My classroom consists of 22 students with ages ranging from 8-years-old to 10-years-old.

I have a total of 10 girls and 12 boys in my classroom. Majority of the students are of fFlipino

descent and majority of them live in the Waipahu area. In my classroom, I have a total of four(4)

English Language Learners with three(3) being LEPs (Limited English Proficient) and one(1)

being NEP (Non-English Proficient). These students are receiving push in services from the

school. Aside from the EL students, I have a few students with allergies - ranging from being

anaphylactic to seafood, a few peanut allergies, and more.

At August Ahrens Elementary School, an assessment method that they utilize is the

Diagnostic Test that is part of the iReady program. The students take the assessment three times

during the school year: beginning of the year, in the middle of the year, and at the end of the

year. Through the Diagnostic Test, the students are tested to determine what grade level they are

on. The students get tested for Math and Reading and as they go through the Diagnostic, the

program generates questions on whether they have answered grade level questions. The results of

the Diagnostic then helps teachers see where the students are and what they need to work on.

For my students, after seeing the results of their current Diagnostic Test, their main needs

in Reading are: Phonics and Comprehension in Literature and Informational Text. In the students

Beginning of the Year iReady Test, there were many of them that still have not tested out of the

Phonics portion for their current grade level. There are students that are scoring in the Grade 1 or

Grade 2 level. As for their Comprehension in Literature and Informational Text, the students

have not met one, or both. For Math, their main needs are Numbers and Operations as well as

learning their multiplication facts. From their Diagnostics Test, there are still students that are

not in the 4th grade level. Like in Reading, there are still students that are testing in the 1st and

2nd grade.
 There are ways that my mentor and I can work on what the students need help on while in

the classroom. For example with Phonics, my mentor and I are able to use the Orton-Gillingham

(OG) method of learning phonics with the students. OG can be used with all students to practice

their phonics. As for Comprehension, my mentor uses the Marking and Posting Strategy where

students annotate with post-its in their texts. However one learning goal that my mentor and I

have chosen to particularly address is improving the students proficiency with their 2s, 4s, and 8s

facts. As the students have been working through Stepping Stones, my mentor and I have noticed

that there are many students that are struggling with these number facts. The students have a

difficult time figuring out the solution of the problem. As we have seen what the students know,

my mentor and I have decided that we are going to constantly practice the doubling strategies

that the students have been learning. We will also test the students more on the above mentioned

multiplication facts.

iReady is an assessment method that is used throughout the school, however the test

cannot be modified to meet the needs of students who have different learning needs. What the

program can do is that once the students finish the Diagnostic Test, iReady generates a modified

pathway of learning that consists of what the individual student needs to work on. If the student

is having a difficult time on a particular strand in Reading or Math, the program will have more

questions based on that strand and will move on or pull back according to the students’ progress.

If there are students that do struggle in the general education classroom, other methods of

meeting their needs would be having them get push-in services as well as working with other

teachers.