I have had 5 sessions with T. T is a typical 4th grade boy. He loves video games, especially ones that have to do with fighting. He likes doing things his teenage brother does. It has been a struggle to strike his interest in reading. Books he has read that he says he enjoys, include Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. T's interest seems to be in funny books that have comic pictures in them.The past few weeks I have been analyzing his reading strengths and the areas that can use more focus. During this time I have found that T's vocabulary and wpm is at or above grade level. However his comprehension is not at grade level. While doing this portion of the assessment T is in-between frustration and instructional. He did not want to do any look backs when he was reading the 4th grade passage. For the second assessment we chose a 3rd grade passage. T's comprehension of this was much higher. He scored an independent rating, and during his retelling covered most of the passage. The 3rd grade passage seemed more interesting to him, he was able to apply his own personal background to help understand the reading. In the other readings he did not have as much background knowledge to help him decipher the text.
Based on this I would like to find reading at the 4th grade level that holds T's interest. It will also be beneficial for him if we went over some of the tips that Tovani talks about to be active readers. Example: Asking questions while you are reading the text, thinking of ways you can relate the text to your own life, etc.
Looks like you are on the right track to choosing the lesson for your buddy based on your assessment. What was the 3rd grade passage about that related to his background knowledge?
ReplyDeleteI like how you added the term "active readers" from the Tovani text - great reminder to help our students. I think choosing the best comprehension strategy to focus on is both of our next steps.
Sounds like a lesson focusing on a fix up or comprehension strategy (along with an interesting text) might be one way to go with your buddy.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a lot of the students were not really interested in the leveled texts. I think the comprehension strategies would be good choices. Was there one in particular? Perhaps making connections? Ideally students would always have interesting text to read but realistically they are going to have to read things in life they are going to find dry and boring and they will need tools to get through it.
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