Week 10 Reading

The article I chose was Teaching Flexibility with Leveled Texts: More Power for Your Reading Block.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/teaching-flexibly-leveled-texts-more-power-your-reading-block

Important things/ideas from the lesson today are:

• When grouping students focus less on discrete levels and more on areas of need.
• Be cognizant of word count in lower level text versus grade level text. Below level students may need to to use multiple texts to equalize the amount of reading practice.
• Provide well prepared and organized multilevel topical text sets to allow students to independently build background knowledge and make connections as they progress to more challenging text.
• Allow students time and freedom to self select text that requires minimal support to build fluency and confidence. 
• While providing multiple levels of text within a classroom library provide an ample supply (approximately 70%) of easily accessible books. 
• Promote reading engagement by supplying alternative and real-world forms of text: magazines, plays, newspapers, poetry, digital and online texts. 

but the most important thing I learned today is that in an engaging and challenging classroom, the teacher must carefully decide the degree of instructional support needed for readers to engage in the text selected.

Week 9 Activity

From Chapter 7, I chose Objective B1-c: Compare these two characters:                    and                       .

The text I will use is Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. 

I chose this text because I know my reader enjoys stories with an element of humor and silliness. This text has a GLE of 3.3/ AD810Lwhich is slightly above his instructional level. We will read the book together as a first read, I feel he can read the bulk of the text independently. Words such as companions, dreadfully, especially, and gracefully are found sporadically. If the words are reviewed prior to reading for identification and meaning hopefully he will be able to retain meaning while reading. 

I have purchased the book as an audio e-book in addition to traditional print to allow opportunity to listen to the story as well as reread it on his own. The book also can be used for several other activities within this chapter such as:

Objective B1-b: What happened at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the story?

Objective B3-a: Prove that (character/person) is very                          . 

Week 9 Reading

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/teaching-interactive-picture-e-books-grades-k-6

I chose an article about e-books since I have a set of iPads that I use with my students. I have purchased interactive e-book apps (such as Dr. Seuss) and non-interactive books through iBooks.

Three important things/ideas from the lesson today are students should be "experts" at using their devices prior to reading e-books for academic purposes in order to limit the distractions from device operation (screen orientation, page turning, etc.), teach students to transfer print reading skills to e-reading, and to beware of gimmicks and distractions but the most important thing I learned today is that an interactive e-book does not replace a good teacher.

As mentioned in the article, current research can not identify a simplistic relationship between e-books and comprehension, their features can be alternatively beneficial and problematic. The article offers the following advice-
1. Consider whether the interactive features in the e-books you use with children distract, support, or extend their understanding of the text.

2. Provide strategy instruction that is adapted for e-book reading.

3. Analyze e-books for quality, accuracy, and readability before using them for instruction.

4. Give students opportunities to practice reading with both traditional and electronic books.

Week 8 Reading

I chose the following article: Universal Design for Learning: Meeting the Needs of All Students. While completing the whirlwind of the MAT-E program at Frostburg State University, the program coordinator had introduced us to some resources for UDL. It is an amazing concept that I aspire to live by.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/universal-design-learning-meeting-needs-all-students

Three important things/ideas from the lesson today are define multiple goals that allow for multiple means of attainment, assess diverse learner needs, and evaluate barriers that may exist within the current curriculum, but the most important thing I learned today is the purpose of UDL implementation is to create expert learners – learners who can assess their own learning needs, monitor their own progress, and regulate and sustain their interest, effort, and persistence during a learning task. 

Week 7 Activity

Activities for Video Thread

Objective A4-a: Predict what will happen next in the story

I think this activity is a good starting point for my student. Up to this point we have focused on Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, lately fluency, and now we are ready to begin applying comprehension. Another reason I chose this activity, I know my student's background knowledge is strong and he enjoys self to text connections but at times he expands way beyond what the story is about. This would be a good activity to teach and demonstrate the importance of focusing more on the information within the text rather than embellishing with things that do not relate.

I plan to use this activity with the book chosen earlier:
The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble

Objective A5-a: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in text, including figurative language.

This would be another great activity to use with my student. His phonics skills are still below grade level and when he reads he still replaces words with similar phonetic patterned words. These words typically fit grammatically, replacing nouns with nouns and verbs with verbs and for a stand alone sentence they may make sense but the replacements often change the context of the story.

Texts I am considering for this activity:
All the Colors of the Earth by Sheila Hamanaka
All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle

Week 7 Reading

Chapter 4 

Three important things/ideas from the lesson today are true collaboration requires much more than just discussion and cooperating it is an "intellectual pursuit to achieve a goal," the reading process parallels the writing process steps (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing), and successful collaboration requires a pre-planned foundation of rules and expectations, but the most important thing I learned today is that the responsibility of "building a culture of collaboration" doesn't fall solely on the shoulders of the teacher, students need to bare some of the responsibility particularly when it comes to inclusiveness.

INCLUSION 



Teachers really do hold the power in the hands to shape the society of tomorrow.

Chapter 5

Three important things/ideas from the lesson today are answer frames are a temporary scaffold that must have a defined goal for elimination, students must know what type of evidence they are searching for in order to apply the proper reading strategies, great answers must answer all of the questions and be accurate, but the most important thing I learned today is that "A great answer to a reading comprehension question always references the text with specific examples or details."  

Text Evidence

Our district uses DIBELS for testing and it just blows my mind that the retell portion is relied on as an adequate means of assessing comprehension. The answers I receive from students makes me wish they used the same creativity and imagination in their writing. 

Week 6 Reading

Three important ideas from the lesson today are explanation, modeling, and bridging, but the most important thing I learned is "When the strategy is response to literature,... good written response is heavily dependent on good oral response."

Explanation - Students need to know the purpose of reading PRIOR to reading. This prepares them to look for evidence as they read.

Modeling - This step should be a brief exercise to move instruction from telling to showing in order to shift the responsibility of task performance to the students.

Bridging - This step should comprise the majority of the lesson time. It is the step that allows the teacher to assess who is getting it and who is not, provide appropriate differentiation techniques, and whether or not to proceed to the next step.