Urban Education, post 7

     This week, I worked with an Exceptional Student Education (ESE) teacher. The teacher moves to various classrooms throughout the day to work with different children. At one point, she went into a classroom to pull students from class one at a time to read a passage. I observed her working with each student. When she called a student over, they read the passage, she asked comprehension questions, and then asked questions about the meaning of vocabulary words in the passage, based on context clues. The students were all very different with the areas they struggled with for the reading. Some read with excellent fluency, but then could not correctly answer the comprehension questions. Others struggled with the reading, but knew the answers to the comprehension questions. One of the context clue questions asked, “What does the word ‘quarters’ mean in this passage?” The correct answer was that it meant an open living space, but a student assumed that it meant a coin worth 25 cents. This showed me the importance of utilizing small groups for reading to help provide individualized instruction. This is also true for other subjects, as well. By knowing the specific areas in which a student has strengths or weaknesses, I can better adjust my instruction to meet the needs of all of my students.