Factors Involved in Reading and Writing Difficulties
There are many factors that can affect students in positive and negative ways when it comes to reading and writing but during this powerpoint the focus was on the negative. The factors mentioned were: cognitive, visual, language, orthographic processing, social and emotional, physical, physical health, educational, and family. I have noticed within my own classroom how difficult it is for students to overcome emotional factors like parental pressures especially when the parents aren't reading with them at home. I can see a huge difference between my students who have parents that read at home and students that don't. The students who excel in reading in my classroom have parents who speak English at home. It's amazing that this difference can show such a divide between students. It is important to figure out the factors that might be holding back students so that as the teacher you can find ways to overcome these factors. Students sometimes have a hard time admitting when something is causing them problems. There are times where no matter what we do their difficulties are out of our control, like physical health issues such as cancer or other illnesses that keep them out of school on a regular basis. This is unfortunate because many times the students wants to get better but are losing the opportunity to get better. I thought this powerpoint was very informative while also being straight to the point.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Monday, December 3, 2012
Module 8: Video Analysis
What is Reading Recovery?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXxM2JVxJKY
This program works with students who are the lowest achievers to receive one-on-one thirty minute sessions over a 12-20 weeks. Those who do not reach the grade-level show much more about their learning abilities. The teachers who take part in this program are highly trained to get results. This program is low cost and truly allows students to gain reading perspective with a one-on-one session. Sometimes reading learning for students is slower than for others and with a little extra support the students can make huge gains in their reading abilities. I think allowing students to focus on their own learning without other distractions. Students who aren't successful move on to other to interventions to best fit their needs. Reading Recovery is a program that could be used effectively in most school settings and allows students a safe place to get stronger in their reading rather than with their peers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXxM2JVxJKY
This program works with students who are the lowest achievers to receive one-on-one thirty minute sessions over a 12-20 weeks. Those who do not reach the grade-level show much more about their learning abilities. The teachers who take part in this program are highly trained to get results. This program is low cost and truly allows students to gain reading perspective with a one-on-one session. Sometimes reading learning for students is slower than for others and with a little extra support the students can make huge gains in their reading abilities. I think allowing students to focus on their own learning without other distractions. Students who aren't successful move on to other to interventions to best fit their needs. Reading Recovery is a program that could be used effectively in most school settings and allows students a safe place to get stronger in their reading rather than with their peers.
Module 8: Article Analysis
Cohen, P., Kulik, J. A., & Kulik, C. C. (1982). Educational outcomes of tutoring: a meta-analysis of findings
.American Educational Research Journal, 19(2), 237-248. Retrieved from
http://www.fau.edu/CLASS/CRLA/Level_Three/Educational_Outcomes_of_Tutoring_A_Meta-\
analysis_of_Findings.pdf
.American Educational Research Journal, 19(2), 237-248. Retrieved from
http://www.fau.edu/CLASS/CRLA/Level_Three/Educational_Outcomes_of_Tutoring_A_Meta-\
analysis_of_Findings.pdf
This article really dove into the affects of tutoring and many different types of tutoring. They talked about peer tutoring and receiving tutoring form people in the community or from paraprofessionals. It was important for them to find, "Hartley showed not only that the effects of tutoring were positive, but that they were stronger than those from such other individualizing teaching methods as computer-based instruction, programmed instruction, and instruction with individual learning packages. Hartley also showed that the effects of tutoring were significantly stronger in some situations than in others, (p. 238). This really goes along with what I noticed in my tutoring process. I found that my student that I worked with extra time throughout the semester in a one-on-one setting made huge gains that I don't know he would have been able to achieve had I not given him the extra support. I have noticed through my students that get tutoring after school have showed larger gains than the many that do not. The only downfall of this study that was analyzed of Hartley's was that the tutoring only took place for mathematical studies. This journal was done to analyze many studies and what they found on the results of tutoring. The effects found with the 65 studies analyzed was that there were positive results found with both the tutees and the tutors. It was interesting to read that the attitudes of the tutees toward their classrooms and their subject areas rose due to positive affects from the tutoring sessions. What I gathered most from this article was that peer tutoring is beneficial for both. Throughout our readings in Opitz there were only positive ideas about tutoring included. I found the experience to be very positive and I felt I was able to get to know my student much better. Last year before the CRCT we set up peer tutoring for students struggling with reading/ela or math with students who were excelling. This seemed to bring back good feedback from both parties. After reading this article I feel as though this is something we should definitely implement again because both parties would gain results with this program.
the
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Module 7: Video Analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOet6yKFurE
Robert Slavin: Scaling Up Success for All
This program that Robert Slavin is helping to head up is for Title I, high poverty elementary schools. The program is a set of professional development that has various elements. There is a facilitator in the schools to help train the staff. The goal is to maintain high quality and thoughtful implementation. There are 1,000 schools in 47 states that are participating in the program. The program is designed to live through changes in many different ways. There are many resources in Title I schools. There are about 220 staff members around the country for helping implement this program, training, and follow up with the schools. This idea seems very effective because then you have someone who is your "go to" person who is close by rather than states away. Success for All should be held as a high stakes idea in schools and should want to keep up with the program. The over arching theme of this man's presentation is that change is good when conducted correctly. I think they have a good system on how to roll out these changes to schools and where the highest need is. Professional development is very important in all schools because you can't learn exactly how to implement new and innovative ideas from reading a book or passage but being properly trained on it. I think this video relates very well to what we are going through right now with switching to Common Core Curriculum. I think we have gotten a lot of training on Common Core and the new evaluation training but it came too late. We should have trained on the new content last year before we were expected to implement it. I think the evaluation system training has been useful because we received the trainings before we started the new system. Professional development should be strategic and well thought out. I think Title I schools really do benefit form this type of organization because the needs of the students are higher so any resources and strategies that are presented are useful for teachers to implement for success.
Robert Slavin: Scaling Up Success for All
This program that Robert Slavin is helping to head up is for Title I, high poverty elementary schools. The program is a set of professional development that has various elements. There is a facilitator in the schools to help train the staff. The goal is to maintain high quality and thoughtful implementation. There are 1,000 schools in 47 states that are participating in the program. The program is designed to live through changes in many different ways. There are many resources in Title I schools. There are about 220 staff members around the country for helping implement this program, training, and follow up with the schools. This idea seems very effective because then you have someone who is your "go to" person who is close by rather than states away. Success for All should be held as a high stakes idea in schools and should want to keep up with the program. The over arching theme of this man's presentation is that change is good when conducted correctly. I think they have a good system on how to roll out these changes to schools and where the highest need is. Professional development is very important in all schools because you can't learn exactly how to implement new and innovative ideas from reading a book or passage but being properly trained on it. I think this video relates very well to what we are going through right now with switching to Common Core Curriculum. I think we have gotten a lot of training on Common Core and the new evaluation training but it came too late. We should have trained on the new content last year before we were expected to implement it. I think the evaluation system training has been useful because we received the trainings before we started the new system. Professional development should be strategic and well thought out. I think Title I schools really do benefit form this type of organization because the needs of the students are higher so any resources and strategies that are presented are useful for teachers to implement for success.
Module 7: Powerpoint Presentations
Perspectives for tutoring
When we question our students about reading and writing we should use this as a conversational approach rather than in a formal approach. I find that if I have a conversation with my students one-on-one I get more from them and I am able to reach these students in a better way. I think this same thing goes for parents as well. I think if parents are feeling somewhat attacked rather than just talking to you then you are trying to tell them what to do rather than trying to find out information. It's important to build repertoire with your parents and your students to gain trust and respect.
Comprehension Evidence and Strategies
This whole powerpoint gave the different strategies needed to have good comprehension. There are different ways in which we should question our students depending on what we are trying to assess. The different areas are predicting, inferring, self-questioning, author questioning, monitoring, summarizing and synthesizing, and lastly is evaluating. At the end of the powerpoint we are asked to think of a student who needs specific area of comprehension help. I thought of a child who I will call, Sally, who is struggling with Cognitive Monitoring/meta cognition. The needs this student demonstrates is that she seems to get distracted very easily. When she is reading she doesn't make connections and when she is done and questioned she can't visualize or verbalize what was read. She takes a lot longer than the rest in her reading group and even at a slower rate I'm not sure she is doing anything but having her eyes move across the page. I think one of the key strategies I could use with this student is modeling my reading and stop to make connections throughout reading to show her what strategies she should do when she reads. I could stop her every so often in her reading and ask for a thumbs up for knowing what she read or thumbs down for clunking on what she is reading. I know she has some mental things going on but I worry that her school work is being dramatically affected by her distractions.
Nine Best Practices
Similarities and Differences; Most Important Point; Summarizing and Note Taking; 10-2 Strategy; reinforcing effort and providing recognition; reflection; Think it, Ink it, Link it strategy; Provide recognition; assigning homework and practice; cooperative learning; slate share; numbered heads together; think pair square; Ball toss; non linguistic representations; setting objectives and providing feedback; generating and testing hypotheses; Cues, Questions, and advance organizers; these were all the strategies provided in the powerpoint. Many of these ideas I have used before but many I have not and am very interested in trying. I think some strategies that are best when tutoring a child are providing recognition that is specific to help continue the work they are doing, summarizing and note taking, and most important point. I have been incorporating writing into my reading groups this year to help with summarizing what we are reading and note taking. As a fifth grade teacher, most of reading group is working on comprehension skills so these strategies are going to be very useful for me. I think homework is important when there isn't enough hours in the day to get everything done. It's our students responsibility to continue learning and practice at home. I think many of these same strategies could be used when teaching adults as well. I think adults work well in cooperative learning groups. For adults as well it's important to find similarities and differences to their lives to help make the learning meaningful and effective. I found many of these strategies within the 9 best practices necessary to reach all learners.
When we question our students about reading and writing we should use this as a conversational approach rather than in a formal approach. I find that if I have a conversation with my students one-on-one I get more from them and I am able to reach these students in a better way. I think this same thing goes for parents as well. I think if parents are feeling somewhat attacked rather than just talking to you then you are trying to tell them what to do rather than trying to find out information. It's important to build repertoire with your parents and your students to gain trust and respect.
Comprehension Evidence and Strategies
This whole powerpoint gave the different strategies needed to have good comprehension. There are different ways in which we should question our students depending on what we are trying to assess. The different areas are predicting, inferring, self-questioning, author questioning, monitoring, summarizing and synthesizing, and lastly is evaluating. At the end of the powerpoint we are asked to think of a student who needs specific area of comprehension help. I thought of a child who I will call, Sally, who is struggling with Cognitive Monitoring/meta cognition. The needs this student demonstrates is that she seems to get distracted very easily. When she is reading she doesn't make connections and when she is done and questioned she can't visualize or verbalize what was read. She takes a lot longer than the rest in her reading group and even at a slower rate I'm not sure she is doing anything but having her eyes move across the page. I think one of the key strategies I could use with this student is modeling my reading and stop to make connections throughout reading to show her what strategies she should do when she reads. I could stop her every so often in her reading and ask for a thumbs up for knowing what she read or thumbs down for clunking on what she is reading. I know she has some mental things going on but I worry that her school work is being dramatically affected by her distractions.
Nine Best Practices
Similarities and Differences; Most Important Point; Summarizing and Note Taking; 10-2 Strategy; reinforcing effort and providing recognition; reflection; Think it, Ink it, Link it strategy; Provide recognition; assigning homework and practice; cooperative learning; slate share; numbered heads together; think pair square; Ball toss; non linguistic representations; setting objectives and providing feedback; generating and testing hypotheses; Cues, Questions, and advance organizers; these were all the strategies provided in the powerpoint. Many of these ideas I have used before but many I have not and am very interested in trying. I think some strategies that are best when tutoring a child are providing recognition that is specific to help continue the work they are doing, summarizing and note taking, and most important point. I have been incorporating writing into my reading groups this year to help with summarizing what we are reading and note taking. As a fifth grade teacher, most of reading group is working on comprehension skills so these strategies are going to be very useful for me. I think homework is important when there isn't enough hours in the day to get everything done. It's our students responsibility to continue learning and practice at home. I think many of these same strategies could be used when teaching adults as well. I think adults work well in cooperative learning groups. For adults as well it's important to find similarities and differences to their lives to help make the learning meaningful and effective. I found many of these strategies within the 9 best practices necessary to reach all learners.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Strategies for Adult Literacy in America
This study was done to analyze the literacy in America rather than the "illiterate" adults that live in America. The National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) was done to assess adults across many tasks to see their overall performance. 13,600 adults sixteen and older were surveyed for the study in the beginning of 1992, another 1,000 adults in 12 other states, and 1,100 inmates were surveyed to assess the population in prison. Each adult was questioned for an hour to assess their proficiency in prose, document, and quantitative literacy.
The results were interesting. Twenty-one to twenty-three percent scored in the lowest subgroup. Some of these adults could do routine tasks like total up a sales slip but there were many who couldn't answer many of the questions on the survey. There were many factors that assisted in these scores. 25% were immigrants who were still trying to learn English, 62% had terminated education before completing high school, and and 26% had some form of disability.
25 to 28% scored in the level two group. These people were able to make simple inferences, sum up a receipt, locate places on a street map, and provide background information on a simple form.
Close to one-third of the participants scored in level 3. The main identifiers from this group was that they could read much longer text and integrate that information into more dense information.
The last two higher scoring groups had about 18-21% which incorporated many long and dense text that was needed for analysis.
There were lots of statistics included in this report but the most interesting one to me was that Hispanic individuals reported the least amount of years in school. Also those that work regularly scored higher. This makes sense because many times you must have a good education in order to get jobs so you are more literate than those that aren't working on a regular basis. I feel as though these results from this survey are very telling of our education system and what things haven't really changed much in the past twenty years. I feel as though if this same survey was conducted this year we might find very similar results. Adult Literacy is a reflection of what young people are continuing through school and those that strive to do great things later in life. It is our job (mine especially in the school I work in) to help motivate students to stay in school to be able to compete with all other adults in America.
This relates to what we have learned all semester in the Opitz Text. It's important that parents get involved because it has an affect on the child's literacy but if the parent is not literate than that can affect the child's proficiency. The strategies needed are for adults to continue in school as long as possible, allow inmates to read and work with text when in jail, allow opportunities for adults who move from another country to receive instructional help when they move here. Any exposure can help adults progress in literacy. It might actually help for their children to teach their parents what they are learning in school because this can help students progress as much as their parents.
http://books.google.com/books?id=xtJUvvtH7wkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=adult+literacy&hl=en&sa=X&ei=00aiUN6pJsuo0AGBqIHYAg&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Got the article from this link but the reference is:
Kirsch , I., Jungeblut, A., Jenkins , L., & Kolstad, A. (1993). Adult literacy in america . United States Department of Education. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=xtJUvvtH7wkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=adult literacy&hl=en&sa=X&ei=00aiUN6pJsuo0AGBqIHYAg
The results were interesting. Twenty-one to twenty-three percent scored in the lowest subgroup. Some of these adults could do routine tasks like total up a sales slip but there were many who couldn't answer many of the questions on the survey. There were many factors that assisted in these scores. 25% were immigrants who were still trying to learn English, 62% had terminated education before completing high school, and and 26% had some form of disability.
25 to 28% scored in the level two group. These people were able to make simple inferences, sum up a receipt, locate places on a street map, and provide background information on a simple form.
Close to one-third of the participants scored in level 3. The main identifiers from this group was that they could read much longer text and integrate that information into more dense information.
The last two higher scoring groups had about 18-21% which incorporated many long and dense text that was needed for analysis.
There were lots of statistics included in this report but the most interesting one to me was that Hispanic individuals reported the least amount of years in school. Also those that work regularly scored higher. This makes sense because many times you must have a good education in order to get jobs so you are more literate than those that aren't working on a regular basis. I feel as though these results from this survey are very telling of our education system and what things haven't really changed much in the past twenty years. I feel as though if this same survey was conducted this year we might find very similar results. Adult Literacy is a reflection of what young people are continuing through school and those that strive to do great things later in life. It is our job (mine especially in the school I work in) to help motivate students to stay in school to be able to compete with all other adults in America.
This relates to what we have learned all semester in the Opitz Text. It's important that parents get involved because it has an affect on the child's literacy but if the parent is not literate than that can affect the child's proficiency. The strategies needed are for adults to continue in school as long as possible, allow inmates to read and work with text when in jail, allow opportunities for adults who move from another country to receive instructional help when they move here. Any exposure can help adults progress in literacy. It might actually help for their children to teach their parents what they are learning in school because this can help students progress as much as their parents.
http://books.google.com/books?id=xtJUvvtH7wkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=adult+literacy&hl=en&sa=X&ei=00aiUN6pJsuo0AGBqIHYAg&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Got the article from this link but the reference is:
Kirsch , I., Jungeblut, A., Jenkins , L., & Kolstad, A. (1993). Adult literacy in america . United States Department of Education. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=xtJUvvtH7wkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=adult literacy&hl=en&sa=X&ei=00aiUN6pJsuo0AGBqIHYAg
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Using Assessment to improve instruction-Video Analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ3USs16J3Y&feature=related
The quote at the beginning of the video was very telling about how many teachers are feeling these days. I know we all hate how many formal assessments we are required to do for the state and county. We want to be able to just teach and assess our own ways to guide instruction. It's really hard to forget about the tests at the end of the year when you know your school and your job depend on how they students perform. Backwards design is very important for our teaching so it's good to know what the learning is that should take place. Assessments are important for us to better reach all of our learners. We need to focus our attention on what our students are learning. The narrator talks about how important assessment is when used in the right way and for the right reasons. Teachers should use actual assignments to guide discussions about what is working and what is not. It shouldn't get in the way of good teaching. He quotes "assessment as learning" throughout the video which I had never heard before. It's important to always remember that we are teaching because we want our students to learn. The main reason we do anything should revolve around student learning.
The quote at the beginning of the video was very telling about how many teachers are feeling these days. I know we all hate how many formal assessments we are required to do for the state and county. We want to be able to just teach and assess our own ways to guide instruction. It's really hard to forget about the tests at the end of the year when you know your school and your job depend on how they students perform. Backwards design is very important for our teaching so it's good to know what the learning is that should take place. Assessments are important for us to better reach all of our learners. We need to focus our attention on what our students are learning. The narrator talks about how important assessment is when used in the right way and for the right reasons. Teachers should use actual assignments to guide discussions about what is working and what is not. It shouldn't get in the way of good teaching. He quotes "assessment as learning" throughout the video which I had never heard before. It's important to always remember that we are teaching because we want our students to learn. The main reason we do anything should revolve around student learning.
Module 6 Powerpoints
Reading Strategies
I really enjoyed reading through this powerpoint because I teach fifth graders and the reading instruction is different from what we have spoken about all semester. I struggle sometimes with what I should be doing with my students that are good readers but not mastery at comprehension. This powerpoint provided me with many ideas that I would incorporate into my guided reading instruction. The two that I already have made posters about after reading the powerpoint that I'm going to laminate and put in my classroom are the PIC strategy and the 3-2-1. I have done 3-2-1 in the past but I want to have a poster in my room to remind me that this is a good strategy for summarizing. I am going to try these two strategies out first and if they are successful then bring in a few more. I want to make sure that I am keeping my students engaged in reading and that they are gaining the most from my guided reading instruction. It's important for readers to know that there is a purpose for reading.
Assessment for Cognitive, School, and Home factors
What are some problems with intelligence tests? Students put a lot of pressure on themselves and they may not be exactly accurate if the student had a bad day that day. It also puts a label on students without testing what they could do with their intelligence. These also give students a label and if they score low then they might think that they can't achieve more.
Do poor readers tend to get higher scores on arithmetic, digit span, information and coding or on non-verbal and visual aspects? On non-verbal and visual aspects because it doesn't involve students incorporating their reading abilities. They are able to use and show their knowledge without getting bogged down by their lacking reading skills.
Who does the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test work well for? Students who have a hard time expressing themselves and are extremely shy or withdrawn.
How do you test to see if there is a memory problem using the Wechler Scales? You compare their results to the digit span results to compare the differences. This tests whether there is a memory problem with the child.
What is the most crucial area of all the diagnostic areas? Why? Associative word learning. This shows that if there is a difficulty with associative word learning this defines a severe learning disability.
I had never heard of many of these tests because I am not a special education teacher or speech pathologists but it's important to know what students are assessed through when it comes to learning disabilities.
I really enjoyed reading through this powerpoint because I teach fifth graders and the reading instruction is different from what we have spoken about all semester. I struggle sometimes with what I should be doing with my students that are good readers but not mastery at comprehension. This powerpoint provided me with many ideas that I would incorporate into my guided reading instruction. The two that I already have made posters about after reading the powerpoint that I'm going to laminate and put in my classroom are the PIC strategy and the 3-2-1. I have done 3-2-1 in the past but I want to have a poster in my room to remind me that this is a good strategy for summarizing. I am going to try these two strategies out first and if they are successful then bring in a few more. I want to make sure that I am keeping my students engaged in reading and that they are gaining the most from my guided reading instruction. It's important for readers to know that there is a purpose for reading.
Assessment for Cognitive, School, and Home factors
What are some problems with intelligence tests? Students put a lot of pressure on themselves and they may not be exactly accurate if the student had a bad day that day. It also puts a label on students without testing what they could do with their intelligence. These also give students a label and if they score low then they might think that they can't achieve more.
I had never heard of many of these tests because I am not a special education teacher or speech pathologists but it's important to know what students are assessed through when it comes to learning disabilities.
Why I Flipped my Classroom-Video Analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aGuLuipTwg&feature=related
This teacher teaches math content. She found that she wasn't differentiating enough to meet the needs of all learners. She decided that she was up presenting information more than she should be and wanted a change in her classroom. She "flipped" her classroom which means that you give the students the information needed to succeed in class prior to the class so that the instruction is done outside the classroom through web casts or videos that the students can watch over and over on their own. That way when they come into the classroom they are applying what they have learned. The teacher then can work with all leveled students in a more one-on-one chance. I am not sure how this concept would work in young grades in elementary school. I could see this concept working well in middle or high school with parents who are involved and check to make sure their children are doing their homework. I am not sure this type of teaching would go over well in a low-income area because not every family would have a computer or the means for students to get the time outside of the school hours to teach themselves. I would be interested to know this teachers demographics, grade level, and area of which she is working. I think you could incorporate concepts of this "flipping" idea into my classroom but it wouldn't be able to be video or Internet based because many of my students don't have computers at home. I also have many students who are caregivers to their younger siblings when they get home because their parents are working most of the time.
This teacher teaches math content. She found that she wasn't differentiating enough to meet the needs of all learners. She decided that she was up presenting information more than she should be and wanted a change in her classroom. She "flipped" her classroom which means that you give the students the information needed to succeed in class prior to the class so that the instruction is done outside the classroom through web casts or videos that the students can watch over and over on their own. That way when they come into the classroom they are applying what they have learned. The teacher then can work with all leveled students in a more one-on-one chance. I am not sure how this concept would work in young grades in elementary school. I could see this concept working well in middle or high school with parents who are involved and check to make sure their children are doing their homework. I am not sure this type of teaching would go over well in a low-income area because not every family would have a computer or the means for students to get the time outside of the school hours to teach themselves. I would be interested to know this teachers demographics, grade level, and area of which she is working. I think you could incorporate concepts of this "flipping" idea into my classroom but it wouldn't be able to be video or Internet based because many of my students don't have computers at home. I also have many students who are caregivers to their younger siblings when they get home because their parents are working most of the time.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
PowerPoint Reviews
Teaching Phonics, High-frequency Words, and Fluency:
1. What are some methods for teaching short vowel sounds? Hand gestures that relate the sound to something they know very well help students relate that sound better to when they will see it in sentences.
2. How many pattern words should be first introduced to a student during a word-building lesson? When introducing new patterns you shouldn't go over six. They should work in the five to six word range to make it more meaningful. 3. True or False: Even though the best practice for phonics is reading, students don't need reading materials that the reinforce skills they've already been taught or that are on the appropriate level of difficulty. I would say false. I think that students need to work with materials that bring forth what they have been working on and most definitely need to work on their difficulty level. You don't want to make a child frustrated when reading. Yes you want to challenge students but don't want to discourage them that they aren't able to read appropriate text.
4. What are the benefits of having a word wall?
The benefits of having a word wall is that students have somewhere to look for refreshers and can reinforce their understanding. In all grades at my school we have to have word walls. I do it by subject area so that my students have somewhere to look when working on activities to solidify their understanding of ideas being learned. In the lower grades, the word wall is done by beginning letter. This is very useful for students when learning patterns because they are able to transfer their understanding of one word to another new word.
Linking Phonics and Vocabulary Development:
It is important to link phonics decoding rules to a text that students are about to read and are expected to understand. Phonics instruction should be explicitly and strategically aligned to what is to come.
Vocabulary Development:
This powerpoint was chock-full of suggested activities to better students vocabulary development in the classroom.
1. True or False? Students should only work individually when working on fluency exercises.
False, like with most activities students work best with other students. Fluency exercises are great for pairs to work together and work with each other on what they are doing well on and what they should work on. As part of my schools school improvement plan we have fluency as something we want to improve school wide so I have been having my students each week work on different fluency activities in pairs. 2. The ability to recognize words quickly is due in part to the reader reading a wide variety of books. This statement is true because reading exposes students to a wide variety of words and the more students work with high-frequency words, the quicker they will be at recognizing them in a text. It's important to expose students through different genres too to show that these words appear in every type of text.
3. What is repeated reading? Repeated reading is exactly as it sounds, repeating a certain piece of text to work on building fluency. This year my fifth grade class is doing a cold read one week and continuing that same piece for three more weeks to show fluency words per minute and fluency when having repeatedly read the same text over time. 4. What makes a Carbo recording different than a regular book on tape? A carbo recording goes at a slower pace. This type of recording allows for page turns throughout the book and at the end does a quick synopsis of the text. Books on tape are great but they are just that. There isn't any added focus other than the words on the page read with expression.
1. What are some methods for teaching short vowel sounds? Hand gestures that relate the sound to something they know very well help students relate that sound better to when they will see it in sentences.
2. How many pattern words should be first introduced to a student during a word-building lesson? When introducing new patterns you shouldn't go over six. They should work in the five to six word range to make it more meaningful. 3. True or False: Even though the best practice for phonics is reading, students don't need reading materials that the reinforce skills they've already been taught or that are on the appropriate level of difficulty. I would say false. I think that students need to work with materials that bring forth what they have been working on and most definitely need to work on their difficulty level. You don't want to make a child frustrated when reading. Yes you want to challenge students but don't want to discourage them that they aren't able to read appropriate text.
4. What are the benefits of having a word wall?
The benefits of having a word wall is that students have somewhere to look for refreshers and can reinforce their understanding. In all grades at my school we have to have word walls. I do it by subject area so that my students have somewhere to look when working on activities to solidify their understanding of ideas being learned. In the lower grades, the word wall is done by beginning letter. This is very useful for students when learning patterns because they are able to transfer their understanding of one word to another new word.
Linking Phonics and Vocabulary Development:
It is important to link phonics decoding rules to a text that students are about to read and are expected to understand. Phonics instruction should be explicitly and strategically aligned to what is to come.
Vocabulary Development:
This powerpoint was chock-full of suggested activities to better students vocabulary development in the classroom.
1. True or False? Students should only work individually when working on fluency exercises.
False, like with most activities students work best with other students. Fluency exercises are great for pairs to work together and work with each other on what they are doing well on and what they should work on. As part of my schools school improvement plan we have fluency as something we want to improve school wide so I have been having my students each week work on different fluency activities in pairs. 2. The ability to recognize words quickly is due in part to the reader reading a wide variety of books. This statement is true because reading exposes students to a wide variety of words and the more students work with high-frequency words, the quicker they will be at recognizing them in a text. It's important to expose students through different genres too to show that these words appear in every type of text.
3. What is repeated reading? Repeated reading is exactly as it sounds, repeating a certain piece of text to work on building fluency. This year my fifth grade class is doing a cold read one week and continuing that same piece for three more weeks to show fluency words per minute and fluency when having repeatedly read the same text over time. 4. What makes a Carbo recording different than a regular book on tape? A carbo recording goes at a slower pace. This type of recording allows for page turns throughout the book and at the end does a quick synopsis of the text. Books on tape are great but they are just that. There isn't any added focus other than the words on the page read with expression.
Video analysis of "Rubrics Introduction"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvJ6qZkXDc4&feature=related
Rubrics are tools that help grade subjective assessments. Rubrics are great to use because you might feel differently about different students and this allows for standardized evaluation of each student. They allow for equal grading of all students. Rubrics are also a road map for students when it comes to completing an activity. Students should be given the rubrics before the assignment to help guide their completion and they are to keep themselves accountable that they are meeting all requirements. I think when you use a rubric and students choose not to meet all requirements it's not an issue for the teacher because the students knew what the expectations were and chose not to fulfill these requirements. Percentages are best to use on rubrics because you can use for more than one assignment no matter what the point value of the assignment is.
Rubrics are tools that help grade subjective assessments. Rubrics are great to use because you might feel differently about different students and this allows for standardized evaluation of each student. They allow for equal grading of all students. Rubrics are also a road map for students when it comes to completing an activity. Students should be given the rubrics before the assignment to help guide their completion and they are to keep themselves accountable that they are meeting all requirements. I think when you use a rubric and students choose not to meet all requirements it's not an issue for the teacher because the students knew what the expectations were and chose not to fulfill these requirements. Percentages are best to use on rubrics because you can use for more than one assignment no matter what the point value of the assignment is.
Opitz Chapters 13 and 14
Chapter 13- Learning Strategies and study skills
When I first read the title of this chapter I was thinking "my kids need to learn study skills" because mine will be in middle school before I know it. The key questions we have to instill with our children is when to study, where to study, and the amount of time to spend studying. These are such difficult things for children to learn because they always want to be doing something else more fun but in order to be truly successful throughout the more difficult classes they take they need to learn how to study. It's such valuable habits to build before making it to high school and college. Of course we can always find something better to do (I have this problem as well) but we have to learn the importance of these study habits. I had never heard of the SQ3R technique with the five steps for studying: survey, question, read, recite, or recall and review. The key thing you need to do as the teacher is to model your thinking and process of studying. Students need to see and hear what is expected of them. Following directions is hard for students when they are to listen for them. I find myself having to repeat directions several times and I just don't understand sometimes what my students are doing when I'm giving them directions. I see that I need to train them for following directions with some of the steps given in the chapter. "Asking questions is an important part of learning," (p.328) and I could not agree more. I think students that are asking questions are more engaged and truly are wanting to clarify what has been taught. It is also extremely important for us as teachers to be very strategic with our questions for students to help guide our instruction in the direction we have planned. With the way our school systems work now test-taking strategies are extremely important for our students. I am going to take the idea from the book about posting these in the classroom. I think it's important for students to lose the fear of testing and feel confident going in. This chapter was very helpful in guiding me through what types of things I should put more focus on with my fifth grade students.
Chapter 14- Partnering with Parents
This chapter started out with "Parental involvement in the schools is ever present" (p.338) but I would have to disagree with the school that I work at. I have been at my school for two years now and the only times I have seen my students' parents is at parent teacher conferences, maybe 10 in the past two years at curriculum night, and at orientation. These events are good for attendance but then I don't hear from or see my parents the rest of the year. Many of my parents work during the day or more than one job so they don't have the opportunity to be involved. I have seen at my school the value of parents being involved because there is a clear difference between achievement in reading of those who have parents at home when they get home from school and those that don't. "Home support is a major factor in fostering higher achievement; in fact, 'one of the clearest predictors of early reading ability is the amount of time spent reading with parents,'" (p.339) and I see this every single day. I found it interesting the part of the chapter that talked about communities, churches, and local businesses getting involved to encourage parent involvement. Some of the ideas presented for parents to get involved with their children's literacy education are great ideas to incorporate into my classroom since many of my students don't have the opportunity to spend quality instructional time with their parents.
Aricle analysis
This article talks about reading comprehension and how it is affected by our language development, phonics instruction, vocabulary acquisiton, and fluency. I focused in on the part about phonics and vocabulary. The article talks about how both phonics and vocabulary are taugh directly and indirectly. I thought it was interesting that they said phonics instruction should take about two years. Therefore, starting in kindergarten students should have a deep foundation by the end of first grade when it comes to phonics. Vocabulary instruction starts from the day the child is born because we learn vocabulary through listening and later we are taught vocabulary directly from teachers. It is important as educators to incorporate large vocabulary into our conversations with students and teaching so that there is a variety of words being learned. We then can incorporate these same words into direct instruction through phonics instruction and vocabulary instruction. The chapters this week in Opitz didn't talk much about phonics and vocabulary directly but we have read about it in the past. We have read before that direct instruction of phonics isn't always the best way because ideas taught in isolation are hard for students to then trasfer to their reading whereas they can learn the different decoding sounds through exposure in reading the text. I think that there should be a mixed method because some sounds are best taught in isolation especially if they aren't always going to sound the same when presented the same in words. The article was very concise in what is meant to be learned in each area to develop better reading comprehension. The main point with reading is to gain meaning from the text and not just reading the words on the page correctly.
References:
When I first read the title of this chapter I was thinking "my kids need to learn study skills" because mine will be in middle school before I know it. The key questions we have to instill with our children is when to study, where to study, and the amount of time to spend studying. These are such difficult things for children to learn because they always want to be doing something else more fun but in order to be truly successful throughout the more difficult classes they take they need to learn how to study. It's such valuable habits to build before making it to high school and college. Of course we can always find something better to do (I have this problem as well) but we have to learn the importance of these study habits. I had never heard of the SQ3R technique with the five steps for studying: survey, question, read, recite, or recall and review. The key thing you need to do as the teacher is to model your thinking and process of studying. Students need to see and hear what is expected of them. Following directions is hard for students when they are to listen for them. I find myself having to repeat directions several times and I just don't understand sometimes what my students are doing when I'm giving them directions. I see that I need to train them for following directions with some of the steps given in the chapter. "Asking questions is an important part of learning," (p.328) and I could not agree more. I think students that are asking questions are more engaged and truly are wanting to clarify what has been taught. It is also extremely important for us as teachers to be very strategic with our questions for students to help guide our instruction in the direction we have planned. With the way our school systems work now test-taking strategies are extremely important for our students. I am going to take the idea from the book about posting these in the classroom. I think it's important for students to lose the fear of testing and feel confident going in. This chapter was very helpful in guiding me through what types of things I should put more focus on with my fifth grade students.
Chapter 14- Partnering with Parents
This chapter started out with "Parental involvement in the schools is ever present" (p.338) but I would have to disagree with the school that I work at. I have been at my school for two years now and the only times I have seen my students' parents is at parent teacher conferences, maybe 10 in the past two years at curriculum night, and at orientation. These events are good for attendance but then I don't hear from or see my parents the rest of the year. Many of my parents work during the day or more than one job so they don't have the opportunity to be involved. I have seen at my school the value of parents being involved because there is a clear difference between achievement in reading of those who have parents at home when they get home from school and those that don't. "Home support is a major factor in fostering higher achievement; in fact, 'one of the clearest predictors of early reading ability is the amount of time spent reading with parents,'" (p.339) and I see this every single day. I found it interesting the part of the chapter that talked about communities, churches, and local businesses getting involved to encourage parent involvement. Some of the ideas presented for parents to get involved with their children's literacy education are great ideas to incorporate into my classroom since many of my students don't have the opportunity to spend quality instructional time with their parents.
Aricle analysis
This article talks about reading comprehension and how it is affected by our language development, phonics instruction, vocabulary acquisiton, and fluency. I focused in on the part about phonics and vocabulary. The article talks about how both phonics and vocabulary are taugh directly and indirectly. I thought it was interesting that they said phonics instruction should take about two years. Therefore, starting in kindergarten students should have a deep foundation by the end of first grade when it comes to phonics. Vocabulary instruction starts from the day the child is born because we learn vocabulary through listening and later we are taught vocabulary directly from teachers. It is important as educators to incorporate large vocabulary into our conversations with students and teaching so that there is a variety of words being learned. We then can incorporate these same words into direct instruction through phonics instruction and vocabulary instruction. The chapters this week in Opitz didn't talk much about phonics and vocabulary directly but we have read about it in the past. We have read before that direct instruction of phonics isn't always the best way because ideas taught in isolation are hard for students to then trasfer to their reading whereas they can learn the different decoding sounds through exposure in reading the text. I think that there should be a mixed method because some sounds are best taught in isolation especially if they aren't always going to sound the same when presented the same in words. The article was very concise in what is meant to be learned in each area to develop better reading comprehension. The main point with reading is to gain meaning from the text and not just reading the words on the page correctly.
References:
The role of language development, phonics, vocabulary, and fluency in comprehension instruction . (2005, October 5). . Retrieved from www.personal.psu.edu/dgm122/docs/Example2.doc
Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement: Assessment and instruction . (sixth ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Opitz and Tutorial Process Analysis
Overview of Chapters 9,10 and 11 in Opitz
It is important to expose students to various types of text because you want to gain their interest in reading and keep them reading, because students who read more are better at reading. It's a very simple thought that if students read often they become better readers. We as educators want to make sure that we are allowing students to enjoy reading rather than feeling pressured or forced into reading. Chapter nine gives you an explanation into the different types of texts and examples of them for use in the classroom. Reading not only comes from books but magazines, newspapers, signs, product labels, clothing, and many many more. The more students understand the importance of reading for life purposes the more they might be inclined to improve.
Chapter 10: Helping Children Comprehend
COMPREHENSION this is the most important word for me when it comes to teaching my fifth graders during our reading block. I am not teaching phonics but I am teaching my students HOW to understand what it is they are reading. Comprehension is what is going on in the reader's mind. Not only do students need to understand what they read but they need to understand readings that are read aloud to them through their listening comprehension. There are several reading comprehension taxonomies mentioned in this chapter and they include literal comprehension, interpretation, critical thinking and creative reading. All of these involve reasoning from the student to go beyond what the words are on the page. Students must work to find the main idea of a book to help comprehend the material to it's fullest. Good reader makes inferences when they are reading based on how the author wrote it. You should be constantly making predictions based on what the book is saying. Teachers should be instructing students through before reading, during reading, and after reading to fully grasp comprehension of a text. This chapter provides ample amount of examples for strategies to assess comprehension as well as instruct comprehension for all learner levels.
Chapter 11: Helping Children Acquire and Apply Vocabulary
Before I even started reading I thought about how I'm sure I can gain some strategies from this chapter to help me with my research question starting in the spring. I am going to be working on vocabulary acquisition with the incorporation of technology. The pyramid on page 256 shows how students learn to listen then work their way to speaking, then reading, then writing. I have seen this very explicitly in the population that I teach having all ELLs. I didn't think about how nouns are much easier to read but it makes sense because students can apply a picture to it. Throughout reading we use context clues but there are many types: definition/explanation/description, comparison/contrast, synonym/antonym, homonym, homograph, and homophone context clues. Vocabulary instruction should be purposeful with an end point in mind. This chapter too gave numerous examples of strategies to help build vocabulary knowledge in our young learners.
Comparing Opitz to the article I found:
The article I found about the tutorial process discusses the roles of the tutor and the purpose of the tutorial process. Throughout the article it discusses how you should find a problem and ways to help solve the problem. The tutorial process is a time for students to know what is meant to come out of the sessions and a time set aside each week to work on achieving the goal. It doesn't necessarily list strategies but throughout these three chapters in Opitz I am given various strategies to help a student in need. I am working with my tutee on comprehension and making sure to finish out words when reading for fluency. Both of these ideas are mentioned throughout the chapters with ways to teach a student to do these two things. Through the article I was informed on how I should approach my lessons and in what way it should run. Neither the article nor the text say the same thing but the end result is to help the tutee with a problem in reading.
Uden, L., & Beaumont, C. (2006). Technology and problem-based learning. (pp. 140-141). Hershey: Idea Group Inc. Retrieved from http://www.irma-international.org/viewtitle/30158/
Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement: Assessment and instruction . (sixth ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson.
It is important to expose students to various types of text because you want to gain their interest in reading and keep them reading, because students who read more are better at reading. It's a very simple thought that if students read often they become better readers. We as educators want to make sure that we are allowing students to enjoy reading rather than feeling pressured or forced into reading. Chapter nine gives you an explanation into the different types of texts and examples of them for use in the classroom. Reading not only comes from books but magazines, newspapers, signs, product labels, clothing, and many many more. The more students understand the importance of reading for life purposes the more they might be inclined to improve.
Chapter 10: Helping Children Comprehend
COMPREHENSION this is the most important word for me when it comes to teaching my fifth graders during our reading block. I am not teaching phonics but I am teaching my students HOW to understand what it is they are reading. Comprehension is what is going on in the reader's mind. Not only do students need to understand what they read but they need to understand readings that are read aloud to them through their listening comprehension. There are several reading comprehension taxonomies mentioned in this chapter and they include literal comprehension, interpretation, critical thinking and creative reading. All of these involve reasoning from the student to go beyond what the words are on the page. Students must work to find the main idea of a book to help comprehend the material to it's fullest. Good reader makes inferences when they are reading based on how the author wrote it. You should be constantly making predictions based on what the book is saying. Teachers should be instructing students through before reading, during reading, and after reading to fully grasp comprehension of a text. This chapter provides ample amount of examples for strategies to assess comprehension as well as instruct comprehension for all learner levels.
Chapter 11: Helping Children Acquire and Apply Vocabulary
Before I even started reading I thought about how I'm sure I can gain some strategies from this chapter to help me with my research question starting in the spring. I am going to be working on vocabulary acquisition with the incorporation of technology. The pyramid on page 256 shows how students learn to listen then work their way to speaking, then reading, then writing. I have seen this very explicitly in the population that I teach having all ELLs. I didn't think about how nouns are much easier to read but it makes sense because students can apply a picture to it. Throughout reading we use context clues but there are many types: definition/explanation/description, comparison/contrast, synonym/antonym, homonym, homograph, and homophone context clues. Vocabulary instruction should be purposeful with an end point in mind. This chapter too gave numerous examples of strategies to help build vocabulary knowledge in our young learners.
Comparing Opitz to the article I found:
The article I found about the tutorial process discusses the roles of the tutor and the purpose of the tutorial process. Throughout the article it discusses how you should find a problem and ways to help solve the problem. The tutorial process is a time for students to know what is meant to come out of the sessions and a time set aside each week to work on achieving the goal. It doesn't necessarily list strategies but throughout these three chapters in Opitz I am given various strategies to help a student in need. I am working with my tutee on comprehension and making sure to finish out words when reading for fluency. Both of these ideas are mentioned throughout the chapters with ways to teach a student to do these two things. Through the article I was informed on how I should approach my lessons and in what way it should run. Neither the article nor the text say the same thing but the end result is to help the tutee with a problem in reading.
Uden, L., & Beaumont, C. (2006). Technology and problem-based learning. (pp. 140-141). Hershey: Idea Group Inc. Retrieved from http://www.irma-international.org/viewtitle/30158/
Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement: Assessment and instruction . (sixth ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Overview of two powerpoints in module 4
Identifying Reading Disabiilties:
Reading disabilities are difficult to diagnose. If students are slow learners but are progressing that doesn't mean that they have a disability but that they need more time. There can be many indicators to why students aren't learning at the same pace as other students. I teach all english language learners so sometimes it's hard to decipher whether it's a language issue that's causing them to not read well or if it's a reading disability. If a student didn't receive proper schooling in their native language they aren't going to be able to transfer that into English so it's not easy to tell whether they have a reading disability in English or not. I am actually running into this problem now with a student of mine (5th grade) who just moved here from Mexico but didn't get proper schooling his whole life there. He doesn't know any reading in Spanish so we are starting with letter recognition in English. This is a very slow process and he has only been able to remember 7 words over the past three weeks. I am not sure if this is due to a reading disability or if he is just having a hard time adjusting to a new language. The RTI process has helped teachers recognize where problems lay and given strategies to help students gain growth in the classroom. This process keeps changing due to super intendents and the states not wanting as many students in Tier 3. There has to be so much data and documentation taken in order for a student to qualify for any subject area. I have to keep in mind that there is a process in order to help the students out that really, truly need to be in RTI.
Assessment: Formative and Summative
Assessments have different purposes for both teachers and learners. Formative assessments are there to help drive instruction. These are meant to be used to see what students have gotten so far and maybe areas that need to be readressed before the end of unit assessments. Formative assesesments don't need to be extremely formal or long by any means. They can be self assessments by students, thumbs up thumbs down, quizzes, ticket out the door, and many many more. Summative assessments are at the end of units. These are post tests that tell you how students did according to the instruction they recieved. These can also be the end of year standardized test scores or district wide tests throughout the year. These are for reflection on student achievement and should be used with students to help them see what they have mastered or not.
Reading disabilities are difficult to diagnose. If students are slow learners but are progressing that doesn't mean that they have a disability but that they need more time. There can be many indicators to why students aren't learning at the same pace as other students. I teach all english language learners so sometimes it's hard to decipher whether it's a language issue that's causing them to not read well or if it's a reading disability. If a student didn't receive proper schooling in their native language they aren't going to be able to transfer that into English so it's not easy to tell whether they have a reading disability in English or not. I am actually running into this problem now with a student of mine (5th grade) who just moved here from Mexico but didn't get proper schooling his whole life there. He doesn't know any reading in Spanish so we are starting with letter recognition in English. This is a very slow process and he has only been able to remember 7 words over the past three weeks. I am not sure if this is due to a reading disability or if he is just having a hard time adjusting to a new language. The RTI process has helped teachers recognize where problems lay and given strategies to help students gain growth in the classroom. This process keeps changing due to super intendents and the states not wanting as many students in Tier 3. There has to be so much data and documentation taken in order for a student to qualify for any subject area. I have to keep in mind that there is a process in order to help the students out that really, truly need to be in RTI.
Assessment: Formative and Summative
Assessments have different purposes for both teachers and learners. Formative assessments are there to help drive instruction. These are meant to be used to see what students have gotten so far and maybe areas that need to be readressed before the end of unit assessments. Formative assesesments don't need to be extremely formal or long by any means. They can be self assessments by students, thumbs up thumbs down, quizzes, ticket out the door, and many many more. Summative assessments are at the end of units. These are post tests that tell you how students did according to the instruction they recieved. These can also be the end of year standardized test scores or district wide tests throughout the year. These are for reflection on student achievement and should be used with students to help them see what they have mastered or not.
Analysis of Videos
Running Record 1:
In this video we learned how to document accurate words, inserted words, ommitted words, or different words for what was in the text. All of these symbols make sense the way she wrote them. It makes sense to write above a word the word said if they substituted something different. You should write what words are inserted as well to see if they are making sense of the sentences. Also it's important to recognize what words they are ommitting in case there is a common thread throughout a passage.
Running Record 2:
In this video we are told to document if they are sounding something out. This is good for teachers to write down when we are analyzing running records so that we can see what types of sounds they might be having trouble sounding out instantly. Self-corrections are good for students to make because it can help show us that they are listening to themselves when they read and make note that something didn't sound right. Self corrections are sometimes more insightful into a students reading ability than the words that they read incorrectly because they are trying to predict the next word due to context when they make self corrections.
Running Record 3:
Repeating of words or a group of words happens a lot with students because they are wanting to make sure that they are reading correctly. The key with this idea is to give the students as few errors as possible and give them the benefit of the doubt. They have already said the words accuractely they just wanted to be positive.
Running Records: Assessing
When you are tutoring a student it's important to show them what they are doing correctly and praise them for this before trying to help where they are making mistakes. If you let them know they are successful they will try harder to make corrections where needed. Also it's important for students to know what they are supposed to be working on before starting a new session. This way they can focus in on something they know you are looking for and can work hard at making corrections.
In this video we learned how to document accurate words, inserted words, ommitted words, or different words for what was in the text. All of these symbols make sense the way she wrote them. It makes sense to write above a word the word said if they substituted something different. You should write what words are inserted as well to see if they are making sense of the sentences. Also it's important to recognize what words they are ommitting in case there is a common thread throughout a passage.
Running Record 2:
In this video we are told to document if they are sounding something out. This is good for teachers to write down when we are analyzing running records so that we can see what types of sounds they might be having trouble sounding out instantly. Self-corrections are good for students to make because it can help show us that they are listening to themselves when they read and make note that something didn't sound right. Self corrections are sometimes more insightful into a students reading ability than the words that they read incorrectly because they are trying to predict the next word due to context when they make self corrections.
Running Record 3:
Repeating of words or a group of words happens a lot with students because they are wanting to make sure that they are reading correctly. The key with this idea is to give the students as few errors as possible and give them the benefit of the doubt. They have already said the words accuractely they just wanted to be positive.
Running Records: Assessing
When you are tutoring a student it's important to show them what they are doing correctly and praise them for this before trying to help where they are making mistakes. If you let them know they are successful they will try harder to make corrections where needed. Also it's important for students to know what they are supposed to be working on before starting a new session. This way they can focus in on something they know you are looking for and can work hard at making corrections.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Opitz Ch. 7, 8, 12 and an article on standardized assessment
Overview of Optiz Chapters 7, 8, and 12
Assessing and Teaching Early Literacy
I found Figure 7.1 Cambourne's Conditions of Learning very interesting. I think engagement should be incorporated into all areas of reading but especially as it is put there for immersion and demonstration. I think common core is really putting a focus on immersion because they are wanting our students to be reading all types of text and being exposed in many ways to different types of text. This year I am putting a lot of time and effort into reading aloud in order to work on listening comprehension and modeling for my students what reading should look like. I want to expose them to higher vocabulary than they are able to read themselves. As Opitz says, "Reading aloud increases children's listening vocabularies" and this in turn can increase students speaking vocabulary (pg. 118). There are many concepts that are to be taught and assessed in reading instruction but the most basic of them all that builds the foundation is phonemic awareness. Without phonemic awareness students aren't able to process their phonics and decode when reading. Later comes the reading comprehension and story sense. My students are decent decoders and readers but their writing is where we are spending a lot of time working on. Writing and reading go hand in hand.
Listening in on Students' Oral Reading
Informal reading inventories are beneficial because teachers are able to get valuable information as to what amount of information a student can convey. This is how we as teachers can find the level at which our students can read. It's important to find the instructional level of students in order to not overwhelm and discourage students but build up their confidence in reading. When students are constantly in the frustration level their reading abilities tend to fall because they aren't motivated anymore. When assessing a student in reading, it's important to take note of what types of mistakes the student is making so that instruction can reflect the areas of greatest need. When making analysis of miscues you want to make sure you note whether the miscue makes sense, does it sound right,or does the miscue resemble the printed word? The main difference between and IRI and a RR is that IRI's aren't done with any text. There are a set of leveled passages to choose from whereas a running record can be done for any text. Fulton County as a whole has gone to the BAS from Fountas and Pinnell so I have been administering many running records this year for our literacy test data.
Helping Children Apply Phonics
This chapter discusses different phonics areas that we work on with our students, whether its consonant blends, vowel sounds, vowel digraphs, dipthongs, vowel controlled r, phonograms, and syllables. It discusses what each of these are and gives examples. Then it goes into how to assess these phonics. We should assess phonics through observations, names test, Early names test, tile test, and running records. At my grade level of teaching my students have completed their phonics testings so I am administering the running records tests. When teaching phonics you should teach word identification strategies, teach from whole to part using nursery rhymes and children's literature, word sorts, decode by analogy, writing, how to make words, and using prompts. Phonics instruction should be incorporated throughout whole and small group reading instruction as well as writing instruction.
Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement: Assessment and instruction . (sixth ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson.
Article: http://standardizedtests.procon.org/#background
To compare and contrast the text of Opitz and this article I noticed many differences. When we are testing our students in reading we are wanting to test phonics accuracy and comprehension but how can we test accuracy on a whole-group given standardized test. We are solely testing our students on comprehension and grammatical aspects through standardized tests. This doesn't give instructors a good judge on how well our students can read, but rather how well our students are at finding answers within a text and how well they might be able to decipher some of the stories. Many times the stories chosen for standardized tests are hard for students to understand because they do not have the background knowledge needed to understand the context. When we read stories in our classroom, we get the most success from our students when we are able to find books that interest them or that they have some understanding of the topic before reading. Also time is very limited on standardized tests, that some students feel rushed and aren't able to truly read to the best of their ability. I was never very good at standardized assessments because I wasn't good in high stress situations where I needed to speed through an assignment. I am better at being able to retell the main ideas from a text but when asked nit-picky questions I seem to miss over these many times. I am good at retelling or restating important information from a text or article but specific details seem to be over sighted more often than not. I think this happens with many young readers. They are so concerned at making sure they read each word correctly that they miss the overall meaning of the text. The more important part than getting every word right is understanding what you are reading. I don't know what would be a better solution for testing reading in order to be able to compare nationwide but the system we have now is not the best way to get the best results from our students. I hope that someday constructive response questions come for the passages read by our students, so that they are able to express their understanding of reading and writing. I think it's much easier to figure out where the gaps are in reading by assessing the overall understanding of a topic. I hope that in younger grades they find a way to assess phonics rather than the nit picky things as well. I think constructive response answers will be more eye-opening to the standardized assessment people.
Assessing and Teaching Early Literacy
I found Figure 7.1 Cambourne's Conditions of Learning very interesting. I think engagement should be incorporated into all areas of reading but especially as it is put there for immersion and demonstration. I think common core is really putting a focus on immersion because they are wanting our students to be reading all types of text and being exposed in many ways to different types of text. This year I am putting a lot of time and effort into reading aloud in order to work on listening comprehension and modeling for my students what reading should look like. I want to expose them to higher vocabulary than they are able to read themselves. As Opitz says, "Reading aloud increases children's listening vocabularies" and this in turn can increase students speaking vocabulary (pg. 118). There are many concepts that are to be taught and assessed in reading instruction but the most basic of them all that builds the foundation is phonemic awareness. Without phonemic awareness students aren't able to process their phonics and decode when reading. Later comes the reading comprehension and story sense. My students are decent decoders and readers but their writing is where we are spending a lot of time working on. Writing and reading go hand in hand.
Listening in on Students' Oral Reading
Informal reading inventories are beneficial because teachers are able to get valuable information as to what amount of information a student can convey. This is how we as teachers can find the level at which our students can read. It's important to find the instructional level of students in order to not overwhelm and discourage students but build up their confidence in reading. When students are constantly in the frustration level their reading abilities tend to fall because they aren't motivated anymore. When assessing a student in reading, it's important to take note of what types of mistakes the student is making so that instruction can reflect the areas of greatest need. When making analysis of miscues you want to make sure you note whether the miscue makes sense, does it sound right,or does the miscue resemble the printed word? The main difference between and IRI and a RR is that IRI's aren't done with any text. There are a set of leveled passages to choose from whereas a running record can be done for any text. Fulton County as a whole has gone to the BAS from Fountas and Pinnell so I have been administering many running records this year for our literacy test data.
Helping Children Apply Phonics
This chapter discusses different phonics areas that we work on with our students, whether its consonant blends, vowel sounds, vowel digraphs, dipthongs, vowel controlled r, phonograms, and syllables. It discusses what each of these are and gives examples. Then it goes into how to assess these phonics. We should assess phonics through observations, names test, Early names test, tile test, and running records. At my grade level of teaching my students have completed their phonics testings so I am administering the running records tests. When teaching phonics you should teach word identification strategies, teach from whole to part using nursery rhymes and children's literature, word sorts, decode by analogy, writing, how to make words, and using prompts. Phonics instruction should be incorporated throughout whole and small group reading instruction as well as writing instruction.
Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement: Assessment and instruction . (sixth ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson.
Article: http://standardizedtests.procon.org/#background
To compare and contrast the text of Opitz and this article I noticed many differences. When we are testing our students in reading we are wanting to test phonics accuracy and comprehension but how can we test accuracy on a whole-group given standardized test. We are solely testing our students on comprehension and grammatical aspects through standardized tests. This doesn't give instructors a good judge on how well our students can read, but rather how well our students are at finding answers within a text and how well they might be able to decipher some of the stories. Many times the stories chosen for standardized tests are hard for students to understand because they do not have the background knowledge needed to understand the context. When we read stories in our classroom, we get the most success from our students when we are able to find books that interest them or that they have some understanding of the topic before reading. Also time is very limited on standardized tests, that some students feel rushed and aren't able to truly read to the best of their ability. I was never very good at standardized assessments because I wasn't good in high stress situations where I needed to speed through an assignment. I am better at being able to retell the main ideas from a text but when asked nit-picky questions I seem to miss over these many times. I am good at retelling or restating important information from a text or article but specific details seem to be over sighted more often than not. I think this happens with many young readers. They are so concerned at making sure they read each word correctly that they miss the overall meaning of the text. The more important part than getting every word right is understanding what you are reading. I don't know what would be a better solution for testing reading in order to be able to compare nationwide but the system we have now is not the best way to get the best results from our students. I hope that someday constructive response questions come for the passages read by our students, so that they are able to express their understanding of reading and writing. I think it's much easier to figure out where the gaps are in reading by assessing the overall understanding of a topic. I hope that in younger grades they find a way to assess phonics rather than the nit picky things as well. I think constructive response answers will be more eye-opening to the standardized assessment people.
Is the use of standardized tests improving education in america?. (2012, August 10). Retrieved from http://standardizedtests.procon.org/
Power Points for Module 3
Literacy Strategies Project PowerPoint
The main concept I took away from the Powerpoint this week was the difference between phonics and phonemic awareness.
Phonemic Awareness: The sounds of language Phonics: The integration of sounds and symbols
Phonics is being able to read and decode the words on the page. Phonics is what is being applied when reading a book.
I enjoyed throughout this presentation that there were strategies to use if you notice a certain mistake happening consistently with a student. I just finished assessing my tutee using Foutas and Pinnell running records, and the QRI-5 5th grade passages so I am going to analyze what I found and see what strategies I can take away from this powerpoint to work on with my tutee in the coming tutorial sessions. I know he is having a hard time with compound words so I am going to work with him on compound words and breaking them into words he already knows. He also has a hard time with Syllabication so I am going to incorporate the strategy suggested on knowing the six different types to better help my student progress in his reading abilities. He also needs a lot of work with comprehension but he is willing to take the steps to get better.
Assessment Powerpoint
1. What is the general purpose of assessments? Assessments are meant to help guide your instruction. It is important to know where your students are performing during lessons but as well as after a unit or lesson to help guide your instruction for them. They are necessary to inform you. 2. What must assessments reflect? Assessments should reflect the standards you are teaching and where you are wanting the students to be. Also you should be assessing on their levels to see where improvements are needing to be made. 3. What is the purpose of norm-referenced tests? The purpose of these tests are for you to see how your students are performing in reference to the performance of other students around the nation on their same grade level. 4. What is the difference in formative and summative assessments? Formative assessments help guide your instruction whereas summative assessments are assessing how much the students learned from your instruction. 5. Are tests a good measurement to determine student performance? It depends on what kinds of tests they are. If tests are used in the right format for what is being taught then yes, but if the concepts are deeper understanding and the students are being assessed on the surface level than no they are not good at determining student performance. 6. What are high-stakes test used for? High-stakes tests are used for gaining perspective on how schools, districts, and states are performing in relation to other areas. This is an overall arching test that can determine who is underperforming and where they are underperforming.
The main concept I took away from the Powerpoint this week was the difference between phonics and phonemic awareness.
Phonics is being able to read and decode the words on the page. Phonics is what is being applied when reading a book.
I enjoyed throughout this presentation that there were strategies to use if you notice a certain mistake happening consistently with a student. I just finished assessing my tutee using Foutas and Pinnell running records, and the QRI-5 5th grade passages so I am going to analyze what I found and see what strategies I can take away from this powerpoint to work on with my tutee in the coming tutorial sessions. I know he is having a hard time with compound words so I am going to work with him on compound words and breaking them into words he already knows. He also has a hard time with Syllabication so I am going to incorporate the strategy suggested on knowing the six different types to better help my student progress in his reading abilities. He also needs a lot of work with comprehension but he is willing to take the steps to get better.
Assessment Powerpoint
1. What is the general purpose of assessments? Assessments are meant to help guide your instruction. It is important to know where your students are performing during lessons but as well as after a unit or lesson to help guide your instruction for them. They are necessary to inform you. 2. What must assessments reflect? Assessments should reflect the standards you are teaching and where you are wanting the students to be. Also you should be assessing on their levels to see where improvements are needing to be made. 3. What is the purpose of norm-referenced tests? The purpose of these tests are for you to see how your students are performing in reference to the performance of other students around the nation on their same grade level. 4. What is the difference in formative and summative assessments? Formative assessments help guide your instruction whereas summative assessments are assessing how much the students learned from your instruction. 5. Are tests a good measurement to determine student performance? It depends on what kinds of tests they are. If tests are used in the right format for what is being taught then yes, but if the concepts are deeper understanding and the students are being assessed on the surface level than no they are not good at determining student performance. 6. What are high-stakes test used for? High-stakes tests are used for gaining perspective on how schools, districts, and states are performing in relation to other areas. This is an overall arching test that can determine who is underperforming and where they are underperforming.
Assessment Video Analysis for Module 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv46H9ykgDA&feature=related
Phonemic awareness is necessary for students to be successful in reading. Reading is a very complicated concept for students to learn but the basis of this is phonics. Many of the ideas mentioned during this video I agree with but the quote that resonated with me most was when the narrator said "Phonemic Awareness is central in learning to read and spell."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQKauTA8V7c&feature=related
I might use this phonemic assessment type during my tutorial sessions with my student on very complex words found in fifth grade texts. By the time students get to fifth grade they have a very strong phonics background but it doesn't hurt to have students go back to these roots and practice how to sound words out based on their phonics awareness. I might give my tutee a four syllable word for an assessment like this.
Phonemic awareness is necessary for students to be successful in reading. Reading is a very complicated concept for students to learn but the basis of this is phonics. Many of the ideas mentioned during this video I agree with but the quote that resonated with me most was when the narrator said "Phonemic Awareness is central in learning to read and spell."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQKauTA8V7c&feature=related
I might use this phonemic assessment type during my tutorial sessions with my student on very complex words found in fifth grade texts. By the time students get to fifth grade they have a very strong phonics background but it doesn't hurt to have students go back to these roots and practice how to sound words out based on their phonics awareness. I might give my tutee a four syllable word for an assessment like this.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Module 2: Powerpoint questions
Powerpoint: Emergent Readers
From the emergent readers powerpoint I found it extremely helpful to dictate where students are in the learning process according to their ages. I think this is good to know not only as a teacher but for parents to in order to find signs of whether the child is behind on the growth scale. I teach older students but it's good to see where young readers are supposed to be when especially if I get a student who comes in not speaking English or on a very low reading level. These strategies are very useful in helping the students get from emergent to fluent readers and writers.
Powerpoint on Assessment:
Study skills are something that all learners need to know. You use study skills throughout your whole educational career so it's important to teach these skills to young children for long lasting benefit. Reading is something that can truly be assessed through observation but writing must be presented to you as the teacher. Writing can be assessed by the performance and you can gauge a students reading abilities many times through their writing abilities. Rubrics are the best way to express to the student what is expected and how they can strive to do their best for the best results. It also is a good indicator to a teacher where the gaps are if they are trying their best but aren't able to reach the optimum goal. Writing is such an important skill for all learners because in our daily lives as adults we write emails, letters, papers, and so many more things that include such complex detailing. If we can help students succeed with writing early on we are able to prepare them for life.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Informal Assessment analysis between Opitz and Scholastic article
Weaver, B. (n.d.). Formal versus informal assessments. Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/formal-versus-informal-assessments
Where do the ideas seem to merge? What differences can you discern?
I read this brief article stating the difference between informal and formal observations in order to compare it to Chapter 5 in Opitz's book on informal assessment. As Weaver states, “informal assessments are not data but rather content and performance driven.” Where Opitz states, “informal assessment techniques can provide valid information about student characteristics that cannot be garnered from other sources” (Opitz, p.89). Informal assessments are meant to be used to gather information on a students’ reading abilities in order to better prepare on how to help the student progress. We probably learn much more from informal observations because many times the teacher is taking more individual time with a student. Individual time with a student can allow for the teacher to become very aware of common mistakes made by the child and what issues the child is having with reading. Whether it be a performance task, checklist, anecdotal notes, or others the teacher can learn what is the best approach to help this child succeed. Weaver also states that “The assessment used needs to match the purpose of assessing” which goes right along with the three questions Opitz states throughout chapters 5 and 6 asking “What do I want to know? Why do I want to know? How can I best discover the information?” (Opitz, pg. 89).
Between the article and the text, I can conclude that both are saying how informal assessments should be used and why we use informal assessments. There needs to be a clear purpose for the assessment. We should be assessing, planning, and reassessing based on the information gained in the original assessment. Through informal assessments we should be able to chart progress with the student and if not we need to incorporate RTI strategies to help the student progress further.
I didn’t really notice many differences between the two writings other than the text has supplemental support to give ideas as to which informal assessments can be used. Chapter 5 and 6 are in a larger scale the same comparison as the article. We use both informal and formal assessments in reading but as teachers we need to be sure we are using them in the appropriate settings.
I find that I use more informal assessments during my reading instruction than I do formal. Through my writing block we are constantly producing performance assessments and three times throughout the year I must administer my running record literacy tests. Throughout my guided instruction in class I am adjusting my instruction based on how students performed the day before or minutes before. Reading is a subject area of which students can change drastically in just a second if not exposed to the appropriate text.
Opitz Ch. 5 and 6 Analysis
Chapter 5: Using Informal Assessment Techniques Across the Grades
It really is amazing to me how many different ways we can assess our readers but each of these assessments have a specific purpose. Usually when a student is acting out in class there is a reason behind it and it's our jobs to figure out if it's academically induced or if outside factors are playing a role. I have used many of these process but didn't realize I was doing them either. I have used many times checklists or anecdotal records for observations of behavior but not for reading behavior. This would be a great way to figure out if the students is constantly struggling with the same thing or is always wanting to read the same genre. There are many insights you can figure out when observing a students behavior but as Opitz states it takes time and energy from the teacher away from the rest of the students. On page 76, figure 5.8A shows a performance checklist and this resembles what we are using with the Fountas and Pinell BAS running record tests for literacy testing in my school. This is a great tool for analyzing common errors made by the student and to check for comprehension of a short passage. I have found through the literacy tests I have completed that many of my students struggle with comprehension and I like Figure 5.9 to use a checklist for comprehension. You could use this during a guided reading session and use letters or numbers to document when a student answers or cannot answer the probing questions in a group setting. The most profound statement throughout this chapter to me was on page 79 when Opitz states, "Reading helps reading: unfortunately many students are not choosing to read...Understanding students' attitudes and interests enables teachers to motivate students and instill in them a positive attitude toward reading." This reigns true to me for dealing with my tutee for this semester. I conducted both an attitude and an interest survey with my tutee like this chapter describes, and both surveys were very enlightening to how I should approach my tutoring sessions. Overall I think informal assessments you are able to analyze in more detail because the students aren't feeling as though they are in a threatening situation. The students are more relaxed and I think you get more true results.
Chapter 6: Using Standardized Tests across the Grades
Standardized tests have become such a hot topic over the past few years in education. I understand the use of them and even more so now after reading through this chapter, but I don't understand why we have to take so many. My students last year by the time our CRCT came around they were burnt out. They had already taking the ITBS and Fulton's checkpoints three times during the year. This is also a LOT of classroom time teachers are losing for instruction. I think I prefer the norm referenced tests because you can see how your students are doing compared to those in your school, district, state, or nation. Especially with common core starting this year I think norm referenced tests are going to be a good way to assess who is teaching common core the best and how you can analyze what improvements you can make as a teacher. Reading these two chapters I saw the questions "What do I want to know? Why do I want to know it? and Which test will help me discover this information?" and I think these questions we should be asking ourselves not only before each test but before each lesson. This goes along with backwards design too with what do I want them to learn? Why do I want them to learn this? and What strategies would be bester to successfully portray this information?
It really is amazing to me how many different ways we can assess our readers but each of these assessments have a specific purpose. Usually when a student is acting out in class there is a reason behind it and it's our jobs to figure out if it's academically induced or if outside factors are playing a role. I have used many of these process but didn't realize I was doing them either. I have used many times checklists or anecdotal records for observations of behavior but not for reading behavior. This would be a great way to figure out if the students is constantly struggling with the same thing or is always wanting to read the same genre. There are many insights you can figure out when observing a students behavior but as Opitz states it takes time and energy from the teacher away from the rest of the students. On page 76, figure 5.8A shows a performance checklist and this resembles what we are using with the Fountas and Pinell BAS running record tests for literacy testing in my school. This is a great tool for analyzing common errors made by the student and to check for comprehension of a short passage. I have found through the literacy tests I have completed that many of my students struggle with comprehension and I like Figure 5.9 to use a checklist for comprehension. You could use this during a guided reading session and use letters or numbers to document when a student answers or cannot answer the probing questions in a group setting. The most profound statement throughout this chapter to me was on page 79 when Opitz states, "Reading helps reading: unfortunately many students are not choosing to read...Understanding students' attitudes and interests enables teachers to motivate students and instill in them a positive attitude toward reading." This reigns true to me for dealing with my tutee for this semester. I conducted both an attitude and an interest survey with my tutee like this chapter describes, and both surveys were very enlightening to how I should approach my tutoring sessions. Overall I think informal assessments you are able to analyze in more detail because the students aren't feeling as though they are in a threatening situation. The students are more relaxed and I think you get more true results.
Chapter 6: Using Standardized Tests across the Grades
Standardized tests have become such a hot topic over the past few years in education. I understand the use of them and even more so now after reading through this chapter, but I don't understand why we have to take so many. My students last year by the time our CRCT came around they were burnt out. They had already taking the ITBS and Fulton's checkpoints three times during the year. This is also a LOT of classroom time teachers are losing for instruction. I think I prefer the norm referenced tests because you can see how your students are doing compared to those in your school, district, state, or nation. Especially with common core starting this year I think norm referenced tests are going to be a good way to assess who is teaching common core the best and how you can analyze what improvements you can make as a teacher. Reading these two chapters I saw the questions "What do I want to know? Why do I want to know it? and Which test will help me discover this information?" and I think these questions we should be asking ourselves not only before each test but before each lesson. This goes along with backwards design too with what do I want them to learn? Why do I want them to learn this? and What strategies would be bester to successfully portray this information?
Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement: Assessment and instruction . (sixth ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson.
Analysis of Reading Attitude Survey with my tutee
I gave my fifth grader an elementary reading attitude survey and was interested by his results. His Raw score for recreational reading was a 20 and his raw score for academic reading was 23. Usually you think of students preferring their own reading but this wasn't the case with my tutee. He falls in the 15th percentile for his overral score. He's in the 6th percentile for recreational reading and the 29th percentile for academic reading. I will be honest this didn't really surprise me all that much. The student I have chosen to tutor is more on the social side of most of my students. He much more enjoys the computer, sports, and math more than he enjoys reading. Across the board he put mildly upset for many questions. He never gave me a happiest garfiled toward reading. The ones he scored lowest were when asked how he felt about getting a book as a present, reading during the summer, reading instead of playing, and using a dictionary. This amused me but I can see why a dictionary can be very frustrating for kids. Especially since this child is an English Language Learner they have a hard time with spelling so dictionaries are very difficult for them to use. The other areas he scored a 1 on were areas of where he is in his element and the last thing he would want to be doing is reading a book. My job during this time of tutoring my student is getting his interest level and attitude of reading much higher. He says he enjoys when he gets to read different books and reading them aloud. I can take this and run with it for my tutoring sessions!
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Video Analysis #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHAZyRKKbic
This video was a demo for using the word list for assessing a child's level. I like how the teacher didn't start out with the word list but spoke to the student about interest level of reading and what types of stories the student likes to read. I know with my student I want to do a reading interest survey in our first session to get a fell for how the student feels about reading. Along with this I think it's important to dig deeper into the different types of stories the student prefers to read as well. When a student is interested in reading I think they progress at a faster rate.
This video was a demo for using the word list for assessing a child's level. I like how the teacher didn't start out with the word list but spoke to the student about interest level of reading and what types of stories the student likes to read. I know with my student I want to do a reading interest survey in our first session to get a fell for how the student feels about reading. Along with this I think it's important to dig deeper into the different types of stories the student prefers to read as well. When a student is interested in reading I think they progress at a faster rate.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Module 1: Response to Power Point
Assessing and Correcting Reading and Writing Difficulties
I word in a predominately Hispanic community but have other ethnicities in my room as well. Out of my 28 students, all but 5 do not speak English as their first language. I really resonated with the difficulties of ELL's but it's been interesting to me in my classroom how many of my students are not proficient in their native language. My students are able to speak their native language but cannot read or write in their native language. This really shows how there are so many gaps in their English reading and writing as well.
Success is key! Helping students understand when they are successful and making a big deal out of it can help boost their confidence. For my students, focusing on vocabulary is very key in order to help build their background knowledge on a text before and during reading. I have found that allowing students to work with their peers helps boost morale in the room and gets students motivated because they want to perform at the level of the others around them.
I was shocked by how many children are diagnosed with learning disabilities and it's amazing to me that 80% of learning disabilities are reading related but it makes sense. Reading is brought into all academic content areas so it's much easier to notice when a student is struggling in this area.
The biggest challenge I have found with my fifth graders that I noticed in this presentation is figuring out if their reading struggles are language related or if it's something else. I have been trying to work on getting my students to focus more on the big picture while reading to try and take the focus away from the individual sounds. I think if they change their focus to gaining meaning while reading they will find reading more enjoyable.
I word in a predominately Hispanic community but have other ethnicities in my room as well. Out of my 28 students, all but 5 do not speak English as their first language. I really resonated with the difficulties of ELL's but it's been interesting to me in my classroom how many of my students are not proficient in their native language. My students are able to speak their native language but cannot read or write in their native language. This really shows how there are so many gaps in their English reading and writing as well.
Success is key! Helping students understand when they are successful and making a big deal out of it can help boost their confidence. For my students, focusing on vocabulary is very key in order to help build their background knowledge on a text before and during reading. I have found that allowing students to work with their peers helps boost morale in the room and gets students motivated because they want to perform at the level of the others around them.
I was shocked by how many children are diagnosed with learning disabilities and it's amazing to me that 80% of learning disabilities are reading related but it makes sense. Reading is brought into all academic content areas so it's much easier to notice when a student is struggling in this area.
The biggest challenge I have found with my fifth graders that I noticed in this presentation is figuring out if their reading struggles are language related or if it's something else. I have been trying to work on getting my students to focus more on the big picture while reading to try and take the focus away from the individual sounds. I think if they change their focus to gaining meaning while reading they will find reading more enjoyable.
Video Analysis on Assessing Reading Skills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDZlUXUwRYk&feature=related
From this weeks reading I was able to follow along with this video very well. In the video the student is a slow reader because of her decoding skills. The student, Becca, is a very highly ranked math student but is only performing in the 12th percentile for reading. The assessor is trying to diagnose where Becca's problems lie. Her teacher through evaluating the student realized that Becca was falling behind so she wanted to get her more explicit help. I personally thought it was interesting that in order to assess the reader they used a list of words. In the past semester for our endorsement, we learned a lot about how reading isn't just reading words but making sense of what we are reading. I think you can gauge more about a students' abilities from when they are reading a coherent passage. I had some students last year who were excellent readers but when I had to test them on sight words they would miss the odd word, whereas when I chose to use the sight words in a passage they were able to get through the passage without making any mistakes. I think this shows that the reader is proficient because in context they are able to decode unfamiliar words more easily. I don't enjoy reading words in a list either. I think this also gives the student a lot of pressure. I think.
Ongoing assessment is mentioned in the video and throughout the text. It's important to be aware of how each student is performing in order to explicitly teach to the needs of the students. I thought it was interesting when the text stated "most students need help in acquiring reading skills and strategies; they do not gain these through osmosis" (Opitz, 24). I would hope that all teachers know this because it is our job to make sure we don't assume that students already know strategies and teach them to our students. I thought the video did a good job of explaining why we are to diagnose our students early so that they don't fall behind their peers. Reading is an area of school that can bring about very negative feelings toward school as a whole if they are not successful. Reading is supposed to be fun and exciting to students so as educators we need to strive to get all students to that level through modeling our own reading behaviors.
Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement: Assessment and instruction. (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon
From this weeks reading I was able to follow along with this video very well. In the video the student is a slow reader because of her decoding skills. The student, Becca, is a very highly ranked math student but is only performing in the 12th percentile for reading. The assessor is trying to diagnose where Becca's problems lie. Her teacher through evaluating the student realized that Becca was falling behind so she wanted to get her more explicit help. I personally thought it was interesting that in order to assess the reader they used a list of words. In the past semester for our endorsement, we learned a lot about how reading isn't just reading words but making sense of what we are reading. I think you can gauge more about a students' abilities from when they are reading a coherent passage. I had some students last year who were excellent readers but when I had to test them on sight words they would miss the odd word, whereas when I chose to use the sight words in a passage they were able to get through the passage without making any mistakes. I think this shows that the reader is proficient because in context they are able to decode unfamiliar words more easily. I don't enjoy reading words in a list either. I think this also gives the student a lot of pressure. I think.
Ongoing assessment is mentioned in the video and throughout the text. It's important to be aware of how each student is performing in order to explicitly teach to the needs of the students. I thought it was interesting when the text stated "most students need help in acquiring reading skills and strategies; they do not gain these through osmosis" (Opitz, 24). I would hope that all teachers know this because it is our job to make sure we don't assume that students already know strategies and teach them to our students. I thought the video did a good job of explaining why we are to diagnose our students early so that they don't fall behind their peers. Reading is an area of school that can bring about very negative feelings toward school as a whole if they are not successful. Reading is supposed to be fun and exciting to students so as educators we need to strive to get all students to that level through modeling our own reading behaviors.
Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement: Assessment and instruction. (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon
Module 1: Activity 4 on page 14 in Opitz
Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement: Assessment and instruction. (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon
When I was deciding which student to observe to diagnose whether the child would be classified as a proficient reader or less proficient reader I wanted to choose one of my students I was very unsure of where they would fall. During my guided reading groups today I focused on one of my more quiet students. When she was reading her leveled reader I noticed she would correct herself on in three miscues. I have been stressing with my students that reading is not just following the words along the page, that good readers are those who think or stop and think about what they are reading throughout.
Through the readings in the past endorsement course and this course so far, it's important for our students to remember that it's ok to make mistakes as long as when we are making mistakes there is a purpose for them. I have been more focused in my reading groups since this past semester to see what sorts of mistakes students are making. Whether they are substitiuting a word that could make sense or if they have no idea what the words on the page are. This student I observed also that my student was chuncking what she was reading and replacing words with ones she was more familiar with that made sense in the sentence. She stopped me while she was reading to make a connection to soemthing she had experienced in her life. The book we are currently reading is about where names of things come from, and how many items are named after people. I noticed when she was reading that she wasn't stopping or ignoring parts she was confused about. Luckily in the part we were reading there were many visuals to help aid the process. I would say through my observation and reviewing Table 1.1 on page 8 in the Opitz text that my student is a proficient reader. There are always areas to improve and make a plan.
Throughout chapter 1 we are told to identify diagnosis, asses and set goals. For this student I would set goals towards extracting meaning and connections through her analysis of comprehension. By the time students get in to fifth grade they have a fairly good foundation on phonics, but struggle in the comprehension area because they are focusing so much on the words, especially since I have majority English Language Learners. My specific student is needing more help in her cognitive domain. Even though she struggled in parts she never showed much frustration with herself which showed me that she is confident in her abilities and is willing to put forth the effort towards her goals once we can set them together.
When I was deciding which student to observe to diagnose whether the child would be classified as a proficient reader or less proficient reader I wanted to choose one of my students I was very unsure of where they would fall. During my guided reading groups today I focused on one of my more quiet students. When she was reading her leveled reader I noticed she would correct herself on in three miscues. I have been stressing with my students that reading is not just following the words along the page, that good readers are those who think or stop and think about what they are reading throughout.
Through the readings in the past endorsement course and this course so far, it's important for our students to remember that it's ok to make mistakes as long as when we are making mistakes there is a purpose for them. I have been more focused in my reading groups since this past semester to see what sorts of mistakes students are making. Whether they are substitiuting a word that could make sense or if they have no idea what the words on the page are. This student I observed also that my student was chuncking what she was reading and replacing words with ones she was more familiar with that made sense in the sentence. She stopped me while she was reading to make a connection to soemthing she had experienced in her life. The book we are currently reading is about where names of things come from, and how many items are named after people. I noticed when she was reading that she wasn't stopping or ignoring parts she was confused about. Luckily in the part we were reading there were many visuals to help aid the process. I would say through my observation and reviewing Table 1.1 on page 8 in the Opitz text that my student is a proficient reader. There are always areas to improve and make a plan.
Throughout chapter 1 we are told to identify diagnosis, asses and set goals. For this student I would set goals towards extracting meaning and connections through her analysis of comprehension. By the time students get in to fifth grade they have a fairly good foundation on phonics, but struggle in the comprehension area because they are focusing so much on the words, especially since I have majority English Language Learners. My specific student is needing more help in her cognitive domain. Even though she struggled in parts she never showed much frustration with herself which showed me that she is confident in her abilities and is willing to put forth the effort towards her goals once we can set them together.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Module 6:Instructional Challenge
Next year, you will be teaching in a school where the vast majority of students did not meet standard on your state's criterion-referenced test and where more than 75% of the students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals. What are some specific universal literacy strategies you may implement to ensure students success? Include both in-class examples and things you could do outside the classroom.
I would start with reading aloud to my students through a teacher read-aloud. Then I would use either the same book I read in a shared reading format or something that relates to their background knowledge for the students to read with me and their peers with the ability to see the words. Then I would move my students into the guided reading format with students not only grouped by ability some times but grouped by interest level. I want those students to find reading fun and successful, so bringing forth familiar topics should help move the students toward literacy success. Next I would give the students the option to choose a book for their sustained reading time. This allows students to choose topics that may or may not be familiar to them, but it is something of interest for the student. To make sure my students are comprehending their sustained reads I would incorporate journal writing with question prompts to help guide their own instrcution and to give me the ability to monitor their understanding. These are all strategies I would implement in my classroom.
Next to take this to outside the classroom, I would give my students what their lexile level is so they are able to find something that is on their reading ability from the library. Next I would make sure that the topic they have chosen to read about is age-appropriate. I would have a composition notebook that is designated for homework/journal time for when they aren't at home. I want my students to get in the habit of reading every night at home and this doesn't have to be burden on their parents wallets. The books would be approved by me from the library (FREE) and I would provide the notebook to be used at home. I would give my students a list of topics or questions that they could refer to when journal writing at home. I think I would give students prompts every few days on what topic to write about but allow for choice the rest of the time. That way students are reading and writing every day at home and at school to help strive for literacy success! I also think it's important to stress to parents the importance of reading at home. Whether it's a note I staple into their agenda's or something I speak about at orientation. From personal experience, last year we only had 5 parents in the whole grade attend curriculum/orientation night so for me it would be something I would need to send home. Reading and writing EVERYDAY is SO important to literacy success.
I would start with reading aloud to my students through a teacher read-aloud. Then I would use either the same book I read in a shared reading format or something that relates to their background knowledge for the students to read with me and their peers with the ability to see the words. Then I would move my students into the guided reading format with students not only grouped by ability some times but grouped by interest level. I want those students to find reading fun and successful, so bringing forth familiar topics should help move the students toward literacy success. Next I would give the students the option to choose a book for their sustained reading time. This allows students to choose topics that may or may not be familiar to them, but it is something of interest for the student. To make sure my students are comprehending their sustained reads I would incorporate journal writing with question prompts to help guide their own instrcution and to give me the ability to monitor their understanding. These are all strategies I would implement in my classroom.
Next to take this to outside the classroom, I would give my students what their lexile level is so they are able to find something that is on their reading ability from the library. Next I would make sure that the topic they have chosen to read about is age-appropriate. I would have a composition notebook that is designated for homework/journal time for when they aren't at home. I want my students to get in the habit of reading every night at home and this doesn't have to be burden on their parents wallets. The books would be approved by me from the library (FREE) and I would provide the notebook to be used at home. I would give my students a list of topics or questions that they could refer to when journal writing at home. I think I would give students prompts every few days on what topic to write about but allow for choice the rest of the time. That way students are reading and writing every day at home and at school to help strive for literacy success! I also think it's important to stress to parents the importance of reading at home. Whether it's a note I staple into their agenda's or something I speak about at orientation. From personal experience, last year we only had 5 parents in the whole grade attend curriculum/orientation night so for me it would be something I would need to send home. Reading and writing EVERYDAY is SO important to literacy success.
Module 6: Reading Reflection
Does any of the information presented in Chapter 15 influence your personal philosophy of reading? In what ways? How has your perspective this changed since you took the DeFord TORP a few weeks ago?
Well throughout this summer semester the findings presented by Weaver have influenced my personal philosophy of reading and is summed up in Chapter 15. I always knew the purpose of reading was to read for meaning but throughout my coursework preparing me to be a teacher, my previous professors put emphasis on phonics instruction in the part-to-whole format rather than whole-to-part. I completely stand behind "when looking at how we can achieve universal literacy, this body of research shows that low-achieving children achieve more with comprehensive, whole-to-parts reading instruction than children with traditional, parts-to-whole reading instruction" (Weaver, 372). I also resonated with Weaver that "reading is more than decoding (pronouncing) print. It is making sense of print. Schema researchers have shown that readers of all ages must first understand a topic to understand text on that topic"(Weaver, 373). Reading is something that should be enjoyed and readers shouldn't feel the pressure of decoding words perfectly in isolation. When you are exposed to more and more text you are able to "decode" much easier and especially when you are reading on a familiar topic. Chapter 15 does a solid job of summing up what we have learned throughout Weaver's whole text about what the comprehensive literacy program should look like and why it is important to teach reading predominately in this format.
My perspective from the DeFord TORP a few weeks ago has changed from skills to whole language. This goes to show that I agree with what was presented as part of the Comprehensive Literacy Program and that I will incorporate this type of thinking in my own instruction in the coming year.
Well throughout this summer semester the findings presented by Weaver have influenced my personal philosophy of reading and is summed up in Chapter 15. I always knew the purpose of reading was to read for meaning but throughout my coursework preparing me to be a teacher, my previous professors put emphasis on phonics instruction in the part-to-whole format rather than whole-to-part. I completely stand behind "when looking at how we can achieve universal literacy, this body of research shows that low-achieving children achieve more with comprehensive, whole-to-parts reading instruction than children with traditional, parts-to-whole reading instruction" (Weaver, 372). I also resonated with Weaver that "reading is more than decoding (pronouncing) print. It is making sense of print. Schema researchers have shown that readers of all ages must first understand a topic to understand text on that topic"(Weaver, 373). Reading is something that should be enjoyed and readers shouldn't feel the pressure of decoding words perfectly in isolation. When you are exposed to more and more text you are able to "decode" much easier and especially when you are reading on a familiar topic. Chapter 15 does a solid job of summing up what we have learned throughout Weaver's whole text about what the comprehensive literacy program should look like and why it is important to teach reading predominately in this format.
My perspective from the DeFord TORP a few weeks ago has changed from skills to whole language. This goes to show that I agree with what was presented as part of the Comprehensive Literacy Program and that I will incorporate this type of thinking in my own instruction in the coming year.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Personal Model of Reading
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1loyPbsAKJJifXmn65r-NMgtmuRXQZf6ifxPEAqXGSiA/edit
My final paper on my personal model of reading
My final paper on my personal model of reading
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Module 5: Instructional Challenge
As your school year starts, you realize that you have three ELLs who are newcomers to the United States. Discuss how a comprehensive literacy program addresses their needs, drawing attention to specific components of the framework that are particularly relevant. Then discuss any additional scaffolding you would offer to support these children's needs.
The comprehensive literacy program is meant to expose students in various different forms to literacy. Through the reading workshop I can help my ELLs become familiar with English texts through beginning with read-alouds to allow them to hear what the sounds are without straining them to follow along word for word with their eyes. The students can listen. I would then have students paired up with a proficient reader while I do the shared reading. They will listen as the class along with me discussed the selected text. Now the student will be able to follow the words as we read to see what the language looks like. Then to follow the shared reading I would group my ELLs together in the same guided reading group. I would scaffold their learning by starting with much lower-level text. Through the shared reading and guided reading I would work with these students on developing sight word knowledge. I would start small to build success before moving on to more difficult text. Students need to feel successful in reading and writing in order to enjoy it and want to work more at literacy. Through guided reading I would "make use of various skills, including-but not limited to-phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, and decoding" (Weaver, 286). Not only would I work with these three students together but I would conference with each student individually to gain persepective on their interests and what they feel as though they are struggling with. This will allow me to build a trusting relationship with my students.
Using what I have done with my students in our reading block, I would transfer the same strategies into the writing workshop model. I would start with modeling my writing process, shared writing with the whole class, then allow them to work in pairs with proficient writers. I wouldn't set these three students to independent writing until I felt they felt comfortable with the process. I think working with their peers during this time is more important than working with me. I would conference with these students and use guided writing sessions to work on some skills but I think allowing them to try to express themselves on their own will provide them with more success. Literacy is something you have to work hard at but if you are given the right resources any student can be successful!
The comprehensive literacy program is meant to expose students in various different forms to literacy. Through the reading workshop I can help my ELLs become familiar with English texts through beginning with read-alouds to allow them to hear what the sounds are without straining them to follow along word for word with their eyes. The students can listen. I would then have students paired up with a proficient reader while I do the shared reading. They will listen as the class along with me discussed the selected text. Now the student will be able to follow the words as we read to see what the language looks like. Then to follow the shared reading I would group my ELLs together in the same guided reading group. I would scaffold their learning by starting with much lower-level text. Through the shared reading and guided reading I would work with these students on developing sight word knowledge. I would start small to build success before moving on to more difficult text. Students need to feel successful in reading and writing in order to enjoy it and want to work more at literacy. Through guided reading I would "make use of various skills, including-but not limited to-phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, and decoding" (Weaver, 286). Not only would I work with these three students together but I would conference with each student individually to gain persepective on their interests and what they feel as though they are struggling with. This will allow me to build a trusting relationship with my students.
Using what I have done with my students in our reading block, I would transfer the same strategies into the writing workshop model. I would start with modeling my writing process, shared writing with the whole class, then allow them to work in pairs with proficient writers. I wouldn't set these three students to independent writing until I felt they felt comfortable with the process. I think working with their peers during this time is more important than working with me. I would conference with these students and use guided writing sessions to work on some skills but I think allowing them to try to express themselves on their own will provide them with more success. Literacy is something you have to work hard at but if you are given the right resources any student can be successful!
Module 5: Reading Reflection
After reading Weaver's text, chapters 12 & 13:
Where does phonics instruction fit within a comprehensive literacy program? When and how would you teach phonics?
Phonics fits within the reading instruction of the comprehensive literacy program but is not taught in isolation. Chapter 13 in our text puts emphasis on how phonemic awareness promotes learning to read and learning to read promotes phonemic awareness. Weaver says "phonemic segmentation is not a natural task, nor one normally needed for reading, beyond the ability to separate an onset from a rime. This fact is important to understand because in some schools, readiness for first grade-or kindergarten!-is being assessed in part by measures of phoneic awareness"(p.307). I would agree with this because I don't think that phonics needs to be taught explicity for a student to become a proficient reader. I also am coming from an upper grades level of teaching so I don't have as many students who struggle with phonemic awareness. Phonics can be brought into instruction through shared reading or read-alouds. I think shared reading is where I would focus on phonics teaching because I can model myself working through unknown words to demonstrate for my students how they can do it on their own in sustained reading time. In chapter twelve's description of shared reading Weaver writes "using letter-sound knowledge along with other cues to identify words (also, teachers can make a not of readers who overuse letter-sound knowledge without also using meaning and other cues)" (p.293). This goes back to what we have learned in previous chapters that reading for meaning is most important to making a student a proficient reader. We shouldn't focus so much on letter-sounds and focus on students gaining meaning from their text. I think it's important to show how we can use previously learned words to help decode unknown words through read-alouds and shared reading. I don't think I need to teach specific rimes and onsets in order for my students to read upper-level text. Having more exposure to different types of text is the best way to help students with phonemic awareness. The comprehensive literacy program is to build students overall literacy competency and skills are to be incorporated into reading groups or writing practice. The skills shouldn't be taught and drill practiced for effectiveness.
Where does phonics instruction fit within a comprehensive literacy program? When and how would you teach phonics?
Phonics fits within the reading instruction of the comprehensive literacy program but is not taught in isolation. Chapter 13 in our text puts emphasis on how phonemic awareness promotes learning to read and learning to read promotes phonemic awareness. Weaver says "phonemic segmentation is not a natural task, nor one normally needed for reading, beyond the ability to separate an onset from a rime. This fact is important to understand because in some schools, readiness for first grade-or kindergarten!-is being assessed in part by measures of phoneic awareness"(p.307). I would agree with this because I don't think that phonics needs to be taught explicity for a student to become a proficient reader. I also am coming from an upper grades level of teaching so I don't have as many students who struggle with phonemic awareness. Phonics can be brought into instruction through shared reading or read-alouds. I think shared reading is where I would focus on phonics teaching because I can model myself working through unknown words to demonstrate for my students how they can do it on their own in sustained reading time. In chapter twelve's description of shared reading Weaver writes "using letter-sound knowledge along with other cues to identify words (also, teachers can make a not of readers who overuse letter-sound knowledge without also using meaning and other cues)" (p.293). This goes back to what we have learned in previous chapters that reading for meaning is most important to making a student a proficient reader. We shouldn't focus so much on letter-sounds and focus on students gaining meaning from their text. I think it's important to show how we can use previously learned words to help decode unknown words through read-alouds and shared reading. I don't think I need to teach specific rimes and onsets in order for my students to read upper-level text. Having more exposure to different types of text is the best way to help students with phonemic awareness. The comprehensive literacy program is to build students overall literacy competency and skills are to be incorporated into reading groups or writing practice. The skills shouldn't be taught and drill practiced for effectiveness.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Module 4: Activity 1
http://youtu.be/GctEw_7hTWc
What strategy or strategies Robin used most to help him learn to read?
First Robin starts out with phonics work. He doesn't use nonsense words but uses different blends to sound words out. He moves into reading a short story where he sounds out the words but uses the context to correct himself because he knows it doesn't sound right. Next he starts writing what he was reading. He puts together "chunks" that he noticed when he was driving one day with the words on a truck. Throughout the video, Robin is mainly using his phonics knowledge to sound out words he doesn't know. He looks in large words for chunks he recognizes to help him work through the unknown words. He has a good vocabulary from speaking which is an advantage for him to guess what the word is based off maybe a chunk or two that he was able to sound out. Robin worked very hard to become literate and his message is that if you believe that all your students have the ability to learn how to read, they will accomplish this.
What strategy or strategies Robin used most to help him learn to read?
First Robin starts out with phonics work. He doesn't use nonsense words but uses different blends to sound words out. He moves into reading a short story where he sounds out the words but uses the context to correct himself because he knows it doesn't sound right. Next he starts writing what he was reading. He puts together "chunks" that he noticed when he was driving one day with the words on a truck. Throughout the video, Robin is mainly using his phonics knowledge to sound out words he doesn't know. He looks in large words for chunks he recognizes to help him work through the unknown words. He has a good vocabulary from speaking which is an advantage for him to guess what the word is based off maybe a chunk or two that he was able to sound out. Robin worked very hard to become literate and his message is that if you believe that all your students have the ability to learn how to read, they will accomplish this.
Module 4: Activity 2
Take a look at the NRP Report Summary:
http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org/Publications/summary.htm
and Allington’s response:
http://www.hcd.hr/conference/key_allington_eng.pdf
Which NRP topic area(s) or “missing pillar(s)” that Allington describes do you find to be most vital for children’s literacy success? Why?
I think the most vital for literacy success is "matching kids with appropriate texts" from Allington. When children are learning to read it can be a grueling process, and if they are asked to read something way higher than they are capable it can cause students to shut down and give up. You never want to frustrate a learning reader to the point where they hate reading. It is better to start small and work your way up. If a student doesn't understand what they are reading and can't make it through a book, they are not learning anything or gaining anything from the text. This can be detrimental to your classroom. Learners need to feel successful!
http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org/Publications/summary.htm
and Allington’s response:
http://www.hcd.hr/conference/key_allington_eng.pdf
Which NRP topic area(s) or “missing pillar(s)” that Allington describes do you find to be most vital for children’s literacy success? Why?
I think the most vital for literacy success is "matching kids with appropriate texts" from Allington. When children are learning to read it can be a grueling process, and if they are asked to read something way higher than they are capable it can cause students to shut down and give up. You never want to frustrate a learning reader to the point where they hate reading. It is better to start small and work your way up. If a student doesn't understand what they are reading and can't make it through a book, they are not learning anything or gaining anything from the text. This can be detrimental to your classroom. Learners need to feel successful!
Module 4: Instructional Challenge
Marcus is a student who very frequently miscues by substituting words that start with the same letter or first few letters of the word in the text, but his substitutions often are not syntactically or semantically acceptable (they neither sound right grammatically nor make sense). What possible teaching strategies would you suggest to help Marcus?
If I had a student like Marcus I would first go down a reading level with him to see if the same miscues were occurring. I would read aloud the new text to the student and discuss what the student gained from the read aloud. Then I would have Marcus try reading it to me. If Marcus was to still make miscues that did not fit grammatically I would try incorporating writing into our reading group. I think writing can help students realize what mistakes they are making while reading and we can work on structure through writing. Marcus also would benefit from pair reading with someone who doesn't make the same types of miscues. Students benefit from being exposed to good literacy so through my read alouds and pair reading hopefully Marcus would gain more understanding of structure. If the problems still were happening I would create a passage with some missing words, so I could see what he would try to substitute in. We would discuss what words would work and why. This would take time for one-on-one conferencing. Hopefully one or all of these tactics would help Marcus progress.
If I had a student like Marcus I would first go down a reading level with him to see if the same miscues were occurring. I would read aloud the new text to the student and discuss what the student gained from the read aloud. Then I would have Marcus try reading it to me. If Marcus was to still make miscues that did not fit grammatically I would try incorporating writing into our reading group. I think writing can help students realize what mistakes they are making while reading and we can work on structure through writing. Marcus also would benefit from pair reading with someone who doesn't make the same types of miscues. Students benefit from being exposed to good literacy so through my read alouds and pair reading hopefully Marcus would gain more understanding of structure. If the problems still were happening I would create a passage with some missing words, so I could see what he would try to substitute in. We would discuss what words would work and why. This would take time for one-on-one conferencing. Hopefully one or all of these tactics would help Marcus progress.
Prominent Theorist: Victoria Purcell-Gates
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OZl4NWywiODTPGcrtaaSdLHRChRPfkxOvvndyAWSiFA/edit
Prominent Researcher: Victoria Purcell-Gates
Prominent Researcher: Victoria Purcell-Gates
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Module 4: Reading Reflection
Looking across Chapters 10 and 11, which of the understandings and strategies in the comprehensive literacy program are you already addressing/doing with your students (or have you done, or do you plan to do)?
Throughout my first year of teaching I did guided reading groups, read-alouds, and sustained reading as mentioned in the first few pages of chapter 10. One thing that I didn't do that I want to do this year is individual reading conferences. I agree how important it is to know each students desires towards reading, and how to get them to love reading. I implemented literature circles at the very end of my school year last year. I want to establish this type of instruction at the beginning of the year. I want to model for them what is expected so that they are able to do a literature circle when I am not around. One of our tag teachers used flip cameras at his literature circle groups so that he could see what they discussed, keep the students on task, and be able to apply feedback to their groups.
I did not teach writing for the first half of the year this past year because we were partly departmentalized, so it is going to be a new thing for me this year. I hope to incorporate journal writing everyday, conferencing with students on writing pieces, and guided writing groups. I think language experience as it originally was is a great approach for my ELL students. If they can tell you what they are thinking for you to write it down for them. They are able to see their own thoughts written down rather than them having to focus so much on little details. This could be a good modeling activity for students before you set them free for sustained writing or guided writing activities. Guided writing is what I was trying to implement second semester in my class before the writing assessment but I definitely had some flaws. I will for sure use page 238 in Weaver's text as a guide for my instruction this coming year when we transition into more informational writing with common core.
In my guided reading groups I tried to change up what we did each day. Many times I would give students an amount of pages to read on their own before we would discuss. I was wanting them to read for meaning and show me what they gained from it. We would do choral reading but I found that my students would get distracted by the person next to me. I love readers theater because you are able to see the students personalities come through and we can practice expression when reading. When I have the opportunity to use readers theater I will find a play or poem that applies to something we are learning in social studies or science.
In Weaver's Chapter 11, there is talk of the 13 core understandings. I want to type this up and put them on the wall by my desk as a reminder to myself what I should be trying to accomplish with my students every day. There are so many different aspects to reading that I need to keep in mind. Through these I want to set my reading/language arts block up to be a literature-based classroom and not a skilled-based classroom. My students can read with miscues, but we need to work more on their comprehension. The goal is to achieve active engagement in my students and their confidence in their reading and writing abilities
Throughout my first year of teaching I did guided reading groups, read-alouds, and sustained reading as mentioned in the first few pages of chapter 10. One thing that I didn't do that I want to do this year is individual reading conferences. I agree how important it is to know each students desires towards reading, and how to get them to love reading. I implemented literature circles at the very end of my school year last year. I want to establish this type of instruction at the beginning of the year. I want to model for them what is expected so that they are able to do a literature circle when I am not around. One of our tag teachers used flip cameras at his literature circle groups so that he could see what they discussed, keep the students on task, and be able to apply feedback to their groups.
I did not teach writing for the first half of the year this past year because we were partly departmentalized, so it is going to be a new thing for me this year. I hope to incorporate journal writing everyday, conferencing with students on writing pieces, and guided writing groups. I think language experience as it originally was is a great approach for my ELL students. If they can tell you what they are thinking for you to write it down for them. They are able to see their own thoughts written down rather than them having to focus so much on little details. This could be a good modeling activity for students before you set them free for sustained writing or guided writing activities. Guided writing is what I was trying to implement second semester in my class before the writing assessment but I definitely had some flaws. I will for sure use page 238 in Weaver's text as a guide for my instruction this coming year when we transition into more informational writing with common core.
In my guided reading groups I tried to change up what we did each day. Many times I would give students an amount of pages to read on their own before we would discuss. I was wanting them to read for meaning and show me what they gained from it. We would do choral reading but I found that my students would get distracted by the person next to me. I love readers theater because you are able to see the students personalities come through and we can practice expression when reading. When I have the opportunity to use readers theater I will find a play or poem that applies to something we are learning in social studies or science.
In Weaver's Chapter 11, there is talk of the 13 core understandings. I want to type this up and put them on the wall by my desk as a reminder to myself what I should be trying to accomplish with my students every day. There are so many different aspects to reading that I need to keep in mind. Through these I want to set my reading/language arts block up to be a literature-based classroom and not a skilled-based classroom. My students can read with miscues, but we need to work more on their comprehension. The goal is to achieve active engagement in my students and their confidence in their reading and writing abilities
Friday, June 22, 2012
Module 3: Activity 2
What do you think of this? What do such activities and “cracking the code” contribute to proficient reading? What else might a reader need to become proficient?
I think this quote is a little bit exaggerated. Yes to a kindergartener who is learning to read most words would technology be nonsense words to them, but I also don't see a problem with throwing nonsense words in phonics instruction. If the nonsense word makes sense in it's structure then why not try and let kids figure out how to sound it out. As we have been reading in our textbook, we have learned that phonics isn't the most important part of teaching reading. In order to get to a point in reading though you have to know what sounds letters make. I think that activities like in the video watched and "cracking the code" can help readers feel confident in their ability to figure out words they haven't seen before or know. I come across words I don't know but I use rules or words that look similar to help me "crack the code." A reader, in order to become proficient, needs to use the context of the text to help go through the text. Proficient readers transition from focusing so much on each word and see the sentences as a whole. Proficient readers are those that read for meaning!
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Module 3: Mock Memo from a Reading Specialist
Erica, a fifth grader, reads grade level passages at a rate of 177 words correct per minute, or 30% faster than grade level norms. When asked to retell what she has read, Erica struggles and is able to give little to no information from about the text. Many other children in Erica's class also read well above grade level expectations for fluency rate (or automaticity), but the teacher laments that they struggle with comprehension and using appropriate expression and intonation while they read. What is going on here? What advice can you offer the teacher? Write a memo to the teacher from the viewpoint of the school's Reading Specialist. Give the teacher and explanation for the phenomenon and offer her advice on dealing with the situation.
I hear that you are having a hard time with your students' comprehension of what they are reading in class. As fluency is important for reading, it shouldn't be our focus anymore in the fifth grade. There is a great quote I would like to share with you on this topic, "Various studies (e.g., Stanovich, 1986) indicate that children placed in higher-achievement groups have more actual opportunities to read, especially to read silently; their instruction is more often focused on comprehension after reading than on the pronunciation of words during reading; they are encouraged to use cross-checking strategies to identify and verify unknown words instead of just being told "to sound it out" or being given the word; they are asked more thoughtful questions about what they read, rather than mostly literal recall questions, and so forth. In contrast, children in the lower groups are kept busy with more round-robin oral reading peppered with interruptions focused on sounding and matching, more isolated skills and drills, fewer comprehension-stimulating activities, and more dependency-creating instruction; because of this they also do less reading and writing (Allington, 1983.)" I think this explains your situation very well. Erica and your other students can obviously read the words on the page so having them read out-loud in a group setting isn't going to take their reading to the next level. I think that if you give the students some guiding questions to think about before they start reading can help guide their own instruction. Once they students have finished reading on their own, ask open-ended comprehension questions, go through the original assigned questions along with other questions, and let the students discuss with each other what they found particularly interesting in what they read. The students are putting too much focus on the word-by-word reading and less focus on the big picture. It seems that your students are reading well but haven't become "proficient" because they aren't being "effective" and "efficient" in their reading. I want to stress that students "they need not be be word-perfect readers in order to be good readers. They need to understand that the purpose of reading is to construct meaning and gain understanding from what they read" (Weaver, 216). My advice to you this week in your guided reading groups or however you structure your reading block, have your students read silently a selected amount by you with some guiding questions prior to reading. Then meet with the students individually to discuss these questions. As a final exercise have the students journal about what they read today. Have the students write a question or two about what they predict might happen next or something they want to learn the next day.
Another strategy to use with these students could be using a "think-aloud" process. As the teacher you read aloud a passage you think will be of high interest to the students. Have the students follow along with you and not just listening to you. When you come across a trouble spot, stop and think it through aloud while your students listen to you. When you have completed the passage ask the students to provide their own thoughts on the trouble spots and how they might have handled this themselves. After modeling this process, pair the students up to practice this process with each other. This will hopefully transfer into their silent reading of passages and help them understand it's fine if you come across a trouble spot, but you must work through the trouble spot in order to not lose meaning over it.
I hope you have found some of my suggestions helpful and I hope the comprehension in your classroom improves with your readers.
Sincerely,
Your reading Coach
I hear that you are having a hard time with your students' comprehension of what they are reading in class. As fluency is important for reading, it shouldn't be our focus anymore in the fifth grade. There is a great quote I would like to share with you on this topic, "Various studies (e.g., Stanovich, 1986) indicate that children placed in higher-achievement groups have more actual opportunities to read, especially to read silently; their instruction is more often focused on comprehension after reading than on the pronunciation of words during reading; they are encouraged to use cross-checking strategies to identify and verify unknown words instead of just being told "to sound it out" or being given the word; they are asked more thoughtful questions about what they read, rather than mostly literal recall questions, and so forth. In contrast, children in the lower groups are kept busy with more round-robin oral reading peppered with interruptions focused on sounding and matching, more isolated skills and drills, fewer comprehension-stimulating activities, and more dependency-creating instruction; because of this they also do less reading and writing (Allington, 1983.)" I think this explains your situation very well. Erica and your other students can obviously read the words on the page so having them read out-loud in a group setting isn't going to take their reading to the next level. I think that if you give the students some guiding questions to think about before they start reading can help guide their own instruction. Once they students have finished reading on their own, ask open-ended comprehension questions, go through the original assigned questions along with other questions, and let the students discuss with each other what they found particularly interesting in what they read. The students are putting too much focus on the word-by-word reading and less focus on the big picture. It seems that your students are reading well but haven't become "proficient" because they aren't being "effective" and "efficient" in their reading. I want to stress that students "they need not be be word-perfect readers in order to be good readers. They need to understand that the purpose of reading is to construct meaning and gain understanding from what they read" (Weaver, 216). My advice to you this week in your guided reading groups or however you structure your reading block, have your students read silently a selected amount by you with some guiding questions prior to reading. Then meet with the students individually to discuss these questions. As a final exercise have the students journal about what they read today. Have the students write a question or two about what they predict might happen next or something they want to learn the next day.
Another strategy to use with these students could be using a "think-aloud" process. As the teacher you read aloud a passage you think will be of high interest to the students. Have the students follow along with you and not just listening to you. When you come across a trouble spot, stop and think it through aloud while your students listen to you. When you have completed the passage ask the students to provide their own thoughts on the trouble spots and how they might have handled this themselves. After modeling this process, pair the students up to practice this process with each other. This will hopefully transfer into their silent reading of passages and help them understand it's fine if you come across a trouble spot, but you must work through the trouble spot in order to not lose meaning over it.
I hope you have found some of my suggestions helpful and I hope the comprehension in your classroom improves with your readers.
Sincerely,
Your reading Coach
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