Module 8 Video Response

Reading Recovery is a research based early intervention program for struggling readers. Students work with a trained teacher one-on-one for 30 minutes daily. In approximately 12-20 weeks the struggling readers read on grade level. Reading Recovery teachers have a full year of training before interacting with students. The teachers also have the opportunity to sit in on a lesson behind a one way mirror and see what works. Students that work with the Reading Recovery program have had great success and go from struggling readers to successful readers.

Module 8 PowerPoint Response

Factors Involved in Reading and Writing Difficulties

As teachers we want our students to succeed in reading because it is the foundation for all other content areas. The PowerPoint pointed out that there are many different contributing factors for a struggling reader and writer. Visual processing can play a large part in why some students may struggle with reading. For example, a student may mix up the letters "b" and "d" because of their similar shapes. If a student is presented with the word "dad" and says "bad"they are struggling with letters of mirror images. The physical health factors can definitely play a part with struggling readers. I had the opportunity to witness this first hand during my student teaching experience. Many of the students lived in poverty, or what would be considered poverty. These factors contributed to many of their problems academically and behaviorally. 3 of 19 students in my class were on or above grade level in reading. One parent in my class was very involved in her daughter's academics and constantly put pressure on her to perform well on all assignments and tests. The student felt so much pressure she often acted out negatively in class for attention. Like the PowerPoint says, "It is important for the parent to be involved in their child's studies, but they should also be supportive and not overbearing."I believe all of the factors listed on the PowerPoint are things we should take into consideration when working with students that are struggling with reading and writing and try to determine the steps we can take to fix those problems. By using the proper strategies and working with parents, we can ensure our students become stronger readers.

Module 7 Video Response

Success for All is a professional development program offered for many Title 1 schools or schools that may be struggling to meet AYP. This particular program was considered for the school I student taught at several years ago when they failed to meet AYP two years in a row. A facilitator is placed within the school to provide feedback and improve the quality of implementation with the teachers. Success for All works with many schools here in Atlanta as well as 1,000 schools in 47 states. I really liked that Robert Slavin said that they want people to want to do this and they require a 75% vote to implement this program. The teachers are given the information and allowed to vote by secret ballot. I think it's a great idea that allows teacher to see if this program will work best for them and their students. I like that the facilitators work with the teachers to find out what implementation will work best for the students.

Module 7 PowerPoint Responses

Perspectives of the Learning Process PowerPoint




Determining a student's perspective about reading and writing is very important. It allows the teacher to assess what skills the learner would like to know and already knows. Knowing what a student would like to learn will ultimately help him/her to become a better, strong reader. This can be done informally, without an interview, which put less pressure on the student. The PowerPoint mentioned allowing the student to set goals for themselves. I think this is a great idea. When the reader determines their own goals they have an end target in mind and will worker harder to achieve that goal.




Comprehension Evidence and Strategies PowerPoint




While reading through the PowerPoint I noticed the slide about Best Practices for Comprehension Instruction (Slide #10). I noticed that I used many of those strategies with my tutee during our one-on-one tutoring and saw great results with them. "Jay", my tutee, struggled with comprehension, so we focused a large majority of our time to improve his comprehension skills. Throughout the tutoring process I used questioning a lot in hopes that Jay would learn that good readers ask questions. We used predicting questions similar like the ones on the PowerPoint like, "What do you think might happen next? What are the clues?" and "Is this making sense to me?" We also worked on summarizing, inferring, and visualizing improving his comprehension. The PowerPoint provides excellent examples of what to look for when assessing a student and tips to include while working with students. I found that I used many of these strategies in my tutoring process and saw great growth in Jay's reading abilities.


9 Best Practices PowerPoint




Without realizing it, I have used many of the 9 Best Practices strategies with my students before. One of the most common strategies I used was Identifying Similarities and Differences. Often time I would have my students find similarities and differences and have a discussion with a partner or in a group. Typically I would model finding similarities and differences with a Venn diagram during our whole group time. I used Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition with my tutee Jay quite often. My goal for using it was to have him know he was succeeding and build his confidence since he struggled with self-confidence. Another Best Practices strategy I have used before is Cooperative Learning. My students frequently worked in groups or with partners. They were able to collaborate with one another, work on social skills, and receive feedback from other students. I always stressed that one person should not just give out the answers; it was everyone's job to learn and participate. There was usually a participation grade (given by their peers) from these assignments. My students loved graphic organizers. I always had them available whenever students would work on writing and other subjects. My students worked best when they were able to organize their thoughts easily and quickly and be able to refer back to them when necessary. Jay and I were constantly setting goals for him while we worked on his reading. Initially he was hesitant to be included in the process, but eventually he warmed up to it. He also responded very well to the feedback and gave me feedback as well. Having students provide feedback is a great way for teacher's to assess what is working and what students like and make the appropriate accommodations.

Module 6: PowerPoint Responses

Reading Strategies PowerPoint

Using think alouds, word walls, anticipation guides, and KWL charts are all things I’ve used with my primary grade level students and have seen great results with. These strategies can be developed further to work with students in upper grade levels as well and the PowerPoint provided some great strategies to do this. WORDO was something I had never heard of before, but it seems like it could be very beneficial to students, especially by making it harder and calling out the definition. It’s a great way to improve a student’s vocabulary! Many of the strategies, like RAFT, in the PowerPoint incorporated writing with reading, which is critical and helps a reader to develop. PIC and 3-2-1 Summarizing would be great to use with a guided reading group. This PowerPoint would have been a big help when I worked with several students that were reading well beyond their grade level during my student teaching. I cannot wait to use some of these strategies with my next class.

Assessment of Cognitive, School, and Home Factors PowerPoint

I’ve never heard of the majority of the tests in this PowerPoint before. Although now I understand how each test works and has it’s own positives and negatives. The Assessment of Capacity intelligence test is the only one I have heard of before reading the PowerPoint. I did like how it said, “low test scores cause students to have low expectations of themselves.” I’ve seen this happen with many of my students. They become discouraged with themselves because of a low test grade. I also didn’t know this test didn’t measure problem solving skills. The Wechsler Scales test seems to measure a large variety of things including: vocabulary, comprehension, reasoning, sequencing, memory, and speed. Of all of the tests I read about it seems to provide the assessor with the most information. I also liked the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. I’ve worked with many students that are shy and this would have been excellent to use with them, as well as ESOL students.

Differentiated Instruction Video PowerPoint

Differentiated instruction can seem difficult at first, but it is so beneficial to our students. It meets their needs on their instructional level while still teaching the required content. It’s not “dumbing down” the content, but rather developing challenging tasks for a wide variety of learners. Ultimately, using differentiated instruction will provide teachers with the opportunity to have a student centered classroom in which the teacher is able to scaffold the material for the students.

Module 6: Response to Videos

"Why I Flipped My Classroom" Video

Flipping a classroom sounds so interesting to me. I was introduced to the topic at the beginning of the summer when another student mentioned studying the effects of flipping a classroom for her Action Research project. Until that point I had never heard anything about it, but it seems much more effective than traditional teaching. I love the idea that it is motivated by the students and allows them to work at their own pace to learn the content and allows for more differentiation. I do have a few concerns about it though, the teacher in the video mentioned she makes videos for the students to watch outside of the classroom. This would have presented a problem with students I worked with in student teaching. The majority of them did not have Internet access at home, or even a computer. While they could use computers at public libraries, some students' parents schedules barely allowed for time at home with their child, let alone take them to the library to work on schoolwork. I think flipping a classroom has many positives for students, but in lower income areas there could be some negatives.

"Using Assessment to Improve Instruction" Video
This video talked about the importance of using assessment to build upon instruction. One thing the video mentioned is that as teachers we may be assessing our students just by simply doing what we consider to be, "good teaching." Using assignments and classroom work to assess students can provide the teacher with accurate understanding of how well a student is understanding and allows them to apply the content they are learning. Feedback is also very important from both the students and the teacher.

Module 6: Response to Reading

In chapter 14 we learn about working with parents. I've had the opportunity to observe and work in both a school with little to no parent involvement and a school with a ton of parent support. From my experiences I have found I enjoy having parents involved in the classroom and keeping the communication between the parents and teacher as open as possible. One classroom I had the opportunity to work in had multiple parent volunteers that took turns in helping with guided reading groups. The teacher developed the plans and when the parent volunteer came in she handed over the plans and had that group work with the parent while she worked with another group. During my student teaching, my CT and I never had a parent volunteer set foot in our classroom the entire semester. In fact, a large part of the parents missed their conference for parent/teacher conferences. In my experience I have come to believe that the support each student has at home is a factor in their achievement at school. One of the examples the text provided was the Family Literacy Project. I've heard great things about it, although I've never tried it, I think it would be beneficial to try in a classroom with little parent involvement. The text also provided another great suggestion for parents to use, captioned television. It's a great way to use television to improve students' reading. Not only are they seeing the words in print, but they are also hearing the fluency and tone from the speaker. If the teachers and parents work together, students can become more successful in all content areas.

Module 5: PowerPoint Responses

Vocabulary Development PowerPoint

In this PowerPoint we see different strategies for developing a student’s vocabulary. Personally I love to see students self correct. It is proof they understand what they read was wrong or did not make sense and they are reading for meaning. High frequency words often pose a problem for students that struggle with reading because they do not follow the typical pattern. My student teaching experience allowed me to work with students that were significantly below grade level in reading and many of them struggled with high frequency words. I’ve tried most of the strategies in the PowerPoint, however, I’ve never tried the Carbo Recorded Book Method. It sounds like it can be very beneficial for a struggling reader since it’s much slower than a book on tape.


Linking Phonics and Vocabulary PowerPoint

This slide conveyed the point that phonics and decoding skills are both linked together. It's important to make sure students understand that all parts of reading will help them to become stronger readers and to provide them with texts that will allow them to demonstrate this.


Phonics, High Frequency Words, and Fluency PowerPoint

This PowerPoint was awesome to me! I loved how it explained the word building process, as well as how to introduce the letter sounds. I completed my student teaching process in a third grade classroom last Fall and saw first hand how many students struggle with phonics, fluency, and high frequency words. I spent a lot of my time reteaching the material instead of building upon the skills they should have already developed in the earlier grade levels. I also liked how the PowerPoint mentioned using poetry to increase the students' confidence in their reading ability since it is more predictable. I've never been a fan of using predictable texts, however, I do see the potential it has for struggling readers.

Assessing Vocabulary PowerPoint

This PowerPoint was very informative. While reading through this PowerPoint I was immediately thinking back to how a student comprehends even though they may miscue. I personally would rather a student miscue the word “house” for “home” because the meanings are similar. I know ultimately the student understood what the passage meant but needs more review with the word. Just like the PowerPoint mentioned, “There are different ways of “knowing” a word.” When I worked with my students and they came to an unfamiliar word I would often ask them prompting questions (that dealt with the passage) to assess whether or not they were able to determine meaning from the word. When looking at the sample approaches in the presentation I don’t believe I’ve used any of them, however, I like the idea of using a Vocabulary Rating Sheet and the Partner Quizzes.

Module 5: Rubrics Video Response

This video was an excellent example of how to use rubrics and how simple they can be. Throughout my student teaching experience I loved to use rubrics to grade students. It provides them with a clear understanding of my expectations from them and exactly how I their assignments were graded. Whenever completing work for my own studies I always like to have a copy of the rubric open on my computer or next to me as well. Initially the video stated that a rubric is allows for standard evaluation for a certain criteria to make grading simpler, which I thought was a great way of stating the purpose of a rubric. The video goes on to explain how to use a rubric by the example of how determine the quality of a chocolate chip cookie. It goes on to explain how the category scores are a part of the whole grade and you can receive either all, half, or none of the points possible for that category. Once each category has been scored, you add up the points in each category to get the final grade. I think this video would be appropriate to show students that may not have encountered rubrics before or just to help clarify how grading is done with any parents that may have concerns.

Module 5: Chapter 13 & 14 Response and Activity

Chapter 13 discusses the importance of having good study skills and learning strategies.  I've heard many of the quotes on page 316 like, "I don't need to study." When thinking back to my middle and high school experiences I remember cramming for an exam the night before and only being concerned about getting a good grade on the test, not about retaining the information. Now as a teacher, I understand just how important it is to study parts of the information over a certain amount of time for the it to actually "sink in" and retain the information, as opposed to just studying for the test. It's my job to ensure the students have good study habits, but in my opinion a large part of that involves parent involvement or even an older sibling helping a student study. At the beginning of the school year or open house, we can provide the parents with information on good study habits such as skimming, questioning, summarizing, and reading and writing strategies. Also, parents can use the SQ3R method to help students study nightly. As long as students study continually instead of just cramming the night before the test they can retain the content and do better on exams and open-ended questions.

In chapter 14 we learn about working with parents. I've had the opportunity to observe and work in both a school with little to no parent involvement and a school with a ton of parent support. In my experience I have come to believe that the support each student has at home is a factor in their acheivement at school. As I mentioned from chapter 13, a large part of how well a student performs in the classroom depends on parent involvement at home. One of the examples the text provided was the Family Literacy Project. I've heard great things about it, although I've never tried it, I think it would be beneficial to try in a classroom with little parent involvement. The text also provided another great suggestion for parents to use, captioned television. It's a great way to use television to improve students' reading. Not only are they seeing the words in print, but they are also hearing the fluency and tone from the speaker.

Activity #2 p.335: Some teachers in your school system feel that elementary-grade children are too immature to learn study skill techniques. How would you convince these teachers that this is not so?
Study skills are important to teach to students at a young age. I've seen many students "freak out" over the pressure they have on them to perform well on a standardized test. If we teach them to gradually study the content they are learning they will not have to cram the night before a test. It will greatly benefit the students academically in the future the sooner they learn proper study habits.

Module 4: PowerPoint Responses

Assessment: Formative and Summative PowerPoint

The PowerPoint states that formative and summative assessments are interconnected. I’ve always assumed the two were similar, but not actually related. One of my favorite things stated in the PowerPoint was that formative assessment has the greatest impact on learning and achievement. I love using formative assessments in my classroom. It provides me with a clear understanding of where my students are and what they comprehend from my lessons. Formative assessments allow me to able to modify my lesson plans to meet the needs of my students through their feedback and responses. Another thing the PowerPoint mentioned was that formative assessment is assessment for learning and summative assessment is assessment of learning. This cleared up the confusion I have had of the two through those two phrases. The summative implications for classroom were also helpful. It mentioned having the students participate in self-assessments and sharing learning goals, which I would love to implement in the classroom.

Assessment: Identifying Reading Disabilities

Throughout my student teaching experience my CT and I had many students that had reading disabilities.  Although we were in a third grade classroom of 19 students, 13 of the students were well below grade level.  Of those 13 students, 6 were on RTI.  In our school we used a four-tier pyramid as apposed to the three tiers provided in the PowerPoint, with the fourth tier being special education services.  The PowerPoint mentioned, “Performing poorly on English reading test not indicator of reading disability-Need to be tested in reading in their native language.” I had many ELL students in my class and I always wondered if that contributed to their reading issues. I wish I would have provided them with texts in their native language to determine if that was the issue. Before the previous literacy course I always believed in the part-to-whole approach, however, now after EDRD 7715 and this course I fully believe in the whole-to-part approach as mentioned in the PowerPoint, especially in phonics and comprehension.

Module 4: Running Records Video

In the three part video series on running records, the instructor provides several lines of text relating to packing. The instructor demonstrates and explains in detail how to use the proper marks to use the marks on a running record. I use running records whenever I administer the DRA with my students. I've used the marks slightly differently than demonstrated, however, the examples she provided make more sense. One of my favorite things she demonstrated that I don't normally do when using running records is if a student sounds out the word like p-pa-packing. She includes the p-pa over the correct word and then gives a checkmark. I normally would just wait and put the appropriate mark above the word. I also liked the use of the "hug" mark for when a student repeats a phrase of words. The arrow and "blocking" off the phrase help the teacher to see the errors a student has made. These three videos helped reiterate how to use the markings of a running record properly and were a nice refresher.

In Running Records: Assessing and Improving Students' Reading and Comprehension video the teacher and student demonstrate a child reading and a teacher scoring a running record. One of my favorite things about the video was when the teacher asked the student what his goals were before reading the text aloud. After the student finished reading the teacher went back and breifly provided the student with some feedback and asked if certain things made sense throughout the text to aid in his comprehension. Personally I love to see how other teachers perform certain assessments and I really enjoyed seeing how this teacher uses running records with her students.

Module 4: Reading Responses

Throughout chapter 8 I was able to take away the importance of running records and other oral assessments. During my student teaching experience I had the opportunity to assess several students using the DRA. It provided me with the information I needed to know and helped me to place students in guided reading groups based on their needs and reading levels. The listening capacity test is something I had never heard of before reading this chapter. I believe it's important to know how are students are listening since much of their comprehension comes through listening. I can't even count how many times I've repeated myself in the classroom or during a read aloud and how many students miss what I've said. I would definitely like to try the listening capacity test in my own classroom.

In chapter 9 we learned about the different types of texts available to help students progress in reading. Optiz's text provides excellent descriptions, examples, and suggestions for using the variety of texts within a classroom setting. One of my favorite examples provided was the real life texts. I had never though of using things like restaurant menus, song lyrics, or board game instructions. There are so many different types of reading and texts we come into contact with and must comprehend in real life situations and the real life texts can help students that have a "mental block" with reading, because they may not consider it reading. Using the different types of texts and capitalizing the students' interest can help them become more successful in reading.

Chapter 10 focuses on helping students comprehend the material they are reading. As a reading instructor, comprehension is one of my primary goals when teaching reading. I believe if a student is able to comprehend the material, a reader's fluency will come eventually. In addition, as comprehension is there, other skills in reading will also progress, such as decoding, inferring, and listening. The text provides several informal assessments to use for assessing a student's level of comprehension. Based on the results of the assessments, we can change our instruction to meet the needs of our students.

Teaching phonics is something I'm really excited about, so chapter 12 was very interesting for me to read. Many teachers focus on just emphasizing phonics through worksheets, but the text provided excellent exercises of how to teach phonics. I believe students primarily learn phonics best through read-alouds, shared reading, guided reading, and individual conferences in a comprehensive literacy approach to reading.  It is important to remember when teaching phonics to focus on determining meaning, not to put emphasis on phonics and phonemic awareness.

Module 3: Formative Assessments Article

Formative assessments are an excellent way of gauging how well students understand the material being presented to them. This particular form of assessment is a great way to drive instruction. When there is part of the content that a majority of the students do not understand then it allows the teacher to modify teaching strategies to aid in the students' comprehension. "In the end—if learning is to take hold—the teacher has to hand over the cognitive work to the student who, in turn, needs to assume responsibility for getting it right" (Roskos, 2012, p. 536). Part of formative assessments requires the students to take responsibility for their comprehension. The student needs to be held accountable for maintaining his/her goals and self-assessments. A teacher can aid in helping a student achieve this by providing useful feedback. For example, Roskos states, "Your story map of Little Red Riding Hood is coming along; it shows the forest and Grandma’s house, but I don’t see how the wolf got to Grandma’s house. That’s important because…. And there are no people on this map…so who might you add? How would you check for that?" (2012, p. 538). Using formative assessments allows teachers to make adjustments quickly to meet the needs of the students, which is ultimately most important.

Module 3: Response to PowerPoints

Overview of Assessments:

I enjoyed reading the PowerPoint on assessments. One particular thing that stuck out to me was the slide that stated, “Primary purpose for assessment is to improve both teaching and learning.” Assessments and the results of those assessments are what drive my instruction. I want to ensure that my students and fully comprehending the content I present to them. All of the assessments I give serve a purpose for my students and me. Throughout student teaching I would frequently use both formative and summative assessments. For example, during a math lesson I would have the students answer a math problem on their whiteboard, showing me their work. If I noticed mistakes in their work, I was able to take a small group and work with those students (if only a few were struggling) or go through the steps with them until they became more knowledgeable about the process.

Literacy Strategies Project:

I loved this PowerPoint! Phonics is something I have personally struggled with understanding in the past. As a young reader I never received the proper instruction when it came to phonics and I believe it affected me as I progressed in reading. Needless to say, teaching phonics is something I like to have extra emphasis on since I have such a connection with it. The PowerPoint pointed out that students should spend 1-2 years developing phonics skills. It is important for teachers to remember not to bore students with worksheets continually. As the PowerPoint mentioned, students can apply their phonics skills through writing. Phonics can be taught all of the parts relating to one another and the whole concept. Students primarily learn phonics through read-alouds, shared reading, guided reading, and individual conferences. It is important to remember when teaching phonics is that the focus should be determining meaning, not to put emphasis on phonics and phonemic awareness. The primary focus of reading to teach phonics as a building block to determine meaning. 

Module 3: Standardized Testing Article

Standardized testing is a hot topic in schools today. Many parents, students, educators, and administrators focus on standardized tests. As stated in Popham's article, "Standardized achievement tests indicate how well a test taker has acquired knowledge and mastered certain skills" (2005). These tests measure which percentile a student falls to. During my undergraduate program, I had a teacher spend multiple class periods on how to read standardized tests and how to explain them to the parents. Personally, I do not like standardized tests. I believe they do not accurately measure how well a student is able to comprehend the material. Often times these tests are set up to trick the student, which I believe doesn't measure their learning. If they are able to perform the steps of a multi-step math problem, but accidentally switch a number, there answer is wrong. This student clearly understands the process, just made an error. Standardized tests not only put an enormous amount of pressure on the students, but "educators must guess about which of this multitude of content standards will actually be assessed on a given year's test" (2005). I've seen many teachers just teach to the test instead of focusing on meeting the needs of the students. 

Reference:

Popham, W. J. (2005, March 23). Standardized testing fails the exam. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/f-for-assessment

Module 3: YouTube Video Responses

Strengthening Students' Phonemic Awareness, Grades K-1 Video

 Phonemic awareness is taught over a long period of time. Students can learn through language play and focusing on he sounds in spoken words. The video showed a variety of strategies that could be used to help teach phonemic awareness within a classroom. The video should students working with small words endings to enhance their knowledge of phonemic awareness. It's important to teach phonemic awareness early for students to become successful readers in upper grade levels. 

Example of Phenomic Segmentation Awareness

The video showed a teacher administering an assessment to an early literacy learner using blocks. The teacher told the student how the assessment would work by demonstrating what she wanted to do by using the word "sit." The student must pull a block from the pile for each sound she hears within the given word. The words started out simple and got harder as the assessment went on. The student may not have known how to spell these words Or pronounce them if she saw them within a text, but she is able to hear the sounds, which is what then assessment is trying to determine. When the student works on the word "shop" she understands the assignment fully when she realizes the -sh makes one sound. The video is an excellent example of performing the assessment, especially since it includes the use of blocks. It's an added benefit for kinesthetic learners. 

Module 3 Reading Responses

Chapter 7 discusses the importance of assessing students in primary grades and teaching early literacy. Assessing a students early literacy is important to gauge a students readiness.  First to assess a students literacy level you provide the students with a selected text. It should not be a cold read. Often times when I've assessed students I've been told to just pull a text, give a brief overview of the story the student will be reading and then assess how the student performs. This is not a good way of assessing students fluency in early literacy. There are several different assessments you can use to help early literacy learners. Yopp-Singer provides the teacher with the students' knowledge of phenomic awareness. For a student to be a successful reader, they must be proficient in both phonological awareness and phenomic awareness. It's important for students to receive extra assistance when struggling with reading. Early intervention provides students with the opportunity to become successful in reading with specialized instruction. Using a variety of assessments, teachers can determine a students' needs easily. 

Throughout chapter 8 I was able to take away the importance of running records and other oral assessments. During my student teaching experience I had the opportunity to assess several students using the DRA. It provided me with the information I needed to know and helped me to place students in guided reading groups based on their needs and reading levels. The listening capacity test is something I had never heard of before reading this chapter. I believe it's important to know how are students are listening since much of their comprehension comes through listening. I can't even count how many times I've repeated myself in the classroom or during a read aloud and how many students miss what I've said. I would definitely like to try the listening capacity test in my own classroom.

Teaching phonics is something I'm really excited about, so chapter 12 was very interesting for me to read. Many teachers focus on just emphasizing phonics through worksheets, but the text provided excellent exercises of how to teach phonics. I believe students primarily learn phonics best through read-alouds, shared reading, guided reading, and individual conferences in a comprehensive literacy approach to reading.  It is important to remember when teaching phonics to focus on determining meaning, not to put emphasis on phonics and phonemic awareness.

Module 2: Article & Optiz Text Comparison

Chapters 5 &6 in Optiz's text discussed informal and formal assessments. The text provided many examples of formal and informal assessments that can be used, and that most teachers most likely already use day to day in their classroom. Personally I've used checklists, reading attitude surveys, running records, interest inventories, and interviews with my students in the past. I'm also currently using several of these with my tutee. Informal assessments provide the teacher with the opportunity to assess the student easily and drive instruction. The article stated, "are not data driven but rather content and performance driven (Weaver)." "Authentic assessments help teacher measure the students abilities using procedures that simulate the application of these abilities to real life situations (Opitz, et, al., 2011, p. 64)."

Where do the ideas seem to merge?  What differences can you discern?

The text and the article both seem to state the same thing. Informal assessment and performance based measures should be used to inform instruction. The article stressed assessment used needs to match the purpose of assessing. I didn't notice any strong differences between my article and the text, however, the text provided excellent examples of formal and informal assessments that could be used with students.

References:

Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. A. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement, assessment and instruction. (6th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Weaver, B. (n.d.). Formal versus informal assessments.

            Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/formal-versus-informal-assessments

Module 2: PowerPoint Reflections

Assessing students is always an important part of education. I've always enjoyed using rubrics as a form of assessments with my students. The students are always able to know what I expect from them while working. Whenever I assigned a writing assignment with my students, I provided them with a rubric. For me, it is important for them to know they are meeting all of the requirements within an assignment. It also makes the student responsible for his/her own actions while working. The PowerPoint also mentioned using portfolios to assess student's writing. Personally, I love implementing journaling into class time. It allows the student to write about what ever they want. During student teaching, from time to time my CT and I would collect the journals and monitor the student's progress from their journal entries. Their journals also provided writing samples to use during parent-teacher conferences. When I collected their journals, I always tried to leave positive feedback, as well as constructive criticism and ways the student could improve in their writing.

Module 2: Response to Reading Inventory Demo Video

This video is an excellent example of how a teacher can gain information about the student through simple dialogue. The conversation between the teacher and student reminded me of the Garfield Reading Survey. It's a quick, simple way to gauge how the student feels about reading and what topics may interest them. Using simple conversation and the Garfield Reading Survey I hope to determine a wide variety of books and topics that will interest my tutee. The word list used by the teacher also allows for the quick assessment and determine the tutee's reading ability/level. One particular thing I liked is when the teacher told the student to read at her own pace. There was no added pressure on the student (which can happen to many students when reading aloud) and I plan on using it with my tutee. He often feels embarrassed reading aloud and I want to make sure the atmosphere we work in feels comfortable and safe for my tutee. As I work with my tutee I hope his interest and feeling towards reading will improve.

References:

Reading Inventory Demo -- Part One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHAZyRKKbic

Module 1: Response to PowerPoint

This PowerPoint reiterated a lot of information that we learned in our previous reading course. Proficient readers reading for comprehension and understanding, rather than focusing on decoding each individual sound within a word. I enjoyed reading learning about ELL students as well. I student taught in a classroom with many ELL students. A majority of them were focused on decoding and were very choppy when they read aloud. One key point that stood out to me from the PowerPoint was to know if an ELL student struggled reading in their native language. I never even thought to think about how they read in their native language! I believe ongoing assessments help all students in reading. It is important for the teacher to know how students are improving and to constantly monitor their progress.

Since I will be tutoring a 5th grade student for this class, I begin to think of some strategies and assessments that I would use with him. My student should be in Stage 4- Reading to Learn and is reading in his native language. I plan on using a balanced literacy approach and incorporating writing into several sessions.

I'm excited to see how the student I will be working with will improve in reading. I'm also interested in knowing if there will be any improvements in his other content areas as well.

Pg. 14, Activity #4, Opitz

Since I do not currently have my own classroom, I thought back to my student teaching experience and the time I spent leading guided reading groups and working one-on-one with students. Immediately, one student in particular stuck out to me. This student was a slightly below level reader, and struggled with comprehension and fluency. His reading was always very choppy and sounded much like a computer program when they read aloud. When looking at Table 1.1 I noticed that he was a less proficient reader, because he was constantly attempting to identify all of the words correctly. In fact, if you were to look at his running record it would have hardly any miscues. He was focusing all of his energy on correctly identifying the words in the passage, rather than gaining meaning. I constantly told this student that it was okay if he made mistakes, and that I wanted him to be able to tell me what happened in the text after he was finished reading.

The last reading course helped me to understand how important reading comprehension is and how miscues can often be misleading. The student I was working with could have had more miscues throughout their reading and still been a proficient reader if he was able to determine meaning from the text. Ultimately, I would have liked to have monitored his progress, but since it was during my student teaching I don't know how the student has progressed now.

Watch & Learn: Assessing Reading Fluency

This video discussed the importance of assessing students' frequently and monitoring their progress. Ongoing assessments allow the teacher to diagnose a student's needs and abilities in reading. As the video mentioned, many readers may have high IQs and be performing in high percentiles in other subject areas, but struggle in reading. Strong readers are able to read quickly, fluently, and comprehend the text presented to them. Comprehension is the primary goal of reading. If students are spending their time focusing on decoding the will lose the fluency and comprehension needed to become a strong reader.
Through my experience, I have personally seen many students focus on decoding the words and struggle to determine the meaning of the text. It can be frustrating for the student to read a passage and not gained any information from what they have just read. I like the video's suggestion of having the student read a list of words as quickly as possible. It is a quick, easy assessment to give and can boost a student's confidence. Then, have the student move onto simpler text to determine meaning. As an educator my goal is to ensure that students are reading fluently and gaining comprehension. Reading is something that they will constantly need to thrive in the world.

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.


In the classroom I would first read aloud to my students modeling how I would want them to read when they are reading aloud.  Next, I would have them work on shared reading with texts that they have background knowledge about and would be interested in reading. I would then transition into guided reading with students grouped by ability and skill needs. In guided reading I would present the students with a variety of texts on their level to choose from, so they can choose the one that interest them the most, engaging their schema. I want students to reading successfully and not become frustrated or disinterested while reading. Finally, I would give the students the option to choose a book from a leveled library in my classroom for their independent reading. During my student teaching, my CT did this exact method with her students and it was amazing to see the progress. The majority of the students were on free or reduced meals and many of them did not past the state tests. Throughout the semester we saw many improvements.


Outside of the classroom I would allow my students to take home the leveled texts they choose for independent reading time for extra practice. I would assume the majority of them do not have access to many texts on their level at home. I would also include journal responses and questions about the texts that worked on their comprehension. Also I would have them read aloud to a family member at home, keeping in mind how I modeled read alouds.

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 philosophy of reading has been reinforced through Weaver's text throughout the semester and Chapter 15 helped me to better understand the importance of a comprehensive literacy classroom and the benefits of it. I have always known that the primary goal of reading was to read for meaning. During my undergraduate work professors would always emphasize phonics and part-to-whole instruction rather than whole-to-part. The studies on page 369 in Weaver's text lead me to believe that a comprehensive literacy program will benefit the students the most and make the successful in reading and comprehension. I also like that there is emphasis on page 373 and 374 about using texts that students have background knowledge on and are able to connect with to gain better understanding when reading. 


My perspective hasn't really changed since I originally took the Deford TORP. The majority of the answers I marked were the same. Originally I scored in the skills section and after taking it again, I still remained in the skills section.

Final Personal Model of Reading Theory

Throughout the course of this semester, my knowledge about reading instruction and teaching reading strategies has grown, however, I still believe a large part of what I stated in my first paper.  Reading is the foundation of every subject and without a solid foundation in reading students will struggle in other content areas.  Initially I believed reading was a process that slowly built upon itself or a part to whole concept; however I now believe reading is a continual cycle that allows students to continually learn and grow.  In reading, contexts, meaning, and prior knowledge should be all intertwined to effectively teach reading to a student.   Ultimately, the students will use reading in everything they do and continually build upon their foundation.

            I believe that reading begins before a student enters a classroom.  Students are able to connections and associate pictures, words, and letters long before they are able to read and use phonics to sound out unfamiliar words.  I believe that utilizing word association and the alphabet will help children to excel in reading before they reach the elementary school level.

            Once a student reaches the elementary school level, students should begin building upon the knowledge they already have about words.  This includes learning phonics, sight words, and word patterns, fluency, and comprehension.  I have had many students that have been unsuccessful and struggle with reading. However, I believe through shared reading, guided reading, individual conferencing and other components of a comprehensive literacy program students can improve their reading skills and level.  Also, students are able to view how to become a better reading through the teacher’s modeling during read-alouds and mini-lessons.

            Comprehension is vital to the success of young readers. I believe that as a student begins to develop as a reader they must not just be able to identify the words they are reading correctly, but also be able to recall the information they have read.  This course has shown me that often times when a reader reads aloud, the may use miscues if they are fluent readers, but the words they miscue may not necessarily change the meaning of the text.  In this case, miscues are acceptable as long as it does not change the meaning of the passage since comprehension is one of the primary goals of readers. Readers take on meaning from their texts by making connections to the words and their contexts from prior experiences. The process of comprehending written text is an ongoing collaboration of visual aspects, letter-sound relationships, schemas, contexts, and words and their meanings.

            Young readers should also continue their work on making connections.  Allowing students to make connections to words using context and prior knowledge will help them develop.  For example, many times teachers ask students to write a sentence about something and draw a picture to go with it.  The connection with the picture may help the students write the sounds of the words they drew.  Eventually this will lead to learning and identifying spelling patterns and strategies to correctly spell a word, which will lead them to become better readers.

            Readers should also master is fluency. During my undergraduate work I had a professor say that fluency was not just the speed at which a student can read, but the ability to use decoding and comprehension quickly. Fluency is important for students to learn so they spend less time decoding and trying to pronounce the words and more time comprehending the materials they have read.  When a student read to me during guided reading or through assessments and made many miscues I often assumed the student was not a proficient reader and needed to be placed into a lower reading group.  This course has shown me that it not always the case.  Many times readers can change a word accidently and the passage will still make sense.  Ultimately I would like the reader to not make any miscues, but my main concern is that the student is able to take away meaning from the text.

Reading is a lifelong journey and a continual learning cycle, not just a step-by-step process.  It is my goal to instill a passion for reading in each of my student’s lives that they will carry with them long after the leave my classroom.  This course and Weaver’s text has really helped me realize that reading is valuable and important to teach to students.  I have learned a great deal from this course and cannot wait to try some of the strategies I read about with some of my future students. 

Module 5: Instructional Challenge

As your school year starts, you realize that you have three ELLs who are newcomers to the United States. Discuss how a comprehensive literacy program addresses their needs, drawing attention to specific components of the framework that are particularly relevant. Then discuss any additional scaffolding you would offer to support these children's needs.


A comprehensive literacy program can help ELL students learn through multiple opportunities for many individual conferences with the teacher. ELL students can also observe modeling throughout the mini lessons that are led by the teachers. Students also have the opportunity to work with students in shared reading and guided reading groups with other students who may speak their native language, providing them with a comfort and sense of security.


Comprehensive literacy programs also provide the opportunity for teachers to easily assess their students progress throughout the year. ELL students can be placed into groups with other students on their level or a group that is focusing on a specific skill in reading and writing. 


In classrooms I have observed, often times ELL students that are struggling with many basic components of reading and writing will be pulled from the regular classroom to work with another teacher on basic reading strategies and skill sets.

Module 5: Reading Reflection

Where does phonics instruction fit within a comprehensive literacy program? When and how would you teach phonics?


Phonics is an important component of reading, students must be able to sound out and make the sounds of letters and words within a text. The goal of phonics instruction is to help readers quickly determine the sounds in unfamiliar written words. According to Weaver (2002), “parts are intertwined in a indivisible whole that must be studied and relate to other parts and to the whole.” Phonics in a comprehensive literacy program is taught the same way, with all of the parts relating to one another and the whole concept. Comprehensive literacy programs are designed to have phonics imbedded into the everyday reading and writing activities, not taught separately.  Teachers can teach phonics through read alouds, guided reading, shared reading, and individual conferences.  


Reference:
Weaver, C. (2002). Reading process and practice. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Module 4: Activity 2

I believe the two most important pillars of reading instruction from Allington are matching students with the appropriate texts and access to texts and choices. Having students interested and engaged in the texts they are reading helps aid in their understanding. Personally, when I read texts I am interested in and am a more fluent, proficient reader and am able to comprehend better as well. I believe students learn the same way. It can be very challenging to read when you are not interested in a text. Matching students with appropriate texts is also extremely important. In my student teaching classroom we always had the students find "just right" books. As a teacher I never wanted my students to become too frustrated when reading and just give up, but I didn't want them to find books that were too easy and didn't challenge them. It's important to find a balance that is right for the students that will help them build their comprehension and fluency.

Prominent Theorist Paper

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7hhchQsAjmWdkF2U2VjM2hZVG8/edit

Module 4: Activity 1

While learning to read for the first time at age 50, Robin used a variety of strategies to help him succeed. The strategy that seemed to work the best for him was chunking. He was able to read word families through chunking and eventually moved on to more challenging texts. He used used chunking while trying to read the back of a truck and was able to identify the words correctly. Also, while setting up his email account he was able to determine the word "congratulations," by first identifying the word "rat" within the word. He then used chunking to determine the beginning of the word. Once he made blended the initial and middle sounds together he was able to figure out the word said, "congratulations." While reading Stone Soup, he struggled with the several words, but knew that it did not sound correct. He was able to go back and self-correct and retry the words until the words sounded correct and fit the text properly. This video was really interesting to watch since I've never had to opportunity to work with someone who was completely illiterate, but the teachers took the same steps we take with our students to help them become stronger, better readers.

Module 4: Instructional Challenge

Marcus is a student who very frequently miscues by substituting words that start with the same letter or first few letters of the word in the text, but his substitutions often are not syntactically or semantically acceptable (they neither sound right grammatically nor make sense). What possible teaching strategies would you suggest to help Marcus? 


Our text provides a lot of great ideas for helping students like Marcus. On page 244, one strategy includes previewing the book to the students before reading it aloud. Allow the students to look at the title, cover, and pictures throughout the book to make predictions of what could happen. I would have this student work in a center with audiobooks and a copy of the text. Then the student could hear the words sounded out for them and they can associate the letter-sound patterns correctly. You could also provide handouts and worksheets in the center that go along with the text to be completed as the student progresses with their fluency to ensure comprehension is not lost. Buddy reading could also benefit Marcus greatly. I would partner him up with a student who is a stronger reader that will aid him.

Module 4: Reading Reflection

Since I do not currently have my own classroom, I decided to reflect upon the strategies I used throughout my student teaching experience. Every day the students heard read-alouds from either myself or my collaborating teacher (CT). This would occur many times throughout the day including during snack time, reading mini-lesson, and while students were packing up to head home. During snack time and while the students were packing up the book was a "fun" book that didn't necessarily relate to the reading topic we were discussing in class. Three to four times a week my CT and I would meet with different guided reading groups. We would focus on one particular skill for the day and work with a small group of students. While my CT and I were meeting with guided reading groups, the remaining students spent the time reading independently on their level. My CT was fortunate enough to have a leveled library in the classroom and the students had the opportunity to choose books on their level they were interested in and read silently during this time. Many times students would ask for post-it notes to record questions they had or unfamiliar words to ask about after I was finished with a guided reading group. All of these strategies helped me assess how the students were progressing as readers and what skills still needed work.

I haven't had the opportunity to implement literature circles or individual reading conferences into a classroom yet, but I would love to try both of them. Personally I've completed literature circles during my undergraduate coursework and loved them and would be interested in seeing how younger students respond to them. During my student teaching experience I had the opportunity to visit several conferences and heard many different teachers using reading conferences as part of their daily routines and would love to try it out in my classroom.

Teaching writing was a personal struggle for me, however, I had an amazing CT that helped guide me in becoming an effective writing teacher. Almost daily we would do write-alouds. We would look at writing examples and talk about why the pieces of writing were good or bad examples. If an example wasn't very good, as a class we would work together to create a more interesting piece. Whenever students finished assignments in other subjects early, they were to work on unfinished work or write in their creative writing journals. This journal was never taken up or looked at unless the student asked me. We considered this to be many students creative outlet and private. The students in my classroom also participated in independent writing. Students had a clip with their number on it and they would move it to which part of the writing process the were currently working on. Many students would be in different stages of the writing process, but my CT and I constantly reminded them that it is okay. During the independent writing time my CT and I would look to see where the students were based on their clips and conferences with certain students to give feedback and suggestions. I plan on using all of these strategies in my own classroom since they worked wonderfully for me during student teaching.

Module 3: Activity 2

What do you think of this? What do such activities and “cracking the code” contribute to proficient reading? What else might a reader need to become proficient?


This video showed just how important the letter-word correspondence is to the student. Students learning how to associate letter sounds to build words is an important part of the initial stages of building a strong reader. The teacher in the video showed just how important understanding the phonics is to building a word. I like that she mentioned it was important for the student to not only hear the sounds from her, but be able to sound it out and blend it together so it makes sense to them, just like she mentioned with the word "sat."


I don't believe students building non-words will help benefit them in reading. I try and have my students focus on reading for meaning and comprehension rather than just reading nonsense. I think building non-words takes away from them developing meaning. When students can build actual words they can begin to make connections to them which will help them become stronger readers.

Module 3: Mock Memo from a Reading Specialist

Erica, a fifth grader, reads grade level passages at a rate of 177 words correct per minute, or 30% faster than grade level norms. When asked to retell what she has read, Erica struggles and is able to give little to no information from about the text. Many other children in Erica's class also read well above grade level expectations for fluency rate (or automaticity), but the teacher laments that they struggle with comprehension and using appropriate expression and intonation while they read. What is going on here? What advice can you offer the teacher?


As educators, we must remember the focus of reading is to produce efficient readers that can read quickly and determine meaning. Erica and her classmates seem to be able to read quickly, but need to focus on comprehension. Reading for meaning is critical, we want our students to be able to recall what they have just read. 


First, try modeling HOW you want your students to read. Choose a book that has a few different characters with different emotions. Modeling is always an effective strategy. While reading the book aloud to the students frequently stop and ask questions. Not only about what has already happened, but what they think will happen. Good readers can not only recall information, but use the context clues to make predictions about what they think will happen. Record the information recalled and predictions on a large anchor chart or a pre-made poster and review with the students after you have read the story aloud to see if they were right or wrong. Be sure to emphasize that it is okay to be wrong in your predictions! 


Next in a small group, I would suggest that the students try reading a piece of reader's theater in a small group. Using reader's theater will help the students read with expression because they will be in character. Before they begin reading you can have them imagine how their character would sound if they were excited, angry, sad, etc. By using reader's theater with the students you have the ability to choose longer pieces that can be broken up into several days on guided reading. You can break up the pieces of the stories into smaller sciences and focus on comprehension of smaller passages. I think reader's theater will greatly benefit the students struggling with comprehension and expression as they read.

Module 3: Reading Reflection

Do you agree with Marilyn Adams (1990, p. 108) who argued that rather than relying on context, “Skillful readers of English thoroughly process the individual letters of words in their texts?” Why or why not?

I don't agree with Marilyn Adams' statement. Readers can identify the individual letters in a word, however, when reading fluently skillful readers do not take the time to process each letter in a word. Our text states on page 109, "Good readers do not read word-by-word as if the words were in a list rather than in context; rather, they use context not only to perceive and identify words but to do so with slightly greater speed and fewer eye fixations." 

I believe if a reader focused on the individual letters within a word they would be concentrating more on the pronunciation of that word rather than trying to determine meaning from the passage. Several years ago while in a class, my classmates and I were presented a passage where the first and last letters in the words were left in their proper place, but the other letters were mixed around within the word. The majority of the student were able to read the passage quickly with ease and were able to comprehend the meaning of the passage. This is because we were not focusing on each individual letter, but the context of the text.

While our eyes do process each letter, when reading fluently proficient readers read rapidly and do not focus on each individual letter, nor do they read word-for-word. Strong readers do not need to focus on each individual letter to determine meaning from a text. They are able to make a connection between the words in a text to determine meaning.

Module 2: Activities 1 & 2

Activity #1

Page 58 #3C

Word	Possible Definition

Creech	Screech
Droogs	Drools
Glazzies	Glassy
Goloss	Gloss
Malenky	Melancholy
Messel	Missile
Millicents	Millimeter
Poogly	Poorly
Razrez	Raspberries
Skorry	Scary
Spatted	Spit
Zoobies	Zombies

I had absolutely no idea what these words’ definition could mean. While I was trying to determine what the words could mean I thought the words could sound similar to their meaning. For the majority of the words I assumed they could be slang words from a different dialect (Just like a lot of people use the word y’all in the South) used in place for other words.

Word	Actual Definition

Droogs	Friend/Ally
Skorry	Quickly
Glazzies	Eyes
Goloss	Voice/Tone
Razrezzed	Ripped
Creeching	Screaming

I was able to use the context clues from the sentences to gain understanding of the unfamiliar words. I was correct in assuming the given words were slang words used in another dialect; however, the definitions I came up with were incorrect.

Activity #2

1.     I did not read the word letter-by-letter. It just didn’t make sense to me to attempt to complete the exercise quickly or correctly by using this approach.

2.     I primarily chunked the words into familiar patterns that I recognized to determine how to properly pronounce the word.

3.     I did not try to sample the letters all at once. Again, it didn’t seem like the most efficient way to properly determine the pronunciation of the word.

4.     I did not know any of the definitions of the words. I only had a guess of what one word could mean. If they were to be used in a sentence I would probably be able to determine the meaning.

5.     Pronunciation of the words only helped me with one of the words, plesiosaur. I assumed since it ended in –saur, it could have something to do with dinosaurs since they both have the same ending.

6.     I use context clues to help me determine meaning from unfamiliar words. If one particular sentence is unable to give me the complete definition I will continue reading and can often infer the meaning of the particular word later on in a passage.

7.     Having a word by itself will often make it more difficult for the reader to determine its meaning. For example, on a spelling test if a student hears the word eight, they may or may not be able to spell it correctly based on the word by itself, but if used in a sentence the student can determine the meaning of it and spell it correctly.