Other Information

Research was conducted on my mother’s side of the family. I was traced back to the 1400’s. We have a very detailed book provided names and dates of individuals who are a part of my family heritage. Through the research my family learned that our family originated from Great Britain to America. Reading through the book provided great information. I only wish I had this type of information on my dad’s side of the family. Hopefully one day I will be able to find more information on where my dad’s family came from. The only thing I know is that my grandparents (dad’s parent) come to America through Ellis Island. Once my grandmother made it there, she had to change the spelling of her last name. I would love to go to Ellis Island and see if I can find more information on my grandparents arrival to America.

  

Assumptions & Stereotypes

An assumption most people think of when they think of a southern family living in Alabama is it that we are uneducated. This however is not the case. Even though most of my family didn’t attend college, they all graduated from high school or worked to earn their GED. They are hardworking and dedicated to making their life better by receiving an education to improve their living situation. Another assumption is that most people who are from Alabama are rednecks because we live a very southern lifestyle and do very southern activities.  Rednecks are considered to be poor, uneducated white farmers living in the south. My family did work as farmers in Alabama, but were not considered uneducated or poor. They did work hard for the things they had, but never had to do without food or housing.    

 

Ethnicity & Race

 From the research on my family, I found that we originated from an Irish and English background. We are of a non-Hispanic (Caucasian) background; however Hispanic members have married into our family making us a little more diverse. The Collins family name is Irish, and the Wilks family name is English.  I would love to know where my family originated from before coming to the United States. Hopefully I will be able to find the time one day to continue this research and find further information into my heritage.

Family Tree

Below is my family tree. There is more information onmy mother's side. My dad didn't know his grandparents so it made it very difficult to try and find information about them. This is the best I could do.

 

Beliefs, Values, Traditions, and Morals

The Collins Family is built around a strong sense of family, values, morals, and love. Most importantly our family believes that each member is to feel loved and included in our family. My family believes that family should get together often to catch up and enjoy each other. Our family is always there to support one another through good and bad times. Our family spends every holiday with each other. Our family gatherings are always full of good conversation, laughter, and a lot of eating.

We are a very religious and attend Catholic Mass every Sunday and for special religious holidays. Prayer is an important part of our family get-togethers. We believe it is important to pray before family dinners and encourage a love for Jesus. Each member of the family is raised in the Catholic Church attending mass weekly. We believe that everything we do or achieve is at the hands of Jesus.

  The Collins family also believes in honesty and the importance of work-ethic. As a family we instill the importance of being honest and truthful in everything we do. We also believe every member of the family should contribute to their family. My parent instilled the importance of having a good work ethic. They taught me the importance of working hard for the things I want or need.

Education is a high priority for my family. My parents have always taught me the importance of succeeding in school. My parents had a “law” regarding education. We were allowed to participate in various afterschool activities, but are school work always come first. Homework was down right when I came home and if grades every slipped I had to discontinue any of my afterschool activities. Even though education was a top priority, I was the first member of my family to attend college and graduate. It was a proud moment for my family.

The Collins family has many traditions that we celebrate. We are a very southern family who enjoys family get-togethers. During our get-togethers we enjoy family dinners full of “southern fixings,” like corn bread, pintos beans, fired chicken, turnip greens, and other southern dishes. We enjoy cooking and baking together for family holidays. We have family traditions associated with the holidays. During Thanksgiving my entire family gathers for one big family meal. During dinner, we all express one thing we are thankful for. This is one of my favorite parts of the holiday, besides eating of course. The elf on the shelf is another tradition that my family has just recently started for the kids in our family. The purpose of the elf on the shelf is watch the children during the day and then the elf reports back to the North Pole to provide “Santa” with a detailed report of the kids behavior. All the kids in my family look forward to Thanksgiving because they will finally get to see their elf.

Christmas is another holiday where we have family traditions built into the holiday.  Since we are a dedicated Catholic family, we attend midnight mass on Christmas Eve. This is another one of my favorite traditions. The church is full of Christmas joy, lights, and love for Jesus. Prior to Christmas Eve Mass, we celebrate the night by decorating Christmas Cookies for Santa Clause. The cookies we decorate are left for him to enjoy when he stops by our house. The kids write a note to leave with the cookies. As a family, we read Christmas stories and sign Christmas Carols. It’s a wonderful tradition that I plan on implementing with my own children.

Module 1: Watch & Learn: Assessing Reading Skills Review

 

This video was very interesting to watch. This video provided me with a better understanding of assessing students on a continual basis. On-going assessments are crucial for student learning. Assessments give teachers a clear understanding of the students learning deficiencies, and allows for teachers to prepare lessons that ultimately help the students’ learning needs. As a teacher, I believe a variety of assessments should be used to assess students learning. By using a variety of assessments, teachers are able to receive immediate feedback, which allows for well-planned instruction that meets the needs of the students. As a classroom teacher, I use a variety of assessment to fully understand my students’ needs as a learner. It’s important to know and understand student’s strengths and weakness, and how to plan effectively for their learning. Reading is comprised of some many different aspects. It’s important for the teacher to understand where students are struggling with their reading. By labeling a child a struggling reading, a teacher is not identifying the real problem. Using assessments allows the teacher to pinpoint the exact issue the student is having with their reading. Once the reading issue has been identified, the teacher is able to provide instruction to meet the needs of the reader. Differentiate instruction is a common term used in my school. Through differentiated instruction, teachers are able to provide instruction at the students’ level. It’s a well-known fact that assessments help drive your instruction. If this is the case, then assessments should be on a continual basis, not just once and awhile. Assessments play a key role in student success, and it’s the teachers responsibility to help improve their reading abilities by providing effective instruction, and then assessing students understanding. It’s our number one priority…ensuring success of all students. Student success can be accomplished with the use of assessments.  

Module 1: Optiz pg. 14

This school year I’m teaching an accelerated second grade class. Most of my students are proficient readers, either on grade level or advanced. However, I do have a small group of students who are struggling with reading. This small group of students allows me to spend a little more time and focus on skills to help them achieve their reading goals. I haven’t   administered the Fountas and Pinnell reading assessment. I spend my first week of school setting up expectations and establishing classroom procedure. I will begin my reading assessments next week. I have had the opportunity to look over their student portfolios from last year. While looking at their reading assessments I was able to see what each student struggled with and how I can provide instruction to meet their needs.

After reading questions fourteen from Opitz’s text, I decided to focus on my less proficient readers in my class. Last week was the first week of school. It was a very busy start of the school year. After looking at my student portfolios I wanted to fully understanding each struggling student. I found time to listen to a few of my students read a short text to see where they may be struggling at.  One particular student really stood out to me. (Maybe it’s because I was his teacher last year and knew his strengthens and weakness in reading) While listening to this student read I noticed he concentrating on reading word by word. He really wanted to get every word in the text correct, but by doing this he was slowing down and his fluency was really suffering. His comprehension also suffered because he was reading at a slower rate and forgetting was he had already read. Often times this struggling reading would guess at unfamiliar words in the text, and most often the substitutions did not have the same meaning as the text he was reading. This also contributed to the lack of comprehension when this student was reading. Over the course of the school year, my plan is to help this student change the way he is reading. Students should be reading for meaning and not focusing on individual letter sounds.  It’s my job as the classroom teacher to help him read for meaning and focus on understand the sentence in context.

Final Personal Model of Reading Theory

Final Personal Model of Reading Theory

What is the correct way to teach reading? Originally, I thought this was a difficult question to answer due to so many teachers teaching their students in different ways. I have to admit, I sometime feel as if my teaching changes from year to year. What I now realize, is there is a correct way to teach students to read. This reading course has helped me to see how effective reading instruction can be, and how to provide instruction to ensure student success for all learners.  My beliefs regarding reading instruction has stayed pretty much the same with the exception of phonics instructions. Through Weaver’s book, Reading, Process, and Practice I was able to see the effectiveness of a Comprehensive Literacy Program on student learning, and recognize my current reading instruction reflects many of its components, as I have always used reading and writing workshop as a way to teach literacy skills to my students.

Teaching reading should be a balanced approach.  Balanced Literacy is a framework designed to help all students learn to read and write effectively. It is a comprehensive program which contains all the important components for students to master reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Students should be exposed to phonemic awareness, phonics, sight words, reading comprehension, and writing skills. These skills should not be taught in isolation, but instruction of these skills should be balanced to ensure learning is effective. 

In past years, I spent a good amount of time teaching phonics skills in a variety of ways. I would provide phonics instruction whole group and in isolation, as well as providing additional phonics instruction that was embedded in other components of my balanced literacy block. After reading Weaver’s book, I quickly realized my phonics instruction needed to be modified to meet the needs of my students.  I always thought students needed a strong foundation in phonics in order to be a proficient reader, but I quickly learned the truth and began rethinking my phonics instruction. Phonics should be embedded in to the different components of a comprehensive literacy program. Since the majority of my reading instruction is aligned with a comprehensive literacy program, incorporating phonics within my balanced literacy approach should only benefit my students. My phonics instruction will now be taught through reading and writing workshops, instead of the separate block of time devoted to phonics instruction. Phonics is an important understanding to have, but it’s not the key to reading for meaning.

 What I realize after completing the readings from Weaver’s text, is students should not have to recite the phonics rules to show understanding, but should be able to apply the phonics skills through their individual reading and writing activities. In order to be a proficient reader, students don’t need to sound out words in order to gain meaning. In fact, this can be very detrimental to a students’ reading and hinder their comprehension. There are better ways for readers to handle unfamiliar words in text. I now believe that using knowledge on onsets and rimes can be very beneficial to students and their ability to read for meaning. Students become more focused on using “chunking” as a reading strategy to determine unfamiliar words and are able to gain meaning from the text as opposed to sounding out each individual letter sounds.

This reading course has reconfirmed by believes about providing balanced literacy as a way to teach students important reading and writing skills, but it has also helped me redefine and modify my phonics instruction. Teaching reading is definitely a learning process, and I’m sure my reading instruction will continue to change slightly as learn different approaches and strategies to increase student achievement in reading.  I am looking forward to implementing a new way of teaching phonics in my classroom next year. This course has changed the way I look at reading instruction, particular in the area of phonics. My knowledge of reading instruction has grown, and I can’t wait to start putting my new found knowledge into practice.

 

 

Module 6: Instructional Activity

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.

This schools’ description is very similar to my current school in regards to the percentage of students who are on free and reduced meals. However, my school did meet the state’s criterion-referenced test. My school implemented universal literacy strategies to ensure student success, and I believe the same strategies would work for this school as well. To ensure student success the school must realize the comprehensive literacy program must be established school wide. Teachers will need to implement both reader’s workshop and writer’s workshop into their daily teaching. The components of both workshops have positive effects on student learning. By including shared reading, shared writing, phonics taught in context, and lots of experiences reading (independently and guided reading groups) students are given the opportunity to learn in a literature-rich environment and practice the necessary skills to improve their reading and writing skills.

Another way for this particular school could ensure student success would be through the implementation of morning tutoring for their struggling students. By providing an additional 30 minutes, two or three times a week, students are able to receive more individualized instruction on their particular needs, and not feel so far behind when instruction is being presented to the whole class or small group. When students feel more comfortable about the content they are able to contribute more to class discuss and feel a part of the class. By providing morning tutoring, it helps students feel more connected to the class discussion because they truly understand and are connecting to the learning material.

At my current school, we plan community outreach programs for parents to get involved. Instead of having parents come to the school, we come to their neighborhood to provide an informational session on ways to help your child succeed. A majority of the parents at my current school find it difficult to attend school events due to responsibilities at home, such as younger children and lack of transportation. By reaching out, we are able to give suggestions to parents on ways they can help their child in school. One of the most important suggestions we give parents is to “read” every night with their child. This particular school could benefit from these community outreach programs to help inform parents on different ways to help ensure their child succeeds in school.

Module 6: Reading Reflection

After reading chapter 15, I am amazed by all the research that supports the comprehensive-literature based instruction. By reading the research findings presented in Weaver’s book, she has reconfirmed my belief that reading is more than just reading words on a page, but rather reading to gain meaning. Weaver often refers to reading as “whole to part”, and encourages readers to read for meaning and purpose, and not just to read the individual words or sounds on a given page. On page 370, Weaver discusses the research findings that compared the effectiveness of shared reading with traditional round-robin readings in a second grade class. I found this to be particularly interesting because during my elementary school days I participated in many round-robin readings. I can remember being terrified to have to read in front of everyone for the fear of making any type of mistakes. To alleviate my fear, I would only concentrate on my own reading. I rarely followed along, but rather rehearsed my reading in my head. Looking back I realize that is not an effective way to teach reading. The results from this study only proved my realizations that shared reading is the best rate to go. The research study found that the below-average students benefited from the shared reading.

After looking at my results on the DeFord TORP, I realized only a few of my opinions had changed over the semester. Even though my perspectives were very similar, I do find myself changing my thinking and beliefs after the completion of this course, and plan to bring those new found beliefs to my teaching in the upcoming school year.

Module 5: Instructional Challenge

As your school year starts, you realize that you have three ELLs who are newcomers to the United States. Discuss how a comprehensive literacy program addresses their needs, drawing attention to specific components of the framework that are particularly relevant. Then discuss any additional scaffolding you would offer to support these children's needs.

I think a comprehensive literacy program can be very helpful in meeting the needs of the ELL students, specifically reading workshop and writing workshop. Modeling is one of the best strategies to assist ELL students and is a component of both workshops. During reading workshop, I strongly believe read alouds are a great way to provide instruction on how to read fluently, how to think and respond to a story, and how to read with expression. These are all important skills to learn and I feel the best way to learn to read with expression is by listening and watching a proficient reader. I’m a big believer of guided reading. It’s a great way to provide instruction on the students’ individual needs in order to push them further in their reading ability. Guided reading will allow me to focus on the ELL’s specific needs and zone in on the skills that are causing frustration or difficulty. During guided reading, I would focus on vocabulary, phonics, and back ground knowledge to help the students to understand stories completely.

Since reading and writing go hand in hand, I would also provide modeling for the student through writing aloud. In order for students to know and understand how to write, they first need to see what writing looks like. By modeling, students are exposed to what writing should be and how to write. (Writing from left to right) Guided writing will allow me as the teacher to focus in on areas students are having difficulties in and provide instruction that will allow students to practice in a safe area before writing on their own.

Modeling is a big component in teaching ELL and is part of the comprehensive literacy program. With the use of modeling, a teacher can provide as much support in the beginning and gradually start pulling some support away as the student begins to show progress or growth in what was once the weak areas. I believe the comprehensive literacy program is a great way to address the needs of all learners, not just ELL.   

Module 5: Reading Reflection

Where does phonics instruction fit within a comprehensive literacy program? When and how would you teach phonics?
 

Phonics should not be taught in isolation, but rather integrated into other parts of the instructional day. I believe phonics could be integrated into the different components of a comprehensive literacy programs. Phonics instructions can be taught during read-alouds, shared reading, guided reading, sustained reading, individual reading conferences, and through literature groups. Since reading and writing go hand in hand, I think it would be beneficial for phonics to be taught or reinforced during writing workshop. Phonics skills could be focused on during write-alouds, shared writing, guided writing, and conference time.

Since I teach the younger grades, I do feel it’s important to expose the students to phonics by integrating the skills within mini-lessons and guided reading. Within guided reading, I am able to provide differentiation to my students and give them the phonics instruction they need. When working on phonics during guided reading, my students review the phonics deck cards, and works with letter tiles to build words with the weekly phonics pattern or the phonics skill the students are having difficulty with. My struggling students also have a dictation journal they use during their guided reading time when working on phonics. The students are given the phonics rule, usually with a visual to explain in more detail. As a group, we brainstorm words with the phonics pattern and write the words under the rule in the journal. After the “mini-lesson”, my guided reading group would read a story which follows the phonics rule. Students are quick to inform me of all the words they found in the story, and are able to add them to their dictation journal. The students see it as a scavenger hunt with phonics. At the end of the guided reading time I assess my students through a quick listen-respond-record activity. This is where I provide my students with about 10 letter sounds or letter combination sounds. They would respond with the letter, the picture associated with the sound, and the sound itself. For example, if I said, “/b/” the students in my group would respond b-bat-/b/. This type of activity only occurs in my classroom about twice a week with my struggling students. It allows me to see if the students fully understand the phonics skill.

Module Four: Activity Two

Literacy is a combination of different areas, which include phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. All of these literacy areas are important in children’s success as a reader. In my opinion reading comprehension is one area that is vital for students to be successful in literacy. Throughout this course, I have been learning that reading is the act of understand the texts meaning. It’s the most important concept teachers can teach students. Comprehension is the key to becoming a successful reader, and isn’t that our ultimate goal as educators.

In regards to the missing pillars by Allington, I feel the most important topic is “access to interesting text and choice.” By allowing students choice it gives them ownership in their learning and engages them in the activity planned by the teacher. Choice is very powerful tool in education. It can give students confidence in what they are reading and provide a sense of accomplishment when a student has mastered reading a story independently. Choice is a topic I explore a lot in my classroom. My students choose books of their own interest and complete reading activities to show their understanding of their reading. I also utilize choice boards in literacy centers as a way give my student choice in the learning. By doing this, my students are more engaged, and they have a sense of pride over their literacy work.

Module Four: Activity One

What an inspirational video! It brought tears to my eyes and chills running up and down my spine as I sat and watch Robin begin his reading journey. As teachers, we are faced with students in our class who struggle with reading and often feel like a failures. It’s our job to encourage and motivate students to work through their insecurities and teach them what Robin has learned, If you believe…you can read.

While watching Robin’s journey to read I noticed many important strategies he utilized to help him with his reading. One strategy I notice him using was context clues to help find meaning in a sentence that wasn’t making sense to him as he read it. He was able to recognize “I’ll gave you” didn’t not sound grammatically correct in the sentence. He was able to reread to correct the sentence to “I’ll give you”.  This was an excellent strategy he was able to use to help him in his reading. Robin also used “chunking” to help him with words that were unfamiliar in the text. He looked for smaller parts of the words that were familiar to help identify the unknown word. This is a great strategy to use when reading. It was amazing to see Robin being able to identify the word “congratulations” just by know the word “rat” and con”.

Robin’s story is very inspirational, and inspire me to be the best reading teacher to “all” my students. In the words of Robin, “don’t forget about these kids, they are really, really worth saving.”

Module Four: Instructional Challenge

Based on the description of Marcus and his miscues it appears he is having difficulty in two areas of reading. It appears he doesn’t seem to know that reading should make sense, and he doesn’t seem to use prior knowledge and context to predict what’s coming next. According to Weaver,” this is an important reading strategy that makes even work identification easier” (Weaver, 2002). There are plenty of teaching strategies that will help Marcus overcome these areas of weakness in his reading. One strategy I feel Marcus will benefit from greatly is using Retrospective Miscue Analysis. This strategy will help Marcus hear his miscues and realize his word choice doesn’t make sense in context to the story. Once he realizes it doesn’t make sense, he will have the opportunity to reread with the teacher offer reading strategies as needed. This strategy will also help him to “think ahead” and learn to use prior knowledge to deal with problematic words in the text. Another strategy I fell Marcus would benefit from is relevant mini-lessons focusing on his areas of weakness. A teacher could create a cloze sentence and model how to determine the missing words by using the context of the sentence and prior knowledge all while modeling the thinking process that is used.  Other strategies that would be beneficial would include previewing the books prior to reading and making predictions on the stories, reading various books to the class with a thorough discussion, and providing plenty of time for sustained reading to practice the skills that were introduced in the daily mini-lesson.  

Module 4: Reading Reflection

My school had encountered many changes dealing with curriculum over the past few years. With the new leadership brought change and many people didn’t welcome it at school. I embraced it, and put the changes into action. Two years ago, my school’s main focus was on the implementation of writer’s workshop.  Teachers at my school were trained in the proper implementation of writer’s workshop, and were expected to use this approach to teach students. Through the use of mini-lesson, writing time, conferencing, and sharing time, I could see improvement in my students writing over the course of the school year. They loved their writing time and would ask regularly to continue writing even if the “writing music” had stopped. This made for a happy teacher! My student’s favorite time was sharing time. By sharing their stories/writings with the class it gave them a real purpose for writing, and taught students to learn how to give constructive feedback and positive comments.  

After getting Writer’s Workshop established in our school, our next big curriculum change was to implement guided reading throughout the school. This was not a big change for the younger grades, as we already had guided reading established. This allowed me to work with a small group of students at their instructional level in order to improve their reading skills. During guided reading, students were expected to work on literacy centers as their independent working activity when not meeting with the teacher. Literacy centers were a “must” at our school. Within literacy centers, students would be working on SR (sustained reading), buddy reading, word works, and other various learning activities that would enrich their learning.

Within my literacy block, I also do shared reading and read alouds to support my students’ literacy needs. Mini-lessons are a frequently used in my literacy block to teach comprehension skills. Students are expected to take the skill taught in the mini lesson and apply it to their reading during SR and their reading time in guided reading groups.

These are the components of the comprehensive literacy program that I have implemented and plan to continue to use next year.

Module Three Activity Two

When it comes to reading I do feel it is necessary for students to be exposed to phonological awareness activities just like the one in the video. I also agree, and believe that phonological awareness is very predictive of students’ reading ability. “Cracking the code” takes many different forms, but in my opinion I believe reading must start with some form of phonological awareness in order for students to have a good understanding of letter sound relationships. Reading can be complex, and even though I believe phonics/phonological awareness is very important to students’ reading ability, I also know it doesn’t provide the meaning behind the reading. When students read, it’s important for them to read to find meaning. Working on letter sound relationships of nonsense words is a waste of time, in my opinion. It’s important for students to practice with words that will make sense to them when they read in context. Providing one-on-one instruction allows for a struggling reader to receive individualized instruction which focuses on their specific needs. Like the video said, “the more systematic, the more direct, the more teacher guidance provided, the greater the degree of feedback results in much improved reading.” Starting with the basics of reading will ultimately improve reading ability in struggling readers. Before you can read for meaning, you have to have some foundations in letter sound relationships.

Prominent Theorist Research Paper

Shelley Harwayne

Module 3: Mock Memo from a Reading Specialist

Dear Teacher,

                After reviewing your student’s portfolios, it appears most of your students are reading with a high fluency rate, but are lacking important comprehension skills. Being a fluent reader doesn’t guarantee comprehension. Reading is not just about automatic word recall. It goes deeper that just recalling words within a text. Due to the fact that your students are reading with a high fluency rate indicates to me there has been a strong phonics based instruction in previous years. This would explain their ability to decode and read fluently with given a reading passage. One thing to understand is phonics is not the main source of reading instruction, but a component of reading. Your students will not only have to read fluently, but be able to find meaning in their reading. This is an area to focus your reading instruction.

                It appears to me your students need to be taught comprehension strategies. One way to begin this process is by using “think-alouds” as a way to focus on finding meaning, develop effective reading strategies, and most importantly teach your students to reflect on their own reading. Another strategy your students could benefit from is the use to employ the “check for understand” strategy. This is a visual, usually on a check mark, that reminds students to ask the who, what, where, when, and why after each section or paragraph in a text. This allows students to reflect on their reading to determine if they actually understand what they read before reading on. It’s an effective strategy that your students will benefit from.  Please try these strategies out in your classroom, and inform me how your students reading comprehension was impacted.

                Prior to implementing these reading comprehension strategies, I also feel it would be necessary to reevaluate your student instructional reading level using the Fountas and Pinnell reading assessment. My main concern is your placement of students into reading groups based on their fluency scores. If students are able to read a text with over 95% accuracy, without evidence of comprehension, then they do not need to be grouped into a reading level that reflects their high fluency. Reading instruction needs to be taught at their level focusing on areas for growth. In this case, your students are reading texts that are too difficult to construct meaning.  

Thank You,

Danielle Collins
Reading Specialist

 

  

Module Three Reading Reflection

Do you agree with Marilyn Adams (1990, p. 108) who argued that rather than relying on context, Skillful readers of English thoroughly process the individual letters of words in their texts. Why or why not?

I would have to disagree with Marilyn Adams’ statement.    I think that good readers rely on context to thoroughly process words, and not just the individual letters.  Reading is much more than just the identification of letters, especially with “skillful” readers. If readers are focusing on individual letters, than they are taking away from the overall meaning of the passage. The important thing to remember is reading is about constructing meaning, and not about identifying individual letters within the text.   

The activity on pg 92 and 93 proves readers don’t just look at the individual letters when reading. This activity provides a reading passage which required the reader to read when the individual letters were missing from a number of words within the passage. At first, I thought this would be a challenging activity, but quickly found this activity was quite easy to complete. I was able to read and construct meaning from the reading passage. During my reading, I didn’t process the individual letters, but could recognize familiar words or word parts from only part of the visual information available to me.  According to the text, readers process words in letter chunks, typically syllables and/or onsets and rimes. I felt this helped me in understand the reading passage, and I was able to find word meaning through the visual information even when the “word” itself wasn’t directly identified.

Another point I found interesting is phonics may play some role in reading instructions, however many of the rules that are taught do not apply a large percentage of the time. This was fascinating to me, as I feel schools tend to focus on phonics instruction for the younger grades. If we teach our students to only identify letters and use phonics rules to sound out words when reading, they are going to have a difficult time identifying many of the words they come across (2002, p. 101). However, by providing students with opportunities to read and practice skills students will become more proficient over time which will help to increase reading fluency. One thing I know as an educator, encouragement to read is a vital role in any reading instruction.

 

Module 2: Activity 1 and 2

 Activity 1:

Complete Exercise #3c on page 58 in the text: first write a definition of each word listed. Did you notice yourself using any fairly consistent principle for determining what the words might mean? Discuss. Then read the first chapter of A Clockwork Orange to find the meanings of at least six of the words: http://www.ebooktrove.com/top_ten/AClockworkOrange.pdf. In each case, how do you finally determine what the word means? Combine this assignment with Activity 2 in this module. Create a blog post.

Definitions: Prior to reading, I tried my best to determine the meaning of these unknown words, which was not an easy task. I used my knowledge of word ending, parts of speech, and relationship between other words. I thought maybe the words were misspelled initially. This first part of the activity was a challenge in just trying to determine meaning from words I was unfamiliar with. I can see how student feel when faced with challenging words in isolation.

Definitions prior to reading            

Creech-approach

Droogs-animal or dog

Glazzies-describing eyes

Goloss-to miss something

Malenky-little or small

Messel-sickness

Millicent-some sort of currency (money)

Poogly-describes the appearance

Razrez-

Skorry-apologize

Spatted-fighting

Zoobies-bugs 

Definitions after reading     

Creech-?

Droogs-friends

Glazzies- ?

Goloss- voice/music/noise

Malenky-little

Messel-

Millicent- officers of the law

Poogly- scared

Razrez-tear/destroy

Skorry- ?

Spatted-?

Zoobies-?

 After reading the selected chapter from A Clockwork Orange, I was able to find meaning in some of the words, but not all. This was a challenging task to complete. The words were used multiple times in the text and in different contexts. This allowed me to figure the words meaning. As I was reading, I would substitute the meaning I believed the word to mean, and the sentence seemed to make sense. I was able to use the context clues around the unknown words, which included the sentences prior and after to determining meaning. This helped define the words and allow me to understand it’s meaning in context to the text.

                         

 

Activity 2:

Read Exercise 7 on p. 85 and rather than showing it to an audience, complete the exercise yourself. Answer the questions, including the two at the top of p. 86.  

1.      Who tried to read the words letter-by-letter? Why not?

I did not try to sound the words out letter-by-letter because I teach my students that letter and sounds have relationship the letters within the word. Sounding words out letter-by-letter causes a problem when trying to blend the sound together. It’s important to chunk and break words down when sounding them out.

 

2.      Who tried to read the words mostly by chinking them into syllables?

I used the strategies of “chunking” to assist me in sounding the words out. I also used the pronunciation next to the word to assist me in the task of sounding the words out. I felt using the both strategies helped with sounding out and reading the words.

 

3.      Who tried to read the words by sampling the letters more or less all at once? My main strategiy was the use of the pronunciation key and “chunking”. I did not read the words by sampling the letters.

 

4.      What words do you know the meaning, or think you know the meaning of? To be honest, I don’t know the meaning of any of these words. However, I can make connections to words that are similar, but it doesn’t provide the actual meaning of the words in question. When looking at the word extravasate, I automatically think of extravagant, mostly due to the word beginning -“extra.” I do know the meaning of extra (added to or over and above) which might provide insight in determining the word meaning.

 

5.      Did pronouncing the words give you insight into their meaning?

The pronunciation key provided valuable insight in how to sound the words out. Although, it was a good strategy to determine the correct way to pronounce a word, it didn’t help me in determining the meaning of the words.

 

6.      How do you handle unknown words when you encounter them in normal reading?

As I’m reading, I use context clues in the reading selection to help determine the meaning of unknown words. I find it is helpful when determining unfamiliar words. As I’m reading I tend to use sentences before and after to help give clarity and meaning to the words. This strategy typically works for me when determining the meaning of words I may not understand. If this doesn’t work, I use my post-it notes to jot down the unknown words or question I might have in relation to the word. This allows me to remember words I need to look up to find meaning in order to understand the text successfully.

 

7.      What do you think are the implications of this experiment and discussion for how we should help students deal with unfamiliar print words?

This activity reinforced that reading is not about reading words in isolation. But it’s about reading words in context to understand a story. I can read a list of words and find no meaning behind them. If I was given a reading passage with those words, I would be able to use context clues to help determine word meaning. As teachers, our instruction should not just be on learning to read unfamiliar words, but how can I find meaning of unknown words when I’m reading.

Module 2: Instructional Challenge

Take a look at the following examples of children's dialect-based miscues while reading and the difference between the child's original response (OR) and expected response (ER). Then answer the questions that follow.

OR: It my little monkey here.	ER: Is my little monkey here?
OR: We got to tell.	ER: We've got to tell.
OR: Frog look at Toad calendar.	ER: Frog looked at Toad's calendar.
OR: A word what sounded good.	ER: A word that sounded good.
OR: hisself	ER: himself
OR: I can come to your party?	ER: Can I come to your party?

 
Are these children's miscues evidence of proficient or non-proficient reading? Explain. If you were teaching children who made these miscues, what, if any, assistance or teaching would you offer?  

  According to Weaver, good readers often miscue on simple words as they use context to construct meaning from the text.” (Weaver, 2012. p. 64) Proficient readers tend substitute pronouns or functional words as they are reading, mostly to due to their ability to construct meaning as they read and not focusing on identification of words. After examining the children’s miscues, I feel they are all proficient at reading expect for the first child’s response.  The proficient readers made miscues on pronouns and simple functional words but still maintained meaning from their reading. This shows their reading is at a proficient level because they are able to use strategies in their reading to find meaning and comprehend the text. However, in the first child’s response the miscue was on simple functional word which changed the meaning of the sentence from a statement to a question. I feel this child is a non-proficient reader due to the miscue leading to the change in meaning. I also feel it would be helpful to see the reading selection this child was reading as a way to see what was coming before and after this sentence. This might provide more clarity in the child’s reading ability and allow a teacher to plan meaning instruction for this student.

When looking at the examples above, I don’t feel it would be necessary to correct the miscues of the proficient readers, but I do feel it is necessary to correct the non-proficient reader as he/she changed meaning in the text. It’s important to correct a child’s reading when it results in the effectiveness to comprehend a reading selection. I feel it is important to address the miscues as soon as it occurs to encourage students to use strategies in their reading to find meaning instead of just reading words on a page.  

References:

Weaver, C. (2002). Reading process & practice. (3rd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Module 2: Reading Reflection

 The major folklore of reading instruction relates to the “theory” that reading is considered an exact process. In other words, the reader is expected to read everything exactly as printed on the page in order to understand the message of the author. In general the consuming public, legislatures, courts, and too many educators hold to this theory. It is like the theory of the world being flat during the time of Columbus.

--Robert Harper and Gary Kilarr

 The quote from Harper and Kilarr provides a very impactful statement to educators. As I read the quote, I visualize Harper and Kilarr disagreeing with ‘the “theory” that reading is considered an exact process.” (Weaver, 2012. p.41) I completely agree with Harper and Kilarr and that the purpose “of reading instruction should not be the accurate identification of every word, but rather the effective and efficient use of reading strategies in order to construct meaning.’’ (Weaver, 2002. p. 71)) As teachers, we need to focus more on the comprehension component of reading rather than being able to decode every word in a text. Reading involves using context, syntax, semantics, schemas, and graphic cues to gain understanding and meaning from a text.

In order to achieve comprehension in a reading selection, a reader does not need to read every word correctly. The text provided many running records to show how a reader can have a variety of miscues in their reading and still gain meaning from the text,  mostly due to the fact the a proficient reader use context-based strategies when they read. In other words, readers are thinking ahead to make predictions of what is coming next or what make sense to them and their prior knowledge.

  One particular example can be found on pg. 78 and 79. This example examines Danny’s reading ability, focusing on his miscues as well as his strategies used during reading to construct meaning. If reading was an “exact process”, then based on Danny’s 35 miscues, a teacher might consider him as being a struggling reader, which is not the case.  When taking a closer look at his miscues and the strategies he used during the reading, it is evident he is a “good reader” who applies strategies to comprehend.  According to the text, “these strategies, along with the many miscues that fit the context without needing correction, suggest that Danny is reading to construct meaning, and probably succeeding.” (Weaver, 2002. p. 79) It is important for teachers to take a closer look at our students reading and evaluate not just their miscues, but the strategies they are using to construct meaning from a text. This was an eye opener for me, and I plan to pay closer attention to my student's miscues, and the strategies they are using to find meaning when they read.

After reading the assigned chapters, I feel I have better understanding of what reading is. I will be honest; I have a different take on my reading instruction after reading the first 4 chapters. I now “recognize that reading is more a matter of constructing meaning than of identifying words.” (Weaver, 2012. p. 77) This example opened my eyes to my past students, and how I wish I could go back and examine their running records. I would love to see if their “miscues show good use of reading strategies.” (Weaver, 2012. p. 77)

Reference

Weaver, C. (2002). Reading Process & Practice (3rd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Module 1 Instructional Challenge

Module 1 Instruction Challenge

 Hocked gems financing him, our hero defied the scornful laughter. Think of it as an egg, not a table, he said. Then three sturdy sisters sought proof, forging over vast calmness, and sometimes over turbulent peaks and valleys, until at last welcome winged creatures appeared, signifying monumental success.

 

Answer these questions about the passage:

 

1.      1. What are the hocked gems?

I picture hocked gems as being “something” valuable to a person that might have been taken and sold to supply money for the voyage of Christopher Columbus.

 2. What should we think of as an egg and not a table?

I read this short passage several times trying to gain more meaning with each additional reading. The first time I read this passage, I thought it had something to do with a voyage on the sea due to the line “forging over vast calmness, and sometimes over turbulent peaks and valleys.” To me this indicates a ship sailing over calm and rough seas to reach a destination. On my second reading, the line “Think of it as an egg, not a table” provided additional meaning to the passage. This line allowed me to make the connection to Columbus and his voyage. Columbus thought the world was round (egg) and not flat (table).

 3. Who are the three sturdy sisters?

 In my third reading, I realized the three sisters were the other ships Christopher Columbus took on his voyage. He took The Nina, The Pinta, and The Santa Maria.

 4. What kind of winged creatures appeared?

I believe the winged creatures that appeared were birds to help Columbus know land was ahead. He used the birds as evidence that the world was in fact round, not flat. The birds would need some place to land after flying.  

If you were to use this passage with students, what schema would you need to activate with them first?

 If I were to use this passage with my students, I would first have to activate the student’s prior knowledge or schema on Christopher Columbus’ voyage to set the reading stage on this particular passage.

 

How can you help teach children whose schema and the text’s content don’t match?

I can see how this passage could be difficult to understand if a student didn’t have the appropriate schema in placed prior to reading this passage. This would be a great passage to read as a ending activity to close up a unit on Christopher Columbus. This would allow all students to have background knowledge of his voyage to understand the text as a whole. If students are still having difficulty understanding the text at the end of the unit, I would read the passage line by line explaining how it relates back to Columbus. Another activity I would try is to take the passage and write in in context the students would understand as it relates to Christopher Columbus. Using the re-written passage, I would have students match each line to original passage. This would allow for students to make some connections on their own, before a whole group discussion takes place.  
 

How much time should children spend in texts that don’t match their interests or schema?

      It doesn’t make any sense for me as a teacher to have my students read something that they are having so much trouble comprehending. As a teacher, I teach reading at my students level in order to teach comprehension skills that won’t cause them frustration or tears. It’s important for students to read passages on their independent level, when reading on their own, and instructional level when reading in a small group with the teacher. If it’s an activity that is to be completed whole group, I would probably pair up students to read the passage and allow for students to converse on what they read. If students are still having issues, I would offer context clues to help them access their schema to understand the text. I would also break down the passage line by line if any students continue to show difficult with understanding the text.