Final Reflection

Summary

               I was given the opportunity to tutor a struggling 5^th grade reader for three weeks. In order to reflect on my lesson planning, my teaching, and the student’s performance and progress I created this blog that includes a summary of each time I met with her.

 When I first started with Margaret three weeks ago, I was not sure what kind of a student or reader she was. Within the first week I completed a running record with Margaret and was able to learn that she was a fairly fluent reader but really struggled with pinpointing the main idea and showing comprehension of what she was reading. This told me that I would need to work on finding the main idea with Margaret which is a comprehension strategy. From Margaret’s interest inventory I learned that she enjoyed learning about animals. I had her fill out a motivation survey which told me that she really enjoyed reading inside and outside of school but was not too thrilled to answer questions about her reading. This might be explained by the fact that she has trouble comprehending what she reads so answering questions would be difficult. The most helpful pre-assessment I did was the spelling inventory because it showed me that Margaret needed to work on the long vowel “a” spelling pattern and long vowel “o” spelling pattern.

In the Future

Since I was able to see that Margaret did not really struggle with fluency, the main focus in her future should be comprehension, particularly finding the main idea. One thing her classroom teacher might continue to work on with her is using the 5-finger retell method to help Margaret identify the main points of a story. This can be a quick and easy strategy that Margaret could do independently or with her teacher for everything that she reads. Another thing Margaret’s classroom teacher could do to support her needs is to continue practicing identifying and using the long vowel patterns. Word sorts and word study are a good way to give Margaret exposure to the patterns that she has been struggling with. Once she is able to master those patterns she can move onto working on the next level of the spelling inventory. There are many things that Margaret can do at home to continue to develop her comprehension skills. Margaret’s parents can help her by having her read every night. The more Margaret reads, the more background knowledge she will gain and the better she will be able to comprehend. Another thing her parents can do is give Margaret many opportunities to retell what she is reading. This is an easy way to see if Margaret is retaining what she is reading and able to identify the main idea. Margaret is not a lost cause and could really benefit from lots of exposure and practice.

What I Learned

               I have learned so much from this experience even though it was a short opportunity. I know that one-on-one is a lot different than teaching a whole class but I learned a lot of valuable things about creating lessons for one students’ needs. It was not always easy to know what activities would best benefit Margaret’s needs but I learned how repeated meetings with Margaret really gave me a good idea about what she was struggling with and what she needed the most help with. I also learned a lot about lesson planning. It’s important to make sure that the activities and assessment line up with the objective that I want the student to meet. Also writing two lesson plans a week was a lot more than I have ever had to do so that was something new that I learned. One of the most important things that I learned was how repeated exposure to strategies is the best way to ensure growth in struggling areas. Since I was able to work with Margaret one-on-one in the areas that she struggled with twice a week she really made gains in those specific areas. This tutoring was a really fun and great learning experience for me as a teacher and for Margaret. 

Tutoring Lesson 5

Objectives: 

Good readers can find the main idea and key details of a story to help them better comprehend what they are reading. Good readers know that spelling patterns are important for decoding words and they can sort words based on the common long vowel sound.

Procedures:

Opening and purpose: Today we are going to read a short story and work on finding the key details and main idea. It is important for us to know the most important parts of a story because it helps us better understand what we are reading. We are also going to do a word sort where you spell the words into their correct categories because knowing spelling patterns helps us better decode words.

Activity 1: Complete Running record

Activity 2: Blind word sort using the words we’ve been working on

Activity 3: Complete the Storms main idea worksheet with help – comprehension strategy: finding the main idea and key details

Activity 4: Student free-reads while I complete the two fluency rubrics. I will also write main idea comprehension questions for her to answer after she finishes a section of her book.

Assessment: I will use both the Storms worksheet and the blind word sort to assess achievement of objective.

Closure: Thank you for working with me today. Can you tell me why we did a word sort today? Why did we work on the Storms worksheet?

Reflection on Student

         This was another successful lesson for Margaret. She worked hard toward both of my objectives. We first did a running record. Her last one was too easy so for this second one I picked a harder text and I really got some good information about her fluency.

I am proud of how much of a trooper she has been since we have been working with the same spelling words every time I come. We did another blind sort with those same words so I could see if she had improved at all and she did a lot better. She still struggled with committing a word to each category, like she was afraid of being wrong. She also still had a few categories that she really struggled with putting those words in that category. We discussed these words and I asked her to put them in the correct category after we talked about them. I am sure that the more practice she has the better she will be able to sort them. 

          We did a storms worksheet much like the statue of liberty one we did a few lessons ago. She was given a main idea and had to go through to choose the key details that were important for that specific main idea. This time I did not help her through it and she did fabulous. She got all of them correct on the first try all by herself. 

          For the last part of the lesson I had Margaret free-read so that I could assess her fluency. For the NAEP rubric I put Margaret on the fourth level. Overall her fluency is pretty good. She phrases correctly and uses appropriate prosody. She repeats words sometimes, often when she reaches a word she doesn't know but it does not take away from her overall fluency. On the Multidimensional Scale I gave Margaret all 3's. While her fluency is good, she sometimes slips into monotone reading and messes up her phrasing. Her reading can be very uneven when she is in a particularly difficult section of a book. Overall, Margaret did a nice job today!

Reflection on Self

          I am feeling much more confident about one on one reading and the ability to plan for a struggling reader. It is easy to see that constant exposure and repetitiveness really helps students get a good grasp on concepts and skills that are needed for literacy. This lesson was an easy one for me to plan and carry out. It was some of the same activities I had done before to see if she had improved at all since our last few sessions. I felt accomplished when again, Margaret was able to tell me why we did the activities we did. I am excited that she has really started to get a good idea about long vowel sounds and that my word sort activities have helped her.  

Tutoring Lesson 4

Objectives: Good readers can re-read the same text multiple times to gain a deeper understanding of the author’s message. Good readers can recognize long vowel spelling patterns when playing “I’m Out,” a spelling game.

Assessment: Student writes on their copy of the poem; using underlines, boxes, notes, etc. and answering questions to demonstrate understanding. I will use observation during spelling game to check for recognition of spelling patterns.

Procedures

Opening: “Today we’re going to play a game called “I’m Out” to help us recognize the long vowel spelling patterns. We’re also going to read this poem called ‘Somebody’s Mother’ a few different times to see if we can understand the author’s message for the reader.” Rereading the same text multiple times helps us gain a deeper understanding of the author’s message.

Word Study –    

Student and I will play the “I’m Out” spelling game to work on identifying the long vowel patterns.

Reading 1 –

Purpose: What is this poem mainly about?

Questions:

1.      What did the schoolboy do differently than every other person who passed the old lady?

2.      Why did the school boy help the old lady?

Reading 2 –

Purpose: How is the poem structured or organized?

Questions:

1.      What words in the poem indicate the tone the author was trying to use?

2.      How does the tone when the author talks about the old lady differ from when the author talks about the schoolboys?

3.      What might have happened if the schoolboy had not helped the old lady cross the street?

Reading 3 –

Purpose: What does the text mean? What was the author’s purpose?

Questions:

1.      What lesson can you, as a young person, learn from the schoolboy’s actions?

2.      Have you ever witnessed or experienced a situation like the one in the poem?

Closing: What did you learn about re-reading the same text multiple times? Why did we play “I’m Out?”

Reflection on Student

            

            Margaret did a fabulous job for this lesson! My objectives were, “good readers can re-read the same text multiple times to gain a deeper understanding of the author’s message,” and “good readers can recognize long vowel spelling patterns when playing a spelling game.” She had no problems reaching this objective. We first played the spelling game, which was basically like Go Fish. This was a little trickier because the words weren’t right in front of her and she had to think of the way the words were spelled. She did a nice job of thinking of the spelling patterns on her own in order to make matches. Next we did the close reading of the poem. I was extremely pleased with how well Margaret did with this activity. At first she was wary about having to read the poem three times but I explained how she had a different purpose for each one and she ended up doing great answering the questions using the different parts of the poems. I believe that Margaret made some growth today with the literacy aspects she has been struggling with.

Margaret's finished notes are on the left and my example is on the right. She really  did a nice job of identifying the parts of the poem I was asking her to look for. 

Reflection on Self:

            

            I was surprised with my teaching abilities during this lesson. I had never done a close reading before and I’m not too confident teaching poetry but this lesson went very well. I was proud of myself for teaching well enough that at the end of the lesson Margaret was able to tell me why we did the activities that we did. I was very excited about this because that means she’s one step closer to grasping and maintaining the skills she’s been working on. It also means she was listening when I first started my lesson. This was my favorite lesson so far; all aspects of it were well put together and accomplished successfully. I must be having an impact on Margaret during our short 30 minute sessions because when time was up she was upset that I was leaving and we couldn’t have more time! 

Tutoring Lesson 3

Objective:

Good readers can find the main idea and key details of a story to help them better comprehend what they are reading.  

Procedures:

Opening and purpose: Today we are going to read a short story and work on finding the key details and main idea. It is important for us to know the most important parts of a story because it helps us better understand what we are reading.

Activity 1: Complete the Statue of Liberty main idea worksheet with help Activity 2: Read the short story called “Mousie” and fill out the graphic organizer that asks for the main idea and key details. Activity 3: Blind word sort using the words from the last closed word sort Activity 4: If there is time, student will read and I will ask her to find the key details and main idea of the section she reads.

Assessment: I will use both the Statue of Liberty worksheet and the graphic organizer to assess.

Closure: Thank you for working with me today. Remember that finding the main idea and key details can help you comprehend what you are reading. 

Reflection on Student:

Margaret made some incredible gains with her spelling during this lesson! We did a blind word sort first with the same words she had been working with last week. I gave her the categories that the words would go into and then read her the words and asked her to spell them into the correct categories. I was surprised to see her problem solve as she would realize that the way she spelled certain words didn’t look right so she tried them with different patterns until they did look right. She still got some words wrong but I am extremely proud of her for noticing the patterns and realizing that they could help make spelling easier. The other thing we worked on was using key details to determine main idea. The first activity was a sheet where she was first given the main idea and she had to decide which key details went with the main idea then she was given the main idea and had to come up with her own key details. She did fabulous with this activity and really had a good concept of the key details. For the second activity we read a short story together and then went back through together and found what we thought was most important (the key details). She did a great job with this as well. However, when I asked her to use the details to come up with the main idea, she had absolutely no idea what to say. I basically had to feed her the concepts and she put them all together for the main idea. I know that main idea is so broad that it can be tricky to find. I will just keep practicing with her and hopefully the more she practices the better she will get at it.

Reflection on Self:

            

           I really think I did a better job with time management for this lesson. I felt like I gave Margaret enough time for each activity and some reflection time and also got through everything I wanted to get done. I really liked the discussion Margaret and I had today about finding the key details and main idea and I felt accomplished when she was able to tell me what she learned and why we did what we did at the end of the lesson. I have to really work at not getting frustrated with myself for Margaret not performing well on some of the activities I have her do. Obviously I know she is a struggling reader but it is hard to realize that when I know she is so close to achieving what I am asking her to do. I will really try to work on my patience with myself because I know that it takes time and my time with her is minimal. My main goal should always be to just give her practice because the more exposure and experience she gets with what she struggles with, the better she will get. 

Tutoring Lesson 2

Objective:

Good readers know that spelling patterns are important for decoding words and they can sort words based on the common long vowel sound.

Procedures:

Opening and purpose: Today I am going to have you answer a few questions about what motivates you. We are also going to practice sorting words based on the long vowel sound because it is important for us to recognize patterns so we can decode words.

Activity 1: Motivation survey – Student will fill out the Garfield motivation survey. Activity 2: Running Record – Student will read aloud the passage and I will do a running record. Activity 3: Word Sort – I will conduct a closed word sort with the student and take notes for future reference. Activity 4: If there is time, student will read or free write.

Assessment: I will assess the student’s ability to sort words based on vowel patterns using the closed word sort. I will take notes as she goes and also have a discussion about any that are misplaced or confusing.

Closure: Thank you for working with me today. Remember that knowing spelling patterns helps us decode words, so that is why we practice sorting words. I will see you next Tuesday!


Reflection on Student Learning:

            My objective for this lesson was “Good readers know that spelling patterns are important for decoding words and they can sort words based on the common long vowel sound.” Margaret did surprisingly well meeting this objective. She did a great job on the word sort which I have included a picture of her final sort. I was glad that she put the words that didn’t fit into the categories so we had a great discussion on how sometimes words don’t fit the patterns, but more often than not they do fit. After the sort, I asked her to spell out loud some of the words she had missed on the spelling inventory. She used her new knowledge about the long vowel patterns and was able to spell them all correctly. When I asked her why we did the word sort she answered that it was to help her find the patterns.

Margaret put all of the cards in the right category except for the oddball words that didn't really fit; this opened up a nice discussion.

            I wanted to check on her comprehension during this lesson so I did that in two ways. The first was after the running record, I asked her to tell me what it was about. She struggled a lot with this. She answered with a lot of details which sometimes took her a long time to pull from her brain. She did not even identify the main idea. The next thing I did was have her read her free reading book out loud. While she was reading I wrote down some questions that were about the section she was reading. I have read her book many times so it was easy to think of questions that used past text and background knowledge. The questions she struggled with were main idea questions. She knew some details but could not identify the most important things. This shows me that she needs to work on finding the main idea and key details.

We will need to start working on slowing down and reading each word by itself so that words don't get skipped or guessed. Our next running record will be a little harder.

Reflection on Self:

            This second session went very well. Margaret was immediately comfortable with me so we were able to get right into our work. I really think I did a nice job with discussing the spelling patterns with Margaret and helping her see how important is to recognize patterns in order to decode and spell words. The flow of the lesson was nice although I want to work on my time management. 30 minutes goes so quickly and I nearly ran out of time during this session to get everything done that I wanted. I will make sure I watch the clock and don’t go too much over on my times. I’m glad I was able to pinpoint a struggle area for Margaret that I can build a lesson for next week.  

Tutoring Lesson 1

Objective:

Good readers can express their interests and read aloud so a listener can determine how they read.

Procedures:

Opening: Hi, my name is Ms. Helm. I’m going to be working with you on your reading and writing for the next couple of weeks. What is your name?

Purpose: Today I’m going to have you answer a few questions about what you’re interested in and read aloud to me so I can get to know you as a student and reader!

Activity 1: Interest inventory – I will read the questions aloud, student will write answers. Activity 2: Spelling inventory – I will give student a blank piece of paper and a pencil. I will say the words from the spelling inventory; student will spell the best they can. Activity 3: Read-Aloud – student can read from their own free reading book or they can choose from one of the books I bring with me. I will take notes as student reads Activity 4: Write —If time allows, student will write about the section they just read to me.

 

Closure: Thank you for working with me today. I got a really good idea about you as a reader and a student and I can’t wait to help you throughout these next few weeks.

Reflection on Student Learning:

            My objective for my first lesson was “Good readers can express their interests and read aloud so a listener can determine how they read.” This lesson was fairly laid back since it was my first time meeting Margaret and she easily met the objective. The only thing I knew about her before this meeting was her Lexile reading number. The first thing we did was the interest inventory that would tell me what kinds of things she is interested in. Right away when Margaret started filling out the information, I could tell that she needs some work with sentence development. She answered many of them with one word answers even though they asked for explanations. Any places where she answered with a couple of words didn’t have complete sentences.

            After the interest inventory we did the spelling inventory. This really helped me see how she is at spelling and what patterns she most struggles with. After the spelling inventory we started read-aloud so I could just get an idea how she was reading. I could tell she was really dreading this. She started off really choppy but once she got comfortable she was actually pretty fluent. I have a feeling the fluency isn’t the part she struggles with so next time I want to ask her some questions to see how her comprehension is.

Reflection on Self:

            I’m not entirely sure why, but I was a little nervous before this first meeting. I think it was because I didn’t know anything about Margaret and I wanted to make sure she was getting the best experience possible. Once I realized that I couldn’t hurt her in these six sessions, I was able to relax and just enjoy the experience myself. Margaret was a little shy at first and I wondered how I would get her to open up to me. I was able to make her feel comfortable and by the end of this lesson she was engaged and seemed to be having fun. I am going to try to give her some quality support, even if it is only a little bit. If anything I hope to make her feel more comfortable and excited about reading. 

Tutoring Student Description

            The student I was paired with for tutoring is a 5^th grade girl that I will call Margaret for the purpose of this blog. Margaret’s Lexile reading level is 467. This is equivalent to a second grader and a K reading level on the Fountas & Pinnell reading chart. Based on the interest inventory she filled out on the first day, Margaret is interested in softball, she loves to play outside, she really likes animals, and she wishes school got out earlier. I’m planning to use the interest inventory when planning my lessons. I can relate my topic or content to some things that she likes, like animals or softball. This might help engage her and make her more excited about what we do.

            Margaret also filled out the Garfield motivation survey so I could see how she feels about reading. She chose the happiest Garfield or one less happy for all of the recreational reading questions. She even chose the happiest one for quite a few of the academic reading questions. She only chose the grumpy Garfield when it talked about being asked questions after reading, or reading out loud. This leads me to believe that Margaret really does like reading but there are maybe some self-confidence and comprehension problems with her reading.

            I plan to use the information I have gotten in the first few tutoring sessions to help create lessons that will both engage Margaret and help her get better in her areas of struggle. 

Self-Introduction

My name is Lindsay Helm. I am a junior at Grand View University studying to be an elementary teacher with endorsements in Reading and English Language Arts. I am currently in an education class called Teaching Literacy for grades 3-8 and as part of our class we are required to tutor a struggling reader at an elementary school. This blog will tell the details of my experiences and adventures with the struggling reader I will be tutoring!