morganadams13

[morganadams13]

Park - 4/12/23

Big Takeaways:

Critical literacy is the way we "speak back" to text and "read the world"

We should find strategies to teach students to bridge critical literacy and reading instruction

Visualizing is a tool for reading comprehension and critical literacy that works with adolescent readers because it helps them to better understand themselves from a reader perspective

Nuggets:

Hearing about literacy from a more critical perspective was interesting because I had never heard a lot of these things before. I did not know how much we should be treating texts as a way to explore the world and learn more about the world

On the 5th page in a box on the side, the author wrote, "Visualizations are informed by and reveal the readers' identities and worldviews." I loved reading this and it really opened my eyes to the fact our visualizations while we read help us to learn more about the world and make our own judgments

----------------------------------------------------------------------------Readerly Exploration: Choose an excerpt from your assigned course reading(s) and share with a family member to get his or her insight and perspective on it.

Immediately when I decided to do this topic, I knew exactly which family member I was going to talk to. My mom and my sister I thought would be perfect examples because they have both had strong opinions on literacy topics in the past. I asked my mom (pictured on the left) what she thought critical literacy was, and she said, "The reading that is really important for kids to learn." When I asked my younger sister Megan (pictured in the middle), who is a senior in high school, she thought critical literacy was, "Criticizing English writing such as poems and books. My youngest sister, Makenzie (pictured on the right) , who is a junior in high school said, "The essential knowledge and thinking of a book." After they gave me their thoughts on what critical literacy was, I told them the actual definition as written in the text. The text definition was, "The capacity to 'speak back' to written texts, considering questions such as who wrote the text, for whom, and in what context...It can also mean the capacity to 'read the world' and question the basic assumptions of society." They had a lightbulb moment when I read them these sentences from the text. To put this in instructional design terms, my mom and sisters moved from the external process to the internal process of learning. My mom went on after I gave the definition to say, "Critical literacy helps you to gain a better understanding of the story being told and about the world we live in." She is exactly right, because critical literacy is an important thing for students to learn today. When I asked her what she thought of visualizing, she responded with, "I think visualizing helps you to understand it because you are playing it out like in a movie in your head." I agree with what my mom is saying because visualizing is a whole new way of teaching comprehension and building on those critical literacy skills. As it mentions in the title, visualization is the bridge between comprehension and critical literacy. I liked hearing different perspectives from my mom and sisters because all of us have had different experiences with literacy and especially with reading comprehension, so it was really fun to teach them about what I have learned in class and this article.

Evidence:

This is my mom (left), my sister Megan (middle), and my sister Makenzie (right) talking about the article by Park on critical literacy and visualization

[morganadams13]

Manyak - 3/20/23

Big Takeaways:

There are four principles to enhancing vocabulary instruction that include; Establishing efficient yet rich routines for introducing target words, providing review experiences that promote deep processing of target words, responding directly to student confusion by using anchor experiences, foster universal participation and accountability

Within providing review experiences that promote deep processing, there are four activities given as an example such as; connect two, two-in-one, character trait writing, concept word prècis writing

There are so many approaches to vocabulary instruction given to teachers and a wide variety of activities

Nuggets:

I always knew vocabulary instruction had a lot of components and moving parts to it, but I never realized how intricate all of them really were

I was surprised to see that dictionary definitions were said to had "limited effectiveness" because I always thought they would be good to include somewhere in vocabulary instruction. However, they should not be the center of vocabulary instruction because it does not force the students to go beyond a declarative level with those new words, and we want them to expand it to new contexts

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Readerly Exploration: After you read, sit down with a classmate after you have both done the assigned reading and discuss what you found to be the most compelling about what you read and the least compelling

When I was talking to Mati, we discussed some of the things we thought were most and least interesting about this article. Mati said the least compelling section of the article was establishing rich routines. She said, "I feel like we push routines so much that it is already embedded in our processing as teachers to do that." I told her that my least compelling thing I learned from the article was when the author mentioned something about teaching dictionary definitions. Mati was on the same page with me when I told her I thought dictionary definitions could be useful sometimes in vocabulary instruction. In the article, it said to steer away from using dictionary definitions as a larger part of vocabulary instruction. I disagreed with this a bit because I think using dictionary definitions can actually be a helpful way to teach the meaning of words. It gives students a clear cut example of what the word means. However, using dictionary definitions as the core part of teaching vocabulary I think is where I would draw the line. There has to be other parts incorporated as well. Mati agreed with me when I said this. Mati thinks the most compelling section was fostering universal participation and accountability. She said, "As teachers, we are always searching for ways for our students to participate in topics that are not necessarily interesting to them. I also like that it discusses assessments relevant to student learning and procedural usage of vocabulary." I agreed with this because we are always being taught about how to instruct vocabulary but not as much about how we should assess it in relevant and authentic ways. I also thought this was very compelling because we should be encouraging our students to transfer the new word knowledge over to new context to extend their procedural knowledge. Mati and I were on the same page with a lot of the things mentioned in the article, and we both learned a lot from reading it and taking about it together. We stayed on FaceTime for a decent amount of time talking about it!

Evidence:

Here is a picture of Mati and I discussing the reading together over FaceTime

[morganadams13]

Gambrell -2/6/23

Big Takeaways:

There are 7 rules of engagement when trying to motivate students to read. Those rules consist of student are more motivated when; the reading tasks and activities are related to their lives, they have access to a wide range of reading materials, they have ample opportunities to engage in sustain reading, they have opportunities to make choices about what they read and how they engage in and complete literacy tasks, they have opportunities to socially interact with others about the text they are reading, they have opportunities to be successful with challenging texts, classroom incentives reflect the value and importance of reading

It is hard to transition students from not reading over the summer to jumping right back into it when the school year start

Engagement is a huge part of getting students to intrinsically motivate themselves on a continual basis, and it is something that a lot of students struggle with

Nuggets:

There were so many different suggestions and tips to implement those engagement strategies in the literacy classroom. I liked the idea of a reading diary to help them become more aware of what they are reading, to start students off with reading for short periods of time right at the beginning of the year, and have the student share their thoughts about what they read with their peers

I love the quote on the fifth page at the bottom that says, "Success with challenging reading tasks provides students with evidence of accomplishment, resulting in increased feelings of competence and increased motivation." This is so inspiring for students and for teachers because it provides a motivation to keep working through things that are hard and keep working until you accomplish them. This is great for students because they often get frustrated with tougher tasks and want to quit. If teachers can implement this in their classrooms, it will be good for students to keep working at challenging things and get that rewarding feeling when they finally accomplish it

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Readerly Exploration: Choose one resource in the citations of the assigned reading(s), track it down and read it

In the references section of the Gambrell article, I found another research article by Thomas White and James Kim entitled, "Teacher and Parent Scaffolding of Voluntary Summer Reading." Increasing the amount voluntary reading among students would be a dream come true for both parents and teachers. It would decrease the dreaded "summer slide" when students lose their skills over the summer after being out of practice with them for so long. There are many factors as to why students do not read over the summer. It could be things such as not having access to books, no motivation, not being able to afford books, or other causes. However, despite all of these issues, teachers can use their instructional strategies to help motivate students to read over the summer. The article specifically mentions that teachers can implement lessons at the end of the school year that teach and scaffold comprehension strategies for students to use at home when they are reading by themselves. The teachers can gradually release the students over the course of the last few weeks of school to give the students practice so they can apply it at home over the summer. It supports their motivation to read while working on their literacy skills at the same time. The authors conducted a study using these exact strategies to see if there would be an impact on the summer reading activity among the students. It was concluded there was a positive correlation between those strategies and the amount students read over the summer. Simple things such as matching books to students, teaching them comprehension strategies with scaffolding can go such a long way in getting students to improve their reading skills over the summer. Those students can even get a jump start on the upcoming school year with this instruction because they will have been practicing their reading. With these types of strategies in mind, the "summer slide" can be decreased more and more.

Evidence:

[morganadams13]

Tompkins et. al. Chapter 9 - 2/20/23

Big Takeaways:

Comprehension depends on reader factors and text factors, and the text factors are; genre, text structure, and text features

As for narratives, there are folklore, fantasies, and realistic fiction

There are 5 elements of narrative story structure that make up the whole thing; plot, characters, setting, point of view, and theme. In nonfiction story structures, there are 5 structures again; descriptions, sequence, comparison, cause and effect, and problem and solution

There are text features in nonfiction and fiction such as chapters, headings, subheadings, captions, figures, maps, highlighted vocabulary, glossaries, indexes, tables of contents, and so much more

When assessing knowledge of text factors, teachers use 4 steps of planning, monitoring, evaluating, and reflecting. These things help the assess student's knowledge of the text factors and what they have learned about the reading

Nuggets:

I really liked reading all of the comprehension strategies and reading/writing activities to incorporate these kinds of things into your lessons. I was able to relate some of these things to my field experience as I have seen some of these kinds of lessons be taught

There are a lot of activities that go along with stories that get the students visualizing what is going on and orally discussing it to support there comprehension. These things could include activities such as; story boards, hot seat, drawings, diagrams, story retelling, open-mind portraits, and more

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Readerly Exploration: Before you read, learn something about the author(s) of the assigned course reading(s) and note how what you learned impacts your motivation and/or your purpose for reading

Since we talk so much about Tompkins in class and a lot of our course readings come from that textbook, I thought this would be a good prompt for me to use for one of my readerly explorations. I wanted to learn a bit more about the author since we talk about her so much. Unfortunately, I searched for quite some time and did not find much about her. The only things I found were a list of all her books and her obituary from 2017. I was able to find a very small biography of her on Google, and it told me a little bit, but not much. Unfortunately, Gail E. Tompkins passed away back in 2017 after battling an illness for a short time. She was from Rhode Island, but traveled all over the world due to her father being in the Army. After earning an education degree from the University of Nebraska, she taught first grade for eight years before going back to get her Ed.D from Virginia Tech. After that, she started teaching at multiple colleges over a 25 year span, teaching all about reading and writing. After traveling through the midwest, she landed in Fresno, California at California State University. Tompkins was given multiple awards throughout her career for her works and her teaching. She is best known for writing multiple textbooks about how to teach reading, writing, and language arts to children. She worked with current and future teachers all over the country promoting the importance of teaching literacy skills to children and young teenagers. She was even inducted into the California Reading Association's Hall of Fame. She was such a huge advocate for literacy for children and early readers, that it helped me to realize how important it is to teach children these skills, and to teach them properly. This impacts my motivation to teach literacy greatly, because of all the different things Tompkins was able to accomplish throughout her life. More and more I am learning how important literacy instruction is starting from a young age, and how much of a foundation it builds for the rest of that child's life. I always knew how important it was and took it seriously, but this helped me to open my eyes just a little bit more to realize how important good literacy instruction truly is. Just simply teaching literacy is not enough, because we have to be good at it in order for our students to succeed like we want them to. Anyways, I learned a lot just by reading her obituary, which is an odd thing to get information from. Though, I was not able to find much on her except where to buy all of her books, so I used what I had.

Evidence:

Here is a picture of her obituary, where I learned a lot about her life and what all she accomplished throughout her life

[morganadams13]

Tompkins et. al. Chapter 8 - 2/13/23

Big Takeaways:

Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading instruction and is the most complex

There are reader factors and text factors that help to support comprehension

The complexity of a text can really determine comprehension, because it is going to be much harder to comprehend a text if it is difficult to read in the first place

Nuggets:

I noticed that there were more reader factors than text factors listed in the reading. It made me start thinking about which one is most important when trying to comprehend a text, and I think the fact that there are more reader factors concludes that the reader is the most important part of the comprehension skill

When I was reading all of these comprehension strategies, I realized I used some of them while I was trying to read this text even. This surprised me and helped me to realize how important these strategies are when teaching young readers how to comprehend a text

------------------------------------------------------------------------------Readerly Exploration: Identify a song that communicates the same or similar big ideas of the assigned reading and choose an excerpt that represents those shared ideals

When trying to think of a song that conveys this, I had a hard time. I listen to a lot of different types of music, but when I was shuffling through all of my playlists, I was looking for a specific kind of song. I was trying to look through all of the songs I know looking for something that related to this text. I was trying to look for something about how a person figures something out. Whether it is about love, life, or something deeper, that is what I was looking for. I thought this would be a good theme because when a reader is using reader factors are strategies to figure out the meaning of a text. I wanted to translate that into music by using my own comprehension skills. I used my own "reader factors" to look at and listen to the lyrics to figure out the meaning of the song, and this song helps to convey the message of figuring something out. This song is called "Start Over" by Flame and NF. It is a worship song on the warmup track for my basketball games, and I really like it. It talks about how even though you have had hard times, you can rely on Jesus to help you start over with a clean slate. He will always forgive you, and you can figure out a new life with Him by starting over. I thought this would be perfect to relate to this reading because not only did I have to use my own skills to comprehend the lyrics to figure out the meaning of the song, but the song is also figuring something out. We use our comprehension skills in things other than just reading. We use them in all different sorts of texts, and we went over last semester that text is not confined to just words. The first stanza of lyrics describes the meaning of the song right out of the gate, by telling the listeners that you can start over with Jesus, even if you have regrets in life because He gave His life for us. Again, this relates to the text from Tompkins because we can use our reader factors to not only comprehend the meaning of text, but we can also use it to comprehend the meaning of songs. This song is about figuring out how to change your life for the better with Jesus, and Tompkins expresses the different strategies students can use to figure out what a text means.

Evidence:

[morganadams13]

Tompkins et. al. Chapter 1 -1/30/23

Big Takeaways:

To have an effective learning environment, the classroom should be inviting, supportive and safe for everyone to make mistakes and learn from them. The classroom should be like a "family"

There are so many components that go into being an effective literacy teacher that are crucial to the success of the students

Create a classroom culture by setting routines and expectations from the beginning, and practice them with your students so they get in the habit of them and they become more natural

Scaffolding and differentiation are so important when teaching reading and writing

It takes a lot of knowledge and effort to be an effective literacy teacher

The principles of being an effective literacy teacher are; being knowledgable about learning, create a community of learners, use cueing systems, adopt balanced approach to instruction, scaffold reading and writing, organize literacy instruction, differentiate instruction, and link instruction and assessment

Nuggets:

I found it interesting how important it really is to teach in regards to the needs of the students rather than just going at a pace that could possibly leave them behind

I knew how difficult being an effective teacher is and how much goes into it. but there are so many intricate little things to keep in mind that I never thought about before. Wow teaching is such a work of art..

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Readerly Exploration: View the reading through a particular lens (faith, socioeconomic, disability studies, feminist, environmental, critical race theory, etc.) to consider the implications of the reading for a specific audience.

I think for this reading, it is pretty easy to look at this through a faith lens. One thing I have really learned in the past year, is that it is so easy to make everything you do in life for the glory of God. I learned how to glorify the Lord through basketball, and it is even easier to do it when you're teaching. 1 Corinthians 10:33 says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." Here, obviously the message is to do everything you do in your daily life to glorify God. Our words and our actions are a huge part of this, but the question is how can we do this through teaching? The answer is simple. When Tompkins is talking about all of the different principles of being an effective literacy teacher, us as Christian educators must do all of those things to the best of our ability. The effort we put into being the best teacher for our students helps to glorify the Lord because we are serving others. One other thing Tompkins emphasizes in this chapter is the concept of a healthy classroom environment. Think of it like a church environment. It is kind, gentle, holy, caring, respectful, tight-knit setting. A classroom should follow very similar guidelines. Make your classroom environment safe, respectful, kind, gentle, and loving in ways that ultimately glorify the Lord indirectly. Teach your students to do the right thing, which glorifies the Lord. It is so easy to see this through a faith lens because there are so many ways we can use teaching and education to glorify God, and Tompkins sets it up perfectly to see his points through this lens.

[morganadams13]

Tompkins et. al. Chapters 2 & 10 - 1/23/23

Tompkins Chapter 2

Big Takeaways:

There is a very important link between oral language and literacy

There are 3 stages of how students develop as readers and writers; emergent, beginning, and fluent

Promoting early literacy development helps students to become better readers and writers from an early age

Nuggets:

I really like how the book is so explicit with exact examples on how to teach concepts such as the alphabet, words, print, books, writing, and more to specifically give the students direct experience with these things

I realized when going through all of the real life classroom examples of how to promote these concepts that I am seeing these things in my field placement. I also see that it is so easy to incorporate these things into your daily routine to give the kids as much practice with these skills as possible, even when it is not simply sitting down and reading or writing

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Tompkins Chapter 10

Big Takeaways:

The reading process is a way of scaffolding a student's reading development

The reading process consists of 5 stages; pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying

The 5 stages of the reading process involve the 5 components of structured literacy; phonics, phonological awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension

Nuggets:

There are so many approaches to reading instruction that are seen everyday in the classroom, and it has really opened my eyes to wonder about how to use this in my own instruction one day

I love how the book gave specific examples of what this would look like in a classroom and gave examples of specific activities that supports the reading process and what a guided reading lesson should look like

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Readerly Exploration: After you read, create a work of art that represents/symbolizes your personal response to the readings.

I am not much of an artist, but I tried my bet to display what was going through my mind as I read both of these texts. I feel my drawing goes hand in hand with both of these readings from Tompkins rather than just one. My drawing is a depiction of what this would look like in a classroom. I tried to combine the two chapters of Tompkins because they go hand in hand with each other. The steps of the reading process are what helps to move children along in their reading development. It helps them to move from that beginning reader stage to the fluent stage. I drew the classroom teacher at the front of the room reading a children's book to the students and going through the different stages of the reading processes. When moving through each of the phases, the students are not only bettering their comprehension skills, but are also getting experience with all kinds of texts. I also tried to encapsulate the ideas and concepts of what this would look like in a real classroom, as mentioned in both chapters. I love all the examples the text gave because it definitely helped me not only in my comprehension, but allowed ideas to flow into my head that I could use when I am teaching in the future. I tried to draw the exact picture that was represented in my head as I was reading. I think this text was detrimental for me to read because it helped me not only make connections to my field experience, but it also gave me a clearer picture of what this kind of instruction would look life in real life.

Evidence:

[morganadams13]

Fischer (2016) - 11/28/22

Fischer, S. (2016). Reading with a crayon: Pre-conventional marginalia as reader response in early childhood. Children's Literature in Education, 48(2), 134–151. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-016-9292-4

Big Takeaways:

Scribbles that children make when they are reading tell us much more about their abilities than we would think

There are many subtle things that go over our heads that speak volumes about what a child is learning and how they are "reading"

The brains of children are amazing, and we can learn so much just by paying attention to the smallest things they do

Nuggets:

I thought it was so interesting that the most simple scribbles or lines on a page can tell us so much about a child and their reading abilities, and even their reading brains

I cannot wrap my head around the fact that all of this just flies under the radar with both parents and teachers

"Destroying" and writing on books may not necessarily be a bad thing all the time

------------------------------------------------------------------------------Readerly Exploration: Make a t-chart that lists struggles you encountered when working to comprehend the assigned course reading as well as the successes you had comprehending the reading

When making this t-chart, there were a lot of things I took into consideration. I thought about what my comprehension would have looked like if I had already debriefed this reading in class, and I realized that I probably would not have comprehended it as well. I definitely struggled figuring out definitions of some bigger words, but the key words at the top of the one page was definitely helpful. I did have to reread things a couple times just because that is something I usually have to do to comprehend what I am reading. Comprehension was something I struggled with early on as a reader, so I usually take a long time to process what I am reading. Though, applying this to things I have learned in literacy class definitely helped me to understand, and the discussion about it afterward cleared things up for me a lot. Without going over things in class, I probably would not have comprehended it like I should have. Therefore, those are some things I struggled with and succeeded in while I was reading this text by the wonderful and amazing Dr. Fischer.

Evidence:

[morganadams13]

Applegate et. al. & Rasinski - 11/14/22

Applegate, M., Applegate, A., & Modla, V. (2009). "She's My Best Reader, She Just Can't Comprehend" Studying the Relationship Between Fluency and Comprehension. Retrieved November 13, 2022, from https://web-s-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.messiah.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=4543b947-7412-4941-8f0c-8b2cfb09c9f3%40redis 

Big Takeaways:

Variations in the definition of fluency are still around in literature, but there is a sizable consensus on two key components; accurate and automatic word recognition, and reading at an appropriate rate of speed

Fluency is one of the five pillars of reading, fluency has the potential to increase comprehension skills

Fluency and comprehension are closely related to one another in a very complex way

Nuggets:

The study that was performed was really interesting as it proved that students with a high fluency have a high comprehension

I like how in the study the author mentioned about the reliability of their assessments, which relates to instructional design

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Rasinski, T. (2012). Why Writing Fluency Should be Hot . Retrieved November 13, 2022, from https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.messiah.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=d8b262fb-9549-44b5-ad3e-342151f7a1f1%40redis 

Big Takeaways:

Fluency has lost its allure because of multiple different factors; the way it is measured, it is associated with oral reading, fluency is taught as a separate area of reading curriculum,

Fluency is currently not hot, but it should be a hot topic because it goes hand in hand with reading comprehension. It is critical for effective instruction

Accuracy is good, but it is not enough. They need to be able to read the words automatically, because it will help with comprehension

Fluency is a link to word recognition

Nuggets:

I never realized how important fluency is, and how difficult it is to master. This article gave me a different perspective on it

I was surprised to see that typically fluency is known as a lower level reading skill

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Readerly Exploration: As you read, highlight excerpts from the chapter that reflect the author's purpose (Rasinski)

While reading this text by Rasinski, his purpose for writing is very obvious, in that he wants to persuade teachers to emphasize fluency in their literacy instruction. There are multiple points throughout the text that point out Rasinski's purpose for writing his article. For example, he states on the third page, "I believe that fluency should be hot topic for teachers and scholars know it" (Rasinski, 2012). This shows the author's purpose because Rasinski is trying to convince his audience about the importance of teaching fluency in the classroom, and by stating his own opinions, it proves his purpose. When author's put opinion into their writing, it is with an intention to persuade a lot of the time. Another example of this comes from the same page just a few lines down. In this case, Rasinski states, "I think that rather than moving on to the next passage after some discussion and instruction, as is done in wide reading, the teacher needs to have the student read the passage more than once until some degree of automaticity is achieved with that passage" (Rasinski, 2012). Once again, Rasinski is stating his opinion on teaching fluency and how to achieve that automatic recognition stage. He talks more about this in the next section where he states, "Our goal should be for readers to read the words in texts accurately and automatically. When the words in text are identified automatically, readers can employ most of their limited cognitive energy to that all-important task in reading-text comprehension" (Rasinski, 2012). Here, I thought his purpose was to inform scholars and teachers about what our goals should be when teaching word recognition and fluency. He talks a lot about how the spirit of fluency has started to disappear, and that it has lost its importance. He states multiple times that fluency is so important to learning automaticity when reading and recognizing words, but it often goes unnoticed. In this specific excerpt, Rasinski is focusing on why we should be teaching fluency and what our end goal that we need to achieve is. Automaticity with reading comprehension and word recognition is the end goal to achieve, but Rasinski is fighting to the fact that fluency takes a big part in that. Overall, I think his purpose is to inform about the importance of fluency instruction in literacy and persuading scholars and teachers to bring it back into their routine of teaching.

Evidence:

Here is a screenshot from my laptop where I highlighted a couple different excerpts from the text. I highlighted in yellow where I thought he was persuading and in orange where I thought he was giving information

[morganadams13]

Williams et. al. & Silverman + Crandell - 11/7/22

Silverman , R., & Crandell , J. (2011). Vocabulary Practices in Prekindergarten and Kindergarten Classroom . Retrieved November 5, 2022, from https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.messiah.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=6810adfa-30fa-4819-8607-c84f9a50e626%40redis 

Big Takeaways:

There are lots of different strategies to teach vocabulary such as labeling and verbal communication

5 strategies to teach vocabulary to children; saying the words to children, asking children to pronounce the words, talking about graphophonemic or semantic properties of the words, defining the words, and explaining the words by adding details and children's experiences

Word study activities are becoming more and more relevant in teaching not only phonics instruction but teaching vocabulary as well, according to research

Nuggets:

I was surprised to see how many studies were done and how much really goes into teaching vocabulary behind the scenes

I was also surprised about all of the results the data from the study showed from using a specific instructional strategy or other factors

I was also really interested to read more about the five instructional practices that were certified in the end to be helpful for vocabulary development in young children

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Williams, C. et. al. (2009). Word Study Instruction in the K-2 Classroom. Retrieved November 5, 2022, from https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.messiah.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=820f50ab-6de6-4485-9361-84345736f5c3%40redis 

Big Takeaways:

Word study instruction does not focus as much on memorization, and it focuses on hands-on activities

There are lots of tips for implementing word study instruction such as; assess students' word knowledge using multiple assessment tools, use a homogeneous small-group approach to instruction, carve out time to prepare for word study instruction, teach word knowledge and not just words, demonstrate how word study can be used during reading and writing, teach strategies that support students' use of word study instruction, make your word wall work, "word work" should work too, and engage students in extensive "real" reading and writing

Nuggets:

I was used to always learning to memorize my words in elementary school, so reading about this new way of thinking has me reflecting a lot on my past and how I can apply this to my future teaching

I was surprised how many different tips the article offers to teachers on how to implement word study instruction into their routine

The extensive reference list also surprised me because there were so many professional opinions and sources put into this, that it has to be trustworthy and worthwhile to read

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Readerly Exploration: Choose one resource in the citations of the assigned reading, track it down and read it. (Silverman and Crandell)

Here is where I got my article from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232474875_Increasing_Young_Low-Income_Children%27s_Oral_Vocabulary_Repertoires_through_Rich_and_Focused_Instruction\

As I was looking through the very extensive reference list in the Silverman and Crandell article, I came across a lot of books, and book reviews. It was difficult to find one specific article, but I was able to find one by Isabel Beck and Margaret McKeown entitled, "Increasing Young Low-Income Children's Oral Vocabulary Repertoires through Rich and Focused Instruction." In this article, there is a study done with kindergarten and first grade children that come from a low achieving elementary school that provided vocabulary instruction by their general classroom teacher with advanced words. The first study compared the number of advanced words learned between 52 different students who were taught those words directly, and 46 children who did not receive any instruction. In the second study, 76 children were examined to determine their word learning under 2 different amounts of instruction, either 3 days or 6 days. In the beginning of the article, the authors talk a lot about how important vocabulary is to learning so many essential literacy skills, and many life skills in general. They emphasize how much it is needed in everyday life, and how crucial it is for your future. One thing that interested me that they noted was that there is evidence that vocabulary knowledge influences comprehension skills. After the studies were conducted, the results were outstanding. In just the first study alone, the students improved their word knowledge from start to finish by 16 and 20 percent with instruction, compared to 4 and 7 by the students who did not receive any instruction. Simply mind blowing. In the second study, there were two types of instruction assessed; picture and verbal. Here, the group that got more rich instruction (6 days of instruction), improved by 38 and 33 percent for kindergarten and first grade. For the students who only got 3 days of instruction, they improved by 14 percent each. On the other hand, verbal instruction looked pretty similar. The students who received more rich instruction improved by 39 and 33 percent, whereas the students with less rich instruction improved by 11 and 18 percent across kindergarten and first grade. This is absolutely mind blowing that a child could make that much improvement in less than a week on just vocabulary skills. I really enjoyed reading this article because it shined a light on how important vocabulary skills are for children to know across all ages, and a multitude of ways to teach it that are effective. All in all, this was really interesting for me to read, and I am so glad I chose to do this readerly habit as it gave me a whole new perspective on vocabulary instruction and the importance of it.

Evidence:

[morganadams13]

Wills Loyd and Hanford - 10/31/22

Hanford, E. (2021, January 25). Why aren't kids being taught to read? Why aren't kids being taught to read? | Hard Words | APM Reports. Retrieved October 29, 2022, from https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read 

Big Ideas:

Reading does not come to the brain naturally, must be drilled explicitly

The school's literacy instruction they observed is simply, awful

There is a debate on whether children should be taught phonics or how to read whole words when first learning to read

Nuggets:

I found a lot of things throughout this text very interesting. It gave me a whole new perspective to literacy education that I never thought about before.

I never realized that reading is not something we do naturally, and that we do not pick it up automatically

I was so interesting to me how the Bethlehem schools taught their reading instruction, it made me feel really bad for those kids, but I am glad they were able to turn it around

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Wills Loyd , J. (2021). Smoke Signals In Reading Education . specialeducationtoday.com. Retrieved October 29, 2022, from https://www.specialeducationtoday.com/p/smoke-signals-in-reading-education 

Big Ideas:

There is an ongoing debate on whether beginning reading instruction should promote fundamental or higher order skills

There is a three cue method of using semantic cues, syntactic cues, and orthographic cues to help beginning readers pronounce words when they are reading

Systematic and explicit instruction help learners know what to do and helps them to understand the fundamentals

Nuggets:

I never really thought about there being so many debates on literacy, and ones that are so heated too

I knew that systematic and explicit instruction was very important from talking about it in Instructional Design, but I did not realize the specific benefits that it offers to students

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Readerly Exploration: Hanford- (Choose an excerpt from your assigned reading and share with a family member to get their insight and perspective on it)

When taking a look at Hanford's article, there was so many interesting things that stuck out to me while I was reading. The observations from the Bethlehem elementary schools was mind-blowing to me, and it really forced me to reflect on my own teaching and what I am currently seeing in my field experience. I had already talked to my mom about literacy in the past, but since I had him with me I wanted to ask my boyfriend, Caleb about this article. He has heard me talk a lot about literacy and about my experiences in education and has taken an interest in it himself. Even though he does not have any experience, he loves to chime in and talk to me about his own opinions in education. He works in HVAC, so he does not have any direct experience with education other than his own educational journey in school, but he is very opinionated and was excited to talk to me about this. When I asked Caleb about his opinion on this, he responded with a very long-winded answer.

"I think teachers should teach how to read whole words to beginning readers because it allows them to have a basis to base all their knowledge off of when it comes to literacy. For example, if you know the word "know" you can build a lot of words off of that just by knowing that root word such as "known," or "knew." Phonics does not allow that to happen right away. Phonics is not an exact way of learning in my opinion, because words make different sounds on their own versus when they are put into words. There are so many rules to phonics that you cannot cover all of them when you are teaching sounds to beginners. Consonants and vowels make different sounds when they are paired together versus when they are not," Caleb said.

My mom ended up chiming in on this anyway after hearing Caleb and I talking and having a small debate about this (yes, it got intense). My mom said, "My opinion from the way I learned in school versus the way you learned [Me, Morgan], I felt like kids were way further ahead doing phonics as shown by the kid writing you did in kindergarten. There was a dramatic improvement in you [Me] and your classmates writing and spelling skills by the end of the year. I felt kids were way further ahead going into first grade knowing how to communicate already and how to write that someone can understand what they are writing." My youngest sister even chimed in as she walked in the door from volleyball practice, and she agreed with my mother.

I am really glad this sparked such a great conversation between some of my family members and Caleb, because this is something I was really interested in after reading, and really got me thinking about which strategy is better when teaching beginning readers how to read and how to write. This will definitely be in the back of my head, and I was really intrigued by the article and by the conversation. It was nice to drag someone else into my world of education and talk about that.

Evidence:

Here is Caleb and I talking about the article by Hanford

[morganadams13]

Fisher and Sipe - 10/10/22

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 2, “Whole-Class Reading Instruction: High-Level Support for Learning”

Big Takeaways:

Some good instructional routines that are good for whole group instruction are interactive read-alouds, shared readings, direct and deliberate instruction, and close readings

The chapter highlights the importance of a scope and sequence for phonemic awareness and phonics instruction, and the use of word sorts, chants and other letter-and word leveled activities to build reading foundations

There are multiple criterion in order to properly choose an appropriate read aloud text for your lesson such as; providing an opportunity to model aspects of reading or thinking, appropriate to the content being taught, and finding strong pieces of literature that can be used as a mentor text for students when they write

Nuggets:

I found it interesting how much actually goes into a read-aloud. I never really planned one before. I taught in a preschool class in high school and did some read alouds, but never thought about read alouds in that sense

There are so many different ways to conduct a read aloud that highlights different skills students are starting to develop around the kindergarten and first grade levels, and integrating and thinking about these skills is something I never took into account when making plans like this years ago

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sipe (2002), “Talking Back & Talking Over: Young Children’s Expressive Engagement During Read-Aloud Storybooks”

Big Takeaways:

When children are engaged with a read-aloud, they often have different ways of showing that engagement through their expressions

There are 5 ways students express their engagement with a read-aloud; Dramatizing, talking back, critiquing or controlling, inserting, and taking over

Students who make these kinds of responses usually think stories are an invitation to participate

Nuggets:

I found it really interesting how many various ways there are that a student can engage with a read-aloud, even if they are not just sitting there listening

We always look at calling out and oral expression during a quiet, teacher-led time, but this made me realize that maybe we as teachers should look deeper into what those callouts actually mean

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Readerly Exploration: Sipe (2002), “Talking Back & Talking Over: Young Children’s Expressive Engagement During Read-Aloud Storybooks”

(After you read, document your initial response to what you've read. Consider about how the ideas you read about made you feel and what they made you think about)

My initial response to this article was thinking about how I could apply these situations and concepts to my own teaching. When thinking about this, I automatically tried to remember certain situations in my field experience where this may have happened, and I had one that came to my mind right away. In my second grad classroom, there is one little boy who does call out and yell out a lot whenever there is a discussion, reading, or lesson going on. I think his expressions would be taking over, because he uses what he hears in the story to recall things from his own life, and will tell stories while the read aloud is going on. He will recall to a lot of things back from first grade, which I noticed happens frequently. Another little girl in the same class, who has autism, does something similar, but she demonstrates talking back instead. She will make sound effects that go along with the story, or other things like that. One specific example I remember is when we were reading a book about memories where a little boy was visiting a older woman who was starting to lose her memory, and he was trying to figure out what a memory was so he could help her get it back. In response to the plot of this read aloud, the student yelled out "Poor old lady," and " She can't lose her memory." Even though these actions by these two children would first be thought of as disruptive to the lesson, we sometimes forget to think about what those callouts actually resemble with academic comprehension and engagement. Recalling prior experiences and reacting to the text are both ways students can engage with a text to understand the meaning behind it. Using emotions and past experiences that are familiar are very helpful to comprehension, because it makes it so much more simple. This made me feel very interested when I thought deeper about the reading by Sipe. I never realized how much those callouts can tell us as teachers about what the students know and how they are retaining the information we are giving to them. It gave me a new perspective on it, and helped me to see engagement in a whole new way, which will be really helpful in my field experience and my teaching career to come.

[morganadams13]

Fisher and Richardson- 10/3/22

Richardson, (2016) "Introduction"

Big Takeaways:

Guided reading is extremely important because it helps young readers to engage with and understand text better

Assessment and progress monitoring are crucial to making decisions on how and what to teach the students, and there is a lot of thought and planning that goes on behind the scenes

Nuggets:

There is so much more that goes into planning and assessment than I realized before I started taking all of these classes this semester, and the book affirmed this.

I was also surprised to see how much teachers are trying to have students read at a higher level to help them improve their skills.

Richardson, (2016) "Chapter 1: Guided Reading Essentials"

Big Takeaways:

The true definition of guided reading is "small-group differentiated instruction that supports students in developing reading proficiency." It includes things such as small groups, instructional leveled texts, and targeted instruction

When doing guided reading, you should; choose texts that are a tiny bit too hard for the students to allow them to problem solve and develop new strategies, use assessment

There is a difference between different types of reading instruction such as whole class, guided, and independent instruction

There are many different activities to promote literacy learning and skills like book boxes, buddy reading, writing, and many more

Nuggets:

When wondering about what other students are doing while you are teaching a small group, the answer is to "Keep it simple," and I found this interesting because teaching literacy can be very complex and overwhelming

The book talks about how students should have a personal reading box of books that are on their levels. Now that I am thinking more about this, I agree with Dr. Fischer that I do not really like this idea much

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 5, “Small-Group Reading Instruction: Targeted Support through Guided Learning,” (pp. 114-128)

Big Takeaways:

There are four phases of reading development; emergent, early, transitional, and self-extending

Small group reading is not just for the primary grades, but can be used in a more sophisticated way as children get a bit older

Scaffolding is a HUGE feature of small group reading instruction

Asking open-ended questions is important to get the students thinking and engaged with what was read

Nuggets:

I found it interesting finding out that scaffolding has four different categories that range from least to most overt

I did not know that were different types of text you could choose from when teaching the primary grades such as; decodable texts, predictable pattern texts, controlled vocabulary texts, and authentic literature

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 4, “Collaborative Reading and Writing: Learning in the Company of Peers,” (pp. 82-96)

Big Takeaways:

The first 10 days of school should consist of short lessons that mention principles of helping, accountable talk and noise management in the classroom

Second 10 days should consist of introducing 3 low maintenance routines to get them adjusted. Three suggested routines are a writing station, a listening with headphones station, and a word work station

Give the students time to work away from the teacher so they can get as much practice as they can

Emergent readers need to practice sounds and oral language

Nuggets:

I found it interesting how much really needs to be done and covered within the first couple weeks of school in order to get the routines down and understood

I never really realized how much students need to be able to work on their own to get practice with different concepts

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Readerly Exploration: Choose an excerpt from your assigned course reading(s) and share with a family member to get his or her insight and perspective on it.

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 5, “Small-Group Reading Instruction: Targeted Support through Guided Learning,” (pp. 114-128)

I was able to go home this weekend, so I got the chance to have a conversation with my mom. She is a stay at home mom, and used to be a hair stylist, so she does not really know much about teaching. Therefore, this was a fun conversation to have with her

I took a small excerpt from chapter 5 of the Fisher textbook on page 117 that said, "Scaffolding is not telling, and it is not simply providing hints in hopes that a problem a student is having will simply go away. Scaffolded instruction is investigative; teachers rapidly form a hypothesis about what it is a reader knows and doesn't know in the moment. Based on the hypothesis, the teacher makes a decision about the kind of scaffold that might assist the reader in linking what he knows to what he doesn't know."

Going along with this part of the text, I asked my mother what she thought about this, and why this is so important in small group teaching. She responded with, "I think that it's best because, you are looking at them as individuals, and what they know and don't know, and what areas they need help in. It assists the teacher in knowing what way to help a particular student grow. Scaffolding lays out good steps to take towards making your student a better reader."

My mom and I talked about this a little bit further and I explained to her that lessons in small groups are targeted to a specific group of students that need help in a specific area. She started to understand what small group interventions and lessons look like, and get more insight to what it looks like to teach

Evidence:

[morganadams13]

Katherine Wolf- 9/21/22

Undivided: Through Forgiveness by Katherine Wolf

Big Takeaways:

Bad things are bound to happen in life, it is up to us how we deal with them. The "bad" things in life, may not always be so bad. It is important to use the trials in life as a learning experience.

God is good!

Nuggets:

I love how Katherine describes her as "wheelchair free" instead of being "wheelchair bound." She mentioned about how we all have our own wheelchairs whether they are physically there in front of us or if they are invisible. We all have our own problems (wheelchairs) that bring us down and make our lives harder, no matter what it is or how severe. However, even though we all have our "wheelchairs" we have to use them as a positive thing because there is nothing we can do to change the situation.

Readerly Exploration: Read texts deeply in order to interpret, critique, and analyze the various layers of meaning a text might offer a reader (Learn something about the author and draw conclusions for their motivations behind the words)

Listening to and watching this video has honestly helped me to further my progress in developing a stronger growth mindset. I was very intrigued with her message, and wanted to learn more about her and her story. I decided to look at her personal website (hopeheals.com) in hopes of learning about her more in depth. It was really easy to find this, as I just had to search her name and her personal website popped right up. On their page entitled "What We Do," it talks about their mission and how much their lives have changed so quickly. One very enlightening thing the Wolf family mentions is "If you have a pulse, you have problems and you have pain." This really stuck out to me because this is so relatable, and it is relieving to read this knowing that other people are fighting internal battles just as bad or worse than mine. It makes me feel like it is not out of the ordinary to have hardships in life. When applying this to my own life and my own trials, this helped me to understand Katherine's message so much more deeply. She was so intentional with every one of her words, and those words were from the Lord. Even though this was not directly part of our course, it still helped me to understand a lot that I can apply to my teaching. In addition to that, when I have my own family one day (God willing) I can apply this video to that situation as well. Everyone is going to have problems in life, it is not something that you can prevent, and can only prepare so much for. With this, we need to embrace our invisible wheelchairs as a learning experience. Katherine expresses that all of us have problems, and we all deal with them differently, but expecting things to always be okay is not ideal. Life is not always easy, and hard things will be thrown at us, there is no avoiding it. As a future teacher, I can apply this into my classroom by not telling my students, "Everything is going to be okay," because that is not always the case. Children should be able to know the truth, and be able to feel and process the emotions that come along with hardship. If we shelter our children from hard things in life, when they get older, it will be so much more painful than if they learned it from a young age. Giving children a sense of false hope is such a let down if they are proven wrong. As a parent, this is just as important because allowing your kids to feel and process negative emotions will be so crucial for their maturity. The only way to truly be able to cope with adversity is by filling your mind with the truth that will always be there, the Word of God. God puts us through trials, and they are not easy. They are meant to test our loyalty and our faith, but as Christians we know how to use those trials to pursue Him even further and more intentionally. The Lord uses His power to help us get through our battles. Katherine explains this so beautifully in her speech that it gives a sense of comfort just listening to it. In conclusion, there are so many different takeaways from this amazing woman and her experiences. It is so applicable to each and every one of us, especially to teacher who are preparing the future generations for their lives ahead of them. Katherine and Jay's website helps to indirectly show all of this exceptionally well, that it is crystal clear what she is telling us to do. Katherine Wolf is an amazing woman of God, and she wants to spread her story and her love of the Lord as best as she can to change the lives of those around her.

Evidence

This is a screenshot from my laptop of the homepage of the hopeheals.com website that I analyzed to get a better understanding of what Katherine Wolf and her family do for the community around them. It is such a beautiful website that shares so many important messages that need to be heard by all