1. Emily Pannitto
Interview Part I
The teacher I interviewed is a 3rd grade teacher at St. Paschal
Baylon School in Highland Heights. Her name is EvaMarie Mickol. She
has been teaching at Saint Paschal’s for many years and still enjoys it
until this day. I actually had her as a teacher when I was in 3rd grade
too. These are some pictures above of her classroom so you can get a
better perspective of what truly her classroom is. She told me today
that her classroom is colorful so her students feel alive when they
walk in the room. As you can see with all the colors throughout the

2. room and the specific detail she put into it, really shows how she
wants her students to also have fun while they are in there too!
1. How much time do you have for teaching reading and writing
 “I try to aim for at least 45 minutes to an hour a day for
reading and that includes reading comprehension, the
skill, workbook pages, vocabulary development. And then
for phonics we have united our phonics and spelling units
together so we use “Reading Street” which is a reading
program and the stories go along with the phonics skill
and the vocabulary so it’s essentially one big
comprehensive thing. The English part like writing
mechanics is all included in like one big unit. So each day I
like to break it up and each day is different depending on
the specials schedule. So on Tuesday I have library,
Spanish and art which are three big chunks of time that
I’m loosing so I kind of like sneak in a reading or phonics
game to do in library. Also, in like religion I have them do
a writing going along with the subject so I can at least get
writing in.”
2. What is your daily schedule
 Here is her daily schedule- she just gave me a copy!

3. 3. When do you work with small groups? Large Groups?
 “So, we have a reading specialist, she is a title 1 teacher,
and when she comes, she takes a small group and does the
same thing we are doing here within the classroom. She
takes my struggling readers and then I have the kids with
the stronger reading skills and the grade average kids. We
rotate, we do centers. I aim to do this 2-3 times a week. A
lot of the time they work within groups themselves where
they sit on group projects and help them work on group
dynamics and how to be part of a small group and how to
work together.”
4. What do the other children do while you work with small
groups?
 “At this age, you have to have them do tasks. So one group
is doing a phonics game, or a spelling game, another group
can be working with the Ipads, another can be working on
a worksheet or journal prompt. It really depends on the
day and what I need to get covered that week. And then
this is my key thing: I have snoopy ears, and when I am

4. wearing them unless they are bleeding, barfing, or dying
or on fire, those are the only times they are allowed to
interrupt me during small group because I try to say each
table has a group leader and you go to them first to try
and figure out the problem. And if you cant figure out,
wait until we switch groups or try and problem solve
because otherwise every 2 minutes they say, “Is this right?
Did I do this right? And then especially on reading group
days, I usually have a parent come in and help me.”
Interview Part II
5. How do you teach phonics? What are your beliefs about phonics?
 “You have to teach phonics. Phonics is the foundation of
everything. So it’s teaching the letter-sound relationship,
blending, digraphs, etc. It’s in your spelling. So, this week
we just did the “oy” sound. Those are digraphs and blends.
So, usually with your reading series you definitely want to
find one that has the phonics component, and then it’s nice
because then the phonics skills goes along with the
spelling words. This is one comprehensive unit. So, I can

5. say to my students that in the spelling list look for that
“ou” “oy” sound.
 My Analysis: Mrs. Mickol appears to have a very
good understanding of phonics, since she explains
that it is the foundation of everything in reading
and writing. One of the first things I wrote down in
class was phonics is the way to teach reading and
writing. Phonics instruction teaches the
relationships between the letters of the written
language (graphemes) and the individual sounds
(phonemes). It also teaches how these
relationships are used to read and write words.
Mrs. Mickol seems to like embedded phonics,
which is when children are taught letter-sound
relationships during the reading of connected text,
just like she mentioned how her reading series
connects with her spelling words. She also
mentions types of relationships like blending and
digraphs, which we learned, are very important to
identify certain words and to pronounce them. Her
example was that they were learning the “oy” and
“ou” sound and for her children to identify those in
the words within the reading series. But,
something we learned is before you even start
phonics instruction; the students must have
phonological awareness, (the ability to hear sounds
that make up words in spoken language. This
includes recognizing words that rhyme, deciding
whether words begin or end with the same sounds,
understanding that sounds can be manipulated to
create new words, and separating words into their
individual sounds), phonemic awareness
(awareness of the sound structure of speech,
ability to hear recognize and play with sounds in
our language), print awareness (a process of a
literacy experience), alphabetic knowledge (one of
the strongest predictors of beginning reading), and
know the alphabetic principle (letters and sounds).
6. How do you teach spelling?
 “So, we have 15 words based on the phonics skill and then
we have worksheets. For spelling practice, we do this tic
tac toe activity where its more differentiated. So, its this

6. tic tac toe board and every week its different so you can
have the kids who are really artistic draw a picture and
write a hidden word, or they create there own word
searches and solve it, or they do something called step it
up, so the first line is “s”, then the next line is “sp”, then
the next one is “spe”, and so on and so forth, and then
there are 3x each, writings sentences for the words,
writing a story, typing them on the computer and now the
students can have different activities to do and they
become more involved and invested because they get to
pick what they want to do and what they are good at.”
 My Analysis: Mrs. Mickol explains to us how there
are many different ways for your students to learn
their spelling words, which is something we
learned to be true as well. Spelling is basically the
process of writing or naming the letter in a word,
but its much more than that. In order to teach
spelling, you have to use sight words, look at
patterns, decoding skills, and its crucial to be able
to read, understand and write. We learned that
developmental writing is the first attempts at
spelling words and composing texts. It helps
students to develop and understanding of how
words work to communicate meaning. All these
components play a role in what Mrs. Mickol does,
for the sight words aspect, the 3x each is great for
those students to continuously write the words 3x
and see them over and over so the can get a grasp
of what the word is and how to spell and write it.
Also, with looking at patterns, the “step it up”
activity really helps students break the word apart
to see the different sounds and letters within the
word, which what we know as graphophonemics.
Since these students in her class get to pick the
activity, they become more confident in their
spelling and can have rapid recognition of the
words. The more we increase our spelling
knowledge, the more meanings of words we will
understand. Finally, since there are multiple
opportunities for students to learn spelling, this
lets them know it is meaningful content.
7. How do you teach students to identify words?

7.  “At this level, they really do know it. I don’t really test it
because I say if you don’t know the basic sight words
you’re in big trouble. There are Ipad games that can help. I
know in Title I, which is a program Mrs. Ricky teaches,
and if she sees a need for that, she can go over that with
those students who are struggling with them. But, I really
don’t spend a lot of time on that. In 3rd grade, there’s so
much we have to cover that were basically held
accountable for.”
 My Analysis: Mrs. Mickol believes that identifying
words is you should basically know your sight
words, and if you do not know them by 3rd grade,
you are going to be in trouble. She is right by
saying this because a large % of what your
students are reading, are sight words. But, she is
wrong in saying that it shouldn’t be tested because
identifying words is important in learning what
they mean. You can teach your students to use
context clues in a story they are reading to figure
out the word they are unaware of. I know that 3rd
graders don’t have a wide vocabulary, but once
they get older they will need to have to figure out
on their own what certain words mean. You could
give them a choice of words, or the first letter of
the word to figure out the meaning as well.
Another major component of teaching identifying
words is structural analysis, which is dividing
words into parts to discover what an unknown
word means. Word parts contribute to the overall
meaning of a word. Many words in the English
language are composed of a root, a prefix, and/or a
suffix. So you can show the students that if you
break up a word, it was be easier to understand
and recognize.
8. How do you teach fluency?
 “Yes, we do the one minute reading assessments. Then we
also do something called “Star Reading” which is the
accelerated reader program where they take a test on the
computer and it tells them there reading zone and then
they find books that are geared toward there zone. I try to
do that at least once a quarter, and then towards then end
and their levels should be going up as the year goes on.”

8.  My Analysis: Mrs. Mickol understands that
throughout the year, their fluency of reading
should be getting higher. I like how she uses the
one-minute reading assessments but another
evaluation as well to determine her students’
fluency level. Fluency is the gateway to
comprehension. 90% of struggling comprehension
has fluency difficulty as well. Repetition is key in
becoming a fluent reader. So assessing it assists
teachers in choosing appropriate texts and
instruction in class. The ability to decode and
comprehend at the same time is the essential
characteristic of fluency, and Mrs. Mickol is
teaching this as she lets them take a test based on
a reading and see where they fall. We learned that
students could also develop fluency in oral and
silent reading situations, like setting side a time
during class to do that. We learned that fluency is
not fluency without the 3 areas which are
accuracy, automaticity and prosody which all lead
to comprehension. Accuracy is repetition based,
and students need to be able to blend the sounds
together, use the large bank of high frequency
words, context, knowing how to say words
correctly etc. Automaticity is the rate of which we
read. Students are not to read too fast or too slow.
Fluent readers usually read 100 words per minute
and when testing them, them may have a miscue,
or mistake, and you are to make sure to make note
of that so you can see where they are struggling.
Lastly, prosody is the expression and how their
pitch stress, pauses, durations, meanings convey
sound like. Overall, providing children with
opportunities to read and reread a range of stories
and informational texts by reading on their own,
partner reading, or choral reading, is very
beneficial. Include opportunities for children to
hear a range of texts, read fluently and with
expression, and model the fluency so they can
reread the text on their own.
9. How do you teach children to comprehend text (not just check
comprehension)

9.  “Yes, we always have a comprehension skill and a
comprehension strategy. And in reading, there are always
the same kinds of tasks and skills you want to talk about.
So things like what is your background knowledge,
compare and contrast this character, what are the
character traits, what is the authors purpose etc. So the
nice thing about this reading program is that it is the same
skills in a variety of different stories so you are kind of
going over and over again. So we do teach comprehension.
So if were like on the story “Supermarket” the test is not
based on the story, the test is based on the skill. So we
teach to the skill, not to the story.”
 My Analysis: I really like how Mrs. Mickol focuses
on the skill, rather than the story itself. Yes, it is
about the story, but you are tested on
comprehending what you read and certain areas on
how you understand it. I also like how she goes
over the different components of the story for
students to understand the background knowledge
of it. We learned that overall comprehension is the
goal of reading instruction. We learned that an
important strategy of comprehension is learning
how to recognize story structure, which is
identifying those types of things like character and
setting. This would be called narrative structure,
which deals with the story elements such as plot,
theme, characters and setting. The other type of
structure is called expository structure, which
deals with nonfiction text features, which mostly
deal and talk about facts. We also learned that
comprehension instruction and reading instruction
should begin at the very beginning, more or so
preschool. Also, we know that readers have to have
word identification skills such as accuracy and
fluency which leads to being able to know what
certain words mean and using your thinking and
background skills to figure it out. It also seems like
Mrs. Mickol monitors their comprehension by
assessing them about the books and how well they
can comprehend what they read, which we learned
is a good thing to keep their progress of reading,
but to make sure they don’t see a timer, nor do
they know they are being timed because then that

10. will cause them to read faster, not understand
what they are reading, and won’t be able to
remember what they have read.
10. How do you teach vocabulary (not just go over words)?
 “We do! I try to. Our reading series has this thing called
“Amazing Words” and you try to use the words in your
everyday language. So I always post it on my focus of the
week board, and so vocabulary there is only like 7-8
words, and we talk about them, use it in sentences, they
do a worksheet on it, its part of the story. Where as the
amazing words, are more of the words that you can find in
everyday language, they are not tested on it, its not really
in the story, its oral vocabulary, building on those skills.”
 My Analysis: The first thing that stuck out to me
about what she said was focus of the week. In
order for students to know what vocabulary they
are learning about and what they will do, this
focus board is a great insight for a teacher to take
into consideration. Also, she does not just go over
the words, they talk about what they mean; they
use them in a sentence, and sometimes do
worksheets on them. We know that using these
words in sentences and teaching them will help
them increase their background knowledge, which
will help them in the future. Vocabulary refers to
the words we must know to communicate
effectively. Oral vocabulary refers to words that
we use in speaking or recognizing in listening.
Reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize
in print.
We also learned that relating these new words to
words the students know and choosing words they
may come across could make teaching vocabulary
fun. We learned that we have to teach vocabulary
as a concept. We have to put words into categories
and be able to classify them. Basically, learning
new vocabulary words can activate you schema as
well because you can identify them through words
you already know. Schema is connecting new
information to prior knowledge. It gives you a
better retention of the information and the ability
to access information in automatic situations like
in times dealing with vocabulary. You can use

11. exercises such as semantic maps and concept
circles to help them better classify them. We also
know that through direct instruction, you have to
teach specific words and provide extended
instruction to promote active engagement with
vocabulary and promote repeated exposure to
vocabulary across many contexts. We also learned
that its very important to know that knowing
vocabulary is a strong predictor of reading
comprehension. Mrs. Mickol does this as she has
the students do specific activities according to the
vocabulary words. So, Mrs. Mickol using the
strategies above and working on oral vocabulary
helps the students learn the words.
11. How do you connect reading and writing in your classroom?
 “You absolutely have to connect reading and writing in
your classroom. I try to do it in everything. Like we read
in religion, we talked about St. Francis and how he is a
holy person and then in their writing prayer journals, they
had to write about a person who was holy to them.
Another time, one of the stories was called “I want an
Iguana” and its about this kid who really wants a pet and
he writes letters back and forth to his mom asking her for
it so the students then have to write something that they
really want and do the same process. You have to
incorporate writing, whether it’s in a journal, or whatever
you have to connect what they are reading and writing.”
 My Analysis: Mrs. Mickol truly believes and
emphasizes the importance of connecting reading
and writing in her classroom by these two
examples. Engaging the children with an
interesting prompt makes it easier for them to stay
on task. Reading a story gives students something
to write about, and reflect on their personal
experiences, which makes the class fun. Once
students read and write more and more, they
develop an understanding of how words work to
communicate certain meanings. Reading is the art
of comprehending words to form an explanation
about something, so while reading stories, writing
about them helps them decode and encode certain
words to develop meaning.
12. How do you differentiate instruction?

12.  “You have to. You have to teach to the ability of the
students and so if I know a child is struggling, I say oh
write maybe 3 sentences instead of 5. And this kind of
goes along with the tic tac toe activities so where as the
kids who struggle, have to write the words 3x each so they
learn them.”
 My Analysis: Mrs. Mickol is 100% write when she
says you have to because you truly do have to teach
at each students level and their ability. Effective
teachers adapt to individual differences among
each student. Differences among teachers reflect
varying beliefs and instructional practices, which
you are able to build off of. We also learned that all
teachers’ instruction should be based on VATK,
which stands for visual, auditory, tactile, and
kinesthetic types of instruction. Overall, you just
design lessons based on the students’ learning
styles and manage the classroom to create a safe
and supportive environment.
Reflection:
Over the course of interviewing Mrs. Mickol and learning all the
concepts in class, I have gained a much more positive insight on
language and its certain parts. I remember never really enjoying
reading and was not great at comprehending, but now knowing the
basics behind it all and how important it is for those students’ futures,
I will make sure I implement all these techniques in my classroom. I
enjoyed learning about what Mrs. Mickol’s beliefs were about these
things and how what we learned can be different. But, I do know that
each teacher has his or her own way of teaching subjects and may not
agree or agree with the content, but it is based on the overall heart
that the teacher has and how they care about their students
achievement.