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

I arrived at The Learning Academy a few minutes before 8:00am in order to help my in-classroom peer, Heather, set up for her sequencing lesson. Heather began her lesson immediately after the morning announcements and pledge of allegiance- around 8:15am. Heather began her lesson by asking the class if they had ever heard of “sequencing.” One student raised his hand and said, “Ordering things.” Other than this one student, no one else knew what the term meant. “I am glad you all do not know what it means because now I get to teach you something. I have been looking forward to this lesson all week!”

The introduction to the video was a short clip entitled, “Funny Birds.” The video can be found by clicking on this link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJjNQmXO1JE. After the students watched this two to three minute video, Heather gave the students the sequence in which the events happened up on the Smart Board. All of the sequencing sentences began with a transition sentence (i.e. first, then, after, and finally) to introduce the main events in the story. Heather made a “stop light sequencing poster” (found below) to help explain and give a visual for the transition words that she expected the students to use. The green light represents the beginning of the story since it is at the top, and it coordinates with the words “first, once, it started, etc.” The yellow is meant to be the middle of the story, and it contains words “then, next, later, following that, etc.” The red light is the end of the story, and it has the words “finally, last, in the end, etc.” After the introduction, Heather called the students to the carpet to read a book, The Secret Shortcut. Heather conducted a roughly fifteen minute read aloud in which she posed questions and prompted discussions by the students. For example, she would ask the students to define the larger vocabulary terms and asked prediction questions. She had these questions and self-reminders on various pages throughout the book. Before starting the read aloud, Heather stated, “You all need to pay close attention because you will have an assignment to go along with this. Every detail is important.” To go along with the book, Heather pre-made a sequence flow chart (found below). At the end of the reading, the students were provided an example with this flow chart and five written events. It was the job of the students to arrange their events in the correct order as they happened in the story and glue the cards into the assigned spot. The students were also required to pick transition words from the poster, hung at the front of the classroom, to put above each event- an example is found below. The students needed to choose one green light word, two yellow light words (two events were in the middle), and one red light word. Heather provided the students with an example of one she made. “Mine has different events that yours so that you cannot copy,” Heather firmly stated. The students were given about ten minutes to complete their project with their shoulder partner (each pair received one flow chart). As the students did their projects together, one pair of students had difficulty remembering if the boys in the story went to the jungle first or if they swung on vines/fell in the mud first. Without giving the specific answer, I walked away with making the statement, “Think about which event you cannot do with the other? Can you swing on vines without being in the jungle or can you?” The pairs then presented the charts to the class and had to read both the transition word and the event. Heather said, “Reading these should be like telling a story. We should all have a good idea of how the book flowed.”

The students were then given pre-made “sequence boxes.” Heather said, “You are all going to do an activity by yourself now. You are going to pick one activity you know how to do. Here is my example, but you cannot copy it. You need to come up with your own idea. I picked “How to Grow a Plant,” and I wrote the title on the top of the page so that you all would know the topic. On the outside of each box, you are going to write a transition word- you can use the chart at the front of the room. On the inside, you are going to describe the events in detail and draw a picture.” The students took about five minutes to come up with an idea. One student, Amanda, had difficulty coming up with an idea and asked me, “Can I pick how to grow a tree?” I recalled that Heather firmly mentioned that the students could not copy so I said, “No. She wants you to come up with your own idea. What do you like to do?” Amanda responded with, “Being lazy.” I spoke with Heather and asked her thoughts on the situation. Heather let Amanda pick the same topic as her as long as she did not use the same details and titled it differently. Amanda entitled her project, “How to Grow an Apple Tree.” The students were given between fifteen and twenty minutes (I walked around and asked the students their ideas on what they wanted to write about, answered questions, and read finished products), and then they presented to the class.

Heather put a variety of pre-printed questions in a polka-dot party bag. The students each took a turn pulling a random question from the bag and individually answered- other students in the class were allowed to answer if the student who originally pulled the question did not know the answer. The question, “what is sequencing,” appeared many times during this wrap-up and each time, the students did not know how to answer.

After Heather’s lesson, Mrs. William informed us, “It is an early release day. That means our music block has been moved to 9:40am. The students will have a five minute snack opportunity. Will you please work with your case study students on finishing a math test?” Heather and I quickly pulled our students, Hannah and Amanda, and finished their math papers. Once the last question was answered, the office called to Mrs. William’s room and said, “It is time for music!” We quickly dropped the students off at the music building and came back to the classroom to help Mrs. William clean up. She also showed us some materials that we could potentially use in our own classroom.  We then picked the students up from music, took them to recess, and my day at The Learning Academy came to a close.

Classroom Reflection

Heather did an excellent job with her lesson today! I was not able to see her previous lesson last month because she came in on a different day to present it. I love being able to see my peers teach because it gives me ideas on what to do in the future- we all learn from each other. I absolutely loved the materials she used in this lesson- everything was well thought out, organized, and planned. It is apparent that she spent a lot of time planning and making all of the items- especially the stop light poster, sequence flow chart, and sequence box chart. Her wrap-up was a unique way to do the hot potato game. It is more calm way to do this as well as organized- the students are not bouncing all around and things are not as loud. The students receive a set question which I adore. I had previously thought about doing sequencing instead of main idea and details for my lesson, but I never would have incorporated any of this because it never would have occurred to me! I learned so much from her; I learned things both academically oriented and things to use for my future sequence lesson.

In my previous blog post, I mentioned that I, as well as my students, feel overwhelmed with how much my school’s lesson template asks us to include in a one day lesson. Heather did a great job at incorporating lesson while still teaching every component of the standard. However, I am now a little confused as to what the guided practice, independent practice, and summative assessment are. I wonder, can I “double dip” some of this into each other? I typically incorporate the guided practice into the instruction, have a separate assignment for the independent practice, and then another assignment for the summative assessment. Either Heather “double dipped” or she did not include a summative. I would have counted the last sequence box assignment as the independent practice and then had a summative assignment as a quiz. For example, have the students define terms presented in the instruction as well as match the transition words to the correct sequence spot (i.e. then goes with the middle events).

A suggestion I have for Heather is to use vocabulary terms and definitions in the instruction. The Power Point used was only three slides and they were specifically used for the introduction. The students needed to be able to have terms, especially “sequencing.” Heather asked the students to define it, yet she never gave the definition- she only explained how to sequence.

I was a little taken back with Amanda’s quirky response to what she is good at doing. Heather handled the situation very well and backed up my previous statement- not being able to copy. I appreciated her taking my side; I believe that all teachers should support one another rather than contradicting one another. Heather later explained to me that she knows Amanda has a lot of difficulties- this is her case study student so she works with her one-on-one and knows her strengths and opportunities of growth. I am wondering if it would have been best for Heather to have not given the example to the whole class (giving differentiation to the lesson since there was little to none of this in the lesson) and pulling Amanda aside to example the assignment. Amanda could have come up with her own “how to” activity without pulling the same topic from Heather- she just needed the chance to brainstorm her own thoughts before becoming stuck on one.

Some differentiation ideas that I would have implemented would have been giving the struggling students hard copies of the stop light chart and allowing them to refer to it during the independent/summative assignment while taking away the chart at the front for differentiation for the advanced students.  

People also say to use things that would be good to use in the classroom- in other words, take ideas. I will most definitely be doing this!

Case Study Observations

Due to the rearrangement of the music block and the full lesson, I was unable to work with Hannah. I will just keep the activity I was going to do today for next week. Next week, I plan on doing an audio recording of my breaking apart one-syllable words while Hannah blends them together and then writes them down. For example, I will say, “dr-eam,” and Hannah will put it together “dream” and write it. The focus will be on ‘dr and cr’ blends as these were missed on the spelling words from last week; however, I will incorporate some other blends and diagraphs.

Before Heather started her lesson, Mrs. William asked the class to give her the same respect they gave me. Then, she asked them to think about the lesson I did the previous week. One students mentioned punctuation (this was from the previous month- two lessons ago), and Hannah said, “It was on main idea and evidence!”

Throughout Heather’s lesson, Hannah remained engaged with her shoulder partner, Amanda, by starting conversation and gluing the events to the sequence flow chart. During the independent practice, Heather differentiated her instruction by taking away one of the middle events. I later asked Heather why she did this to Hannah and not to Amanda and Heather said that Hannah was having difficulty coming up with middle events for her “how to play kickball” activity. Hannah then presented both activities and used different transition words each time.

For the last couple of minutes in class, I helped Hannah finish her math test. Mrs. William said, “Give her hints without giving her the answers.” Hannah had roughly five problems to complete and the majority of them were either subtraction with money amounts or fractions (i.e. identifying the equivalent fraction). I gave Hannah hints for the regrouping numbers and the fractions. For example, I said, “Take a look at number 12 again. Do not forget to regroup,” and “If a fraction has to equal one, are the two numbers the same or different?” Hannah finished all remaining questions with one minute left to spare before music.

Case Study Reflection

I considered pulling her briefly during the lesson, but did not want her to miss on any of the fun activities or learning experiences planned by Heather. The end of the semester is coming to a close which brings on many homework assignments and projects; due to this, I am unable to fit in a time that works for Mrs. William to come in and work with Hannah. I believe that my audio recording of Hannah will provide great insight into her oral language difficulties. I will play the recordings back to her so she can see the mistakes she made and reflect on them. Perhaps I will even incorporate a self-assessment rubric. I will keep this recording through until my “staff meeting” at the end of the semester has come to a close- it will provide the quantitative component in both an oral and written way. It is has been written on Hannah’s form that she has difficulties with oral language, so this audio recording will enhance that and will be something different for us to do rather than the usual worksheets.

I am very proud that Hannah remembered my lesson from last week. It shows that she was paying attention and learned something; if she had not learned anything, she would not have remembered!

I am little curious to know why Heather did not differentiate for Amanda, whom she knows need special one-on-one assistance. I believe that Hannah could have thought of another event to write down in her sequencing. Having her think more critically would be good for her to think outside of the book and push her limitations to the next level. Differentiation does not mean less work (taking away one box makes less work both mentally and physically).

Hannah needed more time to complete the math test (a usual occurrence). I am wondering why I was allowed to give hints, though. A test (summative assessment) is meant to be completed independently- that is why we incorporate a guided practice and independent assignment to fix any misconceptions and answer questions (to assist one-on-one). I feel like some of my hints may have given her the answer- does it actually prove she knows how to do it on her own? Will she be given this attention when is no longer at The Learning Academy? I know Hannah can do a lot more than what people are limiting her to based on her performance with me. Hopefully, I am pushing her boundaries while building her self-confidence in her work. I cannot wait to see her growth at the end of the semester in all of her coursework!