What have you seen in language arts/reading instruction? What connections have you seen between what you observed and our readings  and/or class discussions.

This week was spent rearranging reading groups according to the newest Universal Screening results. We changed those students around who seemed to have progressed enough to be put in a higher level. I noticed a difference in the activities for each group immediately. Now that the Universal Screening was over, the main focus of these groups was to best prepare them for the End of Course test as best they could. I also observed a round robin reading where the teacher oversaw a group of students who took turns reading a story page by page.

Have you done any teaching in your internship? What have you taught ? Have you worked with a child or a group of children? What did you do with them (e.g., picture/word sort, DRTA, Text Talk) ?

This being the last week of our internship, our teacher put my partner and I in charge of  a reading group that was focusing on the parts of a story. I was asked to read a relatively short story book to the group and then help them complete a worksheet about what occurred in the beginning, middle, and end of the story.  The groups focus was on sequencing. I thoroughly enjoyed using my Text talk and DRTA reading skills to help the children focus on the story’s plot rather than just the illustrations. I made sure to read the page, test their comprehension and then show them the pictures ensuring the at they got the most out of my reading. This prevented me from having to read the same parts over and over again. The worksheet ask them to summarize each part of the story. I was able to observe the diffrent level of spellers as well while helping them write their sentences.

What have you seen in language arts/reading instruction? What connections have you seen between what you observed and our readings  and/or class discussions.

This has been spent in full review for the Universal Screening Test which I helped with on Thursday. Early in the week, every extra moment was spent reviewing digraphs, glued sounds, and letter sounds.  They also practice nonsense words that help them practice word pronunciation skills such as silent -e and other silent letters. On Thursday, I was asked to help monitor students as they were given the Universal Screening Tests. My job simply included directing them from station to station but I did get a chance to look over the packet used in the screenings. For language arts, it included giving them a list of nonsense words for the to pronounce correctly according to the rules of English. They are applying what they have learned.

Have you done any teaching in your internship? What have you taught ? Have you worked with a child or a group of children? What did you do with them (e.g., picture/word sort, DRTA, Text Talk) ?

This week I only assisted with the groups but did not independent teaching of my own.

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

My teacher does a wonderful job reaching all our student’s needs in all subjects but takes special care to ensure that they all grasp the concept of reading and sounding out words.

Post any questions that you have about teaching/learning.

What have you seen in language arts/reading instruction? What connections have you seen between what you observed and our readings  and/or class discussions.

This week, I have observed that the children are learning not only to break down the words they are reading but are also learning the reasoning behind breaking down the words the way they do. For example, instead of simply saying that a word is a closed syllable, they are being taught that if the word has one vowel this is enclosed by one or more consonants is the reason for it being closed. The children are given words to practice reading and as part of their practice they are asked to mark up their words, breaking them down into their parts to make it easier for them. This also helps them develop a quicker pace when given nonsense words.

Have you done any teaching in your internship? What have you taught ? Have you worked with a child or a group of children? What did you do with them (e.g., picture/word sort, DRTA, Text Talk) ?

This week I did have to take over teaching the reading group that was focusing the silent -e. I was asked to give students cards that had a picture and a word, then the student was to say the word and tell me if it was a long or short vowel sound in relation to the silent -e. The students then placed the card in the correct column by its ending sounds. I really enjoyed this because it was similar to doing a word sort with the word box. I applied my knowledge of performing a word sort to this activity to make it easier for me to understand.

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

I am not fond of the Universal Screenings that are perfomed with each child. I find that assessing a student on what they can do in a minute is unfair. I feel that this not only could cause anxiety for the students but it also creates another standard that teachers are responsible for meeting and improving upon.

Post any questions that you have about teaching/learning.

What have you seen in language arts/reading instruction? What connections have you seen between what you observed and our readings  and/or class discussions.

In our language arts/reading in this classroom we use a program called Fundations that teaches the children what digraphs are which is strange to hear because I did not know what they where until in class with Dr. Ari. We try to base a lot of what we do on what the children will need to do well on their Universal Screenings and the End of Course tests. I have observed that while reading any book to the class, the teacher does take time to apply Text Talk lesson questions.

Have you done any teaching in your internship? What have you taught ? Have you worked with a child or a group of children? What did you do with them (e.g., picture/word sort, DRTA, Text Talk) ?

I have not done any teaching on my own in the classroom but I have assisted with the small groups during reading. I usually work at the station where they work on sentence structure and applying their writing skills.

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

I truly love the atmosphere of this school. They are very community oriented and are all working together for a common goal. They want each and every student to do well in all areas.

Post any questions that you have about teaching/learning.

Accuracy in Word Decoding- Readers are able to sound out words with little error and the use phonics and other strategies for decoding.

Automatic Processing- Readers use a little mental effort as possible in decoding , so that they can focus on creating meaning.

Prododic Reading-  can read text with appropriate phrasing, and inflection as to reflect the tone of the text.
2.    Rasinski refers to fluency as a “bridge” between decoding and comprehension. What does he mean by the “bridge” metaphor?

A bridge is meant to connect two things; with a child’s reading the bridge represents the connection between decoding and comprehending in fluency. Students can’t understand a text with the ability to read it with fluency. The student’s ability to develop control over surface level text and focus on the deeper meaning of the text is defined as fluency.
3.    What instructional methods does Rasinski suggest for students with difficulties in automatic and prosodic reading?

Rasinski suggests that teachers use assisted readings and repeated readings to help students with difficulties in automatic and prosodic reading.
4.    Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MFS) is used to measure prosodic quality of oral reading. List components of the MFS and describe briefly what each refers to (p. 49).

1. Expression and volume:

a) Reads words as if simply to get them out and uses a quiet voice

b) Begin to use voice to make text sound like natural language; voice is quiet

c)Text is still read in natural language; volume is appropriate

d) Reads with good expression.

2. Phrasing:

a) Read in monotone voice

b) Reads in two- and three-word phrases; choppy reading

c) Reads with run-ons; some choppiness

d) Good phrasing and expression

3. Smoothness:

a) Extended pauses, hesitations, false starts, sound-outs, repetitions when reading

b) Several rough spots

c) Occasionally breaks smooth rhythm

d) Generally reads smoothly; self corrects errors

4. Pace:

a) Reads slowly and laboriously

b) Reads moderately slowly

c) Reads with an uneven mix between fast and slow pace

d) Reads at conversational pace

Third Grade

2. What was the flash score for words at: first-grade level? second-grade level? third-grade level?

75%; 50%; 20%

3. What was the accuracy score at: 1-2 level? 2-1 level? 2-2 level?

97%; 90%; 84%

4. What was the rate score at: 1-2 level? 2-1 level? 2-2 level?

65%, 44%, 36%

Look at the spelling scores in Table 5.2 on page 172.

5. What was the percentage correct score for: first-grade words? second-grade words?

60% for first graders, 0% correct for second graders.

6. Which grade-level flash score is the best choice for Instruction Level? (*Note: 92-94% accuracy is marginal; take a close look at Rate.)

According to the data that 65%-80% are considered the Instruction levels for flash score, Curs’ Instructional level is the 1-2 first grade level.

7. Which grade-level accuracy score is the best choice for Instruction Level?

The data tells that 95-97% are considered at the Instructional level for accuracy scores, so then Curt’s 1-2 first grade level is the best choice.

8. What do Curt’s rate scores indicate about his grade-level reading? Where is he instructional according to rate?

Curt’s rate scores tell us that her is below grade level in reading. Curt’s performance at the instructional level is 68 wpm, putting him at the preprimer/first grade level. However, he should be at 95-135 wpm.

9. What do Curt’s spelling scores indicate about his Instruction Level.

Curt scored a 50% on his Instructional level spelling list for first grade. This puts Curt on the first grade spelling level.

10. Put all of these scores together, and what do they indicate Curt’s reading level to be?

With all scores combine, we can conclude that Curt is on a late first grade to early second grade reading level.

An emergent speller will use scribbles, letter-like forms, and/or random letters that have no relation to the words they are trying to spell. They will “read” books they are familiar with from memory using the pictures on each page to remember. They associate logo with their favorite restaurants or their friends’ names because of the beginning letters. Also, they may become attached to letters that appear in their names.

2. How does a Letter Name-Alphabetic speller read and write?

Children in the Letter-Name stage have moved from pretend reading to real reading and are beginning to use systematic letter sounds to identify words and put them in memory. They have limited knowledge of letter sounds. Errors made by these students often come from partial consonant cues. These students will often confuse vowels and need to read out loud in order to hear letter sounds. They also greatly benefit from repeated reading.

3. How does a Within Word Pattern speller read and write?

This student learns basic letter sounds in the onset position and then moves on to the vowel and whatever follows it. They use but confuse the long vowel patterns and they are in the orthographic stage. Their reading is supported by familiarity with frequency occurring letter pattern units. In the beginning, students will need lots of support materials but as they progress, will get to a point where they no longer need finger pointing and can read silently to themselves. They will be able to read in phrases, instead of word by word, which is much faster.

4. How does a Syllable and Affixes speller read and write?

These students can read either silently or orally with great accuracy and speed. This success is linked to familiarity with the topic being read. Students may develop a reading style that they enjoy reading and may become attached to a series, such as Harry Potter or Magic Tree House. Often, they will enjoy writing essays, poetry, fantasy or realistic fiction.

5. How does a Derivational Relations speller read and write?

Derivational relation spellers can choose among a variety of reading styles because of a broader experience base. They will read according to their interests and want to connect their knowledge with the knowledge of others. They will also develop and master a variety of writing styles.

6. What is the existing research evidence on the relationship between spelling and reading. Briefly describe research findings discussed on page 20.

According to research on page 20, spelling and reading are significantly correlated. Both spelling and reading help improve the other and they go hand in hand.  The correlations from Ehri between spelling and reading ranged between .68 and .86.  Ellis and Cataldo (1992) predicted that spelling is the most consistent predictor of reading achievement.  Morris and Penny (1984) found that the invented spellings of first graders were a better predictor of end of grade reading than the standardized reading readiness tests.

The reading processes that take place during comprehension of informational text include accessing accurate and relevant knowledge, managing mental processes within the confines of a limited working memory, and building a coherent mental representation through pruning and organizational processes.

2. Specify the effect that background knowledge may have on constructing mental representations from informational text. Why should teachers be concerned about activating prior knowledge?

Children may draw on prior knowledge when attempting to create their mental representations and is important for them to do so. However, teachers should be concerned because a child may rely on inaccurate or irrelevant prior knowledge according to the teacher’s dialogue.

3. What are the three instructional approaches that can be used to help primary-grade students comprehend informational text? Describe their common (p. 365) and distinctive features (p. 363-5).

A) Picture Walk: A picture walk is used as a way to hold discussion about a book before reading it so that the students can assess what the story is about. Having a story plot in their heads will help them when it comes to actually reading the books.

B) Know-Want to Learn-Learn: The teacher engages students in discussion about a text and then records, in some way, the things they know, want to learn, and, after reading, have learned.

C) Directed Reading-Thinking Activity: DRTA requires that a teacher divide a reading into sections based on the events in the story. They students then make predictions at said points based on the information they receive in the proceeding pages of the story. Makes reading into a problem solving process.

Commonalities:  All three of these methods emphasize reader engagement, require use of prior knowledge, and ask that students make meaningful predictions about what is likely to happen next.

4. What is the purpose of the experimental study reported?

The study’s purpose was to observe how the Picture Walk, Know-Want to Learn, and Directed Reading-Thinking Activity affect the developing reading abilities and knowledge acquisition if used with informational texts.

5. Who were the subjects?

Subjects included thirty-one second-grade students from 2 schools with demographic similarities that are within the same school district, in a midsized Midwest City.

6. Describe the reading materials used during the intervention.

Informational texts that included topics most likely familiar to second grade students were used. The topics were scientific in that their subjects had been taught according to the first or second grade science curriculum. These topics included spiders, the moon, how water changes from, and insects.

7. How long did the experiment last?

The experiment lasted 10 weeks.

8. What were the experimental conditions?

“I gathered data over 10 weeks, conducting two four-week periods of intervention

within that time frame. Groups 1 through 4 from School A received

the intervention during the first cycle, and Groups 5 through 8 from School

B received the intervention during the second four-week cycle. Following two

days of individual pre-experimental screening to ensure that readers shared a

common instructional level, I conducted a 45-minute orientation session with

each group. There were 12 days of intervention in each cycle (three consecutive

days for each of four consecutive weeks). Each group received each treatment

for three days, with data being collected only on the third day. On the day

following the conclusion of the intervention cycle, I interviewed students about

the comprehension strategies and instructional preferences.” (Stahl. Pg. 370)

9. Describe the procedures specific to the Picture Walk, KWL, DRTA, and the Control Group conditions.

Picture Walk: Presented a brief overview of the text and then had a discussion with students about the book while viewing each page. Children used pictures, the text structure, and prior knowledge to create a mental map of the story before reading it.

Know-Want to Learn: Made a KWL chart interactively. The topic was introduced and the children discussed it, writing down this information on the chart. Each child wrote down what they knew on a personal chart and then as a class transferred it over to a class chart. The children could then generate questions about the topic and those are put in the Want to Learn category. After reading the text, they students could go back and fill in the Learned portion of the table.

DRTA: Prior to reading the text, students made and justified predictions based on the title, cover, prior knowledge, and the table of contents. Students then did the same for a 2-3 page section of text, mumble read the section, and briefly discussed and verified their predictions. After reading the entire text, discussion is held about the text as a whole.

Non-instructional Control Group: Students are given the same topics and overview as other groups but then students are left to mumble read independently. After reading the students participate in drawing or writing something based on the reading.

10. What measures were used to determine the relative effectiveness of the treatments? Describe the measures briefly.

Vocabulary Recognition Task (VRT): Children were asked to identify words that they could both read and were related to the topic; this technique of “yes/no” was a reliable and valid measure of vocabulary assessment.

Maze: The Maze activity provided insight into micro-level processing, general reading, and monitoring for meaning. It was a multiple-choice cloze modification and was a timed (three minutes), group-administered task. The original text read by the students was reprinted after the deletion of 10 content words. The students were scored on the maze task according to the number of correct responses.

Free Recall: Each child individually provided a free recall of the day’s reading text. Two raters then parsed texts into clausal units, developed tree diagrams to determine ideational hierarchies, and placed these ordered clausal units on coding sheets. A student’s retellings were then analyzed using coding sheets.

Cued Recall: After the free recall, each child was asked to answer three explicit and three implicit questions based on that day’s text.

Post-intervention Interview: Interviews were completed with individual students to determine if they gained knowledge of the 2 common strategies;  activation of prior knowledge and prediction.

11. Which treatment(s) were found to be more effective in increasing students’ vocabulary knowledge and maze performance (p. 381)?

All intervention groups made similar vocabulary gains and both the PW and DRTA yielded statistically significant effects on the maze.  Both of these procedures were more effective than KWL or the control procedures in facilitating fluent reading and micro level comprehension.  The page by page Picture walk through of the text either before or during reading seemed to promote a close reading that enabled students to identify words automatically and to facilitate higher scores on the timed maze task.

12. Students’ comprehension of the texts was greater under the DRTA condition than KWL and the control conditions. What do you think explains DRTA’s advantage over the KWL condition (p. 382)?

This greater comprehension under the DRTA condition may be the result of this instructional approach’s close reading. The students in all four groups were monitored for ability to read material during mumble reading, but during the DRTA, the teacher could help guide the students toward the more important ideas in the text along with difficult text concepts. This is something that was done in a way that not provided for other interventions.

13. It was found that the treatments did not differ in the quality and quantity of students’ retellings (p. 384). In other words, students were not differentially affected by the treatments in the way they integrated textual information with prior knowledge. What does this finding mean in terms of the different emphases employed by experience-based (KWL) vs. text-based (DRTA) treatments?

This addresses that both the KWL and DRTA are very successful techniques and both encourage students to retell accurate and relevant information. Even with different emphases, both techniques are advantageous in that they encourage students to gain enough accurate information so that they can retell the facts.

Answer the following question AFTER you read the article.

14. In light of the findings from this study, what conclusions can you draw about the role of teacher support in children’s construction of mental representations from informational text?

After reading the article, one can conclude that teacher support throughout children’s reading is very important. When they have  a teacher to guide them , the students understand the more important information and can better pick out the main events/points.

For

Once Upon a Time, The End (Asleep in 60 Seconds)

By: Geoffrey Kloske and Illustrated by: Barry Blitt

2005

Summary: A tired father takes only a few sentences to tell a number of classic tales in order to get the persistent listening child to fall asleep.

Focus: All stories have pieces of very important information that must be included otherwise the story is boring and makes no sense.

Comments and Questions:

Cover:

1. Read children the title, Once upon a time, The End, and show them the cover of the book.
2. Ask if “Once upon a time and the End, are parts of most of the stories they hear.
3. What do your moms and dads do to help you fall asleep at night?

Page 2:

1. What is going on so far?
2. Do you know what the word “obliged” means?
3. Do you think that cutting parts out of the story is going to make the child fall asleep faster?
4. Show children the picture for the page.

Page 5:

1. Did he tell this story correctly?
2. What are some things he told that are wrong?
3. Show children the picture on page 4-5.

Page 6:

1. How many pigs are supposed to be in this story?
2. Show children the picture on page 6 and 7.

Page 9:

1. Do you know a story about a “small girl and a red hood”?
2. This doesn’t sound like a story to me, do is to you?
3. Show children the pictures on pages 8 and 9.

Page 11:

1. What story does this sound like to you?
2. Show children the pictures on pages 10 and 11.

Page 12:

1. This story is very short.
2. Show children the picture on pages 12 and 13.
3. Read 14 and 15 and show picture.

Page 16 and 17:

1. Did telling the shorter stories help the child go to sleep any faster?

Wrap Up:

So if you were telling all these stories, would you leave out all the important parts?

Vocabulary:

Sensitive- Easily irritated

The hypothesis tested by the researchers was that when teaching the pronunciations and meanings of unfamiliar words to students, they retain the knowledge better when they are given the spelling of the words than when trying to learn without having the spelling.

2. Who were the subjects?

The subjects included 20, urban, second grade students of minority enrolled in a school with a low Socio-Economic background.

3. What were the experimental conditions?

Spelling Present Treatment Condition- First, the conducted an initial study trial where they introduced the six spelling words, their spellings, and their meanings.  The person conducting the experiment would pronounce each word and recite it’s definition, afterward the student would repeat. They also alternated between definition and pronunciation recall.

Spelling Absent Control Condition- Here the procedures were the same except that for these the spellings of the words were never shown. The students were asked to pronounce the words many more times than those in the Spelling Presents condition.

4. What did the treatment involve?

The treatment involved giving students a list of six new words, with their pronunciations, picture, and definitions to learn. The students were asked to repeat each piece of information. They were also given definition and pronunciation recall trials. The day after learning a new set of words, a post-test was given to assess each child’s delayed memory for the pronunciations, spellings, and meanings of the words.

5. Which group (spelling-present vs. spelling-absent) gained more in vocabulary learning?  How were the groups’ recall of pronunciations affected by the treatment?

The group of students who received the spelling of the new words while learning them, the spelling-present group, were better able to recall the pronunciation and spell the words from memory.  It also showed that students spelled words they had seen more accurately than words they had not. They recalled pronunciation much better when given the spelling of the word than when not.

6. Why do you think that fifth graders who were high on a word reading task benefited more from the spelling aids than their peers with less orthographic experience and knowledge, even though the two groups did not differ on receptive vocabulary knowledge?

The fifth graders who were high on a word reading task benefited more from the spelling aids than their peers because of the Matthew effect. The Matthew Effect states that the rich (in vocabulary) get richer. Because a higher level of prior knowledge they are better able to increase their vocabulary.

7. What general conclusions were derived from the study findings by the authors? What implications were offered for vocabulary learning and instruction?

Out of all experiments, the consensus was that learners who were given the spelling of the words made better grapho-phonemic connections allowing them to retain more information about the words. This allowed them to connect the spelling, definition and pronuncitation all to the words they were given easier than students who were simply given words and difinitions without seeing the spelling.