General School Information

During intermediate reading and practicum with Mrs. Abbott, I was placed at Lakeside

Elementary School in Pittsburg, with two students who are English as a second language

students (ESL). Student A is a female who is nine years old and student B is a male who is nine

years old. Both students are in the fourth grade and they are both in Mr. Brown’s class at

Lakeside. These students are two out of three students in the classroom who are ESL students.

All three students sit together in the classroom and help each other quite often during class. The

third student who is ESL has less English vocabulary than the two students that I worked with, so

he was placed with another teacher to have one-on-one instruction. I also worked with one

kindergarten student in my internship classroom for the last hour of my diversity project. The

student that I worked with is in Mrs. Grisham’s class at Lakeside Elementary School.

Building Report Card

At Lakeside Elementary, the population is predominantly white with only 17.5 % of the

population being Hispanic, 4% being African American, and 10% being other ethnicities. The

majority of students at Lakeside are considered economically disadvantaged, 66% of students

come from low socioeconomic status families. The majority of fourth grade students at Lakeside

who are ELL (63%) tested in math on the second and third levels. The same trend can be seen for

these students in ELA, as the majority (77%) tested on the second and third levels. When taking

into account all students for fourth, the grade tested on the second and third levels with 62% in

ELA and 61% testing on the second and third levels for math.

In my hometown of Louisburg, the school population is predominantly white with nearly

90% of the population being white. Around 6% of students are Hispanic, less than 1% being

African American, and about 4% accounting for other ethnicities. Around 74% of the population
is not economically disadvantaged with around 26% of the population being economically

disadvantaged. There is not an ELL population tested in Louisburg because the Hispanic

population is so low in Louisburg. Eighty-eight percent of fourth grade students in Louisburg fall

on level 2 and 3 for math. Eighty-two percent of fourth grade students scored on level 2 or 3 for

ELA as well.

These two populations are very different. I grew up in a town that was not economically

disadvantaged, where most people were upper middle class. The socioeconomic status in

Pittsburg is very different. Most students in USD 250 are from low SES households. The

elementary school in Louisburg spends a lot of time preparing for assessments and always does

well in ELA, whereas the Pittsburg school district tends to struggle with ELA scores, especially

on AIMS web. The low SES also effects children academically which is why there is a

difference in scoring for the two different cities. In Louisburg, most students only have to worry

about school, whereas in Pittsburg, a lot of students find school to be their safe place and have a

lot to worry about besides school because of their families and home lives.

Target Student’s Profile

As stated previously, both of my students are nine years old and are Hispanic. Student A

is a female and, of my two students, she was the student who struggled less during our practicum

time. Student A loves to read and does a good job of matching phonemes to the letters that she is

seeing on a page. She struggles a little when it comes to special vowel teams. This proved to be

the case when I gave her a spelling test and she had a hard time matching the sounds in the words

that she was hearing the way that a word is spelt. This student enjoys reading but struggles with

comprehension. She can read on or near the fourth grade level but still struggles to comprehend

the main details of a story. She is a hard worker and is always helpful. She is a great leader and
does as she asked, usually with minimal argument. She is a student who will get her work done

and then help a classmate who is struggling. She enjoys reading books, especially about animals

and loves to tell others about the books she is reading.

Student B struggles with reading and spelling more than Student A. He is on about a first

or second grade reading level and has a hard time with comprehension. Even though he struggles

with reading, his still works hard and perseveres through the difficulties that he has. He has a fun

personality but also knows when it is time to get to work. Even though he struggles with reading,

when he finds a book that he likes, he has a hard time when it comes time to having to put his

book away. He really enjoys comic book style books and I think this is because the sentences are

shorter and easier to read so he does not struggle as much to figure out the meaning. This student

was a bright light in our group. He brought a lot of joy to our group and is just a happy student in

general. He is low in reading and struggles when it comes to spelling but worked hard and used

the tools that I gave him in order to improve throughout the semester. His biggest struggle during

the spelling test was matching the sounds to the letters that were used to spell the words and this

is something we worked on through every lesson when I would have him do his writing. I always

had him attempt to spell a word before I would spell it for him.

Student C is a 5-year-old kindergartener who has qualified for special education services,

has a full time para in the classroom, and has an IEP. He has a hard time focusing in the

classroom and struggles especially when it comes to reading and writing. He has a hard time

verbalizing answers to questions and will start seeing a speech specialist to help him with this.

When it comes to letter names and sounds, he confuses a lot of the letter names and confuses the

sounds with the names of the letters or mixes the sounds up as well. He does not struggle as

much in math but is slower at math than most of the students in the classroom. During the core
time in the morning, he leaves the room with the para for one on one instruction in reading and

math.

Daily Entries

February 27, 2018 1 hour

For this first day of practicum, I had to administer a where to start word test for both

students, do an introduction page, discuss our community rules, and have each student fill out an

interest inventory. I began the day by introducing myself to the students and explaining why I

would be coming to see them for the next nine weeks. During this discussion the students were

becoming antsy, so I decided to start with our community rules. I knew that once we set the

standard for what our behavior looked like during our time together, it would change the

behavior of the group. When I came into practicum, I already had a set of rules in mind that I

wanted to have for my students. These rules included: be respectful, do your best, be helpful, and

be safe. I wanted my students to fell as if they had some ownership over the rules instead of just

telling them the rules to follow, so I had them brainstorm some ideas of what good rules would

be for our classroom. After getting about ten suggestions of rules from them, we then started to

talk about which rules were really similar, such as do not hit someone and do not kick someone.

We then discussed bigger rules that these rules could fall under and that bridged the gap between

the multiple small rules and the four main rules that I had come up with. This is a rule making

method I would also use in my own classroom because students are more inclined to follow rules

that they have helped create instead of a set of rules they have been given. We also discussed

why these rules were important so that they can hold themselves and others accountable

throughout the day.

 After setting the rules, I gave them each a “Facebook” page. This page had them fill out

basic information about themselves, give a biography about themselves and then draw

themselves and their friends. I explained that while one of them was working on this, the other

would be with me reading a list of words. I knew that they would be concerned with this activity

being a test so I made sure to reassure them by explaining that it was not a test but that I would

be using to get to know them better and that I would be able to use it as I planned for what I

needed to teach them. After explaining this to them, they were more relaxed about having to read

the words. I made sure to reiterate for them to do their best, especially since that was one of our

rules, so that I could make sure I was able to teach them appropriately based on what words they

knew. I think that being this honest with the students helps keep them on track and it takes some

of the pressure off of them, especially since we jumped right into practicum and they are

working with someone they have never met before.

I could tell that both of these students struggled in reading, Student B more than Student

A. Student B knew very few of the words on the list whereas Student A went on to the next level

list. Student B tried the lower list and still struggled to read the words on the list. This gives me a

good idea of what level books to pull for these students because they are on different levels but

still need practice on matching letter sounds to the letters that they are seeing on the page.

I am glad that I got to the interest inventory with my students because it provided a lot of

insight that would normally take a few days to learn about the students. Now that I know what

they like to read about and that they enjoy reading with partners or in a group, we can do reading

aloud activities so that I can monitor how well they are reading and I can help them with words

or phrases that they struggle with.

 This was a successful first day. The start of the afternoon was not perfect but once our

rules were established, the students were able to follow them. I also made sure to follow through

with the rules so that my students knew I was serious about upholding them throughout our time

together. Had I not made sure the students were following the rules as expected, our first day

together may have been very different.

March 6, 2018 1 hour

Today I taught a comprehension lesson to my students using a graphic organizer. The

graphic organizer that I chose to use was a Venn Diagram. We read the book “Chato and the

Party Animals.” Prior to teaching this lesson, I spoke with the ESOL teacher at Meadowlark and

asked her for a good book to use for students who are ESL and this is the book she

recommended. I provided them a Venn Diagram to look at that compared giraffes and elephants

and had them tell me where the information goes. They then did a Venn Diagram together,

comparing themselves, which I had them read aloud when they were done. This was a good

practice for them because they both came up with different similarities and differences for each

other but both students were correct. I was also able to check at this point to see if the students

understood how to use a Venn Diagram before moving on and having them fill out a Venn

Diagram individually. At this point, I had them draw a new Venn Diagram on a piece of

construction paper with a marker to prepare for the story. After they had finished, I explained

that there are two main characters in the story, Chato and Novio Boy, and that they were going to

listen to the story and then fill out the Venn Diagram afterwards.

The students were able to add details to their Venn Diagram charts but if I were to redo

this lesson, I would have chosen a shorter book to read to the students. They really enjoyed the

book as I was reading it to them but they were not able to pull out as many key details as I would
have liked for them to. I think that the book was too long for the students to be able to

comprehend the main details. I taught this lesson before I knew how well the students’

comprehension was and this was a good way to judge where their comprehension was. A lot of

the details that they put in their Venn Diagrams had to do with the physical characteristics of the

two main characters with little or no information about how they acted or felt. When I prompted

the students to get more details, they were unable to provide them. Something else that I would

do if I retaught this lesson would be prompting students throughout the story instead of waiting

until the end. The students really enjoyed the story because it was about animals and it was a mix

of both Spanish and English throughout the story but I think that I would either find a different

comprehension activity to go with this story or just read it to the students if there was extra time

one day.

March 13, 2018 1 Hour

Today with my students, I gave them their gratitude journals, had them brainstorm

gratitude journal ideas, write their first entry, and we did a quick review of the six traits of

writing. Today, I also had the third student who is ESL in the classroom join my group because

his teacher was gone.

The third student in the classroom who is ESL does not speak as much English as the two

students I have been working with. He also does not prefer speaking English. I found out towards

the end of practicum today that he also tries to see how much he can have others talk for him,

which my two students did a lot of. Both of my students love to be helpful and do not like to see

others struggle so they were trying to help the other student as much as possible. I had to explain

to them, after I realized that his other student could speak English, that he had to talk and think

for himself or else he would not learn anything during our time together.
 I have a pre-established rule with my students that they cannot talk strictly Spanish to one

another because I do not understand everything they are saying. Today, this rule was broken a lot

because of the student who did not want to speak English with me. When writing, I knew that he

would have a hard time so I allowed him to write his brainstorm in Spanish. After talking with

the student teacher in the room, I found out that this third child was able to write in English so I

began to tell him that he would have to write in his journal in English. I could tell that he was

frustrated with this but was reassured that it was well within his means.

Today was a difficult day. With having a student who was not following and also would

not speak English, it threw the synergy of my group off. My students, who are usually very well

behaved, started to also act out. They were also more focused on this other child’s behavior than

what I was trying to teach them. I know that throughout my career there will be difficult days but

it was this day that I truly realized this. By the time I had left the classroom I felt exhausted but

had only been there for one hour. I have worked with students who push the limits to see how far

they can push a teacher but I have never worked with a student who pushes the limits while

solely speaking another language. If I could go back and redo this day, I would have been a little

stricter going into the lesson just so this third student would have known that I meant business. I

had just gotten used to my two students who could be redirected easily and thought that since

this child was usually around these two, he would be the same way. I hated that I had to ask for

help from the classroom student teacher and almost felt defeated when he had to pull this child to

the side and talk with him to get him to do what I was asking but I also knew that everything I

had tried was not working and that I needed help.

March 27, 2018 1 Hour

 Today my students are practicing their writing and word choice skills as well as writing

an entry into their gratitude journal. For my writing lesson, I am having the students focus on

word choice because this is something I noticed from their journal entries last week that they

could work on. During the lesson, the students will pick out a picture of a puppy, put it on an

adoption ad, and then practice using good word choice by writing an adoption ad for the puppy

using great descriptor words. Before starting the lesson, I thanked my students for trying their

best last week when we had an extra student in our group and for being flexible. We also went

over the rules one more time before starting just to have a fresh reminder of how we should be

behaving during our lesson.

When I explained what we would be doing to the students, they became very excited. The

first activity we did was add descriptors to some items that I had come up with already and

written down on a piece of paper. The students then had to add descriptor words to the items so

that we could get a mental picture of exactly what it looked like. I emphasized with the students

how descriptive they needed to be in their writing so that anyone who is reading what they have written

has the same picture in their head as they did when they wrote it.

After working on this activity, I realized that my students needed more practice on the

mechanics of writing and fluency. They both knew what they wanted to say but it was a matter of

getting the words on the paper in a way that made sense while also using the correct punctuation. I am

going to use the gratitude journals to help enforce these two ideas since we write in them every time we

meet.

Today I noticed that Student B was becoming frustrated with having to write in his gratitude

journal. He struggles a lot with spelling and when he does not know how to spell a word he gets

discouraged. When he started to get frustrated, he started to become discouraged and distracted and

then began distracting the other student in our group. He wanted nothing to do with the activity, even
after explaining to him that it was an activity to help with writing. After talking with Mrs. Abbott, we

decided that the best technique to use with this student is to have him tell me exactly what he wants to

say so that I can write it down for him. After I have written it for him, I will touch each word and read it

to him, have him read it back to me, and then he will copy the sentence(s) down and read it again aloud.

This will hopefully allow him to be less frustrated and put forth more effort in the gratitude journal.

April 3, 2018 1 hour

Today, I am teaching my students a nonfiction lesson on how to find interesting facts. I know

that when I was younger and was told to learn about a topic, I found the basic facts that anyone could

have looked for on Google or in a textbook. I did not want my students to be this way so I decided that

this would be a good lesson for them. To start the lesson, we talked about boring facts versus interesting

facts. After our discussion, I had a card sort for Ulysses S. Grant. Three of the facts I had found for him

were average facts that a person could get from any source and three of the facts were interesting facts

that most people would not know. After the card sort, I had my students each pick a president and then

I gave them a book to look for facts in. I reminded them that the facts needed to interesting and not just

any fact I could find in a textbook or on Google. I told them I wanted three unique facts and that they

would read them aloud at the end.

While the students were looking for facts, I helped Student B because I knew he would have a

hard time gathering information if he was focused on trying to sound out every word. I read the pages

about his president aloud to him and had him tell me if he heard an interesting fact or not. This strategy

worked well for him because he was able to hear the information and choose what facts were

interesting without becoming frustrated that he was not understanding the text that he was trying to

read. Since Student A is a higher level reader than Student B, she was able to read most of the books

without needing help.

 After both students had gotten their three facts written down, I had each student read their

facts. Both students thought each other’s facts were funny and both were laughing by the end. I used

this to explain to them that now they are going to remember these facts about their president but they

probably would not remember what year the president was born in. This lesson left me feeling amazing

because both students worked hard, enjoyed the lesson, and took information away that they could

share with others. This is one of the best lessons I have taught so far.

On top of the great lesson, I tried writing out the sentences that Student B wanted to write and

saw a change in his attitude toward having to write in his gratitude journal. I talked with him about

noticing that he would become frustrated during writing and he agreed so I explained the new process

and he was automatically on board. He gave a lot more information for this entry and was able to finish

the entry, which was not something I had seen from him before. Differentiating this activity just a little

changed his attitude so much.

April 10, 2018 1 hour

Today, I am going to have individual conferences with each student to discuss their writing in

their gratitude journals. We are going to come up with glows and grows about their writing so that they

know what they are doing well in their writing and what they need to practice more.

My conferences went really well with both of my students. They were each able to pick out two

or three things that they have been doing well at when writing in their journals, as well as one or two

aspects of writing that they could continue to practice. I put these on a sticky note and left it in their

journal so that when they get out their journals to write in, they can review their glows and grows

before they start writing. Having student teacher conferences in the classroom is something that I want

to do in the future because it allows students to monitor their progress and it allows each student to

have time with the teacher. When students become familiar with what they are doing correct and what
they could use more practice, they are more likely to improve rather than just having a teacher tell them

what they have been doing.

April 17, 2018 1 hour

During practicum today, I will by assessing how well my students read with a reading

assessment, or running record.

The running records showed that both of my students are on a lower reading level than the

initial tests had shown at the beginning of practicum. Both running records showed that the students

need work on comprehension, which I had found out previously in my comprehension lesson. Student A

has good fluency because she reads in average sized groupings of words but her accuracy is still low

when it comes to reading the correct words. Student B scored low across the board when it came to

comprehension, fluency, and accuracy. If I had the time to give another running record, I would assess

him on the next lower level and compare how well he did on both to see if that level would be a better

fit for him or if he would need to go down another level. Student A might be able to stay on her lower

level but focus more on comprehension. She was very confused on the details of the story and when it

came to the writing portion, she did not write anything. Again, if I had more time with the students, I

would assess her on the next lowest level and then compare the two assessments to see which level she

is better suited for. With Student A I would feel better about leaving her on the current level but I think

that Student B needs to go down at least one level to truly see what reading level he is on.

April 24, 2018

Next week we will be pairing up with another group to read our favorite journal entries aloud to

each other. Today, we practiced our speaking skills after writing another journal entry and choosing

which entry each student would like to read aloud. To start the day off, I reminded students that they

will be reading a gratitude journal to the group. I told them that they could go through the ones the

already have written and if they cannot find one that they want to read, they can read the one that they
write today. I want my students to feel confident in what they are going to read aloud so giving them

this opportunity allows them to write one final entry that they will be comfortable sharing with their

peers. After writing in their gratitude journals, I had each student show me what journal entry they were

going to read aloud. I then had my two students practice reading their entries to have some practice

reading.

After we talked about our journal entries, I taught a mini lesson on speaking in public. I printed

off silly Shel Silverstein poems that the students would read but first I read one myself, to the students.

The first time I read the poem, I read it in a boring manner, looking at the floor, very quietly, etc. to

show how not to speak. I then had students tell me everything I did that was bad for a speaker to do and

we wrote them down. I then read the poem again, making sure to be more animated and doing the

opposite of all of the items the students had listed. When I was done, they gave their feedback again.

After e compared my poem reading both times, the students then go to pick out their own poems to

read to the group, using voice and expression.

This lesson went very well with my students. Since I knew that they were struggling readers, I

made sure to find poems that they would not struggle as much with because I wanted them to enjoy

this activity and focus more on giving the poem expression than worrying about reading the right words

or not understanding the poem. This prove to be a good strategy because both of my students were

able to understand the poems and add the appropriate voice and expression to the poems as they read.

Both students really enjoyed this lesson and it will be something that I use in the future if I teach

intermediate grades. I think this was a successful lesson because the students were not told how not to

read, they picked out the bad speaking skills that I had used and then saw how those skills were fixed.

The students were the teachers at this point, informing me on how to make my speaking better. They

were then able to take the skills that they had told me to think about and apply them to their own
readings. If I had just told them to look at the audience, read with expression, use an appropriate

volume, etc. they would not have been as successful at this lesson.

May 1, 2018 1 hour

Today we did not have as many items to do because it was our last day for practicum. I

combined groups with another teacher and our students read the gratitude journals to each other. After

they were done reading, I read my students my favorite story, “The Day the Crayons Quit.” I had been

telling them about this story since the second or third week and we had not had time to read it until

today. They enjoyed this story, which proved that it is for all students and not just primary.

After we read the story, we ended playing a vocabulary game on freerice.com. We paired with

the other student who is ESL for this game and had the students do the Spanish to English vocabulary.

The students really enjoyed it because they were able to teach myself and the other teacher some of the

Spanish words that we did not know and we were able to them translate some of the words to pick the

correct option in English.

This was a great way to end the semester on a high note for the students. They got to have fun

on the last day while also practicing some important skills. The students did a great job of reading their

journals aloud. They remembered the important parts of speaking, such as, looking at your audience,

reading at a good rate, with good volume, and they were able to give great compliments to each other

when they were done reading. This one activity covered a lot of the ELA standards for fourth grade,

showing that as teachers, we can create activities that our students will enjoy and that cover the

standards we are given. The students also practiced their vocabulary skills while playing on freerice and

they practiced communication skills as they were helping each other figure out the answers and using

the words in a sentence if someone did not know the word. I am very proud of my students and how far

they came during practicum. Not only did they learn a lot, they also taught me a lot about myself and

about the teacher I want to continue to be for all of my students.

May 2, 2018 1 Hour

Today I spent an hour working one on one with a student in my kindergarten internship class.

He and I stayed in the classroom for whole group instruction but I sat with him and helped him as he

went through his work. This child is SPED qualified and has an IEP. The first worksheet that we worked

on was his handwriting sheet. He has a hard time following the sky to ground lines when writing his

letters still, so I have been fixing the letters that need to be redone with a highlighter so that he can

erase his pencil marks and trace over the letters I have written for practice. This student likes to do

things on his own time and sometimes refuses to work. This happened today. I sat with him and tried to

motivate him by asking him to show me his best handwriting or showing me how to write a certain

letter and he still would not write for me. Something that I have noticed Mrs. Grisham do is say “we can

finish it at the beginning of recess and you may have less time to play.” I do not typically like to use this

but after all but begging this student to work, I used the recess bargain. This tactic worked because this

child loves recess and does not want to waste any of his play time doing his work. After that, he did his

handwriting and completed his work as asked.

After the handwriting, we went onto our math lesson. During the lesson today, students were

given a partner, a piece of paper with addition on it, and a calculator. One student started out with the

paper and a pencil while the other student had the calculator. The student with the pencil would read

the math problem and the person with the calculator would tell the person with the pencil the answer

and after a few minutes the teacher would have them switch roles. This tasked proved to be difficult for

this student and his partner because they both struggle in math. They both get addition and subtraction

mixed up so they were hitting the wrong signs during the math problem and they would hit the equals

button to many times so they would get a completely different answer than what they needed. The

student partnered with this boy struggles a little more at math than him and is still slow at identifying

numbers. Because of this, she was reading the numbers too slowly for him and then when the roles
switched, he was reading the numbers too fast for her. In order to insure that they were understanding

how to use the calculator, I stood with the partner pair during the entire activity to help coach them

through how to help each other.

If it were up to me, to make this child more successful, I would have partnered him with

someone that could help teach him instead of someone who is just as confused as he is. Because there

was a para, myself, and the teacher in the classroom, this was not as big of an issue as it would have

been if there was only a classroom teacher with 20 students. If this were the case, these two students

would not have been successful or the teacher would have had to only stand with these two students

and not have been with the other students in the classroom. This is also still a newer skill for these

students who have been used to doing math on their fingers so they are trying to learn how to use a

calculator, that currently takes more time than using their fingers, to figure out a math problem that

most of the students already know the answer to. I think that I would have first tried this as a whole

group instruction where I write a problem on the board for the whole class and then have everyone type

the problem into their calculator together, while demonstrating how to type the numbers into the

calculator on the smartboard. After a few rounds of this, I would then have students try to do a problem

on their own and then check their answer with a neighbor and then we would check as a class how to

get the correct answer.

Key Experiences

A. Specific skills practice/learned by the assigned students

During my time with these students, our focus was on the English Language Arts

standards for fourth grade. The main concepts that we focused on were comprehension

using graphic organizers, the six traits of writing and speaking and reading aloud. During

the first lesson I taught the students, they learned how they could use a venn diagram to

compare and contrast two characters from a story to help with their comprehension of the
story. The students really enjoyed this lesson because I borrowed a book from a teacher

friend who teacher ESOL and part of it was in Spanish.

We also did three mini lessons over the six traits of writing. The first lesson was going

over what the six traits were and explaining each trait and how it would be used. The

second was a lesson that I chose to do over word choice. We compared “vanilla” words

to “banana split” words to emphasize how word choice effects description. After giving

examples, the students then had to create an adoption ad for a pet picture that they chose

in order to get the pet adopted. The third lesson tied into the gratitude journals that we

had each child keep. I had a conference with each student individually and had them

point out the positive aspects that they saw in their writing. After finding the positives

that they and I both saw, we went through and chose a couple of aspects that they could

improve on. They were given their glows and grows on a sticky note to keep in their

journal so that each time they were to write a journal entry, they could look back and see

what they needed to work on and what they needed to make sure they continued doing.

When it came to speaking and reading aloud, I made sure to have students practicing

these concepts. Anytime that they had to write something, I had them share it aloud with

each other. During the last time that I met with the students, we had the other student who

is ESL join our group and all three students read their favorite gratitude journal to the

group. They then had to complement each other. One activity that I included in my

nonfiction lesson plan had the students research a president of their choice, find

interesting facts about that president (more than just their birthday, where they are from,

etc.), write them down, and then read them aloud. The students really enjoyed this and
 were laughing by the end because they found funny facts about their presidents and

having something fun to read made the students more comfortable in front of their peers.

E. Introducing variety to your lesson

Since both of my students are ESL, to incorporate variety, one of the strategies that I used

was incorporating books that included both English and Spanish writing. This allowed

the students to teach me some of the Spanish words in the stories and it gave them an

opportunity to read the stories to me since I usually did not pronounce the words

correctly. I made sure to not use the same activity multiple times for different concepts. I

have seen teachers do this in some of my field experiences but this does not keep students

engaged. I made sure that every lesson was completely different in terms of what

activities we were doing in order to keep my students interested. We did writing and

drawing activities, card sorts, research, graphic organizers, poem readings, Madlibs, and

many more activities. We also used the iPad to do a vocabulary activity and I had my

students watch a quick video from Kid President about being thankful the day we started

gratitude journals to help tie in the idea of being thankful and to help them with ideas that

they can use when writing in their gratitude journals.

Even though I know my students showed an interest in animals, I made sure to

incorporate a variety of stories so that students were not bored with the same kind of

story repeatedly. Some of the stories I included were “Chato and the Party Animals,”

“The Day the Crayons Quit,” and a variety of nonfiction books about presidents.

G. Materials collected, adapted, made or were given by the teacher to use in working

with your student and the results gained.

One of the activities that I used in my lesson incorporated voice by having students read

silly poems in a way that fit the poem and made it enjoyable. For this lesson, I found Shel

Silverstein poems that were short and in the reading range for my students and printed

them off for the students to have. During my Venn Diagram lesson, I provided

construction paper and markers for the students and they were allowed to create their own

Venn Diagram.

When my students had to create an adoption ad for a pet using word choice, I created a

template for them to use that included an area for the animal’s picture, lines to write on,

and I provided pictures of animals for the students to choose from that I had found on

Google.

I provided each student with a handmade gratitude journal that I constructed out of

construction paper, notebook paper, and ribbon. Each child had previously told me their

favorite color, so I made sure to use their favorite color as the construction cover. I hole-

punched the cover and lined up the notebook paper with the cover and then used the

ribbon to tie the pieces together.

When I did my nonfiction lesson plan, I had the students look for interesting facts about a

president of their choice. After they found their facts, they wrote each fact on a different

piece of cut construction paper and then wrote the president’s name on a larger piece of

paper. We then used string to create a mobile out of the facts so that the students could

present their facts in a fun way. If I would have had a full class, these could have been

hung throughout the classroom for everyone to see. For this lesson, I was also able to

check out four different children’s nonfiction books about presidents from the school

library to use as resources for the students to do their research with.

 Many of the activities that I used with the students were activities that I had made myself.

I used a lot of construction paper so that students could help me with the activities and so

that they could make it their own as they worked on it. I also used the construction paper

to make a card sort activity. I made my own word documents and printed them off as

activities for the students to do. I stayed away from worksheets because I wanted my

students engaged, learning, and enjoying their time. I knew that if they were doing hands

on activities that targeted their interests, they would enjoy their time more while still

learning.

Mrs. Abbott provided the where to start word test, spelling test, running records and

stories, and our six traits of writing graphic organizer.

C. Students strengths and interests

When I gave my students their interest inventories on the first day of practicum, they both

had close to the same interests. The most common interest that they both showed was

animals. I tried to incorporate animals into as many of the lessons as possible because

when I did include animals, the students were even more engaged in the activities. Both

of my students both really love their families. This is something that I have seen to be

more prominent in Hispanic families because they typically are very close and have a lot

of their relatives around them. Both students are able to have fun while learning at the

same time and they are able to distinguish when it is ok to joke and when it is time to

work.

Student B is really into video games and enjoys getting to talk about his Xbox. To

incorporate this into what we were doing, he was able to write about his Xbox in his

gratitude journal. Most teachers do not let students talk about their video games unless
students are at lunch or are outside. The gratitude journal allowed Student B to

incorporate this interest while he was also learning about writing. This made it

meaningful for him. This student also had a great sense of humor. He was able to joke

with myself and Student A but also knew when it was time to be serious and get to work.

There were only a few times where it took more than one redirect for him to get back on

task. He was also a very hard worker. Once I learned strategies to help him, such as

writing the English sentence for him and then having him read and copy the sentence, he

opened up and started to enjoy our time together. Once he was no longer spending the

majority of his time struggling to spell every single word, he was focused more on the

ideas that I wanted him to share and the strategies that we were learning.

Student A showed great leadership skills throughout our practicum meetings. She was

always helpful, not only for me, but also for the other student. If Student B was confused

or did not know the English word for something, she would help him by having him

describe it to her and then her checking in Spanish what the word was that he wanted and

then translating to English. She is also the first student to volunteer when I would ask for

something. Whether it was asking for someone to be the first to read or needing someone

to grab a paper towel or pencil, her hand was the first to shoot up when I would ask. She

also really enjoys reading. There were a few times that I had to put her book at the top of

my desk so that she would not be distracted by her library book. She also loves animals,

so much so, that most of the books that she read had to deal with animals, both fiction

and nonfiction. Student A is also a hard worker. There was only one instance that I can

think of where she did not give her best effort and after calmly talking with her, she never

gave less than her best when working with me.

D. Motivation Levels of the Student(s) abd activities carried out to boost student

motivation

On the first day of practicum, I had already set a list of rules that I wanted the students to

follow throughout our time together. In order to allow them a say in the rules, I let the

students help my brainstorm ideas of good rules to have in any classroom. We then

condensed the rules they had given me and molded them into the rules that I had already

predetermined, without their knowledge. A rule that I always make sure to establish with

students is do your best. This rule was one that we established as one of our rules and

proved to be helpful for motivation throughout the semester. Whenever one of my

students would become distracted or start losing motivation, I would quietly ask them

“are you doing your best right now?” and they would say “no” and then get back on

track.

I always made sure to try and end my time with the students with a fun activity, that still

focused on a reading, writing, or spelling technique, but that students enjoyed more. My

students really enjoyed Madlibs so we did a couple of these. If students were losing their

motivation during a lesson, I would remind them that in order to get to the Madlib at the

end, we had to finish our work and give our best effort. This also helped motivate the

students to get back on track and stay motivated.

Something that I utilized a lot this semester was the interest inventory that we gave the

students at the beginning of the semester. They filled out the interest inventory during the

first time we met and this allowed me to get to know them and find out what they like to

read. I wanted to keep the students engaged and motivated to learn so I made sure to

incorporate both of their interests as much as possible so that they would be motivated to
 learn. Taking my students’ interests into account kept them motivated because they were

interested in what they were learning and they felt like they had a say in what they were

learning.

When Student B was struggling and would get frustrated, I started to ask the student

teacher and Mrs. Abbott for ideas that would help that student. I noticed that once he

started to become frustrated, he would start to not be motivated to complete the

assignment. The idea that we came up with was for me to write the sentence that he

needed, have him read it back to me, and then have him copy it down. Once I started

doing this, I saw a complete change in his attitude and motivation level. He started to

work harder and he started to give better input in conversations, as well as having more to

say when it came to writing prompts and journaling.

Final Reflection

Working with these students has provided me with more insight than I had ever thought.

Even though I spend time working with students who are ESL at Meadowlark in the title

classroom, I have never had the opportunity to plan lessons for students who are ESL and

provide the full instruction for them. I also do not have a lot of experience working with

intermediate students so working with these fourth graders helped broaden my horizons and

provide new experiences to draw from in the future.

This experience has showed me that even though I really enjoy working with primary

grades, I would also be a very successful intermediate teacher. Before this experience, I would

have never imagined myself teaching past first or second grade and now my feelings have

completely changed. Along with that, I have also decided that I would like to be ESL endorsed

so that I am able to better educate students who are ESL. I am passionate about working with
student who are low SES or disadvantaged and I think that the ESL population needs teachers

who are willing to go the extra mile for them. I have seen that some of these students get left

behind because they need more support than other students and I would never want that to be the

case for any of my students, let alone any student in general.

During this experience, the confidence I had in my own teaching abilities was increased.

With both of my students being ESL students, each of my lessons was differentiated to start with.

My students were also on different reading levels and had varying struggles when it came to

writing, so this also took additional differentiation. Throughout my time at Pittsburg State

University, I have written a lot of lesson plans that have included a differentiation aspect. Being

able to differentiate for actual students was something that I had not done yet, especially for the

same kids each week. This provided great practice for me and I feel more comfortable about

differentiating for students in the future, especially for students who are ESL. I received a lot of

positive feedback, not only from my students, but also from Mrs. Abbott. This was evidence that

I was differentiating in a way that was helpful for my students and that I was thinking the way a

future teacher thinks. When my students shoed excitement upon me entering the classroom, it

showed that they were enjoying the lessons that I was teaching them. They showed progress

throughout the semester, which proved that they were also learning throughout the semester.

As someone with the inclusive education minor, I have been learning how to make sure

all students are included in the instruction given in the classroom. This experience has allowed

me to use some of the techniques that I learned, both with managing classroom behaviors and

with including curriculum that is reachable for all students. This experience allowed me to use

many of the tool that I have learned throughout the semester to create instruction for these

students. I used assessments, interests, and my knowledge of how students learn to read and use
reading in the intermediate classroom to create instruction for two students who are still learning

our language. This was not the easiest task I have been given throughout this program but it was

one of the most rewarding. I have learned so much about myself as a teacher and I have become

more familiar with how students who are ESL function in the intermediate classroom. As

mentioned previously, this experience has made me realize that I have a passion to work with

students who are ESL. Without this experience, I would have been interested in working with

these students but would not know what all it entails. Now that I have had the hands on

experience, I feel better equipped for my future classroom. Not only for working with students in

general but also for working with students who are ESL or who struggle in reading, writing, or

spelling.