Practicum Reflection IV April 22, 2010

This week was my last day in the classroom and things were a little crazy and off schedule.  My classroom teacher had been pulled out of the room for the day to undergo observation and analysis of her students’ progress from the year thus far.  Since much of the daily protocol is teacher guided, my teacher didn’t leave much instruction activities for the substitute.  Therefore, this week I saw very little reading instruction or practicing of skills.  However, they did read a children’s newsletter about safety in approaching strangers.  During this activity students took turns reading different passages for the class to follow along.  After a reading they would have discussion and the substitute would address questions.  I thought this activity worked well because it was an interesting topic that caught their attention so they were motivated to follow along so that they could participate in the discussion.  I think this reading activity was effective and helpful for this particular group of students because they are nonjudgmental towards each other’s skill level and they are eager to help each other in areas of struggle.

Unfortunately, because there was a substitute in the class I was not allowed to teach in my small groups as usual.  Nonetheless, I was able to monitor each child’s ability to follow along with their class reading.  One of the most interesting things that I learned this week is that instruction, direction, and class participation activities should be unique for each class.  The skill level, personality combinations, and flexibility of students from a particular class will ultimately determine your successful approach to class instruction.  Sometimes you will need to have individual activities and groups with things like “Show Me” and word sorts but other times you can do shared reading with the entire class.

Practicum Reflection III April 16, 2010

          This week was interesting because I was able to observe the school’s testing process that was broken into different sections called Probes.  These different Probes in Reading tested the child’s accuracy and fluency during a timed session.  The good news was that the children were familiar with this type of assessment because they had experienced regular assessment in this same format.  The not so great news was that the children still seem to struggle more in these areas than they should at the end of second grade.  This has been one of the hardest things for me to watch during my time in my classroom at Moravian Falls.  It is evident that their teacher has put so much hard work, time, creativity, and resources in assisting these children; yet, with the lack of practice and support from the home the children are still struggling to keep their heads above water.  After getting to know and observing the Hispanic children in my class it is no wonder they struggle the most with their writing and reading.  Most of my Hispanic children go home to families who only speak Spanish.  Obviously if there is not even a language practice and reinforcement at home, these children are especially going to struggle with grammar, writing, and reading back at school. 

            We did not break into small groups this week for Reading and Fundations so I did not have the opportunity to teach as usual.  Nevertheless, I did enjoy my time assisting individuals throughout the large group instruction time.  This week we worked on learning what a compound word is and how to break in into distinct syllables.  One of the most interesting things I learned while assisting students during this lesson is that many children struggle with dividing syllables with a line.  The teacher had originally demonstrated this technique to show the visible distinction within the compound words.  However, some students misread that as an added “l” into the word.  Scooping underneath the syllable seems to be the best way for all students to clearly understand its implication.

Practicum Reflection II April 2, 2010

          I felt like this week at Moravian Falls flew by extremely quickly.  The teachers seemed to be anxious about fitting in several reviews, skill building activities, and assessments to ensure that the students were on target at where they needed to be during this crunch time at the end of the year.  The students, on the other hand, were anxious about the spring break.  Even from the beginning of the week you could see a difference in their focus, effort, and behavior.  My teacher, the assistant teacher, Kia, and I spent most of our time trying to get the children to focus on the task at hand.  I quickly became aware of how difficult this was when the majority of the students were staring off into space, fiddling in their desk, or talking to others around them.  I had a talk with my teacher about this and asked how she handled their lack of focus.  She explained that you have to choose your battles because if you spend your time calling people out you lose valuable instruction time and it’s not fair to those who are paying attention. 

          I was able to do my individual reading assessment this week on a student in my class who was identified by her teacher as below grade level.  The student that I chose seemed to have a lack of effort during class and this same mentally showed up as I worked with her in this one-on-one setting.  I think this might be a huge determining factor in her reading level.  On a positive note, I observed that the student seemed to sound out the unfamiliar words using their Fundations method.  The Fundations program is the reading program for K-2 at Moravian Falls.  This program focuses on letters, blends, and other irregular sounds.  I have been very impressed with this program and it seems extremely helpful and fun for all the students.

Practicum Reflection I March 26, 2010

          First thing in the mornings my second graders do a writing or vocabulary activity independently to start off their day.  On Tuesday they had to write a paragraph about a time that they felt sad.  It was interesting to observe how each individual student spells words and writes sentences based on how we have learned to analyze their writing to determine reading levels.  The majority of my students are in the within word pattern stage.  On Thursday there was a vocabulary worksheet posted on the smart board.  The students had to copy the sentences and pick the appropriate adjective from the word box to fill in the blanks in order to complete the sentence.  I was surprised by how many students struggled with this entire activity.  First of all, they struggled with copying words given in the sentence off the board.  They spelled most of the words wrong and they were all there for them to copy straight from the board.  They also had a hard time picking the appropriate adjective to accurately complete the sentence.  I am still not completely sure why the students couldn’t complete the sentences.  However, I do think that the students have yet to fully understand the concept of a sentence and the basic parts such as nouns, adjectives, and verbs. 

            During reading instruction, the entire second grade divides into low, grade-level, and high reading levels.  Each level goes to a different teacher where they have different centers to work on their reading skills.  This week my teacher had the low group of readers and we were focusing on fluency.  My teacher allowed me to lead a small group.  In my small group we had an index card that had an increasing amount of words on each line as you went down the index card; by the last line, it had built up to a complete sentence.  I had each child study their card and read their card aloud.  This activity was assistive in helping build fluency because it gradually built fluency with familiarity of words line by line.

Curt: Assignment II March 4, 2010

1. What grade is Curt in?

Third Grade

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

1^st grade level: 75%

2^nd grade level: 50%

3^rd grade level: 20%

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

1-2 level: 97%

2-1 level: 90%

2-2 level: 84%

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

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

1-2 level: 65 wpm

2-1 level: 44 wpm

2-2 level: 36 wpm

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

 1^st grade words: 60%

2^nd grade words: 0%

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.)

Curt is at the instructional level (60%-85%) in his first grade level flash scores (75%).

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

First Grade because Curt’s accuracy scores were 97%, which means he was in the top half of the instructional level.

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

Curt’s scores showed that he was sufficient at the first-grade level and instructional at the second-grade level.

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

According to Curt’s spelling scores, he is below the reading grade level that he is in. his spelling test indicates that Curt is having difficulties with the long vowels in certain words. Furthermore, Curt shows the qualities of a within word pattern speller and still somewhat dependent on letter name.

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

Curt’s reading level is at the late 1^st grade to early 2^nd grade level.

Rasinski (2004) March 4, 2010

1.    What are the three dimensions of fluency? How can you assess each dimension?
Accuracy in word decoding- be able to sound out words in text with minimal errors

• Calculate the percentage of words a reader can accurately decode on grade-level material

Automatic processing-be able to use minimal mental effort to decode so that child can focus on comprehension of text being read

• Have student orally read a grade-level passage for 60 seconds and then calculate the number of words ready correctly and compare with target rates. 

Prosodic reading-be able to parse the text into syntactically and semantically appropriate units

• Listen to a student read a grade-level passage and then judge the quality of the reading by using a rubric that scores a student on the elements of expression and volume, phrasing, smoothness, and pace. 

2.    Rasinski refers to fluency as a “bridge” between decoding and comprehension. What does he mean by the “bridge” metaphor?
The bridge represents the progression of simply decoding text to the full-comprehension of grade-level text.  Readers must learn how to process words in their basic meaning on a consistent before they can expect to gain full comprehension while reading is taking place.  They do this by progressing from being able to decode, use automatic processing, and prosodic reading, resulting in comprehension. 

3.    What instructional methods does Rasinski suggest for students with difficulties in automatic and prosodic reading?

Assisted reading, repeated reading, and coaching are helpful for students having trouble with automatic and prosodic reading.  Through these three methods, model reading performance and fluency is exhibited. 

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).

Expression and Volume- how the child says the words according to sentence dictation, expression, pronunciation, and tone of voice

Phrasing- the ability to read through the text in a smooth motion (allowing appropriate pauses between words and sentences)

Smoothness – the ability to read with little or no pause due to sounding out a word

Pace- the ability to read at a conversational speed without hesitation

Stahl (2008) Assignment February 26, 2010

1. Describe in broad stokes the reading processes that take place during comprehension of informational text (p. 362, under Construction of Meaning and Concept Development with Informational Texts).

For effective comprehension to take place within readers they must access accurate, relevant knowledge, manage mental processes during reading within the confines of a limited working memory, and construct 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?

Background knowledge helps to engage students in a text because they can relate it to their individual experiences, knowledge, or memories.  However, it also can distract readers from what’s happening in the story because they completely rely on their background knowledge to construct meaning of the new text.  Teachers must be careful of how much dialogue they create surrounding the text being presented because children can easily dwell on prior knowledge and tend to have inaccurate or limited recollection of the presented text.

 

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).

Picture Walk

• Commonly used with leveled text
• Conversations typically occur as the teacher and students preview each page or few pages of a new book, before reading
• Pictures are used as a catalyst for a discussion of what the book is likely to be about
• Two or three vocabulary words are explicitly introduced
• Designed to yield student-generated discussion and predictions about a text

 Know-Want to Learn-Learn

• Enable teachers to access the prior knowledge of students and to help students develop their own purposes for reading expository text.
• Uses a chart or worksheet to record students’ statements about what they know (K), want to learn (W), and, after reading, what they learned (L)

Directed Reading-Thinking Activity

• Views reading as a problem-solving process best accomplished in a social context
• Students are responsible for establishing their own purposes for reading

 “All three approaches are structured, teacher-facilitated social interactions, focused on increasing students’ comprehension of text. All three approaches engage students in generating purposeful predictions based on prior knowledge and informational text features, such as pictures, tables of contents, and headings.”

Commonalities:

(a) An emphasis on reader engagement and social mediation,

(b) Activation of relevant prior knowledge, and

(c) Anticipation (or purposeful prediction) of what information might be likely to be included in a text.

 

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

“The purpose of this study was to explore how the PW, KWL, and DRTA might influence developmental reading abilities and content acquisition when used with informational text in the primary reading group context.”

 

5. Who were the subjects?

31 second-grade students in two demographically similar schools, in the same school district, in a midsize Midwest city

 

6. Describe the reading materials used during the intervention.

The books were informational texts on topics that were likely to be familiar to second-grade students.

Sequence of topics: spiders, the moon, how water changes form, and insects

 

7. How long did the experiment last?

Over 10 weeks, conducting two four-week periods of intervention within that time frame

 

8. What were the experimental conditions?

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, a I 45-minute orientation session was conducted 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, students were interviewed about the comprehension strategies and instructional preferences.

 

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
• engaged in an interactive discussion about the book as we worked through the book page-by-page, talking about the pictures, the text structure, and the student’s prior knowledge, and formulating predictions based on that information questions were asked to generate discussion
• specifically introduced new vocabulary before reading the text
• Students were taught the meaning of the selected vocabulary, and they were coached in decoding strategies, perhaps chunking or using a common rime
• Afterwards the children mumble read the text independently and then come back together to make further predictions

KLW

• Introduced topic, students discussed and then their input was written on the chart in the Know column
• Each child wrote what he or she knew on a personal KWL chart before it was shared and written on our large group chart
• Children categorized the recorded information
• Children to generated questions about the topic in the “What I Want to Learn” column
• After reading, there was a post-reading discussion by considering whether the text had provided answers to any student questions. Then they recorded the information in the “What I Learned” column.
• Discussed other new learning and recorded it on the group chart

DRTA

• Before reading, the students formulated and justified predictions about the text based on the title, cover, prior knowledge, and if available, table of contents
• Students predicted for a two-page or three-page section of text
• A brief discussion was held to verify predictions, summarize the information in the text, and generate new predictions for the next section of text based on the discussion about the text, pictures, and headings, if available

 Control Group

• Before reading, presented the same brief overview of the text that had been provided to the treatment groups
• Children independently mumble read the new text
• Independent reading was always followed by drawing a picture and/or writing about something they would like to share with the group based on the text

 

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

• Maze provided insight into micro-level processing, general reading, and monitoring for meaning
• The maze task was a multiple-choice cloze modification. It 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 score on the maze task was the number of correct responses.

Free Recall

• Individually each child provided a free recall of the day’s text.
• Two raters parsed the
• Texts into clausal units, developed tree diagrams to determine ideational hierarchies, and placed these ordered clausal units on coding sheets. Student 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.
• They looked for correctness of an answer and then judged the response on a four point scale which was used to produce weighted scores for each answer

Post-intervention Interview

• At the conclusion of each research cycle, individual strategy interviews were conducted with the students in that cycle.
• The questions surveyed three types of strategy knowledge (a) declarative (what the strategies were), (b) procedural (how to perform the strategies) and (c) conditional knowledge (when and why the strategies are useful)

 

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

• The use of informational texts with novice readers does extend their vocabularies.  The small group setting seemed to be essential for these approaching-grade-level students to develop content area vocabulary that had previously been taught as part of the district’s science curriculum. And all three instructional approaches worked equally well.
• Both the PW and DRTA yielded statistically significant effects on the maze.

 

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)?

Teacher guidance during the DRTA tended to direct the children’s attention to the important ideas and assist with difficult text concepts in a way that was not provided for in the other interventions. The scaffolded interactions during reading, actively justifying and verifying predictions, integrating text-based information with prior knowledge, and having an immediate opportunity to discuss new concepts seemed to help these novice readers when they were called on to respond to questions about the text.  The KWL and control conditions did not allow for children to be as analytical with text and create critical thinking and reasoning.  Instead, they just required children to regurgitate facts or events.    

 

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?

Ultimately, experienced-based (KWL) charts are not better for children than text based (DRTA) because children reap no benefits of understanding the text better with prior knowledge of content. 

 

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?

It is vital that while reading a text the teacher should provide and facilitate text-appropriate questions that require the child to experience critical thinking and reasoning.  This process helps children develop a better understanding of how to comprehend and reason with new information that they are given through text and orally.

Words Their Way Assignment II February 26, 2010

1. How does a Preliterate (Emergent) speller read and write?

• Students in this stage tend to write by using scribbles, letter-like forms, or random letters without regard of phonetic relationships. 
• Students also lack an understanding of the alphabetic principle or show beginning signs of basic understanding of how it is used. 
• Any reading that takes place is based upon memorization of a familiar text.    

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

• Uses systematic letter sound matches to identify and store words in memory.
• During reading they identify words mostly by phonetic cues. 
• As they become more accurate with letter sounds, readers and writers will use by confuse vowels within the words. 
• They need to read aloud to vocalize the sounds of words. 

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

• Letter-sound units are consolidated into patterns or larger chunks and other spelling regularities are internalized.
  • Short-vowel rimes
  • Phonographs  
• Students focus on the vowels and what follows them.
• Reading is supported by familiarity with frequently occurring letter pattern units.
• Reading moves from halting word-by-word reading to more expressive phrasal reading, and they can read fluently at their instructional level
• Sizable sight word vocabulary allows them to write more quickly and with greater detail.

 

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

• Have relatively automatic word recognition, and thus their minds are free to think as rapidly as they can read.
• Students who are in this stage of word knowledge delight in writing persuasive essays, editorials, poetry, or their own versions of fantasy or realistic fiction.

 

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

• Spellers have a broader experience base that allows them to choose among a variety of reading styles to suit the text and their purposes for reading.
• They read according to their own interests and needs and they seek to integrate their knowledge with the knowledge of others.
• 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.

Students who receive additional spelling instruction perform better on reading tasks such as oral reading, silent reading comprehension, and other reading-related measures in addition to spelling.  Furthermore, they observed that practice at spelling helps reading more than practice at reading helps spelling. Also, it was found that students’ spelling attempts also provide a powerful medium for predicting future reading achievement.

Rosenthal & Ehri Assignment February 19, 2010

1. What was the hypothesis tested by the researchers?

The researchers were testing the hypothesis that students will learn the pronunciations and meanings of new words better when they see spellings of the words during study periods than when they do not.

2. Who were the subjects?

20 second graders who read on grade level

Mean age: 7 years, 7 months

Enrolled in an urban school with a large minority population

 32 fifth graders from the same school

14 higher level readers and 18 lower level readers 

3. What were the experimental conditions?

Spelling-absent control

Spelling-present control

Students were presented with spelling-picture cards while learning word recognition, and the other groups did not have the spelling presented during vocabulary learning experiment.    

4. What did the treatment involve?

The day after each set of words was taught, posttests were given to assess 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?

Second graders learned the pronunciations and meanings of vocabulary words better when they were exposed to spellings of the words than when they only practiced speaking the words.

 When spellings were seen, heard, and repeated by the child, grapho-phonemic connections were spontaneously activated to secure the pronunciations in memory.

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 difference might be that the fifth graders with higher reading levels had better knowledge of both grapho-phonemic units and larger syllabic spelling units than lower readers.  This greater knowledge could have given the higher readers an advantage in forming connections to store multisyllabic words in memory.

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

Fifth and second graders remembered definitions more easily than pronunciations of the words.

 When teachers encounter, pronounce, and explain new vocabulary words to their students, they should take time to display the spellings of the words.

The way to maximize chances that students will acquire full knowledge of the writing system is to provide systematic phonics, word analysis, and spelling instruction during the elementary grades.

 

Curt Assignment February 19, 2010

Look at the spelling errors that Curt makes. What stage of word knowledge is Curt in?Why do you pick this stage of development? What are the key characteristics?

This child seems to be in the Letter Name stage because he associates the “name” of a letter to a sound as he attempts to spell simple words.  He is lacking in the understanding of vowel and word patterns.  He is able to represent most short vowel sounds, digraphs, and consonant blends. 

Describe partner reading.

Partner reading is when a child is partnered with a tutor to help guide their reading in a comfortable yet, challenging atmosphere.  The tutor begins by going through the book with the child to introduce the illustrations and possible text within the story.  The pair continues with alternated reading where the tutor reads a page or line and the child follows in a pattern form.  This strategy is helpful for beginner readers because it less likely to cause frustration and discouragement when there is a help as a guide throughout the whole process.  Furthermore, the child has the opportunity to hear how a line of text is meant to be read through intonated oral reading so that he or she can learn the skills that produce more meaning from a line or phrase. 

Which is harder for a student, partner reading or DRTA?

DRTA is more challenging for a child than partner reading because it forces them to focus on the contextual content as well as the comprehension.  Although, DRTA might take more time and effort with the child, it will help the child’s long-term reading skills and comprehension.  Furthermore, because this strategy first allows the child to relate the subject or topic to his or her own experiences, the child is much more likely to give effort, have better comprehension, and enjoy the text more.    

In planning a DRTA, what is important about selecting places to stop?

When planning, you need to find a place that comes to a natural break where something important might be about to happen or change.  There should be an obvious opportunity for the child to recollect what has happened and form a short hypothesis on the coming events. 

In planning a DRTA, what is important about deciding questions to ask? What kind of questions? How many?

You should base your questions according to the opportunities that the text allows.  For example, if the cover of a book offers a detailed picture on the cover that accurately portrays the events of the story, ask the child to make a prediction upon what they see.  However, if the cover could be perceived as misleading of the actual course of events, don’t require that the child use this to make their hypotheses because this could lead to a confusing misconception throughout the entire book.   You should ask three questions per stopping point that are focused on characters, setting, plot, and a combination of retelling and prediction-guided responses.