The artifact included below is a guided reading comprehension worksheet that I created for two of my students who are reading at a very advanced level for Kindergarten. The book that I created this comprehension worksheet for is titled "Where is My Caterpillar?" by Dianna Noonan. This book is meant for students who are reading around Level J; to provide some context, Kindergarten students are usually initially given books that qualify as being Level A upon entry into Kindergarten and are expected to have reached a Level C reading level by the end of the school year.
I included this artifact in my portfolio because it is an example of a way that I differentiated my instruction to help meet the
needs of two students in my classroom in terms of reading level. While it is fantastic that these two students can read at such an advanced level for Kindergarten, one important component of reading that can easily be missed as students are given increasingly difficult books is the ability to comprehend what is being read. As a whole Kindergarten class, some components of comprehension that we had been learning about when I created this worksheet where elements of literature such as characters, setting, and beginning, middle, and end. I included questions in this worksheet that addressed these elements in addition to including a slightly more challenging question asking these two students to describe what the caterpillar found in the story looked like. It was my hope that students would use the illustrations in addition to descriptions
in the text of the caterpillar to answer this question.
This article also demonstrates my belief in the importance of taking advantage of little moments and opportunities to
differentiate for students, either through giving them a challenge or more support and reinforcement of material. While it does not make logistical sense to try to differentiate for every single student during every single group lesson, recognizing ways differentiation can be incorporated into instruction (especially in a small group setting if possible) is the reason why I choose to include this artifact under the competency of instruction.
Guided Reading Comprehension Worksheet:
I included this artifact in my portfolio because it is an example of a way that I differentiated my instruction to help meet the
needs of two students in my classroom in terms of reading level. While it is fantastic that these two students can read at such an advanced level for Kindergarten, one important component of reading that can easily be missed as students are given increasingly difficult books is the ability to comprehend what is being read. As a whole Kindergarten class, some components of comprehension that we had been learning about when I created this worksheet where elements of literature such as characters, setting, and beginning, middle, and end. I included questions in this worksheet that addressed these elements in addition to including a slightly more challenging question asking these two students to describe what the caterpillar found in the story looked like. It was my hope that students would use the illustrations in addition to descriptions
in the text of the caterpillar to answer this question.
This article also demonstrates my belief in the importance of taking advantage of little moments and opportunities to
differentiate for students, either through giving them a challenge or more support and reinforcement of material. While it does not make logistical sense to try to differentiate for every single student during every single group lesson, recognizing ways differentiation can be incorporated into instruction (especially in a small group setting if possible) is the reason why I choose to include this artifact under the competency of instruction.
Guided Reading Comprehension Worksheet: