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?