Teacher development is viewed as an active process where the teachers engage in instruction and reflection in order to advance their understanding of teaching reading.
Only with reflection can true growth be made. If teachers are not looking back and evaluating their lessons, no development or growth can be made. Also, when teachers are learning something new, it needs to be practiced and applied in the classroom so that real retention of the development is attained.
Effective readers stop, reflect, and flexibly shift between reader-based processing ("Does this make sense!" and text-based processing (What did the text say!). These actions are called monitoring reading.
I have spent a lot of time in one second grade class working with a few struggling readers. I try to work with them about once a week for the last three months or so. Well, this past Tuesday I felt like I had won the lottery! One of my struggling readers actually stopped to see if what he was reading made sense without me asking him too! I felt the luckiest person in the world! He finally is becoming an active reader who monitors his own reading. YEAH!!!
Instruction that begins with students' strengths is often most effective.
Everyone, including struggling readers, like to do things that they are successful at. This often leads to confidence and allows teachers a place start working with. These children may also be less likely to want to try a strategy that they are deficient in. Starting with something they can do may help to ease the transition into something they can not do.
In these instances, she intervenes during reading to build reading strategies such as self-questioning, summarization, visualizing difficult parts, and organizing the information.
Teachers need to stop students in the middle of reading so that we can think-aloud and demonstrate the strategies that are useful including self-questioning, summarization, visualizing difficult parts, as well as orgainizing the data.
In other words, the teacher creates an instructional context in which students can explore and talk about how strategies and skills are orchestrated.
Setting up a classroom that students are able to feel safe and comfortable in my top priority as an educator. This also applies to the area of struggling readers. They need to feel safe and secure in the classroom so that they will open up and grow as readers. This is imparative to their growth as students.
April 7, 2009
March 10, 2009
Learning Log Ch. 9
One of the decisions the diagnostic teacher makes is to select instructional materials that fit the students' reading performance.
Selecting the appropriate leveled materials for a student is crucial to his or her ability to learn. If the material is too easy, the student will not be challanged enough. If the material is too difficult, the student may get frustrated. Both of these outcomes are not positive ones. The instructional materials need to be the correct level for the student so that optimum learning takes place.
Basal readers are anthologies of stories arranged by grade level and packaged for each grade along with an instructional manual and workbooks.
I think that basal readers are a good starting point for a well balanced literacy program. I do not think that basal readers should be the reading program but they do add a nice component to literacy. As a new teacher, I would not really know where to begin to set up my literacy program without the basal readers. They do offer a lot of great stories as well as ideas that a new teacher can take advantage of. I think the problem comes when it is the only component of the literacy program. When teachers rely too heavily on it and they do not incorporate other apects to balance the program.
Technology is another source for reading material.
I think that when students are reading things online or on a computer, they do not even realize that they are reading! This can be a great motivator for students, especially boys. This trick even works on my husband! If you ask him if he reads, he will say no but he spends atleast an hour a day reading online. For some reason, he does not consider this reading. I think that many of my students will not consider this reading either! Anything is worth a try with some of these students that are reading resistant!
Interest is crucial when selecting a book.
I would not give a second grade boy the book Fancy Nancy to read. It would just not make sense. On the other hand, I may not give a adolescent girl a book about Star Wars. Finding things that interest our readers may be half of the battle with teaching. How many times have you opened up your basal reader and found all of students looking back at you bored as can be? This would not happen if they were interested and engaged in the book choices.
Closely tied to both choice and interest is the background knowledge of the reader.
Being able to tap into a student's interest may prove priceless when it comes to his or her reading advancements. A student who loves animals would probably enjoy reading books about them. This also can help because a student may be able to identify and read more difficult words because they are familiar with terms having to do with animals. This can help to boost confidence as well.
Selecting the appropriate leveled materials for a student is crucial to his or her ability to learn. If the material is too easy, the student will not be challanged enough. If the material is too difficult, the student may get frustrated. Both of these outcomes are not positive ones. The instructional materials need to be the correct level for the student so that optimum learning takes place.
Basal readers are anthologies of stories arranged by grade level and packaged for each grade along with an instructional manual and workbooks.
I think that basal readers are a good starting point for a well balanced literacy program. I do not think that basal readers should be the reading program but they do add a nice component to literacy. As a new teacher, I would not really know where to begin to set up my literacy program without the basal readers. They do offer a lot of great stories as well as ideas that a new teacher can take advantage of. I think the problem comes when it is the only component of the literacy program. When teachers rely too heavily on it and they do not incorporate other apects to balance the program.
Technology is another source for reading material.
I think that when students are reading things online or on a computer, they do not even realize that they are reading! This can be a great motivator for students, especially boys. This trick even works on my husband! If you ask him if he reads, he will say no but he spends atleast an hour a day reading online. For some reason, he does not consider this reading. I think that many of my students will not consider this reading either! Anything is worth a try with some of these students that are reading resistant!
Interest is crucial when selecting a book.
I would not give a second grade boy the book Fancy Nancy to read. It would just not make sense. On the other hand, I may not give a adolescent girl a book about Star Wars. Finding things that interest our readers may be half of the battle with teaching. How many times have you opened up your basal reader and found all of students looking back at you bored as can be? This would not happen if they were interested and engaged in the book choices.
Closely tied to both choice and interest is the background knowledge of the reader.
Being able to tap into a student's interest may prove priceless when it comes to his or her reading advancements. A student who loves animals would probably enjoy reading books about them. This also can help because a student may be able to identify and read more difficult words because they are familiar with terms having to do with animals. This can help to boost confidence as well.
February 18, 2009
Learning Log Ch. 7
Modifications of hypothesis can occur as the teacher responds to the student's needs during instruction.
When we first started reading this text, I thought how can I change up my entire lesson plan during my lesson? Then I finished a week long substitute job in a second grade class and I realized that this is what good teachers, including myself do everyday. We figure out mid-lesson what is working and what is not and then we adjust. We assess how each student is doing and then we continue on accordingly.
During the diagnostic lesson, records of the instructional modifications are kept so that the amount and kinds of teacher intervention can be identified.
Keeping good records is very important for teachers in general but especially when it comes to lessons that are one-on-one with students. We need to be able to document and record their progress for ourselves as well as for others. We may have a student who's classroom teacher is not able to get through to them so we can look back in our notes and let the teacher know what we found that really works with this particular student. We also need to keep records to show our superiors what we have been working on with specific students. This also helps us to keep our strategies and interventions lined up with the appropriate students.
The teacher told him to read to the end of the sentence.
Sometimes I find myself guilty of just telling students a word that they are stuck while reading. I do not feel that I will do that anymore after taking this class but sometimes I just felt like I did not have adequate information to help them. I would tell to sound it out, or look at the pictures but that was about the extent of what I could think to tell them. Telling them to read to the end of the sentence never crossed my mind but I don't know why. I think sometimes things are so obvious that if you do not look closely enough at it, you miss it. It seemed common sense to me to read until the end of the sentence but I did not send that message through to my students.
If a high degree of task modification is required, a less difficult text or a different technique should be selected.
I thought that this statement was very important because I think sometimes we just feel the text is too difficult for a student. Maybe if we just approached it with a different type of intervention, the student would be able to read and comprehend the more difficult text. If we had just moved them to an easier text, the student would not have made the progress that they had. They may have ended up a level behind where they could have been.
As in this case, the diagnostic teacher may combine reading techniques to evaluate whether the new combination results in greater reading growth. If it does, she uses the combined or piggyback, approach rather than either technique alone.
Sometimes two are better than one. This goes with anything in life,not just reading techniques. Using more than one technique sometimes allows teachers to make more progress with a student than if they just used one method. Sometimes the student may not have made any progress with just one or the other technique but also it may have help to cut down on the time it takes a student to make progress.
When we first started reading this text, I thought how can I change up my entire lesson plan during my lesson? Then I finished a week long substitute job in a second grade class and I realized that this is what good teachers, including myself do everyday. We figure out mid-lesson what is working and what is not and then we adjust. We assess how each student is doing and then we continue on accordingly.
During the diagnostic lesson, records of the instructional modifications are kept so that the amount and kinds of teacher intervention can be identified.
Keeping good records is very important for teachers in general but especially when it comes to lessons that are one-on-one with students. We need to be able to document and record their progress for ourselves as well as for others. We may have a student who's classroom teacher is not able to get through to them so we can look back in our notes and let the teacher know what we found that really works with this particular student. We also need to keep records to show our superiors what we have been working on with specific students. This also helps us to keep our strategies and interventions lined up with the appropriate students.
The teacher told him to read to the end of the sentence.
Sometimes I find myself guilty of just telling students a word that they are stuck while reading. I do not feel that I will do that anymore after taking this class but sometimes I just felt like I did not have adequate information to help them. I would tell to sound it out, or look at the pictures but that was about the extent of what I could think to tell them. Telling them to read to the end of the sentence never crossed my mind but I don't know why. I think sometimes things are so obvious that if you do not look closely enough at it, you miss it. It seemed common sense to me to read until the end of the sentence but I did not send that message through to my students.
If a high degree of task modification is required, a less difficult text or a different technique should be selected.
I thought that this statement was very important because I think sometimes we just feel the text is too difficult for a student. Maybe if we just approached it with a different type of intervention, the student would be able to read and comprehend the more difficult text. If we had just moved them to an easier text, the student would not have made the progress that they had. They may have ended up a level behind where they could have been.
As in this case, the diagnostic teacher may combine reading techniques to evaluate whether the new combination results in greater reading growth. If it does, she uses the combined or piggyback, approach rather than either technique alone.
Sometimes two are better than one. This goes with anything in life,not just reading techniques. Using more than one technique sometimes allows teachers to make more progress with a student than if they just used one method. Sometimes the student may not have made any progress with just one or the other technique but also it may have help to cut down on the time it takes a student to make progress.
February 10, 2009
Learning Log Ch. 4
Familiar text time is the rereading of books and poems that the student enjoys. These easy and often predictable books are authentic children's literature that can be read repeatedly because of the rhyme, rhythm, and repetition.
I think that the rereading of familiar texts not only creates easy and challenging tasks but it also creates a great opportunity for the student to increase their confidence toward reading as well. If students are able to build a little confidence in themselves, it will go along way toward helping them to become better readers.
During personalized reading and writing, both the students and the teacher engage in reading and writing for their own purposes and self-fulfillment.
In my teaching situations, I have seen many students resist writing stories when we do it as a whole group or whole class exercise. These are the same students though that will bring in a story they wrote last night at home, or when they finish their work early, they will ask to write a story. Now, how does this work? The students are obviously willing to write so why won't they write on the topics that are chosen? Maybe the topics are problem? or maybe it is the delivery of the lessons? I am not sure but I hope to be able to reach these budding writers that hesitate when given a topic and a format.
The third aspect of strategy and skill instruction is helping students evaluate their increasing use of strategic reading processes.
Teaching students to be their own literacy coach will help them immensely toward improving their literacy. This allows them in a sense to be their own teacher. Letting them know the strategies that they can use and how to monitor their own progress can help to self-correct and work on their literacy when teachers are not around to help. This also allows students to take control of their learning and give some empowerment to a struggling reader who may not have much confidence.
Students are taught to match the book to their reading levels by using the rule of thumb (Morrow & Walker, 1997).
The rule of thumb is a great way to ensure that students are reading appropriately leveled books. This is one reason that I feel elementary school teachers should have extensive classroom libraries. Not all elementary schools are able to support wonderful, extensive libraries with some of the current must reads of the day. This also allows teachers to be able to have students read aloud to them and help them to make sure that they are reading at appropriate levels for them. If a student is running back and forth to the school library, this would not work nearly as well. Plus, the teacher tends to know exactly what books are in their library and they can make recommendations to their students to help them choose appropriate books.
In personalized reading and writing (PWR), students are engaged in 10 to 12 minutes of self-selected reading and writing.
I remember when I was in third grade, we had to write in a journal daily. At the time, I did not understand the purpose and so on some days I would just write that I had nothing to write about. My teacher would write back that that was not good enough. I wish that I had had a little explanation into why I was writing in this journal everyday. Maybe it would have made a difference in the effort that I put forth but then again maybe not. I actually still have a copy of this journal and I find it very interesting to reread what I had written when I was such a young child. Not many people have a record of things that went on in their lives so thoroughly as a grade school journal can.
I think that the rereading of familiar texts not only creates easy and challenging tasks but it also creates a great opportunity for the student to increase their confidence toward reading as well. If students are able to build a little confidence in themselves, it will go along way toward helping them to become better readers.
During personalized reading and writing, both the students and the teacher engage in reading and writing for their own purposes and self-fulfillment.
In my teaching situations, I have seen many students resist writing stories when we do it as a whole group or whole class exercise. These are the same students though that will bring in a story they wrote last night at home, or when they finish their work early, they will ask to write a story. Now, how does this work? The students are obviously willing to write so why won't they write on the topics that are chosen? Maybe the topics are problem? or maybe it is the delivery of the lessons? I am not sure but I hope to be able to reach these budding writers that hesitate when given a topic and a format.
The third aspect of strategy and skill instruction is helping students evaluate their increasing use of strategic reading processes.
Teaching students to be their own literacy coach will help them immensely toward improving their literacy. This allows them in a sense to be their own teacher. Letting them know the strategies that they can use and how to monitor their own progress can help to self-correct and work on their literacy when teachers are not around to help. This also allows students to take control of their learning and give some empowerment to a struggling reader who may not have much confidence.
Students are taught to match the book to their reading levels by using the rule of thumb (Morrow & Walker, 1997).
The rule of thumb is a great way to ensure that students are reading appropriately leveled books. This is one reason that I feel elementary school teachers should have extensive classroom libraries. Not all elementary schools are able to support wonderful, extensive libraries with some of the current must reads of the day. This also allows teachers to be able to have students read aloud to them and help them to make sure that they are reading at appropriate levels for them. If a student is running back and forth to the school library, this would not work nearly as well. Plus, the teacher tends to know exactly what books are in their library and they can make recommendations to their students to help them choose appropriate books.
In personalized reading and writing (PWR), students are engaged in 10 to 12 minutes of self-selected reading and writing.
I remember when I was in third grade, we had to write in a journal daily. At the time, I did not understand the purpose and so on some days I would just write that I had nothing to write about. My teacher would write back that that was not good enough. I wish that I had had a little explanation into why I was writing in this journal everyday. Maybe it would have made a difference in the effort that I put forth but then again maybe not. I actually still have a copy of this journal and I find it very interesting to reread what I had written when I was such a young child. Not many people have a record of things that went on in their lives so thoroughly as a grade school journal can.
February 3, 2009
Learning Log Ch. 5-6
The first stage of reading, often called the emergent literacy stage, begins at a very young age and continues to the middle of first grade. Children at this stage encounter literacy in social situations with their families and teachers. As they interact with others, they begin to understand what literacy is.
This emergent literacy stage is the stage of literacy that I am the most familiar with. My children are ages four and two so these are the stages of literacy that I live with day in and day out. My four year old son just started the universal pre-kindergarten program this past September and he has taken off like a rocket in school! He is always writing his name and random new letters that he is learning all over everything! It is wonderful to see the interest and excitement that comes to him every time he finds his letter of the week somewhere! One day, we were laying on my bed together and I was reading a novel and he was reading one of his books and he was leaning over and pointing out letters that he knew in my novel! He then asked for one of my books so that he could "read" it on his own! These were not picture books, they were straight up, words only novels! He then flipped through the pages and showed me all the letters that he knew! He makes me so proud! I love to see literacy budding in a young child, and because he is my own child, it makes it all the more special!
These new associations are what we term concepts of print and are important features of emergent literacy. As young children watch TV and go out to eat with their families, they begin to read signs based on distinctive features like the M in McDonalds.
I am amazed at how quickly some young children pick up these concepts of print. My husband and four year old son go to Blockbuster video in Lewiston every now and then to rent games for the Wii. The first time I went along, I was impressed when my son knew exactly where it was. I figured this was due to the trips he had taken there with my husband. Well, a few weeks later we were driving down Transit Road in Lockport and my son shouts out "Can we go to Blockbuster and rent some Wii games? There is one right there!" Well, you can image my surprise when I asked him how he knew it was a Blockbuster when he said I could read the sign! Now really, he could not read the sign but he knew that the sign there in Lockport matched the one in Lewiston and they both started with the letter b for Blockbuster. I am always in awe of how just talking with your children about everyday things you see can lead to literacy enhancement!
While a student who reports rereading may not know how to use other strategies like summarization.
I think of myself as a pretty solid reader but I also consider rereading my main strategy. Even up until this point in the book, I was reflecting on myself as a reader and I thought that I had a good handle on different strategies but after reading this statement, I think that over rely on rereading. When ever I am reading something difficult or I lose my focus while reading, I always just go back and reread. I never paraphrase or summarize after reading, I just keep rereading until I figure it out. Karrie Jones had replied to my last post that she thought that maybe she had some strategy strengths and maybe some she could work on. Maybe this is true for all of us, even the best readers.
The diagnostic teacher analyzes the amount of meaning change that results from the student's miscues or errors. If the miscues do not significantly change the meaning of the passage, then the student is reading for meaning; however, if the meaning of the text is substantially changed because of the miscues, then the diagnostic teacher designs lessons that encourage sense making while reading.
When I first started to observe in classrooms during my learn and serve hours, I would listen to children read all the time. I did have enough training in literacy then but I did notice that children would could not read the words with some accuracy had a lot of trouble comprehending. This only makes sense. What I did not understand was why the students had to be reading these books if they could not read them. If the child cannot read enough words correctly then they will not construct any meaning regardless of the questions you may ask them.
I think this statement also touches base with the article we read for class today. If a child can not read a book successfully, then why are teachers making them read it? Do they think that magically someone the child is going to comprehend something they can't even read? I understand that as teachers, we have grade level expectations but I have really given a lot of thought to having my students read whatever level books they can read and read well, just to give them the feeling of success and boost their confidence levels. I think this will lead to better comprehension and that will lead to the ability to move up levels and continue the literacy growth of that student.
When Jenny was asked to retell the story section by section, her interpretation was extremely close, indicating that she strives to make sense of the text. However, she omitted some information in her summaries. This information was later evaluated as containing words that were difficult for her to decipher.
Jenny is the student that seems to be doing all right but upon closer examination, teachers can see that there are some problems. She goes back to my above comment where if students like Jenny are not able to figure out words, they may not able to construct meaning. In Jenny's case, this is not completely true though. She constructs plenty of meaning but still avoids where she is unable to figure out difficult words. I think that teachers need to hold in balance the ability to read and decipher every word with the ability to construct meaning. We certainly do not want children omitting words or skipping over words that trouble them during reading but we also can not have them getting so hung up on a word that has little value to the reading event as well. This is where we need to find the balance.
This emergent literacy stage is the stage of literacy that I am the most familiar with. My children are ages four and two so these are the stages of literacy that I live with day in and day out. My four year old son just started the universal pre-kindergarten program this past September and he has taken off like a rocket in school! He is always writing his name and random new letters that he is learning all over everything! It is wonderful to see the interest and excitement that comes to him every time he finds his letter of the week somewhere! One day, we were laying on my bed together and I was reading a novel and he was reading one of his books and he was leaning over and pointing out letters that he knew in my novel! He then asked for one of my books so that he could "read" it on his own! These were not picture books, they were straight up, words only novels! He then flipped through the pages and showed me all the letters that he knew! He makes me so proud! I love to see literacy budding in a young child, and because he is my own child, it makes it all the more special!
These new associations are what we term concepts of print and are important features of emergent literacy. As young children watch TV and go out to eat with their families, they begin to read signs based on distinctive features like the M in McDonalds.
I am amazed at how quickly some young children pick up these concepts of print. My husband and four year old son go to Blockbuster video in Lewiston every now and then to rent games for the Wii. The first time I went along, I was impressed when my son knew exactly where it was. I figured this was due to the trips he had taken there with my husband. Well, a few weeks later we were driving down Transit Road in Lockport and my son shouts out "Can we go to Blockbuster and rent some Wii games? There is one right there!" Well, you can image my surprise when I asked him how he knew it was a Blockbuster when he said I could read the sign! Now really, he could not read the sign but he knew that the sign there in Lockport matched the one in Lewiston and they both started with the letter b for Blockbuster. I am always in awe of how just talking with your children about everyday things you see can lead to literacy enhancement!
While a student who reports rereading may not know how to use other strategies like summarization.
I think of myself as a pretty solid reader but I also consider rereading my main strategy. Even up until this point in the book, I was reflecting on myself as a reader and I thought that I had a good handle on different strategies but after reading this statement, I think that over rely on rereading. When ever I am reading something difficult or I lose my focus while reading, I always just go back and reread. I never paraphrase or summarize after reading, I just keep rereading until I figure it out. Karrie Jones had replied to my last post that she thought that maybe she had some strategy strengths and maybe some she could work on. Maybe this is true for all of us, even the best readers.
The diagnostic teacher analyzes the amount of meaning change that results from the student's miscues or errors. If the miscues do not significantly change the meaning of the passage, then the student is reading for meaning; however, if the meaning of the text is substantially changed because of the miscues, then the diagnostic teacher designs lessons that encourage sense making while reading.
When I first started to observe in classrooms during my learn and serve hours, I would listen to children read all the time. I did have enough training in literacy then but I did notice that children would could not read the words with some accuracy had a lot of trouble comprehending. This only makes sense. What I did not understand was why the students had to be reading these books if they could not read them. If the child cannot read enough words correctly then they will not construct any meaning regardless of the questions you may ask them.
I think this statement also touches base with the article we read for class today. If a child can not read a book successfully, then why are teachers making them read it? Do they think that magically someone the child is going to comprehend something they can't even read? I understand that as teachers, we have grade level expectations but I have really given a lot of thought to having my students read whatever level books they can read and read well, just to give them the feeling of success and boost their confidence levels. I think this will lead to better comprehension and that will lead to the ability to move up levels and continue the literacy growth of that student.
When Jenny was asked to retell the story section by section, her interpretation was extremely close, indicating that she strives to make sense of the text. However, she omitted some information in her summaries. This information was later evaluated as containing words that were difficult for her to decipher.
Jenny is the student that seems to be doing all right but upon closer examination, teachers can see that there are some problems. She goes back to my above comment where if students like Jenny are not able to figure out words, they may not able to construct meaning. In Jenny's case, this is not completely true though. She constructs plenty of meaning but still avoids where she is unable to figure out difficult words. I think that teachers need to hold in balance the ability to read and decipher every word with the ability to construct meaning. We certainly do not want children omitting words or skipping over words that trouble them during reading but we also can not have them getting so hung up on a word that has little value to the reading event as well. This is where we need to find the balance.
January 27, 2009
Learning Log Ch. 3
If teachers instruct students to respond to whole stories using important textual information and their own prior knowledge, students will actually become comprehenders who flexibly shift between reader-based and text-based knowledge.
Some teachers tend to focus on fact based questioning in an effort to make sure that students are comprehending what they have read. This seems to make sense if all the teacher is looking to do is check for comprehension but after reading this chapter and more specifically this section, I have discovered that that should not be all that we are looking for. We should be taking the time to model our responses to whole stories so that students can see how it is done time and time again so that they may learn to do it on their own.
Even though research supports the premise that skill knowledge is best mastered during contextual reading, it appears that remedial instruction in both classrooms and clinics continues to focus on the parts rather than the whole act of reading.
This statement puzzles me. I can see why a classroom teacher who does not have an extensive literacy background may not know the best practices in literacy education as supported by research but I would think that reading specialists and those working in clinics would. They should be the experts that the classroom teachers can go to for guidance and advice. Maybe this is like other things in education though, a cyclical pattern. What is best practices and current for now may not be what will be the best practices in ten years. I feel that I was confident with my statement at first but the more I am working through it, the more I am unsure. Maybe they don't use contextual reading because their is not enough information on it or it is not widely viewed as the most effective method. I am looking forward to hearing more about this in class tomorrow.
Success is a powerful motivating factor.
This statement is short and sweet and straight to the point. If people can do things and be successful at it, they will have more of a tendency to do it again. This also applies to children and reading. If children can feel successful in their reading, they will want to do it again as well. If a child struggles every time they try to read, they will then begin to avoid reading. This is not how we want our students to view reading. We want them to feel the success and pride that comes with being able to read and this will motivate them to read again.
The students marked whether their retelling included main characters, setting, problem, major events, and problem resolution. Using this check-sheet, the students and teacher assess literacy and discuss students success.
I had a great a-ha moment when I read this section. I never thought about the fact that maybe students needed some help doing their self-assessment when they are decided whether or not they are a successful reader. This makes a lot of sense though. Sometimes students need to be shown very explicitly how to do things and so assessing themselves as readers should be no different. I actually have to admit that I thought I was a good reader but I never could explain specifically why until I read the first few chapters of this book. If I do not understand something, I go back and reread it until I do. If I don't know what a word means, I keep reading and try to use context clues to help. These are just some of the strategies that I use to now define myself as a good ready. Sometimes it is not enough to know you are good, but to have specific examples of why you are good.
Teaching as mediating means that the teacher phases in and out of the reading event in order both to encourage active reading and to assess learning as she teaches.
I never really thought about teaching reading in terms of moving in and out of the reading event. I always just thought that you were involved like during guided reading or shared reading or you were not directly involved like when the students read independently. This is obviously not the case and it makes a lot of sense. Teachers should be interjecting into a student's reading to make sure that they are getting everything out of it. I feel like I have already learned so much about reading and the reading process and we are only going into week 3 of the class. I can not even imagine the wealth of information that we will take with us when we leave this class!
Some teachers tend to focus on fact based questioning in an effort to make sure that students are comprehending what they have read. This seems to make sense if all the teacher is looking to do is check for comprehension but after reading this chapter and more specifically this section, I have discovered that that should not be all that we are looking for. We should be taking the time to model our responses to whole stories so that students can see how it is done time and time again so that they may learn to do it on their own.
Even though research supports the premise that skill knowledge is best mastered during contextual reading, it appears that remedial instruction in both classrooms and clinics continues to focus on the parts rather than the whole act of reading.
This statement puzzles me. I can see why a classroom teacher who does not have an extensive literacy background may not know the best practices in literacy education as supported by research but I would think that reading specialists and those working in clinics would. They should be the experts that the classroom teachers can go to for guidance and advice. Maybe this is like other things in education though, a cyclical pattern. What is best practices and current for now may not be what will be the best practices in ten years. I feel that I was confident with my statement at first but the more I am working through it, the more I am unsure. Maybe they don't use contextual reading because their is not enough information on it or it is not widely viewed as the most effective method. I am looking forward to hearing more about this in class tomorrow.
Success is a powerful motivating factor.
This statement is short and sweet and straight to the point. If people can do things and be successful at it, they will have more of a tendency to do it again. This also applies to children and reading. If children can feel successful in their reading, they will want to do it again as well. If a child struggles every time they try to read, they will then begin to avoid reading. This is not how we want our students to view reading. We want them to feel the success and pride that comes with being able to read and this will motivate them to read again.
The students marked whether their retelling included main characters, setting, problem, major events, and problem resolution. Using this check-sheet, the students and teacher assess literacy and discuss students success.
I had a great a-ha moment when I read this section. I never thought about the fact that maybe students needed some help doing their self-assessment when they are decided whether or not they are a successful reader. This makes a lot of sense though. Sometimes students need to be shown very explicitly how to do things and so assessing themselves as readers should be no different. I actually have to admit that I thought I was a good reader but I never could explain specifically why until I read the first few chapters of this book. If I do not understand something, I go back and reread it until I do. If I don't know what a word means, I keep reading and try to use context clues to help. These are just some of the strategies that I use to now define myself as a good ready. Sometimes it is not enough to know you are good, but to have specific examples of why you are good.
Teaching as mediating means that the teacher phases in and out of the reading event in order both to encourage active reading and to assess learning as she teaches.
I never really thought about teaching reading in terms of moving in and out of the reading event. I always just thought that you were involved like during guided reading or shared reading or you were not directly involved like when the students read independently. This is obviously not the case and it makes a lot of sense. Teachers should be interjecting into a student's reading to make sure that they are getting everything out of it. I feel like I have already learned so much about reading and the reading process and we are only going into week 3 of the class. I can not even imagine the wealth of information that we will take with us when we leave this class!
January 20, 2009
Learning Log Ch. 1 & 2
Diagnostic teaching, then, is the process of using assessment and instruction at the same time to establish the instructional conditions that enhance learning.
As a elementary education teacher, I am always adapting and revising lessons as I am teaching to keep up with the individual needs of my students. I once taught a lesson to a kindergarten class where I had the students making clocks out of paper plates. I had put dotted numbers on two of my students plates because I did not feel that they would be able to keep up with the lesson and create their clocks successfully. The lesson was going well and we had put the numbers 12, 3, 6, and 9 on the clocks. As soon as I turned around to explain to the students where to put the number 1, I knew that I was in trouble. I had the students try to put the numbers 1 and 2 on their clocks, but after that, I wrapped up the lesson and we moved onto something else. My assessment had told me that the students were no longer able to continue. I did repeat the lesson the follow day, but now every student had dotted numbers on their clocks!!
The diagnostic teacher is an active problem solver. She is much more than a test giver. She is first and foremost a teacher.
I found this statement to be very refreshing. In my opinion, teachers of every grade level are natural problem solvers. I think that it is part of what lead me to teaching and more importantly, literacy instruction. I want to be able to help struggling readers to become the best readers they can be. This is at its basic level, identifying a problem and solving it.
This statement also resonated with me because at this time in education, we have more standardized testing than ever before. Sometimes we may forget that we are teachers because we have to get our students ready for state test number 3 for the year. We have to make sure that they do well on these tests or we may be held personally accountable. This type of distraction can lead us to forget that our first job is to teach.
The synthetic phonics approach begins by teaching the sounds of letters. These sounds are then blended to form words, and finally rules for the different sound combinations are given.
Even with the limited knowledge about reading and literacy instruction I have, I feel that a balanced literacy approach is the best way to teach. This would include phonics as well as site word instruction. My mother, who is a nurse, admitted to me the other day that when she comes across a big word that she does not know, she skips it. She does not know the different sounds of the letters and how to sound out words so she has no way of figuring them out. She learned how to read and write through the whole language approach so she was never taught phonics. Basically, if she can't memorize a word and its spelling, she will never know what the word is. This has lead her to believe that she is neither a good reader nor a good writer. When she first told me this, I thought, how could you not know the sounds of the letters? I then thought about my 4 year old son, that is learning his letters and the sounds that they make. He is being taught everything one step at a time. There are no human instincts to tell us the sounds that letters make. It all must be taught. This is why phonics instruction plays a huge part in my literacy instruction. So every one of my students will be able to sound out "big words" and feel success as readers and writers.
Although problem readers try hard, they do not meet the standard created by other rapid learners in the classroom. Over time, problem readers change their perceptions of the context and view literacy events as experiences to avoid because their efforts do not result in positive evaluations by their teachers.
In class the first day, Professor Warham said something that really hit home with me. She said that if you were not reading at grade level by grade 4, statistics show that you never will. You may learn to cope but you will never catch up and you may even end up shutting down. Well, I have a brother who in grade 8, was reading at a 2nd grade level. This was information given to my mother by a private tutoring school, that then charged my mother $10,000 for a year of intense tutoring that was said to have brought my brother up to grade level. Now he is in tenth grade and his teachers are asking him why he bothers coming to school at all. Obviously, he is still struggling as a reader and now they are forcing him to take the blame for shutting down and not trying anymore. Who would want to do something everyday that you were not good at? No one would put themselves through that kind of torture and humiliation. I feel that the school is the one that let him down and not the other way around. I don't know if my brother will ever be able to be a proficient reader but I know at his age, he probably doesn't care to. I just hope that he doesn't come to regret that later on in life...
In portfolios, individual differences are highlighted by changing the context to one of accepting uniqueness rather than evaluating sameness.
Wow, does this say it all. As elementary school teachers, we are almost trained to create a uniform group of learners so that teaching can be more managable. We want to be able to categorize every student so that we can fit them into the nice little box that they belong in. Well, this will not be my mission in life. I want to be a diagnostic teacher that allows each students individual strength to shine through instead of punishing those that can not live up to the standard of others. I want to have portfolios of students work all around my classroom as well as around the school. I want to showcase my students differences and create a classroom environment where being unique is where its at!
As a elementary education teacher, I am always adapting and revising lessons as I am teaching to keep up with the individual needs of my students. I once taught a lesson to a kindergarten class where I had the students making clocks out of paper plates. I had put dotted numbers on two of my students plates because I did not feel that they would be able to keep up with the lesson and create their clocks successfully. The lesson was going well and we had put the numbers 12, 3, 6, and 9 on the clocks. As soon as I turned around to explain to the students where to put the number 1, I knew that I was in trouble. I had the students try to put the numbers 1 and 2 on their clocks, but after that, I wrapped up the lesson and we moved onto something else. My assessment had told me that the students were no longer able to continue. I did repeat the lesson the follow day, but now every student had dotted numbers on their clocks!!
The diagnostic teacher is an active problem solver. She is much more than a test giver. She is first and foremost a teacher.
I found this statement to be very refreshing. In my opinion, teachers of every grade level are natural problem solvers. I think that it is part of what lead me to teaching and more importantly, literacy instruction. I want to be able to help struggling readers to become the best readers they can be. This is at its basic level, identifying a problem and solving it.
This statement also resonated with me because at this time in education, we have more standardized testing than ever before. Sometimes we may forget that we are teachers because we have to get our students ready for state test number 3 for the year. We have to make sure that they do well on these tests or we may be held personally accountable. This type of distraction can lead us to forget that our first job is to teach.
The synthetic phonics approach begins by teaching the sounds of letters. These sounds are then blended to form words, and finally rules for the different sound combinations are given.
Even with the limited knowledge about reading and literacy instruction I have, I feel that a balanced literacy approach is the best way to teach. This would include phonics as well as site word instruction. My mother, who is a nurse, admitted to me the other day that when she comes across a big word that she does not know, she skips it. She does not know the different sounds of the letters and how to sound out words so she has no way of figuring them out. She learned how to read and write through the whole language approach so she was never taught phonics. Basically, if she can't memorize a word and its spelling, she will never know what the word is. This has lead her to believe that she is neither a good reader nor a good writer. When she first told me this, I thought, how could you not know the sounds of the letters? I then thought about my 4 year old son, that is learning his letters and the sounds that they make. He is being taught everything one step at a time. There are no human instincts to tell us the sounds that letters make. It all must be taught. This is why phonics instruction plays a huge part in my literacy instruction. So every one of my students will be able to sound out "big words" and feel success as readers and writers.
Although problem readers try hard, they do not meet the standard created by other rapid learners in the classroom. Over time, problem readers change their perceptions of the context and view literacy events as experiences to avoid because their efforts do not result in positive evaluations by their teachers.
In class the first day, Professor Warham said something that really hit home with me. She said that if you were not reading at grade level by grade 4, statistics show that you never will. You may learn to cope but you will never catch up and you may even end up shutting down. Well, I have a brother who in grade 8, was reading at a 2nd grade level. This was information given to my mother by a private tutoring school, that then charged my mother $10,000 for a year of intense tutoring that was said to have brought my brother up to grade level. Now he is in tenth grade and his teachers are asking him why he bothers coming to school at all. Obviously, he is still struggling as a reader and now they are forcing him to take the blame for shutting down and not trying anymore. Who would want to do something everyday that you were not good at? No one would put themselves through that kind of torture and humiliation. I feel that the school is the one that let him down and not the other way around. I don't know if my brother will ever be able to be a proficient reader but I know at his age, he probably doesn't care to. I just hope that he doesn't come to regret that later on in life...
In portfolios, individual differences are highlighted by changing the context to one of accepting uniqueness rather than evaluating sameness.
Wow, does this say it all. As elementary school teachers, we are almost trained to create a uniform group of learners so that teaching can be more managable. We want to be able to categorize every student so that we can fit them into the nice little box that they belong in. Well, this will not be my mission in life. I want to be a diagnostic teacher that allows each students individual strength to shine through instead of punishing those that can not live up to the standard of others. I want to have portfolios of students work all around my classroom as well as around the school. I want to showcase my students differences and create a classroom environment where being unique is where its at!
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