Te 846 Llap Marleigha Lossin
Te 846 Llap Marleigha Lossin
Te 846 Llap Marleigha Lossin
Preparation:
Part. 1:
My focal student for this LLAP is a student that I currently teach. He is a third grader that is in
my reading enrichment class for high achievers. He has unique ideas that he is always prepared
to bring to discussion and is quite engaged in day to day activities. He is in the dual language
program at our school so 50% of his instruction is in Spanish. He does pretty well in both
languages. However, what has been noticed is that he really struggles with writing. In both
Spanish and English he has trouble spelling words correctly and puts extra/omits letters in his
words. This makes it very difficult to read what he is trying to say, he even struggles reading his
work after he has written it. This has raised a lot of questions for us, is it his lack of motivation?
When he is asked to write something he’ll give a huff and then do it, but he rushes through it to
be as fast as he can to get it over with. Did being remote hurt his phonics instruction? He was
remote for just about a full year. In his writing it looks like there are some phonemic awareness
pieces missing, such as -ed, th, -y, ar, etc. Or is there more to the story than phonic gaps? What’s
Marleigha Lossin TE 846 LLAP
interesting is that he is a very high reader, reading at the end of a fourth grade level, so why does
his writing not match what he can read?
When assessing my student, I will focus on both process assessments and product assessments,
looking at both his reading and writing. The process assessment will really help me understand
how he is reading and if I can hear some similarities in how he reads to how he writes. For this, I
plan on giving him a passage to read aloud. This will allow me to hear how he reads, thinking
about whether or not he will leave out important endings or a visual on how he sounds out
words. This will also align with Mckenna and Stahl’s Cognitive model because we are looking at
the automatic word recognition, oral language comprehension, and strategic knowledge in order
to determine where this student is at with his reading before looking further into his writing. The
product assessment will then show me what he understands from the reading itself and I can see
how that information is written on the page. I will have him write a summary of when he’s read
after discussing the main idea and supporting details of the text. This will allow me to see how
he writes about what he’s reading and understand if there are connections to his reading and what
some of the major differences are. Both of these components together will give me a better
understanding of how this student’s reading and writing connect with one another and give me an
idea of the best ways I can support him.
Part One
I. Background and Rationale
Differentiated instruction is instruction that meets the needs of all students. It's when you expose
students to rich materials, while also meeting them where they are at. This means to both help
close the gap for students who are struggling with grade level standards and to continue to push
students who are ready to go beyond the grade level standards. Morrow and Gambrell (2019)
state this well, “This [Tier 1] is not meant to imply that a one-size-fits-all instructional approach
using state core literacy standards will be effective with all children, but that this only frames a
base set of learning expectations. “After teachers provide high quality, Tier 1 instruction, they
collect and analyze progress monitoring data and design Tier 2 , and if needed, Tier 3, targeted
literacy instruction delivered in small groups to fill gaps and strengthen the acquisition of
necessary literacy skills and to meet the higher standards and expectations set for students
today,” (p. 367). Meaning that it is not a one size fits all type of instruction and that you need to
support students at their level. By doing this, you will see students grow and achieve the literacy
skills necessary to contribute to the global economy.
I have worked with many different learners from different age groups and ethnicities. Therefore,
I have had a lot of experience looking at the common core standards through different grade
levels. While taking such a close look at the standards across grade levels, I’ve been able to
see/understand what students should master by a certain gravel level along with where I can push
them deeper into a standard to be ready for the next grade level. Taking a closer look at this
Marleigha Lossin TE 846 LLAP
student and being able to work one on one with them will give me a better understanding of a
unique situation where the writing and the reading skills don’t balance each other and how I can
better help students like this in the future. This project will ultimately help me be a better teacher
in the future. It’s giving me the tools to notice when students need that extra support, what
specific lessons will help them, and in the end, by meeting this student where they’re at, I will be
able to see growth and that achievement gap get smaller. It is the hope that we can provide this
type of instruction to all our students in the future beyond this one.
This focal student, Robert Kay, is nine years old and is a third grader. Robert is a very active
child who is usually standing in class and moving around the room. He also loves to play soccer
and focuses a lot of his time after school practicing this sport. He is in the dual language program
at our school, which means he is in Spanish instruction for fifty percent of the day. The goal for
these students is to be bilingual in Spanish and English by the end of fifth grade. He is a part of
my reading enrichment class for high achieving students. He does very well with discussion and
thinking deeply about the novels we read. He has also been pretty successful with understanding
and speaking in Spanish. He reads at DRA 40, which is the end of fourth grade reading level. He
enjoys reading and his parents are avid readers. His mom, who is a doctor, has read more books
than you could count and his dad, who is a Marine, is always reading news articles in his spare
time. His mom also reads Harry Potter to his two younger siblings and him every night before
bed. Robert really enjoys reading light hearted books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Gordon
Korman novels. Where he really struggles is with his writing. He has trouble with getting the
right sounds in the words and a lot of his writing is illegible. Robert has also had some issues
with motivation throughout this year with not completing work and having a negative attitude
towards different assignments, however his family has been very supportive and have pushed
him to stay on top of his school work and get him on the right track. As you can see, he has a
very involved and supportive family.
The dual language program at our school is a challenging program, especially if students are not
native Spanish speakers. They come to kindergarten with ninety percent of their learning being
taught in Spanish. Then in first grade and second grade, they receive seventy percent of it in
Spanish. Then third through fifth grade, it’s fifty percent. Learning another language alongside
your academics is a challenge in itself and creates risk taking for students everyday by providing
them the opportunity to speak a different language everyday. It is also a very caring environment
because the teachers know this is a risk for the kids so they are supportive in helping in
encouraging them to give their best effort.
Marleigha Lossin TE 846 LLAP
The reading enrichment program is very focused on having students learn about the world
around them and how they can become more understanding of others in their community. We
learn through our complex novels and with deep discussions around those novels. Interest is
generated through the thoughtful selection of novels that are attention grabbing while also
thought provoking. Robert is very engaged in the discussions we have and is always asking
thought provoking questions. Especially when he really enjoys the novel we’re reading.
Mockingbird, the most recent novel we’ve read, was his favorite. He was very vocal in letting
this be known and it was mostly because it was from the perspective of someone who was very
different from himself.
Where there is lack of motivation or enthusiasm is when there was writing involved. In one on
one conversations he shares that he likes writing. On the other hand, when it comes to a writing
assignment in class, there seems to be a very different reaction. He will rush to get it done and
when asked to make revisions, he rolls his eyes before going back to do them. He also sometimes
struggles to finish an assignment if there is writing involved. I don’t necessarily see out loud
frustration in this, but instead a more resistance towards it. While these parts seem to be less
motivating and engaging for him, he also doesn’t like to disappoint, so he will work hard to
make sure it is completed, especially if you stay on top of him. And as earlier stated, his parents
will be on him as well if all else fails. Overall, Robert is a very hardworking and motivated kid.
Writing is a struggle and it is evident in his body language, but because he wants to be
successful, he will really push to try his best.
Part Two
IV. Literacy History
Robert has been part of the dual language program since kindergarten. In this program students
learn how to read and write in both Spanish and English. He was recommended into the Infinity
Program by his second grade teacher. This is an enrichment program for third through fifth
graders. In this program, students read complex novels with complex themes while deepening
their depth of knowledge. This enrichment program is an addition to their regular curriculum and
is expected to balance both expectations. Robert’s scores on the STAR assessment (nationally
normed test) were in the 90th percentile, qualifying him for the program, along with his teacher’s
recommendations of achievements in class.
While being a part of this program in third grade, Robert has been really strong in his discussion
points and understanding the information from the text. Where he had fallen behind in class is
when it came to writing about reading. He would struggle to finish the task, or not complete it for
homework. When writing was turned in, he would have minimal detail within his writing even
though he would be able to tell you much more information than what he provided. This was
both seen in his homeroom class and in his enrichment class. Not only that, but when you look at
Marleigha Lossin TE 846 LLAP
his writing it would be illegible and he would have to read what he has written to you. At times
he would even struggle reading what he wrote. While reading his work he would make
comments such as, “Hmm I don’t know what I wrote here, but what I was trying to say was…”,
“Oh that says… I don’t know why I put that letter in there”, or “That spells people, but I spelt it
wrong, it should be spelled this way…”. These problems are seen in Spanish as well, when most
words are phonetically spelled.
In the past school year there have been supports put in place to help Robert with his writing, such
as a word bank, writing templates, and extra time to complete work. However, he has not had
any direct intervention with his writing. This is the first intervention he will be receiving for his
writing.
After administering the DRA level 40, it confirmed that he comprehends what he is reading well.
He scored at the independent level for his comprehension on this test. His fluency was okay, he
was able to read words correctly but sometimes left off the ending to the words that he was
reading. He would also go back and reread words to correct mistakes, but it sometimes made his
reading a bit choppy. However, the speed of his reading still fits within the independent time
frame. Robert’s responses to the reading were also very well thought out and detailed. I was
pleasantly surprised with the effort he took with writing these responses because this isn’t always
the effort I see in the day to day activities within the classroom. Again, where I could see the
struggle was in his writing. There were words that were squished together and some words that
were split apart. There were also huge amounts of spelling errors in words you would expect a
third grader to know. This led me to believe that this student needed support with his phonics.
Therefore, I’ve created lessons based on his biggest areas of need: digraphs, blends, and endings.
Robert will use letter tiles to first kinesthetically form different words, then we will practice
writing. While we work on the writing portion, I will support him with his spacing. The purpose
of these targeted lessons will be to support his spelling.
Marleigha Lossin TE 846 LLAP
position-based
spellings, syllable Finally, the student
patterns, ending will write a paragraph
rules, meaningful using the digraphs
word parts) in learned in this lesson.
writing words. Is there improvement
from the lesson we
just did? If not, what
further teaching does
he need?
Part Three
VII. Reflection
In each lesson there were three different activities that we did, each building upon one another.
First, we spelled words with tiles focusing on a phonic pattern. This first step was to give him the
kinesthetic practice with the words before the writing process. We followed this activity with
writing out different sentences using these phonic patterns, giving him the practice of writing
words we practiced before adding his own thinking into the mix. We finished with him writing a
prompted paragraph while keeping the concept learned in mind.
Marleigha Lossin TE 846 LLAP
The first lesson started with blends. While teaching Robert the different blends I noticed that he
needed some additional instruction on his long vowels. So we ended up switching gears a bit and
wrote blends with long vowels. This allowed him to notice the blends but also have an
understanding of what he needed to make a vowel long. It was evident that this practice helped,
especially when we used the tiles, however when we went into the writing there were still
mistakes being made. He spelt it correctly the first time, but then when he wrote it again, he
changed how he spelled it and wrote it incorrectly. When he sent me the sentence, he said, “This
doesn’t look right”. This tells me that he is starting to notice when something isn’t right, but
struggles going back and fixing it. Another time he spelt the word “black” incorrectly. When we
reread his work, he said, “I know how to spell that correctly, but for some reason I didn’t.” He
went back and rewrote the word and did in fact spell it correctly (Appendix B). I asked him why
he thought that was and his response was that he feels focused for most of the time, but
sometimes his brain goes into a different world and that’s when he spells things wrong. I found
this remark interesting, because sometimes I feel like people think about other things when they
write or are typing, but it doesn’t necessarily cause a sight/known word to be spelled incorrectly.
During the second and third lesson we continued with the practice of long vowels with digraphs
and suffixes. His understanding of the long vowel got better as we continued to practice. Going
back and rereading his work/words spelled helped him see if something was spelled correctly or
if he was missing something. Sometimes he would miss the second vowel in a word, like chain.
He wrote chan and when he reread it he saw that it would be a short “a” sound instead of long
and would fix it. Sometimes we would stop and have a mini lesson about what kinds of vowels
will go next to each other and which ones more likely had the silent e at the end. Using tiles for
this process was helpful because he could correct misspelled words easily. Then when he moved
into writing sentences, he started to say, “Hmm, that doesn’t look right.” Then when he finished,
we discussed what didn’t look right and worked on correcting the words for them to be spelled
correctly. This was a great improvement from him waiting for me to prompt him. By the third
lesson he was doing a much better job of correcting mistakes as he went. This is evident in
Appendix C, when he adds in the “n” to knot and the “h” in ship while he was writing. When it
came to writing a paragraph, Robert made large improvements in his writing with vowels,
blends, and suffixes. However, it still didn’t seem to come easy for him. There was still that
initial struggle with writing and going back and fixing it. In Appendix D, he underlined words
that he knew weren’t right and wanted to discuss with me. This is definitely an improvement
from before, and from this I recommend he continues to have that teacher's support to help him
go back and reread his work/look it over with him for some extra support. After these lessons I
still see a struggle with using the phonic patterns we learned, especially when his own thoughts
are brought into the mix, but I also see growth.
Marleigha Lossin TE 846 LLAP
For his post assessment I used a DRA 50 since he scored at the independent level on the DRA
40. He scored at the instructional level this time. He read with great fluency and his mistakes
were minimal, scoring at the independent level here. However, where he scored at the
instructional level was in his comprehension. He understood details from the text but
synthesizing the information was a little difficult. Where I really focused was on his writing and
in his summary. It was clear that the practice we did helped and he did edit a bit as he worked,
while it being evident that he still needs further practice with his phonics patterns as seen in
Appendix E. Another success that I saw was when we looked back at his work, he was able to
notice more and to make even more corrections without prompting.
In summary, these lessons helped Robert get better at understanding the phonic patterns in his
writing. Working on long vowel sounds throughout all three lessons allowed him to be much
more comfortable using the patterns in his own writing. He still needs more work on this in order
to meet mastery, along with blends, digraphs, and endings. If I were to do this again, I would
work on only one phonic pattern and build upon it in the three lessons. In each lesson we focused
on just a couple of blends/digraphs and were not able to get through all of them. Therefore,
starting small and only focusing on a couple at a time will help him fully understand using those
patterns and will then give him the tools to become a better speller.
Robert is a very kind and hardworking student. He always tries his best, even when he doesn’t
like the work he’s doing. While being able to spend some extra time with him one on one I’ve
noticed different areas of strengths and areas for improvement. The goal for Robert was to
improve his spelling using patterns and generalizations. We worked on long vowel sounds,
digraphs, blends, and suffixes. We worked on long vowel sounds in each of the lessons, this was
noticed to be his biggest need. While digraphs, blends, and endings were great complement
patterns for each lesson.
We started to build words using tiles and that was really helpful for Robert as he could easily
change mistakes he saw. From this process, as he wrote, he spent more time looking back at his
writing and noticing words that didn’t look right. This is a skill that I saw great improvement on.
In the beginning, he did not look back at his work and just gave it to me. Now he rereads his
sentences and makes comments and corrections on words he knew he spelt wrong. This is
something that I highly encourage to be continually focused on and supported in the classroom.
While there were great improvements to his writing from these lessons, I recommend that Robert
continues to get intervention with phonic word patterns. He made progress with the couple we
specifically worked on, but did not master the phonic patterns and still needs support in this area.
Therefore, continuing with this work would be beneficial for him.
Marleigha Lossin TE 846 LLAP
Robert is a very intelligent boy, but is in the developmental stage of his spelling. Through getting
further intervention, he will become a much better speller and editor of his own work.
Marleigha Lossin TE 846 LLAP
Appendices of Work
Appendix A: Pre-Assessment DRA 40
Marleigha Lossin TE 846 LLAP
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.2.F
Use spelling patterns and generalizations (e.g., word families, position-based spellings,
syllable patterns, ending rules, meaningful word parts) in writing words.
Rationale (Explain why this content and/or skill is important and worthwhile, and how you will work to
make it relevant to your students’ lives):
● letter tiles
● paper
● pencil
Procedures and approximate time allocated for each Academic, Social and
event Linguistic Support during each
event
questions I will use; how I will help children understand behavior expectations the words at the same time.
during the lesson; when/how I will distribute supplies and materials) (20 minutes)
Hopefully isolating the spelling
practice will help him with
● Using letter tiles, the student will make different spelling these words within a
words given from Systematic Sequential Phonics larger writing span.
They Use, grades 1-5.
● During this time, if there is a word spelled Practicing sentence writing will
incorrectly, we will sound it out step by step and support him moving towards
these larger paragraphs with
work together to spell it correctly. digraphs.
● After many different words have been practiced, we
will move onto writing these words with a paper
and pencil. The student will write a few sentences
with different blends within them.
● Then we will reread those sentences and see if the
spelling is correct and make corrections where
needed.
Closing summary for the lesson (How will I bring closure to the
lesson and actively involve children in reflecting on their experiences? How will I help
them make connections to prior lessons or prepare for future experiences? What kind
of feedback do I want from them at this time?) (10 minutes)
Student will be able to write words with correct digraphs (sh, ch, ck, wh, th, ph, wr)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.2.F
Use spelling patterns and generalizations (e.g., word families, position-based spellings,
syllable patterns, ending rules, meaningful word parts) in writing words.
Rationale (Explain why this content and/or skill is important and worthwhile, and how you will work to
make it relevant to your students’ lives):
● letter tiles
● paper
● pencil
Procedures and approximate time allocated for each Academic, Social and
event Linguistic Support during each
event
● Using letter tiles, the student will make different spelling these words within a
words given from the Systematic Sequential larger writing span.
Phonics They Use, grades 1-5. Practicing sentence writing will
● During this time, if there is a word spelled support him moving towards
incorrectly, we will sound it out step by step and these larger paragraphs with
work together to spell it correctly. digraphs.
● After many different words have been practiced, we
will move onto writing these words with a paper
and pencil. The student will write a few sentences
with different digraphs within them.
● Then we will reread those sentences and see if the
spelling is correct and make corrections where
needed.
The student will write a short paragraph about this prompt: Give the student ideas of
things they should write
Describe what children do at school. about verbally. Ideas
should be with different
digraphs.
Marleigha Lossin TE 846 LLAP
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.2.E
Use conventional spelling for high-frequency and other studied words and for adding
suffixes to base words (e.g., sitting, smiled, cries, happiness).
Rationale (Explain why this content and/or skill is important and worthwhile, and how you will work to
make it relevant to your students’ lives):
● letter tiles
● paper
● pencil
Procedures and approximate time allocated for each Academic, Social and
event Linguistic Support during each
event
about the words you hear and which digraph is spelling these words within a
making that sound. larger writing span.
Bibliography
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:Pearson : Celebration Press
Blevins, W. (2021, October 12). Making phonics instruction more meaningful and effective.
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Cunningham, P. M. (2008). Systematic sequential phonics they use, grades 1 - 5: For beginning
readers of all ages. Four Blocks.
Gambrell, L., & Morrow, L. (2019). Best Practices in Literacy Instruction (Sixth ed.). New York,
NY: The Guilford Press
Langenberg, D. N. (2000, April). What does scientifically-based research tell us about Phonics
instruction? Put Reading First -- K-3 (phonics). Retrieved June 2, 2022, from
https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/html/prfteachers/reading_first1phonics.html
Orpi, D. (2022, February 2). Blends and digraphs: The ultimate guide. Thrive Literacy Corner -
Thrive Educational Services. Retrieved June 6, 2022, from
https://thriveedservices.com/blends-and-digraphs-how-to-teach-them/
Reed, D. K. (2016, December 6). The importance of phonics instruction for all students. Iowa
Reading Research Center. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from
https://iowareadingresearch.org/blog/the-importance-of-phonics-instruction-for-all-students
Serravallo, J. (2017). The writing strategies book: Your everything guide to developing skilled
writers with 300 strategies. Heinemann.