Domains 017-020

Anna Gagnet

Domain 017
Academic language:
Informational texts, comprehension, non-fiction, fiction, chronological order, logical
order, cause-and-effect, compare-and-contrast
Evidence:
In my teaching reading class we went over the multiple genres and the
components of each. In the classroom, when a teacher introduces a book, they
should be knowledgeable of all the components of a book (figurative language,
cause and effect, compare and contrast and etc.), its structure and its genre. The
teacher should motivate the students by asking them prompting questions about
the certain genre or layout of the text.
Reflection:
Students will be needed throughout their schooling to process information. If the
information comes from a text book, a trade book, poetry and or any other genrethe student should be prepared and ready to dissect the information in a certain
way. Graphic organizers are a great way to do this, and they can be done during or
after the activity.

Domain 018
Academic language:
Content-area knowledge, research habits, study skills, analyzing text structure or
format, summarizing, semantic mapping, creating graphic organizers
Evidence:
I have seen teachers in many different classrooms use whole body teaching. Many
students respond well to this type of instruction-especially the younger grades.
When students are able to use their whole bodies to learn (whether its sounding
out a word and clapping, or jumping) it allows students to be kids. If you honestly
think about it, children werent made to be in classrooms. We werent made to be
quiet, perfect children-were meant to be outdoors, running around and going crazy.
Whole body teaching is a perfect way to balance the two extremes. Great visual
aids such as graphic organizers help students take large amounts of information and
not only organize it-but simplify it as well.
Reflection:
I dont think that anyone gives prior knowledge enough credit in the classroom.
When a student has an experience when interacting with a text, studying for a test,

or even filling out a graphic organizer that made learning easier-the students will
understand that their brain understands it better. This is why every child should
take a test that reveals what type of learner they are-audial, kinesthetic and etc. As
students get older they are able to figure out what kind of study habits are best for
their learning.

Domain 019
Academic language:
Pronunciations, synonyms, antonyms, key words, content-specific words, words
needed to comprehend a passage, words that have roots and affixes that give clues
to their meaning.
Evidence:
Just yesterday when I was co-teaching, we taught a lesson on synonyms and
antonyms that can be found in the text, they are very simple and easy to teach and
fun for the kids. Students who can apply skills they learned in class to the text are
being prepared for high school. In one of my classrooms, we had a word wall and
the teacher began to see patterns in the words that the students struggled with on
the wall. So we studied prefixes of those words for a class and less words appeared
on that spectrum of the wall. Understanding the root of the word, or even the origin
will allow students to have possible prior knowledge of that word.
Reflection:
In one of the readings I had to do for my Reading and Diagnostics class, the topic
was of over used techniques in teaching. We do the same spelling/vocabulary
lessons every week: Monday pre-test, Tuesday for homework write them out,
Wednesday use them in a sentence, Thursday write a story with all of the words and
Friday test on all of them. This can get very repetitive and weak-it is good to be
repetitive but as teachers we can never simply settle-everything can always be
improved. If the students respond positively to it-dont settle. Keep on improving it
until they stare at you like your hair is on fire. Mixing up our strategies and finding
ways to keep the classroom interesting and intriguing is part of our job.
Domain 020
Academic language: skimming, scanning, rereading, in-depth reading, print, nonprint, and technological references and resources
Evidence:
Every classroom I have participated in has been scripted in SFA. The teachers who I
have shadowed allowed me to bring rich trade books into the classroom, and the
students eat them up. When planning my lessons to bring in a trade book, I make
mental notes to explain to the children the difference between the genres of an
information text, or a Dr. Seuss book. I havent seen any teachers ask students to
skim or scan readings, but I have seen many students practice their fluency by re-

reading the text over and over. I think that skimming and scanning text should
come after fourth or fifth grade.
Reflection:
When teachers in college use the word skim its basically like saying dont read
the text at all. The way that college students work, is very much like the way third
graders work: have high expectations of the student and assess them when needed
and they will perform well, if well prepared. There is obviously much more to it than
that-but the skills that I learned in grade school help me in college. My parents
made me read every day of the summer from kindergarten to 8 th grade. I loved
reading so much that my parents would drive me to the library once a week so I
could check out books, they would ground me from reading if I got into trouble. By
the time I was in 6th grade, I was reading at a college level. I would read all 7 Harry
Potter books in seven days. I love to read, still do. But we need parents and
teachers to push us, I didnt want to read every day in the summer-but I had no
choice. It took about 5 or so summers until it actually became my own choice to
read on my own. Thats five or six years of perseverance on my parents and
teachers part. We need teachers who expect us to read, and read well with their
help.

Spring, 2013
Anna Gagnet
Introduction of Tutee
First name only, grade, gender, any other demographic information, ie. Siblings, etc.
My tutees name is Esham Jones-Bennet, and he is a second grade boy at East
Elementary this semester. His father lives near Myrtle Beach, in North Carolina. He
loves Ninja Turtles, Spider Man and any timed test or practice session. He has a
younger sister and has explained to me on one occasion that he is a mix-half black
and half white. His father is white and his mother is black, he is a very good student
in my presence. Hes always asking questions about certain doors hes never been
through (like the teachers lounge, or a technology closet) and hes always putting
himself in the characters shoes in our stories. An example: I would not have done
that! He should have found the real secret lake and not tried to trick the king.
Esham, as I have been told has some anger issues/behavioral disorders-but they
happen outside of his classroom, with other teachers who are not carefully
watching. On multiple occasions I was not able to take him to tutoring because his
teacher was cooling him down after an outburst-that happened in another teachers
class.

Pre-assessment and Formative Results

Identify what the data results yielded during the pre-assessment by objective., ie.
Concepts of print, phonemic awareness, sight words, word skills, vocabulary,
comprehension, etc.
Pre-assessment
Pre-Assessment Esham didnt really know a majority of his letters sounds, he knew
their names-but not particularly their sounds. He consistently got mixed up on his b,
d, p, q sounds. He confused all of these, and struggled with his diphthongs also, a
couple of examples: ea, ee, oo, and oa. Even during the first couple sessions of
tutoring, Esham would do a great activity and prove his understanding of a certain
concept, but would not be able to apply it to the actual reading that we were doing.
So I would interrupt and remind him what we just learned-but he could only learn if I
helped him by showing it visually a couple times at least-and would then be able to
apply it to the reading. What I did learn throughout the whole session was that
Esham has a good ear- he can hear things and process them faster than a majority
of the kids his age. He prefers to read out loud, think out loud, and talk all the time
on the way to our tutoring spot. He can hear the difference between the vowel
sounds-which is how we finally understood the difference between the sounds b and
v, s and c. If I made the noise he was able to identify it correctly-and it was great to
watch.
Esham mastered the Concepts of Print the first day, when I asked him to point to
the title and open the book, he responded by saying Let me flip to the first page.
When I asked him what the title did, he simply said it was on the front cover, which
made me laugh. I had to explain that a title does something, and I gave the
example: If a title of the book was called Eshams Pet Mouse and the Bike, what
would it be about? He quickly went into his story, explaining that he and his mouse,
Jerry would get a bike together and go on adventures. So when I asked a second
time what a title does, he explained it perfectly: that it describes the story that
youre going to read.
When the sight words came into play, Esham was able to only do the first three
sets. On top of that, during the spelling portion of the test, Esham got more
incorrect that correct. This stood out to me, simply because he had a good ear-I
even slowed down speaking and sounding out the words when I assessed him in this
section-but he gradually improved over time. Which is exactly what his teacher said
he would do.
As for comprehension, Esham would read sentences much like a zombie would, and
when I told him that I would begin quizzing him on every page he began to perk up
when he was reading. After he was done reading the page, I would take the book
and ask him what he just read about. Often times he was able to answer these
questions, but a couple of times he would repeat the last sentence that he had just
read and piece it together himself-which was actually entertaining to watch.

As for vocabulary, Esham would run into words that he didnt understand but could
read. He often asked questions like what a bale was (meaning bale of hay) or what a
water pump looked like and how it worked. It was mostly concepts or ideas that he
hadnt learned yet. He often understand metaphors and similes in the stories which
was impressive. He always asked questions when he didnt know what a word was.
Summative Assessment Results
The tutee excelled in learning on all the bases, but it was a slow process-something
that his teacher forewarned me about. She said his progress wouldnt show until the
very end-but to hold out and keep moving forward. She said he learned but it was a
slow process and that she was thankful that he was slowly improving. Overall,
Esham improved in phonological awareness, he identified every vowel and
consonant correctly that he has gotten wrong before. He improved also in his sight
words, he went from two columns to five in our tutoring sessions. And his
comprehension boosted mainly when I warned him that he would be expected to
answer questions correctly on the reading, and they would be rewarded with Ninja
Turtle candy-that really helped out.
What he needed help in was spelling. Just last week in my language arts class, I
learned a theory to help students with spelling and I wish I could have used it with
Esham.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Say the word in your head.

Say each individual letter in your head
Say the word out loud
Spell the word on a piece of paper, and check spelling
Spell the word on a piece of paper, and check spelling again.

I think this would have helped him so much, and I really wish I would have
learned it sooner-it would have brought so much improvement. For a long
time I had him sound out nonsense words that I would make up. He was very
afraid to sound out an incorrect word the first month of tutoring-but once I
was able to convince him that he didnt have to do it perfectly the first time,
or even the second he tried more and was less fearful. By the third time
though, we decided he should be able to get the word-but if not-thats what
Miss. Gs job was-to help! He got used to the nonsense words and slowly I
began to drop in real words and he began to notice-and like it.
Final Recommendation for Tutee
Based on your final summative assessment data, what would be your next steps
with the tutee? Do you believe that your tutees reading challenges are
developmental, or would you make the recommendation for testing? Do you think
your tutee will reach grade level with the one-to-one assistance?

I would recommend testing for Dyslexia for Esham-just to make sure. Even at the
end of our tutoring sessions, I would have him look at words twice to make sure
they were correct. Often times he would sound out a word and start with a
beginning letter and then skip to the end letter and then a middle letter. It could be
just developmental, but I think it would be beneficial for him to get tested and catch
it early rather than later. For example, the word was turtle, and he sounded it out:
T-R-L-T-R. He would mix up sounds very easily when sounding out. My next steps
would to be working on spelling with him, using the theory I talked about above-I
think he would greatly benefit from that. I would also like to have him improve his
vocabulary also. I think Esham could reach grade level with one-to-one experience
for more than 20 minutes, twice a week. I know he improved a little bit over this
period of time, but if we were there every day during reading-I think there would
have been a great improvement overall and he could reach grade level. I also
believe that he will eventually even out as he gets older, I struggled with math
throughout grade school and had tutors
Two Significant Ideas That You Learned In This Experience
Two significant ideas that I learned:
1. This may seem obvious, but we hold a large amount of power in these
childrens lives. We have opportunities to change their lives for the betternot just through education-but through how we treat them as students
and how we act as role models. I didnt fully realize that we hold a large
amount of power in just the way that we treat these students.
2. Every child learns differently, has different learning struggles-but a child
should never be afraid to ask a question-or be afraid to learn. Even in
college, we dont want to ask questions or interrupt a teachers lesson out
a fear of what others may think or any other fear. We as teachers cannot
be afraid to differentiate instruction, make mistakes and figure out what
works and what doesnt. Because the minute that we stop trying, is the
same time the student does.