RE 5100: Teaching Beginning Readers and Writers



RE 5100: Teaching Beginning Readers and Writers

TAKE HOME EXAM-Revised Again

Candy Kee

December 10, 2009

Imagine yourself being in a position to guide the development of a new literacy program, and these issues/questions are being brought to you. Your responses, then, can be seen as a series of persuasive essays. Persuade by giving evidence, rationale, and illustrative examples, if applicable, as to what your position is.

1. (A.) Make the case for your recommendation as to how much reading students need to do on a daily basis in order to make a years growth in reading per year.

An Appalachian State Professor (Gill), in the Reading Program once told me that tons of easy reading is like reading aerobics to a child and that if they do this they will improve.

A lot of reading during the school day and at home on the student’s

instructional reading level is necessary for a student to grow a year in a year.

Every subject in school or a culmination of history, science, art, health, math

And social studies must be available in an expository style on instructional

levels for all students. This will allow the students not only to learn

information in these genres but will also provide much of the necessary

reading practice needed to grow a year in reading.

Every child needs to read at least 90 minutes a day. Reading practice and

instruction can come in many different forms. Reading, writing, and being

read to for 75% of the school day is necessary to continue to grow in reading.

We know this due to all the research that has been dedicated to this issue.

Researchers followed students day in and day out at school, followed them

home and even installed cameras in the home to study and document time

the student was engaged in reading in order to figure out the amount

necessary to gain a year in a year. Research has shown that children from a

literate family has been read to 1500 hours before they start school. It is sad

that our curriculum is based on these kids in the classroom and no

curriculum is geared towards the illiterate. I could not find in my notes the

hours read to for illiterate kids but I think I remember 50 hours.

In addition, Tom Gill writes that good readers read every

eight days the number of words poor readers(bottom 10%)

read in a year. Also per R. Allington, the average amount of

time an elementary student reads during the school day is only

6 minutes(

The literate kids are going to achieve no matter what because they came into

school knowing a lot about reading already ; letter sounds and prior

knowledge from being read to. They just step right into the curriculum. The

illiterate kids step right into a pool of frustration because we try to start

them out with the literate kids. This is sad.

These kids eventually have to develop a negative attitude and one of “I don’t

care “, in order to hide from their low self esteem. It is a vicious cycle

Dr. Gill, in class, reiterated, “the less literate you are, the poorer you are”.

(B.) Tell how you would recommend that this reading time be accomplished. That is, how much would be done during reading/language arts block; and how much of that would be guided, independent, rereading, etc? How much would be done during the rest of the school day outside of the reading/language arts block, and how much would be done at home?

I recommend using Informal Reading Inventories with each

student in order to find appropriate instructional levels of each. According to

Dr. Gill in “Focus on Literacy”, the highest level of fluency and comprehension

is with no more than 5 errors per 100 words.

When reading levels have been determined, the teacher is faced with the task

of how to teach a full class of children on various reading levels in a way that

will provide for them the right materials they need for success. Centers are a

good way to provide the individualized instruction if the right materials are

present. I recommend a center with books on tape categorized

according to level. This center would be excellent for low readers to practice

in over and over again.

Another center can be devoted to reading journal writings previously made

about a story or a book the student read in the audio book center. My first

answer to this question was to add a writing center. My professor redirected

and wrote that writing should not be a part of this block. I consulted my

notes and found where I had written that “people improve reading by

reading” , “ kids get stronger by reading the same thing over and over again

until he can go up to next level,” and “students have to be actively engaged in

reading in order to improve.” Per John Guthrie, the time we spend with a

child reading should be him reading. Another group of students can be

involved at this time in SSR with the teacher conferencing individually.

Knowing that a lot of reading is necessary during the school

day to see growth, we still must find time during the day to get

this in. I read in Tom Gill’s writing through Focus on Literacy,

that if we have to interrupt the school day to schedule

uninterrupted reading, then education is suspect. What do I

think of this? He is saying that all areas of our curriculum

should be saturated with reading. Reading and writing across

the curriculum is a buzz phrase I have heard a lot but we really

don’t do that. If we did our literacy rate would not have

remained the same for so many years. Therefore to get more

necessary time reading we must find every possible

opportunity in health, art, science, and history for our children

to read.

A lot of these books are mundane and are written above

reading level. However, per Dr. Gill , publishers are coming out

with more and more trade books, chapter books and

magazines in the content areas written on various levels of

difficulty and with high interest for the student.

(C.)Make your case for how much reading the students who are reading below grade level need to do on a daily basis and recommend how this be accomplished.

Through the research and study of Guthrie, we know that if a child is reading

below grade level that the 90 minutes a day is not enough to catch up. The

student will remain behind. He states that if a child will read another 30

minutes a day they will grow another one third of a year. Therefore a total of

2 hours of reading a day is necessary to gain one and one third years in a

year. In order to make the time for the additional reading, 30 minutes of

pleasure reading or journal reading at home with family is recommended

and needed for the child to make gain. I know, Dr. Gill, that you added

a comment that we cannot insure that kids are reading at

home. I know this is true. Many schools provide family

involvement activities for reading, hold workshops, send home

books for families and children to read. Our schools in

Cleveland County are mostly Title One Schools. Money is

available for Parent Involvement and materials. We often

provide food and free materials at the workshops mentioned

above to encourage moms or dads and children to participate.

We also provide after school care through Communities in

Schools for low performing students. They are supervised by

certified teachers and have time to complete homework. They

also provide reading activities during these times. Students

can also gain reading time through content area reading on

instructional or independent level.

2. (A.) Make your case for how much reading material you would need for someone reading below grade level (you pick the grade and level, for example, a fourth grader reading on second grade level) to read across the school year. Show the math of how you got to this figure.

If a fourth grader is reading on a second grade level, I would need to provide

plenty of second grade reading material. In looking at some second grade

level books, the pages a book averaged to be 30. An average number of

words on a page in the book equaled 60. If this student is reading 60 words

per minutes at independent level, they will read 720 books a year if they read

the full 2 hours a day needed. 2 pages read a minute would equal a book

every 15 minutes equaling 4 books a day with 20 books a week times 36

weeks equals the 720 books.

(B.) Make your case for instructional and independent level reading vs. grade level reading. In this persuasive essay be sure to address alternative hypotheses and counterpoints that have been, or might be made, and how you would answer them. (For instance, an argument about why you can’t put a third grader in first grade material if it’s his instructional level because the state’s end of year test will be written at 3rd grade level and, therefore, reading at this level is what need to be practical). Be sure to give your rationale and illustrative examples when applicable.

Regardless of grade level the child is in, if he is reading below grade level, he

will learn absolutely nothing if given a harder text he cannot read and will

not pass the state tests given. We cannot teach a child to read hard books. He

must read a lot at independent level and instructional level in

order to gain in reading levels. As the student improves with independent

reading, the teacher can move him up to instructional level. On

independent level the student needs to be able to read with no more

than 2 errors per 100 words and be able to self correct. They need to stay on

instructional level, (5 errors per 100 words) until they test as

independent and then move up again. (Use IRI to find level and test).

They can be exposed to third grade EOG text and questioning strategies for

the EOC test through read aloud by the teacher.

Perhaps they will recall some of this later on as they catch up.

I think our test makers, DPI, administrators and teachers need to be

remediated in what we are doing to the kids that can’t read grade level

reading tests. We already know they will fail unless it is a fluke. We already

know the kids that will pass. We also know that the 50% literate and

illiterate rate still exists over many years so what are we doing? Well, we are

teaching kids to read that already know how, (they continue to excel which is

good but what about the others?), and are pretending to teach the kids that

can’t read. Our whole system of teaching is screwed up and lots of what we

do is for show. As I walk through my neighboring schools on visits I see the

shelves packed with many reading programs that are considered no longer

working or obsolete but they are gloriously displayed for the Board of

Education to see or a SACS committee to ooh and ahh over. Anyway, I think

the programs we currently use don’t work either. Now we are going back to

the old SRA program and principals are frantically trying to find that

program they purchased eons ago and stored somewhere. Our shelves are

also full of test taking strategy books, books on interpreting test scores, what

objectives to work on, practice tests and so on ( Boring but I guess ok for

readers on grade level).

The thing I never see is walking into a third grade classroom to find

mountains of books available to read on all reading levels. I do see kids

sitting in “time out” in the back of the room because they are not

participating in the reading lesson. Well my goodness,

these kids usually are the ones that can’t read and then we put them in the

back because of it (so much for RTI). (Now we have PBS program—Positive

Behavior Support for these wayward kids.) We bought many programs for

all the schools and hired someone to oversee it. We also pay a RTI

supervisor(.

There we have it; the rich get richer and the poor get poorer or the smart

kids get smarter and the illiterate kids------get left behind!!

How do I know these things? Well, I know that research says we have not

improved in reading and the 50% illiterate rate still exists. I know what my

professor teaches in class and the readings he assigned.

Research has shown that we teach to our top readers

and use their tests results as benchmarks for students

of all levels. The material they read in the grade they

are in is on their grade level and reading level and

they read with no more than 2 errors per 100 words.

They continue to excel. Unfortunately, we treat the “ at

Risk” readers poorly when we expect them to read on

the grade level they are in and not the reading level

they are capable of. They make on an average of 18

errors per 100 words which is highly frustrational in

which case they learn nothing.

I was in Title l reading for 13 years. We used programs that did not work

and taught EOG vocabulary. If caught not following the established

curriculum---beware. Finally, one day a few years ago we adapted the CORE

reading program which is similar to Reading Recovery. I liked this program

but the entire time with the children was about 20 minutes a day. The

progress is going to be so slow and at that rate the kids will never catch up

and be able to pass a 3rd grade EOG. These kids are kept back a year and

now that I am teaching in the high school, I see these same kids. They have

outgrown their current peer group due to being held back. They still cannot

read so they fail all courses. They are dropping out even as I write to this

exam. I wish the state department would have test made for individuals just

to check individual growth on that student’s level. That would show the true

picture.

Of course that might never happen because people could not make money on

reading programs and making EOGs. (Sorry—I know this is way too long).

In conclusion to this question, what we need in the

classroom are books on varying levels. We also need IRI

testing of the students to document independent

reading level, Instructional level and frustrational level.

Testing should be administered to all on their own

level to track their individual progress.

3. (A.) Make your case as to what extent a working orthographic knowledge is necessary to become an accomplished reader.

We must have working knowledge of how letters work in words. We get this

knowledge by reading easy material. We are looking at meaning of the words as

we read and sub conscientiously looking at the spelling and using our working

knowledge to check it. As we look at the text our orthographic processor is

seeing the spellings and meanings of the words on the page. Our subconscious

kicks in and we continue to read fluently without interruption in the

orthographic processor and the meaning processor. (This statement is probably

redundant).

If a poor speller or poor reader is reading, his orthographic and meaning

processor are disrupted. He is trying to figure out the word and has to stop in

order to decipher the print. The reading becomes too hard. We need to read

material we can read so that our context processor works and we recognize all

words and can continue to read. Now we can dedicate

our energy and thoughts to the meaning of the text we are

reading. The only way to develop the orthographic processor is to read a lot.

It takes thousands of exposure to words in order for the orthographic

processor to become automatic.

(B.) Explain how 1) reading for meaning/pleasure at independent level and 2) writing for genuine purposes feeling free to try to spell words you don’t know how to spell, each increase one’s phonics/spelling, word recognition, and meaning vocabulary.

When writing for pleasure or genuine purpose the child needs to be free to put

thought on paper without the struggle of spelling properly. Inventive spelling is

necessary in order just to write thoughts without judgment on spelling. If the child

can guess first the spelling of a word and sees corrections later, he will have a better

chance of remembering the correct spelling. Per Marilyn Adams , spelling and

phonics should not take much time and 70% of time should be reading and writing

freely.

All children go through the invented spelling stage. Did Carol Chompsky say this in

a 1972 article? Also, children’s mistakes in writing are their current theory of the

spelling. They can correct the mistakes later but the writing process does not need

to be interrupted.

When reading for pleasure one needs to read on independent level. If they are

reading on frustrational level it is not pleasure reading anymore. It is work. We

start looking at all the consonants and vowels in the words to decode them. Our

eyes have to fixate on each unknown word and try to decode thus killing the reading

fluency and comprehension of the passage. (I know even fluent readers eyes fixate

on each word but it is very brief). When we fixate on the words we

also see every letter, therefore we become better spellers

just through reading.

4. (A.) What can you infer about the reading process by the confusion an accomplished reader feels when reading “The none tolled hymn she had scene a pare of bare feat in hour rheum”? Use Jager-Adams’ four-processor model in your explanation.

Since our orthographic processor is seeing familiar words when we read, our eyes

fixate briefly on every word and continue on. We are also unconscientiously

looking at the spelling. Our working knowledge of what we are seeing allows us to

continue reading if the spelling and words are what we are used to. Difficulty

with reading the sentence also shows that good readers

have seen words so many times that they associate the

particular spellings with particular sounds and the

meaning. The passage above, although after some work we understand it,

confused us. Most of the words are improperly spelled, making us fixate on each

one longer than normal. Per Piaget, we go into disequilibrium or a confused state.

We are uncomfortable in reading the sentence because the spelling vs. the meaning

is wrong in our experience. Our reading is not automatic at this point and we have to

re read before moving to the meaning processor. Charles Profetti says we can only

do one thing at a time (Limited Capacity Model), so we use all our time trying to

decode. Comprehension and fluency is sacrificed.

(B.) What can you infer regarding reading intervention? (instruction from the

above)

Instructing a child to read on a level other than instructional is too hard for him. All

energy and time is spent on trying to process the letters into words, then pronounce

them and then extract meaning. Also, the words in the sentence above have more

than one meaning. Kids need to be able to make a connection between the printed

word and the meaning. The only way to do this is to read for

meaning a lot across all the elementary school years or the

reading can become dreaded and rigorous. The child is frustrated

and loses interest in reading all together.

Kids need to read and re read easy stuff in order to be able to extract meaning

effortlessly. This means on their level. In beginning readers, they go from

orthographic to the sound of the word and then the meaning. We felt like beginning

readers trying to read the sentence above, however, because of our experience level,

we knew what was being said even with the wrong spellings. So it takes thousands

of exposures to make since of words that sound the same with different meanings.

In order to get the exposure the kids have to read at least the recommended 90

minutes a day.

5. (A.) Explain why being read to from books with rich language and compelling plots that are written well above a third grade reading level is so important during the K-3 grades.

Reading books with rich book language and compelling plots will give the child a

sense of story and book language. These fairy tales grab the attention of young

children . They are able to be a part of the story and can make their own

predictions. The story teaches morals and shows emotion. As they are read to and

asked to retell, they do this using book language if they have been read to a lot.

These stories also increase vocabulary of the child. Soon the child has memorized

parts of the story and begins to attempt to read and point at words. These stories

allow the child to experience different things in life and gives him prior knowledge

to use as a comprehension tool later. When the child is able to empathize with the

characters in the book it makes the book their own. If a child learns empathy or

feels it through the fairy tales, in my opinion, it is a great lesson for life.

Reading books such as these create a love of reading that is needed in order to

learn. Per Dr. Gill, up to third grade, stories can be

understood if a child just has oral language. However,

starting around the fourth grade , the stories start to

include the vocabulary of book language. If a child has not

been read to, he may be able to read the words but possibly

not understand the story.

6. (A.) Discuss the effect of speaking a non-standard (vernacular) dialect on the following, and for each what you think are the instructional implications:

a. Word recognition and phonics/spelling

b. Reading comprehension

c. Written composition

d. Attitude towards literacy

e. Thinking

f. Oral communication of complex, abstract, thoughts

a. Students that speak a vernacular understand that river is r-i-v-e-r as

written or spelled but perhaps in their vernacular it is r-i-v-a. As long

as the instructor allows the student to continue to speak as learned,

they can understand the spelling as taught phonetically. They also

have the same word recognition capabilities as anyone with another

vernacular or speech as long as they are literate. Phonics and

spelling should be taught the same without pointing out any

differences in the way a child speaks.

c. Word recognition is not affected because spelling has

evolved to fit any dialect. The spelling system that we have has comes

from all dialects over many years. The dialect one has gives no

correlation with that persons ability to read and and comprehend.

People with any dialect in the same language

reads the same words with the same meaning but

just pronounce them differently in speech.

Another example would be: My sister in law is from Connecticut. She

lives with my brother in North Carolina. Her dialect is totally different

and she says ca for car. The sound she makes after the c

in car equals “ar” in spelling no matter how she

says it. She has taught third graders for 35 years in

North Carolina. Her sense of written word is the same as ours even

though the pronunciation is different.

She also writes with the same rules that we do. The dialect is just the

way the words are pronounced as it relates to where we grew up and

the sounds we hear.

Dialect does not affect writing because spelling has evolved to fit all

dialects. Dialect is just a way of saying words. The problem with

education and dialect is the close minded opinions of teachers in that

they think their way of speaking is the right way.

g.

The spelling system that we have has come from all dialects over many years.

In reference again to d,e,f, and then g,(sorry if I am redundant---I needed to

write this stuff), let me begin by saying that we are all living in the

center of our own close minded universe. Whatever we perceive to be right

or perfect within the group we live in becomes our reality. We all need to

stare at a picture of the world or even the universe to think about what a

small, minute, insignificant person we really are. I live in Casar, NC which is

25 miles from Shelby. Even the people in the city limits of Shelby frown on

the country people. We must be illiterate and backward! How ridiculous.!!

We are all surrounded by group or community after community that are also

living in what they perceive is their reality. No group is better than the other.

Dialects are everywhere and I even believe there is some difference in dialect

within a group of similar descendants. Dialect has nothing to do with a

person’s ability to learn . The screw up comes when certain groups are

judgmental or teachers are judgmental of students due to dialect. The

dialect cannot be changed. It is almost like trying to change the skin color of

a person. Others and yes our teachers can permanently damage the self

esteem of a child by making him feel inferior. This is the damage done in

teaching and then in the employment industry. Talk about “Close the Gap”

movement!! We seem to do everything in our power to widen it. As I

pondered these questions, it came to mind that in the mid 1990’s our local

educational personnel were recruiting teachers from the northern states to

come and teach in our schools. What a slap!!!! Our educational leaders are

the most close minded group of all when it comes to dialect! As a result of

the recruiting movement, many young teachers flocked to the Cleveland

County area to give “new blood” to the area and to teach the poor backward

children with undesirable dialects a better way or phonetic way of speaking.

A lot of these teachers could not hang in

due to culture shock and ran back home. Their perception of reality was

shattered and they found people that existed outside of their experience

range. Even the teachers remaining have failed to make any improvement in

reading test scores! Duh---the vernacular has not changed either!

How unfortunate that our community leaders and local

people also regard certain groups of people in a negative way. I know I have

strayed from the question. There is not correlation in dialect, reading ability,

reading and writing except in a person’s judgmental mind.

Adding to the writing composition question at hand, all children are expected

to write composition with 100% accuracy in syntax and spelling. All

children struggle with writing regardless of dialect and this is due to our

stringent state standard of what proper writing is. If a child fails at writing it

is because he cannot conform and fit into that tiny little box called a writing

rubric.

In employment, yes, I believe dialect poses problems for the non-standard

crowd. Thus the movement to find employees outside a certain area as

explained above.

Because our vernacular or non standard English can

be a problem when seeking employment, students can

learn to “Code Switch”. In each of our communities,

families, or with peers, we all most likely relax in our

method of communication. My grammar may not

always be proper when I am around friends and family

and I lapse into more of the vernacular,

pronunciations and phrases I learned as a child.

When I am in the company of authority or around a

group that views my vernacular as improper English, I

resort to my standard English way of speaking. This is

“Code Switching”.

Children in the classroom and most often African Americans

come to school using the vernacular speech they grew up

with. Teachers view this as improper grammar especially

when subjects and verbs do not agree or slang is used. The

teachers often chastise the child or correct them often. I

feel that is the wrong way to help the student. We must be

accepting of the vernacular. However, teachers can help

students learn standard English or “Code Switch”. We must

explain the reasoning behind code switching from our

vernacular to Standard English. Students, if willing, can

use it depending on whom they are communicating with or

if they are in a social situation where standard English is a

more effective and accepted way of communicating.

7 (A.) Why is there a high correlation between socioeconomic status and whether the dialect one speaks is considered standard or non-standard?

All language has a standard dialect and a non-standard. We usually use our non-

standard or vernacular language among friends and family. Whomever has the

control , power or money in any society or group of people controls what is

spoken. The group of people with the wealth or power usually have

the better paying jobs, political clout and education. Dell Hynes, a linguist that

traveled to Mexico to study dialect found the same type of situation where the

higher paid and more educated group had more power and their dialect was

considered the standard. The groups with poor background and not educated spoke

the non standard or vernacular and were looked down upon.

(B.) Why is there a high correlation between literacy and whether the dialect one speaks is considered standard or non-standard?

Historically a literate group of people in a society or community are also the people

With education and a good paying jobs that have clout in the community and are

politically active. Dialect of some students even sway the opinion of teachers when

listening to the dialect without even seeing the child. There was a study in Memphis

Tennessee. The teachers played tapes with children’s voices (black and white),

saying the same thing but they had different dialects. Just the dialect when hearing

the voices convinced the teachers that some were not as literate as the other

children.

After analyzing the differences in dialect, 88% of the teachers said the white

students were smarter. Even the black teachers had negative attitudes about the

dialect of the black kids. Historically again, the more literate people with a standard

dialect have been studied and they are the students that succeed in school and life

vs. the low socioeconomic kids that speak non-standard. Opinions can ruin people.

If one speaks in the vernacular he is dumb and socially inept.

8. Noam Chomsky inferred that we are born with a language acquisition device (LAD) that is pre-programmed to learn language.

A. What convinced him (and Pinker and others) that this was true? That is, what did they find out kids could do that convinced them that they are prewired to learn language?

Noam Chompsky believes everyone is born with LAD and already had knowledge of

the words of their language. He believed that children heard the language being

spoken even in the womb (especially the prosody), and that they were born into the

language. They did not learn the language from just copying what they heard but

made hypotheses about what they heard over and over again and formed rules

from it for their language. Again, the child was already programmed with a variety

of hypotheses when they were born and had to put the language being spoken into

each formula to see which one was correct. This is called their Language Acquisition

Device. This is per research of Chompsky.

A child interacts with parents as they grow. The parents and especially the mother

reinforces the babbling that the child makes and says words back to the child as in

translation. Babies coo and babble from 6 months up to a year before they utter a

real word. The babblings and translations are usually repeated often as the family

gets into a daily routine. The child dresses, eats, plays, visits, goes bye bye and

other things in a repetitive daily manner. In other words, parents emphasize certain

words. The babies also learn prosody and intonation by hearing parents and

mainly the mom talk. We say the mom because historically she was the one

spending most of the time with the babies. As the child gets older, they

begin to understand words right before they turn one. At

this point the child knows the pragmatics of language and

begins saying words from one year up to the age of two.

As the child’s LAD is working and as he hears language he

continually hypothesizes or deducts rules from what is

heard and tries to apply the rules to words. The child says

words he has never heard before. We know this per

Chompsky’s research because children go through stages of

word calling. They say goed for goes or go using the ed rule.

The child has never heard anyone say goed but he applied

the ed rule even though it was incorrect.

B. What do they think this language acquisition device is doing with the language it is exposed to and its own language production system to be able to figure it out?

Chompsky said that the LAD (mechanism in the brain we are born with),

has built in switches that are constantly filtering through language being heard to

see if it fits into the speech patterns of the child’s mother

language. If a child hears a different language , he without

awareness will recognize the language is not his.

The child through the LAD continually uses his own

grammar rules to acquire his language that is most often

heard. He hears this language through father, mother, close

family members. Everyday routines where words are often

repeated as in bathing, eating and playing become very

familiar. Eventually when the child begins speaking he has

an opportunity to practice the language as he understands

it through the LAD.

.

C. 1) What does this tell us about how we acquire a sense of book language? 2) How does this translate to how we help our students acquire or increase their sense of book language?

If babies learn spoken language in their dialect from many repetitions of the

word, then we must also read to children from books a lot for them to acquire

book language. If stories and books have not been read to the child from the

beginning, it is hard for him to learn book language. There is a book, “Child’s

Sense of Story”, written by Arthur Appleby, where he applied the theory that

reading to a child over and over again and letting them retell develops book

language. Actually, the retelling was Piaget’s idea. He said developing book

language was a developmental process and necessary.

9. (A.) To what extent do you think each of the principles of literacy learning and instruction is being honored in your school?

(B.) Why or why not? (You can address A and B together for each principle)

I think we are way overdoing the phonics teaching. Teachers are dedicating approx.

30 to 45 minutes a day on Saxon phonics. Our children are experts on macrons and

breves and still cannot read. Not only do we spend too much school time on this,

but homework up to 30 minutes a night is assigned. Not delivering on the

homework brings grave consequences in the form of failing spelling. Parents have

no idea what all this stuff is in Saxon phonics and cannot help at home even if they

wanted too. Spelling test are also a biggy during the week. Spelling word are

usually assigned from a sight word list and Saxon phonics recommendations. Kids

continue to fail spelling and can’t read based on these teachings, however, a child

can be scarred for a long time seeing the big F on the report card.

One thing we do that is good is to allow the child to check out books from the library

on their book level to read. I applaud this but they have to take an accelerated

reading test on these books and accrue a certain amount of points or good grades a

week or again be plagued with the F. This is a huge part of the reading grade and

having a computerized test on all books just plum takes the joy out of it. I have seen

parents help their child cheat to pass the tests and I have seen frantic children get

sick from the stress. Oh and did I mention they could only check out two books a

week? They cannot check out another one at all even all year if those books are not

returned. They say we are teaching responsibility. I say we are teaching fear and

failure.

There is a beautiful bookroom at the school with thousands of leveled sets

and even book bags to take home with books, books on tape and activities to go with

them. The room is impeccable and has been for seven years. Something is wrong

with this picture. Oh well---the room looks good if we have visitors.

The spelling and the writing block seem to take up most of the time dedicated to the

language arts block. Yes, I know that writing is not reading but gee, we can’t fail that

4th grade writing test you know. I know I said 4th grade but we always overdo

writing from K and up to prepare for this test.

Sometimes the students can pick a book just to read and we do SSR. However,

better make sure you are really reading even if you can’t because the teacher is

going to conference you!! Then if all that isn’t enough to teach any kid to read, we

must remember to read at least 20 minutes a night at home. Parents must sign the

reading log to prove that the student read. I have seen older brothers and sisters

sign or the kid in tears begging dad to sign the paper before they get out of the car at

the school car rider line. If the log is not signed---another F. The signing becomes

the most important thing and not the reading.

Guess I think we could do a better job.

10. In order for the balance of 40, 30, 20, 10 to be approximated in your school, what do you think should stay and what do you think should go?

Wow---that is a tricky question. A state test in science has been added to our

elementary level children so we must prepare lots for that. Then we have not done

too well in math over the years. A new program was just adopted this year and

Saxon math was dumped. We have to work really hard now to prove its success

and its worth since thousands of dollars were spent on a new book adoption.

This is going to cut into our academic day.

At least we have somewhat of an excuse( we think), in reading since we are 80%

free and reduced lunch and a Title 1 school.

Teachers are also inconsistent in the way the academic day is spent.

I know the language arts block is 90 minutes but this includes lots of phonics,

spelling practice and writing. In K-2. In grade 3 and 5 the EOG questions, vocabulary

and strategies are taking the lead in time spent in the block. In grade 4 we have the

EOG stuff too but add to that the writing test preparation.

In answer to the question, for now I would dump a lot of the phonics and spelling in

K-2 grades and concentrate a good portion of the block (40 minutes on reading

aloud and reading individually with guidance). The books would be fairy tales and

fables with rich language and engaging plots in order to gain the interest of the

readers. We have so much Title 1 money that tutors can be hired just to read with

the students that are reading below grade level. Thirty minutes can be spent on

children reading simple stories independently and having a retell. Since phonics is

so heavily pushed, use the 20 minute block just to work with letter sounds in words

that are in simple rhymes from the fairytales we have read. The remaining time we

can read a science passage, social studies passage in trade books that have been

purchased by or Title 1 money. In the grades 3-5, we can also use tutors reading

with behind readers up to the full 90 minutes if possible. I say let the accelerated

kids read on their own during this time and conference with the teacher as well.

All of this time reading, to be effective, must be on the

children’s instructional and independent reading level.

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