EDRD 7717: Page 14, Activity 4 (Opitz)

Through looking through Table 1.1, it is apparent that less proficient readers struggle because they are forced to focus all of their reading time and understanding on identifying words correctly and monitoring their reading. Their main focus is pronouncing the word correctly, which takes all of their time and energy, naturally leaving them with no opportunity to grasp the meaning of the word and the text. When a proficient reader is able to fluently overcome all of the words and spellings, they will naturally understand the text and recognize the meaning becuas their main focus is just that, comprehending the text.

I think the main difference is the level of capability. When a student must focus on every sound and every letter simply to identify a word, then their opportunity to try to understand the text has been removed. A fluent reader is able to overcome those struggles and understand the story. This is why learning the basics of letters, sounds, and connections early on is so important because once that is mastered, then every student has the opportunity to become proficient. A proficient reader enjoys reading, whereas most likely, a less proficient reader does not enjoy it because it is such a difficult and monotonous process. Reading must be taught in an interesting manner, which is why overcoming these fundamentals early on allows for reading to be enjoyable at all.

EDRD 7717: Video Analysis

I thought that this video was very interesting to watch. It is apparent that students struggling with reading can struggle in their every day classroom requirements while also causing them to fall far back behind. I agree with the video that ongoing assessments are extremely crucial to help improve a students reading ability. I have always been taught in my reading courses that formative and summative assessments are crucial in realizing immediate process and how to continue forward in a supportive and beneficial manner for the student.

In my own personal experiences with assessment, I have found that simply at times, smaller, more organized instruction can be vastly more beneficial than large group instruction. This is why tutoring or resource teachers can be such fantastic aids because they can directly focus on one students needs and help accommodate the teachers instruction in a more personalized manner. Through this smaller assessment, daily or weekly check ups and assessments can help record progress in an effective manner, making sure the student is improving and not slipping through the class. At my current job, I work with many students in small groups, allowing me time to work with students of different reading levels, offering differentiated instruction where necessary. This is vital in confirming student growth and learning. During my small group time, I am assessing student improvement and making anecdotal records of the current situation. I believe that assessment is a vital component in student success and working with the student and helping improve their abilities should be the number one goal on an educator's list.

Final Personal Model of the Theory of Reading

Lizzie McCalley

Dr. Ritchie

EDRD 7715

July 11, 2012

Personal Model of the Theory of Reading

            Throughout the course of this semester, my knowledge about reading instruction, reading techniques, and reading philosophies has grown tremendously. However, despite my growth and new learnings, I still whole-heartedly believe in what my first paper explained. Reading is still a practice, a journey, and a lifestyle and I am a true testament to that belief after this semester.

            Through all of the different reading and writing I have done this summer, I have developed in my knowledge of helpful techniques and enhanced my abilities. Despite my ability to read, decode unfamiliar words or understand letter-sound relationships, at times, with certain new materials, even educated readers like myself have to go back to the initial reading steps to understand the text. This is due to the reading in our courses being more scholarly, higher-thinking, or educated texts that I am trying to learn from. It is as though I am Kindergarten student all over again. To a young five year old, their struggle may be letter-sound relationships, whereas for me, my struggle is determining and defining the difference between action research, practitioner research, and teacher research for example. We all utilize different tools in an attempt to understand new and challenging texts. This is why I believe reading is a constant journey.

             Over the first semester of my graduate program, I have experienced my own hurdles in new learning. I have learned how to adapt my reading styles, accommodate to new information, and learn new concepts that interest me and will benefit me in the future. This first semester has already been challenging, eye opening, and incredibly impactful. These qualities have emerged from the constant reading, writing, and discussions that take place every Monday and Wednesday. Through this learning process, I have realized how fortunate I am that I am able to read and how thankful I am that I can read well. Being literate should be a requirement for all. However, far too often, some students fall through the cracks and never learn how to read fluently. This fault limits so many young peoples future and possibility in the world. Therefore, reading is a powerful tool that everyone should master, making my responsibility of teaching reading in a classroom very great.

            In my first paper about my personal model of the theory of reading, I reflected upon the power of reading. Reading has the ability to open new doors, broaden horizons, and create new opportunities. This is why reading instruction is extremely valuable to teach correctly and explicitly. Reading instruction should provide multiple opportunities to read, question, and interact with different texts. Appealing to student’s interests is key in order to help children believe in the power of reading. When reading is simply another subject, that is difficult and uninteresting, it is no wonder students struggle with reading. I was one of those students. Reading was not introduced to me in an appealing and exciting manner, causing my younger years to be very difficult with reading and my lack of interest. Luckily, as I got older, certain teachers changed my view of reading, however, not every child undergoes that change. This is why, as a future teacher, I want to drastically stray from the teaching methods I received as a child, and do my best to make reading appealing, exciting, and most importantly, explain to students its importance and value far greater than they can comprehended in the elementary school years.

            Throughout my continuous growth and learning as a graduate student, I am constantly reassured that I chose the right endorsement. I am enjoying reading different types of literature and bettering my writing style through more exposure to good literature. This is why I want my future students to see reading the way I do. Reading has not always been my favorite thing to do, but I am able to see the rewards that come from reading and I want my students to reap the same rewards. Reading is a tool no one can take from you. I hope to provide this tool, help students interactive with it, and grow into a fluent, passionate reader. 

Module 6: Reading Reflection

I would say that I agree with the philosophy Weaver discussed in chapter 15. He discussed the whole language approach, the importance of students to understand print, and also the practice of decoding texts. All of these methods are extremely beneficial to students learning and reading achievement. When Weaver (2002) discussed early reading instruction he made a very good point about the benefits of teaching the comprehensive literacy approach. Weaver (2002) explained, “There is a large body of comparative research that has found that children with comprehensive literacy instruction such as shared reading, shared writing, phonics taught in context, and lots and lots of experiences of being able to read to and opportunities to read self-selected books and write on self-selected topics learn to make sense of print better than children with traditional, part-to-whole reading instruction” (p. 369). Through this evidence, it is apparent that all of the different methods of literacy instruction help students to focus on the print, understand more about the topic, and learn more from the comprehensive literacy instruction. I think this proof will encourage my teaching to still incorporate these different comprehensive literacy methods because they are very valuable and beneficial to student’s literacy growth. My perspective has changed drastically since I initially took the DeFord TORP. My score increased the second time so I feel as though I have learned a lot over the course of this class. I have learned many new valuable teaching methods of helping students comprehend text and increase their literacy rates.

Module 6: Instructional Challenge

Next year, you will be teaching in a school where the vast majority of students did not meet standard on your state's criterion-referenced test and where more than 75% of the students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals. What are some specific universal literacy strategies you may implement to ensure students success? Include both in-class examples and things you could do outside the classroom.

           

            Teaching students that are below the grade level and probably have little to no access to books outside of the school day, it should be the teachers commitment to provide as many reading and writing opportunities to those children at all times. I would create a system where students could take books home once or twice a week. This process would help encourage further reading outside of school, while also hopefully involve some parent-child reading and academic interaction. When the students would take the book home, they would mark it off their list once it was completed and brought back to school. Then they could take home the next book on the list for the following week or however quickly they finished the book. Already printed for each child would be extension activities to help them continue thinking about the book and exercising some skills learned throughout the school day. During my internship, the teacher I observed did this, and she did not always get as much parent interaction as she had hoped, but it did encourage the students to read more and provided them more access to books.

            In the classroom, I would organize different reading centers that involved peer or small group reading. This would allow the stronger leaders to help the struggling readers while also encourage peer interaction and learning from their classmates. I would also heavily emphasize read aloud time and shared reading in my classroom. Allowing the struggling students to hear the proper way a text should be read and discussed about would be key in enhancing these students reading abilities. I also think shared journal would be key in a classroom like this. My internship was at a Title One school where most of my students were on a free or reduced lunch. Shared journal was a time where they all became very excited to share about their experiences and take pride in their moment to talk about themselves. Afterwards, the class asked questions and then everyone wrote and drew about the story. This is a great way to not only encourage active participation, discussion and writing skills, but it brought a confidence and excitement to many students.

Module 5: Instructional Challenge

This is a hard situation that could occur in your classroom. Therefore, the teacher should try to be as accommodating and encouraging as possible. This is why I think read aloud or shared reading would be two great programs to implement in large group time. This would allow the ELL students a chance to observe the teacher reading different texts and engaging the students, while also perhaps appealing to the ELL’s interest if the text appealed to them.

            During different conferencing or guided reading lessons, I think the teacher should have built as much background knowledge on the student as possible, trying to find different texts that interest them as just one means to make the language barrier not as scary. Mini-lessons may also be beneficial before breaking off into large group workshops allowing the ELL student to receive a preview of information and understanding about the topic.

            I think the classroom teacher should become very involved with the ELL teacher. Asking that teacher any tips of lesson techniques or strategies to get the three ELL students more involved. Also, the classroom teacher should try to make his lessons and the ELL lessons as relatable as possible, helping the students not get confused from switching classes and engaging their current learning rather than throwing two completely different curriculums at them.

Module 5: Reading Reflection

Phonics instruction is teaching children how to understand different letter-sound relationships. One skill to teach phonics can be through decoding. This process helps identify and therefore understand a word, through knowing the letters that make up this word. A decoding lesson could occur in a guided reading lesson facilitated through teacher-directed instruction, focusing on letter-sound building skills.

            Phonics instruction fits into a literacy program through different activities such as a read aloud. This process allows the students to hear the correct relationships of sounds and letters come together to pronounce a word correctly that was just read aloud by the teacher. Phonics can also be taught through shared reading. Teachers can utilize alphabet books, for instance, to emphasize the sound of each letter while also putting those letters together to make words. When a student observes a modeling explanation of how to say all the letter sounds in a word to make up that one word, they are more likely to understand the process. This is why guided reading is one of the most vital activities for phonics instruction.

            This is when a teacher can model how to sound out a word, for instance, using a letter-box lessons of sight words on a leveled reader for the student. The teacher will model the concept, guide the student in a practice and then allow independent work while the teacher observes. Through utilizing manipulatives to teach the student what each letters sound is and then how placing in them order, and sliding down the row (an arrow moving to the right or an actual “slide” picture) helps teach the student these letter-sound relationships. You could teach phonics during large group work, mainly by displaying proper techniques of sounding out words. It could also be taught in more smaller, private, conference like setting or through a private guided reading lesson so that the teacher can see one-on-one if a child is understanding this process or not.