STAIR Hypothesis

(System for Teaching and Assessing Interactively and Reflectively)

Student Pseudonyms: Ava, Layla
Date: March 20, 2015
Target Area: Foundational Skills
Hypothesis about next steps for supporting focus students learning needs (based on what you
learned from your Assessment Plan about what they CAN do):
Student A: Layla often asks for help sounding out words but becomes frustrated and may need more
letter sound knowledge to feel confident in coming up with word spellings; her letter sound recognition
is in the developing stages.
Student B: Ava can come up with rhyming words at times, but seems to have some unfamiliar letter
sounds that prevent her from creating rhymes to some words; her phonemic awareness in terms of
rhyming is in the developing stages.
Sources of information supporting hypothesis (based on information gathered from Assessment
Plan). Be sure to include both strengths and areas needing work:
Avas hypothesis comes from how eager she is to reach out for help in class, but having her say she
does not know what letters are made by sounds and usually turns to a classmates paper to find out.
Ava can blend sounds together to create words and can come up with words that rhyme. When it
comes to the opposite however, Ava struggles to match letters to their sounds and based on the
blending assessment, may have a hard time differentiating some sounds. This was something I
noticed with sounds that could be a couple different letters such as /k/ and the confusion of /n/ because
she may have wondered if I said /m/. It seems as though when there was doubt, she just said she was
not sure rather than trying to figure out which letter or sound it was. I also noticed that with some of the
words I asked her to make rhymes for, she did not know what word would fit. I am wondering that
working on rhyming words will help her know which sounds are the same or different.
Laylas hypothesis comes from her reading and family surveys where she states her feelings that she
cannot read yet but also that she works alone at home and does not get the time in class to read. I feel
that Layla and Ava need some more letter sound knowledge to feel more confident spelling and
reading. They would both benefit from an activity which reinforces letter sound recognition using a tool
for extra help. I noticed with both of them that similar sounds cause them to question themselves,
where they often get frustrated. Helping them to differentiate between sounds more by using audio
and visual will improve their recognition.
Instruction to address hypothesis:
A plan for Layla would be to use a tool which helps her become more familiar with letter sounds which
she can gradually pull away from. This way, she will become more independent with spelling and
recognizing letters. I would have her use an app on my tablet to help her sound out words on the
game board when she wants help on a word, then go through the game again without the app until she
shows frustration so that it gets her thinking about the letters and their sounds. I do not think it is a
problem that the game board will be the same both times because she will be gaining frequency with
these sounds. To add some difficulty though, I would have another board to play with after the gradual
release of instruction to show that she is gaining knowledge through practicing letter sounds.
Avas plan would involve seeing, hearing and creating rhyming words so the sounds are reinforced.
This way, she will gain a deeper understanding of letter sounds and be able to come up with more
rhyming words. This will help her because she gets frustrated with sounds that are similar yet different.
Since rhyming words share similar sounds like this, she will gain practice with phonemic awareness.
When playing the game, we will flip our cards and say what word the picture is showing, and then have

Differentiating Language Arts Instruction

Lesson Plan # 1
Your Name: Carly Lagerstrom Grade Level: Kindergarten
Date of Lesson: March 31st, 2015 Focus Students Pseudonyms: Ava, Layla
Target Area: Foundational Skills
STAIR Hypothesis Being Addressed: Layla often asks for help sounding out words but becomes
frustrated and may need more letter sound knowledge to feel confident in coming up with word
spellings; her letter sound recognition is in the developing stages.
Common Core State Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.A
Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary
sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.
Lesson Objective(s):
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to play the decoding game, using the app that provides
letter sounds if needed.
Materials: Game board, coin to flip or dice, tablet with letter sounds app
LESSON OUTLINE

Introduction (participation norms, develop motivation and interest, set purpose)

- Ask students what they do when coming across a word they are not sure of and if there is
anything they have been taught to do in this situation.
- Talk about segmenting as a strategy they can use to decode words and sound them out.
- Tell students we will be playing a game in which we will be sounding out words we may not
know and try our hardest to sound them out, but use this app if needed.
- Let students know they will need to be thinking about how the letters sound and how they can
fit in that word
-

What are some things you do when you see a word you dont know?
Is there a name you know of what youre doing in that situation? (stretching out words)
When you say each sound in the word by itself, you can put them together to figure out the
word
Were going to play a game with this board that has many words on it, some of them you
might not know right away
When you dont know a word, say each sound and stretch out the word until you can hear
what word you are saying.
If we have a hard time figuring out how the sounds should sound, I have this app we can
use to tap on a letter and it will make the sound for us.

Instruction (explicit instruction, modeling, guided practice)

- Model a turn in the game to show how they will take their turn: roll, sound out the word
then it is the next persons turn
- Turn-take with each of them so they can understand how the game works and flows
- Play the game with both of them
- Allow both of them to play together without me and observe, stepping in whenever one of
them is struggling to sound out a word.
-

When it is your turn, flip the coin and move one space for heads, two spaces for tails.

Then, you must sound out the word on your square.

Turn-take with both of them so they understand the game

Let them play together and have them use the app when they need some extra help.

Differentiating Language Arts Instruction

Lesson Plan # 2
Your Name: Carly Lagerstrom Grade Level: Kindergarten
Date of Lesson: March 31st, 2015 Focus Students Pseudonyms: Ava and Layla
Target Area: Foundational Skills
STAIR Hypothesis Being Addressed: Ava can come up with rhyming words at times, but seems to
have some unfamiliar letter sounds that prevent her from creating rhymes to some words; her
phonemic awareness in terms of rhyming is in the developing stages.
Common Core State Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.A
Recognize and produce rhyming words.
Lesson Objective(s): Students will be able to identify words that rhyme based on hearing them said out
loud.
Materials: Rhyming playing cards
file:///C:/Users/Carly/Desktop/TE%20classes/RhymingGame.pdf
LESSON OUTLINE

Introduction (participation norms, develop motivation and interest, set purpose)

- Tell students we will be playing a game, possibly similar to a game they would play at home.
- Show students cards and let them know they should know all the words, but can ask if they
need help.
-

Instruction (explicit instruction, modeling, guided practice)

-

We will be playing a card game where you want to find matching cards. The cards have
pictures on them and we are going to flip a card to show it to our partner and say the word.
Then we will be looking for that word on our list of words.
First I will play with you and we will all flip a card then see if two of them rhyme. Then, I
will let you two play together and I will be asking questions or helping you.

Preselect three cards for an example turn, two that rhyme and one that does not. Flip over
two cards that do not rhyme then the last one and show that they rhyme.
Play with both students so we all have cards we are flipping over to see if any of them
rhyme.
Have students play with each other
What is another word that could rhyme with these ones?
This pair does not rhyme, but what would rhyme with them?

Conclusion (engage students in reflecting on learning experiences)

- Ask students if they think some words are harder to make rhymes for than others and if
they can remember any of our words being tough to make another rhyme for.
- Say some words and have students tell me rhyming words for them and what sounds they
hear in the words that let them know they rhyme.

Ongoing Assessment (how will you know your students made progress toward the learning objectives):
- I will know if students made progress based on the objective if they are able to think about
what sounds they hear in the words. I will also know based on the words they come up
with and if they do not rhyme and are close or not.

Differentiating Language Arts Instruction

Lesson Plan # 2
Your Name: Carly Lagerstrom Grade Level: Kindergarten
Date of Lesson: March 31st, 2015 Focus Students Pseudonyms: Ava and Layla
Target Area: Foundational Skills
STAIR Hypothesis Being Addressed: Ava can come up with rhyming words at times, but seems to
have some unfamiliar letter sounds that prevent her from creating rhymes to some words; her
phonemic awareness in terms of rhyming is in the developing stages.
Common Core State Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.A
Recognize and produce rhyming words.
Lesson Objective(s): Students will be able to identify words that rhyme based on hearing them said out
loud.
Materials: Rhyming playing cards
file:///C:/Users/Carly/Desktop/TE%20classes/RhymingGame.pdf
LESSON OUTLINE

Introduction (participation norms, develop motivation and interest, set purpose)

- Tell students we will be playing a game, possibly similar to a game they would play at home.
- Show students cards and let them know they should know all the words, but can ask if they
need help.
-

Instruction (explicit instruction, modeling, guided practice)

-

We will be playing a card game where you want to find matching cards. The cards have
pictures on them and we are going to flip a card to show it to our partner and say the word.
Then we will be looking for that word on our list of words.
First I will play with you and we will all flip a card then see if two of them rhyme. Then, I
will let you two play together and I will be asking questions or helping you.

Preselect three cards for an example turn, two that rhyme and one that does not. Flip over
two cards that do not rhyme then the last one and show that they rhyme.
Play with both students so we all have cards we are flipping over to see if any of them
rhyme.
Have students play with each other
What is another word that could rhyme with these ones?
This pair does not rhyme, but what would rhyme with them?

Conclusion (engage students in reflecting on learning experiences)

- Ask students if they think some words are harder to make rhymes for than others and if
they can remember any of our words being tough to make another rhyme for.
- Say some words and have students tell me rhyming words for them and what sounds they
hear in the words that let them know they rhyme.

Ongoing Assessment (how will you know your students made progress toward the learning objectives):
- I will know if students made progress based on the objective if they are able to think about
what sounds they hear in the words. I will also know based on the words they come up
with and if they do not rhyme and are close or not.