TE 402 Class Overview

Over the last 14 weeks I feel that my understanding has changed in how I look at literacy. Not only has my definition of literacy changed to encompass both reading and writing along with many other aspects, but my ideas of teaching literacy have expanded enormously. I learned how important it is to combine reading and writing together, and not just specifically during allotted reading and writing times, but also during other content areas such as science, math, and social studies. It is so important to incorporate reading and writing in every aspect of our students day to continuously have them thinking about ways to further their development in these areas. I have also learned some great strategies for promoting literacy in the classroom through explicit instruction and balanced literacy learning. Not only is it beneficial to teach students various techniques for comprehension, word/letter identification, concepts of print, fluency, and other concepts, but it is also great to incorporate literacy discussion groups and book clubs so students are able to collaborate with their peers. This type of discussion and literacy learning allows the students to further their oral language development by speaking to their peers and express their ideas in an informal setting where all students can feel comfortable in participating. Not only have I learned many things in our discussions, but being able to incorporate these findings and strategies into our field placements have been very helpful. Just being able to see how the students react to these type of strategies and how far they have come since the beginning of the year is so rewarding. Looking at my kindergarteners writing from the beginning of the year until now is absolutely amazing because of all the progress they have made. I will definitely take much of my learning from TE 402 Literacy, with me into my future classrooms and implement much of the learning and discussions into my lesson plans and teaching.

Fluency with my Focus Student

This past week my teacher had me working with my focus student on fluency when reading. My focus student is at a lower achieving level in reading for her class, so she is working on books that are appropriate for her reading level during reading groups. Normally the students are paired into groups of 3 or 4 students that are of similar reading levels as her. This week my teacher had me working individually with my focus student on reading her books instead of in her group. I was supposed to have her read the book several times through, the first time giving her help where it was necessary, and by the last time of reading through the book she was supposed to be able to read it on her own. The books were generally 5 or 6 pages long with simple sentences on them.

When working with my focus student on the first book for the week she had a very tough time getting through the words. She was unfamiliar with many of the words and did not do much to sound out the words and try to determine what the pages were saying. Instead, she would look at the pictures and try and guess what the word was. Although this can be an effective strategy sometimes by looking at the pictures after trying to sound out an unfamiliar word, but solely relying on the pictures can lead the child to thinking that certain words are different than what they actually are. For example, on one of the pages in the book my focus student did not know the word 'panther' but instead of looking to see that the word started with 'p' and trying to sound it out, she directly looked at the pictures and thought the word was tiger. Clearly she was not looking at the words and trying to use her reading strategies to figure out what the word was, but instead relying solely on the illustrations in the book. This was the main problem that I saw with my focus students reading, along with not trying to sound out words. Perhaps she is not familiar with some of the sounds that the letters make but she definitely needs more practice with letter and sound identification in order to develop her reading further.

After reading through the book with her and helping her when she was unfamiliar what the text was saying, she was able to successfully read the book on her own. She was so excited that she read the whole book that she wanted to read it again to me. I was excited to she that she was so thrilled with her progress and happy that she did well, because I could tell that it was a motivating factor for her. I hope to see her continue practicing her books within these last couple weeks that I am observing in her classroom.

Inffering Strategy

I sub every Friday and last Friday I was in a second grade classroom! The teacher asked me to read a book to the class and work on the strategy inferring, which is a comprehension strategy. I was at Red Cedar in a very diverse classroom so I read a story about a girl from Africa. I told the students that we would be working on finding the meanings of words that we didn’t know. We could do this by looking at the pictures, skipping the word and using the words around it to find the meaning, or read through the whole paragraph and see if we can find the meaning. To make sure that the students understood I modeled it for them using the book about the African girl. I found it interesting that the children did not like the words that I chose. They all told me that they knew the meaning of that word. I told the students that this strategy could be used with any word and I was showing them how to use the strategy correctly. I had read the book before school and there weren’t too many words that would be foreign to the students so I did my best finding the hardest words. But when the students interrupted me I felt as though I didn’t get very far. I didn’t think that I had gotten anything accomplish once I finished modeling but to my surprise during the daily five I found that a lot of students were using the strategy. As I went around to the different centers I listened to the students read. I saw inferring the most when students were reading in pairs because they would talk out loud about a word that they didn’t know. First, they would look at the picture and if they couldn’t find the answer from there they would look at the words surrounding the word they didn’t know. I also took the time to read with individual students. When they asked me about a word they were not familiar with I asked if they could use the strategy that I had talked about. The students would immediately look at the picture and for the most part they were able to find the meaning from there. I also found that when I was reading with students they always wanted to explain to me what was going on in the picture. As they were doing this they would realize the meaning of a word that they had thought they knew. It was interesting working with the students because they all used the strategy in a different way. I enjoyed watching the student alter the strategy to fit their reading style.

What GOOD readers do when they read

Oftentimes, my CT has me work with a specific student in order to help her develop her comprehension strategies, and fluency; however, this past Monday, my CT was at a conference and the substitute asked me to take over a literacy group in the back corner. Relatively speaking, the students I was working with were about average in their reading abilities. Since I was unsure of where the group was, in relation to reading their stories and completing assignments, I decided to go with the flow, and just talk to the students about their book, how they were doing, how they liked the story, etc.

Once the group, five students, were seated and attentive, I posed the following question…”What makes a student a ‘good reader’? First of all, fourth graders have strong opinions about their reading and the reading of their peers. They are well aware of who is struggling and who is over achieving. Second of all, their opinions are very worthwhile to hear and understand, and I felt strongly that having them voice their thoughts and opinions, in relation to this topic, could shed a lot of light on their thinking, and why they think a certain way. I also wanted to convey an implicit message; that is, “How you think, and feel, is important to me, and I want you to take ownership in your learning.”

The insights they provided me with, were VERY enlightening, and I want to share them with you. I think you’ll be surprised at how intuitive, thoughtful, and right on, their thinking is!

• “Good readers know why they are reading something and they don’t just read to read, they have reasons behind it.”

• “A lot of good readers will look through the book first, before they read the whole thing, and then they’ll read all of it…they look for pictures.”

• “Good readers talk to their teacher and to their friends about the book they are reading. Sometimes, they will guess what the book is about before they even read it.”

• “Sometimes, if a reader is really good, they stop and write notes about what they are reading…like, if they don’t know a word they will stop and look it up, or if they don’t get something they’ll ask questions.”

• “Good readers can read really fast, they can a whole book in, like, a day!”

• “Well, if you’re a good reader, then you can read like you talk.”

As you can see…my students had a lot to share! I wasn’t sure where this question would lead us, but it turns out, we were able to continue this discussion for a good fifteen minutes. If you look closely at their comments, you’ll see that they’re right! Everything they mentioned is one aspect of what it takes to be a good reader. I was very impressed and proud of the thoughtfulness and metacognitive thinking my students displayed. Hopefully, their ability to understand what it takes to be a successful reader will help them in their own journey towards higher reading levels.

Working with my Focus Student

For the past couple weeks I have had the opportunity to work very closely with my focus student during writing workshop time. During writing workshop, the students have been focusing on making sure they have a beginning, middle, and end of the story. They are also working to make sure they are making spaces between words, and using their letter chart to sound out words to try and spell them as best as they can. These are the main things that the students are supposed to be working on during their writing workshops.

I have had the chance to work with my focus student during writing workshop and observe the progress she was making. First, I noticed that she always likes to make the illustrations for her story before writing the words on the page. She spent a lot of time working on her illustrations, and sometimes it seemed like she would try and prolong the process of drawing so she would not have to start writing. When she did finish the illustration she would first say the sentence she was going to write before writing the first word. She would begin sounding out the words in the first word and would ask me questions about whether or not it was right. I would tell her to refer to her letter chart and look for the letters that were heard in the word. She did a great job of looking at her letter chart and slowly sounding out the words to figure out what letters were in the words. She did this for the entire sentence on the first page, and seemed to be extremely happy with herself for finishing the firs page of her three page story.

Since they are working on the beginning, middle, and end of the story, after she finished the first page, she continued on with the second and third page. Again, she made her illustrations, and spent less time on her writing. Although she did a good job of sounding out words and creating the story, her pages did not make any sense and there was not a real order to her story. Her thoughts were jumbled from one page to the next and there was no chronological order. On one page she would be talking about what she was doing on the past weekend, but then on the next page, she would start talking about what she was doing at school. She would make sense on each of the pages she was writing on, but when it would go to the next page, it was not really a story because it was did not go in order.

Although she is still lacking some important parts of writing for her age, she has shown a great deal of progress since she first started working on writing stories this past year. She still has some key points of writing to establish, but she is making fairly good progress and is doing great at continuously trying to do her best during writing workshop.

Lesson Reflection

I taught my lesson on similarities and differences among individuals to my kindergarten class. I learned a lot from teaching this lesson, and found it to be very helpful for the students social studies material that they needed to cover in their curriculum. All of the students were great participators during my lesson, and I felt great that they were interested enough to raise their hand and get involved in the discussion by sharing their ideas and experiences.

I learned that this was a great topic to share with kindergarten students because while they are learning about diversity, they still are able to share their personal experiences (preferences, characteristics, family, etc). I learned that students are much more aware of the differences that are among our society than what I would have thought. They notice a lot of the physical differences among their peers, but are still respectful and accepting of those characteristics, which is an important part of diversity. For the most part, the students understood why diversity is important to discuss, but need to further their concept of the value diversity has in our society. In short, I learned how much the students know in regards to the topic of diversity, and also was able to gauge their feelings about the subject, which showed as being favorable by the class!

I also was able to learn about myself and my teaching from conducting this lesson. I think that I did a good job of connecting with the students and encouraging them to continue sharing their response and experiences. I tried hard to keep the students on track and praise the ideas that they were presenting during the discussion. There were also many things that I learned about myself through my teaching that need to be improved. One of them is to not dominate the discussion and allow the students to get more involved. The whole point of teaching a lesson is to make sure they are getting something out of it and learning, so it’s important that they feel like they have an opportunity to ask questions and express themselves openly and often. Along with opening up the discussion to the students more, I also need to work on managing my time better throughout the lesson. While it is important for all students to get the chance to express themselves, it is also important to manage the discussion and keep track of time. These were several of the things I learned about myself after listening to my own lesson.

Working with my Focus Student

For the duration of my time working in my fourth grade class, there is one specific student that I have spent a great deal of time helping. Alexa* is a kind, outgoing, and charismatic fourth grader who struggles in regards to her literacy development. When our spring semester commenced, my CT became aware of my literacy focus for the remainder of the year; therefore, he asked that I spend some quality time working with Alexa on her reading skills (specifically pertaining to her comprehension strategies and level of fluency). Seeing as how I was in the field during the students’ reading workshop time, I was able to spend a large amount of my time working one-on-one with Alexa. At the outset, I had Alexa pick out books she was either interested in, or books she was reading in her reading group, and we would sit in the hallway as she slowly worked her way through the various stories. This allowed the two of us time to develop a friendly, comfortable, and supportive relationship.

As our relationship solidified, I made a point to speak to Alexa directly, in regards to the reasons behind our working together. First, I explained that we’re working together for a reason, and I asked her opinion as to why that is. Alexa is an intelligent and observant kid; she was/is well aware of the difficulties she encounters in regards to her reading ability, and she had no problem articulating this to me. I took this opportunity to talk to Alexa about some specifics; where she struggles, why, how we can help her through our work together, and how she can help HERSELF.

After talking to my CT, I’ve come to the realization that students need to understand and participate in their attempt to achieve academic success. Through direct, and explicit, conversations with students (in regards to their specific struggles), I believe children will feel an ownership, and take more responsibility for their learning; exactly what I was striving for with Alexa.

As the semester has progressed, the activities we participate in together have slowly evolved. About four or five weeks ago, (I think), my CT and I took some time to sit and discuss Alexa’s development. As it turned out, my CT had recently been a participant at a literacy conference that focused on comprehension strategies and the importance of fluency in struggling readers. Obviously, Alexa was at the forefront of his mind. At this point, I had the opportunity to do some research on the literature my CT received at the conference. (I’ve been meaning to ask him the name of the conference, as well as the name of the text, but it keeps slipping my mind). I learned a great deal, and I’ve been able to execute a variety of strategies while working with Alexa.

One Hen

I taught my literacy lesson the week after spring break. That being said, please forgive my short memory and inability to give a full and detailed summary/description of what occurred. Rather than present a full synopsis of my lesson (which would be quite boring, long, and dull, I’m sure) I’m going to briefly explain the general lesson layout, and then I will provide you with some insightful comments on the exciting, funny, surprising, and/or disconcerting outcomes of the day.

My literacy lesson was taught to a fourth grade class, and it was comprised of a read-aloud, a large class discussion (occurring before, during, and after the reading), small group discussions, and a written activity. The story book I read was entitled One Hen and it was an exceptionally well-written TRUE story about an African boy who encountered many obstacles, worked hard, became educated, persevered, and despite his many struggles, became the most successful poultry farmer in all of West Africa (and in the process helped his family, community, and entire country). The written activity required the students to reflect on the story, and engage in high-level thinking. I had the students write a letter to the main character of the story (Kojo), and explain what they will/would do to help their community.

First and foremost, I’d like to say that I was blown-away by how enthusiastic and engaged my students were throughout my two day lesson. My lesson began on Friday afternoon and I completed the lesson on that subsequent Monday afternoon. The students could not wait! As soon as they saw me on Monday morning, I was bombarded with questions; “Are you finishing the story today Ms. Forstat?” and “I can’t wait to hear what happens to Kojo, Ms. Forstat!” etc. It was very endearing. Not only that, but during the discussions, every single student participated; before, during, and after the read-aloud. Normally, I have two or three students who sit back and let his/her classmates take the burden of the work…not this time! I didn’t even have to call on students; they were happily voicing their thoughts and opinions.

That being said, I was surprised as to how difficult it is to facilitate a classroom discussion; as opposed to a “recitation”. In my lesson reflection that I turned in to Judy, I went into more detail as to how much I struggled in terms of taking that step back and allowing the students to take the metaphorical steering wheel. Honestly, I’ve tended to judge teachers rather harshly for their, supposedly, lazy approach to class discussions. I was arrogant enough to believe that they (teachers) were just too “stuck in their ways” to develop a more student-led teaching approach. Well, I’d like to take this time to apologize to those teachers whom I have discourteously judged. A student-led discussion is a difficult strategy to promote and I no longer believe that it can come naturally; this will definitely be something that takes some focus, and sincere thought.

Finally, I’d like to end this post with a comment relating to my students’ innate ability to empathize with human beings who may appear (on the surface) to be different from them. Before I began my lesson, I was worried that the class wouldn’t grasp the underlying themes of my lesson. I was anxious to see how my fourth graders would handle such issues as: global citizenship, poverty and poverty alleviation, perseverance, community, and helping those less fortunate. I NEVER should have doubted their ability. The thoughts and feelings my students shared were insightful, sincere, and extremely empathetic. The fact that these fourth graders are able to understand the importance of kindness, empathy, and global citizenship, when so many adults lack these insightful characteristics, is, truly, inspiring.

By the way, in case you are interested...this website...has wonderful activities, lessons, games, and information about the book One Hen, and about the country of Ghana. Make sure your speakers are on because beautiful African music plays in the background!

Comprehension Lesson with my Focus Students

First, I would like to say that I love student’s reactions when they hear they are going to work with me! They are so excited and have big smiles on their faces but then when you tell them we are going to work on literacy there facial expressions completely change. I had all Title 1 or resource room students in my group. My teacher told me that they have nearly gone up an entire grade level in reading since she has been back from maternity leave, which is absolutely amazing! After I explained to the students what we were going to be doing their attitudes changed for the better. I asked all the students what their favorite book was and surprisingly the students had to stop and think about this. I know that when I was a student I would have been able to answer that question immediately. Each student had a different book that they enjoyed they ranged from The Three Little Pigs to The Little Red Hen. The students were able to tell the group what happened in the book. They actually enjoyed telling us what had happened and all the other students listened intently even if they had read the book before. After everyone had shared I asked if the students had a hard time remembering what happened in a new book that they read. They all said yes so I told them that is what we would work on today. They were excited!

To start the lesson I gave each student three sticky notes and they drew stars on each one. The students were so excited to receive sticky notes. They use them a lot in the classroom and always have them at their desk but I brought colored ones, which they were not used to. I told the students that as they read Meet me at the Watering Hole they should place each sticky note on a page where they learned something new or a fact they found interesting. Each student said that they loved animals so they were excited to read to book. I asked the students to keep their eyes on their own books because what I learned may not be the same as what you learned. The students got right to work and read very carefully and placed the sticky notes on three different pages. After everyone had finished they noticed that one girl had placed her sticky notes at the top of the page so they came out of the book so they all felt the need to change theirs. It did make it easier for them to find the pages they found interesting but it was still funny. I was a little scared because the first fact that each student found interesting was the same and this defeated the purpose of the lesson. But the next two facts were all different. Each student explained why they found it interesting and what they learned and almost every student referred to the pictures, which I found interesting as well. After each student had shared their three sticky notes I had them summarize what happened in the book. To my surprise they remember the order the animals were introduced and most of the facts they told about each animal. The students did such a great job and worked well together. The one student, Marissa, that was in the group can be extremely controlling in any situation and she did try to do this a few times but I reminded her that there was two other people in the group that needed to share their opinions too and she settled down and let them share.

When we were finished with the activity I asked if the students found this strategy helpful and they all said yes with excitement. Then I asked the students how they would use this strategy if they didn’t have sticky notes and their responses were really interesting. The one boy said that he would keep track on his finger and would randomly stop while reading and go over all the points on his fingers. One girl said that she had lots of bookmarks so she could put them on the pages she learned something or she could fold the page over to remember where it was. I did tell her that if it wasn’t her book that she shouldn’t fold the pages over because that would be hurting the book and she understood. The last girl said that she would remember in her head or she would stop while reading and recall some of the main ideas. I thought all were great ideas but I really enjoyed the finger one! Finally, I told the students to remember this strategy while they were reading and to share it with their friends because everyone likes to learn new ways to remember things.

Lesson Reflection Blog

Wow! I taught my lesson today and alls I have to say is that time flies when you are having fun. My lesson went by so fast I don’t really remember what happened I’m glad I got it on videotape so that I can go back and watch it…although I don’t know how I feel about watching myself! I have subbed for my students before so that made my first time teaching less nerve racking. But I find it amazing how the presence of the teacher completely changes their behavior. This class is crazy when she in not here but during my lesson today they were angels, which is great but just interesting to think about. At first I thought that my mini lesson went to fast but now that I have gone back and read the students work I know that allowing them a lot of work time paid off because they had some great ideas written down! I taught the first lesson of their poetry unit. So the students put their poetry eyes on today and started to think like poets. In my lesson, students learned how poets take ordinary things like pencil sharpeners and make them extraordinary. Before I read the second poem I had students use their poetry eyes to see the ceiling and then discuss their ideas before we read the poem. I was so impressed with their ideas I thought they were even better than the poem we read. After the students had interacted with the two poems I had written on chart paper and had used their poetry eyes they were sent off to their desks to take ordinary objects that I placed their desk and write extraordinary things. And I mean to tell you there imaginations went to a level I didn’t know they could. I was so amazed at what these students came up with. Here are a few ok A LOT of examples of what I am talking about:

“It look’s like a space ship from stre wars.” (I believe he is talking about a shell.)

“The shell is like a house for some sea creachers and it protecr the sea creacher cause it is so hard like a rock and soft and smooth on the inside that has holes on the outside and they float. The float is like a boat for small animals like anntes, spidres.”

“Spaee ship goes through water.” (Sea Shell)

“It look’s like a little diper.” (Measuring cup)

“It look’s like a tree.” (Leaf)

“It look’s like a fishing hook.” (Paperclip)

“It look’s like a sleing shout.” (Plastic spoon)

“A shell looks like a pyrimid. My shell reminds me of a pyrimid it’s going to full a part because they are old.”

“A leaf tells me it has veins. It helps keep them a-live. When a leaf is on a trunk it looks like it’s a fan but it is not a fan it just gives air to us.”

“I think the leaf is a ranibow sometimes because it has diffenet colers and the stem is a pot of gold and the end of the ranibow it allwes has a pot of gold at the end of the ranibow.”

“The shell is a cotin ball and wene it gets in the water it gets hand and it gets smoth.”

“I think it is a castle because it as lots of walls and has buildings and the kigs home is the biggeds house in mingen (Michigan) and is has a bring (bridge) so you can run a why (away) and nevr come back.” (Measuring cup)

The students definitely used their poetry eyes to see the world in a completely new ways. I can’t say that all students did this but a large proportion of them did this. I had one student that was completely stuck on rhyming words, which I never mentioned during the mini lesson. And I could not get through to him that we were just writing down ideas and not writing poetry. Other students just described the objects in an ordinary way and did not take the extraordinary to heart. But today was their first day working with poetry so I was impressed with their beginning thinking. By the end of this unit Mrs. Berry is going to have some amazing pieces!

Gibbons Chapter 4

This Chapter of Gibbons was extremely interesting to me because I have not had a lot of experience with second language learners so far. I liked reading about all of different teaching strategies that can be used. I also liked to see that my teacher uses these strategies with all of her students not just the second language learners. There were three strategies that stuck out to me while I was reading this chapter: modeling, scaffolding, and inventive spelling. After subbing in many classrooms I have found that modeling is so important. If you want students to do as you ask then you better make sure they know what you are looking for. If they don’t know then they just make it up and then you have work that didn’t want. Modeling for second language learners is extremely helpful because it shows him or her the exact steps that they need to take once they start to work independently. It puts all of the expectations out on the table for the students to take and follow. If second language learners do not know what to do they spend more time focusing on their peers and not on the content of the lesson. The intent of any lesson if for students to focus on the big picture and not on the small details as second language learners tend to do if they do not understand what to do. They become lost, confused, and frustrated and that gets them nowhere. So as teachers we need to make sure that are letting our students know exactly what we want them to do. Scaffolding is also extremely important when it comes to teaching literacy. The teacher needs to make sure that he or she has a close eye on the second language learners. These students to be questioned so that the teacher can see what they are thinking. Students may not be able to express themselves on paper but can verbally. By having the students discuss there ideas they are no longer focusing on the spelling and writing portion of the activity they are focusing on the content. This leads right into inventive spelling. If students don’t have to worry about how they spell things they are more focused on getting their ideas down on paper. This is the first step of writing, getting all of your ideas down on paper and then later students can revise and edit. My teacher uses this strategy during our writing workshop time. Students are not allowed to ask questions about spelling until the final stage in writing. This allows the students to focus on their ideas and not about writing their ideas on paper. Second language learners need explicit directions that are modeled to them and they need to be scaffold throughout their learning career.

Balanced Literacy

Toward an educationally relevant theory of literacy learning: Twenty years of inquiry

By: Brian Cambourne

• Brian found that while he was teaching he had ‘normal’ students who would fail to learn in the classroom environment and then because of this be classified as deficient. They weren’t deficient they just didn’t learn from the style of teaching the teacher was using. To figure out how stop this from happening in the classroom Cambourne decided to look at the most complicated process that students learn, how to talk and communicate with the world. He found the steps that children take to learn to talk and then applied them to a literacy classroom. He found that they had to be altered when applied to the classroom but also found that his new technique worked really well for all students. The following bullets describe the difference processes found!
• Created ‘conditions’ that are particular states of being such as doing, behaving, and creating when learning how to talk. These conditions have to co-occur because they both affect and are affected by each other.
• Immersion – Constantly immerged in the topic to be learned.
• Demonstration – Ability to observe an action or artifact.
• Engagement – When learners engage in the demonstration. (Hands on)
• Expectation – Learners are given reachable goals to accomplish.
• Responsibility – Learners decide what they pay attention to and what they internalize. They have are able to choose what they do next.
• Approximations – Learners do not have to do each task right the first time.
• Employment – Learners are given an environment to practice their new skills in.
• Response – The feedback given to the learner about their progress.

 

• When these ‘conditions’ were applied to the classroom they became four compact conditions that could not co exist without the other.
• Transformation – When a learner has taken the information given to them, makes meaning of it, and then demonstrates it to others.
• Discussion/Reflection – The language process that enables students to explore and clarify meaning.
• Application – When a teacher asks learners questions that will make them further their understanding that was created through the transformation and discussion/reflection process. It is here where the learner can show others what he or she has learned.
• Evaluation – Learners are evaluated based on their performance in the transformation, discussion/reflection, and application conditions. The feedback should be given in the form of a question to help the students extend their thinking or rethink their misconception.

 

• An educationally relevant theory of literacy education should have the following characteristic:
• Internal Consistency: It should be able to explain both successful and unsuccessful literacy learning.
• Ecological Validity: It should be applicable to both in-school and out-of-school contexts.
• Theory-into-practice congruence: It should be the basis for the design of instructional structures, processes, and activities.
• Pragmatic coherency: It should not make sense only to teachers and students, it should be ‘doable.’
• Transferability: The principles inherent in the theory should be extendable to contexts other than literacy learning.
• High success rate: It should work in the sense that a significant number of learners acquire literacy as a consequence of applying the theory.
• From the steps that have been written we can see that this strategy can be classified as balanced literacy because if all of the steps aren’t used then the process of learning literacy will fail. All steps have to be used together in order for this teaching strategy to work correctly.

Writing: Past, Present, and Future

“Practice, practice, practice writing. Writing is a craft that requires acquired skills. You learn by doing, by making mistakes and then seeing where you went wrong.” - Jeffrey A. Carver

I thought this Jeffrey Carver quote was a fitting way to begin this post. Some may find this a surprising concept, and some may disagree entirely, but writing is a complex process. It is difficult, time-consuming, and requires an abundant amount of practice. I am 23…almost 24, and no matter how many papers I’ve been assigned, I still dread the moment when I have to sit down, and write a paper; whether its 1 page or 15! If adults feel this way…imagine how intimidating it must feel for children?

When I look back at my writing experiences while growing up, the fact that I’m an English major continues to surprise me! Writing never came naturally to me. I was continuously reprimanded for my prose; “You write how you speak, it’s too informal!” or, “Your spelling and grammar are horrible! You need to re-write this!” and so on. It wasn’t until the end of my freshman semester, that I developed the ability to adapt my writing style to fit the required writing “mode”. What boggles my mind is this: “Why did it take so long? How come I didn’t develop this ability in ELEMENTARY school?”

I think children need to be introduced to the variances in writing at an early age. Had I been privileged enough to learn and understand the different categories that comprise WRITING while in elementary school, I believe I would have been better prepared, in later grades, to meet my teachers’ lofty expectations. Personally, I’m going to make sure my future students are, at the very least, aware of the different writing categories; such as:

• Narrative: Describing an experience, event (or sequence of events) in the form of a story.

• Expository: Providing information (for instance: giving directions.)

• Persuasive: Giving an opinion and trying to influence the reader's way of thinking.

Hopefully, I can create a nurturing environment that supports children during the writing process; through explicit instruction, one-on-one guidance, modeling, scaffolding, and finally…practice, practice, practice!

Learning to Write as a Child

Although I don't remember much about learning to write when I was in elementary school, I do remember several things. One of the main things that I remember from not only elementary school, but also middle and high school was the time that we got for free writes and independent writing. Many of my teachers put a great emphasis on giving at least 15 minutes of the day for us to write about whatever we wanted. This could be a journal for us, something to write our feelings, or something to simply write what we were going to be doing that day. The mechanics and form were not an important part of these activities, rather it was for us to practice writing and express our ideas. These free writes were not graded, but just something to get us involved with the writing processes and practicing on a regular basis. I really enjoyed this activity throughout my K-12 schooling, and hope to implement something like that into my classroom in the future. The students do not feel the pressure to make a grade, rather they are able to talk about their own experiences without even realizing that they are working on improving their writing skills. Another thing I remember from learning to write when I was younger was the fact that we practiced, practiced, practiced! Early on we spent a lot of time learning how to properly write the letters, which then turned into practicing words, sentence structure, paragraphs, essays, etc. Each of these steps was a building block for the next more complex step so it was important to master each one before moving onto something more complicated. These were several of the things that I remembered from my writing experiences when I was younger.

Narrative writing and expository writing are both very important parts of writing that offer students the practice to work with various types of writing styles. Narrative writing focuses more on telling a story or a part of a story, while expository writing is an oral or written piece that is used to explain, describe, inform, or give information about a specific topic. In order to help students learn to write, we need to offer them different types of writing and genre to use and learn from to give them the best variety of writing. I remember when I was learning to write, I preferred expository writing over narrative writing. I always liked writing about specific facts and doing research on different topics to come up with a written project or paper. I never really enjoyed narrative writing because I had a hard time coming up with my own stories and ideas of how to explain a story. I did practice narrative writing throughout my schooling to try and get better at it, but it definitely was an obstacle for me to overcome in my ability to write. On the opposite, I enjoyed narrative reading rather than expository reading. I enjoyed looking at a novel and reading the story rather than reading a book for facts or specifics. It's funny how the preference changes from reading to writing on expository or narrative reading/writing, but as long as we are exposing students to all types of reading and writing genres, its okay to have a preference and lean towards one more than the other!

Gibbons Chapter 4

Learning to write in a second language can be a tough task to face, but an absolutely necessary one to accomplish for students who are ELL. "Effective writers are likely to think about and plan their writing, at least in a general way, before they begin. They understand that writing is a recursive process-that writers continually revise and edit at all stages of the writing process, from first draft to final product" (Gibbons pg. 52). One of the most important steps in teaching children to write in a different language is showing them that good writers make a plan before they begin and are constantly re-reading their work to make it the best as it possibly can. Sometimes it can be hard for ELL students to learn, because in the western society, they put a great emphasis on understanding the processes of language and implementing that into their writing, which may not always be the case for these ELL students. Grammatical structures can also pose a great difficulty for ELL students, but preparing students with the proper guidelines for writing, such as organization, proofreading, and editing will help them be successful.

There are several explicit teaching strategies about writing that Gibbons presents in chapter 4. One of them being process approaches which put the learner at the center of the learning process which encourages them to use their own expressive language to write about their own experiences. At this stage of writing, "meaning is more important than form, and writing should take place frequently and within a context that provides real audiences for writing" (Gibbons, pg. 57). Structure and the actual mechanics of writing are not nearly as important right now in this stage of learning to write for ELL students, as it is to start expressing themselves in writing and getting the practice that is necessary to help them be successful.

Another important point that this chapter brings up is called 'The Curriculum Cycle", which is a way that particular text types can be made explicit to students. There are four stages in the Curriculum Cycle that allow students to get a better understanding and recognition of how exactly that are supposed to go about learning to write. The stages include, Stage 1: Building the Field, Stage 2: Modeling the Text Type, Stage 3: Joint Construction, and Stage 4: Independent Writing. Each of these stages are equally important to go through and introduce to students, even though it can take several weeks to accomplish all of these steps. One important point to note is that "not all activities will be appropriate for all ages, and they also are not all appropriate for use in the teaching of every text type. In addition, from your general teaching experience you can no doubt think of other language focused activities and ways of developing the topic" (Gibbons, pg. 61). Although these stages are beneficial to helping ELL students learn to write, it may not always be the best approach for every type of text that is introduced to the class, so the teacher has to use their best judgment to recognize what will work best for the students.

Scaffolding is extremely important for students to learn writing, because teachers need to scaffold and model beneficial processes in order for the students to learn properly. "The more planned and responsive the scaffolding, the more likely it is that students will write effectively, feel they have control over what they are writing, and gain confidence in using written language" (Gibbons, pg. 76). This quote sums up the chapter and shows how significant it is for teachers to be an integral part of instruction and teaching ELL students to learn to write.

Children and Writing

Chapter Four: "Writing in a Second Language Across the Curriculum, An Integrated Approach" from Pauline Gibbons' text, Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning, provides readers with a look into an English Language Learners (ELLs) struggle with the written word. Writing is difficult for MANY students; it's a process that involves numerous steps and understandings...ranging from brainstorming, free-writing, planning, outlining, drafting, editing, revising, etc. This process requires an understanding of language structure, an author's "purpose", linguistic features, and genre (to name a few), and children who are only beginning to grasp a second language may not have even begun to understand writing in their OWN language, let a lone, a foreign one. Can you imagine?

Personally, writing was a struggle for me when I was in elementary school. I had a difficult time understanding that the way you write changes, depending on your audience, and the genre. Gibbons' chapter emphasizes the importance of understanding different genres and their features when learning to write (specifically, learning to write narratives). I agree with Gibbons. Helping students develop a meaningful understanding of genres and their features is an important part of, both the writing, AND the reading processes.

Another point Gibbons made in Chapter Four, is how intricately woven language is in an individuals' culture. An ELL student not only is unfamiliar with the language, but doubling their struggle, is the fact that this is a whole new culture for them too. There is no reference point for these children. That being said, I believe taking time for explicit instruction on genres, their cultural connections, and writing is very important in elementary school for ELLs.

Scaffolding and modeling are essential tools that we, as teachers, can utilize when attempting to help and instruct ELLs. I think it is very important that we create safe environments that allow children to learn to appreciate writing and learn to value their abilities to be good writers. When our students are able to feel proud of themselves and the work they are creating, then we are doing our job well.

Scaffolding Vocabulary Learning

The article by Lapp starts out by saying, "The proportion of difficult words found in a text and a reader's general vocabulary knowledge predict how well a reader can understand a text. Research also indicates that early differences in vocabulary knowledge affect reading achievement scores in later grades" (pg. 276). Having students focus on vocabulary development is only going to help them later on down the road when they are needing to read more complicated text and derive tougher meanings. Also, it is vital that students have exposure to vocabulary when they are young because the achievement gap is likely to be closer than farther apart. This article discusses the achievement gap in low income areas, because often times children are one or two grades behind reading achievement and word recognition than what they are supposed to be. Effective instruction needs to be administered to students all throughout their literacy learning because having early exposure will help them as they move on in their literacy development.

"Differences in the type of language structures, interaction styles, and vocabulary found in many homes means that the language of schooling is significantly different from the language many students encounter prior to entering school" (pg. 276). While it is important that students have exposure to language no matter where they are; in school or at home, we as teachers have to understand that the type of language being used at home may be very different than they type of language that is being presented in instruction time at school. Conversations between children and adults can be beneficial to their literacy learning and development of vocabulary. This type of conversation can come from simply communicating with children about their day or random small talk, but one of the most effective processes is to read aloud to children. "Findings from several studies indicate that reading aloud to students can contribute to vocabulary growth" (pg. 277). It is important for students to find strategies that can help them increase their exposure to vocabulary as well as their understanding of new words, and how those can be used in real life readings and writings.

Word learning and vocabulary development takes place over time and is not something that happens right away. It is a process and continues to develop even into adulthood. Although children have vocabulary explosions early on, they still learn vocabulary as they continue on in school, just not at such a rapid rate. Along with that, there are various different types of instruction that is to be implemented when teaching different types of words. Some words that are specific to a subject require conceptual learning/instruction because that way they can see how the word pertains to certain real life examples. The overall goal of vocabulary is to derive meaning from words and apply that in a bigger scheme of things that allows us to understand an overall meaning of the text. Developing word consciousness is important in creating an environment where students can understand words and the meanings of texts. Exposing low income students to vocabulary and increasing the amount of language they are familiar with, will close the vocabulary gap that has become ever so prevalent in our schools that are lacking resources and effective teachers who can deliver instruction.

Tompkins chapter 7

Expanding student's knowledge of words and being able to increase their vocabulary is an important part of literacy for both reading and writing. The first main point that I noticed from the reading, was understanding how students learn vocabulary words. "It seems obvious that to learn words at such a prolific rate, students learn words both in and outside of school, and they learn most words incidentally, not through explicit instruction. Reading has the greatest impact on students vocabulary development" (pg. 225). Students learn vocabulary at an alarming rate, but their learning does not only increase from instruction, but also by incidental learning and experiences with real life activities. Engaging in conversation, and having real life experiences where they are surrounded by language allows students to increase their knowledge of words.

Vocabulary and word knowledge are very important for several reasons. First, "students with larger vocabularies are more capable readers, and they know more strategies for figuring out the meanings of unfamiliar words than less capable readers" (pg. 227). The main goal of vocabulary and word recognition is being able to derive meaning and using context clues around unfamiliar words, to come up with an overall meaning of what is going on in the text. There are several procedures that teachers can incorporate into their classrooms to promote vocabulary development. One of the most common ways to display vocabulary in the classroom, is word walls. A word wall allows students to be able to see commonly used words on classroom walls so they can reference these when needed. This is a great way to display various types of words including synonyms, antonyms, homonyms etymologies, and figurative meanings of words. Aside from word walls, word posters, word maps, word sorts, and word chains are all great ways to expose students to new vocabulary, in a creative and interesting way that allows them to familiarize themselves in the classroom.

When working on vocabulary, it is also important to take ELL students into account, because they are not always going to be at the same level as other students who have English as their first language. Recognizing Tier 1, 2, and 3 words is important to using vocabulary that can help with reading and writing development. Tier 1 words are words that are familiar to English learners because they appear to be the same in their native language. Tier 2 and 3 words are more complicated vocabulary that is essential to know for specific topics such as science or math. "Using context clues, analyzing word parts, and checking a dictionary," are all strategies to use when students encounter a word they are unfamiliar with (pg. 244). It is important to teach students these strategies because they can use these to help them when taking tests, completing assignments, or going through an assessment.

Bridging the Gap

Chapter 21: “Scaffolding Vocabulary Learning - Ideas for Equity in Urban Settings”, from the text: Teaching All the Children: Strategies for Developing Literacy in an Urban Setting (written Judith A. Scott, and edited by Diane Lapp) was taken from my course-pack. I am so glad this article/chapter was assigned reading. I just finished reading and responding to the chapter concerning vocabulary form Gail E. Tompkins’ textbook and I have to say, I’m very disappointed in Gail. I’m not sure why she felt it was okay to leave out such pertinent information; that children whom are “economically or culturally outside of the mainstream…are being underserved, underfunded” (p. 471-472) and left out to dry, in terms of vocabulary learning.

It’s such a strange (yet being a teacher… familiar feeling) to go from feeling so excited about teaching one moment, to being completely deflated and saddened the next. There’s such a huge job ahead of us. As I said before, it is SO important to provide our students with as many opportunities as possible to read in school. After reading this article, I am reminded that there are students who may come to my classroom, and the reading they do with me could be the only experiences they have with books, with reading, and with writing ever. It breaks my heart. And I’m ashamed that this isn’t a constant thought in my head. I just can’t imagine a life like that. I can be as empathetic as possible for my students, but no matter how aware and educated I am, I will never have some of the experiences that they are having.

But, hopefully, because I am aware, and because I CARE, I believe that I can serve a thoroughly beneficial role in their lives. They (i.e., minority students, students from economically disadvantaged areas, students whose families are on welfare, etc.) need REPETITION, in regards to vocabulary usage; they need to be held to expectations that require them to push themselves. They have a huge gap to cross. According to the reading…“By grade seven, they were more than 2 years behind the norms [in regards to economically disadvantaged students defining literary words]” (p. 459). Since these children are not receiving the help, support, and advocacy from home, they need their teachers to do that.

These children need to understand the important of words and they need to realize that they are capable of developing a vocabulary that enables them to succeed academically. Words are tools for success and every single child should have access to those tools.

Word Posters, Word Maps, Word Sorts, Word Chains....word, words, words....

I just finished reading Chapter 7: “Expanding Student’s Knowledge of Words”, from Gail E. Tompkins’ book Literacy for the 21^st Century: A Balanced Approach, fifth edition. I really enjoyed reading this chapter. I know you’ll all think I’m a huge dork for saying this (I already know I am), but I LOVE vocabulary. I have a vivid memory of my fifth grade class and how excited my teacher was about getting us to use new words, making vocabulary into games as opposed to tests, and giving us a word a day to use in our writing. I think that year impacted me in a very positive manner. I am an English major; therefore, I think I’ve been writing about a paper a week for the past 5 years…crazy. But, it has really deepened my appreciation for words, and I am permanently connected to my thesaurus! Lol, I even had my boyfriend buy me a new one for Valentine’s Day! Lame, I know…But, I really do believe that my ability to use and understand vocabulary has positively impacted my reading abilities, and my passion for reading and writing. I really want my future students to feel this excitement as well!

When I finished reading this chapter, I came away with a few main ideas. I feel that instilling a sense of excitement and fun into a vocabulary lesson is an essential element of a successful language arts curriculum. If students are able to see the joy in learning new vocabulary and using new and exciting words, then they may be motivated to push the extra mile, and perform the work that is necessary in developing a larger vocabulary.

I also came away from this reading with a heightened enthusiasm for…wait for it…READING! Yes, I am incredibly enthusiastic and READY to incorporate NUMEROUS opportunities for students to read throughout the entire school day. Whether it’s through the use of read-alouds, or independent reading, my future students will be AVID readers. One particular reading opportunity I really like is: Sustained Silent Reading (SSR). In this format, students are able to choose a book they are interested in and excited about reading. They aren’t being forced to read a textbook, or something boring. This is highly motivating! I remember my time spent silent reading in elementary school; I loved it. I will definitely make sure to have comfortable cushions, chairs, couches, and what not in a cozy literacy corner in my future classroom!

Reading is incredibly important in order for students to learn new words and enhance their reading abilities. Tompkins stated, explicitly, “the amount of time students spend reading independently is the best predictor of vocabulary growth between second and fifth grades” (p. 226). That being said, if we’re going to have our students go off on their own to read independently, then it is our jobs as teachers to provide the class with tools necessary to help them understand and learn the words they are reading.

There are a lot of strategies throughout this entire chapter that detail ways teachers can model and scaffold strategies for students to utilize when they come across an unfamiliar word. A few of these are as follows:

• Context clues
• Analyze word parts
• Check a dictionary
• Look at the illustrations
• Use logic
• Look at the root words/affixes

These strategies are ALL helpful and the more students have under their belt the better prepared they will be when presented with unfamiliar vocabulary.

Finally, I just want to say that it is important, as teachers, to push our students. We have to give them those tier 2 and tier 3 words. They can handle it.

Fluency!

After reading the article “Reading Fluency Assessment and Instruction: What, Why, and How,” I learned a great deal about the importance of developing fluent readers and writers in the classroom. Many times I think it is quite easy to overlook the significance that fluency actually holds. So much of our attention in literacy is focused on letter/word recognition, comprehension, and vocabulary, that it is extremely easy to pass by fluency. Fluency creates skilled readers who can read accurately, rapidly, and with proper expression and intonation, which is vital to being a successful overall reader. As discussed in Tompkins article as well, Hudson, Lane, and Pullen discuss the importance of “the three elements of fluency-accuracy, rater, and prosody”. Without all three of these components, one cannot be a fluent reader, because each of these elements create and overall fluent reader. There are both high frequency words and low frequency words that students learn to read, and being able to automatically recognize words is a key component to developing one’s fluency. Obviously with time students will have an easier time with automaticity, but some words need to be memorized as sight words from the beginning stages of learning to read and write.

I had the experience to administer fluency tests in my junior year at MSU, as I worked in a resource room with third and fourth grade students who were struggling with their fluency and other aspects of reading and writing. I would give fluency assessments almost daily to see how well the students with automatically recognizing words when they saw them on paper. It was incredible to me how much progress the students made with their fluency as the semester went on, but obviously that did come with much practice and repetition. Without practice and seeing words on a consistent basis, it is hard to become a fluent reader or writer, so it is important that children who are struggling focus on reading and writing for a significant amount of time each day.

Another thing that I find particularly interesting about fluency is that it is not just with reading, but also writing. Personally, when I think of being fluent, I solely think about reading while disregarding writing all together. If you think about it carefully though, writing is just as big of a component of fluency that reading is, because it is not feasible to sit and think about every single word that you write or type out on paper or computer. Eventually, students start to develop the same automaticity with writing that they do with reading, because without even thinking about what is going down on paper, it is being written. This is one of the interesting aspects of fluency that seems to be overlooked quite a bit when talking about literacy.

Fluency

After reading Chapter 6 of Thompkins, Literacy in the 21^st Century I was overwhelmed! There was so much information packed into this one chapter and I had to go back and skim it to remember all the strategies that were introduced. Usually I would have not found this Chapter interesting because I like to be upper elementary classrooms  and was in one last semester but I just moved to a second grade classroom so I am seeing a large focus on fluency in the classroom. So this article was extremely interesting. I love how we keep on coming back to word walls. They can be used in so many different ways and used with many learning strategies. First, we saw them last semester in science with Dr. Norm where students place their wondering questions on them and now we are seeing them for fluency in literacy. I really like the idea of having an entire bulletin board dedicated to a word wall. I find that students are always asking how to spell words so having a word wall in my classroom would be extremely helpful. At the moment, students have word booklets. Each letter has its own page and there are high frequency words on the side and then blanks for the teacher and helpers to write other words that the students ask. But I find that students forget about these books and if there were a word wall it would be right in front of them and they would never forget. I feel with adding three new words in a week through books students start to become familiar with the word in context not just by itself. They are able to see the word in a children’s book and associate it to what is on the word wall. I think that word walls could be used in so many different ways. I know that when I was in 5^th grade we had the word of the day and I think that a word wall would be perfect for this!

I have seen my teacher assess fluency in reading and writing in many different ways. For example, today she had individual students come to her desk and read her a book. She would right down the words that he or she got right/wrong while they were reading. If they got all the words right the next time she assessed them they would move to the next book and so on and so forth. Students also get tested in writing fluency. Each week all students have a spelling list that they all take on Friday but they also have individual spelling lists. They work with a special teacher twice a week with these words. The teacher writes five words on an index card and places it on their ring. They study these when they finish assignments early. Then when they go out with the teacher she gives them a mini-spelling test with those words. The students do not get a new list of five words until they have mastered the previous five words. These words are all high frequency words.

My teacher also showed me how she keeps records of her students. She has a binder for each subject and then number dividers since each student has a “magic number.” For each student she has an assessment from the beginning of the year that she is continually comparing to the assessments that she is doing now. In the end, she has an assessment from the beginning, middle, and end of the year. She keeps track of where they are in their assignments and what they are struggling with. All of the assessments that she has done with each student are placed in here so it is easy for her to find. It seems like a lot of work but it also seems really helpful. She knows exactly at what level her students are at because of it. Her school is required to have records for each student and then keep them for five years so that they can back up their analyses of students.

Strategies in the Classroom

I forgot to mention some things in my last two posts that I really wanted to share with you two. As you may know, I’m currently in a fourth grade class. I’ve been working one on one for the past few weeks with a student who is struggling with reading fluency. My Cooperating Teacher (CT) took me aside and asked if I could review an article he received from a conference on reading strategies. The article gave a very thorough look into ways in which you can help a student gain a higher level of fluency. After I took the time to review and makes notes on this article, my CT and I reviewed it together. He asked if I would use the strategies found in this article to work with my focus student on her fluency.

Basically, what I began doing was picking out books that had a rhythm to them; such as Doctor Seuss books, or books with rhymes, etc. I chose these books because when read with prosody, the reader can easily feel the rhythm; however, when read in a monotone voice, the beat/rhythm, is extremely difficult to make out. So, Alexa* and I would go to the media room and we would read and re-read these books together. I would start by reading the first two sentences with exaggerated expression and I would then have Alexa* re-read exactly what I just read; and so on. If she didn’t utilize the same expression that I did, I’d tell her to try again. Obviously, before we began these activities, I made sure to remind her that we’re doing this so she can develop her fluency and that I wanted her to be able to comprehend what she was reading. At first, Alexa* was REALLY annoyed with all of the repetition; but, as we worked together over the weeks, I think she really got into. She started utilizing a lot of expression in her voice without me even having to remind her.

Another strategy that we utilized was this…Alexa would read a story (at her level) on her own, then she would read it to me, THEN she would go to the back of the room and tape record herself reading it. Once she was through with that process, together, we would listen to the tape and pause and re-start to point out parts where she made mistakes or where she lacked expression.

I just wanted to point out some strategies that I’ve been using that have been REALLY helpful. It’s actually been a lot of fun helping Alexa* and seeing how quickly her fluency is improving.

Once again...Fluency

I read Chapter 6: “Developing Fluent Readers and Writers” from Literacy for the 21^st Century: A Balanced Approach, fifth edition, written by Gail E. Tompkins, AFTER I read the article on fluency that I just posted about. And I have to say, while I obviously found this chapter to be extremely informational, as well as a great resource to look back on due to the vast amount of resources listed in tables throughout the text, I did find it a little repetitive to read both the article AND the chapter during the same week. I would’ve rather have split this two texts up throughout the course of our semester. That being said, I did find this chapter to be very informational. I did appreciate the fact that Tompkins included the concept of writing fluency alongside the concept of reading fluency. Often, I feel that writing fluency is overlooked in the grand scheme of things.

I love reading a text in which an author goes out of his or her way to incorporate strategies, resources, assessment activities, etc. in the reading. It makes for an extremely informational and essential resource that I will obviously utilize in my future. There are numerous tables presented that list high-fluency words, word to incorporate on a primary grade’s “word wall”, mini-lessons, assessment tools, strategies, etc. and I will definitely go back to these when I’m teaching my future students fluency.

I found one specific section of this chapter to be the most beneficial and that was the section that specified the four different strategies that students use to identify unfamiliar words. I found this section to be the most beneficial due to the fact that students of ALL ages must use these strategies. Tompkins stated that “Beginning readers encounter many unfamiliar words, and even fluent readers come upon words that they don’t immediately recognize” (p. 197). That being said, it is obviously important for teachers to help their students develop the strategies necessary for decoding these unfamiliar words. The four strategies include:

• Phonic Analysis
• Decoding by Analogy
• Syllabic Analysis
• Morphemic Analysis

The chart at the bottom of page 197 was very useful in explaining what these strategies are and providing examples.

All in all, the Chapter 6: “Developing Fluent Readers and Writers” had a few main, important facts that I came away with. Those important facts are as follows…

• It is important for teachers to instruct students and enable them to recognize high-frequency words and help children develop a “bank” of sight-words to draw from.
• Teachers need to explicitly teach students a variety of strategies to utilize when attempting to identity unfamiliar words.
  
• Teachers need to use a variety of different procedures that are integrated throughout the day and used repetitively, in order to help develop students’ reading fluency...same goes for writing fluency...and...
• Third grade is an important cut off time for students to have developed reading/writing fluency, and if they haven’t then regular assessments need to occur as they progress through school.

Developing Fluent Readers

I just finished reading the article “Reading Fluency Assessment and Instruction: What, Why, and How?” written by Rosanne F. Hudson, Holly B. Lane, and Paige C. Pullen. I found this article to be VERY informational. Being elementary school teachers, our responsibility lies, not only with teaching students how to read, but also with teaching students how to become skilled readers, and skilled readers are fluent readers. During my junior year, when I was in TE 301, I spent a good deal of time connecting the dots between reading comprehension and reading fluency; however, I had never focused my attention solely on the different aspects of reading fluency and how theses aspects are directly correlated to a student’s level of comprehension. According to the reading, “fluent reading [is] comprise[d] of three key elements” (p. 1). At its foundation, these three elements are – accuracy, rate, and prosody. It’s important to realize that, as teachers, we need to assess our students' abilities to read fluently, in order to accurately and fairly instruct our class in an attempt to foster a deeper level of reading comprehension.

Automaticity is an important aspect of fluency to keep in mind. This refers to how quickly a student is capable of identifying words. Due to the limited capacity of a student’s working memory…when they are capable of identifying words at a faster rate, their cognitive abilities are free to focus on the context of what they are reading as opposed to focusing on word identification.

Another important aspect of reading fluency relates to a student’s ability to accurately decode words. Decoding refers to the process a student goes through when they are reading…it is composed of: seeing a word, recognizing the letter-sound relationship, and blending the phonemes together to create a word. This is a process that, in a fluent reader, should take a split second; however, for a struggling reader, the process of decoding can be extremely difficult. It is the teacher’s job to explicitly identify word-identification/decoding strategies for the class.

One aspect of this article that I found surprising relates to the section covering the importance of prosody. I have never really considered how important a student’s ability to read with expression is in correlation to their reading comprehension. BUT, it makes sense. I mean, if a student reads a question in their text like a statement, then they obviously do not comprehend what they are reading. If they did, then that statement they just read would be phrased like a question.

Not only did this article give in depth details and information regarding exactly WHAT fluency is, but, what I found most interesting, was the amount of information given in relation to HOW to teach fluency and HOW to ASSESS fluency. There are numerous tables and resources given that an instructor can reference and utilize in the future, which I most certainly will; specifically on the fifth and eighth pages of this article, two tables are given with listed assessment strategies and instructional resources. One thing I want to point out is how important it is to be EXPLICIT in your instruction of fluency with struggling readers…for some, fluency comes naturally, but for a majority of students, it does not. We are severely impeding their learning progress by not giving these students ample instruction, opportunities for practice and repetition, and adequate assessments that detail their progress.

I really enjoyed reading this article and it is definitely something that I see myself looking back on in the future.

Fluent Readers and Writers

"Fluency is the ability to read quickly, accurately, and with expression, and to read fluently, they recognize most words automatically and identify unfamiliar words easily" (Tompkins, 188). There is a huge difference between children who are learning to read word for word, and a fluent reader. Being fluent means that students are using expression when reading, and able to read accurately all while being able to derive meaning from what they are reading. Many times we think of being fluent as only applying to reading, but being fluent also transfers to writing as well. By reading and participating in spelling tests and vocabulary practice, students are not only furthering their ability to read, but also practicing skills that are necessary for writing.

There are several important strategies that help students to learn to read and write fluently. One of those is word recognition, because "students develop a large stock of words that they recognize automatically because its impossible for them to analyze every word they encounter when reading or want to spell when writing" (Tompkins, 189). Being able to use high frequency words is important to fluency, because students will then be able to read quickly and accurately if they have the knowledge of high frequency words. Word walls, word recognition, and word identification are all great ways to help students become more fluent.

It is very important that teachers promote literacy in various ways in the classroom. "Teachers [need] to model fluent reading for students, provide oral support while students are reading, have students do repeated readings of brief texts, and focus students attention on chunking words into meaningful phrases" (Tompkins, 209). These are all great approaches that students can take to helping students become more fluent readers. Fluency is so important for our students to work on, and these are some of the main points I found from the chapter on fluency by Tompkins.

Comprehension

I found the two reading that we had to do for this week really interesting, Gibbons Chapter 5 and Thompkins Chapter 4. I really liked the idea of having the students and the teacher work together to come up with a rubric for a major assignment. This lets all students have a say in the projects they are doing in class and motivates them to do the projects. The idea of talking with each student about their grades on major assignments is also an extremely interesting idea. Although this would be time consuming it would allow the students to have a better understanding of the grade that they received. I know that when I was in school I always had questions on the grading of my assignments and this would allow for all of the students questions to be answered. During this meeting, it was also suggested that the teacher and student talk about goals for the next assignment. This is also a great idea because the student can take what they did not do well on in the assignment before and then make this their goal for the next assignment.

Forgiveness poems are another way for students to connection with people in their life, work with poems, and work on comprehension. Some students have a hard time with expressing themselves with words so if the students are able to write how they feel it will make their writing better because they are writing about something that they care about.

The comprehension strategies that were given in the Gibbons chapter were ones that we have used in class but also some new ones. One of the strategies is using a book that is non-fiction and below there level of reading. If it is below their level of reading they will focus on the content and not on the words. I also read this strategy in Strategies that Work and I am using this in my mini lesson with my second graders!

Many of the strategies that are given in Chapter 5 are used in my second grade class. We have reading workshop and the teach starts this by reading a book to the children and model how they should read certain types of books. Then students read in pairs with students that are at the same level. This allows the students to feel comfortable reading with each other. When the students are done reading they are asked to summarize what they have read to the other person. After lunch the teacher has a read aloud book for two purposes one for the students to understand how to read and two a time for the students to settle down.

Some of the ideas that I have never heard of are story innovation, innovating on the ending, cartoon strip, readers’ theatre, wanted posters, story map, hot seat, freeze frames, and cloze. These are all creative ideas that I would love to use in my classroom someday. The hot seat was my favorite activity because it makes the students think about what they have read and then also use their imagination. I think that this would take a lot of modeling before the students would feel comfortable doing this on their own. The wanted posters and cartoon strips would interest the students that like to draw. Some students like to express themselves through drawings so this would be a really good activity for them. The wanted posters would also take some thought to make because the students would have to understand the character inside and out to make sure that people know who they are looking for. 

Reading in a Second Language

First of all, I need to comment on the very first page of Chapter 5: Reading in a Second Language…Pauline Gibbons begins this chapter in an extremely thought provoking, and interesting way; the second, third, and fourth paragraphs consisted of scrambled words, words with vowels or consonants missing, the endings missing, etc. yet, I could still read it! I’ve talked about this a lot in previous years…I’ve taken some TESOL classes and therefore have had a lot of opportunities to discuss ELLs and I have also been introduced to this idea before. Actually, I’m currently in an American Sign Language (ASL) class and when trying to grasp “finger spelling” I’ve had to remember that I only need to know the first and last couple of letters to grasp the word. It really is amazing…I just had to point that out.

But, moving on…another point that this chapter makes, that is SO important, is the fact that readers construct meaning NOT solely from the words and sentence structure, but from the interaction that occurs between the reader and the text. It is extremely important to remember, as teachers, that not all of our students will be able to develop that meaningful interaction; especially not ESL students. I mean, how could they? They are completely unaware of the cultural, social, political, emotional, etc. implications that reside within the text of a story. Can you imagine reading a book that discusses a holiday or celebration that you are completely unaware of? How could you possibly understand, or comprehend, what the story is about?

There are so many different roles/characters that a reader must try on, or become, when he/she reads text. You become a “code breaker, a text participant, user, and analyst”. As teachers, we can’t assume that every single one of our students is capable of putting on this mask when they pick up a story. We have to be patient, and empathetic to the journey every one of our students is taking in the process of becoming literate individuals.

As Brooke said in her post, I found the activities that were provided on pages 84-97 VERY helpful. But, not only is it important to plan and implement great activities, but (I’d almost say this is MORE important) is picking the right books. Picking the right book will help students acquire language AND reading skills.

All in all, it is vital that we, as teachers, “build bridges into the text” (Gibbons, p. 100), and allow our ESL students the opportunity to connect with the text in a meaningful way, and develop a love for reading.

Facilitating Comprehension

After reading Chapter Nine, “Facilitating Students’ Comprehension: Text Factors”, of Gail E. Tompkins book - Literacy for the 21^st Century: A Balanced Approach, 5^th Edition, I’m realizing that one of the MOST important factors of facilitating comprehension with students is simply getting them to engage with the text on a personal level. What I mean is that students need to understand what they are reading…they need to understand what kind of book they are reading (Genre), is it fiction or non-fiction/informational, what kind of audience is the book geared towards, and they need to understand the patterns that present themselves in these texts. When a student has an understanding of these basic text factors, then they are able to develop a deeper connection with what they are reading. Rather than focus on information t hat isn’t important (such as trying to sound out words, stumbling over syntax, etc.) students can focus their attention to the plot, characters, and the conflict/resolution. By taking out the guess-work in their reading activities, we (the teachers) can enhance the level of understanding our students achieve. On page 311 of our textbook, Tompkins states an important finding…“Researchers have documented that when teachers teach students about text factors, their comprehension increases” (Tompkins, p. 311).

Another important point I’d like to make is this…as I said before, by providing our students the opportunity to develop a connection with what they are reading and what they are DOING (as in the subsequent activity) we can instill a sense of meaningful learning within our students. In the first section of this chapter, I read about Mr. Abrams and his fourth grade classroom. One aspect of his story that stuck out to me was when he discussed how he AND his students developed a rubric (TOGETHER) to assess the books they made. I thought that was a really beneficial activity. It creates an environment of collaboration that can really motivate students…and when students are motivated to work hard, they will engage and comprehend on a deeper level.

I’m currently in a fourth grade classroom and I am constantly seeing my Cooperating Teacher (CT) discuss comprehension strategies with this class. It may not be explicit; for instance, he does not say: “When you are trying to comprehend what you are reading, you should notice the text factors”. Rather, he asks questions during shared reading to get students thinking… “What is the author trying to do? How did that make you feel? What do you think is about to happen? What genre is this? Why?”

Not only does my CT guide student thinking to enhance comprehension, but he also does a really good job of incorporating reading/writing and think-alouds into nearly every subject he teaches throughout the day. While I do give him props for that, I do think that he could incorporate a more collaborative feel to his classroom. If students felt that they had more of a hand in their day to day lessons then I think they would work harder and therefore, engage with the material.

I think this was a GREAT chapter to read. The information given is something that I think I will continue to look back on.