classroom instruction time. However, I was able to see that Hannah was answering the questions asked. She also frequently raised her hand to participate during the practice opportunity. Hannah correctly answered all of the questions she answered during the lesson (three). Hannah read her readers theater with less than five mistakes. Hannah was given a narrator part in “If You Give a Pig a Pancake.” She also correctly answered her wrap-up question (what is expression). I was able to perform my one-on-one activity with her after her music class.

 

Whenever I walked over to Hannah’s group during the reader’s theater practice time, Hannah was all smiles and laughed frequently. I put Hannah in charge of her group and told her that she needed to direct her groups focus and discussion.

During our one-on-one time I gave Hannah two worksheets involving diagraphs. One of the worksheets involved “ch” diagraphs, and the other involved “sh” diagraphs.

 

The “ch” worksheet had eight picture that Hannah had to put in the correct column (does the picture start with “ch” or does it end in “ch”). Hannah and I did not go over the worksheet together before. On the “beginning diagraph” column, Hannah received a 4/4. On the “ending diagraph” column, Hannah received a 4/4.

The “sh” worksheet had eight pictures laid out in a similar format to the “ch” worksheet. Hannah received a 4/4 on the “beginning diagraph” column, and a 4/4 on the “ending diagraph” column. I also asked Hannah to tell me three different words for each diagraph type we have gone over thus far (“th,” “sh,” “ch,” “wh”). Hannah was able to give three “real” words. For example, for “th” Hannah gave the word “thumb.”

 

I also read with Hannah to finish out the day. We choral read another chapter in the same book we started reading last week. Due to my lengthy lesson and the music class, I finished with Hannah around 10:20am.

 

Case Study Reflection

 

Not knowing all of Hannah’s actions and behaviors during my lesson makes me uneasy. I have become accustomed to paying close attention to her during Mrs. William’s lesson time, and now I only have a brief synopsis of what occurred. I can only imagine what it must be like for the general classroom teacher to pay attention to their struggling students in a class full of ten or more students. Thankfully, my third grade class at The Learning Academy is small enough that I was able to pay close enough attention to gather that Hannah was understanding the concept provided.

 

I was proud of Hannah’s performance in her reader’s theater as Hannah does not like to read on her own. However, she read her part enthusiastically. I felt like Hannah needs a boost of self-confidence in school, and I felt like putting her in charge of something was the first step towards that. It is also my goal to get Hannah’s confidence and enthusiasm about reading built to a higher level. Reader’s theater is a fun and interactive way for students to practice their fluency, and they appear to not know that I am looking for (as part of my formative assessment) the various elements of fluency in their reading (pace, expression, etc.). Reader’s theater is also a great way to eliminate listening and speaking standards presented in the curriculum.

 

Hannah appears to be doing very well with diagraphs. She is able to complete the assignments with a 90% or higher. I am curious as to know what percentage Hannah should be at before she masters a skill as well as how much of one skill I should be providing her. Next week I will provide Hannah with one more diagraph assessment. This assessment will contain all of the diagraphs previously taught. I will need to think further about the format of the assessment before I provide it to Hannah. If Hannah scores well on the assessment, I will then provide Hannah activities with blends; however, if Hannah does not do well then I will need to try a different approach to diagraphs. This approach may mean not doing worksheets, but doing some sort of matching activity or game. If I see that Hannah scores well on the final diagraph assessment, then I will provide a short introduction to blends right after the assessment. This introduction will allow me to gather Hannah’s background knowledge on the skill as well as Hannah’s placement within that level. The blend activity will not take too long as I do not want to overwhelm Hannah with assignments that causes her to become frustrated.

 

My interactions with Hannah have been very successful thus far. Hannah is able to interact and talk with me more than she did the first few days I began working with her. Perhaps I am meeting all of her expectations of being a great teacher. I also think that I am showing interest in her as I talk with her about various things she has told me she is interested in (i.e. animals).

 

I am beginning to plan for next week’s activities. I cannot wait to see if my assistance with Hannah has improved her work in the classroom with Mrs. William.