Homework

            In my opinion the rationale behind homework is to practice skills that were recently taught.  The old saying with homework is "practice makes perfect" however, I agree with the more modern version of "perfect practice makes perfect". If students practice skills incorrectly it can be even more difficult for them to figure out how to do it correctly in the future. Meaningful homework is work that students are already confident with. These should be skills they have practiced in class under teacher supervision. Homework should reinforce the skills that students already have. Often times in my reading class I ask students to complete common assignments that have one changing element; for instance, they have to complete vocabulary sentences each week. The assignment, which they are accustomed to stays the same, the words do not. This allows them to just practice the vocabulary word meanings and not get caught up in the "how to" of the assignment. I provide feedback for my students the following day. If the assignment lends itself, we grade together as a class. Having students grade each other's assignments helps them to gain a deeper understanding.
          I think that technology can be very useful in the process of homework.  Allowing students to show their proficiency level using technology can help with student engagement and motivation. I also think it is important to make sure that the technology required for homework is easily accessible to all students.

Graphic Organizers

_{Non Fiction}

_I really liked this graphic organizer because it allows students to pre read a non fiction text. Often time’s students find non fiction very intimidating and this organizer can help them to understand.

http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/userfiles/file/BIG%20FOX%20graphic%20organizer.pdf

This is a three way Venn Diagram. I chose this because it is more suitable for middle school students. It is a simple organizer to use and still encourages the higher order thinking of compare and contrast of three events.

http://www.realclassroomideas.com/resources/graphic+organizers-threewayvenn.pdf

Fiction

Like all graphic organizers this is great to help separate story details. This also emphasizes the differences between fiction and non fiction.

http://classroom.jc-schools.net/read/map.html

Poetry

This is a wonderful organizer to help understand poetry terms. It can be used first to fill in with definitions; it then can be filled with student created examples.  Lastly, this same graphic organizer can be used with a specific poem and examples can be taken from the poem.

http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/pdf/poetrytermspractice.pdf

Miscue Analysis

I gave a running record to a native Spanish speaker and a native Russian speaker.  The Spanish speaking student was a 6th grader and the Russian speaking student was in 10th grade.  The age gap in these students did make it hard to notice any similarities or differences.  The 6th grader did a good job with her reading and  read 110 words per minute.  What appeared to be her issue was simply fluency, she was comprehending what she was reading and decoding words, but her pace was very slow. For this student I would recommend repeated readings of grade level text. The ideal place to accomplish this would be in a guided reading group.  She needs to practice intonation as well as pausing for punctuation and commas.  The Russian speaking student seemed to have a different problem with his miscues. As he read he seemed to skip words throughout the passage. He ended up reading 135 words per minute. I noticed that he read the same way he spoke. Many of the same words we left out.  My suggestion for this student would be tutoring both orally and reading. I think that if his attention was drawn to the way he was speaking he would have an easier time fixing the miscues in his reading.