Just Realized...

I just realized I wrote about the right article, but on the wrong subject.  The article relates to organizing literacy in the same way.  Organizing a classroom and its activities to revolve around literacy are very important.  As stated in the earlier blog, reading and writing are important aspects in every subject and should be focused on more than "busy work" or time consuming activities.  Reading the earlier blog will explain the article and how it contributes to organizing literary as well as last week's topic of assessment. Sorry, got a little mixed up on the subjects.

Want or Need?

Assessing students is a very important aspect in the teaching career.  Assessment allows teachers to view which children are getting the information and which are not.  It also can tell the teacher if they effectively teaching the material in a way that the students understand.  Both sides can be viewed by evaluation of the students in different types of assessments such as formal or informal. Formal assessments are those in which are planned and take time to complete and grade.  Informal assessments are spontaneous and not planned.  These could be little games or questions to get out the door to quiz or help with learning.  Assessment and busy work, such as worksheets are important to help get information across, but Richard A. Allington article, The Schools we Have. The Schools we Need. describes the importance of reading and the time allotted.  The article touches on how even though students are reading and writing 10% more than 10 years ago, they are not getting enough time during the school day to read and write.  Reading and writing are incorporated to every subject and should be given a large amount of time in which to increase capability.  Devoting more time to reading an writing should help students to succeed in many areas of study.  Assessments are important to help the teacher and the students, as well as worksheets and fill in the blank material, but teachers need to make more time for reading and writing activities.

Reading in Levels

In schools today, there is a large array of skill levels within each grade.  The importance of reaching every child and their academic level for each subject is very hard and stressful, but is of very high importance to me.  The article "Matching texts and readers..." is a great source for teachers to see how detailed the criteria for leveling books and reading ability is in today’s teaching economy.  The article really illustrates the importance of every aspect included in a book, and how it can determine what level a particular book falls into. The article breaks each level down into sections and carefully describes them in depth.  This is very helpful with teachers, and students, in knowing who is on what level and which books are eligible for comprehension. A teacher should also make sure to not only have books as reading materials.  There are many others in which some students are more interested in and are more inclined to actually sit down with and read.  This article really put into perspective for me how important reading at different levels can be met with the same pursuit of reaching a higher level of reading in the end. 

Incorporating many topics in books is more exciting for a student in allowing them to choose what they are interested in and want to read about.  Splitting the books into sections on skill level is a great visual way of telling students which books are right for them (based on a color or sign of some kind, without giving away the different levels to the students).

Let's Read... I'll Help

I found a great guided reading article by E. Francine Guastello and Claire Lenz called "Student Accountability: Guided Reading Kidstations." The article discusses the major benefits that guided reading provides students. According to the article, guided reading creates opportunities for students to develop literacy strategies, develop abilities to be independent readers, enjoy reading for meaning, and develop different behaviors that facilitate comprehension. Reading is a major aspect in the world today and guidance is a major facilitator for children learning to newly read.  Guided reading is also a good chance for teachers to observe students and their abilities to self-monitor, decode, self-correct, and read with expression. This article  is very helpful because it provides information about what a successful guided reading program involves. Class size can be a major issue. Many teachers can end up spending more time with one group during guided reading time than others. From the article it suggests that teachers should establish independent kidstations for guided reading time. Teachers can create the kidstations prior to the school year and spend at least 5 to 7 weeks demonstrating to children how to complete the various activities. The article goes on in much detail of how each kidstation would work and provides tables of different activities and layouts for the classroom. I really liked the ideas in this article and will definitely use the strategies within my classroom and suggest it to other teachers as well.

Word Study... also known as SPELLING

In the article by Cunningham and Cunningham really put into perspective the importance of word study.  They discussed spelling as a main point.  Invented spelling is encouraged at young ages to get students to start creating words based on the sounds of letters.  Children first need to learn letters and the sounds they can make.  As their knowledge of letters increase they can start producing words by incorporating the letters together to form words.  Invented spelling helps children to use the information they know on the sounds of each letter and the sounds that make up a word.  Usually the spelling will be very close or right on depending on the level of student.  Phonics is a huge part of creating words and in return knowing how to pronounce and read with a higher skill level.  Starting small and getting larger helps children build on their spelling and vocabulary skills.  making sure all children are being influenced by the spelling is important, because there are lower level students being left behind because of their insufficient knowledge of letter sounds and sound-letter relationships. These students need guidance with their spelling and word study.  These capabilities are known for helping students in their reading ability and ability to pronounce words correctly in speaking and reading aloud.  The article gives great ideas for word study starting with smaller wording and gradually increasing in difficulty.  Teachers should use word study everyday, in my opinion, especially at younger ages.  I am not a good speller and I feel that it hurts me in reading and writing.  I wish we had focused more on spelling and word study more in my younger years.

Reader, Text, Situation -Comprehend-

 Reading comprehension is a crucial step in the advancement of education. Strategies and techniques for teaching reading comprehension can be introduced as early as Kindergarten. Students building reading comprehension is something that does not come naturally, it must be taught. As a teacher, it is important to implement strategies and techniques as early as possible in order for your students to succeed within your classroom. In the article, "The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction", Sharon Ruth Gill discusses how the comprehension matrix provides teachers with a way of dealing with the overwhelming amount of information available on the teaching of comprehension by helping them organize activities into pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading. I completely agree with Gill in the experiences that illustrate the three major factors that affect comprehension. 1. the reader, 2. the text, and 3. the situation. If one of these three were left out when learning reading comprehension, the process could not be done. It takes the reader looking at the text and making connections, asking questions, and making inferences in order to figure out the situation. All students can learn to read text while comprehending at the same time, but this is a long process that must be taught as early as possible.

Vocabulary Means...

As a student I have always hated vocabulary and spelling.  They were some of my worst subjects and I hated to studying for the exams and doing the homework.  I know both are very important and I have tried changing my attitude on the subjects, and have to a point, but reading these articles really enlightened me.  There is a strong connection between vocabulary and reading comprehension, which is why vocabulary instruction is so important.  I hope as a teacher I can promote these subjects by using a word wall and other exciting formats.  The article on Vocabulary Lessons really stuck out to me.  The four practices that teachers can use to expand students' vocabularies and improve their reading. These include developing work awareness and love of words through word play, deliver explicit instruction to develop important vocabulary, build strategies for independence, and engage students actively with a wide range of books. All these are very important for students, but word play is a great way to reach out to younger children.  Making learning fun and allowing vocabulary to become more of a game in their learning accesses their ability to retain the information.  Learning needs to become more interesting and engaging for students to really enjoy school and the subjects they are taking.