This course focused on encouraging students to make connections with texts and assessing students reading skills. I found that literature circles are a wonderful way to engage students in texts. When students communicate their thoughts, opinions, attitudes, predictions and ideas with one another it sparks enthusiasm which leads to meaningful discussions. Through this course I discovered that keeping a notebook or journal in which to keep notes, key ideas and thoughts are extremely helpful in facilitating a literature circle. Every student keeps their ideas and questions which help propel the discussion if it should lag. Group roles are also another effective tool which I researched and found endless resources and ideas available. Students are held accountable and self regulate when they have a role they have to fulfill.

 I learned how to conduct and analyze a running record then create a lesson plan to help the student improve their skills. I worked with two fifth grade students for six weeks whose reading ability and comprehension skills varied greatly. Following is my reflection and recommendations from my practicum:

Reflection:

I worked with two students who are ELL students in Reading. I found that student M is at high level reader and student J is lower level. Throughout the semester I found it difficult to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of both students at the same time, when only working with two students. This has brought me to the conclusion that working in leveled groups will be easier as the needs are similar and can be focused on more. I enjoyed this experience however because it made me think deeper on how to incorporate the needs that were so vast into a single lesson on several occasions. Some days it was easier than others to do this, and I found reflecting on my experiences helped me create lesson plans that were better to meet the needs of each child. I believe my student teaching will help me with this skill.

Recommendations:

            Student M is at a higher level and needs to be challenged on a daily basis. He craves learning and finds that his peers are below him and he suffers for it. If his needs are not met he is at a high risk as he is already displaying attention seeking behaviors. He needs materials at the sixth grade level and needs to be monitored regularly for advancement. He uses strategies for comprehension and reading unknown words. He needs help with visual clues as he assumes the words and does not look at each individual word as he is reading. He also needs help in being engaged in the material and in reading. Finding a book with action will help this.

            Student J is at a lower level and does not effectively nor consistently use strategies for context, comprehension or unknown words. He needs work that is below level to help him get up to speed and more independent reading time to build his fluency. There are many books available that are “baby books” that do not appear to be so. He also needs more time one on one to work on these skills and asked comprehension questions regularly. He does not want to be labeled a slow learner and behaves as though he understands when he does not. If he is having a difficult time with a concept he is quick to ask for help, but gives up easily.