Module 6: Instructional Challenge

Next year, you will be teaching in a school where the vast majority of students did not meet standard on your state's criterion-referenced test and where more than 75% of the students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals. What are some specific universal literacy strategies you may implement to ensure students success? Include both in-class examples and things you could do outside the classroom. Post it to your blog and name the posting "Module 6:Instructional Challenge."

I found it interesting to read about the economically disadvantage school studied and discussed on page 372 showed greater gains when teaching in context, rather than out of context and meaning was not emphasized. This shows you the importance of context clues and allowing students to use those clues to understand and determine what they are reading.  

I believe guided reading is a very important literacy approach to support all students. First, professional development is needed to educate all teachers and staff about guided reading and running records. Running Records are an assessment tool that allow you to place students in leveled guided reading groups. Also, I believe teaching a common language throughout a school is very important. It is important to teach students the same terms so they can apply those terms in different classrooms year after year.

Outside of the home, I think the most important thing a family could do is to supply age appropriate books and encourage reading. Like discussed on page 375, poor neighborhoods tend to have less age appropriate books in the home, and even in the library. If the school can allow students to “check out” books throughout the year to take home, it would only lead to more students reading and progressing to become fluent readers. 

Module 6: Reading Reflection

Does any of the information presented in Chapter 15 influence your personal philosophy of reading? In what ways? How has your perspective this changed since you took the DeFord TORP a few weeks ago?

I found it very interesting to read on page 370 that children of all academic levels had better comprehension with shared reading compared to round robin. I have a personal dislike towards round robin reading. As a child, I remember doing this in almost every classroom I was in. The only thing I would concentrate on is not WHAT I am reading, but WHEN am I going to read? Counting the paragraphs or pages until it would be my turn, then secretly practicing the passage I had to read. In other words, I had no clue what the students around me just read, and they probably feel the same way. 

Another interesting point is the below average readers had almost half as many oral reading miscues in shared reading compared to round-robin reading. All the more reason to not use round robin in the classroom! I know I do not use round robin with my students, there are plenty of other ways to have shy students read aloud and still pay attention to what others are reading at the time. This is something I believe in and did not change my beliefs but encouraged them even more.  

My persectives on the DeFord TORP are actually pretty similar to when I took the test in the beginning of the semester. I found myself agreeing with what I previously marked as my beliefs. 

Module 5: Instructional Challenge

A comprehensive reading program has many aspects that allow for differentiation and individual time. It would be important to allow the new ELL students to be in the same group, if they are in the same academic area, so they can help each other if they speak the same native language. I believe peer support can help a lot for ELL students. Guided reading time and individual time would be important for these students to build on content they need to know to become fluent readers.

It would be important to assess these students regularly throughout the school year, along with your other students, to see if the appropriate amount of progression is being made. Assessments tell you where the students are struggling, and what needs improvements. The feedback from the assessments help the ELL support teachers and the regular education teacher. Sometimes ELL students struggle because they need even more support, but teachers believe it is just a language barrier. These assessment help show you what areas the student is struggling.

If extra ELL support is needed, that usually allows for a lot of growth. I have seen great success with students first spending much time in the ELL classroom, to have the basics for the English language. Then they will come to the regular education classroom to apply their skills to the regular education classroom. Rosetta Stone can be used for extra English language support. As far as scaffolding, many assignments are scaffold because they need guidance on how to complete basic skills, and much further, learn the content we are teaching. I think it is important for students new to the country to have spent time in the ELL support classroom before trying to teach them in a regular education setting. 

Module 5: Reading Reflection

As shown in Figure 12.1 in the Weaver text, phonics instruction is shown to fit into whole-class instruction. It shows during whole-class discussion that the class can read text and focus on concepts of print, letter-sound chunks (phonics), punctuation, etc. It then shows then guided reading is below whole-class instruction in a comprehensive literacy program, which instruction focuses on current need of student(s). If students are struggling with phonics, I also believe guided reading is a time to focus on specific content and allows for individual attention. I have had much success focusing on needs of students in guided reading groups. Even if students in a small group are working on different skills, you can hone into their needs in small but easy ways while they are reading in groups. I ask students to read in a "whisper voice" and I listen or walk around to hear them reading, if I notice something that they may need work on, that is a great time to discuss it so they can think about that as they continue to practice reading. 

On page 286, the text states phonics could be taught during mini-lessons, during reading workshops, and once again in whole group, small-group, and individual settings.  I am beginning the Daily 5 approach in the fall, and mini lessons will be a big part of that. The mini lessons will be new to me, but I think that would be a great time to teach content students are struggling on, to allow them to practice these strategies or concepts as they read/write.


I believe "chunking" sounds together is a great strategy to promote fluency, rather than the single letter sounds. Also, onsets and rimes can improve fluency because it focuses on chunks, or groups of sounds, compared to single letters. These are both very important to teach to emergent and beginning readers so they can use these skills as they become more fluent readers. 

Prominent Theorist Paper

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g7hDL2jCovm5o02fRx-AjKcWgrzvGOEK-JOVI8d4mpc/edit

Module 4: Activity 2

I believe one of the most important things to have in a reading program is to match students with appropriate text, as stated in Allington’s work, that is one of the missing pillars. When students read independently especially, they use the skills they have learned to understand and read the story fluently. If a child is reading a text that is much too difficult, most likely they will be frustrated and it could turn into a life-long frustration with reading. In The Daily 5 book and approach, one of the key components is matching students to a reading level BELOW their actual level. This is done because students can read the text fluently, without mistakes, thus building more fluency, understanding, and creating a love for reading. Real aloud and guided reading time can be a place where reading more difficult or on-level text can be read because guidance is provided. No child should be asked to read quietly, silently suffering reading a text that is much too difficult for them.

Module 4: Activity 1

I noticed Robin using the “sounding out” technique several times throughout the video segment. I noticed the video started out with him working with rimes and word families. This built his knowledge of how to sound out “chunks” of words to then form words. I think it is interesting that he used the same techniques many children in lower elementary school use. It proves that it is a sound way to learn how to develop a foundation for reading. Although what I noticed most was sounding out, I also noticed him rereading the text a few times. If he read something and it didn’t settle with him, or make sense, he would back up and start rereading over again.  This is a strategy used often in elementary school, even as adults we may use this strategy if needed to clarify a passage.

Module 4: Instructional Challenge

Marcus is a student who very frequently miscues by substituting words that start with the same letter or first few letters of the word in the text, but his substitutions often are not syntactically or semantically acceptable (they neither sound right grammatically nor make sense). What possible teaching strategies would you suggest to help Marcus? Post your response to your blog and name the posting "Module 4: Instructional Challenge."

While reading over this assignment, my mind referred back to Weaver’s text on page 243 about “Matching Instruction to Readers’ Varied Needs”. I found this section very helpful in many ways, just thinking about possible strategies I can use in the future. Thinking about Marcus, I immediately referred to the section on page 245 about the reader not recognizing words and shows little knowledge of letter-sound patterns. Underneath this characteristic the text states that possible evidence could be the student skips or misreads words and cannot pronounce the first letter of many words. I referred to the text for possible strategies. The strategy I felt would best fit Marcus’ needs is working on onsets and rimes while reading. This strategy would allow him to develop more letter-sound relationships while learning about onsets and rimes. These are important parts of phonemic awareness and phonics, which is a foundation for reading and comprehension in the future. I would also make sure to have comprehension checks as we read and work on onsets and rimes. It is important that Marcus is understanding what he is reading as well as identifying and relating letter-sound relationships and patterns.

Module 4: Reading Reflection

As I read through Chapters 10 and 11, I noticed that I am incorporating many of the major components and strategies that make up the comprehensive literacy program.  A few of the main components I incorporate on a regular basis are read-aloud, guided reading, and sustained reading. These three components work to make readers grow to become more fluent and understanding while reading text. 

As stated on page 232 on the Weaver text, read-aloud is a time for teachers to give an example of what reading should sound like, using expression.  This is also a great time to read text that is a little more difficult for your students, because it is easier to follow along when someone is reading this for them. Read-aloud can form how a child reads. 

The next component I current use is guided reading.  I believe many teachers today include this important approach into their reading block. I use this time to read with a small group of students, listen to them read, track progress being made, and understand their current struggles in reading. This time can also be used to work on a specific strategy or topic. Sometimes I will group students who are having difficulty with one particular aspect, say comprehension, and decide which strategies would work best to allow these students to improve. Usually, my guided reading groups are based on reading level, which is determined by a Running Records, or DRA.

Sustained reading is also a very important time for students to grow in reading.  Students build skill after skill usually by practicing, which means they are reading, reading, reading. I think independent reading is the time to allow children to read books they want to read and it will hopefully create a love for learning. It is important to allow children to have independent reading time throughout the day. 

Module 3: Mock Memo from a Reading Specialist

Teachers must remember that reading involves many parts. Eyes are a big part of reading, but remember just because a student can read the words on a passage, does not mean comprehension is also taking place. Nonvisual information is very important when trying to comprehend a passage, it is not all what you see. Context allows readers to identify letters and words more quickly, without having to rely on visual clues. When visual clues are present this also allows a reader to read at a quicker pace. Proficient readers can quickly identify a word based upon syllables and letter placement, like word families, but does this mean they really understand the words they are reading? I would say this is the problem with your struggling students; they are great at recognizing words based on visual clues, but struggle to define the meanings of the words.

The process of comprehending includes many different aspects including visual aspects, letter-sound relationships, schemas, context, and words and their meanings. All of these interact with each other while the brain comprehends.

During a guided reading time with Erica and students struggling with comprehension, I would suggest asking them to read a page at a time quietly, and then discuss what they read. If they have trouble discussing what they read, maybe they should only read a paragraph at a time. You could make anchor charts as you read, for each paragraph or page, write 2-3 key points that help them understand what is going on, then at the end of the text, reread the key points seeing if we missed anything or to make sure it makes sense.

 A great idea would be to model this as a teacher. You could read ALOUD, then after each paragraph jot down a key point, if needed. Then students could either read silently at the same time, or allow one student to read to you, or ask all the children to whisper read to themselves. When students are whisper reading, the teacher listens and walks around to monitor how they are doing. Shared reading can also be very powerful to develop several skills proficient readers need, including comprehension.