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RE Week 13

Due date: 4/19/21

Title: A Different Kind of Reading Instruction: Using Visualizing to Bridge Reading Comprehension and Critical Literacy by Park

Big take away: Visualizing is a specific reading strategy that can become a tool for critical literacy.

Nugget: When adolescents visualized texts, they shared how they “see” people and the world, and why they see that way. This article helped me to think about how important visualizing is for readers. It allows them to go beyond the text while reading.

Readerly Exploration: For my readerly exploration, I chose to document my initial response to what I read. I love the way the other said that readers can “speak back” to written texts. I think this is a crucial skill to practice because we are expected to do this is in real life as well. Asking questions about the text students are reading such as: who wrote this text, who is the audience, and what is in the context are all examples Park gave as to how students can critically think about the texts they are reading. I really resonated with the findings of this research; reading strategies serve a greater purpose such as encouraging students to understand themselves as readers and human beings. It is so amazing to see these things formally written because I have always thought that reading should mean more to people than just reading for school purposes. It breaks my heart when I hear people my age saying they never read for pleasure because it is vital for my mental health! Reading allows me to enter into a new world every time I open the pages. This article also reminded me about how when I first read a book I have this visualization and ideas about how the characters are supposed to look and how the setting looks. If a movie comes out about that book, most times the visualization I experienced in my head while reading the book do not match how the movie depicts those things. That goes to show the power of visualization while reading!

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RE

Due date: 4/12/21

Title: Ch 12 Tompkins: “Reading and Writing in the Content Areas”, “Does Literacy Have a Place in Elementary School” by Shanahan and Shanahan.

Big take away:

·      “Reading and Writing in the Content Areas”: Students need to know how to read content-area textbooks because these books differ from other reading materials: they have unique conventions and structures that students use as aids in reading and remembering the big ideas.

·      “Does Literacy Have a Place in Elementary School”: Through early disciplinary literacy, teachers can help ensure that students will be able to navigate gateways to college and careers.

Nugget:

·      “Reading and Writing in the Content Areas”: One new thing I took away from this chapter is learning logs. These are logs that students use to record and react to what they are learning in different content areas. I think this is an awesome way for students to see the relationships between what they are learning in different subjects. This also gives students the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned and any questions they still have.

·      “Does Literacy Have a Place in Elementary School”: One way to prepare students for disciplinary reading is to introduce and guide the reading of multiple texts on the same topic. This is the same way that experts read about one topic. It is never too early to get students familiar with the expert way of doing things.

Readerly Exploration:

           For my readerly exploration, I decided to Find a non-fictional text that communicates the same or similar big ideas of the assigned reading and choose an excerpt that represents those shared ideals.

Tompkins wrote in chapter 12 of the textbook that content area textbooks are important resources that students use to learn about other content areas.  In my field experience, I lead a guided reading group and the texts we use are tools that help the students learn how to be good readers and learn about other topics. This past week we read a non-fiction text about how important water is for our lives. I thought this was a great example of how teachers can use nonfiction texts to assist students in learning about science. This is a great start in modeling vocabulary that students will see appearing in future science textbooks. When reading this content in a guided reading group, the teacher is able to model what the specific content area vocab is like and the students are able to ask questions.

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RE Week 6

Due date: 3/1/21

Title: Tompkins Ch. 8

Big take away: Comprehension is an essential part of the reading process. Students must understand what they’re reading to learn from the experience and make sense of the words in the text to maintain interest.

Nugget: I had never really thought about how verballing speaking your thoughts while reading out loud can help children with comprehension. This is such a good idea because it can be hard for students to understand what kinds of questions, they should be asking themselves while reading.

Readerly Exploration: For my readerly exploration, I decided to Get inspiration from the assigned course reading(s) to find and read another text from a different genre or format and connect the two in some way. I researched comprehension and found a great article on ReadingRockets.org. This article discussed the power reading aloud had in aiding children with comprehension. It was a great extension for the information talked about in the Tompkins chapter. This article suggested that there is great power in thinking out loud while you are reading to children. Walking the students through the thoughts a good reader has can be a very useful tool. Some students may not know what to think about while reading and seeing the strategies could help them. The author also talked about we can still remember some of our favorite stories when we were younger because of the personal connections we were able to make with them. A vital part of the comprehension process is the ability to make personal connections to the book you are reading. Modeling how fluent readers think gives students a solid example of how they should read. Assisting students in making connections to the stories they are reading allows them to relate unfamiliar text to their prior knowledge.  

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RE Week 5

Due date: Feb 22nd

Title: Tompkins Ch 10: “Organizing For Instruction”, Gambrell: “Seven Rules of Engagement: What’s Most Important to Know About Motivation to Read”

Big take away:

Tompkins: When creating a balanced literacy program, teachers must use at least two of the following strategies: basil reading programs, literature focus units, literature circles, and reading and writing workshops. Using a balanced approach helps to enrich and extend student’s literacy learning.

Gambrell: Promoting intrinsic motivation to read should be given a high priority in the reading curriculum.

Nugget:

Tompkins: I did not know that basil readers have been a part of reading instruction for 150 years. That is a long time. I am very surprised that it has stayed in reading instruction after so many other things have changed.

 Gambrell: One thing the author said that I had not really thought of before was: success with challenging reading tasks provides students with evidence of accomplishment, resulting in increased feelings of competence and increased motivation. I always thought that reading something more challenging would discourage the students however with the proper support they can be successful, and it can have a positive impact on their reading self-esteem.

Readerly Exploration:

For my readerly exploration I chose to annotate Ch. 10 of Tompkins book and pull out important parts while I was reading. I used this strategy in my field experience classroom with a guided reading group so I thought that I should try it for myself. This reading strategy was very helpful and allowed me to pull out the main points of the article and connect with it in ways I normally would not! While I was reading, if a though popped into my head I wrote it down on a sticky note and placed it into the text. This helped me when I was going back and choosing a big take away and a nugget of information. I was able to remind myself of the purpose of the chapter and the main points the author was trying to convey. I think that I will use this reading strategy with textbooks in the future because I think it made the reading process easier for me!

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RE week 4

Due date: 2/15/21

Tompkins Ch. 1: “Becoming an Effective Teacher of Reading”

Big take away: Being an effective teacher starts with understanding how your students learn and creating a community of learners.

Nugget: Until the 1960’s, the dominant view of teaching was teacher centered. Since then it has changed to be more student centered, which required literacy instruction to change greatly over the years to reflect those changes.

Readerly Exploration: Learn something about the author of the assigned course reading(s) and use that to draw conclusions about the motivation behind the reading or the credibility of the writing.

I chose to do some research on Gail Tompkins because I am not too familiar with her. After looking her up on the internet, I found out that she has since passed away. Gail began her career teaching first grade for 8 years. I notice that when someone has experience in a classroom as teacher, they give great advice and have lots of knowledge because they experienced it first hand! She had a successful career, earning a few awards for her work in literacy. She also published multiple books. In 2000, she was awarded the prestigious provosts award for excellence in teaching at California State University. She taught at multiple universities and is most remembered as a college textbook author. Gail also lead a few workshops and directed a few writing projects. After doing this research it is clear that Gail had lots of experience which makes her a very credible author for our textbook. 

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Readerly Exploration 1/25/21

Title: “Advanced Readers in Reading First Classrooms: Who Was Really “Left Behind”? Considerations for the Field of Gifted Education”

Big take away: Students differ in terms of reading readiness and achievement from the earliest days in formal schooling, and thus, these students need different curricular and instructional responses to address those differences in those early days as well.

Nugget: I had honestly never heard of the Reading First initiave before so it was interesting to learn about this. I do not think that the government has any business telling schools the standards they need to be meeting so reading about the NCLB act kind of makes me wonder why they have so much say in our education systems. 

Readerly Exploration: Reflect on the contributions of reading experiences to reader identity in an effort to better articulate who he or she is as a reader.

I really struggle to read articles like this one, I am not sure if it is because of the wording of it but it is so hard for me to get through! Articles that write about studies just seem so dull to me which in turn does not motivate me to read. I wish I was one of those people who enjoyed to read them but I simply am not. That is why I decided to research some tips I could use as goals for myself when reading another study like this article. I am sure I will have to keep reading more studies like this one in my college career and beyond so it would be helpful to have some tips.