Thank You!

I would like to thank all my classmates at Kendall College for their encouragement and help through this Spring Quarter.  It was a journey learning how to be an effective advocate and developing an actual advocacy plan.  The down side to on-line learning is not actually hearing every one's plan and presentations.  But your support through discussion posts and through my blog has been such a blessing and always encouraging!

I would like to thank Professor McDevitt for all of her support and encouragement.  Thank you for helping draft my goals and showing me how to think like an advocate and not always a teacher!  I now understand the difference between the two and that is a lesson I will never forget.  Thank you for returning calls and emails in a timely manner!  I have to say not all instructors are as supportive as you are!

I wish everyone the best in their careers!  The children that you will serve will be receiving a wonderful education from you all!

Enlisting and Providing Support

·         Questions you have with which your colleagues may be able to provide help and support.

I actually have two questions.  The first is how long is everyone planning on making their presentations?

Secondly, I will be asking the teachers in grades 5K – 3^rd grade to form a literacy committee to work on strategies for comprehension.  I also want them to track their student’s comprehension growth and involve the parents by offering strategies they can use at home. When my presentation is over I am not sure what type of feedback to use.  Would it be better to hold a discussion on the likely hood of them actually do this or would a survey asking them to write their opinions work better.  What would you rather do if you were a member of the audience? I really want to know if they would actually be willing to take a part in a project like this.

·         Resources and information you are seeking.

I am currently seeking statistics on reading comprehension and today I found a report that gives the nations report card.  This report was generated in 2011 and shows the growth, which is slow, in areas of reading between 4^th grade and 8^th grade.  I am very excited to finish reading this report because seems to be filling in the gaps I feel my presentation has for stats. 

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2012457

Does anyone else have website for reading comprehension?

Resources and/or information you have found helpful and insightful.

I am a very visual person and I was struggling with how to put my power point presentation together and how to structure it.  Here are two resources I found helpful…

http://idcoalition.org/idc-powerpoint-presentation-effective-advocacy is a PowerPoint presentation on an effective advocacy presentation.  I found this helpful to know how to structure my presentation.

http://www.slideshare.net/Kassandra23/advocacypresentation-7696674 is another example of a presentation.

“Children are our most valuable resource.” ~Herbert Hoover, 31st U.S. President

When I look at the children in my classroom I often wonder what they will become when they grow up.  It is always my hope that they will do the best job they can and love their profession, whatever it may be.  But I also want to know in my heart of hearts I gave them the best educational foundation I could.  That is why I am advocating for reading comprehension.  I want to know that the students that pass through my school have been given the tools to be successful in high school, college and the rest of their adult life.  Reading is such an important gift we can give children and it is a gift not every person is able to receive throughout the world and even our own country!  Herbert Hover is correct when he said “children are our most valuable resource” because they will need the necessary tools to take our places when they grow up!

      My biggest challenge to my advocacy plan is getting my goals to be advocacy goals!  I tend to think in terms of a teacher and make them educational goals, so this has been a big learning experience for me!  I am thankful for our Professor who is helping me through this process!

      I am looking forward to my presentation!  I have it mapped out on paper and have begun the task of filling in the details.  I know the people I will be presenting too so that does take the edge off because they know I am passionate about literacy.  There will be two people involved in my presentation that are good teachers but sometimes do not want to change their ways so I am gearing my time towards them. 

      I hope that my long term goal of a literacy committee will be taken seriously.  But I plan on using our standardized test scores in my fact sheet to help the two teachers see the importance of this committee and the impact they can make on our students!

     I think it is important to help each other through our discussion posts and through our blogs.  If we have an idea for a classmate I feel we should share it with them after all a second set of eyes is always a help.  I want to wish everyone the best as they work through their plans! 

Final Quarter

This is my last class before graduation.  I am very excited to finish my course work but also very excited about the future and where my degree will take me.  I am so glad this is my only class and can focus all my energy on creating and presenting my action plan.  Now to decided the focus for my plan!  I wish you all the best for this course!

Students and Parents

I spent time with my 3^rd grade host teacher last week Thursday, Feb. 24^th and Friday, Feb 25^th. My host teacher gained permission for me to observe a parent/teacher conference about one of her students.  The mother gave permission because I had her daughter, which the conference was about, when she was in 4K.  The teacher was concerned about her student because she feels she “just can’t do anything” and will cry.  My host teacher explained the strategies she has used such as working one-on-one with her to help build the child’s confidence, gave her extra time to finish her test/assignment and finally for group work she placed child in a group that was working on her favorite book for reading.  Still the child would give up and at time shed tears.

     I observed the conference from the teacher’s desk which was behind the teacher and mother who were sitting at desks next to each other.  I did not offer any suggestions nor did I take notes because I did not want the mother to feel uncomfortable.  The teacher opened the conference with a prayer and then reviewed why they were meeting.  The mother explained that her child gets this way from time to time and was happy the teacher was working with her the way she had.  Together they brainstormed ways to help the child and the final decision came from the mother to have the child tough it out and work out of the extra time and make her finish within the time given.  She feels her daughter needs the pressure to snap out of it. The host teacher agreed to what the parent wanted but had the mother agree to meet again in a week to see if there was any difference.  The mother promised she would encourage as much as she could at home and would make sure her daughter felt confident the night before.  The teacher is going to “front load” the student by giving her the reading she would need to do the night before and give her “homework” which will be review for the student. 

     So here is what I learned from this conference:  Parents always know what is best even if you disagree.  But the teacher can always give the student a “head start” to new information the night before and have the child review to build confidence. 

     I did spend time with my host teacher for the last hour and half of the day to watch her with her students last Friday.  For the class this hour is filled with anything they would like to finish up and for extra study help.  The children all need to be busy though.  I observed her help a boy with math he felt “stuck on” and give another girl flash cards for multiplication tables for a quick check on.  When the boy was done she showed the flash cards to the girl who missed a few from her 8’s table.  The teacher encouraged her to go through them one more time and come back.  She then gave another student art supplies to finish a project and listened to a boy read for a few minutes.  The girl came back with her flash cards and still missed 8x7.  The teacher encouraged her and the girl wanted to try again. 

     I observed this teacher giving her students encouragement and asking them if she could show them “tricks” for remembering and offering children a chance to unwind with art to finish or start.  The children seemed happy and will to finish work and ask questions.  I liked the relaxed feel this time seemed to have.  I stayed with her during dismissal where the teacher chatted with parents briefly giving some quick updates of the day such as something the child accomplished or said that made her day. Most every parent heard something positive about their child which made the parent quickly hug or pat them on the shoulder and smile.   This reinforced the power of sharing positive messages with parents!  Afterwards we talked for a while about her interactions with parents.  She allows the parents to text her, email her, call her and chat afterschool with her.  She said most parents take advantage of the school’s email system and the importance of quickly responding back.  I learned that the faster a teacher can respond the better the parent feels and solutions can take place.

Observing and Interacting With Program Director(s) and Other Administrative Staff in Your Setting

 This past Friday, February 8^th, I was able to spend time with the principal of my host school, Sue (not her real name).  I was able to ask her some questions and sit in on an ISP (Individual Service Plan) meeting.  The parent that granted the permission is my host teacher.  Her son is in 5K and struggling with speech.  This meeting will determine if he is eligible for services later on in the afternoon.

 

     First, I met with the principal and we were able to talk about children with special needs in reading and comprehension.   The first question I had, because this is a Lutheran school, is how easy or hard was it for her as principal to connect with the public school district.  Sue told me it was not hard at all to connect with them because the district had been trying for years to make a connection but the school did not have a principal so no relationship was made.   Her challenge is getting her students services because most times Sue hears that they do not have funding for that or the child will not qualify. Sue keeps up on the latest in services that are provided or in the process of being cut through quarterly meetings for administrators.

 

     This lead to my next question ~ How do you address the needs of a child who struggles academically especially in reading and comprehension?  Sue told me that grades 5K through 8^th grade administer the DIBELS every quarter which measures various reading skills.  If a child scores low in say comprehension, the teacher and principal meet as well as the teacher in the grade level above and below to brainstorm ways to help the child.  A meeting is then set with the parents for more brainstorming so they can be a part of the child’s interventions.  Together they draw up a plan and meet one month later to see if there is some improvement.  If no improvement is demonstrated, Sue looks into other resources through other area schools to see what works for them.  Also, Sue will look into the Marquette University for their reading enrichment program.  If those resources dead end, Sue will then call Lutheran Special School and Educational Services.  They will send out a special education teacher consultant for their recommendations for the classroom and parents.

 

     During the ISP meeting I was able to listen to the Speech Therapists findings through testing.  The child is lacking in language skills as well as comprehension skills.  This was measured through standardized testing and through observation and informal conversations during the observation.  The child struggles with story recall and recall from events.   I gained from this meeting the role of the principal through this meeting.  She had the report ahead of time and was able to formulate questions the parent would not think of in the moment, and asked them.  She also told my host teacher she would call her later on in the evening to rehash the meeting.  After the ISP meeting, Sue told me she has been working on having the child evaluated since September and finally now in February he is receiving the help he needs.  Sue told me that sometimes it can take an entire school year for a child to receive services but you have to be very patient and not show frustration.

Observations in Reading

     I did three observations in my host school and the classrooms I observed were the 5K class, 1^st grade class and the 3^rd grade classroom for their reading time.   After school I chatted with the three teachers to help gain more insight for my focus questions.  Here is what I observed.

5K ~ The teacher had 5 centers for the children to work in.  The first center was the Writing Center where the children had a penguin word wall with the following words: penguin, bird, beak, egg, feathers, black, white and shrimp.  The children had to write the word, draw a picture of the word (each word had a picture they could copy) and finally write a sentence about penguins and draw a picture to go with the sentence.   The next literacy center contained books and puppets.  The children could do two things: read the books to the puppets or have the puppets tell the story based on pictures.  The final literacy center was working with the teacher on high frequency words in a pre-decodable book they could read.

     When the children were working with the teacher, the child had to give a prediction about the book and then for the word they knew “go” and “the.”  The book had sentences such as “The dog goes.”  The student read the book and when they finished she asked the child to tell her three things that “go.”   As she called the children over the pre-decodable books were based on their abilities.  She also checked on the writing center and talked to the children about the sentence they were writing.  I did notice she kept an eye on the book and puppet center.

1^st Grade ~ The teacher did direct instruction on a phonics lesson.  The children were working on the short vowel sound for /e/ and /i/.  The children had to think of words that began with the short vowel sound and the teacher listed the words on the white board.  Then she gave each child a word and they had to tell her which vowel sound was in the middle.  Finally, she passed out a worksheet for the children to work on.  When they finished she had word work for them with their spelling words.  They could stamp their words, glue stick magazine letters to form the words or use markers (blue for consonants and red for the vowels).  She too called the children over one by one but worked on their DIBBLES assessment.

3^rd grade ~ The children took turns reading aloud the story of the week from their reading book.  I noticed that when a child was stuck on a word the teacher just told them the word and they kept going.  When they finished she asked them about the setting of the story and the point of view.  Afterwards the children worked on their book reports while she conference with them in a small groups of two or three children.  The first group talked about the vocabulary words and the children had to find where the word was in the story, read the sentence and give their own meaning of the word.  The children seemed eager to do this task.

THE INTERVIEWS

     I asked the teachers what area of literacy they see the children struggle in.  In 5K the children struggle with phonics and comprehension, in 1^st grade the area of struggle is fluency and comprehension and in 3^rd grade the area of struggle is comprehension and the ability to put their thoughts into words for a story.  So I naturally ask them how they help the children with comprehension and they were all in agreement that this is a skill they work on all day with open-ended questions that will require them to recall what they have read or heard.  She will also have them look in their books for the answers.  The 1^st grade teacher likes to use the buzz phrase “Now think back to…” and will insert when we read or when we were talking about etc.  She thinks it helps to jog their memory.  

    I did notice a theme running through the conversation that comprehension is an issue.  I did ask if their phonics issues were developmental and the answer mostly was “yes.”   This leads me to focus on comprehension as an area. So I wonder if the children are so focused on their fluency and decoding skills if they are missing the meaning of what they are reading and what does it take to increase comprehension.  So I asked them to think about the children they have with comprehension issues and do they have problems paying attention and do they struggle with fluency.  After thought the 1^st grade teacher answered “yes.”

     So what are the ways to build a 3^rd graders attention span?  Why building fluency leads to better comprehension? And finally, why parents can play a role in helping build attention spans and comprehensions skills at home.