Scaffolding is a Must!

I found Frey and Fisher's article, Identifying Instructional Moves During Guided Learning, incredibly interesting to read. What stuck out the most to me was the idea that scaffolding allows the teacher to guide their students along, while allowing the students to do their own thinking. I have been in a couple of classrooms where the teacher did not always take the time to guide their students by probing with multiple types of questions, or by providing cues, etc. Instead (for time's sake) they would go straight to the direct explanation. I think it is vital to use scaffolds in order to promote developmental thinking and understanding for students. If we just give them all the answers, how will they learn to think for themselves??
Want some other strategies for scaffolding instruction? Click Here!

Assessment

What stuck out to me the most in Cunningham and Allington's chapter (10) about Assessment, was the importance of assessing and documenting your students' progress continuously throughout the year instead of just once or twice a year. I think that this is so important, because when you are more aware of each individual student's abilities, you as a teacher are better able to help them in the areas where they are lacking.

Need to know the reading level of a book? Or help a student find a book appropriate for their reading level? Check out this site! http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/

Guided Reading

Student Accountability: Guided Reading Kidstations
By: E. Francine Guastello and Claire Lenz.

This is a wonderful article not only about what guided reading is, but also how to go about implementing a successful guided reading program. Guastello and Lenz assert that guided reading is "one major component of a balanced literacy program". They propose incorporating "Kidstation Model" of guided reading in which small groups of similar readers rotate through stations in between their group's guided reading lesson.  This allows the teacher to spend more time with each group while the other groups are engaging in independent group activities that reinforce their group's guided reading lesson. In my opinion, this is a great way to enhance the efficiency and efficacy of guided reading in general. This allows more time for the teacher to work with the individual smaller groups, allows the students to strengthen the skills learned in guided reading in their Kidstation groups, and also teaches them to be accountable for the work that must be completed within these Kidstations.
Click the following link, and then click "Full Text PDF" to read this article!

www.reading.org

Word Study

This week's readings focused on the use of Word Study in the classroom. From reading these articles and also from the research that I've done on Word Study, I have found that there are a variety of ways that one can do a word study. In Cunningham and Cunningham's article they discuss the invented words and discuss how a teacher can turn "Making Words" into a fun activity for students. Since Word Study was my real-life application project topic, I had the opportunity to conduct a Word Study with a first grade student. I gave her a spelling assessment in which I realized she was struggling with her short 'u' and short 'e' vowel sounds. This assessment allowed me to better cater the Word Study activity to her needs. Below is an example of the type of activities that I did with her to help her on these areas of weakness. To find more worksheets and activities like this to use as a Word Study, check out PhonicsWorld.com.

Comprehension and Think-Alouds

What stuck out to me the most in this weeks readings was Pardo's article. In his article he discusses strategies that teachers should use to help promote comprehension. Pardo mentions using the Book Club program approach to help to engage students in personal responses to the text. The Book Club approach which allows students to read their book, write a "personal, critical, and creative" response to the story and then share their responses with their classmates. I think this is a great idea for encouraging students to engage while assessing their comprehension of the text.

I wanted to find some more information about Book Clubs and I came across this great video. Check it out!

Vocabulary!

The importance of enhancing vocabulary and its vital role in reading comprehension was the primary discussion in this week's readings. What stuck out the most to me was the idea that the development of reading comprehension is as dependent on a strong base of oral language and concept development (a.k.a vocabulary), as a house is dependent on a strong foundation for structural support. As stated in the readings, vocabulary is an important factor that is often not focused on enough. I think as teachers we need to remember this idea that vocabulary plays an important part in laying the foundation for developing strong skills in reading comprehension

A "Word Wall" is a great way to identify and discuss new/unfamiliar vocabulary in the classroom!

Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

This week's topic focused on phonemic awareness and phonics. I really loved Kathleen Clark's article about the use of the coaching technique to help the children develop their word recognition skills. The coaching method gives the students tools to use when they come to words that they do not know. Instead of telling the student to "sound it out", the teacher provides instructional cues. In my opinion, this method is not only a valuable tool for the students, but also for the teachers because it is effective and efficient. In the phonemic awareness article (by Yopp and Yopp), three important standards were put forth in regards to the instruction of phonemic awareness. The third standard stuck out to me the most. This stated that teachers must recognize that while the development of phonemic awareness is important and necessary, it is only one part of the literacy program and too much time spent on phonemic awareness is not beneficial when it is not put to use "in the context of comprehensive reading instruction".

Check out Phonologicalawareness.org. It is a great site for finding fun activities to use in your classroom to teach and practice phonemic awareness!

Fluency - Readers' Theater Example

The Bremen Town Musicians
A German Folktale
Characters: (8): Narrator 1, Narrator 2, Narrator 3, Narrator 4, Donkey, Dog, Cat, Rooster Narrator 1:    The Bremen Town Musicans, a German folktale.
Narrator 2:      Once upon a time a donkey worked long and hard for his
master.  As the years went by the donkey grew old and weak.
Narrator 2:      One day the donkey heard his master say that he was going to get rid of him.  When the donkey heard this he said...
Donkey:              I will run away to the town of Bremen. I have a strong voice. I will become a fine singer.
Narrator 4:          So the donkey left the farm and headed down the road to Bremen.
Narrator 1:      By and by the donkey met an old dog.
Donkey:          Good morning, Dog! How are you this fine day?
Dog:                 I am old and weak. My master wants to get rid of me. I don't know what to do.
Donkey:          Why not come with me to the town of Bremen? Together we can be fine musicians.
Narrator 2:      So the dog and the donkey headed down the road.
Narrator 3:      By and by they met a cat.
Dog:        Hello, Cat! How are you this fine day?
Cat:        I am old and weak. My master wants to get rid of me. I don't know what to do.
Donkey:          Why not come with us to the town of Bremen? Together we can be fine musicians.
Narrator 4:          So the cat, the dog, and the donkey headed down the road.
Narrator 1:      By and by they met a rooster.
Cat:             Hello, Rooster!  How are you this fine day?
Rooster:        I am old and weak. My master wants to get rid of me. I don't know what to do.
Donkey:          Why not come with us to the town of Bremen? Together we can be fine musicians.
Narrator 2:      So the rooster, the cat, the dog, and the donkey headed down the road.
Narrator 3:      The animals walked all day but they did not reach the town of Bremen.
Donkey:              Come, my friends. Let's rest under this big tree for the night.
Narrator 4:      The rooster flew up into the tree to get a look around. Suddenly he called out...
Rooster:         We are in luck my friends! I see a light. Perhaps there is a house for us to sleep in.
Narrator 1:      The animals followed the rooster to the light. There they found a little house. The donkey peeked in the window.
Narrator 2:      The donkey saw a band of robbers inside the little house. The robbers were so busy counting their money that they did not see the donkey.
Donkey:          My friends we must think of a way to frighten those robbers away.
Narrator 3:      It wasn't long before the animals had hatched a good plan.
Narrator 4:      The donkey stood on his hind legs. The dog climbed on the donkey's shoulders. The cat climbed onto the dog's back. The rooster perched on top of the cat. 
Narrator 1:      And then the animals call out... 
Donkey:          Hee haw!  Hee haw! 
Dog:             Woof!  Woof!  Woof! 
Cat:             Meow!  Meow!  Meow!
Rooster:         Cock-a-doodle-doo! 
Narrator 2:      The noise scared the robbers. The robbers dashed out of the little house and ran away.
Narrator 3:      The robbers did not take their gold. They did not take their food. They just ran away as fast as they could. 
Donkey:           What good luck, my friends!  Now we have a cozy house, tasty food, and all the gold we'll ever need. 
Narrator 4:      The animals never went to the town of Bremen. They lived happily ever after in the tiny house in the woods.
All:             The End.

Fluency

This weeks readings focused on the importance of fluency and how it is best measured and taught in the classroom. In Creating Fluent Readers, Rasinski suggests that a great way to develop fluency in the classroom is to allow the students to perform their read-aloud passages. These passages can be anything from monologues, dialogues, poetry to jokes and riddles. Teachers can do this by turning their classrooms into poetry cafés or having readers' theater festivals. This really stood out to me because I love the idea of making the process of fluency development exciting and fun for the students.

Students performing in a Readers' Theater!

NAEC/IRA position statement

Building off of my last post concerning the importance of appropriate exposure and practices of literacy for children, something else that stuck out to me was the importance of reading aloud to children. According to the reading, this is the "single most important activity for building these understandings and skills essential for reading success" (pg.3). I couldn't agree more with this statement. Reading aloud to children allows for them to engage and enjoy reading while gaining "emotional security" in regards to reading.

Storyline Online.net is a site that streams videos of childrens books being read aloud that children can watch. Each story is accompanied with activities and lesson plan ideas! Check it out!

Emergent Literacy Readings

This week’s readings focused on the importance of positive early exposure to print in childhood. Something that stuck out to me in one of the readings was the idea that there is no one teaching method or strategy that is the most effective for all children. The children that make up our classrooms today are very diverse and a successful teacher will use a variety of teaching strategies to reach each student in her classroom. Children are exposed to literacy before they even come to kindergarten. Building off of what they already know is a good way to get them excited about learning what they don't know. 

This is a great way of using what young students already know about and incorporating it in to learning in their classroom library!