My philosophy of teaching reading has changed since beginning this course.  Using my background in special education and having worked with reading programs to deliver reading instruction to students I have consistently used phonic skills, fluency strategies, and comprehension practice to help improve reading ability.  However, this course has provided me insight on how or why students may not be performing well on reading fluency and/or reading comprehension.  Carroll’s article, The Nature of the Reading Process, identified eight components of the reading process.  Carroll emphasized the complexity of the reading process and how the skills needed to learn to read cannot all be learned at once.  He indicated that students are individuals that will have different strengths and talents than some of their peers which will account of why some students learn particular concepts before others and vice versa.  This explanation gives merit to the students I work with and provides me with the opportunity to see their strengths, build on them, and help them focus on their areas of weaknesses.  The belief is as students mature and are continually exposed to all types of reading skills and as they mature they will be ready to improve in their areas of weaknesses.  Pearson and Stephens’ Learning About Literacy: A 30-Year Journey provided me background knowledge of how students are believed to learn to read from different perspectives.  The cognitive psychology perspective and sociolinguistic perspective connected me to the students I teach and their need for schema and motivation.  Motivation to Read by Applegate & Applegate and Schema Theory are other articles that reinforced the need for student motivation and the meaning behind the strategies I was trained to use.  However, the article entitled Raising Urban Students’ Literacy Achievement by engaging authentic, challenging work, is probability the article that made me reevaluate my teaching style and current perspective the most.  I enjoyed reading about my peer’s reactions to this article and the challenges and techniques they use in such diverse classrooms.

As this course concludes I want to take the opportunity to use the concepts of motivation and metacognition to help the students become more self-directed in their educational journey.  I want to provide them with opportunities to take more of a leadership role by giving them choice of books they read as well as giving them alternative forms of comprehension and writing checks that may include the use of technology.

 

 

 

Yopp’s article, A test for Assessing Phonemic Awareness in Young Children was written with the intention to bring awareness to a tool that can be used to determine a student’s phonemic awareness as well as a predictor of their future reading achievements.  Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize the phonemes or sounds in speech. As children begin kindergarten many lack the ability to identify and segment words into individual sounds.  Research has identified phonemic awareness as a prerequisite skill needed to become a successful reader.  By the end of first grade many, if not all, children are able to segment words into phonemes and identify the individual sounds that make up a word. Stanovich (1986 & 1994) stated that phonemic awareness is more of a predictor of reading achievement than tests of general intelligence including the IQ test. Adams (1990) indicated that children who fail to master phonemic awareness will struggle will to master print. However, the question remained how to identify and reach the children who did not master phonemic awareness. The Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation is an instrument designed to assess a child’s ability to produce the sounds of a given word in order.  The 22-item assessment is given to students individually by verbally presenting the student with one word at a time, requiring the student to produce the sounds for each segment in order.  The student must provide all of the sounds and in the correct order in order to receive credit for a correct response.  Partial credit is not given for responses that include some correct sounds. During the test teachers can take notes regarding the incorrect responses or sounds the student may produce.  These notes may help the teacher better understand the student’s level of phonemic awareness.  Using this tool, teacher can quickly identify which students are phonemically aware and which students need further intervention. The article included all children need phonemic awareness instruction before formal reading instruction occurs.  Articles in The Reading Teacher suggest that using songs, stories, and games children can focus on the sounds of language.

The Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation is an assessment I would recommend to be used in early elementary to identify students who have not mastered phonemic awareness. It would provide the teacher with the ability to create groups for small group instruction base on their level of phonemic awareness. Given the results of the phonemic awareness assessment instructional strategies and activities can be planned into the instructional time to increase the students’ ability to identify word parts and their sounds.

Metacognition has been defined as the process of thinking about one’s thinking. However, what does that mean to students and how does it affect their learning?   In the article, Metacognition, Nancy Chick identifies the role of metacognition in the approach to instruction and learning new concepts. The article emphasized the importance that metacognitive practices must be explicitly taught in all types of content areas. Students will need to be prompted to think about “how they learn” by using activities to question their strengths and weaknesses as well as to provide students with specific strategies that will allow them to plan, monitor, and evaluate their thinking. First, individuals must identify their strengths and weaknesses to identify areas of need and how to expand or improve in that area.  It is believed that if someone is unable to identify an area of weakness or mistake, then they will be unable to make improvements. Next, students will need to monitor their progress and make adjustments to their plan as needed. Finally, students will evaluate their thinking as they progress through the concept or activity.  This will allow them to make connections and prepare for new learning experiences.

The article Metacognition provided specific strategies of how to explicitly teach and model metacognition in the classroom as well as the benefits students will reap in becoming active learners while improving their knowledge and abilities.  One concern I do have is the student’s ability to identify their strengths and weaknesses as well as spot errors in their work.  Working with students in learning support I observe that they are either ‘blissfully unaware” or too discouraged to try.  In my classroom, I have been focusing on student motivation with a growth mindset to help build the foundation to increase academic skills.  At first, I felt a strong connection between growth mindset and metacognition.  However, growth mindset is preparing the students to be ready to learn but does not require the students to think deeply about the content area curriculum and question, plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning.  Someone who applies metacognitive practices to their learning is interested in learning, not just studying to pass a test.  The metacognitive mindset also requires the students to first self-evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, plan a strategy to complete the activity, self-correct errors, and reflect on their progress. In my reading classes, we do practice asking ourselves many question before and during reading activities to prepare, plan and monitor our reading.  However, after reading this article I would like to try using a reflective journal.  This will be used by the student to reflect and evaluate their progress concluding an activity.  I believe if students start practicing metacognition strategies in a small setting they may be able to apply them to other content areas to help them become more active participants in their learning.

 

 

Raising Urban Students’ Literacy Achievement by Engaging in Authentic, Challenging Work, is an article about the “performance gap” that low-income schools are facing across the United States and a way to increase performance.

Research data collected has indicated urban students experience significantly more difficulty in the area of reading and writing than students from higher income families.  The causes of lower reading and writing skills in urban areas have been attributed to funding inequity, poverty, high teacher to student ratio, a “disconnect” between home and school, and lack of adequate teacher preparation, to name a few.  The article highlighted one particular intervention that began in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) called “In2Books” (I2B).  The significant increase of student performance in the DCPS was recognized and accomplished by the I2B reading initiative.

In2Books reading initiative is a program that was designed to increase motivation for students in grade 2-5 to read, think and write about the text in correspondence with a pen pal. The students are given five books over the course of a year to keep and read together with their class or reading groups.  The same books are also given to volunteers from community businesses to read.  The community volunteers were matched to a student and became pen pals with that student.  The volunteers are given guidance on when and how to write to the students electronically about the book.  They were taught how to comment on important story details, to make connections of text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world, and ask open-ended questions as part for their pen pal letters to students.  Students anxiously await the arrival of their pen pal letter and then responded to their pen pal by writing about the same connections to self, text, and the world while replying to key items highlighted in their pen pal letter.  The five books were divided into cycles which the teacher would integrate with small lessons and activities that covered one of the five genres of the books; fiction, social studies, biography, folktales, and science. These activities required the student to read and reread the book in order to read for purpose and complete the activity.

Results in student achievement on state testing indicated that students who were exposed to the In2Books program showed a significant increase in achievement.  Students who were exposed to the I2B program with a teacher who has taught the program for 2 or more years showed an even greater increase in ability.  Concluding that teachers had to learn the logistics of planning the cycles, the correspondence with the community pen pal volunteers, using the rubrics, and the culminating activities.  Teacher feedback on the program was very positive, indicating it is worth then challenge and hard work.

The major “take-aways” I have from this article begin with the value that was placed on selecting high-quality, age-appropriate, appealing books from a variety of genres.  In my experience with middle school students this is an extremely important value and a way to get students to “buy in” to the program. Secondly, is engaging the reading process with the writing process to have valuable meaning to the student.  The idea of pen pals is a wonderful idea that opens the walls of a classroom to people in the community with similar or different opinions and views.  The students sounded excited to receive their letters, which gave the student a purpose for writing about the text that was valuable to them. The description of the program has an honest feel that makes you want to try it in your own classroom but also prepares you to meet the challenges of planning and organizing the program.  Finally, while the article did identify the important steps that the DCPS used in implementing the I2B program, it did caution it is not a one size fits all program.  Meaning that implementing the program may require modifying as needed to fit the new setting. Given the success of the I2B program I would like to start by trying a similar pen pal idea on a much smaller scale.  First, I plan to select a short story that will appeal to my middle school students and have them read the story with me as a class.  Next, I will send them all an email reflecting my thoughts and questions.  I will provide them with a hard copy as well and give them time to construct a response then send their response to me through email. I am looking forward to reading their letters and hope to see some excitement!

 

Anderson’s article identifies schema theory as one’s own personal experiences and how each individual uses their experiences to make sense of the text. Individuals from different backgrounds and cultures have different experiences thus text may have multiple or different meanings across cultures and backgrounds. Schema will differ in individuals for many reasons including; age, sex, race, religion, nationally, and occupation.

A reader must have the ability to recall or picture objects or events in order to make sense of the given text.  If background knowledge or personal experience is missing than one may have a difficult time understanding of the text.  The reader may read the text literally.  In Anderson’s article, he used a sentence about Big Number 37 inferring that a baseball player hit a home run.  Interpretation of this sentence may be difficult for individuals who do not have any background knowledge of baseball.

Six schemata functions were identified to include the many different levels of reading skills which effect both learning and memorization of the text.  First, schema provides scaffolding which makes adding new information into memory easier.  Secondly, allocation of attention allows the reader to know what parts of the text are important. Thirdly, Inferential Elaboration, enables one to produce inferences.  Orderly search of memory enables the reader to recall the information needed. Next, editing and summarizing allows the reader to include important details while omitting minor details.  And Finally, inferential reconstruction helps create hypotheses about missing information.

In the classroom, the six different levels of schema can be supported by teacher led activities and modeling.  The following strategies are some of the techniques I have used in my classroom to help with each of the six levels of schema. Before reading I try to build prior knowledge to aid in the scaffolding process. New vocabulary is taught, short passages are read orally, video clips and pictures relating to the topic are played to gain interest and build on prior knowledge. Graphic organizers such as the K-W-L or 3-2-1 are also used to help access any prior knowledge a student may have.  These activities also help students without prior knowledge of the topic.  While reading I model allocation of attention by highlighting and making notes on important details of the story.  Graphic organizers are also used to record the important information during the reading process.  Inferencing skills are reviewed by pausing during the reading activity, prompting the students with questions and guided whole class discussions. Search of memory includes the use of graphic organizers such as the KWL or 3-2-1, whole group discussions, talking to the text and peer-to-peer connections such as think-pair-share.  Editing and summarizing could include strategies such as teacher modeling, outlines, graphic organizers, class discussions and think-pair-share.  Finally, inferential reconstruction strategies include teacher modeling, whole class discussions, and peer connections.

This article helped me realize I was already using some strategies to guide students through the six level of schema.  I am looking forward to learning new strategies that I have not tried.

Learning About Literacy

 

Learning About Literacy: A 30-year journey identifies what has been discovered about reading from the prospective of linguistics, psychology, sociology, and literary theory over the past three decades.  Originally reading was thought to be solely a process of learning letters printed on a page and translating them into oral language. The belief was there was no difference between oral and written comprehension.  Students were instructed using the phonics and whole-word strategy.

The study of the reading process began in the late 1960s with the linguistic perspective.  The linguists believed that reading was a language process similar to writing, speaking, and listening.  They believed language is complex but is learned easily and naturally by simply being immersed in the community. This thought believed children acquired language before entering school.

The psycholinguistic perspective studied two areas of language; comprehension and acquisition.  The research on language acquisition believed that children naturally learn language, mostly before starting kindergarten, and without direct instruction.  The acquisition of oral language is achieved by being immersed in the community. The advances during this time emphasized the importance of prior knowledge and the ability to make predictions, with caution on focusing more on the visual print would cause one to lose meaning of the text.  This perspective also suggested the reading miscues are opportunities to better understand the reader’s needs.

The Cognitive psychology perspective focused on the link reading comprehension and prior knowledge called schema theory.  Schema theory identifies the structure of knowledge and how it is stored in our memory. It is represented by thinking about our brains as having little containers in which we file our experiences. As we learn we either “tune” or “restructure” our prior knowledge by pulling from these containers of prior knowledge.

The Sociolinguistic perspective focused on issues of dialect and reading and reading as a social process.  Gordon Well’s 10-year study identified the relationship between literacy and school success. This perspective increased our understanding of language.  Success in school wasn’t just in reading ability, but the success an individual experienced in how to use language appropriately. Identifying the difference of language within the classroom and outside the classroom.  Sociolinguistics included that social, political, and cultural differences have an impact on language and behavior.

The cognitive psychology perspective and sociolinguistic perspective both highlighted thoughts that connected me to the students I teach.  First, the cognitive perspective suggested that schema needs to be activated in order to connect with text and build more schema.  As I work with my students I plan to provide visual prompts to help access their prior knowledge or build new experiences.  For example, if the students are reading a story about campers I will provide pictures of what a camp site may look like, including vocabulary of new objects that may be present in that setting. Another strategy that I plan to continue is to increase the sense of individual success in class.  Most of my students have experienced years of reading difficulty and struggle across curriculum.  The students feel defeated and lack the motivation and grit to continue to try.  Rather I find that they don’t bother to write down assignments and don’t keep their materials organized to increase the probability that they will not be able to complete their assignments.  Starting with the first day of school I have met with my students individually to mentor the organization process, prompt them to write down their homework assignments and provide assistance in completing the assignments.  The students have already expressed pride that they completed and handed in their work.

 

Hi! My name is Melissa Brown and I am beginning my 15^th year as a special education teacher at Drexel Hill Middle School.  This year is especially exciting because I am finally getting started on a goal I set for myself as an undergraduate student.  I am pursuing my master’s degree in education with a reading specialist certification.  As an undergraduate I studied special education and was introduced to the reading specialist program. Now as an eighth-grade learning support teacher I find myself wanting to learn more about the process of reading and how to help my students become more confident and stronger readers.

John Carroll’s article, “The Nature of Reading”, introduced the eight components of the reading process.  As I read the article I found the first component; understanding the language that you are learning to read, a challenge for some of the students I teach. Specific Learning Disabilities, Speech and Language Impairments, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders are all hurdles that affect the processing speed and working memory of my students, make learning to read more difficult.  Faced with these challenges learning to become a fluent reader requires more grit. This year my classroom is not just working on phonemic sounds, but also a growth mindset. After working with students year after year on the same skills I see their confidence drop and their motivation wilt. This year I have introduced growth mindset activities to engage the student to increase motivation and allow room for mistakes without becoming discouraged.  My classroom has been decorated with posters, reminders to persevere, and guidance on how to change your frustration into a learning experience.  The first week of school we took time to read about Famous Failures, like Steve Jobs, Michael Jordan, and Oprah Winfrey, and how they grew to become extremely successful.  During these activities, I took time to have the students connect with the stories we read on a personnel level.  In turn, we worked on building a group conversation where all members of the class engaged with one another.  This activity was focused on listening and responding to one another.