The article Every Mark on the Page has got to be one of my favorite articles we have read so far because it deals with one of the very things I am most afraid of for my future teaching.... parents. It's not secret that some parents have their "angel" goggles on when it comes to their kids; they feel that their child can do no wrong, academically or socially, in the classroom. The article does a great job of what teachers can do to communicate with parents and family members about their child's writing levels. A big thing we need to help parents realize is the importance of age levels and where exactly their child should be at that particular point in time. It's all too common to see a parent who's child is at a perfectly normal writing level get worked up that he or she is not advancing faster. This could end up seriously discouraging the child both in the classroom and at home.
One of the biggest points to take away from this article is a note about mistakes.... that children SHOULD make them! Mistakes within a student's writing are not only learning points but are inevitable! Both teachers and parents have to be careful when focusing on this idea. Without these mistakes that the children are making, there is no platform to grow from. By discouraging these mistakes we are discouraging their growth and learning as a writer! The article then goes into ideas of how teachers can empower their students and family members to support their young writers. I really liked the idea of an open house method, where the adults are shown sample works of writing and given resources to help their home-work with their child. This is a great way to expose parents to not only some of the child's writing, but other anonymous works to give parents a wider range of what exactly writing at that age looks like. I also think this is a great way to empower the child into something he or she can be proud of their writing with. I remember in one of our classes we did a read aloud of a book where a student hated his drawings until someone put them on display, at which point he became proud of his work. Thats all a student needs; a little reinforcement that their parents and teachers want to see what they put so much work into.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Phonics and Phonemic Awareness
Teaching Phonemic Awareness by Rasinski and Padak
From Phonics to Fluency by Rasinski and Padak
I'm really glad I got to read these two articles because they are helping me open my eyes to realize there is so much more to phonic that I had at first realized. The idea of learning to read always fascinated me, so it's exciting learning all of the ins and outs that go along with what a student really is observing as he or she continues to work on phonics and phonemic awareness. There are so many different activities you can do to work on all of the components you want to hit on, and I think the article highlights that well. This is important because reading, from what I've seen and experienced, is something that should be fun and engaging for children. If it's not, they'll grow to resent it, especially if they feel themselves falling behind or not grasping content. This feeling only gets harder and harder to shake as they grow older. That is why engaging these phonemic components in a positive way at a young age is crucial for reading success in students. I loved how the articles discussed a "common language" throughout phonics and fluency that all teachers, literacy coaches, and to an extent students all share. This is a great way to look at phonics as a pre-service teacher; it only highlights the idea that learning the aspects of phonic and phonemic awareness is crucial at this point in our studies so that we can continue to build off a strong base of literacy teaching.
From Phonics to Fluency by Rasinski and Padak
I'm really glad I got to read these two articles because they are helping me open my eyes to realize there is so much more to phonic that I had at first realized. The idea of learning to read always fascinated me, so it's exciting learning all of the ins and outs that go along with what a student really is observing as he or she continues to work on phonics and phonemic awareness. There are so many different activities you can do to work on all of the components you want to hit on, and I think the article highlights that well. This is important because reading, from what I've seen and experienced, is something that should be fun and engaging for children. If it's not, they'll grow to resent it, especially if they feel themselves falling behind or not grasping content. This feeling only gets harder and harder to shake as they grow older. That is why engaging these phonemic components in a positive way at a young age is crucial for reading success in students. I loved how the articles discussed a "common language" throughout phonics and fluency that all teachers, literacy coaches, and to an extent students all share. This is a great way to look at phonics as a pre-service teacher; it only highlights the idea that learning the aspects of phonic and phonemic awareness is crucial at this point in our studies so that we can continue to build off a strong base of literacy teaching.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Catching Readers Before They Fall: Chapter 7
Before I begin this blog about Chapter 7, I first wanted to comment on how much the title actually caught my attention. "I thought I knew how to teach reading, but WHOA!" Often times as a preservice teacher, I get that same "whoa" feeling in a lot of different areas regarding my future teaching. I am excited to be studying books like this one and getting the experiences I need to hopefully lessen the fear that is often associated with that feeling.
One of the first ideas I looked over again was the section titled "What are the early key strategies and behaviors?" Since I am wanted to teach younger grades, it is important for me to grasp these strategies for early readers that are essential for them to grow and be successful in older grades. I thought it was interesting when it commented on how most teachers assume that the first aspect of learning reading is letters and sounds. The book pointed out other strategies that were key to learning reading like the actual different between words and letters, thinking strategies, and a one-to-one voice/print match. I remember talking about this last point in class, how some students need to be clearly taught how to even read a page of a book, where the words should be taking them, and using the finger matching strategy to master the one-to-one aspect of reading.
I also really enjoyed the section of "suggestions for teachers". I found a lot of quality ideas and advice that I can already see myself using in my field experience/future classrooms. One of the suggestions said "if you have children who are learning to speak English, don't immediately assume they are struggling readers.. Ask questions about the country they came from, using student translators or other adults in your building who is familiar with the language. Use book introductions as one place to support their budding English vocabularies and their experience with book language" (pg 129). In my field experience now, there is a first grade student named MauMau who often struggles with his reading and writing. Most times during classroom work time, the teacher asks me to sit with MauMau and assist him with his assignments. I often struggle to find ways to break through to him, especially when I ask him a question and I know he is thinking one thing but saying something else. I found this strategy from the book really interesting because it made me wonder what reading level MauMau is at in his own home language. I am planning to ask the teacher for whatever background knowledge she may have, and continue using the strategies within this chapter and book to see if I can make more profess with him.
Webcast
This Reading Recovery webcast touched on some pretty relevant issues to consider throughout my preservice teaching and my current field experience.
Pat Johnson mentioned 4 points on instructional decisions; assessment driving instruction, supporting the reading process system, providing opportunities to practice with real books so children can use this system correctly, and keeping meaning at the forefront. A major point throughout this section of the webcast was the idea to teach through the readers, not the books. What an interesting idea.. not surprising to teachers since I think we all know that this is the most beneficial learning strategy for long-term success, however, I know myself and plenty of other teachers are guilty of searching through certain books to teach lessons through only using that book's content. The downfall of this strategy is the struggle the students might feel to apply the desired learning through different medias and books other than the book they learned it so clearly through. I thought this was a very interesting thing to keep in mind, since I already find myself guilty of this and I barely have much teaching experience yet.
The discussion that Mary brings up about small group instruction was an interesting one. As teachers, we obviously need to focus small group instruction on a more individual basis, which means knowing what our students need. I loved the idea that a small group should consist of differing reading levels so that the students have the opportunity to "cross check" each other while working. She also had some good insight on what books and what book levels to choose. During this part of the webcast, I kept thinking back to my current field experience in my first grade classroom. My teacher pairs up groups of 2 or 3 students to "partner read" books together. As they went off, she explained to me that she does her best to pair up the students based not on what level she thinks they are at, but student who use similar strategies as they read. For example, one student who seemed a very advanced reader was paired with two other students who were average readers. As I sat and listened to them, I realized that the advanced student was able to help the others work on the strategy of using contextual clues to understand their reading. I thought this was an awesome idea to showcase this "cross checking" strategy and was very beneficial to the students during this reading period.
One last idea that stuck with me when I was done watching the webcast was the idea that reading is more non-visual for students than it is visual. This idea is woven through the concept that pre service teachers are told hundreds of times- that we need to teach students to not just brainlessly read the words, but to match that with comprehension and meaning strategies. Here is where the "non-visual" aspect comes in; when a student reads, he or she should be doing a lot more in their minds that we can't see than just reading the words out loud. Whether it be applying background knowledge, using visualizing strategies, or other contextual clues, there always should be other processes going through a students mind as they are reading. Although this can be a daunting idea, I feel it is important to understand while helping our students become successful readers.
Pat Johnson mentioned 4 points on instructional decisions; assessment driving instruction, supporting the reading process system, providing opportunities to practice with real books so children can use this system correctly, and keeping meaning at the forefront. A major point throughout this section of the webcast was the idea to teach through the readers, not the books. What an interesting idea.. not surprising to teachers since I think we all know that this is the most beneficial learning strategy for long-term success, however, I know myself and plenty of other teachers are guilty of searching through certain books to teach lessons through only using that book's content. The downfall of this strategy is the struggle the students might feel to apply the desired learning through different medias and books other than the book they learned it so clearly through. I thought this was a very interesting thing to keep in mind, since I already find myself guilty of this and I barely have much teaching experience yet.
The discussion that Mary brings up about small group instruction was an interesting one. As teachers, we obviously need to focus small group instruction on a more individual basis, which means knowing what our students need. I loved the idea that a small group should consist of differing reading levels so that the students have the opportunity to "cross check" each other while working. She also had some good insight on what books and what book levels to choose. During this part of the webcast, I kept thinking back to my current field experience in my first grade classroom. My teacher pairs up groups of 2 or 3 students to "partner read" books together. As they went off, she explained to me that she does her best to pair up the students based not on what level she thinks they are at, but student who use similar strategies as they read. For example, one student who seemed a very advanced reader was paired with two other students who were average readers. As I sat and listened to them, I realized that the advanced student was able to help the others work on the strategy of using contextual clues to understand their reading. I thought this was an awesome idea to showcase this "cross checking" strategy and was very beneficial to the students during this reading period.
One last idea that stuck with me when I was done watching the webcast was the idea that reading is more non-visual for students than it is visual. This idea is woven through the concept that pre service teachers are told hundreds of times- that we need to teach students to not just brainlessly read the words, but to match that with comprehension and meaning strategies. Here is where the "non-visual" aspect comes in; when a student reads, he or she should be doing a lot more in their minds that we can't see than just reading the words out loud. Whether it be applying background knowledge, using visualizing strategies, or other contextual clues, there always should be other processes going through a students mind as they are reading. Although this can be a daunting idea, I feel it is important to understand while helping our students become successful readers.
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