Module 3: Assignment 2

I believe that phonological awareness is important to determine reading readiness of children, however, I do not think that a child's ability to read nonsense words determines if they are behind or not. In undergrad, we learned a lot about how to introduce phonological awareness and assess student's reading readiness. I still believe that all of that is important. It is especially important for beginning readers. We can't expect children to be proficient readers right away. They have to know the basics. While I don't think a student's ability to read nonsense words predicts their reading proficiency, I believe it is completely necessary for students to learn the basics of phonemic awareness.
At my school, we use a direct instruction reading program. In the beginning of the program we focus primarily on letter sounds and how to blend them together. It is not until the students are familiar with how to blend together sounds to make words do they begin to read words the fast way, or as a whole word. When they are comfortable reading words as a whole, the move to sentences, and on to larger passages. Because they have learned how to sound words out using individual sounds, they are always able to read nonsense words without any issue as well as read passages proficiently.

Erica, a fifth grader, reads grade level passages at a rate of 177 words correct per minute, or 30% faster than grade level norms. When asked to retell what she has read, Erica struggles and is able to give little to no information from about the text. Many other children in Erica's class also read well above grade level expectations for fluency rate (or automaticity), but the teacher laments that they struggle with comprehension and using appropriate expression and intonation while they read. What is going on here? What advice can you offer the teacher? Write a memo to the teacher from the viewpoint of the school's Reading Specialist. Give the teacher and explanation for the phenomenon and offer her advice on dealing with the situation. Please keep the memo to no more than 400 words. Post it to your blog and name the posting "Module 3: Mock Memo from a Reading Specialist."

To whom it may concern: 
Erika is obviously focusing on the individual letters and sounds of a text rather than trying to construct meaning. The speed at which your students are reading doesn't really mean anything unless they are able to comprehend what they are reading. To help your students begin to comprehend their reading, I would suggest beginning with reading aloud. Stop during your reading and ask students basic comprehension questions. Their reading practices will reflect yous, so help them start good reading habits. Fill out story maps together as a class to start practicing pulling out key details from the text. 
Proficient readers often make miscues, so encourage your students to focus on the meaning of what they are reading. If they make a mistake, it is fine as long as they are still understanding what they are reading. 
Allow students to keep sticky notes nearby when they are reading. If they have questions, find something interesting, or make a connection while they are reading, they can make note of it on the sticky note. They can then trade with a partner to see what their partner gained from the text to gain new insight. 
I hope these suggestions help Erika become a more proficient reader.

Prominent Theorist Paper

Paulo Freire

Module 3 Reading Reflection

I completely disagree with Adams' statement that skillful readers focus on individual letters of words. I think that focusing on individual letters is a characteristic of emergent readers. As we've learned so far in our readings throughout this course, proficient readers very rarely read each individual word. They often make miscues because they are reading ahead and focusing on the meaning of the text. From the miscue research, we learned that "Good readers do not read word-by-word if this means foxating every word or reading every word as it is printed on the page" (Weaver 109). Often, when we read just to construct meaning, we quickly skim for key words or phrases.

Weaver, C. (1988). Reading process and practice: from socio-psycholinguistics to whole language. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.

Module 2 Activities 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.

Before Reading: I had no idea what these words could mean. I tried using common prefixes, roots, and suffixes to decode them with no luck.

Creech- a loud sound

Droogs- An animal

Glazzies- Glasses

Goloss- Shiny

Malenky- Money

Messel- a vehicle

Milicents- Change

Poolgy-Water

Rezrez-Around

Skorry-Scary

Spatted- Touching

Zoobies-Small animals

After reading, I used context clues to acquire the following definitions.

Droogs- Friends

Skorry- Quickly

Goloss- Voice

Glazzies- eyes

Zoobies- teeth

Malenky- just a bit

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. Combine this assignment with Activity 1 in this module. Create a blog post. Name this blog posting "Module 2: Activities 1 & 2."

Who tried to read the words letter by letter?

I did not try to read the words this way.

Who tried to read the words mostly by chunking them into syllables?

This was the strategy I used to try to decode these words.

Who tried to read the words by sampling the letters more or less all at onece?

I could not have read the words this way.

What words do you know the meaning of, or think you know the meaning of?

I know that submandibular is a gland located below the jaw bone or the mandible.

I know that a dissepiment is a tissue that separates something. It can be in plants or organs.

Did pronouncing the words give you insights into their meanings?

No.

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

I usually figure out meaning using context clues. Since there was no context, I had great difficulty decoding words that I wasn’t familiar with.

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

               I think that it is very important to provide students with many strategies to decode word meaning. Some students work well knowing root words. That was never me. I needed to know how to use the word. Context clues are a great way to decode meaning. Students need a variety of strategies to find what works best for them.

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 reponse (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? Post your thoughts to your blog. Name this blog posting "Module 2: Instructional Challenge."

I consider these responses to be evidence of proficient reading.  There are miscues in each response, but most of the errors are grammatical or non conventional sentence structure. In our text for the course, Weaver suggests that even the most proficient readers make miscues because their brains are constantly working for formulate meaning. The children are not answering incorrectly, but code switching their responses to their dialect. 

If I were teaching these children, I would praise them for being able to construct meaning and put their response in their own words. If I had a group of students who were making the same miscues, I may put them in a group and focus on grammar and sentence structure. I would also make sure that I had materials in the classroom for them to play with that encouraged the exploration of sentence structure like word tiles that they could put together. I would also read aloud often to expose them to the appropriate way of reading and responding without switching to their dialect. Something I have found useful in my classroom is the use of phonics phones. These allow students to hear themselves as they are reading.

Module 2 Reading Response

"The major folklore of reading instruction relates to the "theory" that reading is considered and 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

In the above quote, Harper and Kilarr disagree with the notion that students have to read each and every word in a text correctly and completely in order to comprehend the text. They believe that this is an old school idea "like the theory of the world being flat during the time of Columbus." I absolutely agree with this quote. In our readings, we learned about all the types of clues that students use to decode a text. Students can utilize graphic clues, context, syntax, and semantics to draw conclusions from the text. As it states in the text, miscues are not always bad.

In education today, so many assessments check students for knowing reading as an exact process. We do running records, check sight words, and push students to increase their words per minute. But what if we are missing the point? I found it so interesting when the text stated, "the percentage of miscues involving pronouns and function words tends to increase as one becomes a more proficient reader" (Weaver, 2002. p.72). This, to me, serves as proof that readers do not need to treat reading as an exact process in order to become successful.

As demonstrated in the text, sometimes a miscue is just a proficient reader predicting the next word of the text. Weaver shows us a running record of Jay. Jay predicts words. Although the words are not the same ones in the text, however, he is using context clues to decode meaning (Weaver, 2002. p66-68). I think that this type of miscue actually shows that the student is comprehending the text as they go along. This should be a desirable trait of proficient readers.

As a teacher, I feel that this quote from Weaver accurately describes my goals as I am implementing reading instruction: "The goal 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).

References:

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

Module 1: Activity 2

Complete Exercise #5 on p. 39 by reading the passage and answering questions a-g that follow it. How is it that you are able to answer such questions? What does this experience suggest about the kinds of �comprehension� questions found in workbooks and on standardized tests?

1.     What is corandic?

Corandic is an emurient grof with many fribs.

2.     What does corandic grank from?

It comes from corite, and oig witch cargs like lange.

3.     How do garkers excarp the tarances from the corite?

Garkers excart the tarnces by glarking the corite and starping it in tranker-clarped storbs.

4.     What does the slorp finally frast?

It finally frasts a pragety, blickant crankle.

5.     What is corranda?

Coranada is a cargurt, grinkling corandic and borigen.

6.     How is the corandic nacerated from the borigen?

It is nacerated from the borigen by means of locracity.

7.     What do the garkers finally tharp?

The garkers finally tharp a glick, bracht, glupous garpant, corandic, which granks in many starps.

The only way to answer these questions is to look for key words in the passage. Luckily, the questions were in order, making them easier to answer. This activity suggests that standardized tests and comprehension questions are more testing students’ abilities to search for key words and copy answers than they are a true assessment of knowledge and understanding. I remember as a student never actually reading a passage that was assigned, but skimming to fins the correct answer. This really bothers me as a teacher. I want to be able to create assessments that are a true reflection of comprehension and knowledge, not copied answers from a text book.

Module 1: Activity 1

Instructional Challenge

Instructional Challenge:

Read the following passage:

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. What are the hocked gems?

            I think that hocked gems are valuable things put together to create enough assets to make Columbus’ voyage possible.

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

            While many people believed that the earth was flat, Columbus believed that the earth was round. I believe he is referring to the earth.

3. Who are the three sturdy sisters?

            The three sturdy sisters are the three boats in which they travelled.

4. What kind of winged creatures appeared?

            I think the winged creatures were birds signaling that land was near.

If you were to use this passage with students, what schema would you need to activate with them first? How can you help teach children whose schema and the text�s content don�t match? How much time should children spend in texts that don�t match their interests or schema? Post your thoughts to your blog. Name this blog entry "Module 1: Instructional Challenge."

If I were to use this passage with my students, I would have to activate my students’ schema on Christopher Columbus or make sure students had some sort of background knowledge about Columbus before reading this excerpt. I would not introduce something like this without first teaching a unit on Columbus since students need substantial knowledge to comprehend this text. Making sure students have adequate background knowledge is going to cut out a lot of frustration. When I was reading it, I had to break the passage into individual lines and work on decoding one line at a time. This may be a helpful strategy for students as well.

I believe that students should spend very little time in texts that don’t match their interests or schema. When I teach reading in my classroom, my students are broken up by their reading levels. I think this helps cut down on frustration when all students are at their instructional level. As a teacher, it is also important for me to create meaningful learning experiences so that students are engaged and interested in what we are learning. For example, when teaching social studies in my classroom, I do a lot of acting out and get the whole class involved. The students love it and recall the information more readily than they would have if I had just told them about it. They have a personal connection with the story. I think creating that personal connection is vital because you can refer back to it to activate schema. It also keeps students engaged and interested.

Module 1 Reading Response

Sharla Bryant

6/14/13

Module 1 Reading Response

               As a kindergarten teacher, teaching reading is extremely important to me. I am always working hard to make sure my students are receiving the best reading instruction that I can give them. For this reason, I found Weaver’s thoughts on the definitions of reading that teachers project to their students so interesting. I realized very quickly that through our current practices with the phonics program that is used at my school, we are encouraging students to see reading through the skills approach. We focus so much in the beginning stages on letter recognition, letter sounds, and sight words. We are focusing on teaching students the process and lose sight of teaching them a comprehensive approach.

               In chapter one of Reading Process & Practice, Weaver states that “underlying a comprehensive literacy approach is the conviction that first and foremost, reading means constructing meaning and using everything you know in order to do it” (Weaver 3). I think that it is important to teach phonics and to make sure students have a strong base, but it is also important to teach children to construct meaning.

Resource

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