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.