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Module 4: Activity 2

NPR “Topic Areas”

I think all five ‘topic areas’ are beneficial and necessary at some point in a student’s journey to read. However, some are definitely more important and are used more often when learning to read. Fluency is very important when it comes to making sense of the text a student is reading. If a student is not fluent, they create a bigger barrier between them and their reading. Also, I think the topic area of comprehension is key. As we have been learning in this class thus far, ultimately reading is the act of understanding a text while reading. A student can sit and read a book or even short passage all day long, but if they are not gaining insight into the story, they are not reading. Comprehension must be reached in order for a student to be a successful reader.

Allington’s ‘Missing Pillars’

Just like the NPR ‘topic areas,’ fluency and comprehension are very important to me as a teacher. In addition, I feel that in primary grades, phonics is necessary when beginning to learn to read. Just like with Robin in activity one, he used letter sound recognition and chunking to help him read. Also, vocabulary is important when trying to comprehend a passage. Vocabulary helps students use context clues to give meaning to unfamiliar words. Without vocabulary, students would not be able to put meaning with text.

  

Module 4: Activity 1

Wow! What an inspirational video. I must admit, it brought tears to my eyes to see how much Robin struggled in the beginning of his reading journey. I could not imagine being his age and not being able to read. However, it is reality for many people. Many of ‘those’ people are sitting in our classrooms today. They know nothing but failure and possibly wonder ‘what’s the point’? Toward the beginning of the video, I could tell Robin was using context clues as he was reading. For example, he was able to use syntactics when he read, “I’ll give you some when it is ready”. He tried to say “I’ll gave you…,” but he knew that did not sound grammatically correct. Also, Robin used chunking to help him read. He was able to recognize parts of words such as ate, est, art to help him decipher entire words. It was neat to see him sound out congratulations simply by knowing the word ‘rat’ and ‘con’. This was such a wonderful testimony to teachers. It reminds us that even though our students struggle (in any content area), do not give up because there is hope out there. 

Module 4: Instructional Challenge

In reference to Weaver, I feel that this student falls under two of the “Reader Characteristics” on pages 244 and 246: “Reader doesn’t seem to know that reading should make sense,” and “Reader doesn’t seem to use prior knowledge and context to predict what’s coming next. Reader may not know that this is an important reading strategy that makes even word identification easier”. Weaver offers “possible teaching strategies” for each of the reader characteristics provided. A few that I really think would be beneficial for my students are, 1) while previewing a book, discuss what you think the story will be about, 2) reading books to the class, followed by a discussion, 3) sustained reading, and 4) relevant mini-lessons pinpointing the student’s area of weakness. Aside from what the book suggest, using context clues in the text is coming to mind. Since Marcus is substituting words with familiar looking and/or sounding words, it appears that he is simply ‘guessing’ when he comes to an unfamiliar word. I would suggest, once he makes a miscue of this sort, to stop Marcus. Allow Marcus to explain what is happening in the text in general. Once he confirms that he understands the meaning of the text, ask him to reread the sentence in which he miscued. Ask him if the substituted word makes sense. If it does not make logical sense, discuss with Marcus why and continue with what word he could have substituted that would help make sense. In previous chapters, we have discussed that miscues that are semantically acceptable, are not to cause much concern. As a teacher, my goal would be to help Marcus recognize when he makes a semantics miscue and how to make meaning (even if it’s not the original word). In the end, we simply want our students to make sense of what they are reading, even if they miscue occasionally.  

Module 4: Reading Response

Read alouds are such a great teaching strategy and one of my personal favorites. This past year during our school wide DEAR (Drop Everything and Read), I read to my students several times a week the series of The Penderwicks. I think read alouds are such a great way to tie in skills/standards. You can find short story books to read that connect to whatever you need. With Common Core, we will be doing read alouds often, if not daily, to teach a specific skill. This past year, I had a co-worker who polled her students about what they enjoyed the most about last year. The majority of them said they like being read to, which she did almost every day. I am looking forward to implementing read alouds as a mini-lesson reading strategy.

Guided reading was a must for my school this past year. I am excited about where ‘guided reading’ is headed with Common Core. I do not feel that my guided reading rotations and time were beneficial this past year. With Common Core, students will be engaged in sustained reading or small group with the teacher. Sustained reading is becoming a huge part of my reading time. As Weaver stated, independent reading is such an important component to helping students become lifelong readers.

Next year, my school will take part in a simultaneous hour of writing time. This is to help build our writers across all grade levels. We have found (at my school), that when our students reach fifth grade, when we have the writing test, our students do not know how to write. We then find ourselves teaching our students how to simply write a sentence with a capital letter and correct punctuation. We feel that, as a fifth grade teacher, we should be extending our student’s writing, such as how to use similes, idioms, metaphors etc. Instead, we must teach the basics, in which results in poor writing scores. I am looking forward to having enough time to actually teach writing, verses only writing across the different content areas. The majority of this writing time will include guided writing, sustained writing, and individual writing conferences.

These are the components of the comprehensive literacy program that I implemented and plan to use next year. I cannot rave about Common Core enough. I think that this change will give us time to teach the depth of reading and writing knowledge that our students need.  

  

Module 3: Activity 2

       It is amazing how two ‘researched’ reading approaches vary such with instruction and beliefs. I do not think that the sole approach to reading is, as the video stated, sounding out words (phonics), particularly the non-sense words. I can however, see how it is a basic approach to beginning to learn to read. As the video stated, students must know some type of letter sound recognition, or else ALL the words they read would not make sense to them. If that were the case, our ultimate goal of comprehension and understanding is farfetched.

       I think that “cracking the code,” ultimately begins with understanding letter sound recognition. I know I have been reading in Weaver’s text how reading is simply reading for understanding verses the individual sounds and letters (and I completely agree); however, I think reading must begin with the letter-sound recognition in some shape or form. Even though I think phonics is a precursor to reading, I do not considered it to be the act of reading. Although I think phonics is the baby step of learning to read, nonsense words are a waste of time. Why not focus on the letter blends and sounds that students are going to physically see in text when dealing with real words? Spend your time wisely and hopefully it will prevent confusing the kids even more. I could see the students begin to use these made up words in their writing as well. Nonsense words would potentially do more harm than good, especially at the age they are being exposed to. All in all, I still am a strong believer in Weaver’s text. Reading is the process of putting meaning behind words and “cracking the code”. 

Module 3: Mock Memo from a Reading Specialist

Memorandum

To: Classroom Teacher

From: Katie Robinson

Date: June 19, 2012

Re: Comprehension Struggles 

I am glad you were able to identify this concern with your student. Often times, these ‘types’ of students are over looked because they are either reading on or above grade level. Teachers tend to assume that if students are reading at a grade appropriate level, then they are a proficient reader.

If you look in Weaver’s book, Reading Process and Practice, you will read that fluent readers are not necessarily proficient readers. For example, on page 215, the author suggests that fluent readers do not always comprehend what they are reading. Also, the text mentions that, “Fluent reading may actually mask a lack of attention to meaning. This sounds much like your student.

I think that since your student is paying so close attention to the text on the page, they are missing the underlying meaning. One thing that I would suggest is to have your student slow down. I find that the slower I read, verses breezing through a passage, the more I am forced to think about what I am actually reading. In addition, I would suggest pulling this student to read aloud to you. As the student is reading, stop periodically (ideally, after each paragraph) and check for understanding.  When you stop to discuss the text, have your student write one or two sentences about what happened in the text. It is wise to stop throughout; verse waiting till to end to find out your student did not retain the information (especially since you already know this student needs assistance with their comprehension). At this point in time, I am more concerned with discussing the text with the reader. I am not overly concerned at this point about comprehension questions, as the discussion throughout the text will in turn help with their general comprehension.

Always remind and encourage your student that they are a wonderful reader and even the best readers make mistakes. I hope I was able to assist with your instruction. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Module 3: Reading Response

Do you agree with Marilyn Adams (1990, p. 108) who argued that rather than relying on context, “Skillful readers of English thoroughly process the individual letters of words in their texts?” Why or why not?

Marilyn Adams stated that “Skillful readers of English thoroughly process the individual letters of words in their texts.” I completely disagree with this quote. Now that I have been able to ‘dig’ deeper into my understanding of reading, I know that reading is much more than processing individual letters, especially with ‘skillful’ readers. Weaver has explained very well how proficient readers are both effective and efficient. In order to read proficiently, a reader must read for understanding. In order to read for understanding, a reader must not focus on the individual letters and words, but more of what the passage means. When readers focus on individual letters and words, they are taking away from their ability to focus on the meaning. In contrary to what Adams believes, research has found that ‘skillful’ readers do quite the opposite. ‘Skillful’ readers often miscue; however, it is due to their ability to read past the specific letters and gain much understanding and meaning from the text. 

Module 2: Activities 1 & 2

Katie Robinson

EDRD 7715/W02

Dr. Ritchie

June 11, 2012

Module 2: Activities 1 & 2

Activity 1: Page 58 #3c

Words	Definitions Prior to A Clockwork Orange	Definitions after reading A Clockwork Orange
creech	to spy on another person	yell or shout
droogs	to be sad or lack expression	friend
glazzies	day dreaming
goloss	shoes
malenky	disrespect	small
messel	small or little
millicents	coins/change	police
poogly	describes how a person looks	scared, frightened
razrez	to carry on a conversation
skorry	to apologize
spatted	to spit on someone
zoobies	friends	teeth

Prior to reading Chapter 1 from A Clockwork Orange, I had no understanding/meaning to apply to the list of words. The only thing that came to mind was that these words are not real, that they were simply mispronounced. I then began thinking of the original words that they might have been. After reading the chapter, I realized that these words were not made up and that they indeed did have meaning when used in the present context. When I came across the words listed above in the chapter, I used the context used around the word, including the sentence prior to and after the mentioned one. I definitely used semantics when decoding the meaning of the words.

Activity 2: Page 85; Exercise 7

1.      I do not think people read the words letter by letter because they see bigger chunks of sounds that they recognize. In the younger grades, once a student has learned letter-sound relationships, students begin to chunk words into familiar sounds. (i.e. compound words)

2.      I used the strategy of chunking the words into syllables. I found this strategy to be more efficient than by sounding out individual letter sounds. In the end, you have fewer sounds to blend together, making the pronunciation of the word easier to handle.

3.       Overall, I found myself chunking the words into familiar sounds/chunks that I could pronounce. At times, it was hard to recognize a familiar sound, in which I would ‘sample’ multiple letters at once. I am sure, just like the book stated, I miscued.

4.      I do not know the meaning of any of these words. The word extravasate makes me think of the word extravagant. However, after looking at the pronunciation of the word, it does not even sound like the word ‘extra.’

5.      Although the pronunciation of the words is helpful, it did not give me insights on the words or meanings.

6.      When I am reading and come across an unfamiliar word, I find myself thinking of a word that could fit in the ‘blank’ and still make sense. When I think of a word, I take the meaning of that word and connect it back to the unfamiliar word. As I stated before, I am big on semantics. I use context clues in the passage to make meaning of unfamiliar text.

7.      This example reinforced the true meaning behind reading (very similar to activity 1). Reading is not about isolated words. Reading is about the big picture and understanding as a whole. This activity helped me realize that even though individual words may not mean anything to the reader, once the words are put into context, meaning comes to life. I appreciate this experiment, as well as Activity 1, because I did not know the meaning of the words. I have a feeling that if these words were put into context like Activity 1, I could define each with purposeful meaning.  

Module 2: Instructional Challenge

Katie Robinson

EDRD 7715/W02

Dr. Ritchie

June 11, 2012

Module 2: Instructional Challenge

OR: It my little monkey here.	ER: Is my little monkey here?	Non-proficient-changed meaning (Punctuation is different)
OR: We got to tell.	ER: We've got to tell.	Proficient-Meaning consistent
OR: Frog look at Toad calendar.	ER: Frog looked at Toad's calendar.	Proficient-Meaning consistent
OR: A word what sounded good.	ER: A word that sounded good.	In between the two approaches
OR: hisself	ER: himself	Proficient-Meaning consistent
OR: I can come to your party?	ER: Can I come to your party?	Proficient-Meaning consistent

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 think that the majority of this student’s miscues represent a proficient reader. I do not think that the miscues change the meaning of the text. I think it would be easier to tell if we were supported with more the text. (I.e. the sentence prior to or after) In the first example, I am concerned with the reader ignoring the punctuation, hence changing the complete meaning of the statement to a question. In the rest of the examples, I do not find any change of the meaning. According to the text, when a student reads with correct meaning and does not make ‘sight word’ miscues, they are a proficient reader. I did not feel that any of the miscues represented the inability of phonics, but more of reading for understanding. I think the student was reading to construct meaning, rather than identifying each and every word.

I do not think there is much to ‘teach’ a student who makes these types of miscues. However, I would correct the student as soon as the miscue occurs. I remember Weaver’s book referring to students remembering to fix particular miscues when they were immediately corrected, verses waiting till the end to guide the student in the right direction.

Module 2: Reading Reflection

Katie Robinson

EDRD 7715/W02

Dr. Ritchie

June 11, 2012

Module 2: Reading Reflection

                I do not agree with the quote, as I am beginning to realize that reading is much more than what is physically in a passage. Reading is not being ‘expected to read everything exactly as printed on the page in order to understand the message of the author’ (Weaver, 2002). For example, on page 66, Jay, a good reader, made numerous miscues. Jay’s miscues however, did not distort the meaning of the passage. Because most of Jay’s miscues fit the context, he did not have difficulty trying to make meaning of what he read. I personally think that reading is getting understanding from the page. When looking at the referred example above, one can see that you do not have to read the exact print to gain the author’s purpose behind the text.

                I found it interesting that a lot of times, it is the more fluent and proficient readers making the most miscues. However, one must realize that their miscues are not interfering with meaning. For example, the reader is possibility substituting pronouns for words like the reading sample on page 72. Because many believe in this ‘folklore’, such as teachers, I feel it is my job to expand my knowledge from this class to ensure that this so called theory is broken.  I want to instill in my students that reading is much more than phonics, but that it is using semantic and syntactic cues.

Weaver, C. (2002). Reading Process and Practice. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Module 1: Activity 2

Katie Robinson

EDRD 7715/W02

Dr. Ritchie

June 6, 2012

Module 1: Activity 2

Page 39 #5

How is it that you are able to answer such questions?

At first, I was trying to put literal meaning behind this text. After no such luck, I began answering the questions straight from the text. I am assuming my answers are right because I simply found the questions in the text and finished the sentences according to what was already written.  Not what I would typically do for a reading passage and comprehension questions, but I still have no clue what this passage literally meant.

What does this experience suggest about the kinds of “comprehension” questions found in workbooks and on standardized tests?

This experience reinforced what I have already been seeing over the past year of teaching. Many students do NOT read for understanding. Instead, they simply go back into the text and find where the questions are mentioned. This does not always work because words in the questions are often found in multiple places in the text. Then you get to the problem of, which part of the passage am I suppose to look at? Another thing I have found is that students will look at the answer choices, and pick the answer they remember reading about. What I have found is that all the answers are typically mentioned somewhere in the text and it is up to the reader to know what the questions are specifically asking and what the text meant in regards to the questions. A strategy we use at my school called UNRAVEL, which spoke of in detail in my Personal Model for Reading on my blog. UNRAVEL helps the students to understand the passage verses picking answers based on looks and if it is simply found in the passage.

a.       What is corandic?

·         Corandic is an emuriet grof with many fribs.

b.      What does corandic grank from?

·         A corandic granks from corite.

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

·         Garkers excarp by glarcking the corite and starping it in tranker-clarped strobs.

d.      What does the slorp finally frast?

·         The slorp finally frast a pragety, blinkant crankle: coranda.

e.       What is coranda?

·         A coranda is a cargurt, grinkling corandic and borigen.

f.       How is the corandic nacerated from the borigen?

·         The corandic is nacerated from the borigen by means of loracity.

g.      What do the garkers finally thrap?

·         The garkers finally thrap a glick, bracht, glupous grapant, corandic, which granks in many starps. 

Module 1:Activity 1

Module 1: Instructional Challenge

Katie Robinson

EDRD 7715/W02

Dr. Ritchie

June 6, 2012

Module 1: Instrctuctional Challenge

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.

After researching this passage a little more, I was able to think about it with the right schema. It is amazing how much of an impact a person’s schema can have on a reading.

1. What are the hocked gems?

-I picture gems being jewelry. Since the gems are hocked, I picture the person in this story pawning the jewels to get money.

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

-Because this passage is referring to Christopher Columbus, I think this statement is referring to him debating whether the Earth is round or flat. Therefore, the egg symbolizes that the world is indeed round, verses the table symbolizing a flat Earth.

3. Who are the three sturdy sisters?

-The three sturdy sisters were the three ships he took on his voyage: The Nina, The Pinta, and The Santa Maria.

4. What kind of winged creatures appeared?

-I think the winged creatures that appeared were birds. The birds helped Columbus know the world was round. Because birds must have something to land on, they would not travel too far from land. This let Columbus know land must be close by.

If you were to use this passage with students, what schema would you need to activate with them first?

·         I would need to tell the students prior to reading the passage to think of Christopher Columbus and what his voyage was all about.

How can you help teach children whose schema and the text’s content don’t match?

·         I think this passage would be a good one to use after studying Christopher Columbus and his voyage. I think students who have no background knowledge of Columbus, would not understand this passage even if told what schema to use while reading the passage. To help students whose schemas don’t match, I would take it line by line, explaining how each piece ties back to Columbus and what he discovered.  

 How much time should children spend in texts that don’t match their interests or schema?

·         I don’t think children should spend much time reading passages that make no sense to them.  It does not make logical sense to me as a student, or teacher, to read something that I am having such difficulty comprehending. If this were my classroom, I would first allow the students to read the passage independently. Then, I would have them pair up and discuss what they are thinking. As I hear conversations evolve, I would then start giving clues based on what schema to use while reading. Depending on the further need of students, I might just break the reading down line by line, and discuss it whole group. 

Module 1:Reading Reflection

Katie Robinson

EDRD 7715

Dr. Ritchie

Module 1:Reading Reflection

June 5, 2012

What are some of the major differences between a skills approach to literacy and a comprehensive or sociopsycholinguistic approach?

            When dealing with the skills approach to literacy, one believes in a bottom up approach. A bottom up approach refers to starting with letters and letter-sound relationships, then moving on to the eventual words. The meaning of a text is thought to just “happen” once the individual words have been identified and read. With the skills view of reading, meaning/understanding is thought of as a “property” of the text, not something that must be done by the reader themselves. The skills approach states that context, meaning, and prior knowledge (one’s schema) has no important part with helping to identify words. On page 34 of Weaver’s book Reading Process and Practice, Figure 2.5 does a wonderful job of visually displaying the skills model. Figure 2.5 starts with the ‘parts’ of reading, eventually working its way to the ‘whole’. The skills approach to literacy flows from “bottom up”, in this order: phonemic awareness (sounds), phonics (letter sounds), automatic, rapid word recognition, and meaning. The skills approach to literacy looks at reading as being able to decode individual sounds and word, verses understanding the whole text by using one’s schema and context clues.

            A comprehensive or sociopsycholinguistic approach to reading is just the opposite. It states that one does not need to know the meaning of individual words or sounds in order to understand the general meaning of a text. Researchers find that if a reader can grasp the main idea or whole meaning of a passage, then they are better able to put meaning and understanding with individualized words. Since the skills approach followed a bottom up method, the sociopsycholinguistic approach correlates with a top-down or whole-to-part view. The sociopsycholinguistic view suggest that most words have multiple meanings (not just one), that words take on their own meaning depending on the way it is used in a sentence or passage, and that meaning is often brought about by one’s semantics or personal life stories and happenings. When compared to the skills approach, the comprehensive/sociopsycholinguistic approach is open to the reader developing their own understanding when using context clues and semantics.