 Instructional Inquiry Wyoming School District

Community Demographics  Population in 2011: 433  Male: 217, Female: 216  Median resident age: 35.8 years old  Median household income (2009): $49,658; up 11,000 from 2001  Gross rent $539  Median House value (2009): $83,880

Wyoming CSD Demographics based off NYS report card  167 students enrolled in the K-8 school  28% eligible for free lunch (47/167)  10% free and reduced lunch (17/167)  96% White (161), 2% Hispanic/Latino (4) and 1% Multiracial (2)  Annual Attendance: 96%, students suspended 2% (3)

Mission Statement "The mission of the Wyoming Central School, in partnership with the community, is to enable each student to reach his or her highest potential, instilling in each a commitment to lifelong learning, and thereby empowering each to achieve personal fulfillment in a Global Community."

Wyoming Free Library  Direct across the road from the school  Includes:  Summer reading  Children’s story house 10-11am every 2 nd and 4 th Monday of the month  Traveling Library at Fire Hall Senior Lunch every 3 rd Monday of month  Many facilities and services including access to computers, printers, copier, fax, mp3, DVD, VHS

Wyoming Free Library

Links for Learning and Fun  Links on school website for learning and fun from home.  Reading examples include RAZ kids, abcya.com and national geographic kids.  Math, Science, and S.S. games and activities also listed

Mrs. F’s 2 nd grade classroom *The Basics  13 students  All at different reading levels  Range from level A (K) to level T (4 th grade)

Instruction *picture is not of actual students  Small and large group instruction  First hour of the day is whole group Shared Reading instruction. Popcorn and teacher read a passage and focus on a specific task for that day. Read the same text all week, building more on each day.  Reading Groups/Guided Reading are small groups from 1-5 students split up by levels. Each groups meets after lunch for 40 minutes and instructed by a teacher. (support or Mrs. F) During reading groups students start with reviewing spelling words and then reading a different book every week and doing corresponding reading activities.  Read Aloud for 5-10 minutes before lunch. Mrs. F reads out of a chapter book while students listen.

School to Home Connection  Every Monday Mrs. F sends home a sheet with the weeks homework including Math and English. Students must read 15 every night and record it.  Reward for students if they read 5 times a week for 15 minutes and parents sign off on it. Reward given at end of the month if student fills it out for the month.  Every Friday a Friday letter is sent home and students are encouraged to continue reading along with upcoming events or weeks happenings.  Every Friday Mrs. F writes a note to the parents about the students week.

Use of Common Core  Starting in October 2012, Mrs. F classroom started using the Common Core Modules for second grade during ELA instruction.  During student teaching I did a 10-day unit plan on Fairy Tales and Tale Tales during both reading and writing instruction.  Assessment consisted of teacher observation, multiple choice question test at the end of each module, corresponding writings and worksheets.

Fundations  Wyoming schools uses fundations to teach vowels, digraphs etc.  Every day during a 30 minute period students are taught a certain vowel blend for the week  They are also taught 1-3 words of the week. These words are words you cannot spell out  Activities to correspond with the word work include white board practice, hearing the words then writing the spelling down etc.

Analysis of texts  Mrs. F used domain 1, from engageny to teacher her students about “Fighting for a cause”  Goals: Teach students about their history while teaching specific ELA aspects such as vocabulary, meaningful discussion among each other and retelling important events  Books read and discussed with the students include  Rosa Parks  Martin Luther King Jr.  Eleanor Roosevelt  Susan B. Anthony

Analysis of text cont.  Students are expected to sit quietly while listening to the story, respond to questions by raising their hand  Student were not spilt into groups during instruction. They were either as a whole group or individually.  When spilt groups are primarily based on who the students sit next to, these groups are heterogeneous  The module lasted 10 days

Literacy Assessment  After the readings from the week students are given a test of approx 8-10 questions relating to the story.  The teacher also assesses students through  Teacher observation  Questioning  Worksheets

Reading Group Assessment  Students are tested in the beginning of the year to see where to place them during reading groups.  During reading groups assessment consists of  Teacher observation  Questioning  Worksheets

State ELA Reading Assessment  The 2 nd Students were given the NYS ELA Reading Assessment in October.  Teachers were unable to read the test to the students, only thing they could read was the directions  The test consisted of most multiple questions with a few short response questions

Interview with Teacher  Tries to include all students by randomly calling on them. Mrs. F uses popsicle sticks to pull students names in order to make it fair  Groups the students heterogeneous, also sits students hetereogeneously. For example, a student who excels in math will sit next to a student who excels in ELA.  Reading groups are homogeneous  Materials used include engageny, fundations, reading A-Z and enVision for math

Values and Expectations  Values: Mrs. F values differentiated instruction, including all students, reading meaningful texts and allowing students to construct their own knowledge and use their schema to better understand the material  Student expectations during literacy instruction include  Sit quietly while listening to the story  Respond to questions by raising their hand  Do not distract other students during instruction

Interview with Community Member  Interviewed a parent of a second grade boy who attends speech classes.  His mother was very positive about the speech program and believed it has been helping her child greatly  Praised Mrs. F and says her son loves coming to school  She likes the use of fundations and believe it has greatly helped her son learn to read, write and speak better  Takes her son the public library almost once a week and reads to him and with him every night

Suggestions  I really enjoyed the fundations program and group interaction during shared reading.  Suggestions:  More time spent reading authentic text and non fiction text  Use of Daily 5 and CAFÉ  More discussion between students about the books they have been reading  Share out about books they enjoy, why they enjoy them and suggest them to other students