Recommendations based on Assessment:

Tyler should practice reading aloud so that he can become more fluent and
especially paying attention to punctuation. There are several activities from Valerie
Ellerys book Creating Strategic Readers (2009) that Tyler would benefit from and
could be worked into core extension with small groups. Tyler had difficulty reading
his book aloud in meaningful phrases, so if he were to practice some phrasing
techniques that would enhance his fluency. Phrasing is the ability to read several
words together before pausing, as opposed to word by word reading. (Ellery
2009). The activity Pausing with Punctuation (Ellery 2009) would not only allow
Tyler to work on reading with meaning, but help him attend to punctuation better
since currently he omits most punctuation while reading. I would model from the
current read aloud book using several sentences written out on a board or
overhead projector. First the sentences would not have any punctuation to
demonstrate not pausing, and I would ask which of these sentences sound better
and why? The students would then work together to determine where the
punctuation belongs and later compare their versions to the actual text. This would
work really well as whole group or small group instruction for other students who
may be struggling with punctuation as well.
Since the class is in the Following Characters into Meaning unit of reading
workshop, I think the Interpretation/ Character Analysis (Ellery 2009) activity would
fit nicely with the curriculum and would help with reading with expression which
was another area of concern for Tyler. The purpose is to interpret and portray the
traits of a character in text, and I would suggest using the interactive read aloud for
this activity. After the activity, discussing about the authors choices made in writing

the dialogue would make a smooth connection for writing workshop. This would
help Tyler move towards storytelling and using dialogue versus just summarizing
events. Lastly, another activity that could easily be adapted into this classroom to
help Tyler as well as other students is Beam Reading. Currently every Friday the
class has Flashlight Friday, which is where they read in the dark using personal
flashlights. I think to add on to that, beam reading could be adapted to fit into that
for private individual use once the students learn the strategy. The purpose of beam
reading is to track and observe reading rate using a light (Ellery 2009). I can model
using a chart and using my own flashlight to move along the words at a steady
pace to encourage students to follow along. Each time the rate would increase. As
Tyler becomes more fluent in his reading, this should also show a positive correlation
with his writing, especially using more punctuation and expression through
dialogue. The activities chose serve multiple purposes and would not be out of
place in this classroom.

Ellery, Valerie. (2009) Creating Strategic Readers: Techniques for Developing

Competency in Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and
Comprehension (Second Edition). International Reading Association