2a: Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport
Reading Analysis:
Jaxon is placed on a second-grade reading level. I grabbed two different level two stories for him to read to complete the reading analysis. Before he read the story, he answered the concept questions fairly well. The first story he read 239/247 words correctly. All of his errors were visual and syntactic, with one error being semantic also. None of his mistakes changed the meaning of the text either. While reading, Jaxon constantly lost focus and started discussing other things than the story. Anytime he did so I marked it with an OT for off task. During the first story he was off task four times. Every time he went off task, he would reread the last sentence he read over again. After reading the story, I asked him the comprehension questions. He got ¾ explicit questions correct and ¼ implicit questions correct for a total or 4/8 questions correct. This told me that although he made very few mistakes while reading, he did not comprehend the story well. This could be due to the fact that he was off task frequently. I wanted to complete another reading analysis to see if the story I chose was too easy. Again, he answered the concept questions before reading fairly well, only not knowing the answer to one question. He made even less mistakes while reading this story only making two errors. During this reading, he did more self-correcting. All the errors were syntactic too. He also was off task four times during this story. He reread the sentences again after he got off task. Jaxon answered 3/8 comprehension questions correct (2/4 explicit and ¼ implicit). This shows that Jaxon is better at answering explicit questions probably because the answer is stated in the text. In both the stories, his reading was choppy and hard to follow when he got off task. It took him 40 minutes to read both of the stories and answer the questions which was a long time.
Writing Analysis:
Jaxon has a lot of potential to become a great writer. Although most of his writing pieces are typed on the iPad, he has beautiful handwriting and says he prefers to handwrite. With a little help, Jaxon can accomplish his goals. He has the basic understanding of the main idea and supporting details he needs to be pressed for better quality details. In his “what I did this weekend” response, he was on the right track to having a good conclusion sentence. He tried to add details about the different games he was playing at his dad’s house, but again didn’t pick the most important ones to explain. I think Jaxon needs the most work with his conventions. He made a lot of spelling errors and hardly capitalized at the beginning of a sentence. He also threw periods into the middle of sentences. His iPad has spell check, so I think it will be important to explain to him to use the resources he has. Most of these errors could’ve been fixed if he read it one more time out loud and used the iPads features. Jaxon would also benefit by having a weekly vocabulary list that is tailored to his reading and writing level. This would allow him to be more descriptive. Lastly, he needs to improve on his organization of his paragraphs.
Reading and Writing Interviews
Reading Interview:
- What is your favorite book?
- “Goosebumps: Sloppy Trails”
- Do you like to read books with a lot of pictures or texts? Why?
- “pictures because I like looking at them first then reading”
- Where do you like to read?
- “at home”
- What was the last book that you read that you enjoyed?
- “not sure”
- Where do you find your books?
- “book fair”
- Do you prefer reading alone, with parents, or out loud?
- “alone. I don’t like to read out loud”
- What do you do when you come to an unknown word?
- “stop and ask someone for help or skip it and go to another page”
- What do you want to work on with reading?
- “getting in a higher reading level”
- What do you excel at with reading?
- “read books I like”
Writing Interview:
- What do you like to write?
- “I like to draw and sometimes write, rather draw than write”
- What style do you like to write?
- “stories because I’m not sure”
- How do you like to write? (online/typing, handwriting)
- “Handwriting”
- How do you feel when you are writing?
- “fingers hurt, tired when writing”
- What/when do you write outside of school?
- “homework and I draw for fun”
- What do you want to work on with writing?
- “writing better, adding more details”
- What do you excel at with writing?
- “I don’t know, sometimes good, sometimes bad” “good handwriting"
Summary of Jaxon
Jaxon is in fourth-grade at a Manheim Central Elementary School. He reads at a second-grade reading level and is in the lower groups for all the content areas. Jaxon tends to become very off topic during every subject. Other students realize that he becomes off task and promote these behaviors, so he continues. When he has objects on his desk, he will play with them until they are taken away. One day while I was taking notes, my cooperating teacher told me he didn’t take his medication. This worsens the behaviors extremely. My cooperating teacher believes that Jaxon needs to be reevaluated and put on new medicine to help him stay focused. She believes that dosage is not enough for Jaxon to be successful. Although usually distracted, when asked a question Jaxon frequently gets the answer right.
Through conversations with Jaxon, I noticed that he believes that school is hard. He said to me, “fourth-grade is a lot harder than third-grade and school will only get harder”. He also mentioned that he wishes he didn’t have to go to school. My cooperating teacher discussed with him the importance of school and learning. Jaxon tends to have to stay inside during recess. He rarely has his homework complete. On Fridays, fourth-graders participate in “Fun Friday” where the students have an extra recess. You can’t go to “Fun Friday” if you have two or more minus ClassDojo points. For the ten weeks that I have been in the classroom, Jaxon has not been to one “Fun Friday”.
During the reading interview, I discovered that Jaxon prefers pictures to text. He also explained that he doesn’t like to read out loud. One thing that I thought was interesting that could correlate to his struggle with reading is that he said when he comes to an unknown word, he will skip it and go to another page if he doesn’t know it. His goal for reading is to move on to the next reading level. This may make him feel like he’s not a good reader if his classmates are all on higher reading levels. When I asked Jaxon what he likes to write, he said he would rather draw and then write. His goal for writing is to put more details in his work. Lastly, he knew that he has good handwriting when asked what he excels at with writing.
After completing the reading analysis, I noticed that Jaxon struggles with staying on task while reading. When he gets off topic, he will reread the same sentence or paragraph over and over again. This could be why he cannot stay on task. I started having him read to me the first week I was there during silent reading time. This was clearly the only time he stayed on task while reading because by the next week, Jaxon was still on the same page we left off the week before. The students have thirty minutes of silent reading every day, so Jaxon should’ve read more of the book by the time I came in the next week. It took him four weeks to read the book he was on, which was about seventy pages with pictures. Most of Jaxon’s errors are syntactic errors. He mixes up the similar words and adds plurals or makes the nouns singular. Jaxon also struggles with comprehension. He only got seven out of sixteen comprehension questions right after reading both stories, which put him in the frustration level.
During the writing analysis, Jaxon struggles with conventional issues. Although, he has an iPad to do his writing, he doesn’t utilize the spellcheck tool. There is also a feature on the iPad that can have the computer read back what he wrote. He would benefit from hearing what he wrote and understand that it doesn’t sound correct when read out loud. On the piece that I analyzed, there was a lot of spelling errors. He also had too many spaces in between words and new sentences. Another issue is that he forgot to capitalize letters at the beginning of sentences. His writing doesn’t follow a specific structures which makes his ideas blend together. One thing he said that he wanted to work on is adding more details in his writing. I agree. By increasing his vocabulary, he will be able to add more details in his text to make it more interesting to read.
Overall, I chose to do this kidwatching project on Jaxon, because I see potential in him to be great. He needs support in order to be successful. He tries to write and read correctly, and I can see that he wants to become better in both areas from the interviews. With the support given, Jaxon’s reading and writing skills will improve.
2b: Establishing a Culture for Learning
Madison Kubik
Leading Reading Groups
During placement, I led multiple reading groups. The groups were no more than five students and rotated, so I could discuss with different students each week. The students often read Scholastic News articles and worked on the discussion questions inside. During the reading groups, we would discuss the articles they read. The students were excited to share their answers because the material was interesting and relevant to them. One week, the article asked them to write a persuasive essay about the game Fornite. The students took a lot of pride in writing and sharing their work. When I had some students at my group, they were invested in their writing and wanted to have a whole classroom debate. The students understood the importance of persuasive writing and wanted to do more with their writing. It was great to hear the excitement in the student’s voices because it showed they wanted to learn and achieve more than was originally asked.
2c: Managing Classroom Procedures
Science Demonstration (Predict, Observe, Explain (POE) Lesson Plan)
Teachers: Jennifer Beihoff, Madison Kubik, Hannah Mason
Date: 11/13/18
Unit: Demo
Topic: Color Changing Milk Activity
Grade: 5th grade
Relevant Standards:
Standard - 3.1.5.A9: Describe relationships using inference and prediction. Develop descriptions, explanations, and models using evidence and understand that these emphasize evidence, have logically consistent arguments and are based on scientific principles, models, and theories. Analyze alternative explanations and understanding that science advances through legitimate skepticism
Objectives:
- Students will be able to make predictions and observations
- The students will be able to define the concepts of surface tension as well as hydrophobic and hydrophilic reactions.
Materials, Equipment, and Setup:
- Tray/dish that can hold liquid
- Milk
- Dish Soap
- Food coloring
- Q-tips
- Document camera
Procedure:
- Grab the materials from the back of the room. All the materials are placed together for easy access.
- Set up the document camera. Make sure it is set, so the picture remains focused on the tray during the demonstration. Place the tray under the camera.
- Pour milk into the blue tray. Allow the milk to settle before moving on to the next step.
- Have students predict what will happen when the food coloring is added.
- Add one drop of each of the four colors of food coloring (Keep the drops close together in the center of the plate of milk) to the milk.
- Find a clean Q-tip for the next part of the experiment.
- Have students predict what will happen when you touch the tip of the Q-tip to the milk.
- Put a drop of dish soap on the other end of the Q-tip.
- Have students predict what they think will happen when you insert the Q-tip with dish soap into the water.
- Put the Q-tip with dish soap in the milk in the center of where the food dye is clumped. Hold it there for 10-15 seconds. Tell students to pay careful attention to what happens. (It will look like fireworks).
- Add another drop of dish soap to the tip of the Q-tip and try the investigation again, but this time put the Q-tip in a different place.
Predict:
1st: The students will use a piece of paper to predict what will happen before the food coloring is added to the milk.
2nd: The students will predict what will happen after the Qtip with dish soap is dipped into the milk.
- The students will use a teacher provided graphic organizer to record their predictions. After students brainstorm individually, students can talk with others at their tables about what they think already happened or what will happen next.
Observe:
1st: The students will observe what happens when the food coloring is added to the milk.
2nd: The students will observe what happened when the Q-tip with dish soap was inserted into the milk.
Explain:
The students will have a spot on the graphic organizer to draw a picture at the end of each phase of the demo. They will write a little blurb about what they think happened.
After the demonstration is over, we will explain the science behind why the food coloring spread out after the Q-tip with soap was inserted into the tray of milk.
Sources:
https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/milk-color-explosion/
https://prezi.com/xmayxljfaexa/rainbow-milk-experiment/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5ljuG4FYE&t=311s