Journal-Patrick4

Journal Entry 4 The teacher spends twenty min each day working with each of the six reading level groups. I observed the second lowest groups lesson with the teacher. The teacher was working on phonics and had a book full of exercises for students. The students group had a red post it note on the book that allowed the teacher to know which page she had left off on the time before. Each of the teacher’s six reading groups had their own colored post-it note. Once students have successfully made all the words on one page, the teacher moves the group’s sticky note to the next page. This helps the students and the teacher remember that they have mastered all the words on the page and are onto the harder words on the next page.
 * Context:**

In the lesson I observed students were working on closed syllable words and integrating blending. The students were having issues with the CvC words and making switches with the consonants. A few of the students struggled changing the front of CvC’s (ex. Cat-Pat, Tap-Nap) while others had problems with last consonant (ex. Cat-Cap, Mat-Map). In this phonics lesson there was a lot of repetition and back-and-forth (tap-nap-tap) to show the change in the first consonant. In the group that I observed the students struggled a little in the beginning but grasped the concepts by the end of the lesson. This resulted in their sticky not being moved to the next page that had harder phonics words on it. The students were very excited when their post-it was moved. They could see that they were catching up to other groups and felt a sense of accomplishment.
 * Details:**

I believe that the assessment given to the students was effective. The teacher did a good job working with the students and also made sure that each student understood the concept. She assessed the student’s results and made the decision whether they were reading to move on to the next page or not. My only problem with this assessment was that not every student is on the same level in the groups she has made. Some students in the groups I observed understood the CvC concept completely and had to wait for the other members of their group to grasp the concept before they could advance. Although it is helping the lower kids improve, it is also impeding on the other students development. If I were to give this assessment the only thing I would do differently would be to break the groups into even smaller groups. There was a distinct line between the four students in the group. Two of the students were more advanced and this CvC work was very boring to them, while the other group was challenged by it. If the groups were broken up into two and two it would allow the more advanced students to move ahead instead of being held back by the other two students.
 * Reflection:**

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