With current trends in the field of education, and the increased emphasis of standardized testing data, classrooms of today have become increasingly outcome driven. Although few would argue with the importance of improving classroom instruction and the logic associated with basing instruction on desired student outcomes, this one size fits all approach is not without its detractors.
Today many elementary teachers feel pressured to move forward with content instruction even when they may personally feel that there are students in their classrooms who have not sufficiently mastered the skill. This practice is especially troublesome as it relates to the instruction of reading and reading fluency. It is a widely accepted belief among educators and educational researchers that not all children progress at the same rate. However, with the current emphasis on test score data driving instructional strategies, many educators are instructing their students as if they do. My personal view is that students should determine my teaching and instructional strategies, and that my teaching practices should change based on the needs of my students.
Over the years different philosophies of reading instruction have emerged, changed, disappeared, morphed, and re-emerged. Strategies have included sight words, phonetic approaches, whole language, along with several combinations of all of these strategies. With the advent of No Child Left Behind in 2001, reading instruction, along with instruction in general, began to place an increased emphasis on “standards based instruction”. This type of instruction has continued and is now being emulated in the new Common Core Standards. The trick for educators has been how to cover the material that is required un...
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... provide an environment that is adequately structured to meet these goals. Although all of the articles I read discussed strategies to improve reading fluency in different types of settings, all stressed the importance of basing the instructional strategies on student needs rather than a set curriculum.
Works Cited
Fenty, N. S., McDuffie-Landrum, K., & Fisher, G. (2012). Using Collaboration, Co-Teaching, and Question Answer Relationships to Enhance Content Area Literacy. Teaching Exceptional Children, 44(6), 28-37.
Ortlieb, E., Grandstaff-Beckers, G., & Cheek, E. H. (2012). Fostering Reading Excellence at Every Level of School through Reading Clinics. Clearing House, 85(1), 1-6. doi:10.1080/00098655.2011.601356
Sanden, S. (2012). Independent Reading: Perspectives and Practices of Highly Effective Teachers. Reading Teacher, 66(3), 222-231. doi:10.1002/TRTR.01120
Differentiated instruction caters to differences among students, how students learn, different learning styles, and the interest of each learner. Running records support differentiating lessons for each learner during guided reading. Running records are diagnostic tools designed to identify a student’s reading deficiencies and monitor progress. The implementation of running records allows the teacher to differentiate each child’s reading lesson and hone in on the child’s needs and abilities. It is the educator’s responsibility to fine-tune instructional needs so that classroom, small group, and one-to-one teaching occur when and for whom they are needed in a timely way and with the high quality every child deserves (Fountas & Pinnell, 2009). Each child enters a classroom with varying needs; differentiating guided reading lessons based on the results of running records will help meet the individual needs of each child. Kelly M. Anderson (2007) states, teachers who differentiate believe each child is unique, with differing learning styles and preferences. Teachers can differentiate based on students’ readiness by varying the level of difficulty of the material covered in class. Guided reading offers the opportunity to vary the children’s reading based on their reading level. Differentiating instruction is not lowering expectations for some students. Differentiating instruction is establishing high expectations for all students while varying the process to which each child learns the same concept. Differentiating involves addressing the individual needs of diverse learners. Watts-Taffe, et al. (2012) notes although differentiating instruction is not new; it has become increasingly i...
Woodward, M., & Johnson, C. T. (2009, November). Reading Intervention Models: Challenges of Classroom Support and Separated Instruction. The Reading Teacher, 63(3).
For this assignment, I completed a survey to assess my school’s literacy program by using a survey that was adapted from by Patty, Maschoff, & Ransom (1996) to analyze the instructional program and the school’s infrastructure. To be able to answer my survey, I needed to go colleagues of mine in the English Department and to my administration to help with these questions. Being a math teacher, we hardly ever discuss the literacy and the students’ acquisition of it in our department meeting during staff development days. Since I am not truly current with literacy acquisition in education, I am hoping to understand more from this process so I can help all my students. I want them to be able to read texts related to math and find information that will be useful to them during the year.
The DeFord Theoretical Orientation to Reading Profile, developed in 1985 by Diane DeFord, is a way to measure the philosophy and belief systems associated with instructional practices in the beginning of reading. The three systems include phonics, skills, and whole language (Vacca et al 2006). The bottom-up beliefs systems, associated with Behaviorism, place emphasis on letters, letter-sound relationships, and the understanding that the student, in order to comprehend the selection, must recognize each word in a text. There is importance placed on decoding, and skills are taught in a systematic and sequential format.
This semester I had the pleasure to be in Mrs. Smith’s kindergarten class at Normal Park Museum Magnet School. For the last four months I was able to observe and do a guided reading lesson. During this time I was able to reflect over what I have learn from Teacher Reading and connect it to what I have seen happen in my classroom during Guided Reading, writing, and reading. During Professional Development School I had the opportunity to see many different reading levels and see how my teacher taught her many different reading levels.
Differentiated Assessment is a process where teachers combine data and valuable information together before, during and after instruction takes place to create a strategic learning plan. “One of the major principles of differentiated instruction is that of making instructional choices in response to differences in student learning. It therefore stands to reason that teachers must be aware of what students are learning and how they are applying it in order to vary that in instruction. Even though teachers evaluate student learning with great regularity, most of these activities are conducted in order to produce grades, to place or sort students, or to document students’ progress on high-stakes exams, while these assessments have their place,
The following seven strategies can be used to encourage reading: 1. Student choice. It is widely believed that students who have input in select ing their reading material are more likely to read. CTE teachers should provide students with numerous options to select reading material. 2.
Scott, T. M., & Shearer-Lingo, A. (2002). The effects of reading fluency instruction on the academic and behavioral success of middle school students in a self-contained E/BD classroom. Preventing School Failure, 46, 167-173.
While I believe every child is a reader, I do not believe every child will be enthralled with reading all the time. All students have the capability to read and enjoy reading, but just like any other hobby, interest will vary from student to student. The students in my classroom will be encouraged in their reading, be provided with choice, taught how books can take you into another world but, my students will not be forced to read. This paper will illustrate my philosophy of reading through the theories I relate to, the way I want to implement reading and writing curriculum, and the methods I will use motivate my students to read and help them become literate.
...ents to make a good reader. Therefore, without a certain piece of reading students skills the scaffolding is unstable. Due to a student’s faulty scaffolding, reading does not work cohesive to make the end product a successfully understood story. This concerns me. If I feel like they are falling behind on these skills and their other teachers, my colleagues, are not teaching them these skills, I will and do my best at making it appropriate for my class. Without reading skills, they will be faced with horrible ramifications from their problems to comprehend and understand the vocabulary words they see in their textbooks.
... for teachers to choose materials that will hook students and motivate them to engage in their own learning. Teachers should provide multiple learning opportunities in which stu¬dents can experience success and can begin to build confidence in their ability to read, write, and think at higher level. By connecting strategies for learning, such as searching, compre¬hending, interpreting, composing, and teaching content knowledge, students are given the opportunity to succeed in their education. These elements include: fundamental skills such as phonemic awareness, phonemic decoding, and other word analysis skills that support word reading accuracy; text reading fluency; strategies for building vocabulary; strategies for understanding and using the specific textual features that distinguish different genres; and self-regulated use of reading comprehension strategies.
Literacy is an on-going skill that teachers and students alike should commonly study and practice in all grades. Problems faced by teachers, especially teachers in higher grades, are not having the skills to be effective teachers of literacy. To effectively teach literacy across content areas, a teacher would need skills such as knowledge of the reading process and the ability to cultivate the knowledge gained in order to make informed decisions within their classrooms (Clary, Oglan, Styslinger,
Reading and writing is a key part of everyone’s life. There has been some encouraging levels of reading development in primary school assessments. According to the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy report (2015), 95.5% of students achieve at or above the national minimum standard of reading. It is important to know effective ways to teach reading so children can become active problem solvers to enable them to read for meaning or for fun. Over the years, there has been a big amount of research into the most effective ways to teach reading skills to students. There are some systematically taught key skills and strategies that help achieve these levels of reading. Some of these skills include phonological awareness, phonemic awareness,
It is critical for each child to learn to read. Steps need to be taken to ensure instruction is done effectively. According to Rowe & Smith (2012) in Teaching Reading in Today’s Elementary Schools, recognizing words is an essential prerequisite for skilled reading with comprehension (p. 155). For teachers to be able to help students become independent readers, there are several components that need to be addressed for an effective reading program, the best approaches for instruction, and modifications for diverse learners.
Instructional material is another educational factor affecting students reading performance. Teachers have a lot of material to teach students to read, such as trade books, chapter books, basal readers, and technological material, but teacher’ role is to find a material that would fit students as well as advances students’ strengths, to find the material to match the reader (Cox, 2015). The teacher has consider students’ interest, their choice, size of the book, and their background knowledge using material, so students would be able to construct meaning while using their strengths.