In my
second grade class there is one student that struggles a lot with reading and
writing. She is unable to recognize preprimer words; she has issues with
phonemic awareness and decoding, mainly the words that are on the class word
wall, fluency, comprehension, ideas to formulate writing, mechanics, and the
motivation to begin writing. When she began second grade she had the literacy
ability of a kindergartener. Mrs. H has worked very hard to try and get her to
a higher level, and recently she has succeed and Aysia (focus student) reading
level is now at the beginning of second grade. She has not been labeled with a
LD, therefore we know that she has the ability to learn. If I were an intern in
the class I would write to Aysia’s parents addressing these key points.
Dear Mr and
Mrs. Hall
I am an
intern in Mrs.H class and have been working with your child to improve her
literacy skills. She is struggling in a few areas in both reading and writing
so I wanted to outline some specific ideas for differentiating instruction that
I plan to implement to enhance Aysia’s learning. First I would like to start
with reading; she is having trouble manipulating speech sounds (phonemic awareness)
so I have created a packet of short poems and sing-a-longs that consist of
rhyming words that I would like for her to identify while reading. She is also
having issues with identify high-frequency words (decoding) so I am using her book box, which is a
box of books that are on her reading level that she can practice with, by
having her select a book that she feels she can read fluency and highlighting
the words that appear on our class word wall. I feel that this will help her
identify the words when she sees them in a different context and hopefully she
will become more familiar with them. Also using the book box I would like her
to select a book that she would like to read to the kindergarten class down the
hall, I would like her to practice with this book as much as she can so that
she can become fluent before reading it to an audience. I have created for her
a list of key ideas to include in a retell, so when she finishes reading to the
kindergarten class I would like her to come back and explain to Mrs. H or
myself what the book is about using the checklist provided.
As for writing,
I feel that more opportunities to write will truly make her a better writer, so
everyday I am having the entire class write about their day, this can be about
what ever they choose to write about. Specifically in Aysia’s writing I will be
looking for high-frequency words being spelled correctly so I will constantly
remind her to look on the word wall for words she can’t spell. Most times she has trouble coming up
with ideas to write about, so I would like for her to brainstorm a list of
interesting things she did that day and to write about the one that she feels
was most promising. I really believe that this will help with her motivation to
write and will turn her into a great writer.
I believe
that with the help of you all and a consistent effort from Aysia we can really
turn things around for her. Not only would I like for her to practice these
things at school but also at home, so I have attached a reading log that I
would like for you to sign for everyday. I would like for her to have 30 minutes
of reading time and at least 20 minutes of writing. I know this may sound like a lot, but I know that Aysia is
capable to succeed in literacy. Again, thank you for you time and effort.
Ms. Johnson
Tatianna this letter was absolutely fabulous to read; you gave such detail to your activities and strategies you would do with Aysia which I think the guardians will appreciate! I think one thing I would add to in the last pat of your letter would be a couple sentence maybe saying: "If you have any questions or suggestions for me and what I have just outlined above I am free to meet with you. I know I wrote a lot out for you so I am willing to meet with you and walk through the strategies I would like to work on with Aysia." This way the parents or guardians feel they have a part in Aysia's improvement and work. Also as a teacher we may understand all the reading and writing language you used in that letter, like preprimer words, but a parent may not. Offering to help parents or whomever understand the activity you are doing with their child and showing them how to do it can give the parent a more active role. I think if I was a parent and i didn't know how you were doing these activities you listed I would be afraid I would be lost in my child's success and may not be able to help them while they are working at home.
ReplyDeleteOther than that I think this is a very successfully written letter to a parent. By explaining all the activities and your reasoning I think you further emphasized the importance of these activities to Aysia's improvement and a parent can see that through this letter.
**I took the directions literally and actually wrote in the voice of a parent. Hope that's ok :)
ReplyDeleteAs a parent, I have realized that my child needs to build on a lot of their basic knowledge before they can succeed in reading. I have also learned that phonemic awareness is related to speech sounds in reading; however, I would like to be more informed about how poems and sing-a-longs will help with the child’s progression with phonemic awareness. It is also apparent that with my child’s inability to read words that are seen frequently, it is more difficult for her to get through a book. I think that having a book box at her reading level will really be beneficial to help her get familiar with words that she is capable of reading. Maybe then in the future she can develop her phonemic awareness and her decoding of high frequency words so that she can continue to recognize sounds in higher level reading. I was wondering if the books in the book box will be switched, and if so, how often? Other than the retell, will there be a way to monitor her progress to see if she needs a higher level of books?
It’s obvious that Aysia’s difficulties in reading also show up in writing since they are so closely related. By building up Aysia’s knowledge of high-frequency words, it seems like she will be more motivated to write and actually have something to write about without having to be discouraged about not knowing how to spell words. Will there be any other kinds of structured writing assignments other than free writes about their day to help her develop her writing? What types of other writing assignments does the class partake in and how can these be presented in a way that Aysia can still succeed?
Helping Aysia out of school is critical to help her develop her reading and her writing. Other than the log, is it possible to send some of the materials she uses in school home with her? It may be beneficial to have the retell checklist and a list of the words on the word wall so that these things can be practiced at home as well. Sending home various writing prompts may also be beneficial for Aysia to practice at home.
Dear Ms. Johnson,
ReplyDeleteWe appreciate your concern about our daughter’s academic performance. We understand that Aysia needs to improve in some areas of reading and writing, and we want to make sure we are doing everything we can to help her. We read night-time stories everyday with her, which is something we have done since she was born. So, we do find it a bit disheartening to hear that she has difficulty understanding words and sounds, but it excites us to know that you are working with her on her sound and letter recognition. We like your ideas of using a Book Box, Poems, and Sing-a-longs, but we are worried that she may not be experienced enough with Phonemic Awareness to focus on enhancing fluency. Do you think we should practice with sounds and sound-parts first? We were thinking that this might, as a result of focusing on sounds and decoding, help her with fluency. We love the idea about giving her tools and activities that help improve word identification and word recognition with sight words and high frequency words. We think this will help her fluency skills and increase her assessment performance.
Now that we know she needs help in reading and writing, we would like to know how she is doing in comprehension. Has struggling in fluency and spelling impacted her performance in this area? If so, do you have any recommendations as to what we can do at home to help her with this? Have you been conducting running records, or other assessments that will tell us how she is doing with this? You mentioned that you have the class write everyday, how is she doing with this? Have you noticed any “invented spelling” going on? Reading everyday is something that we do everyday, but I think that having her write more at home can definitely help her in school. You mentioned that when she writes in school, you look for correct spelling and high frequency words in her writing. How do you go over this with her? Do you encourage her to practice these words, or words she spells incorrectly?
We know that you may think this is overwhelming, but we are willing to do whatever it takes to help Aysia. Please let us know if you have any specific activities we can do with her. Thank you again!