As a teacher understanding how
students grow as readers is essential. One of the most important ways students
can grow is through independent reading.
They should have access to plenty of books in their classroom (about 7
per student). Something I’ve found extremely motivating to students is to
recommend texts to them that I know are interesting and appropriate for their
reading level. I do not want a student
to feel that they are inadequate readers because they struggle with reading;
and more importantly I do not want students to feel that reading is childish,
and that they’ve mastered all there is to know about reading. I’ve formed this perspective as a secondarily
certified teacher; however, I feel that it would still hold true as a reading
specialist or a literacy coach. I would need to find books that match the level
of student, and are engaging. If a book doesn’t match the student he or she
will not have success. There is no one book fits all approach to reading.
The second aspect of the leveled
books that I found very interesting was how the site gives you access to such a
variety of worksheets and evaluations. From Running Record forms to discussion formats
and other higher order thinking questions. Having these forms and guides
already tailored to the text would be extremely helpful to any teacher. I think
that the more resources a teacher has at their disposal the more influential
they can be in teaching a child to read.
I think having many books at a
variety of levels in a classroom would be amazingly positive. I feel that if I
were a classroom teacher with these resources I would love the challenge of
trying to help students select books, that are challenging reads. I think
watching students conquer a challenging text is incredibly rewarding. A few minor drawbacks to needing so many
texts is storage, and making sure the texts were rotated throughout the year.
However, I feel that this would be a minor inconvenience compared to the
rewards of having all these texts available.
Phonics is an essential building
block of good reading. According to the
site “Phonics instruction is greatly
enhanced when it provides ample opportunity for students to practice the
sound/symbol relationships they have been taught.” I think two the great things that this site
offers teachers for phonics is Read-Aloud books, and Phonogram flashcards.
Read-Aloud books, are an amazing way for students to understand sounds and
associate them with pictures or ideas. I think if I had a student who was a
visual learner a book like “The Walrus and Whale” would be a great book to
teach the consonant /w/ sound because a student could see the word “whale” see
the picture of a whale and hear the “w” sound and begin to connect that letter
to that sound. These books would be very helpful.
My second discovery in phonics was Phonogram flashcards. I have many students who are very tactile and
they need to physically work with something in order to learn it. They cannot
just hear or see something and pick it up. They need to play with it, and
practice it. I think by having these cards available you can create so many
games and practice opportunities that students who are tactile learners will
really enjoy working with these cards.
A positive and a negative to these books and cards is that students may
have trouble associating the sound to other words or real world use. For example
a student may recognize “whale, waitress, and walrus” are all /w/ but if the
word “watermelon” is not in the book they may not make that connection right
away. However, having both of these resources will reinforce the sound and I
think that with practice students will learn the sounds in no time.
One great way to use the leveled text
would be to incorporate readers-theater into lessons. According to the website
“By using Reader's Theater Scripts, you encourage students to
read with expression and to practice important fluency attributes, such as
pause, inflection, and intonation.” Furthermore the website discusses how Readers
Theater helps students with listening skills and with understanding literary
elements such as motivation and characterization. I think having these pre-written scripts
would be helpful because you could pull from them for a variety of subjects and
leveling.
I think that these
scripts would be tremendously helpful to have. I think it is important for
teachers to recognize that students learn in a variety of ways, and any time
you can have engage students in a technique that teaches several things at
once, I count that as a win. So for example with Readers Theater if a student
is having trouble learning verbal cues she may benefit from this lesson even
though she may have above average fluency. Meanwhile in the same class you may
have a student who is the opposite, but this material helps the teacher reach
both students. It maximizes your time in the classroom.
Another great
teaching aid for fluency is the Fluency Practice Passages. I think that these pages would be a great
assessment for students to really show how fluent they are as readers. I think by
having such a variety of texts for each level they students will be able to
find something they are interested in and can advance quickly through the leveling.
I think that these are great resources that could be used in a variety of ways.
One concern I would
have, is that the teacher and the student are limited to these pages, and it
would feel like a “test” and not an organic reading experience. I think having
a student select a leveled text and reading it aloud would be a much more
accurate way of assessing fluency.
The site had numerous
assessments available for teachers. Two that I found particularly useful were
retelling rubrics and benchmark passages.
The retelling rubrics
interest me because I am a very big stickler for rubrics in my classroom. I
feel strongly that student should know exactly how the assignment is to be graded,
and how they can achieve maximum points.
As an English teacher it is very difficult to grade writing without a
set rubric. I find that if there is not a rubric in place the grading does not
have the same validity as grading with a rubric. Rubrics provide the structure
and rigor that students need.
The second assessment
that I found useful was the benchmark passages with the running record. These assessments
would be essential for teachers to give to students as they progress. I think that
by having they readily available a teacher could have progress a student quickly
and not need to take time to create their own assessment.
The positives to
these are that they are already done for you. I think a negative (especially with
the rubric) would be that you really have to follow that rubric. As a teacher
you would have not interpretive control. I think that if you design your own
rubric before the lesson is taught, it helps you align your lesson, but it also
helps you feel as though you are in control of your room.
According to the
website “Reading
comprehension depends upon the meaning readers give words. Word meaning is
arguably the most important key to reading comprehension.” I could not agree more. As a secondary
teacher I am always trying to push students to learn to decode words and
discover their meanings as they read. I think this is an essential reading
skill that does not go away. It is something that students too often forget how
to do and students have learned to rely on googling a word to find its meaning.
One of the discoveries I’ve made is that of the vocabulary graphic organizers.
I am a giant fan of graphic organizers. I think that they are such a helpful
way for students to learn and remember information. I feel strongly that a
graphic organizer is effective when it can be reproduced quickly by students
and used correctly. One of my favorite
graphic organizers is a KWL chart. I think that these are great for a variety
of things including vocabulary. I think it helps students think about what they
need to know, which is extremely powerful. When a student takes ownership of
their work they will work much more diligently and effectively.
The second discovery I made was the word sorts. I think that the variety of
topics makes these lists extremely helpful to students, and that they could be
used frequently. One thing that I like
about this list is that they are not extremely long, therefore after a few
minutes of discussing the list students could make their own list, or add to the
class list.
I think that a positive of these vocabulary tools is that teachers can pull
from such a variety which keeps class fun and engaging for students. However, a
negative might be that with such a variety students never truly master an
organizer that could help them decode word meanings in the future, and they are
just dependent on teachers giving them the tools needed to discover the words
meaning.
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