Group+14-5772

= = Choose one case study to evaluate from these two examples: Home/school connections are important at all times but especially critical during the early years of schools. In both of these cases, the parents have already been active in the development of literacy. Now both sets of parents want more. What can you do to help them on the road to literacy.
 * =__ CASE STUDY #1 __=

** CASE STUDY #1: Susie **
Susie is a happy middle-class first grade student. Since birth, her parents talked with her as if she were an adult and spent much time reading with her. Suzie developed a love of reading early and her parents continued supporting her love by purchasing books and giving them as gifts. She loves her personal library of well over 100 books. When Susie entered first grade she had highly developed skills, listened well and understood a great deal. She was confident and secure and anxious to learn. However, after just one week of school Suzie finishes early and does nothing after completion of school tasks. She states that she is bored.

What are the strengths? AW: Susie's strengths are her confidence and overall exposure to literacy. Since Susie has parents who read to her regularly and her own library at home, she was able to grasp early reading skills like directionality, listening comprehension, and book handling skills. VI-S: Susie's strenghts are confidence in her ability. Her attitude toward reading is positive. She also has wonderful parental support who has strengthened her skills so far. TH: Susie has had above average exposure to written and spoken language. She has positive role models that "led by example." She has a positive attitude towards reading and has highly developed listening and reading skills. MC: Susie has a strong literacy foundation and supportive parents. This will help her be successful when she begins to learn more about reading.

​ What are the needs? AW: Susie needs one-on-one instruction to further her literacy skills. She needs practice in the reciprocal side of literacy, writing. Susie needs responsibility in the classroom as a peer tutor to foster her skills and keep her from boredom. Since Susie understands more, she should be given more. Susie could work with word families, creative writing, reading aloud to her peers, etc. VI-S: Susie needs instruction that is challenging to her level. Her skills were strengthened early on. Susie could be allowed to read to her peers and discuss topics with them. She is willing to learn so reading skills need to be explicitly taught to her at a higher level. Maybe a list of other ideas could be given to Susie when she completes her work. TH: Susie needs to be given opportunities to extend her knowledge by completing individualized work. For exampe, she may be on a contract where she chooses a topic of study to research and incorporates the classroom skills into her final product. Or, the teacher may need to assess to find out exactly where Susie needs additional instruction and provide that to her either through one-on-one instruction or finding another class or group that is working on those particular needs. Susie is definitely a child who needs "differentiated instruction" - hers is upward rather than remedially. She should also be given opportunities to choose activities to reinforce her existing skills as well as help others. MC:Susie definately needs to be challenged. I like the idea that Amanda has about utilizing Susie as a peer tutor. Susie also needs enrichment activities, but if she is alot further in her reading than her peers it may be challenging to keep her focused on her projects. I do think that she does need to begin the writing process so that she can begin to see how reading and writing work together.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? AW: Susie's parents have already instilled so much in their daughter. To continue, Susie's parents should read chapter books aloud to her at night, to improve her comprehension and retention of information over days at a time. In addition, Susie's parents should offer rewards for her attention and assertiveness at school, to show their partnership with the teacher. VI-S: Susie's parents could read more challenging books and then have her write about them. They could discuss the vocabulary that is needed so that her vocabulary strengthens. Her parents need to be supportive of what is happening in the classroom. When work is given that is appropriate to her level maybe she could have some kind of incentive to keep her attention. TH: Susie's parents need to encourage her to do her best at school. They also need to continue modeling good reading behavior at home. As well, they can either read to her or have her read high interest informational books or chapter books. They could also encourage Susie to ask herself questions for further investigation about the classroom material and allow her to discuss and investigate her questions. MC: I do think she needs to continue to read books that are on her level or even above her level, which can possibly be done at home since her parents are so supportive What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? AW: Susie's teacher should incorporate Susie's strengths; her confidence, her secure nature, her literacy skills, into the classroom. Susie should be allowed to peer tutor and read aloud to other students. Susie should be challenged by the teacher with skills that have been assessed as her individual needs. VI-S: Susie's work should be targeted to her level. She is confident and is willing to learn. The teacher needs to figure out what Susie's strengths are and what she is interested in. I am sure other skills could be taught in addition to what they are doing in the classroom. I aslo agree that she could be a great peer tutor since she does have a positive attitude about reading. She could also work on strengthening her writing skills. Susie could be allowed to do some sort of project after reading a story done in class. ​ TH: The easiest thing for most teachers to do is to make Susie "the classroom tutor." While I believe that there are benefits to this option for both Susie and her classmates, Susie has needs beyond most of her classmates. Susie's needs must be met before she meets other students' needs. Susie's teacher can provide Susie with several choices of additional/extension activities that incorporate the skills from the lesson. Susie's teacher should not limit herself to just the extension activities in the basal reader, but should allow Susie to actively participate in designing activities for study. Obviously Susie is able to read and complete the "regular work," so find her interests and make activities relevant to her. If Susie likes to use the computer, have her investigate something that interests her and present it to the class using a powerpoint, etc. If Susie is good at art, perhaps she can present her findings that way. Susie needs to have time to help others, but also further her own education as well. ​ MC: Everything that we have mentioned is so similar. It's becoming obvious to me that Susie is out of her element and needs to be part of some sort of group that can build on her obviously very strong literacy foundation. Most schools have enrichment programs or even gifted and talented resources. I would get with the counselor at the school and see what the options are for Susie.

** CASE STUDY #1: Sam **
Sam is a first grader who will turn six this November. He comes from a middle-class English-speaking family, with two parents who read to him on a regular basis. His parents are very interested in the progress and activities he does in class.

He actively participates in class discussions, even though there are times when he will make an error in syntax with word forms, like talk-ed, for talked.

At independent time, he regularly chooses picture books and studies the pictures. He does not spend any time looking at the words. If he chooses a book with more words, the topics will be sharks or dinosaurs. He does know the basic letters but confuses b and d, I and j, x and z, p and ,i and l. He knows basically his concepts about print. He can figure out his initial and ending consonants but is slow and choppy. His writing can only be deciphered if Sam reads the text to the teacher.

What are the strengths?

What are the needs?

What strategies/things could be recommended to parents and what is your rationale?

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom?

Additional ideas:
|| = = Choose from one of these case studies to elaborate on the topic of phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the foundation for phonics and must be acquired and used with ease before you start the reading and phonics processes.
 * =__Case Study #2 Phonemic Awareness__=

**__ CASE STUDY #2: __**
Mitch, a first grade student, was retained in kindergarten is now eight years old. After assessing him on concepts about print, word tests, phonemic awareness and phonics tests, and spelling inventories, he showed lack of process in most areas. In concepts about print, he stumbled on specific instructions on word and letter order and the name and use of punctuation He had difficulty in hearing words in speech, hearing syllables, beginning and final sounds and sound matching for phonemic awareness. He could correctly identify upper and lower case letters and sounds but could not note the digraphs, blends, short and long vowel patters and "vce" and vowel teams. In spelling he usually spelled the first and last consonant correctly and the short a and I but the other short vowels or other vowel patterns were guesses. His sight word vocabulary was low.

What are the strengths? AW: Since Mitch is older, his attention should be better than the average first grader. Mitch knows beginning and ending sounds and all of his letters and corresponding sounds. VI-S: Mitch's strengths are identifing upper and lower cases letter. He is also aware of the sounds the letters make. He can hear and spell the beginning and ending sounds/letters of words. TH: Mitch knows his upper and lower case letters and sounds. He is able to spell the beginning and ending sounds in words. He also spells short a and short i correctly. MC: Mitch is comprehending the letter sounds, and is exhibiting knowledge of the sounds in words by being able to spell the beginning and ending of words as well as getting short a and i correctly. What are the needs? AW: Mitch needs to have his hearing checked first. This could be to blame for his lack of phonemic awareness. Mitch needs practice with vowel sounds and word families. Mitch needs practice in blending, chunking, and segmenting phonemes. VI-S:I also agree that Mitch's hearing needs to be looked into. If there is a hearing impairment there will need to be a plan of action. He could have a processing issue. Directions need to be repeated and Mitch needs to repeat the directions back to the teacher so that the teacher knows Mitch understands what to do. Mitch will also need explicit instruction in phonemic awareness. He needs to practice chunking. TH: Mitch needs practice tracking print. He might need to use a commercially made guide strip where just the letter/word/line shows through a colored piece on the strip. The teacher could also make one by cutting the appropriate length strip out of the middle of an index card or sentence strip piece. Since he had difficulty with word and letter order, this might block out all extraneous information and allow him to focus one letter/word/line at a time. I agree that Mitch's hearing should be checked. I would encourage the parents to take him to a hearing specialist to determine the extent of his hearing problems. The hearing tests provided at school might not be sufficient to determine his problems. I would also check to see if he has a history of ear infections, as this could cause problems with hearing. Assuming there are no hearing problems, I would have Mitch watch my mouth as I produce the sounds and have him repeat them. He might also use a "phonics phone" to amplify his own voice. Mitch will need intensive individual or small group work to improve his phonemic awareness skills. MC: I agree first and foremost Mitch should have his hearing checked. If he is struggling with hearing loss, there will be several things that need to be done. That can also influence what he needs as far as either being placed in a developmentaly delayed class or if there are activities that can help him get caught up. Toni also had some really good ideas, but I think without knowing about his hearing its hard to move forward too far. What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? AW: The parents should be encouraged to read to him at home every night. Mitch needs his hearing checked professionally. In addition, his parents could make sight word flashcards to aid him in memorization. VI-S: Mitch needs to be reading nightly, especially storys/books he is interested in. Sight words are very important to know. His parents need to be working with him nightly practicing them, pointing them out on signs/newspapers, etc.. TH: The teacher should encourage the parents to read to Mitch every night. They should also allow Mitch to read the words he can, but the activity should not become one that causes Mitch's self-esteem to plummet. They should track the print as they read, to focus Mitch's attention on the word order and words being read. By reading to Mitch, they are exposing him to positive models of reading as well as the flow of words. They should also stop periodically to discuss the punctuation. As Mitch finds books he especially enjoys, his parents can "help" Mitch read the book. They can ask him to find certain words on the page - concentrating on one skill at a time. Above all, they need to make nightly reading an enjoyable experience for Mitch. MC: I agree that Mitch needs to be read to, and Mitch should also read back. I also think the parents could spend some time with him on websites that are interactive like starfall. What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? AW: Mitch's teacher should use letter tiles to apply a kinesthetic approach to phonics and allow him practice with manipulating words. Moreover, the teacher should encourage Mitch to point and recite words on the Word Wall. Mitch needs to use the listening center where he can experience books read on tape and games that reinforce phonemic awareness skills. VI-S: After Mitch's hearing has been ruled out, his teacher needs to have a plan of action to help work on phonemic awareness in small steps that will be encouraging to Mitch. If work is pressed to hard and there are still issues with processing, he may begin to get frustrated and shut down. There are many computer programs that work on phonemic awaress like Earrobics that would be positive but helpful. He needs to practice specific words - like sight words- in a variety of ways, with clay, tiles, etc. TH: Mitch has already experienced the "failure"of school. He obviously didn't "get it" in Kindergarten (either time through), so Mitch's teacher needs to present the material to Mitch in varied ways. He needs ample time and opportunities to play numerous games. Games are available for every aspect of phonemic awareness and phonics skills. By playing games, Mitch will have fun while he learns the targeted skills. Additionally, Mitch would benefit from alternative methods such as letter tiles, Elkonian boxes, etc. This would allow Mitch another avenue of being actively involved. ​MC: I agree with Amanda on using the learning style approach. I also agree that if Mitch's hearing is ruled out then an individualized plan of action will need to be developed. I think it would be important to meet with Mitch's parents and find out what he is doing at home and what types of things motivate him. It's quite possible that if he's repeating a grade he may begin to feel frustrated !

Additional thoughts:
<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: I would be curious to know what Mitch's home language is. I assume he speaks English, but since he has a hard time distinguishing speech, syllables, and all things related to phonemic awareness, I am uncertain. TH: I agree. I would be curious to know Mitch's background. If he is not an ELL, do either of his parents require sign language? Does Mitch have a speech impediment? Has he been absent alot during his three short years of school? Did he change schools frequently - which could account for the holes in his learning. All of these could be contributing factors to his learning situation.

** CASE STUDY #2 **
Angel, a kindergartner, is behind most of her classmates in reading readiness. When she came to the school, she had no awareness of letters, letter sounds and names. She has learned to sing the ABC song but cannot place the letters in order without the song. She knows some concepts about print: the left-right order and the return sweep and the front/back/author of book. She can show the first part of the story, the first part of a word but cannot show the beginning of a sentence. She does not know her punctuation marks. She does not know the 1 to 1 correspondence of words and cannot follow along with the teacher reading the story. All in all she tries to learn and participates eagerly in class. She like the rote method and loves to do things kinesthetically.

What are the strengths?

What are the needs?

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why?

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom?

Additional thoughts:
||
 * =__Case Study #3 Phonics__=

** CASE STUDY #3 **
The third grade class has a high percentage of Title I students with the vast majority as English speakers. Most of their parents work very hard at their jobs and do not have the time to read to their children or focus on skills which will improve literacy in the classroom. When the teacher reads to them, they enjoy their story time and respond readily within the discussions. They seem to enjoy independent reading of looking at books or reading to themselves. Four students in this class are especially in need; they are in the emergent level and they know some sight words. They read word by word and consider reading a laborious chore. From testing, the children shows that they know most initial consonant sounds and use them randomly to guess at word but they ignore the final consonants and medial sounds. The writing and spelling are on a lower developmental level of about beginning first grade.

What are the strengths? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: The third grade class has motivation and the teacher has their attention. The students enjoy discussions and SSR. Although parents are uninvolved, the third grade class responds with enthusiasm and heart. TH: The high percentage of Title I students can actually be a benefit. Most schools have a Reading Specialist to work with Title I children, using Title I money to buy supplies, etc. for them. If this is a school-wide Title I school, all children are entitled to use the services of the Reading Specialist and materials. So, at the very least, the four lowest children in this class should be able to receive additional services. In this particular case study, the regular classroom teacher seems to be doing a good job during class reading. The children enjoy listening to her read and they respond appropriately during discussiont time. They also enjoy independent reading. VI-S: The students in this class seem to be engaged and have a positive attitude. They like books and to read. They also seem to have a good relationship with their teacher. MC: The students seem to have a desire to learn from their teacher by giving her their attention and finding pleasure in classroom discussion. The students also exhibit the desire to read by participating in independent reading. What are the needs? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: The class needs help in phonics. Practice with word families would aid them in final endings of words and practice with multiple vowel patterns. The class also needs predictable texts with repeated choruses. This would allow them practice in fluency, since they read word by word. TH: Since this school has a high number of Title I students, these kids probably need high exposure to language, which the teacher seems to be addressing in reading to them. She should choose high interest books for pleasurable reading. She could enhance their vocabulary by also selecting informational books with colorful pictures and/or chapter books that teach as well as intertain (such as Magic School Bus, Magic Tree House, etc.). In fact, Magic Tree House has the fiction chapter books as well as non-fiction companion books that could be read to enhance their knowledge of the topic. The four low students have very different needs. They, too, will benefit from the wide reading done by the teaher, but their specific needs need to be addressed. They should work on specific word families to help them "discover" many new words. They also need to work on sight words and fluency. VI-S: The students need to strengthen phonics and vocabulary. They need to continue enjoying reading. The teacher needs to see what spelling stage each student is at and work from where they are. Also, students need to do a lot of repeated reading with the teacher modeling for them. The chunking game would be great for them to practice specific families. MC: The sudents need to improve their phonics skills, especially with word endings and vowel patterns. They also need the teacher to modle or read to them as well as continuing to read independently. The students also probably need to work on basic vocabulary words, especially if there is a language issue that is causing them to continue to struggle.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why?
<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Parents should be encouraged to buy books for their children, if they can. The parents could allow the child to read to them while they are cooking dinner or on the way home from school, if time is an issue. This would allow the child practice with his/her oral reading. TH: Since most of these parents are so busy "just surviving," they could encourage their children to read billboards while in their car, read labels at the grocery store, etc. If siblings are available, they could encourage the children to read to each other. They could also encourage the parents to have the child write the grocery list as well as read it at the store. Teachers could also encourage the parents to utilize the public library - so kids can check out books, attend story time, etc. It is also a good idea to encourage the parents to talk to their children, encouraging the child to speak in complete sentences using complete thoughts. VI-J: Reading needs to be stressed as essential for their child. Reading can be done during so many times. If they eat dinner together they could read. Or before bed the child and parent could start a routine and read with each other. On the weekend they could make trips to the library. MC: Some schools have literacy bags that go home every night or every other night so that families don't feel pressured to buy books or if they are unable to make it to the library. It would also be good if the at home reading was followed up with at school by having the parents sign a sheet with X number of nights they read to their child. Once the child brings that in, the child gets a reward and then a new sheet goes home. My son's teacher did that this past year and even though I read to him at night a lot, it motivated both of us to remember to read! It really did help !

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: For phonics, the teacher could use word family readers with rhyming patterns. The class could use repeated readings or Reader's Theater to improve fluency and work on more fluid reading. TH: This teacher should supply plenty of reading material in the classroom. There should be plenty of high interest books on the emergent level for these students. If this is a self-contained classroom, many of the books should be about the topic of study in science or social studies. If this is not a self-contained classroom, the teacher should collaborate with those teachers in order to provide books about those subjects for use during free reading time. These students needs small group instruction to work on medial and final sounds in words. The teacher can use letter tiles, Elkonian boxes, etc. to teach skills. Additionally, they need instruction when they "guess" at the word. The teacher needs to ask "does that make sense?" and guide the students to find strategies to assist them in reading through the word. Guided reading and repeated reading would be beneficial for these students to work on fluency. VI-S: These students need lots of exposure to reading material that is on their level and high interest to them. Partner reading would be useful for them. Word families need to be taught along with explicit instruction in phonics. Many computer games work with phonics that would make learning fun. MC: There are lots of games and activities as well as interactive computer programs like starfall that the teacher could incorporate into the phonics portion of instruction. Reader's theater is also a great activity. The student's could even help the teacher write their own class play. Student's tend to take ownership of things they work on themselves, so this might help continue to motivate them. The teacher needs to be sure that there are reading materials available at the levels that the students need, and that it is material that the students show interest in reading. If the students struggle while reading material that is too hard, the desire to continue to learn to read will begin to fade.

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 * =__Case Study #4: Vocabulary__=

My Two Favorite Books on Vocabulary state the following: The authors of Beck, McKeown, and Kucan’s Bringing Words to Life suggest that ?a robust approach to vocabulary involves directly explaining the meanings of words along with thought-provoking, playful, and interactive follow-up? (2). They add that ?vocabulary work in middle school and high school should allow deeper explorations of language?how language gives meaning and how words mean what they mean? (85). In their vision of best practices, vocabulary is ?more rooted to a text and dealt with in a way that both teaches the words and brings enriched understanding to the text? (85).

Marzano agrees”direct instruction in vocabulary works”(68), and even mentions the work of Beck and McKeown in explaining that “effective vocabulary instruction does not rely on definitions” (70). Marzano’s approach for effectively teaching vocabulary consists of six steps that are very similar to the approach described in Bringing Words to Life. He encourages nonlinguistic representations to build vocabulary, and clarifies that he means ?not just mental pictures,? but also "associated sounds, smells, and sensations of touch or movement? (21). Marzano encourages the shaping of word meaning through multiple exposures including the process of creating metaphors. He states that, ?Research indicates that metaphor activities can help students better understand the abstract features of information. . . . In terms of vocabulary instruction, a teacher might present students with metaphors or ask them to create their own metaphors? (73).

However, Marzano writes that “Beck, McKeown, and Kucan’s focus on tier-two words as the appropriate target of vocabulary instruction” is a mistake (88). He stresses that “subject-specific terms are the best target for direct vocabulary instruction” and provides a list of 7,923 subject-specific terms in the appendix of his book.

The Opening Articles and the podcasts can help with the development of the vocabulary plan.

** CASE STUDY #4 **
Amy is a 11th grade student from a upper-middle class area in an affluent high school. She has twenty hours of community service hours that she has to complete and has decided to help tutor students at a near-by after school elementary program. She wants to come one hour every day for a month. The teacher in the program wants her to work on vocabulary development and make it fun. She has come to you for advice about how to help students with word conscientious. What are you going to tell her? (Oh, by the way, Jenks Middle School has set up a program like this on Saturday mornings to help with vocabulary development).

What can be the strengths and weaknesses of this plan?

What strategies/programs would help with the students? What is your rationale?

What would the program look like?

** CASE STUDY #4 **
Your Title I school has low vocabulary scores on both Oklahoma assessments and national assessments. Your principal has challenged you and your colleagues to help students have more word conscientious and be able to use vocabulary more effectively. The population of your students is basically ½ Caucasian, ¼ Native American and ¼ ELL students.

What strategies/ideas can be given specifically for teachers? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Vocabulary instruction must be intentional. I would encourage the teachers to use words from the literature in class or subject matter that the children are studying. metaphors, idioms, and figurative language should also be addressed since at least half of the students may not speak English as their native language. TH: There is a list of academic words on the State website that can be used. It is set up by grade level. That would be a good starting place for teachers. Intentional direct instruction is necessary, especially for the ELL population. Teachers also need to be aware that ELLs may not fully understand basic vocabulary (example: sack rather than bag). The school could also focus on one vocabulary word per day/week. Every teacher in every subject/class could reinforce that word. Using motions (acting out the word meanings) is another effective way for kids to internlize words. Word walls are very effective, especially if pictures/diagrams are also included - that allows the students (especially ELLs) to connect a picture with the word to gain meaning. Also, the responsibility of teaching academic vocabulary begins at Kindergarten, even though the kids don't take their first state test until 3rd grade! When kids are ready, studying prefixes/suffixes unlocks a multitude of words for kids. VI-S: What ever subject that is being discussed, whether it is science, social studies, or reading, specific vocabulary needs to be discussed. Vocabulary can not be taught just once. Students need to fully understand what the word is by hearing it repeatedly and relating it to their real lives. Many students do well with pictures and real life objects if necessary. MC: I think incorporating graphic organizers like FRAYER would be helpful also. I would target words that most of the population seems to have trouble with and incorporate those words into a portion of the instructional day and review them with the FRAYER model. I would also have the students make lists of words (or circle or highlight words if possible) that they don't understand when they come across them while reading. . What strategies/ideas can you set up for students? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: I use a "Worn Out Words" list. Currently, I hang a pair of jeans in my classroom. We "patch" up overused words (holes in the jeans) like good, bad, etc. with words that expand vocabulary (the patches) like great, terrible,e tc. When I hear a child using a new word in place of a "worn out word" then he/she is rewarded. Also, I use a "password" to get out of our classroom and enter the hallway. Our password is usually a vocabulary word that we are studying in reading, science, social studies, etc. In order to exit, my students recite the word, the definition, and give the word to me in a sentence. Then, there is usually a movement or action to go along with the word. T H: ELL students can use a Spanish/English dictionary (or whatever language) to translate the word. This only works if the student is already literate in their native language. I encourage my ELL students to make a list of words they don't know as they read. Then, we try to figure out what the word means from context. If that is not possible, we look the word up in the dictionary, explain the word and draw it or act it out. My kids keep a Word Notebook - where they write the word, draw a picture of it, and use it in a sentence that makes sense to them. They take the notebook with them everywhere. If the majority of the ELLs are Spanish speakers, the use of cognates is effective. Spanish and English share many cognates and students can use this to make a translation when they read. Non-readers can use cognates by hearing them (as the English and Spanish word are very similar). VI-S: Wordwalls are a wonderful tool to use. Also building their own personal dictionary with drawings and their own definitions will help to remember what the specific words mean. This not only helps ELLs but struggling readers as well. When words can be related to their lives they will remember them better. Which ever activity is used, vocabulary needs to be repeated daily and not just once and a while. Once thing I have done in the past is to take those individual vocabulary words and have the students write the word on one side of an index card and their explination of the definition of the word on the other side. The cards can either be used in class or they can be sent home for students to review with parents. Once the student has said the definition of the word as well as said the word correctly, they get a stamp or a sticker, and after three they get to keep the card. I actually use this in my tutoring and in my sixth grade class

What can you share with your parents? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: The words could easily be in the newsletter that goes home to parents. TH: I like the newsletter idea - it needs to be traslated into the child's home language, if possible. A list of vocabulary word being worked on that week can be sent home. I would include a definition also, as many parents might be unsure of the meaning. I would also give a short list of possible activities for them to do with the words. They could make flash cards with the word on one side and the definition on the other, they could act out the words, etc. When working with your ELL parents, it is important to stress to them that ANYTHING they do (in English or their native language) helps their child. Many times they are reluctant to "teach" anything because they don't speak English. VI-S: Words that are going to be discussed throughout the week could be sent home for parents to reinforce them. Parents would need to know what the words mean so that they can help their child practice them. They could write stories together or find these words in a newspaper or magazine. MC: Good call on the news letter, especially in their native language (IF possible). My son's teacher sent home the list of sight words that they would be working with about every two weeks. That made it a lot easier to practice with him at home. I would look at the list and then when we read at night I would go over the list with him and then he would look for them as we read his bedtime story. My son made wonderful progress with this, so I think it's a great idea. I also agree with Vanessa about having the definition of the word as well incase parents didn't know what it meant and no translation was available.

Additional thoughts:
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 * =__Case Study #5: Fluency__=

CASE STUDY #5
Anne is a sixth grader who has fair word attack skills but lacks fluency because she reads without expression and ignores punctuation. This issue interferes with her comprehension; she does not monitor what she reads. She is unable to retell a passage or answer questions on the various levels of understanding. Anne?s word attack skills are around the fourth grade and her comprehension level to be near third grade level. On the other hand, her recognition and use of good vocabulary words is apparent in her speech.

Anne has stated that her love is to watch educational television and learn as much science and history that she can. In her textbook she says that she uses her picture cues, graphs, and charts as well as her knowledge about the topic to get her through the reading. She adds to the class discussion but her topics are not necessarily found in the textbooks. She loves her social studies and science classes and usually gets good grades in them.

Anne looks at the pictures and other visuals during her reading time and states that reading is not enjoyable.

What are the strengths? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Anne has a natural love for learning that keeps her motivated. Although she is not a confident reader, she gladly joins in discussions. She watches educational television and knows how to use contextual cues when reading, something we try to teach children to do; although this is becoming a crutch. TH: Anne has word attack skills and is able to decode. Additionally, she recognizes and has a wide vocabulary. She seeks out and learns educational information, especially science and social studies topics. She utilizes picture clues, graphs, and charts. VI-S: Anne can clearly articulate what she wants to get across. She does use strategies that she knows and feels comfortable with. She seems motivated at school during science and social studies. MC: Her strengths are that she actually is motivated, especially when it comes to social studies and science. She also seems to be utilizing some strategies that she has learned in order to be part of the class discussion. Her vocabulary is also a great foundation for improving her comprehension and fluency.

What are the needs? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Anne needs strategies for reading non-fiction and expository texts. Anne could use graphic organizers to take notes while reading to aid in retention and retelling. Anne needs to highlight her punctuation marks and pause when she reaches one. She needs practice in phrasing. TH: Anne needs to work on fluency. She needs to make predictions and stop periodically to monitor her reading. She needs to understand how punctuation works. I like the highlighting idea. VI-S: Anne needs to strengthen her fluency skills. She needs practice knowing how to read with expression and when to pause while she is reading. Anne needs to learn how to monitor her reading. I also agree that with her age she is capable of taking notes so that she can retelling the story and retain what she has read. MC: She needs to understand grammar (commas, periods, etc) and learn to pause when she sees these cues. She also needs to improve her fluency skills. I agree that she does need to probably use a strategy like SQRRPS when she is reading.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Since Anne relies on her educational programming to carry her through her school subjects, Anne's parents should have discussions with her and encourage her to write about what she watches. TH: Anne's parents can ask her to read her classwork to them. They can stop her at various points and ask her to explain what she has read. They could also model fluent reading of that same material. If it happens to be a science topic, they can discuss the differences in the television material and the book material. They can ask how each complimented or added to the other. VI-S: The more Anne is asked to talk about what specific things she learned that day in class the stronger her comprehension will become. Parents also need to model correct reading (fluently). MC: I like the idea of an at home comprehension journal where she summarizes what educational programming she watches. Even if she writes down at least five or six facts that she learns from the programming she is "training her brain" to summarize what she has seen. I also think that even though she is in the sixth grade her parents can "buddy read" chapter books or other educational material and have her either verbally summarize what she has read while stopping frequently or by havng her write a five or six sentence summary paragraph in her home journal. I also think its possible that she needs to just not watch so much tv, believe it or not.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: The teacher should use graphic organizers to aid in comprehension and organization of thought. Anne should practice reading aloud to the teacher and practice repeated readings with him/her. The teacher should praise Anne for what she does well and encourage her in her weaknesses. TH: Graphic organizers would be beneficial - they require Anne to understand what she has read, but allow for short pieces of information. She would be able to review the graphic organizer rather than rely on her previous knowledge from educational programming. As for fluency, practicing a Reader's Theater or participating in reapeated readings would be beneficial. Partner reading would also help Anne, as her partner can assist when comprehension breaks down. VI-S: During class time the teacher needs to have activities to increase fluency. Readers theater, partner reading, or repeated reading would be great activities that are proven to help increase fluency. I also agree that learning to use organizers will help her with comprehending what she has read. The teacher also needs to model reading fluently while she repeats. This can be done in small groups or individual help. MC: I use graphic organizers a lot in my class. Her teacher could use KWL or an anticipation guide. Using the graphic organizers will help her "think" about what she is reading as well. I also agree that she needs to participate in buddy reading and retelling (have each parther read a seperate paragraph and then summarize what they read to the other parther). I agree also that she needs to work on fluency through various strategies, but in sixth grade sometimes this is a challenge. I would probably make arrangements for her to work on that either with a Reading Specialist or setting up tutoring either with me or another reading teacher.

** CASE STUDY #5 **
Charlie, a kind, helpful and positive young man, is not reading with fluency. His comprehension retelling was concise and included all the pertinent information. His writing and spelling are poor; some of his spelling are trane (train), closit (closet), case (chase) and beches (beaches) which Words Their Way says is Using but Abusing. He scored perfectly on alphabet names, consonant sounds, consonant digraphs, and consonant blends. He missed several short vowel words. In long vowel sections, vowel pairs, and silent e, he read all words correctly.

His performance in the classroom is inconsistent. When reading text, he appears to use context and other strategies to back up his phonics decoding skills. Sometimes he seems to be guessing vowel sounds almost randomly as he tries each one out. He ends up with the right word, but the process is laborious. He self corrects about 1 out of every 3 miscues. His pace is slow and choppy.

What are the strengths?

What are the needs?

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why?

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom?

Additional thoughts:
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 * =__Case Study #6 Comprehension__=

CASE STUDY #6
Sydney, a 7th grade student at Lance Middle High School, is not at all confident about her reading. Daily, she seems to be on the verge of tears, when discussions and extensions take place. She confesses to you that she has faked her way through elementary school and now she knows she won?t be able to do the same thing at the middle school level. She asks you for help.

What are the strengths? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Sydney is honest! She knows she needs help and is asking for help. TH: Sydney realizes she needs help and she is asking for it. That tells me that she sincerely wants to learn how to learn and will be willing to try the strategies presented to her. VI-S: She knows that she doesn't have the skills necessary to keep going. She is willing to seek help so she will be more likely to respond positively to that help. MC: She is obviously comfortable with the teacher and recognizes that she is getting to a poing in her education where she probably won't be able to fake it anymroe. It takes courage to admit that you need help at any age ! What are the needs? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Sydney needs to be assessed in all literacy areas to find her true strengths and weaknesses. She is obviously frustrated, if she is crying daily, and needs praise for her efforts. TH: We don't know much about Sydney except that she is in the 7th grade and is frustrated. She is in brain stem mode and probably doesn't pay attention during discussions because she is so fearful. I would do an array of assesments to determine her interests, strengths, and weaknesses. I would definitely administer an IRI. Once her needs were determined, I would formulate strategies to attack each one. VI-S: Informal assessments need to be given to determine what skills she does have and what are her weaknesses so that appropriate instruction can be given. Since she is very frustrated already I am sure she has shut down during class time instruction. Sydney needs to feel encourage with lots of positive praise on what she can do well. MC: Her scores for her previous reading test in 6th grade need to be reviewed. If I were her teacher I would recommend her to our TAT team, which is similar to RtI.

What strategies/things could the student do when they read? Why? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Sydney should be encouraged to read often and practice her reading. Again, because Sydney is in middle school, she should be taught to use graphic organizers when reading to help organize her thoughts and help her with retention. The teacher should ask key questions that can be found in the text, so Sydney gets practice looking back and referencing her text for answers. Then, they can move up Bloom's Taxonomy into higher level thinking once she has mastered the lower levels. TH: Sydney should be encouraged to "survey the text." She should pay special attention to how the chapter/text is set up - looking at headings, subheadings, highlighted words, pictures, graphs, and charts She should also be encouraged to read the summary section first to give her an idea of what the chapter will be about. Using a graphic organizer to record important information from the chapter will help Sydney retain the information. Sydney should stop at the end of each section and review the main points of that section. When in class, Sydney should take notes during discussions to help her remember the discussion as well as give her a reference for later study. VI-S: Sydney could find someone or be paired with someone to practice reading who help give positive feedback. Because she is older specific graphic organizers can be taught to her so that she can strengthen her comprehension. She needs to know questions that she can MC: Depending on wheter or not she has a learning disability, there are tons of strategies that she can use. But I do think those need to be done in addition to what she also is receiving in class. She needs remediation either through a Reading Specialist or tutoring unless she is eligible for special services. Then if that were the case she would get more one on one instruction so that she can work at her own level and begin to regain confidence in herself. What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: For now, she could be paired with a classmate who is able to peer tutor in reading and help Sydney make gains. The teacher should model Think Clouds and encourage all of her students to use these to think aloud. If Sydney hears her peers, she might be able to grasp the idea of discussion and thinking while reading. TH: During content classes, the teacher could provide Sydney with an outline of the chapter or with partially completed graphic organizers. This would allow Sydney to focus on the topic of conversation rather than stressing over the reading material. Sydney would then be allowed to read the material with the outline or graphic organizer in hand. The teacher can also note important information on the board so Sydney can see it as well as hear it. During reading, Sydney could partner read. The teacher could use coooperative learning groups to jigsaw the material. This would allow Sydney to work with several peers to gather important information - she would have to read and discuss, but there would be a smaller "audience." VI-S: Sydney needs to be partnered with a strong reader who will allow her to practice and give positive feedback. Discussions need to take place about what is going to be read and what they are reading in sections. Organizers need to be given to her to help organize the information being discussed. MC: Pairing her with a peer that she is comfortable with would be the key. If Sydney isn't comfortable working with that peer she will make no progress. 7th graders don't always want anyone to know they are struggling. I also agree with peer modeling and teacher modeling as well as using the think clouds. Again, depending on the material, graphic organizers can be great. You have to be careful thought that you don't burn her out with them.

** CASE STUDY #6 **
In a sixth grade class of twenty-eight students, composed mostly of English speakers at various levels of ability and skills, the teacher needs to devise strategies which deal with comprehension. Most students do not have a lot of difficulty with word attack, but their reading comprehension scores on a standardize test range from the 22nd percentile to the 65th percentage. In the Oklahoma PASS objective tests, you note that they read the passages but they seemed to miss key points in comprehension. You also know that the students like to discuss the topic but don?t always understand the text and have a hard time supporting their answers from the text.

What are the strengths?

What are the needs?

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom?

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the students to do?

Additional thoughts:
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 * =__Case Study #7 Comprehension__=

** CASE STUDY # 7 **
Brandon, a soon to be eighth grader, was a student in the summer reading program for struggling readers. He was assigned to this program because of his test scores and the Reading Sufficiency Plan. Also his mother wanted to have help for him before he went to high school. The teacher gave an informal reading inventory and the reading level was several levels lower than his grade placement. During the conference with Brandon, he shared that he felt that he was a good reader and was often called upon to read orally in class. His reading was rhythmic and generally true to text and his accuracy rate was about 89%. He had trouble retelling and his comprehension was minimal. Brandon was also very talkative and excited and saw no need for strategy instruction to help with his comprehension.

What are the strengths? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Brandon seems eager to learn and has confidence about his reading. Brandon's oral reading is higher than his comprehension, which indicates that he is a word caller. Brandon gets by because he talks in place of his comprehension. Brandon's mother also seems to know what's going on and so he has parental involvement, which is always a plus. TH: Brandon feels that he is a good reader, so he has positive self-esteem. He is able to read orally with rythm and flow. He is very talkative, which usually idicates a high vocabulary level. VI-S: Brandon's strength is that he can read orally. He also has a positive outlook about himself. His mother seems to want to help and is involved in his education. Also, Brandon's accuracy is stronger which shows he can read the words. MC: As an 8th grader he is still showing a desire for reading, and that is a strength in itself. He seems to have a basic understanding of the proess of reading, and that is a foundation that can be built upon for further advancement.

What are the needs? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Brandon needs to work on actively reading and not just word calling. He should read with expression, which might aid in his comprehension. Brandon needs vocabulary development and exposure to many genres and types of reading materials. His informal reading inventory would indicate that these areas are low. TH: Brandon needs to work on comprehension strategies. He needs to understand that fluent reading without understanding is just not enough. VI-S: Brandon needs to strengthen his comprehension. Although he can read, it is important he understands what he reads in all subject areas. He also needs to practice retelling what he reads. MC: Brandon needs help with improving his comprehension as well as working on the tone and inflection in his voice while reading.

What strategies/things could the student do when they read? Why? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Brandon could read with expression to give life to his reading. Brandon could stop and predict with a DRTA. This would force him to stop while reading and make assessments of the story. TH: If Brandon is reading informational text, he could use graphic organizers to record information as he reads. He would be able to quickly see similarities and differences, main points, etc. depending on the graphic organizer. In any case, it would allow Brandon to break down the material into mangeable chunks. He could also use the "survey the chapter" strategy to note text features. He could use the headings, subheading, highlighted words, graphs, charts, and diagrams to gain understanding. Regardless of the type of text being read, it is important that Brandon monitor his reading, stopping frequently to ask himself questions about what he has read. VI-S: Brandon needs to learn how to monitor his reading so that he knows appropriate questions to ask himself while he is reading. Small group discussion needs to take place in order to help him remember what he has read. Specific organizers can be used in small groups so that thoughts and information is organized. MC: With 8th graders who are struggling readers it can sometimes be difficult to get them to realize they still need help. One thing that helps a student at that age with improving fluency as far as reading with more inflection in their voice is reading a short story or novel that has several characters then have each student take on a character role, including finding a "voice" to read the character's lines.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Brandon's teacher could encourage Brandon's love of talking and enter him into discussion with strategic questioning. Brandon needs direct instruction in the area of comprehension. His teacher should teach him strategies like the DRTA or Think Clouds, where he can practice thinking while reading. TH: I agree that Brandon should use DRTA or Think Clouds, as both strategies make Brandon an active participant during reading. Brandon could also work well with a group. He could learn important concepts during group discussions. He would also be a good choice to read aloud to the group, but he needs the discussion to help with his own understanding. VI-S: The teacher needs to give Brandon explicit instructions on how to monitor his reading. He also needs to feel comfortable using organizers so that he can use them with different subject areas. Also, different comprehension strategies need to be taught so that he has some to choose from depending on what he is doing. MC: I agree with the Think Clouds as well. There are several ways he can work on comprehension when reading. Depending on the text, sometimes it helps to get sticky notes and let the student write down the main idea of each section or a summary of 3-5 paragraphs at a time. The main thing at the 8th grade level is to be sure that the strategies are presented in an age appropriate way so that the student doesn't feel like he is having to "learn baby stuff". I have actually had experience with that. Sometimes all it takes is taking something like a graphic organizer and restructuring it without the "cake" and use a car or hamburger instead.

Additional thoughts:
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 * =__Case Study #8: Metacognition__=

Metacognition is having the students think while they read. They are to think about if the text is making sense and what they can do to help the text make sense. They are to think about how their minds are processing the information into long term memory. They are to think about the television reading that should be taking place. Thus, these two case studies are typical about the lack of metacognition. Select one and make a plan.

Robert is an eighth grade student at Jenks Middle School and has been referred to you, the resource teacher, for evaluation because of his poor comprehension in content subjects. Both his teachers and parents are concerned and stated that although Robert doesn’t seem to have difficulty reading the words, he does not have the ability to understand and repeat what he has read. He seems to have the most trouble in science class.

What are the strengths?

What are the needs?

What strategies/things could the student do when they read? Why?

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom?

** CASE STUDY #8 **
At Open House, a group of parents voiced their concerns that their children could read the words in their textbooks, yet they didn’t understand what they were reading. The parents said they can figure out the words (word attack skills) and can read fluently, but they don’t know the main ideas, analyzing text, or taking notes. They said that the kids had a hard time with homework that involved answering questions from their textbooks or looking up information from other sources. Further, they said that their kids don’t do their homework without lots of prodding; the parents say it’s a battle every night. The kids say that homework is boring.

What are the strengths? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: The parents are very involved and concerned for their children. The children have excellent literacy skills and can read adequately for their grade level. It would seem they want to do their homework, but are unable to do it. TH: These children have good word attack skills and are able to decode. They have involved parents who want their children to succeed. They obviously keep up with their child's homework, as they were able to voice their child's probems with the homework. ​ VS: The students can read fluently and use context to figure out the words. Parents are strongly involved and concerned for their education.

What are the needs? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: These kids need practice in metacognition and vocabulary development. Expository text can be difficult to read and understand. TH: These students need to work on comprehension strategies, as well as learn strategies for finding the main idea, analyzing the text, and note taking skills. VI-S: These students need help with metacognition strategies and comprehension. They need to learn how to take note. Encourgment needs to be given so that they start to have a positive outlook on completing assignments. They also need help with learning how to look up types of information in specific texts.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: In order to aid in homework, these students need graphic organizers and to understand concepts like main idea, details, inferences, topic, conclusions, and author's purpose. The teacher should model note taking and research for the children and show them what bold words and captions tell us and how they help us in our reading and understanding. TH: Comprehension strategies such as QAR (Right There, Think and Search, On My Own), T Charts, Concept Maps, and Annotating Text should be taught and reviewed regularly. The teacher could also teach these students how to use Cornell Notes to help them understand what they read. Again, cooperative learning groups could be used to "lighten the load" on individual students while they all still read/disuss the information and learn. The teacher could also do a Think Aloud to demonstrate how good readers read (and process) the textbook information. VI-S: Notetaking needs to be taught in the classroom. Also, organizers need to be given so that the students have a way to keep all the information and their thoughts together. The class needs practice researching material in different types of texts. I also agree that the teacher needs to model how good readers read different material and what steps they go through.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the students to do? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">AW: Students should be encouraged to ask questions when they don't understand. In addition, they should highlight important information in the text and outline the chapters. TH: Highlighting the text is a good idea. They could use that highlighting tape so they don't harm their textbooks. They could also use Questioning the Author to figure out what the author is trying to say. I especially like the SQP2RS strategy because the kids have to survey the material before they read (which forces them to make note of how the text is set up), devise 3-4 questions they want answered from the text, make predictions, then read. After reading, they respond to the questions they asked, then they summarize the information. They can't help but learn when using this strategy. VI-S: Students need to be encouraged to find out the answers if they don't know something either by asking someone else or researching. The teacher also needs to encourage them to use strategies to aid in their organizing of information in the text. I also think that the SQR strategies would benefit them.

Additional:
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