EDUC 681 will have long lasting implications on my current and future students. This class was focused on an emergent reader and writer's growth. As a fifth grade teacher, I have not had experience with beginning readers and writers for a few years. This course refreshed my memory and extended my knowledge about where my students are coming from, as readers and writers. Although this is an Emergent Literacy course, there are several strategies that I have already been able take back to my fifth grade classroom.
Before this class, I would analyze student running records for reading level, fluency, and comprehension understanding. Prior to teaching fifth grade, my students' instructional levels that were found through Developmental Reading Assessments (DRAs) formed the guided reading groups and the independent levels were used to inform the students of their reading level. During small group instruction, students would read an assigned book at their group's instructional reading level to work on accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. The groups would talk about the book that they were reading with each other and the teacher. While teaching fifth grade, I used the running records purely for determining independent and instructional reading levels.
As a result of this class and the completion of the running record analysis artifact, I have changed the way I view running records within my own classroom. As I continue assessing my students with running records this year, I will continue to take the time to complete the miscue analysis portion of the running record to determine if the errors individual students are making are from meaning, syntax, or visual cues. I will also take more time interpreting each student's running records with the Guide for Observing and Noting Reading Behaviors. The Guide for Observing and Noting Reading Behaviors form allows the students to dig deeper into their reading behaviors. From there, the student can determine 1-2 specific goals that each they can focus on. My students and I will be able to use this information to guide discussion while conferring with me during reader's workshop. My students will also have access to "The List of Reading Behaviors checklists" resource that our instructor provided to know what they should be doing at each level and what they need to master to move on to the next reading level. The List of Reading Behaviors checklists will be a great tool for my students to track their progress as a reader as well. As always, I will continue to use running record results to guide students to find good-fit books for independent reading time, as well as, for when students select books for our book club units.
Also as a result of this course and the running record analysis, my students will work on the difference between retelling and summarizing. I have noticed during many of the running records that I have given that some students struggle to pick out the main points in the story when being asked to summarize the story opposed to retelling a story. This course and the texts provided with this course have helped me find better ways of teaching my students the difference between retelling versus summarizing a story. A retell of a story includes the beginning, middle, end, problem, and solution. A student's ability to retell a story is a direct connection to their understanding of a story. If they have difficulty retelling a story then they most likely do not remember a lot about what they read. After students have a good grasp on how to retell a story, students can work on refining their retelling skills to form summaries. This course has helped my students and I by providing a better description and clarifying what summarizing is. My students will be working on summarizing by using the Somebody-Wanted-But-So Summarizing Framework (Tompkins, 2015). This strategy helps students pick out the important parts of the story and write it into a concise paragraph. The students can compare their summarizing with partners while in book clubs and while I am reading mentor texts during large group instruction. Through this instruction, students will be able to make connections between retelling and summarizing a story.