Group+11-5772

= = =__ CASE STUDY #1 __= = = 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: 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? GJ: she has parental support, print awareness, enjoys books and reading, has a good vocabulary, and is confident JZ: She has come from a home where literacy is valued and encouraged. She has everything going for her!

What are the needs? GJ: It sounds as though she needs more challenging work than what she is receiving. She apparantly is very smart and needs work that can challenge her. Is the teacher giving her things to do when she is finished with her work? JZ: Yes she really needs to be challenged!

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? GJ: Parents could be encouraged to apply literacy to everyday events; reading signs, recipe cards, newspapers, ways to show her that literacy is more than just her books. They could also enroll her in library reading programs to help continue broadening the types of books she looks at, as well as activities that are done with the theme of the book. JZ: Offering more challenging reading and then extending the learning experiences through fun projects that utilize higher order thinking skills would be a great place to start.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? GJ: She could write about and draw pictures of her favorite part of a book she looks at/reads, she could also be paired to work with a struggling student, she could listen to books on tape or record herself reading a book. JZ: I would use the samte ideas listed above and also my suggestions to the previous question.

** 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 thoughts:
|| = = 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 **
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? GJ: she has the concept of print awareness, can show where a story begins and knows where a word starts, wants to learn JZ: I agree and possibly the most important strength is her eagerness. What are the needs? GJ: letter and sound recognition and learning to follow words in a story would be where I would start JZ: I would also begin there.I would use big books and pointers on a daily basis and I would try to do alot with rhymes. I would use Dr. Jean's Who let the letters out song and teach whole class sound signs. I would also try to employ more kinesthetic activities.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? GJ: Work with her on learning the letters of her name and the sounds the letters make, read books to her and point to each word as it is read, let her make her letters with play dough, JZ: Daily reading including lots of rhymes and movement.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? GJ: Work on teaching her the letters in her name, then other letters of the alphabet using play dough,shaving cream, stamps, work on matching letters to letter shapes, Children and Sounds, alphabet puzzles JZ: GJ has some great ideas! I would also use some of the suggestions to the previous question. Also, making words activities and dictated stories and Language experience.

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? GJ: They enjoy books, looking at them and being read to, discussing them. They can read some and know most initial consonant sounds.

JZ: Again I agree. Enjoyment of story time is a definite strength!  What are the needs? GJ: They need help in decoding words, and working on letter sounds - beginning, middle, and end. This will carry over into spelling and writing. JZ: Yes I also agree.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? GJ: Read them books that have rhyming texts, because this will draw attention to sounds in the words, working on onset and rime words as this will help students learn to decode words. JZ: I am all for the rhymes. I would also have them working on word sorts.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? GJ: Do activities based on what they know,where they are academically. Word sorting with pictures, word walls, word family walls, find the mystery word, flip books, word sorting with words, create and write their own book. JZ: Allof GJ's suggestions are great! I would add some choral and echo reading and reader's theater if it's possible.

Additional thoughts:
= = ||


 * =__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" and "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 **
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? GJ: Direct instruction helps kids learn new words; the word needs to be related to previous experience, they must be fully understood in order to use the words correctly, they need to use, see, and hear the word repeatedly, make sure the kids can pronounce the words, use visuals, engage kids in instruction. JZ: I would use several vocab strategies we have learned and added to our strategy notebooks.

What strategies/ideas can you set up for students? GJ: ELL students with the teachers help can look at words from both languages that have similar spellings and meanings, students can post on a bullentin board new and interesting words they find and talk to other students about the word and its meaning, word games, crossword puzzles, using reference books, categorizing words. JZ: Vocabulary notebooks including pictures of words drawn by students. I would refer to our strategies notebook.

What can you share with your parents? GJ: Read books to your kids and discuss them, take them to story time at the public library, allow them to watch educational television shows JZ: Really talking about words during reading. For example, telling a child that dish is another word for plate. Also, Sesame Street has a word of the day and that could be used at home also. Usinf Fancy Nancy to explore new words would be an excellent and fun approach! .

||.


 * =__Case Study #5: Fluency__=

** 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? GJ: He comprehended all the pertinent information, knows letters, sounds, consonant digraphs and blends, does well with long vowels including silent e words, appears to use context clues. JZ: Comprehension is the obvious and significant strength.

What are the needs? GJ: short vowel sounds, decoding, spelling and writing, read smoothly JZ: Fluency and working on word sorts. //.// What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? GJ: when he is reading a book at home have him skip the word he doesn't know and come back to it at the end of the sentence and see what word makes sense, parents can read a sentence and then have him to read the sentence, listen to books on audiotape or CD at his level, these will help him to actively think and use context clues,and help him to hear what fluent reading sounds like

JZ: Using context clues as well as looking at the whole world when sounding out words. Listening th fluent readers read. Choral and echo reading and word sorts. What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? GJ: Fluency development lesson, readers theatre, personal word wall, work on automatic word recogniton - sight words, flash cards of words from a story, repeated readings, choral reading, in spelling use a word pattern for the spelling words - short vowels, interactive writing, guided writing JZ: I would use some of the same acticites at school and at home. Reading on a daily basis and repeated reading would be great. Choral reading would be another great idea.

Additional thoughts:
||


 * =__Case Study #6 Comprehension__=

** 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? GJ: word recognition JZ:Word recognition and motivation and interest.

What are the needs? GJ: comprehension JZ:comprehension and critical thinking skills What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? GJ: chapter tour of content area text,KWL chart, graphic organizers, Venn diagram, semantic map, questioning the author, chunk and chew JZ:yes- I agree using strategies from our notebook is a great place to start! Also discussing with classmates would be helpful as well.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the students to do? GJ: KWL chart, think-aloud, biopoems, chapter tour, insert method JZ:All of these ideas are great! Also, visual maps could be helpful!

||.
 * =__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? GJ: he is confident, reads rhythmically and with accuracy JZ:Confidence and fluency.

What are the needs? GJ: retelling and comprehension, doesn't think he needs any help JZ: Comprehension

What strategies/things could the student do when they read? Why? GJ: chapter tour, insert method, graphic organizers, take notes as he reads, timeline. These activities can help activate prior knowledge and help him to be actively thinking while he reads, JZ: Strategies from our notebook would be beneficial. I like graphic organizers and a retell/story map showing beginning, middle and ending. Also, discussing stetting, characters, problems, solutions.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? GJ: summarizing and retelling activities, Directed reading-thinking activity, Think Predict Read Connect, JZ:I agree with those and the suggestions I mentioned in the previous question.

Additional thoughts:
||
 * =__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.

** 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? GJ: parental involvement, kids read fluently, know word attack skills

JZ:Parental support for sure! Fluency What are the needs? GJ: learning how to analyze text and know the main ideas, taking notes JZ: Comprehension, motivation

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? GJ: Anticipation guide, graphic organizers, SQRC, JZ: Comprehension strategies from our notebook- I like graphic organizers. Maybe some fun projects to motivate the students.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the students to do? GJ: KWL charts, insert method, SQP2RS, note cue cards JZ: Fun hands-on activities and projects including a field trip if possible. !st the teacher should spend much time teaching and modeling comprehension strategies then giving students many opportunities to practice the strategies.

//.//

||