Harcourt Eight-page Lesson Plan

The lesson plans for HM Harcourt leveled books were written by Irene Fountas as in Fountas and Pinnell.  They are literally the "rock stars" of reading!  The salesperson told us when the new materials were up for adoption that Irene Fountas was very specific about what needed to be done and she personally wrote all the lessons for the leveled books!  Each page has a specific purpose, and you should be familiar with each page before you begin your lesson.

The cover page is particularly important for teachers.  The information there is directly related to the "Continuum of Learning," and gives teachers the contents of what is really important for each level.  Teachers should make certain that students know the skills taught for the level they are reading.

The second page helps teachers to introduce the book and gives a brief "blurb" for building background for reading the book.  It also guides teachers through various pages of the book for students to preview before they begin to read.  The vocabulary is also on this page, as well.

The third page is where students actually begin to read the story.  Each student should be reading the story on their own while teachers "lean in" to listen to them read.  During that time the teacher should notice errors the student is making and support them in figuring out the word that is causing difficulty.  After the students have read the story, the teacher leads them in a comprehension conversation talking about before the story, during the story, and after the story.  The comprehension is most important as students should not move to the next level until they understand and comprehend stories on that level.

This page is also important as it has follow-up activities for word work, fluency, etc.  Teachers do not need to do all the activities, but should do the ones where the students are deficient or need help.

The following pages are supplemental and have help for ESL students, have writing activities.  Teachers may be selective about what activities the students complete.

The lesson plan is very easy to follow.  If Irene Fountas wrote the lesson, you can be sure that all the important elements for that specific level are covered.  You can also use the outline to plan your lesson as long as you cover the elements on the cover page or the "Continuum of Learning."

If you have any questions concerning the lesson plan, please feel free to send your questions or ask me to come by to talk with you about the lessons.  Happy Reading! and Merry Christmas to all!

Round Robin or Popcorn Reading

A second-grade student named Mary was nervously looking at her book while also checking out those who were seated in front of her.  There were three people ahead of her in her row.  The teacher was calling on students in their seating order to read their weekly story.   Mary knew that she would read the fourth page.  She turned to that page and started to read silently to make certain she knew all the words and would not embarrass herself when her turn came.  She did not listen to the other students nor comprehend the other pages that the students ahead of her read because she was so tense about her turn.

The example above is just one of the reasons why research tells us that Round Robin Reading is a practice that should not be used in classrooms.  In spite of what the research shows, approximately 60% of all classrooms continue to use the practice.  "It is listed as a major reason while fragile students continue to read below grade level." (Tatum, 2004, p. 29)

As I have been reading about this subject, I found some great ideas to use instead of Round Robin or Popcorn Reading.  I would like to share some of these ideas with you.  Maybe you will find an idea or two that you would like to try in your classroom.

Whisper Reading--all students whisper the words in the story or passage independently.  The teacher leans in to listen to one student while the others continue to read.

Shared Reading--the teacher reads aloud modeling fluent reading.  The teacher stops and shares comprehension strategies and thinks aloud as she moves through the story.

Echo Reading--students follow along in their books while the teacher models intonation and then the students read the same part back to the teacher using the phrasing and intonation modeled by the teacher.

Jigsaw--teacher assigns students to groups and then assigns a part of the text to each group.  Each group reads their part and becomes responsible for teaching the class the content of their assigned section of the passage.  This is especially good to use for Science or Social Studies reading.

Paired or "Buddy" Reading--two students sit together and take turns reading a page at a time.  They stop at the end of the page while the student who is not reading tells the reader what he/she has just heard as the page was read by his/her partner..

Part Reading--one partner reads the character's voices while the other partner reads the narrator's parts.

Silent Reading--students practice reading the material silently before oral reading.  This gives the students the opportunity to practice decoding skills on unknown words.  The teacher is giving assistance to students as she walks around to listen to students as they practice their reading.

Cloze Reading--The teacher reads part of the material and then stops and the students continue by reading the missing words.

A great resource with at least 25 strategies to use instead of Round Robin Reading is a book called "Goodbye Round Robin" written by Michael Optiz and Timothy Raskinski and published by Heinemann.  It is very easy to read and has some great ideas.  I highly recommend it!  Tune in next week to hear more on this topic!

Buzzing About the Second Grade Reading Bee

Yesterday was a great day for Second Grade Readers!  The Castleberry ISD Reading Bee was held at Castleberry Elementary.  The top two readers from each elementary school met to see who would be the representative from CISD to attend the TCU Reading Bee on November 22nd.  Students from all over the area will represent their districts and great reading takes place!  Readers from each district get backpacks loaded with lots of "goodies."  The top six readers win very nice prizes which have been donated to Score-A-Goal, the facilitator of the Reading Bee!

 

Judges for the Bee were Genero Martinez, Kelly James, and Holly Richardson!  The judges heard some excellent readers who were able to read and comprehend passages which ranged from Grade 5.4 to Grade 10.8!  After students read passages about the Revolutionary War, Photosynthesis, and other topics, a winner was declared!  A brief ceremony was held to announce the winners and honor all the participants

 

A word of thanks to all who supported and helped this event to take place.  Thanks to my co-coaches, Molly Higgins, Linda Aguillon, Kelly James and Shannon Adams, Asst. Principal at JJE, for their help with the Reading Bees at each elementary campus.  Thanks to Principal Hollie Lancarte for the use of the library for the celebration.  CISD Administration and the campus principals are always great supporters of this event, and their support is really appreciated.  Last, but not least, a huge thank you to Holly Richardson for agreeing to be CISD's judge at the TCU Reading Bee.  She will give up her Saturday to listen to all the great readers who will represent area districts.  Thank you, Holly!

 

 

TPRI Grouping and Instruction

Now that you have looked at all your data, it is time to use the data to group students and plan instruction.  The mClass website makes it very easy group and plan for the students in either your class or for individual students.

• Go to the "Assign Tiers" tab.  If a student is "SD" on the screening, they will be marked as "Tier 2."  At the right of each student's name, there is a column with the information you need in order to mark the tier for each student.  If a student is Tier 1, just click on the "Assign" button, and they will be saved with that designation.  For Tier 2, use the arrow to find "2."  Mark assign, and they will be "Tier 2."  Students who have been retained are also marked as "Tier 2."
• The next tab to explore is the "Grouping Tab."  There are two smaller tabs under the larger one.  Click on the "Skill Map."  You will see a list of students who are developed.  You will see that your students have been placed in various groups based on the different areas of TPRI.  These are the students who are "SD" in different TPRI skills.  Some names are seen in a light gray font.  This means that they didn't take this test; however if they had, TPRI anticipates that they would fall in the "SD" category and would be on the list.  You may want to include these students in your plans for intervention of those skills.
• Click on the tab which is named "Grouping Tool."  This tool is available to help you group your students according to TPRI results.  The steps are listed at the top of the page.  Just follow the steps as they are listed.  Groups may be adjusted at any time.  Remember to "save" before you move to each group.
• Now you can click on the tab labeled "Instruction."  This tab allows you to plan instruction for an individual or groups of students.  Each area from the TPRI has suggested activities that come from the TPRI "Intervention Activities Guide."  Click the small white box next to the activity you want to select.  You will see a check mark in the box.  Click "Save" and that lesson or group of lessons will be available for intervention for individual or groups of students.
• When you have finished selecting activities and saving them for groups or individuals, go to the printer tab on the top, right-hand side and select "print."  I think this is when the "magic" happens.  A page will open and you will see all the activities exactly as they are printed in the "Intervention Activities Guide."  The lesson plan is there for you to use until you decide you are ready for a new plan for a student or group of students.

I have given you lots of information for using the mClass website in order to look at class and individual data, to group your students, and to plan intervention instruction.  I hope this has been helpful for you.  If you have any questions regarding any of the information, please feel free to contact me.

TPRI Individual Student Data

Last week we looked at some steps that helped us analyze whole-class data.  Today I will walk you through some ways to look at individual student data.

• Begin by looking at the data found on the home page.  You can look across the row that has the student's name and immediately tell what areas the students has mastered and the areas of difficulty.
• Look at the screening status column first.  The student will have either SD (still developing) or D (developed) for this area.  SD lets you know right away that the student will probably need some intervention.  D means with good classroom instruction the student will probably be just fine for the particular grade level.
• The Phonemic Awareness section (First Grade only) will have a score of 4-5 to be developed.  Anything 3 or below is still developing.
• The Graphophonemic Knowledge and Word Reading follow the same scoring system.
• The last item on the line lets you know if the student was able to read Story 1 and/or Story 2.
• The Accuracy Level can be:
• Frustrational/Listening
• Instructional
• Independent.
• The fluency rate will not be given for any student who is not reading on either an Instructional or Independent level.
• The last column gives the score for comprehension.  Students are developed if they score 5-6 for each story.  You may find that a student has 5-6, but they are not developed.  This is because they have a Listening Comprehension score and not a Reading Comprehension score.  These are the students who were found to be frustrational when reading the stories.
• You may decide that you would like for information about a student's results.  To find more information, click on the student's name, and you will be taken to a page that summarizes the data.  If you click on the small tab at the top that says "Score Details," you will see all the responses the student has given for each test item.  If you scroll through all the data, you will see the passages read by each student.  The words the student missed will have a line drawn through them.
• The next tab that will give you information is the small tab that says "Error Analysis."  This tab gives you information about the specific errors the student has made for Graphophonemic  Knowledge (Second Grade only) and Word Reading (First and Second Grade).

As you can see from looking at both the class results and individual student results, TPRI gives you an abundance of information to use in planning instruction.  Next week, I will show you some tools on the website to facilitate planning instruction for your class.

TPRI Testing is Complete! Now What?

After testing is complete, the first item on your agenda should be to login to mClass to check to see if your data is complete.  If you are missing data, you should sync again.  If it is still not there, check with Shirley, Molly, or Linda to see what the next step should be.

Here is the link for class information on mClass:

www.mclasshome.com.

You will see the "Welcome to the TPRI" page.  Click on "Review TPRI Results."  Your class summary page will open.  The next step is to look at the data to see your class results.  Your whole class data will appear and you can look at the information to begin to see patterns for your class.  Here are some ideas to consider when looking at your class report:

• Look at your class summary results on the two bottom rows.  The first row will tell you the number of students who are SD (still developing), and the second row will tell you the percentage of your class who did not meet the standard.  Pay particular attention to the areas of the test where there are 50% or more of your students who did not master a specific skill as you will need to provide whole class intervention for those areas.  
• The labels for each area (example:  Phonemic Awareness, Graphophonemic Knowledge, etc.) can be found on the blue tabs at the top of the chart.  At this point it is important to take a look at the students who are SD on the screening and know that these will possibly be your students with the greatest need.  You will need to observe these students carefully in the next few weeks as TPRI sometimes over-identifies students who may be SD.
• Next go to the gold tab at the top of the page that says "Error Analysis."  Click on this box and a page will open with each student's name and the results and errors in Word Reading in First Grade and Graphophonemic Knowledge and Word Reading in the Second Grade.  Again, the bottom two rows will give you a summary of the number and percentage of students who have not mastered the skills.  Whole class instruction will be for the skills where 50% or more students are "Still Developing."  The other students will have small group instruction based on their specific needs.
• There is something you will really like that is found on the very last line of the report (First Grade) and reports (Second Grade) is a page number that will take you to a lesson that will be found in the "TPRI Intervention Activities Guide."  This is a lesson that will get you started intervening in either whole group or small group!

I hope you have found some helpful information in this blog concerning TPRI whole-group data.  Next week, I will blog about the information that will help you with the small groups and also how to group students and plan lessons for them.  Please let me know if you have any questions regarding any of the information I have provided for you!

Ten Reminders for TPRI

Here are 10 reminders as you begin to give TPRI:

• Remember to adhere to the 3-second rule when administering the word tests.  Do not provide the word for the student.
• Always present all practice items.  These items allow the student to understand what the task requires.
• Instructions may be repeated if needed.  Repeat PA items only in case of noisy interferences.  Other assessment items may be repeated at the request of the student.
• You may not provide corrective feedback on Task Items!
• When administering the assessment, do not provide hints, clues or other feedback about correct responses.
• Be equally positive and encouraging with both correct and incorrect responses.  Praise effort, not correct responses (example:  You are really working hard.).
• Students who are easily distracted may be tested in more than one session.
• When reading the story aloud, the following errors are marked:

Mispronunciations--The student pronounces the word incorrectly.  This includes leaving off -s, -ed and -ing endings.
Substitutions--The student replaces the correct word with a different word.
Omissions--The student skips a word.
Reversals--The student reads adjacent words in the wrong order.
Hesitations--The student pauses for longer than 3 seconds or takes longer than 3 seconds to sound out a word.  In these cases, provide the word and count it as an error.

Items not considered errors:

Insertions--The student adds a whole word that does not appear in the text.
Self-corrections--The student makes an error, but then corrects the error.
Repetitions--The student reads the same word or phrase multiple times.
Loss of place--The student skips a line or loses the place.  Redirect the student to the correct place in the story and allow the timer to continue to run.

A proper name is counted wrong each time it is read incorrectly as are all other words.

• Sync after you have tested each student.  It doesn't take long, and it may save extra time and effort if testing has to be repeated due to loss of data.  After the testing session is complete, go to www.mClasshome.com and check to make certain your data is there.
• Last, but not least, call or email me if you have any problems or issues that are hindering your testing session.

Happy Testing!!!

Updated Check-in for The Daily Five

Since all K-5 teachers will begin "Read to Self" this week, I wanted to let you know about "The Sisters" updated check-in procedures.  In the past students have placed their thumbs in either the up or sideways position in front of their hearts to let the teacher know how they thought they did after completing of the components of "The Daily Five."

The Sisters have now implemented a 1-4 point check-in system they learned in Carlene Bickford's classroom in Waterville, Maine.  According to the revised version of "The Daily Five," the standard is as follows:

"1.  Below Standard
 2.  Approaching Standard
 3.  Meeting Standard
 4.  Exceeding Standard."

Students need to be trained to understand what is meant by each number as they are taught to reflect on their behaviors during the various parts of "The Daily Five."  Students are directed to put their hand in front of their heart with the appropriate number of fingers up as they consider how they did during a particular session.  The teacher poses a question about each expectation (example:  "How did you do with Stay in One Spot?") and the students put up the number of fingers that correspond with their success with that particular area.  Each expectation is treated in the same manner with the students taking time to reflect upon their progress and then put the correct number of fingers in front of their hearts.

The last step is what I consider to be a great improvement over the last system.  After they have scored themselves in all the questions the teacher has asked them to reflect, students think about a goal for the next round with someone who is sitting near them.  Sometimes "the students will share in the whole group, write their goals in a journal, or simply make an internal goal."  A goal might simply be saying that they will get started right away or read the whole time.  I hope you will like the new system as much as I do.  I think this procedure will really make students more accountable for the time they are spending reading, writing, or working on their words.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

As I continue to read the revised version of the book, I will share with you some of the ideas that "The Sisters" have changed.  I hope all of you will consider following my blog.  I will try to have something each week that will be helpful to you in your classrooms.  Have a great first-day!!

Shared Reading During the First Week of School

Shared Reading is a great strategy to use in PreK-2 classrooms during the first week of school.  It gives you a chance to share great books with your students and build a sense of community for your classroom.  Call the students to the carpet and choose a book you know the students will enjoy.  The teacher begins by reading from a big book, a story on the Smartboard, or sentence strips in a pocket chart.  As teachers read, they track the print with a pencil or a pointer.  This gives students an opportunity to follow the left-to-right-progression of words on the page.  Teachers can stop in strategic places and ask students to turn to their neighbor and tell them what they think will happen next.  When the story is finished, the teacher can question to see if students have understood the story.  Students can also pair up to retell the story to each other.

Follow-up activities can include rereading the story through Echo Reading, Choral Reading, or Fill in the Word.  Echo Reading begins with the teacher reading a word or a sentence and students echoing what the teacher has said as she points to the word.  During Choral Reading students read along with the teacher as she points to the word.  The teacher choose strategic words to leave out during Fill in the Word Reading.  This is a great strategy to use when teaching the concept of rhyming.

Some of my personal favorites for the first week of school include:  Clifford's First Day of School by Eric Bridwell; Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin; The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss; How I Spent my Summer Vacation by Mark Teague and Chrysanthemum by Keven Henkes.  Whether you read any of my favorites or have your own favorite book for the first day of school, Shared Reading is a great way to begin your new school year!  Happy Reading!!!

Great Day of Teaching and Learning

Just had the best day with K-2 teachers and Jessica Estillette discovering new ways to study words and explore more about The Daily Five.  It was so exciting to see new and veteran teachers sharing ideas for the new school year.  Teachers were so engaged in the activities and the conversation and ideas continued to flow even when it was time to share!  Jessica had some great ideas and modeled a lesson for us using alphabet and blends chart!  I can't wait to share the ideas with other teachers who were not able to be in the workshop.  It was obvious that teachers were ready to begin thinking about their classes for next year and were ready to get back in the classroom to do what they do best--teach children!  Thanks to all who participated so enthusiastically!  Can't wait for the new year myself!!!

What if....????

What if students in today's schools were given the opportunity to unleash their creativity and collaborate with others in their classes and students in classes who live in other countries?

What if students were given the opportunity for many ways to communicate with others through social networks  and use tools like Skype?

What if students were given chances to solve problems in innovative ways and find solutions that are unavailable to students in traditional classrooms?

What if students were given choices to include apps, games, websites, virtual worlds and videos to develop their entrepreneurial skills even as an elementary student?

What if students could connect to students across the world and begin to understand other cultures which are very different from the one in which they live?

What if students were taught with lessons that embed technology that prepare students for the real world?

What if students had the opportunity to use digital learning for the purpose of developing essential literacies?

What if students were in schools which routinely integrate technology and how to use it?

The answer to all these questions is we must give students the opportunities to use "real-world tools to solve real-world problems."  Education must provide today's students a teaching and learning culture that is centered on students and lets learners "construct their own meanings and understanding of concepts by non-traditional means."  This type of learning requires that we as leaders must give up a certain part of control and let teachers take risks in order to provide innovative practices that bring together digital tools with sound pedagogy.  We must provide the opportunity for digital learning combined with student-centered classrooms in order to give students the tools to be successful in tomorrow's classrooms and tomorrow's world.

Literacy for K-2 Teachers

I'm so excited to let you know about my new blog.  Let me tell you a little about myself.  I am a Literacy Coach for Castleberry ISD in Texas.  There are so many ideas that I want to share with you .  Literacy is my passion, and I love working with K-2 teachers!