Personal Statement: Equilibrium

I walk over to the nine-year-old boy sitting across the room as I reach for my pen and sheet of paper. As I approached him, I halted. Quietly, I asked him what he needed help with. Looking confused, he asked me what the word bough meant. I froze. I didn’t know what the word meant. Embarrassed of not knowing a fifth grade word, I asked the teacher for some assistance and after she told me what the word meant I understood and was then able to explain to him that a bough is just a synonym for a branch. Noticing that David was still confused as to what he was reading, I sat beside him and allowed him to read the passage out loud to me. While I defined the words that he didn’t know and listened to him read the passage, I was able to classify him as an English learner who just wanted to be just as good as the other kids.

The child knew how to turn the pages, show me the title of the book, and show me the title page of the book. The child struggled in holding the book right side up, showing me the front cover, and the back cover, and finding the first page of text. The child was not able to tell me what the author or the illustrator did. With the conventions of print the child was able to tell me where it tells the story at, where we start to read. Lastly the he could tell me that we read from left to right and top to bottom. The child struggled with the return sweep when reading. The child excelled in showing me the spaces between words, and pointing out letters to me. The child struggled in one on one reading, and finding word boundaries around a word. The child also had problems with finding the first word on the page, and the last word on the page, and with counting the words and letters for me. The child was not able to show me the difference between a capital and lowercase letter. The child was able to identify the letters on a page, some of the specific letters that I pointed to, and also was able to identity some of the letters in his name. The child was also able to name some of the letters on a page, some of the specific letters, and some of the letters in his name. He was able to

With a small group, discuss the following questions. Choose someone to read the question out loud, and direct the discussion so that each person can offer his/her opinion on the topic. Have another student record the group’s response and choose a third student to report the information gathered to the class in a discussion.

“Miss Caroline told me to tell my father not to teach me anymore, it would interfere with my reading.” (pg. 22)

And those children represent their knowledge in a variety of ways. It is based on recognition of the individual and social nature of learning and the essential role of language in mediating thought, communication,

In addition the act of showing students the particular information has the effect of allowing them to create their own understanding of the text. It allows students to examine the process of discerning important information from that which is immaterial. "Since understandings cannot be transmitted, merely telling children the relationships in some topic seems unlikely to provide much of a press for understanding. Nevertheless explaining can work when…a conceptual model such as an analogy or an example can highlight what is important and make connections easier to notice" (Newton 2001).

Students will be read parts of the first few pages, teacher will then pause at words and say just the beginning sound and have students guess what the words mean. (Ex: Over in the Ju____.) Students will then be expected to guess words that may fit the book and begin with the letter Ju (Jungle). This practice will

Transition

At the end of each part of the story, teacher must stop to ask a question that related to that part. For example, asking question after reading the “raising action

Sebastian was provided with 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. In the 4th grade passage Sebastian read the passage in 1 minute and did not miss words, placing him at an independent level for reading, comprehension, and retelling of the passage. In the 5th grade passage, Sebastian missed two words, he reversed the word “everyone” with “everytime” and the word “with” with “what.” This placed him at independent reading, comprehension and retelling of the passage level in reading. Lastly, in the 6th grade reading passage, Sebastian substituted 4 words and did not read the suffix of -ed for 1 word. Sebastian read “colossal” as “caleal,” “Eldwood’s’ as “Edward’s,” “felt” as “fell,” and “clothing” as “learning.” The word that Sebastian omitted the -ed from was “riled” instead he read it as “rile.” The errors indicated that Sebastian was at an instructional level in reading. In the comprehension questions, he missed 1 question which placed him at an independent reading level. As for retelling the passage, he was also placed at an independent level.

Proof of Student Ideas: I will quote the student, explain their misconceptions and link findings to relevant academic literature.

The student read aloud will serve as a formative assessment on fluency and word recognition.

The some children mourned and some cheered for the story and say “That that was the best story ever.”

This resource had been created to encourage a child to learn to read through play. It is in the form of a game and it is aimed at helping a child repeat the words that extra practice is needed from a book that has been read. The resource created is a game that incorporates play and praise in which are essential skills to support a child that is learning something new. Games enable all children to develop skills without pressure and are particularly important for children who may be less confident (Lindon, 1993). The ‘Let’s Read’ game can be used for a variety of ages as the words can be changed and personalised depending on the child’s reading ability. This game is a good way of helping to teach a child to read and improve on words that they struggle with because it is taught by learning through play, therefore the child is less aware they are learning and it is a fun way to practice. The child is also receiving praise and reward through the star reward sheet that comes with the game. By

My personal mission statement is as follows: To be a positive and influential person in society while still being myself at all times.