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.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
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.
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