Test Data

1. My PDS school is East Park Elementary, while looking at the test score data in reading I noticed that the students scores were 21.77% mastery, 7.55% above mastery, 3.55% are at a distinguished level in reading.
2. After looking at the scores I noticed that nearly 40% of the students stuggle with reading comprehension.

3. The instructional intervention that I might use is Think Alouds.

4. In the article "Comprehension of Exposity Text: Insights Gained from Think-Aloud Data" the study found that "...children who produced accurate paraphrases were more likely to perform better on measures of comprehension than children who produced inaccurate paraphrases. While working memory performance was not directly related to the number of comprehension questions answered correctly or to recall performance, it was moderately associated (r ≥ .30) with paraphrase accuracy. Thus, there was a trend for higher verbal working memory scores to be associated with higher paraphrase accuracy and comprehension performance."
The article " Perspective Effects on Expositorys Text Comprehension: Evidentce from Think-Aloud Protocols, Eyetracking, and Recall" The results showed that in addition to increasing the fixation time and recall for relevant in comparison to irrelevant text information, a reading perspective guides readers to use slightly different comprehension processes for relevant text information, as shown by think-aloud protocols.

5. Does using teacher think alouds improve reader comprehension?

6. informal assessment- group questions/answer
formative-story structure questions

Action Research

1. What is the title of the project? What happens to third graders' writing when they participate in a reading and letter writing program?

 

2. What is the problem? Third grade writers struggle with language development, such as letter formation, spacing of words, use of punctuation and capitalization [Berrill p. 5]. Each year teachers use published curricula or design their own to address the skill third graders use and need. The problem found in my third grade writers is that they struggled with all components of letter writing; dialogue, organization, sentence structure, flow, text-connections, vocabulary, mechanics, support from the reading, and making references about themselves.

 

3. Describe the instructional intervention. pen pal letter-writing program

 

4. What kind of strategy is the instructional intervention? simulation and games

 

5. What evidence is presented that the strategy will work? In a pen pal letter-writing program, certain structures and wise use of class time are necessary to ensure the timely and continuous exchange of letters and the ongoing support for the relationship between the writers (Berrill p.5). In addition, being part of a pen pal letterwriting program brings enthusiasm among “even by the struggling readers/writers” (Berrill p. 6). Berrill continues, this “demonstrates just how powerful a pen pal relationship can be in helping children learn to … write” (p 2).

6. How will data be collected to determine if the strategy will work? The tools used to provide information are the occurrences of errors, the Introductory cycle-letter and the Cycle 1, Cycle 2, and Cycle 3 letters, a scoring rubric: that I adaptaded from the In2Books materials specifically designed for this pen pal letter writing research [Appendix B], and a rubric guide [Appendix C]. The data collected over a period of four [4] months was measured against the In2Books-writing rubric. (Appendix D)

 

7. How was the data analyzed? using a rubric after each letter writting experience and graph to show the results.

 

8. What were the results? I found that after four months of mini lessons, individual conferences, and letter writing that my students in the beginning did not use dialogue. They began to really use it after exposure; reading various dialogues, and writing it. By letter four many of the students were able to write a formatted letter that included salutations and a body. I also learned that many of the students varied with simple and complex sentences, which made the reading flow easily. The main struggles continue to be using vocabulary and the mechanics. The remaining guiding questions in this action research: Are any text-connections spoken of?, Are statements supported from the reading? And Is there a reference made about the student? Were assessed and the on going research showed that five students continue to make fewer errors in their letter writing than in previous months classroom writing.

My struggleing students MI's

After giving a version of a multiple intellegences survey to my struggeling student i found that they were: visual linguistic, naturalist, mathematical/ logical, and interpersonal.

Here is an updated version of my pre-assessment

web quest pre-assessment

anchor video

WEb Quest Pre-assessment

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dElUVTBRbDhyZS1xaWxoeV9yZU5TeEE6MQ#gid=0

Power Standards

Power Standard 3
Science Kindergarten

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Power Standard:	Students will observe and record the changes that occur in the environment, then create and present the information with drawings, weather calendars, and graphs.
Objectives Addressed in the Power Standard:
Objective ID Objectives SC.O.K.1.7 collect and record information in a variety of ways (e.g., drawings, weather calendar, or graphs). SC.O.K.2.10 observe and record daily changes in weather (e.g., clouds or air temperature). SC.O.K.3.2 observe and point out that change occurs gradually, repetitively, or randomly within the environment.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/07/gk2/weathertoday.html  Link to the lesson plan. The struggling student I think would be very engaged in this lesson plan.  Students are asked about their own environment so, therefor it is interesting to them.

My Multiple Intellingences

Intelligence	Score (5.0 is highest)	Description
	4.29	Nature: You are sensitive to nature and environment. You probably know the names of rocks, flowers, birds, and trees. You love to be outdoors. Here are some ways to use your nature intelligence in your learning: Work in the garden. Read about plants and/or animals. Study habits of fish or birds. Read nature magazines. Go hiking. Take photographs of what you find on your hike. Write a story describing the photographs.
	3.71	Spatial: You remember things visually, including exact sizes and shapes of objects. You like posters, charts, and graphics. You like any kind of visual clues. You enjoy drawing. Effective techniques of enhancing your learning using your spatial intelligence include creating and/or using pictures, maps, diagrams, and graphs as you learn things. Other suggestions: Write a language experience story and then illustrate it. Color code words so each syllable is a different color. Write a word on the blackboard with a wet finger. Visualize the word as it disappears. See if you can spell it afterwards. Take a survey. Put the information in a chart. Write words vertically. Cut out words from a magazine and use them in a letter. Visualize spelling words. Use colorful newspapers like USA Today. Use crossword puzzles.
	3.14	Body Movement: You like to move, dance, wiggle, walk, and swim. You are likely good at sports, and you have good fine motor skills. You may enjoy taking things apart and putting them back together. Incorporating body movement into your learning will help you process and retain information better. Here are some ideas. Trace letters and words on each other's back. Use magnetic letters, letter blocks, or letters on index cards to spell words. Take a walk while discussing a story or gathering ideas for a story. Make pipe cleaner letters. Form letters out of bread dough. After you shape your letters, bake them and eat them! Use your whole arm (extend without bending your elbow) to write letters and words in the air. Change the place where you write and use different kinds of tools to write, ie., typewriter, computer, blackboard, or large pieces of paper. Write on a mirror with lipstick or soap. Take a walk and read all the words you find during the walk. Handle a Koosh ball or a worry stone during a study session. Take a break and do a cross-lateral walk.

Struggling Student

In my clinical classroom I feel that there could be several students who can be considered as struggling. There is one student that I have worked with several times.  The student's main problem is keeping on task.  When I am sitting next to them and giving encouragement they have very little difficulty staying on task and completing work. The student seems to want to move on with the other students at the table but because their head was down or they were drifting off and looking around the room, the work was not completed and they must stay behind and finish.  I try to get the student to focus on the work to be completed and walk away and a few moments later reengage the student.

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

Classroom Schedule

Tuesday and Thursday 1-3:30, Wednesday 11-3:30. Spring Break Tues-Thurs 8:30-1.

Video Edit

Where I am From

I am from the banks of Lake Erie, from Chevy trucks and latex free gloves.
I am from the ranches with two car garages on the acre of land and the neighborhood corner. 
I am from the Iris , the petunia that vines over the pot
I am from Christmas morning traditions and puppy love, from Ty Miller and Jack Morgan.
I am from the determination and drive.
From divorce and love.
I am from Jesus Christ and I am Lutheran.
I'm from Temperance, Mi but was born in Toledo, Oh, Brats and cheeseburgers.
From the good food while visiting Grandmas, the stomach ache that I always got, and the crafts that we did together. And the time I spend when back home making sure to stop by Gramps for a bit.
I am from photo albums not yet put together and bins with childhood mementos.

Purcell Gates

"A southern mountain dialect that is often used to characterize poor whites."- felt that this was a stereo type because there are a few white middle class that live in an area that has a strong southern dialect.

Last paragraph of page 124-and top of 125~ The two children brought some literacy knowledge with out having been formally taught, but developed the concepts from the environment around them. 

"To the extent that parental education-which is going to affect the frequency and the types of reading and writing people do-is related to poverty, this makes some sense.~ I agree if the parent shows no interest in education as the child's role model they too will develop the same distaste for education and reading and writing.

Mountaneer

Understanding Stereo-type
~I have experienced a negative stereo-type after I moved to WV from Ohio. Most of the stereo-type comes in the form of jokes and picking. I can remember one Christmas my boyfriend and I received a few Cd's that "Hillbillies" listen to or the "we WV's listen to." Most of the picking comes from my boyfriends brother-in-law.
I do use the word "hillbilly" when explaining that not all WV's are impoverished or technologically challenged, in the area that I reside. There are not any parts of WV I avoid however, I have not been to many areas in the state. Since I am not originally from WV I don't have a strong feelings about the TV caricatures.

The Power of Nature
~My first experience with clarity from nature happened when I first visited Valley Falls.  During my  first few months of living here my boyfriend and I made it a point to visit the local state parks around us. That was when we spent the day walking along the rocks of the river.  the peace and calm that the rushing water produced was therapeutic because from the time that you are visiting the falls they are all that you can hear. I think that people have a natural connection to nature but because they are not able to enjoy it often they become closed off, we need to nurture them and help them to realize there natural tendencies.

Hello

This is my first blog.