TIME IS SLIPPING AWAY

              W.H. KING ELEMENTARY   

         

                                                                                   

W. H. KING ELEMENTARY

     740 S. CAMPBELL AVE. 

      CHICAGO, IL  60612

        (773) 534-7898

           Mr. Flowers, Acting Principal

         Mr. Millman, Asst. Acting Principal

 

 

                       A miniquest developed for grades 3-8 by Patricia A. Breckenridge

patriciabreckenridge@yahoo.com

 

 The Mission

 

Mr. Flowers, Acting Principal, and Mr. Millman, Asst. Acting Principal, along with the staff at William H. King Elementary have great interest in improving our students reading ability.  Many reading programs, instructional materials and methods have been used; such as, direct instruction; accelerated reader; DePaul tutors, after-school Beacon and Lighthouse programs,  KidBiz3000, print rich environments; teaching self-help sounding; building sight word vocabulary; increasing reading speed and fluency;  developing comprehension; and weekly to monthly writing assignments.  Mr. Flowers and Mr. Millman have challenged the 5^th grade to research how we can improve King student's reading ability.

 

You are to act as a reading specialist with reading clients, who is familiar with reading difficulties and abilities. As such, you are expected to advise Mr. Flowers, Mr. Millman, or Ms. Breckenridge on a solution to the reading difficulties that currently exist at King School.  You will know you have successfully finished when your chosen students are reading 100 wpm (no errors) or better on grade level.  Monitor the reading speed with a time device (sand/hour glass or second hand on clock) at least once a day.  You are expected to record the reading speed daily and calculate their average speed weekly.  The average or mean reading speed is the sum of the reading speeds divided by the number of reading speeds.  For instance, if your client reads 100 words per minute (wpm) or 60 seconds each day Monday thru Friday, then the sum is 300 seconds, next divide the sum by 5 (the number of numbers). Finally, you calculate 100 wpm or 100 words per 60 seconds. So, your average reading speed is 100 wpm on grade level.  The challenges you may encounter are finding or discovering difficulties in the student’s reading ability; such as, 1) Self-help sounding; 2) Improve sight word vocabulary; 3) Speed up word recognition, fluency,  and rate; 4) Develop comprehension skills; and 5) Sustain much interesting reading at present reading level.  Resources you can depend on are Internet resources, books, and consultations with fellow colleagues in the field; such as, teachers, reading specialist, principals, librarians, etc. in order to inquire about solutions to conditions currently affecting reading ability.  Based on your research you will determine whether or not it is possible for King students to improve their reading ability on grade level.

 

Project Goals

 

Essential Question:

 

          Project question:

          How do reading levels impact student performance?

 Is it possible for 5^th grade students reading below the 5^th grade reading   level   to improve their reading speed to grade level?

 

Specific Questions:

 

          What are the current reading difficulties the student faces?

 

          What components make up a good reader?

 

          What components are lacking in the student’s environment that will                                  improve reading  ability?

 

The Process

1.      Before your group can begin consulting, your group must fabricate a company name and logo using  Microsoft Word or Works Painting program.

 

2.      Next, you need to gather background information regarding  reading ability and improvement.  Use the links listed below to guide your search.

 

                   CLICK TO VIEW READING DATA ON ROOM 204

 

Sounding out words or word attack. Sounding out vowels, consonants, consonant clusters, etc.	Sight word vocabulary or irregular phonemes. Words identified by sight, not sound.	Reading rate and fluency. 100wpm
Reading comprehension. Who? What? Where? When? and Why?	High interest reading. For example, basketball, babysitting, etc.	Readability level. Content: reading level of material   http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/fry/fry2.htmll or grade level.

 

3.    Organize your data using a worksheet entitled, “Reading Time Research.”

 

Reading Specialist Team:  Student A, Student B, Student C, Student D, and Student E, and Student F

Reading Clients:  Student 1, Student 2, Student 3, Student 4, Student5, and Student 6.

*Specialist indicate yes/no, speed, subject, and/or level.

READING TIME RESEARCH	Self-help Sounding Consonants Vowels etc.	Sight word recognition Irregular Sounds.	Reading Speed Wpm		Reading Compre-hension 5 W’s	Sustain Interesting Reading Subject	Readability level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Student 1	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________		M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________
Student 2	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________		M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________
Student 3	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________		M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________
Student 4	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________		M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________
Student 5	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________		M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________
Student 6	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________		M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________	M____________   T____________   W___________   TH__________   F____________

 

4.      Gather information necessary to analyze student’s reading ability or difficulty by visiting the following websites. Record this information on the worksheet sheet entitled “Reading Status Report”.

 

          Reading Status Report

 

Check reading ability. Is student using:   1)   Self-help sounding.  Yes/No 2)   Sight word vocabulary Yes/No 3)   Speeding up word recognition Yes/No 4)   Developing comprehension skills Yes/No 5)   Sustain much interesting reading on present reading level. Yes/No

Reading Ability     Tip 1: Check out this site and determine if you have a question to ask Mr. Flowers, Mr. Millman or Ms. Breckenridge.   Refer to hyperlink resources below.

Reading rates.     Monday_____wpm   Tuesday_____wpm   Wednes._____wpm   Thurs._______wpm   Friday_______wpm   Average_____wpm

  

5.      Examine the reading ability of each student by using the information you gathered in step 4.  Interview Mr. Flowers or Mr. Millman regarding questions you may have regarding the reading ability. (for example tip 18 above) .  Record your findings in your saved Reading Status Report worksheet.

 

6.      Organize your data comparing your research data with the  data you gathered from your reader by making a chart using Microsoft Excel.

 

7.      Interview a teacher or reading specialist to get his/her recommendations regarding the reading materials necessary  to improve the reading ability of the student.  Formulate your questions based on your research.

 

8.      Ask teachers and the reading specialist at King School for advice on improving reading ability of students by emailing them at the address below.

          King Elementary School: patriciabreckenridge@yahoo.com

 

9.      Compare the information you found in your research and interviews with the data you collected on reading ability.

 

 10.   Discuss the data you collected with your group and generate  a conclusion on whether it is possible to improve the reading   ability of the students reading below grade level.

 

11.    If it is possible, what recommendations will you make to the school to improve the reading.

 

12.    As a team, create and present a PowerPoint presentation informing Mr. Flowers and Mr. Millman of your recommendation(s).

 

CYBERHUNT

 

1.    What

 

Resources

 

http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/games/alien2/ash2.html	Sounding out/word attack
http://www.createdbyteachers.com/dolchcheck3.html   http://www.createdbyteachers.com/dolchlist.html   http://www.createdbyteachers.com/dolchsearch25.html	Sight words and high frequency words
http://meret.lacoe.edu/coursecontent/decoding_spelling/html/Rate_Fluency_guidelines.html	Reading rate and fluency
http://www.ops.org/reading/blooms_taxonomy.html	Reading compre- hension
http://www.bravemonster.com/pastwinners.htm	High interest reading
http://www.bravemonster.com/pastwinners.htm	Read-ability level

 

 

 

Illinois and CPS Learning Standards

       

SG1 Read with understanding and fluency.

SG2 Understand explicit and implicit meaning in literature, representing individual, community, national, world, and historical perspectives.

SG3 Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.

SG4 Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations.

SG5 Use the language arts for inquiry and research to acquire, organize, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information.

 

 

Assessment

 

       Oral Presentation

 

       PowerPoint Checklist

 

       Research Rubric

 

       Reading Project Checklist

 

 

 

W. H. King Elementary

Oral Presentation

Name:_____________________          Teacher:________________________

Date Submitted:______________         Title of Work:____________________

Skill

Criteria

Points

 

	4	3	2	1
Body Language	Movements seemed fluent and helped the audience visualize.	Made movements or gestures that enhanced articulation.	Very little movements or descriptive gestures.	No movement or descriptive gestures.	______
Eye Contact	Holds attention of entire audience with use of direct eye contact.	Consistent use of direct eye contact with audience.	Displayed minimum eye contact with audience.	No eye contact with audience.	______
Intro- duction and Closure	Student delivers opening and closing remarks that capture the attention of the audience and set the mood.	Student displays clear introductory or closing remarks.	Student clearly uses an introductory or closing remark, but not both.	Student does not display clear introductory or closing remarks.	______
Pacing	Good use of drama and student meets apportioned time interval.	Delivery is patterned, but does not meet apportioned time interval.	Delivery is in bursts and does not meet the apportioned time interval.	Delivery is either too quick or too slow to meet apportioned time interval.	______
Poise	Student displays relaxed, self-confident nature about self, with no mistakes.	Makes minor mistakes, but quickly recovers from them; displays little or no tension.	Displays mild tension; has trouble recovering from mistakes.	Tension and nervousness is obvious; has trouble recovering from mistakes.	_______
Voice	Use of fluent speech and infliction maintains the interest of the audience.	Satisfactory use of infliction, but does not consistently use fluent speech.	Displays some level of infliction throughout the delivery.	Consistently uses a monotone voice.	_______
				Total---à

 

 

Teacher comments:_____________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________.

  

                             Group Work Checklist

 

Student Name:___________________ Reviewer Name:______________

Date:__________________

 

Project: Time is Slipping Away PowerPoint Presentation

 

Category Responsibilities

 

Appearance

Ÿ        The words on my slides are easy to read.

Ÿ        The words on my slides are spelled correctly.

Ÿ        The pictures on my slides are easy to see.

Ÿ        The pictures are related to the information on the slide.

Ÿ        The colors and patterns on my slides look good together.

Ÿ        Sounds and music are easy to hear and understand.

Ÿ        There is enough time to read and see everything on each slide.

Ÿ        The transitions between slides are not distracting or boring.

 

Organization

·        I made an outline, idea map, or storyboard to organize my thoughts.

·        I included a meaningful title.

·        I included my name and the names of people in my group.

·        My presentation explained my topic clearly.

·        I organized my ideas so they made sense to others.

·        I included interesting or exciting information

·        I used pictures or sounds to make the presentation more interesting.

·        I included a strong ending to my presentation.

·        I included a list of the things I used to find information.

 

Preparation

·        I planned my time wisely.

·        I stated my plan for the project clearly.

·        I made a list of materials I would need for the project.

·        I knew what I had to find, make, or do before I began.

 

W. H. King Elementary

Research Component of the Reading Ability Presentation

Name:_________________________        Teacher: _____________________

Skill	Criteria					Points
		4	3	2	1

 

Introduction/ Topic	Student(s) properly generate questions and or problems around a topic.	Student(s) generate questions and or problems.	Student(s) require prompts to generate questions and or problems.	Questions or problems are teacher generated.	__________
Conclusions Reached	Numerous detailed conclusions are reached from the evidence offered.	Several detailed conclusions are reached from the evidence offered.	Some detailed conclusions are reached from the evidence offered.