Final essays for EDR 626 Fall 2013

Name: Bobbe Jo Mills

1. As a result of this work, what have you learned
I have learned that Melanie has several strengths as a reader and writer and that she is eager
and motivated to learn. Some of the strengths that I learned about Melanie are that she
understands the earlier behaviors of reading and writing, such as: letters make up words and
words make up sentences. She now knows all of the letters and sounds of the alphabet. She
understands which direction to go when she reads and writes. She demonstrated these skills in
the informal reading inventory and in her lessons. She also takes on new knowledge quickly.
Prior to working with her on comprehension I learned from the think-a-loud that Melanie is able
to review what she reads but was not able to questioned what she reads or was being read to
her at a deeper level. After working with her on comprehension she is able to monitor and
question her learning. For example when we worked on a text and she wasnt sure what
immigrant meant she stopped and talked about it. Then she linked that to why the lady was
speaking a language that the boy did not understand.
From the informal reading inventory I took away that Melanie was well below the 1
st
grade
reading level for the beginning of the year. We have been working on this in a guided reading
group and she in now able to read a level 4 independently and a level 5-6 is her instructional
level. Although Melanie is still below the 1
st
grade level she is making progress and has great
comprehension skills in place that will help her when she reads higher level text. When Melanie
makes a substitution in reading she is usually using meaning and structure with the miscue.
Once she is able to link in all sources of information and use re-reading as a skill to help herself, I
am confident that she will take off as a reader.
Melanie has some very miner developmental speech issues that do minimally interfere with her
being able to hear and write the proper sound, but she will outgrow that.
In regards to my instruction with Melanie, I think that the think aloud assessment was most
revealing assessment that I did. This assessment changed the way I approached comprehension
with her by using the strategies from the chapter 2 Queries from the book Question the Author
and the video Teaching Text Making Meaning. In the past I have always used text that was at
the reading level of the student. It was different for me to work with a more difficult text and
help her learn to question the authors purpose and question why the author wanted us to
know that. In our guided reading we read a book called The Turtle by Lesley Jane, this book left
Melanie wondering about why the turtle came onto the beach at night and laid her eggs. So I
found the book One Tiny Turtle by Nicola Davies.
Once we read the One Tiny Turtle we could start to answer some of those questions and it also
allowed Melanie to see that sometimes a book doesnt tell us everything we need or want to
know so we can keep reading different books on the topic to learn more.
Final essays for EDR 626 Fall 2013
I think after having read and watched the video and having practiced this style of instruction I
will be more comfortable using this again with Melanie in more lessons but also more
importantly I can use this type of instruction with other students and teach them how to
question what is the authors purpose. I also feel that the mistakes I made with Melanie, using
text that was too easy was a good lesson that helped me to realize what I may not have, if you
would not have pointed out to me.
What has your student learned
Melanie has grown as a first grader reader in our time together. I do plan to continue working
with her in a few different areas after the class is finished just because I think that new evidence
has been brought to my attention and I would like to spend some time with her working in those
areas. Those areas are guided reading and word work. I would like to help her develop some
word attack strategies other than just trying to sound it out. In a few lessons that we have had,
she has started to look for a word that she knows or a part of a word that she knows that can
help her. An example of that is she read She come up onto the sand and digs a hole.
When she came to the word sand she was able to read it by finding the word and and then
putting s- and together to say sand.
In the time that we have had together Melanie has taken on new knowledge but more
importantly she sees herself as a hard worker. Which I tie back to a book that I read by Peter H.
Johnstons called Opening Minds Using Language to Change Lives. In chapter 2 it talks about the
Dynamic-Learning Beliefs and the Fixed-Performance Beliefs. It shows how students that are
referred to as hard workers do better with tasks and are more willing to risk than students who
are referred to as smart. I have been encouraging Melanie in our lessons and praising her for
her hard work. Melanie now sees herself as a reader! She is now reading books that she is
confident in. She is able to talk about books and question why the author it telling us that. For
example: In the book The Gardener by Sarah Stewart, a young girl tells the story through letters
that she is writing. She first writes to her crabby uncle who lives in the city and that she is going
to go live with. Later in the story he writes to her family. Melanie very quickly picked up and
understood what was going on in the story without me explaining it to her. She said, Oh I get it,
she is going on a trip and writing letters to her family. Later in the story Lydia writes to her
family and tells them about a secret place and her great plans for it, but before I can even read
on to find out what the plan is Melanie stops me and says. I know she is going to make a garden
on the roof for her uncle to try to cheer him up. He is going to love it! On the second to last
page of the book there are no words but I asked Melanie to tell me what she thought was going
on and she said, I think that her uncle is going to miss her as much as she is going to miss him,
but she missed her family so she wants to go home too! That is a perfect explanation, the
picture shows Lydias uncle giving her a big hug as she gets ready to get on the train to go home.
On the last page Lydia and her grandma are planning to start a new garden. Melanie wonders,
Will it be bigger than the one she had at her uncles? Will her uncle come to visit and see it?
These are both great questions that the author doesnt reveal to us. These are just a few of the
examples of the questioning and thinking that Melanie has been able to do with harder level
text.
Final essays for EDR 626 Fall 2013
Name: Bobbe Jo Mills
2. How have you grown in response to your own engagement in the experiences of EDR 626?
My teaching goal goes along with this course standard. Understand types of assessments and their
purposes, strengths, and limitations. (IRA 3.1)
Prior to taking this course I was aware of assessment and had an understanding of why my district
required it, but the knowledge that I have gained goes beyond that now and is helping me in my
teacher role. This year I have taken the lead to fully implementing RtI in my building. The building
that I teach in is only in its second year. Last year with the support of the kindergarten and first
grade teachers, we were able to start RtI at those grade levels only. This year I have been faced with
the challenge of working with upper elementary students that are struggling with reading and
writing. Because I come from a background of teaching kindergarten, I dont have the knowledge
and experience of working with this type of learner. Last year on a few different occasion, I would
have a teacher come to me and say for example How can I help this student, he is struggling with
comprehension? Last year I was very unsure what to do. I would say let me talk to a colleague and
get back to you. I would then consulate a colleague and go along with what they recommended but
if that didnt work, I would have to go back and say I tried that, it didnt work. Do you have any
other suggestions? Then I would go from there. Although colleagues are a great resource, I now
can go back to the research and look at that. I can use the article Reciprocal Teaching to try that out
as an intervention for students who are struggling with comprehension, I can also use what I have
learned from Question the Author and Making Meaning with Text. I feel confident now to complete
a think a loud assessment, which I had never done before. I can then write up an analyses and
review the results to determine what type of thinking or focuses the student is using and from there
determine the next step. This will then allow me to say to that teacher that we can do some
informal assessment on this student and from the results we can develop a plan. This information
can show us what type of support the student may need so that we can start to address the problem
sooner. In the past I felt like we can try this and we can try that and too much time was lost. With
my new understand of the types of assessment that are available I can use that knowledge or the
resources from the class to determine the type of assessment that would work best, administer the
assessment, then us that information to make a more educated teacher decision on the next step.






Final essays for EDR 626 Fall 2013
Name: Bobbe Jo Mills
a. What experiences have been helpful to your learning?
The time that we spent reading and talking about assessments has given me a
clearer understanding of assessment and the different types and why and when
they should be used. I also feel more confident in what I should do with the
information that is gathered from assessments.
I also thought that the Blackboard conference that we had was a very useful and
informative. I think that would have been useful to have the week of December 3
rd

so that we could have talked about what we learned and you could have used that
to help us prepare for the final or even have an oral exam with a rubric so that we
can make sure we are prepared with the proper information to grade us for the
final. I sometimes think it is easier to talk about this rather than put it into writing.
The examples that you posted for us to look at, for example the lesson that you
shared (video) and then the lesson plans gave a clear picture of what your
expectation were.
I like it when you posted the power point and included the audio to go with it for
the weeks we did not have class. I found that audio enhanced the power point and
made it easier to understand.

b. What experiences would enhance your learning in this class?
I think that more sample videos of teachers working with students would
enhance my learning, I am a visual learner and it helps to see another teacher in
action.
Having a partner in class with a student the same grade level or close to the
same grade level to work with would help. The couple of times that I was able to
talk with Kerri and Tara about their student helped me think about my student
and see things from a different perspective.

c. In what ways were the organization of and expectations for course assignments made clear and in
what ways could the expectations and organization be clarified further?
The Blackboard resources by week was very clear about what was due, once you
added the checklist of what was due each week.
The syllabus was somewhat confusing at first. I think the way you explained it in
class the first night helped me to understand it, but once we got a few weeks
into the class, it was just easier to use Blackboard.
The examples of assignments help with clarifying what you are looking for.
The examples could be posted sooner in order to have more time to work on
them, especially when it is a week that we are not meeting face to face.
Final essays for EDR 626 Fall 2013
I dont think I am still have a clear understanding of a lesson log, the sample you
gave us seems like it was written for a different class, the layout is different. I
found the sample hard to work with and somewhat more confusing from what
we talked about in class. I would recommend using a sample from our class that
someone did a great job on to share with your next class.

d. Would you prefer weekly face-to-face meetings or some weeks in which you work outside of class
(hybrid)?
I think meeting every week may have been easier. I felt more comfortable with
the expectations when we talked about them in class.
I think because we did not meet every week more time was spent on looking
ahead at what was coming up, which took away from time that could have been
spent talking about what the actual expectations of the assignments.

e. What would you do to make out-of-class sessions productive?
Have a collaborate time set up so students will plan to meet and post questions
to peers and talk about some of the problems they are having with their
student partner and get feedback on what to work on in lesson or assignments.
I realize you tried to offer this but I dont think it was taken advantage of.

f. What is your advice to a graduate candidate who is enrolling in EDR 626 for Winter 2014?
My advice would be if you can, work with a student partner that is in 3
rd
grade
or higher. Most of the examples that you share are from older students and I
think it would have been easier to have a student that was able to read when
doing the comprehension assessment.
My advice would also be if you have class on a Tuesday then plan on preparing
your lesson on Wednesday for your student and then work with them on
Thursday that way you will have time over the weekend to prepare for the next
class. Out of class work takes a lot of time.
Plan ahead to give yourself plenty of time to do the readings and the
assignments for class.