Comprehension

 Right of the bat this weeks readings struck me with Pardo's opening sentence talking about how teachers need to understand comprehension and all that is involved in comprehending before students can be effective comprehender's. As educators it's easy to think that our job is only to teach but really are job is to learn. To learn the subjects we are teaching and the most effective and up to date methods of teaching them, to learn from our students and base our lessons on their needs, and to learn are own strengths and weaknesses and constantly work for improvement. This is reinforced by Gill's discussion of the comprehension matrix. Utilizing resources can make teaching easier, more effective and more fun.
Comprehension like all aspects of reading is complex Comprehension itself is all about interaction with texts and bringing your own knowledge, experiences, and ideas into the text you're making sense of. This correlates with a responsibily for the teacher to introduce the students to a lot of text so they can broaden their vocabulary and knowledge and thus comprehension. It also is a responsibility to introduce text that bring unfamiliar and new ideas that can fall anywhere from scientific language to cultural ideas outside what students are normally exposed to. Reading is all about putting pieces together. It is a very involved experience.

 Teaching students to make connections helps them learn to do it automatically.

 You can also help readers show their thinking to increase comprehension. I really like this activity below.

The final article showed that it's never too early to teach reading comprehension. As with all aspects of reading it develops as the student develops as a learner. 

Question of the day: What part of comprehension do you is the most difficult for teachers to teach?
What methods would you use to promote comprehension that are more fun than just a worksheet?

Word Study: reading requires words

It's becoming more and more clear that reading is all about exposure, which make sense sinse reading is a part of everyone's daily. Students word knowledge is highly related to comprehension, if they don't know important words it is very hard to understand what they are reading. Developing vocabulary is a continuous process throughout life. Giving the students different skills decipher meaning of words themselves can make reading more fun, less difficult, and more practiced. I really liked some of the idea's of the Ten important words plus. I really want to teach the younger grades so I tried to tink of some ways it could be tweaked to make it more level appropriate for beginning readers:

1. In readings for younger children there are less difficult words because their vocabularies are smaller. A teacher in the younger grades may want to have the students pick out four words. Since the children are still developing reading skills the teacher may want to read the text to the class first and let them listen for comprehension and then they can go back and find four words they may not know on their own.
2. After the children get their 4 words do a similar chart and see which words the students chose. Have a discussion about the words. 
3. Let the children practice using the words in a sentence. Choose one word for each day and have them write a sentence that includes that word used correctly.
4.  Next, put them into groups and have them talk about what clues helped them decide what a word meant and what other words could be used in its place.(The beginning of understanding synoyms and comprehension) Have them read their sentences to eachother and talk about them.
5. On Friday, or however you want to do it, have the students get in their groups again and make a story using their words and sentences from the week. This will be fun for them and then they can present to the class. This gives you the chance to discuss any misinterpretations but also to praise the creative ways the children used the words to express an idea.

I think the writing exercises can help students with the concepts discussed about invented spelling. The more students are requried to read and write the more they will be exposed to words and learn to use them correctly, spell them correctly and understand their meaning. Maybe teachers could even pick out the words that children may struggle with and do a making words activity with the students before they do the the Important vocabulary words. Plan the lesson using the words of the week so if one of of your words of the week is gigantic us that for a making words activity before you define it and use it in a sentence.

I think a word wall like the one above could be a really cool way to keep tracks of the word the students have learned. Tis not only shows them their progress but gives them constant exposure to the words so they may continue to use them in discussion and writing. It might be really great to comment on the children using these words and encourage them to do so.
The blog I got this from has some really  good ideas about activities for writing : http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top_teaching/2011/02/my-january-top-ten-list-writing-lessons-and-resources#.UKr-gAb6MlE.pinterest

Questions of the Day:
 Do you think it would be effective to blend the two activities I talked about?
What other ideas do you have about incorporating these lessons into daily class, maybe use a book about butterflies when discussing metamorphosis in science?

Fluency: It's more than just words on a page

Throughout the reading a metaphor kept popping in my head about fluency. Fluency is a lot like watching a movie you don't completely understand when you are a kid and then rewatching it as an adult. How many jokes or important plot twist go unnoticed because all your trying to do is unerstand the movie well enough to get through it? One of the most important points in the reading was that it's not just a teachers job to decide whether students had problems with frequency but why and what parts. It talked about how fluency has different parts and one minute assessments and other traditional methods aren't cutting it. It's difficult sometimes to make so many factors fit into one assignment and limited time in the classroom. As the readings discussed using interesting, easier to read texts to practice fluency with I thought it might be really fun to do with music and found a really excellent example of a teacher blog on Pinterest that does just that:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2012/12/using-music-improve-reading-fluency

I'm all about alternative methods to teaching ideas and I feel like this is a really good way to practice fluency. Students can hear what it's supposed to sound like and the inflection(prosody), practice speed(rate of speed), and try to understand what the text is saying without too much effort(accuracy and comprehension). I also really like that she points out how songs build vocabulary. Wanting my ELL credit makes me wander what awesome cultural exposure children could get by bringing in their own music. I can also see this having a high level interest and it it building student's confidence. How much easier is it to read a song or poem in front of the class if you've been exposed to it. Student's will grow more confident and teachers will raise expectations which will lead to more success. 

Questions of the day: Do you think that music would be a good way to implement fluency practice in the classroom?
What other aspects of reading could be improved this way?

Sounding out and reading coaching leads to success

While reading about how sounding out and reading coaching is an effective tool for early readers I got to thinking about how important these skills are for later on. Teaching young children to use pictures and letter sounds to decipher a word is the basis of using context clues to better comprehend literature later on.This skill can be developed in many different ways but one way that seems really effective is worksheets that have both pictures and words and the student has to decide what word goes where(context) and sound them out(phonetics). For example if a student can read the first sentence on the worksheet on right they can practice using pictures and sounding out to put in the correct word. These can be practiced using general cues like what do you know about trains? That way the student better figures out the answer without  too much prompting. I think on of the most important parts of what Cunningham reading said was basically just because you can sound out a word doesn't mean you know what it means. A worksheet like the one below could definitely help see if I child is just sounding out or if they understand what the word says. A student working on number one

may be able to read the word bag but only if they possess the correct vocabulary will know the word is supposed to be log.

Discussion Question: Do you think theses activities could help with coaching?
What other ways can we make sure students are receiving the right amount of assistance(and right type)?

Reading is possible for eveyone

One of the most important aspects of encouraging children to read is making reading enjoyable. This doesn't mean just giving the kids who read the most books prizes or putting them in a special group. Teachers really have to think about effective rewards that benefit all students and avoid making anyone feel inferior. It is also our job to assess students and help them in areas they are struggling. In class and the readings we have discussed that reading is multifaceted. From my perspective that means the activities to increase reading skills should be diverse and effective without being monotonous.  Children could have different activities during different weeks based on where they are struggling. You can alternate the activities so everyone does them so no student feels targeted.

 

 Rather than an extrinsic reward for simply reading you can reward children the effort and thoughtfulness they put into the activities. Really encourage the students in the areas where they are struggling. Rather than "you're the best reader in the class" you encourage critical thinking  through statements like "You did a really great job thinking about what those tough words might mean and defining them" In Bell's article they use the word "empowerment" which I believe is the best way to motivate children. It matters how you present information, children should not be limited on what they can and can't do currently but should be treated as they have endless potential for success and growth. 

Question of the day: What ways can you encourage better reading?

How can you empower children to use their strengths and improve on their weaknesses?

How can you avoid using assessment incorrectly?

Exposure is Everything

Ability to read is impacted from many things from past comprehension of vocabulary to phonemic awareness. One of the things that is most important to the beginning of reading is that children have a real word understanding of the usefulness of reading(Cunningham 30).  This reminded me of one of my favorite Dr. Seuss Quotes.

Children have an amazing capability to record and recall information. If they can be taught that the information in a way that makes it seem important and applicable to their lives they will be even more eager to pick it up(Cunningham 29).

The Jone's article further highlights the importance of literacy starting at home. Whenever we are in a actual classroom we will have students from a variety of different home lives which means they will probably have different literary backgrounds. For example, a student who has two parents who are college professors is probably going to hear different vocabulary at home and have different exposure to literature than a child whose parents do not read themselves or maybe have less education. As teachers part of our job will be to work with parents as well as students. If we can get parents to encourage reading at home then we will have better readers in our classrooms. We can provide tools like this:

Creating dialogue between parents and their children about reading can really help students excel, especially the ones who are struggling in a classroom environment. Phonemic awareness(Cunningham Pg. 32) can be increased by children hearing their parents say words like 'Cap' and 'Cat' when reading together at home. The student will learn that the two words start the same because they sound the same. Reading becomes more and more exciting as the children start making more connections and become more confident. Concrete words(pg 33) can be expanded on as children's interests are targeted. If a child loves cats they may already know the word 'Cat' because it is important to them. Give them the book "Cat in the Hat" and you expand there vocabulary and their interest.

Reading is complex and many aspects contribute to a child's success at reading. Thankfully these concepts can be taught by things as simple as conversations about stories or the words kids hear. Also, remember that sometimes socialization can be as strong of a motivator as parent teacher involvement. If you foster an environment where reading is cool and everyone is doing it then even the students who are initially uninterested are likely to get involved.

Question of the day: What ways could you promote parents practicing literacy at home?
What ways can you help bridge the gap between kids who have had less exposure to literacy and those who have had a lot?

Reading Instruction Done Right Can Make The Student Shine Bright!

Reading can be a very hard thing to learn how to do. Think about it, you learn some shapes are actually letters, letters represent sounds, sounds form words, and words represent objects or feelings or places. It can be very overwhelming if students are not taught to enjoy the process. The readings this week really emphasized the importance of three aspects of reading education: Integration into other subjects, A wide variety of types of reading and reading responses, and teachers monitoring their students progress. It was emphasized that teaching literacy is all about having a balanced class room.
On Pinterest I found activities that could be used in effective reading instruction:

On pages 3 and 9 Cunningham discusses integrating reading into other subjects. These 10 nonfiction activities could be used for subjects like history or science as well as reading. For example, if you have the students read an article about the metamorphosis of butterflies they could then do activity 2 and draw out words like cocoon. This not only reinforces the vocabulary from science, that can be difficult, but also causes the students to create a mental representation of the new word.

This type of activity could also be used to promote different kinds of reading and reading responses. If you are reading for history class(again integrating other subjects into literary education) about the Boston tea party you could have your students do activity 3 and act out the important parts. Activities like this can get pretty silly but they do an excellent job of promoting interest in the material and helping the students better remember what they learned.

Finally teacher assessment can be done several ways. Using activities 5 and 9 can accurately determine if the students are learning what the objectives require without the stigma and pressure of a traditional test. Getting the students involved in their self-assessments can help motivate them to do deeper thinking which is important to learning. You can encourage the students to think deeper so instead of a question like "Did Joe hit his sister?" instead ask "What caused Joe to get upset at his sister and then what happened?" Thinking about motivations in the story and more critical thinking is part of the Higher Level Comprehension discussed throughout the reading.

Keeping students excited about reading is much easier when the teacher works to think outside the box and be creative. The readings confirm that if you make reading a fun consistent part of your daily classroom activities students will read better and enjoy it more.

Question of the day: What other activities do you think could be incorporated into the classroom to encourage literacy?