Prominent Theorist Research Paper

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0GJFlkcaO0xY2N6WGpkU2ZySWs/edit

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)?

I have incorporated several of the components of a comprehensive literacy program in my classroom.  Some that I already address in my classroom are read-aloud, shared reading, sustained reading, guided reading, reading to learn, write-aloud, shared writing, guided writing, sustained writing, individual writing conferences, journals, and writing to learn.

Read-aloud is probably my favorite component of the literacy program.  I’ve always enjoyed reading to my students, especially when I know it is a book they probably wouldn’t read independently, but I know they would enjoy and be interested in the story or when the book teaches a valuable lesson.  I like to read chapter books with my students because I feel that it helps strengthen their comprehension by recalling what was read a few days ago, and it leads to class discussion.  I also often find that I can relate the events in a chapter book to our classroom by making text connections.  Three or four years ago I started reading Magic Tree House Books to my second grade students.  I fell in love with these books and so did my students.  They would go to the library to check out books and come back SO excited that they had found a Magic Tree House Book.  Later, I was lucky enough to receive two free sets (about 30 books) of Magic Tree House Books from my librarian during a book fair.  Then, last year I was moved to first grade and was disappointed because I didn’t think I would get to use my new books because I didn’t think they would understand the books as well as second graders did.  During my first few months in first grade I tried reading other chapter books with them, but I missed the Magic Tree House Books.  I decided I would start reading one and see how it went.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much they loved the stories too and were able to understand and comprehend the books.  They started checking them out from the library was well.  One the last day of school this year I found myself racing to get through the last chapter of our current Magic Tree House Book while they packed up for dismissal because I just couldn’t let them leave for the summer with the book unfinished.  The Weaver text pointed out that reading aloud provides an opportunity to read texts beyond the students’ independent ability, which reassures me that I made the right choice to incorporate the Magic Tree House Books in my first grade classroom as well. 

Several of the other components are used during my literacy center block.  Students go to the library at least once a week and participate in sustained or independent reading.  Often students complete book reports on these books or fill in graphic organizers, so I have an idea about how much they are reading and understanding.  To form leveled guided reading groups, I use a running record to determine each student’s reading level.  During centers students often participate in some type of sustained writing to reinforce a previously taught topic or style of writing. 

We use the Writer’s Workshop model at my school, which includes the writing components of a comprehensive literacy program.  One of the most beneficial parts of Writer’s Workshop is individual conferences.  These writing conferences allow me an opportunity to meet with individual students about their writing, show them how to revise and edit, and provide feedback about the content.   

A few areas of the comprehensive literacy program that I would like to develop or improve on are individual reading conferences, literature circles, and inquiry.  I look forward to learning even more about teaching these components effectively. 

Module 3: Mock Memo from a Reading Specialist

Instructional Challenge:

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 an explanation for the phenomenon and offer her advice on dealing with the situation. 

Dear teacher,

I always stress to my parents that a child’s fluency rate doesn’t make them a “good or bad” reader.  Fluency is only a piece of being a proficient reader.  I often give the example of one of my previous second grade students who made it into Venture (the gifted program), but always had a lower fluency rate causing her grade to be “progressing towards the standard.”  She never met the fluency standard in second grade, but she could always answer questions and have discussions about the text she read.  She is currently going into fifth grade and still excelling in school and is still in the Venture program.  I would share this information with my students who are reading at an above average rate.   Then, praise them for exceeding with fluency, but explain to them that it is now time to slow down and focus on meaning and make sure we comprehend what we read.  Students need to understand reading quickly usually provides a greater margin for error, and speed without comprehension is useless.  

I would start out by modeling good reading strategies with the students.  Also, point out how punctuation marks help us determine our expression while reading.  Then, I would form literature circles where the students would have time for discussion and learning from one another.  In the literature circles students could use graphic organizers to participate in activities such as; making predictions, making connections, creating summaries, determining the main idea and details, and defining challenging words.  I would provide examples for how each activity should look and take several sessions to guide them through this process.  Also, have them write questions about a book before, during, and after reading.  Then, they can stop throughout the story to ask their questions and listen to each other’s responses.  After students have participated in these activities, follow up with comprehension questions to see what information they retained and understood.  Most importantly, emphasize that we are no longer trying to get through our reading quickly.  We want to take the time to “dig” into the story and discover why the author wrote the story and understand the main idea. 

I hope these suggestions are able to help you develop reading with meaning in your classroom!  

Module 3: Activity 2

According to this video, research shows that one-on-one tutoring in individual letters and sounds, including nonsense words, helps struggling readers “crack the code” of English.

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? Record your thoughts in a blog posting. 

In regards to the video, I think any struggling reader could benefit from one-on-one instruction.  However, I’m not sure how I feel about using nonsense words to teach reading.  If a child can read nonsense words correctly then it shows they understand letter sounds and blends, which means they are probably already reading pretty efficiently.  However, if a child can’t read nonsense words correctly then they probably struggle with real words too.  It seems to me that using nonsense words and real words with a struggling reader could end up confusing the student more.  If the child starts to understand letters and blends and can read nonsense words correctly I think he/she would start to be confused about meaning.  If a student is struggling with reading why read words with no meaning, because the ultimate goal of reading is to obtain meaning.  It seems better to me to focus on letter sounds, blends, and words that actually make sense and will be used in real life.  Rather than sounding out nonsense words, I think using phonics lessons provide more benefit and serve a greater purpose in learning to read.  Everyone has different learning styles and processes information differently, so I think being exposed to a variety of reading strategies and instruction is the best way to reach all learners in a large classroom.  Then, through guided reading more individual needs can be met.    

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 have to disagree with this quote based on what I have recently learned about learning to read.  The Weaver text has proved to me, through several examples/activities, that I am not looking at every letter in a word to determine the word.  For instance, when I read “The Boat in the Basement” on p. 88 I did not realize basement was spelled incorrectly until I went back to look for errors.  I also didn’t realize what I believed was the word “through” was actually spelled as “though.”  Based on the context of what I was reading “through” made sense, so without hesitation I continued to read.  I only took the time to look at the letters in each word when I knew there were several mistakes in the passage.    

I am starting to have some mixed feelings about phonics after all this reading.  It seems as though the text is almost discouraging phonics lessons.  Having experience in a classroom with no formal phonics lessons and now, more recently, being in a classroom that teaches with scripted phonics lessons, I have to say I am in favor of teaching the phonics lessons.  I actually really enjoy these lessons.  However, I cannot quote all the phonics rules I teach, and I don’t expect my students to.  I believe the phonics lessons serve as an important building block in a child’s understanding/learning of language, but I don’t think the phonics lessons alone teach a child to read.  I think the exposure to the phonics lessons/rules is what’s beneficial for the students.  They don’t necessarily have to be able to memorize or recite the rules to understand phonics and start applying it in their reading.  I believe just being familiar with some of the reasons why words are spelled the way they are benefits emergent readers.  I understand and also emphasize to my students that the rules don’t always apply and in English there are always exceptions.  I’ve always heard, “English is the hardest language to learn,” and all the rules and exceptions are a major reason why.  I like having the phonics lessons incorporated into my daily schedule, and I feel as though my students really benefit from the lessons.  However, I often feel like the phonics lessons impact their writing/spelling more than their reading.  Either way I feel as though it serves a purpose with young children and beginning readers.  They don’t have to remember and apply the phonics rules while reading throughout their entire life, because once you become an efficient reader you really on words less and context more.         

In conclusion, I actually think quite the opposite of the quote from Adams.  To me it seems as though emergent readers look at and process individual letters within words more so than skillful readers.  Skillful readers are reading to gain meaning while emergent readers are still trying to recognize and pronounce words correctly as they read.  A skillful reader would usually stop to look at the letters and patterns within a word only if the word is unfamiliar or if the context doesn’t make sense.      

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?

Are these children's miscues evidence of proficient or non-proficient reading?  Explain. If you were teaching children who made these miscues, what, if any, assistance or teaching would you offer?

            I would think the student is a proficient reader based on the chart above.  However, comprehension questions following the reading would determine if the reader was truly proficient or not.  I think the original responses show proficiency because the miscues didn’t lead to a loss of meaning.  Using the incorrect punctuation mark in the first example could possibly change the meaning more than having a miscued word.  I think “hisself” is a common mistake even with adults.  The child has probably heard others, maybe even adults, say “hisself.”  I think the last response was definitely learned in the child’s environment.  Posing a question in statement form is something I have often heard people do, and I’m sure I’ve done it myself when causally talking.  It seems as though the student(s) involved in this chart may benefit from lessons about verbs, subject-verb agreement, and tenses or inflectional endings.  If I were teaching these children I would bring it to their attention that often the way we talk isn’t correct/proper English.  I would emphasize that while reading and writing we want to strive to use proper English.  I feel this is important to learn at an early because they will be expected to use proper English throughout school and into their careers.  This past year I had a student, actually one of my brightest students, always use the phrase “ain’t no” when speaking; “There ain’t no more soap.  I don’t got no pencil.”  I knew she was hearing these phrases at home and had no idea they were actually incorrect.  I continually corrected her, in a positive way, and even provided an explanation for her about why using those phrases are considered incorrect.  She seemed to understand, but continued to compose her sentences in that manner.  I felt as though it was a habit that would take some time to break.  Even though her sentences hadn’t lost meaning, I still felt it necessary to correct her because I felt like it could hinder her in the future or maybe even embarrass her when she is older and someone comments negatively after something she says.  Therefore, I would offer assistance to the children who made the mistakes in the chart above as well.  I don’t feel the need to correct every single miscue a student makes, but if I notice a repeating pattern with a child’s miscues I am definitely going to correct them.  That’s why I’m there…to teach them things they wouldn’t learn at home.