Group+1-5772

= = =__ CASE STUDY #1 __= = ZH-Who is Kay Happy Face? = 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 came to first grade with highly developed skills, an eagerness to learn, and a strong literary base. She has supportive parents that instilled in her a love of reading and helped her build a personal library that she loves. Her parents talk to her on an adult level which supports oral language and vocabulary growth. Susie understands and is highly familiar with books so she can easily learn strategies and activities to challenge her when she finishes her assignments.

What are the strengths? KC: Susie has suppportive parents who take an active interest in her education. She has a developed a love of reading, a strong literacy base on which to build, strong oral language development, and an eagerness to learn. All of these attributes have laid a strong foundation for academic success. TD: I agree, Kelly. Support from the home has made a huge difference for this child. She is excited about reading and learning, which facilitates the process that much more...

What are the needs? ZH: Find interests. If you know what Susie likes then you may challenge her to delve into more on her interest level. AW: More vocabulary KE: This is new for me and I hope I'm doing it correctly, but here goes. I think it is very important for Susie to have "academic peers". Other students who have a similar skill set and are equally motivated need to be paired with Susie or form a small group to support the learning these students are able to do. They need to be challenged. Too often the "gifted" children are put with struggling children and the child with highly developed skill is left underchallenged. Research shows that unless we reach the "gifted child" before third grade we can "lose" the child academically. He/she may lose his/her motivation. TD: Find ways to integrate technology into Susie's independent or small-group learning time. There are many wonderful leveled and non-leveled online and/or electronic resources that would be perfect for building on Susie's prior knowledge while keeping her focused and engaged. (The focus could be on specific skills or on expanding exposure to particular genres of literature, for instance.) KC: Susie needs plenty of books on her reading level that are also age appropriate in content. She will need skill and comprehension instruction to meet her individual needs. I agree that often times the "gifted" children are left unchallenged or even left alone because the teacher is more focused on the struggling students. It is important for the teacher to challenge Susie and to encourage her to take learning a step further. Susie needs time to interact with other students at her ability level and the teacher needs to provide materials/tools to support her/their interests.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? ZH: Encourage the parents to continue to read with her, continue rhyming and sing-song activities, and their family trips to the Public Library. Encourge them to use the internet or to search out interests that she is studying in school. It could be space travel to French cooking for PB&J. The sky is the limit. This needs to be for the home-school connection to be solid. It is a great reinforcer. (I'll leave some room for the fantastic other group members.) TD: To expand on Zane's comment, the teacher could tell the parents what is being studied in class and suggest appropriate accompanying websites to extend the connections being made at school. We are in the transitional age of technology in which students probably know more about technology than their parents do, in which case the teacher acts as a liaison to empower parents with the information they need about websites and other technology-based strategies to help their students become successful. KC: I agree that the teacher should encourage the parents to continue the various literacy activities they've been doing at home with Susie. The teacher could also provide the parents with websites and technology resources to further Susie's education. Teaching the parents how to help Susie choose "just right" books for her reading level, and providing them with information on comprehension strategies that they could work on at home would be helpful as well. By communicating and working together they form a solid partnership in Susie's education. It also shows Susie that they all want her to be successful in her education. (I hope I didn't accidentally delete the response from TD. I have never done this before and my computer keeps saving things and moving the cursor around on the page. So if I messed up a response, I'm sorry! Please excuse my lack of technological experience.)(Kelly, this is Tracy. I don't know what happened- my computer was being crazy when I posted the first time! No worries! :) It could just as well have been my own fault!)

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? KC: An activity such as researching animals using books and technology and presenting the information to the class is an activity that teachers can use to engage all students. This type of activity is easily modified to meet the abiliy levels of all students. Susie's research would be at a higher level and more indepth. Various writing activities could be used as extensions of assignments as well. TD: I am a huge fan of WebQuests! Finding one about animals for Susie would be an interactive, engaging way for Susie to solidify the knowledge she has gained. Creating a work product to represent her learning would empower her to own her knowledge. (Work products vary depending on the WebQuest.) ZH: The webquest for her level may be hard to find, but no worries, we have enough technology to create one for her. Getting //Ranger Rick// and //National Geographic Kids// would also be a plus for Susie. Searches on the Internet may help her find some more interests.

**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? || = = 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 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 likes the rote method and loves to do things kinesthetically.

What are the strengths? TD- She likes music, repetition, and learning kinesthetically. Knowing these things will help determine what tasks would best benefit Angel's learning style. Reviewing concepts of print will be a good "go-to" when Angel's confidence is low and she needs motivation. Bonus: She likes school and learning! KC- I agree that her strengths are liking music, repetition, and kinesthetic learning. All of her strengths coud be combined using songs with movement to promote phonemic awareness and phonological awareness.  What are the needs? TD- She needs to learn the alphabet, one-to-one correspondence, and how to follow along with the story. KC- She also needs to learn that letters are used to make words, words are used to make sentences, and how to distinguish words in a sentence. She also needs to learn that sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a punctuation mark.
 * ZH-** The rote is a a real plus for Angel. How many children did I teach in Tulsa that could repeat and repeat ABC,s and could not identify what the letter was or what it looked like? (That still happens everywhere.) Daily we looked at and pointed to the abc's starting with Z. People that are older still sing the ABC song and count on their fingers. They just like to make sure they are correct auditorally or kinesthetically.
 * ZH-**In Kindergarten she needs to love language, to sing songs and to socialize. If the letters represent something they will most likely have more meaning for her. (Those that like gardening take more pride in raising their own veggies.) Her caregivers will be reading to her daily 20-30 minutes a day. The Sesame street channel may not be all that bad because she could learn English by listening or Spanish by repeating. I believe the one-to-one correspondence is on Sesame St.,Mr. Rogers and at Library time. One-Two buckle my shoe will teach numbers with a song and a lovely sound to jingle. Wooden puzzles with numbers and abc's will allow for relating how numbers and letters are used. Shaving cream, play dough, and my new sand paper letters will entice my Angel student. It is Kindergarten and sometimes we push and stress so hard that the darlings do not always enjoy and like school for 12 full more years. Let's encourage this future adolescent.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? TD- To address punctuation, she could touch the end mark of a sentence to help her see and follow it. For large-motor movement, she could put her arm out and say "Stop!" when she sees an end mark (?/!/.) or touch an imaginary button and say "Pause!" when she sees a comma. For one-to-one, she could manipulate blocks or beads or something she could move one at a time in correlation with each word that is read aloud. She could also use a pointer or her finger to touch the words as someone reads them aloud to her. To identify capital letters and the beginning of sentences, ask her to look at the capital letter and ask what is different about it- i.e., it's taller than the others. Tell her, "When we see the big/capital letter //right after an end mark//, that big letter is telling us that a new sentence is starting. Can you help me find the next capital letter?" This beats Shurley English and p- p- p- sound for dripping faucet. KC- I would recommend the same activities to her parents. When beginning the one-to-one correspondence she might put her and and finger over one of her parents' as they point to the words during the reading. They could use plastic letters, playdough, shaving cream, or sandpaper letters to practice the alphabet, to learn letter names, and to practice making each letter. Letter sounds could also be reviewed during this time. Technology resources with activities to build phonemic awareness could also be given to her parents.
 * ZH Read read read a book, read it every day. Reading and writing are surely exciting reading is okay, hey! (Row-row tune)**

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? Mother Goose-I rest my case. Gestures and movement are great, but not the non-interesting drill and kill. Even adolescents can't stand the "let's diagram a sentence today". A sentence, sentence, sentence is complete complete complete when five...I forget. **Jumprope jingles,** and Joanna Cole, and Mem Fox rock. TD- Alphabet mats would be a good way to help her learn the order of the letters, and saying the letters while she puts them in order would be good phonemic practice. Many, many activities can be used in conjunction with alphabet mats, such as "What comes first?", missing letter games, identifying vowels and vowel sounds, etc. When she has a book to follow along in (which should be as often as possible), she could use a pointer to follow along, watching the teacher model the procedure. Any instructional songs, especially those involving gestures or movement, would be an excellent way to reinforce concepts and can be done over and over again, which also addresses her preference for rote learning. KC- I agree, Tracy. Any songs,chants, or poems on charts that she can move with and visually follow would be beneficial. I would also recommend the alphabet mats and any other hands on manipulatives that she could use to practice the alphabet, letters, and sounds. There are so many different things to do with he mats. Using sentence strips or books she can practice one-to-one correspondence by placing counters on the words or using a pointer. She could use the counters and push one forward for each word she says as she repeats a sentence she was given orally to practice distinguishing words in a sentence. Another activity that could be used to practice distinguishing words in a sentence would be playing hopscotch. This would incorporate movement as she hops for each word in the sentence.
 * ZH-** Of course the plastic letters with magnets could be used to spell words. Put them on metal cookie sheets, a filing cabinet, or a dishwasher. Children will spell many words and sentences with magnetic letters or word strips. We used them and invented even in second. I wonder what David Elkind "the hurried child" would say about all of this testing and more testing for ages 2-6 that is presently available? Play with words, listen to the melodies, and make up rhyming words.

Additional thoughts:
== TD- Blocks or other manipulatives (including word, syllable, or letter tiles) could be used to address multiple phonemic and phonological awareness activities, such as phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation, syllabication, onset/rime, etc. == == KC- The hopscotch activity could also be used with phoneme segmenting and syllables. Using songs, poems, and rhyming books to help with rhyme recognition and production. Giving a tumbs up or some other signal when coming across words that rhyme in the song, book, or poem. There are many resources available for creating fun, hands on activities to help build phonemic and phonological awareness. ==

=__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 show 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.

TD- They are enthusiastic about learning and seem to have positive attitudes. They enjoy looking at and talking about books. They also know most of their initial sounds. KC- They enjoy looking at books and reading books independently. They also enjoy listening to books read alound and responding to the books through discussion. They know and use most initial consonant sounds. **ZH** The books are worn and need to be replenished, hopefully.
 * What are the strengths?**

TD- They need sight-word mastery, vowel sound knowledge, and phonemic awareness training. KC- They need to work on paying attention to medial and final sounds, sight words, and phonological awareness activities such as onset and rime. They also need to use context clues while reading and to monitor their understanding.**ZH** You both have said it all.
 * What are the needs?**

TD- Using blocks to practice manipulating sounds in words and to help identify initial, medial, and final sounds would be good reinforcement of the activities introduced at school. As always, read, read, read! The more exposure to books, the better for these (and all) students... KC- Sight word practice using games, flashcards,and reading text to learn sight words. Reading at home every night would really benefit their reading. They could also use websites like Starfall to improve their reading skills.
 * What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why?**
 * ZH**-- Read, read, read a book has been said. You girls are on the ball. How about some taped sounds if you can not get an extra mystery or guest reader to come into class. If the children enjoy the books keep going. They are behind and I remember saying one could not buy the gift of time. As we say with the adolescents...why couldn't we have helped them during "emergent literacy" time?

The first thing I would do is give them the lowest-level BEAR spelling inventory and group them according to their needs, getting them started on developmentally-appropriate activities that will strengthen their spelling and phonetic knowledge.I would employ the use of flashcards and activities from www.mrsperkins.com, an amazing Dolch words website, to help them obtain sight-word mastery. It would also be beneficial to use manipulatives for phonemic and phonological awareness- use one block for each sound in a given word, etc. Then we could segue to using letter tiles and physically manipulating the sounds or symbols in words. ZH- I know there is more to do with this group. In the olden days and possibly now they would divide all of them up and bus them to separate schools. Or assign them some of the best teachers as they are doing in major cities of Mass. Have these third graders write and write, and compose and write even more. They will enjoy it if they are able to write for an audience. Making books for Pre-K or K will be advantageous when using the critical metacognitive thinking to put it together. Spelling correctly and segmenting will be needed for final copies. Take this group to the school library and media center often. Figure out what they as a team and a class can do together. KC- Using the //Words Their Way// word sorts would help improve their spelling, vocabulary, reading and writing. They would benefit from direct instruction and activities used with the sorts. Language acquisition should be a focus for these students.
 * What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom?**

Additional thoughts:
Mentors or a corporation coming in to read to the students or listen to the students read at the businesses lunch time would be a valuable suggestion. The class needs to read more.
 * =__ 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

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? ZH-The strength is that someone is able to have this program and get volunteers during low economic times in our Nation. Yes there is less pressure due to it being after-school. || TD- The strengths include associated benefits of peer coaching, reduced pressure, and one-on-one instruction. The weaknesses include the inexperience and possibly lesser effectiveness of the peer as the tutor (compared to the classroom teacher), possible disorganization and confusion if the program is not implemented properly, and the possible lack of appropriate tutor training. Problems could also arise because students feel intimidated or insulted by being taught by a “kid”.

ZH- A fantastic strength is that Amy has come to me for help to fully realize her potential. She may be young however this could be an advantage for identifying with the struggling vocabulary students. The weaknesses are what happens after that one month? I am also glad that she is **//not//** to focus on teaching vocabulary for only test terms without making it fun.

KC- I agree that the strengths include the extra help for students in the area of vocabulary in a fun way. The weakness, as Zane stated, is that the help will only last for a month. The students would benefit from the extra help, but maybe it would be better if she came for a shorter amount of time or for a few days a week over a longer period of time. Maybe she could come for 30 min. a day 3 times a week over an extended period of time. ZH-Will new voluteers be added after that one month. KC and I would suggest the idea be put into place.

What strategies/programs would help with the students? What is your rationale? TD- Focusing on word consciousness requires activating and engaging student knowledge in order to build on it. I particularly like the idea from the text (p. 147) in which students are called upon to create lists of words about instructional topics or topics of interest to them. Other text ideas include engaging in word play and playing word games with students. My rationale for such activities is that they are engaging ways for students to learn new words on different levels of consciousness- some of these activities involve conscious connection of terms and meanings and other activities can be more of an internally-occurring experience. ZH- Amy could even pull in a community team to help her work on mutual ideas in order to keep the students on the correct track. Having a dictionary mania day where words are looked up and discussed will help. Using games and team work for words that are needed. Strategies for having fun with the synonym and antonym words while connecting with harder words of similar meanings will help. Also depending on the elementary age group try Latin word origins and common root word groupings. KC- Amy needs to get a list of words from the teacher and talk about what they are currently studying in class so that she can focus her lessons and activities to support what they are doing in class. She then needs to use the list of words she was given or choose words based on what they are studying and decide what types of activities would go with the vocabulary terms. The activities need to be fun and some should be active due to the students struggling, and since they’ve had a long day at school already. If the activities are fun and engaging the students will be more willing to participate and they will also retain more of what they’ve learned. The use of word play such as puns, idioms, synonyms, antonyms, and clichés would be fun ways to study vocabulary. Writing riddles, writing their own stories involving word play, playing I have…who has…, and mapping would be great activities to develop vocabulary skills. Using the senses to describe the word would be another activity that Amy could use. Charades would be a fun and active way to practice vocabulary development. Amy could write the definitions of the words on a beach ball and toss the ball to the kids. The students read the definitions that their thumbs land on when they catch the ball and give the vocabulary word for the definition.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What would the program look like? TD- The program would look interactive, with students and tutors alike deeply involved in their activities. There would always be books open, with people reading together or alone, aloud or silently. People would be playing games and engaging in activities like word hunts with magazines and an assortment of related literature. Ideally, no one would look stressed or overwhelmed, and instruction and physical layout would be planned accordingly to minimize distraction and reduce the incidence of behavior problems. A positive, supportive mood would permeate the environment.

KC- The students would be engaged in fun, active vocabulary instruction and activities. They would use a variety of word play activities and writing activities. They would use interesting and engaging books from a variety of genres.

Centers could be set up for rotating or different age groups depending on the number of adults, high school volunteers, and students. You could have a long table for each category. Yes, there could be reading and listening to books on tape. But the active part will include making new words, word sorts, and writing rhymes while seeing if the word really exists in a dictionary or on-line. These are just a few random thoughts for an age old problem.
 * ZH** It would be in an active place like the cafeteria. Those not doing as well with the noise could be taken to a quiet hall with responsible background checked adults. (My loudest and most disruptive students I taught did not work well with distractions.)

Additional thoughts: Sometimes kids enjoy the make and takes as much as Mandy Benson and wish to have something to take home. A picture dictionary or word puzzle could be worked on and taken homw at the end of the week each month. Money and supplies will be needed. = =


 * =__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Case Study #5: Fluency __=

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">CASE STUDY #5: Anne
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">TD- She loves educational television and learning about history, social studies, and science. She seems to be a visual learner, relying on charts and other visual aides to fill in the gaps in her knowledge. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">**KC-** She enjoys science and social studies and likes to participate in discussions. She uses her background knowledge and visual cues such as charts, pictures and graphs when reading in textbooks.
 * ZH** //Anne// has growing strengths. She is trying to overcompensate for something she would rather not do, like the other kids. :) Stand back Drew's and fish lover's of the world this girl means to have competition. We had a kid in tutoring that was only fish and boats. I watched and helped as tutors and coaches tried t broaden his horizons. All the teachers in the federal grant Tutoring program at NSU learned from this student.

<span class="fnt0" style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What are the needs? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">TD- She needs to work on automaticity and prosody. Her experiences with print may need to be examined in depth, because she views reading as unenjoyable. Finding out why this is so may guide the teacher’s approach so that reading becomes a more pleasant experience for Anne. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">**KC-** Anne needs fluency instruction in the areas of punctuation and expression. She also needs comprehension strategies in retelling and in monitoring her understanding of the text. Revisiting word attack skills would also be helpful to Anne. She needs books and magazines related to science and history at her comprehension level to help her feel successful when she reads. She needs to have successful and enjoyable reading experiences to help motivate her to read more. An interest inventory should be given to Anne so appropriate text can be found for her to read.
 * ZH-**All of her experiences may help her with her needs. The voice with inflection is surely on Discovery and Educational TV. Anne needs dictionary, thesaurus, and glossary skills updated. Making a webpage on new words conquered by Anne would be worth the time. Pronunciation help is available when the speaker is clicked on Merriam-Webster or most foreign language dictionary sites on the internet.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">TD- Anne’s parents could encourage her to read a book of her choice (that has a movie version) with them- perhaps they could take turns reading aloud, have book talks, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">or do related activities that would engage her with her reading and encourage her to complete the book. (This would also incorporate comprehension.) Then they could watch the accompanying movie together and talk about how different it was from the book (or perhaps how similar). They could also review sight words and other high-frequency words specific to her subject areas. (This could be done when Mom and Dad help Anne with her homework assignments.)
 * ZH-**Sometimes if she is not too old, the parent could take a book he/she has been excited about. Read it with them and go over critical questioning. Invite Anne to pick the next book read together. A dad on NPR did the movie watching unit with his child at home. Tracy they had very deep discussions about the older movies and read about them. It allowed the dad to have close time with his son, so I see where you are going. Going to a play locally to interpret acting skills for each character, might be a fun idea. Churches and community events sometimes produce productions for free. Suggest Anne search the newspaper or internet to help pick an event.


 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">KC- **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">The parents need to model good fluent reading for Anne. They also need to listen to Anne read nightly, stopping her every couple of pages to retell what she has read. They need to engage in repeated readings of text on Anne’s independent comprehension level to build fluency. Anne could also practice reading the fluency phrase word cards found on Florida’s Reading Research website. ZH-Kelly, could we really get a perfect parent to do that. Mostly it is to have the kids out of their hair so a parent or caregiver may get something done.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">TD- Completing graphic organizers and other visual aides would be interesting and fun for Anne and would utilize her strength in reading graphs and charts. Ensuring that the classroom is full of content-area related books will encourage Anne to read. The teacher could introduce the historical fiction and biography genres, since they involve topics of interest to her. One could also find books for Anne that are companions to TV shows she enjoys, such as //Mythbusters//. Reader’s theatre would be a fun way to help Anne with comprehension and various elements of prosody. (It would also utilize repeated readings, which could help Anne increase her fluency.)
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">KC- **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">The teacher needs to model fluent reading, provide direct instruction of using punctuation and expression, and provide time for guided practice and feedback. The teacher also needs to provide appropriate text in the areas of Anne’s interests. Repeated readings with feedback, readers theatre, reading poetry, choral reading and echo reading would help Anne use punctuation and expression in reading. Strategy instruction on word attack skills, monitoring her comprehension, and retelling would also help with Anne’s comprehension.
 * ZH**-Probably a unique idea would be to read at home the same book that Anne and parent are reading. Questions with more thinking at the two places could bring the home school connection much closer. In the classroom present your own class play or reader's theatre with Anne helping to write parts. Also readings of a poem or a favorite quote per student would add difference to the same everyday text reading. The biography research for Anne and the class on someone interesting will help with finding material of her choice. A&E biography could give the entire class ideas since they have an awesome web site with curriculum ideas for teachers. Do not forget to preview the goals and then go over them once the project is in sync. Giving direction keeps the sixth graders' on task.

Additional thoughts:
||

Have graphic organizers for each of the suggested projects while involving the kinesthetic, visual, and auditory properties. These events may be so successful that students beg to do it once again. Have them practice in peer-pairs for repetition, correct pronunciation and prosody. <span class="fnt0" style="color: #00ff00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">
 * =<span style="color: #00ff00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__Case Study #6 Comprehension__ =

**<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">CASE STUDY #6: Sixth Grade Class **
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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? TD- Verbal expression and word attack skills KC- They like to discuss what they’ve read and most have good word attack skills. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> ZH-The strengths are numerous. The class has mostly English speakers which may be a rarity. The teacher is aware of what needs to be done. The teacher also knows where her strengths lie and how she will instruct with the strengths. TD- Comprehension is the major need for this group. KC- The students may need vocabulary instruction related to grade level content. They also need instruction on how to read content area material. Instruction in finding the main idea and retelling the supporting details. Teaching them to notice words in bold print, and that there is usually a definition following the word. They need to know how to read charts, tables, graphs and diagrams that are presented in the text. <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">ZH- The students are aware of tests, but not how to take them. Their weaknesses are that they have relied on not being good enough for awhile. The students have gotten by without understanding. What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> TD- I believe the TSI (Transactional Strategy Instruction) approach would best fit the needs of this group of students because of its emphasis on “the ability…to facilitate discussions and in which students (a) collaborate to form joint interpretations of text and (b) explicitly discuss the mental processes and cognitive strategies that are involved in comprehension” (Farstrup & Samuels, 2002). Students would be taught specific strategies and the reasons for selecting and using appropriate strategies, but group discussion serves as the foundation upon which comprehension skills are built (Farstrup & Samuels). That said, the teacher could introduce one new strategy at a time, model it, and practice using it with the students. As the students understand more strategies, they can practice selecting the right strategy that fits their needs and discuss why it is appropriate. Increasing strategy knowledge and facilitating their strong point (group discussion), students’ overall comprehension ability should increase. <span style="color: #006600; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">KC- The teacher could use before, during, and after reading strategies and activities to monitor comprehension. For non-fiction or informational text the students could preview the text features and make an expectation grid before reading. They could then fill in the details on the expectation grid during reading. They should also be taught how to monitor for a breakdown in comprehension and what to do when they experience a breakdown in comprehension. Examples of what to do during a breakdown in comprehension would be to reread and to make notes of questions they have or areas in which they need clarification. After reading activities might include the herringbone activity for stating the main idea and answering the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how, or making notes in a learning log. They could also use graphic organizers for comparing and contrasting, cause and effect, problem and solution, or sequencing. <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> ZH-Many strategies could be used for assembly of comprehension in this sixth grade class. This class is large and would need to sometimes be broken up for teaching the strategies needed. As the strategies are being added with TSI (using the **pdf** posted on Group 1 Module 8) and diagrams or graphic organizers I would add a few practice tests in between so the wonderful class is aware of why, how, and again why they have answered in a certain way. If a practice test is completed and the answers are never reviewed or returned the student has not learned a thing. Start easy and progressively introduce more difficult concepts. What the ladies said above is so true. The self-esteem of these students might need to be worked on, notice I said wonderful class, because the students have been used to lower performance in some areas. We have previewed, read while questioning, and have reflected about and with this class. The sixth graders need a teacher that is interested in taking them forward without cheating. Strategies are not just given with practice tests, but with projects and interesting class picks. If the sixth graders, which are adolescents, are interested in the topic then it will progress in the correct direction. Remember the PASS objectives or SOL (standards of learning in VA.) will need to be referred to and taught as research-based soul searching. I hope all of you ladies understand what I mean. What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the students to do? TD- The teacher could encourage the students to continue talking about their reading and help each other decide what strategy(ies) is/are appropriate. They could also complete graphic organizers as a group until they understand the basics of comprehension, at which point they could complete the organizer individually. <span style="color: #006600; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">KC- The teacher should encourage the students to underline or highlight the main idea and to make notes in the margins of texts that they can write on. They should also be encouraged to look over the text features. <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">ZH-The teacher would and should encourage writing. Expository, Persuasive, Narrative, Technical, Descriptive, and Poetic-Haiku, Acrostic, Public Justice, Mother Goose, etc. They would be writing in the Journals daily. They would be reading something of their own choosing daily. Then they would listen and ask questions of the after lunch story. Strategies yes, there will be active thinking and sharing along with direct explanations. The students will be doing some of the teaching because as William Glasser states if you see, hear, and touch you may learn, but you learn the most by teaching it to others.


 * <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt;">We learn 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss, 80% of what we experience, and 95% of what we teacher others. ** <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt;">W. Glasser

Additional thoughts:
|| <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">ZH- Write to read. Read to Write. And think in between.


 * =__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Case Study #7 Comprehension __=

CASE STUDY # 7: Brandon
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What are the strengths? <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">TD- He has good prosody and reads with good accuracy. He is talkative, which means that there is potential for using book groups and book talks to facilitate his comprehension. ZH-Oral communication and a stage presence. If he is aware of how testing guides his future he could be shown his results carefully and possibly find way to work towards the achievement area of his goals. Pair him with someone shy and this could be a mutual helping of minds. <span style="color: #4f6228; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">KC- Brandon has confidence in himself and likes to talk. He doesn’t seem to mind reading when called upon, and his rhythm and rate of accuracy are good. <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> What are the needs? <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">TD- He reads below grade level, struggles with oral retelling, and has minimal comprehension. Perhaps worst of all, he sees no need for strategy instruction, which means he may resist attempts to incorporate strategy use in his reading. ZH-Brandon is a little cocky. He knows he is fantastic so the teacher could use the self-esteem to his advantage. Have him do extra helpful strategies for "showing the other students". If he is a good reader and is called on to perform he may be in a class with a majority of reading strugglers. Each person could try the strategy of reading a page and telling about it, and then they could trade. It is interesting to note that they do not always get the same thing from the text. (I keep putting strategies w/ needs because the questions go together. zh <span style="color: #006600; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">KC- Brandon does not seem to recognize that his lack of comprehension is a problem in reading. He needs to understand that the purpose of reading is to gain meaning from the text. He also seems unaware that he is reading several levels below his grade level. He needs to be made aware that strategy instruction and usage is an important component in the reading process. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What strategies/things could the student do when they read? Why? TD- Brandon could set a purpose for reading (BEFORE), begin by completing story maps or a graphic organizer of his choice (DURING), and refer to his organizer and choose a way to represent the information, whether through oral retelling, summarizing, or another representation which would involve him “regurgitating” what he read (AFTER). These activities will help Brandon gain a brder understanding and appreciation for the importance of "reading deliberately". ZH- It would be great for Brandon to think of some questions during his silent backwards reading time. Then he might know how to retell the story. The teacher has hopefully searched out his interests so he can find topics that are really to his liking. <span style="color: #006600; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">KC- Brandon needs strategy instruction in reading for the main idea, retelling, and summarizing since retelling and answering questions are areas of weakness. I agree that he needs some help in using before, during and after reading strategies to help monitor his comprehension. Activities to activate his prior knowledge such as a KWL chart, making predictions, or creating concept maps would be good before reading strategies. During reading activities might include asking questions, questioning the author, and using sticky notes to infer and then confirming or revising his inferences. After reading using a graphic organizer to sequence the story, recall the main ideas and supporting details, or retell the story to a partner would be good strategies for improving Brandon’s comprehension. He could also use the getting the gist activity with a partner. Since he likes to talk the teacher could use discussions before, during and after reading to help with comprehension as well.

.What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">TD- The teacher could model strategy use and help Brandon understand the importance of using strategies while he reads using the direct explanation (DE) approach. The teacher should start by helping Brandon set a purpose for his reading and make predictions about the reading based on his prior knowledge. ZH-The whole class may need to activate prior knowledge after it had been taught. The World Cup has recently been won by Spain. A sports multi-cultural topic might be just the thing for the entire class. Even separate studies on eating and countries represented would present interest for those lacking in sports interests. A panel game or who wants to be, or what's my line, may be in order with actual team buzzers for answering the questions presented by a computer or team classmates. <span style="color: #006600; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">KC- I agree using the Direct explanation or instruction approach is necessary for Brandon. He also needs the modeling and guided practice for the strategies used during instruction. Along with the strategies I listed above I like the games that Zane mentioned. Games such as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire or Jeopardy would be fun activities for checking comprehension. There are also many more activities for before during and after reading.

Additional thoughts: || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">CASE STUDY #8: Robert <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">= **
 * =__<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Case Study #8: Metacognition __= ||  ||

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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?**

<span style="color: #006600; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">KC- Fluency is Robert’s strength. ZH-The parents are concerned... is the main strength I identify with for Robert. Get the parents busy searching out the content and taking an active interest in the content area. Short trips to the library (impossible for me) and museums with scientific connections will also help. If the parents do not have time get him a mentor or a neighbor that is knowledgeable in science and other content ares. TD- Fluency

ZH** Vocabulary enrichment for difficult science terms will be necessary for Robert. You know those books did seem scaled a bit high when teaching any great level. Robert will need to preview, think about and activate the knowledge he knows, and then reflect. Perhaps he could use a few sticky strips or papers to mark the areas giving him trouble. A picture dictionary or science glossary on his level will add to comprehension if he knows how to use it <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">TD- Oral retelling, comprehension, content area learning/reading (especially in science)
 * What are the needs?

KC- Robert needs to increase his vocabulary, learn how to monitor his understanding of the reading, and learn how to use text features when reading textbooks or expository texts.

What strategies/things could the student do when they read? Why? A picture dictionary or science glossary on his level will add to comprehension if he knows how to use it. He is able to read the words so try some technology games such as the ACT, and SAT ones on the web. Word meanings and timed tests allow you to compete with others on the web. I have tried this site from Dr. Swanson or an exceptional resource.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">TD- Robert needs to set a purpose for reading and review the vocabulary or study guide that contains the material for which he will be held responsible. Then he could skim the headings of his readings. While he reads, he should pay attention to the highlighted words and headings, complete his study guide, and monitor his reading, writing and asking questions to clarify his understanding. After he reads, he should discuss his learning with a partner or in a small group. This would help strengthen his retelling skills. The purpose of these activities is for Robert to understand what he is being called upon to learn and why it is important. It also gives him ways to express his learning while helping him strengthen his weakest points. <span style="color: #339933; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">KC- He needs to preview the text and use the text features to predict the main ideas of the text. This will give Robert a general idea of what the text is about. Previewing the vocabulary terms and using a before reading activity would also be helpful. Robert needs to monitor his comprehension so he can use strategies when comprehension of the text breaks down. He needs to use prior knowledge to help make sense of the text as he is reading. He could also make notes of important information in the text as he is reading. He would need to reflect on what he has read and summarize the information from the text to draw conclusions about the text and what he has learned.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">TD- The teacher needs to make sure that her lessons are as authentic as possible. This will help engage Robert in his work and should promote his overall comprehension. The functional instructional approach, which meshes together strategy instruction and content area material (see p. 189 of the text), should help Robert begin to see learning as an internal rather than external process. Additional thoughts: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">TD- I think kids get turned off of content area learning in junior high and high school because the general format of content area “learning” sometimes shifts focus to just reading and worksheets. More and more teachers are “coming around” to modern teaching methods, but some still mainly lecture and assign readings and homework without building connections between students and the material they are trying to teach. <span style="color: #339933; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">KC- Robert’s teacher needs to provide additional activities related to the topic that they are studying. Supplement the information in the textbook with interesting related readings, bring in artifacts for the students to study, use science experiments to relate the text to real life experiences and to improve comprehension, and the students could even roll play or act out the text. Most textbooks contain dry reading and the students lose interest quickly. If she can use interesting materials and activities to bring the text to life the students will be more engaged in their learning. She could also use graphic organizers and vocabulary building activities.
 * ZH** All of the students will benefit from discussing terms and activating knowledge with a diagram. They could work as peers and in groups of three like our group one did to strategize. Science progresses so much better with actual photos, objects, and trips. Experiements and outside show-and-tell citizens make lasting impressions on the class. It may take more effort on the teachers part but the children learn. They come back year after year and say remember when we made butter in class and we shook it and the lid came off. When "Miep" came to the Freedom Writers classroom it caused memories to be deposited. Even thought "Miep" of Anne Frank fame has passed on you know the kids fondly remember when a spark or newspaper relates to her heroic action. It would be neat to know that a teacher may have sparked the "heroic" extension in grown students because of a remarkable, or perhaps tiny event in class.