Date Published: 2004

Title: Chicka Chicka 1 2 3

ISBN #: 978-1-4169-9611-8

Age group/grade: Pre-K – 2nd

What’s it about: This is another fun book for young children to enjoy. These are the same creators of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. In this book the numbers one through one hundred climb an apple tree. They chant ” Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 . . . Will there be a place for me?  Bumblebees tell the numbers to get out of their tree! Lucky for the numbers, zero becomes the hero!

This would be a great book to read aloud. You could even read it along with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. You could have the children create their own Chicka Chicka story.

What have you seen in language arts/reading instruction?

On the last day, I saw the usual reading instruction they do everyday. Guided reading, partner reading, silent reading and teacher directed reading. They worked on some more vocabulary for a new story they were reading. They use basil books for the teacher directed reading.

What have you taught in your internship?

I did not get the opportunity to teach anything on the last day, but did a lot of observing.

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

I thought it was interesting that they used basil books for the teacher directed reading, but figured they are doing what they can to improve their reading scores. I did not want to leave and neither did the students. They gave us hugs and begged us not to leave. The teacher thanked us for all we did and told us good luck in the future. This experience has made me want to be a teacher even more and more comfortable with teaching an upper elementary grade. This is also given me a look at what all is involved in teaching.

What have you seen in language arts/reading instruction?

This week, I did not really see any reading instruction. When they went to a special science activity, the special guest Mr. Hipps did some vocabulary with them. He wanted to make sure they understood what each word was, so when he asked them to solve some problems they would know what he was talking about. When they went to the library, Mrs. Washburn did mad libs with them and had a volunteer read the story out loud.

What have you taught in your internship?

I got the opportunity to work one on one with a fifth grade student on some math problems. This student was not very confident in their work, but they got every answer right. I found it interesting how they solved one of the math problems by counting from the small number to largest number and adding the answers they got to solve the problem. These students are definitely able to solve math problems differently when I was in elementary school. Its amazing how much teaching math has changed.

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

The teacher gave Cassie and I a tour of the school while they were in science. I was surprised to find that the school had a daycare for teachers who had young children to attend. I bet that makes life easy for those teachers. I wonder if all elementary schools are like that? I was also surprised to find that in the fourth and fifth grade building is also where the Exceptional Students’ classrooms are. I think it is nice that they have their own classroom, but wonder why they do not try integrating them into other classrooms. I learned something new in math this week. I learned about the Gallon Man and The Big G. They are visuals that the teachers use to help students convert liquid measurements. The teacher informed that they have the Gallon Man in teacher stores for you to purchase. I had never heard of either one.

Date published: 2000

Title: In November

ISBN #: 0-15-201076-9

Age group/grade: 3 to 7 years old

What’s it about: This is a book about what happens in November. It talks about the sights, the sounds, the scents, and the traditions of this time of year. The air grows cold and the earth and all the animals prepare for winter. The animals seek food and shelter and people gather together to celebrate their blessings with family and friends.

This would be a great book to read aloud. It gives students ideas of what the month of November is like. You could use this book to have students write their own story of what the month of November is like for them. Once each child is done you could put all the stories together and have a classroom book for each student to have about what November is to them.  You could even have them do all the months of year.

Date Published: 2006

Title: The Bad-News Report Card

ISBN #: 0-8234-1992-4

Age group/grade: K-3rd

What’s it about: Isabel knows that her report card will have all excellent on it. She has a rotten day and Adam tells her that she is going to have needs improvement written all over it. She fears that Adam is right and tries to devise a way to hide it from her parents. She tries to leave it on the bus. After all that worrying, she ends up getting the report card she wanted.

This would be a great book to use as a read aloud. It would be a great way to explain report cards to your students. It would also let them know that even though they may have one bad day, it does not effect their grades.

What have you seen in language arts/reading instruction?

This week they did their usual reading assignments, but they also focused on vocabulary. On Monday, Nov. 16th, they learned the vocabulary words and the motions the teacher made to go with them. On Wednesday, Nov. 18th, they reviewed the vocabulary words and the motions and then read a story that had those vocabulary words in them. The story was teacher guided with the teacher asking questions about the story.

What have you taught in your internship?

I got the opportunity to work one on one with two fifth grade students on some math problems. I was amazed at how one student understood the idea of decomposing numbers. I also found it astounding that they solved the first problem in their head and very quickly as well. Math is not my strongest subject, so I know that it would take me a while to solve problems in my head.

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

I thought it was interesting that the teacher had the students do motions to go with the vocabulary words they were learning. I felt like it helped them remember them better. I find it very nice that the principal will sometimes eat lunch with the students. It shows that the principal cares about the school, staff and students. There are few students who eat butter and crackers with their lunch. I do not see how that is healthy, but they seem to enjoy it. I love walking into the classroom and seeing the smiles on those students faces when we show up. I also like how they ask us to help them with some of their work. It makes me feel needed and wanted. I learned from the music teacher that this class is her most challenging class to work with. She said she has a hard time getting them interested in what she is trying to teach.

Date Published: 2003

Title: The Boy Who Looked Like Lincoln

ISBN #: 0-8431-0271-3

Age group/grade: K+

What’s it about: This book is about a boy named Benjy who looks just like Abraham Lincoln. He gets stovepipe hats every birthday and has to play Lincoln in every school play. He is always getting teased. Over the summer he goes to a camp called What-cha-ma-call-it, which is a camp for kids who look like things! There are kids who look like frogs, toasters, and even the backside of a horse. While Benjy is at this camp he learns some important lessons about himself and the things that truly make a person special.

This would be a great book to use as a fun activity for students in your class to imagine looking like someone famous or an object. This would be a great book to read aloud. The pictures are very colorful and full of lots of detail. This would be a great way to teach students a lesson about being proud of who they are and knowing what makes them special.

What have you seen in language arts/reading instruction?

Everyday they focus on reading. When we first get there, students are answering questions about a book they are reading titled Because of Winn-Dixie. They then partner up and read the next chapter of the book until it is time to go. When Mrs. Revilla’s homeroom students enter, they get silent reading time. Some of the students take an AR test on a book they are reading. The school is trying to improve its reading scores for this year. When they go to library, Mrs. Revilla checks their books to see if they are reading at the correct level. When she reads from a textbook, she has the students follow along silently.

What have you taught in your internship?

This week, I gave the fifth graders another spelling assessment. I gave them the 1st and 2nd grade list to see if there was any improvements from the last spelling assessment we gave them. I was given the opportunity to grade a few papers to help the teacher out.

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

The whole school is very focused on improving reading scores. Some of the teachers seem like they are always in bad mood, but this week seemed different. They seemed to be in a better mood. The students are showing great improvement, but you can still see who the troublemakers in the classroom are. I have also noticed that the students get silent lunch for the first 5 to 10 minutes of lunch. I do not really agree with that, but it seems to work for this school. I enjoy seeing the fifth graders eyes light up when they see us in the classroom. It makes me feel like I can really make a difference in a child’s life.

I can see that her home room students are not on a fifth grade spelling level from the spelling assessment we gave them. They had a hard time and some of the students made the comment of how hard some of the words were. These were words they should know how to spell. Cassie and I are going to give them another spelling assessment to see if they do any better. On Mondays the students have library and Mrs. Revilla looks at their books to see if the reading level is too high or too low for them and tells them to pick something on their reading level. On Wednesdays they go to music. They seem to really have a lot of fun there. We had a substitute this last Wednesday and they knew how to push her buttons. I remember having substitutes and the students being out of hand. Trying to see how far they can push the teacher.

I really enjoy Mrs. Revilla. She seems to know her students pretty well and does not take any attitude from them either. She seems to be sarcastic with them a lot and encourages them to do their best. I do not agree that with the fact that the students always have silent lunch at the beginning. I think that students should be able to talk during lunch, it helps with their social skills. I found out that when the students have P.E., they do not have recess after lunch. I think that they students should be active as much as possible. It helps them focus on the subject they are learning about. It has been nice that Mrs. Revilla has had us help out in the classroom. It helps give us some hands on experience.

On the first day at Glen Alpine, Cassie and I took the time to get to know the students and the teacher and see what they daily routine was. We got a nice surprise because we got a chance to see a guest speaker, Kelly from WBTV news. She is the weather woman. I learned a lot about weather and what all goes into making the weather broadcast happen. Kelly seemed to really enjoy speaking to the entire 5th grade. At the end of the presentation, everyone got a pencil including me. We got to observe the students during reading, music, lunch, recess, and math. During reading, I got to listen to one of the students read to me. She did a great job and seemed to really enjoy this book.

Accuracy in word decoding — readers must be able to sound out words in a text with minimal errors. To assess this dimension you calculate the percentage of words a reader can accurately decode on grade-level material.

Automatic processing – readers need to expend as little mental effort as possible in the decoding aspect of reading so they can use their finite cognitive resources for meaning making. To assess this dimension you look at student’s reading rate. Have students orally read a grade-level passage for 60 seconds and count the number of words read correctly. Then compare it to the target rate.

Prosodic reading – readers must parse the text into syntactically and semantically appropriate units. To assess this dimension you listen to students read a grade-level passage and judge the quality of the reading using a rubric that scores a student on expression and volume, phrasing, smoothness and pace.

2. Rasinski refers to fluency as a “bridge” between decoding and comprehension. What does he mean by the “bridge” metaphor?

He means that fluency is what connects decoding and comprehension.

3. What instructional methods does Rasinski suggest for students with difficulties in automatic and prosodic reading?

Assisted readings – teacher reads a passage first, and then has students read along silently and then out loud as a group. Sometimes students read with a partner either on their reading level or with a fluent reader. Sometimes students read silently while listening to the story on tape.

Repeated readings – students read the same text over and over until they get it correct 100%. The students then orally interpret the text they have been working on. Sometimes teachers have the students perform their reading in front of the class.

Coaching – the teacher coaches students by making them aware of their own interpretations of the text and moving them toward deeper levels of interpretations and meanings.

4. Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MFS) is used to measure prosodic quality of oral reading. List components of the MFS and describe what each refers to (p. 49).

Expression and Volume – 1. reads words as if simply to get them out. Reads quietly. 2. Begins to use voice to make text sound like natural language in some areas of the text but not in others. Still reads quietly.  3. Makes text sound like natural language throughout the better part of the passage. Voice volume is generally appropriate throughout the text. 4. Reads with good expression and enthusiasm throughout the text. Volume varies to match his or her interpretation of the passage.

Phrasing – 1. Reads in monotone with little sense of phrase boundaries. 2. Frequently reads in two- and three-word phrases, giving the impression of choppy reading. 3. Reads with a mixture of run-ons, mid-sentence pauses for breath, and some choppiness. 4. Generally reads with good phrasing, mostly in clause and sentence units, with adequate attention to expression.

Smoothness – 1. Makes frequent extended pauses, hesitations, false starts, sound-outs, repetitions, and/or multiple attempts. 2. Experiences several “rough spots” in text where extended pauses or hesitations are most frequent and disruptive. 3. Occasionally breaks smooth rhythm because of difficulties with specific words and/or structures. 4. Generally reads smoothly with some breaks, but resolves word and structure difficulties quickly, usually through self-correction.

Pace – 1. Reads slowly and laboriously. 2. Reads moderately slowly. 3. Reads with an uneven mixture of fast and slow pace. 4. Consistently reads at conversational pace.