Reading Artifact Reflection Standard 4

Artifact Title: Instructional Strategies

Date Experienced Completed: Spring Semester 2014

Artifact Description

This artifact consists of five documents: 1) an ELL language investigation

lesson plan, 2) a review of online collections of teaching strategies for literacy, 3) an

assignment completed for Reading in the Middle/Secondary School: Strategies in

Practice, 4) an assignment completed for Remedial Reading: “Reading Turn-

Around,” and 5) my University Supervisor’s classroom observation notes. The

lesson plan demonstrates my competence in using a variety of instructional

strategies to develop students’ language skills. The second document especially

demonstrates my knowledge of technology resources. In the third and fourth

documents, I describe specific reading strategies, as well as the supportive research

behind these strategies, that I include in instructional planning. The classroom

observation notes attest to my knowledge and application of instruction strategies

for small group and paired reading.

Wisconsin Standard Alignment

These documents address Standard 4 that states:

 “Teachers know how to teach. The teacher understands and uses a variety of

instructional strategies, including the use of technology to encourage children’s

development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.”

The lesson plan demonstrates my competence in selecting educational goals

and planning for coherent instruction that includes activating students’ background

knowledge, planning for investigative inquiry, and employing questioning, and

discussion techniques that encourage critical thinking and problem solving. I

provide direct instruction and modeling of strategies; then students practice the

skills in pairs, small groups, and individually.

As described in the lesson plan, students use technology and hands-on

manipulatives to access information, and then use graphic organizers and

manipulatives to process and represent their understanding of the information.

Formative assessment is obtained from students’ word logs, graphic organizers,

teacher observations, and quizzes.

The second document specifically demonstrates my knowledge and

incorporation of technology resources into instructional practices.

These documents align with UW-Platteville School of Education KSDs: 1a, 1c,

1d, 1e, 1f; 2b, 2c; 3a, 3b, 3e; and 4a, 4e.

What I learned about teaching and learning from this experience:

Word sorts provide an effective instructional strategy in which language

structure and meaning may be explored. As students conduct cognate word sorts,
based on generative structures and predictable spelling patterns between English

and Spanish, they develop strategies and skills to decode the structure of the English

language. Teaching students strategies to recognize cognates increases their

decoding skills and increase reading fluency of English.

Spanish-speaking ELL students can use their knowledge of Spanish to

identify cognates in English. Spanish-speaking students already use Latin word

elements in their everyday speech. With teacher instruction, students learn that

these Latin-based morphemes are the basis of thousands of words; in fact, 60-80

percent of English vocabulary is generated through the combination of roots,

prefixes and suffixes (Nagy & Anderson, 1985). More specifically, because English

and Spanish both use Latin roots, there is a related Spanish word for 30-40 percent

of all English words (Achieve3000, 2012).

What I learned about myself as a prospective Reading teacher as a result of

this experience/artifact:

I realize I have potential to create and modify curriculum resources. My

supervisor at the technical college had my hand-made cognate word cards re-made

by a printing company, and the word cards are now used with ELL students at

various outreach campuses where the instructors do not speak Spanish. The word

cards are color coded, as well as the cognate word parts, so the students are able to

see the similarities between the English and Spanish words. The cards are color

coded to provide for self-correcting feedback during sorting activities.

 On various occasions I have given instructional sessions on the use of the

cards to my colleagues. After just a few minutes, my English-speaking colleagues

begin to recognize predictable patterns between English and Spanish, and can

understand the meaning of Spanish cognates.

As a result of this experience, I realize I enjoy creating and modifying

instructional resources for my students based on their previous knowledge and

learning goals. I am energized and inspired when my students and colleagues

benefit from the instructional strategies I use in my classroom.

References:

Achieve3000. (2012). Lesson Plan: Using Cognates. Retrieved from

http://doc.achieve3000.com/article/UsingCognates.pdf.

Nagy, W., Herman, P., & Anderson, R. (1985). Learning words from context. Reading

Research Quarterly, 17, 233-255