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.
Friday, June 29, 2012
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
Module 3: Reading Reflection
Do you agree with Marilyn Adams (1990, p. 108) who argued that rather than relying on context, “Skillful readers of English thoroughly process the individual letters of words in their texts?” Why or why not?
I do not agree with this statement because I think there are a lot of factors that go in to reading proficiently. I think that eye-fixation and context are what make up the two major factors in our reading. I think that our eyes see every word on the page but we don't process every letter of every word. I find myself when I'm reading not skipping words but predicting the word before my eyes see it based on what the sentences is reading prior. Context to me is what makes the most influence on how well I read. If we read letter by letter we would make mistakes. As it was said throughout all of chapter five in our textbook, many readers don't even know the phonics rules and spellers who don't use phonics did better than computers that were programmed with phonics rules. There are so many exceptions and silent letters in the English Language that it would be impossible to read letter-by-letter. I found this quote on page 109, "Furthermore-an observation from everyday life-good readers do not read word-for-word or even line-by-line when they choose to read more rapidly than that, as many good readers do, especially when reading for their own pleasure and their own purposes-even when their purpose is to gain information." I find myself reading more rapidly and losing less focus on words when I'm reading my own personal interest books. I wouldn't call it skimming because I am fully comprehending what I am reading. I just think that my eyes move faster across the page and predict what is going to come next from the context because it is something I am interested in. I am able to get through pleasure books way faster than I am through textbooks or required reading. As we read in previous chapters, good readers make miscues as well because they aren't focusing as much on the word-by-word of the text. I think this reigns true through this chapter as well. You would assume that good readers are processing the individual letters of words in their text but I don't agree with this statement from Adams.
I do not agree with this statement because I think there are a lot of factors that go in to reading proficiently. I think that eye-fixation and context are what make up the two major factors in our reading. I think that our eyes see every word on the page but we don't process every letter of every word. I find myself when I'm reading not skipping words but predicting the word before my eyes see it based on what the sentences is reading prior. Context to me is what makes the most influence on how well I read. If we read letter by letter we would make mistakes. As it was said throughout all of chapter five in our textbook, many readers don't even know the phonics rules and spellers who don't use phonics did better than computers that were programmed with phonics rules. There are so many exceptions and silent letters in the English Language that it would be impossible to read letter-by-letter. I found this quote on page 109, "Furthermore-an observation from everyday life-good readers do not read word-for-word or even line-by-line when they choose to read more rapidly than that, as many good readers do, especially when reading for their own pleasure and their own purposes-even when their purpose is to gain information." I find myself reading more rapidly and losing less focus on words when I'm reading my own personal interest books. I wouldn't call it skimming because I am fully comprehending what I am reading. I just think that my eyes move faster across the page and predict what is going to come next from the context because it is something I am interested in. I am able to get through pleasure books way faster than I am through textbooks or required reading. As we read in previous chapters, good readers make miscues as well because they aren't focusing as much on the word-by-word of the text. I think this reigns true through this chapter as well. You would assume that good readers are processing the individual letters of words in their text but I don't agree with this statement from Adams.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Module 2: Activities 1 & 2
Activity 1 (#3c, page 58): I decided to come up with definitions for the words creech, messel, millicents, skorry, spatted, and zoobies from A Clockwork Orange. At first before reading the story I came up with the definitions by using words I knew the meanings of that sounded similar. Then I took this knowledge and tweaked it to being in a different situation. I then went to reading the first chapter of the book to try and come up with the definition. I used the context around the words and sentences to try and figure out what the meanings of the words were. I will be honest I still was completely lost because there were SO many words that I didn't know the meaning of that I wasn't able to figure out the definition. Finally, I zipped down to the Nadsat Dictionary to be given the definitions of the words. I don't think this is necessarily "cheating" because as a teacher I encourage my students to use a dictionary or glossary to help them with words that they don't know the meaning of. I can't even tell you how many times I've said the words "use your resources."
Activity 2 (7 on page 85):
1. Who tried to read the words letter-by-letter? I did not read the words letter by letter. I think the reason I didn't was because when I read normally I don't sound out my words letter-by-letter. I use my semantic and syntactic context to help me uncover words I may not be familiar with. In this case the words were written in a list so I used my knowledge of words familiar to these or have similar syllable combinations to read each word.
2. Who tried to read the words mostly by chunking them into syllables? I did this. I do this when I read anything. This is the way I work through words that I don't know.
3. Who tried to read the words sampling the letters more or less all at once? I did not do this. I worked more on sounding out each syllable.
4. What words do you know the meaning of, or think you know the meaning of? I have heard sarsaparilla before but the meaning is loosing me. I think I know the meaning of ingenue, but the rest of the words I haven't come across before.
5. Did pronouncing the words give you insights into their meanings? Like I did in activity 1 I found myself trying to make connections to words I was familiar with or sounded similar. Not only was I connecting them to similar sounding but I was causing myself to make their definition something similar to the familiar words as well.
6. How do you handle unknown words when you encounter them in normal reading? I use the context to help me determine the meaning of the unknown words I come across. I just hope that the majority of the words surrounding it and in surrounding sentences are not unfamiliar because it makes uncovering the meaning of the unknown word much simpler. I don't think I ever have the most "proper" definition of my unknown words but I get a general idea for what they mean using my clues from the surrounding text.
7. What do you think are the implications of this experiment and discussion for how we should help students deal with unfamiliar print words? I think this activity is to show you that words are their own aren't nearly as important as words in context. It also helped me understand that using context to uncover meaning is what we should be helping our students learn. We also shouldn't assign students a list of words to remember without giving them contextual evidence to help solidify the meanings to them. The key word here is CONTEXT!
Activity 2 (7 on page 85):
1. Who tried to read the words letter-by-letter? I did not read the words letter by letter. I think the reason I didn't was because when I read normally I don't sound out my words letter-by-letter. I use my semantic and syntactic context to help me uncover words I may not be familiar with. In this case the words were written in a list so I used my knowledge of words familiar to these or have similar syllable combinations to read each word.
2. Who tried to read the words mostly by chunking them into syllables? I did this. I do this when I read anything. This is the way I work through words that I don't know.
3. Who tried to read the words sampling the letters more or less all at once? I did not do this. I worked more on sounding out each syllable.
4. What words do you know the meaning of, or think you know the meaning of? I have heard sarsaparilla before but the meaning is loosing me. I think I know the meaning of ingenue, but the rest of the words I haven't come across before.
5. Did pronouncing the words give you insights into their meanings? Like I did in activity 1 I found myself trying to make connections to words I was familiar with or sounded similar. Not only was I connecting them to similar sounding but I was causing myself to make their definition something similar to the familiar words as well.
6. How do you handle unknown words when you encounter them in normal reading? I use the context to help me determine the meaning of the unknown words I come across. I just hope that the majority of the words surrounding it and in surrounding sentences are not unfamiliar because it makes uncovering the meaning of the unknown word much simpler. I don't think I ever have the most "proper" definition of my unknown words but I get a general idea for what they mean using my clues from the surrounding text.
7. What do you think are the implications of this experiment and discussion for how we should help students deal with unfamiliar print words? I think this activity is to show you that words are their own aren't nearly as important as words in context. It also helped me understand that using context to uncover meaning is what we should be helping our students learn. We also shouldn't assign students a list of words to remember without giving them contextual evidence to help solidify the meanings to them. The key word here is CONTEXT!
Module 2: Instructional Challenge
Take a look at the following examples of children's dialect-based miscues while reading and the difference between the child's original response (OR) and expected response (ER). Then answer the questions that follow.
| OR: It my little monkey here. | ER: Is my little monkey here? |
| OR: We got to tell. | ER: We've got to tell. |
| OR: Frog look at Toad calendar. | ER: Frog looked at Toad's calendar. |
| OR: A word what sounded good. | ER: A word that sounded good. |
| OR: hisself | ER: himself |
| OR: I can come to your party? | ER: Can I come to your party? |
I would say that this child is a proficient reader because the miscues are done with the functioning words rather than with the more difficult words. If I had to rate it on effectiveness I would say this child is a moderately effective reader because some of the meanings were different than it was supposed to be. You can tell that the child can read just substitutes some minor words, missing endings, or switching beginning symbols but I could at least still understand what the original response meant.
If I was this child's teacher or I had a group of similar students who made these miscues I would assist the children without just correcting the children. I would ask probing questions after the miscue to see if they still understood the sentence or passage. I might have the students re-read this passage to see if they are able to self-correct themselves. I might have the students write about what they read to see what wording they use in order to see if they make similar substitutions in their writing because then that could connect to the same way they speak. I think these type of miscues can be fixed with familiar reads and writing about what the students' read.
Module 2: Reading Reflection
"The major folklore of reading instruction relates to the 'theory' that reading is considered an exact process. In other words, the reader is expected to read everything exactly as printed on the page in order to understand the message of the author. In general the consuming public, legislatures, courts and too many educators hold to this theory. It is like the theory of the world being flat during the time of Columbus."
- Robert Harper and Gary Kilarr
I would have to agree with this quote. I think many people think that if you make some mistakes when you are reading that makes you an incompetent reader. Whereas, throughout chapter 4 in my textbook the author, Constance Weaver, helps you understand otherwise. Proficient readers can make miscues because they aren't focusing on each letter or each word in isolation. Proficient readers are using both syntactic and semantic context to read. I have found myself substituting a word in for a different word that is written on the page but the sentence still makes sense. As long as the reader is grasping the meaning from the text they are proficient readers. I thought it was really interesting while I was reading that beginning readers or less proficient readers can read the basic sight words better in context than when they are asked the words in isolation. This really made me think more into my group of students I had this past year and how they performed on our literacy tests that are mandatory at my school. We test our students on running records, phonics, and sight words. Most of my students had mastered all the sight words and phonics before they arrived in my room, but some of them had not. I was given a passage with all the sight words in context and a separate list to test my students. I never used the passage for testing but now I'm thinking I should use it next year to help boost some students confidence when reading the sight words because they might actually know them when read in context. How often do we read a list of words anyway? When it comes to reading miscues I used to find myself getting embarrassed in high school when I would read aloud in a class and make a mistake. I wish it was more known through consuming public that just because you substitute out a word for something else every once in a while doesn't mean you aren't a really good reader. I think sometimes in schools we focus so much more on students getting everything perfect rather than focusing on what mistakes they are making and why they are making them. If you can still understand what they are reading that should hint to you that they understand they just might use semantic context to read. I think some of the best examples in my textbook to show you that each word on it's own isn't important to understand meaning were the passages with blacked out words. You could still understand the passage because you start inserting words you would find fit well based on the semantic and syntactic context. I think the best thing for me as a teacher to remember is "since meaning is the goal of reading, we hardly need to insist that every word be identified accurately" (Weaver, 73). I'm hoping that my fellow teachers at my school know this and we start focusing on the comprehension of reading rather than focusing on every word that our students read.
- Robert Harper and Gary Kilarr
I would have to agree with this quote. I think many people think that if you make some mistakes when you are reading that makes you an incompetent reader. Whereas, throughout chapter 4 in my textbook the author, Constance Weaver, helps you understand otherwise. Proficient readers can make miscues because they aren't focusing on each letter or each word in isolation. Proficient readers are using both syntactic and semantic context to read. I have found myself substituting a word in for a different word that is written on the page but the sentence still makes sense. As long as the reader is grasping the meaning from the text they are proficient readers. I thought it was really interesting while I was reading that beginning readers or less proficient readers can read the basic sight words better in context than when they are asked the words in isolation. This really made me think more into my group of students I had this past year and how they performed on our literacy tests that are mandatory at my school. We test our students on running records, phonics, and sight words. Most of my students had mastered all the sight words and phonics before they arrived in my room, but some of them had not. I was given a passage with all the sight words in context and a separate list to test my students. I never used the passage for testing but now I'm thinking I should use it next year to help boost some students confidence when reading the sight words because they might actually know them when read in context. How often do we read a list of words anyway? When it comes to reading miscues I used to find myself getting embarrassed in high school when I would read aloud in a class and make a mistake. I wish it was more known through consuming public that just because you substitute out a word for something else every once in a while doesn't mean you aren't a really good reader. I think sometimes in schools we focus so much more on students getting everything perfect rather than focusing on what mistakes they are making and why they are making them. If you can still understand what they are reading that should hint to you that they understand they just might use semantic context to read. I think some of the best examples in my textbook to show you that each word on it's own isn't important to understand meaning were the passages with blacked out words. You could still understand the passage because you start inserting words you would find fit well based on the semantic and syntactic context. I think the best thing for me as a teacher to remember is "since meaning is the goal of reading, we hardly need to insist that every word be identified accurately" (Weaver, 73). I'm hoping that my fellow teachers at my school know this and we start focusing on the comprehension of reading rather than focusing on every word that our students read.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Module 1: Activity 2
Exercise 5 on page 39 in "Reading Process & Practice"
a. What is a corandic? an emurient grof with many fribs
b. What does corandic granf from? corite
c. How do garkers excarp the tarances from the corite? glarcking the corite and starping it in tranker-clarped storbs
d. What does the slorp finally frast? A pragety
e. What is coranda? a cargurt, grinkling corandic and borigen
f. How is the corandic navcerated from the borigen? by means of loracity
g. What do the garkers finally thrap? a glick, bracht, glupous grapant, corandic, which granks in many starps
How is it that you are able to answer such questions? What does this experience suggest about the kinds of “comprehension” questions found in workbooks and on standardized tests? I am able to answer these questions because I can use the words from the questions and find them in the passage. I just answered with what came after the word used. This exercise suggests that the questions in workbooks and on standardized tests aren't always looking for deep comprehension. They are asking questions that can be answered directly from the passages. "Comprehension" questions should be open-ended type questions that don't have one right or wrong answer. If you truly comprehend a passage you should be able to go beyond the words of the page to summarize what you read. After doing this exercise I don't know what it was talking about because the words were nonsense, yet I was able to answer the questions because of using the text itself.
a. What is a corandic? an emurient grof with many fribs
b. What does corandic granf from? corite
c. How do garkers excarp the tarances from the corite? glarcking the corite and starping it in tranker-clarped storbs
d. What does the slorp finally frast? A pragety
e. What is coranda? a cargurt, grinkling corandic and borigen
f. How is the corandic navcerated from the borigen? by means of loracity
g. What do the garkers finally thrap? a glick, bracht, glupous grapant, corandic, which granks in many starps
How is it that you are able to answer such questions? What does this experience suggest about the kinds of “comprehension” questions found in workbooks and on standardized tests? I am able to answer these questions because I can use the words from the questions and find them in the passage. I just answered with what came after the word used. This exercise suggests that the questions in workbooks and on standardized tests aren't always looking for deep comprehension. They are asking questions that can be answered directly from the passages. "Comprehension" questions should be open-ended type questions that don't have one right or wrong answer. If you truly comprehend a passage you should be able to go beyond the words of the page to summarize what you read. After doing this exercise I don't know what it was talking about because the words were nonsense, yet I was able to answer the questions because of using the text itself.
Module 1: Activity 1
(The reason it has sample written across is because my computer would only make a PDF so I had to download a program to convert my PDF to a JPG) (The sefond bullet on the left is "usually has a huge cast")
Module 1: Instructional Challenge
Hocked gems financing him, our hero defied the scornful laughter. “Think of it as an egg, not a table,” he said. Then three sturdy sisters sought proof, forging over vast calmness, and sometimes over turbulent peaks and valleys, until at last welcome winged creatures appeared, signifying monumental success.
It was a challenge reading this paragraph. When reading I thought the hocked gems were maybe councilmen working with a King. I think we should think of the kingdom being an egg and not a table. I think the three sturdy sisters are the kings three daughters, therefore, they are all princesses. I think the winged creatures sare fairy-godmothers that came to visit the princesses. I know this might be very far off my idea but I think that everyone has a different take on things that are of the unknown. If I was to use this passage in my classroom I would have to activate the schema of fairytales with them. Get a sense from my students what fairy tales they may have read, watched, or heard about. I think if you run across schema's that do not match with students you can help create a new schema for them by showing pictures or video clips to enhance their learning. I believe students should spend a significant amount of time reading text that falls outside of their comfort zone. There is no opportunity for them to create new schema if they aren't spending time with ideas that are not comfortable for them. Students would get bored with reading if they only read about the same topics or ideas. It would become too redundant. I think reading should be fun yet challenging!
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Module 1: Reading Reflection
What are some of the major differences between a skills approach to literacy and a comprehensive or sociopsycholinguistic approach?
To me the major difference between a skills approach to literacy and a comprehensive or sociopsycholinguistic approach is that a skills approach puts all the focus on the phonics or the exact words on the page. The latter two put more emphasis on understanding words through the context of what is being read. In addition to what the context is, much emphasis is put on schemas from everybody's lives. It was interesting to read these chapters in "Reading Process & Practice" because over the past year I really noticed which students were trying to focus so much on each word and couldn't summarize what they read. Personally when I am reading I find myself trying to relate what I'm reading to something I've read before or experienced because it helps me to get a deeper understanding, but without exposure or personal experience understanding some books is very difficult. This can apply to anyone because every culture, household, age group, and so much more can affect how you interpret a text. Poetry is something that is very diverse in what everyone takes away from it. In chapter 2, "To Pat" was the poem used and the interpretations were so varied and it truly depends on what life experiences you have as to how you see what the words mean. "Run" is just one of thousands of words that have numerous meanings and completely relies on the context and schemas of the readers as to how the reader comprehends the sentence. As a fifth grade teacher, the majority of my students had mastered phonics of reading so we were working on comprehension. Teaching students to use their schemas is much more challenging than I ever expected. For one my students speak a different language at home, so the only English they are exposed to is from their peers, teachers, and books. This brings forth many challenges because it's even more important for me to give context to books before the students read. I found it challenging to read the paragraph about the laundry but once I was told the paragraph was about laundry I found it much easier to understand. I take away from this how much more important it is for the preview and background discussion before having my students read a book. It's also vital that I read the books before I have students read the book. These two chapters of Weavers "Reading Process & Practice" really made me analyze how I teach because it is so true that students answer what reading is based on how they are taught reading. Very eye-opening to me!
To me the major difference between a skills approach to literacy and a comprehensive or sociopsycholinguistic approach is that a skills approach puts all the focus on the phonics or the exact words on the page. The latter two put more emphasis on understanding words through the context of what is being read. In addition to what the context is, much emphasis is put on schemas from everybody's lives. It was interesting to read these chapters in "Reading Process & Practice" because over the past year I really noticed which students were trying to focus so much on each word and couldn't summarize what they read. Personally when I am reading I find myself trying to relate what I'm reading to something I've read before or experienced because it helps me to get a deeper understanding, but without exposure or personal experience understanding some books is very difficult. This can apply to anyone because every culture, household, age group, and so much more can affect how you interpret a text. Poetry is something that is very diverse in what everyone takes away from it. In chapter 2, "To Pat" was the poem used and the interpretations were so varied and it truly depends on what life experiences you have as to how you see what the words mean. "Run" is just one of thousands of words that have numerous meanings and completely relies on the context and schemas of the readers as to how the reader comprehends the sentence. As a fifth grade teacher, the majority of my students had mastered phonics of reading so we were working on comprehension. Teaching students to use their schemas is much more challenging than I ever expected. For one my students speak a different language at home, so the only English they are exposed to is from their peers, teachers, and books. This brings forth many challenges because it's even more important for me to give context to books before the students read. I found it challenging to read the paragraph about the laundry but once I was told the paragraph was about laundry I found it much easier to understand. I take away from this how much more important it is for the preview and background discussion before having my students read a book. It's also vital that I read the books before I have students read the book. These two chapters of Weavers "Reading Process & Practice" really made me analyze how I teach because it is so true that students answer what reading is based on how they are taught reading. Very eye-opening to me!
Monday, June 4, 2012
Personal Model of the Theory of Reading
Reading has become something I love to do when I have free time. This wasn’t always the case for me especially when I was in high school. Every summer as long as I can remember, my school would give me a list of books I had to read during the break and would be assessed on when we came back to school. It was the part of summer I hated through all my years in school. I never felt as though I could connect to the books and I found them extremely boring. The worst part was when we got back to school I would have a multiple-choice test on the book, and more often than not I would fail these tests. The questions my teachers asked were so specific it didn’t assess my comprehension of the overall picture of the book. The only teacher in all four years of high school to assess in essay format was my senior year teacher, and unsurprising to me I got a 100 percent on this paper. I was able to show my teacher that I really did read the entire book and understood the main idea. This leads you in to what I learned from these experiences and how I am carrying the lessons I learned into my own teaching.
I wished I had been given the opportunity to pick my own books to read so that I had a prior interest in the book before opening to the first page. When you are given a choice in what to read, usually you enjoy the reading more. Reading is the most important thing to learn in school in order to survive in life. Every day you come in to contact with ample amounts of places you have to read. Whether it’s a street sign, nutrition label, email, clothing labels, and so many more things. If you don’t know how to read life must frustrate you constantly. I over the years have come to love reading. I thouroughly enjoy getting recommendations from friends on books and being able to discuss them later. I want this for my students. Reading can be magical if you have the correct mindset going in to it.
I tried very hard this year to pick novels that I had read and enjoyed before, or books that had been recommended to me from peers. I wanted my students to get lost in the words. It was amazing to see some students jump ahead of what was assigned because they could not put the book down. You know you are reading a wonderful book when you would rather read than watch television. I think reading is better for the brain than anything else because you get to play a mind movie when following the lines on the page. I much prefer when the cover is bare and there are no pictures to hinder my ideas of what characters look like or how settings look. It is also difficult to get books that will interest all learners at the same level. Here is where I hope to grow in my teaching that I will be able to give students the opportunity to make their own reading choices and still fall in to the standards I am teaching, and the reading levels my students are on or close to reaching.
My theory of reading is that every person loves reading you just have to be exposed to the right text to reach your potential. My goal as an educator is to get my students to the level of reading that they are doing it for fun. It is difficult with my demographics at my schools to stress to the parents how important reading every night at home is to their child’s achievement. Reading is not only used during my reading and language arts block but you have to read to understand much of science and social studies as well. My students’ largest struggle is academic vocabulary in science and social studies due to the lack of exposure during conversations or book selections. I believe this is what educators have noticed and why common core has changed to emphasizing informational text more than narrative text. I read informational text more than narrative text now through social media, email, web surfing, and magazines. I love to read and I want to instill this in my students.
My personal theory of reading is that all readers are avid readers when they are exposed to the reading in the correct way. Every person has different taste but finding what suits you is the most important. Reading should not be pushed on anyone without having specific tactics behind it. Reading for comprehension is immensely more important than remembering the specific details. I love to read and I want to instill this love in my students.
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