This was the last week at Glen Alpine and it was only a half week. This was a wonderful experience! As far as reading is concerned, there isn’t really much to add. The students are on a mandated schedule and perform the same reading activities on a daily basis. These activities include: silent reading (a book of their choosing), teacher directed reading (out of the basil books), spelling and reading groups (based on their reading level). Again, reading is a tremendous part of their day. I read with several students again on Monday. I was again surprised at the difference in levels. Many of the kids were enjoying the “diary of a wimpy kid” books. This semester has been wonderful. I feel like it is preparing me for becoming a teacher!
Classroom Reflection 3 April 14, 2010
I had a wonderful week with my fifth graders at Glen Alpine! They had mock EOGs for reading and math this week. The teacher seemed disappointed with her Math scores but said that most of her kids did decent on the reading. However, there were several children that scored exceptionally low. One child got only 7 out of 25 correct. I think that this indicates problems with their reading comprehension. The principal is requiring that if they scored below a certain percentage on the mock test that they get extra help and special tutoring prior to the EOGs.
I got the chance to read one on one with several kids this week. I was surprised at how poorly some of them read. On the other hand some of them were exceptional readers! The teachers reading instruction was pretty much the same as last week. The kids did a lot of silent reading and the teacher did a teacher directed reading. The reading class started reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry this week and they seem to be really enjoying it. The kids also got new AR levels this week during library. Most of the kids book grade levels went down. The librarian said it was probably due to Spring Break.
I am still having a great experience at Glen Alpine!
Classroom Reflection 2 April 2, 2010
I had a wonderful week with my 5th graders at Glen Alpine. On Mondays the teacher reads a story from their Basil books to them outloud and when I go on Wednesdays they listen to the same story aloud on a tape. I’m assuming that on Tuesdays they read the stories themself. After they have heard it three times they put their book away and take a quiz/test about the story.
Every student met their AR goal for the month of March and set new goals for April! I am having a wonderful experience and enjoying my time with the kids.
Classroom Reflection March 28, 2010
This week I observed several things related to reading in my 5th grade classroom at Glen Alpine Elementary. The teacher is an avid reader as is evidenced by the MANY books in her classroom. I asked her how she acquired so many books and she said they all belonged to her and her children. The kids in the room do a lot of reading throughout the day. They separate into groups and take turns reading a book based on their reading level. They do classroom reading out of Basil books and they do a lot of silent reading throughout the day. Every child in the room is required to read books to meet their AR (advanced reader) goal. Their goals are set based on their reading level and if they met their goal for the last night weeks. I am excited to see what the rest of my time at Glen Alpine will hold!
Curt Assignment 2 March 1, 2010
Curt, the late-first-to second-grade-level reader
1. What grade is Curt in?
Answer: Curt is an 8 year old third grader.
2. What was the flash score for words at: first-grade level? second-grade level? third-grade level?
Answer: First grade—75%
Second grade—50%
Third grade—20%
3. What was the accuracy score at: 1-2 level? 2-1 level? 2-2 level?
Answer: 1-2 level—98%
2-1 level—97%
2-2 level—90%
4. What was the rate score at: 1-2 level? 2-1 level? 2-2 level?
Answer: 1-2 level—68 wpm
2-1 level—65 wpm
2-2 level—44 wpm
Look at the spelling scores in Table 5.2 on page 172.
5. What was the percentage correct score for: first-grade words? second-grade words?
Answer: First grade words—60% correct
Second grade words—0% correct
Consider the following expected scores, then compare those expectations to the scores Curt produced. With the Word Recognition Test, flash scores are generally interpreted as follows: 90-100% indicates Independent Level; 60-85% indicates Instruction Level; Below 50% indicates Frustration Level.
With oral reading accuracy, scores are generally interpreted as follows: 98-100% indicates Independent Level; 95-97% indicates Instruction Level; Below 92% indicates Frustration Level.
With oral reading rate, expected grade-level ranges are as follows:
Grade–Words per minute
1st–45-85
2nd–80-120
3rd–95-135
With spelling scores, around 50% correct indicates Instruction Level.
6. Which grade-level flash score is the best choice for Instruction Level? (*Note: 92-94% accuracy is marginal; take a close look at Rate.)
Answer: Level 1-2 (75%)
7. Which grade-level accuracy score is the best choice for Instruction Level?
Answer: Level 1-2 (97%)
8. What do Curt’s rate scores indicate about his grade-level reading? Where is he instructional according to rate?
Answer: According to Curt’s rate scores, he is noticeably below grade level. On a 3rd grade level a student should be reading between 95 and 135 wpm. Curt didn’t even reach the 3rd grade level on the test. At the second grade level a student should be reading between 80 and 120 wpm. On the 2-1 level Curt read only 44 wpm and on the 2-2 level Curt read only 36 wpm. This is indicative of the fact that he is significantly below grade level.
9. What do Curt’s spelling scores indicate about his Instruction Level.
Answer: When Curt was given the spelling test, he achieved 60% correct on the first-grade level. With the second grade list he failed to get any of the words correct. This indicates that his instructional level is at the 1st grade level.
10. Put all of these scores together, and what do they indicate Curt’s reading level to be?
Answer: Curt’s reading level is around 1st grade. On all of the tests his instructional level is around 1-2, indicative of a late 1st grade reading level.
Rasinski (2007) March 1, 2010
Creating Fluent Readers
1. What are the three dimensions of fluency? How can you assess each dimension?
Answer: The first dimension is accuracy in word decoding. To determine proficiency in decoding connected text, calculate the percentage of words a reader can accurately decode on grade level material. An accuracy level of 90 to 95% is usually considered adequate. The second dimension is automatic processing. Teachers can assess automaticity in decoding by looking at the student’s reading rate. The target reading rate increases as students move through school. An easy method for determining reading rate involves having students orally read a grade level passage for 60 seconds and then calculating the number of words read correctly. Readers who fall 20 to 30 percent below the target rate will normally require additional instruction. The third dimension is prosodic reading. The best way to assess this is to listen to a student read a grade-level passage and to then judge the quality of the reading using a rubric that scores a student on the elements of expression and volume, phrasing, smoothness and pace.
2. Rasinski refers to fluency as a “bridge” between decoding and comprehension. What does he mean by the “bridge” metaphor?
Answer: Rasinski is referring to the fact that decoding and comprehension do not equate to successful reading. Another element is necessary and that is fluency. If it takes a child a long time to decode the words in a text, it is unlikely that he/she will be able to comprehend the text because they had to put so much effort forth into sounding out the words. Fluency is the bridge that allows the child to read the text with ease and comprehend what they are reading.
3. What instructional methods does Rasinski suggest for students with difficulties in automatic and prosodic reading?
Answer: Rasinski suggests that assisted readings and repeated readings should be used to help students develop automaticity and prosodic reading. He points out that students need to hear what fluent reading sounds like and how fluent readers interpret text with their voices. Developing fluency in reading requires practice, this is where the repeated readings comes in. Repeated readings lead to improvement in reading the passage and improvement in their decoding skills. He also points out that passages that are meant to be read aloud as a performance, such as poetry, are perfect texts for developing fluency. He suggests converting your classroom into a poetry café. The teacher is encouraged to model prosodic reading in his/her classroom read aloud sessions and then discussing the specific oral interpretation that he or she chose.
4. Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MFS) is used to measure prosodic quality of oral reading. List components of the MFS and describe briefly what each refers to (p. 49).
Answer: 1. Expression and volume—this refers to the quality of student reading as it is related to expression and volume. It is used to determine if the student reads the text at the appropriate volume level (not too quiet or loud). It is also used to signify whether or not the student pays attention to the punctuation in order to use the appropriate expression and enthusiasm. 2. Phrasing—this refers to whether or not the student is attuned to punctuation. This category notes whether or not the child uses run ons, pauses for breath, or reads with choppiness. 3. Smoothness—this refers to whether or not the child reads the text smoothly. This category pays attention to whether the child keeps a consistent rhythm or not as well as if they have to sound out words. 4. Pace—this category refers to the pace that a child reads a text at. This category notes whether the child reads at a slow or conversational pace or somewhere in between.
Words Their Way 2 February 24, 2010
1. How does a Preliterate (Emergent) speller read and write?
Answer: Often times their reading and writing is regarded to be more pretend than real by adults. Students may write with scribbles, letter like forms, or random letters that have no phonetic relationship to the words they confidently believe they are writing. These students may “read” familiar books from memory using the pictures to cue their reaction to the text. This stage is often referred to as pre-reading. Children lack an understanding of the alphabetic principle or show only the beginning understanding. Children in this stage also begin to see selected letters in their names in environmental print.
2. How does a Letter Name-Alphabetic speller read and write?
Answer: The early letter name alphabetic speller is a beginning reader who has moved from pretend reading to real reading and begun to use systematic letter sound matches to identify and store words in memory. Beginning readers initially have limited knowledge of letter sounds as they identify words by phonetic cues. The kinds of reading errors they make during this phase offer insights into what they understand about print. Readers in this stage require much support in the form of predictable, memorable texts. They will include, but often confuse, vowels in the words they write and read. (Ex: they may spell hid for had) the reading is often disfluent and word by word, unless they have read the passage before. They cannot read silently. They benefit from repeated readings of predictable texts but also from the reading of text with many phonetically regular words.
3. How does a Within Word Pattern speller read and write?
Answer: Students move into this stage when single letter-sound units are consolidated into patterns or larger chunks and other spelling regularities are internalized. After automating basic letter sounds in the onset position, students focus on the vowel and what follows. Once the rime unit is solidified as a chunk, students appear to use but confuse the carious long vowel patterns of English. Readers use progressively higher order units of word structures to read and spell. Students’ reading is supported by familiarity with frequently occurring letter pattern units. From the beginning to the end of this stage, students move from needing support materials and techniques to being able to pick from various texts and reading them. Students stop fingerpointing and read silently. They also read more fluently. Their sizeable sight word vocabulary allows them to write more quickly and with greater detail.
4. How does a Syllable and Affixes speller read and write?
Answer: These spellers read most texts with good accuracy and speed, both orally and silently. Success in reading and understanding is related to familiarity and experience with the topic being discussed. These students acquire a repertoire of reading styles that reflects their experience with different genres. They may enjoy reading fantasy or historical fiction. Students who are in this stage delight in writing persuasive essays, editorials, poetry, or their own versions of fantasy or realistic fiction.
5. How does a Derivational Relations speller read and write?
Answer: These spellers have a broader experience base that allows them to choose among a variety of reading styles to suit the text and their purposes for reading. They read books that spark their interests and needs and they seek to integrate their knowledge with the knowledge of others. With purpose and practice, these students develop and master a variety of writing skills.
6. What is the existing research evidence on the relationship between spelling and reading. Briefly describe research findings discussed on page 20.
Answer: Research reports that there are significant correlations between spelling and various measures of word recognition and decoding. In some studies, spelling measures have accounted for as much as 40%-60% of the variance in oral reading measures. Students who receive additional spelling instruction perform better on reading tasks such as oral reading, silent reading comprehension, and other reading-related measures in addition to spelling. Practice at spelling helps reading more than practice at reading helps spelling. Another study found that first graders invented spellings were a better predictor of end-of-grade reading than a standardized reading readiness test. Establishing levels of development in spelling and reading has enormous potential for guiding instruction.
Stahl (2008) February 23, 2010
The Effects of Three Instructional Methods on the Reading Comprehension and Content Acquisition of Novice Readers
1. Describe in broad stokes the reading processes that take place during comprehension of informational text (p. 362, under Construction of Meaning and Concept Development with Informational Texts).
Answer: Comprehension of informational texts requires accessing accurate, relevant knowledge, managing the mental processes during reading within the confines of a limited working memory, and constructing a coherent mental representation through pruning and organizational processes.
2. Specify the effect that background knowledge may have on constructing mental representations from informational text. Why should teachers be concerned about activating prior knowledge?
Answer: The evidence currently indicates that young children rely heavily on background knowledge in their interactions with text. Mediation that prompts young readers to activate relevant background information is an important support, but teachers should be sensitive to dialogue indicating that children may be relying on inaccurate or irrelevant prior knowledge. Teacher should guide students and direct their background knowledge into the appropriate category so it does not interfere with their acquisition of new knowledge.
3. What are the three instructional approaches that can be used to help primary-grade students comprehend informational text? Describe their common (p. 365) and distinctive features (p. 363-5).
Answer: The three instructional approaches are: picture walk, know-want to learn-learn, and directed reading-thinking activity (DRTA). All three approaches are structured, teacher facilitated social interactions, focused on increasing students’ comprehension of text. All three approaches engage students in generating purposeful predictions based on prior knowledge and informational text features, such as pictures, tables or contents and headings.
Picture Walk is a prereading conversation. It is commonly used with leveled text—small paperbacks that have been leveled, using a narrow gradient readability scale based on qualitative text features. The pictures are used as a catalyst for a discussion of what the book is likely to be about. Two or three vocabulary words are introduced during the PW. The PW is aimed at promoting fluency and comprehension. Children are always left with opportunities for problem solving, both at the level of word attack and meaning construction, during their first independent reading.
Know-Want to Learn-Learn was originally developed to enable teachers to access the prior knowledge of students and to help students develop their own purposes for reading expository text. It is a process during which the teacher generates a discussion about a text topic and uses a chart or worksheet to record students’ statements about what they know, what they want to learn, and, after reading, what they learned.
Directed Reading-Thinking Activity is an instructional framework that views reading as a problem-solving process best accomplished in a social context. The teacher’s role is to select an instructional level text, divide the text into meaningful sections, and facilitate discussion of each section of text. Students are encouraged to form their own predictions, justify those predictions, independently read the text, and verify or revise predictions based on evaluations of information in the text during the teacher-led discussion of each section.
4. What is the purpose of the experimental study reported?
Answer: The purpose of the study was to explore how the PW, KWL, and DRTA might influence developmental reading abilities and content acquisition when used with informational text in the primary reading group context.
5. Who were the subjects?
Answer: The participants were 31 second grade students in two demographically similar schools, in the same school district, in a midsize Midwest city. All students were proficient in English. There were 25 African Americans, 3 European Americans, 1 Latino and 2 Asian/Pacific Islanders. Of the participants, there were 16 boys and 15 girls. Teachers recommended students from their classes who had an instructional reading level tree to six months below grade level. Teachers reported that reading and comprehending informational texts was challenging for these students.
6. Describe the reading materials used during the intervention.
Answer: Informational texts on topics that were likely to be familiar to second grade students were utilized in this experiment. They addressed science topics that had been taught to the students in their first or second grade science curriculum as part of the state science content standards. The sequence of topics for each group was: spiders, the moon, how water changes form, and insects. A total of 12 texts or leveled little books were used during the study.
7. How long did the experiment last?
Answer: Data was collected over 10 weeks, conducting two four week period of intervention within that time frame.
8. What were the experimental conditions?
Answer: The study was designed to replicate the small group reading instruction that approaching-grade-level readers typically experience. All lessons were recorded on audiotape. In School A, sessions were held at a table in a hallway. In School B, sessions were held at a table in the school’s kitchen or at a table in a partitioned room shared with other teachers working with small groups of children.
9. Describe the procedures specific to the Picture Walk, KWL, DRTA, and the Control Group conditions.
Answer: Picture Walk—Before reading, students were presented a brief overview of the text. They then engaged in an interactive discussion about the book as they worked through the book page-by-page, talking about the pictures, the text structure, and the student’s prior knowledge, and formulating predictions based on that information. This method was the only method that specifically introduced new vocabulary before reading to the text. The student’s were specifically introduced to two to four new content vocabulary words. After the PW, the children mumble read the text independently.
KWL—On Day 1 and Day 3, the students made a group KWL chart interactively. After the experimenter introduced the topic, the children discussed it. Their input was written on the chart in the Know column. On Day 2 and 3, each child wrote was he or she knew on a personal KWL chart before it was shared and written on the large group chart. Next the children categorized the information. The next step was for the kids to generate questions about the topic. Their questions were written in the “want to learn” column. After the prereading discussion, the kids mumble read the entire text. After reading, the post-reading discussion began by considering whether the text had provided answers to any of their questions. If so, the information was recorded in the “what I learned” column.
DRTA—Before reading, the students formulated and justified predictions about the text based on the title, cover, prior knowledge and table of contents. Students predicted for a two or three page section of text. Then they mumble read that section. After reading each section, a brief discussion was held to verify predictions, summarize the information, and generate new predictions for the next section of text.
10. What measures were used to determine the relative effectiveness of the treatments? Describe the measures briefly.
Answer: One of the measures used was the vocabulary recognition task. The VRT is an experimenter-constructed yes/no task used to estimate vocabulary recognition in a content area and to confirm that groups had similar levels of prior knowledge of the topic. The task consisted of a list of 25 words; 18 of the words were related to the content in the informational texts and 7 words were unrelated. Students circled the words that they both were able to read and related to the topic. Another measure used was the maze task. It was a multiple-choice cloze modification. It was a timed, group administered task. The original text read by the students was reprinted after the deletion of 10 words. The score on the maze task was the number of correct responses. The maze provided insight into micro-level processing, general reading and monitoring for meaning. During the free recall each child provided a free recall of the day’s text. Students responded to the prompt, “Please tell me everything you can remember about the book. Also tell me anything the book made you think of.” After the free recall, each child was asked to answer three explicit and three implicit questions based on the day’s text. First the items were scored as correct or incorrect. Next a four point scale was used to produce weighted scores for each answer.
11. Which treatment(s) were found to be more effective in increasing students’ vocabulary knowledge and maze performance (p. 381)?
Answer: All intervention groups made similar vocabulary gains. Both the PW and DRTA yielded statistically significant effects on the maze. Both procedures were more effective than KWL or the control procedures in facilitating fluent reading and micro level comprehension. The page by page walk through of the text either before or during reading seemed to promote a close reading that enabled students to identify words automatically and to facilitate higher scores on the timed maze task.
12. Students’ comprehension of the texts was greater under the DRTA condition than KWL and the control conditions. What do you think explains DRTA’s advantage over the KWL condition (p. 382)?
Answer: DRTA’s advantage may be the result of the close reading facilitated by this instructional approach. Teacher guidance during the DRTA tended to direct the children’s attention to the important ideas and assist with difficult text concepts in a way that was not provided for in the other interventions.
13. It was found that the treatments did not differ in the quality and quantity of students’ retellings (p. 384). In other words, students were not differentially affected by the treatments in the way they integrated textual information with prior knowledge. What does this finding mean in terms of the different emphases employed by experience-based (KWL) vs. text-based (DRTA) treatments?
Answer: It implies that both treatments (KWL and DRTA) are successful techniques that encourage students to retell information in an accurate and relevant way. Even though the emphases are different, both techniques are advantageous in that they encourage students to gain enough accurate information so that they can retell the facts.
14. In light of the findings from this study, what conclusions can you draw about the role of teacher support in children’s construction of mental representations from informational text?
Answer: It is very important for teachers to guide children when they are reading and trying to glean knowledge from informational text. Students learn much more when they have teacher interaction and guidance. It is also important for teachers to direct children’s background knowledge into the appropriate category so that their background knowledge does not hinder their acquisition of new knowledge.
Curt Assignment February 17, 2010
Curt, the Late-First-to Second-Grade-Level Reader
1. Look at the spelling errors that Curt makes. What stage of word knowledge is Curt in? Why do you pick this stage of development? What are the key characteristics?
Answer: I would say that Curt is in the Letter Name stage. He includes vowels in his words. He included long vowels but the preconsonantal nasals were missing (i.e. he spelled plant p-l-a-t). The one factor that does not fit with the letter name stage is the fact that he represented short vowels correctly, which is a part of the Within Word Pattern stage. Curtis also failed to mark long vowels in several words which reverts him back to the Letter Name stage.
2. Describe partner reading.
Answer: Partner reading begins with a preview. During this preview the tutor and the child “walk through” the pictures, making predictions about what is happening in the pictures and what may happen later in the story. The child and the tutor then return to the opening page and begin to partner read (alternate pages), with the tutor usually taking the first turn. Occasionally the tutor will ask the child comprehension questions. Partner reading makes the child feel safe and comfortable because the child perceives the tutor as an equal partner who is willing to share the work load. The tutor’s oral reading also provides a fluent model of reading for the child to emulate. The weakness of partner reading is the lack of focus on comprehension.
3. Which is harder for a student, partner reading or DRTA?
Answer: I feel that DRTA (Directed Reading-Thinking Activity) is more difficult for a student. In this method the child and tutor do not take turns reading. The child is also forced to think about what is going on in the story because the tutor is constantly asking questions to reinforce comprehension of the story. The focus of DRTA is process. The child constructs meaning of the story through critical interaction with the author’s words. The child is also asked to create hypothesis about what will happen in the story and then determine whether or not their prediction was correct and why.
4. In planning a DRTA, what is important about selecting places to stop?
Answer: After the tutor has read through the story and knows the plot he/she should read through the story again, consciously considering three or four stopping points in the story that lend themselves to questions about what has happened so far and what might happen as the story continues. While reading, the tutor must simply ask, At what point in the story am I able to anticipate an important upcoming event or plot turn? Why am I able to do so? What information have I read that is triggering the anticipation?
5. In planning a DRTA, what is important about deciding questions to ask? What kind of questions? How many?
Answer: At stop 1 the tutor should have three questions planned. The first two questions seek information about the story setting and the characters that are introduced on the first two pages. The third question asks the child if he/she wants to keep or change his/her original prediction and why or why not. At stop 2 three more questions are planned. Two of these check the child’s comprehension or plot-relevant information. The third question asks the child to predict what might happen next in the story. The questioning at stop 3 can be handled in two different ways. One way combines a retelling question with a prediction question. An alternative questioning strategy at stop 3 simply involves asking the child how he/she thinks the story will end. A follow up question may be appropriate, but one does not want to over question at this crucial juncture in the story.
Ehri & Rosenthal (2007) February 16, 2010
Spellings of words: A Neglected Facilitator of Vocabulary Learning
1. What was the hypothesis tested by the researchers?
Answer: The hypothesis tested was that students will learn the pronunciations and meanings of new words better when they see spellings of the words during study periods than when they do not.
2. Who were the subjects?
Answer: The first experiment utilized 20 second graders. Their age averaged 7 years, 7 months. They were all enrolled in an urban school with a large minority population. On average they were reading at a second grade level. During the second experiment students were in the 5th grade and from the same lower SES school as the second graders. They were divided into two groups-higher level and lower level readers.
3. What were the experimental conditions?
Answer: Each student was taught the pronunciations and meanings of two sets of six concrete nouns. Spellings were shown as students learned one set and not shown as they learned the other set. During the experiment, the words were defined and embedded in different sentences to clarify meanings and connections to other words. During the initial study the students were taught the six words, their spellings and their meanings. For each word a card was displayed with a drawing of the object named by the noun and a spelling printed beneath the picture (treatment group). The experimenter pronounced the word and its definition and the student repeated them. The remaining trials tested students’ recall of the words’ pronunciation and meanings. In the spelling absent control condition, the procedures were the same except that the spellings were never shown.
4. What did the treatment involve?
Answer: The treatment involved showing students the spellings of the words. In the control condition the students were not shown the spellings.
5. Which group (spelling-present vs. spelling-absent) gained more in vocabulary learning? How were the groups’ recall of pronunciations affected by the treatment?
Answer: The study showed that second graders learned the pronunciations and meanings of vocabulary words better when they were exposed to spellings of the words than when they only practiced speaking the words.
6. Why do you think that fifth graders who were high on a word reading task benefited more from the spelling aids than their peers with less orthographic experience and knowledge, even though the two groups did not differ on receptive vocabulary knowledge?
Answer: It is probable that those who were high on a word reading task benefited more because they had better knowledge of grapho-phonemic units and larger syllabic spelling units than lower readers. This gave them an advantage in forming connections to store multisyllabic words in memory.
7. What general conclusions were derived from the study findings by the authors? What implications were offered for vocabulary learning and instruction?
Answer: The authors found that students should be shown the spellings of words when they are introduced to new vocabulary. It leads to much higher retention rates of the new words. They state that teachers need to become aware of the importance of spellings for vocabulary learning so they do not slight them in teaching. When teachers encounter, pronounce, and explain new vocabulary words to their students, they should take time to display the spelling of these words, for example, when they are doing a read aloud or text talk lesson. They also stated that when students encounter new vocabulary words in their independent reading, they should stop and not only figure out the meanings of the words but also decode and pronounce their spellings. Spellings of words are also especially valuable for students who are learning English as a second language.
