EDGE Project

As a student at Southern Utah University I have been given the opportunity to reach beyond the normal curriculum and find a way to go out and get some real world experience related to my degree. As an Elementary Education major with a person love and appreciation for literature I decided to volunteer here in the Cedar City community at a local Elementary School, with the assistance of the reading specialist there. With her help I was able to work four times a week running a reading group for students who were struggling in literacy.

As a part of my project I get to spend one hour,  four times a week working with a specific group of students. It was been a wonderful experience. I get to go and be in a school almost every single day of the week, which as an education major is a dream. Literacy is something that has always been a major part of my life and something that I am passionate about. It's been very fulfilling to watch my students improve in their literacy skills as the semester has gone on. 

I volunteer at Iron Springs Elementary school. They have a specific reading program already in place. For the first week or so of  my volunteering I was trained on how the reading program works. They work very hard to make sure that all the students have a similar experience within the program, because they could easily be moved from one group to another at any time through the school year. They want the students to know the procedures no matter which group they are placed in. This continuity helps create success in the program. 

The first thing that I do with my students every day is read from our sight words. I have kids who are what is called next steps readers, meaning that they have master the basics of reading but are still behind grade level. The words I pick are past the basic sight words from Kindergarten or 1st grade, but not so obscure that they are just memorizing useless information.  

After our sight words we read. They start by listening to me read a small passage, following along with their fingers. Next they read aloud together, working to make all their voices the same speed. After that they split up into pairs to read. I have five students in my group so we have two pairs and then the last student reads with me. The student reading with me is called the focus student. Every class we rotate who get's to read with me. While they read I time them to see how long it takes them to read a 100 word passage. I also mark how many mistakes they make. Their rate or reading and the number of errors made helps determine which reading level they are on, and when they are ready to move to the next level. We read for approximately twenty minutes from our story and then we move on to what we call word study.

The word study is where the students work on different vowel patterns. A few that we have worked on semester so far are the additional U sounds, Additional A sounds, and the additional I sounds. The kids work to sort their words in pairs ( I have two word sorts sets) and the focus students works with me again. The focus student is timed for one minutes as I have them read all the word cards related to the word sort. There are 40 words in my stack. They must correctly read at least 37 of the words to pass off that specific word sort. Once all the students pass off the word sort we can move on to the next sort. For some sorts this goes quickly, while others may take more time.

We also work on spelling in read group. The spelling words come from the word sort words. This way they are practicing writing the words, and not just reading them. This is a good time to see which vowel patterns they are specifically struggling with. We wait and allow all the students to get the word spelled right before we move on to the next word. They have to show me their words and I have to tell them it is correct before we move on. If it's not right I will help them identify what is wrong and think of what they need to do to fix the spelling. After the words are all finished we pass the cards around that they say it, match it, check it, meaning that they look at the card, say the letters, match the letters to their own writing, and check it off if it's correct. We also practice writing one sentence every day with our spelling. I have a list of partial sentence prompts that we use. The focus student gets to fill in the blank of the sentence and then everyone gets to practice writing it.

Finally if we have time we work on fluency. There are specific passages from the books or stories that we have been reading that we use to time the students with. It has to be a passage from something that the students have already read.   Along the side of the passage there are numbers showing how many words have been read per sentence. I time the students for two minutes and mark any errors that are made. Then they get to do it again. The hope is that they will get further the second time through, and have less errors as they read. I only log one

 students actual score each day, however they all get to be paired up and practice reading with each other. They get their own timers and can practice reading and following along as someone else is reading.

There is a lot of data being collected each day. I have been happy to see how the numbers in my own personal group have improved as the semester has gone on. It shows that the program is effective. One way the I log date is by making sure to fill out a lesson plan every day of what it is we are reading, who my focus student is, and what their scores were. An example of my lesson plan is seen here. 

Recently I told my students that I would not be coming much longer, since the semester was almost over. They were sad that we wouldn't get to read together anymore. I am sad too! It has been a great opportunity to get hands on experience in an Elementary School, something that will greatly benefit me in my future career.

Denae Boudreaux 

If you have any questions about my project or my experiences at Southern Utah University please feel free to e-mail me denaekb33@gmail.com