Currents in Literacy

Impressions of a Graduate Student Intern

By Susan Vitale

During the spring 1998 semester, I have been an intern at the Hardy School in Arlington, in cooperation with the Hood Children's Literacy Project. As a student in the Lesley College Consulting Teacher of Reading Master of Education program, I provided direct reading support to the students in first, fifth, and sixth grades. Under the guidance of Donna Driscoll, the Hardy's Reading Recovery and primary reading specialist, my duties included working with individual students three to five times per week, providing small group instruction and support during guided reading lessons and in-class process writing periods.

My initial work centered on working with four first grade students who qualified for the Reading Recovery program but were not able to be picked up in the first round due to an already full schedule. I also worked with a student who was nearing completion of the first session of Reading Recovery, but needed to continue individual reading support. All of these students received reading instruction in a small guided reading group provided by a part-time reading teacher. Three children learned English as a second language or came from bilingual homes. The students benefited from a regular 30-45 minute lesson that included reading familiar texts, interactive writing, word work, and reading new texts, which were at an appropriate instructional level. Frequent running records were taken and charted in order to choose appropriately leveled texts. Using diagnostic teaching techniques, lessons were planned to meet the individual needs of each student. Assessment was ongoing and lessons were built upon succeeding ones. The children showed progress in the levels of books read successfully, and they loved to be able to reread these complete texts with fluency and accuracy. More than one exclaimed with pride, "I can read this book!"

The interactive writing was completed in their writing books which allowed the students to go back to read other "stories" they wrote. Often their sentences were copied onto a sentence strip, cut apart between words or chunks of words and reassembled by them. The children were proud to take these home to practice rereading to someone at home. Word work lessons focused on hearing sounds in words. Working with the children in their guided reading groups provided consistency in my lessons with the books and activities they were working on in that instructional setting. Regularly observing Reading Recovery lessons offered me the chance to see and incorporate the strategies which offer children who are struggling with beginning reading the best chance at success. My work during in-class writing periods gave me another opportunity to support the students with writing workshop activities.

As a second phase of my internship, the school principal, Barbara Fischer Long, asked me to work daily with a fifth grade student who was experiencing serious academic difficulties in the area of language arts and may have a learning disability. I worked with this ESL student for two months while she was on a diagnostic education plan. I provided systematic and developmental reading instruction, assessed the exact reading difficulties, and determined the best method of reading instruction for her. In this phase, I also worked with small groups of sixth grade students to improve their literature comprehension.

Crucial to my role has been communication. I regularly consulted with Donna Driscoll, Kerryn Plant (guided reading group teacher), classroom teachers, the ESL instructor, and other specialists in the school. Working with these gifted teachers augmented my own education and teaching skills. We spoke daily about our students' progress and we planned goals together which enhanced individual strengths and worked on their weaknesses.

My days were full of exciting learning for both my students and myself. It was inspiring to witness the determination of the students as they worked to broaden their literacy skills. It was equally inspiring to work side-by-side with talented and dedicated teachers who know their students so well. Working at the Hardy School has been a tremendously rewarding experience.

Susan Vitale is a former special education and third grade teacher. She is currently earning her master's in the Lesley College Consulting Teacher of Reading program.