Fieldwork Hours

Please use this link to access my fieldwork hours for the course.  Click on the fieldwork hours document tab.

https://www.taskstream.com/ts/dipinto/Fieldworkhours

ELL Case Study/Writing Project

Please follow this link to find my complete ELL project on Taskstream :
Click on the tab that says "ELL Case Study"

https://www.taskstream.com/ts/dipinto/MayaELLCaseStudyforELLWritingProject

ELL Case Study -- Lesson Plan

Please follow this link to find my lesson plan for my ELL Case Study

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j20VTRiUt6NBpHNFXjSfg3iN-AtmC5usgW0RfN6IWLI/pub

ELL Case Study - Classroom Observations, Reflections & Instructional Planning

ELL Case Study

April 2016

Classroom Observations, Writing Samples, Instructional Planning/Decision Making

Maya’s written English is impressive considering where she was at the start of the year.  Her attitude toward writing is noteworthy; she loves to write and is highly motivated.  This was expressed by her teachers and noted by me in my observation of her participation in the writing lesson and approach to our work together.  Maya has a lot to say and is very eager to do all of the things Hilary teaches her.  The writing program in our school is quite rigorous, and Maya demonstrates a great deal of mastery within this program.  Maya’s writing is understandable to her and her reader but sometimes has irregular grammar or sentence structure.  She uses sound spelling and known sight words to get her thoughts down.  Maya refers to the word wall for spelling words that she does not fully know.  The clarity and organization of Maya’s thoughts is not always strong, and this was an area of  focus in our work together on her butterflies book chapter about food/diet.  Here is a sample of Maya’s writing which I looked at prior to working with her.  This is the table of contents and introduction to her butterflies book.  

 

A few things caught my attention about Maya’s writing development when I read these samples. The first was that I was very impressed that she as able to do this work independently.  I have been teaching this curriculum for years and I know that it can be challenging for all students to take the information they have learned from reading research, and apply it to writing an informational book.  I did note that Maya’s table of contents was not very clear and organized, and this is a sign that she may not be thinking about her writing in a clear and organized structure, which is essential for informational writing.  The introduction is like an outline for the book.  This coupled with what Hilary explained about organization in her writing, pointed to an instructional need in this area.  Maya’s  introduction is catchy and she demonstrates that she understands that one way to introduce your topic is to catch your reader’s attention, and to start with a place/setting that matches what you know about your insect’s habitat.  The chart below was used to teach this mini lesson in her classroom.  Maya meets all areas of expectations based on this chart.

Maya shows areas of need in organization of her written ideas (less evidenced in this piece but expressed by her teachers and evidenced in other areas), spelling high frequency words and unknown words, and some mechanics/neatness (upper and lowercase letters, handwriting, writing across lines).  I used this information to help guide my work with her.  

Classroom Observation

April 14, 2016

Math Workshop

Prior to working with Maya on writing, I observed her at work in the classroom during a math lesson and independent work time.  The focus of the lesson was on solving addition and subtraction story problems using place value.  I came in close to the end of the lesson.  Students were practicing a problem on white boards on the rug with Hilary.  Maya was paying very close attention and applying Hilary’s instruction about how to show the work accurately and efficiently to her own written work.  I noted how Maya’s gaze kept moving up to the board where Hilary was demonstrating and back down to her own board to cross check.   When the lesson ended and Hilary asked students to erase boards and sit on them, Maya kept going to finish her work, showing commitment and persistence.  

When it came time for Maya and her classmates to work on a story problem packet independently, Maya was very slow to start, and hovered around HIllary while Hilary was busy with a small group.  She was very observant of everything that was going on in the room.  I noted that Maya did not say a word to Hillary to get her attention.  She just stood there and waited for Hilary to notice her and talk with her.  This took quite a while to accomplish.  Eventually HIlary had Maya sit next to her and reviewed with Maya what to do.  She also offered words of encouragement.  Maya chose to work independently near Hilary on the rug and not at her seat.  She was working on this problem:

Kim had 85 apples.

She got 30 more apples.

How many apples does Kim have now?

Maya’s work looked like this:

When complete Maya returned to Hillary to show her.  Hilary offered more words of encouragement and Maya returned to her spot to keep going.  I thought it was interesting that Hilary did not correct Maya’s computational error but instead made the instructional decision to encourage and foster independence.  I would agree with this decision because it appears that this is what Maya needs most.  Her work on the next problem further supports this thinking.  

Maya approached the next problem very slowly.  The problem was:  

Alex had 47 apples.

She got 30 more.

How  many apples does Alex have now?

Maya’s work looked like this:

Maya shows evidence of understanding and made no computational errors.  I noted that at this point that she started to embellish her written work rather than move forward.  It was a little puzzling to me why she was not continuing given that she was able to read the problems, understand them and solve them.  Somehow she was not feeling the confidence to forge ahead without teacher support.  These were important things for me to see before working with Maya and are windows into her motivation, feelings, and performance in school.  

I decided that given what I had observed about Maya as a student, what I learned from her writing samples, the information I gathered from the language and literacy rubrics, and what she is working on in the classroom writing curriculum, that I would work with Maya on planning and writing a section of her insect book about butterflies for my mentoring and writing sample.  Hilary and I discussed this and agreed that it was instructionally sound for Maya and would be beneficial

Interview Summary - Cooperating Teacher - ELL Case Study

ELL Case Study

EDLI 636

Cooperating Teacher Interview

Maya’s ESL teacher, Melanie, has been teaching ESL for five years and was previously a classroom teacher in an ICT classroom for 6 years; she is ESL and Special Ed licensed.  Melanie explained that In her early years of teaching ESL at PS 321,  the ELL population was mostly Latino and Asian and now the population is mostly Western European.  The student group is more heterogenous than ever with most students speaking different languages.  Many of the students’ families came to New York for their professional careers.  A large majority of these students have strong prior school experiences, a great deal of prior knowledge, and sometimes speak a little English.  A smaller portion of the students come from other areas of the world with parents moving to the United States for a variety of reasons.   

Our ELL population is very diverse and we have never had a full pull out ESL classroom. The ESL model for our school is for ELLs to be placed in regular classrooms and receive a combination of pull out and push in ESL services with a lot of sheltered instruction.  The classroom and ESL teachers collaborate to meet the needs of  individual students.  Melanie has run the ESL program at our school for the past 5 years.  She teaches all of the lower and upper grade students.  Maya, my case study student, is in the first grade.  

In response to the interview questions regarding Melanie’s perception of ELLs learning motivation and performance in school, she commented that it is really no different than other students, and it depends on the child and his/her nature and experience.  She said that talking is always the last frontier for ELLs and a silent period is to be expected, particularly for students who come to the school speaking little to no English.  “Talking is always the scariest for them because they know that people are going to react and respond.  This opens up a conversation which they may not be ready for”.  She also mentioned that culture can play a factor in a student’s performance and motivation.  “If the child’s culture is very different than the one they are coming into, we can expect that their transition and adjustment will be different.  It is always helpful to find out as much as we can about the student and his/her experience through the family, and to find ways to best support that child/family’s transition based on what we know.  It is always easiest to do this when the parent or a family member speaks some English, but when that is not the case, we are able to find translators either in the school or community.”  

When asked specifically about ELLs reading and writing performance, she said that it varies and is relative to the student’s prior school experience, home environment, prior knowledge, and language, which can vary widely.  “We have a lot of kids who come with a great deal of literacy skills that they transfer”.  This is due in large part to the growing population of ELLs who come to our school from western Europe and from highly educated families.  Many of these students have had solid prior learning experiences that they transfer to English.  

When asked about difficulties that ELLs encounter in school, Melanie said that the learning differences and variations she sees within the ELL population are the same as it is with any other demographic.  “Like any other demographic, there is a large range and continuum in learning with ELLs.  Sometimes you will get a student who struggled with their native language and will struggle with English.  Right now I have a student who is showing signs of dyslexia in English and it turns out she had similar issues in her native language.”  A student’s native language can also play a role in a child’s adjustment to learning English.  “Students who come to our school speaking languages that are more closely related to English are going to have an easier time learning English than students whose native language varies dramatically from English, like Arabic or Japanese. However, the personality of the student and prior learning experience are also strong factors.”   

Melanie noted that because our current ELL population is largely European, with students whose parents speak some English, many of the students don’t rely on native language for an extended period of time and are able to transfer what they know to English more quickly.  A difficulty that she has noted with some students is their adjustment to not being the learner they were in their native language.  “Sometimes kids are accustomed to being a really great math student and now they cannot follow the math lesson. Or they may get upset that they have to read books that feel simple compared to what they were reading in their native language.  It can be a humbling experience for some kids, particularly older children.  Everything we do in school is based around oral language and learning can suddenly become difficult for ELLs when it once was not; this can be frustrating.  For students who do not have a bold personality, and are not willing to take risks, the adjustment can be hard.  We have to be sensitive to all of that”.  

We did talk about outliers, kids who do not fall under the larger group of European families.  “We do still get kids who come from all over the world and may not speak any English at all; they may also come from a very different culture on many levels.  We know that these kids are going to have difficulty and are going to have meltdowns.  At first we have to do all that we can to help these kids understand basics and communicate their basic needs.  Pictures can be very helpful for this.  And whenever we can find another student or staff member who speaks their language, that person can be of tremendous comfort and help to the student.”  

In our discussion about how classroom teachers resolve ELLs’ learning difficulties Melanie talked about how teachers modify the curriculum and “take things down a notch”, when working with ELLs who are new to the school and English.  A big theme in this part of our interview was the strength of the classroom teacher.  Melanie takes into consideration how supportive and strong the classroom teacher is when thinking about her work with teachers and ELLs.  “When a student is in a classroom with a strong teacher - a teacher who knows the curriculum and uses a lot of supports in his/her teaching - ELLs typically thrive because these are the kinds of supports they need.   If the classroom is not as supportive, I can help create better access to the curriculum and support the teacher in helping the student.”  Melanie talked about how we let ELLs write and even read in their native language alongside English to support ongoing academic development and skill transfer.  Some specific ways that Melanie and classroom teachers try to resolve learning difficulties are to mindfully partner ELLs in mixed level partnerships and groups to support peer modeling, explicitly teach phonics, and whenever possible, pair an ELL up with another student who does speak their language.  In our school this is often easy because our ELLs speak so many different languages.  

Melanie is extraordinarily good with children and with parents. I have known her for years and she has this sense of calm and control, paired with extensive, practical knowledge that make her very effective in her position.  Melanie has a gift for putting children and parents at ease, and offering sound, practical advice.  She has years of experience working with students and families from a wide range of social ,cultural, linguistic, religious and economic backgrounds.  She brings knowledge of English language learning and cultural sensitivity to all she does.   

Week 12 Assignment #3 Prezi Presentation: Integrating Technology in Literacy Instruction

Use this link to find my Prezi Presentation:

http://prezi.com/m5r9x4ei8vif/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Week 12 Assignment 2

After reading the articles in the Using Technology to Support Literacy link on the Scholastic website and the Integrating Literacy and Technology in the Curriculum brochure, I became more aware of the current issues surrounding information and communication technology (ICT)  in literacy education and tools that can be used to integrate more technology in the literacy curriculum through electronic publishing.  

The Scholastic articles provided information about electronic publishing in the areas of:

• Digital tools for storytelling
• Story idea sources for electronic publishing
• Tips and tools for planning lessons in electronic publishing
• Tips and tools for managing technology in the classroom when doing electronic publishing
• Ideas for cameras, software and tools to use
• Examples of electronically published pieces from students
• Steps for making a digital video with students
• Assessment and rubric ideas for teachers
• Ideas for using web tools across curricular areas
• Examples of how teachers have had students use web tools for publishing

The Scholastic articles were very practical in nature, offering resources and materials for teachers to use when planning to do electronic videos or publishing.

The Integrating Literacy and Technology in the Curriculum brochure provided an overview of how current technology has created new literacies for our students.  This reality, coupled with the amount of information we are getting and being driven to online, is creating new educational needs for our students in the area of literacy.  The brochure highlights the current challenges for teachers to meet the needs of new literacies, including:

• Insufficient access to technology in schools across the country and world
• Insufficient teacher education in new literacies in teacher education programs
• Insufficient professional development (time, money and opportunities) for teachers to learn how to address new literacies in their classrooms
• Access to technology and equipment in classrooms
• Insufficient understanding among teachers, administrator and educational policy makers about what new literacy skills are required by new forms of ICT and how can we best support students in acquiring these new literacies  
• Insufficient research in these areas has made it difficult to develop these understandings.  

Please use this Google document to view my lesson plan for Integrating Technology with Literacy

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uW9Dn-JDWRE1_BjtYUI67Uw7V4G-M4NdUhFyis2VL98/pub

WEEK 11 Assignment 3

Please follow the link to my google doc with 3 lesson plans using graphic organizers to improve student reading comprehension:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cIgUwdlQj_5D5_jN-bL4UxSkUD90pYAjV6VVeqbBAI8/pub

QRI 5 Keystone Assignment

Please follow this link to find my QRI 5 assessment:

https://www.taskstream.com/ts/dipinto/QRI5withDiego

WEEK 10 Assignment 4

Open this google doc to see my assignment 4 for week 10:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/149YOdA7JDD5c_ffrsyVDzUfMnrPigOChEIBuZtnGJDs/pub

ASSIGNMENT 3 Compare and Contrast QRI5 and DIBELS

QRI 5 and DIBELS share many similarities and differences and both are powerful assessment and instructional tools for early childhood educators in and outside of the classroom.  QRI5 and DIBELS both assess literacy skills and reading development and are research and standards based.  QRI5 can be used with elementary through high school aged students and DIBELS can be used with kindergarten through 6th grade students.  Both assessment tools are designed to be administered individually and provide explicit instructions for how to administer and score the assessments.  Teacher and student materials are always provided to make the assessment consistent and valid.

QRI 5 and DIBELS are different.  QRI 5 is a reading inventory.  It is mostly focused on reading and on helping educators identify students’ reading levels (individual, instructional, and frustration) for the purposes of determining student performance compared to grade level standards, and to plan for effective instruction.  QRI 5 also provides teachers with some information about student literacy development in particular areas of reading through a miscue analysis, and comprehension assessment.  It definitely provides comprehensive information about student reading fluency and comprehension.  In fact, these are key factors in determining a student’s reading level with the QRI 5.  The QRI 5 also uses word lists to assess student word identification in and out of context.  Another feature that makes QRI 5 unique is its use of both narrative and expository text to assess readers.

DIBELS is a set of assessments/measures broken down into big ideas in reading, rather than one big assessment under the umbrella of reading.  Like QRI 5, DIBELS assesses student reading fluency and comprehension, but in a much faster manner, and in a way that feels less like authentic reading than QRI 5 does.  However, DIBELS measures student performance in a variety of phonological and phonemic awareness areas that the QRI 5 does not, such as the First Sound Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, and Nonsense Word Fluency measures.  The purpose of DIBELS is not only to identify student reading levels, but also to detect possible learning issues and intervene if/when necessary.  DIBELS is also much faster and efficient than QRI 5.  The one-minute measures look and feel different than the reading passages and discussions that happen with QRI 5.  

It is easy to see how DIBELS and QRI 5 complement one another and overlap.  To me QRI 5 feels like a reading assessment and DIBELS feels like a reading skills assessment.  As a teacher, I think both are important.  However, I do think that the later is of particular importance with children who struggle because they need us to be able to pinpoint areas of difficulty and intervene there.  DIBELS makes this possible.  In an age when accountability and data driven instruction are at the forefront, having tools like QRI 5 and DIBELS is important as they provide you with different, yet equally important, sources of information about student literacy development over time.   

Week 8 Assignment #3

Week 8 Assignment #3

Candidate’s Name:  Melissa Di Pinto

Grade Level:  1

Title of the lesson:  Readers Stop and Self Correct (stopping to word solve and self correct at points of error in reading)

Length of the lesson:  A reading period (to achieve all parts of the lesson), actual whole group lesson 10 minutes with a small group guided reading lesson of another 10 minutes.  

Central focus The central focus of the lesson will be to teach students that readers stop to self correct when they make an error (in word identification) while reading and use decoding skills (including cueing systems) to problem solve unknown words.  This lesson support the accuracy facet of reading fluency, which directly supports reading comprehension.

Knowledge of students to inform teaching Children in first grade are currently reading at a variety of levels and with different skill sets in place.  All readers need to know that creating meaning is the ultimate task of reading, and that when meaning breaks down, a reader’s job is to stop and make efforts to self correct.  Most children in my first grade classroom still benefit from practice with this skill, and specifically how to problem solve for unknown or misread words while in the process of reading. Students are familiar with using semantic clues (meaning/what would make sense), syntactic clues (what would sound right), and graphophonic clues (what does the word look like) to solve new words, but do not yet use them flexibly with independence.  The purpose of this lesson is to further guide students in using these critical reading skills, in support of reading fluency.

Common Core ELA Standards Reading Standards: Foundational Skills (K–5)  Phonics and Word Recognition  Grade 1 3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. a. Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs. b. Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.   g. Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words Fluency Grade 1 4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. a. Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding. b. Read grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings. c. Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Support literacy development through language (academic language) Language function(s) appropriate for learning segment:   Listen to, understand, and orally respond to grade level text read aloud Identify and discuss reading errors made; use letter sound knowledge, comprehension and syntax to correct errors.   Read and discuss developmentally appropriate grade level text Key learning tasks from this plan that provide students opportunities to practice using these language functions:   read aloud with interactive talk during mini lesson guided reading with discussion independent reading   Language demands (written or oral) students need to understand and/or use:   Early oral reading skills Early phonics skills Oral reading of known sight words in context Discussion skills Vocabulary General vocabulary Comparing words read to words on page, and analyzing word parts (sounds, phonemes) to accurately determine words and correct errors.   Content specific vocabulary self correcting errors when reading, problem solving new words.   Sentence Level Appropriately reading written sentences.   Understanding the meaning of written sentences while reading.   Discourse Following the text structure of a narrative.   Understanding new vocabulary words/content specific words presented in text.

Learning objectives Students will notice when errors have been made in oral reading, because the word said does not match what is on the page.  They will articulate this error.   Students will attempt to self correct errors using grade-level phonics and word analysis skills to accurately decode words (as well as meaning and syntax).   Students will decode regularly spelled one-syllable words. Students will recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words (sight words). Students will learn to read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension, even when stopping to problem solve. Students will use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Formal and informal assessment (including type[s] of assessment and what is being assessed) The teacher will monitor students during the whole group lesson for evidence of understanding, including student responses during active engagements and turn and talks.   The teacher will take notes and/or running records for students who read orally to the teacher during guided reading.  The teacher can monitor student reading fluency in general, and how students are using stopping to problem solve, and stopping to self correct, to support reading fluency.  Evidence of how students use the cueing system to word solve will be provided as students read, and the teacher can take note of this in running records and/or note taking. A miscue analysis can also provide information about students’ reading development.   For ELLs, teachers will want to take special note of how the students are understanding and using language during the lesson and work times, and how their developing vocabulary supports or limits understanding.

Instructional procedure: The following instructional strategies and learning tasks would be used during this lesson.  The whole group would be given a lesson about the teaching point. This lesson would include teacher demonstration and modeling of the skill/behavior, and then multiple chances for the students to practice the skill with scaffolding provided by the teacher (active engagement).  This would be achieved through a read aloud.  Following the whole group lesson, the teacher could run two small guided reading groups with focus and attention on the same teaching point.  Here students would receive more individualized instruction , repetition of the lesson, and further scaffolding.  The teacher also has the chance to do more formal assessment and collect detailed information about students while they read orally to the teacher.  If two groups are done while the rest of the class reads independently, the teacher could meet individually with up to 8 students, including ELLs, children with IEPS, or gifted students.  This structure also provides the teacher with the opportunity to teach a new (related) fluency teaching point to students.  For example, if more advanced students don't need additional instruction with stopping to self correct, they may benefit from a fluency lesson about phrasing in more complex text.  A guided reading group structure can make this additional instruction possible within the context of Reading Workshop.  If the teacher decided to follow this work time with partner reading, students could get more practice with reading text out loud, and the children who just had guided reading would benefit from multiple re-readings of the new (more advanced) text.   Accommodations and modifications such as visual charts, modeling, gesturing, and visual aids (such as a document camera for the read aloud) will be very helpful. Further modifications can be made during small groups.  If certain children are having difficulty with particular sounds, they may benefit from some phonic practice on an app in that particular area.

Instructional resources and materials used to engage students in learning Choosing a read aloud with high interest and appropriate opportunities for student participation in the skill being taught will be necessary.  Using a document camera for the read aloud increases student engagement and enlarges the text students need to read and analyze.  It is also important to carefully choose guided reading books that appropriately match student reading levels and push students forward.  When designing book introductions the teacher must consider students' prior knowledge, new vocabulary presented in text, ELL students, and any other areas of special needs for students.   Children are always excited to use quality technology in the form of learning apps to extend any skill they need to work on.

Reflection Using this format (whole group, small group, independent work) within the context of Reading Workshop allows the teacher to provide the appropriate amount of support to a diverse group of students.  The format also makes it possible for teachers to note areas of instructional need and use this to plan for further small group instruction.  For example, while reading with students the teacher may note that some students show evidence of needing more short vowel work.  He/she could then plan to meet with these students to work on that target area in small groups during Word Study, Reading Workshop, and Writing Workshop across a week.  Carrying the instructional thread across multiple subject areas supports skill transfer, which is particularly important for kids who struggle.   What changes would you make to support better student learning of the central focus? I would have to try the lesson out first to see what changes I would make.  I am not in the classroom this year to do this, and a lot of it depends on the group of students and how they respond to the lesson individually and collectively.