Ideas for Supporting S in Literacy

1.   What have I learned about my buddy’s needs, abilities and interests?

When I first met S, her open face and ready smile put me immediately at ease.  She is excitable, talkative and eager to please.  When I first asked her about herself she told me that she liked penguins and pandas, M and Ms, painting with watercolors, reading and science.  She also told me that she likes to be clean and organized.  When she went on to share some of her writing with me, I noticed that she likes to move fairly quickly over the text (familiar because it is hers), reading with some expression in her voice.  A few times I heard her use a past tense verb where present tense was appropriate, and I thought there was a slight mispronunciation of a “d” or “t” as a “b,” but I could not confirm it as it was not consistent. 

Then she read from a text they were reading in class.  I have a sense that she is rushing her reading a bit, adding endings to words and naming similar sight words that don’t make sense, but moving on anyway.  When I stopped her and asked her what was going on in the story, she could not quite figure it out either through words or in the pictures.

I asked her about what she likes to read.  Immediately she said, “Ramona.”  When I asked her to tell me about the story she described details with interest and characters with insight.  There is a bit of a conundrum for me: she clearly understands some things, but completely misses others.  She gets the overall gist of passages, but not the details.

In subsequent reading time together I discovered that she loves to read and is proud of it: “I read 130 words per minute!”  As we began to do our own assessment I found that she can read some passages fairly quickly (just over 100 wpm) with fluidity and expression, but others are quite slower, sometimes even in the same passage.  This overall inconsistency seems to be related to decoding unfamiliar words, especially names and words over 3 syllables long.

In both the spelling and reading inventories I found that she likes to do them as long as she feels successful and wants to stop the moment it gets hard for her. When asked if she would like to go back to the text and look for the answers she didn’t remember, she politely says “No.”

Most intriguing to me over these past two meetings with her is her choice of reading materials.  She chose to read one of several “Hannah West” novels written by a local librarian and set here in the Seattle area.  The author writes with suspense that is difficult for S to understand, yet she reads on.  It surprised me that she continues to read when she seems to be missing big chunks of the plot.  (Then I just read Tovani and she tells the story of her friend that likes to read Anna Karenina every year and see what new insights he finds.)  I like puzzles, especially real-life ones like this one!

2.   As a result of this knowledge, what learning objectives and materials are you considering using for your next lesson?

If given the opportunity I would work with S on several fronts.  The first is the strategy of asking questions as I read.  This is a valuable skill to start growing for all readers and could be especially helpful to S right now.  I would model how I do it right from the start by looking at the title and through the pages of the text.  As I go on to read the text, I would stop to ask questions aloud.  Ideally, we would then move to guided reading groups so that students can give each other insight from their perspectives as well.  For the text, I would ask Maggie, her teacher, for guidance on a grade-level text and a group of students at similar reading levels. As they stop and voice their questions, I would write them down.  As they find answers I will ask for their evidence (informal assessment that will guide further instruction).  I want to make explicit the many clues we find in what we read. I would like to do this with both fiction and non-fiction.

Second, I would like to do a reading inventory of words that begin with “b,” “d,” and “t,” as well as a list of verbs, to see if I can pinpoint the problem in what I hear.  It may not show up in her reading a list of words, but I would like to see if it does.

Third, I would like to help her find a just-right book for her independent reading and check in regularly to see if she is understanding the text. She is very excited about reading and likes to think of herself as a good one.  I want to do what I can to support her where she is and promote her growth and development.  Any suggestions?

Analysis of S's Writing and Lesson Plan

Analysis

My analysis of S’s writing is based on a final draft to a writing prompt entitled “The Real S”, a first draft of a story, conversations we’ve had, and a spelling inventory that I did with her.

Ownership and Meaning
From the sparkle in her eyes when she shyly describes and reads her writing, I sense that S feels ownership of and enjoys her self-expression in her writing. While she is trying to follow all of the rules and guidelines of writing, her voice and ideas are budding. In her piece about herself, she surprises me with some personal details: “it makes me feel as clean as soap”; “I need to be by myself”; and “the insects tickle my hand.” Her story, however, tries to move her meandering plot along without as much interesting detail.

Six Traits Assessment
When looking at S’s ideas I found them to be reasonably clear and working toward developing more details and personalization. She is beginning to learn how to move from general observations to specifics; experimenting with ways to draw the reader into her ideas and story (use of simile and words like “suddenly”); and stays on topic fairly well. If I were to pick one thing for her to focus on in ideas, it would be to flesh out more details in the story line.

S’s organization was better in her self-portrait than her story; perhaps because it was a final draft. She demonstrated logical and effective sequencing, decent transitions and an inviting introduction. The structure was predictable and the conclusion was recognizable, but repetitive. In her story, transitions were unclear, the sequencing had a few problems that detracted from the story, and sometimes the pacing felt awkward.

I have a sense of voice emerging from S’s work – shy and wanting to do things right. As described in Ownership above, she does add a few personal details that offer some personal insight and playful description. She is earnest and attempting to connect with her audience – “Just ask my third-grade teacher!” Finally, she is aware of her purpose and does attempt to use content to support it.

Her teacher tells me that she was in ELL until last year which may explain her why her verbs are often misused and mostly passive. Overall, her word choice lacks originality and refinement. Words and phrases are functional with a few shining moments. Words are adequate in a general sense. In our conversations she uses more interesting adjectives. I suspect that her writing will blossom in this area this year.

In the area of sentence fluency S has much work to do. Sentences are sometimes choppy, incomplete or awkward. Many sentences begin the same way, although some interesting variety is attempted. Mostly her sentences are functional; she has not yet developed creativity or fluidity in their flow, individually and together. I would encourage her to read her work aloud and think about how it sounds, flows and entices the reader to keep reading.

Conventions on her rough draft reveal a student with some sense of punctuation: periods, commas and quotation marks are attempted, and often are correct. Her grammar is challenged most in her use of verbs – knowing how to phrase a verb and in what tense. She knows to indent a paragraph, but not when to start a new one. She also knows to capitalize some words, but has some confusion over which ones. In her final draft there are only a few mistakes showing that she paid good attention to her edits. The presentation of her final draft is neat and organized.

Spelling
In her final draft S misspells the following: “finnaly,” “my self,” and “shoulded.” I did notice that “finally” and “myself” were misspelled on the rough draft of her other story and remained uncorrected, so perhaps they have not yet been brought to her attention. Also in the rough draft of her story were some different errors: “squrill,” “chating,” “scearmed,” and “knok.” Not bad for 6 pages of writing that included words like: kitchen, suddenly, mouth, chicken, jealous, heartbreaking, and curious. She is facile with consonants, vowel patterns, most diagraphs and blends. She uses but confuses double consonants and could learn the milk truck trick for “ck.” Overall, S appears to me to be in the middle of learning “Syllables and affixes,” as confirmed on the Bear & Barone Spelling Inventory(1989), especially with unfamiliar words like pleasure, fortunate, and civilize (spelled plesher, forjenit, and sevleise) . Because LWSD uses the Wordly Wise books for spelling and word work (which does great things with prefixes, suffixes, bases, roots and meaning) I would add one or two frequently misspelled words to her list each week. The reading from Cambourne has impressed me to the point that I would like mostly to encourage her to keep writing and editing, only then adding my edits, which, so far, she pays close attention to. Through this process she will naturally acquire the skills she needs.

Lesson Plan

I will demonstrate moving from first-draft writing to second-draft, concluding with an opportunity for students to practice the skills.

Objectives

Students will be able to think about their reader(s) and how they want to communicate the information to them. Using a rubric like Routman’s “What a Good Writer Does” (Writing Essentials, 2005, page 151) students will be able to read, and reread, their first draft to make edits: moving parts around to provide more clarity and keep ideas together; providing more details in places that are lacking; and adding more interesting ways to say things.

Standards
EALR: 3 The student writes clearly and effectively.

3.1. Develops ideas and organizes writing.

3.2. Uses appropriate style.

3.3. Knows and applies writing conventions appropriate for the grade level.

Materials
Lined paper and pencils.

Instructional Strategies

Depending on time, this may be a two or even three-part lesson.

I will start the lesson by writing in front of the class demonstrating my thinking and edits as I read and reread along the way. I will pay particular attention to my intended readers, brainstorming and then moving like ideas together, thinking about details my reader may need to know, and writing in a way that draws my reader into the topic. When finished, I will check the rubric and reread again checking things off as I go.

We will then do one together entitled: “What a Substitute Teacher Needs to Know about this Class.” I will have them contribute edits along the way, and checking the rubric at the end.

They will then work on a piece by themselves entitled “What New Students Need to Know about this Class,” going through the same process.

Assessment
I will do mini-conferences with students while they work checking for organization of ideas, paragraphs centered on one idea, clarity of information for the “new student,” interesting descriptions.

Afterwards I will check their drafts for editing marks showing that they changed things to make them better: organization, word choice, and meaning/clarity of information. Specifically, I am looking for evidence of edits: things crossed out, circled and moved, inserts, etc.

Let There Be Light

Yes the holidays are upon us again.  This year is very different for me.  In years past I would not have even considered putting any Christmas lights up before Thanksgivinhg.  As is often the case in my life, when I have strong feelings and reactions at one time in my life, I get to experience the "other side" somewhere down the line.  That would be this year. I kid you not; Halloween had scarcely been gone one week, when I began to pine for colorful lights to shine at night brightening our ever-earlier darkness.  The odd thing is that my whole family felt this way - unheard of for each of us!  We made quick work of hanging lights, checking bulbs and setting the timer.  Now as the twilight approaches, lights magically appear chasing away the darkness.  Why might I write this for my literacy blog you may be asking yourself.  Good question. 

I liken illiteracy to darkness.  Each tiny step we take, or help someone else take toward literacy brings light to our lives; the ability to communicate our needs and our gifts with possibilities for ever-more growth.  As my classmates and I grow our writing skills, and our toolboxes for teaching both reading and writing, we carry the potential for bringing light to others - the very light that helps them grow further into their blossoming.  This may be the most significant thing we get to do.  The big idea for me - Let There be Light - and do everything that I can to support it whenever the spirit moves me!

Writing, writing, writing

What is the dang deal?!  Writing for me feels like such a labor.  I have really enjoyed reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.  She is emotionally dramatic and deft at writing about it.  It makes me laugh out loud!  My own problem with writing is that I am not sure that what I have to write about is all that interesting and worth the time to put it to paper.  Don't get me wrong.  I love, love, love to learn.  And I get very excited about many of the things I learn.  I really enjoy the interconnectedness of all the things I learn; the metaphors, large and small, that play out in my mind across disciplines.  It is the putting it to paper that feels like pulling teeth for me. I am just not sure that my meanderings are worth the time and effort.  Once in a while I appreciate a well-turned phrase that falls onto the page from my mind, but overall it feels like so much digging, so few pearls.  And all that work when there are so many other fabulous things to put my energies to.  There. I wrote it.  This is really hard for me.  Now I need to get on to writing some other reflections for other assignments.  Perhaps some more coffee, some feeding of the animals, a breath of fresh air, a snuggle and then some more writing . . .

Emerging Literacy

Wow, what a full week of insight into literacy.  Reading Fox has given me much insight into the emergence of literacy which was then very exciting to take into the classroom with our Kindergarten Buddy (KB from here on out).  I am trying to figure out if she is what Fox would call Alphabetic, perhaps, threshold Alphabetic.  She understands that letters represent sounds, can name them, give their sounds, and even knows what letters are used in her classmates names.  While doing the Emergent Literacy Profile with her, I noticed that she is reluctant to look for picture cues, so focused is she on the words and sounding them out. She shows great perseverance when attempting to decode a word, even unfamiliar names.  She does not use picture cues for clues, is even reluctant to do so with prompting.  It seems that she feels so close to getting the word that she does not want to take the time to look at the picture.  While she is being a word detective, I am in awe of being an emergent literacy detective!

I am excited to spend more time her today to see if she uses the analogy strategy to decode words.  Given that she understood the rhyme and beginning sound part of the ELP so well, I suspect that this will be fun for both of us.

The Fabulously Intricate Web of Literacy

Reflecting on the learning-to-read journeys of myself and my two daughters in light of the reading we did in Barbara Fox's Word Identification Strategies has been illuminating. I have been especially struck by the pre-literacy learning that unfolds for us. Each daughter definitely went through these stages with different strengths and speeds.  I remember one of them at around 3 saying "PCC" when we went to the store.  I was so impressed that she knew those letters (especially the P), and then quickly realized that she knew the logo and what we called it.  That was strange for me to simultaneously appreciate a logo so that my daughter could take another step toward literacy, and to dislike that companies can use this information to try and create brand loyalty at a very young age!  Nonetheless, as parents, we celebrated when our children recognized symbols in our culture; stop signs, walk signs, different bathroom symbols, different animal crossing signs - we especially delighted in the goose and horse crossing signs which then inspired some art projects when we got home.  (Sidebar: It occurs to me that Washington state sends out little developmental postcards to parents of children born here.  They should include ways for parents to help children with the early stages of literacy.)

In the light of my deepening understanding I look forward to working with my Kindergarten buddy today, to think about her stage of literacy which I would guess is on the threshold of alphabetic.

Literacy Just Keeps Growing

The Sulzby and Teale article resonated deeply with the way that I raised my kids - thinking of literacy through our every day lives from lists and love notes, to favorite books and recipes. Writing utensils and media were readily accessible and regularly used. Most of all sharing the pure love of a story well-told and art that makes you pause in awe, wonder or fits of laughter. I guess I am saying that I have personal experience with the efficacy of these methods. What a fabulous idea to do it in the classroom too. I especially love the cozy library and the writing center ideas, perhaps with little mailboxes for everyone in the classroom.

It was timely for me to write this today because my 11 year old just discovered a "journal" that she wrote when she was 4 or 5. It took her a long time to decipher her original meaning from vowel-less spellings and little drawings, but it seemed to return to her with a burst of insight into her young self. Delightful. Her sophistication with reading, writing and oral expression continue to grow exponentially. I am excited to deepen my understanding of their development.