Module 3: Activity 2

What do you think of this? What do such activities and "cracking the code" contribute to proficient reading? What else might a reader need to become proficient? 

After watching this video on helping struggling readers by teaching phonemic awareness, or hearing sounds within words with  this cracking the code technique using pseudowords/nonsense words.  In the video, they  said that the teacher is teaching this technique that experts  know works. This technique can be one of the instructional tool to teach struggling readers but it should  not be the only way since study has shown it to be helpful. I believe what Dr. Reid Lyon stated in the video are beneficial for struggling readers like teaching in a systematic way with teacher-directed and teacher feedback. With struggling reader, the more one-on-one individual tutoring is  helpful for the student. 

Proficient reading  requires the readers to use many strategies.  A proficient reader use schema, syntax, semantic, context, and graphic cues. The students need to create meaning from the words they are learning. I think that using nonsense words will be difficult to teach less proficient reader because they need actual words with pictures (visual cues) to go with those words to help them learn the words. If the teacher teaches with nonsense words then the teacher would not have pictures to go with the word. I personally have never taught phonemic awareness using nonsense words but I would not rule this out since it can an additional instructional tool. Although I feel it is more beneficial to use words that are basic/common every day words and words that the students will come across to create meaning because this is essential to become a proficient reader.  

Module 3: Mock Memo from a Reading Specialist

Erica, a fifth grader, reads grade level passages at a rate of 177 words correct per minute, or 30% faster than grade level norms. When asked to retell what she has read, Erica struggles and is able to give little to no information from about the text. Many other children in Erica's class also read well above grade level expectations for fluency rate (or automaticity), but the teacher laments that they struggle with comprehension and using appropriate expression and intonation while they read. What is going on here? What advice can you offer the teacher? Write a memo to the teacher from the viewpoint of the school's Reading Specialist. Give the teacher and explanation for the phenomenon and offer her advice on dealing with the situation. Please keep the memo to no more than 400 words. Post it to your blog and name the posting "Module 3: Mock Memo from a Reading Specialist."

Dear teacher, 

I would like to start off by saying that I am very impressed  with your class' accomplishment on reading  above grade level expectations for fluency rate. You've done a marvelous job with your students so far on reading with fluency. Thank you, for bringing to my attention about your concerns with your students struggling with text comprehension. Let's take a closer look at a student in your class, Erica, it appears that she is mainly focusing on reading all the words correctly when she reads. She is not focusing on gaining meaning from the text that she is reading. You've also noticed similar cases with your other students. Your students are focusing more on words identification/words accuracy  rather than trying to construct meaning from the text they are reading. 

Here are some of my suggestions, first allow your students more opportunities to read independently and read with a partner (a less proficient reader with a more proficient reader) with texts that presents supports and challenges to the students (text should be easy enough to keep students going, but challenging enough to keep students learning). The texts can be teacher-selected  or student-selected text on the students' independent reading level that way they're able to read books based on their interest and read to get meaning from the the text.  Encourage the students to make connections and share their connections with a partner. Also, the students can practice re-telling the story to their parents. Second, I suggest doing more shared reading with your students to provide additional modeling of strategies proficient readers use including concept of print, word study, syntax, and comprehension strategies (making connections, determine importance, predicting, asking-questions, re-reading, and self-monitoring). Before reading an unfamiliar text to the children, you should provide support through the introduction to the book. For instance, reads the title and author, activates background knowledge, give a brief summary of the book,  introduces any challenging words, concepts, and language structures. Be sure to allow students to practice these strategies after you model them. Shared reading  or reading aloud to your students with modeling reading with expression  and intonation will help them strengthen this area of their weakness listening to you read aloud.  My next suggestions to help readers who have difficulty comprehending texts is the thinking-aloud strategy. This strategy will help them focus on meaning, develop effective reading strategies, and reflect on their reading strategies. For this think-aloud strategy, you should model reading aloud and stop periodically to show your students your think process while reading. This strategy will provide a effective model for children to engage in their own meta-cognitive comprehension strategies while they read a text. 

Please try out these reading strategies with your students and update me on their progress. We can arrange a planning time to develop different strategies to make the needs of the individual students in your class. In addition, I have a copy of Weaver's text called Reading Process & Practice, you may stop by to check it out during your planning time to reference back to this book for additional strategies you can implement in your classroom to help the students construct meaning of the text. Let me know if you need further assistance. 

Sincerely, 


Loan Le
Reading Specialist

PROMINENT THEORIST: ALLAN LUKE

PROMINENT THEORIST: ALLAN LUKE

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5imJIYltom1VmI2ejZ4T0pjTDg/edit?usp=sharing

Module Three Reading Reflection

Do you agree with Marilyn Adams (1990, p. 108) who argued that rather than relying on context, Skillful readers of English thoroughly process the individual letters of words in their texts. Why or why not?

After reading chapter 5 in Weaver's text. I found a lot of evidences to disagree with Marilyn Adams' statement. I disagree with Adams' statement  who argued that rather than replying on context, skillful readers of English thoroughly process the individual letters of words in their texts. Research  by Gollash's (1980) suggested  that we do not identify all the letters in a word before identifying a word, even if the word occurs in isolation (Weaver, 2002). An experiment in Weaver's book showed that we read to construct meaning from the text, not look for errors in the passage. When I read the passage "The Boat in the Basement" I did not notice many errors because I was trying to get meaning from what I was reading. When we read for comprehension, we do not first identify the smallest units of language, letters, and then work upward (Weaver, 2002). Proficient readers use prior knowledge, grapho/phonemically to automatically use context, and relevant knowledge to word meanings to help identify the word. Also, proficient readers use analogy, syllables, onsets, rimes, and pronounceable chunks to read unfamiliar words. Research and experiments were conducted to prove that this statement is wrong because good readers do not read word-by-word. Good readers read with fluency from left to right and they use many reading strategies to help them figure out unknown words. 

We should consider less proficient readers, they might read individual letters of words in the text because they do not have the knowledge to apply different strategies to help them figure out the unknown words. In Weaver's text, she explained that  less proficient readers pay less attention to beginnings and ends of words (Weaver, 2002). This helped me to distinguish my less proficient readers from my proficient readers. That way I can teach them to apply different strategies when they come to a difficult word. I found this so interesting  that children and adults don't often apply the phonic "rules" when they read. They both read new print by analogy with known words (Weaver, 2002). Well clearly I have to start focusing less on phonics and more on teaching readers to use context,schemas, semantics, syntax, and graphic cues.   

Weaver, C. (2002). Reading Process & Practice. (3rd Ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Module 2: Activity 1&2

Activity 1: 
Complete Exercise #3c on page 58 in the text: first write a definition of each word listed. Did you notice yourself using any fairly consistent principle for determining what the words might mean? Discuss. Then read the first chapter of A Clockwork Orange to find the meanings of at least six of the words: http://www.ebooktrove.com/top_ten/AClockworkOrange.pdf. In each case, how do you finally determine what the word means? 

Write down the definition of these words:

 creech- screech or maybe a sound
 droogs- drools 
 glazzies- glasses 
 goloss- glossy-shiny
 malenky-  malignant 
 messel- vessell 
 millicents-  Millicent -something tiny
 poogly- ugly or must be a adverb because adverb ends in-ly
 razrez- razors
 skorry- scary
 spatted- splashed or must be a verb because it ends in -ed
 zoobies- zombies

When I looked at the list of these words. I noticed that I was not familiar with any of the words on the list. Since the words are not in context, I know I will have difficult determine the meaning of the words  in isolation. I tried to look at the prefixes of the unknown words to figure out the words. Also, I tried to find words that sounded the same or rhymes with the unknown words and hoped that it would have the same meaning as the words that I already know. Finally, I tried to determine how the words was used  and what part of speech of the unknown words to help me.

After reading A Clockwork Orange, I was able to use context clues before and after the unknown words to help me determine the meaning of the words in the sentences. There are usually clues with supporting details to help us gain meaning to the unknown words. 

droogs- friends, partners
skorry- fast/quickly
glazzies-eyes
messle-ideas
goloss- shirt
poogly- dislike/displeasure 
skorry-scared
millicents- people

Activity 2:

Read Exercise 7  and answer the questions on p. 85 & 86

1. Who tried to read the words letter-by-letter? 

   I did not read the words letter-by-letter because it would be hard for me to blend them together.

2. Who tried to read the words mostly by chunking them into syllables?

   I used the syllables on the next to the words to help me pronounce them. It has already be broken down into chunk. 

3. Who tried to read the words by sampling the letters more or less all at once? 

   I did not read all the words at once. I I tried to read by chunking them into syllables. 

4. What words do you know the meaning of, or think you know the meaning of?

  I did not know the meaning  for any of the words on the list. Reading the words in isolation, I was unable to get clues to find the meaning of the words. 

5. Did pronouncing the words give you insight into their meanings?

  It was very difficult when I attempted to pronounce the words. Pronouncing the words did not help me gain meaning of the words. I

6. How do you handle unknown words when you encounter them in normal reading?

When I encounter  unknown words during reading, first I would skip that word and keep reading. Then, I would re-read the sentences again to find context clues before and after the unknown words to help me figure out the meaning. Also, I would figure out what part of speech that word is to help me. I was unable to figure out the meaning of the word and it is necessary for me to know to word to understand the text. I would look it up in the dictionary for the definition and look for examples for that word used in sentences. 

7. What do you think are the implications of this experiment and discussion for how we should help students deal with unfamiliar print words? 

After I did this experiment, the first thing that came to my mind was giving our students the high frequency word lists and asking them to learn/memorize the lists. The words are written in isolation and it  doesn't have any meaning to them. The students that mastered the lists and then therefore given more to learn. The students that struggled with the words are given less words to learn. Both of these ways serve no purpose. I think there is no purpose to learning the words when the students do not know  understand the meaning  of the words or able to use them in the sentences. 

To help students deal with unfamiliar words, I would model different strategies they can use to help them figure out the unknown words. I would teach them about sounding out  and blending the sounds, context clues, using our schemas/personal experiences to create meaning of the words.  

Module 2: Instructional Challenge

Wheeler & Swords (2006) show how children�s dialects have their own grammatical structure, and although the structure may differ from formal or �Standard� English, we can teach children to code-switch or change registers rather than correcting them, as the following table from page 57 of their book shows:

Take a look at the following examples of children's dialect-based miscues while reading and the difference between the child's original response (OR) and expected reponse (ER). Then answer the questions that follow.

OR: It my little monkey here.	ER: Is my little monkey here?
OR: We got to tell.	ER: We've got to tell.
OR: Frog look at Toad calendar.	ER: Frog looked at Toad's calendar.
OR: A word what sounded good.	ER: A word that sounded good.
OR: hisself	ER: himself
OR: I can come to your party?	ER: Can I come to your party?

Are these children's miscues evidence of proficient or non-proficient reading?� Explain. If you were teaching children who made these miscues, what, if any, assistance or teaching would you offer?

Looking at the examples of the children's dialect-based miscues, I believe the children's miscues are evidence of a proficient reader. The students in the examples above made many miscues involving the high functions words "it" for "is"  "what" for "that", dialect miscues "we got" for "we've got", and grammar miscues. It is mainly the proficient readers who make these types of miscues such as omission, substitution, or insertion of pronouns and function words. They are more likely to make these types of miscues because they focus more on constructing meaning from the text. They use preceding syntactic and semantic context, and their schemas to help them predict what might be coming next. Based on what I read from Weaver's text, I believed that the miscues from the child's original responses did not affect the meaning  in  the expected responses.

If I were teaching children who made these miscues, I would learn more about each student's home language/dialect. Next, I would inform them about the differences of  the informal (home) and formal (school) languages. I would provide appropriate modeling for both informal and formal/ standard English. I would help the students become aware of the grammatical pattern of home speech to the grammatical patterns of school speech. I would teach them when it is appropriate to use these types of languages. When the students are aware and know how or when to speak or write appropriately. When will be able to switch/correct themselves when it doesn't sound right. As teachers, we must have the knowledge, the experience, and the attitude that will enable them to recognize and accept miscues that merely reflect an alternative spoken dialect (Weaver, 2002). This means that as teachers, we have to take into account of the students'  home language when we teach them to read and write. We have to encourage them to speak and write appropriately in formal English rather than discourage them or tell them they are incorrect when they speak in their home dialect.

Weaver, C. (2002). Reading Process and Practice. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Module 2: Reading Reflection

After reading Chapters 3 and 4, return to the quote from Harper and Kilarr on p. 41. Respond to this quote on your blog, saying whether you agree or disagree and explain why or why not using ample evidence from the text to support your assertions.

"The major folklore of reading instruction relates to the "theory" that reading is considered an exact process.  In other words, the reader is expected to read everything exactly as printed on the page in order to understand the message of the author.  In general the consuming public, legislatures, courts, and too many educators hold this to theory.  it is like the theory of the world being flat during the time of Columbus" -- Robert Harper and Gary Kilarr

I agree with Harper and Kilarr's statement above because reading is not consider an exact process. I disagreed that in order to comprehend the text we have to be able to read all the printed words correctly. Reading would be both ineffective and inefficient if we relied just on grapho/phonemic cues (Weaver, 2002. pg.52). I agree with above statement because  I believe teaching reading should consist of learning letter, letter-sound relationship, integrating our schema with the cue systems: syntactic, semantic, and graphic. When reading the text we must construct meaning from the text rather than trying to identify all of the words correctly. 

At  my school, the teachers use Pearson's Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA2) as an assessment tool to help us for instructional purposes such as grouping our students by their  reading level for our guided reading groups.  Far too often that I seen students placed in the wrong reading groups because we view reading accuracy too  important. If the students have too many miscues than they cannot move up to another reading level.  In the text, it say that we should not withhold challenging texts from students until they can recognize nearly all of the words accurately. Such restraint will actually inhibit their acquisition of new vocabulary.  In Contrast, extensive reading will enhance vocabulary and thus encourage the reading of more sophisticated texts (Weaver,2002. pg.45).

I highly agree with this statement from the text because we need to expose our students to books beyond their level rather than having them read only books on their level. 

In chapter 4, I found it to be very interesting that miscues are not always considered bad. Miscues tell us a lot about our readers when we correctly analyze them.  While I was reading the text, I thought back to a reading assessment that I did with one of my students at the end of the year. This kindergarten student still  knew approximately 150 sight words at the end of Kindergarten. She satisfied her requirement of mastering 75 Kindergarten sight words at the end of the year. However, when I assessed her on a level D book (where they need to be at the end of Kindergarten) she was unable to pass the level because she made so many miscues according to the rubric provided (e.g. basic sight words, pronoun, and substitution).  Weaver stated that good readers generally make fewer miscues than less proficient readers, they may actually make as many or more miscues involving pronouns and simple function words. This occurs because they are reading to construct meaning, rather than to identify words (Weaver,2002. pg.63). I baffled as to why this student made so many miscues when she knows so many sight words. After reading this, I have a better understanding of why good or proficient readers generally do make more miscues than less proficient readers. 

References:

Weaver, C. (2002). Reading Process & Practice (3rd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

Module 1: Activity 2

Module 1: Activity 2

Complete Exercise #5 on p. 39 by reading the passage and answering questions a-g that follow it. 

A. What is corandic?
Corandic is an emurient with many fribs. 

B. What does corandic grank from?
Corandic granks from corite.

C. How do garkers excarp the tarances from the corite?
Garkers excarp the tarances from the corite by glarking the corite and starping it in tranker-clarped storbs.

D. What does the slorp finally frast?
The slorp finally frast a pragety, blickant crankle.

E. What is coranda?
A coranda is a cargurt. 

F. How is the corandic nacerated from the borigen?
The corandic is nacerated from the borigen by means of loracity. 

G. What do the garkers finally thrap?
Garkers finally thrap a glick, bracht, glupous grapant, corandic, which granks in many starps. 

Reflection: 

While reading this passage,  I was having a very difficult time pronouncing all the words in the passage. I even tried to sound out the words to say them correctly. After  I read through the passage, I felt completely lost and had no idea what the passage means. I was going to read the passage a second time to try to figure out what the passage is saying. But then I decided to read the questions first and answer them as a read the passage again. When I read question a, I saw the answer right away. It didn't require me to do any critical thinking. I thought I have to analyze this somehow. I wanted to find other clues but couldn't find any words from the passage that I was familiar with. I decided to move on to the next questions and it was asking me to do the same thing. I looked for the words from the questions and following it was the answer. I simply typed or copied from the passage. I repeated this process and find the answer fast. 

While I was reading this passage, I thought it was so boring and wasn't interesting at all. I couldn't comprehend what the passage was about. I also thought about the students. The students would not read this passage because it is not interesting to them. Also, they would not have any prior knowledge about this passage. If this passage or passages similar to this in the workbook or standardized tests that ask the students to look and find the answer/clues. I think these passages in workbooks or standardized tests are pointless because it doesn't require the students to do any type of critically thinking. The passage and questions was this activity shows that these types of activity was not informational. It ask a question and I just find the answer within the passage. 

Module 1: Activity 1

Module 1: Instructional Challenge

Read the following passage:

Hocked gems financing him, our hero defied the scornful laughter. Think of it as an egg, not a table, he said. Then three sturdy sisters sought proof, forging over vast calmness, and sometimes over turbulent peaks and valleys, until at last welcome winged creatures appeared, signifying monumental success.

 Answer these questions about the passage:

1. What are the hocked gems?
The first word that caught my attention is the word financing. I automatically think it has something that deal with money. I think hocked gems  has momentary value and can be trade in for cash. I think he has stolen the hocked gems for financial reason.

2. What should we think of as an egg and not a table?
I think he said to treat the gems like an egg because an egg can break easily. We have to hold it with care because it is fragile. Do not think of it as a table that is tough and can stand on its own.  

 3. Who are the three sturdy sisters?

I think they are like guardian angels that can bring peace and tranquility in the midst of chaos. Maybe the three sturdy sisters represent people that will be there to help with financial problems. For instance, family or friends will come to help relief stress and money issues. 

4. What kind of winged creatures appeared?

I think its three people like guardian angels coming to rescue him in his time of need. They got him out of the financial situation. Finally, he is free of all financial problems and become successful. 

If I were to use this passage with my students. First, I would read the passage to them aloud. Then, I would give them time to read the passage independently. I would give them an opportunity to read it and then discuss the meaning of the poem with a partner. After that I would get them together as a whole group to break down the passage. I would ask them to find words that they are familiar with and know the meaning of the words. I would remind them that a word can have multiple meanings. Next, I would ask the students to look for words that they have prior knowledge about. We would activate our schema to help us understand the passage. Next, I would introduce new vocabulary words that they are not familiar with. We would use online resources to help us define the unfamiliar words. The students would be divided into small group or work with a partner to define the meaning of the unfamiliar words.  Then the students would get together to share what they have collected. We would put all the information together to help us understand the passage. For this particular passage, I think it would be helpful to have the students work in small group because they can share their thoughts and ideas with one another. One person can interpret it differently from another person based upon their prior knowledge. 
  

Module 1: Reading Reflection

Module 1: Reading Reflection (Chapter 1 and 2)

What are some of the major differences between a skills approach to literacy and a comprehensive or sociopsycholinguistic approach?

There are two models bought up from the reading in Weaver's text on reading and learning how to read.  The two contrasting models of reading and learning how to read are a skills approach to literacy and a sociopsycholinguistic approach. When reading about these two approaches, there are so many differences between a skills approach to literacy and a sociopycholinguistic approach. According to Weaver's text, a skills approach's view of reading and learning how to read starts from the bottom up. Before you can learn to read, you have to start by learning the basics. On the other hand, a sociopsycholinguistic approach involve understanding the meaning of the text from whole to part. 

The debate between these two models for acquiring the reading skill is mainly depending on the teacher's teaching method and classroom structure. In my perspective, both skill approach to literacy and sociopsycholinguistic approach are beneficial when teaching young children how to read. When young children enter into kindergarten, the teachers would assess  the students to gather an understanding on where they are at. For example, the teacher would do the assessment on letter recognition, letter sounds, and sight words. For the students that do not have the ability to use phonics skills, the teacher would start with this skill approach to teach students reading. A skill approach to teaching reading starts by recognizing alphabet letters (uppercase and lowercase), learning the letter sounds, and then learning the frequency words by sight. 

The second model to teaching reading is sociopsycholinguistic approach. This approach include teaching the reading foundation, using schema, and using words in context. When the teacher teaches using this approach, the teacher would teach the student phonics skill, reading strategies such as using their prior knowledge, and using the memorized sight words in the sentences. When the students memorize the high-frequency words/sight words  on a list in isolation and they do not apply it by using the sight words in a sentence. Then they do not know the meaning of the words memorized and would not know how to apply the words learned. With this sociopsycholinguistic approach, the student will learn many reading strategies that would help them to figure out unfamiliar words. 

In my perspective, both approaches are essential in the teaching of reading. I would gather background knowledge about my students first. I would do assessment to collect data of my students. I would teach depending on my students' level and ability. With students that learn at a faster pace, I would introduce the sociopsycholinguistic approach. For students that are learning a a slower pace such as having a hard time grasping the basics skill like phonic skills. Then I would just teach the letters recognition and then letter sounds. I would not want to overwhelm the students that are struggling with learning the phonic skills.