Literacy Learner Profiles

Deakin University, Unit ECL310

ECL310 Assignment 1

Name: Alanah Bresnehan

Student Number: 212210385

Middle Years Learner Profile and Plan.

Introduction

As part of this assignment two students were assessed through different curriculum based

measurements. The two students were Eleanor (aged ) and Meg (aged ). Both assessed on their

reading and writing abilities through Running Records, On Demand reading outcomes, Fountas and

Pinnel Fluency Rubric, their writing samples and the evidence through recordings of their planning

and editing. The two students stated, through the recordings, of their own interests and

multiliterate knowledge.

Learner Profiles

Throughout the use of formal assessment of Eleanor and Meg evidence highlighted the strength

and weaknesses of the two students.

Eleanors Learning Profile:

Skill Evidence Link to AusVELS

Strengths Reading: Evaluating and extrapolating additional evidence not given explicitly in the text.

In the PROBE Reading comprehension the questions, which focused on the Evaluation through the comprehension analysis, were answered confidently and with evidence from prior knowledge, as additional information, and links within the text. (See Appendices 7)

Reading and Viewing: Level 5: Use of a variety of comprehension strategies to interpret and analyse information and ideas; for example, reviewing, summarising, asking questions or predicting, (ACELY1713 Comprehension strategies)

Writing: She uses her vocabulary to express her and feelings she

As a persuasive piece the use of adjectives to describe feelings and action of her and

Writing: Level 4: Use vocabulary to create precise


has towards the topic. others at the school is clear with the use of words such as, dictating and horrendous to describe the actions from the school. (See Apendices 9 & 10)

meaning, and select words appropriate to the context (ACELA1512 Vocabulary)

Areas of Need Reading: Eleanor needs to slow down her reading in order to sound out larger words correctly.

Throughout the recording of Eleanor she stumbled on some of the bigger words in the PROBES assessment. These being civilisation, Spanish adventurer and occasions, this could possibly be because of her rate of reading as she reads at a fast rate. The word in the PROBES test that was of emphases the Vocabulary comprehension was also misread as momentom instead of momentous. (See Appendices 7)

Reading and Viewing: Level 4: Read different types of texts by combining contextual, semantic, grammatical and phonic knowledge using text processing strategies for example monitoring meaning, cross checking and reviewing (ACELY1691) Elaboration: reading allowed with fluency and expression

Writing: Eleanor needs work on using dependent clauses.

Eleanor tends to separate her independent clauses and dependent clauses with full stops. An example is highlighted in the first page of her writing (Appendices 9). Through the Writing Assessment Form found in Winch, Literacy, 2012. She was placed on the three of the form. With her secretarial level of style and

Writing Level 5 Use the subordinate clause in complex sentences to elaborate, extend or explain ideas (ACELA1522 Sentence and clause level grammar)


grammar lacking as sentence structure varies a littleDistracting grammatical errors. (Appendices 13).

Meg Learning Profile:

Skill Evidence Link to AusVELS

Strengths Reading: Meg used additional information to answer inference and evidence questions about the text.

She inferred extra information through her prior knowledge and allowed evaluation of the text using prior experience of books and television to aid her in answering the questions, Question 4, 7 and 9. (See Appendices 1)

Reading and Viewing: Level 4: Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (ACELY1692)

Writing: Megs exposition of the writing piece is clear and the starting sentence gives prominence to the message she is trying to convey.

Her persuasive text shows clear introductions, arguments in paragraphs and also a conclusion. As highlighted (pink) in her persuasive piece (See Appendices 3)

Writing: Level 3.5: Create imaginative, informative and persuasive textsincreasing control over text structures and language features (ACELY1694 Creating texts)

Areas of Need Reading: Meg needs to work on her vocabulary and the meaning of bigger words.

The target comprehension vocabulary word plumage was read incorrectly, but sounded out phonetically. Also when she was asked the meaning of the word she struggled in

Reading and Viewing: Level 3: Recognize high frequency sight words (ACELA1486)


articulating what the word meant. (Appendices 1)

Writing: Meg needs to work on her spelling and sentence structure.

Though she tries to work out words phonetically she has trouble spelling them. This can be seen through the spelling of the word manage (mange), at least (addlest) and sunshine (sunsh). (See Appendices 3) She has been placed on Phase 3 of the Indicators For Spelling Development Continuum. (Appendices 4) Also her sentence and grammatical structures in her writing, this has been highlighted (yellow) throughout her writing piece. (See Appendices 3) Sentence structure was weak throughout the secretarial section of the Writing Assessment Form found in Winch, Literacy, 2012. Placing the student at a three on the form. Stating that sentence structure varies a littleDistracting grammatical errors. (Appendices 6).

Writing: Level 3.5: Use a range of strategies for spelling words, for example spelling rules, knowledge of morphemic word families, spelling generalizations, and letter combinations including double letters (ACELA1779 Spelling)

The overall findings through the assessment of the two students show their strengths and

weaknesses. The assessments of reading allowed for the decision for Eleanor and Meg to both work

on their fluency when reading allowing them to work on sounding out large multisyllabic words


within a text. This will help them with working through large words and the rate in which they work

through texts. Through the same level of text the two students can work together in order to

understand their rates of fluency. Through their persuasive texts it is clear that both students now

about the structures and construction of arguments in a text. They would, however, benefit on

working on sentence structures through the ability to understand independent clauses and

dependent clauses. This will help them build better descriptions within their writing and also add

information correctly in the writing style.

Mini-Lessons

Reading

Lesson Focus:

In this lesson the focus will be the focus on fluency, rate and sounding out of words; AusVELS Standard from Level 4: Read different types of texts by combining contextual, semantic, grammatical and phonic knowledge using text processing strategies for example monitoring meaning, cross checking and reviewing (ACELY1691) Elaboration: reading allowed with fluency and expression (AusVELS, Level 4), by reading chorally with a partner to help match and learn from peers.

This lesson will also be focusing on looking at the meaning of words students may be confused about. They will use a dictionary to Recognize high frequency sight words (ACELA1486) (Level 3) and multisyllabic words when reading to allow students to understand what they are reading.

Resources:

Students will be reading the text Ziba Came on a Boat (Lofthouse, 2007). This book was

recommended as a Text to Text book in the list of recommended books in Books to Inspire

(Patrick & Marsha, CloudDeakin). They will also have access to two dictionaries, pencils and paper.

Introduction:

Students will be asked to read the story together at the same time out loud. Firstly, the teacher will

read a page of the story out loud without emotion and at a fast pace. The teacher will then read the

page again but this time with emotion, expression and at a lower rate. After modelling the different

forms of reading the story the teacher will ask students what the difference that they heard

between the first and second reading.

Elaboration:


Teacher is to model the correct fluency, rate and pace for the reader to reproduce with their

partner. Students are to cooperate with each in a cooperative reading approach. Using their prior

knowledge and shared knowledge from peers students begin to work as a team to decipher words

in the text and rates that will help them with sounding out and reading fluency.

Practice:

In the example Eleanor and Meg will be asked to read the text together at the same rate and

fluency, matching each others expression. The question asked about emotion and expression

should be influencing them to place meaning and expression in their own reading. Listening to each

other should cause them to take note of the pace of their reading. After reading the story through

together, they should then review the text writing down the words they may have found difficult to

read or didnt understand. Teacher can monitor whether students are working on pace by walking

around the pairs and sitting in with students for a few page. The teacher can also assess and check

whether students understand the meaning of the text through what they write down as the difficult

words.

Review:

The students written work can be used for assessment and also help the teacher check whether

they understand the topic, and also give the ability to understand which words the students may

struggle with. This can then also be used in future assessment when looking at students writing and

reading understanding. This can be part of a cumulative assessment file and is formative as the

teacher can give immediate feedback with the work that has been made.

Writing

Lesson Focus:

This lesson will focus on students looking at separate sentences in a section of writing and determining how they should be fit to make one sentence without removing any information. This links to AusVELS; Use the subordinate clause in complex sentences to elaborate, extend or explain ideas (ACELA1522 Sentence and clause level grammar) (AusVELS, Level 5).

Focusing on the use of dependent and independent clauses in writing in pairs, students will be asked to make one sentence using three sentences provide to make an informative sentence.

Resources:

Students will work together with separate worksheets (Appendices 14) that highlight dependent

and independent clauses to put together on a similar subject matter, the circus. Students will also

need pencils or pens to write down with and spare paper to test their theories. Also an iPad as


students will watch a YouTube video, called Independent Clauses, Dependent Clauses and

Fragments (June, 2013).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTZ0lJf0jwU

Introduction:

Students will be placed into pairs and work on the worksheet provided. With the iPad students will

watch the video with the teacher explaining clauses. Teacher will do the first one with students

modelling and asking questions about how students will decide the independent and dependent

clauses. The teacher will then leave the students to go on with the rest. Modelling and discussing

with the students will allow them to see how the sentences complete each other.

Elaboration:

Teacher is to instruct and explain the use of independent clauses and model the first one with

students help and opinions. This will allow the teacher to check for students understanding and

skills that may be wrong. This child centred and modelled approach teacher are able to discuss with

students the how and why they do the chosen method.

Practice:

Through the lesson Eleanor and Meg will have to work together to discuss and give reason of how

they construct their sentence structure. Through discussion Meg and Eleanor will be able to

understand how each use the predicate, verb and subject when looking at a dependent clause. This

will influence how each of them look at the structures of each sentence.

Review:

As in the reading lesson, the students worksheet can be used as a cumulative assessment. The

formative form of assessment allows the teacher to acknowledge whether a student has learnt

from the lesson. The use of the worksheet allows the teacher to see if the student is learning as

they are in the action. This form of assessment can also be used diagnostically as the teacher can

see if the student had a prior idea or knowledge of the subject as it is testing one aspect of writing.

Rationale:

The two mini lessons conducted with Eleanor and Meg have been chosen to enhance their

understandings of areas that both may find difficult or confusing. The two lessons have been

conducted with the focus of fluency and rate, and also dependent and independent clauses. The


idea of creating a language program that allows students to integrate in a supportive and

stimulating environment in which independent and reflective critical thinking is crucial, (Winch et.

al. 2012, pp. 13) reflects in these mini lessons.

The reading lesson was conducted through the evidence of Meg and Eleanor both reading at a fast

rate, causing them to stumble on words when sounding them out. Winch highlights that fluent

readers make more effective use of the cue systems (Winch et. al. 2012, pp. 97). These cue

systems can include semantic information, grammatical information, phonological-graphological

information and visual and pictorial information. Through these cue systems Eleanor and Meg have

to combine contextual, semantic, grammatical and phonic knowledge using text processing

strategies, (AusVELS, 2012). This can be seen on the table above through the area of need. Both

Eleanor and Meg failed to read the target words when reading their PROBE texts (Appendices 1 &

7). I believe this has got to do with the failure of grammatical knowledge [which] gives important

cues to what sentences say and mean (Winch et. al. 2012, pp. 34). A contributing factor to this

however is seen through the rate, phrasing, intonation, pausing and stress placed on the text when

both students read out loud. Through the Scale of Assessing Fluency assessment both students

were placed on a three (Appendices 2 & 8) on the assessment of pausing through guided

punctuation (ibid.). This caused me to create a lesson in which allowed students to model from the

teacher and their own peers. Winch states that modelled or shared reading involves students in

structured demonstrations of what effective readers know and do (Winch et. al. 2012, pp. 151). By

making them read chorally, it causes them to be aware of how they read and how others may read.

The outcome for the teacher is to be aware students learn about conventions from models they

see and practise (Winch et. al. 2012, pp. 383). Therefore, having both students work off each other

and the teacher allows them to have explicit knowledge and skills to interpret a text constructed

by someone else (Winch et. al. 2012, pp. 151).

The writing lesson was based on the assessment of Eleanor and Megs persuasive writing. Both

students worked with using high order vocabulary and also the exposition of each piece was

evident, through the concept maps and also paragraphs formed when writing the text. However,

sentence structure was a contributor to both the students areas of need. As syntax is a part of

grammar and refers to rules that govern how elements of grammar are arranged in a sentence,

(Winch et. al. 2012, pp. 52) it allowed for a connection between the reading and writing fluency


between the two lessons. However, through the writing lesson it was focussing on the use of

commas to create sentences with relevant information. Wilkinsons model, the Crediton Project,

states that teachers [should] look at the stylistic features and make comments about the surface

features which include the writers awareness of syntaxthe way words are organized (Winch. et.

al. 2012, pp. 274). The use of dependent and independent clauses were evidently confusing when

both students came to writing their pieces. The syntax structures of some of Meg and Eleanors

sentences were jumbled and dependent clauses, such as When sitting on that carpet and puke

green is not a fave, (Appendices 3), were grammatically placed in incorrect positions. This evidence

caused me to focus on the use [of] the subordinate clause in complex sentences to elaborate,

extend or explain ideas (AusVELS, 2012). The lesson was to focus on looking at separate sentences

with similar subjects and making them one, without loosing any information. Having the YouTube

video as an aid the students had the ability to look back and question their grammatical choices.

Along with working together the students had the ability to discuss and reciprocate ideas on how

the dependent clause should act within the sentence.

Both lessons are conducted in order to offer students with a print-rich environment in which to

interact (Winch et. al. 2012, pp. 11), allowing them to be surrounded with engaging and objective

activities to allow for appropriate assessment. Each student will benefit from the activities to better

their reading and writing understandings. The lessons are used to provide the best opportunities

for all students to acquire the skills for effective reading [and writing], (Winch et. al, 2012, pp. 14).

References

AusVELS -VCAA 2014, Standards and Progression Point Examples, retrieved 20th July 2014,

http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/documents/auscurric/progressionpoints/ausvels-

englishprogressionpoints.pdf

YouTube, Independent Clauses, Dependent Clauses, & Fragments, accessed on 22nd July

2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTZ0lJf0jwU

Winch, G., Ross-Johnston, R. and Holliday, M. (2012). Literacy: Reading, Writing and

Childrens Literature. 4th ed. Australia: OUP Australia and New Zealand


Appendices 1:


Appendices 2:


Appendices 3:


Appendices 4


Appendices 5:


Appendices 6:


Appendices 7:


Appendices 8:


Appendices 9:


Appendices 10:


Appendices 11:


Appendices 12:


Appendices 13:


Appendices 14:

Literacy Learner Profiles

Documents

Transcript of Literacy Learner Profiles