Scaffolding the Development and Use of Comprehension Strategies

• Scaffolded Instruction-instruction in which teachers model strategies step by step and provide guided practice, followed by independent practice and application.  The concept of scaffolded teaching as transactional strategies instruction (TSI), a framework for teaching reading comprehension that teachers can use in flexible ways.  TSI includes four dimensions: the use of strategies, the gradual release of responsibility, collaborative learning and interpretive discussion (see figure 10.1)

Active Comprehension and Asking Questions

• 1-Literal Questions-students answer by using information explicitly stated in the text
• 2-Inferential Questions-students answer by using their background knowledge along with information from the text
• 3-Evaluative Questions-students answer by making judgments about what they read (see figure 10.2)

• When children are engaged in a process of generating questions and making connections throughout reading, they are involved in active comprehension (see figure 10.3)

Reciprocal Questioning (ReQuest)

• Encourages students to ask their own questions about the material being read (see figure 10.3 and 10.4).  This procedure also works well in groups when you alternate the role of student questioner after each question.  By doing so, you will probably involve more students in the activity

Question-Answer Relationships (QARs)

• Helps learners know what information sources are available for seeking answers to different types of text questions.  Readers become more sensitive to the different mental operations and text demands required by different questions.  As a result, teachers and students become cognizant of the 3-way relationships that exist among the question, the text to which it refers and the background knowledge and information at the readers disposal

Questioning the Author (QtA)

• That models for students the importance of asking questions while reading.  They devised this strategy to demonstrate the kinds of questions students need to ask in order to think more deeply and construct meaning about segments of text as they read (see figure 10.5)

Reciprocal Teaching

• Is an approach to scaffolding reading comprehension in which teachers introduce 4 strategies, model the strategies, and gradually encourage in dependent use of the strategies in small groups as students take on the role of the teacher.  The 4 strategies are; predicting what the text is about, raising questions about the text, summarizing the text and clarifying difficult vocabulary and concepts.  Reciprocal teaching for primary grades includes these 5 phases…
  • 1-the teacher introduces prereading strategies by modeling how to make predictions and setting a purpose for reading
  • 2-using the fishbowl technique, the teacher models the strategy in the center of a circle while the rest of the class observes
  • 3-Students are grouped and the teacher provides substantial support while the students practice the strategy
  • 4-Students are grouped and the teacher provides reduced support while they practice the strategy
  • 5-students are grouped and the teacher provides even less support; individuals are held accountable through written responses

Think-Alouds

• Is a strategy in which teachers and students share their thoughts, discuss what they wonder about and what confuses them, and make connections as they are reading aloud. 

Developing Readers’ Awareness of Story Structure

• Story Schema-the underlying structure and relationships in a story that act as catalysts for constructing meaning and distinguishing important ideas and events
• Story Grammar-the basic elements that make up a well-developed story, such as plot and setting

Elements in a Story

• The setting of a story introduces the main character (sometimes called protagonist) and situates the character in a time and place.  The plot of a story is made up of one or more episodes.  Each episode is made up of a chain of events.  Although the labeling of these events differs from story to story, the following elements are generally included:

Mapping a Story for Instructional Purposes

• An analysis of a story’s organizational elements strengthens instructional decisions-Story map.  Creating a story map as a way of identifying major structural elements, both explicit and implicit, underlying a story to be taught in class

General Comprehension Questions

Specific Comprehension Questions

Building a Schema for Stories

• Schema-is a general idea about something. Its plural form is schemata. Schemata can help students learn. In order to use schemata in education, teachers should activate prior knowledge, link new information to old information and link different schemata to each other.
• Activities to Build Schema for Stories
  • Read, Tell and Perform Stories in Class
  • Show Relationships Between Story Parts
  • Reinforce Story Knowledge Through Instructional Activities
    • Macrocloze Stories-stories given to students with passages deleted form the text; students read the stories and discuss the missing text either orally or in writing
    • Scrambled Stories-stories separated into parts and jumbled’ students read the stories and put them back in order
    • Story Frames-skeletal paragraphs represented by a sequence of spaces tied together with transition words and connectors signaling lines of thought; frames can emphasize plot summary, setting, character analysis, character comparison and problem
    • Circular Story Maps-a visual representation using pictures to depict the sequence of events leading to the problem in a story

Guiding Interactions Between Readers and Text

• Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA)-builds critical awareness of the reader’s role and responsibility in interacting with the text.  It involves reads in the process of predicting, verifying, judging and extending thinking about the text material

• KWL-a 3-step teaching plan designed to guide and to motivate children as they read to acquire information from expository texts.  It helps students think about what they know (or believe they know), what they want to find out and what they learned by reading

• Discussion Webs-require students to explore both sides of an issue during discussion before drawing conclusion.  It uses a graphic aid to guide children’s thinking about the ideas they want to contribute to the discussion

• Story Impressions-that helps children anticipate what stories could be about.  As a prereading activity, this strategy uses clue words associated with the setting, characters and event sin the story to help readers write their own versions of the story prior to reading

• Text Connections-a comprehension strategy in which students are encouraged to share how texts relate to themselves, to other texts or to the world
  • Text to Self-asks the students to share what a piece of fiction or nonfiction text reminds them of personally.  This could be related to the plot of the story, the actions of a character, the setting, the results of a science experiment or an informational fact-these are endless
  • Text to Text-asks the students to recall another text that reminds them of the one they are reading.  On more sophisticated levels, students might recognize similar problems in stories, similar character traits, or similar settings-these are endless
  • Text to World-is more inferential in nature because it asks the students to make connections beyond the story.  They should be reserved for older students who are capable of making higher level inferences and connections

Classroom Application: This chapter was packed full of valuable information for me to use in my future classroom when it comes to reading comprehension.  I discovered explicit instructional strategies to model and guide the development of comprehension skills and strategies, the importance of story structure as an aide to comprehension and instructional strategies to scaffold readers’ awareness of story structure and guide readers’ interactions with texts.  I learned how important it is to build on student’s background knowledge and awareness of their role in reading comprehension.  Using the three types of questions skills for students to ask themselves during reading is important for them to comprehend what the text is saying/meaning.  There were many valuable techniques and activities for building and reinforcing children’s’ awareness of a story’s underlying structure.  However, there is no better way to build experience with stories than to have children read, tell, listen to and perform on a regular basis.  Lastly, using a variety of instructional strategies to model and guide reader-text interactions is crucial.  Strategies that were suggested involve prediction making, activating prior knowledge, engaging children actively in constructing meaning and making inferences during reading.

Source: Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R.T., & Gove, M K. (2012). Reading and Learning to Read (8th ed.). New York: Longman.

The Relationship Between Vocabulary and Comprehension

• Aptitude Hypothesis-the belief that vocabulary and comprehension reflect general intellectual ability
• Knowledge Hypothesis-the suggestion that vocabulary and comprehension reflect general knowledge rather than intellectual ability
• Instrumental Hypothesis-belief in a casual chain between vocabulary knowledge and comprehension; that is, if comprehension depends in part on the knowledge of word meanings, vocabulary instruction should influence compression (See Figure 9.1)

Experiences, Concepts and Words

• Vocabulary-the panoply of words we use, recognize and respond to in meaningful acts of communication
• 4 Components of Vocabulary-Listening, speaking, reading and writing.  These components are often said to develop in breadth and depth in the sequence listed.  Children come to school already able to recognize and respond to thousands of spoken words.  Children’s first vocabulary without much question is listening vocabulary.  However, as they progress through the school years, they eventually learns to identify and use as many written as spoken words.  By adulthood, a person’s reading vocabulary often outmatches any of the other vocabulary components
• Words-labels for concepts
• Concepts-a mental image of anything’ can be used as the basis for grouping by common features or similar criteria
• Class relationships-conceptual hierarchies organized according to the superordinate and subordinate nature of the concepts
• Superordinate-superior in rank, class or status
• Subordinate- inferior in rank, class or status

Principles to Guide Vocabulary Instruction

Six principles to guide the teaching of vocabulary in elementary classrooms.  They evolve from common sense, authoritative opinion and research and theory on the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension

• Principle 1-Select words that children will encounter while reading literature and content material
  • Vocabulary instruction that introduces a smattering of new words prior to a reading selection will boost comprehension.  When vocabulary is learning is centered on acquiring a large percentage of words, appearing in actual selections that will be read in class, comprehension is likely to be enhanced significantly.  Consider using these additional ways to choose words for instructional emphasis; key words, useful words, interesting words and vocabulary-building words
• Principle 2-Teach words in relation to other words
  • When words are taught in relation to other words, students are actively drawn into the learning process.  They must use background knowledge and experiences to detect similarities and differences.  When words are taught within the context of concept development, children develop a greater sensitivity to shades of meaning in communication.  4 basic cognitive operations’ joining or brining together, excluding, selecting and implying
• Principle 3-Teach students to relate words to their background knowledge
  • We should be asking, “what is it that students already know about that they can use as an anchor point as a way of accessing this new concept?”  we will always be directing our vocabulary instruction to the file folder issues-where does this word fit
• Principle 4-Teach words in prereading activities to activate knowledge and use them in post reading discussion, response and retelling
  • Through prereading activities, vocabulary words ca be focused on before students read to help activate background knowledge in activities involving predicting
• Principle 5-Teach words systematically and in depth
  • Researchers find that for students to process vocabulary in depth, they must generate a novel product using the term.  They could restate the defining in their own words, compare the definition to their own experiences with the concept or make up a sentence that clearly demonstrate the words meaning.  By teaching systematically, we mean following a vocabulary program that includes 10-12 conceptually related words that are taught and reinforced over an extended period of time
• Principle 6-Awaken interest in and enthusiasm for words
  • Promoting students interest and engagement helps to develop rich vocabularies especially for less advantaged students.  Nothing can replace the excitement about words that a good teacher can generate, the teachers’ attitude toward vocabulary instruction can be contagious

Best Practice: Strategies for Vocabulary and Concept Development

• Relating Experiences to Vocabulary Learning-the more direct, firsthand experiences students have, the better.  Different levels of vicarious experience can also establish bases for vocabulary learning.  The use of technology also provides opportunities for the students to see, hear and use words.  Dale’s Cone of Experience indicates possibilities for planning experiences that re vicarious; demonstrations, simulations, dramatizations, visual and audio media, reading to children and reading on one’s own (see Figure 9.2)

• Using Context for Vocabulary Growth-teachers and experts know that in addition to defining new terms, students need some examples of the concept; that is to hear the new words used in different contexts.  Defining a word and using the word in a sentence or a contest is a common and useful practice.  Helping students learn to use context to gain information about words new to them is important for struggling readers of any age
• Developing Word Mechanics- Definitional knowledge, or the ability to relate new words to known words, can be built through…
  • Synonyms-are words that are similar in meaning to other words.  This instruction has value when a child has knowledge of a concept but is unfamiliar with its label-the new word to be learned.  This strategy is a good example of the cognitive principle of bridging the gap between the new and the known
  • Antonyms-are words that are opposite in meaning to other words.  Can use matching activities and selecting activities, you want strategies that challenge student to work with antonyms in carious print contexts
  • Word with Multiple Meaning-words for which readers must rely on context in order to determine meaning.  Because children frequently run across common words that have different meaning, which can lead to confusion and miscomprehension.  A strategy that can be used involves prediction and verification of words
• Classifying and Categorizing Words-students recognize that they can group words that label ideas, event or objects.  Such strategies involve the processes of joining, excluding, selecting and implying. Children will learn to study words critically and form generalizations about the shared or common features of concepts
  • Word Sorts-vocabulary development through categorization activities with groups of words. Children sort through vocabulary terms that are written on cards or listed on an exercise sheet, the object is to group words into different categories by looking for shared features among their meaning
  • Categorization-help students form relationships among words similar as open and closed sorts.  Give children sets of words and asking them to circle the word in each set that includes the meaning of the other
  • Concept Circles-a vocabulary activity in which students identify conceptual relationships among words and phrases that are partitioned within a circle.  Involved putting words or phrases int eh sections of a circle and then directing students to describe or name the concept relationship among the sections
  • Semantic Mapping-or webbing, a strategy that shows readers and writers how to organize important information.  Provides a visual display of how words are related to other words.
  • Analogies-a comparison of two similar relationships.  The words that are related in some way on one side; on the other side the words are related in the same way.
  • Paired-Word Sentence Generation-teaching strategy that asks students to take two related words and create one sentence that correctly demonstrates and understanding of the words and their relationship to one another. 
• Developing Word Meanings Through Stories and Writing
  • Think sheet-list of questions used to elicit responses about texts for discussion purposes
  • Predictogram-story elements (setting, plot, characterizations, problem/goal and how resolved) can be used to develop students’ meaning vocabulary with the predictogram strategy
  • Contextual Search-a dictionary-related activity in which prediction of word meaning comes from reading the word in different contexts, the dictionary is used for verification of predictions
  • Word Part Connections-a dictionary related activity in which the unknown word is broken into word parts.  The dictionary is used to verify the meaning of the word and or word parts
  • Self-Selection Strategy-a strategy that helps students monitor their own vocabulary growth by selecting unknown vocabulary words
  • Word Knowledge Rating-a strategy that helps students develop an awareness of how well they know vocabulary words by rating themselves on their knowledge of words based on a continuum

Classroom Application: This chapter gave me the information I need in my future classroom when teaching students about vocabulary knowledge and concept development.  I learned the relationship among students’ experiences, concepts and words, the six principles that guide my teaching of vocabulary in the classroom, different instructional strategies for teaching vocabulary using a variety of activities, why vocabulary functions differently in literature and in content material and how the use of a dictionary is useful in vocabulary development.  These concepts are crucial to understand how to teach to my future students because extending students’ knowledge of word meaning relates directly to reading comprehension.  The strategies that were suggested in this chapter can all be adapted for teaching vocabulary through basal readers, literature, media or content area instruction, providing a natural framework for concept development at all ages, including students from diverse backgrounds.

Source: Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R.T., & Gove, M K. (2012). Reading and Learning to Read (8th ed.). New York: Longman.

Defining Oral Reading Fluency

• Fluency-the ability to read easily and well.  It has 3 dimensions…
  • Accuracy-readers must be able to sound out words in text with few errors.  Children can read a text successfully when they know at least 95% of words
  • Automaticity-the automatic, almost subconscious recognition and understanding of written text
  • Prosody-refers to such features in oral language as intonation, pitch, stress, pauses and duration placed on specific syllables
• Effective Fluency Instruction-has 3 parts; instruction, practice and assessment.  Fluency instruction should incorporate the teaching of basic skills such as phonemic awareness and phonics.  It should also model what fluency looks like and sounds like.  Fluency practice includes the use of decodable text and other independent-level texts to strengthen the sounds and spelling that are taught in the classroom
• Predictable Text-have a context or setting that is familiar or predictable to most children, they language is natural, the story line is predictable and there is a repetitive pattern.  Some types of predictable texts
  • Chain or circular story-plot is interlinked so the ending leads back to the beginning (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie)
  • Cumulative story-each time a new event occurs, all previous events in the story are repeated (Gingerbread Man)
  • Pattern story-scenes are repeated throughout the story with some variation (Three Billy Goats Gruff)
  • Question and answer-same or similar questions are repeated throughout the story (Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?)
  • Repetition of phrase-word order in a phrase or sentence is repeated (Goodnight Moon)
  • Rhyme-rhyming words, refrains or patterns are used throughout the story (Is Your Mama a Llama?)
  • Songbooks-familiar songs with predictable elements such as repetitive phrases (song-Over in the Meadow)

Strategies for Groups of Students

• Choral Reading-when children listen to mature readers read with expression and interpret and practice different ways of orally reading selections
• Echo Reading-method of modeling oral reading in which the teacher reads a line of a story and then the students echo by reading the same line back, imitating the teacher’s intonation and phrasing
• Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI)-incorporates the research-based practices of repeated, assisted reading with independent silent reading within a three-part classroom program (3 parts-teacher lead, repeated oral reading and partner reading and independent reading at school and home)
• Readers’ Theater-the oral presentation of drama, prose or poetry by two or more readers.  Students read from scripts which contain a great deal of dialogue and adapted from literature.

Strategies for Pairs and Individual Students

• Repeated Readings-reading short passages of text more than once, with different levels of support, to develop rapid, fluent oral reading
• Paired Repeated Readings-students select their own passage form the material with which they are currently working.  Students, grouped in pairs, should each select different passages, which makes listening more interesting and discourages direct comparison of reading proficiency (see figure 8.2)

• The Fluency Development Lesson (FDL)-an instructional framework designed to develop oral reading fluency.  It incorporates the use of various repeated reading techniques such as choral reading and paired reading routines
• Peer Tutoring or Paired Reading-another way to organize fluency practice is to use paired reading with peer tutoring.  Structured collaborative work involving pairs of children of the same or different reading ability to foster reading fluency
• Automated Reading-a reading approach in which students listen individually to audio recorded stories while reading along with the written text
• The Oral Recitation Lesson (ORL)-lesson that makes use of direct instruction and student practice, including reading in chorus, as a means of incorporating fluency into daily reading instruction
  • Support Reading Strategy-a strategy designed to develop the ability to read fluently by combining several instructional elements
  • Cross-Age Reading-a routine for fluency development that pairs upper0grade readers with younger children

Involving Parents

• What can parents do to help at home? (see image below)

Assessing Oral Reading Fluency

• Fluency assessments help teachers determine if their instructional approaches are working, and if more instruction is needed for some students.  Monitoring students’ progress in reading fluency will help determine their effectiveness of your instruction as well as helping you set instructional goals

Accuracy and Automaticity

• Simplest way to formally assess fluency is to take a timed sample of students’ reading and compare their performance with published oral reading fluency norms or standards.  The number of correct words per minute (WPM) both accuracy or number or words the reader is able to identify, and automaticity, also known as reading rate
• 1-minute reading sample is an easy assessment to administer and the number of words read correctly in a minute is considered to be one of the best indicators of reading rate.  To obtain a words-correct-per-minutes (WPCM) score, students are assessed individually as they read aloud for 1 minutes from an unpracticed, unfamiliar, grade-level passage of text
• To calculate the WCPM score, subtract the total number of errors from the total number of words read in 1 minute

Prosody

• When students’ speed and accuracy are at appropriate levels, reading with proper phrasing, expression, and intonation should be the next goal.  This allows for better comprehension of text which is always the goal of reading
• Measuring prosody is not always an easy task because measurements of smoothness, phrasing, pace and expressions are subjective and therefore variable.  Use the NAEP Oral Reading Fluency Scale

Classroom Application: This chapter had a lot of valuable information that I can use in my future classroom.  It specifically helped me further explore how to help my future classroom students develop their oral reading fluency.  An important goal of reading instruction is fluent reading with expression and comprehension requires students to practice and reread different texts.  There are three dimensions of fluency; automaticity, automatic word decoding and prosody, and these all relate to the goal of reading, comprehension.  So, making sure that in my instruction, I include each of these areas when teaching reading, and doing so in a variety of ways, from students having individual practice along with being paired with a partner to practice.  It also a great idea to include parents and educate them on how they can help their children practice being a fluent reader with a assortment of suggestions.  Lastly, it is my job as the teacher to assess students reading fluency by completing different assessments to determine their reading rate, how many words per minute they are reading and also how many words correct per minute they are achieving.  Overall, I have learned the importance of developing fluency in readers, what classroom routines, strategies and reading materials help foster fluency development during oral reading, how to monitor and assess oral reading fluency in my future classroom.

Source: Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R.T., & Gove, M K. (2012). Reading and Learning to Read (8th ed.). New York: Longman.

Defining Word Identification

• Several terms have been associated with ide3ntifying words and these terms are often used interchangeably.
  • Word Identification-means putting a name or label on words that are encountered in print, it is a comprehensive term that encompasses the use of multiple cues to identify unfamiliar words
  • Word Recognition-is a process that involves immediate identification, where words are immediately recognized and retrieved rapidly from lexical memory, it is sometimes referred as to sight-word recognition
  • Word Attack, Word Analysis and Decoding-suggest the act of translating print into speech through analysis of letter-sound relationships, these terms have been used frequently with is referred to as phonics.
  • Phonics-provides readers with a tool to ‘attack’ the pronunciation of words that are not recognized immediately (see figure 7.1)

Phases of Development in Children’s Ability to Identify Words

• It is through frequent experiences with books and print that children develop knowledge about reading and writing prior to school.
• Children progress through various developmental phases of word identification while learning to read. 
  • Prealphabetic Phase-called the logographic or visual cue phase, which occurs before the development of alphabetic knowledge.  Able to recognize some words at sight during this phase because of distinctive visual and contextual cues in or around the word.
  • Partial Alphabetic Phase-when children begin to develop some knowledge about letters and detect letter-sound relationships.  This usually emerges during kindergarten and first grade when they acquire some knowledge of letters and sounds
  • Full Alphabetic Phase-emerges in children’s literacy development when readers identify words by matching all of the letters and sounds.  They have developed enough knowledge about letter-sound relationships to unlock the pronunciations of unknown words. 
  • Consolidated Alphabetic Phase-children become more skilled at identifying words and rely less on individual letter-sound relationship.  They use their knowledge of familiar and predictable letter patterns.  During this phase, children match larger words to their Onsets (initial consonants and consonant patterns that come at the beginning of syllables) and Rimes (the vowel and consonants that follow them at the end of syllables)(see figure 7.2)

Approaches and Guidelines for Teaching Phonics

• Traditional Approaches
  • Analytic Phonics Instruction-an approach to phonics teaching that emphasizes the discovery of letter-sound relationships through the analysis of known words.

• Synthetic Phonics Instruction-a building block approach to phonics intended to foster the understanding of letter-sound relationships and develop phonics knowledge and skill

• Linguistic Phonics Instruction-a traditional approach to teaching phonics (popular in the 1960s).  Very similar to decodable texts-text that is written with a large number of words that have phonetic similarities and there is typically a match between the text and the phonic elements that the teacher has taught.  Teachers who engage children in the analysis of words must be well versed and knowledgeable in the content and language of phonics-some basic terms associated with phonics instruction (See figure 7.3)

• Contemporary Approaches
  • Analogy-Based Instruction-sometimes referred to as analogic phonics, which teaches children to use onsets and rimes they already know to help decode unknown words

• Spelling-Based Instruction-instruction that focuses on teaching students’ strategies for studying words they read and write’ it is based on the idea that students need to be working on words that represent their levels of development

• Embedded Phonics Instruction-often called holistic, meaning-centered instruction, which teaches phonics within the context of stories that make sense to the children
• Phonograms-letter clusters that help form word families or rhyming words

Strategies for Teaching Phonics

• Making Words-flip books make students aware of their word-making capability when they substitute different consonants at the beginning of a rime.  To engage children in the process of making words, consider these steps…

Spelling Based Strategies

• Word Banks-are boxes or collections of word cards that individual students are studying.  They are a natural extension of the language-experience approach
• Word Walls-may be started when students notice words that rhyme but are not spelled with the same letter patterns.  Word walls also include high-frequency words-words that occur repeatedly in text, are added to the wall underneath the letters of the alphabet

Strategies for Teaching Context

• Cloze Sentences- are sentences in which key words are deleted, covered up or blocked out. When presented with cloze sentences, students must use context clues to determine the missing word.  Can be constructed from materials that are first relatively easy to read.  Gradually, the difficulty of the reading can be increased. 
• Semantic Gradient-a collection of related words that go from one extreme to another, such as hot, warm, cool, cold, freezing and frigid
• Cross-checking-simply involves rereading a sentence or two to ‘cross-check’ or confirm, modify or reject, probably pronunciation of unknown words encountered during reading.  Using letter-sound information and meaning to identify words
• Self-Monitoring-being aware of miscues, the pronunciation of unknown words and comprehension processes during reading to develop the ability to correct oneself

Using Structural Analysis to Identify Words

• Structural Analysis-a word recognition skill that involves identifying words in meaningful units such as prefixes, suffixes and root words.  It also includes being able to identify inflected endings, compound words and contractions
• Morpheme-the smallest meaningful unit of a word (ex. /un/ is a morpheme that means not)
• Inflected Endings-suffixes that change the tense or degree of a word (ex. /s/ /es/ /ies/ /ed/ /est/, etc.)

Classroom Application: This chapter had a lot of valuable information that I can use in my future classroom.  I have learned the phases of word identification, guidelines and strategies for teaching phonics, strategies for teaching words in context, strategies for teaching structural analysis, strategies for teaching rapid recognition of words, ways of thinking about organizing instruction and guidelines for balancing word identification instructions.  I have learned how I as a teacher help children with word identification and how it is very important tin their learning.  In my future classroom, it is crucial that children are taught in a variety of ways where they are the ones decoding words.  My future instructional strategies will differ depending on teaching phonics, context, structural analysis, rapid recognition of high-frequency words and key words.  Readers must learn how to use contextual information to recognize words, so including multiple types of activities which can be designed to help students coordinate semantics, syntactic and phonemic information.  Finding a balanced instruction is key when it comes to teaching my future students when it comes to word identification.

Source: Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R.T., & Gove, M K. (2012). Reading and Learning to Read (8th ed.). New York: Longman.

Trends in Assessment

• High-Stake Testing-the practice of using a single test score for making education-related or personnel decisions.  Are known as achievement and graduation tests.  Is intended to provide the public with a guarantee that students can perform at a level necessary to function in society and in the work-force
• Authentic Assessment-asking students to perform tasks that demonstrate sufficient knowledge and understanding of a subject.  They are doing reading and writing tasks that look like real-life tasks and the students are primarily in control of the reading or writing task.
  • Retelling-an assessment in which students identify and discuss integral parts of a story
  • Formative Assessment-an assessment that is used to gather information for teachers to adapt instruction to meet students’ needs.  It is ongoing to determine their strengths and how learning progresses.  Helps to identify the specific learning needs of all readers, including those who have difficulties with English. 
  • Self-Assessment-an assessment in which students identify their strengths and weaknesses to help provide a plan for intervention

Formal Assessments

• Standardized Tests-a formal test of reading ability administered according to specific, unvarying directions; usually norm-referenced and machine-scored.  They are useful in making comparisons among individuals or groups at local, state or national level. 
  • Norms-average scores of a sampling of students selected or testing according to factors such as age, sex, race, grade or socioeconomic status; basis for comparing the performance of individuals or groups.  Done by a norm-referenced tests which is administering to large numbers of students and it is inefficient and difficult
  • Reliability-the relative accessibility or difficulty of a text.  Sentence length and word difficulty are among the elements used in formulas that assign grade-level readability scores for text materials.
  • Validity-the accuracy with which a test measures what it is designed to measure-the most important characteristic of a test. 
• Types of Test Scores-to make interpretations properly, you need to be aware of differences in the types of scores reported on a test.  The raw, or obtained score reflects the total number of correct items on a test.  Raw scores are converted to other kids of scores so that comparisons among individuals or groups can be made.  It may be converted into a grade equivalency score, which provides information about reading performance as it relates to students at various grade levels.  In place of grade-level scores, the use of percentile scores which refer to scores in terms of the percentage of a group the student has scored above.  Stanine is one of several types of standard scores, where it is a raw score that has been converted to a common standard to permit comparison. 
• Types of Tests-different norm-referenced tests have different purpose…two broad types of tests are frequently used in schools…
  • Survey Test-broad type of test that measures general performance only!!!  It does not yield precise information about an individual’s reading abilities.  They are most often used at the beginning of the school year
  • Diagnostic Test-formal assessment intended to provide detailed information about individual students’ strengths and weakness!!! The results are often used to profile a student’s strengths and weaknesses of their reading performance; some are individual, and some are group administrated
• Criterion-Referenced Tests-formal assessment designed to measure individual student achievement according to a specific criterion for performance (ex. 8/10 words spelled correctly).  The major premise behind this testing is that the mastery of reading skills should be assessed in relation to specific instructional objectives.  Performance is judged by what a student can or cannot do with regard to the skill objectives of that test.  The reliability and validity have been called into question.

Informal Assessments

• Informal measures of reading such as reading inventories, miscue analyses and running records, which finds useful information about student performance that can be used to inform and guide instruction.
• Informal Reading Inventory (IRI)-an individually administered informal test, usually consisting of graded word lists, graded reading passages and comprehension questions that assess how students orally and silently interact with print. Information gathered from an IRI should allow teachers to pair students with appropriate instruction materials with some degree of confidence, but also an analysis of oral reading miscues helps to determine the cueing system that students tend to rely o when reading.  Information from this can lead to instructional planning that will increase students’ effectiveness with print
• Determining Reading Levels-the following reading levels can be determined for individual students by administering an IRI…
  • Independent Level-level at which student reads fluently with excellent comprehension, also been called the recreational reading level because not only will students be able to function on their own, but they also have high interest in the material
  • Instructional Level-level at which students can make progress in reading with instructional guidance, also been called teaching level because the material to be read must be challenging but not too difficult
  • Frustration Level-level at which the students are unable to pronounce many of the words or is unable to comprehend the material satisfactorily and is the lowest level of reading, the material is too difficult to provide a basis for growth
  • Listening Capacity Level-level at which the students can understand the material that is read aloud, also known as potential level because if students were able to read fluently, they would not have a problem with comprehension

• Miscue-oral reading errors are called this.  The terms error and miscue essentially describe the same phenomenon-a difference between what a reader says and the word on the page
• Miscue Analysis-informal assessment of oral reading errors to determine the extent to which readers use and coordinate graphic-sound, syntactic and semantic information.  To analyze miscues, you should ask at least four crucial questions
  • Does the miscue change the meaning? (semantically acceptable)
  • Does the miscue sound like language? (syntactically acceptable)
  • Do the miscue and the text word look and sound alike? (substitutions and mispronunciation)
  • Was an attempt made to correct the miscue? (self-correction)

Running Records

• Running Records-method for marking miscues of beginning readers while they read.  Used as an assessment system for determining students’ development of oral reading fluency and word identification skills and strategies
• Administering a Running Record (see Running Record and Comprehension Check BLOG post)
• Analyzing a Running Record (see Running Record and Comprehension Check BLOG post).  Teachers calculate the words read correctly, analyze the student’s errors and identify patterns of errors.  Look closely at self-corrections! Running records provide insights into student’s strengths and weaknesses by allowing teachers to analyze patterns of miscues (look at visual above; meaning, structure and visual)

Other Informal Assessments

• Words correct per minutes-involves children reading aloud for one minutes form materials used in their reading lesson.  As the students is reading the text, the teacher crosses out any word read incorrectly
• Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)-assessment that includes a series of oral reading skill assessments.  Short measure are used to monitor early literacy skills and provide feedback to informal instruction

Portfolio Assessment

• Portfolios-a compilation of an individual student’s work in reading and writing, devised to reveal literacy progress as well as strengths and weaknesses
• Digital Portfolios-a multimedia collection of student work stored and reviewed in digital format

Kid-watching While Teaching

• Kid-watching-observing how students interact with print during the instructional process is what it is all about.  This term has been coined to dramatize the powerful role of observation in helping children grow and develop as language users
• Anecdotal Notes-brief, written observations of revealing behavior that a teacher considers significant to understanding a child’s literacy learning (see figure 6.13)

• Checklists-a list of categories presented for specific diagnostic purposes (see figure 6.14)

• Interviewing-periodic communication with individual students to assess reading interests and attitudes, self-perceptions, and understanding of the language-learning process

Classroom Application: This chapter has taught me the reasons to use authentic assessments in making decisions about instruction in my future classroom, the purpose and different types of format/standardized assessment, the purpose and different types of informal/alternative assessments, the techniques for using miscue analysis, running records, kidwatching/observing, anecdotal notes, checklists and interviews and crucial elements for implementing portfolio assessments.  As a future educator, I have learned that reding is a process that takes place inside the mind and it isn’t directly observable or measurable through any one specific assessment.  It is my job as a teacher to base my decision about instruction of a variety of indicators of reading performance off all the students in my classroom.  I have learned that observations of students, informal reading inventories, running records and many others types of assessments all contributes to my understanding of how my students are reading, comprehending and are accurate when reading. 

Source: Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R.T., & Gove, M K. (2012). Reading and Learning to Read (8th ed.). New York: Longman.

A Look at Literacy Programs for Beginners

• Reading Readiness-the level of physical, mental and emotional maturity that children need to reach to benefit from reading instruction.  It implied that there is a best time for children to benefit from reading instruction and schools taught children how to read when they were ready
• Emergent Literacy-children’s literacy learning conceptualized as developmental, with no clear beginning or end, rather than as proceeding in distinct sequence.  Thus, children begin to develop literacy through everyday experiences with print long before they enter school.
  • The challenge of working with beginners lies in scaffolding their learning and weaving together experiences that build on children’s knowledge of language and their previous interactions with texts.  Need to know about book experiences, desire to read, awareness of concepts related to print

Learning about Early Literacy and Language Through Books

• Reading aloud to children is powerful because books unlock the mysteries of reading, attention to print and provide models of write
• Book expose children to words beyond those they hear in their everyday lives, they build children’s vocabulary
• Storybook Experiences-read-alouds, read-alongs, interactive reading, interactive writing, re-readings of favorite texts and independent reading and writing
• Interactive Writing-shared writing activity in which children are invited to volunteer to write parts of a story
• Big Books-enlarged version of books; where it furthers children’s explorations with texts and develop concepts related to print and strategies to construct meaning
• E-Books-support children’s literacy development by providing activities such as interactive story writing

Learning About the Relationships Between Speech and Print

• Children must be able to figure out what spoken language and written language have in common.  Without learning the relationship between speech and print, the beginner will never make sense of reading or achieve independence in it
• Uses of Oral Language-language functions that can and should be adapted to print at the beginning of instruction
  • Perpetuating Uses-show children how to bridge the gap between time and space through print, and to do this keep records and charts of a daily activity (ex. weekly weather chart)
  • Regulatory, Authoritative­-Contractual Uses-show children how print can be used to control and direct behavior and to establish rules and agreements (ex. classroom rules)
  • Instrumental Uses-children should learn that print can be used to express personal needs (ex. list of things needed for fieldtrip, signs for activities)
  • Diversion Uses-demonstrate the value of print as a tool for enjoyment or diversion, read aloud to children on daily basis (ex. tell jokes, brainteasers and write it down)
  • Personal Uses-children need to learn that written language can be used to express individuality, pride and awareness of self (ex. ‘I like____ or My favorite___)

Learning About Features of Written Language

• Children’s understanding of the relationship between speech and print is a vital first step in learning to read.  They become aware of what reading is all about by recognizing the functionality of reading and the purpose of reading.
• Linguistic Awareness-understanding the technical terms and labels needed to talk and think about reading

Print Awareness

• Assessing Linguistic Awareness- Teachers should use language-experience stories to assess young children’s emerging print awareness.  There are various procedures and tasks that can be adapted to big-book and language-experience stories

• Assessing Concepts About Print-used to see children’s acquisition of concepts about print.  Examined knowledge of print children possessed but how their understanding of print changed.  It is individually administered to a child, teacher engages child in a conversation and asks if the will help as they read the book together, then will ask specific questions

Learning About Letters and Sounds

• Phoneme-minimal sound units that can be represented in written language
• Alphabetic Principle-suggests that letters in the alphabet map to phonemes
• Phonics-refer to the child’s identification of words by their sounds…this process involves the association of speech sounds with letters
• Phonemic Awareness-refers to an insight about oral language and the ability to segment and manipulate the sounds of speech; an understanding that speech is composed of a series of written sounds a powerful predictor of children’s later reading achievement
• Phonological Awareness-the ability to hear, recognize and play with the sound sin our language, it involves hearing the sounds of language apart from meaning
• Alliteration-producing groups of words that begin with the same initial sound (Ex. two tall trees)
• Rimes-the part of the letter pattern in a word that includes the vowel and any consonant that follow; also called a phonogram or word family
• Phonological Awareness Continuum– refers to the general advancement of instruction and learning in the sounds of language, moving from alliteration and rhyming through segmenting sentences, syllables, onset and rime. Instruction and learning typically begin in the home with simple songs, nursery rhymes, and word play, and advance through first grade as children manipulate phonemes to decode and create words.
• Orthographic System– is a set of conventions for writing a language. It includes norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
• Phoneme Isolation-children recognize individual sounds in a word (ex. first sound in dog is /d/)
• Phoneme Identity-is the recognition of the same sound sin different words, such as six, sun and sat, the first sound is the same /s/
• Phoneme Categorization-requires children to recognize a word in a set that doesn’t fit or has an odd sound (ex. what word doesn’t sound like the other, dog, big, doll)
• Blending-more difficult task involving phonemic awareness requires children to blend a series of orally presented sounds to form a word (ex. teacher says /k/ /a/ /t/ and children say cat)
• Segmenting Beginning and Ending Sounds-children who have developed the capacity to hear sounds in words are able to perform phonemic awareness tasks that require them to isolate and identify the sound at the beginning or end or the word (ex. teacher says pig, kids say the sound p)
• Phoneme Deletion (Addition and Substitution)-these phoneme manipulation tasks require children to take away or add something to make new words (ex. stack, without /s/ is tack)
• Elkonin Boxes– build phonological awareness skills by segmenting words into individual sounds, or phonemes. To use Elkonin boxes, a child listens to a word and moves a token into a box for each sound or phoneme. In some cases different colored tokens may be used for consonants and vowels or just for each phoneme in the word.
• Phonemic Segmentation-the ability to isolate and identify sounds in words
• Schema– describes a pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them. It can also be described as a mental structure of preconceived ideas, a framework representing some aspect of the world, or a system of organizing and perceiving new information.

Classroom Application: This chapter has taught me the rationale for an early literacy program in my future classroom, the importance of reading both fiction and nonfiction books to young readers and writers, how to develop the knowledge and skills young children need to be successful readers and how to develop and assess linguistic knowledge, concepts of print and literacy-related knowledge and skills. Knowing the difference between reading readiness and emergent literacy is a great place to start and begin my instruction with young children.  But then using children’s experiences and knowledge of print will help guide them when learning reading and writing.  Overall, beginning reading and writing should center on the reading-like situations rather than on activities that are not related to reading and writing.  Using stories and incorporating language functions into instructional practices can lead to children learn the string of sounds in spoken language and can be broken down into units of print made up of words and sentences.  Instruction should also include teaching students that a word can be separated into sounds and that these separated sounds can be represented by letters.  Overall, assessing my instruction and observations of students gives valuable information about the children’s growth along with if my instruction methods are working.

Source: Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R.T., & Gove, M K. (2012). Reading and Learning to Read (8th ed.). New York: Longman.

Inventive Spelling

• As kids are writing, the teacher walks around and will analyze spelling mistakes
• If we know how to look at a child’s spelling, you can tell what the child understands about…
  • Word structure
  • Speech-sounds
  • How we use letters to represent the sounds
• Anything that is going to cause trouble with a child’s reading will show up even more dramatically in their spelling/writing
• When children have unconventional spelling, it doesn’t mean that it is a sign of trouble (it should be encouraged to write words, and when they make up spelling, they practice letter-sound connections)
• Inventive spelling is used to have students think hard about the sounds that are in words
• Working with kids when spelling/writing show them that spelling is like a puzzle, that everyone can solve once the rules are learned
• It is appropriate and beneficial for Kindergarteners and 1^st graders to sound out words they don’t know and write it down inventively because they are exercising their phonemic awareness abilities (using their knowledge of sounds-symbol relationships)
• There are many teachable moments during inventive spelling
• Inventive spelling helps young readers discover spelling patterns on their own
• It is an important step on the path on becoming a good speller and ultimately a good reader

Shared Reading

• Students learn in different ways, so it is important that a variety of approaches are used
• Shared reading is usually done as a whole class
• Make sure you find books that are age appropriate and interest level
• Rhythmical rhyming text work well
• How it work…
  • Day 1-read the entire story to the students, use expression and voice characterizations (comprehension, cover illustrations, discuss title, ask students questions at the end of the story)
  • Day 2-read the story, encouraging students to join in when they can, particularly at repetitive parts, if there are words students don’t know go over those words and their meaning (vocabulary, use a chart for unknown words, ask kids if they know those words)
  • Day 3– have students focus on the clues that help them to read the story, print conventions-like bold font, changed font size, illustrative text, and how these clues will help read with expression.  Then read together as a class making sure students change their voice when they see these clues (flow, phrasing and fluency, ask them question if they know what punctuation is and what it is telling us to do)
  • Day 4– have kids focus on the phonic knowledge and phonemic awareness, brining the whole text together and all students join in to read the text
  • Day 5– focus on combination of oral, written and visual language (use the text to have students retell the story)
• Shared reading is the soul and the heartbeat of the reading program

Shared Reading Weekly Guide EXAMPLES

• Literacy Development-the stages of language experience, where we must be aware of the learning environment of the home, respect the diverse culture environments form which children learn to use language and develop strategies to build on family strengths

Phases of Literacy Development

• Phase1-Awarreness and Exploration
  • Birth to Preschool
  • During this stage, Children explore their environment, Build the foundations for learning to read and write, Children become curious about print and print-related activities, Enjoy listening to and talking about stories, Understand that print carries meaning, Demonstrate logographic knowledge by identifying labels, signs and other types of environmental print, Begin to pretend reading, Engage in paper-and-pencil activities that include various forms of scribbling and written expression, Start to identify some letters and letter-sound relationships
• Phase 2-Experimental Reading and Writing
  • Kindergarten
  • During this stage, children understand basic concepts of print (Left-to-right and Top-to-bottom), Enjoy being read to and engage in reading and writing activities, Continue to recognize letters and letter-sound relationships, Become familiar with rhyming, Write letters of the alphabet and high-frequency words
• Phase 3-Early Reading and Writing
  • 1^st Grade
  • During this stage, children begin to read simple stories, Write about topics which they have a lot of prior knowledge and strong feelings about, Can read and retell familiar stories, Begin to develop strategies for comprehension, Beginning to develop accurate word identification skills because of their letter-sound pattern knowledge, Ability to read with fluency, Ability to recognize an increasing number of words, Writing shows awareness of punctuation and capitalization
• Phase 4-Transitional Reading and Writing
  • 2^nd Grade
  • During this stage, children are reading with greater fluency, Using cognitive and metacognitive strategies more efficiently when comprehending and composing, Children demonstrate an ever-increasing facility with reading and writing, including…use of word identification strategies, sight-word recognition, reading fluency, sustained silent reading, conventional spelling, Proofreading their writing
• Phase 5-Independent and Productive Reading and Writing
  • 3^rd Grade
  • During this stage, children engage in a lifelong process of becoming independent and productive readers and writers, Begin to increase their reading and writing in more sophisticated ways to suit a variety of purposes and audiences, They extend and refine their literacy skills and strategies

How Reading Develops

• Environmental Print-print that surrounds children in their everyday lives, they see written language all around them-in books, stores, restaurants, TV, computer, games, and signs.  They see parents, siblings and others using written language and the plethora of print that confronts young children on a daily basis plays a subtle but important role in their desire to understand written language and use it for personal means.  Children acquire much more intuitive and conscious knowledge about print and its uses.  They begin learning about reading and writing at a very early age by observing and interacting with adults and other children as they use literature in everyday activities.  Through experiences, children construct their own concepts about the function and structure of print.  They quickly discover that print is useful and can be used to get things done in everyday life.   

How Writing Develops

• Young children learn writing through exploration.  They have definite ideas about the forms and uses of writing gained from their preschool experiences; exploring with a pencil, pretending to write, inventing message, copying an important word (like their name) and writing message or words.  The key to early writing development is found in the opportunities the child has to explore print.  New discoveries about writing emerge at every encounter a child has with paper and pencil. 
  • Importance of Scribbling-Scribbling is one of the primary forms of written expression for very young children.  It is the source for writing and occurs from the moment a child grasps and manipulates a writing tool. 
• Stages of Scribbling
  • Early Scribbling-not usually representable, parents and teachers should suppress the urge to ask a child, “What is that?”. Instead, encourage a child to make markings on paper without pressure or tell what it is about, unless the child wants to talk about it.  Happens between 1-3 years old

• Controlled Scribbling-children make systematic, repeated marks such as circles, vertical lines, dots and squares.  The marks are often characterized as scribble writing that the scribbles are linear in form and shape which is a strong resemblance to handwriting. Happens between 3-6 years old

• Scribble Drawing-more pictographic in expression.  Most children don’t know difference between writing and drawing before the age of 4.  Drawing is possibly the most important single activity that assists both writing development and handwriting.  Happens between ages of 4-6

• Name Scribbling-is an extension of scribble writing, the scribbles mean something and the first letter children know are from their name.  In this phase there is no knowledge of the need to select and order letters to represent the order. Happens between the ages of 4-6

• Invented Spelling-is a name given to children’s written words before they have learned the rules of spelling and signifies a major leap in writing

Creating Literate Learning Environments

• Literate Environment-one that fosters interest in and curiosity about written language and supports children’s efforts to become readers and writers
• Creating Literate Learning Environments at Home
  • Access to print and books
  • Adult demonstrations of literacy behavior
  • Supportive adults
  • Storybook reading

• Creating Literate Learning Environments in Early Childhood Classrooms
  • Design of Classroom Environment-should include book area, listening area, computer area and writing area
  • Materials in the Classroom Environment-have materials for reading, drawing and writing, have sufficient quantities of pencils, markers, crayons, paper of different sizes, shapes and colors. 
  • Literacy-Related Play Centers-play is integral to exploration and instruction.  Have Literacy Play Centers-an environment where children may play with print on their own terms, in a natural context to experiment with literacy, where they are able to also observe one other using literacy

Core Language and Literacy Skills

• A core, or essential, set of skills have been identified by research as those young children must have in order to become successful readers. To learn to read and write easily, children need to develop experience with these skills within a print-rich environment.  As they experience each of these foundational aspects of literacy, they begin to understand how print and language work together
• Oral Language Comprehension
  • Is the ability to speak and listen with understanding.  Includes grammar, word meanings and listening comprehension.  Children need to pay attention and listen with purpose, quickly recognize words they hear.  Shared book reading, singing songs, fingerplays, storytelling and dramatic play are ways to help children explore, learn and use oral language in preschool years
• Vocabulary
  • Is used to describe the words an individual knows and can use.  2 kinds-receptive (listening, or words they understand and use in context) and expressive (talking, or words they use to express themselves).  It makes sense that talking to children, reading to children, modeling dramatic play for children and any other activities that require adults to use language around children are good for building their vocabulary.  Children are then exposed to words beyond those they hear in their everyday lives. 
• Phonological Awareness
  • Involves hearing the sounds of language apart from its meaning, which is difficult for most children because they must be consciously aware of the structure of language, rather than simply using language to communicate.  They need to learn how to listen with purpose for the number of words in sentences, number of syllables in words, and number of individual sounds in words.  Also, it is important because it is a strong predictor of future reading success and essential for phonics and spelling.  When working with kids it is important to use read-aloud books, nursery rhymes, riddles, songs and poems that play with language and manipulate sounds
• Alphabet Knowledge
  • Is the ability to name and write the 26 letters of the alphabet.  It is important because they are building blocks of the English writing system and predictor of success in beginning reading. Alphabet books help children develop and deepen letter knowledge as they associate the letter and sound, also use of magnetic letters and alphabet songs.
• Developmental Writing
  • Is the first attempts at spelling words and composing text.  Children take an interest in writing and expressing themselves beginning with scribbling.  Children gradually become more sophisticated in their invented spelling.  Developmental writing is important because it develops understanding of how words work to communicate meaning.  Provide opportunities for them to write in authentic ways, have well-stocked writing center, like clipboard with paper and pencil, pads of paper in kitchen area, message pads by play phones, etc.
• Print Knowledge
  • Is the ability to recognize print and understand that it words in specific ways.  The knowledge of reading terms, rules and procedures such as distinction between words, pictures and letters or knowledge of the direction print goes in a book.  It is important because it motivates the learn-to-read process and it is a marker of literacy experience.  Shared writing is most important strategy to use with early childhood kids, collecting pictures and labeling them, writing text under drawings and have children identify words in the environment.
• Developing Early Literacy Skills
  • Research supports instructional priorities and related components that help develop young children’s language and early literacy knowledge and skills. 

Exploring Print through Language Experiences

• Young children need to have the time and space to explore language in order to clarify its uses and gain facility in its production and reception.  Children who experience language and its intricacies take giant steps on the road to becoming literate.
• Language-experience activities-in beginning reding instruction permit young children to share and discuss experiences; listen to and tell stories; dictate words, sentences and stories; and write independently.  Teachers can revolve language experiences around speaking, listening, visual expression, singing, movement and rhythmic activities.

Classroom Application: This chapter has taught me the variety of children’s literacy development as they progress through various phases of learning to read and write, how reading and writing develop in home environments that support their literacy learning, how to create a welcoming literate environment at school and developmentally appropriate literacy practices that emphasize play, language experience sand reading to children.  Each of these aspects are important for me to understand because children, from birth age to school age, are developing their literacy from their experiences, adults and other children and environments around them.   Understanding that children during this early literacy stage, need to have positive, engaging and a variety of developmentally appropriate literacy learning at home and also at school.  Giving them opportunities to gain the knowledge and experiences with print, will give them the information they need to progress through the various phases in literacy development in early reading and writing from birth through the primary grades.  Overall, I learned that giving kids the opportunities to play with learning how to write, explore how others use print for meaning and listening to books being read to them are a big part of their development.  Making sure kids are getting home-centered, play-centered and language-centered practices are a great benefit for the children.

Source: Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R.T., & Gove, M K. (2012). Reading and Learning to Read (8th ed.). New York: Longman.

• These factors influence how, when and under what circumstances students will best learn to read and write
  • 1-Lingustic Diversity-the language in which the student feels most comfortable communicating is not the language of instruction in the school
  • 2-Cultural Diversity-the student’s home, family, socioeconomic group, culture and or society differs from the predominant culture of the school
  • 3-Cognitive and Academic Diversity-the child learns at a pace or in a style different from that expected at the school
• Response Protocol-a framework for teacher responses to English Language learners when they respond to teacher questions
• American Standard English-the grammar, vocabular and pronunciation that are appropriate for public speaking and writing
• Dialect-a set of rule-governed variations of a language

• Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOL)-a model for sheltered English that provides teachers with an instructional framework for teaching ELL’s
• Instructional Conversations-a teaching strategy in which the teacher scaffolds learning through divergent questions and students are encouraged to express their reactions to content on a personal level

Instructional Beliefs about Cultural Diversity

• Contributions Approach-a multicultural approach that typically includes culturally specific celebrations and holidays
• Additive Approach-a thematic approach that addresses multicultural issues
• Transformative Approach-a multicultural approach that provides students with opportunities to read about cultural concepts and events that are different from their own, make judgements about them, think critically and generate conclusions
• Decision-Making and Social-Action Approach-a multicultural approach that provides students with opportunities to undertake activities and project related to cultural issues

Academic and Cognitive Diversity in Literacy Classrooms

• The situation that results when children learn faster than, slower than, or differently from what is expected in school
• Beliefs are often grounded in definitions, categories and labels while also often result in legislation that serves as guidelines for instructional policies
• The term exceptional children refers to student who ‘differ from the norm to such an extent that an individualized program of adapted specialized education is required to meet their needs’ (learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral disorders, mental retardation, intellectual gifts and talents, etc.)
• Several significant pieces of federal legislation reflect beliefs about the instruction of students with academic and cognitive differences.  Public Law 94-142, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act, passed in 1975 and since amended, which is based on several principles that remain in effect today (see image below)

• Since 1975 the law has been restricted into IDEA 2004 added, among others, the following procedures for identifying students with specific learning disabilities (see image below)

• These criteria lay the groundwork for RTI

Instructional Principles for Academic and Cognitive Diversity

• The essential components of an effective literacy program include instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency
• In addition, we recognize other vital component that are important for all learners, including those with diverse literacy needs, which should include…

• Inclusion-is incorporating the diverse needs and abilities of all students into classroom instruction.  Students are in the regular classroom and receive assistance from the teacher as well as SPED teacher. This allows students to experience instruction that focuses on their strengths and to have more opportunities to set higher goals for themselves.  It is also important to note that the RTI model calls for excellent teachers, which are characterized by…

• Curriculum Compacting-an alternative way to accommodate gifted students in which the curriculum is compressed or accelerated instruction.  Teachers can use an enriched curriculum with thoughtful and innovative methods including technology accommodation, or alternative internships and mentor programs outside the classroom
• Literacy Coaches-an individual who provides professional development opportunities and resources, in-class coaching, and support provide a variety of professional development activities while in a nonevaluative role.  Literacy coaches should have characteristics like, strong understanding of reading process, excellence in teaching reading, exemplary communication skills with peers and skill in literacy assessment and instructional practices

Instructional Strategies for Students with Diverse Academic and Cognitive Abilities

• Inquiry Learning-a classroom approach for teaching math and science, has helped students with special needs in literacy learning.  Inquiry learning, and teaching is based on the constructivist approach, which perceives learning as a meaning-making process.  Children experiment, solve problems and discover how the world function.
• Differentiated Instruction-based on assessing students needs, implementing multiple approaches to learning and blending whole class, small group and individual instruction. 
• New Literacies-is sometimes referred to as multiliteracies, which refers to fluid representations of knowing beyond traditional linear text.  Use of visual representations or multiple technological representations of text

Classroom Application: This chapter has taught me more about the linguistic, cultural, cognitive and academic factors that influence diverse learners, the principles of learning that influences how we think about diverse learners and examples of instructional strategies that can assist diverse learners.  It is important that that every child is valued and that teaching diverse students, should be embraced and that they too should receive effective reading instruction.  As a future educator, I learned that it is important for me to be knowledgeable of the language skills that children bring to the classroom and provide them with many natural ways to use language in authentic settings.  Even though English is the goal for language learning, I need to understand and respect the similarities and differences among languages as well as dialects and be observant of how children use languages in everyday conversations.  In my future classroom, I can help those struggling academically or cognitively is by including RTI to address students who may qualify for special education.  My classroom will be a place where diversity is welcome and respected by myself, the teacher, along with each student in my classroom because every students will be supported by caring, considerate and knowledgeable people.

Source: Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R.T., & Gove, M K. (2012). Reading and Learning to Read (8th ed.). New York: Longman.

Running Records

• Running Records allow you to assess reading behavior as students read from developmentally appropriate texts. They are used most often at the earlier stages of reading to monitor reading behavior and progress.
• Running Records capture what children know and understand about the reading process. They capture children’s thinking. Running Records provide you with an opportunity to analyze what happened and plan appropriate instruction. From Running Records, you have evidence of what the child is able to do, ready to learn, and learning over a period of time.
• A Running Record provides you with a playback of an entire oral reading conference, including the smallest details on the reader’s attitude, demeanor, accuracy, and understanding.  With this information, you can analyze behaviors, responses, competencies, initiatives taken, and in turn, determine instructional needs. You are therefore encouraged to record all behaviors children display during reading conferences.

Taking a Running Record

• To take a Running Record, sit beside a child as he or she reads a selected portion of the text aloud in a natural and relaxed environment. It is necessary to select a time when you can hear the child read without interruptions, such as when children are engaged in quiet reading or on independent literacy activities. Observe and record everything the child says and does during the reading. You will find yourself noticing more and more about children’s reading behaviors each time you take a Running Record. Because there is a set code for recording, all teachers can understand and then discuss, analyze, and plan teaching strategies for the child or small groups of children.

Recording a Running Record

• (see image below)

Scoring a Running Record

• You can use the following scoring to assess a child’s performance.
  • Count only the running words in a text. Running words do not include titles, subtitles, captions, and so on.

• Count each word in a skipped line as an error.
  • Count a skipped page as one error and subtract the word count for that page from the total word count.
  • Count proper nouns read inaccurately only once. Count other words read inaccurately each time.
  • Calculate the Percent of Accuracy for a record by subtracting the total number of errors made from the number of running words in the text. The answer will then be divided by the number of running words.

• Determine the Self-Correction Rate for a record. The Self-Correction Rate indicates how well a child self-monitors his or her reading. Calculate this rate by adding the total number of errors to the total number of self-corrections and dividing this sum total by the total number of self-corrections. For example, six total errors plus two self-corrections equals eight. If you divide eight by the total number of self-corrections, the answer is four. The self-correction rate is then recorded as 1:4, which shows the child self-corrected one time for every four words misread. A Self-Correction Rate of up to 1:5 shows the child is self-monitoring and using decoding strategies.

• Once you have calculated the Percent of Accuracy and the Self-Correction Rate, you can determine whether the reading level for that book is easy, instructional, or hard for a particular reader.

Analyzing Reading Behaviors

• Once a record of a child’s reading has been taken, it is necessary to analyze the strategies, cues, and behaviors he or she is using (or not using).
• When analyzing a child’s reading performance, it is your “best guess” (using all the knowledge gathered about the child) of the process or “reading thinking” that is happening. To acquire a useful analysis, it is important to determine whether readers are using meaning cues, structural cues, or visual cues.

Sample Running Record

Comprehension Checks

• They provide details about a student’s understanding and comprehension using retellings and Comprehension Quick Check Quizzes.
• Reading comprehension is the process of constructing meaning from text. The goal of all reading instruction is ultimately targeted at helping a reader comprehend text. Reading comprehension involves at least two people: the reader and the writer. The process of comprehending involves decoding the writer’s words and then using background knowledge to construct an approximate understanding of the writer’s message.
• See sample/example below