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.