RE 5100 Mid Term - Appalachian State University



RE 5100 Mid Term

Question 1: Critical Literacy Understandings In Kindergarten

There are several crucial literacy understandings that should be mastered in kindergarten. Students need to understand the alphabet and be able to recognize the 26 letters (letter recognition). They also need to have phonemic awareness (sound awareness), at least beginning consonants and ending consonants. Students need to be aware of concept of word; they need to be able to match spoken words with written words or be able to track print. Students need to have some word recognition or sight vocabulary. Also, kindergartners need to develop vocabulary and story structure knowledge, along with word knowledge. These skills are strong predictors of reading success in later grades. Having these skills and this knowledge base puts kindergartners very close to being readers, if they’re not already, and will enable them to have further literacy successes.

One way to teach the alphabet is by introducing several letters at a time. Have students practice tracing the letters in caps, then lower case. Play games and do worksheets that require letter recognition skills. Teach the ABC song. Use a word sort process to teach the ABCs. Look through all of the cards and agree what pictures are. Put out three cards that don’t sound alike, like ball, moon, and rake. Then, for example, show the card rain and ask which word it sounds most like. Do the same with mitten. This activity helps students learn to listen to the beginning of the word. At least five minutes a day of this activity is recommended. Using the Language Experience Approach, the teacher could point to specific letters in the story the class wrote, letters the students already learned or were currently studying and orally quiz students on the letters. In Big Books, the process would be the same. Learning letters is a memorization process. to test kindergarteners on their knowledge of the ABCs at the end of the year, the teacher points to letters one at a time and circles one if the student misses it. This assessment needs to be done with capital letters and lowercase letters because students need to realize that an “A” is an “a” no matter if it is “big” or “little.”

To teach phonemic awareness, build on the word sort activity and put letters at the top of the card. Teach students to discriminate between the letters. “B” goes with “ball,” “m” with “mitten.” and “r” with “rake,” etc. This activity helps students contrast letters with sounds. It also develops beginning consonant awareness. Do three letters at a time for those who are struggling, four for more advanced students. Allowing students to write with invented spelling helps them explore and display their phonemic awareness. To test this skill, use a spelling test. For example, have students spell the word “map.” Ask them what they hear at the beginning of the word. Then do “back,” “feet,” “step,” “jump,” “road,” “dig.” Look for beginning consonants in the spelling.

To teach concept of word using the Language Experience or Big Book approach, the teacher reads the story to the class being sure to distinctively point to each word as she says it. She’ll read the story several times this way, with the class choral reading as she tracks the print. On day two, the teacher rereads and the class choral reads. Then, the teacher points to a specific word and asks what it is. She coaches the class by telling them to see if they’re right by reading and touching the words. This method works because the stories are short enough that the students virtually have them memorized at this point. Day 3, the teacher can have each student read the story to her as she comes by. She’ll read the first line to them while pointing to each word and then have them do it to see if they have concept of word. She can ask, “What’s this word?” The student should go back and point to the words while reading to check. Another cue to help is if students notice punctuation and that another sentence has started. They’ll realize that they have misread. Beginning consonant sounds also help track print. A teacher can use these as hints to help direct students. To test concept of word, use a small four-page book. Ask the child to say two words from each sentence. Give students a point for each word pointed to and a point for each word correctly identified.

Finally, kindergartners gain sight vocabulary. Through LEA and Big Books, as described above, students develop sight vocabulary in context when they read stories with word control and can track words. If they see and hear “we” in a story repeatedly (and throughout stories), this becomes a word the students recognize. While reading, a teacher can point out repeated words to help develop the sight vocabulary. Students can learn sight vocabulary through the use of flashcards. To assess this skill, have students read some words, approximately ten. Words like “is,” “me,” “cat,” “and,” “the” are common words for kindergartners to learn. Word sorts can also aid in the development to sight word knowledge.

Question 2: On the Rise and Fall of Whole Language

Frank Smith and Kenneth Goodman, a psychologist and a reading theorist respectively, first published criticism of Dick and Jane in the 1970s. They said that these readers were boring, didn’t represent the language that children have and use, didn’t contain strong meaning within the story, deprived students of hearing natural language, and relied too heavily on a visual approach (pictures) for teaching reading. They urged for a method that relied on the naturalness of teaching kids to read and compared learning to read to how kids learn to talk. They posited that if you stick students in a print-rich environment, they will learn to read. According to them, phonics are unnecessary because they are arbitrary and abstract, rote and boring. Instead, teachers should use good, rich, meaningful language. Students should not be grouped because that would hurt their self-concept.

In the 1980s, teachers in the United States were ripe for change because they had so many restrictions and requirements. They were drawn to whole language because this approach placed the teacher at the center of learning and said ability grouping was unnecessary. Teachers liked whole language because of the freedom of choice and the interesting stories. No longer did books have strict word control, decodable words, etc. Also, they had less to juggle because reading groups went by the wayside. New Zealand had begun to use Big Books, which more closely mirrored natural language, and they weren’t doing much phonics. The US liked what they were doing. California said schools had the right to not buy basal readers, and the basal reader companies responded by de-emphasizing phonics and giving up word control. And the whole language movement took off!

In 1995, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests were administered. California had been fourth in the nation in fourth grade reading at the previous testing. However, in 1995, they were 47th in the nation! Therefore, they decided that the whole language approach wasn’t cutting it. Once California began rethinking its teaching of reading, textbook companies again followed suit and began to respond with different materials, mainly because California is such a large, influential state. In the late 1990s, the President responded to scientists’ findings that good readers look ate every word rather than reading three or four words at a time as whole language suggested. The whole language movement began to peter out, as the government doled out money to programs like reading First, called for control in basal readers, and for intense phonic instruction.

Routman realized the merits of whole language coupled with a more traditional approach. She tried to blend these two teaching methods together in her first grade. She exposed children daily to good literature, rather than just basals. Routman read with the students, pointing to words as she went, to teach them left to right progression and sight vocabulary. She taught them reading strategies, like looking at semantic cues, synatactic cues, and graphophonic cues to decipher text. However, she believes (and I agree) that meaning should come before phonics. In other words, good, interesting literature is more important than learning to decode, but decoding IS necessary. She feels uncomfortable teaching phonics, but when she does, she does it with multi-sensory activities, like eating chocolate chip cookies when studying the “ch” blend. She teaches sight vocabulary, but in the context of the story. She tries to marry the two schools of thought. She also has reading groups, rather than teaching all reading whole group. In groups, students build reading strategies, round robin read, and echo read in a supportive environment. She claims, “There is a spirit of friends sitting down together to read a much-loved story and to help each other doing so (53). the other students work on book projects while the groups meet.

In my opinion, the pros of her approach are: instead of just waiting for a random teachable moment as the whole language approach suggests, Routman makes the opportunities for direct instruction to happen, like teaching sight words in context. She spends one hour a day reading to the students as a whole. And she creates a cultural and print experience that at-risk students don’t have. She asks inferential questions and provided guided reading. They write every day. She does do groups (20 minutes each) and thus provided differentiated learning. She practices rereading within the groups, which works on fluency and sight words. However, she does not teach a lot of phonics and actually apologizes for teaching phonics, which I feel is a negative aspect to her approach because phonics provide a solid base for beginning readers.

Question 3: On Reading Groups in the First Grade

Reading groups are controversial. However, it is still the norm for students to be ability-grouped for the learning and practice of reading, especially in the primary grades. Grouping is even more controversial in the upper elementary grades, but ironically, we return to grouping or tracking by ability in high school.

Why the controversy? Reading groups “track” students by ability. A child will know that he is in the slow group, and that knowledge may be detrimental to his self-concept and self-esteem. He may feel badly about himself and give up trying at all because he is a “dummy.” Other students in the class may tease the low readers, further hurting their self-esteem. And, there’s often not a lot of movement between groups: if a kid is in the low group, he’s likely to stay there for the remainder of his school career. Also, reading groups can be a headache for the teacher because the teacher has to organize for the other students to have something to do while she is working with the groups. She has to make different lessons for each group daily because each group has varying abilities and needs.

So why do teachers continue to use grouping in reading instruction? The answer is simple. Reading groups allow teachers to work with fewer students at a time, thus allowing for more individualized education and attention. Therefore, the student-teacher ratio is smaller during reading instruction, and the teacher will be able to better monitor where each student is at and provide instruction as necessary for that student.

When students are grouped by ability, they receive a literacy education at their level, tailored for their needs. This is a key element of reading instruction because instruction at the right level leads to progress. Students in the low group have materials appropriate to them. They’re not overwhelmed by materials that are at grade level that they just can’t do. They can spend extra time on harder concepts, like blends and the long vowels. Conversely, the high readers can be sufficiently challenged. They won’t be bored by instruction of concepts they already know or acquire faster than the other children. All is well, right?

Wrong! The teacher is left to figure out how to best structure her classroom so that meaningful learning and minimal behavioral problems occur while she is working with the small groups. If I were teaching first grade, my instructional method would be as follows:

During the first week of school, I would familiarize students with learning center expectations, center rules, and with how each center works and operates. Daily, I would meet with the low group first for thirty minutes. During this time, the other students will be at various centers, including a writing center, a publishing/art center, and abc/spelling/making words center, a poetry center, a reading center, a buddy reading center, a listening center, a language arts center, a journal center, and a handwriting center. Each group will have a schedule, and they will rotate through each center, shooting for two a day. At the end of the week, everyone should have rotated through almost all of the centers. They will have a chart to use each week, where they color in the boxes of the centers they worked in. However, I want to allow students to work at their own pace. If they need a bit more time, they may stay at a center longer rather than moving on. as long as a student is on task and giving his best effort, his grade will not be harmed if he does not complete all of the centers each week. I will be able to monitor learning center diligence (or lack thereof) by observing behavior and looking over work at the end of the week. I realize that I listed many learning centers. At the beginning of the year, I would start off with just a few and add the rest as the year goes on.

My second and third groups, average and high readers, will meet with me twenty minutes daily. Thus the reading group period will last for an hour and ten minutes. In all groups, several things will occur. We will oral read with immediate feedback. We will work on reading strategies, word sorts and study, comprehension, fluency, and phonics.

To manage the centers, I will keep all center materials in labeled boxes on our class bookshelf. This is also where students can find appropriately leveled books to read during partner reading and free reading. I will color code them so that students can easily pick a book that is just right for their ability. Weekly, activities at the centers will change. I will keep folders of ideas for each center and note which ideas I’ve already done. That way, my time spent organizing centers can be minimized as long as I brainstorm and research multiple ideas beforehand, perhaps on the workdays at the beginning of the year. To address the issues of self-esteem and self-concept, we will have a time each day where we share what we’re working on in the centers. Each child will have a time to shine. I will suggest tutoring for my low readers and will work hard to pull them up. Hopefully, with correctly structured phonics instruction, some high low readers will find themselves at grade level and moving out of the low group as the year progresses.

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