Group+12-5772

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 * CASE STUDY #1 Sam**

Sam is a first grader who will turned 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, l and j, x and z, p and d, 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.

NH- Sam's strength is the teacher knows his motivation to read. Sam likes dinosaurs and sharks. There are countless books on these two subjects. He understands the concepts of print. This is a skill he does not need to be taught. His parents can help Sam at home using books he enjoys. ZL-Sam is fortunate to have parent involvment. He is exposed to literature and has good reading modeled to him consistently. The importance of parental support can never be underestimated for educational success. BM - Sam has been raised in a literacy rich home and has support from home that will allow him to build on what he is learning at school. He is familiar with books and seems to know they can open up new and exciting things for him.
 * What are the strengths? **

NH- One need for Sam is distinguishing his letters. Sam also needs to work on phonemic awareness. ZL- Phonemic Awareness is essential for his progress in reading. The basic letters that are confusing to Sam are difficult for many students. Perhaps mnemonic devices that are created by him with the support of a teacher or parent could help him with letter recognition. BM - Sam is too young to be in first grade. If he is five entering first grade then he entered kindergarten when he was four. His literacy development is that of a kindergartner because his chronological age is that of a kindergartner. The study mentions letter names but does not mention letter sounds. He will need to be introduced to letter sounds and to begin to build a sight word vocabulary. The sight word vocabulary should begin with environmental print. Once Sam realizes he already knows how to read many words around him he will automatically begin to pay more attention to print in books.
 * What are the needs?**


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

NH-One strategy at home the parents can do is have same work with his letters while in the bathtub. He can use shaving cream or bath paint to wirte his letters while showering. This would be a fun way for Sam to distinguish between the letters he is confusing. ZL-Hands on activities are always a great way for students to learn. Having a visual and tactile form of practice should benefit Sam. BM - Sam's parents can begin by encouraging Sam to "read" boxes, signs, lables and such around the house or while in the car. They can put together a scrapbook or bulletin board highlighting environmental print that Sam can read. These might include a STOP sign, the Pepsi or McDonalds logo, a favorite book character, the color words.... By helping Sam make the connection between familiar items and print they will help Sam connect with print in other areas such as books and around the classroom.

NH-One activity the teacher can use in the classroom would be a dinosaur unit. This would allow Sam to be interested in the subject at hand as well as do a group writing project with Sam and the class writing about dinosaurs. ZL-The dinosaur unit mentioned above would spark interest of not only Sam, but many boys in the classroom. Varied genres and topics that interest students, can make the uninterested, very interested. Audio books on the subject of dinosaurs and sharks should be incorporated into the class library. Sam's continued exposure to literature will help him find success in the classroom. BM - The teacher should definitely play up Sam's interest in dinosaurs. Additionally, shared writing experiences would help Sam see his own thoughts or discussions put into print. This familiar content can then be used for reading as well. Reading "around the room" content that has been studied in class or written by the class will help build his sight word vocabulry. Journaling independently or dictating his ideas for the teacher to write would also help Sam make the connection between his thoughts, the spoken word, and written words.
 * What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom?**

Additional thoughts:

 * =__Case Study #2 Phonemic Awareness__= ||



= = 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 **
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?

NH- Angel has a strength in that she is eagar to learn and it is still early in her education. She has a lot of work ahead of her but with some one on one work with a reading specialist she can catch up to her classmates. ZL- What an energetic young girl! Angel seems to have a desire to learn. Knowing what her primary learning style is, will prove to be helpful. (Kinesthetic) I agree with Natalie that there is a lot of work ahead for Angel. However, her literacy needs have been discovered. BM - Angel's strengths will be her innocence and her enthusiasm. When immersed in a literature rich environment where she is exposed to the letters and the sounds in fun and interesting ways she will begin to build on her reading foundation.

What are the needs? NH- Angels first need is to learn her letters and letter sounds. ZL-The letters of the alphabet must be taught to Angel. Angel's focus of study must be letters and sounds. It is difficult to move into further literacy development without having the foundation of letters and sounds. BM - Angel needs exposure to the letters, sounds, and one to one correspondence in a non-threatening environment. The grammar conventions will come into play but don't necessarily need to be introduced initially.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? NH- At home I would encourage Angel's parents to work with Angel on print concepts. I would have them read to her pointing at each word as they read along showing Angel how each word is 1 to 1 with correspondence of words. This would show her how we read and help her become more print aware. ZL- 1 to 1 correspondence is an excellent strategy for Angel. It is essential that Angel had an adult to model this activity, since she is struggling with 1 on 1 correspondence. Familiar text, poems, and rhymes will be an excellent way to promote 1 to 1 correspondence for Angel. An audio poster set that corresponds to the text and poems will allow Angel to follow as she hears the sounds. The case study does not indicate if Angel has a home full of literacy encouragement. Parent involvement as well as other family members can provide additional reading experiences for Angel. The public library has story-time that will positively model reading practices. BM - Providing and sharing ABC books with Angel would be a great and easy way for her parents to be involved in Angel's education. With these books the focus is generally on one letter and one word at a time. I would also recommend predictable books that Angel will become familiar with and be able to "read" independently after repeated readings. Finally, I would encourage the parents to sing nursery rhymes with Angel. When children are familiar with these rhymes prior to seeing them in print they are a great tool for building the bridge betweeen the spoken and written word.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? NH- In the classroom I would concentrate on knewthetic activities. I have an activity I made where I took clear paper protectors and filled them with letters. I then tied yarn on them to make them a necklace. I would put letters on a group of them and have them move around to put them in order. Also I would have them do other word activities with them to get Angel and kids like her moving around. ZL-Floor puzzles with letter and sound pictures, could be a fun way for Angel to learn letters and sounds. An activity like a floor puzzle would allow Angel to self-check her work and correct if needed. BM - Shared reading of charts and big books where the teacher points to each word as it is read will teach Angel about the 1 to 1 correspondence of the spoken and written word. This is also a great time for the teacher to introduce grammar conventions such as punctuation. After the big book as been shared repeatedly with the class then it can be a center where Angel and her classmates can practice reading the book independently with the pointer. I would also provide lots of activities with exposure to the letters, beginning sounds, rhymes, and predictable text.

Additional thoughts:
ZL; Providing opportunities for students to gain confidence is important to a student's growth in school. Students just like Angel are found in classrooms everyday looking and hoping for guidance in academic areas. Never underestimate the power that self-confidence has in the growth of academic success. ||
 * BM - I feel it is extremely important to preserve the innocence of children like Angel who enter school so excited to learn but often far behind their peers before school even begins. The teacher must work to expose Angel to letters, sounds, books, and rhymes without jeopardizing her self confidence when others may know much more about reading.


 * =__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 **
e aAmy 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? BM - The strength of the plan is that vocabulary is a great focus as it is very important to literacy instruction. The weakness is that the time and effort have the potential to be wasted if the vocabulary instruction is not presented in a way the students can use to connect to what they are learning during the day. NH- I agree with Brigette, this has to fun and engaging. Also what is the age of the student? Vocabulary instruction needs to be directly involved with what they are reading or doing in school. ZL: Programs that are developed must be fun, but the fun activity must have a purpose. Strength=vocabulary builds comprehension Weakness=Effective lessons must be planned and understood by the tutor before they can be shared with the tutee.

What strategies/programs would help with the students? What is your rationale? BM - Amy needs to go the State Dept. of Education website and get the list of vocabulary words recommended for her tutees' grade level. She also needs to know what the classroom teachers are working on during this time period so she can connect her lessons to what the children are already working on during the day. NH- I would tell Amy to contact the teacher of the student she is tutoring to get the vocabulary words that the tutees teacher feels she can help her elementary student with. Then I would give Amy some graphic organziers and games to make the vocabulary learningn fun. When vocabualry learning is engaging the student will more likely rememeber the words. ZL: The age of primarily workbook pages, are gone today. (Or should be) Both Brigette and Natalie are correct in that instruction must be interactive and engaging. Is there certain areas in her reading classroom that can be a starting point for instruction? Perhaps Amy's teacher, works with her classroom on certain benchmark skills and objectives. This could be an excellent starting point, if there is no current direction for her instruction.

What would the program look like? BM - Reading aloud to students, shared reading experiences with vocabulary definitions given as well as instruction as to what to do when you don't know a word. Providing strategies to students that they can use to infer word meanings. The use of cognates should be introduced in an ELL environment. NH- I would show Amy some technology programs she can use to help her student along with some context clues instruction for her tutee. Amy should read and question vocabulary utilizing analogies and descriptive language. ZL- A quick reading style inventory should be given to Amy. The information would then identify the way that she learns best as it relates to the reading process. Varied strategies that include technologies and text of varied form will allow Amy to be immersed in the literacy process.

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? NH- One of Annes strengths are her visual learning style. As a teacher you can work with this visual learning strength to help her with her fluency. BM - Anne's enthusiasm for learning will be a strength. ZL: Anne has a strength in vocabulary which is displayed in her oral language skills.

What are the needs? BM - Anne needs to go back and learn comprehension strategies she missed in the primary grades. I would begin with a sentence or two at a time. Read the sentence, discuss what is says, read it with expression. Working with longer blocks of text over time practicing the basic comprehension strategies like making connections, asking questions, retelling in your own words... NH- Anne needs to work on expressions and punctuation when reading. To work on this I would have her work with some readers theatre that are with in her interests. This would help her with comprehension. ZL: Anne needs work on fluency as well as comprehension. She needs to see comprehension skills modeled to her. Hearing good oral/speaking skills within literature selections while following along with an audio book with help Anne.

What strategies/things could the teacher encourage the parents to do at home? Why? NH- At home I would have her parents work with her on retelling strategies. I would tell them to have Anne read the science articles out of the newspapers or science magazines and books and have Anne retell them what the article is about using questions. This would allow Anne practice at home with comprehension and retelling.

BM - In addition to the retelling Natalie has suggested, maybe Anne could blog those same retellings or summaries or write or provide booktalks for younger children.

ZL: Real world materials could be found in Amy's home for supplemental reading. If material is not found in her home, she may find materials at the school or city library. A few important questions that must be answered are..... What does Amy enjoy? What are her interest? If this is identified, then Amy can find materials that peak her interest and she will want to get involved in the reading process.

Additional thoughts:
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 * =__Case Study #7 Comprehension__=
 * =__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? NH- Brandon's strengths are that he is a fluent reader. He considers himself a good reader. ZL-Brandon seems pretty confident in reading out loud. He continued reading in the summer as a participant in the summer reading program. BM - Brandon seems to have self-confidence.

What are the needs? NH- Brandon needs to work on his comprehenion skills. ZL-Brandon has a deficiency in his ability to retell as well as comprehend, after he finishes reading a passage. BM - Brandon needs to understand that there is more to reading than just saying the words on the page. He can read but doesn't yet realize the task is bigger than just that.

What strategies/things could the student do when they read? Why? NH- As the student reads he can use a graphic organzier to help him organize what he is reading. This would add the student by organzing what he is reading when he is reading it. THis will help him work on retelling and comprehension. ZL-Brandon must learn to become an active reader. When he reads in class, Brandon should have a pad of sticky notes on his desk. As he is reading each paragraph, he needs to write a short phrase or sentence of summary. If he doesn't understand a paragraph he should place a question mark on the sticky note and go over the problem paragraph a second time. VISUALIZING what is being read is an excellent way for comprehension skills to be enhanced. BM - I like the idea of the graphic organizers to help him understand what he should be taking from his reading. I also like the idea of breaking down text. Breaking down information by paragraph and using the small chunk of material to teach Brandon to monitor for understanding, ask himself questions, and think about what he has read.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? NH- I would have the teacher use post-it notes for Brandon to use during reading to use as "think-clouds" as he reads along. ZL-Paired reading and discussion could allow for members in the class to collaborate and communicate their understanding of the literature. BM - I would also try to find authentic opportunities for Brandon to read and take information from what he has read. He seems to have a bit of an attitude so if there were a personal purpose involved in the reading he might be more inclined to apply himself.

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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? NH-It sounds like Robert is a fluent reader whose parents are involved in his learning. ZL-I agree with Natalie concerning Robert's strengths. According to the case study, he is a fluent reader. BM - Robert is able to read.

What are the needs? NH-Robert needs to work on his comprehension strategies and find ways that will help him understand what he is reading as he reads. ZL-Robert doesn't understand what he reads. (Comprehension) BM - Robert needs help finding ways to accomodate and assimilate information he is reading.

What strategies/things could the student do when they read? Why? NH- One strategy I would have Robert work with when in science to remember what he has read would be to use a SQ3R technique. That stands for survey, questions, read, recall, review. This strategy would help Robert in science by ensureing he comprehends what he is reading. He looks at the material first to see what he is reading, looking at headings, pictures, etc. Then he writes any questions he has about what he is going to read. Thirdly, he reads the passage, afterwards, recalling what he is read and then finally reviews his questions, answers, and notes. ZL- Robert's case study mentioned that he had the majority of his trouble in the science class. The current chapter that Robert is working on in science would be a great starting point. Robert should look at the content objectives in his textbook and turn standards into comprehension questions before he begins reading. BM - Making the effort to connect to prior knowledge before reading text. Browsing through the section or chapter and making note of headings, pictures, and bolded words before reading begins. Using post-its and noting important ideas or summaries after each paragraph to begin the comprehension process.

What types of activities and extensions could the teacher do in the classroom? NH- In the classroom the teacher could read together with Robert, questioning him and modeling good reading strategies completing DRTAs that would help Robert as he continues to read in class. ZL-RDF-Reasons-Details-Facts- charts could allow Robert to separate content information into smaller parts for easier understanding. BM - Introducing the comprehension strategies, providing graphic organizers to transfer the information to a more visual context, building up Robert's science vocabulary prior to each upcoming unit.

Additional thoughts:
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YOUR WIKI:
View four different tech plans from four different areas of the United States. Look at your grade level plans first and compare how you are with other parts of the states. Then look at the previous grades and decide upon three technology goals for your class or school for this semester. ||
 * =__Case Study #9: Your tech plan__=