Remediation Report
I was registered to complete my student teaching this semester which allowed me access to several first and fourth grade students, but did not leave time available for me to meet with the student I worked with last semester. I was asked to choose a new student from my placement. I selected a low first grade boy from my first placement. Not working with this student previously left me a little unclear on the student’s strengths and weaknesses initially. However, I was able to conduct a running record and confirm the student was reading at a B level with the inability to move up to a C. This first grade student is severely behind his classmates and struggles in almost all areas of reading, writing, and mathematics. Math is probably his best subject because of the availability of manipulatives in the classroom, but without them the student is unable to conduct simple addition and subtraction problems. Reading and writing function much on the same plane because this student has a lot of trouble sounding out words. He can identify letters and their sounds with ease he just has trouble blending them to form words. Because of this the student has trouble reading most words and does not have the ability to spell correctly. However, this student is not one to give up easily and although he admits needing help almost constantly he is willing to try things on his own if he is asked. It is unclear to me whether this student is aware of his deficiencies, but he is willing to try alternative methods of working in order to find the strategy that helps him. This student wants to do well and will put the advice given to him to good use in order to do so. For the purpose of this paper we will call the student Mike.
I selected goals for Mike before getting to know much about him. I did not realize how unrealistic these goals were once I discovered how far behind Mike was from his classmates. For his reading goals I assigned sounding out words and matching words to pictures. Although sounding out words did not go as well as I had hoped, urging Mike to use pictures to help him worked too well. I taught Mike several strategies to use when trying to identify unknown words and using the picture to help him was one of the main strategies we focused on. Once Mike realized that he could analyze the picture and figure out the words, he thought he could read almost any book this way. This caused a problem when sometimes the pictures were not exactly paired up to the words or the unknown word was an article, pronoun or adjective. Pictures were helpful when trying to decipher nouns if Mike knew every other word on the page, but this was not often the case. I thought teaching Mike how to sound out words would help in this process.
Unfortunately, Mike and I did not meet this goal. We definitely made progress but sounding out words for Mike is going to be a long process. Mike has the ability to recognize letters and sounds, which is the basic step to sounding out words. However, the blending of these separate letter sounds into one word is difficult for Mike. We tried a lot of listen and repeat, stretching the word out first then blending it together, word patterns, and similar sounds, but not one of these strategies seemed to work better than the others. I think Mike definitely increased his repertoire of sight words, which is an extreme accomplishment but Mike will need to continue looking to find the right strategy for sounding out words that works best for him. As an inexperienced teacher I drained my ideas quickly, which is why I realize collaboration between teachers would be a helpful tool as a future educator. Having a partner may have made this process easier because I would have had more methods to choose from. Yet, increasing sight words is a step in the right direction.
I was initially unaware of how big the gap was between my two writing goals. Recognizing beginning, middle and end sounds with letters is a lot easier than forming complete sentences. I didn’t realize that one goal built off of the other so if Mike didn’t achieve goal number one, there was no way he could make it to goal number two. I felt a lot more ambitious when making these goals than when trying to meet them. As mentioned earlier Mike can identify letters with sounds, which is a good start when trying to identify beginning, middle, and end sounds but Mike has no differentiation between sounds when they are blended together in one word. If I asked Mike what the C sound makes he would be able to tell me “Caa” but if I asked Mike what sound the “C” makes in “cookie,” Mike would be unable to make the hard C sound. To help this process I showed Mike how to tear words apart in order to identify the different sounds. Of course, this process was the complete opposite of what I was telling him to do in order to sound out words. Mike could pull apart the first letter and last letter but any letters in between became a blur to him. I think eventually Mike will be able to pull out middle sounds as well. My hope for Mike is that when he is finally able to pull out all sounds in a word and write them down he will be able to blend them back together. As for complete sentences, this was totally out of Mike’s league for the time being.
I realized that Mike has trouble thinking up a sentence and then writing it because he needs to put all of his concentration into selecting the correct letters, which throws off his focus and leads him to forget his original idea. I had Mike slow down and first just say the sentence he wanted to write. I would then write it down so Mike would not forget it and copying down my sentence would allow Mike to form the correct letters and spellings while simultaneously thinking of the sentence and idea he is conveying. This skill usually comes with time and for first graders it is a hard skill to master, but giving Mike the ability to feel what it is like to write with confidence should help him in the future. Mike did not meet his goals in writing but again made some significant strides while trying.
Math seems to be where Mike shows the most comprehension. Mike seems to understand whole class math lessons and excels when receiving specialized attention. However, when Mike is left to complete work independently he struggles. When working together one of the goals I thought would be good for Mike would be to recognize math vocabulary and identify which operation he was being asked to use. Mike and I practiced this first with word problems but with all the other words in the paragraph Mike would get confused. Once we started isolating key vocabulary words and using rote memory skills to remember what these words were asking, math seemed to be a lot easier for Mike. Because I took it slow and gave Mike time to process he was usually able to complete problems on his own. Considering a new topic was taught daily in math, Mike had a hard time keeping up with current lessons, but I thought working on adding and subtracting with more ease would help him with lessons that would build off of these skills.
As a first grader I see nothing wrong with allowing Mike to use manipulatives if they significantly help him complete math problems. With the manipulatives Mike was able to answer almost any addition or subtraction problem correctly but without them Mike was unable to answer any addition or subtraction problem no matter how simple. Our goal did not specify whether manipulatives would be used, but with them Mike reached his goal. If this was a goal placed on Mike’s IEP I think it might be left unchanged for next year because Mike can still work towards adding and subtracting without manipulatives. Using tangible objects has helped Mike understand a formula that at first might have seemed abstract so after practicing these skills with tangible objects, Mike can now work towards computations without these objects. Math is definitely Mike’s strongest subject and I believe the more practice he puts in the better mathematician he will become.
Since I have now worked with Mike for an entire semester I realize my initial goals were too extreme for a struggling first grader to be able to accomplish in such a short time. Perhaps in a few years these goals will be reached, but I realized with Mike such large academic leaps are going to take time. If I had had the chance to assess Mike last semester with the WIAT I probably would have realized that he needed to start with simple baby steps and continue to build upon them to eventually reach these substantial goals. It is clear to me now why it is so important to have a collaboration of multiple professionals to determine what goals should be placed on a student’s IEP. I was unaware of how off base my initial goals for Mike were and I ended up wasting a lot of time modifying these goals than working towards them. Had I been advised from other teachers about Mike’s deficiencies I would have had a better idea of where to start. Overall I think Mike did make significant progress this semester even if he only achieved two out of his original six goals. However, I think Mike can continue to work towards these achievements and one day will be able to do most of these tasks independently. Mike is definitely a hard worker and a student willing to learn. Yet, his teachers will have to understand that he needs to take things slow and requires a lot of extra attention. While Mike is now receiving a lot of attention from his current teacher and myself, as he gets older this attention will be harder for his teachers to provide. My recommendation for Mike’s parents is to take the time to get him evaluated so they can begin the process of advocating for the services Mike needs. I think Mike would do very well in an inclusion classroom with some pullout for related services. I thoroughly enjoyed my sessions with Mike this semester because he was a pleasure to work with and because I learned a lot about myself as a teacher and the strategies needed to remediate specific subject areas for students. My hope for the future is to take what I learned with Mike and apply it to the classroom to help my future students.
I selected goals for Mike before getting to know much about him. I did not realize how unrealistic these goals were once I discovered how far behind Mike was from his classmates. For his reading goals I assigned sounding out words and matching words to pictures. Although sounding out words did not go as well as I had hoped, urging Mike to use pictures to help him worked too well. I taught Mike several strategies to use when trying to identify unknown words and using the picture to help him was one of the main strategies we focused on. Once Mike realized that he could analyze the picture and figure out the words, he thought he could read almost any book this way. This caused a problem when sometimes the pictures were not exactly paired up to the words or the unknown word was an article, pronoun or adjective. Pictures were helpful when trying to decipher nouns if Mike knew every other word on the page, but this was not often the case. I thought teaching Mike how to sound out words would help in this process.
Unfortunately, Mike and I did not meet this goal. We definitely made progress but sounding out words for Mike is going to be a long process. Mike has the ability to recognize letters and sounds, which is the basic step to sounding out words. However, the blending of these separate letter sounds into one word is difficult for Mike. We tried a lot of listen and repeat, stretching the word out first then blending it together, word patterns, and similar sounds, but not one of these strategies seemed to work better than the others. I think Mike definitely increased his repertoire of sight words, which is an extreme accomplishment but Mike will need to continue looking to find the right strategy for sounding out words that works best for him. As an inexperienced teacher I drained my ideas quickly, which is why I realize collaboration between teachers would be a helpful tool as a future educator. Having a partner may have made this process easier because I would have had more methods to choose from. Yet, increasing sight words is a step in the right direction.
I was initially unaware of how big the gap was between my two writing goals. Recognizing beginning, middle and end sounds with letters is a lot easier than forming complete sentences. I didn’t realize that one goal built off of the other so if Mike didn’t achieve goal number one, there was no way he could make it to goal number two. I felt a lot more ambitious when making these goals than when trying to meet them. As mentioned earlier Mike can identify letters with sounds, which is a good start when trying to identify beginning, middle, and end sounds but Mike has no differentiation between sounds when they are blended together in one word. If I asked Mike what the C sound makes he would be able to tell me “Caa” but if I asked Mike what sound the “C” makes in “cookie,” Mike would be unable to make the hard C sound. To help this process I showed Mike how to tear words apart in order to identify the different sounds. Of course, this process was the complete opposite of what I was telling him to do in order to sound out words. Mike could pull apart the first letter and last letter but any letters in between became a blur to him. I think eventually Mike will be able to pull out middle sounds as well. My hope for Mike is that when he is finally able to pull out all sounds in a word and write them down he will be able to blend them back together. As for complete sentences, this was totally out of Mike’s league for the time being.
I realized that Mike has trouble thinking up a sentence and then writing it because he needs to put all of his concentration into selecting the correct letters, which throws off his focus and leads him to forget his original idea. I had Mike slow down and first just say the sentence he wanted to write. I would then write it down so Mike would not forget it and copying down my sentence would allow Mike to form the correct letters and spellings while simultaneously thinking of the sentence and idea he is conveying. This skill usually comes with time and for first graders it is a hard skill to master, but giving Mike the ability to feel what it is like to write with confidence should help him in the future. Mike did not meet his goals in writing but again made some significant strides while trying.
Math seems to be where Mike shows the most comprehension. Mike seems to understand whole class math lessons and excels when receiving specialized attention. However, when Mike is left to complete work independently he struggles. When working together one of the goals I thought would be good for Mike would be to recognize math vocabulary and identify which operation he was being asked to use. Mike and I practiced this first with word problems but with all the other words in the paragraph Mike would get confused. Once we started isolating key vocabulary words and using rote memory skills to remember what these words were asking, math seemed to be a lot easier for Mike. Because I took it slow and gave Mike time to process he was usually able to complete problems on his own. Considering a new topic was taught daily in math, Mike had a hard time keeping up with current lessons, but I thought working on adding and subtracting with more ease would help him with lessons that would build off of these skills.
As a first grader I see nothing wrong with allowing Mike to use manipulatives if they significantly help him complete math problems. With the manipulatives Mike was able to answer almost any addition or subtraction problem correctly but without them Mike was unable to answer any addition or subtraction problem no matter how simple. Our goal did not specify whether manipulatives would be used, but with them Mike reached his goal. If this was a goal placed on Mike’s IEP I think it might be left unchanged for next year because Mike can still work towards adding and subtracting without manipulatives. Using tangible objects has helped Mike understand a formula that at first might have seemed abstract so after practicing these skills with tangible objects, Mike can now work towards computations without these objects. Math is definitely Mike’s strongest subject and I believe the more practice he puts in the better mathematician he will become.
Since I have now worked with Mike for an entire semester I realize my initial goals were too extreme for a struggling first grader to be able to accomplish in such a short time. Perhaps in a few years these goals will be reached, but I realized with Mike such large academic leaps are going to take time. If I had had the chance to assess Mike last semester with the WIAT I probably would have realized that he needed to start with simple baby steps and continue to build upon them to eventually reach these substantial goals. It is clear to me now why it is so important to have a collaboration of multiple professionals to determine what goals should be placed on a student’s IEP. I was unaware of how off base my initial goals for Mike were and I ended up wasting a lot of time modifying these goals than working towards them. Had I been advised from other teachers about Mike’s deficiencies I would have had a better idea of where to start. Overall I think Mike did make significant progress this semester even if he only achieved two out of his original six goals. However, I think Mike can continue to work towards these achievements and one day will be able to do most of these tasks independently. Mike is definitely a hard worker and a student willing to learn. Yet, his teachers will have to understand that he needs to take things slow and requires a lot of extra attention. While Mike is now receiving a lot of attention from his current teacher and myself, as he gets older this attention will be harder for his teachers to provide. My recommendation for Mike’s parents is to take the time to get him evaluated so they can begin the process of advocating for the services Mike needs. I think Mike would do very well in an inclusion classroom with some pullout for related services. I thoroughly enjoyed my sessions with Mike this semester because he was a pleasure to work with and because I learned a lot about myself as a teacher and the strategies needed to remediate specific subject areas for students. My hope for the future is to take what I learned with Mike and apply it to the classroom to help my future students.