Jessica Dover

RE 5100

Midterm

Jessica Dover

November 18, 2009

Jessica Dover

Question 1A. In order for a student to make a year’s growth in reading in one year, he or she needs to spend between 1 ½ to 2 hours reading each day. (Richard Allington, John Guthrie University of Maryland) The 1 ½ to 2 hours of reading each day is the amount of reading that each individual child should spend reading; this includes reading during the language arts block as well as reading in other subjects and independent reading outside of school. The 1 ½ to 2 hours that a child spends reading must be at the appropriate instructional or independent level in order for it to have any effect on the child’s overall reading progress. Reading at a level that is above the independent or instructional level will cause the student to become frustrated and in that situation learning or growth cannot take place. An appropriate instructional level is one in which the student is making fewer than 5 mistakes per hundred words and less than that is desirable. For independent reading students should make no more than 2 errors per 100 words. If students are in material that is above their instructional level they will become frustrated and will not make 1 year’s growth in one year. (Patrick Shannon and Richard Allington) “It would take four school years of two hours a literacy activities each school day to make up the time the privileged had spent before coming to school.”(Gill) Good readers are only ever given material that is at their independent reading level or below and yet they make more than one year’s growth per year in reading. By the time that students reach middle school the reading levels in a single classroom are far broader than they were when the students first entered school together. The students who came from homes where literacy was not a main focus had children who had already lost out on years on instruction that more privileged children received through reading with their parents about 1500 hours before they entered school. Without spending about 2 hours a day at the instructional or independent level students will not be exposed to enough material to give them a chance to catch up with their peers. It is important that these students receive lots of literacy activities and reading at the appropriate level in the early grades to work toward lessening the gap of the middle school classroom. (Abouzeid, Gill)

B. This reading time is to be accomplished throughout the entire day. Students spend between 1 ½ to 2 hours in the language arts block but not all of that time is spent reading. If students spend about 30 minutes of the language arts block actually reading, then they need to spend another 30 minutes in the afternoon reading during social studies or science instruction; then they need another 30+ minutes of independent reading outside of the classroom. During this time the reading can be self

Jessica Dover

selected and on their independent level. Students should also reread at home what they read during their guided reading instruction. Rereading can count as part of time spent reading and by rereading independently what has already been read during instructional time students will build their fluency. Rereading is not the only way or necessarily the best way to build fluency, students also need lots of practice reading at their independent level.

C. For students who are reading below grade level their reading time should be increased. For example for a 5th grade student reading at a 2nd grade level that student would need to read more than 2 hours a day in order to make more than one year’s growth in a year and to help in closing the gap between the grade they are in and the grade level they are reading at. This can be accomplished with the help of a literacy coach or reading teacher. Extra instruction can be given to these students on their instructional level in order to speed up their progress and put them on the road to being at grade level. All the books that a particular student is assigned to read should be on their reading level whether the subject is reading, science, math, or social studies. Whenever possible the student should receive extra time with a literacy coach or reading tutor. Also the student should be encouraged to read at home. A way to make books available in the home can be through resources such as the public library, a school library or other community organizations that work to bring books to children who do not have them readily available in their homes.

Jessica Dover

Question 2

A student who is reading on a 2nd grade level but is in the 5th grade would need to read more than 2 hours per day in order to gain more than one year’s growth in one school year and to ensure that they are on their way to catching up to grade level.

The book Roller Skates is an easy reader book on a second grade level. The book contains about 320 words. A student reading it on grade level could read the book in approximately 3 ½ minutes. If the student is at the beginning level of 2nd grade reading they would read approximately 60 words per minute, meaning the book could be read in 5-6 minutes not the 3 ½ minutes that I originally put.

In order to read for 2 hours a day over the course of the school year the child would need to read at least 34 book equal size. Reading 34 books per day a student would need to read (34 x 180) 6,120 books over the course of the school year.

It sounds nearly impossible to expect that a child can read 6,120 books over the course of a year, but rereading can count as part of that number of books. Also basal readers, information books, and chapter books on the appropriate instructional level can count toward this goal. This could also be accomplished in fewer books by reading books that contain more than 320 words.

In order for that same student to make more than one year’s growth/ progress in one year they would have to increase the reading amount from 2 hours a day to 2 ½ hours a day that way within a few years that student should be able to catch up with the other students and be reading on grade level.

It is important for students to be reading on their instructional or independent reading level because that is the only place where they can make progress. Vygotsky talks about the zone of proximal development; if a student is not being instructed within that zone then the instruction is meaningless. If you are trying to lift 50 lbs but are unable to, the best way to reach your goal is to train with smaller weights in order to build up your strength and eventually reach your goal of lifting the 50 lbs. The same thing is true for reading, if you are reading at a first grade level in the third grade giving the child third grade reading material is a waste of time. The child might not be able to make enough progress to be reading on grade level by the end of the year but unless you intervene by giving the child reading at an appropriate level they will not make progress and will be even further behind at the beginning of fourth grade. I would phrase it to the principal in this way “Would you rather I work with this child at his level and help him to make a year’s growth this year or would you rather I instruct him on his frustration level and cause him to be even further behind next year?” The state test may be written at a level that is above that of the student but if I only give them instruction at the wrong level they will become frustrated with school and never catch up. When a baby is first born you do not start feeding them table food. In much the same way it is of no benefit to try to force upon a child reading that is beyond their ability to read. It is important that schools have access to reading materials at many different levels and students have the opportunity

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to read throughout the school day and at home. Right now I see budget problems with buying the amount of books it would take to make a year’s growth in one year. The only solution I see is for schools to quit wasting their money on all the latest intervention programs and text books and instead buy books that are leveled so students can have access to material that is on their instructional level. The instructional level is the level at which a child can read fluently with at least 95% accuracy. Right now students if students are in classes where all the reading is at grade level at least half of the class is reading at a level of frustration. In class we read a paragraph where most of us were reading with about 90% accuracy, we did not understand what we read and became frustrated trying to read it. Many students who put in this situation become frustrated with reading and often times frustrated with school.

Jessica Dover

Question 3

A. A working orthographic knowledge is necessary to become an accomplished reader because a reader needs a basic knowledge of letters and how they work in print to be able to read or decode what is written. Students need knowledge of beginning and ending sounds because they need to be able to accurately track. Once student have a concept of word they can start focusing on the letters that make up each of the individual words and begin to understand how vowels work. Students need orthographic knowledge to keep the words pat, pet, pit, pot, and put apart. In order to become an accomplished reader a student needs to pay attention to all the letters in each word. Even after a reader becomes an accomplished reader he or she still pays attention to all the letters in a word. When the vowels are removed from a word it becomes extremely difficult for even an accomplished reader to read even a short passage. Also when mistakes are made within words the brain subconsciously detects this and sometimes makes the substitutions for us without our conscious attention. An accomplished reader can read more easily because they have a bigger sight vocabulary and have a greater understanding of spelling patterns and are therefore able to read even nonsense words if they follow familiar spelling patterns. An accomplished reader could read nonsense words like blick and wugging.

B. Reading for meaning in subjects such as social studies and science can help students not only increase their knowledge in the content areas but can also help them to improve their reading skills. Reading at independent level means that students are making 2 or fewer errors per 100 words. By independent reading for pleasure students are learning to enjoy reading and are able to practice comprehending as well as increasing their phonics knowledge. By using context clues students can figure out words that they probably could not read out of context. By reading these new words students are using context as well as what they know about how phonics / letters and sounds work to figure out words. Students are also increasing their book language knowledge when a teacher reads to them from an informational book. When a student has a question about a particular topic it is always more beneficial for the teacher to answer the question by reading from an accurate informational source rather than simply giving an explanation for the question; this way the child is learning how to search for answers in books and from other print media and their book language knowledge is being increased by listening to and comprehending ideas that are written rather than communicated orally.

When students feel free to make spelling mistakes when writing for genuine purposes they will try to write words that they don’t already know how to spell. They might start applying spelling patterns they have seen in reading or word study, but most importantly they will begin making a hypothesis as to how something is spelled. They will then make accommodations in their own theories as to how words are spelled when they see the correct spelling. (Vygosky) Students will increase their phonics knowledge because they will have to try to find what letters make the sounds they hear in the words they are

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trying to spell. At the beginning students might only be able to spell using letter names and beginning sounds. As they have more practice they will begin to use ending sounds and eventually start using vowels. With more practice students will learn how to spell in a more effective manner than if spelling correctly is forced upon them before they are ready for it. Students will come across more words in reading than you could possibly teach in word study of vocabulary lessons. Reading is the best way to help students to learn these new words because they are used in a real world context rather than being memorized in isolation. With more reading, word study and writing for genuine purposes students will increase their word recognition in and out of context; helping to build their sight vocabulary.

Jessica Dover

Question 4

A. In the sentence; “The none tolled hymn she had scene a pare of bare feat in hour rheum” an accomplished reader feels confused because the words used to make up the sentence are homonyms for the words that make up the meaning of the sentence. While reading the sentence an accomplished reader translates the sentence into “The nun told him she has seen a pair of bare feet in our room.” For a person who is an accomplished reader the meaning processor works together with the orthographic processor to understand what the sentence is trying to say. For a less accomplished reader the orthographic processor is working so hard to figure out what the words say that the meaning process might not recognize that the wrong words are being used. After students learn that the English writing system uses a spelling system that combines phonics and meaning they will see why someone would be confused reading the sentence. If a student is relying heavily on phonetically decoding the sentence they will be unable to focus as much on the meaning, however when the decoding becomes more automatic they will be able to focus on the meaning and become confused by the misuse of words.

B. The fact that a reader was not confused by the sentence “The none tolled hymn she had scene a pare of bare feat in hour rheum” can be inferred to mean that the student has not reached the stage of an accomplished reader. In order for that student to reach the stage of an accomplished reader he or she needs to do lots of reading. Students not only need a knowledge of how phonics work but also need to understand how different words that sound alike can mean different things. Through the use of word study that includes homophones students can begin to understand that some words contain phonetic patterns that are tied to meaning and not a one to one correspondence system between the letters and phonic sounds. Once student understand that spelling patterns are sometime tied to meaning they will better understand spelling. The orthographic and meaning processors will only become more closely connect in the mind after a student has completed large amounts of reading across meaning school years. When a student becomes a more fluent reader and does not have to focus on the decoding aspect of reading their mind will be freed up to focus more on the words themselves and on meaning.

Jessica Dover

Question 5

Being read to from books with rich language and compelling plots is important in grades k-3 to help children reach success when they begin to be asked to analyze, comprehend, and work with harder texts. Listening to book language helps students develop a greater vocabulary than can be taught by simply studying vocabulary words.Book language can be learned in the same way as oral language is learned, through exposure. Adults use the same 15,000-18,000 words when speaking as many 5 year olds do; however textbooks written for high school students include a 40,000 word vocabulary. Exposure to book language through books that are read aloud and books on tape serves as a way for students to hear vocabulary used in context that otherwise they would not hear in everyday conversation. This will help them be better able to comprehend what they read in grades 4 and up. More privileged students enter school having heard up to 1,000 hours of book language or having been read to roughly 1,000 hours in their young lives. For less privileged children the first three to four years of school it is critical that their teachers read to them in order to build up this book language vocabulary. Through read alouds teachers can make an effort to help level the playing field, this is important because the comprehension of book language becomes critical in grades 4 through high school. By listening to and comprehending fairy tales students will be exposed to all types of characters that they will encounter in much of western literature.

Jessica Dover

Question 6

Non standard dialect effects on:A. Word recognition and phonic/ spelling The dialect that one speaks has Word little to no effect on word recognition, phonics and spelling because spelling has evolved to fit all dialects for example the words fire, tire, hire, and wire all rhyme no matter what dialect you speak. Therefore when you learn phonics and spelling your dialect will match up phonetically. The problem comes when a teacher tries to force another dialect on a student and can confuse their spelling patterns for example of the teach says fire is spelled f-i-r-e and far is spelled f-a-r a student whose dialect pronounces fire like far could become confused with the spelling patterns. The same thing for students who say butta for butter or idear for idea, they could become confused with which spelling patterns match with which phonetic patterns if the teacher tries to phonics in a dialect other than the one they already speak.

B. Reading ComprehensionSince book language is a dialect that is not spoken a person’s dialect should not have any effect on that person’s ability to comprehend what is read. Comprehension trouble could come when a person has not been exposed to book language and does not understand what they are reading. Book language is a language that belongs to everyone and is only “spoken” in books. We all share book language so it is not like a standard dialect that we are trying to learn.

C. Written compositionsStudents need to be taught that book language is a language that we all share and that it is not a spoken language but rather a language used in books and writing. Students need to become familiar with book language in order to become successful writers. Dialects can play a role in written composition because if students are trying to write like they talk they will not be successful writers. That is true of everyone who speaks because all of us speak a dialect that is far removed from the language of books. Written sentence structures are very different from oral sentence structures. Students need lots of exposure to book language as well as opportunity to practice using book language through writing for genuine purposes.

D. Attitude towards literacyDialect can affect one’s attitude toward literacy. In the past all people have not been given the opportunity to be literate therefore the cultures and dialects of the literate and illiterate have been different. If a student believes that his or her dialect is inferior they may show some resistance to literacy. Feeling that someone who thinks they are superior is trying to impose literacy upon you cause a student to resist learning to read, write or speak a standard dialect of English. When only one dialect is used in an educational setting, students whose dialect is different from that will have a harder time becoming literate and may become frustrated as a result and eventually that frustration will lead to a negative attitude towards literacy in general.

Jessica Dover

E. ThinkingDialect does not affect one’s ability to think. Being able to express complex or even simple thoughts to one another may be difficult for people with starkly different dialects but the ability to think or reason is in no way hindered by what dialect or language you speak. If however you are able to speak multiple dialects or languages your thinking could possibly be enhanced because you would possess a boarder vocabulary in which to express yourself.

F. Oral communication of complex, abstract thoughts Oral communication of complex, abstract, thoughts can be expressed in any dialect. Depending on the audience standard dialects are preferred in order to have a greater understanding among different dialects, but it is possible to communicate complex thoughts in any dialect because dialect is not related to intelligence.

G. EmploymentIn purposes of employment it is important that someone speak a standard dialect of English. Anyone can learn another dialect and it is important to use a standard dialect to help gain employment. This does not mean that a standard dialect of English makes one more intelligent but because of prejudices it is important that one speak a standard dialect of English to be respected in the work world. If your classroom is made of up people who speak various dialects then once you have established a safe community environment within your classroom you can discuss how to code switch among more than one dialect. This could first be tested by segregating the different dialect groups in your class, and picking one dialect to mimic throughout the class. This would not work if students do not feel they are able to try something without fear of error or judgment from other students. Once the students have some practice in code switching between dialects you can talk more extensively about which types of dialects are considered standard and why it is important to use those dialects in certain situations. For example on television people general speak in standard dialects. You can use example of sports stars that have been used to advertise for their sponsors. For example some race car drivers are in commercials where they never speak because their dialect is considered nonstandard; likewise other sports stars change their natural dialect when endorsing certain products.

Jessica Dover

Question 7

A. There is a high correlation between the dialect one speaks and socioeconomic status. History has played a big role in the dialect that one speaks and whether that dialect is considered standard or non-standard. All dialects are equally grammatical and follow their own sets of rules. (Pinker) In the past the dialects that have come to be considered standard dialects are those dialects that have been spoken by people in power. The dialects that have been known as non standard dialects have generally been spoken by people who are poorer or not as influential in the political setting.

Some people have spoken a certain dialect that has become part of their culture. For example the African American dialect has become such an ingrained part of their culture that when an African American speaks a standard dialect they are accused by others in their community of trying to be white. Everyone has the ability to learn another dialect and to code switch between those dialects as need be, but because of social pressures and attitudes oftentimes people resist learning another dialect or speaking a standard dialect of English.

I speak with an Appalachian mountain dialect and I was always somewhat ashamed of that. When I first started college, if someone asked me what I said I would completely rephrase my answer so as not to be ridiculed for my dialect. Once I was in this class and learned that all dialects are equally grammatical even though they are not equally accepted and that book language is only in books and not in oral language I felt liberated. I then felt that it was ok to speak my own dialect rather than try to conform to a standard dialect. I think that this feeling is similar to what some other dialects that are non standard feel. I think it is important to teach children respect for their own dialect but at the same time instruct them in a standard dialect and teach them that book language is not oral language written down but rather a dialect that belongs to us all.

B. There is a high correlation between the dialect one speaks and literacy because literacy is also related to socioeconomic status. Some dialects are spoken by people who have lived in poverty or have been oppressed. These people have not always had the same opportunities to become literate that some other people who speak what are considered a more standard dialect of English. When students feel that their teacher has a prejudice against their dialect they may resist learning another dialect or they may resist become literate because of cultural pressures or attitudes about literacy.

Jessica Dover

Question 8

Language Acquisition Device

A. Noam Chomsky inferred that we are born with a language acquisition device that is preprogrammed to learn language. Some of the reasons that he and others believed this to be true is because children begin speaking in one word utterances even though people around them speak in full sentences. Also children don’t simply repeat what is heard around them. They create unique sentences and apply grammar rules. Children often misuse or over generalize rules and say things like goed even when no one around them has ever said goed.

B. Children are able to listen to language, make sense of it and find the patterns so they are able to reproduce it for themselves. Even babies were able to tell the difference between phonemes so we are born with this ability. When babies first begin babbling the do so in a universal language, after more exposure to their own language their babble becomes more language specific. If children are read to as babies they even have a certain type of babbling that sounds like book language.

C. Book language can be acquired in much the same way as oral language. Learning to read the language of books however requires instruction not just exposure. Students who began speaking in one word utterances as toddlers have since lost the ability to pick apart the words and are speaking in phrases. Students have to be re-taught the concept of word in print. In order for students to acquire a sense of book language they need lots of exposure to rich language books, this can be accomplished through read alouds.

Jessica Dover

Question 9

Principles of Literacy1. You learn to read and improve in reading by reading.2. What you read must be not too easy and not too hard (at your reading instructional level).3. Your working knowledge of how letters work in words (spelling and phonics) limits what level of material you can read with fluency and comprehension.4. You primarily learn how letters work in words by reading relatively easy material and by writing without fear of spelling errors.5. Spelling and phonics instruction is also important, but it must be not too easy, and not too hard (at one’s spelling instructional level).6. Your working knowledge of book language limits what level of material you can read with fluency and comprehension.7. You learn to write and improve in writing by writing freely and without fear of error.8. Your working knowledge of how letters work in words limits how freely you can write.9. Your working knowledge of book language limits how clearly and eloquently you can write.10. You gain a working knowledge of book language by being read to, reading and discussing what you’ve read, and writing and getting feedback.11. Literacy attainment is a developmental process. The stages of development are universal, but the speed and ease of development are particular to the individual.12. If you’re scared of missing, you’ll never learn to shoot.

At my school some of the principles of literacy are being followed more than others. At my school the first grade reading time is for one hour in the morning. The students go to leveled reading groups. In the lower level reading groups the EC teachers co-teach with the regular ed teachers. Most of what they do is phonics instruction. Students who quote “don’t have a good grasp on phonics” are not given a reading book to take home. Some of the phonics activities that I have observed them doing are things such as letter sounds, consonant blends, and vowel study. They are divided into groups where in one group they read, one they do phonics, one they work on word families, and one they play some sort of game or do a worksheet. Not very much time is spent actually reading. They could combine the phonics word study group, do away with the worksheet group and spend more time on actually reading with the students. The students rotate to these different groups during the hour block of instruction. In the second grade reading group teachers use the early steps group methods in the lowest reading groups as one of the rotations. I have not observed this enough to know if they follow the protocol set forth in the early steps ideology or if they have adapted it to fit their own classroom.

The ideas of teaching at instructional level are somewhat honored at my school. Students have an hour of reading instruction at their appropriate level. However they also have instruction in their regular classroom of reading at their grade level. Over all struggling readers do not spend any more time reading than non-struggling readers.

Jessica Dover

Students are given the chance to write some things without fear of spelling mistakes, but this is not always the case. Students also spend time copying poems and other writings in an effort to work on their handwriting. I think handwriting is a byproduct of writing that will come as children are given plenty of opportunities to write for genuine purposes and with computer technology penmanship is not a vital skill of the twenty-first century.

Spelling and phonics instruction is not at the student’s instructional level, rather it is either based on their grade level reading books or phonics books that teach one concept per week, i.e. short a.

I work mainly in the primary grades and I am not sure how a student’s knowledge of book language affects their reading. However I do know that there is a wide gap in a student’s sense of story upon entering school. I do not see a lot of dictations taking place in the classroom so I am not sure that students are given a chance to write eloquently because so much of their writing time is spent trying to sound out words and make predictions of how to spell simple words. Some classrooms provide a better environment than others when it comes to working with writing freely and improving writing. I have worked with some students who are very open to the idea of writing without fear of error and for other students they have been so scared by the fear of being wrong that they refuse to try to write freely.

I think that many teachers have gone away from read alouds because they feel they do not have time to read and focus on the curriculum. They think of reading aloud as a waste of time or something to be fit in but not on an everyday basis. I think that most all of the people working in my school believe that literacy attainment is a developmental process but I do not think they always believe that the speed of the development is individual. Our school like most schools places a big emphasis on getting students on grade level.

Jessica Dover

Question 10

40% reading at instructional level30% writing for genuine purposes20% word study (spelling and phonics and morphology)10% being read to

In my school reading at instructional level is something that happens for part of the day but another part of the day is wasted with instruction at grade level. I feel that if instruction at grade level were eliminated there would be more time available for reading at instructional level. Some writing is done for genuine purposes but there is also a focus on handwriting in which children copy poems and other writings to hang in the hallways. I do not know if this is an effective use of class time because I feel that student’s handwriting will improve as they are writing for genuine purposes. Word study could be greatly improved. Right now the spelling words and vocabulary words come directly from the grade level reading book. The students in the younger grades have a phonics book that goes over one concept per week, so one week all the words have short a, the next week they all have short e, etc. I think if students were doing word study in the ways described in the Howard Street Tutoring Manual it would be on a more appropriate instructional level and they would benefit more from that type of study rather than memorizing how to spell words that are from a story that is already on the frustration level of half the students. During the reading group time some word study is done at the student’s instructional level but I have not observed this enough to know exactly how effective it is or how it should be changed. I think read alouds should be increased. There are several kindergarten classes that have story time as a regular part of the day, but past kindergarten I do not see many read alouds. When students go to the library they are read aloud to and every other month the Kiwanis club comes to give 1st graders a free book and some retired community member read to the students in groups of 3-5. But for the most part in 1st and 2nd grade the teachers spend little to no time reading aloud to the students.

Jessica Dover

Jessica Dover

Dr. Gill

RE 5100 Final Exam

December 9, 2009

Jessica Dover

Emergent Readers

1. A.a. Children learning the alphabet need to compare and contrast letters so they will have a clear idea of what distinctive features make each letter unique. By comparing the letters A and H students can see what the distinctive features of those two letters are so as not to confuse them. A teacher can start with letters that have very distinctive features and then once students know all their letters the teacher can allow them to compare letters that are more similar in nature for example Q and O E and F, etc.

b. Students also need to see letters in more than one font. Students need to become familiar enough with letters that they can recognize what letter is being represented when they encounter various fonts. Most programs that teach that are being used with children right now show a like a and g like g but when most students begin reading they will encounter a’s and g’s and will be expected to recognize those letters.

c. Students also need to practice forming letters themselves. Teachers should model the correct formation of letters and students need a chance to practice making that letter. Practice can be accomplished by allowing students the opportunity to play the letter production game. In which the teacher calls out a letter and students try to form the letter and then change it if need be. Students who are familiar with the letters will try to form the letter independently without looking an example as part of the letter production game. Then once the correct formation of the letter is revealed the students will have the opportunity to go back on their hypothesis and change their letter to match the correct one. This method is effective in helping the students to remember how to create letters because it uses Vygotsky’s theory of disequilibrium. When the students hypothesis is not equal with the correct letter their brain will have to change its way of thinking.

B. To assess a beginning kindergartner’s knowledge of letter you can use p.66 in the Howard Street Tutoring Manual. On this assessment the teacher will point to the letters that are arranged randomly beginning with upper case letter on the top half of the page, followed by lowercase letters on the bottom half of the page. The teacher would point to letters and ask questions like “what’s that?”, “can you tell me the name of that letter?” etc. To make the assessment process faster and easier for the teacher you can assess the lowercase letters first. The rationale is that if the students know the lower case letters they know the uppercase as well, if however they are struggling with the lowercase letters you can back up to the uppercase letters. If the students miss a couple of the lowercase letters you can show them the same letter in uppercase and see if they are able to identify it. For example if a student calls a “r” a “k” ask R and K in uppercase. For kids who did not know uppercase letters show

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them the letter in order and see if they can point to the correct letter while singing the alphabet song or if they can simply recited the letters and accurately track them. Once you know what type of skills each child has you can group them accordingly so you will best serve them and not waste time. Students who know their uppercase letters should work on learning lowercase letters. Students who can track the ABCs should be working on the uppercase letters and students who could not track the ABC should be working to accurately track the letters while reciting them or while singing the ABC song.

C. a. Students need to learn the names of letters before they learn the phonetic sound associated with each letter. Students need to practice this with a long strip of paper containing the alphabet. Students can use the ABC song to help them memorize the letters and to practice accurately tracking the letters as they sing the song. When you come to the point of LMNO students can practice slowing it down and even imitate a singer with a deep/low voice as a way to focus in on each letter’s name. The easiest way for students to learn to track the letter is to first learn the song and then practice tracking. This stage will come before learning the letters in isolation because until they know the letter names they will not be able to recognize them in isolation.

b. Students need to recognize letters in isolation. To begin teaching this students can use long strips of paper that contain the alphabet and to try and find a letter when the teacher calls it out. Students can try and guess which letter the teacher is writing on the board before the letter is completely finished and then once the letter is complete check it using their alphabet strips. Once students master this step they will be ready to work on sorting letters.

c. Students need to produce letters in isolation to practice to help them with their recognition of those letters in isolation. Students can play the Letter Production Game. In this game the teacher calls out a letter. Then the students try to produce that letter on their own paper without the aid of their alphabet strips. After everyone has made a guess the students care then allowed to check their answers using their alphabet strips. If the letter they produced does not match the correct formation of the letter from the alphabet strip they can change their letter. This will help them in their ability to recognize letters because they are first making a hypothesis and then making accommodations or assimilating that knowledge within their mind as need be.

d. & e. Students can begin to sort letters once they have become familiar with recognizing letters in isolation. Students sorting letters would have about four letters that they are working on at a time. The teacher could prepare a bag with 24 cards, 6 of each of the four letters they are studying. The students will say the name of the letter and place it in the correct column. This is accomplished in a similar way to a word sort. Each week four new letters are introduced for the letter sort. The previous week’s letters will be placed in a box or some other

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container so the students can practice sorting those letters for speed during sometime of the day. Each student could do this with a buddy to help them time it and keep a count of how many they accurately identified. It is extremely important that students become very fluent with their letter naming skills. Once they have a good grasp on the letter names they can begin to focus more on letter sounds and phonics. After students start to get somewhat of a grasp of the letter names they need to be shown a variety to fonts. This way students will have clearer mental image of what makes an “a” and “a” and what makes a “g” a “g” so that when the encounter those letters in reading they will be familiar with them.

2. To conduct a language experience with students who are spelling in a letter like stage the first step is to give them some sort of experience. After they have had some sort of experience read to the students from a rich language book that relates to the experience. For example if you are watching gold fish swim in an aquarium read to them a nonfiction book about gold fish. This will give them the experience of hearing terms written in book language rather than you just orally explaining facts about gold fish.

a. For students who shared a common experience you can take short dictations in many different ways. One way is by using group dictations. With this method each child says a sentence about the experience and it is recorded on chart paper or on the board. The goal is for the students to say it word at a time while the teacher writes it with big spaces between the words. Students should pay attention to each other and try to reread the dictation. Another method is to play a Santa Claus of sorts and first have the children whisper to you or a tape recorder what they have to say about the experience and then have the children return to their seats where they will write what they have just said. Yet another method is to simply allow the students to go to their seats and write about their experience then they can come and read it to you. Once the students have completed their writings and tell you what they say you, the teacher, can write under the child’s writing the correct version of what they child has written. Ask the student to point to the correct writing and practice reading/tracking it even though they are unable to accurately track at the random letter stage. After more than one child has finished and memorized their writing they can teach their story to someone else, this can continue until everyone can read all the short dictations. If the dictations are turned into a class book the students can practice reading/tracking. It is important to have the students writing first before drawing the picture because when students are drawing their pictures they are telling the story.

b. For a longer personal narrative a student will tell the teacher about a particular experience in the form of a story. For example the teacher may ask “Tell me about your soccer game.” When taking dictations the teacher should listen to the story first ask questions, and then have the student repeat the story slowly so the teacher can write it down. The teacher should ask the

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student to tell the story one word at a time but a student who cannot track and does not have concept of word will not be able to tell you the story one word at a time but they should be able to say it in small chunks. For emergent readers it is ok to take dictations in their dialect, but once a student is a beginning reader you can try to help them write it in book language. Once the personal narrative is completed it might tke up ½ to 1 page. The teacher should break the story into phrases of 3-6 words and put those phrases on pages in a small book. The students can illustrate the book and practice tracking. The reason to only do about 3-6 words per page is to help the students to have a great chance of success when attempting to track their stories. This will give the practice in moving towards the beginning reader stage.

B. You would do the same thing for students who are spelling with some beginning consonants. Once students are spelling with some beginning consonants you would expect them to be better able to track when rereading their dictations. Also on the personal narratives the students might be able to reread the story in chunks larger than 3-6 words without getting off track. When a student does get off track you can redirect their attention to the beginning letter of the word to help them get back on track.

3. A.a. Students who are random letter spellers point to words when they are shown a written version of a text they have already memorized because they are learning to focus on the spaces between words and see that written text is not a just a string of letters but that it is broken into smaller units. These students will not be able to accurately point to the words especially if the text contains many words that are more than one syllable because the students do not yet have a concept of word.

b. Students who say a stressed word or a stressed group of words each time they point to a written word of memorized text do so because they are tracking or pointing based on a the natural rhythm of the text. These students do not yet have a concept of word; however they understand or see that words are separated on a page. They point to those words as they say each part of the beat. For example a student at this stage might say Sam Sam the baker man, washed his face in a frying pan without being able to point to all the words. They might say baker and point to baker and man because baker has two syllables and without a concept of word it seems logically to them to move to the next word after saying bak.

B.

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a.Students who are spelling with beginning consonants do not necessarily spell with ending consonants yet because they have not fully understood beginning consonants. Learning happens in stages and these students are still working in the beginning consonants stage. They are focused on connecting the beginning sound with the letter that makes a similar sound, so they have not yet freed up enough of their mental energy to worry about the sounds at the end of the word. b. These students point to a word each time they say a syllable in text because they do not have a concept of word yet. It makes sense to them to move their finger along with the beat of the language or between each syllable.c. These students can be taught how to accurately track and keep on track by using their knowledge of beginning sounds to say the correct word while point to the correct word in a written text they have memorized and are tracking. If the students make a mistake you can call their attention to the beginning consonant of a word to help them stay on track when reading.

4. A child is ready to begin to learn beginning consonants when they are spelling with random letters. Once they start to understand beginning consonants you can show them how to apply that when reading to keep them on track. Once students have a firm grasp on the alphabet and have some phonetic knowledge of those letters they can begin to learn beginning consonants. For students who know at least 15-20 letters of the alphabet you can start introducing beginning consonants. These students however will not yet know phonetic rules.

B. Students can learn beginning sounds through picture sorts. In your picture sorts use the letter that represents the sound as the heading for the sort. Have students sorting picture cards into each column based on their beginning sound. Don’t use words because the students will simply match up the letters. Bird in the B column and cat in the C column, etc. The columns will be contrasted because there are distinct sounds at the beginning of each word but within the columns there will be different allophones represented. For example the /c/ when you say cat is different from the /c/ when you say cute. Students at this stage are not yet ready for word sorts but picture sorts are an effective way for them to test out or practice their knowledge of beginning consonants.

C. At this stage students are working with picture sorts instead of word sorts because students are only working with the beginning sound. If all the words have the same beginning sound then students would focus on the visual cues of spelling and not necessarily the phonetic sound when sorting.

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Beginning Readers

1. Children can learn to accurately track when they are spelling with beginning and ending consonants because they are paying attention to the first and last letter of each word therefore they are using enough phonics knowledge to accurately track a passage they are familiar with. When students had only a limited knowledge of beginning consonants they could stay on track somewhat but with knowledge of beginning and ending sounds they are more likely to be successful when tracking because they are focusing their attention on more than one part of the word.

2. Complete phonemic awareness is usually achieved after a child can accurately track or has a concept of word because to achieve complete phonemic awareness children/students need to be using vowels in their writing and understanding how vowels work in words. In the stages of development this comes after beginning and ending consonants, once students have a beginning and ending consonant knowledge they can accurately track. When they can accurately track they can do so because they have a concept of word. Vowel knowledge comes after this. At first students are cueing into the beginning and ending sounds in words but eventually they will realize that there needs to be some way to distinguish words such as pat, pet, pit, pot and put. When they come to realize the purpose of vowels and how they work in words they will have become phonemically aware. This happens after a child has a concept of word and is accurately tracking familiar text.

3. Sight vocabulary develops only after a child can accurately track because then they have knowledge of beginning and ending sounds and before that they did not know which word was which they were simply repeating a memorized phrase or story while attempting to track. Once you are accurately tracking the words they you can pay more attention to what those words look like. A student will come across certain words repeatedly and each time those words will look the same eventually those words will become sight words to a child.

4. A. A beginning reader is sometimes called a support reader because they can only read with support. This support can come from the teacher through echo and choral reading or from the text in the form of pictures. These readers are not yet able to pick up a book cold and read it without support of some kind.

B. The kind of support that is needed from the material is pictures that illustrate what is happening in the story or that give clues as to what is coming up in the text. For example in a pattern book of “I like to ___” a picture of a child swimming would lead the reader to think that the sentence is going to say “I like to swim.”

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C. A teacher can give support by going through the book and allowing the support reader to echo read each sentence after him or her. Or the teacher can have the student choral read the book along with the teacher.

5. A reader who is developing sight vocabulary is doing so mainly through reading and rereading text. However it is also beneficial for that student to practice reading words in isolation to help build their sight vocabulary. The words that should be practiced in isolation should always be words that the reader has been exposed to in text and not new words. This will give the student more exposure to those words and help ensure that the reader is not relying too heavily on context for word recognition. Once the student works with words in their word bank they will begin to focus on all of the letters that make up that word rather than the context and beginning sounds. Eventually they will come to recognize the difference between words such as horse and house. Once the student is no longer a beginning reader an actual word bank is no longer necessary, because they will have the word bank in their mind and will continue to add words to their mental word bank.

6. Once students have words from several stories in their word bank they will have to pay attention to all the letters in the word to make distinguish between words such as horse and house. (refer to question 5)

7. Three day rotationDay one: Introduce a pattern story book. Read and reread with whatever support the students need until they can read on their own. This support can be in the form of choral and/or echo reading. Once the students can read the story on their own have them do so.

Day two: Have the students first reread the previous day’s story without help. This is to be accomplished individually. During this process the teacher will walk around and listen for accuracy 95-100%. If the students can’t read with 95-100% accuracy the book is too hard. Once the students have finished reading close the book and give the student words from the story on cards. Have the students make two piles on of words they know and one of words they do not know. What they know will go into their word bank this word bank can be an envelope or box of words. The words that the student does not know should go into a Magic Box. During free time the students can practice the words in the Magic Box. After the word study introduce another book the same way you did in day one.

Day three: Begin with the word bank. Check to see that the words the student knew yesterday they still remember today. Reread yesterday’s story

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and practice those words just the same way you did on Day 2. Introduce a new story in just the same way you did on Day 1. Now you have completed a three day cycle and you will repeat day three activities until the students have built enough sight vocabulary to become self reliant readers. Old stories can be placed in baskets for independent reading. Beginning readers can only read independently books that they have already read because they are not yet self reliant readers. The goal of the three day cycle is to build sight vocabulary by reading and rereading. Once they have about 100-200 words in the word bank and can read a book like Baby Bear Goes Fishing the first time with 95% accuracy they no longer need to keep a physical word bank.

8. The first word family is more challenging because two columns have words that have the same ending consonant sound. For words such as hit and hat or fit and fat students might become confused because they are at a stage where they are only focusing on beginning and ending sounds. They are then forced to look at the vowel in the middle to decide which column to put hat and hit in. The second group of word families is easier and would be used with a beginning reader when first starting word sorts. This is easier because the beginning and ending consonants are different and a student can be successful at the word sort with a knowledge of only beginning and ending consonants. Once the students are master the stage a word sorts then they can begin to work on stage b word sorts where they will have to focus their attention on the vowel rather than just on the beginning and ending consonant sounds.

Jessica Dover

Self Reliant Readers

The Directed Reading Activity and the Directed Reading/Thinking Activity appear very similar at first glance but they differ in several key issues.

VocabularyThe basal series suggests that you teach new words to the students. The DRTA method suggests that students learn vocabulary from context and that direct teaching of vocabulary is not necessary.

For the basal series teaching vocabulary is about picking out words to preteach to the class. While using a basal series I have had children say things like “this says new words but they are not new words for me”. Because each person is unique in their own experiences and vocabulary it is impossible to know which words are truly going to be new words for the students. The DRTA understands this and focuses on allowing students to learn vocabulary through the context of the lesson. The DRTA method also realizes that if the text is at too high a level for the students to read they will not be able to comprehend it even if some of the “new” words are pretaught.

Background KnowledgeThe basal series suggests that teachers preteach or give enough background knowledge that no matter what the student’s previous experiences they will be able to understand the text.

The DRTA method understands that each student has their own unique prior experiences and comes to the lesson with varying amounts of background knowledge. You cannot build background knowledge by preteaching information, but rather by exposing the students to new experiences or having them read about different experiences.

The basal series is using the idea of background knowledge as a way for teachers to give away all the information about a story before the students even read the story. One reason for this is because the text are at grade level rather than instructional level and the text book companies have to have a way of show some success even if it is smoke and mirrors. The DRTA method realizes that students will gain background knowledge through life experience but they can also live vicariously through the characters they read about in stories. By reading lots of stories students will build background knowledge and preteach is not necessary.

Purpose SettingThe basal readers give away all the information in the beginning activities and pre teaching because they know that the story is on the frustration level of at least half of the class.

The DRTA method understands that people automatically understand things better when they read for a purpose. They also automatically predict what is going to happen

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next if they are interesting in something. Purpose for natural reading is to test out your own hypothesis or guess as to what is going to happen in the story, you become interested in reading to see if your hypothesis or guess was correct.

If in the preview lesson before the text is read a student is told what is going to happen in the story then the guessing is removed from reading. If students are not guessing or predicting what is going to happen next in a story then they will not be engaged in active reading and will not comprehend the story. If the students have the opportunity to predict what they think will happen in the story and then read to see if their predictions are true they are more involved in the reading and will comprehend more.

QuestioningThe basal series asks mainly questions related to events in the story only after the story has been read.The DRTA method asks questions before reading. The DRTA asks what do you think is going to happen next? What makes you think that? What proves that? before reading the story. Then after reading it asks was you prediction correct?

Basal series question events that happened in the story only after the reader has read the story. It is just a form of regurgitating facts without much thinking. The DRTA has the students question what could happen in the next scene or passage throughout the story. The students have to think what would seem logical to occur next and might be asked to defend their answer. This takes a high order of thinking than simply recalling facts from the story.

Comprehension StrategiesThe basal series tries to teach comprehension strategies and focuses on one strategy per story for example reading to find the main idea.The DRTA method realizes that if students are interested in the reading or have a purpose for reading they will better comprehend the text.

The basal series tries to teach comprehension strategies that good readers automatically do. The reason they focus on teaching these strategies is because the reading is on grade level and not instructional level. They realize that about half of the students are not going to be able to comprehend the text and so rather than offer leveled readings they simply try to teach students how to look good at faking it. The DRTA method realizes that students will comprehend automatically if the text is at the appropriate level. Also to aid in comprehension the DRTA sets up the purpose for reading by having the students guess and read to see if their guess accurate. This method helps students to comprehend more naturally than focusing on one particular comprehension strategy.

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Word Sorts

Short Vowel

cut (p) bed (p) van(p) ?cup get map wasbug peg fat what

1. These words were selected because they were words that contained the same short vowel sound as the picture card. They did not rhyme and were therefore only focusing on the vowel sound.

2. Words were selected for the question mark column that appeared to have a short vowel but the sound did not fit with any of the other columns.

Long Vowels

bell(p) green(p) heat(p) ?dress teeth speak headbest speed beach been

1. The words were chosen for the columns to contrast between the short e and long e sounds. Bell, best, and dress all had a short e sound. Green, Teeth, and speed all had double e’s with a long e sound. Heat, speak, and beach had ea creating a long e sound.

2. The other column had some irregular words that looked like they could fit in one of the other columns but their sound did not match.

R controlled Vowels

drink (p) skirt (p) tire(p) ?drip bird fire liarbrick girl tired bride

1. The words were selected to distinguish between the r controlled vowels and words that contained r and the same vowel. In the first column all the words have r in the beginning sound but the vowel is short i. In the second column the words have an r controlled vowel. In the third column the words contain an r but the vowel is a long i.

2. The word that were chosen for the question mark column contained words that sounded like they should fit one of the other three columns but they did not have the same spelling pattern.