Chapter 7:
At
the beginning of this chapter, I enjoyed reading about the differences between
emergent literacy and reading readiness. I too thought that they were very
similar concepts, however, learning their differences was new to me. I like the
way reading readiness is termed a “waiting period” because that explains to me
that the children are in a developmental state where they are almost reading to
begin reading instruction. I also enjoyed reading about the pre-reading tests
and assessments. The text provided many great examples of how to make that type
of assessment as effective as possible. I can see how those assessments can be
very difficult to administer, so the steps to help that process seemed very
beneficial.
This
chapter continued on to explain what concepts are, how to assess certain
concepts and how to determine that a concept has been developed in the
appropriate manner. At times in my classroom, it can be difficult to really
understand if a child has mastered a concept and is ready to move forward.
Therefore, the assessments provided between pages 114-120 were great visuals
for me to reference in regards to utilizing some new tools to determine if a
child has a concept of print and has mastered the subject being taught.
In
my current job, we have to spend much time assessing students writing and
determining if a student has comprehended a story. It can be difficult to
determine why a child may write a certain way and if they are understanding the
writing concepts being taught in the class. This is why a “writing observation
form” like provided in the chapter can be very helpful in regards to really
understanding a students writing and ensuring that they are writing how they
should at their developmental level. I also appreciate this form because it can
be changed due to grade levels while still incorporating some key concepts
necessary for good writing. I really enjoyed reading this chapter and I feel
like I have learned many new things about children’s ability to master
concepts, how to assess certain tasks and lastly, how to assess a students
writing. All of the components addressed in this chapter can directly be
related in a beneficial manner to my current job in a second grade classroom so
I will use this chapter as resource for multiple things.
Chapter 8:
In this chapter, I appreciated reviewing the different types
of reading levels for children. Differentiating between independent,
instructional, frustration, and listening capacity levels helped me understand
those levels better and will help me when consulting with some of my students
and determining their individual reading levels. I have never performed an IRI
reading assessment, so learning about the steps taken to administer and the
scoring of this assessment was very interesting to me. I have always enjoyed
learning about different reading assessment methods, so learning about the IRI
was interesting to me.
This chapter did a great job explaining about a miscue is
and how to analyze miscues. At times, when reading one on one with a student, I
may mark their miscues and realize their errors, but not fully understand why
the student is making that mistake. While reading through this section, I
realized that reasons causing these miscues could be an inappropriate text
choice and also understanding why the miscues are occurring. In continuum of
this, the section on running records was helpful as well. I have never made
notes like the Figure 8.6 but it is a very smart way to mark miscues
determining from a child’s missed meaning cue, structure cue, or visual cue.
Those are three great points to determine when and why the student is
struggling.
Chapter 12:
In my current classroom, we have recently begun our word
study for this school year. The students are focusing on different vowels
sounds and recognizing vowel and consonant word patterns such as a CVC word or
a CVCe word. These concepts are difficult for my class at times. Therefore,
while reading through the consonant exercises and vowel exercises provided, I
realized maybe incorporating techniques like these on top of our word study may
help the students grasp the concept more fully.
This chapter continued on to explain different assessment
methods of phonics which I found very interesting. I have performed some of
these tests such as the Names Test and the Early Names Test during an undergraduate
field placement. I am glad to have learned about different phonics assessments
that you can also use with a student. The chapter continued on to discuss
teaching phonics in a whole-part-whole method which I find to be very
successful. For instance, figure 12.7 shows a great progression in instruction,
teaching students the many different skills necessary in how to be a phonemic
reader. I think moving from learning whole reading skills to then particular
focus on certain struggling areas is key in teaching the student the many
different facets reading encompasses and the importance of mastering all those
concepts, one step at a time.
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