Moving from assessment to instruction

My buddy is a strong reader and writer.  I learned that my buddy loves to read fantasy and non-fiction books.  She loves to read books about wolves and even writes her own fantasy stories about them.  She told me that she even acts out as wolves with her friends during recess.  I was amazed by her love of wolves. 

On the 4^th grade level reading passage of “Amelia Earhart,” she answered 7 out of 8 questions correctly.  Her comprehension skill was strong, being able to answer almost all of the questions accurately and in detail except for the tricky one we talked about in class.  I think she was over thinking the question.  Her retelling of the story was excellent with great use of the vocabulary words such as "adventurer" and "pioneer." 

Taking all of these into consideration, I feel that my buddy can move to the next level reading.  I think reading strategies (punctuation and fluency) can help her with her reading fluency, although she did great reading “Amelia Earhart” without any trouble. 

Analysis of Student Writing, Part 1

1.  My 4th grade buddy, Becky(pseudo name) shared her story called The day my dog talked.  The story was based on a prompt given to write about a day when all animals were able to talk.  My buddy’s story was about an experience of being shocked and surprised to see her dog, Ruby, talk for a day.  I think Becky might’ve really enjoyed writing this story because she loves fantasy and animals, which her story was all about.  Even though it was a prompt given by her teacher, I think it gave her more meaning to her work and a sense of ownership.


2.  6 Traits:

• Ideas: Becky’s story is definitely clear and focused.  Throughout her paper, she is focused on her topic and provides details to support her main idea (NWREL, 1992).   Becky’s story of her dog Ruby being able to talk was fresh and original.  Since she loves fantasy stories, I think Becky might’ve really enjoyed coming up with a fantasy story about her dog being able to talk for a day.
• Organization:  Becky’s story is strong enough to move the reader through the text without too much confusion (NWREL, 1992).  However, I think she can improve on her organization by focusing on one or two main events.  She keeps going back and forth to events that were happening at home and in school, which might confuse her readers.  I think Becky can work on her introduction and conclusion to make her story more tight and strong.  The order and structure is pretty well compelling and moves the reader through the text.  She starts her story with a dialogue of her having a conversation with her mom, which draws the readers in to be curious about what the story might be about.  Throughout the story, she does a great job of transitioning one scene to another; there is a clear sense of direction.  Pacing is also well controlled, slowing down or elaborating when needed.  Another thing Becky can improve on is her conclusion.  She provides a lot of details for her other paragraphs, but when she gets toward the end, she confuses her readers by having someone say “it’s the end of the world.”  I think she can definitely improve on her conclusion paragraph to make her organization stronger.  
• Voices: Becky strongly connects with the audience.   She uses natural and engaging language that makes her writing interesting and appropriate for her audience. Although, I think she can improve on making her story sound less choppy.   You can tell by the tone that it is written from a kid’s perspective, which I think it’s appropriate for this work.  Her voice really stands out as she uses lots of dialogues throughout her story and punctuation for expression.  
• Word choice: Becky’s choices of words were mostly everyday nouns and mundane modifiers, although she used few powerful words that were specific and engaging.  She attempts to use colorful language to be creative.  In some instances, you can almost picture the scenes in your head as you read along (“we all exchanged smiles”, “Ruby yelled she was fine too, very sarcastically”).  Becky was able to use some creative words that added more meaning to her story.  The language and phrasing are natural, effective, and appropriate for the audience (NWREL, 1992).  
• Sentence fluency: The writing sample we received was a draft with many corrections made.  Just from the draft and the corrections she (or the teacher) made sounded smooth.  Some sentences were a bit choppy but when she orally read to us, it flowed well together.  Becky used lots of dialogues throughout her story and they sounded natural.  Most of her sentences were constructed correctly.
• Conventions:  There were quite a few spelling errors in the writing sample.  She does a good job of sounding out words, but seems to have trouble spelling double consonants and short vowel words (wrote “soden” for sudden, “fond” for found, “princables” for principal.)  Overall, I think Becky did a great job of using end punctuation.  She always seems to remember to put a period at the end of each sentences.  She used exclamation marks quite a few times to show expression, but sometimes she missed out using a question mark at the end of a question she was asking in her dialogue.  Capitalization skills were present with correct grammar usage.

3.  Bekcy shows ownership in her writing.  I feel that she sees herself as a good writer and a reader.  Through our two informal reading conferences, we were able to learn that she loves non-fiction and fantasy.  She also claimed that she loves reading about animals and during our conference, she brought with her a book she was reading about wolves.  Therefore, I think Becky might’ve felt confident writing the prompt for her classroom since it was one of her favorite genre; fantasy and animals.

4.  I feel that Becky is a good speller or appropriate for her grade.  During our first spelling inventory, she missed about 8 words on the list (she wrote “surving” for serving, “catle” for cattle, “rippen” for ripen, “celler” for cellar, “pleasher” for pleasure, “forchanit” for fortunate, “sivilize” for civilize, “apasihion” for opposition.)   Through her spelling inventory and her writing sample, we were able to notice that Becky is really good at stretching words out, but she seems to have trouble with digraphs, short vowels and consonant doubling.

Lesson Plan

Standards:

GLE 3.3.7: Applies paragraph conventions

GLE 3.1.2: Selects effective organizational structures

EARL 3: Student writes clearly and effectively

Objectives:

Student will be able to define a paragraph.

Student will be able to write a paragraph that includes a conclusion.

Materials:

·         Paper

·         Pencil

·         Sample of student’s writing draft.

Instructional Strategies:

I will begin the lesson by defining what a paragraph is.  Then I will ask her questions about how she can write a strong conclusion in her papers.  I will explain that a paragraph is a group of sentences about one main idea or topic, with good supporting details.  I will provide strategies to write a strong introduction and a conclusion.  I will explain that the conclusion brings closure to the reader, summing up your points or providing a final perspective on your topic.  Then I will provide some strategies to writing a conclusion.

Strategies to write a strong conclusion:

·         Summarize the key points

·         Encourage action

·         Provide food for thought

·         Convince the reader

I will go over these four strategies and have her choose one strategy that she may want to use in her writing.  We will read over the student’s writing sample draft together and see how she can incorporate one of the four strategies to writing a strong conclusion.   

Assessment:

The teacher will assess by reading over the student’s writing sample to see if she was able to incorporate the strategies learned into her writing sample draft.  The teacher will also check for proper use of paragraph rules.

Taking the Time to Write

I enjoyed this week's reading of Bird by bird by Anne Lamott.  After reading few pages of her book made me feel like Lamott exactly knew how I was feeling about writing, and she was in a way guiding me to just believe in myself and write.  I felt encouraged that she understood how difficult it can be to be a writer.  This whole week, I couldn't come up with an interesting small moment to write about for my second literacy vignette.  I sat in front of my computer, flashing back to my childhood memories to come up with an interesting topic to write about.  I had a few, but just didn't think it was interesting enough.  I hindered for days, then reading Bird by bird got me started.  I enjoyed the chapter about broccoli.  "When you don't know what to do, when you don't know whether your character would do this or that, you get quiet and try to hear that still small voice inside.  It will tell you what to do." (pg.110)  It sort of worked for me, to take some time, take a breath and listen. I am willing to try it again next time I write. 

Thinking back to my childhood, I wasn't the best reader or writer.  Since it was even so hard for me to learn English as a second language, I didn't really know how to "enjoy" reading.  Not until when I was in 4th grade.  I started ordering books from scholastic book fairs we had in school, and I was so excited to get new books each month.  I literally could not let my books down and even fell asleep with it.  I feel that it's important to emphasize on the idea that we need to constantly read in order to become good readers and writers.  Thinking of my broccoli like how Lamott suggested, I was able to take some time to come up with an topic I wanted to write about and enjoy writing it.

Enjoying to write

I really enjoyed reading Routman's Writing Essentials and her statement that "excellent and enjoyable writing needs to become central to the everyday life of the classroom." (pg.4).  Reading the first few chapters of her book made me feel that teaching writing can be enjoyable, not just for the students, but for myself as well.  In order for us to teach writing, we need to become writers ourselves. 

In my own experience from high school, I remember not enjoying my English class to write.  I didn't like the thought of being graded for each strict prompts that I was given.  I felt that I was forced to go down the checklist of having the "right" answers for the prompt.  I felt that I wasn't taught to enjoy writing, but a skill necessary to succeed.  I think my thoughts would have changed if I read Routman's Writing Essentials and her tips to enjoy writing in my early educational career.  I really like how Routman encourage teachers to enjoy writing themselves, which will make the teaching process more enjoyable and valuable.  It is important for us to always have an essential question in mind of "how can I teach to help our students become an effective writers and communicators?"  "How can I help them to enjoy the process?" 

I can't wait to meet my K-buddy tomorrow and work on our ELP together.  Out of the 2 visits I had with him, I noticed that my K-buddy is a great reader but sometimes he lacks confidence in his ability to read, and would just give up and say "I don't know."  I hope that tomorrow's literacy activity will help him assess his literacy ability.