District: Brentwood School District
School: Northeast Elementary School
Teacher: Male
Grade level: Second
Day 4: April 8, 2011
Reflection with Reading and Writing Assignment
The boy likes to read about animals. I told him I like animals also, I grew up with a dog in my family. I asked him if he would like to a writing assignment about animals. He said, “Yes, I like to read and write about animals; I like many different types of animals, like dogs, cats, birds, cows and horses.” I told him that is wonderful. It is good to know about different animals. He also told me he wrote about fish at the beginning of the year.
I told him that writing can be fun. He said that he did not like spelling. I continued to tell him that when we understand and know how things are done it is fun to do them. It is like doing a math problem. If you do not understand how to solve a problem it can be frustrating and you won’t want to do the problem. Also may cause you not to do homework, if you don’t know how to solve the problem. Once you understand how to solve the problem, you do you feel? He said, I feel good inside because I got the right answer. I told him writing is the same; there are special steps to take in order to write a report.
Part One of the Reading and Writing Assignment is the Reading Assignment. Vowels are important to understand with their short and long sounds and when they are paired together. The student will read a book of his choosing on a “Primer” grade level. He will read the same book for a week, and write a question each night about the book. The following day he will show the teacher each question then answer each question during his morning work, respectively. The teacher will make corrections and the student will rewrite after his lunchtime. The repetitive reading each week and writing of questions and answers will help the student to develop important site words and promote his reading fluency.
Part Two of the Reading and Writing Assignment is the Writing Assignment. Part One of this lesson involved reading and writing, and one can clearly see how the two go together. It is important for this student to also understand how to write a successful report. He has had trouble with type of writing. I chose a report on animals because he likes them, relates to them because he has two pets, a dog and a cat. In addition, he has written a report in the past about Fish, however it is unavailable for viewing.
I asked the student if he knew what a graphic organizer was, he said, “I think so”, but could not tell me what it was. I told him, “It is a way to organize your writing; In order to organize your writing you must first organize all your thoughts; When I speak to you and ask you a question, sometimes it is hard for you to respond, unless I give you a specific question; Do you understand?” he responds “Yes.”
I next explain and model how the “Animal Report Form” graphic organizer is used. I showed him an example of how a similar report on “The Shark” like the one he did earlier in the year on fish, so he can relate to it. He liked the example I showed him and started to work on choosing an animal. He chose, “The Horse”. I told him it may take a day to gather all the facts. I reminded the boy that the teacher had some books on horses in the classroom library and that he might want to research his facts during computer lab today. He liked that idea and told me he would research the information on the computer. He also told me reading from books is his favorite, but he wanted to try the computer because it is more fun sometimes.
It is important that this English Language Learner understands his tasks and why he does them. Knowing about knowing is how one learns. The boy wants to learn and always does his best to learn, however he is below the rest of the class learning level. As a result he does not always get scaffolding from the teacher, who has 25 students, with 5 different learning levels.
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