Observation Experience

Every educational course has a different goal that it intends for us to reach. For this course, we were meant to be trained on how to work with at-risk learners. This is a crucial aspect of teaching. We are meant to address students who have trouble reading and writing as future educators.

            My journey started off in February at New Hyde Park Memorial High School. This school has grades from seventh through twelfth. I got the opportunity to work with a variety of students during this semester. I spoke with the English chair person during my visit and he directed me to Mrs. Tardio, the reading teacher. This class was set apart to work with students who had trouble reading. The forty-three minutes that these students spend with Mrs. Tardio was efficient. During the first couple of weeks, I told her I needed to work with a student who had trouble reading and writing. She spoke to me about a student named “Kari”. Kari had moved from her mother’s place in Virginia and was living with her aunt in New Hyde Park. She’s had a very poor upbringing. Her reading and writing skills were poor for a seventh-grader. Mrs. Tardio recommended that I work with her one-on-one aside from the other six students in the class for that period. I told Mrs. Tardio that I needed to do the QRI-5 with Kari, along with the writing sample and other assignments and she gave me the permission to do so. She was very helpful in making sure that I was able to complete all my assignments for the class. I worked on the assignments on a timely fashion and was able to get it done on time.

            I initiated by speaking to her about her interest in working with students who had trouble reading and writing. She started off with saying that it’s challenging. The students in this class often felt inferior compared to the other students. They used to see reading as a foreign subject but through time and work, they slowly started to appreciate it. She believed that she was meant to have an influence on them positively. She said reading and writing was an essential part of education and without that, a person can’t really support themselves. She was using this time with them to make sure they earned the respect, confidence and love they deserved.  She said the families play a major role in a student’s education. According to Mrs. Tardio, “For any student to know that there are people behind them that are cheering them on, means the world to them.” Some strategies that she mentioned were using creativity to ensure that the work was interesting and relative in their lives. Once students see that they can relate to their reading and writing, it sparks an interest for them. Especially with students from different backgrounds, relating to their world was vital. Mrs. Tardio shared an experience that she had with a student from the Caribbean, and she made sure she researched a few things before class, in order to start a conversation with her. She said she always tried to make the students feel welcome. She got to know each student as themselves. This is something I learned because of Mrs. Tardio. She literally gave herself to the lives of these students.

            The third and fourth week, I was in the background the majority of the time. I got to experience it from behind and had a feel for the environment. During the fifth week, I finally got to work with Kari one-on-one. I noticed and took notes on her work ethic, personality, attendance, etc. The class was in the middle of reading this Latino book called In The Time of The Butterflies. They had a test on this novel and Mrs. Tardio showed me the final copy. I realized that she had trouble writing complete sentences. Her verbal, writing and reading skills needed improvement. She couldn’t tell the difference between past and present in her writing.

            Some things that Mrs. Tardio and I spoke about in terms of interventions include having a small group. We tried this and it consisted of three per group. I noticed that Kari worked better in this kind of a setting because she was surrounded by other people who related to her. They brainstormed ideas on how the ending of the book may turn out to be. The way Kari interacted with the other students was a sight. She was more vocal and involved in the group. Another reason this worked was because the students she worked with had different strengths and weaknesses from one another. When she made a grammatical or spelling error, another student was able to help her and vice versa. Another was for her to have more one-on-one time with Mrs. Tardio. This would help her to feel more comfortable working with her and not so nervous during assessments. Kari is very motivated and eager to learn.

             It’s just sad because she doesn’t have the same motivation at home that she gets at school. Her parents are absent in her life. Her aunt is the only adult figure she’s around and she doesn’t do too much. I grew attached to Kari because I saw this kind spirit in her. She has been really hurt by her parents and that is reflected in her work. I know that she has so much to offer. I saw some changed in her as the semester went on. She did better working one-on-one with Mrs. Tardio or me, rather than by herself. She liked the attention and time we spend with her.  She was more attentive in her work and wanted to learn. Her grammar was slowly getting better. And now that I’m not working with her anymore, Mrs. Tardio said she was going to pay closer attention to her.

            This experience taught me that there would be different students from different backgrounds, not only culturally but financially, emotionally, etc. All these aspects can influence a student’s reading and writing. They need to see there is value and worth to their work so they can take pride in it. Once students realize that, the next step for improvement can be taken.

WEEK 12: Metacognition & Comprehension

1) Good readers:
-make predictions
-make inferences
-ask themselves questions relating to the text

2) To develop good comprehension, teachers need to teach students comprehension strategies such as:
-building vocabulary
-enagage students in discussion through writing, reading, vocabulary, etc
-building knowledge base because comprehension goes further through that

3) In order to help struggling readers, teachers need to:
-motivate their students
-using themselves as an example

Some ideas that struck out to me in this video is the childrens use of vocabulary. I saw children who used words such as "inference" and that was something new. They were able to make predictions and that was something that was interesting.  To make meaning as students read, reacting to the text, applying background knowledge are components students need to learn. Teaching could happen through small groups, one-to-one goes a long way in teaching comprehension strategies. This was something that I can implement in my classroom. Coaching was something that was repeated over and over again and it is something teachers need to apply. Modeling is another practice that is crucial. Students look to  teachers to grow in their reading. Reading and word knowledge building is one that we need to use to connect text. Ideas that I can use to help struggling readers include reading during breaks and recesses once in a while in-order for them to have more time to read. I think one of the main things struggling readers need to see is that reading can be relevant to their lives. Encouraging them to read texts that they have an interest in and can relate to. If they see that, students will read more often. There are so many benefits to that, such as building their vocabulary, expanding their knowledge and background, etc.

Dibels in comparison with the QRI-5

These two fall under the category of assessments but they differ from each other in various ways. DIBELS focus more on the different areas of reading, such as fluency, language, sound recognition, etc. The DIBELS is one that is technical when it come to time. There are sixty second intervals that make time more definite. The fast pace of this assessment makes tha grading a little confusing. The plus side of this is that it is technologically advanced because it can be done in pom-pilot which is nice. There are different activities as well which are geared towards the individual student. The QRI-5 is something that I feel that I can use because it doesn't go directly to the student's level usually but starts two levels below the grade level. This boosts up the student's confidence and starts off well. QRI-5 focuses on the reading comprehension. The scoring is a lot simpler and time is not a big concern. It has a set format, that makes it easier to assess students.

WEEK 8: Effective Writing

Certain compounds of effective writing include proper use of grammar, whether they be exclamantion points, periods, etc. Another way is through expository essays that need a certain style of writing. Teachers need to be flexible so that students have their own writing time to write about their personal experiences. Some ways I can do that is by planning to end my lesson for the day early so that students have time left in their period to do their personal writing. Making connections through different subject areas can include their specific interests such as science if they are into insects or nature. We can do a lesson about culture and they can geographically show and talk about where they're from which incorporates social studies. They can journal on a specific topic in this area too. This works closely with their personal experiences as well. Students works help teachers to know what they are interested in. To work with students and to be open about what we as teachers can learn about them, from them, opens up a different line of communication. Effective writing includes room for students to be creative under proper guidelines. I really liked the aspect of publishing students works because this gives them confidence since their work is placed in such high status. I would love to do something like that to promote them to publish their own books. Since I'm specializing in Secondary English, this requires students to expand and be more descriptive in their writing. If not a book, even a story of their personal life can be included in a book together. There is this move called Freedom Writers where the teacher built relationships with students from a low-class neighborhood. She embedded into them that each one of them had a story to share while they were in highschool. She had them write their own stories and at the end, she published their work. This transformed their lives because they realized they are to be taken seriously and they have a voice to share. To have an impact like that to these students is something we as future educators need to strive for. We need to instill confidence in them so that they can leave with the knowledge that they are valued.

QRI 5

The young girl was in the third grade and you can tell she is pretty smart. The assessment started off with QRI 5 for the 1st grade to establish confidence and moved onto the 2nd grade after. In her first assessment, she skipped over some words but she had the prior knowledge to answer for the narrative. The second one, she was a little discouraged because she didn't know how to pronounce certain words. With some help, she can gain self-confidence and apply herself better.

WEEK 6: COCA

COCA was meant to help with the process of reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is very important in schools these days because the majority of the students are losing interest or need help in this area. There are books such as Salmon and Dragon files that are used for assessment.COCA is a great asset for teachers to work one on one with the students. Using our inidivual knowledge about our students we can use different books to gear their interests. One of the aspects that distincts COCA from other programs is the fact that students are to fill the blanks in the story. This helps it to be open and for the students to use their own understanding of the material to make their conclusion. This also helps for the teacher to know whether or not the student understands the material. This is something I would like to use in the future because it is a creative way to gather students interest and gets the material across.

What are some other ways we can use creativity in reading comprehensions?

WEEK 5: Christopher Myers: A Writer's Story

I really enjoyed this video. I liked the fact that Christopher Myers, a children's author came to speak to the students at P.S 304 because he's someone they look up to. He made it a point to say everyone has a story to tell. He was able to bring them confidence by using his personal experiences from his childhood, such as his neighborhood, individualism, etc. He used aspects such as his big feet, height, hair, being the youngest in class, all to differentiate himself from his classmates and that is something he appreciated as he grew up. It shocked me to see the young boy's response to Christopher Myers' question about Anthony. He said Anthony could fix his problem by having plastic surgery and that was really sad because we can tell how fast these kids are growing up nowadays.

Question: What are some ways that you can encourage students to be proud of who they are?