Week 7

Assignment 1:

• How did the kindergarten teachers, Sheila Owens and John Sinnett, incorporate elements of emergent literacy in their lessons? Which elements were the primary focus of the lessons? 

They used their classroom as a resource so that students could see and make use of all of the letters and words around them. Sinnett told his students to use their eyes, ears and mouth and get ready to listen. He used fill in blanks to get the students to think about the reading.

• What part did oral language play in both classrooms? 

The students shared their thoughts, answers, and sentences aloud. The students applauded each other for their work.

• How did each teacher use the Word Wall to support word study? 

Owens used the word wall for the students to create sentences. Sinnett used the word wall to fill in blanks in a shared reading passage.

• What were examples of planned, explicit instruction in these excerpts? What were examples of opportunistic instruction? 

The directions were clear. The students knew what was expected of them. The teacher asked what can we write here, or think about what would fit best here. The teachers gave appropriate instruction for all students to benefit on their level.

• Both kindergarten teachers used whole-class instruction for their word study lessons. How did it meet the needs of all students? 

Students were given time to think about the answer. The teacher didn't call on any student right away, rather all of the students had the opportunity to think and come up with an answer on their own. Students were given encouragement to succeed and encouraged each other too.

Assignment#2 After viewing the first-grade and first- and second-grade classes, answer these questions:

• How did Charmon Evans and Shari Frost differ in their phonics instruction? Why do you think they used different approaches? 

Evans gave her students the words and they read it. Frost gave her students the opportunity to share words that they had in mind. The reason for this difference is probably because Evans had a special group that needed additional assistance, while Frost's class was able to preform higher level tasks.

• Which principles of phonics instruction were illustrated in these classroom lessons? 

The teacher introduced the 'a' consonant 'e' before reading the story so the students would be familiar with the words when they would come across them. The teachers wrote or let the students think of all the rhyming words, changing the first letter to make a new word.

• Which lessons seemed to promote more student engagement and motivation? 

I enjoyed Frost's lesson better because she used a visual aid that all of the students were familiar as the example word. The students were more engaged because they needed to come up with the words by themselves which made them think more.

• Shari Frost used her "Poem of the Week" and Becky Pursley used her "Readers Theater activities" to practice reading accuracy and fluency. How did student performance in the two activities differ? How would you assess the reading fluency of students performing Readers Theater based on the three stages of fluency? 

The class that read the poem of the week read it as a class while the group that performed the readers theater read their parts individually and everyone else listened. Assessing students could be done by evaluating how well they can read the sight words, how fast they can reading, and whether or not they know when it's their turn to read.

• What other activities have you planned to promote reading fluency?

Students can read and reread a selection to practice familiar texts until they can read it quickly and accurately. Then they can draw a picture about what they read.

Assignment#3 Practice QRI-5 with a child. Briefly summarize your experience and analyze the data you collected.

I practiced the QRI5 on a second grade student. I started with a primer word list. I let her go through the entire list although she missed many words. Then I gave her the pre-primer 3 word list and she got 16 out of 20 words correct. I realized that this was her instructional level, so I gave her a pre-primer passage to read. She read it very well. She only missed a few words that she was able to self correct based on the meaning of the passage. She answered all of the questions correctly. When I spoke to her teacher afterword and I told her that it seems like she is on a higher level than I was able to see based on the word list, she told me that reading sight words is not a strong point for her, and I agree with her. So although her comprehension skills are strong, she can't go to a higher level of reading because she will probably get stuck on too many words.

Week 6

Task 1:

-print awareness

It was fun to take the tests to see how much a understood about print awareness. Thankfully, I did better on the post test than I dis on the pretest. It was amazing to watch Mera spell her own name and to go shopping with her mother. It really looked like she understand the connection between the items on the list and the things that they were buying. This was especially interesting for me because I have a daughter about this age and if I would focus on showing her printed things and the parts of a book, she could be that much more prepared for reading. There are many opportunities that can arise during the day to show my daughter about print and it will be to her benefit if I take advantage of these opportunities.

-the sounds of speech

Once we know how to read, write, and spell, we take for granted the fact that each speech sound must be heard and identified in order to properly understand what is being spoken. Students who don't speak English as their first language or who have slight hearing problems may not hear the difference between spoken sounds. Some students can hear the difference but are not able to articulate it. Phonemes are speech sounds. Students need to know the difference between phonemes and letters in order to read successfully and they need to recognize the connection between the letters and phonemes.

-phonemic awareness

The ability to pick out sounds in spoken language is directly related to understanding how to read. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and identify different sounds in particular words. When a child knows that sounds make up words and when you change the sound, a new word will emerge, then he is ready to read. There are many activities that teachers can do with students to develop their phonemic awareness. Some activities include changing letters to form new words, isolating sounds in a given word, and blending a few sounds to make a word. Students usually enjoy these activities and at the same time they are learning vital skills. I enjoyed taking the tests; I found them informative, while challenging myself to think.

-phonics

Students must understand the relationship between sounds and the written letters that make these sounds. Phonics is the understanding that there is a clear, logical and predictable way to know which specific written letters make their specific sounds. This is generally taught in Kindergarten or first grade with explicit and systematic instruction. Explicit instruction is precise instruction for learning letter-sound relationships and systematic instruction is teaching about this in a logical and organized sequence.

Task 2: Mary read the first reading list with 90% accuracy, resulting in independent reading level. She read the level two word list with 80% accuracy which is on the instructional reading level. Examining students' reading levels by using these word lists, helps the examiner understand the level that which the students should begin. We were able to see that Mary needed to begin with level two because that is where she can read on the instructional level.

Week 5

Assignment 1: The student was able to correctly read 18 out of 20 words from the word list. This means that level 1 word list was on the independent level.

Assignment 2: For this word list, the student knew 16 out of 20 words correctly. This means that level 2 word list was on the instructional level for her.

Assignment 3: The student read about 4 words from the level 3 word list. This word list is on the frustration level. The examiner did not make her continue to try to read the rest of the words on the list because it was obvious that it was too difficult.

Week Four: Assignment Three

      The QRI5 is an informal assessment given to students to determine the level of a student and to assess the different types of texts that a student can read and the different ways a student can read and understand. The assessment includes reading (orally or silently), retelling the story and answering questions. The passages that are selected to be read are specifically chosen for each student at their grade level. The assessment will determine if the text is at the independent, instructional, or frustration level in comprehension and word recognition for the student.

Week Four: Assignment One

RTI is a program that enables teachers to have a clear understanding of the level of each of their students. By constantly assessing students' development, no child can slip by and each student receives exactly what he/she needs. The general education teacher gives the whole class high quality, evidence-based instruction using a reading program. When the teacher sees that some students are not keeping up, those students receive tier two instruction. Tier two is smaller groups and more intense instruction. The students in tier two still participate in the general classroom instruction, but receive an additional 30 minutes. The small percentage of students that are not progressing even after tier two instruction, receive more instruction time, individually or in very small groups. These students will be evaluated for special education.

My question is: when do the students that need tier 2 or 3 instruction receive that extra thirty minutes or hour instruction? If they are included in the general tier 1 instruction, do they have to miss lunch or a different important lesson?

Week Four: Assignment Two

There are many reading programs available for schools and teachers to use for the benefit of their students. When a school is looking into a good reading program for its students, the educators need to research each program to find the one that will best suit the needs of their school. A reading program that include theories from a few different sources, will most likely be a good program. Programs that have a combination of methods will display different angles of reading instruction and add different styles and perspectives to the teaching. Reading programs should include explicit instruction about specific reading skills. These lessons should be incorporated into the reading, so that the students will know how to apply the appropriate skill to the context. Teacher read alouds and independent student reading should be included in a reading program. Meaningful assessment are an integral part of a reading program. Good reading programs are geared for both struggling and non struggling readers. When children are at the beginning stages of reading, it is important to give them a lot of support, encouragement and lots of time to practice the new skills. All children will learn differently and many programs will address these different needs, Teachers should follow whichever reading program they are using and be aware of the needs of each student to give him/her the specific instruction is needed at any given time.

Assignment 2:

Is it more important for students to learn content material or to learn how to learn?

Week Three

Assignment 1:

It is impossible to get all educators and teachers to agree on one method of teaching literacy. A study on the difference between NAEP tests and other state given tests won't change this either. On the other hand, I think that all educators would agree on the importance of being able to respond thoughtfully to reading. Just knowing and being able to recall information from text is not enough. Students should be able to take the reading a step further and ask questions about the reading, connect to what he/she read and identify significant parts of the reading, among many things. After I read the article, The Assessment of thoughtful Literacy in NAEP, I thought about how my teachers taught me to read. I did not like to answer questions that made me think. I much preferred the spit back questions in which the answers could be found somewhere within the text. I think that many of my classmates would agree with me and the reason for this is because we were never taught how to think. We didn't know what to do or what was expected from us. A teacher may not realize that thinking needs to be taught. I believe it certainly does. The result of the study was that teachers should “encourage their students to engage thoughtfully with the text and attend to the ways that details support thoughtful conclusions...”

The next article, Reponse to Intervention, What Teachers of Reading Need to Know, was very informative about the implementation of RTI. I learned about RTI before, but this article included a specific example which made it easy to understand how RTI should be carried out for an individual student. Students who are not meeting benchmarks, should have the opportunity to get extra help so they can reach their maximum potential. Some students that are not reaching benchmarks may not have the capabilities to do so, but a teachers should do his/her part to help each student. RTI is a brilliant way to make sure that students are at the level that they should be and if not, to receive intervention. Teachers should try to use various teaching methods so that all students can benefit. Sometimes learning in groups is best, sometimes individually and sometimes as a class. Each student may respond differently to different learning styles, but many students will enjoy and appreciate the change of the learning method. Teachers don't have to wait until RTI is implemented to use peer tutoring, one-on-one, or small-group instruction. In some circumstances, schools won't be able to afford to have a team work with individual students. If that is the case, teachers can follow the RTI method just as a way of observing student progress and evaluating when a student needs additional help.