Student Teacher: Elilynn Haupu

Mentor Teacher: Stephanie Taira

Grade Level: 2nd Grade Number of Students: 22

Content Areas: Reading and Math

Special Needs Considerations: Reading

Ka’elepulu is a small school consisting of 200 students. There are typically two teachers

per grade level depending on the size of the class, if not the ratio of students to teacher is 18:1. If

there is two teachers in the same grade level, the two teachers will have one room to share and

split the classroom in half. The classroom is split in half with a divider to keep the privacy of one

class from another. For example my mentor teacher has another teacher in grade level as well.

They use a few boards to split the classroom in half and they decorate and organize their half of

their room. Out of the 200 students, 1% of the students are English Language Learners, 6% of

the students receive Special Education services, and 14% of the students are eligible for Free or

Reduced Lunch.

At Ka’elepulu, the assessment tool that is used is called iReady. On iReady, this

assessment tool is accessed online through computers. The students use this tool mainly for

reading and math. When the students use this tool, it is to help them improve their reading and

math skills along with keeping track of how the students progress are in reading and math. My

mentor teacher was able to show me her students diagnostic results from when they first started

at the beginning of the year and how they are doing now. At the beginning of the year, 53% of

students were on or above grade level, 25% of students were one grade level below, and 20% of

students were two or more grade levels below in reading. As of December, 75% of students are

on or above grade level and 25% of students are on grade level or below in reading. As for math
at the beginning of the year, 45% of students were on or above grade level and 55% of students

were one grade level below. As of December, 80% of students are on or above grade level and

20% are one grade level below in math.

Based on the results from the iReady diagnostics, there has been a huge improvement in

both content areas, but some of my students are still struggling with reading more than math. The

25% of students who are placed at one grade level below in reading are mainly struggling with

phonics, high frequency words, vocabulary, literature, and informational text. Within these

sections the students either placed in grade 1 or grade K. The only section that those students

were not struggling with is phonological awareness.

As for someone who personally isn’t strong in reading as well, one of the goals my

mentor teacher and I created was to build more of my content knowledge in reading so I’m able

to teach the lesson and help those students who are struggling. Along with these students

struggling in the sections I mentioned above, they’re also the same students who are struggling in

spelling. My mentor teacher created three spelling groups: high, on grade level, and below.

Although the on grade level and below groups are almost the same and are the same students

who are struggling with the sections I mentioned earlier. My mentor teacher and I made a goal

together how we want to give the on grade level and below spelling groups more attention this

upcoming semester. We realized that the high group is able to work independently so during the

times we work on spelling we will let the high group work independently while we take on the

other two groups to work with one on one. With this goal were able to provide the one on one

attention that is needed to help them improve their spelling and reading skills.