Intervention Implementation and Colleague Support

 

In a review of a colleague’s recent classroom literacy assessment data, four out of her ten students scored less than 30% on the grade level rhyming assessment. Two additional students scored less than 60%. Three more students scored 80% and one student scored 100%. With the data showing that 60% of her class is not meeting the standard and 30% meeting the cutoff it was decided that some whole group extra literacy support is needed in the area of rhyming.

This colleague and I set goals for what we wanted to accomplish by providing this extra literacy support. Those goals were:

·         At least 80% of her class will be able to produce a rhyme, consistently when given a familiar word with 100% accuracy.

o   Daily whole-group “Rhyme Time” instruction will be done following the outlined lesson structure below. The class will be progress monitored bi-weekly.

·         At least 80% of her class will be able to break apart words into the onset sound and rime.

o   Daily whole-group “Rhyme Time” instruction will be done following the outlined lesson structure below. The class will be progress monitored bi-weekly.

Lesson Structure:

April 19-Star Light, Star Bright

April 26-Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

May 3-There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

May 10-A Tisket, A Tasket

May 17-Wee Willie WInkie

May 24 Mary Had a Little Lamb

 

Kindergarten Rhyme Activities for Whole Group Instruction

 

Materials-

Pocket Chart, five picture pairs of rhyming words from the nursery rhyme, five pictures non-rhyming words, thumbs up for rhyme and thumbs down for non-rhymes posters, sentence frame

**Andrea will provide the picture cards that are discussed in the article for the following poems.

 Monday-Read the Nursery Rhyme to introduce rhyme and emphasize the rhyming words.  Have students then rehearse the rhyme once or twice.  

            “The words mat and sat rhyme because they both end in /at/.  Listen, /m/.../at/, mat.  /s/.../at/, sat.  Do you hear /at/ at the end of mat and sat? Yes.  The two words rhyme because they both end in the /at/ sounds.”

 Tuesday-Recite the Nursery Rhyme.  Then, introduce the five chosen rhyming words and the five words that correspond.  Pronounce each rhyming pair and ask the children to point to each picture as you say the words.  After saying each rhyming pair, emphasize that the pair rhyme because they both end in the for example “/at/ sounds.”  Use sentence frame to support students in being able to justify why words rhyme.  Now, have the students say each word pair chorally.

 Wednesday-Recite the Nursery Rhyme.  Mix up the rhyming word pairs.  Place one picture in the chart at the top and place the remaining cards at the bottom.  Have a student say the matching rhyme.  If the students need help, have another student/teacher assist them and explain to the class why the pair rhymes. Repeat with the next four pairs.  Then add in the five picture cards that do not rhyme to the existing pairs and mix up the pictures. Put your thumbs up and thumbs down posters at the top of the pocket chart. Place the cards at the bottom of the pocket chart.  The teacher names two pictures and students take turns telling whether or not the pictures named rhyme.  The teacher restates using the sentence frame why the words rhyme or do not rhyme. Place the pairs that rhyme on the thumbs upside of the pocket chart and pairs that do not rhyme place on the thumbs downside. 

Thursday-Recite the Nursery Rhyme.  Take out a rhyming pair.  Explain that all the rhyming pairs both end in the same sounds.  Now write the “rimes” on the whiteboard.  Then place different letters in front of the “rimes” so students can generate new rhyming words.  Use real and nonsense words.  Use the sentence frame to justify why the words rhyme.  In addition to consonants, you can use blends or digraphs.

 I was able to support my colleague in identifying a lagging skill that many of her students shared. With so many students lagging in the same skill this suggests that the lagging skill may be caused by lack of effective instruction. I was also able to support my colleague in building an instructional plan that uses research-based practices.  

The successes and challenges of in providing this support were:

·        1.  I am not overly assertive or confident in my role as a coach/someone to provide instructional suggestions. I still feel like I must back everything up with research. I know my suggestions would come across better if I was more confident.

·      2.    I was able to model the lesson each day for a week in her AM cohort. She said this really helped since she is a visual learner.