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Lilly Ryden
CIEE 5120-62
Part 2: Best Practices Literacy Instruction
Week 2: During this session we worked on writing a rhyme (phonics.) We read Llama
Llama Red Pajama because the entire story was written in rhyme and was easy to follow.
At the end of the story the baby llama goes to sleep. For our rhyming activity, I decided
to continue the story on as if the baby llama was sleeping. A similar activity was
mentioned on page 58 in the text (under Recognizing rhymes) that mentions writing
rhymes by continuing chapters of a book, which is what prompted me to do this. The
rhyme followed a similar pattern to the book, so it began with Llama llama red pajama
and then mentioned something about the mama and something about the baby. The initial
rhyme J. gave me was dog and frog. We brainstormed how to fit those into coherent
sentences and she came up with the end result shown below.

Week 3: This week we read Dinorella, which was written entirely in alliteration. We
then played an alliteration game (phonemic awareness.) I found a rhyming game in the
Student activities Grade K-1 link under the Resources for Teaching tab on
Blackboard. However, I switched it from rhyming to alliteration. The object of the game
was to follow the images on the board. For each image there was a corresponding image
that began with the same sound. In order to progress through the board, the correct
corresponding image would have to be chosen. So, for instance, the first image was of a
pie and the image with a similar sound was a pan. This particular week I worked with

both J. and A. This game was great to teach alliteration to both of them because they took
turns playing.

Week 4: I wanted to work on fiction comprehension this week and thought that using an
I Predict/I Found chart would be a good tool. Since we were reading No Roses for
Harry! there were many instances throughout the story when predictions could be made.
What we would do is come to a spot when a prediction could be made (I marked several
places), have her make a prediction in the I Predict box, and then write what actually
happened in the I Found box. However, this week was a rough week. I do not believe J.
was incapable of completing the chart, as she was able to make verbal predictions when
prompted. I instead believe she felt overburdened by the amount I was requiring her to
write (since we had not written anything of that length or depth prior.)

Week 5: Because the week prior had not gone too smoothly, I wanted to revisit fiction
comprehension but also wanted to work on vocabulary. We used the Story Window after
we read Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. By using the Story Window, I was not
only able to run the Re-telling Fiction diagnostic, but she was also able to focus
specifically on what was in the window as it appeared. Though she needed some visuals
for assistance, she successfully re-told all aspects of the story. We then used a synonym
spider (also found in the Student activities K-1 link) to mark down unfamiliar words with
their corresponding synonyms. So, on one leg we would write the new word (we had one
phrase also) and its corresponding meaning on its other leg. We also began writing the
personal narrative this week, titled One Saturday.

Week 6: This week we read One Tiny Turtle. Since this book was full of facts about
Loggerhead turtles, I knew it would be perfect to work on non-fiction comprehension
while also running the Re-telling Information diagnostic. I found a Classifying
Information chart (Student activities K-1 tab) and simply wrote Main Ideas on it. Since
the center of the chart was a circle I turned it into a Loggerhead turtle. Once we finished
reading, we worked on the chart and then the diagnostic (as some of the things in the
main ideas where covered in the diagnostic.) J. successfully provided four main ideas that
were supported in the story and provided facts for each main idea. For instance,
swimming was one main idea and some facts are they have flippers and swim day and
night. We finished writing her narrative this week.

Week 7: Since it was discussed in both the text and class how important it is to expose
children to non-fiction, I decided to read Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars. We worked
on finding facts and vocabulary, but in a slightly different manner. The reason I decided
to do this is because its so important for children to know how to read for information,
especially as they grow older. I created a web diagram featuring all of the planets
(seemed logical since the planets circularly orbit the sun.) As we read about each, J.
wrote either one or two facts on each planet. The shooting stars are where she wrote
down new vocabulary. The heads of the comets contain the new word and the tails
contain a synonym or definition for that new word.

Week 8: For this weeks session I wanted to read something I knew J. would love, so we
read Spongebob Squarepants: Lost in Time; A Medieval Adventure. But I didnt just
choose this book because I knew she liked Spongebob. This was the lengthiest book so
far and it also contained the most vocabulary. Due to this, I felt it would be a great book
to use to formally evaluate her reading with the Oral Reading Checklist. Though she had
read aloud to me before, she only read a few sentences from each story. Here, she read
two full pages. Once we completed the story, we worked on onset and rime (inventive
spelling and phonics.) I gave her one onset and one rime and she had to create three
words for each. I wanted to know where she was having the most trouble spelling words,
which is why we worked on this. We also began the first revision of her narrative.

Week 9: I chose another non-fiction book for this week, Loud and Quiet: An Animals
Opposites Book, because I wanted to incorporate one last non-fiction (was planning to
read A Charlie Brown Christmas in Week 10, but the snow had other plans.) Also, I
wanted to work on compare and contrast with her so I found a Venn diagram for this.
After we read the story, I let her pick which two animals to compare and contrast.
Though the animals she chose were drastically different (parrot and squid) she was able
to find one similarity between the two. When we finished the Venn diagram, we began to
revise the spelling of the narrative. Here, I used the sound box from pages 158-159 in the
text to help her correctly spell her misspelled words (inventive spelling.)

Overall Summary: The overall goal of instruction was to teach and assess a variety of
literacy skills to J. Though some skills were repeated, it was because she was not initially

clear on the skill or could use additional practice, such as fiction comprehension and
vocabulary. Each of the skills taught were aligned to at least one of the Common Core
Standards. My overall approach to teaching J. was using a goal and reward system. Once
we established goals for each session, she would be rewarded once she completed all the
goals listed. Having everything that needed to be completed written in a list let her know
in advance what was to be expected. Though the reward and goal system worked well,
something else that also worked was letting her talk to me. I found that when I would let
her make small talk with me it actually caused her to be more focused on the tasks at
hand than if I just told her to focus. Although this small talk strategy worked well in a
one on one setting, I dont think it would in a classroom setting because there is simply
not be enough class time for it.