There are many different strategies for teaching vocabulary to students. One of the most effective ways in through reading. The Tompkins book talks heavily about reading and its impact on the ability of students to learn vocabulary. Reading encourages students to use strategies such as context clues to figure out words they don't know. Reading constantly exposes students to new vocabulary in a meaningful way. Another way to teach vocabulary is by using word walls. Word walls can be used for any subject to highlight the key vocabulary words. By having the words visible to students, they are able to see the words over and over. The repetition so to speak helps the students to internalize the words and it also helps them to look for those vocabulary words in their text books or other reading materials. When students find these words in the text they can use the context to derive the meaning of the word if they are not completely sure what it means.
Another way to teach students vocabulary is to have them practice with identifying root words and affixes. Acitivities where students have the meaning of each word part and put words together using those parts help the students to decode the meaning. Also, by seeing words broken up, students can start to see how to break up words they are unfamiliar with.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Vocabulary Blog
Vocabulary can be taught in several different ways. An effective way to enhance vocabulary is to put words on a word wall. This will benefit all children as it can become a resource for them in terms of spelling, and using the word. Also, if there are any English learners in the class, putting a picture with the word will help them to learn the language and make the word meaningful. An important idea in terms of vocabulary learning is that if a student learns one word, she or he may actually be learning several words as we use prefixes and suffixes. I think it’s also important to integrate literacy learning throughout all subjects. This can be done easily by incorporating vocabulary learning within other subjects.
I really enjoyed some of the stations that we used during class to learn about vocabulary. I think by going through the centers it was easy to see that the main idea behind vocabulary learning is making meaning with the words. Instead of going through rote memorization of learning words, making meaningful connections by drawing pictures, and incorporating other subjects.
Vocabulary Instruction
Learning vocabulary is a constant process and is never finished. Connecting to background knowledge is the best way for me to learn new vocab words. It creating a deeper meaning in my mind and aids me in remembering new terms. While this is the best form of instruction for me, it may not be the best way for others and different approaches for vocabulary instruction is necessary in the classroom. Another way is by repetition. I've noticed that this approach words great when teaching a foreign language. I teach after school Spanish classes and repetition is the best way for students to remember words. Meaningful use is also a great way to used new vocabulary. I strongly believe in the "use it or lose it" philosophy and the students need activities and projects involving the new terms. In my field, the students are encouraged to use their vocabulary words in their writings and become very excited when the find words in their readings.
Since it is a third grade classroom, the are beginning to read more difficult texts and often encounter words that they are unfamiliar with. At the beginning of the year, each student was given their dictionary to keep. When the come across words during whole-group activities that they do not know, the CT designates a "Word Wizard" to look up the word and read the definition to the class. When the come across a word in the dictionary they they really like, they are encouraged to circle the word and somehow use it in their work.
Since it is a third grade classroom, the are beginning to read more difficult texts and often encounter words that they are unfamiliar with. At the beginning of the year, each student was given their dictionary to keep. When the come across words during whole-group activities that they do not know, the CT designates a "Word Wizard" to look up the word and read the definition to the class. When the come across a word in the dictionary they they really like, they are encouraged to circle the word and somehow use it in their work.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Assessing Fluency and Word Identification
It is very important to assess students in the many aspects of literacy, including word identification and fluency. In order for a student to improve in word identification and fluency, we must know where the student lies along the spectrum. Students may improve their word identification by first learning to say, read, and spell high frequency words. Students may development word identification by having a word wall in the classroom as a resource. This allows them to check for spelling and practice saying and reading the word. As a student develops their identification of words, their fluency will improve as well. To assess students fluency we want to look at their rate, or how quickly they read, automaticity, if they automatically know a word, phrasing, how they chunk their words, and prosody, reading with expression. By improving these four areas while reading, the student will become a more fluent reader!
In general when assessing students in word identification or fluency it is important to keep in mind the student’s background and experiences. Some students may not have been read to ask young children, but still have experiences they’ve gone through to contribute to the class as a whole.
Assessing Fluency
When assessing students in fluency and word identification there are many things to consider. First of all, it is important to think about who the students are as individuals because not every student will be at the same level so the starting point for assessments can be different. Also, assessments need to be completed over a period of time, from the beginning to the end of the year in order to really track the growth of the students. When teachers administer fluency assessments they need to be assess each of the critical parts including word reading accuracy, rate and prosody. One of the best ways to assess students fluency is through oral reading. This helps teachers to hear the students sound out/decode words they may not be familiar with. Teachers can use reading records to record student accuracy when reading and address it with the student so they can see how they are progressing. In assessing that rate of student reading teachers can test how quickly students can identify site words and decode unknown, nonsense words. This can show the teacher the processes that students are going through and how accurately they are able to use strategies for decoding. Recording students so that they can hear themselves read is also a good tool to use. A lot of times what students hear in their heads is different from what others hear. When they hear a recording of themselves they can see where they are making mistakes and they can also see common mistakes that keep happening. The main thing to keep in mind when assessing fluency is that is ongoing and cannot be done once for conclusive evidence of improvement. Teachers need to take the time and put in the effort in order to determine how well their students are progressing.
Fluency and Mini-Lesson
To assess fluency, it is important that you consider the speed of a child's reading as well as their prosody. From timing the child's reading, and listening for inflection and word recognition, these are all important factors in determining a child's current level of fluency. More importantly than merely determining the child's level of fluency is tracking their progress. Students should be improving over time no matter what there level of fluency is. Tracking a student's progress in fluency and word recognition allows you to understand what techniques work and do not work for each individual student.
Using my book club novel which is titled The Breadwinner, the fluency lesson I would create would focus on prosody. This book is at a fourth or fifth grade reading level, and many students in this age group have good word recognition, but need work on improving their prosody. Because there are many characters exchanging dialogue in this novel, I would have the students act out a chapter each in small groups. There are fifteen chapters so not every chapter could be done in front of the class but having one group a week perform a chapter in front of the class would allow the students designated to act out the chapter develop better prosody, and this would also allow the rest of the students watching to get a more dramatic picture of what is happening in the story.
Using my book club novel which is titled The Breadwinner, the fluency lesson I would create would focus on prosody. This book is at a fourth or fifth grade reading level, and many students in this age group have good word recognition, but need work on improving their prosody. Because there are many characters exchanging dialogue in this novel, I would have the students act out a chapter each in small groups. There are fifteen chapters so not every chapter could be done in front of the class but having one group a week perform a chapter in front of the class would allow the students designated to act out the chapter develop better prosody, and this would also allow the rest of the students watching to get a more dramatic picture of what is happening in the story.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Assessing Fluency/ Lesson Outline
A great way to test word identification is by administering an automaticity assessment to test sight-word recognition. If students struggle at recognizing words and non-words, this means they struggle with word recognition. Having students read aloud is a way assess the students reading fluency. Providing modeling in the classroom is a way to help students struggling with word identification and fluency. Students that excel in these areas can model for other and assist fellow classmates who might be struggling. I personally feel that self-recordings are a great way to help motivate students. I struggled with reading aloud as a child but didn't really understand until I was recorded at home reading a book. I sounded very robotic and there was no flow to my reading. This was enough to motivate me to practice and become less embarrassed about reading in front of people.
"Scorpions"
This book contains a TON of dialog and scene changes. Since there is so many characters and dialog, this would be a great piece to do a mini Readers Theater with. I would treat the text like a plat and assign different roles to different students. I would not suggest using the entire novel because it does involve quite a bit of violence toward the end (i.e the usage of guns) and acting out these particular scenes might not be appropriate for younger students. I would pick a chapter or two with the most character involvement and have students read different roles. This will give them practice all parts of prosody - tempo, rhythm, pitch, and phrasing. As stated before, I would not use the entire novel in this lesson.
"Scorpions"
This book contains a TON of dialog and scene changes. Since there is so many characters and dialog, this would be a great piece to do a mini Readers Theater with. I would treat the text like a plat and assign different roles to different students. I would not suggest using the entire novel because it does involve quite a bit of violence toward the end (i.e the usage of guns) and acting out these particular scenes might not be appropriate for younger students. I would pick a chapter or two with the most character involvement and have students read different roles. This will give them practice all parts of prosody - tempo, rhythm, pitch, and phrasing. As stated before, I would not use the entire novel in this lesson.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Comprehension
After having read the different strategies to improve students’ comprehension, I have been reflecting back on some of my own reading comprehension processes. Similar to what Tompkins writes, I find myself using different strategies such as predicting what will happen next, making connections not only to my own life, but other books and the world, questioning what I have read, as well as evaluating it. Having done these strategies for a long time, I don’t usually think about it consciously while reading. Yet, I look back at some of the reading I’ve done recently for other classes, and I’ve comprehended these readings because of the comprehension strategies I use.
In the field, I see my CT making connections from text to text, and text to self. This helps students make significant meaning of the text, and truly comprehend what was read. She also has been talking a lot about inferred meaning, which requires the students to make predictions, and really question and evaluate what they have read. Also, when my CT is reading with small groups, she is constantly asking questions to check for comprehension. She does many assessments (formal and informal) to assure she knows where her students are at in all aspects of literacy, including comprehension.
Comprehension
There seemed to be similar topics regarding reading comprehension throughout the articles and book chapters that were read for the course. Tompkins chapter 2 and the Neufeld article were very interesting to me. Both of these readings outlined a process that students should be guided through in order to build their reading comprehension. The students start with pre-reading, which is reading the title and headings and applying that information to their prior knowledge. The students then use predicting to help their comprehension level. Teachers also are supposed to encourage students to pick the purpose for why they are reading the text. There are several types of readings that can take place, i.e. guided reading, individual and buddy. Students can organize their thoughts with graphic organizers that match the organization of the text and then they can summarize using varrying styles.
As an adult reader I forgot about almost all of these strategies, and looking at the characteristics of an expert comprehender I don't know that I am all the way there. I rarely read the topic headings while I am reading, let alone before and I rarely make predictions. Sometimes I will think about my prior knowledge when I read a title but that is about the extent to my pre-reading activities. I have noticed that when I am reading a text for an academic reason I take notes on what I think is important but if I am not required to write on a text I don't feel the need to write down information. I have never considered myself good at comprehension, in fact that is the category in which I score the lowest on standardized tests. I do re-read passages if they do not make sense the first time but that is pretty much all I do to monitor my comprehension as I read. I think the biggest sign that I am lacking at my comprehension abilities is the fact that when I am asked to summarize a text that I read, I often have to refer back to the text in order to do so. It wasn't until I read the importance of these strategies for students that I realized I have a lot of work to do myself. I know that many of my teachers exposed me to comprehension strategies but like Neufeld says in his article, merely exposing students to these stragegies is not enough. As teachers, it is our responsibility to show students how to use comprehension strategies as well as why they are important.
In the field I am seeing the teacher putting many of these comprehensions strategies into play. The students are in reading groups and on different days they fill out different worksheets which include pre-reading activities, while reading activies and post reading activities. The students are asked to predict outcomes, list information they already know about the topic and also list what they learned after. There are worksheets for summarizing and reporting back to other students in the classroom. The only criticism that I would have is that most of the students reading comprehension strategies are done through writing and I don't really see them done verbally. I think that students need to be exposed to both types, and the readings also encouraged this, because it helps reach students on a different level. Students that have trouble writing may not have as much trouble verbalizing their ideas. I am impressed though that these activities are happening because I do find myself disapointed at times with other aspects of the classroom.
As an adult reader I forgot about almost all of these strategies, and looking at the characteristics of an expert comprehender I don't know that I am all the way there. I rarely read the topic headings while I am reading, let alone before and I rarely make predictions. Sometimes I will think about my prior knowledge when I read a title but that is about the extent to my pre-reading activities. I have noticed that when I am reading a text for an academic reason I take notes on what I think is important but if I am not required to write on a text I don't feel the need to write down information. I have never considered myself good at comprehension, in fact that is the category in which I score the lowest on standardized tests. I do re-read passages if they do not make sense the first time but that is pretty much all I do to monitor my comprehension as I read. I think the biggest sign that I am lacking at my comprehension abilities is the fact that when I am asked to summarize a text that I read, I often have to refer back to the text in order to do so. It wasn't until I read the importance of these strategies for students that I realized I have a lot of work to do myself. I know that many of my teachers exposed me to comprehension strategies but like Neufeld says in his article, merely exposing students to these stragegies is not enough. As teachers, it is our responsibility to show students how to use comprehension strategies as well as why they are important.
In the field I am seeing the teacher putting many of these comprehensions strategies into play. The students are in reading groups and on different days they fill out different worksheets which include pre-reading activities, while reading activies and post reading activities. The students are asked to predict outcomes, list information they already know about the topic and also list what they learned after. There are worksheets for summarizing and reporting back to other students in the classroom. The only criticism that I would have is that most of the students reading comprehension strategies are done through writing and I don't really see them done verbally. I think that students need to be exposed to both types, and the readings also encouraged this, because it helps reach students on a different level. Students that have trouble writing may not have as much trouble verbalizing their ideas. I am impressed though that these activities are happening because I do find myself disapointed at times with other aspects of the classroom.
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is second nature to me and it is hard to define a particular process. I notice that I seem to comprehend more when I am reading about a topic that I enjoy and take special interest in. I feel this is because I take more time and effort into actually understanding what the text is saying. I tend to space-out and skim texts that I personally find boring and lack interest in. Unfortunately, by doing this I create more work for myself because I have to re-read texts multiple times in order to understand what it is saying. If I am reading a text with many characters and complex plot, I often write down character names with their descriptions and important points in the plot in order to keep everything straight.
When books are read together as a group, I have noticed that my CT and intern work a lot with the pictures in the books. Before the begin, they usually ask the students to predict what the book is about and what they think will happen. They often flip through the book looking at the pictures to see if they can make any other predictions. They also work a lot with summarizing. They will read a story one day, then the students are asked to write a short "re-telling" of what they read. Re-telling are not done the same day as the actual reading because the story is too fresh in their minds. They usually write them a few days later as a way of assessing what they remember. After a little while, the students are allowed to get out with story they read in order to fill in anything they forgot in their re-telling.
Although it is only a 3rd grade class, I would like to see them go into more depth with their comprehension processes. The stages that Tompkins uses for a reading process would be a great benefit for the students. They often pre-read, read, and respond but I have not seen much exploring or applying. As the students become more fluent readers, hopefully these other stages will be used more often.
When books are read together as a group, I have noticed that my CT and intern work a lot with the pictures in the books. Before the begin, they usually ask the students to predict what the book is about and what they think will happen. They often flip through the book looking at the pictures to see if they can make any other predictions. They also work a lot with summarizing. They will read a story one day, then the students are asked to write a short "re-telling" of what they read. Re-telling are not done the same day as the actual reading because the story is too fresh in their minds. They usually write them a few days later as a way of assessing what they remember. After a little while, the students are allowed to get out with story they read in order to fill in anything they forgot in their re-telling.
Although it is only a 3rd grade class, I would like to see them go into more depth with their comprehension processes. The stages that Tompkins uses for a reading process would be a great benefit for the students. They often pre-read, read, and respond but I have not seen much exploring or applying. As the students become more fluent readers, hopefully these other stages will be used more often.
Reading Comprehension
I feel that as a senior at Michigan State University, my reading comprehension strategies come naturally to me and I do not typically have to work at using them. Once in a while I will notice myself becoming confused with the text I am reading so I will go back and re-read the section, or I will try to summarize a paragraph in my own words to make sure I have understood the text. Especially when reading books for classes, as opposed to reading books for enjoyment, it is very important for me to make sure that I am comprehending what I am reading and throughout my college career I have found various ways to successfully check my reading.
Strategies such as these are just as important for children to use but unless introduced to these strategies, children are unlikely to recognize and utilize them on their own. Modeling is a good way to show children new ideas as far as reading comprehension. Many times however, children will not realize that what you are modeling is something which they should be actively doing while reading to check their comprehension. The teacher can point out various methods which would be beneficial to their students such as making predictions, summarizing, and looking at the story from various viewpoints. Using these reading comprehension strategies in lessons and activities is a good way to show students how they can actively monitor their reading for comprehension.
In the first grade classroom I am working in, I have not seen the variety of reading comprehension strategies used that we have been introduced to in class, but there are a few the teacher tries to impliment regulartly. Many times when the students are reading, the teacher will ask them what they think will happen next. Often, the ideas are far-fetched and do not make much sense based on what the teacher has already read of the story, but she usually directs them to use the clues they have seen in the story to make a more accurate prediction. Also, the teacher asks the students to retell the sequence of events of the story to check their reading comprehension. She will ask the students about what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story and compile their responses as a class. Although more varieties of reading comprehension strategies could be utilized in the classroom, I feel that my CT does a good job of using some of the most important strategies.
Strategies such as these are just as important for children to use but unless introduced to these strategies, children are unlikely to recognize and utilize them on their own. Modeling is a good way to show children new ideas as far as reading comprehension. Many times however, children will not realize that what you are modeling is something which they should be actively doing while reading to check their comprehension. The teacher can point out various methods which would be beneficial to their students such as making predictions, summarizing, and looking at the story from various viewpoints. Using these reading comprehension strategies in lessons and activities is a good way to show students how they can actively monitor their reading for comprehension.
In the first grade classroom I am working in, I have not seen the variety of reading comprehension strategies used that we have been introduced to in class, but there are a few the teacher tries to impliment regulartly. Many times when the students are reading, the teacher will ask them what they think will happen next. Often, the ideas are far-fetched and do not make much sense based on what the teacher has already read of the story, but she usually directs them to use the clues they have seen in the story to make a more accurate prediction. Also, the teacher asks the students to retell the sequence of events of the story to check their reading comprehension. She will ask the students about what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story and compile their responses as a class. Although more varieties of reading comprehension strategies could be utilized in the classroom, I feel that my CT does a good job of using some of the most important strategies.
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