Week 5 Assignment #1 QRI-5 Mary's Assessment

Assignment # 1 

After reading eighteen(18) words in the level one(1) word list correctly, it became evident that to the examiner that Mary was on an independent reading level. Upon this revelation the examiner decide to move Mary to the level two(2) word list to gauge how well she would do in this level.

Assignment # 2

Using the level two(2) word list, Mary read seventeen(17) correctly which indicated that she was on an instructional level, even-though she showed some signs of frustration.

Assignment # 3

To ascertain Mary’s starting point, a level three(3) list was given just to make sure. Mary’s frustration was immediately evident at this level, s the examiner stopped the test and began the comprehension assessment with level 2 passage.

Assignment # 4 My decision for Mary

Since Mary was able to answer seven (7) questions correct,level 2 will be her instructional level.

Mary’s Strengths

• She knows high frequency words
• She is reading for meaning 
• She is persistent
• She has a fair letter sound knowledge
• She possess the ability to recall and talk about the story
• She uses self monitoring or self correcting

Mary’s Needs

• She does not use look back to help with retelling
• Stopping to self correct when words don’t sound right
• Using word parts and breaking words into syllables to identify longer words 

Progress

 As an emergent reader Mary will need practice with high frequency words, phonemic awareness, and word solving strategies. Also, guided reading and small group instructions will be very helpful for Mary.

Week 4 Assignment #2 Structures of Reading Interventions

                                 
                                   Learning Task#2 Structure of Reading Interventions 
Anticipatory questions: 

1.  What do teachers do to help strengthen or enhance students’ reading strategies and skills?  
To help strengthen or enhance students’ reading strategies and skills the teacher needs to first of all; identify students’ strengths and weaknesses to pinpoint specific needs in reading, writing, vocabulary, and word knowledge, then the teacher needs to administer a reading assessment and finally the teacher needs to target teaching on phonemic awareness and/or phonics (depending on the students’ needs and grade level), fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension strategies.

2.  What are the available reading intervention programs? 
The available reading intervention programs that exist today are numerous; however, in Ann Duffey-Hester’s article; Teaching struggling readers in elementary classroom: A review in classroom reading programs and principles for instruction; she posits that there are six(6) main reading intervention programs which include:
Book Club Program(BCP)
Concept- Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI)
Fluency- Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI)
The Four Block Approach (FBA)
The Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) Whole Literacy curriculum
Success For All (SFA)

3.  What can I do to implement my in-class intervention instruction? 
In order implement an intervention instruction in my classroom, I would identify a reading program that is provides multiple context for students to learn, flexible and diverse and well balanced with justifiable components and elements. Next, I would use student independent and instructional levels to provide daily read-alouds from a variety of genre and combine that with word identification, comprehension, vocabulary and writing task to get a baseline of where my students are. Then, I would use one of the reading assessments to document reading skills or strategies, which in turn will help me make a decision on the program that will best meet the needs of that student(s). Finally, I would reflect on the reading program I chose to make sure it is meeting the goals for the student success.

Please click the link below for my Screencast-o-matic video:
https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cqnYcO0nUh

Week 4 Assignment #1 Understanding RTI

I believe that Response to Intervention (RTI) is important because all children can learn. However, the thing that is evident; is that  at-risk students may need more access to learning opportunities that are finely attuned to their individual needs than on grade or above grade students. To me RTI can address these issues because it is about providing immediate benefits to the student by combining assessment and intervention. The assessment data are used to decide what the intervention will be as well as determine its effectiveness. It starts with General instruction /Tier 1 intervention where everyone receives the same high quality instruction, if students do not respond to this and still exhibits signs of deficiencies, then they are referred to small group instruction/ scientifically based strategies/Tier 2 intervention where more highly trained teachers and resource person provide additional help to them. If tier 2 doesn’t help then a more deeper solution may need to be sought after, parents maybe called in for meeting, testing may be done and then students may be referred for special education services (Tier 3). This model make plenty of sense to me because assessment doesn’t drive the curriculum, but the achievement of students goals are the deciding factor.

In this model the teacher usually starts off with a Narrative text which is either read orally or silently by the student. The teacher will then a lot a time frame for reading to be completed, while student reads the teacher records miscues (omissions, substitutions and insertions). After reading the teacher will ask for a retell of the story and some comprehension question.In a nutshell, RTI is simply a proactive data-driven decision making tool to help struggling students.

Week 3 Assignment #2 P21 and Common Core Toolkit

                            Week#3 Assignment #2 P21 Common Core ToolKit

With the introduction of Common Core State Standard (CCSS) in 2010 a majority of states have agreed to a common baseline for academic knowledge and college readiness skills. Thus, the Partnership for 21st Century Skill(P21) has advocated for standards that adequately address core academic knowledge and complex thinking skills needed for life in 21st century. In order to succeed students will need to be assessed on creativity, innovation,communication, critical thinking,and digital citizenship. Teacher and educators will have the task of adjusting the way they traditionally assessed core subject by including more performance based assessments.
To meet the needs of students with various reading level teachers need to ensure assessment targets standards and that they are Responsive(inform curriculum and instruction), Flexible (adapted to students’ setting), Integrated(Both formative and Summative assessments), Informative(clear goals and objectives), Multiple methods( different assessments), communicated(transparency of data), technically sound(adjustment and accommodations are fair,valid and reliable), and systemic (balanced and inclusive). Moreover, these assessments must measure students’ creativity( creativity and innovation), Motivation(life and career skills), critical thinking skills, health literacy, global awareness,financial literacy,civic literacy and environmental literacy.

Week3 Assignment #3 Introduction to QRI-5

                           Week#3 Assignment#3 Introduction to QRI-5

What is QRI-5? 
QRI-5 is an individually administered informal reading inventory (IRI) that provides information on two distinct reading markers. The first is the conditions under which students can identify words and comprehend text successfully and secondly, evidence that marks unsuccessful word recognition or comprehension. It use a variety of Narrative passages as well as Expository texts, graded word lists, retelling, questioning, look backs and think aloud to assess oral/silent reading and listening ability.

What is the purpose of using QRI-5? 
The purpose of this informal assessment is to find students independent, instructional and frustrational reading levels and to provide valuable diagnostics. It also helps to document student growth, group students for guided reading, choosing appropriate books for literacy circles,reading workshops and independent reading.

Have you seen similar assessment activities like QRI-5? What are they?
At my school we have used a variety of reading assessment tools which includes: Fountas and Pinnell, Reading Rescue, Measures of Academic Progress(NWEA MAP), waggle and IReady.

What is your impression of QRI-5? 
After reading the about QRI-5, I believe that it is a very thorough assessment that can highlight various aspects of students reading abilities. I like that it used prior knowledge and making prediction so as to merge experiences with content to improve comprehension. Additionally, it uses passages that have familiarity in other subject areas like Science and Social Studies and is not limited to elementary school but is also extended to high school. Moreover, it pinpoints the areas that students need further instruction and shed light on successful/unsuccessful strategies that are being used by each student. Finally, I like that it is scored individually and not on norms which will help provide the scope for differentiated instructions.

Week 2 Assignment# 3 Summary of videos

After viewing the ten videos; Becoming aware of print, Tuning in to speech sounds, Fun with phonemes, The Alphabet Principles, Developing Fluency, Semantic gradient, spelling Patterns, Jigsaw, Room of Writers and Assessing reading skills, I learned that extracting meaning from text is the real reason for reading. In the first video, we see that when priority is given to reading, it becomes pleasurable and not a chore. In the second video, it was clear that at very early stage in life children are able to recognize variation in sounds which can help them with language development. In Fun with Phonemes; two great strategies are reading aloud and word games because they help student identify and isolate word parts. In The alphabet Principle, I noticed that phonemic awareness was independent of Intelligence Quotient(IQ). Very smart student could still struggle with letter sounds and word recognition. In the video, Developing fluency, a variety of strategies were used in the program RAVE-O. These included read -aloud and word webs that helped decoding and comprehension. Semantic Gradient focused on strategy to think about words and help develop vocab through relationship. Spelling patterns was done through a program called RISE which focus on daily reading for ninety minutes every day. Spelling is a major component that allow student to see a vast amount of words that can be added ti their vocabulary. In Jigsaw a cooperative society is developed where some student acts as experts in specific area and then teach it to their peers. For the video Room of Writers, they focus on the various layers of writing like ;mechanics, Idea, purpose, audience and Genre. Finally, in Assessing reading Skills, they focus on a tailored instruction to help struggling readers.