Monday, October 1, 2012

Module Three: Opitz, Chapter 7, 8, and 12 Summary

Module Three: Opitz Chapter's 7, 8, and 12 Summaries


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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