The American Education system is seen as something that is lacking compared to the rest of the world.  Although we have improved the system since its start.  We still have a ways to go.  I think that one of our main problems is we have teachers who are not invested in the system anymore because of its recent failures.  The educational system that we have now although it seems to be working is something that has left many children behind.  

The main problem is that the goals that we set for children are limited.  We have children at all different levels and to set goals for each of them can makes a classroom hard to manage.  You have to cater to the needs of all of the students and do this by making sure they all reach personal goals which are sometime to low to begin with.  As Allington said in his article we have to, "reject the notion that only a few children can learn to read and write well." All children if given the opportunity should be able to read and write well.  By setting these low standards for some and higher ones for others we are limited children to only meet goals that are barely achieving.  If we had the same goals for all children then all of them could reach it at different times and ways and increase their knowledge while doing so.  

I think the main way to do that is by hiring teachers who see a vision of all children succeeding.  So many teachers cater to those that are smarter and leave those out who are struggling, or they do the opposite.  It is so hard to watch a child struggle and not get the help they deserve.  I think another problem is so many teachers are hired based on experience rather than ability and those in charge think that is a good thing.  If their experience shows that they are worthy then fine but if not bring a fresh pair of eyes into the classroom and they will probably succeed.  It is important to have good teachers in the classroom to harness the learning of children at such an influential age.  I saw this at an Elementary school I worked in a teacher that had a lot of experience was able to stay at a school even though the students that were leaving her classroom were barely on level for things that they needed to know.  As a result a teacher with less experience was let go even though the students leaving her classroom were doing much better than the more experienced teacher.  

I think that once we have teachers that are worthy of teaching in classrooms are standards of education will go up.  Once these go up we can have a better quality education system that encourages and allows students to grow.  

Assessment

Readability and Leveling

Readabiliy according to Fry's article is, "the ease of comprehension because of style of writing." Where as leveling is, "selecting books to match the competencies of a reader or writer."  Both are used in classroom and have different interpretations based on what you are using them for in the classroom.  Books that are used in a classroom are ranked based on difficulty and the higher the number the more difficult it is.  Typically the number that it is given it directed to the grade level in which it fits into.  But nowadays this ranked grade level reading is something that can't be used because of the diversity that is in a classroom.  There are many things that goes into scoring the readings but there are two main ones.  One is Syntactic difficulty which is determined by the sentence length and semantic difficulty which is length and frequency of the words that are in the book.  Both of these can be done by hand or by computer.  Most of the time you can google a book and the Readability score will be there.  Leveling has other components that can only be done by hand.   Those categories are; Content, Illustrations, Length, Curriculum, Language Structure, Judgement and Format.  All of these things are looked at by a book by book basis and are taken in to thought when scoring the book.  

Readability and Leveling do not necessarily cover the same things.  Leveling is typically not used outside of an Elementary School Classroom.  Where Readability since done by strict formula can be used in other things besides a school setting.  It is important to make sure that the child is reading something that is in the level because if it is not they will become frustrated and it will be difficult for them to read.  An assessment of their level before, during and after the year is something that is very important.  This way you can see how the child is learning and where they have come from.  Once you have assessed them they will be able to pick stories and readings out of the classroom library that will suit their level and their interest needs.  

A way that a child can make sure they are reading on their level is by organizing your classroom  library by level.  This can ensure that they are able to know exactly which books they are going to b able to read and will no become frustrated with books that they are not going to be able to read.  

Questions:

1. How important do you think it is to have your library set up in a level based system? Do you think it would be harmful or hurtful to their learning?
2. Do you remember reading leveling when you were in elementary school or was it something that was just understood?
  
 

Guided Reading Group Presentation

What is guided reading?

• Interactions between students and teachers and students and other students
• Widens reading ability 
• Involves observations and interactions
• Traditionally seen in groups or circle

What is the main purpose?

• To increase vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension
• Allows for interactions between peers and teachers 
• Allow for differences in reading skills         
  

How can guided reading be helpful for students?

• Talk out loud about a book
• Create new thoughts about literacy

What does it look like? 

• Diagrams
• Teacher participation 

QUESTION: What is a concrete definition for Guided Reading? What are some ways to check for student participation without calling them out?

By:  Tracy, Erica, Casey, and Beth

Guided Reading

My article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/747803?seq=3

This article starts with talking about practice and how it is the best way to increase reading fluency.  By giving the opportunity to students to practice their reading they are going to learn and continue to grow in their reading.  It those goes into guided reading practices.  It says that this practice is one of the most common ways that reading is taught in the classroom.  It involves having students take turns reading passages or sentences aloud and having the teacher their to guide the reading and help if needed.  The oral aspect of this reading is very helpful not only to the child reading but the children that are also observing them read.  Although this is helpful for average and higher level readers it is often hard for low level readers.  Since they are going to read in a slow or inaccurate matter there isn't much time in this type of lesson to help them with their reading.   Because of their slow nature they are more likely to read less words which in the long run allows them to have less practice.

A way that teachers can supplement that is by giving weekly assigned readings.  That way a student has to perfect that specific reading in order to move onto the next reading.  This is better than the alternative of having the child read a different passage every day and not being able to master them.  This also helps them master specific decoding skills that they need to read texts more fluently and to be able to comprehend the texts that they read.  There are some studies that show  that although this is a method that can be done it doesn't always work on every reader or with every story.  Although it is beneficial to read things repeatedly it may not help the reader unless there are similar words in the next reading.  That being said though if the books have sight words in them then it would be helpful because rereading those and getting to know them will be beneficial to them.

I think that students can learn a lot from listening to one another and by having the teacher there to help guide them through the reading.  I think that having a reading table can really help your classroom with guided reading because you can take those that are reading the same book and bring them to you to be able to do read aloud. By having a smaller group it allows those who aren't reading as well to not be embarrassed by a large number of people.  This can also help figure out who those lower readers are because sometimes they get lost in a large group and this can help you give them the more specialized attention that they need.  

This is a worksheet that I have used in the classroom to help with Guided Reading.  

This is a book that I have and it gives great advice and such about how to incorporate guided reading in the classroom.

Questions:

1) Did your teachers ever incorporate Guided Reading in the classroom? If so how did they do it?

2) Do you think that Repeated Reading is helpful or detrimental to students that are struggling with reading?

Vocabulary

Even though the world is becoming more visual based and less communication face to face based it is still super important to be able to communicate and understand what people are saying. There is a growing need to improve students vocabulary.  More and more students are struggling with vocabulary and the level that they need to be at is something that many of them find unachievable. Even if they are able to understand certain words or vocabulary there are different levels of knowing it.  Also every student is different so some may know more than others.  One of the hardest aspects of teaching is trying to teach many students that are all on different levels.

Vocabulary is something that we all know is very important and also somewhat antiquated.  For something that is so important you would think that we would have evolved a more modern to teach it to children.  In the Dalton article they talk about using eVoc which is technology based system that allows teachers to develop vocabulary for students.  It is important to include technology in the classroom because it is something that is in most every aspect of life nowadays.  The article offers many different ways to incorporate technology into vocabulary lessons.  With these several of these lessons, computers for every student is not required, which we know is something that rarely happens in a classroom.  These strategies also include several aspects such as including ways to connect to all types of learners.  One of the activities is a word cloud.  It includes words that go along with the vocabulary word and you are able to determine how the words go with the main word. It is important to not just do the same old vocabulary lessons.  By including different activities the students will be able to remember the words better and enjoy learning vocabulary.

Example of a Word Cloud:

As teachers the students are going to model what we do.  It is important to know that and remember that.  If we use their vocabulary words then it will help them remember them and use them.  One example the Lane article gave was during morning meeting.  My using vocab words to describe the weather they will also use them.  By using words like "rather brisk" or partly cloudy rather than words like clouds or cold they can expand their vocabulary by repetition and seeing you use them to describe the weather.  

Questions:

Do you think that incorporating technology in vocabulary lessons is important for this generation of students?

How do yo think that technology can be sued in the classroom?

Vocabulary

This is something that is very important to the development of a child and it also helps their comprehension.  Not only does it help their development but they will need vocabulary to be successful in life and to be a vital part in society. By learning vocabulary they will become better learners.  They can learn these vocabulary words in school and in their daily lives.  The more they interact the more they will know and be able to understand.

I think that the most important thing to do to build a child's vocabulary is by allowing them to be exposed to a wide variety of vocabulary.  The more they are exposed to the better.  School will become easier and so will reading if they know a lot and are constantly reminded of it.  Repetition is the key to success and learning. I think that the traditional ways that we teach vocabulary is also important because it is repetitive and allows them to hear it over and over so they know what it is.  This diagram below is something that I used in a classroom and this allowed them to be able to know what the word means, how to use it and how to visualize it.  By the end of the exercise they really know what it is and how it is beneficial to to know these words.

By knowing vocabulary it can also help their confidence in speaking.  The more they are able to recognize and know they more they are going to be involved in learning and conversations.  Boosting their confidence is super important because it will allow them to be able to be active learners and want to learn more about it.  

Questions

1. What are some other ways that you have seen vocabulary taught in the classroom?

2. Why do you think about the importance of vocabulary?

Comprehension....

Comprehension

    So far with everything we have talked about in class if a child can understand all of those things then we can piece them together and comprehension can begin to start.  Not only do those things affect a child's ability to be able to comprehend something but their world around them can affect it as well.   It is important to know where a child comes from and their environment at home because that can really affect how much the comprehend and how quick they do.

Another thing that really affects a child's comprehension ability is what the teacher does in order to help a child comprehend.  Like the article states some important steps to building comprehension are: teaching decoding skills, building fluency, teaching vocabulary, actively pursuing prior knowledge, engaging the students to have personal responses with the text and most importantly motivating the students.  

I think one of the most important aspects of comprehension is engaging them with personal responses.  By allowing them to connect to the text they are able to comprehend it and interpret it into their lives.  The more you invite them to compare readings to themselves the more they are going to want to read because it make sit more related to them.   By relating it to them they will also see themselves as readers and become more confident in their ability.   

Questions:

1. How would you engage them in making those personal connections?

2.  Do you think that it is important to have them make those personal connections and responses.

Word Study

       I completely agree with the article that knowledge of words is very much related to comprehension.  If you didn't know the words that you were reading then it would be nearly impossible to comprehend what was on the page.  It is also vital to your overall abilities in school and life.  I also agree that it should not be restricted to one time.  You should be learning it throughout the day and it should be incorporated with every subject that is taught. By allowing them to hear these words they can find out so much more about a word.  They can tell the connotation behind it and how it is used in everyday life.  That is sometimes more influential than just reading it in a book because you may not get those cues. Like the article states a child doesn't need to know every word perfectly but having a basic knowledge of some words and knowing others that are more important very well can really help a child early on in the educational system.  Another thing that can help a study is knowing prefixes and suffixes so they can breakdown and decode a word rather than trying to look at it all at once.

Some ways to help a child remember words can be by acting it out or asking them where they might see this word.  The child will be able to remember it more easily because the action will stick out in their mind.  We did this in a classroom that I was in and the children were really involved and loved being able to be active in class while learning.  

Questions

1. What are some other ways that you have seen Word Study Practiced in the Classroom

2. Do you think the generic word study notebooks are enough to help a student learn or do you think that they are just busy work?

10/6/14 Instructional Activities- Shared Reading 
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/shared_reading

Definition:

• Teachers reading: Nursery Rhymes, Giving voices to characters, Thinking aloud while reading, crafts to follow-up reading, Predictable texts and talking about the text after the reading 
• Shared reading is an instructional approach in which the teacher explicitly models the strategies and skills of proficient readers 

Demonstration of Shared Reading:

Fluency: Accuracy and Speed

The first article was about one minute fluency test.  I know that from experience this can be daunting tests.  You are given a passage that you have never seen before and are expected to read it aloud to your teacher and while you do she sits and write on her clipboard.

That was probably the most stressful part about it because you have no clue what she is writing so it only makes you more nervous than you were before.  She is also timing you to see how quickly you read the passage which is also something that can make you nervous.  So you just read the story as fast as you can and don't really comprehend anything that you are reading.  At the end sometimes the teacher asks you questions on the basic theme or summary of the text and students sometimes as a hard time remembering what they were because they were reading so quickly.  I think that instead of timing students you just should allow them to read and see what they know.  I also think that a teacher shouldn't scribble while you are reading and should remember what the student messed up.  By having the teacher engage with you while you are reading the passage may make it less nerve wrecking and anxious.  I think another thing to help students is by making a chart so they are able to see how much they are improving because that could help with the confidence of the reader too.

The second article talked about ways to judge fluency and how to create a more fluent reader.  They also stated just because you are a fast reader does not mean that you are a fluent reader.  It is so much more than how fast you can read.  It is about how you read, the smoothness of your reading and the pace at which you read.  If you can be fluent in your reading you are more likely to comprehend what you are reading rather than just worrying about the words on the page.  If you know the words and signals you are able to think about their meanings.  This is something that is a building block for later learning and it is not learned over night.  

Questions:

1) What are other ways besides one minute fluency tests that can test a child's fluency?

2) Do you think that fluency and comprehension go hand in hand?

Coaching

      If you think about how children learn it is very important to help them along the way and to give them cues about what comes next.  Like we learned last week prompting early reading students is part of the process.  Coaching is just that.  It is instructional cues that allow students to apply their knowledge and skills that they already have in order to complete the task at hand.  Students that are just learning to read and are trying to become more comfortable with it really like having the cues there to help them become more confident.  I think that with these interactions with teachers or "coaches" that it really can change a child's learning process and help them become more fluent in their reading.  

     The article talked about two types of prompting that can be used to help a child.  The first type was the general prompting to help promote thought.  These can be asked using these types of statements and questions: 

The next type of prompting is a focused prompt to help the child with a specific action.  These are asked with these types of statements: 

Both of these types of prompting can be the little push that a child needs in order to understand a topic or be helpful when they are trying to read a sentence and comprehend it.  These simple questions and prompts can also help a child's confidence because they will be able to ask themselves these questions and be able to get it before having to ask a teacher.  

    When I help with my nephew and his reading I am constantly giving cues and prompting and it helps him  understand where the story is going and how the reading is going.  It can also lead to other questions that you ask later on about his comprehension.  He know asks himself those questions to help him prompt the harder words.  He states them out loud and shows you the process that he is using and it shows you just how helpful the coaching process is.  It also helps with his comprehension because if he knows where it is going then he is much more able to follow along better.  

Thing to Ponder:

1. Do you think that you were taught to read and comprehend on a coaching method or a hands off method? 

2. Which do you find to be more beneficial to the child in the long run?

Reading and Writing

I agree with all of these articles about the importance of literacy which includes reading and writing.  So often though it can be bogged down with the necessity to read and write it makes it not fun for children.  I think the article that resonated most with me was the "Letter of the Week" article.  I think that children without even realizing it knows a lot about literacy before they step into school.  They know certain symbols and words that many of them don't even realize because it becomes second nature.  I think that by letting children know that right away really improves their confidence in reading and writing.  I think that confidence in ones self is something that goes a long way when it comes to reading and writing.

Something that can improve their confidence is showing them how much they already know about reading and writing.  An option that they in the reading was an alphabet chart with things that they see in their daily lives.  Such as "m" for McDonalds, "L" for Lucky Charms, "S" for a Stop Sign.  This encourages them that they can recognize letters with out even knowing it.

I think another that seemed helpful in the reading was the Three Strategies for helping them decipher letters and words while reading.  The first one was to Look at the beginning letter or letters.  Another one was Look through the words for familiar chunks.  And finally Read through to the end.  By using these three strategies it allows the student to detect the words using words that they already know.  This can also boost their confidence and help them learn more.  The article also encouraged the children to write in the way they knew how even if it was scribbling.  It encourages children to see more than one view point of learning and to see how others learn.  There isn't just one way to teaching so why should there be one way of learning.  

Things to Ponder 

Do you think that allowing children to write in the way that they can (including just pictures and scribbles) help or hurts a child in the long run?

What are way that you learned how to write? Did you have to be accurate or was spelling it the way you heard it okay?

Literacy

    Literacy is something that affects a person throughout their whole life.  If a child does not have a good literacy learning experience it can really negatively effect them for the rest of their life.  Both the book and the article show; children who are exposed to reading and literacy at a young age tend to do better and are more knowledgeable about their reading and school work than those that are not as exposed to it at a young age.

   I really find that to be true.  In my experiences in the classroom it is obvious which kids are getting that added reinforcement at home and who isn't.  It is also noticeable who has been exposed to reading and writing at home before it was a necessity.  While it is easy to work with those kids who were exposed prior it is very important to help those as well who weren't as lucky to be exposed to reading and writing at a young age because they might need more help since they have to start from the beginning.  I think that more parents should take the initiative to read to their child starting at a young age. Exposing a child to reading can be something that is really easy to do.  Just by reading to them at night or letting them watch you read in every day situations can help then when it comes time to really start reading.  If more parents took that initiative then reading and writing would be easier for children when they start school.  That time can already be so overwhelming and having to do work in front of other peers can be intimidating.  By helping them before hand it can really improve their confidence which is something that the book also states and suggests as well.

Reading for 9/8/2014

Effective Reading Instruction

The article really goes about how active learning is the most beneficial thing for a students success in reading and in education.  They author states that the schools that are best doing this practice are those those that are in lower income areas and have more racial diversity.  At first I found this interesting because those are the schools that are typically more economically disadvantage and for them to be doing the best with these is interesting.  The article goes on to state that this was the case because of the type of teacher that is placed in these school are probably the best teachers that are available.  That is something else that I find interesting because I feel like in those schools in my hometown they are typically the schools that struggle to hire teachers and those that go there are the ones using it as a stepping stone to get to a school that they really want.  I found the authors strategies with the 6 T's to be something that could be done easily by any teacher and with little necessity for extra money.  So why aren't more schools and teachers incorporating it into their daily teaching teaching if it is something that is shown to be more beneficial to the students.

Both readings including Teacher led reading which I believe is something that is very important.  By having someone read to you you have to be actively listening to comprehend what is being said to you.  This really helps with younger readers because the questions that are asked later are something that can help them realized their knowledge.  The questions also need to be able to have a open ended answer not just a yes or no answer to allow for development and comprehension, like the article stated.  Independent reading is something that also helps with comprehension.  It also helps you think about different questions while reading that you may not think about when someone is reading to you.  Like the article and the book stated having a variety of readings is also very important because you want the children to be able to understand a wealth of readings but also be able to able to read accurately and fluently.  By being able to read a variety of texts it also helps with confidence which is really important when it comes to the Testing aspect of school.

Questions to pose:
1) Why do you think that more schools are incorporating the six T's and active learning into the daily routine of their classroom?

2) How do you think that as a society would could get towards a more effort and improvement based achievement that is mentioned in the article from the assessment based on achievement alone?  Would you think that would be more beneficial in the Elementary sphere rather than grades?