Ebright, Week 7 Reflection

Students First Name: Maggie

Tutoring session dates: 4/9/14 & 4/10/14
Grade: 1
REFLECT


What worked in this lesson for your student and why?
On Wednesday, I used a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast 2 books: The Three Little Pigs and
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs from 50 Literacy Strategies, 3
rd
edition. Maggie and I watched
an animated Three Little Pigs video from Speakaboos (a website full of animated stories, including fairy
tales). The narrator read the story with great expressions and different voices which really fascinated
Maggie. She was really engaged in the story. Maggie did a great job picking out similarities and
differences from the 2 stories. She was able to tell me what the circles meant and she was also able to
explain both compare and contrast.
On Friday, I gave Maggie the Pat and the Kitten reading passage (also from the beginning of
tutoring) to compare the results from the beginning and the ending of the sessions. Maggie was familiar
with the passage and the administration, so she didnt have any issues with the passages or
comprehension questions. She read the passage much more fluently and with more confidence with was
very evident. Maggie also was able to retell the story unprompted (OK accuracy), but was able to
answer all the prompted comprehension questions, except for one, which was a huge improvement from
the first session!
In addition, Maggie also made words using the letters from Happy Birthday. Maggie really enjoyed
this hands-on activity from a few weeks ago and she was really excited to make more words, using more
letters as a different challenge during this lesson. Again, Maggie really enjoyed being able to come up
with words on her own and work through the process. Throughout the tutoring process, I noticed how
Maggies engagement in hands-on/tactile activities was so much higher than in activities that were
focused on simply speaking and listening.
Ebright, Week 7 Reflection


What didnt work in this lesson for your student and why?
On Wednesday, during the Venn Diagram activity, I allowed Maggie to page through The True Story
of the Three Little Pigs to find evidence for her answers in the text. I also told Maggie that she could go
back to the iPad to do the same. However, I should have brought a paper (book) copy of The Three
Little Pigs story because Maggie was reluctant to go back to the iPad; hence, why she struggled on
finding a 3
rd
item to go under The Three Little Pigs. As a result, I ended up prompting her for another
difference.
On Friday, there really wasnt anything that didnt work in the lesson, but I wonder if Happy
Birthday was a bit overwhelming (too many letters?) for Maggie to find and make words. For instance,
in the last Making Words lesson, Maggie was to make 6 words from hermit crab. She ended up
surpassing the goal of 6 words, as she ended up making 15. With the letters from happy birthday, she
made 10 words. Even though she still met the learning objective, I wonder if there appeared to be too
many, and she got a little bit overwhelmed.

How successful was the activity in terms of furthering your students learning about this
objective? (for assessments, what data did you get from this lessonreading levels, etc.)?
On Wednesday, the activity (Venn Diagram) was a great way for Maggie to understand comparing
and contrasting stories. It was a great way for Maggie to learn how to organize her thoughts about
more than 1 story, in a way that was meaningful and purposeful. In addition, Maggie was really
interested in both of the fairy tales. After I discussed with Maggie about the layout and format of a Venn
Diagram, I asked her to come up with 3 items for each circle. Maggie was able to do this without any
problems, except she struggled to list one other item under The Three Little Pigs. As mentioned
previously, I believe the reason was because Maggie didnt have something physically in print to hold
and flip through to find the answer, as she did with The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.
Ebright, Week 7 Reflection

On Friday, the student learning objective was to make at least 8 words using the letters from happy
birthday. This activity allowed Maggie to manipulate letters to form words CVC words, sight words,
random words, etc. Most of the words that Maggie created were basic CVC words, but several were
more creative. This activity also allowed Maggie to look at a word and see how it could easily become
another word, simply by changing the initial or ending sounds of the word. For instance, Maggie formed
the word hat then quickly made it into rat. Maggie did a great job manipulating the letters to make
words and meet the learning objective.

Evaluate the quality of your efforts to use academic language to further your students learning.
I was able to appropriately use academic language from the Common Core standards and incorporate
the language into my lessons on both Wednesday and Friday. Granted, most of the academic language
from the standards that I chose, were common academic language/words that Maggie had been exposed
to before, as evidenced by the Common Core standards hanging in Mrs. Kings classroom. More
specifically in this lesson, I was able to really focus on a Venn Diagram and what it meant to compare 2
items and what it meant to contrast 2 items. Maggie did a great job differentiating between the academic
language and using the terms while inserting the information in the appropriate circle.

How will you plan future literacy lessons based on what you have learned about your student after
completing this lesson?
I would advise future tutors for Maggie to choose activities that allow Maggie to use manipulatives
such as: foam/magnetic letters, word sorts, cutting/pasting activities, storyboarding activities, etc. I think
Maggie was the most engaged during the lesson that allowed her to be hands-on and learn with her
hands. Maggie also enjoyed reading books about bunnies and horses reallyany animals! For future
lessons with Maggie, I would want to continue to focus on word study, fluency, and comprehension
strategies to solidify foundational reading and literacy concepts.
Ebright, Week 7 Reflection

Assessment Data:
Instructional and Independent Reading Levels
Wednesday
On Wednesday, Maggie read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle [Grade level Equivalent: 1.3]
aloud to me. She struggled with some of the past-tense verbs, but really was able to use the pictures
from the story to help her with some of the words.
*Missed Words: thread, trailed, bleated, crowed
*Mispronounced Words: spin (said spine), neigh (said knee)
From the Venn Diagram activity, Maggie was able to correctly list at least 3 items in each circle
for The Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Under The Three Little Pigs, she
listed the following items: [1] Wolf blew down Pig 1 and Pig 2s house. [2] Wolf was mean. [3] Wolf
wen down the chimney and fell in the pot. Under The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Maggie listed
the following items: [1] The cops took the Wolf to jail and called him the big bad wolf. [2] Wolf
sneezed and houses then fell down. [3] Wolf was sick. [4] Wolf was nice. In the similarities circle,
Maggie listed: [1] Bricks were stronger and stayed up. [2] 3 pigs and 1 wolf. [3] The 3
rd
pig tricked the
wolf. (This is the item that was prompted.)
Friday
On Friday, Maggie read No, David! By David Shannon [Grade level Equivalent: 1.1] aloud to
me. She read the story very fluently and only got caught up on 2 words: enough and instant. She self-
corrected herself with Davids nickname, Davey.
*Missed Words: enough
*Mispronounced Words: instant (said insad), Davey self-corrected
From the Making Words activity, Maggie was able to create the following words: day, hay, bay,
bat, hat, Pat (She even said, You know, like, Pat from our story!), tap, rap, par, and rapid.
I also gave Maggie a graded reading passage from Bader. Maggie read Pat and the Kitten
Ebright, Week 7 Reflection

again. I wanted to compare her results from the first session to the last session. I was absolutely amazed
with the differences in Maggies performance and accomplishments. When Maggie first read the
passage to be on our first session, she read the passage as a choppy reader. She wasnt very fluent and
she really struggled (paused) in between words. She read so slowly, that I immediately knew she would
struggle with retelling the story and the comprehension questions.
First Session (2/7/14): Pat self-corrected, after saying plant, said at for it, of self-corrected, said
in for it, said the for a, missed took, said kitty for kitten, missed took, said was for will, said
cur for care, said furry for fur, meow self-corrected.
Unprompted (2/7/14): Maggie got a check for [1] Pat saw kitten and [2] kitten meowed happily.
Maggie was only able to retell the beginning detail and the ending detail.
Comprehension Questions (2/7/14): Maggie got a check for [1] What did Pat see? responded with
kitten [2] What did Pat want to do with the kitten? responded take home [3] What did the kitten do?
responded meowed happily. Maggie answered I dont know for all the other questions. Again,
Maggie was only able to answer the beginning and the ending questions.
Last Session (4/10/14): said was for saw (2x), said one for on, at self-corrected, said here for her
Unprompted (4/10/14): Maggie was able to retell 4 items from the checklist, but they werent in
complete order. For example, Maggie responded by saying that Pat saw the kitten, the kitten was happy,
and the kitten had a hurt leg. However, there was improvement from the first retelling where Maggie
only could retell the beginning and ending of the passage.
Comprehension Questions (4/10/14): Maggie answered all of the questions accurately, except the 2
nd

question that asked: Where was the kitten? She was not able to respond with side of the street. Maggie
also missed the key detail about the kitten having yellow eyes. Even though Maggie missed 2
Ebright, Week 7 Reflection

comprehension questions, I think she really improved on her retelling abilities and answering the
comprehension questions overall. In addition, I found the questions that Maggie missed to be extremely
minor details to the story, as well. Overall, I was really pleased with Maggies progress, especially since
last week we specifically focused on story retelling and storyboarding strategies to help her retell stories
and recall events in sequential order.