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.