Final Noteblog!

Final Notebook Action Plan

What are at least three steps you will take in the fall to get to know your students as learners and as people?

1. I think first thing in the year, along with my MT it would be a good idea to do an icebreaker/get to know you activity such as the “Where I’m From” poem or stranded on a desert island activity that we did. 2. It could also be a fun activity, since I am in a middle school classroom and students tend to be more aware of how they learn best, to let the students take the multiple intelligences survey to find out what type of learner that they are.   3. Next, I would have a few basic questions that I would have students answer on a note card and then keep for reference later in the year. This could ask them about things like what hobbies they have, what books they like to read, etc.

What are at least three steps you will take in the fall to learn about your school and its surrounding community?

1. Before school starts, I am going to make time to take a drive or walk around the community to see what different things are in it. If I am unsure of something I will either look it up or ask my MT about it. 2. I will talk to my MT to find out what she does to stay involved with the school and the surrounding community and try to get involved with her. 3. I will see what my students are interested in and maybe take the initiative to help out with some of their activities. (after school sports, clubs, etc)

What are at least three steps you will take in the fall to learn about your literacy curriculum?

1. First thing that I will do is ask my MT to see the books that she uses to leach literacy from. 2. Then I will ask her if there is any special ways that she teaches literacy to her students with special needs. 3. If I still have questions, I will go to some other teachers in the school to see what books/materials they use to teach literacy in their classroom.

If you were writing a letter to introduce yourself to your students' parents and families (which you should all do), what are three things you would want them to know about you as a person and/or a teacher?

1. As a person, I would like the parents to know that I am a very determined person. 2. I think it is important for them to know that besides learning for myself this year, it is my goal to help make learning fun for my students. 3. I love animals and nature and I would like to pull on students interests to help them learn best for themselves.

Once you get to know your students as people and as learners, what are three concrete strategies you will use to differentiate instruction?

1. I will make sure to arrange the desks and students seat in a way that is most comfortable for them and will optimize their ability to focus and learn. 2. I will create groups that are different based on what learning level the student is and the groups will change throughout the year and based on what subject is being taught. 3. Some kids look at negative space vs. the positive space. Can possibly put color overlays on it to make the words “stay” either. Instead of using stark white paper use off white paper to make the contrast less.

Revisit your work in this class (blogs, logs, New Literacies, etc.) and the topics covered in this class (leading discussions, comprehension, writing, emergent literacy, and so on).  What is the one area that we have talked about this semester that you feel you need to grow in the most?  What are three specific steps you will take to foster that growth?

Topic: Discussion lessons 1.  Be explicit from the beginning of the lesson that it is student lead discussion and that I will only step in if they really get stuck in the conversations. 2. Provide students with more wait time before I jump in. Students take longer to process things then we do so they need more time to think about a question before starting a conversation about it. 3. After introducing the idea of a discussion lesson, possibly assigning group roles for the discussion. This will give students more of a feeling of purpose and will hopefully help keep the discussion student lead.

Reflect on your learning in the course.  What are three pieces of knowledge, insights or beliefs that you have gained from this course specifically that you would want to pass on to future TE 402 students?

1. It is important to get to know your students before diving right into material. Students’ prior knowledge and experiences will change from year to year and it is a good thing to know what your students already know so you can teach them new things. 2. DO NOT underestimate students! They are a lot smarter and thoughtful then we give them credit for. 3. Literacy centers, if done correctly, can be a great opportunity for the teacher to work individually with students as well as tailoring what students are reading/working on based on their reading level.

Final Noteblog Action Plan

What are at least three steps you will take in the fall to get to know your students as learners and as people?

1. I will play a get to know you game with the students, such as trapped on a stranded island. 2. I’ll give a mini survey (orally) to the students to find out what kind of learner they are. 3. In the letter I plan to write to the students parents, I’ll include a little notecard that I’ll ask them to fill out with their child (in my class) three facts about their child (they can be unique factors, hobbies, likes etc.)

What are at least three steps you will take in the fall to learn about your school and its surrounding community?

1. I will drive around to get to know the environment. 2. I will find the local library, and community center to see activities I can get involved in. 3. I will talk to my mentor teacher to find out what she does to stay connected to the school’s surrounding community.

What are at least three steps you will take in the fall to learn about your literacy curriculum?

1. I will print out the common core standards for my grade level. 2. I will ask my MT about the steps she takes. 3. I will ask the students what kinds of things they learned in their previous grade level to get a feel for their attitudes, and motivation towards literacy.

If you were writing a letter to introduce yourself to your students' parents and families (which you should all do), what are three things you would want them to know about you as a person and/or a teacher?

1.  I love working with kids and teaching. 2. I’m extremely active and love to get my students up and moving away from their seats. 3. I also love nature and plan to take advantage of nice days to incorporate parts of the student’s learning outside.

Once you get to know your students as people and as learners, what are three concrete strategies you will use to differentiate instruction?

1. I will use centers to group like learners and create different activities based on the learners needs. 2.  I will be sure to arrange the students’ seats in a way that allows them to be the most comfortable and have the most success while learning. 3. I will use less harsh colors on worksheets and projections to be more accommodating to the students needs.

Revisit your work in this class (blogs, logs, New Literacies, etc.) and the topics covered in this class (leading discussions, comprehension, writing, emergent literacy, and so on).  What is the one area that we have talked about this semester that you feel you need to grow in the most?  What are three specific steps you will take to foster that growth?

Topic: Discussion Lessons 1. Being more explicit to the students about me staying out of the group discussion. 2. Give the students roles in the discussion so they will already be aware of the part they need to contribute to and not feel unprepared or put on the spot. 3. Giving more wait time to be sure I’m not passing any students that need more time to think about a question.

Reflect on your learning in the course.  What are three pieces of knowledge, insights or beliefs that you have gained from this course specifically that you would want to pass on to future TE 402 students?

1. The gradual release of responsibility is a pivotal aspect to teaching. 2.  Don’t ever underestimate your students, they can understand and respond thoughtfully to controversial topics during group discussions and in books. 3. Literacy centers are a great way to include differentiation, as well as have a chance to work with students individually.

Mini Lesson 1&2 + reflections

Reading Lesson Plan #1

Your Name: Carrie Eby                    Grade Level: Kindergarten  

Date lesson was taught:  4/20/12      Number of Students: 2

1) Rationale (What evidence do you have that your focus students need to learn this skill/strategy?):

These students have been struggling with adding the initial sound of a word to a common ending. (h-am, j-am, etc) In the lessons that I have seen my MT do for this, she often using the same 5 or so letters so it is more than likely that the students will have these few memorized so I am going to try and use different/more letters to get them thinking about the multitudes of words that can be made with one ending.  I am hoping that making the task fun with a game, it will help the students realize that building different rhyming words is easy and helpful.

2) List which reading skill/strategy is the main focus of your lesson (select ONE area):

Building words with common endings (rhyming words)

3) Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria):

Students will be able to build words that rhyme and be able to say the words with 100% accuracy.

4) Materials & supplies needed:

-Easter eggs with word ending on one side and beginning letters on the other.

-(For teacher) Master list of all the possible words that can be built on each egg.

5) OUTLINE OF LESSON PLAN (Provide a bulleted list of ideas):

• Introduction to the lesson (2 minutes) 

“Hi Janya and Melody, thank you for coming to work with me today. We are going to be working on building some words that rhyme, just like when Mrs. C has you do it in class. This time we are going to use some fun tools to help us make our words. When I give you the materials I want to you to take a minute to look at them and become familiar with them. Then I want you to look at the word that the two halves make and then say it slowly. Then once you figure out what the word it, I would like you to say it fast. A lot of the words may look familiar to you, but that is ok, knowing how to recognize and make these words will help us become a better reader and writer!  Let’s get started!”

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson  (10 minutes)

-Hand out one egg to each student. I will randomly give one to them at first.

-I will take a minute to explain that they can turn the half of the egg with the single letters to create a word. I will then let them play with the eggs for about a minute just so they get comfortable manipulating them.

-I will then start with one student and have her read me the first word that she made with the egg.

-Then I will have the second student do the same.

-I will have each student listen to the other student and read the word that was made afterwards. This way they both get practice with all of the words. (/j/ /a/ /m/ - jam, etc)

-We will go through all of the eggs this way.

-I will explain to the students that when they are reading or writing and don’t know how to say or spell a word they can use this strategy to simply add a letter to the common ending as long as they know how to sound out the end of the word, they can make so many words off of this.

• Closing summary for the lesson  (3 minutes)

“Great job you two! You guys have just created so many new words simply by knowing the ending and then sounding the whole words out! I really like how you took your time and sounded out the words before blurting them out. This is what is going to help you become a better reader and writer. What did you think of this task? Was it fun? Did it help you think about how to make words easier? Remember this is just like how Mrs. C uses the letter cards to make words in class. Do you guys have any questions about what we did today?”

6) Ongoing-Assessment:

I will inform my MT about how each of the students did with building words and for the rest of the time that I am in the class, I will observe how the students do during literacy time and if they need a reminder about how they are just adding a letter onto the end sound, I will give them a verbal reminder.

7) Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson?

I think I may need to help one of the students sound the words out because she has trouble with producing letter sounds on occasion. She can recognize the letters and know what sound they make, but she has speech problems so I think if I model what the letters are supposed to sound like, then this will help.

Reflection: This lesson proved to be very difficult for one of the students that I chose to teach to. She could sound out both parts of the words but then had an extremely hard time putting them together. At this point she would just guess a random word with the same beginning sound as the word she was trying to put together. The other student struggled at the beginning, but then when I let her have a few minutes to herself to work on it, it clicked and she successfully was able to read all of the words on the egg. They did have fun twisting the eggs to make new words, so it was good to see that I was moving in the right direction in terms of making words fun! I noticed at some points when the one student was getting frustrated that I would get frustrated too. I was able to solve this by taking a step back and slowly explaining to her again what we were trying to accomplish. The limitations of this lesson were that I could only give so much instruction with the materials that I had. I think that if I did this lesson again, I would have papers with words on them as well as the eggs in case they don’t work for a particular student. 

Reading Lesson Plan #2

Your Name: Carrie Eby                    Grade Level: Kindergarten  

Date lesson was taught:  4/20/12      Number of Students: 2

1) Rationale (What evidence do you have that your focus students need to learn this skill/strategy?):

2) List which reading skill/strategy is the main focus of your lesson (select ONE area): coming up with a rhyming word based on a picture of a person or object.

3) Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria): Students will be able to identify what a picture is and then come up with a rhyming word with 100% accuracy.

4) Materials & supplies needed:

-3 rhyming spinners

5) OUTLINE OF LESSON PLAN (Provide a bulleted list of ideas):

• Introduction to the lesson (2 minutes) 

“Hello Donavin and Kimmy, thank you for coming to work with me today. We are going to be working on thinking about words that rhyme. Do you remember how Mrs. C has you do this in class? Well it’s going to be just like that, but it’s more of a game! When I give you the spinner, I want you to take a minute to look at the pictures and see if you know what all of them are. I am going to have Donavin start by spinning and giving me a word and then Kimmy, you will do the same. Being able to do this will help you to become a better reader and writer. Let’s get started!”

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson  (10 minutes)

-Put the spinner in between the two students so that each of them can reach it.

-Explain that they will spin the paper clip and then whatever word or lands on, they must come up with a word that rhymes with that.

-Have each student in turn spin the spinner and come up with a rhyming word. Once they have completed the words on one spinner, I will give them the next one with slightly harder words.

-After students have given me a couple of rhyming words, I will ask them what they change with the new word when they make it.

-If they are having a hard time thinking of it, I will ask if it is the beginning, middle or end sound that gets changed. Then if they are still struggling, I will say “when you said that HOUSE and MOUSE rhyme, what changed? The beginning, middle or end sound?”

-After this, I will have them keep making words to see if they improve after making this realization that it is just the beginning sound of the word that gets changed.

• Closing summary for the lesson  (3 minutes)

“Great job you two! You guys just created so many rhyming words by knowing the word and then realizing that all you have to change is the beginning sound! I really like how you took your time and thought about the words before telling me what they are. This is what is going to help you become a better reader and writer. What did you think of this task? Was it fun? Did it help you think how and why words rhyme? Remember this is just like when Mrs. C asks you to make rhyming words in class. Do you guys have any questions about what we did today?”

6) Ongoing-Assessment:

I will inform my MT about how each of the students did. I will assess the students’ progress through simple observation during the next few times they do this type of activity in class. If they struggle, I will either give them a verbal reminder myself or inform my MT that they are still having trouble.

7) Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson?

Some of the pictures on the spinners are not necessarily clear as to what it is. So as a support, I may have to tell them what it is. I also may have to ask multiple times what is changed when creating a rhyming word. I may also need to give multiple examples to make sure they get it.

Reflection: The students really had fun with the spinner activity. I noticed and I really liked that they students would identify the picture and then think about what word to say before saying it. Sometimes they had a hard time, but through a little bit of questioning they were able to figure it out. I think this is a very strong task because it is fun and interactive and progressively builds to a higher level of words used. I found that I enjoyed this lesson more than the other one because it was easier for these students to understand and complete. 

Reflection on Mini-Lesson 1 & 2

Fluency

            I’m pleased to say my mini-lesson on fluency went quite well.  The students in my placement have been taught what this means, and how to practice it during their reading café time, however, the student I choose for this lesson has a lot of trouble with this concept.  I was very surprised that she not only didn’t have a clue what the definition was, but she could not remember how to practice it, even though this is something they do almost daily.  Nonetheless, we reviewed what it actually means to be a fluent reader and then we did a choral and echo read to practice the skill.  I choose a poem that was a bit above her reading level because I wanted to challenge her.  I’d stop every so often during our practice and ask her to re-read parts or try to imitate how I sound to help her.  As I released the gradual aid of responsibility, I finally let her read it on her own at the end.  I was very pleased to hear that she did listen to my instruction and even though her expression still needs some work, her tone was less monotone, and her prosody was quite good.  Besides a few minor mistakes on unfamiliar words, she did quite well.  I took a running record and her overall fluency score had an accuracy rate of 89%.

Comprehension

            The students in my placement have had a lot of practice with comprehension.  Like fluency, during this reading café they practice this skill.  They mostly refer to this concept as checking for understanding.  The student I chose for this lesson can read fairly well, but he has not developed very good tactics for finding out the meaning of new words.  I have never seen my MT talk about using a dictionary to look up unfamiliar words; instead she mostly encourages them to use context clues.  I decided this would be my main approach for this lesson.  I began the lesson by reviewing what the concept is itself.  The student was in fact aware of what it meant.  Then I taught him how to use context clues to figure out an unfamiliar word with a practice sentence.  The student understood how to do this but he did not believe the unfamiliar word was the correct form to use in the sentence.  I told him to not worry about forms, and we were just looking for meaning, but this is something he got stuck on a few more times during the lesson.  Then I had the student whisper read the passage of I provided for him, and then I had him read it aloud to me. He used the strategy I provided from him (which worked well!) and he was accurately able to figure out all but one unfamiliar word on his own.  After he finished the reading I had him complete a short worksheet, which, checked for comprehension with three multiple-choice questions and two short answers.  He answered all but one question correctly.  However, in hindsight, I think perhaps the assessment would have been more meaningful if we just discussed the questions.  I thought the worksheet would be beneficial, but he seemed bored and did not want to do it.  In the future I will definitely provide something more interesting because the last thing I want to do is bore a child.

Lesson Plans

Your Name: Christy Naife Grade Level: 2nd   Date: 4/12/12 MT: Kris Bobo      School: Post Oak Elementary 1. Overall lesson topic/title: Fluency 2. Grade Level Content Expectation(s): R.FL.02.03 read aloud unfamiliar text with a minimum of 90% accuracy in word recognition at an independent reading level. 3. Objective:  The student will the poem “I Ran for the Chapstick” independently, while expression all of the components of fluency. 4. Materials & supplies needed: The two copies of the poem “I Ran for the Chapstick”, and pencil.
Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event (Note: use bullet points to outline your ideas)  BEFORE READING: • Introduction to the lesson  “Today we are going to do a little mini lesson on fluency.  Can you tell me what fluency is? In order to be fluent readers we must have a good pace, pronounce the words correctly, and read with expression.  We are going to do a little activity to practice this together.  I brought a silly poem called ‘I Ran for the Chapstick’”. • Activties ·       Choral Reading: The student and I will read the poem together.  After the reading I will go through examples of what the student can work on. ·       Echo Reading:  The student will repeat each line after I read it so I can get a better feel for how they are progressing. •  After Reading:  “Now you are going to practice being a fluency reader all on your own by reading the poem “ I Ran for the Chapstick” just one more time.  I am going to take a running record of your reading, which just means that I am going to be paying attention to the three major components of fluency.  Can you name them for me?  That’s right, reading at a good pace, pronouncing the words correctly, and reading with expression.  Now don’t worry about me writing things down while you’re reading, this isn’t a test that will go in your grade book, but this practice will help you with your literacy.” CLOSING SUMMARY FOR THE LESSON: • Bringing closure : Tell the student how he/she did with their fluency assessment.  Give them tips on how he/she can improve depending on the evidence of the running record.

I Ran for the Chapstick

By Kenn Nesbitt

I ran for the Chapstick mom keeps in her purse. My lips were so chapped that they couldn't feel worse! I dug through her handbag and pulled it out quickly, then sighed in relief as I smeared it on thickly. I felt so much better I almost rejoiced. My painful, dry lips were now mended and moist. My dad burst out laughing. My mom looked amused. Her Chapstick was lost. That was lipstick I'd used.

Your Name: Christy Naife Grade Level: 2nd   Date: 4/17/12 MT: Kris Bobo      School: Post Oak Elementary 1. Overall lesson topic/title: Comprehension 2. Grade Level Content Expectation(s): 3. Objective: R.CM.02.02 retell in sequence the major idea(s) and relevant details of grade-level narrative and informational text. 4. Materials & supplies needed: The short passage “Plane Trip”, and a pencil for the student.
Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event (Note: use bullet points to outline your ideas)  BEFORE READING: • Introduction to the lesson  “Today we are going to practice your comprehension skills.  Can you tell me it means to comprehend while reading?  Good, so comprehension is learning how to understand a story while you are reading it.  Before we being a I want to show you a couple of different strategies to figure out how to find the meaning of words that you might not understand right away. ·       Example: The bird flew high in the sky. ·       What words in the sentence show you what the word flew means? ·       Explain context clues to the student. • Activties ·       Have the student whisper read “Plane Trip” ·       Have the student read aloud “Plane Trip” o   Encourage the student to practice using context clues and talk their way through finding out the meaning of unfamiliar words. •  After Reading:  “Now that you have read through the passage “Plane Trip”, you are going to complete a short worksheet that will show how well you comprehended the text.  Don’t worry this assessment isn’t going in the grade book, but it is going to help you practice your skills.” CLOSING SUMMARY FOR THE LESSON: • Bringing closure : Tell the student how he/she did.  Give the student some more helpful ideas as to how to help their comprehension.  Ask if they have any questions
http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/2nd-comprehension.html (Click on Airplane Passage)

Self-Assessment and Mini-Lesson 2

In looking over the initial blog posts and responses from the semester I thought my colleagues and I did a good job reflecting on ideas discussed in class and the assigned readings, as well as developing on ideas the initial poster brought up in their post.   I noticed that we all relied a lot on passages from the Tompkin’s readings, which I found to be the most beneficial readings assigned this semester.   Most of the posts were written thoroughly and provided key aspects of the readings from that week.  A trend that I noticed as the semester went on his how much my colleagues and I made connections between what we were learning in class to what we saw in our field placements.  Because there wasn’t always time in class to talk about what was going on in our placement classrooms, it was nice to be able to hear about other experiences on the note blog each week. 

After carefully reading over our posts from the semester I noticed that we tended to agree a lot with what the initial poster said.  It was nice to know that we had similar understandings of the topic at hand, but also it was helpful to read about how the responders built on the ideas mentioned by the initial poster.   In almost every post the responders reflected on the initial post, but then made suggestions for how to improve literacy instruction even more.  It made me feel comfortable sharing my ideas on the subject matter and it was exciting to know that my blog group members would provide me with even more ideas in their post.  The way in which my group members were able to agree and then build on ideas I shared was both professional and valuable.

More often than not, we tended not to disagree with each other’s ideas, but instead just made suggestions for improvement where we thought necessary.  While I thought this was great, I think it could have also been helpful if we had some areas of disagreement.  I don’t feel like it was made completely clear at the beginning of the semester that it is appropriate to disagree with what our colleagues said in their posts, so we tended to shy away from that.  

Overall, I was really pleased with our group dynamic.  I really appreciated the way we used each other’s ideas to share our own thoughts as if we were having a conversation back and forth instead of just putting down ideas we had individually.  With this in mind, I think the work we all did in our note blog posts deserves a full 10/10 points for the second half of the semester.  Not only was each post prompt and fulfill its requirements, but I really feel that most of the posts did a great job making connections to other posts, field placements, readings, and topics from class.

Decoding CVC Words With Short Vowels Lesson Plan

Reading Lesson Plan # 2 

Your Name:  Caitlin shanahan   Grade Level:  K  

Date lesson was taught:  4/16/12  Number of Students: 1

1) Rationale (What evidence do you have that your focus students need to learn this skill/strategy?):

This student has been practicing blending and decoding CVC with short vowel sounds, but he always practices with one vowel sound at a time.  Also, the same words are always used so the student has started to memorize the words instead of actually decode them.  The student needs practice decoding a variety of CVC words that include short vowels a, e, I, o, u so this picture/word sort will give him practice with that.

2) List which reading skill/strategy is the main focus of your lesson (select ONE area):

Decoding CVC words with short vowels

3) Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria):

The student will decode and match 12 CVC words to the correct picture with 100% accuracy.

4) Materials & supplies needed:

-CVC words cut out

-12 picture squares cut out

• Introduction to the lesson   (3 minutes)

“Hi, Allen.  Thank you for joining me.  Today we are going to read some words and match them to pictures, just like you do when you work with the vowel boxes.  But, this time instead of only matching words and pictures for u vowels or o vowels like we do with the vowel boxes, you are going to see different vowels in some words.  That means we will have to be very careful to look at what vowel is in each word, but I know you can do it because you know how to slowly say each sound, then read the whole word fast.  Some of these words might look familiar to you, and some may be new.  But all of these words are going to help us become a better reader and writer!  Are you ready?”

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson  (15 minutes)

-Pass out the CVC word cards and picture cards.  The cards will be randomly placed in front of the student.

-I will take a few moments to review what the picture cards are in case there are some cultural differences that make the cards difficult to understand.

-Take one card with a CVC word on it and show the student how we decode the word so he can be reminded of how to blend phonemes to make a word.

-I will start at the first letter in the word with my index finger under it and make a half loop motion with my finger as I go through the sounds. Then once I get to the end of the word I will loop my finger back to the first letter and swipe my finger under the whole word as I read it fast.  For example: leg. /llll/ -/eee/   /ggg-/. Leg.

-Then Allen will repeat the signaling and decode the rest of the words, matching them up to the pictures.

-Once he has gone through and matched all the cards we will go over each word and have Allen will read the CVC words quickly.

• Closing summary for the lesson (3 minutes)

“Look at that! You just read 12 new words.  I really like how careful you were in look at the vowel sounds in each word.  I also love how you used your finger to follow along as you said each sound in the word.  That is a good trick to use when you don’t know a word because it can help you hear some of the important sounds in that word.  Next time you do the vowel boxes, remember to use this same signal.  It will help you learn to read the word instead of just matching the pictures.”

6) Ongoing-Assessment:

I will observe the student has he does vowel boxes during independent work time.  He is required to do at least one vowel box activity each day so it will be easy to observe him.  It is okay if he decides he does not want to use the signal we used in this lesson, but I will make sure he is saying each sound in the word instead of just matching up pictures.

7) Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson?

This student was born in Jamaica so there may be some cultural differences that could affect how he interprets the picture cards.  For example, he may be unfamiliar with what a Top is so I will have to review the pictures before I let him finish the activity on his own.

Reflection:

The student did really well with this activity, and since it was simply printed on a sheet of computer paper and cut out I let her take it with her to practice.  I happen to know that this student is homeless, so for her to have an activity to take away from school to practice CVC words is really great for her.  She needs the extra practice and may not have the resources outside of school to do so.  One thing I noticed is that she had a hard time recognizing the pictures, which is something I expected.  We went over the pictures before starting the mini-less but even while she was doing to activity she had trouble deciphering what was in the picture.  If I were to do this lesson with her again I think I would choose pictures that are more culturally familiar to her. 

After doing this lesson I was able to pin point an area of trouble she has with short vowels.  She has trouble decoding words with short vowels –e and –u so as a follow up lesson I would choose words that have these vowels.  That way she would get some isolated practice with these vowels.