My Name is Mary Hannah
My parents named me Mary Hannah for two main reasons. My father’s mother passed away many years before I was born. Her name was Mary Ruth. I was the first daughter that my father had, so we wanted to give me his mother’s name. The true meaning of the name Mary is unknown, but it is found mostly in the Christian world because of its popularity in the new testament. My mother wanted to give me the name Hannah, because it is from The Bible. The meaning of the name Hannah is grace. Hannah was also the mother of the prophet Samuel in the old testament, which also makes this name popular in the Christian world. My parents compromised and put the names together to name me Mary Hannah. There are fewer than 1,542 people named Mary Hannah in the US. However, I am most commonly known as Hannah, which is the 664th most popular name in the US today.
Fluent Readers Article Response
1. What are three dimensions of fluency? How can you assess each dimension?
a. accuracy in word decoding: using phonics and other strategies to decode words
-assessed by calculating the number of words the child can decode at grade level
(90-90% is adequate)
b. automatic processing: expend as little mental effort as possible to decode words
-assessed by calcuating the child’s reading rate
c. prosodic reading: phrasing the text into appropriate units
-assessed by listening to a child read a grade level passage while looking at a rubric that scores a student on the elements of expression and volume, phrasing, smoothness, and pace
2. Rasinski refers to fluency as a “bridge” between decoding and comprehension. What does he mean by the “bridge” metaphor?
By saying that I think he meant that without fluency it would be hard for the child to connect the two and to become excellent readers. With fluency the child will be able to make the step from decoding words and sentences to fully understanding and comprehending what they read. When a child first begins reading and decoding words the reading can be somewhat choppy and broken up in bits and pieces. However, reading fluency makes their reading run much smoother. Then the child will be about to read and better understand what they are reading.
3. What instructional methods does Rasinski suggest for students with difficulties in automatic and prosodic reading?
Rasinski said he uses assisted readings and repeated readings, because students need to hear about good fluent reading sounds like and how a fluent reader interprets the text with their voice.
4. Multidemisional Fluency Scale (MFS) is used to measure prosodic quality of oral reading. List components of the MFS and describe what each refers to.
a. expression and volume: read the words fluently like they come natural in a conversation, reads with enthusiasm and expression where necessary
b. phrasing: reads with good phrasing, pauses where necessary and not in mid sentences
c. smoothness: reads smoothly with some breaks, handles self-corrections smoothly
d. pace: reads at conversational pace, consistent rate throughout the whole text
Internship Week 4
This week the teacher came up to us and told us how great of a program Open Court is. She said that we better hope that we are allowed to use it in our classroom one day. From what I have seen of it I really like it too. Each day they turn over a new card. They have already gone through the whole alphabet cards, so now they are working on blends. This week they turned over the “bird card” which is er, ir, ur. This was somewhat difficult for the students, because every other card they have turned over can only be represented in one way. The bird card can be used in three different ways, but I think by Wednesday they seemed to have a better understanding.
There are two children in the class that are way above a first grade reading level. When the class works on their Open Court reading books the higher children just go to the computer and play games. I know that they are already high, but I feel that they should have reading materials on their level to be working with at the same time. However, I am sure it is hard for the teacher to plan two different lessons. The two students do go to an AG class, so maybe they get their reading done in there.
We still have not had a chance to really teach anything to the students. We did work on journals and reading with the students again this week. I am still seeing improvement in handwriting and also in their spelling. It feels great to see improvement!
Internship Week 3
This week was really fun once again! I absolutely love the school we are in. Everyone always seems to be really relaxed and happy. In our first grade classroom the kids really seem to be learning a lot when it comes to reading and writing. Everyday the students write a journal. They work on their journal for an hour by themselves and then they get up and read their journals aloud to the class. I think that I can tell some improvement in the students myself just since I have been there for a few weeks.
We have not actually gotten the chance to teach anything to the students ourselves, but we do get to work with them on their reading. Everday we take a list of students and read with them one by one. This is a good way to give us the idea of the different reading levels in the classroom. Also, the students who have trouble with their writing sometimes work with us on their journals. We will sit down with them, they will dictate to use what they want to say, we write it down on paper and then they copy it. It is interesting the different invented spellings that they come up with.
I still think that it is interesting that we have not really seen the students do any math. I know that reading is really important at this age, but I think that all of the other subjects are just as important. I finished my math assessment this week, and my students had no clue what to do at all. None of them even knew what it meant to subtract. I hope that the other subjects are not being neglected because of the reading curriculum that takes up most of their day.
Froggy Eats Out
1. Jonathan London
2. 2001
3. Froggy Eats Out
4. ISBN 978-0142500613
5. Kindergarten-2nd Grade
6. This book is about a frog family who goes out to eat to a fancy restaurant. Froggy’s parents work really hard to teach him how to use good manners in the restaurant, but it is just too fancy for him.
7. This could serve as a good lesson on manners and how we are supposed to behave in public.
Alphabet Soup
1. Kate Banks
2. Alphabet Soup
3. ISBN 0-679-86723-6
4. 1st grade
5. This book is about a little boy who is eating alphabet soup for lunch. He fishes out the letters B-E-A-R and uses his imagination to see a bear appear on the table with him. He then uses his imagination to see other things appear while he fishes out the appropriate letters from his soup.
6. This book is a great way to work on the alphabet and spelling basic sight words. The teacher could give the students a “bowl” or bag of letters and see what words they can form from their alphabet soup.
Dear Deer
1. Gene Barretta
2. Dear Deer
3. ISBN 978-0-545-20644-0
4. 2nd
5. This book is about an ant who moves to a zoo. She is really funny because she speaks in homophones. She describes all of the different animals she sees and their behavior using homophones.
6. This is a really fun books that students would enjoy. It can be read aloud to students when they are learning about homophones. It also introduces many different types of animals.
Splat the Cat
1. Rob Scotton
2. Splat the Cat
3. ISBN 978-0-545-20129-2
4. 2nd
5. This is a story about a cat, named Splat, who is really nervous about his first day at school. Since he is really nervous he decided to pack his pet mouse in his bag to keep him company. At first he is having a great day and making new friends. Then his mouse escaped from his bag and all of his friends wanted to eat it. After a long chase the teacher talked the students out of wanting to eat their friends lunch, but Splat learned to never bring his mouse back to school again.
6. This would be a fun book to read aloud to students in the younger grades. It covers topics such as the first day of school, making new friends, being kind to friends, etc.
Meet the Obamas: America’s First Family
1. Andrea Davis Pinkney
2. Meet the Obamas: America’s First Family
3. ISBN 978-0-545-20234-3
4. 2nd
5. This book tells all about the Obama family. It is broken up into chapters. The different chapters are about the people who live and work in the White House, what the house is like and about the presidential pup.
6. I think this would be a great book for the children to read when learning about presidents in their history class. While Obama is our president, I think it is important for a book like this to stay out in the classroom all the time. It is important for children to know and learn about our president.
Where Does the Brown Bear Go?
1. Nicki Weiss
2. Where Does the Brown Bear Go?
3. ISBN 0-688-07863-X
4. 1st grade
5. This book is about different animals on their way home. At the end of the book we realize that they were all going to the same home.
