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11 to 10.

A couple weeks ago, my roommate spoke about how she was going to begin blogging on this particular website. As soon as she mentioned it, I thought “yeah, I’ve heard of Tumblr. I had an account when I was in college that I started because of a literature course I was taking at the time”. I reactivated my old account to follow hers and then got to thinking about how writing is such an amazing outlet for expressing feelings and thoughts and emotions. Well, I’m a teacher with all kinds of feeling and thoughts and emotions every day. So here I am.

Let me begin by saying that I am currently in my 5th year of teaching. I work in a Charter School and I have worked at the same Community School for all 5 of those years. I teach Special Education to a variety of students with a range of learning disabilities in a resource room. I have always taught within the middle school, because that’s where I feel most needed. They too have many feelings and thoughts and emotions just as I do. Many things happen within the walls of our school building that have shaped me into the educator that I am today. I share these stories from time to time with my roommates (who are both teachers themselves), many of my close friends (many in which are also teachers) and sometimes my family (no classroom experience whatsoever). It’s a huge part of my life, of course I am going to talk about it! I talk most with my roommates and friends because they personally can connect with the joys and heartaches and frustrations. I like to call the conversation with my family more like NONversations as they understand very little about this part of my life. Teaching can be quite a complex sport.

I want to use this space as an outlet to talk about the joys, heartaches and frustrations that I experience daily as a middle school leader in this small community school. 

Today I experienced heartache. I went from a caseload of 11 to 10. A student in which I cared for, chose today to withdraw and enroll into another community school nearby. The school personnel and parents of this child felt as though this placement was not right for her any longer. I have had many conversations with this child and she holds a lot of anger inside of her little preteen body. She chooses to not open up about it to anyone. Not her parents and not her teachers. Day by day I tried to find ways to peel off part of her thick outer core. She wouldn't let me in. Her behaviors at school were constantly defiant. I persisted. She’d shut down. I would try again. Nothing she could say or do would stop me from trying to find the light in her dark tunnel. 

Mom came in today to withdraw her. The team and herself as the parent felt as though there was nothing more that we could do here for her. Her behaviors in the classroom were attention seeking. Consequences seemed to not phase her. She was a very strong individual that knew the expectations and understood what was being asked of her, but yet she would never participate. She was smart, but refused to complete classwork. She was social, but struggled to maintain friendships. Maybe a new environment is just what she needs? A fresh slate? Somewhere where she can begin to show off her real talents and abilities. At least that’s what I hope for her. I pray for the support from her family as she begins this new journey. Because those who act tough on the outside still have real feelings, thoughts and emotions. We all do.

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Chapter 14: Finding the Right Book

For struggling readers who find themselves disliking every book they have ever picked up, in my opinion have just never picked up the right book.  If you are a student who has given up on reading in its entirety, it will only benefit you in positive ways if you go back to a library and try again. Maybe the mysteries and poems that you spent your time in school reading, were not something that interested you or was something you could not relate to. Did you ever consider science fiction, historical fiction or fantasy books? Beers mentions in chapter 14 that she struggled at times to find a book in which a student would report back to her that they loved to read. She always received responses such as "It was okay". It hit her one day that she was suggesting books that she loved. We have had this discussion in many of my classes as to what books to choose for the class to read and "how to pick a book in which many in the class could potentially enjoy". I think a great way to suggest a book to a student would be to do a reading survey on that child. Understand their likes and dislike. Get to know them personally and maybe you can find a book that they can relate to. Make sure the book you choose is appropriate and educational! 

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Chapter 13: Creating the Confidence to Respond

I laugh as I relate to the story that Beers mentions about the energy levels of first-grade classrooms compared to the energy levels of middle school students and high school students. I laugh because I was one of the students who would stare off into no where in particular and slump down and try to just get through the day. It's not that I was not smart enough to participate in the conversations or that I lacked confidence, it was just that I was your typical teenager who really did not care to talk about The Cold War. I would rather just read it on my own and get a good grade on the test. But there are a majority of the students inside the classroom in which act and sit the same way as I did inside a classroom, but do so because they lack confidence. This is the topic in which Beers discusses in Chapter 13.

For students who lack confidence, especially through elementary school in the areas of reading, are the ones who need the extra assistance and encouragement down the road from the educators. We the educators can give them the one-on-one discussions they need to understand a concept of a book, the extra assistance to help them find a book in which they can relate to and enjoy reading, and help to rebuild that confidence in which they are allowing to diminish. We are their future.

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Chapter 10: Fluency and Automaticity

     Automaticity leads to fluency. Automaticity is the skill of doing something quickly without much thought because that task comes so naturally to you. Beers states that "Reading automaticity refers to a reader's ability to recognize words without conscious decoding" (Beers, p.204). Students develop automaticity by being exposed repeatedly to a word in which that can decode. It is common for a growing independent reader to see the ward at least about ten times before it can be easily recognizable for them. On the other hand, it can take a dependent reader up to 40 times before that word becomes recognizable to them. As word recognition skills improve, fluency develops. "Fluency-the ability to read smoothly and easily at a good pace with good phrasing and expression" (p.205). You can measure a students fluency rate by measuring their silent reading rate and their oral reading rate. Remember, that when measuring fluency you are noting both accuracy and speed.  If you find that a student has not developed the fluency rate for their grade level then their are further strategies that Beers recommends. Suggestion 1: Improve their knowledge of sight words and high-frequency words by forming word walls and by making index cards in which can be reviewed daily. Suggestion 2: give students various opportunities for hearing texts by modeling good expression, good phrasing, and good pacing when you as the teacher are reading aloud. Suggestion 3: teach phrasing and intonation directly by putting a group of sentences on the board and have the students echo you as the instructor. They need to understand that stress on certain words can make for a difference in meaning. Suggestion 4: reread selected texts. Have a student read a passage and count how long it takes and how many miscues were present. Return to the passage 2 more times having the student correct their miscues and improving their rate. Suggestion 5: try to prompt and not correct. Correcting a dependent reader only causes them to become more dependent. Therefore, use prompting such as "try that word again".

-Rachel Hope

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Chapter 9: Vocablary

     Chapter 9 discusses the importance of vocabulary and gives specific vocabulary instruction that the author finds to be the most effective way to learn it. Much too often, vocabulary is learned through workbooks, memorization and continuous copying od the word and definition. Although some of these strategies may be useful to some growing readers, it is not the most effective way to go about learning vocab in Beers opinion. Beers states that ""Effective means that students learn the words, use the words, and remember the words" (Beers, p. 179).

     After some research, Beers offers eight suggestions/lessons that can be effective in the classroom with helping students learn, use and remember new vocabulary. Lesson 1: students are capable of learning more words if they are only focusing on a few at a time and not with a large group of 20. Many teacher themselves thought that twenty was even an overwhelming number for them, let alone the kids. They came to a conclusion that 5-8 words would be more manageable and in the end the students were using more vocabulary words in their oral and written language! Lesson 2: teach students how to use context as a clue so they can make inferences about the passage. This suggestion requires a lot of modeling from the teachers in order to do so. Lesson 3: Teach word parts and do so by using graphic organizers like vocabulary trees to help students learn roots. I thought that the vocabulary trees were a very clever way to teach the concept of root words. Lesson 4: create word puzzles by using strategies in your classroom such as word collection and words across contexts. Lesson 5: more use of graphic organizers to build word knowledge. Students were put into small groups and each group was given 2 words each in which they had to define, give synonyms and antonyms, give examples and practice using it in a sentence. Then present their words to the class. By using a graphic organizer the students were able to break down the meaning of the word and not be stressed with an abundance of words. Lesson 6: Use logographic cues. This means that the students will fill out a note card in which one side has the vocabulary word and on the other side it has the definition and a drawing that implies the meaning of the word. Lesson 7: Incorporate read-alouds and sustained silent reading. In other words, practice makes perfect. The students need time to read if we want them to get better at it. Lesson 8: Ask questions in order to understand how your students are comprehending and learning about the text.

-Rachel Hope

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Chapter 8: Extending Meaning

      Whereas Chapter 7 covered the during-reading strategies, Chapter 8 gives examples and insight to the effects of after-reading strategies. After-reading activities are helpful in measuring how much a student has comprehended a text. As a reader, after reading a text it would be useful to use some of the following after-reading strategies such compare and contrast certain parts of the text, summarize, indentify main characters and events in detail, identify conflicts, make connections, make inferences, draw a conclusion and distinguish between fact and opinion. The list of during-reading strategies listed out in my previous blog submission can also be used as after-reading strategies as well.

     Some main after-reading strategies that you can use in the classroom that Beers lays out for her readers are "Scales", "Somebody Wanted But So", Retelling, Text Reformulation and "It Says-I say". Each strategy helping the students with comprehension in its own creative way. Scales help students organize their thought by arranging the information in graphic form. Somebody Wanted But So is a great strategy in helping students with summarizing a text by stating "who the somebody is, what the soomebody wanted, but what happened to keep something from happening, and so, finally, how everything works out" (Beers p.145). Retellings is when you give an oral summary of the text. Text gormulation is when you take a piece of text and you alter it into another type of text. Finally, It Says-I Say is a after-reading strategy in which is a visual support for the readers to cconsolidate their thoughts as they connect the text to their prior knowledge.

-Rachel Hope

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Chapter 7: Constructing Meaning

     This chapter went over how effective it can be to apply reading strategies DURING reading. These strategies are more helpful to the dependent reader. When reading through a passage, some strategies that independent readers use are as follows: predict what will happen next, question what they don't understand, monitor their understanding, clarify what was confusing, comment on their understanding, connect the reading to their personal experiences and visualize. In chapter 7, Beers shares examples of some of the main During-Reading strategies that she has found helpful to use with dependent readers struggling to create meaning of a text in the past. These strategies are "say something", rereading and think-aloud. As a student studying to be an Intervention Specialist, I think that out of these three strategies, I would find think-aloud to be the most beneficial for a reader who is reading below their level. Think-aloud allows them "to think aloud about connections they are making, images they are creating, problems with understanding that they are encountering, and ways they see of fixing those problems" (Beers p. 119). This is a great way for an educator to see their thinking process and taking notes of their on going struggles or of their "aha" moments.

-Rachel Hope

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Chapter 5: Learning to Make an Inference

     When making an inference, one must interact with the text they are reading in order to make a proper inference. Beers has  her 11th grade students read a paragraph and make an inference based off of it. The first 11th grade class that she gave the example to were able to bounce ideas off each other based on their prior knowledge and figure out that these two people were on a date at a movie theatre, the man was paying for the woman's ticket, the woman did not want him to pay for everything so she offered to pay for the popcorn.  The other 11th grade class that she did this example with were unable to understand because as beers says "they failed to see the transactional nature of reading" (Beers p.69). Typically, dependent readers expect the reading to provide every little detail for them. When making an inference, as a reader you must not only be able to decode the words, but also be able to put meaning behind the information that the author gives you and the information you also bring to the text. A great way to teach this process is to help them underline the main words in each sentence to make the connections or a teacher can also model by reading a passage a thinking aloud their own inferences while they are made.

-Rachel Hope

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Chapter 6: Frontloading Meaning

     I really enjoyed reading about the 4 different pre-reading strategies that chapter 6 had to offer. They were 1. anticipation guides 2. K-W-L 3. probable passage and 4. tea party. As usual when reading about different teaching, I took a step back and picked out the ones that I believe would work well in one of my classrooms. Again, I am studying to be an Intervention Specialist for students with mild/moderate education needs, therefore I felt like the K-W-L would be a good strategy in which I could use in the future. I think it is a nice group assignment that can get everyone thinking out loud without too much moving around and frustration. I am not saying that the other ones were bad strategies, because they were really great.  In fact, Some of those ideas were new to me and I really enjoyed being able to broaden my list of strategies by reading about them. I actually also really liked the idea of the anticipation guides as well. I was extremely fascinated by the idea of being able to use this strategy during pre-reading and post-reading. Its such a great way to introduce the book to the readers and then also a great way to have the readers reflect afterwards.  They were all great ways to get the kids excited and drawn into the book before even opening it. This chapter was super interesting to me! I really appreciated it!

-Rachel Hope

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Chapter 4: Explicit Instruction in Comprehension

     As I mentioned in my reflection on chapter 3, I think as an educator you have to really be open to new ideas and be creative with each reading comprehension strategy. Beers give great examples on different ways to do so. She mentions in the chapter 4 section called "And Just How Do I Teach Any of Those Strategies?" that when teaching the strategies you must be direct and explicit.  Therefore, as the educator you must think aloud and they will follow your lead. Display for them how a "good reader" reads. For example, if you are teaching the strategy of questioning the text. If you are going to do a read-aloud for them, it might work well if that when you open to the first page and after you have read the first sentence that you pause, and pose a question about what you as a reader might be curious about after only reading one sentence. Because questions can arise already at that point of the story. And it is important for you as the teacher to let your students know that. That it is okay to have questions, because it is just the beginning and most of our questions will be unanswered for the tie being, but as we continue on our questions will get answered. This is why reading is fun!

      When I took the course: Teaching Reading and Writing in Early Childhood, I learned about these strategies as well and how to teach them. After taking that course and reading this chapter I feel as if I have more than just a few creative tricks up my sleeve on how to teach these strategies. I feel very comfortable about this topic.

-Rachel Hope

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Chapter 3: Assessing Dependent Readers' Needs

     When reading Chapter 3 of "When Kids Cant Read" i was drawn to the section titled "What Good Readers Do". I felt like this was an important section in the chapter for me as a future educator to take in. The bullet points helped me put into perspective what my students should be going over in their heads when they are reading through a text. I find it easy to relate to this because there were a few things on that list that i even find myself doing when i read through a text. These include, predicting, visualizing, using prior knowledge, and questioning the author. 

     As an educator there are many creative ways in which you can get your readers to use strategies such as these ones. A good way to help readers visualize is by having them draw pictures about the text.  Read along with them and stop them after a few pages and have them draw images of what they have imagined about the text thus far. Another way to help struggling readers is to have them use the strategy of predicting. Read along with them and have them stop at certain points in the story and have them predict what may happen next. I believe this is a great strategy to help them stay focused and keep their interest in the text.

-Rachel Hope

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Chapter 2: Creating Independent Readers

     Im gonna go ahead and say that after reading the first paragrapgh of chapter 2, i did not want to continue reading anymore. In all honesty, I actually set the book down for an entire day before I decided to go back and begin reading it again.  I was so upset with Beers for not sitting down with George to try and figure out what he did not understand about the text.  I was surprised that her one and only response to his confusion was "Go read it again". I was thinking "C'mon! You could do so much better than that Beers! Have some patience! Sit down and help him out! Give him some one-on-one time!". But as I read on I realized that if i had only been patient myself, then I would have learned that this is the way in which this Author tells stories. 

     As a special education major, I focused on the "patience" aspect of the story. This chapter taught me ways to assist students in becoming "independent readers". I liked how Beers admits to learning from her mistakes and that growing from them is one of the most important things she does as an educator. It obviously is the toughest way to learn a lesson, but what I have learned as a special education major is that since each of your students are all going to be at very different reading levels that I am going to need to be very creative and patient. I will have to test the waters to see which learning strategies work for certain individuals, because they will not all learn at the same level or from the same strategy.  Each will need individual attention and Beers has taught me that I will make mistakes and students will make mistakes, but that I need to be patient and most importantly: learn from it.

-Rachel Hope

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Welcome!

This is my first blog ever so this will be a huge learning experience for me. Maybe even for you too? ENJOY!

:)