Week Eight Assignment Two

• How did Charmon Evans and Shari Frost differ in their phonics instruction? Why do you think they used different approaches? 

            These two teachers used different approaches towards their phonics instruction. One teacher grabbed a small group of students while the other teacher worked with the entire class. The teacher that worked with the small group of students used a small whiteboard to help students see the relationship between a and e when a constant was stuck in the middle. The other teacher used the board to make a list of all the words that had the /u/ /g/ sound in them.

I believe that one of the teachers had the students work in small group because they needed extra instruction in a small group setting. I also believe that the other students were working on harder assignments while the teacher was working with these children. The other teacher was able to work with the whole class because it was probably a new lesson. In order to ensure that everyone is on the same page, when introducing a new idea or concept the entire class must be involved. It sounded as if the first teacher was doing review with the small group of students and the other teacher was introducing a new topic.

• Which principles of phonics instruction were illustrated in these classroom lessons? 

            The emphasis on the phonemes was crucial towards these two lessons. Each teacher exaggerated the sound of the letters they were encouraging the students to work with. This gave the children a chance to listen to the specific sound of the letter or letters in question and allowed students multiple tries of listening and making connections. The teachers also illustrated the words on the board so that students can make a visual identification with the sound that they were hearing.

• Which lessons seemed to promote more student engagement and motivation? 

In my opinion I believe that both teachers were basically equal in engagement and motivation. The students seemed interested in the lesson their teacher was giving and often volunteered to give answers without being prompted by the teacher. Each teacher also used guided questions and overarching questions to engage the students in the discussion.

• Shari Frost used her "Poem of the Week" and Becky Pursley used her "Readers Theater activities" to practice reading accuracy and fluency. How did student performance in the two activities differ? How would you assess the reading fluency of students performing Readers Theater based on the three stages of fluency? 

            In Shari Frost’s lesson, the students were reciting a poem as a class. In Becky Pursley’s lesson, the students were singled out as a group to read in front of the class. It would be a lot easier for the teacher to miss participation of students in the “Poem of the Week” lesson because the class was all talking at the same time. However, in the “Readers Theater” activity the students were asked to read a single part frequently by themselves. I believe it would be easier to assess students’ performance on fluency and accuracy during the “Readers Theater” activity. Students are expected to perform at a certain level and will demonstrate their progress in front of the entire class.

            If I were to assess the “Readers Theater” in Becky Pursley’s lesson I would give the students grades as individual and as a group. It is important that the students work together during this lesson to ensure that they were practicing and helping each other. On the other hand, the students were reading at their own pace on their own time. While I am assessing a child, I would say that if a child is able to read with a 90% accuracy such as one mistake per ten words than I would give them a three out of three. On the other hand, if a child is able to read with a few more mistakes or aided help form the teacher or classmates I would give them a two out of three. If a child is prompted constantly and fails to read more words wrong in the sentence then I would give them a one out of three and highly encourage extra help.

• What other activities have you planned to promote reading fluency?

            Fluency is one of the important parts of reading that is successful with practice. I would set alone special time to sit with a few of my students at least once a week to read aloud to me and other classmates. If a child is able to read with his or her parents at night this also helps a child’s fluency. The more practice a child has with reading out loud and self correcting his or herself, the more successful they will be.