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Development of Reading ability
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This semester I was lucky enough to observe and participate at a high energy and collaborative school that strongly utilized some literacy and learning community strategies. The school that I visited over the past few weeks is Carusi Middle School, located in Cherry Hill. During my visits I was teamed with an exceptional eighth grade teacher, Ms. Bradshaw. She not only showed me her language arts classes, but also sent me to other grade levels and classes so that I could experience all types of learning environments. I was able to participate in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade humanities, special education, science, math, other language arts, and AVID (advancement via individual determination) courses. The themes that I observed were independent reading/variety of book selection, which occurred every Wednesday morning during/prior to homeroom, vocabulary lessons, balanced literacy components, and collaborative learning.
The first theme that I took notice to was the independent reading and self selection of text that occurred each and every Wednesday morning. During this time, students would read books for about twenty minutes to a half hour in the morning. In the classroom, there were shelves and shelves of books for students to select from. If, upon occasion, a student was having difficulty selecting a book, the teacher, would come to the back of the room and help the student select a text. In this way, the teacher was able to help guide the student to an appropriate level book that would challenge the student, but would also not be too difficult for him/her to interpret. The teacher would also talk with the student, asking about the book that was just completed. Did the student like the book? What did they enjo...
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...ok be and why? Was there any specific material from the text that lead to this decision? These types of questions can be difficult for students because they seem to be very abstract. Trying to make these concrete specific examples as to why The Thief Lord (for example) should be green, because…..That is an entirely student directed opinion, perspective, and analysis of the text. They simply can not refer to another classmate, because they might not have read the book, or they cannot just look up examples that were created by other students, because they might not understand why someone else would attribute that color with that book. In a very round-about way, the topics for their writing pieces are their own design, making unrecognizable and misunderstandings more common, especially if a student is not comfortable or exposed to that type of learning strategy.
Fountas, I., C., & Pinnel, G. S., (2009). When readers struggle: Teaching that works. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Morrow, L. M., and Young, J. Parent, Teacher, and Child Participation in a Collaborative Family Literacy Program: The Effects on Attitude, Motivation, and Literacy Achievement Reading Research Report no. 64. College Park, MD, and Athens, GA: National Reading Research Center, 1996. (ED 398 551)
I was placed in the Title 1 Reading classroom while spending time at Maplehurst Elementary. The environment of the classroom was fun and colorful. She had a large table that would seat 8 students at a time and a large carpet behind her desk for when we did floor work. Everyday when the students arrived to class we had a routine of starting the class off with letter sounds, trick words, and digraphs. It’s good for the students struggling in these specific areas for them to keep practicing and also good reception for some students.
The observed reading curriculum is implemented in an inclusion language arts education classroom in an Ohio public middle school. There are nineteen ...
Through these resources, activities, and strategies, students are able to make progress into distinguishing the main idea and supporting details in reading texts. Through this they are also able to organize thoughts to develop a topic sentence and moreover use supporting facts and details. Many of the resources and activities done in this lesson allowed the students to think for themselves and make educated guesses based on the information given. Moreover they were allowed multiple opportunities to share with one another about heir thought
Current interests in reducing high dropout rates and closing the achievement gap across many United States high schools have resulted in a major education reform. According to Durden (2008), with the passing of the No Child Left Behind legislation in 2002, national officials authorized the Comprehensive School Reform program to support low performing schools as they struggled to improve student achievement. As a result, a wide range of approaches have been considered to help solve this nation-wide concern. Durden (2008) discussed as a result of this national effort, an increase in implementation of comprehensive school reforms is occurring in schools serving predominantly diverse student populations in urban areas. Kemple et al., (2006) stated that while many different targeted programs and comprehensive reform strategies have been proposed as strategies to counter these problems, small learning communities (SLCs) or freshman academies have been incorporated. . Freshman academies or small learning communities (SLCs) are defined as small self-contained groups of students who take classes together from interdisciplinary teacher teams. (SLCs) have emerged as among the most common and potentially effective response. With the incorporation of small learning communities (SLCs) or freshman academies, there are other areas of importance needing change in addressing the problems of high dropout rates and the achievement gap. Important areas in need of change includes how we assess our students, preparation of America’s teachers, and development of appropriate curricular materials, policies, and practices for diverse students.
For my community involvement project, I volunteered at Memminger Elementary School for a program called “Reading Partners.” The program focuses on helping children build strong literacy skills to carry with them into their academic careers. It requires the tutor to read to the student that has been assigned, and in turn, the student reads to the tutor. The program assists in teaching the students valuable reading skills. Being able to read is critical to a child’s educational success.
In the study performed by Cairney and Munsie, Parent participation in literacy learning, the relationship between parents, teachers, and the community was explored in regard to their children’s literacy development. Researchers believe that parental involvement has become a term that means different things to different people, and makes expectations between parents and teachers difficult to maintain. Cairney and Munsie believe that by using the Talk to a Literacy Learner program (TTALL) they can break down the barriers between home and school “to enable both teachers and parents to understand the way each defines, values, and uses literacy as part of cultural practices.” (Cairney & Munsie, 1995) The authors of this study aim to bring parents to a place where they are more intimately involved in the literacy development of their children, and establish a stronger relationship with the schools. Through this they wish to change the nature of interactions adults have with their children as they’re learning to read and write, introduce parents to new literacy practices related to schooling, and increase involvement within the community.
In the article: Effects of Small-Group Reading Instruction and Curriculum Differences for Students Most at Risk in Kindergarten by Debra Kamps, Mary Abbott, Charles Greenwood Howard Wills, Mary Veerkamp, and ,Jorun Kaufman they argue that the implementation of small group reading intervention done on the three-tier model of prevention and intervention were beneficial to students. The study was conducted using 83 at risk (reading failure) students during the winter of kindergarten. It was an evidence-based curriculum done in groups of one to six. They concluded that students in the small interven...
Literacy is a very intriguing topic; it seems simple yet it is so vast and complex that it takes some people their whole lives to understand it. If I say the phrase ‘Discourse Community’ most people in a random selection from the population would just stare at me waiting for me to finish my sentence, as they would not understand the gravity of the phrase. A discourse community is a group with similar interests that uses communication and other devices together to expand their knowledge of a subject and accomplish goals. Readers from a young age do not understand the fact that they are contributing to their community before they even know of its existence. By communicating to their teacher that they are having issues with a certain area and that this type of learning helped them to understand it, their teacher can then reiterate to the community what the issue was and how it was resolved so that
Teachers observe how the peer leaders grab the attention of the students and how they connect, so they can do a better job on enhancing the learning of the students. As the author, Fiske, says,“‘First, teachers should be encouraged to move beyond describing what they see and experience and to analyzing what is happening in their classrooms. Second, teachers should be encouraged to think about problems from an alternative perspective, particularly their student’.” For example, Mrs. James has students in her classroom that struggle with her Grammar assignments. Mrs. James continues to try and find different and unique ways for her students to actually get her lessons. She encourages her highest grade student to re-teach her lesson on Grammar. As the student, Marissa is re teaching the class this information, Mrs. James goes around the class with the role and her notebook. She’s taking notes of how each student is taking their own notes over the lesson, and she puts them all into categories. The categories are based on what kind of learner the students are: Auditory, Kinesthetic, or Visual learners. Mrs. James creates a whole new plan on how she can get reach her students on a different level for their understanding. Teachers have to learn how to deal with specific students in their classroom. Reading a curriculum and instructions aren’t going to
Every child deserves a positive, safe, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment where they will grow academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. My role as an educator is to provide my students with this type of environment as well as an education that will help them succeed academically and become life long learners. It is the responsibility of a literacy educator to provide students with this type of environment, but also to provide instruction that will help students become successful readers and writers. There are numerous programs and philosophies about literacy and reading. Through years of experience and research, one begins to develop their own creative approach on teaching these skills. After looking at different programs and seeing the positive and negatives of each, an integrated and balanced approach of literacy seems to be the best way to teach the differing needs of each student.
Wadden, M., & Fagan, B. (n.d.). Literacy development: A community perspective. Retrieved from Memorial University website: http://www.mun.ca/educ/faculty/mwatch/fall01/wadden-fagan.htm
How can literacy programs become less like school and more appealing to adults, especially to nonparticipants? Two areas that hold potential for answering this question are discussed here. The first is connected to program content and the second revolves around greater consideration of the differences among students.
The one topic that was most relevant was behavioral issues, because most of the students in this classroom had behavioral problems and it affect the way they learn. It was great to see the teacher be patience, and it was very insightful to watch how she handle each behavioral problem that arose in the classroom. Another topic that arose was the different types of instruction, but as discussed early in the paper the classroom that I observed was a direct instruction. During the time spent in the school I gained insight on how to have good classroom management, what method on teaching worked the best, how to teach children with needs, and how to better motivate the children to