Slavin (Ch. 1)
Is there a reading crisis in America? Yes, I would say there is because even though the reading skills are not diminishing, they are not improving any either. They are not as good as they could be or should be.
Are we doing as well as we should in elementary school? No, we are not doing as well as we should because there are no signs of improvement overall. I think unfortunately there are many elementary schools where children are taught just enough to get by and they are not given the opportunity to exceed the minimum requirements.
How instruction can impact children:
Example: Average School (Hardin Park)
100 first graders in 4 classrooms (25 in each)
Categories Percentage Count Count
Of Students in School in Classroom
(100) (25)
Natural Readers (40-50%) 50% 50 12
Teachable (30-40%) 35% 35 8
Tutorable (10-20%) 13% 13 4
True Dyslexics (1-2%) 2% 2 1
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Morris (Ch. 2)
Explain what Morris means by the traditional role of kindergarten is “to level the playing field” in terms of literacy experience. This means that teachers and schools should do everything they can to provide their kindergarten students, who have had very little experience with reading in the past, the skills necessary to meet the reading challenges they will face as first graders.
What literacy activities should be included in a kindergarten reading program? Reading aloud to children, guided contextual reading, letter-sound study, and writing.
Why read aloud to children? (5 things children learn) (1) Storybook reading will help extend children’s experiences beyond their immediate surroundings. (2) Offers children vocabulary to name the new experiences. (3) Allows them the opportunity to become familiar with the characteristic rhythms and structures of written language. (4) Listening to a story allows children to create a mental picture and keep it in their minds so they can later use it to help find meaning in the story. (5) So they can make a distinction between written language and spoken language.
Why is guided contextual reading important in kindergarten? This is important because it allows the children to make connections to what they are reading. They gain understanding through pictures, word patterns, and repetition.
What is echo reading? This is when a teacher reads, and then the child echo’s what the teacher read.
Describe dictated experience stories (language experience approach—LEA): This approach uses the child’s own experiences and language to help teach them how to read. Children shares these experiences as a group and the teacher writes them all down on chart paper, then they are read and reread by the children with the teachers help.
Describe big book approach (shared reading approach): Big books have two very important defining characteristics. (1)The pictures and print are oversized so that a large group of children will be able to follow along with the teacher as he or she reads. (2) The language patterns are natural and rhythmic and often times use repetition. Big books repeat high frequency words at least four times if not more throughout the text. On day 1 the teacher will introduce a new book and read it to the class. While doing this the teacher will also ask questions pertaining to the story line. The teacher will also point to the words as they read. Then the children and the teacher will read the story together. On day 2 the children might do several choral readings while the teacher continues to track the words, then the teacher might have a child come up and do the tracking while the other children continue to read the story together. On day 3 the teacher will work with small groups of children to observe their individual abilities to finger point and read small sections of a story.
Why include both LEA and shared reading methods in kindergarten?
- They both have natural language patterns.
- The reading process is continually modeled by the teacher through the use of finger pointing while reading the text.
- Both emphasize the importance of group coral readings of stories.
- Both rely on memory and repetition to help support children’s initial attempts at reading.
- They provide a rich, multilayered language experience that children can draw from at different levels.
Why is finger pointing so important for early readers? It allows children to make a connection between words that are spoken and words that are in print.
Questions about letter-sound study: No questions. This section was explained very well and was very informative.
Questions about early writing: Is there such a thing as giving too much assistance to a child who is in the early writing stages?
Is there a role for independent reading in kindergarten? Yes, I feel as though there is a role for independent reading because children are already starting to make connections with what they hear and what they see.
Questions about early assessment and how it informs instruction: Can these types of assessments be too generalized?
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Morris (Ch. 3)
What does Fraatz (1987) mean by “paradox of collective instruction”? Teachers have a huge responsibility because not only do they have to provide reading instruction to all of their students but they also have to be aware of the individual differences of each of their children and how to address those differences effectively.
What are the three critical components of learning to read? 1. Attend to the individual sounds within words. 2. Decode printed words by matching letters to sounds. 3. Automatize decoding or word level processing so the mind can concentrate on the meaning of what is being read.
List the four tasks that the first-grade teacher can use to assess individual children’s reading ability during the first week of school. Describe what each task is used to assess? 1. Alphabet: is their alphabet knowledge strong, fairly emergent, or do they have gaps in their lower case alphabet knowledge. 2. Concept of word in text: Their ability to finger point read. 3. Spelling: Do they have the ability to represent beginning and ending consonants as well as vowel in their spelling? 4. Word recognition: Can they recognize first grade words? (P.35)
What are some of the challenges of small-group instruction that face students and teachers? Some feel that children’s self esteem can be harmed by placement in low reading groups. Also children who are locked into a low reading group placement throughout several grades can fall drastically behind their peers in reading. Last of all the practice of ability grouping presents teachers with substantial organizational and management problems within the classroom. (P.36)
How does Supported Oral Reading (SOR) differ from round robin reading in guiding children’s contextual reading? SOR offers guided story comprehension, modeling of fluent contextual reading, monitors children’s rereading of any given story, and finally provides children with the opportunity to show his or her mastery of the story.
Why is appropriate leveling of books important and how has it been used in intervention and classroom settings? It is important because it keeps children on track and helps place him or her at the suitable instructional level to meet their individual needs. Changes are made as the child moves through the curriculum at his or her own pace.
Describe the developmental sequence of word study instruction. What does the continuum consist of? Why is it recommended that teachers follow such a sequence of instruction? (1) The teacher must understand the content or developmental continuum of word study instruction. (2) The teacher must be able to determine where the individual students need to be instructed along the continuum. (3) The teacher must develop a method or procedure for teaching the various letter-sound relationships and spelling patterns. The continuum consists of beginning consonants, word families, short vowels, and one-syllable vowel patterns. This is recommended because if instruction is aimed too low it wastes time and effort and if instruction is aimed too high the child can become frustrated and or confused. Following this type of sequence of instruction keeps everyone on track and at the appropriate level.
How could you assess where a beginning reader’s is at on the continuum of word recognition skill? You can assess where a beginning reader is at by what they know, do they know their beginning consonants, word families, short -vowel sounds, short- vowel patterns, etc.
Describe word sorting activities to teach beginning sound consonants and short-vowel word families. A typical word sorting activity may involve sorting twelve short a words into three rhyming patterns. The teacher will begin by putting three header words on the table. The children must be able to read these headers. Then the teacher will model how to sort one or two short a words under the appropriate header. Finally the children take turns sorting the remaining word cards, reading down the column each time they sort a word. As soon as the group conquers sorting and reading the words in column format, the teacher will introduce activities, such as Memory, Bingo, Go Fish etc. that will provide the children with practice in reading and writing the short a words in isolation.
What skills does word sorting help develop in beginning readers coupled with word games and spell checks? (1) Sight vocabulary which is learning to read many short-vowel words at sight (ex.cat, fan, sit, top, etc.). (2) Decoding facility which is to decode or sound out other short-vowel words (ex. clap, tip, fed, shop, etc.).
What is instructional pacing? What factors were found by Barr (1974, 1982) to affect effective pacing? Instructional pacing refers to a first grade teacher’s skill in guiding his or her students through a set of graded reading materials. The four factors that affect effective pacing are as follows: (1) difficulty of the classroom reading materials, (2) time allocated to reading instruction, (3) number of low readers in the classroom, and (4) the teachers years of experience teaching first grade. (P.49-50)
In what ways can writing help beginning reader’s development? In the early months writing helps develop phoneme awareness. As the year progresses’ writing allows first grade readers to assume of an author. This also gives the children continual opportunities to read and reread text. Last of all it give children a purposeful arena for experimenting with, practicing, and eventually internalizing letter sounds, spelling patterns, and sight words. (P.52)
What are three tasks that could be used to assess end-of-year reading achievement? Describe the tasks briefly.
- Word recognition task: the child attempts to read a list of forty words, graded in difficulty from early first grade to mid-second grade. 1. If the child is unable to read a word within three seconds, the examiner moves on to the next word. Testing continues until the child misses seven words in a row. One point is awarded for each word read correctly.(P.53)
Score of 30 or above=a late first grade reading level
Score of 22-29= a primer reading level
Score of 14-21= a late-pre-primer reading level
Score of 13 and below = an early-pre-primer reading level
- Spelling task: the child attempts to spell a list of fifteen words. Each of the fifteen words is scored according to a developmental rubric devised by Morris and Perney (1984) (P.54)
- Passage reading task: the child reads aloud up to six passages that progress in difficulty from early first grade to late second grade. The final four passages (primer, late first grade, early second grade, and late second grade) contain 100 words each. (P. 54)
The assessment part at all these different stages is sort of intimidating. I hope I can assess correctly! I’m nervous about that. Still, I can’t wait to get in the classroom, what about you?