Week 3 - Assignment 1

•  How does this activity engage students who are at different levels of literacy development?

Through discussing the text with her students, Ms. Perez is able to engage learners of all abilities, in a way that strengthens their oral language and reading comprehension. Furthermore, Ms. Perez models reading skills and strategies in a way that all her students can relate to and implement as well. She cues her students to promote word identification and phonics, and through reading together, they are all able to practice fluency and automaticity in an enjoyable manner. She also directs and adjust the level of her questions and prompts according to the level of the student who she called on.

• During her explicit phonics lesson, how does Ms. Perez support students' problem-solving skills?

Ms. Perez makes reference to her students' prior knowledge and builds on that. She models, and then encourages her students to do the same, through hypothesizing and being actively engaged in experimenting with the different grammar principles she is teaching.

• Based on what you saw in the video, what are the different ways that shared reading can be used to promote literacy?

Shared reading can be used to promote reading fluency and oral language. Shared reading creates a kind of "communal" interest in the literacy process, and promotes literacy as a social activity. Furthermore, the teacher can use the text used in the shared reading as a basis for word identification and phonics.

• Why does she think it's important for students to verbalize their strategies? What else do you notice about how she helps students build meaning in text?

Ms. Perez believes that it's important for students to verbalize their strategies in order to internalize them, and be able to repeat them and apply them in future instances as needed. I noticed that Ms. Perez uses verbal cues, as well as physical prompts (such as a flash card "blocker") to help her students apply their strategies in order to understand the text. Additionally, Ms. Perez is encouraging and helpful, yet she chooses to guide her students to build meaning instead of telling them the answers outright. 

• How does Ms. Perez organize her classroom to support a wide range of learners?

Ms. Perez divides her students by ability, and provides each group with learning activities catered to their respective level. She also employs outside resources, such as a students teacher, to help oversee and implement the process.

• How are reading and writing connected in classroom activities?

In Ms. Perez's class, students are encouraged to read their own writing to self-check for errors. They also write about interesting topics they've read, and read their work out loud.

• How does Ms. Perez use ongoing individual assessment to guide her instruction? How can the class profile be used to help group students and differentiate instruction?

Ms. Perez keeps a running record of each student's reading skills, in order to assess her students' current literacy skills. Ms. Perez repeats the assessment regularly throughout the year to mark progress. Based on the results, Ms. Perez creates a graph which allows her to analyze and compare the different levels her students are on. Ms. Perez then uses the graph as a tool to help her divide her students into ability-based learning groups. 

• How can ongoing assessment be integrated into your own classroom practice?

Ongoing assessment can and should be integrated into every classroom, whether it is done through a running record or a different means, or in a formal or informal manner. As a teacher, I would aim to integrate ongoing assessment on a regular basis, since I would need to know what my students' abilities are before I could properly plan my long-term and daily goals.