Module 1: Introduction and Course Orientation
Assignment: Importance of Reading
Write an essay describing why reading is important to you and why learning how to read is important for young children and society. Include statistics about reading proficiency, literacy rates among various populations. You can find this by googling NAEP scores or other internet searches (e.g., literacy rates of specific populations), and by consulting your textbooks. Reflect on your own experience with literacy development and the impact reading has had on your life personally. Give examples of the impact illiteracy has on individuals and in society.
Module 2: Conceptual Models from the Science of Reading and Preparing for First Tutoring Session
Assignment: Plan for Your First Tutoring Session
For this assignment, you will fill out your lesson plan for your first tutoring session. There are 3 parts; Getting to Know You Activity, Establishing Expectations, and Dialogic Read Aloud Lesson Plan
Part 1: Plan an activity for getting to know Your student (25 points)
Prepare an activity that will allow you to get to know your student's interests, background, talents, etc. This can be something like a game, a drawing, a fill-in-the-blank document. Briefly describe the activity (10 points) including how long you anticipate that it will take for your student to complete (5 points), and list any necessary materials (5 points). Next week, you will submit an "artifact" from this section of your session. Describe the artifact you plan to submit (e.g., a copy of a picture, drawing, etc.) (5 points). This can be simple so don't overthink it. The goal is to learn something about your student that will help you get to know them better and use the information as you plan future instruction.
Part 2: Learning and Behavioral Expectations (25 points)
An important part of any teaching situation requires clearly stated learning and behavioral expectations, norms, and positive reinforcement. List the expectations you will have for the student (e.g., don't talk when you are talking, do your best, etc.) (10 points) and how you will communicate those to your student (e.g., a chart or acronym to remind them) (5 points). Also indicate your plan for positive behavior reinforcement (e.g., stickers for meeting expectations, etc.) (5 points) and how this information will impact learning (5 points). This does not have to be too involved since your tutoring sessions will be less than an hour.
Part 3: Plan Dialogic Read Aloud (50 points)
Reading aloud is something that teachers do everyday. Teachers can improve students listening comprehension and language skills through the use of dialogic reading. You will do this frequently throughout the semester when there is time in your tutoring session. Using a children's book, demonstrate a read-aloud applying the dialogic reading model to create conversation as you read and interact with your student(s). Include five dialogic reading prompts represented in the acronym CROWD as you read. Read aloud with the student you tutor and reflect on your experience. You will record this part of next week's tutoring session, watch it, and submit a reflection of your teaching
Module 3: Reading Assessment and Tutoring Session
Assignment: Getting to Know Your Student
It is essential that teachers embark on a continuous journey of deeply knowing and understanding their students. There are multiple ways to get to know your students and appreciate their lived experiences, cultural and linguistic assets, academic strengths, and unique learning needs.
Activity 1: Getting to Know Your Student
Create or choose a meaningful activity…so that you can gather information relevant to your student’s interests, and then respond to the prompt below.
Textbox 1.2.1: Getting to Know Your Students Guiding Prompts
Description of Activity: Briefly describe the Getting to Know Your Student activity that you used during your first tutoring session. This section can be copied and pasted from your assignment from Module 2. Prompt: Using your student’s completed Getting to Know You Activity, analyze how this information could influence an instructional decision you might make for this student. Required artifact for this task: provide a completed student sample from the Getting to Know Your Students activity
Assignment: Dialogic Reading Reflection
Using a children's book, demonstrate a read-aloud applying the Five Turns model to create conversation as you read and interact with your student(s). Include dialogic reading prompts represented in the acronym CROWD as you read. Record (audio or video) the read-aloud. Watch the recording (and/or listen to the audio) and reflect on your experience.
Module 4: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness and Tutoring Session
Assignment: CORE Phonological Awareness Assessments
From the Assessing Reading Multiple Measures book, administer the CORE Phonological Segmentation Tests (pg. 19-23), the CORE Phoneme Deletion Tests (pg. 24-29), and the CORE Phoneme Segmentation Tests (pg. 30-33), to the student that you tutor. After you have given the tests, Note each score and write a narrative paragraph summarizing the student's performance. You will also set an instructional goal based on the student's phonological awareness profile.
Module 5: High-Frequency Word Instruction, Orthographic Mapping, and Tutoring Session
Assignment: CORE Graded High-Frequency Word Survey
From the Assessing Reading Multiple Measures book, administer the CORE Graded High-Frequency Word Survey (pg. 63-67), to the student that you tutor. The data from this assessment will be used to set goals and target instruction for your student (and reported during midterm). This assessment will be given again towards the end of the semester to measure student progress.
Module 6: Components of Effective Phonics Instruction and Tutoring Session
Assignment: CORE Phonics Survey
From the Assessing Reading Multiple Measures book, administer the CORE Phonics Survey (pg. 41-52), to the students that you tutor. The data from this assessment will be used to set goals for your student (and reported during midterm) and target your instruction. This assessment will be given again towards the end of the semester to measure student progress.
Module 7: Creating a Reader Profile and Tutoring Session
Module 8: Ehri's Phases of Word Reading and Tutoring Session
Modules 7-8 (Midterm) Assignment: Reader Profile Sections 1-4
The purpose of this midterm is for you to begin your culminating project by completing half of the Reading Profile that you will turn at the end of the semester and to synthesize all of the information you have about your student to this point to define goals for instruction. These goals will be your focus during each session for the rest of the semester.
Make a copy of the Reader Profile template and fill out the following sections:
BACKGROUND INFORMATION (100 pts)
Use professional language to create a portrait of the child, and be careful to distinguish fact from interpretation. The statements in the background section should describe characteristics you have observed about the student. Also state how you know the student (i.e. that you were assigned to work with him/her during Spring semester… etc.). Mention attendance of the student, scheduled day/time you met with him/her, length of session, total number of sessions and the outline for each session (e.g. Review of expectations, phonemic awareness, phonics, read aloud).
INITIAL TESTS ADMINISTERED (100 pts)
List the tests administered (Each of the CORE Phonological Awareness assessments, CORE Phonics Survey, etc.) with the numerical results. You have already submitted these assessments for your module assignments. You will include copies of the assessments with the profile at the end of the semester (but not for the midterm). Describe the tests given. (You can find descriptions, etc. in your Assessing Reading Multiple Measures textbook.) Write descriptions in a few sentences that are clear and understandable to anyone reading the report (e.g., parents, teachers).
RESULTS FROM INITIAL TESTING (200 pts)
This section will be the longest of the midterm report. For each test:
- 1. Present the quantitative results (you can copy and paste from your assignment submission form for each test). At what level is the child performing? How well did the child score numerically? Make the information that you are presenting as clear, succinct, and sensible as possible to the reader.
- 2. Present the qualitative analysis of these results. Make interpretations. When making interpretative statements, consider using language such as “These results indicate/suggest…” For each interpretive statement, give examples, such as spellings, word readings, and so forth.
GOALS FOR TUTORING SESSIONS (BASED ON ASSESSMENT) (100 pts)
List and describe the major goals for tutoring. These will be your focus during each session for the rest of the semester. Include at least one goal in each of the following areas; phonemic awareness, phonics, and high-frequency word recognition. Goals can be related to specific and desired assessment results for the end of the semester. Try to be realistic with your goals considering the limited number of sessions you have with your student. Describe each goal briefly, and explain why it is important to the reading development of your student.
Module 9 : Fluency and Tutoring Session
Assignment: Record and Reflect on Phonemic Awareness Instruction
Record the Phonemic Awareness section of the tutoring session. You will be required to reflect on aspects of your teaching (pacing, how you supported/scaffolded student learning, what you did well, ways you can improve) as well as student learning (response to instruction with evidence, student instructional needs based on your observation and reflection).
Module 10: Decodable Text,Text Types and Tutoring Session
Assignment; Record and Reflect on High-Frequency Word Instruction
Record the High-Frequency Word section of the tutoring session. You will be required to reflect on aspects of your teaching (pacing, how you supported/scaffolded student learning, what you did well, ways you can improve) as well as student learning (response to instruction with evidence, student instructional needs based on your observation and reflection).
Module 11: Syllable Types, Multisyllabic Word Instruction and Tutoring Session
Assignment: Record and Reflect on Phonics Instruction
Record the Phonics section of the tutoring session. You will be required to reflect on aspects of your teaching (pacing, how you supported/scaffolded student learning, what you did well, ways you can improve) as well as student learning (response to instruction with evidence, student instructional needs based on your observation and reflection).
Module 12: Vocabulary, Morphology, and Etymology and Tutoring Session
Assignment: Record and Reflect on Decodable Text/Application
During the Phonics section of the tutoring session, record your student in the reading of decodable text. Reflect on your teaching (introduction of the text, corrective and affirmative feedback, response to student reading) as well as how well your student did in reading the text (accuracy, rate, prosody, comprehension).
Module 13: Comprehension Assessment and Instruction and Tutoring Session
Assignment: CORE Phonological Awareness POST Tests
Measure student learning by re-administering these assessments. Analyze the results to determine student progress and to identify what the student needs next for continued reading development. This information will used to complete the Reader Profile.
Module 14: Addressing Reading Difficulties and Final Tutoring Session (Celebration!)
Assignment: CORE Phonics Survey
Measure student learning by re-administering this assessments. Analyze the results to determine student progress and to identify what the student needs next for continued reading development. This information will used to complete the Reader Profile.
Module 15: Culminating Project- Reader Profile and Reflections of Learning
Assignment (FINAL): Reader Profile
Both preservice and inservice teachers benefit from learning how to analyze a student’s reading strengths and challenges. Writing a formal report requires thinking about the child and your procedures in a comprehensive and analytic manner, rather than simply declaring that a child is a successful or a striving reader. Analyzing data for an individual student will help you immensely as you address the needs of all readers in your classroom in the future. You have already completed sections 1-4 for the midterm. You can make any revisions and then copy and paste the info into the final template. To write a thorough report, ask yourself questions about the child’s overall performance and about how the different pieces of the assessment puzzle fit together. Then, on the basis of those findings, determine what instructional interventions will support the child. Think about how to communicate this information to a parent or another teacher, explaining clearly what you did and what you found. Do not assume the reader of the profile has a background in reading.