A Three-Part Post Choose A, B,or C
6 03 2008A. What can you tell about your student’s reading from his/her writing? OR
B. Share a strategy that is really working with your student. Tell what the need is and then describe the strategy and how it and you are ameliorating that need. OR
C. Write about some burning issue for you that hasn’t been addressed yet and you would like our comments on.
A. I can tell that Sam definitely comprehends what he reads. His thoughts are organized, and his writing matches his verbal explanations. He has great spelling for the most part, and it reflects his reading because he tends to leave out silent letters (he frequently sounds out words he doesn’t know).
B. Sam has problems with fluency; he reads WORD WORD WORD without paying attention to punctuation or the context. Therefore, we are doing Readers Theater using two-voice poetry. It is working great! With my support, Sam is becoming more expressive as he reads, and is paying closer attention to the meaning of the passage he is reading. He is motivated by the topic of the poems (bugs and birds), and, most importantly, he is having fun while learning!
C. I’m wondering how to help Sam decode words that he has difficulty with. Obviously, sounding out doesn’t always work. We’re working on vocabulary next - is there a way to integrate that with decoding?
Savanna,
Look in the Phonics text for some strategies on decoding. Decoding figuring out the letter/sound correspondences. There are different ways of doing that besides remembering all the combinations. Any other ideas to help Savanna, people?
Hello!
I actually am working with a student who shares the same problem as Sam. Megan also struggles with fluency. Fortunately, she also likes to write, especially about her family’s farm. So I have started to create a “book” for her. Each session she writes a sentence or 2 and draws a picture and I add it to the previous ones. Each time we meet, she reads her book. It is something that she is familiar with and enjoys reading. It is working out very well so far. I am also using the tubaloos… whisper phones…whatever you want to call them with her. I don’t know how old Sam is but Megan thinks these are great! I will have to remember to bring them in next class!These allow her to really hear herself while she reads. I will have to try readers theater. Thanks for sharing!
Surprise! I am also working with a student who has trouble with fluency. It has been helpful that my group project topic is fluency because I have been able to use what I learned from the fluency book to help my student Savanna. She is a first grader and is able to comprehend very well despite how long it takes her to read a passage, and how many miscues she makes while reading a passage. Her fluency rate is extremely low, however it is still in the “okay” range. One of my goals is to improve Savanna’s fluency rate as well as her fluency, as I believe it will help with her comprehension. I have used a number of activities in the book, and plan to use more with Savanna to help with this problem. If your student is struggling with fluency, use the fluency book to help you; it has some great ideas!
I have learned a lot about my student with what he writes. I have done two read a louds with my student and have had him do a drawing and writing activity with each one. I have found out that he tries to sound out words phonetically. For example, during one of these writing activities, Ethan wrote “David won’t be cwiit. The word that he is trying to write is quiet. I was very excited though that he made an attempt to spell it even though he didn’t know how. For this reason, I will be working on phonics with him. I think that he has some trouble in this area although he does sound out words while reading.
Another way to learn about your student is by observation. I have found that by watching my student read he doesn’t use pictures as a clue to the text. I have really been focusing on this by using comic strips. I have him talk about what is happening in the comic strip without reading the words. Then using this knowledge, I let him read the text. This helps him figure out what words are using the pictures. I am hoping that by the time that I am finished working with him, this will be automatic.
Ethan is doing sound spelling very well. CWIIT hard sound of /c/, the sound of /w/, and the sound or word ‘it’ at the end. That spells quiet the way it sounds doesn’t it? He needs work in matching letter-sound correspondence, what letter combinations represent what sounds. Try onset-rime,analogy, morphemic analysis, etc.
Use these strategies when chldren can do sound spelling but don’t know the letter-sound combinations.
Kalleigh usually has a lot of ideas for writing stories. She usually writes about her family or a story about pets. She understands that when writing a story, there is a method to writing as well as required parts of the story. For example, she knows that one should plan out their stories before actually writing them. She also knows that stories need a beginning, middle and end, multiple paragraphs, and sentences with details. Despite Kalleigh knowing these aspects of writing, it is difficult for her to put her thoughts down in a logical and organized manner. The same can be attributed to her reading. For example, when interviewing Kalleigh and asking her how she would help someone learn how to read, she said that you need to start with simple books and work your way up to harder ones. Kalleigh is very good at learning a skill and trying to apply it into her work, no matter what the subject may be. It is apparent that Kalleigh is trying to use the strategies she has previously learned when reading but struggles with fluency and comprehension. It is my goal to try to help her find a strategy that works and in turn work with it to help her become a better reader. I will let you know when I have found something that clicks for her!
My response will be part of B and part of C. My student has missed so much school since the middle of February that my time with her has barely met the two hour mark. I have learned from another teacher that this student’s home life is not the best, and ever since a move happened, the student has not been coming to school very often. This has become so serious that the school has contacted social workers to intervene, and I have had to contemplate finding another student to work with (if this does become necessary, will I still be able to use the hours from working with my first student, or will I need to start over again?).
Fortunately, I did see my student today, if only for a few moments. Because I have not been able to do much assessment to gauge where she currently stands, my strategies have been on the personal level. I have tried to connect to Deszirae so that if she IS having a tough time at home, she knows she has a safe haven at school in my classroom. The fact that she sought me out today to try to make up time showed me that I am someone she can feel comfortable with–and that she is not embarrassed around me about her reading levels. I hope that today marks a turning point in my time with Dezsirae. I really want to work with her and help her, but that is difficult when she is rarely in the school.
Hi, I have been going over what I have done with Ethan for the past few weeks and have found some questions that I have. I was scoring the Garfield Attitude Survey and found myself not being able to do the percentile ranks. Can you help me with this? Ethan’s score on the full scale raw score was 57.
Another question that I have is when completing the Cooper and Flynt Assessment, I wasn’t able to figure the fluency rate in seconds. He read 43 words in one minute. I can’t figure though with the table on page 17 what the fluency is in seconds. I guess that I don’t understand how to read it. I have reread it many times but with no success.
The last question that I have is regarding again the Cooter and Flynt assessment. On page 13 and 14, the book said that we should look for the same type of miscues over several passages. Does this mean that we should have the student read many passages? I was under the impression that we were to do one assessment with one passage to figure strengths and weaknesses and then begin instruction based on this information.
If you could help me answer these questions I would really appreciate it!! Thanks. See you all next Monday:)
Thank you Dr. Summers! I will definately integrate some of those strategies in my instruction with Ethan.
Even though you said OR, I am curious as to peer/teacher responses for all 3
A) Although I have not given Will a writing prompt yet (although I do plan on this week giving him a quickwrite task), his spelling is weak and he does miss a few words when he is writing, for example he would write “i like read and play video games,” leaving out the word “to.” I think, from only a few examples, that maybe he is rushing through work; additionally, and this is visible in his reading too, his vocabulary has a few weaknesses - this could affect his spelling.
B) If i have shown Will any strategies that seem to be working during reading so far, it definitely has to be merely GIVING him strategies during his decoding. it seems like he didn’t really KNOW how to implement certain strategies when he gets to a word that he doesn’t know - he merely just guessed or appealed to me for help. By offering him a variety of things to actually do, such as breaking apart the word, looking for smaller word, rereading the sentence from the start to see if he can use the first letter to fit in a word based on context, skipping it and rereading the entire sentence after its completion, even reading across the whole entire word.. he seems to be taking these strategies and really using them. Recently, when he hesitated on words, and then said the accurately, I asked him what he was doing to figure out the words and he said tha the is thinking about the strategies I told him to try and figure out the word. How proud that made me !!
C) My biggest question, I guess, so far, would be how to help Will with his fluency. He says his biggest weakness is not reading as fast as his classmates and he always gets behind; when reading aloud to me it is clear that he is reading in a word-by-word format instead of reading smoothly and clearly.. I have been looking through the fluency book in our packs but I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or activities I could do to improve his fluency. Thank you - hope everyone’s college break is going well !
-stace : )
Hey People,
I guess we are all working on the “break!” Take a look at Stacey’s comments on decoding strategies for Will. She’s put the most effective ones right there in a nutshell. They are most effective because they are easily remembered by children and don’t take years to develop as do some other strategies.
As for Will’s deep desire to read faster, now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their minds–I’m thinking of WInston Churchill here. He helped England win WWII because he enthused the populus’ mind with victory. I mean that now it’s time to work on comprehension strategies. If Will had a better idea of what he was reading about, he could use that to read faster. Some work on schematic thinking, text comprehension, broad vocabulary building would help Will read faster and more fluently. But probably with more miscues like we skilled readers do.
A) After having Emily do a few quick writing tasks, I find a few things difficult to assess. During her first writing task, I had her write words to the wordless story in the Flynt/Cooter book. She did more of describing the pictures that she saw. Then I asked her to choose a picture in the book we were reading and describe it. Instead of putting them in sentence/paragraph form, she listed them out and numbered them and she went crazy with her exclamation points at the end of each detail!!!!!!!!!!! Haha…..right down to the fact that she paid attention to the number of each exclamation point and made the number increase after each fact. Maybe I am reading too much into it and I should focus more on the detail that she provided, but I am not sure if this is something I should try to explain that one exclamation point serves the purpose. I am thinking of getting the pigeon books and showing her how they use text and punctuation to show enthusiasm and emotion, but I also don’t want her to get carried away with how large she makes the text. I guess I am stuck in a rut with her writing.
C) I have a question based on the Flynt/Cooter inventory. When I went to score the inventory overall, it wanted reading passage scores from A/B and C,D, or E. So do I have to have Emily read another passage from C, D, or E or is one from A enough. I have learned in previous classes that multiple assessments are the way to go in order to provide the proper instruction based on the assessment outcomes, but based on our assignment, should I go ahead with another passage or stick with the one passage from form A and continue with instruction??
By analyzing Logan’s writing I can tell some of the areas that we still need to focus on.
1. Detail!!! Logan has a wonderful imagination. Although his writing usually lacks this component in his writing. We are having a difficult time having his expand on his sentences. Graphic organizers seem to help him a great deal in the classroom but I am trying to have him include these ideas without always having to depend on the graphic organizer.
2. Phonics. Logan tends to sound unfamiliar words out frequently. He doesn’t really take the time to listen to the word that he is sounding out and he often places random letters in the word. I feel as though this is due to his speech problem and the way that he mispronounces words.
3. TIME! I feel as though Logan’s writing could be 50% better if he took his TIME! This may be a start as a way to fix his detail and his hand writing in general.
WIth all these components in place I feel that Logan would do really well in the area of writing. Like I previously stated, he has an active imagination he just needs to start applying these strategies
Oh, it all is so individual, I can’t say exactly! But Savanna is shrewd.
ALert to Amber!!!! mostly
It sounds like Emily doesn’t have a sense of story. This is a MAJOR problem. Start each session with a read aloud picture story book, then discuss the beginning, middle, and end of the story. THen go to the wordless book ad do the strategy that you did.
This way you go from comprehending to composing/production. Comprehending is the easier skill. Remember when you were learning another language–you could understand it more and better before you could speak it as well. ALWAYS DO A NEW SKILL ORALLY FIRST. Make sure the st;udent is fairly competent orally before asking them to write.
Leslie, I was thinking about Logan when I was writng the last few sentences above. If he is tired of graphic organizers, have him read his writing aloud, Ask him what the problem is. Maybe he can fix it on his own.
Oh AMber,
On the Fint, you need to have Emily read more than one passage to find the different levels. You need to find instructional, independent, and frustrational levels, You can’t find that from only one passage. Does that answer your question?
Dear Everybody,
I sent you a message to your mailboxes but I got so many mailer demon messages that I will try this way. Please be prepared to work on your presentations in class on Monday, March 17. There will be no class on Easter Monday and the presentations start the following Monday.
A note to many of you, your mailboxes, with the addresses that Cortland has for you, are full and will not accept any more messages. You might want to check on that. It is upsetting. Dr. Summers
The student I am working with, Chris – 6th grade, has a problem with fluency. While giving the Flynt-Cooter Reading Inventory, I noticed he would read word by word instead of paying attention to punctuation. At times he was reading each line and pausing instead of pausing after a period. I have not started any instruction yet because I have not found his instructional level yet. We just completed level 4 and that was a little difficult for him but I think he will able to be successful. After completing level 5 I think I will be able to determine his independent level, instructional level and frustration level
Once I figure that information out I have a few ideas to help Chris read fluently. I thought first I would have him make any predictions about a story we will read. We could discuss that for a couple minutes to give him an idea of what is be about to start reading. After this discussion, I think it would be extremely beneficial to introduce any challenging vocabulary before reading the text so Chris becomes familiar with these words. Having a mini-lesson on punctuation would also help Chris so he starts to become aware of the different punctuation marks and what he should do when he comes across them when reading.
I have given Chris one writing assignment so far and I have noticed that he has trouble with spelling. He is very conscientious about his writing and will erase his work as many times as it takes to make the letters perfect. Chris sound spells the words he is unsure of and we all know a lot of words aren’t spelled like that! My question is, to help him with spelling high frequency words, should I start using the dolce sight words with him?
I have finally met with my student, Jessica, once so far because the first time I went to meet with her she forgot stay after.
I shared a picture book that I like and we talked about what she likes to read, which is not much. Then I went through the interview questions with her. From just her answers it seems like she identifies having a problem with comprehension but her only strategy is to “just skip it” when she doesn’t understand. I hope to soon figure out her reading levels are and what strategies she needs most.
A. Unfortunately my student has an injured wrist/shoulder and wears a sling. It hurts for her to write so she avoids it at all costs. She did say she likes writing a lot more then reading.
C. I don’t really have a burning issue but after interviewing my student I have been trying to think of realistic fiction books about high school girls and annoying little brothers OR about high school girls and nursing because she volunteers in the hospital.
After working with Tyler for the past 4 weeks, we have done many different comprehension writing. We have been reading “Ghost Camp” by R.L. Stine. We take turns each week reading to each other and after each chapter (depending on how long it is) I have set questions that I ask him. From the many different writing samples, Tyler understanding what he is reading, and aspecially because it is something he enjoys reading, there seems to be more attention to the story. Tyler enjoys it when I read to him, because he feels that he can spend more time imagining the story and putting the pieces together. He says that he can do that when he reads, but it’s clearer in his mind when he has someone read to him. Tyler is a good speller and had good reading comprehension skills. I am pleased with the progress that I have gotten from Tyler.
A. Crystal has a very hard time with her writing. She loves to draw different pictures, but she has hard time writing, even writing letters. One day when I was working with her, she really wanted to draw. I told her to pick her favorite letter, write the letter and then draw a picture starting with the letter. Her favorite letter was “C”. She was not able to write this letter at all. I then wrote some “Cs” and then had her trace it. Then I asked if she could do it by herself. She was able to make a “C” but did it backwards. This shows me that she still needs help with her writing. Then I had Brevan do the same thing, his letter was “D”. He was able to write a “D” very well. He then stated to just write other letters (trying to make words). The words were just different letters put together. So it does show me that he knows some of his letters, but he just needs to work on sounding out the words, to know what letter the word starts with.
B. Both students are having a hard time with their ABCs. So I working on teaching them their ABCs, what the letters are and what are examples of pictures that go with the letters. Their teacher has different games that she would like me to do with them. The games have different letters on it with pictures that go with the letters. Also she uses paint in a bag, for the students to practice writing the letters. After I am done with testing I am going to try some of these strategies.
Kendra et. al
From your description, it doesn’t sound like fluency is Chris’ need. You need to investigate WHY he is reading word by word. Does he know what the punctuation marks mean?
When I hear a learner read word by word my first thought is decoding. This person has a decoding problem and my second thought is comprehension is going to be low because of the limits of the short term memory.
Decopding leads to comprehension leads to fluency.
Kendra et. al
From your description, it doesn’t sound like fluency is Chris’ need. You need to investigate WHY he is reading word by word. Does he know what the punctuation marks mean?
When I hear a learner read word by word my first thought is decoding. This person has a decoding problem and my second thought is comprehension is going to be low because of the limits of the short term memory.
Decoding leads to comprehension leads to fluency.
I’m sending this again with better spelling.
Valerie,
This is great news. Now how can you decrease the scaffolding so that Tyler can create that imaging he gets when read to, on his own?
Class,
I should tell you that Mariah is teaching two kindergartners who are non-readers and have little phonemic awareness. Mariah is working right at the beginning of reading. Watch the development of her students.
Dr. Summers,
Thank you for responding. I absolutely agree with you that Chris’ problem is decoding. I spoke to his reading teacher yesterday and she explained to me why his problem would be decoding rather than fluency - I guess I just had them mixed up! She said exactly what you said, decoding leads to comprehension which ultimately leads to better fluency. His comprehension is very low so that explains it! Thank you again!
After all of my complications with finding a student, I have only been able to meet with my student a few times, but I feel they have been very productive. From flynt and also reading with her, it is clear tha Alexandera has difficult with fluency and comprehension. I have not been able to focus on the fluency as of yet within the first few sessions, but I have been working more on the comprehension aspect. After reading a story, I have been using strips of paper that say things like “this story is about…” “then…” After that…” as cues for her to remember what happened in the story. I am hoping to slow take the paper strips away so that she will able to fill in the blanks on her own.
From my my student’s writing, I can tell that he has a vivid imagination, loves to be creative, and with a little confidence he will be a fantastic reader. Vinny enjoys literature, it just moves to fast for him in the classroom. His main problem is that he makes tons of visual miscues, and meaning immediately breaks down. When he writes, he takes his time, proofreads, edits and revises and his results are fantastic. I just need to put both components together for him so he is as confident with a book as he is with a pen!
Hi Dave,
Is it that the literature moves too fast or that Vinny is moving too fast? It sounds like he is thinking so fast about what is going on in the piece that he reads what he expects it to say, not what it really says. Try telling him to SLOW DOWN when he is reading. Let his eyes catch up with his mind. Remember that we can’t read as fast as we think,
Actually, People,
That may be good advice for all your students, especially with the push toward F L U E N CY.
Sorry, my computer is doing strange things. Anyway, as I was saying, children may get the idea that a good reader is a fast reader. That ain’t necessarily so (song title). A good reader is an accurate reader. A good reader is a reader who gets and brings meaning from and to the text. A good reader makes connections from the text to their lives. Fast has nothing to do with any of those things. Fluency does, but not fast. Dr. Summers
Before I talk about what I learned about my childs reading from his writting let me explain what writting we did. I had Matt fill out a job application because that is a skill he needs as a senior in H.S.
I learned from my students writing is that he can’t read the questions that he needs to answer. When he does unterstand the question he doesn’t always know how to process it and correctly answer it. This was shocking to me that he did not know how to fill out a job application.
My second grade student, Zack, spells phonetically when he is writing. He writes words as they sound which demonstrates that he has phonics knowledge. However, if words are spelled with blends or digraphs this becomes more difficult for him. I have been teaching Zack phonics strategies to help him decode unfamiliar words while reading. Specifically, we have been doing a lot of work with onset and rimes, which goes along perfectly with Zack’s love of Dr. Seuss books. While he was reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish he made a list of the rhyming words that he was able to read. He realized that if he could read the word bump, for example, then he could read the words wump, hump, jump, gump. We discussed which of these words were real and which were nonsense words. I am teaching Zack to decode by analogy by using magnetic letters to make word family words on the whiteboard. This is an activity that he really enjoys. These strategies have helped Zack learn to decode in the context of real reading.
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