ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

As a Diagnostic Remediation tutor, I work with students who have specified learning needs within the Language Arts content area. The students’ needs are based initially upon Star Reading test scores, and are updated according to weekly improvements. According to the Star Reading Test scores, the three fifth-grade students I work with need to: “improve reading fluency and comprehension and continue to develop study skills.”

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: After my students complete their ten-week diagnostic remediation tutoring with me, I would like them to feel confident in their reading, writing, and researching abilities. I would like them to understand that as readers and writers, we practice our skills every day to continue making improvements. I want the students to read for a variety of purposes and be able to comprehend what they read. I also want them to have a clear understanding of the writing process to help them become independent writers. I want them to be able to use their organization and critical thinking skills to be able to access and evaluate research information. Goal(s): The students will continue to develop oral fluency. The students will continue to improve reading comprehension. The students will increase their independent reading levels. The students will understand the writing process. The students will continue to develop study skills.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: What skills do effective readers/writers/researchers have? What are the purposes of reading? How can we better understand what we read? What tools can we use to help us find unknown information? How can we tell if a resource is reliable? Objectives: (please write them to include the audience, expected behavior, the conditions, and the degree)? The students will be able to choose a book at an appropriate level and read silently for twenty minutes. The students will be able to recall what they have read by giving a verbal response or producing a product with 90% accuracy. The students will be able to self-correct their reading mistakes 90% of the time as reflected on Running Record assessments. The students will be able to use relevant resource materials, including technology-based materials, to access information with 90% accuracy. The students will be able to complete all five steps of the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and producing a final draft) with 90¬curacy.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? I will use Running Records with the students once a week to check their independent reading level progress. What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?  I will use divergent questions, which allow students to use critical thinking skills and make a personal connection with the text. What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding? The students are required to read aloud (performance), read silently (performance), complete the five steps of writing (product), research information (performance), and create graphic organizers (product). What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect? Tutor observations and student self-evaluations will also be used.

Instructional Strategies

Divergent questioning strategies allow students to use higher-order, critical thinking skills that are purposeful, reasoned, and goal directed. Regarding a given topic/situation, the students will be able to recall previously learned information, recall personal situations, and make predictions about what might happen next. Divergent questioning gives students a purpose for reading/writing/researching and acts as effective motivational exercise.