Literacy Learner Analysis Project

TE 846
Written by: Julia Graeser
Part One: Background, Rationale & Emotional Climate

I like to think that my learning of literacy development and differentiated instruction is a

little bit like opening a present on Christmas morning. Not just any present though- a nice big

box that has beautiful wrapping paper on it and the nicest and sparkliest bow on top. As a new

teacher, I anxiously take off the bow and rip off the pretty paper. I excitedly tear open the top

flaps of this massive box just to find a million other tiny boxes wrapped inside. As I continue to

develop, or to further my metaphor, open tiny teaching boxes, I realize that some are wrapped in

tissue paper and some are wrapped in duct tape…about 5 rolls of duct tape to be exact. Yet, each

box I come to, I want to open because I know that it will allow me the best present of all -which

is the opportunity to meet student needs the best I can. When we differentiate our students

needs, we are acknowledging and embracing the differences of a student population. According

to Morrow and Gambrell (2019) “when teachers differentiate, they are meeting the individual

needs of their students without diminishing expectations or sacrificing curricular rigor” (p.

9). As teachers, we need to utilize best teaching practices, which are evidence-supported, to

meet student needs regardless of their race, ethnicity or disabilities. Over the last five years of

teaching, I have noticed the impact of differentiated instruction through the Response to

Intervention (RTI) approach to learning, as well as authentic learning

experiences. Differentiation is defined as “ [what is] needed to ensure that every student exits

the year having acquired the essential literacy skills, knowledge, and behaviors required for

success at the next grade level” (Morrow & Gambrell, p 362, 2019). This specifically correlates

to many different research based approaches such as the RTI method of instruction, small group

teaching, and different cognitive models of learning such as the McKenna & Stahl cognitive

model. However, each approach targets learning by scaffolding literacy expectations and within
the RTI approach, different scaffolds are provided to encourage gradual independence with each

task provided. This directly correlates to the gradual-release theory which differentiates

instruction based on how independent the student is throughout different constructs of learning

tasks (small group, whole group, independent, etc), as well as their responsibility assumed over

their own learning. The teacher plays a large role in supporting each of these students various

needs utilizing a three tiered approach to teaching literacy. The first tier of approach is providing

instruction that aligns with the standards and expectations of the corresponding grade

level. Then, Morrow & Gambrell state, “after teachers provide high quality Tier 1 instruction,

they collect and analyze progress monitoring data and design Tier 2, and, if needed, Tier 3

targeted literacy instruction…” (2019, p. 367). Tier 2 and 3 are in place to support students with

any structures, frameworks or specific literacy expectations that they need continued support on

to be successful with their grade-level tasks.

LIteracy is an essential cornerstone of all learning, and within my second grade

classroom, the instruction and support that I provide to my students will impact them far beyond

the walls of my classroom. In my classroom, I teach utilizing the Lucy Calkins units of study,

paired with guided reading. Within these curricular constructs, I confer with my students and

meet with them in small groups to meet their learning needs. Throughout this project, I hope to

learn more about how to provide individualized instruction to students with different learning

needs, as well as design tasks that enhance students' strengths while also targeting their areas of

needed support. As a result, I will be focusing on a student who would benefit from

individualized literacy instruction. I will be providing assessments and gathering anecdotal

notes/observations which will help me to provide appropriate interventions based on the areas of

support that will be identified. I will be teaching these lessons one-on-one with my focal student
while other students in my class engage in various literacy tasks. This will mirror what a Tier 2

intervention may look like when utilizing the RTI approach to literacy instruction. I hope that

this student will show growth throughout the course of the lessons taught. In addition, while

engaging in this project, I will strive to grow as an educator and reflect upon my own teaching

practices.

I have chosen my focal student to be Beth who is finishing up her 2nd grade year,

is believed to be 9 years old, and will benefit from additional literacy instruction. Her age is

somewhat ambiguous due to the nature of her adoption from Ethiopia. Because of specific

circumstances, they are unsure of her exact age. When living in Ethiopia, Beth’s parents and

caregivers all passed away, leaving her in the care of an orphanage. Prior to being adopted, Beth

spoke fluent Amharic and spent a lot of time watching TV. Beth’s parents are native and fluent

English speakers and at this time Beth is mostly proficient in English. Since being adopted, Beth

has developed Reactive Attachment Disorder and anxiety. Reactive attachment disorder is a

condition when the child is unable to attach, in a healthy way, to his/her primary caregiver, yet

can easily attach to other adults. As a result, at home Beth exhibits withdrawal, fear, sadness,

anger, and defiance. Therefore, Beth tends to do more reading at school than she does at home

(directly related to the behavior expressed at home versus school). Her parents have explained

that she often is defiant toward any type of literacy learning at home and they often have

arguments about it. They have further explained that she experiences feelings of detachment and

anxiety toward family at home so she typically does not like to engage in any conversations, let

alone regarding anything she reads. As a result, she often spends many days or weeks at a time

with her grandparents by living at their house. I am unclear on the specific nature of their

relationship or any learning activities/discussion regarding her time spent with them. Although
her learning at home can be inconsistent, she is very responsive to reading printed text at school,

as well as text on an iPad utilizing EPIC reading. Over the past year, Beth has specifically

developed a love for reading informational text about African American women, African

American history, and Ethiopia, as well as fictional stories of adoption or Ethiopian stories/books

with Ethiopian or African American characters. Overall, I have known Beth for 9 months as a

student in my 2nd grade classroom. She is considered an ELL learner and also receives social

work services. She reads on grade level, however continues to struggle with comprehension of

text and understanding constructs of a text. She also continues to struggle with her phonemic

awareness understandings and retaining the concepts that she learns and practices.

The climate of our classroom highly promotes independence, cooperation, and risk-taking

through the various team-building experiences, growth mindset understandings and examples,

and the authentic nature of projects we complete throughout our learning. Students have

autonomy in my classroom which stems from interest and independence building, as well as

collaboration with peers. I have built trust with my students through various different activities

and modeling. In turn, students realize their voice is heard and they can make their classroom

into a place where they can engage in learning what they are interested in learning, as well as

make a difference in the world around them. One specific way this looks is that students engage

in literacy activities through different lenses of inquiry. At times these lenses are personalized to

the individual and at times these are related to the classroom on the whole. As they engage in

text, they always have a goal or purpose that could be completed individually, but more often is

completed in a partner or group setting, including small group work. During this work time,

Beth works well with peers and also participates in the learning following the

assignment. Sometimes she relies too heavily on peer support, but when she has a scaffolded
support for independence (such as a checklist or visual plan), she is consistently successful on

her own and with her group. Furthermore, students have the opportunity each day to read for a

purpose – including enjoyment and academic learning (which sometimes look different

depending on our focus). Generally, a quieter environment is encouraged while students are

reading, however it may not be perfectly silent as a student sounds out a word or re-reads aloud

for clarity or fluency, or even shares thinking with a nearby partner. However, when students

engage in discussing a text, there is a general hum of conversation that quickly blankets the room

full of new understandings.

Through the process of inquiry, as well as reading for enjoyment, students typically do

not struggle to stay engaged and motivated in my classroom throughout literacy

blocks. However, occasionally if a student feels overwhelmed and/or needs extra assistance to

complete an activity, it is provided. This happens to Beth often and she spends a great deal of

time checking in with me on each assignment. In addition to this, when students express general

frustration or disinterest in reading, I will talk with the student to help identify the source of the

problem, as well as allow them to share their voice for change. I strive to find a win-win which

could look like meeting the standard in a new and different way or ordering a new series of

books online (with priority shipping, of course!!). I also may create a plan for that student so he

or she can feel successful on their own and mentally rewarded with breaks in their stamina as

they continue to develop as a reader. In this way, typically I have had success with student

responses and an increase in motivation and engagement. As a result of watching this natural

love grow, I do not believe in externally rewarding students for their reading or challenging them

to take multiple choice tests to determine a point value for their understanding. Instead, I find
that the enjoyment that stems from reading what they love and completing an authentic task is

the biggest reward of all.

Part Two: Literacy History, Assessments Given & Summary of Results

Since Kindergarten, Beth has been considered an at-risk reader. Although Beth has been

meeting grade-level benchmarks by the end of the year, she is considered at risk because of the

support she receives. However, this also means that there have been high levels of support

which have been provided through the classroom teacher, interventionist, and ELL teacher. Each

week, Beth is pulled out of the classroom for 30 minutes of direct 1-1 instruction for literacy

support from the ELL teacher and provided 40 minutes of literacy support in a small group

setting from a reading interventionist. Within the classroom, there is also push-in support from

the ELL teacher and parapros who assist with independent work that Beth engages in throughout

our reading and writing blocks of time, as well as the small group and 1-1 supports provided

from the general classroom teacher also. Due to the fact that Beth’s success is heavily reliant on

the support she receives, she is considered at risk. In Kindergarten, Beth was new to America

and had recently been adopted to live with her adopted family. Beth was also new to English

due to the fact that she fluently spoke Amharic while living in Ethiopia. As a result, Beth did not

have any background knowledge to her English understanding. Although this was the case,

Kindergarten is naturally heavy on phonemic development and word recognition. Therefore,

Beth was only slightly behind her classmates in her understanding. Beth had high motivation to

learn English and eager to fit in with her peers. Throughout first grade, Beth continued much in

the same way. Throughout first grade, it became apparent that comprehension was beginning to

become an area of concern.

 While engaging in classroom reading, Beth is engaged in the books she chooses and does

not exude any signs of avoidance throughout her reading time. I would generally categorize her

as having an enjoyment of reading. In particular, this year Beth has developed a fond love for

finding herself within a text. In so many words, Beth experienced frustration and trauma when

realizing she was the only student from Ethiopia in our classroom, as well as the only African

American. One of the things that brought Beth comfort was that she could find others who look

like her or have similar stories in literature. As a result, she has been highly engaged in reading

books that have themes of adoption or characters from Ethiopia. She also has been highly

engaged in reading books with strong female African American leads. In fact, she has not

wanted to part with the books and put them back in their general location within our classroom

library. Instead, she has found and began a shelf in the classroom where these books are housed

(while still accessible to other students also). In addition, through a literary interest inventory, I

learned Beth is motivated to read at both home at school, however she highly prefers to be

reading for enjoyment rather than for an academic purpose (Appendix A).

Beth responds well to individualized instruction and small group teaching. The

interventions provided during our literacy block are within the Lucy Calkins curriculum that is

taught, as well as guided reading. Furthermore, the interventionalist provides Leveled Literacy

Intervention (LLI) support within the 40 minutes of pull-out instruction provided. Similar to

many English Language Learners, she is very successful when she has sentence stems, visual

aids, and guided practice. This can specifically be seen in my classroom through usage of the

gradual release of responsibility. “In general, the gradual-release model describes a process in

which students increasingly assume responsibility and independence toward a targeted learning

outcome” (Morrow & Gambrell, 2019, p. 14). While providing reading instruction to Beth, there
are some challenges that present themselves based on her response to intervention. Currently

Beth still struggles to comprehend grade-level text due to a lack of schema, as well as an

understanding with sight word recognition. Currently, Beth struggles to independently take her

understanding of the text deeper by analyzing the text for meaning. By utilizing several different

assessments, I am able to dig deeper into my understanding of her current reading successes and

areas of support (I will touch on this in my next section more).

One of the assessments that I chose to administer to Beth was the Fontas and Pinnel

running record assessment. This assessment is a required assessment by our school district and

provides insight on Beth’s reading accuracy, fluency, rate, and comprehension. I chose the level

to test Beth at based on her literacy growth that I have identified using prior assessments. For

instance, through this running record assessment, I recognized that Beth was at a Level L

according to Fontas and Pinnel. Because it had been since March that I formally assessed her

using Fontas and Pinnell, I tested her at the next level up which was a Level M (Appendix

B). As Beth read, she made nine miscues. Out of the nine miscues she made, four were self-

corrected, one was teacher told, and the others were uncorrected. The miscues that were

uncorrected were visually similar whereas the miscues that were self-corrected were meaning-

based miscues. To be explicit, when considering the corrected mistakes, Beth corrected herself

when she said “his” instead of “the,” “you” instead of “your,” “I” instead of “he,” “on” instead of

“any.” The uncorrected errors Beth made were “friek” instead of “freak,” “the” instead of “a,”

“suggeted” instead of “suggested,” “moles” instead of “models,” and “barresting” instead of

“bursting.” As a result, Beth scored a 98% on her reading accuracy. She read with a fluency rate

of 2/3 because some words were read in isolation which, at times, made her reading sound

choppy. When scoring her comprehension, Beth scored a 3/9 points with a 2/3 points scored
when she discussed what happened within the story, a 1/3 based on her answers to questions

beyond the text (focusing on the author’s purpose), as well as a 0/3 for her discussion regarding

information about the text. I noticed that as the questions became more focused on interpreting

information about the characters, as well as how characters felt, Beth began to answer the

questions vaguely or answer without any context to the question asked. Based on this

assessment, I determined that much of her energy was going into decoding the text, as well as

her social skill schema to comprehend the story at a level where she could analyze the

characters. I also noticed that many of her miscues had to do with vowel sounds. I also noticed

a frequent mix-up of common high-frequency words and wondered what her understandings

were surrounding this topic. As a result, I administered the Dolch Sight Word Assessment. I

chose this assessment because it focuses on high frequency words. My hope in giving this pre-

assessment was to gain insight on the knowledge that Beth has of words that frequently appear in

a reading passage. Within this assessment, there are five different word lists to read. I began

with the Dolch Pre-Primer Sight Word and she scored 90% correct on this assessment list. In

addition to the Pre-Primer list, she scored 90% on the Primer word list, 95% on the First Grade

word list, 89% on the Second Grade word list, and 92% on the Third Grade word list (Appendix

C).

Reflecting upon this assessment, several strengths and weaknesses were revealed about

Beth’s literacy understandings. I have used this information to guide my instruction so that I can

target specifically where I want to help Beth grow. Due to the fact that Beth showed a lower

percentage on the pre-primer, primer and second grade word list, I looked closer at the words she

missed. These words included several words with the “th-“ letters and sounds at the beginning

of the word. It became clear to me that this was a visual error because Beth was not looking all
the way through the word but rather guessing when she came to a “th-“ word. I knew this would

be a wonderful skill to focus in on and target. Morrow & Gambrell say, “…there is immediate

sight-word recognition which plays two roles in reading. First, some words, such as have, the,

and break, must be learned as sight words because their pronunciations cannot be predicted from

their orthographic patterns” (2019, p.33). They continue to discuss how sight-word recognition

also helps students move from trying to analyze a word and it’s sounds to create meaning into

recognizing the word immediately. This ties directly into my second area of focus,

comprehension, which I chose based on Beth’s running record. They go hand-in-hand due to the

connection between phonics and comprehension. “In short, the goal of phonics and context

instruction is to get to the point where readers need them minimally, thus freeing up their

thinking skills for higher-level processes” (Morrow & Gambrell, 2019, p.33). My goal for Beth

is for her sight-word recognition skills to be mastered first so that she has more mental space to

comprehend a text critically. My plan is to utilize a thinking routine from Ron Ritchhart’s

Culture of Thinking Project. This thinking routine is called “Claim-Support-Question” and it is a

reasoning routine. Ron Ritchhart states that “this routine helps students develop thoughtful

interpretations by encouraging them to reason with evidence. Students learn to identify truth

claims and explore strategies for uncovering truth” (Ritchhart, 2011, p. 11). I chose this because

I plan to use an article that will engage Beth in an area of interest (African-American women &

ballet) and encourage her to make a claim about her thinking regarding the topic. This structure

will support Beth in thinking on her own and thinking beyond the surface level of the text.

VI. Lesson Plans

Directions: Use the following table format to insert the overview of your lesson plan. (Note: You
will insert your full lessons plans along with any materials, assessments, etc. you used in the
Appendix portion listed in Part 3. The purpose of this is provide a brief overview for your
instructor and colleagues to provide feedback on your general plan.)

Objectives (include
Instructional
performance, conditions,
Lesson #1 materials (what will Ongoing assessment
and criterion. State the
Foci and you use to deliver the (to measure attainment
Common Core State
Date main objectives of of objectives)
Standard at the end of
the lesson)
each objective.

• Teacher
observation
during lesson
• Dolch sight word
6/3 Pre-
list
assessment
• Running record
based on the
Misty Copeland
book read aloud

Objectives (include Instructional Ongoing

performance, conditions, and materials (what will assessment (to
Lesson #2
criterion. State the Common you use to deliver measure
Foci and Date
Core State Standard at the end the main objectives attainment of
of each objective. of the lesson) objectives)

The objective of this lesson is for

the student to read commonly -High Frequency
found words with automaticy in Sight Word Cards
order to better support - Game Board (ballet
6/10 High comprehension. themed)
Frequency -White boards
Word CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.2.3.F -Expo Markers
Recognition Recognize and read grade- -Erasers
appropriate irregularly spelled -Magnetic letters
words. -Misty Copeland
Reading Passage
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.2.4
 Read with sufficient accuracy and
fluency to support
comprehension.

Objectives (include Instructional

performance, conditions, materials (what Ongoing assessment
Lesson #3 Foci and criterion. State the will you use to (to measure
and Date Common Core State deliver the main attainment of
Standard at the end of each objectives of the objectives)
objective. lesson)

• Teacher
The objective of this lesson -Misty Copeland observation
is for the student to passage (2 passages during lesson
comprehend grade level text - one for me to • Fountas and
to create meaning using a score and notetake Pinnell
6/12
claim-evidence-reasoning as the student reads Running
Comprehension
routine. & one for the Record
and meaning
student to read) • Pre-
making
CCSS.ELA- -Sticky Notes (for determined
LITERACY.RF.2.4.A claim-evidence- passage from
Read grade-level text with reasoning) level M text
purpose and understanding. -Pencil on Misty
Copeland

Part Three: Reflection

The lessons that I taught to Beth focused on accuracy and fluency, as well as

comprehension. As my understanding of comprehension and accuracy changed throughout the

course, I noticed how my lessons complimented one another by pairing comprehension with

accuracy, rather than teaching them in isolation. This understanding came about while reading
Rescorla’s research (2003) that was stated by Morrow & Gambrell. They described how within

a group of fourth grade students, almost half of them had comprehension difficulties, yet one

third could decord words accurately. As a result, they claim, “these studies dispel the notion that

accurate decoding alone guaranteed comprehension. A significant number of readers who

struggle with comprehension do so despite having adequate word recognition skills” (Morrow

and Gambrell, 2019, p. 222). As you can see, it is necessary for a teacher to guide students in

their understanding of accuracy and comprehension, not teach each in isolation.

I began by assessing Beth on her comprehension with a Fountas & Pinnell running

record, as well as her accuracy of high-frequency words utilizing a Dolch Sight Word List. After

analyzing her understandings, I saw a pattern of misunderstanding regarding words beginning

with the th- digraph. As a result, I chose to create a focus on these words to focus on the

misconceptions present while Beth reads all the way through the word. I began the lesson by

laying out the words that were read inaccurately and asked Beth what she noticed about the

words that were laying on the table. When I asked Beth she accurately pointed out differences

and similarities to the words. She noticed that they all had the letters th- at the beginning of the

word and some had other similar patterns with letters. She also noticed the differences between

word endings by talking about the letter patterns that she saw. I chose to do this because it

allowed Beth agency within the initial context of the lesson. Morrow and Gambrell state,

“...teachers foster agency by providing opportunities for students to stop and talk about their

thinking” (2019, p.239). Next, we focused on a dance-themed game due to her high interest in

dancing. The game board had different pictures of dancers on it and stars sporadically placed

throughout the board. We began with all of our word cards facing down on the table (all the th-

focus words). We took turns flipping over the cards in the pile. Beth read 11 / 16 words
correctly as we played. If she read the word correctly, she moved her game piece on the

board. When she reached a star, she could stand up and dance to any song she chose. If she read

the word incorrectly, she did not move her piece and instead I moved my piece on the

board. After we finished playing the game, I noticed that Beth had missed the word “there” most

frequently, as well as “them” and “then” once each. As a result, she made the word “there” on a

white board using magnetic letters playing a game called mix-and-fix. Beth mixed up the letters

and put them back in order three times. Then she wrote the word on her white board with her

finger and after using a marker. This idea was generated from Jan Richardson Guided Reading

strategies.

Later in our second lesson, comprehension was targeted in addition to accuracy. I chose

a reading passage that incorporates several of the th- words that we focused on in our earlier

lesson. In addition, I chose a passage that is of high interest for Beth because of her motivation to

learn about dance, as well as African American women leaders. I chose to do this as a way of

increasing Beth’s motivation to read the passage. “Motivation is enjoying a book, being excited

about an author, or being delighted by new information” (Morrow & Gambrell, 2019, p. 53).

Therefore, the passage I chose focus on is about Misty Copeland and I began by talking a little

bit about the passage and Beth’s interests surrounding the passage. I chose to do this because it

would trigger her schema on the topic and encourage her to start relating to the passage on

hand. Morrow & Gambrell support this way of structuring a lesson when they state, “Guided

instruction that neglects to engage students’ prior knowledge is attempting to build

comprehension in a vacuum, in the absence of a foundation that is needed to anchor new

learning” (2019, p.110). As we read, she read 46/55 words correctly. I told Beth a few words

after pausing for her to attempt on her own, including “Kansas City, Missouri, Southern,
California, multicultural, theatre.” She had two uncorrected miscues that did not disrupt the

meaning of the text which were “begin” instead of “began” and “hope” instead of “hopes”

(Appendix F). After reading, we engaged in a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning thinking routine. We

began by making a claim together about the passage. I helped scaffold making the claim due to

Beth’s understanding of the routine and levels of comprehension. We decided upon the claim,

“Misty worked hard to follow her dream of being a dancer.” After coming up with this claim,

we looked back in the text for evidence and she wrote her evidence on a sticky note. She wrote

down, “Misty was the first African American principal dancer, She helps other kids want to

dance from her book, & She felt good when she danced.” Lastly, she and I talked about her

reasoning and how she knew that those three statements supported the claim. She shared that the

words the author wrote helped her thinking about this claim.

I think that these lessons contributed to Beth’s overall reading progress due to the

targeted practice that was provided throughout these lessons, however continued support in this

same way is needed to continue the impact that has begun. I saw an impact on her learning due

to the sustained understanding of the targeted high-frequency words when we read. She also

showed this understanding when I re-tested her on the high-frequency words and scored 97% on

the Pre-Primer word list, 94% on the Primer word list, 100% on the First Grade word list, 95%

on the Second Grade word list, and 92% on the Third Grade word list (Appendix

G). Furthermore, Beth was able to find pieces of evidence throughout the text on her own and

was able to support her thinking using the author’s words. Although this thinking is still

simplistic in nature and scaffolded, I believe with continued support that she will continue to be

successful with extending her understandings of a text.

 If I was given another opportunity to teach this lesson to Beth, I would change a few

areas within the lesson. To begin, I would lead with more guided instruction and including an

activity that teaches when to use the comprehension strategy, as well as how to use

it. “Instruction should, therefore, be focused on assisting readers in becoming strategic. That is,

instruction should help readers learn how to become meta-cognitively aware so that they can

actively make decisions on their own about how to make sense of the text” (Morrow and

Gambrell, 2019, p.228). As a result, I would have included part of the comprehension lesson to

include how Beth might use this strategy in her own books or while reading at

home. Furthermore, I would have taken a different route with my initial lesson on high-

frequency words and structured it more as a word study pattern lesson. As I was working

through the lesson with Beth, I noticed that it tended to do more with looking all the way through

the word and the patterns that are present with each word as well as the context for which the

word was used in a sentence. Part of her misunderstanding has to do with her knowledge of

English grammar and how articles are used and exchanged. As a result, a more structured lesson

around the framework for using specific articles of speech may have been more beneficial for her

long-term understanding.

Part 4: Recommendations to Teachers and Parents/Guardians

Dear Teachers and Parents of Beth,

I have had the pleasure of working with Beth for the past couple of weeks. Throughout

our time, we have been focusing on deepening her comprehension while reading a text, as well

as her improving her reading accuracy, specifically using high-frequency words. While Beth and

I worked together, I was able to get to know more about her interests and motivation regarding

literacy. I learned that Beth enjoys to read at home and school, however she highly prefers to be
reading for enjoyment rather than for an academic purpose. She also shared that she is motivated

when she can choose books that are of interest to her, such as books on dance, prominent

African-American women in history, Ethiopia, cultures around the world, and adoption. I also

learned more about Beth as a literacy learner utilizing a few pre-assessments. I used a running

record to inform my teaching practice and found Beth to be reading at an instructional M based

on the Fontas & Pinnell running record assessment. I also gave a pre-assessment on high-

frequency word knowledge, specifically the Dolch Sight Word Assessment. As a result of these

assessments, I chose to focus my lessons around comprehension and accuracy.

Regarding comprehension, Beth showed that she could benefit from more support

expanding her thinking about the text and the main idea of a text. As a result, we engaged in

reading a passage of high interest and discussing the main idea of the text using a thinking

routine called “Claim-Evidence-Reasoning.” I chose this routine to target her understandings

about the text, specifically the main idea of the story. We read a passage about Misty Copeland,

which paired well with Beth’s interest of dance and African American women. As she reflected

on the text, I modeled and scaffolded how she would create a claim. After doing this together,

Beth found three pieces of evidence from the text. She reasoned that these made sense based on

the author’s words. We discussed her thinking using open-ended questions. It was clear that her

understanding on this grew, however in order to continue to be successful independently, I

suggest encouraging Beth to practice this strategy on her own, as well as other comprehension

strategies she learns also.

Throughout our time together, Beth also focused on accuracy. I learned that Beth

uses visual cues often when she is reading and that she is able to self-correct a word to create

meaning. I found that she needed support with reading words that are visually similar to one
another. We specifically focused on words beginning with the th- digraph pattern by analyzing

the similarities and differences, playing sight word games, and using hands on materials for

further practice. I noticed that Beth did well in engaging in discussion about the words and their

similarities/differences. However, when the words were in context of a story, Beth needed some

reminders to read all the way through the word. I suggest that Beth continues to think about the

entire word and break down the word into known parts and un-known parts so she can visually

see the difference while she reads.

In order to continue supporting Beth, her focus should continue to grow on

reading all the way through the word. I suggest focusing on short/long vowels within words, as

well as different spelling patterns so that she can continue to visually see the difference in words

as she decodes unknown words by breaking them apart. Furthermore, Beth could benefit from

continuing to read books that are at her instructional level to grow her reading and support her in

her comprehension strategies. At home, it would be beneficial to listen to Beth read a book and

talk to her about the authors purpose, the main idea, predictions she has, or conclusions she can

make. As a listener, you can be supporting her while she reads by ensuring accuracy (by helping

her find known parts, not telling her the word), as well as discussing the book with her or her

thoughts about it when finished reading. At school, her classroom teacher can continue to meet

with her to work on accuracy strategies, as well as comprehension strategies in a daily small

group setting.

Finally, another way to support Beth in her literacy interests involves finding

books that can be read recreationally , as well as books that can be read for academic purposes. I

found that Beth is more likely to read and want to discuss the book when it is a story that she is

highly interested in reading, as well as texts that support her background knowledge. I suggest
continuing to include several texts about African - American women in history or current, dance,

adoption, and Ethiopia into her reading choices and instruction. I recommend reading A Girl

Named Misty and A Girl Named Rosa by Kelly Starling Lyons. There are other books in this

series also including A Girl Named Hilary and A Girl Named Helen, in addition to other

American Girl Series books. Furthermore, I recommend finding texts that are in both English

and Amharic because Beth has expressed high interest in her home language, as well as

Ethiopia. On Amazon, there are several titles ranging from books showing shapes and colors in

English and Amharic to short story fairy tale texts written in Amharic. Lastly, there are a few

different chapter book series that I would recommend reading with Beth. These would be book

series that are slightly above her reading level, yet would be wonderful options to read together

and discuss. Some suggested series are Ruby and the Booker Boys Series by Derrick Barnes,

Nikky and Deja Series by Keena Ford All Mixed Up-Amy Hodgepodge Series by Kim Wayans.
Appendix A: Reading Attitude Survey
Appendix B: Pre-Assessment
Appendix C: Dolch Word List Pre-Assessment
 Appendix D : Lesson 1

Lesson 1: Accuracy & Automaticity

Date: (anticipated date: 6/10)

Objective(s) for today’s lesson: High Frequency Word Recognition || The objective of this
lesson is for the student to read commonly found words with automatic in order to better
support comprehension.

Rationale The reason I chose to make this my primary lesson is because I noticed that Beth
has been focusing more on the high-frequency words throughout a passage, rather than the
words that relate to content. She has been spending energy into understanding and knowing
these words so that she can make meaning, however due to focusing the most energy on high-
frequency words by the end of the text, the meaning has been lost.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.2.3.F
Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.2.4
Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

Materials & supplies needed:

-High Frequency Sight Word Cards
- Game Board (ballet themed)
-White boards
-Expo Markers
-Erasers
-Magnetic letters
-Misty Copeland Reading Passage
 Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event Academic, Social and
Linguistic Support
• Introduction to the lesson 2 min during each event

Good morning, Beth! Today we are going to be practicing some

words that we see A LOT when we read. It’s so important for us
to be able to read these in a flash so that we can really think more
about what we are reading about. This will help you as a reader
because instead of focusing only on sounding out words, you will
be able to think more about what the story is about! I know from
reading that this makes reading so much more fun and helps it
make more sense too!

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson 15 – 20 min

I previously assessed Beth using a High Frequency word list to

determine the focus words of this lesson. I will begin by choosing
3-5 words at a time for us to focus on throughout the lesson. The
words I have chosen (based on the described pre-assessment) are
“there, they, their, those, the.” I chose these words because they
are visually similar.

I will show Beth all 5 of the words on notecards and lay them out
for her. I will begin by asking, “What do you notice about these
words?” This allows Beth to engage in the learning process and
wondering, rather than me explicitly telling her what to notice. In
turn, this will naturally engage Beth more and encourage her to
pay attention more to the specific details of each word. I will let
Beth explain what she is noticing and guide her thinking using
specific questions such as, “what makes you say that” or “what
differences do you notice?” or “what similarities do you notice?”

Then, I will play a recognition game with Beth which will

incorporate some of her interests. Currently Beth is very excited
by anything involving dance. Therefore, we will be playing our
game on a dance-themed game board. This game board will have
different pictures of dancers on it and stars sporadically placed
throughout the gameboard. The cards will be placed upside down
in a stack on the table. We will take turns flipping over the cards
in the pile. When the card is flipped, Beth will read the card
aloud. If she reads it correctly, she moves her game piece on the
board. When she gets to a star, she gets to stand up and dance to
any song she chooses (or I can choose)!
After we finish playing this game, I will think about what word (or
two) that she frequently missed throughout the time of playing the
board game. Then, I will target this word(s) with a whiteboard &
letter making review. I will have Beth make the word using
magnetic letters on a white board. She will then mix the letters up
on her board, fix them to be the right way, and then slide her
finger underneath the fixed word as she reads it aloud. After she
has done this three times, she will put the magnetic letters back
and write the word with her finger. Finally, she will write the
word with an expo marker.

Lastly, I will have Beth read a passage that incorporates several

of these targeted words in the passage. Furthermore, I have
chosen a passage that is of high interest for Beth because of her
motivation to learn about dance, as well as African American
women leaders. I will be looking for how Beth reads these words
in context.

• Closing summary for the lesson 2 min

I will end by laying out the word cards for the words we worked
on. I will ask Beth how she feels about reading the words that
were targeted in the lesson. I will ask her how she thinks she may
tell the difference between these words and ask her why that is
important for her as a reader. Then I will restate that these are
important for her to learn because part of reading fluently is being
able to read words that show up often in our books so that we can
think more about what the story is about.

• Transition to next learning activity

 Academic, Social,
Assessment and Linguistic
Support during
I will look for Beth to be answering questions I am asking, thinking assessment
about what we are doing, and asking further questions. I will be
trying to gauge her understanding by analyzing the automatic
word recognition that Beth displays with each word. Does she
miss the same word every time? Is there a pattern to her mis-
understanding? Is there something more I can clarify? How does
she transfer this learning into making the word on her own and
reading it in context of a passage?

I will use this to inform my next steps so that I can decide to

continue word recognition skills, target other words in the same
manner, or try a new activity based on information learned about
Beth to help her become more fluent.

Appendix E: Lesson 2

Lesson 2: Comprehension & Main Idea

Date: (anticipated date: 6/12)

Objective(s) for today’s lesson: Comprehension & Main Idea || The objective of this lesson
is for the student to comprehend grade level text to create meaning using a claim-evidence-
reasoning routine.

Rationale The reason I chose to make this my secondary lesson is because we will be
continuing to practice the words targeted within the first lesson, as well make meaning from
the text by finding evidence to support the main idea claim created.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.2.3.F
Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.2.4
Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

Materials & supplies needed:

-Misty Copeland Reading Passage

-Close Reading toolbox: sticky notes, pencil, special pointer, and plastic frame glasses (used
for finding evidence in the text)
-Piece of paper to write down our claim
 Procedures and approximate time allocated Academic, Social and Linguistic Support
for each event during each event

• Introduction to the lesson 2 min

Good morning, Beth! Today we are going to be

practicing reading the passage on Misty
Copeland again. We are going to be re-
reading it today because today we will be
talking about how we can create meaning from
what we read. When we read, it is important
to understand what we read and what they
author is trying to tell us. A lot of times, the
author has something very important that he
or she would like us to understand by the time
we are done reading. That is called the main
idea. I will scaffold this for her by helping her
come up with the claim if she struggles to do
so on her own. Then she can continue to find
• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson 15 evidence on her own. If she struggles to find
– 20 min evidence also, I will model how I found a
piece of evidence from another book and
To begin, I will have Beth read the Misty encourage her to find one in the same way
Copeland passage that incorporates several of from the text we are reading on Misty
the targeted words (from our last lesson) in Copeland.
the passage. I will continue to look for how
Beth reads these words in context.

Since Beth is familiar with close reading

strategies from her teacher this year in 2nd
grade, I will refer to those strategies here. I
will have Beth read through the book one
time. I will remind her that the first time we
read through a book it is a “cold read.” I will
encourage her to self-correct any words that
she reads incorrectly and to attempt any
unfamiliar words within the text.

Next, I will remind her that we will read it

again. When we read it a second time, we will
wear the glasses from our toolbox to get our
eyes ready to find a claim. However, I will let
her know that as she reads, I would like her to
be thinking about something that the author
hopes we learn from reading this book or
something that the author is trying to tell/teach
us. This will help us come up with our claim
after she reads a second time through.

Once she has read it a second time, I will ask

her about her thinking using an open ended
question such as, “What do you think? What
might the author be trying to tell you or teach
you after reading this book?” I will start by
modeling my thinking for her using a book that
we have already read together before. I will
remind her that when she gives a claim about
the book, she needs to have evidence to back
up her thinking. Evidence can be found in the
authors words or the illustrator’s pictures or
photographs. When she gives her answer, I
will ask her for some evidence to back up her
claim. When she is looking for evidence in the
book, she will use a fancy pointer from the
reading toolbox and point to the evidence that
she finds. After she finds it, she can write it
down on a sticky note and stick it on the paper
that states our claim. She will find three
pieces of evidence to support her thinking.

Lastly, Beth will read this a third

time. Before she reads it a third time, I will let
her know that this time she will be thinking
about her reasoning. How does she know that
this evidence backs up her claim? How can
she reason her thinking to be true? This is a
much deeper level of conversation than I am
teaching this lesson, however the exposure to
the concept is something that is necessary and
can be built upon in future lessons.

• Closing summary for the lesson 2 min

To end the lesson, I will restate the learning

target from the lesson by saying that today’s
goal was to create meaning from the book we
are re-reading about Misty Copeland by
thinking about the main idea. We created a
claim about what the main idea of the text is,
found three pieces of evidence to support our
thinking and reasoned that our thinking made
sense based on the author’s words. I will state
something that Beth did which showed her
practicing this skill specifically in order to
boost her morale and motivation in reading.

• Transition to next learning activity

 Academic, Social, and Linguistic
Assessment Support during assessment

I will look for Beth to be reading accurately,

but more-so to be able to explain her thinking
regarding pieces of evidence she finds to
support the claim she creates. Is she able to
create a claim about the main idea? How does
she think about the claim she creates? What
pieces of evidence does she find? Does this
make sense in regard to the claim she
created? How does she reason her thinking
about the claim & evidence to support the
author’s purpose throughout the text?

I will use this to inform my next steps so that I

can decide to continue work on her critical
thinking regarding text interpretation and
comprehension.
Appendix F: Post-Assessment Running Record
Appendix G: Post-Assessment Dolch Word List
Bibliography
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