Standard 10, collaboration, ethics, and relationships. A teacher must be able to communicate and interact with parents or guardians, families, school colleagues, and the community to support student learning and well-being.

Student learning and well-being are enhanced by close communication with families, especially those families who face daily challenges due to employment toils, housing problems, and discrimination.  Families who struggle need to hear good things about how their children are doing in school.  I make a point of contacting families frequently to let them know when their child has succeeded in school.  But many children from families who fight to make a living face daunting disadvantages, and the wider community cannot disavow responsibility for these young students who want to grow up and contribute to our society.

The paper below details the monumental and multi-dimensional afflictions that many of our school children face.  As an extension of this study, a paper could be developed that looks at the outcomes of Minneapolis’ Northside Achievement Zone, which is working to help families and the community nurture students and prepare them for higher learning.    

Poverty in the Community

and its Relationship to Learning Disabilities

Poverty places children at higher risk for disabilities and low academic achievement.  The link is obvious, but stating this relationship and its effect on students has fallen out of favor with policymakers in recent years.  In this paper my goals are to examine the link between poverty and childhood special needs, look at specific health problems from which many special education students suffer, and suggest remedies.

Sadly, childhood disability status is highly related to poverty levels (Turnbull et al., 2013, p. 67).  According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2012), today the official poverty income level for a family of four is $23,050.  More than a third of students with disabilities live in families with incomes under $25,000, based on a study cited by Turnbull et al (2013, p. 67).  Yet in the general youth population only 24 percent of children reside in families with yearly earnings less than $25,000.  Students with disabilities disproportionately reside in single-parent households with family members with low education levels, contributing to economic hardship.  “Low education of mothers has a positive correlation with various risks for disability” (Turnbull et al 2013, p. 70). 

As a nation we appear to invest far fewer resources in our education and related supportive systems resulting in more child health problems and lower academic outcomes.  UNICEF looked at the 24 high-income OECD nations (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) and noted that the U.S. had one of the worst records for childhood health, education, and material well-being.  In contrast, the top nations were Denmark and Finland.  In these noteworthy countries complaints of childhood maladies were low and educational resources and math and science scores were above average.

The Federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law contributes to our pivot away from the connection between poverty and childhood special needs and learning disabilities.  NCLB assumes that poverty should not matter in student achievement.  (Gerstl-Pepin, 2006).  The narrative contained in the law stresses that student failure is the result of schools (and teachers) not being held accountable.  NCLB focuses on the race of students with never a word about the disproportionate levels of poverty that afflict communities of color.  One of the chief goals of NCLB was to make sure that disadvantaged and special needs students were not ignored; but the law neglected to address the challenges that these children carry into the classroom.  Indeed, special education teachers in high-poverty districts report having higher caseloads, fewer materials, and less support from administrators compared to special education teachers in more affluent districts (Fall & Billingsley, 2011).  

Let us examine specific disabilities that afflict poor children at high rates.  I will highlight how poor health and nutrition hinder childhood development and learning.  Compared to middle-class children, many acute medical problems affect impoverished school children.  Ear infections, vision problems, high lead levels, and asthma contribute to the difficulties encountered by our school children with special needs.   New research paints a vivid and disturbing picture of the negative roll stress hormones play in child brain development, leading to thinking impairments that diminish the ability to learn.   

In the richest nation on earth it is disconcerting to talk about the prevalence of childhood hunger and the frequency that we see very hungry children in our classrooms.  I have seen famished children lunge for food when breakfast bars are offered as a Friday morning classroom treat.  I have heard children say that there is “…only a pitcher of orange drink at home in the frig, and that’s the way it’s been for a few days.”  We know that recently the Chicago teacher’s strike was resolved promptly partly because the union was aware that students were at home with very little to eat.  Undernourished children become more apathetic and have weakened cognitive capacity according to David Berliner (2009).     

Both rich and poor children contract ear infections; poor children, however, are more likely to suffer from their long-term ill effects (Berliner, 2006).  When ear infections frequently recur during a child’s first three years of life, hearing loss often results, leading to problems with language development and later reading problems.  Those of us who have worked with poor children in early childhood special education know some of these early warning signs: two-year-olds with allergies and frequent ear infections who don’t speak; the same child as a preschool student who aggressively acts out because he or she can’t communicate.

Untreated vision problems also plague poor children and their families.  In a study cited by Berliner (2006), 50 percent of vision-tested children in Boston and New York City had a correctable deficiency, but the majority received no intervention.  It may not be until lengthy special education assessments occur in elementary school that a child’s vision difficulty with close-up print is identified.

High lead levels disproportionately affects poor children and children of color, consigning too many in this group to “low ability” academic levels (Berliner, 2009).  Berliner notes that the harm that lead does is almost always permanent.  Even very small amounts of lead diminish intellectual functioning and reduce the child’s capacity to learn.  Berliner goes on to say (2009, p. 976):

“Though a reduction of 4 or 5 IQ points is not disastrous in a single poisoned child, the IQ reduction in a population will increase by 50 percent the number of children who qualify for special education, just about what we see in the schools serving the poor.”

Air pollution also affects schooling and learning disabilities.  One section of New York City had an asthma prevalence rate of 21-23 percent.  In cities diesel emissions are the culprit most responsible for childhood asthma.  Asthma reduces school attendance, and sometimes children enter a downward spiral of absenteeism and lower grades, requiring intervention such as labeling the student as having a special education designation of “other health impairment.”  Berliner (2009) states that pollutants of all kinds—lead, air, mercury, pesticides—tend to be higher in inner cities and rural areas, and involve poor children to a greater extent.  Nicholas Kristof writes in the New York Times that the removal of lead from gasoline may have boosted American children’s I.Q.s by six points over the last several decades. 

“Childhood stress can have long lasting neural effects, making it harder to exercise self-control, focus attention, and delay gratification...” says David Brooks in a recent New York Times editorial (2012).  Known as toxic stress, the hormone cortisol floods the brain of an infant or a growing fetus, and disrupts metabolism and brain development.  “We’re beginning to get a pretty compelling biological model of why kids who have experienced adversity have trouble learning,” says a doctor who is quoted in a similar editorial by Nicholas Kristof (2012).  Both Brooks and Kristof call for greater investment in prenatal and early childhood interventions to break a growing problem: the long-term, destructive effects of stress on children that consigns too many of them to educational failure.  

In order for young children’s brains to develop most favorably, they require good nutrition, stress reduction, supportive relationships with parents and caregivers, and screenings and referral to services if necessary.  Kristof describes the Nurse-Family Partnership Program that assigns a home-visiting nurse to young, poor, first-time pregnant women to make a plan for healthy living during pregnancy, and later encourages the new mothers to breast feed their baby to develop immunities.  Follow-up data on the Nurse-Family Partnership reveals that the children were less likely to have intellectual problems at age six compared to similar children whose mothers were not visited by a nurse.        

Another early childhood education program intervenes with children living in poverty who are at high risk for lower cognitive, language, and social skills (Peterson et al., 2010).  Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Individualized Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004), Part C requires that beginning at birth, children and their families have a right to early intervention services that are tailored to meet their needs.  Early intervention services may be warranted due to a young child’s developmental delays in cognition, communication, socialization, emotional behavior, fine or gross motor skills, or adaptive development (Turnbull et al., 2013, p. 10).  Part C requires the identification of services, partnering with families, coordinating services among providers, maximizing inclusive practices, and monitoring child progress and development.  Peterson’s study found that children who were most at risk of cognitive delays or language problems (e.g., poor children and families of color) also were the least likely to access Part C services.  Collaboration among community partners, such as Head Start staff and health care providers, helped to assure that families in this large study received appropriate assistance.  For example, Head Start program staff kept an eye on young children through home visits, reassessed developmental progress (or lack of progress), and referred children and parents to special services when it was apparent that children’s development was stalled.  Further, children with significant disabilities (e.g., Cerebral Palsy) were accommodated in inclusive childcare Head Start programs, giving parents hope that their child would not be forever excluded from normal childhood life.

Poverty is correlated with poorer childhood physical health, learning disabilities, and developmental delays.  When you take a close look at recent, prominent educational initiatives, one becomes aware of a huge dark void in our attention to general child well-being and its relationship to academic achievement and learning disabilities.    We get stuck in a rut of blaming schools and teachers, and ignore the multiple unmet needs of the more than 20 percent of our U.S. children who are poor.    

Bibliography

Berliner, D. (2009). Are teachers responsible for low achievement by poor students? Kappa Delta Pi Record, Fall, 19-21.

Berliner, D. (2006). Our impoverished view of educational reform.  Teachers College Record, 108, 949-995.

Brooks, D. (2012). The psych approach.  New York Times.  Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/opinion/brooks-the-psych-approach.html on September 27, 2012.

Fall, A. & Billingsley, B. (2011). Disparities in work conditions among early career special educators in high- and low-poverty districts. Remedial and Special Education, 32:1, 64-78.

Gerstl-Pepin, C. (2006).  The paradox of poverty narratives: Educators struggling with children left behind. Educational Policy, 20:1, 143-162.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA). (2004). (Public Law 108-446).  C.F.R.300.

Kristof, N. (2012). A poverty solution that starts with a hug.  New York Times.  Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/kristof-a-poverty-solution-that-starts-with-a-hug.html on January 7, 2012.

Peterson, C., Milgram-Mayer, L., Summers, J., Luze, G. (2010). Meeting needs of young children at risk for or having a disability.  Early Childhood Education Journal, 37: 509-517.

Turnbull, A., Turnbull, R., Wehmeyer, M., & Shogren, K. (2013). Exceptional lives: Special education in today’s schools, 7^th ed. Boston: Pearson.

UNICEF. (2010). The children left behind.  Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/opinion/11blow.html?ref=global on December 10, 2010.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. (2012).  2012 HHS Poverty Guidelines.  Retrieved from http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/12poverty.shtml on October 28, 2012.

Standard 9, reflection and professional development. A teacher must be a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of choices and actions on others, including students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community, and who actively seeks out opportunities for professional growth.

Education Philosophy Paper:

A Perennialist Approach Helps More Young Students Succeed

Perennialism: An Introduction

I approach education as an experienced professional who has been involved in public schools in two primary ways: on behalf of my children who just finished attending public schools, and as a person with prior teaching experience.  My teaching philosophy has been shaped by experience with the Montessori program that my children attended--the same place where I have recently worked.  My philosophy has also been influenced by teaching second grade for two years where I observed children at all levels of ability desire deep understanding of such subjects as geology, physics, animal classification, and cultural studies.  My second grade students were philosophical during literature discussions; they were capable of profound, human insights.  These experiences cemented my dedication to thoroughly knowing the subject matter I am teaching so that I can have substantive conversations and activities with students at every juncture.  By extension, I have grown desirous of an academic scope and sequence that stresses rich content knowledge, because children’s desire for information is insatiable.   A content-rich curriculum must be paired with hands-on activities that the child has chosen, however, or the teaching becomes a rote exercise, and student learning becomes stuffing.  

Perennialism, an educational philosophy that is not widely used today, fits my desire to offer students a bountiful and relevant engagement with subject matter presented in a logical, sequential order.  Perennialism, chocked full of information, but offering a variety of viewpoints, is the best method for assuring that all public school children develop their inherent capabilities to the fullest extent possible.  Below, past and present views and examples of perennialism, an exploration of the Core Knowledge curriculum, and current efforts to join direct reading instruction with prescribed content for our youngest struggling readers.                 

Perennialism Today: The Negatives and Positives

Perennialism is not held in high regard in most education circles today, but it is gaining ground.  Perennialism is a part of the behaviorist educational psychological theory, and is often represented as a top-down form of pedagogy where the rewarding and punishing teacher is in control (Ryan & Cooper, 1998).  Perennialism has been described as an inflexible, unchanging doctrine that regards the student as a passive recipient to whom lectures and drills are delivered.   Wiles and Bondi (2007) define perennialism as the most traditional and structured educational philosophy.    

Yet if perennialism qualifies as the most conservative of the educational approaches, Mortimer Adler characterizes perennialism as “...conservative as in conserving the best of the past” (Ryan & Cooper, p. 311).  Adler in his Paideia Proposal (1982)  breathed life into perennialism by espousing that all children, not just fortunate children, should be exposed to a high-quality, classical education because it fosters greater equality.  Adler felt that it was imperative for students to embark on self-discovery and self-improvement by gaining an understanding of the framework of our government and our founding principles.  Adler believed that this type of learning would engender and invite students to demand protection of their civil rights, the right to pursue happiness, and the right to expect a decent standard of living.

Perennialists contend that there is an ordered body of knowledge that students need to know so that the public might unite around a shared identity (Gaudelli, 2002).  Having said that, Americans resist group stereotypes and pigeon-holing, and draw attention to the many exceptions to ‘one size fits all.’  Yet, education leader Albert Shanker noted, “The claims of...separatists reflect the attitude that no one group may make a judgement on any other, since all depends on your point of view.  This extremely relativistic viewpoint conflicts with the need that all societies have to establish some basic values, guidelines, and beliefs” (Shanker, 2003).  An enlightened perennialist educational philosophy outlines fundamental knowledge that forms the basis of education so that children can learn and go on to accept, reject, annotate, extend and embark on the path of their choice.  The acquisition of a broad, liberal base of knowledge enables all children to go on to learn more.  A primary, fundamental course of study becomes enabling knowledge that ensures the child’s future growth.

Perennialism and E.D. Hirsch

The educator E.D. Hirsch echoes the views of perennialism.  Hirsch and his colleagues advanced a specific, sequenced curriculum in literature, mathematics, history, the arts, and sciences—the Core Knowledge curriculum—that provides children with enriched knowledge, expands their vocabularies, and lays an academic foundation on which to build.  The Core Knowledge program comprises about 60 percent of the curriculum at each grade level, leaving teachers and students free to pursue additional topics throughout the year.  What content does Core Knowledge include?   Hirsch poses the question: “Is [the] information often taken for granted in talk and writing addressed to a general literate audience?”  (Hirsch, 2006, p. 123).  For example, Hirsch believes that young grade school children should be taught about the kings and queens of England so they can then be taught about what spurred the birth of our nation.  Children need to learn about autocracy so they can find out about democracy.          

Hirsch and Reading Comprehension

Hirsch is a promoter of better reading ability among all students, and struggling students in particular in his recent writings.  In his book Cultural Literacy (1988), Hirsch maintains that reading comprehension depends on specific background knowledge, and that struggling students, many poor students, and others lag behind in reading because they don’t know enough essential literature, history, arts, civics, and sciences.  Reading ability is the crux of the matter, because it corresponds with learning and communication ability.  A child’s reading ability in second grade predicts that child’s academic performance in his or her high school years (Hirsch, 2006).  Hirsch feels that reading ability is central to our identity as a country, because our democracy revolves around information and our ability to broadly and insightfully discern the plethora of news and details that we have at our fingertips.  But to have a well-rounded reading ability you need to know about a lot of things.                                      

Prior Knowledge Helps Students Perform Better Academically

Cognitive science tells us that the more informed you become about a topic, the easier it is for you to learn more about it (Recht & Leslie, 1988).  Recht and Leslie investigated how prior knowledge affected low and high ability middle schoolers’ memory and retention in reading.  When a reader already had an understanding about the subject being studied, comprehension was better and there were fewer memory errors.  Poor readers were significantly less likely to be able to recall unfamiliar text.  The researchers discovered that knowledge of a subject area determined the amount and quality of information recollected, and that prior knowledge helped poor readers compensate for their low reading ability.    

Building Young Students’ Knowledge and Skills as Readers

Broad liberal arts knowledge builds reading comprehension and satisfies students’ thirst for learning.  Student intellectual capacity is fortified by an ordered curriculum rich in history, science, literature and the arts.  Current approaches that depend chiefly on reading strategies such as making text-to-text or text-to-world connections don’t allow class discussions to go far enough.  It is time to turn away from the current peripatetic literacy block in elementary school and replace it with a rich, sequential exploration of non-fiction, historical facts, and high-quality readings, even for the youngest readers, paired with choice and hands-on activities.  Programs such as these have been shown to increase academic achievement, especially for ELL students and students with special needs.

The Pilot

Ten New York City high-poverty public schools implemented the pilot of the Core Knowledge K-2 Language Arts Program and reaped positive results from 2008-2011 (Dubin, 2012).  Administrators and teachers found that their balanced literacy block relied too much on reading comprehension strategies, such as identifying the audience and finding the text’s main idea.  Writer’s Workshop emphasized the process of writing but not enough attention was being paid to what was written about.  Weak student writing resulted. The children didn’t have enough foundational, topical information to write about.  School administrators and teachers became excited after attending a Core Knowledge conference because the curriculum offered students more substance.  They also desired a program that paired content knowledge with teaching beginning readers to read, and starting in 2008, the Core Knowledge Language Arts Program, which included both of these components, became available for trial.  

Core Knowledge Language Arts Program for Grades K-2

In the Core Knowledge Language Arts Program for young readers, a skills strand teaches decoding, phonics, and fluency coupled with writing (encoding), plus grammar and spelling.  The listening and learning content strand sequentially build the child’s knowledge and listening understanding that leads to better reading comprehension down the road (Hirsch, 2010-2011).  It is the listening and learning strand that I will describe in depth.

In the listening and learning part of the Core Knowledge Language Arts Program, to build broad knowledge in the early grades, students are exposed to texts in literature, science, and social studies that grow in complexity over time (See Appendix A).  The Core Language Arts Program contains more non-fiction texts compared to other traditional language arts curriculums.  In kindergarten the texts begin with just a few sentences, but as the year progresses and children’s attention spans lengthen, read-alouds reach two to four pages.  Some teachers at the ten pilot testing schools initially wondered if their young students could sit still and listen.  However, teachers observed that even kindergarteners and first graders were mesmerized by the rich content.  

The literature domain emphasizes fables, stories and myths because Hirsch sees these as the building blocks of later literary and cultural understanding.  Multicultural selections are included.  For example, the literature sequence features the Caldecott-winning Lon Po Po, the scary ancient Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood retold by Ed Young.  The social studies sequence features Many Nations: An Alphabet of Native America, by Joseph Bruchac.  The social studies course of inquiry is ordered so that domains build on each other--Native American studies precede Colonial studies, after which Westward Expansion is explored.   Students first learn that as American colonists were fighting for freedom against the British, they themselves kept African slaves.  The domain then studies President Lincoln and his battle to end slavery.  Similarly, science knowledge develops from examining the five senses in kindergarten to studying the human body in grade one.  (Many of these topics are revisited in great depth in later grades.) There are 12 literature, social studies, and science domains per grade level, allowing for two weeks of study and related activities for each topic.  Every lesson includes core vocabulary and read-aloud objectives that remind students what they have already heard and learned, and draws out connections to their own lives.  Discussion guides provide reflective questions at different levels of complexity that children can respond to verbally, in writing, or by drawing.  

The Link Between Oral Comprehension and Reading Comprehension

Read-alouds and discussion are vital to the Core Knowledge Language Arts Program. A child’s reading comprehension is not as sophisticated as their listening comprehension until they are 13 or 14 years old.  Even at age nine when children are becoming more advanced readers, listening understanding still surpasses reading understanding (Hirsch, 2010-2011).  Oral language competence helps to predict later reading and school success for elementary-age children (Biemiller, 2003):

•                By grade 3, children with advanced vocabulary skills possess comprehension abilities at the fourth grade level or higher, while third graders with lower-level vocabulary skills comprehend at the second grade level or below.  

•                Fourth graders who begin the school year with vocabulary deficits show growing problems in comprehension.  

Increasing older elementary students’ academic achievement and avoiding the 4th grade slump depends on enriching the students’ oral language and vocabulary in the early elementary years through a content-rich curriculum.

Outomes

Compared to ten comparison schools in the New York City public system that used other curriculums, the ten experimental schools scored higher on reading comprehension, science, and social studies, while also learning to decode, read and write (Dubin, 2012).  Young students succeeded in learning to read and learning to know simultaneously.   While other good reading programs, such as the Fountas and Pinnell’s series, teach children the speech to print connection through phonics instruction, the Core Knowledge Language Arts Program shows that ample content can be included in the scope and sequence for young students.  Academic achievement increases were especially notable for students with special needs.            

Although Core Knowledge instructs what to teach, teachers at the ten pilot schools devised how they would teach it, using supportive materials from the Core Knowledge Language Arts Program and materials that they gathered on their own.  Teachers noted that they no longer had to hunt high and low for leveled instructional materials on topics, but instead could focus on designing small group, hands-on, and differentiated activities.  Additionally, the teachers at the ten pilot sites recommended assessment procedures that Core Knowledge integrated into the final Core Knowledge Language Arts Program curriculum.   

  

Conclusion

Recently I worked with two Native American 5th grade students on cultural studies projects; one chose the topic of Inca mummies, and the other chose to find out about Roman theatre.  Both children gleefully dove into their chosen research topics, tackling challenging texts and websites with fervor.   Willingly they produced paragraph after paragraph of text that they enthusiastically edited and converted into their own words.  They complimented their written work with art work and then presented their research projects to parents and peers.  Again I was convinced of the need for an ordered scope and sequence of non-fiction study for these children.  But it needs to be sequential, so they’re not studying Greeks for three years in row, and it should encompass the entire year rather than a small part of the year.  Now these children are entering MCA testing preparation season.  Temporarily these two 5th graders will become dull and listless with only occasional sparks.  But rich content fed them.  They will rally when they can pick an area of study which captures their imagination and motivates them to cheerfully produce and write again.

Appendix A (Hirsch, E.D., 2010-2011)

      

Bibliography

Adler, M.  (1982).  The paideia proposal: An educational manifesto.  New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.

Biemiller, A. (2003). Oral comprehension sets the ceiling on reading comprehension.  American Educator, Spring, 27(1).

Dubin, J.  (2012). More than words: An early grades reading program builds skills and knowledge.  American Educator, Fall, 36(3), 34-40.

Gaudelli, W. (2002).  U.S. kids don’t know U.S. history: The NAEP study, perspectives, and presuppositions.  Social Studies, September-October, 197-201.

Hirsch, E.D. (2010-2011). Beyond comprehension.  American Educator, Winter, (34)4, 30-43.

Hirsch, E.D. (2006). The knowledge deficit. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Hirsch, E.D., Kett, J., Trefil, J.  (1993).  The dictionary of cultural literacy (2nd ed.).  Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Hirsch, E.D. (1988). Cultural literacy: What every American needs to know.  New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Recht, D., & Leslie, L.  (1988).  Effect of prior knowledge on good and poor readers’ memory of text.  Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(1), 16-20.

Ryan, K., & Cooper, J. (1998). Those who can, teach (8th ed.).  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Shanker, A.  (2003).  The importance of civic education.  In J. Leming, L. Ellington, and K. Porter, (eds.), Where Did Social Studies Go Wrong? p. 80.  Available at http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/contrariansFull.pdf.    

Wiles, J., & Bondi, J. (2007). Curriculum development: A guide to practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

Standard 8, assessment. A teacher must understand and be able to use formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social, and physical development of the student.

Assessment is constantly being conducted in the elementary classrooms that I am a part of.  Below, a detailed analysis of assessment procedures that I used with a first and third grade student, and background assessment information on these two students and the assessments that are used by the school.  To extend this study in a practical way, ways to fit assessment into the literacy block during a typical fast-paced day could be presented.   

Elementary Reading and Writing Assessments

Reading and Writing Assessments Used within the Classroom and School

·      What sorts of reading/writing assessments are conducted school wide?

Based on discussions with the elementary principal and the coordinator of reading instruction, the tests below are given to K-5 students.  According to the reading instruction coordinator, the school district is in the process of deciding on what direction to go in the assessment of elementary writing.

Kindergarteners undergo a five-word test (nap, kid, log, jet, gum), designed by Words Their Way authors, and if they are able to, a Fountas and Pinnell reading running record.  They also are given a letter identification and letter sounds test. 

First graders are given the Fountas & Pinnell Where-to-Start Word Test, a Fountas & Pinnell running record, and the Words Their Way Primary Spelling Inventory.

Second through fifth graders take the Where-to-Start Word Test, the Fountas & Pinnell running record and the Words Their Way Primary Spelling Inventory.  The Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) test is administered two to three times a year, and the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) test is given every spring. 

·      How is assessment information shared with faculty and parents?

Assessment information is discussed between teachers at weekly team meetings, and with parents twice a year during conferences, and more often with family members as needed. 

·      What sorts of reading, writing and learning assessments does your cooperating teacher engage in?  These will be both formal and informal assessments.

The cooperating teacher uses the assessments listed above, plus the Dolch sight words tests, and assessment and evaluation of the child’s classroom work.

·      How does your cooperating teacher use this assessment information?  How, if at all, does this vary for different children?

The cooperating teacher uses this information to assign children to small instructional reading groups and spelling groups.  However, the classroom is made up of many different types of groups.  For example, research groups may be composed of children who are interested in a common topic who are at different reading levels.

·      How does assessment work outside the classroom (e.g., Reading Recovery)

One of my focal students, Arnaldo (not his real name), participates in a Reading Recovery small group.  His small group teacher helped the classroom/cooperating teacher complete the assessments described above.  Based on these assessments, the Reading Recovery teacher wrote a detailed reading assessment and plan for Arnaldo. 

Focal Students’ Work in the Classroom

Arnaldo

First grader Arnaldo was assessed at the beginning of the school year by the cooperating teacher and his reading teacher.  He was found to have an enthusiastic and positive attitude.  He was functioning below grade level in reading and writing.  At that time he was beginning to use the first letter in words to determine unknown words.  He knew the sounds of some letters and used them to write words with assistance.  Arnaldo was able to identify 40 upper and lower case letters out of 72.  He was able to identify only 20 letter sounds.  He recognized two Dolch sight words out of 25.  On a dictated sentence exercise he scored 6/37.

Arnaldo needs to learn to identify the sounds of the letters of the alphabet, and he needs to learn to blend sounds together to make words on his own.  He sometimes confuses the order of the sounds as he writes them, but when he is encouraged to attend he makes fewer writing errors.

The assessments helped the cooperating teacher place Arnaldo in an early Letter Name—Alphabetic Stage spelling group, and an “A” reading level. The assessments also helped the reading teacher place Arnaldo in a reading group that could meet his needs.  The assessments provide a full picture of Arnaldo’s reading and writing strengths and needs at the beginning of the school year. 

Tony

Third grader Tony was assessed in early fall of 2011 by his teacher.  His MAP reading test shows that his reading skills declined from the spring of 2011 to the fall of 2011.  His word recognition, vocabulary, and comprehension are in the low range.  However, his fall Fountas and Pinnell running record brings to light his accuracy in oral reading (99%), yet also shows his slightly limited comprehension.  The assessment helped the teacher place Tony in an “N” group for independent reading, and a higher “O” group for reading instruction. The teacher gave Tony the Words Their Way Spelling Inventory on September 1, 2011.  He scored in the early syllables and affixes stage.  The assessments paint a somewhat complex picture of this boy.  There seems to be a differential between his oral, fluent reading ability and his comprehension.

 

Assessment and Analysis of Focal Students’ Reading and Writing that I Conducted

Arnaldo

Formal Reading Tests

Arnaldo completed two formal reading tests with me: a Dolch sight words test and a Fountas & Pinnell running record.  He struggled with the Dolch list, so I transferred the Dolch words onto individual cards, which was easier for him. He scored 12/40.  (At the beginning of the school year he knew only two Dolch words.)  Arnaldo satisfactorily completed a Level B Fountas and Pinnell running record (accuracy rate 99%).  This is a good independent reading level for him.  His instructional level should be slightly higher than this (Tompkins, 2010, p. 76), which it is, based on classroom observations.  His text-to-text and text-to-world comprehension was satisfactory on the Fountas and Pinnell test.  He used some context clues, like looking at the pictures, and checking what letter the word begins with (Tompkins, 2010, p. 245) to double-check the words he was saying.  In two months of first grade classroom and reading small group experience, the assessments highlight the improvements Arnaldo is making.

Informal Reading Assessments

Arnaldo participated in two informal reading assessments with me: the “Concepts About Print” (CAP) test (Tompkins, 2010, p. 113), and the “Garfield Elementary Reading Attitude Survey.”  On the CAP scoring sheet Arnaldo showed that he was familiar with holding and using books.   He understands the left-right direction of print.  He had a bit of difficulty with letter/word concepts.  It was hard for him to identify a sentence.  Still, he demonstrated an understanding of the majority of letter/word concepts assessment items (Johnston, 1997, p. 101).   On the Garfield test Arnaldo mostly circled the four-point ‘happiest’ Garfield cartoons.  This may reflect his naturally upbeat personality, but it may also reflect his limited comprehension.  He did not seem to understand the difference between reading at home and reading at school even after we talked about it.

Formal Writing Tests

Arnaldo’s writing was assessed using two formal writing tests: the Words Their Way (WTW) Spelling Inventory Feature Guide and the 6+1 Traits.  On the WTW test it is evident that Arnaldo is still struggling to hear short vowel sounds.  He is hearing the short ‘a’ and ‘o’ sound.  When I encouraged him to break the word down he heard individual sounds more readily.   From this assessment it appears that Arnaldo is still in the early Letter Name-Alphabetic stage.  Because there wasn’t recent classroom writing work to look at, I used a piece of classroom writing from September 27 and applied the 6+1 Traits assessment.  On ideas and content I gave Arnaldo a 1, because he was just beginning to think about what he wanted to talk about (“I need more time to think.”  Culham, 2003, p. 266).  On word choice I gave him a 3 because his words were correct but not descriptive.  On conventions he received a 1 because he does not yet have control of this area.  On organization he received a 1 because the writing piece is not yet shaped.  I gave him a 3 on voice because his personality comes through a bit.  On sentence fluency he received a 1 because of his very beginning level.   

Facilitating Arnaldo’s Progress

Arnaldo benefits from small group and one-to-one reading and writing assistance based on the following formula: read to, read with, talk to, write with.  The Cunningham chapter in Gambrell (2007) contains additional phonological awareness activities that I will volunteer to teach in the small group setting, for example, the “making words” game that splits the word ‘cartoon’ into many small words that students come up with.  Further, because I also work with Arnaldo in the classroom, I can assist him with Words Their Way sorts in the early Letter Name-Alphabetic stage (Bear et al., 2008, pp. 129-150) that compare short vowel word families and examine CVC families.      

Tony

Formal Reading Tests

Tony completed two formal reading tests with me: a Dolch sight words test and a Fountas & Pinnell running record.  He executed the Dolch third grade test flawlessly.  He found these words to be “immediately recognizable,” according to Pearson et al. in Gambrell (2007, p. 46), rather than “arduously analyzable,” a skill that should free him to understand more of what he is reading.  His accuracy rate was 99% on his Fountas and Pinnell running record.  (I gave him his Fountas and Pinnell on September 20 at the request of his teacher.)  Tony is proud of his fluent reading ability and his decoding skills.  Within the text, his comprehension and recall of details is very good.  Tony’s text-to-text understanding, an area that requires higher-level thinking according to Tompkins (2010, p. 261) was good.  But when Tony is asked to think beyond the text, to draw parallels between what he has read and his life experiences, he loses interest, and his score reflects that.

Informal Reading Assessments

Informal reading assessments that Tony did with me include the “Motivation to Read Profile,” and the “Garfield Elementary Reading Attitude Survey.”  Tony’s “Motivation to Read Profile” is revealing.  He consistently rates himself as a pretty good reader, but does not generally give the activity of reading high marks.  This survey appears to accurately assess his feelings about reading.  When Tony took the “Garfield” survey he frequently sighed about how long it was.  On this measure his recreational reading score is only slightly above his academic reading score.  Tony did not come close to a total score of 80; rather his score was 49/80. 

Intrinsic motivation seems to be key for Tony (Tompkins, 2010, p. 277).  Tony seems to be boy who would benefit from being given more choice in his reading and writing assignments.

“Students want to have a say in which books they read and which topics they write about.  By making choices, students develop more responsibility for their work and ownership of their accomplishments” (Tompkins, 2010, p. 279).

Formal Writing Assessments

Formal writing assessments that I did with Tony included the 6+1 Traits rubric and the Words Their Way spelling assessment.  On the 6+1 Traits assessment, I assessed Tony to be a 1 in ideas/content; a 5 in word choice; a 3 in conventions; a 4 in organization (“The middle makes sense, but it plods along” Culham, 2003, p. 267).  I gave him a 3 in Voice, and a 3 in sentence fluency.  His low ideas/content score reflects the lack of details and information.  As a third grader he could have written more.  However, I gave him a 5 in word choice and a 4 organization because of his specific vocabulary, and the clear flow of his piece and the sequential illustrations that accompany his writing.  On the Words Their Way spelling test, Tony scored a little higher in early November than he did in early September.  Of the final ten words in the Syllables and Affixes stage, Tony spelled three out of seven correctly.  Because he spelled some of these correctly, he could probably handle the challenge of the middle level of this stage, rather than the early level.  He appears to be crossing into the Syllable-Junctures phase of the Syllables and Affixes stage (Bear et al., 2007, p. 34).  Tony has strengths as a speller. 

Facilitating Tony’s Progress

I believe Tony is in need of a large dose of academic, non-fiction reading.  When Tony and I have explored other topics, such as the Greek gods and goddesses, he utters humorous and curious insights, and readily writes and draws about Zeus and Athena, for example.  Soon I hope to help Tony with a Montessori research project of his choosing on rocks and minerals.  This is the perfect medium for reading interesting non-fiction material, developing vocabulary, creating idea webs, outlining main areas of inquiry, and organizing, writing and illustrating a research report.   

Bibliography

Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2007). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary and spelling instruction.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Cullham, R. (2003). 6+1 traits of writing: The complete guide grade 3 and up.  NY: Scholastic Professional Books.

Gambrel, L., Morrow, L. M., Pressley, M. (2007). Best practices in literacy instruction.  New York: Guilford Press.

Johnston, P. (1997). “Concepts about Print,” Knowing literacy: Constructive literacy assessment. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Tompkins, G. (2010). Literacy for the 21^st century: a balanced approach. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 

Standard 7, planning instruction. A teacher must be able to plan and manage instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.

Below, two lessons present the importance of physical exercise to heart health for young learners.  To take these lessons one step further, a half-hour physical education gym class could be created for the second graders to get them moving!  after class children could take their pulse.

Elementary Health Class

Heart Health and Exercise: An Introduction

Age: Second grade

National Standard:  Student will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.

Objective: Students will be able to describe what the their heart does when they are physically active.

Materials:

·      How a Normal Heart Pumps Blood YouTube video:

·      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA0Wb3gc4mE

·      Poster: Why is Physical Activity Important?

Teaching Strategies & Procedures:

Attention-getter: “Put your hand on your heart!”

·      Where is your heart located? 

·      Your heart is in the middle of your chest, tipped slightly to the left.

Assess background knowledge briefly & introduce lesson:

·      What does your heart do?

·      (Accept all responses.)

·      Your heart is a muscle. 

·      It is the size of your fist (hold up your fist).

·      Today we are going to learn how our heart works and talk about how important it is to keep our heart healthy through exercise.

Heart information:

·      How does our heart work?

·      The heart is a pump.  It pushes blood to every part of the body.

·      The heart sends the blood throughout the body to deliver oxygen and pick up waste.

·      (Arteries carry blood away from the heart.  Veins carry blood back to the heart.)

·      The heart is amazing.  It has four special doors called valves that open to allow blood to flow into each chamber of the heart.  The valves only let the blood flow one direction.

·      Tomorrow we are going to have fun and imitate the movement of the heart. 

Let’s watch a YouTube video that shows how the heart works.  I am not so concerned that you learn all the words on the video.  I want you to watch how the heart works and watch how the valves of the heart work.

·      How a Normal Heart Pumps Blood YouTube video:

·      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA0Wb3gc4mE

Poster: Why is Physical Activity Important? Display on LCD Projector.

If your heart is a muscle, what can you do to keep it strong and healthy?

·      (Accept all answers.  Add clarification.)

·      Physical activity and exercise keep our hearts strong.

·      Read top portion of poster to second graders.

·      Ask a second grader who is paying attention to come up and use the cursor/pointer to identify a “low intensity” activity on the Physical Activity Pyramid (e.g., “walking the dog”). 

·      Differentiation and behavior management:  Catch a student being good!  Look for and pick a student who usually doesn’t pay attention who is now paying attention.  Ask this second grader to come up and point to a moderate intensity activity that they recognize.  Ask another second grader to come up and point to a high intensity activity that they recognize.   

Closure

·      What does our heart do when we are physically active?

·      Look for the following answers: It pumps blood throughout our body; exercise improves blood circulation; our hearts get stronger the more we exercise.

Heart Health Two

Experiment: How Heart Valves Work

Age: Second grade

National Standard:  Student will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.

Objective: Students will be able to describe what the their heart does when they are physically active.

Materials:

Plastic honey or ketchup squeeze bottles (empty)

Basins

Teaching Strategies & Procedures:

What is a pulse?

·      Our pulse tells us how fast our heart is beating.

·      Our pulse can tell doctors how well our heart is working.

Let’s take our pulse

·      We will take our resting heart rate. 

·      Hold your hand in front of you.

·      Gently place two fingers of your other hand on top of your wrist.  Do not use your thumb! 

·      Keep adjusting your fingers until you feel a steady beat.

·      Differentiation and behavior management: I will have two volunteers, students who are paying attention, come to the front of the room.  (Catch some inattentive student being good!)  I will help you multiply the number you get by 4 to get your resting heart rate. We will use these numbers as examples of a resting heart rate.

·      We will quietly count the beats for 15 seconds.  GO!

What happens to our heart rate when we exercise?

·      You are correct.  Our heart beats faster.  Our heart rate increases.

·      What happens to our heart when we exercise and our heart rate increase?

·      Yes!  Our heart gets healthier!

We are going to experiment with something that is similar to our heart and our heart valves.  Think about the video you saw yesterday of a healthy working heart. 

·      Use old honey or ketchup squeeze bottles.  Fill them with water. 

·      Discuss proper, safe classroom use of squeeze bottles as needed.

·      Allow children to work in pairs or trios and take turns squeezing and releasing squeeze bottles (with valves) into plastic washbasins. 

·      It is as if you are a heart pumping and moving blood!

Closure

·      Once again, what happens to our heart rate when we exercise?

·      Yes!  Our heart rate increases.

·      What happens to our heart when we exercise?

·      You are correct.  Our heart gets healthier!

Bibliography

American Heart Association. (2012). Elementary lesson plans.  Retrieved from http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Educator/FortheClassroom/ElementaryLessonPlans/Elementary-Lesson-Plans_UCM_001258_Article.jsp on November 18, 2012.