Reader Background, Assessments Part 2

Story Mapping Organizer Title of book: A Big Day in Nicodemus Author: Gloria Gorman Important Characters Justus, Ruby, Earl (the dog), Satchel Paige Setting Baseball field Events Beginning: Answers will vary Middle: Answers will vary End: Answers will vary Name ___________________________ Story Mapping Organizer Title of book: Author: Important Characters Setting Events Beginning: Middle: End: Phase III: Conducting the Action Plan Part H: Intervention Sessions During this phase, the researcher worked with a fifth grade student to assist him in developing his comprehension skills while reading. The researcher conducted five mini lessons all of which were about thirty minutes each. After discussing this time period of thirty minutes with the cooperating teacher, both the researcher and the teacher found that this time limit would be feasible during the thirty minute D.E.A.R. time (Drop Everything and Read). After carrying out these lessons, the researcher reflected on the instructional practices and the effects of these intervention sessions on the reader. The researcher focused on the following questions when reflecting: What went well? What did not work so well? What changes need to be made? Below, I have provided a brief overview of the lessons and the five reflections after each session. Lesson 1: Story Mapping Procedure:     The lesson will begin with the reader reading a familiar book titled A Big Day in Nicodemus by Gloria Gorman. Next, the researcher will explain the importance of using a graphic organizer to help with comprehending a story. In the form of a think-aloud, the researcher will explain the story map organizer. To help the reader comprehend the story, he will fill out a story map organizer with assistance from the researcher. After doing his retell, the researcher will have the reader reflect on what he learned today. His reflection will be in the form of a think-aloud about story mapping. Reflection: After teaching this lesson on Story Mapping, the researcher was very satisfied with the progress made. The student has gained the concept of filling out a Story Map over what he read. However, during the lesson, the student struggled with the important characters in the story. He had a tendency to mix up the characters in the story when trying to describe each character in the story. Also, he added events to the story that did not happen or at least were not written in the text of the story. Noticing that this was a struggling area, the researcher had the student go back through the story and find evidence for his description of a character as well as for the events that took place in the story. On the other hand, the student was very successful with the concepts beginning, middle, and end. After looking back through the book, the student was able to explain to the researcher what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of the story and record his findings on the Story Mapping graphic organizer. Overall, progress is being made because he is beginning to go back through the text to find evidence, instead of adding and/or guessing what happened in the story. Lesson 2: Retelling Procedure:           The intervention session will begin with the reader reading a familiar book titled A Big Day in Nicodemus by Gloria Gorman. Next, the researcher will read the Retelling Poem (located in Phase III) to the reader. Then, the researcher will ask the student: “Taking a look at the retelling poem, what are the parts of a story?” The student will respond to this question in the form of a thinkaloud. Next, the researcher will explain the components of a retell, which include title, author, important characters, setting, and events. After going over the components of a retell, the researcher will help the student create his own Retelling cue cards.  The title of the book is . . .  The author is …  The story takes place …  The main characters are …  First, Next, Then, Last/Finally . . . Using the story A Big Day in Nicodemus by Gloria Gorman, the researcher will model what to include in a retell by using retelling cue cards that are labeled title, author, important characters, setting, and events. After modeling how to do a retell, the researcher will let the student practice retelling the story. When practicing retelling, the student will use the retelling cue cards. Then, the researcher will have the student read an unfamiliar book titled The 3,000th Hit by Gloria Gorman. Once the student has finished reading the book, he will use the retelling cue cards to help him retell the story in his own words. After doing his retell, the researcher will have the reader reflect on what he learned today. His reflection will be in the form of a think-aloud about retelling, which includes the parts of a story (title, author, setting, characters, and events). Reflection: After teaching this lesson on Retelling, the researcher felt that the student began to progress more in his ability to monitor his own comprehension. At the beginning of the lesson, he did struggle with remembering what happened in the story. Therefore, when the student said “I do not remember,” the researcher said, “If you do not know, look it up.” By the middle of the lesson, the researcher felt like he was improving on his ability to look up what he could not remember from the story. Furthermore, the Retelling Poem was an effective way for the student to understand the parts of a story. The Retelling Poem also helped the student when he made his retelling cue cards. The researcher felt that the retelling cue cards were a useful tool for this particular student because he was able to organize his thoughts and retell the story in his own words. Also, the student had fun retelling the story in his own words using the retelling cue cards that he made. As a whole, the researcher noticed that the student was able to monitor his own comprehension as well as include in-depth descriptions of what happened in the story thanks to the Retelling cue cards that helped organize his thought process during his retell of the story. Retelling Cue Cards Retelling Cue Cards Lesson 3: Summarizing Procedure:       The intervention session will begin with the reader reading a familiar book titled A Big Day in Nicodemus by Gloria Gorman. After reading the story, the researcher will do a think-aloud over the story that will involve mentioning the important parts of the story as well as an overall summary of what happened in the story. In this think-aloud, the researcher will talk about the importance of writing a summary in order to help with understanding a story. Next, the researcher will explain how the story map from Lesson 1 and his retelling cue cards from Lesson 2 will help him to summarize a book in writing. Then, the researcher will explain the structure of a summary. o Topic Sentence: “In the book, title of book by author’s name …” o Body of Paragraph:  Character names / description of characters  Setting (where the story takes place)  Events  Examples of Sentence Starters: “At the beginning of the story …” “Next . . .” “Then . . .” “At the end …”  Closing Sentence:  Example of Sentence Starter: “Overall …” Once the researcher has explained the structure of writing a summary, the researcher will assist the reader in writing a one paragraph summary over the story A Big Day in Nicodemus by Gloria Gorman. NOTE: This summary will be typed on a computer. After writing the one paragraph summary over the story A Big Day in Nicodemus by Gloria Gorman, the researcher will have the reader reflect on what he learned today. His reflection will be in the form of a think-aloud about the importance of writing a summary in order to help with understanding (comprehending) a story he has read. Reflection: After working through today’s lesson on Summarizing, the researcher was a little overwhelmed because the lesson did not progress as she had hoped. Throughout these last few lessons, the researcher and the student have conducted their sessions in the school library. Today, the researcher and the student had to sit out in the hallway outside of the classroom because the Book Fair was going on in the library. Not only was the noisy hallway a distraction for the student, but also, the researcher had only fifteen minutes with the student because the teacher needed the student to return to the classroom. Furthermore, the researcher originally planned to have the student write his own summary of the book, but with the shortened time she wrote what the student said to include in the summary. The researcher did assist the student in writing a summary over the story by helping him begin his sentences with phrases like “In the book, insert title of book by insert author’s name . . .” The researcher did not tell the student what to say, but only helped with getting the sentence started as well as with the flow of the sentences from one thought to the next. Overall, this lesson on Summarizing reinforced the past two lessons. The first lesson had him fill out a Story Map and the second lesson had him retell the story. Both lessons included the parts of a story such as title, author, important character, setting, and events. Having knowledge of the parts of a story from lessons one and two, the student was able to apply what he knew about parts of a story in his summary over the book in this lesson. Moreover, if the researcher could change one part of this lesson, it would be to have the student practice writing his own summary using the model provided by the researcher. Thankfully, the Summarizing lesson was a reinforcement of the past two lessons. Therefore, the student did make progress in understanding the parts of a story. The one paragraph summary was just another way to communicate what happened in the story as well as help the student organize his though process when telling what happened in the story, so that he did not leave out important information. Summary NOTE: Due to the time change, the summary was written by the researcher, but the student told the researcher what to write in the summary.