# data[].attributes.headline
Clinical Field Experience A: Observations, Data, and Pre-Assessment

# data[].attributes.subject
Clinical Field Experience A: Observations, Data, and Pre-Assessment

# data[].attributes.body
6-30-20

Observing children is one of my favorite skills to practice as an educator.  I truly believe that you can learn a lot from your students just by observing them.  Before an educator can truly become an effective and efficient observer, he/she must know their students.  You need to know what each students' "different" and "typical" looks like.  If you don't know what they normally look or act like on a typical day for them, then you will not be able to decide if there's a reason behind a drop in scores.  For example, this past year, I had a student that was  normally at the top in math scores.  His score dropped during a Winter Benchmark assessment.  I was able to quickly determine that it was due to a change in the home environment.  He had been falling asleep in class due to a new baby coming into the family.  He was getting very little sleep at night.  Also, a topic that I don't feel like gets enough credit is family background.  A vast majority of my struggling students have little to no support at home.  This is a major issue in the learning growth of children.  It's one of the areas that I continue to work on.  Building relationships with families is a high priority for me because those students are the ones that show the smallest amount of growth.  I want those families to see how important it is to provide a quality literacy environment within the home, even if it means just reading a bedtime book every night.
I also am loving to learn how to become more proficient in data collecting and analyzing. I want it to become a skill that is effortless and effective for me and my students. Our school uses the Star Assessments, so the assignments that I've been given in this program is allowing me multiple opportunities to practice this important teaching method.

# data[].attributes.headline
Clinical Field Experience B: Communicating with Families

# data[].attributes.subject
Clinical Field Experience B: Communicating with Families

# data[].attributes.body
7-8-20

Effective communication skills are one of the most important skills that a reading specialist must have because they need to have positive collaborative relationships with many different stakeholders.   Family involvement in a child’s education is vital to student success, so educators need to be accountable in assisting in these relationships (Gerzel-Short, 2018).    It truly does take a village to raise and educate children, so the most effective way to complete that successfully is to have positive relationships with all those involved with the students. Parents need to be included in the development of their children, and the only way they will become involved is if they know the expectations.  Often, parents are unaware of the growing expectations for students, so providing a variety of communication options and opportunities is extremely important.  Although communicating through technology can be useful, I believe that the most effective way to build relationships is by having face-to-face conversations. I would definitely have weekly data sheets sent home with the parents, and bi-weekly phone calls, emails, or face-to-face contact.  I would also have at least three in-depth meetings a year, that would give parents thorough information on the student’s academic growth, as well as time to go over or adjust goals and to allow parents time to communicate questions or concerns.   I would also build the relationships in a positive and respectful way, so that all parents/guardians would feel comfortable in coming to me with any questions or concerns at anytime throughout the year. We just need to remember that student success requires the families, school and community to work together in a positive and collaborative fashion (Lohmann, Hathcote, & Boothe).

Deveries, B. (2019). Literacy assessment and intervention for classroom teachers. New York, NY. Routledge.

Lohmann, M.J., Hathcote, A.R., & Boothe, K.A. (2018).  Addressing the barriers to family-school collaboration: A brief review of the literature and recommendations for practice.  International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education, 10(1), 25-31

# data[].attributes.headline
Clinical Field Experience C: Supporting Colleagues 

# data[].attributes.subject
Clinical Field Experience C: Supporting Colleagues 

# data[].attributes.body
7-15-20
Supporting my colleague was definitely not a typical situation because we had to use data that was collected in March.  We used the Star Reading Assessment data that the school uses for a diagnostic assessment, as well as a progress monitoring tool.  If school was in session, I would use time to observe the class, as well as use other forms of data to determine the needs of the class.  However, I was able to complete the most important part of supporting colleagues, which includes communicating with the teacher.  They often are aware of the students' needs, as well as their own.   The educator and I spent time going over the most recent assessment results, and the outcomes were great.  She only had a few students that weren't meeting literacy standards.  I decided to discuss what her biggest concerns were for the class.  I had her voice her concerns for the whole class, and concerns for a small group or individual students.  Her concern for the whole group was based on writing skills.  She was concerned with their lack of mechanics during writing.  A couple of concerns for a small group of students was reading comprehension and producing/understanding rhyme words.
As stated earlier, we were able to determine a lot of information just using the data we had and being able to have open communication. However, I would have spent more time supporting her within the classroom had the opportunity been available.  When the action plan was provided, I would support the educator by pushing into the classroom. This would allow her students to have two experts working with the students. If I needed to support her during the large group instruction, I would either use a co-teach method, or support the students while she taught the lesson. I would also be available to provide extra support during small group instruction times. I would wan to ensure the support that the teacher and students needed, in order to best meet their needs.

# data[].attributes.headline
Clinical Field Experience D: Supporting a Colleague with Resources

# data[].attributes.subject
Clinical Field Experience D: Supporting a Colleague with Resources

# data[].attributes.body
7-22-20

I thoroughly enjoy supporting colleagues.  As a matter of fact, I had a fellow GCU student message me and ask for advice and resources for an assignment.  I love that people feel comfortable enough to reach out and ask for support.  Supporting a colleague would be and is one of my favorite aspects of working in a school setting.   Working with my colleague has been a very pleasant and valuable experience.  The literacy specialist should be a reliable source that is experienced and/or skillful at finding and providing resources and/or strategies for the other educators to utilize.  They also need to be experts at collaborating with others in a positive and productive manner.  The colleague that I’m supporting is eager to learn, and she’s amazing to work with.  She’s positive and has her students’ best interest in mind.  She voiced concern on her students’ ability to write sentences with appropriate mechanics.  She wants them to begin writing with proper grammar, a capital letter, and an ending mark.  Part of our goal is to teach the students how to proofread and revise their own writing.  Part of becoming a better writing is to learn how to self check and correct before turning anything in.  In order to accomplish this goal, the teacher will use whole group instruction to teach mini writing lessons on these writing concepts.  Then, during writers workshop, small groups of children will be pulled to work with the teacher for guided instruction on reviewing the new skill, as well as how to use visual cue cards for proofreading reminders.   One of the writing strategies/resources that I wanted to introduce her to was a Whole Brain Teaching strategy.  We have another teacher in the building that uses Whole Brain Teaching all day, and there’s a great approach to use for writing productive sentences.  I would have the colleague that I’m supporting go observe the strategy in the other teacher’s classroom, or have the other teacher come into the room and give a mini lesson to her class.  I would let the colleague choose which situation made her feel most comfortable.  I would also make her the visual cards for her class to have during the small group instruction times.  There would also be extra copies for the students to keep at their desks.  The teacher also wanted to focus on improving her students’ reading comprehension ability.  We planned to use graphic organizers as a way to assist in the development of these skills.  I provided many different types of graphic organizers to use during the reading of a variety of texts, in order to accommodate to nonfiction or fiction books.  Finally, there were a small group of students that needed to work on rhyme words.  We planned to support these students with small group instruction.  There are many resources and strategies that I provided.  First, I provided different types of teaching strategies to use, such as the Bottom-Up approach by focusing on onset and rime.  These students might need to understand that rhyme words have the same ending sounds.  The rime part of a word not only sounds the same, but they also look the same.  This would allow them to become proficient in the easiest form of rhyme words, which would assist them in the building up of the skill.  I would provide many resources to help in this approach, such as letter tiles, rhyme books, rhyme games or activities for the teacher to use during small group instruction, as well as websites/apps for the students to use for independent practice.  All of these resources will provide the teacher with a great way to start progress monitoring the students on these concerned skills.  We would be able to adjust accordingly.  I would also be checking in with the teacher regularly to ensure that she was doing well, and didn’t need additional support.

# data[].attributes.headline
Clinical Field Experience E: Post Assessment and Evaluating Interventions

# data[].attributes.subject
Clinical Field Experience E: Post Assessment and Evaluating Interventions

# data[].attributes.body
7-29-20

Completing the data analysis just showed how important it is for some students to have access to a reading specialist and/or reading interventions throughout the school year.  Some students would also benefit from having interventions in place throughout the summer too.  The data showed that Aaron was figuring out what strategies worked best for him, but he really would have benefited from in-person instruction.  Teaching on a phone wasn’t as effective or efficient as it would have been in person.  He often had distractions in the background, and he struggled to stay focused.  In person instruction would have allowed the teacher to work in a literacy-based environment with the ability to adjust the learning environment as needed.  He could have worked everyday with an educator with very little distractions, and with hands-on materials.  Although, he did show some improvement on reading CVC words, he showed signs of the “summer slide.”  When the Rigby assessment was given, it was at the level that he was on in March, when the schools shut down.  He struggled getting through the text.   It should be taken into account that he was on the phone.  He was unable to use reading strategies that he normally would use, such as picture cues or just having the book in front of him.  However, his comprehension skills continue to be proficient.  Even when reading at a very slow rate, and struggling with some of the words, he was able to answer all questions of the story correctly.  Therefore, the analyzed data still correlates with the pre-assessment data.  There is a significant delay in his phonics skills.  Aaron definitely needs to continue to receive services from a reading specialist.   When school resumes, he needs to be provided independent extended learning time with for 30 minutes a day, in order to improve on his phonic skills.

Working with my mentor has been an amazing experience.  She’s someone I’ve got to work with in the past, and she’s very experienced with working with students that require interventions.  She was supportive for every step of the process, and I highly value her advice.  She’s a special education teacher with a master’s in education.  She also works with students that have a variety of needs every year, so she’s used to creating, modifying and analyzing the needs and interventions of every student.  I used to have to write IEP’s for some of my preschool students, so she was the perfect person to remind me how to analyze data in order to plan for the next steps of a student’s learning process.  I will continue to use her as a resource for my future teaching career.

# data[].attributes.headline
Clinical Field Experience F: Communicating Results and Reflecting

# data[].attributes.subject
Clinical Field Experience F: Communicating Results and Reflecting

# data[].attributes.body
8-5-20

After completing my LWS and intervention reports, my mentor and I discussed how the process went.   We both agree that it was definitely a challenge due the COVID19 issues.  Being able to complete this process with in-person instruction would’ve been easier, and way more effective.  The students would’ve benefited from it more, if we had the typical school instruction hours.

The areas of strength in my intervention plan were communicating with the student and parents.   The parent contacts me with other questions now about the upcoming school year.  Relationships are important to me because I want families and students to feel comfortable and confident in what I’m doing to help them.  I want them to be able to have an open communication plan with me, so they can/will contact and discuss any concerns with me at anytime.  When collaborative relationships form, parents are more willing to provide support to their children at home.  We also agree that I did well providing obtainable goals for the students.  When a student is showing a deficit, you should write goals that they can obtain.  You should never put the grade-level goal as a goal for them to obtain first.  The parents and students need to see the process of growth, so it’s important to show that by providing step-by-step, obtainable goals that will eventually lead to grade-level goals.

Areas of improvement include describing “how” I will teach the skills.  Dr. Gale and my mentor helped me to realize that it requires more than just describing “what” I will do, but “how” I will do it too.  I also want to become more efficient in this whole process.  I want it to become an easy process, so I can spend time provided the services needed to all of my students.  The steps I need to take to improve on these areas are to keep doing them.  It’s just like you would tell a student, “practice makes perfect.”  The more time I spend working on this, the more efficient I will become at it.

I effectiveness of this intervention plan would be amazing.  However, it was not near as effective as I wanted it to be.  Completing interventions over a phone is not a convenient way to support young students.  They need an environment that is suitable for learning, and they need their teacher.  However, the collaboration between my mentor and myself was not effected by the situation.  We were still able to effectively collaborate on the instruction and adjustments of the intervention.  This experience will definitely assist my in my future career.  I’ll definitely use it as a reading specialist, and if I don’t obtain that role, I’ll practice within my classroom.  It’s a process that could assist any educator.

# data[].attributes.body
8-5-20

My mentor has been amazing to work with. She’s experienced and highly trained in providing intervention services.  After the reports were finalized, we discussed the importance of “knowing your audience.”  She and I both have had a wide variety of parents, hat have a wide range of socio-economical, ethical, or educational backgrounds.  Therefore, you need to adjust the reports according to what your parents might need.  For example, she and I have had a parent that was a lawyer.  She wanted very detailed reports on how her student was doing.  The report that we would give her would be very detailed with a significant amount of information on it.   On the other hand, we’ve also had parents that could barely read.  Therefore, their report would need to look extremely different.  It would have basic information, and the meeting would need to include the educator showing examples of the interventions, so the parents would understand what was taking place.  The in-person examples would also allow the parent to learn how to provide interventions at home.

The intervention process was a great experience.  It taught me how to implement a very effective strategy that would help me as a literacy specialist.  It creates a system that benefits the teacher, the students, the parents, other staff members and the administrators.  I’ve had to write IEP’s before, and it gave me a process that is similar to that.  It’s perfect because I’ve always wanted to view every student as having an IEP in my class.  This process gave me a way to provide it on paper.  It’s definitely a process I will utilize as a reading specialist.  When using this process for the assignment, I learned a significant amount of knowledge.  However, I wish I had the opportunity to complete all of it in person.  We’re dealing with crazy times right now, so I only had the opportunity to complete the intervention process on one of the students.  It would’ve been great to see how all three students improved with the process, but I really believe that all struggling students need to have in-person instruction.  Providing interventions through technology provided too many opportunities for distractions that the I had no control over.  This process actually helped me to see that.  The one student that I worked with, would’ve had a much more effective learning experience with me in a school environment.

It’s essential to communicate with families throughout the intervention process because they are the experts of their child.  As educators, we need to always view the parents’ as important members of the child’s educational experience.  We often forget about the parents’ role because they might not have the educational background.  However, if we included parents in the process, they would understand and learn more about the process.  Therefore, they could provide more supports in the home environment.  Parents often want to help, but they just need support in learning how to help.

This process will assist my in my future practice as a reading/literacy specialist because it has taught me the importance of having an effective and efficient intervention system in place, in order to provide the best educational services for children who struggle in reading or writing.  It can become a habit to use the same data collecting techniques or programs.  This process holds you accountable to show exactly the steps you took in order to collect significant and useful data on each individual student.  It also makes you realize that each student will require different steps, progress monitoring techniques, teaching strategies/approaches, and assessments.  That’s important to remember as any type of educator.  We can often get stuck in a teaching cycle that makes us feel comfortable, rather than evaluating what each individual student needs.

# data[].attributes.body
8-5-20

The survey answers were extremely positive.  She liked the idea of pulling a small group back for 10 minutes rather than the 30 she was initially trying to fit into her schedule.  She liked the idea of pulling them back to drill a skill and collecting useful data on it.  She also liked the idea of using graphic organizers to assist with comprehension strategies, and visual cues for students to learn to self check their writing.  I would also be in the classroom to support her if she needed me to be.  I wouldn’t want her to start with new interventions without my support first.  Even if it was to provide support to the other students until they got the new independent transition/expectations down while she worked with the small group.

I feel as if the colleague experience went well.  She actually commented on how surprised she was with the support she received with the little information that she was able to give me.  I feel like I listened to her concerns and catered to them.  She’s with her students for a majority of the day, so she knows what they’re lacking in skills.  When I looked at her assessment data, it matched her concerns.  A teacher needs to feels as if you truly value their opinion and concerns, so it’s important for me to always listen and create interventions that support those concerns.  She also said there wasn’t any additional support that would have been helpful.  She felt as if what I provided was adequate. In the future, I would want to provide the services that she would prefer.  I asked her what she would want from a reading specialist, and she wants support within the classroom.  Her students are pulled out for instruction daily, but she’d prefer having the reading specialist push into the classroom.  She believes that a reading specialist should be able to work side by side with the classroom teacher, and that they shouldn’t be demanding or “in charge” of the teacher/classroom.  She also believes that a reading specialist should be flexible when working with teachers and students.  I couldn’t agree more with these ideas/thoughts, so this is exactly the type of support that I’d want to give my fellow colleagues.

This would be one of my favorite aspects of working as a reading specialist.  I would want to break the cycle of having no interaction time with the teachers.  I think this role should be viewed as a support system for teachers and students.  I would never want my colleagues to feel as if I was telling them they were doing anything wrong.  I would only be there to be an extra pair of hands, eyes, and ears, and let’s not forget the brain.  Two brains coming together to work on teaching strategies for struggling students would benefit everyone involved.   Being a classroom teacher is difficult.  Your balancing the needs of 20+ students, all with different abilities, while trying to find appropriate resources and materials, and still teaching the district’s curriculum.  Assisting the teachers with finding quality resources and materials is also something that I’d want to focus on.  Being available in the room and providing resources to the teacher would assist the interventions being completed inside the classroom, which should be a priority for the school district.