Date: 10-28-11 Child S Name: Michael Harmon

Session Plan

Date: 10-28-11 Child’s Name: Michael Harmon

Teacher: Mrs. Kirsten (Director)

Planned Activities Rationale/Why? Warm Up:  Child will warm up by eating his lunch as I read the  Child will be able to focus on book of his choice to him during the meal. He will not the task at hand after he has be required to do anything but listen and enjoy. eaten and been acclimated to this new classroom Assessment: environment with me.  For today’s assessment I am going to read an expository text to the child titled Who Lives Near  1. I do this lesson because a Lakes on p. 157 in the QRI book. I will ask the child child in this grade level should questions before and after about the subject of the be proficient in these GLCES: text and what the child heard from the text. I will not  With prompting and support, do a full-blown QRI because this expository text is out ask and answer questions of the child’s reading range at this time. about key details in a text.  I will start the assessment by verbally asking Michael,  2.With prompting and “ What is a lake?” and “What kinds of animals have support, retell familiar stories, you seen by a lake or by water before?” I will verbally including key details. react to and add to his responses. I will then read all  3.With prompting and 10 lines of the expository text once through as support, identify characters, Michael sits facing me on the bench on the side of the settings, and major events in a picnic table. I will ask him to close his eyes and to story. hold the squishy ball that he likes in order to help him  4. Ask and answer questions focus a little better. If his hands are busy and his eyes about unknown words in a aren’t distracted by everything around him, he seems text. to do much better at focusing on the task at hand.  6.With prompting and  I will show Michael the picture at the top of the support, name the author and expository text of a turtle sitting on a rock illustrator of a story and define surrounded by water. I will ask Michael to show me the role of each in telling the what he notices in the picture and to point out the story water from the lake.  Then, I will read the text a second time and ask Michael to continue holding the squishy ball but to also open his eyes and follow my finger along through the text as I read through the words. The second time I read the text, I will stop at certain points to ask Michael to “predict what animals the text might talk about” and “what kinds of fish he may see in a lake”. I will also pause throughout the text to ask Michael “what he knew about animals in general”, “what he knew about turtles”, “why turtles like the sun”, “if he’s ever seen baby ducks following their mommy”, and “people’s favorite lake animals”.  At the very end of the text, I will ask Michael to “tell me one thing he learned from the story”, “tell me his favorite part of the text”, “list what animals he remembers from the story”, and to “describe what lakes and water are and what they look like”.  After Michael and I verbally discuss all of these questions and ideas, I will end the assessment by asking Michael to “explain to me his favorite parts of what he just listened to” in the expository text. Lesson:  For today’s lesson, I will read a motivating and uplifting book of choice from the child’s classroom library. This is meant to be light, refreshing, and enjoyable. Then, we will just talk about the book afterward.

Enjoyable Activity:  This will give the child and I  For today’s enjoyable activity, the child will finish his something to talk about and lunch and talk to me about what he has learned reflect upon together in a low- throughout today’s session. stress setting.  This allows the child to relax and get back into the mode of the learning center classroom. Observations Interpretation/Reflections Warm Up:  One of the child’s favorite subjects is  Child was able to listen to and enjoy a text space, science, and planets. Therefore, about planets from his classroom library. this book was chosen to direct his He was very intrigued by all of the space interest and attention toward the future pictures and realistic images throughout assessment and lessons at hand in order the text. to capture as much of his attention as possible.

Assessment:  According to his achievement on  When asked, “ What is a lake?” Michael previous assessments, Michael is still replied with little depth and small amounts developing decoding skills, vocabulary of description, “ A lake is a lake. It has skills, and familiarity with structures and water like a lake”. When asked, “What symbols within the English language. So, kinds of animals have you seen by a lake or for this particular assessment, Michael’s by water before?” Michael only replied by complete understanding of the text was repeating what I had already stated in the the main focus more so than his ability question, “ I have seen animals and water to read the text with perfect fluency and lakes and trees and water one time”. I because he was still in the process of then read all 10 lines of the expository text developing those techniques (McKenna once through as Michael sat facing me on and Stahl, 2009). It was most likely much the bench on the side of the table. more beneficial to administer this assessment verbally than it would have  I showed Michael the picture at the top of been to assess him through a full QRI in the expository text of a turtle sitting on a order to maintain the focus on his rock surrounded by water. I asked Michael comprehension strategies and abilities to show me what he noticed in the picture instead of his reading abilities. and to point out the water from the lake. Otherwise, Michael would have Michael was successful in telling me using struggled to read through the expository detail that there was, “ a rock, a turtle, a text and would not have been able to shell, water, waves, and a head and tail on focus on the meaning of the text itself. the turtle”. (Watanabe Comprehension Power Point, 2011) (McKenna and Stahl, 2009)  Then, I read the text a second time and (Lesson 5 Assessment Results, 2011). asked Michael to “predict what animals the story might talk about”. He stated several animals and not just animals associated with bodies of water when he said, “ animals, birdies, turtles, cows, horses, and ducks”. When asked, “what kinds of fish he  may see in a lake”, Michael used varying According to the GLCES, Michael’s details as he answered, “ big fish, little fish, responses were right at grade level in jumping fish”. I also paused throughout the answering questions about key details in text to ask Michael “what he knew about a text through prompting and support. animals in general” and he said, “ animals This explains why Michael’s answers to walk and swim and go in water”. This was a some of the questions were detailed and great answer, although it would have imaginative to the depths in which they shown much more background knowledge were. Michael was much more focused to talk about the eating habits or living on the text’s information and less on habits of animals as well. I also asked, additional information than a student at “what he knew about turtles” and “why a higher-grade level would have been turtles like the sun”. Michael perfectly when asked questions such as “what a replied with all of his knowledge of turtles lake is “and “what he sees around water as he said, “Turtles bite and wear rocks on and lakes”. In order to cater to Michael’s their back and swim in the water with the grade and achievement levels more so Take-Aways

Date: 10-28-11 Child’s Name: Michael Harmon

Teacher: Mrs. Kirsten (Director)

What did you learn about your child’s literacy development from today’s meeting?

Today, I learned that my child’s ability to comprehend a text is at grade level and is progressing in a good pattern. I also learned that his limited vocabulary and ability to expand his own thinking beyond the text, inhibits a small part of his understanding of the text. I learned that teaching Michael how to use his own knowledge and life experiences when connecting to a text would be very helpful in his future learning.

Based on your meeting, what else do you want to do and learn about the child?

Based on what I learned form this meeting with the child, I’d really like to work more on comprehension of different texts and going about assessing his comprehension in difference ways than a verbal assignment. I’d like to do projects, mini books, and more drawings in order to truly see what the child is learning.