Module 1: Learning Summary

The readings in Opitz and the QRI-5 were very interesting and enlightening to me, along with the assessment powerpoint and video as well. I found the video on the 10 yr old girl being tutored the most interesting topic this week. I like being able to actually watch someone effectively teaching reading, as I am a visual learner. I have personally never really taugh phonics instruction as I have always taught 3-5th grades. I do see and understand more clearly now the importance of the phonics instruction and how it deeply impacts an emerging reader. After watching the video, I want to dig deeper into how I can help my struggling and less proficient readers in 5th grade, one step at a time. I believe I may have to begin with phonics instruction to build reading fluency, rather than jumping right into long text and reading comprehension. The link to my blog is http://amandaherndon13.blogspot.com/. Here you will see all of my thought for Module 1.
This is the first time I have ever heard on QRI-5. However just from reading Chapter 1 I like how each student is assessed and scored based on their individual areas rather than norm-referenced or standardized instruction. With having many different level readers in my class this year, this inventory will be extremely beneficial as it is universal for readers across all levels and will help me groups students for guided reading groups and such. I also like how the 4th-5th grade students have narratives based on biographies which makes it much easier to assess their prior knowledge of a real person, rather than a fictional story. I have only give assessments before that asked simple comprehensio questions at the end of the passage, however I am interested in seeing how the retelling and think-aloud components will give me more exact insight at to where my reader stands. This assessment seems to align way more with my CCGPS reading standards, as well as it ties directly into Daily 5 and CAFE.
I researched a reading comprehesion article that was a study of reading comprehension skills of primary school 5th grade students in Turkey. I particularly found this article interesting, as it enlighted me on skills and strategies from a different country, giving me a global insight in education. According to both Opitz and the article many different factors may affect reasons for reading difficulties, which may be non-educational factors, such as home life and socio-economic status (Opitz, Rubin, Erekson, 2010, p.3). According to Kayiran & Karabay (2012), instruction in the primary years will significantly influence students' intellectual and social skills.   The article wanted to see if there was a difference in reading comprehension according to students' socia economic backgrounds and found that students from high socio economic backgrounds do have a higher achievement in reaidng and writing using both research methods used (Kusdemir & Karabay, 2012). This idea does coorelate with Opitz ideas as well because "readers brign their backgrounds, experiences, and emotions into play " (Opitz, Rubin, Erekson, 2010, p.6). Just from my 6 years of teachign experience I would have to agree with these statements as well. I have seen kids from low socio economic backgrounds score significantly lower on assessments and especially standardized tests than higher socio economic background students. I also believe that the standardized test reading passages are usually so foreign to many students, that even if they are able to read the words in the passage correctly, they have no clue what they are reading about and can't make any connections related to the text whatsoever to gain any meaning. So therefore, they simple answer questions about the passage based on finding the words from the question in the text and copying what they see, rather than comprehending any of the information.
Reading about the roles of a teacher to be a effective teacher were also interesting to me and something I want to make sure I am doing in my classroom. I do know that I am a "planner" but want to pinpoint whether or not I am an "explicit reading teacher" in my classroom. I have many plans for this year and implementing what I learn in this course. I have enjoyed reading the readings and watching the video as well.

Assessment Powerpoint: Module 1

   After viewing the assessment power point for reading and writing difficulties I now have a better understanding of vocabulary terms pertaining to both, as well as more knowledge of the stages of development.  Teaching 5th grade I realize my students should be in the "growing independence' stage, however I believe many of mine are still early readers. A few  of my higher level readers I would say are fluent enough and are able to read to learn. The power point states that the majority of troubled readers have a difficult decoding, which means their phonics knowledge is weak. I do believe phonics instruction at a very early pre-primer age is a necessity for becoming a proficient reader. Children often feel "defeated" especially when it comes to reading b/c they are failed over and over. Knowing that success is the key, makes me realize that beginning with what students already have prior background knowledge is the best  start to building confidence within themselves. This hits home to me so much as many of my students come from such a wide range of backgrounds and cultures. I really am trying to figure out a way to reach every student, but this is so challenging for me because I don't even know where to begin with a few of my students. I am just being honest here. I do begin each year by allowing students to read to me anything of their choice that interests them which does give me some insight. I currently think in my classroom I approach reading with a more "top down" approach. I begin with big ideas, and then lead into the smaller components that make up those ideas. I definitely want to start fixing "one thing at a time" with each of my students this year with their reading struggles instead of trying to fix it all at once.

Module 1: Activity 4 on pg.14 (Opitz)

Activity # 4 (Opitz) p. 14

Use Table 1.1 “Summary of Proficient and Less Proficient Reading Behaviors” to observe a reader.  Highlight the characteristics you notice and provide an example of what you see.

This year  I have many students with learning disabilities in my classroom, mostly pertaining to math and reading. I have started off the school year with 2 types of assessments so far, the GRASP and the county wide reading benchmark test.  The GRASP assessment involved a 1 minute timed reading fluency check. I recorded the words read correct per minute for each student.  I have also met with each individual student for their first individual conference as a part of the CAFE and Daily 5 reading programs. In the first meeting I have just listened to them read aloud a book of their choice and asked a few simple comprehension questions based on what they read to me. After these assessments, I have noticed I have several children who seem to be less proficient readers based on their behaviors. I noticed a particular student who seems to want to read as fast as he can. He doesnt even stop at the end of sentences, unless he is stumped on a word. He blends all of his sentences together, which means he can't possibly comprehend anything he read. He spent several seconds on words he didn't know and tried to sound them out, however every time he sounded out the word he was struggling with, he came up with the same pronunciation, as he did not attempt to chunk different letter combinations together to see if he was chunking incorrectly the first time. One word I specifically noticed many of my less proficient readers getting stumped on was "airliners." Most of them would say "airline" or "airlines," however when they read a few words past, they would start back over at this particular word. This was a very interesting observation to me.

Watch and Learn: Assessing Reading Skills Video

     This video showed a 10 year old child being assessed and tutored for reading. This child had a problem decoding words, which meant she spent more time decoding words which led her to become exhausted, which in return affected her reading comprehension abilities. I have never thought of reading as being an academic and emotional process, which now makes perfect sense to me. Children do tend to "shut down" when they feel incompetent and "stupid" in class, especially if they are slow readers or can't pronounce the words in a text. Continuously assessing students is the key to building proficient readers, as constantly assessing their reading strengths and weaknesses is the only way to fix problems, and accelerate strengths. I do believe good teachers do are constantly self evaluating their instruction, which would lead many changes throughout the year according to their students specific needs. I like how in the video the tutor started by telling the child to read as fast as you can, to help build fluency. I do agree that more fluent readers, gain more meaning from text.

Final Personal Model of Reading Theory

Personal Model of Reading Theory

            At the beginning of this semester I definitely viewed reading and teaching reading a little differently than I do now. I have been teaching for 6 years and have never had insight to literacy as much as I have through this reading class and our text Reading Process & Practice by Constance Weaver. I have always used a comprehensive literacy approach in my classroom, as I have always had reading and writing workshops. However, I view how children learn to read differently than I have in the past. My eyes have truly been opened to teaching literacy more efficiently and effectively from this point forward.

            At the beginning of this class I read about a skills approach and comprehensive approach to reading. The skills approach is more geared towards phonics instruction and decoding words specifically, without much incorporation with reading and writing workshops. A comprehensive approach leans more towards teaching literacy through a variety of activities in whole group, small group, and individual instruction, with an emphasis is reading for meaning and using prior knowledge to understand texts. Guided reading, shared reading, sustained reading, reading conferencing, shared writing, guided writing, and sustained writing are a few key components to a comprehensive literacy approach to literacy. Children learn to read by first and foremost seeing and hearing reading, which shows how important good “modeling” is for teachers to portray in the classroom. Reading aloud to students so they can hear proficient reading, while participating in predictions and discussions about the book is crucial for emerging readers. Making connections with text is very important for reading for meaning. Children who read texts and cannot make any connection with the text or have no prior knowledge of what they are reading are often discouraged as they do not understand what they are reading and there are several unfamiliar words and language.

            (Weaver, 2002, p. 44) states that whether or not words are pronounced correctly, the reader can still get essential meaning from the text. This idea supports the theory that we do not read texts pronouncing every sound in every word. Teaching reading should not be focused on strictly teaching phonics rules and word decoding.  Phonics instruction should be incorporated in reading and writing workshops. The children should be able to actually apply phonics skills taught while they are reading and writing, rather than learning phonics rules strictly for a spelling test.  Proficient readers are able to read passages, while not reading every single word, and they are still able to gain meaning from the text. This is due to the fact that proficient readers pay attention to beginnings and endings of words rather than pronouncing every letter sound in a word. Word patterns and building new vocabulary is done much easier through reading texts in guided reading groups and reading aloud, rather than completing a worksheet on phonics skills.

            It is also important for students to begin reading selections that interest them, rather than random passages about random things in which the students have no prior knowledge of. In Weaver’s book Reading Process & Practice, a passage was given with several unfamiliar words throughout that I was unable to pronounce. Foreign words were used that I had never seen before or had any what they were. I had to answer questions related to the passage, and this was very difficult. This was an example of how many worksheets and standardized tests provide passages and comprehension questions for students to answer, while the students have zero background knowledge of anything mentioned. Giving children passages where they are unable to make any connections with, is the wrong way to build proficient readers. Over time as children acquire necessary reading and phonics skills, children will be exposed to unfamiliar passages and their reading and phonics skills will allow them to be able to gain meaning from texts using context cues. However, it is important to begin children with books that they can relate so they can easily apply their strategies to gain meaning.

            Overall my reading theory of how children learn to read has changed a little. Throughout college and even learning from fellow teachers, fluency and accuracy have always been emphasized as a major component of reading for comprehension. I do realize now that this is not necessarily the case. No reader reads every word exact, but this doesn’t prevent gaining meaning. I am going to teach phonics instruction through reading and writing workshop now, instead of having separate blocked off time for phonics rules and spelling tests. It is proven that a phonics background is important to have, but not the key component for reading for meaning. I see the important of encouraging children to read and even write aloud as well. I have always read aloud to my students, but I want to give them more opportunities to read aloud. I am very excited about what I have learned thus far in this reading course and I can’t wait to implement these strategies and techniques in my literacy program this coming year.

Module 6: Instructional Challenge

Next year, you will be teaching in a school where the vast majority of students did not meet standard on your state's criterion-referenced test and where more than 75% of the students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals. What are some specific universal literacy strategies you may implement to ensure students success? Include both in-class examples and things you could do outside the classroom.

Research has shown that even children in economically disadvantaged communities, benefit from a comprehensive literacy program rather than a traditional literacy program. Children who are given fewer phonics worksheets and actively participate in shared reading, choral reading, and guided reading gained more. Teaching children to figure out difficult words by asking themselves what makes sense, is a better approach than children repeatedly sounding out words incorrectly. Teaching skills out of context and meaning will not benefit children. Basing a classroom around specific skills, rather than whole-to-parts instruction, will not be as successful either in teaching literacy. Children need prior knowledge of what they read in order to gain meaning from text, as well as show interest and engagement rather than frustration. It is very important for age appropriate books be readily available to children. This is difficult in low income communities, where resources outside the classroom are limited. I do allow my students to take books home from my personal library in my classroom, and the school library books are available as well. I encourage my students to keep a reading log at home of what they read and if they liked it or not. I have found that my children enjoy keeping these logs, as I do not grade them on how many "minutes" they read, which is what many teachers require; a certain amount of time per week. I think reading for enjoyment is far more important than tracking minutes.

Module 6: Reading Reflection

Does any of the information presented in Chapter 15 influence your personal philosophy of reading? In what ways? How has your perspective this changed since you took the DeFord TORP a few weeks ago?

My personal model of reading has been influenced after reading Chapter 15.  I found it interesting how studies have shown that children taught in a comprehensive literacy approach were found to benefit the most. Theses children focused more on shared reading and story meaning rather than phonics and oral reading. Round robin reading also didn't show much of a benefit compared to shared reading. This is so interesting to me, as I have always been for the "round robin" reading in my classroom. I think children are more focused on when their turn is to read and if they will read every word correctly, more than gaining meaning from the text. Research has also shown that the more children know about a topic, the more likely they are going to be able to gain meaning from a text related to that topic. I have often times given children passages that they had no prior knowledge of and became frustrated because they did not comprehend. I can see now how difficult this must be.
I teach in a Title 1 school, where many of my student have limited or no access to books at home. I see how important it is for children to have access to age appropriate books. This is more important than having instructional materials. Most see phonics as reading, rather than phonics as a part of reading (Weaver, 2002, p.376). This is very true for most people, outside of education. Standardized tests have been designed to show that children who don't know phonics, don't do well on the tests. This is backwards as reading is much more than phonics, learning to read is much more complex as background knowledge, access to age appropriate books, cultural schemas, and language play important roles.
When I took the DeFord TORP at the beginning of the semester I noticed that I put strongly agree for fluency and expression being necessary components for reading comprehension  I would definitely agree with this statement a lot less than I did at the beginning of this course. I can pretty much agree with most other areas on this assessment.