Vignette of "Amber"

Amber is a third grade female of above average proficiency. She is a quiet, very capable and responsible student. The morning started with "Bell Work," an activity for students to complete as they sporadically return from breakfast. Amber completed the activity in seconds and pulled out a book to read (Get Rich Mitch). Even though students were communicating freely, Amber was lost in her book. The class started with a mathematics review, "Everyday Counts," with emphasis on hundreds, tens and ones. Amber was eager to answer questions and tried to assist students with incorrect responses. The class was not focused on the review. Students shuffled papers and books and talked freely with their neighbors,....generally inattentive. Amber was the exception. She was anxious to answer all questions and wrote the answers on a sheet even when other children were called upon. The computer was used as a tool to gather the weather of the day. Amber read the data to the class from the computer and logged it on a chart.

The literacy block was smoothly introduced as the whole class listened to a shared reading piece from the previous day. Students were asked to listen to the story and to write on a post-it note a response in one of three categories. (Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self or Text-to-World). Amber started to write as soon as the reading began, filling her post-it note on both sides. She penned "I built a tree house with my mom and she said, "Do not let anyone except her come up. Then my cousin whistled then he took her to his tree house. He messed up our tree house and his is a mess too."

As the teacher shared the rest of the story Amber continued on a sheet of notebook paper. She perceived the next task that would be given would be to write a story from the sentence on the post-it note. As other students seemed to struggle with self-expression on the post-it note, Amber's words flowed and filled both sides of a notebook sheet. The next step of the lesson was to put the post-it notes in the categories and read them to the class. Amber's hand went up first but she seemed shy and read her sentence very quietly.
Students were asked to take out their "Writer's notebook." The teacher turned on music and the room became quiet. For the first time, most students were engaged. Students wrote for 15 minutes any personal thoughts that they wanted to convey in their diary. Amber wrote her thoughts while many of her classmates whispered for her to spell words for them. She accommodated as if a mentor.

The literacy block continued with (3) small group work.
Group I Bookmark group - guided reading, "Amber Brown is not a Crayon"
Group II "Ideal Dinner" paragraph conferencing with the other teacher
Group II Students seated would take a favorite piece from the writer's notebook and develop it into a paragraph.

Amber functioned as a peer coach for her classmates. When they could not find various materials for the group, she moved to assist them. As the teacher asked the children to get out their Bookmark for the story, Amber had her hand up in anticipation of the question. Students had listed questions on their bookmark they had about each page. "What is your Bookmark for? Amber responded, "It makes you think more about the story. And it makes you better at asking questions." It was an innovative strategy for guided reading. Amber and her classmates continued to develop the story. As Amber returned to her seat, she was hungry to complete her writing.