Rachael Parrish

Clinical Small Group Activity & Reflection

Taught: 3/11/15
READ 3226
Part I:
The small group activity that I completed was a literacy group for the
text The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden. The purpose of this
clinical activity was to decipher vocabulary words as they came about in the
context of the text. Students were given a list of vocabulary words that had
been selected at my clinical teachers discretion and were to locate the page
number along with the definition of the word based on how it was used
during the text. Students also got a page of questions that were to help
facilitate their understanding of not only the reading but also the characters.
I really liked the questions that my clinical teacher put together for my
literacy group because I feel that even though they were comprehension
questions, they were also tools to help the students to draw connections
within the text that would have been pointed out if she were reading with
them. The way that my clinical teacher runs literacy groups is she selects
five different books and rotates within the groups each day, that way she is
able to keep up and give time to each specific book and group.
During the literacy group I participated by asking students questions
about what they just read and scaffolding their reading as they read. My
teacher had previously explained to me that the students popcorn read, as
in they each take turns reading a page, and that sometimes with this
technique it is hard for students to be absorbing what they are reading. With
this, I stopped my group at the end of each page and would ask another

Rachael Parrish
Clinical Small Group Activity & Reflection
Taught: 3/11/15
READ 3226
group member to fill us in on what is happening. Another question that I
would incorporate is to ask students if this reminded them of anything that
they had ever experienced. I liked being able to relate the text back to them
and hear some of the connections that they were able to make. Another
thing that I did while running my literacy group was to scaffold students as
they were reading and came across a word that they did not know. I tried to
not only encourage them to try to pronounce the word but them would help
them make suggestions about what the word meant. This is how we also
treated our vocabulary words.
Students responded well to the help, and they really seemed to enjoy
being able to make connections to their own lives. The part of the book that
we were at talked about a son having to work at a newspaper stand against
his own wishes due to the fact that his parents needed some extra money.
Most all of my students said that they could relate to that feeling because at
times they had also wanted to help their families pay for something or have
more money. I enjoyed hearing them make the characters relatable and this
also helped them to draw better conclusions about the vocabulary and
comprehension questions.
Part II:
1. What do you think your students learned as a result on this activity?
What evidence do you have of your students learning?

Rachael Parrish
Clinical Small Group Activity & Reflection
Taught: 3/11/15
READ 3226
-I think that my students learned how to use context clues to help
them figure out not only specific words that they do not know but also
what is going on in the actual story. This was the first time that they
were participating in this type of literacy group and I helped them with
the very first couple of chapters so I am hoping that the biggest thing
that they got out of it was setting precedence of how literacy groups
are supposed to flow. Evidence I have of students learning is with their
literacy folders, being able to fill out the comprehension questions and
vocabulary words. My clinical teacher told me that these would be
used to create a final project after they finish reading the whole book.
The biggest evidence of what my students got from this can be seen as
they conduct literacy groups without me, which as I have been a part
of other groups, I have continued to keep my eyes on my original
group and I am impressed with the way that they have continued to
run their literacy groups.
2. Name at least 1 aspect of the activity that was successful. What
caused it to be successful? How did you contribute to this success?
-One aspect of this activity that was exceptionally successful was the
vocabulary part. Students did a really great job at not only locating the
words and finding their definitions, but they also enjoyed trying to beat
each other to a connection that they could make about the word. I can
tell that making connection has been talked about a lot in their
classroom because they constantly raise their hands and volunteer a

Rachael Parrish
Clinical Small Group Activity & Reflection
Taught: 3/11/15
READ 3226
connection up to basically anything you can possibly say. This actually
helped them a lot with vocabulary though because it helped them to
be able to relate the words back to their own meaning.
3. Name at least 1 aspect of the activity that was less successful. What
caused it to be less successful? How did you contribute to this?
4. Something that was less successful was the popcorn reading. If I could
do it again I would probably suggest that students independently read.
Not only dot hey get distracted, but they read at different paces and it
makes for a long and kind of wasteful time when they are trying to
read ahead or they just get bored and tune it out altogether.
5. What changes might make this activity more successful? Why might
these changes help improve the activity?
I change I would make to this activity would be to change the popcorn
reading to independent reading. This would help by using time a little
more wisely and also improving distractions. Students are supposed to
be following along but really they are dazing off or paying attention to
something else. They actually preferred to read to themselves.