Mary's Results

After watching Mary's videos I can conclude that Mary is an average student for her grade level. She was able to read the first and second list without any issues. The third list proved to be more challenging. She was only able to identify a few words like "money". I appreciated the effort she put into letter sounds. Though she was unable to say the word automatically, you can faintly hear her sounding out the words.Mary had little background knowledge of whales and fish before the reading. She could identify they were different and also  why young animals should stay with their moms. When reading Mary was more robotic in the beginning.She did not mind punctuation marks and even read the word "though" and "thought" even though she was able to correctly say the word during the word list. She stumbled, lost her place and even skipped lines. It wasn't until she used her finger to keep her place did she improve on her reading. I feel passages are intimidating to read. Students tend to see the whole text rather than just one word at a time. I feel with practice she will gain stamina and better reading skills. aside from the word error, losing her place as well as skipping a line, she read very well.

Errors: 3
Though- Thought
Skip line
Lost placement

My RTI understanding

RTI Questions

RTI is put in place to help struggling students. Students who need help academically will get tested and then receive services they may need. RTI is a tiered system meant to put students through a set of step they must go through before they receive more intense instruction and services such as special need classes. The RTI system is comprised of 3 tiers. Tier one is classroom intervention. students are put into smaller groups  during certain class instruction time to ensure they are comprehending what is begin taught (Like me! I am a tier 1 interventionist in my school district!) Tier two is push in and pull out services. These are specialized instruction based on the students needs. Lastly, tier 3 is special education classes in which the classroom teacher, special subject teacher, administration and parent must all come to an agreement to place the child in the needed services.

 While educators and administration go to great length to ensure students receive the help they need, parents must be on board with the academic plan as well. My question is what if the parent does no agree with the plan of action? What can an educator do to ensure or persuade the parent in that these services would be good for their student? I know and have seen parents become defense of their child and blame academic issues on bad teaching. How can a teacher deal with these issues in the most effective way to deal with this.

Week 3

Assignment #2:

Reaching multiple levels of students can be difficult for a teacher. With Common Core (despite it's negative view for many) allows students to approach topics in many different ways. The idea of Common Core is to be all inclusive to accommodate the modern student in the twenty-first century classroom. Assessments are going above and beyond a paper and pencil test. Teachers can measure students abilities with presentations. The creative approach gives students the opportunity to express the material in the way they understand. In the school I work in, students are presented with an article. The article is read several times though out the week. With each time when reading students are given a task to perform. Whether its finding the main idea, or answering short answer question, students get a chance to experience questions in all the facets Common Core encourages students to exercise when using their skills.

Assignment #3

• What is QRI5?
• QRI5 Is a form of assessment used to gauge students on their proficiency levels and give students reading levels. Like a running record students must identify and read text. The student is then scored based on errors the students make. If they are below a certain level the educator must act accordingly.
• What is the purpose of using QRI5?
• The purpose to the QRI5 is to measure the students ability to understand and comprehend text.  When performing the assessment, teachers are able to see how the students may be struggling (pronunciation, letter sounds, comprehension)
• Have you seen similar assessment activities like QRI5? What are they?
• The running record is very similar to this assessment. They measure the same abilities of the student with reading and comprehension.
• What is your impression of QRI5?
• I have done this assessment in my undergrad studies. It will be exciting to revisit this method and to see what results I would receive giving the Common Core standards and my years of experience since the last time.

Reading 101

Reading in a classroom is one of the major subjects. Reading is extremely important because it is in other elements of school work and academics. Readings skills have come a  long way since I was a student. Letter sounds and learning the technical terms for sound blends are becoming a daily staple in reading skills. FUNdations is a reading program is most Long Island schools that focuses on not only the meaning of the word but what sounds the words are made of. Students are able to identify blends, letter controlled words and vowel sounds. The training of this program starts with children in kindergarten. The skills students learn in the early primary grades create a foundations for vocabulary through out their schooling life.Reading skills do not only come from students but it comes from a teachers management and organization. Students learn from structure and routine. If a teacher has that in place, students will have no problem finding their own success in reading.