Module 5: Summary of Opitz Chapters 13 and 14

              Chapter 13 focuses on study skills. The key to performing well on tests is knowing how to study for them. Students must develop good study habits as well as a system that works well for them. The three steps to building good study habits are laid out on p. 317. Students must determine when and where to study and how much time to invest to studying. The SQ3R and PQ4R were techniques explained in the text designed to maximize studying. The scenario of Ms. Mills’ fourth-grade class on p. 323 was helpful. I agree that students need to be taught how to study or breakdown informational text into sections at an early age.  They also need to be taught how to monitor their progress and check for understanding while reading and studying. Answering questions is a way to self-assess what was just read. Many students also think once they complete the reading or the assignment that they are “done.” Reviewing what you have read/studied is also an important skills that must be taught because otherwise most students won’t engage in reviewing the information on their own. I teach my students to go back and review everything they have read or completed to refresh their memory of the most important parts or to check for mistakes in an assignment. When students review what they have read it increases their comprehension of the material. I really liked “Activity 2” on p. 325. I would be interested to see how my first graders would do in a concentration/listening activity like this one.  

Activity #2 p.335: Some teachers in your school system feel that elementary-grade children are too immature to learn study skill techniques. How would you convince these teachers that this is not so?

            Study skill techniques need to be taught at some point, so why not start in elementary school? Elementary school children may not be able to engage in all study skill techniques, but they can at least be introduced to the concept and start slowing understanding how to study effectively. Introducing these skills early will help set the stage for success later on. I definitely think 4^th and 5^th graders should be taught study skills and engage in techniques such as note taking to prepare them for middle school.  

  

            Chapter 14 focuses on parental involvement at school and at home. I would like to expose more parents to the research facts provided on p. 339. I think many parents believe that simply sending their child to school is enough, and they shouldn’t have to “teach” them at home. I believe many parents view learning as the teacher’s job and they shouldn’t have to be responsible for their child’s education. This type of attitude/view only creates a disadvantage for the child. I loved the quote on p. 340 of Ernest Boyer’s statement. He stated, “School is a partnership. If education is in trouble, it’s not the school that has failed. It’s the partnership that has failed.” It is so important for parents to understand this partnership and strive to actively participate in their child’s education. I try to stress this concept to my parents and provide them with numerous ways to assist with their child’s learning. Parent/teacher conferences are a great time to discuss these topics with parents and present ideas for them to use at home to promote their child’s learning. The one-on-one setting of a conference allows the parents an opportunity the ask questions, and it also allows the teacher to provide visuals and strategies specific to each child’s learning needs. Parental involvement is extremely important and this chapter provided helpful suggestions for involving parents both in and out of the school setting.    

Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement: Assessment and instruction. (6^th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Module 5: Video Analysis-Rubrics

                 Rubrics are scoring tools used to assess subjective assignments. Using rubrics help teachers grade subjective assignments more consistently and with similar results. I usually use rubrics when grading writing assignments. When using a rubric it is helpful to go over the expectations of the rubric with the students before they begin the assignment.  This gives students a better idea of what their final outcome should include and how to earn the best possible score. Once the assignment has been graded, the students can look at the rubric to see their strengths and weaknesses. They can see what area of the assignment they may have lost points in and strive to improve upon that area next time.   

Module 5 PowerPoints

Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Fluency

            As a first grade teacher, I already implement several of the methods/activities listed in this PowerPoint in my classroom. I did like the suggestion to use hand signals with a word as a method of teaching short vowel sounds. I use keyword cards during phonics instruction for this same purpose, but I think the students would remember a hand signal when they don’t have access to the cards. I also liked the modified Bingo example. That would be a great activity for me to include in my literacy center block. My students currently participate in the “Making Words” and “Building Words” activities, the secret word clues activity, and sorting activities. I also have a word wall that I add new words to regularly and a center involving a poem each week.   

            Vocabulary Development

            I use semantic, syntactic, and phonic prompts during my guided reading lessons to help students decode words and develop strategies to help them during independent reading. I didn’t realize that high frequency words make up approximately 50 percent of words in continuous text. This just shows how important it is for students to learn to recognize these words in text. My students have a list of sight words and a corresponding list of phrases that use the sight words to help them learn to recognize the word and how it is used in context. I liked the idea of singing high-frequency words. My first grade students always seem to enjoy the incorporation of music into instruction. My students also participate in read-along activities on the computers. I also stress the importance of reading aloud to children to my parents. When children see and hear words while they follow along in a story they become more familiar with difficult or high frequency words and will eventually be able to recognize these words on their own. I am also a big supporter of repeated readings and partner or alternate readings. This is another area I stress to my parents. I use poems and fluency passages for repeated reading practice, but I have recently included reader’s theatre scripts into my guided reading instruction to promote repeated readings as well as oral reading. I also agree that charting student progress is a great way to show students their growth and keep them motivated. I use the fluency passages for cold and hot reads. Recording the cold and hot read scores show the students how their reading has improved on a certain passage due to repeated readings over the course of a week.                                              

Assessing Vocabulary

            Seeing a breakdown of the different kinds of words into tiers was interesting and informative. Vocabulary skills definitely play a big role in comprehension. If a student can read the word but really doesn’t know what the word means then he/she is losing meaning of the text. I also agree that there are different levels of “knowing” a word. Classroom conversations, read-alouds, and the use of rich language is something I am seeing an emphasis on this year with the implementation of the Common Core Standards. I liked the “everyone gets 5” quiz suggestion. This is a quick and simple way to assess each students understanding of certain words. I also like the suggestions on slide 8. I would like to start using activities such as these more often in my classroom.

Module 4: Summary of Opitz Chapters 8, 9, 10, and 12

             Chapter 8 focused mainly on listening to and assessing students’ oral reading using the informal reading inventory (IRI), the modified miscue analysis, and the running record. These assessments help teachers gain insights of areas/skills that students need more instruction with. I am most familiar with using a running record to assess students while they read orally. Like the videos the text provided examples of how to mark a running record. The text even pointed out on p. 172 that running records are a more popular assessment choice and used more often than IRIs. I have had experience with using an IRI while completing coursework for college, but it is not an assessment method my school uses. However, I do like how an IRI provides comprehension questions and doesn’t solely focus on the students’ reading miscues and level. Since comprehension is the main goal of reading I feel that these comprehension questions can provide teachers with valuable insight. The modified miscue analysis is an assessment I cannot recall administering, but I would be interested to do so in the future. It is important to remember that it is not just about how many errors a student makes while reading, but it is important to understand the types of errors being made. Then, plan future instruction to address those errors and help fix/prevent them from continuing.

            Student choice and providing a variety of texts seem to be a common theme throughout my coursework. Student enjoyment/interest while reading/learning leads to more academic progress. Chapter 9 focused on these topics. I have watched my students year after year get excited when I introduce new books, especially science and social studies books. I really play into their enthusiasm now and set the stage for exciting learning now because I know which books really spark their interests. I also love being able to read to my first graders and stop and discuss the book with them throughout the reading. This chapter explained several different types of books that all can have a meaningful purpose in the classroom. When students start asking to take books home I know they really have an interest in them, so I allow them to check them out of my classroom.    

            Chapter 10 discussed comprehension and the various levels of comprehension.  Four comprehension skills were explained and several comprehension strategies were explained within Figure 10.13. I liked the graphic organizers that were provided. Since comprehension is the main goal of reading I found this chapter very meaningful.

             Chapter 12 focused on phonics instruction. I enjoy teaching phonics in my first grade classroom, and I find it beneficial for my students to be actively engaged in a phonics lesson each day. Decoding skills are essential for readers to become fluent and phonics instruction is how students gain these skills. The sample exercises provided are similar to many of the activities provided in my phonics lessons. This chapter provided five meaningful ways to assess phonics and examples of these assessments through the use of the figures within the text as well as seven ways to teach phonics. This information provides a valuable resource and refresher for how to provide the most effective phonics instruction in a classroom. Like our summer reading endorsement class/text, the Opitz text also emphasized that phonics instruction should be about learning words and not memorizing rules, and it should be taught as a part of reading instruction. Guided reading is the perfect opportunity to combine phonics instruction with reading.

Module 4: Video Summaries

                 Running records are a valuable tool to when analyzing a student’s reading. I use running records on a regular basis in my first grade classroom to determine student reading levels. I don’t make all the marks exactly as the teacher demonstrated on the three-part video, but I am still gathering the same information. I actually don’t use the check marks or “ticks” for correct words. I leave the word without any markings if it is said correctly, because I don’t like having the extra marks on the page. I feel putting a mark on every word makes the paper very “busy/messy” and harder to read and interpret. Since I am looking for errors in the student’s reading I only mark the errors. The teacher on the other video did a nice job of teaching the student how to assess his own reading. The student had a clear understanding of what fluency is, so it was obvious the teacher had been working with him to master this skill. I think going back over the errors I mark during a running record with my students helps them gain a better understanding of reading and how they can improve.