June 14th Readings

I found the readings over phonemic awareness to be extremely educational. I am not sure I fully understood the concept of phonics until reading the Yopp and Yopp article. The chart that as included in the article provided a great explanation; also, helping to differentiate between commonly confused phrases. Understanding that running speech is a compilation of sequenced sounds is a vital step in phonemic awareness. I was particularly intrigued by the different methods that can be used in phonemic awareness instruction, things such as chats, word play, Dr. Seuss rhymes and even story book time are all contributing factor in gaining a great phonemic awareness. I specifically remember counting my syllables in elementary school, our teacher would have us place our hand under our chin and say the word aloud, each time your chin touched your hand you counted a syllable. Of course this method was not flawless, and you had to REALLY over pronounce your words to get your chin to touch your hand! The article talks about the book, The Hungry Thing, and how to incorporate this into the classroom. I know for me, I am a very hands on learner and seeing examples makes me feel more comfortable and confident. The idea of not only reading the book aloud and allowing the student to guess, but also creating an interactive activity (your own lunch bag) seems like a great idea. So many options for practicing phonemic awareness are provided within the Yopp and Yopp article, it will be a great resource in the future!

                Reading in a process through which readers derive a message, readers are given the task of deciphering the meaning of the word and phrases through the skills that they have been taught. Teachers play a huge role in this, being that the skills are provided by the teachers. Teachers prompt this through coaching and providing instructional cues. There are two types of cues that teachers give: general cues and more focused cues. The general cues are just that, general. They push the child to think and dip into their knowledge of word recognition. Whereas more specific cues draw the students attention towards graphophonic knowledge. This more specific process directs the student to focus on individual letters and sounds. The idea of student coaching is also interesting. Enabling other students to help of their peers when the see a struggle would be beneficial, however I feel it is also important to not let the student read over on another, a little help is good-but too much can be a hindrance.

                The book mentions the importance of children memorizing patterns and understanding them. Knowing without thinking about things such as prefixes and suffixes will enable the child to more easily go through the reading. The book gives many examples and activities used in classrooms to help student better understand letter meanings and sounds, I can see all of these working well in lower grades. As the end of the chapter neared I found myself questioning the importance of teaching and coaching phonemic awareness in upper elementary grades, yet, the end of the chapter reference a Nagy and Anderson study that evaluated books commonly read by grade 3 through 9. The study shows the use of root words in understanding bigger words. I think this is particularly valuable information. Although a student may not fully understand a word, having never used or seen it before, when prompted they will see root words that are used to make up a larger word—this is necessary tool in developing and understanding vocabulary.

This is a descriptive video about reading fluency mixed with clips of a young girl practice her reading:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN9sE_b7j7o&feature=related


Whole Brain Teaching different activities listed to help engage your classroom, also there TONS of videos on youtube from individual teachers who use Whole Brain methods in their classes. Just a neat resource! It's free, just register!

 http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/

June 9th Readings

The article by Timothy Rasinski, Creating Fluent Readers, thoroughly discusses the importance of fluent reading over speed in reading. Rasinski also breaks down the definition of a “fluent” reader. Reading fluency is broken down into three categories: accuracy in word decoding, automatic processing and prosodic reading. Accuracy in word decoding references the phonics aspect of reading-sounding out the words and making few errors doing so. Automatic processing is the understanding of the context of the reading without much effort. Finally, prosodic reading, which means applying the correct inflection of one’s voice to the reading, taking note of punctuation, as well as including appropriate pauses in the sentences themselves. A readers decoding proficiency is typically gauged by accessing the amount of correct words in relation the reading level being tested, 90-95 percent places one at the adequate level. Automaticity is assessed by courting the number of words read in a certain amount of time. Prosodic levels are calculated using a rubric of necessary elements and determining which elements a student possesses while they read aloud. Rasinski refers to teachers who turn their classrooms into “poetry cafés” as an effort to given student s forum to read with correct inflection and development of other prosodic reading skills. The importance of not confusing fluency with speed is also stressed in the article, as they are two very different things. A fast reader is not always a prosodic reader. A reader with adequate scores in the three categories has a better chance at having a successful reading future, as opposed to a reader that speeds through the reading making multiple mistakes and missing the key elements.

                Theresa A. Deeney dicusses similar things as the article by Rasinski. However, Deeney brings about other aspects of reading fluency that should be stressed in the classroom, as well as breaking down the assessment systems and discussing the obvious flaws in them. One-minute reading assessments have become a large part in evaluating the fluency of a reader. These assessments consist of having a student read a short passage, they are evaluated on the amount they can successfully read within the 60 seconds. The first  issue with this is that is has become heavily relied on by teachers, as it at first glance seems to be a brilliant way to evaluate the students. However, as Deeney points out, one-minute fluency measures are no the best approach. For example, some students start off their reading extremely strong-therefore giving results of excellent fluency. These same students may taper off and struggle with reading after the one minute. While other students may struggle within the first 60 seconds, gaining confidence as they continue—rendering high scores if the test lasted long than 60 seconds. This is an issue of endurance. Endurance is key in reading, after all what good does it do you if you can only successfully read the first minute of everything? A easy fix to this is the evaluate the students over an extended amount of time, have them read passages that span multiple minutes verses just the one.

                Chapter 4 of the book brings back the importance of the word wall. I cannot recall a world wall in my classrooms as a child, although I am sure some version of it existed. Word walls serve as reading aide for struggling and beginning readers. Placing “high-frequency” words on your wall (words such as: what, of, they, said, and have) on your wall makes for easy identification and memorization of the words that are vital to the first steps in reading. Choral reading is also a valuable tool in developing reading fluency. Breaking your students into groups and assigning them parts in a story keeps them engaged, all the while improving their reading skills. Echo reading is a way in which a teacher can help students improve their prosodic reading. Reading a text aloud with correct emphasis and having the classroom mimic your voice teaches them the importance on inflection and timing within a story. Encouraging your students and catching the little things earlier is an important part of being a teacher, by helping students to improve their individual reading fluency at an early age teachers have the ability to set the student up for a lifetime full of successful reading.