Intervention has to begin early

As I am beginning to do some research for our reading intervention project, I came across an article from The Reading Teacher that I found useful.  It highlights using the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach with young students.  The idea is that the earlier teachers identify reading problems, the better able they are to respond and support learners to be successful.  The article also highlights how important assessment and teacher observations are to group students and to organize instruction based on student's needs.

The article highlighted the practices of one kindergarten teacher, who was also a trained reading recovery teacher.  I was impressed by "Leah's" approach and her thorough attention to her students.  She has a well-thought-out plan for assessing her students and evaluating their needs.  She uses the assessments to group students and teach the skills that her students need most.  I like the idea of targeted teaching.

The more I learn and teach, the more I realize that a "one size fits all" approach to reading instruction does not work for all students.  Children learn in different ways, and their instruction needs to be tailored to fit them, whenever possible.  Right now, that seems to be a daunting task for me, a new teacher.

I also realize that using RTI requires teachers and administrators to work together to make it successful.  Teachers need to feel that they have the resources and skills necessary to teach effectively.  My school supposedly uses an RTI approach, but it's very loosely managed.  In first grade, we don't have a formal process to follow for RTI.  Perhaps the school trusts us as professionals and thinks we can ensure (sp?) achievement for our students! 

Source:

Mokhtari, K., Porter, L., & Edwards, P. (2010). Responding to Reading Instruction in a Primary-Grade Classroom. The Reading Teacher, 63(8), 692-7. Retrieved from Education Full Text database

Technology and teaching

After our discussion last week, I did some searching around for information on using technology in the classroom.  I found one that adresses the use of assistive technology (AT) in the classroom.  The study took a group of teachers and paid them to join user groups.  They met at a nearby college campus to be trained to use AT.  The teachers worked together to implement what they learned as members of the user group in their classrooms. 

What stood out for me from reading this article was how much better the teachers were able to use the technology once they had professional development time to learn about it and use it.  I feel that every minute of my teaching day is filled.  I wouldn't even want to try to use a Promethian board unless I had time to learn how to use it, expecially since I don't consider myself to be tech saavy.  And I think the training would have to be more than a two-hour in-service session in August.  If we as teachers as expected to implement technology in our classrooms, we have to be given the training and the time to incorporate it for everyday use.  An underutilized Promethian board would be such a waste of resources! and such a missed opportunity for students!

This article includes quotes from the teachers that participated.  It discusses what they said about the benefits and the drawbacks of using AT in the classroom.  These teachers taught students with developmental disabilities and students who were considered "at risk."  The technology they were able to use sounds like it would benefit any classroom. 

I hope I get the chance some day to incorporate more technology in my classroom.  I think it could prove to be an invaluable tool to enhance my students' learning experiences.

Source

Parette, H., Stoner, J., & Watts, E. (2009). Assistive Technology User Group Perspectives of Early Childhood Professionals. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 44(2), 257-70. Retrieved from Education Full Text database

Comprehension - It's so important!

Seems we've been focusing a lot on comprehension lately in the class.  It's such an important topic, and one that I think is key to being a successful student.  I have one student in my first grade class this year who has proven to be a good word decoder, but struggles with the meaning of words.  I have students who are reading above grade level that have trouble with meaning of words in their Nate the Great text.  It all gets back to comprehension.

I found an interesting article in Educational Researcher that is critical of the National Early Literacy Panel report that was published in 2008.  The author, Susan Neuman, contends that the NELP report overly focuses on language decoding and ignores the important role of background knowledge and conceptual development in young students.

She talks about how we tend to teach wirh a "cafeteria approach," teaching a little bit of this and a little bit of that instead of drilling into topics and subjects that are interesting to students.  By delving deeper into subjects, we can encourage our students to develop deeper knowledge, which will lead to greater background and content knowledge.  In Neuman's opinion, greater background knowledge is the key to increased comprehension.

She says,

This will mean that to be successful, children will need to learn both code and content knowledge. Code-related skills, the essential alphabetic principles that make up our language, are a critical component in learning to read. But although these skills are necessary, they are certainly not sufficient. They must be accompanied by a massive and in-depth foundation of factual knowledge.

As readers who have studied early childhood will know, this built-up store of knowledge can’t be drummed into children as if they were empty receptacles just waiting for our precious insights. Children need time—to actively play with ideas, accumulate experience, ask questions, and connect new learning with what they already know. Activities that pose problems, get children immersed in interesting topics, and allow them the time to develop expertise all contribute to knowledge gains. Such efforts can’t be delayed until children are supposedly reading to learn, nor can they be subordinated in any way to other skills. Code and content learning must be emphasized simultaneously.

I found Neuman's article thought-provoking.  I especially got me thinking about how we assess children's reading abilities.  We expect students to take a "picture walk" through an unknown text and then be able to read it and answer questions about it with 98% accuracy!

It also seems to encourage using an integrated curriculum, which will be required in MCPS first grades next year.  Our school is piloting it this year to get used to it.  Already, I've had the opportunity to delve into plants with the curriculum.  I'm hoping to become more proficient at integrating reading with science, math and social studies to help enhance my students' content knowledge.

Here's the link to the article

http://proquest.umi.com.proxy3.library.jhu.edu/pqdweb?did=2073565961&Fmt=2&clientId=5241&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Source

Neuman, S.. (2010). Lessons From My Mother: Reflections on the National Early Literacy Panel Report. Educational Researcher, 39(4), 301.  Retrieved October 31, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2073565961).

Neuman, S.. (2010). Lessons From My Mother: Reflections on the National Early Literacy Panel Report. Educational Researcher, 39(4), 301.  Retrieved October 31, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2073565961).

Vocabulary instruction -- is it necessary?

After our discussion during the last class about vocabulary development, I was curious to see what research I could find about vocabulary instruction for the early childhood grades (preK - 2).  The reading specialist at my elementary school has mentioned the importance of exposing our young students to rich vocabulary, especially during shared reading time.

So, it just so happens that I found an article that discusses vocabulary instruction during shared reading!  Maynard and her colleagues at the University of Virginia conducted a study to enrich vocabulary instruction for first grade students through repeated, shared storybook reading.  The researchers took groups of first graders and provided them with rich, basic or indirect vocabulary instruction.  The purpose of the study was to see if direct vocabulary instruction for young students would help them with overall reading comprehension.

The researchers mentioned that 95% of students can read more words than they can define or explain, which indicates the importance of early vocabulary development (Maynard, et. al., 2010).  There is also concern for students who encounter reading difficulties and the fact that most of these students don't have a well developed vocabulary. 

During the study, teachers who taught vocabulary using rich instruction, engaged students in activities that encouraged deep processing and increased their exposure to certain vocabulary words from the storybooks read in varied and meaningful contexts.  These teachers also used open-ended questioning to encourage higher-ordered thinking by the students.

The results of the study were interesting.  Students who were taught using a rich or basic approach to vocabulary instruction during storybook reading, showed a statistically significant difference in their receptive, expressive and contextual knowledge of targeted vocabulary words than students who were not directly instructed.

One of the considerations for instruction is the extra time it takes to teach vocabulary in this manner.  As  a first grade teacher, just about every minute of my instructional day is planned.  My school has set priorities for reading instruction that would make it challenging to initiate a formal vocabulary instruction program. 

I like the idea of vocabulary instruction and will continue to introduce my students to the rich vocabulary that we encounter in our storybook read alouds.  I have a "wonderful word" wall in my classroom where I post some of the vocabulary words we discuss during class.  This past week, we've been studying pumpkins.  I've introduced the word "tendrils" and I've been pointing out the word when it's encountered in our various non-fiction pumpkin books.  Perhaps it would be worthwhile to further study this word or others like it from time to time as instructional time permits.  There's just so much to teach young children; at times, it can seem overwhelming to make sure I'm teaching them what they need to know to be successful readers and writers.

Here's the link to the study:
http://proquest.umi.com.proxy3.library.jhu.edu/pqdweb?did=2100152041&Fmt=3&clientId=5241&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Source

Maynard, K., Pullen, P., & Coyne, M.. (2010). Teaching Vocabulary to First-Grade Students Through
Repeated Shared Storybook Reading: A Comparison of Rich and Basic Instruction to Incidental
Exposure. Literacy Research and Instruction, 49(3), 209-242.  Retrieved October 23, 2010, from
ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2100152041).

Enhancing Self-Efficacy through Peer Tutoring

After our discussion last week on motivation, I went back over the articles more thoroughly and was struck by this sentence in the Schunk and Zimmerman article: "Although adult models can teach children skills, children derive the best self-efficacy information from models who are similar to themselves."

So, in thinking about implications for instruction, I searched for other articles on peer teaching and found one that was published in Reading Improvement in 2010.   Marr and her colleagues conducted a study using peer coaching to improve reading fluency and literacy skills among a group of second grade students.  They paired struggling students with more fluent readers and had them work together to read teacher-selected passages.  At the end of the peer coaching activity, the teacher would have the struggling readers read their passages for one minute.  The coaches would mark how far their partner read in the passage.  Then the reader could locate the number of words read and record their fluency data.  I love this idea! 

This approach was selected because, "peer-mediated learning groups in which children work together to support each other represent "... powerful academic interventions that can prevent and/or remediate reading failure before it leads to even more devastating outcomes..."

In my classroom I frequently require students to read their written work to a friend.  I use this technique as a formative assessment in the classroom.  I am now aware that this activity may also enhance self-efficacy.  I hope to try to use more peer coaching in my classroom, especially when it comes to helping my struggling readers.  If I can tap into the ready-made resource of my existing students, then I won't always feel like I have to provide all the intervention.  Peer coaching has the potential to be a win-win situation -- good for me and beneficial for my students.

Sources

Marr, M., Algozzine, B., Kavel, R., & Dugan, K. (2010). Implementing Peer  

     Coaching Fluency Building to Improve Early Literacy Skills. Reading Improvement, 

     47(2), 74-91. Retrieved from Education Full Text database

Schunk, D., Zimmerman, B. (2007).  Influencing Children's Self-Efficacy and Self-

     Regulation of Reading and Writing Through Modeling.  Reading and Writing

     Quarterly, 23, 7-25. 

Spellling and Word Study

After our class discussion this past week, I went back to my Words Their Way text that I used in a reading class I took at JHU last spring.  I re-read the part of Chapter One that deals with invented spelling.  From research done in the 1970s, the term invented spelling came about.  Further research out of the University of Virginia in the 1980s examined children's invented spellings and reported that children learn words developmentally.  And that once these developmental stages are identified, teachers can "differentiate efficient, effective instruction in phonics, spelling and vocabulary" (Bear, et al., 2008).  The resulting instruction is termed word study.

Word study is not spelling.  Word study does not attempt to teach words through rote drill.  Words taught in this manner are usually memorized for the sake of a test and not fully understood by students.  Word study is identifying the developmental stage a student is using for spelling words and then applying hands-on opportunities to manipulate word features (like words with the short /a/ sound and short /i/ sound).  Students in word study are taught word features and patterns in a sequential order.  They are provided multiple opportunities for hands-on practice and application.

Words Their Way says, "word study teaches students how to look at words so that they can construct an ever-deepening understanding of how spelling works to represent sound and meaning" (Bear, et al., 2008).

Words Their Way provides teachers with a word study program that can be used in the classroom.  I like it because it includes everything from the way to assess the developmental spelling stages of students to all the various word sorting activities to word games.  The word sorts and word games are designed for each developmental spelling stage, making them easy to use.

I have already tested some of my first graders this year.  It is interesting to analyze their spelling patterns and determine their developmental stage.  Now I can proceed with word study activities that are appropriate to their particular stage.  I plan to teach word study during guided reading time when I'm working with small, differentiated groups of students.  It will be interesting to see if their developmental spelling stage corresponds with their reading level.  I may have to provide different word study activities to different students in one reading group.  I am also excited to see if using word study will improve my students' word knowledge to make them better readers and writers.

Sources

Bear, D.R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2008) Words their way:  Word study
     for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling. Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Pearson Prentice Hall. 

Chapter Six - Developing Fluent Readers and Writers

I found chapter six full of more useful information for teaching young readers and writers.  I am familiar with word walls and word wall activities.  I use the word wall in my first grade classroom every day.  I was reassured after reading this chapter because I already use many of the activities that were mentioned in the chapter for building word knowledge and writing ability.  Our grade level team chooses word wall words to focus on each week.  On most Mondays I have my students practice writing the words of the week.  We write them in sentences and chant and cheer them.  These words are added to the making words center and I hide the words on subsequent days in the morning message that I write daily.

I like the idea of making riddle books (p. 194) to teach repeated writing of high frequency words and making up riddles to teach word wall words.  The example in the text was something like, "It starts with /g/ and rhymes with /wet/."  I also like the idea of using big books and having small groups of students identify high frequency words.  The text is proving to be a good resource for teaching strategies and activities.

I found an article that appeared in Reading Horizons in 2009.  It highlights a study that used a word wall and accompanying activities to improve word recognition for first graders.  Although the study had limitations, it provides further evidence of the effectiveness of word walls in the classroom. 

http://proquest.umi.com.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/pqdlink?did=1935140291&Fmt=7&clientId=5241&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Before I read the chapters for this week, I read Lise's article that she's presenting in class.  I found it particularly interesting that the author talks about all the academic language we bombard students with in an effort to teach them how to comprehend text.  In the end they wind up being able to repeat terms like "summarizing" but they don't know what "summarizing" means.  What I got from reading the article is that as teachers we have to be careful not to overwhelm students with too much academic language, especially in the early grades.  Simplicity seems to be the order of the day when it comes to teaching young learners.  It's important not to bombard them with tasks that are too complex and confusing.  Read alouds should be brief and focus on one concept.  I enjoyed reading the teacher example in Chapter 6 (pp. 184 - 188) of the text where the teacher uses one text A House for Hermit Crab as the basis for all of her reading and writing activities.  Perhaps students don't need to know the academic terms for what they are doing in class, they just need to know that learning can be fun and interesting.

Sources

Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century:  A balanced approach (5th ed.). 
     Boston, MA: Pearson.

Chapter 5 - How to best crack the code

I enjoyed reading chapter 5, and I found it full of useful information and resources.  I took the time to check out some of the online resources and found some to be more useful than others.  The gamegoo one will be good for literacy centers.  I also will be copying and using some of information from the figures and information boxes in the chapter.  Specifically the resources for using Elkonian boxes (fig. 5.2, p. 152), the list of 37 rimes (fig. 5.3, p. 159) and the example of a word focus wall on p. 144.  This is turning out to be a useful text with resources and information that I can directly apply to my first grade teaching.

I fully agree with the integrated approach to teaching reading and writing.  The book provides lots of examples of literacy activities for young readers.  The examples are ones that appeal to young learners.  One that I like is using word sorts to teach spelling (p. 173).  These sorts are provided in Words Their Way, a text I used for another class.  It is also on this course's list of recommended reading.  Once I have finished all of my beginning reading assessments, I am looking forward to using these word and picture sorts with my students during guided reading time.

As I was searching the JHU education library database, I came across an interesting article in The American Prospect by Lisa Guernsey that addressed the debate over direct instruction versus child-directed instruction. Here's the link:

http://proquest.umi.com.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/pqdweb?did=2066286781&Fmt=3&clientId=5241&RQT=309&VName=PQD

 

This article talks about the current practice in some low performing, inner city schools of using more teacher-directed instruction to teach phonemic awareness.  The author of the article suggests that some of these direct instruction programs take away from children learning in more self-directed ways.  Vygotsky's social learning theory is mentioned when the author talks about letting children play make believe.  Studies have suggested that children who get opportunities to play in this manner are more successful when it comes to reading because: 

 

"make-believe play may foster other foundational skills, too, like symbolic understanding. By pretending to punch numbers on a cash register, for example, a child is symbolizing what a cashier does. This ability to comprehend and manipulate symbols is a skill that should serve her well, since letters symbolize sounds, and words symbolize objects or actions or ideas. Several recent books Children's Play: The Roots of Reading; Play=Learning·, and A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool- make that case."

 

I love the idea of allowing children to "play" at learning.  In teaching reading, the text gives numerous ideas for songs, and word "games" that students can "play" to enhance phonemic awareness, phonics and spelling.  The Guernsey article reinforces my belief that learning should be fun, and that students can learn a lot from each other.  I see my role in the classroom as the teacher that provides varied literacy activities that my students find engaging and enjoyable.  If I can make learning like play, then my students get to see learning as fun, and I get to see them enhance their skills to crack the alphabetic code. 

 

Sources:

 

Bear, D.R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., Johnson, F. (2004).  Words their way:  Word study for    

     phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction.  Columbus, OH: Pearson.

 

Tompkins, G.E. (2010).  Literacy for the 21st century:  A balanced approach (5th ed.).  Boston, MA:

     Pearson.

 

 

 

Blog posting for Ch. 3 & 4 - teaching to a wide variety of students

I enjoyed reading the "spotlight on . . . " sections of chapter four.  I was impressed by Ms. McCloskey and how she provides reading and writing activities for all of her first grade students.  From the text, it seems she has a wide range of learners in her classroom, including many English Language Learners (ELLs).

In my first grade classroom I have six students out of 21 in my reading class who are ELLs.  They are classified as Level 2 ESOL students in Montgomery County.  They vary in ethnicity.  Two are Latino; two are Vietnamese; one is Brazilian and one is Asian Pacific.  They have all progressed well since kindergarten, but I am dealing with their varying learning needs and the needs of my reading class as a whole.  I have four other students who speak another language at home, but are not classified as ESOL students.  It is a challenge to provide my students with activities that they can complete independently during literacy center time, so that I can meet with small groups during guided reading.  Starting writer's workshop time has been frustrating for me because of the varying levels in my class.  I like the strategy mentioned on p. 121 with the student named Caroline.  Ms. McCloskey gave her a ring for cards.  Caroline chooses new words to add to her ring, and Ms. McCloskey writes them on the cards.  Then, Caroline can use the ring any time for her reading and writing.  I thought about one of my students as I read this; I want to start using a card ring with him immediately!

After doing some searching with the JHU education library online, I found an interesting article about helping ELLs become better readers by using a "narrow reading" approach.  This approach focuses on a single subject or author and uses easy to understand texts to enrich but not overwhelm ELLs. http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790eb09556d0224b245f4c0f8887f432db2cd7b897caa8d57161346a8bddb6595daa&fmt=H
Hadaway, N. L. A Narrow Bridge to Academic Reading [Part of a special issue entitled Supporting English language learners]. Educational Leadership v. 66 no. 7 (April 2009) p. 38-41

This article offers alot of ideas for instruction.  It stresses how academic vocabulary can be frustrating for ELLs.  I found this particularly interesting because I always hear about how ELLs born in the U.S. know "slang English" but have difficulty understanding the academic language teachers use at school (i.e. alliteration, inquiry, data, analyze, traits).  For this reason, I've always been led to believe that it's important to always use academic vocabulary with ELLs - to expose them and have them "learn" the terms.  Perhaps I need to be careful not to overwhelm my ELLs with too much academic vocabulary.

Sources:

Tompkins, Gail (2010).  Literacy for the 21st Century A Balanced Approach.  Boston, MA:
     Allyn & Bacon.

Blog posting for Ch. 1 & 2 - Is learning automatic?

I found this first posting to be intimidating.  Please accept my apologies now for the rambling!  I have been thinking all week about what to post.  Chapter one was more interesting to me than chapter two.  I think child development and the psychology of it is very interesting.  I like to learn about how kids learn.  I'm such a teacher geek!

Anyway, a conversation I had with a colleague this week stuck with me, and I thought it might be appropriate to blog about.  My colleague is beginning her adventure as a full-time first grade teacher after teaching reading exclusively for many years.  She and I were commiserating over how overwhelming our jobs can be, and she mentioned something a veteran teacher friend had said to her.  It was something along the lines of, "well, children this age are going to learn no matter what, so don't worry so much about how you teach . . . "

I walked away and really started thinking . . .  The JHU program has always stressed child development, and how important it is to understand educational psychology in order to teach effectively.  The text in chapter one mentions the current development theories in terms of what effective teachers do.  I really relate to the scaffolding idea on p. 21.  I'm constantly doing that right now with my first graders.  From the text Educational Psychology (Woolfolk, 2010), I read about Vygotsky's sociocultural theory with interest.  Now I'm more aware of my students' proximal zone of development, and try to push them to it in my classroom.  In fact, I've always felt responsible for my students learning and accomplishments.  It can be overwhelming, but I look at it as an incredible opportunity to impact on the lives of my students.  So, I was surprised by the comment from my colleague's friend.

I went searching on the JHU database for some articles on child development and reading.  I could have spent hours reading abstracts and journal articles.  I found a few interesting things on development.  One article talked about Marie Clay and the development of her Reading Recovery Program that is now used in Montgomery County Public Schools to help economically disadvantaged, low-performing students (Clark, 1992).  The article confirmed what I have learned - that children will learn, but that some children use counterproductive ways to learn.  In the case of learning to read, some children acquire ineffective strategies for learning letter sounds and decoding words.  Marie Clay believes in eary intervention with these students to replace their counterproductive strategies with successful ones.  So, ultimately, the teacher is integral in helping students learn to read and write.

 For some teachers, it may be easy to become complacent when teaching children - treating them all the same, using only the teachinig strategies that we, the teachers want to use - I hope I'll always have the desire to use the strategies that work best for my particular students.  They are like "sponges" and I want to make sure they sponge-up the best ways for them to learn to read and write.

Sources

     Clark, Margaret M. "Sensitive observation and the development of literacy." Educational Psychology 12.3/4 (1992): 215. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Sept. 2010.

     Tompkins, Gail E.(2010).  Literacy for the 21st Century A Balanced Approach (5th ed.). Boston, MA:Allyn & Bacon.

     Woolfolk, Anita (2010).  Educational Psychology (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:Pearson Education.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog -- I'm ready to go on another adventure in reading -- are you?