Module 5: PowerPoint Analysis

Teaching Phonics, High Frequency Words, and Fluency

As a fifth grade teacher, you initially think word and sound recognition are “conquered” in the primary grade levels. For me at least, I am mistaken. My struggling readers read very choppy, sometimes reading sound by sound. In our last reading class, I truly appreciated the skill of identifying onset and rimes. This helps students get away from sounding out words letter by letter, often times construing the true meaning of the word. I believe that by using onsets and rimes, students will become more fluent with their reading. I do understand though, that at times, you will need to work with a student on a letter/sound level in the upper grades. Many wonderful strategies are listed in this PowerPoint. I really liked how it mentioned students reading leveled books on their independent reading levels. This year, along with Common Core, my school is trying to establish leveled classroom libraries along with “book bags”. These “book bags” will contain a variety of books that the student can read comfortably without any frustration. I really like this idea, as Common Core emphasizes the importance of independent reading. I also like the method of using a word wall in the classroom. In a fifth grade classroom, I could see this being used as a synonym wall or even a vocabulary wall in which the students can use across all content areas. I use a variety of poetry in my classroom for close reading and to teach many different skills. I am working with my students to read poetry and to also write it.

Linking Phonics and Vocabulary

We must set our students up for success. As this PowerPoint states, whatever we are expecting our students to do with their piece of text must be reinforced prior to. Whether it is to understand vocabulary or simply to identify a specific skill in their text, we as teachers, must prepare them with the right tools.

Vocabulary Development

The two strategies that I most commonly use and teach to help students pronounce/understand unfamiliar words are context and pronounceable word parts. As students read a text where they come upon an unfamiliar word, students often times can read the surrounding words, gain meaning of the sentence, thus correctly ‘guessing’ the unfamiliar word. I often times stop students and ask the questions mentioned in the PowerPoint such as, “Wait, does that make sense,” or “What word could we inset to help that sentence make sense”. This strategy works well, even if they don’t get the exact word. My goal as a teacher is that they understand what they read, more so than getting EVERY word correct on the page.

Assessing Vocabulary

I really found it interesting and informative learning about the different tiers of words. Each tier builds, as the level of understanding specific words becomes more challenging. I could not agree more when it stated at “Vocabulary is one of the strongest contributors to comprehension.” Vocabulary comes down to understanding the meaning of specific words based on context clues and other strategies mentioned. However, if a student does not understand multiple words throughout a text, clearly the meaning of that particular text is going to be limited and construed. I really liked the vocabulary rating scale, as it would give the student and teacher a good idea about how developed a child’s vocabulary is. I have a collection of reading comprehension workbooks, as most teachers do. There are many that always include at least one question on vocabulary, asking the students to often times pick the synonym of that specific word. This allows me to understand if a student can use the surrounding context clues to further develop the initial word’s meaning/definitions. I absolutely believe that vocabulary acquisition is KEY for reading with meaning.