My topic dealt with the capability of teachers to integrate differentiated instruction seamlessly into a classroom with students of varying reading levels. My real-life inquiry involved two components: an in-depth interview with a fourth grade teacher in a full service community school program and a subsequent observation over the course of two weeks in said teacher's classroom. I garnered a conceptual understanding of how Ms. Rebecca teaches through her expressed viewpoints on reward systems, fluency measurements, and judging comprehension through classroom discussion, and followed up her perception of herself with how her classroom was structured and taught.
The interview brought up a menagerie of points covered thus far in our class instruction, including the accuracy of fluency measurements, the concept of comprehension vs. reading level, memorization, and the helpfulness of game inclusion into daily instruction. Theresa Deeney introduces this issue of the accuracy of "fluency" measurements in her article, One Minute Fluency Measures: Mixed Messages in Assessment and Instruction. Ms. Rebecca alludes to her utilization of two-minute, word-per-minute assessments, and decidedly uses such in order to characterize her fourth graders into reading groups B through E. She denotes that she herself doesn't have time to do a more in-depth study than these measurements, and even that she sometimes has her volunteers administer the tests in her absence. She administers the test twice a year, and allows her children an opportunity to move translationally through the reading levels. Deeney points out the shortcomings of using measurements such as these to characterize children, pointing out that fluency is made up of accuracy, rate, prosody, and comprehension, and that tests similar to Ms. Rebecca's focus solely on accuracy and speed. Although these tests do indicate which students are struggling, they are simply an avenue to testing endurance and making a more in-depth study. Ms. Rebecca also touches upon the ideal of comprehension vs. reading level in her interview, explicitly stating that children are more inclined to comprehend texts that interest them than those which are required but uninteresting. Deeney's, as well as Sharon Gill's The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction, both touch upon the correlation between understanding and interest. Gill lists multiple factors affecting comprehension, including interest level, alongside specified purpose, lack of noise, font, and presence of illustrations. She also suggests that memorization is a key avenue to comprehension, which is a highly debatable viewpoint (that she recognizes as such). Finally, Ms. Rebecca cheerily adheres to a commonly known trick for engaging students at any age: make it a game! She understands that games, and competitiveness to succeed, increase students' interest in a subject and willingness to learn.
One aspect of Ms. Rebecca's classroom that has intrigued me since I began volunteering there is her use of a monetary-based reward system. She views such as an important avenue to the real world, a weekly reminder that attaining an education is just as important as maintaining a job post-education. She sees the system as a way to reinforce such topics as decimals and rounding, and cites parental approval as a reinforcement to continue. In her classroom, I have seen first-hand that the students work harder and longer, and seek out additional work on an individual, responsible basis due to their wanting to garner as many points as possible by the end of the week. The students are driven to succeed, and have allowed the system to become a personal challenge against their own past weeks, rather than a competition against their pees. Post-interview, Ms. Rebecca introduced to the children the suggestion of keeping track of one's own points, to which every child replied enthusiastically and impatiently. The students have learned to keep track of their own money, and many of the students, even as third graders, save their money from multiple weeks in order to buy something especially important to them. Although there are definitive positive outcomes of this system, I myself feel that introducing money could possibly undermine the internal satisfaction of learning new things and seeking out additional knowledge. I understand Ms. Rebecca wanting to reward her children for working hard, and wanting to give them concrete rewards that they can understand, rather than intangible "wisdom" or "knowledge", but I do think there is value in propelling children to learn for the sake of knowledge, and to become lifelong learners despite the rewards offered.
Another exciting part of the observation was Ms. Rebecca's introduction of the special project of the week. The children were learning to associate mean, median, mode, and range with specific sets of numbers during that particular week in their during-school hours. Ms. Rebecca allowed the children the opportunity to achieve an additional five hundred points though the creation and decoration of a flip book, teaching the concepts of each of the terms, alongside an example utilizing a group of numbers. I liked how this idea integrated what the children were learning in their actual classes, propelled them to think critically through the creation of an example, while allowing them to become creative and decorate the books in their own distinctive style. Although Ms. Rebecca showed the class a way to make the book, even the construction of such was open to self-interpretation. One issue that I took note of during the introduction of the project is that, immediately following her explanation, the students had a mad dash to finish their homework, sometimes half-hardheartedly, and those that perhaps were slower learners were extremely dissatisfied with themselves once the other students began their special projects. A final issue I noted was that the students immediately began constructing and decorating their books, even after receiving direct instruction that they had to complete their definitions and examples prior to constructing and decorating. This, however, is to be expected of children that age when arts and crafts is mentioned at all!
As far as my feelings toward the experience, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I have been working with Ms. Rebecca and Washington Elementary for a period of three years, and enjoy thoroughly every opportunity I am given to analyze the way the program is structured and the way in which various classrooms are taught. I think that Ms. Rebecca is an incredibly talented and patient teacher, and has a natural knack for dealing with all types of people (she was previously a social worker). Although I don't necessarily agree with her monetarily-based reward system, I do understand her logic behind implementing such and honestly feel that the students have benefited in that they are self-driven learners and achievers. I witnessed Ms. Rebecca putting action behind her words, through asking a variety of challenging analytical questions to every student she teachers, and through her integrating both individualized and whole group instruction into her classroom. She does, however, rely heavily on worksheets and memorization for the bulk of her academic points, and I would love to see the children get rewarded for learning new facts in unorthodox ways (such as attending a fair or event). I would also love to see her utilize her volunteers in order to generate a more in-depth study of each child's fluency.
As far as within my own classroom, I think that Ms. Rebecca has demonstrated the usefulness of several concepts. I love the idea of reading levels within the classroom as a way to allow students at different levels to have their own appropriately-leveled texts. I think it is important that the level of analysis is similar between groups, but allowing lower readers to read less complicated readings gives them space to analyze successfully, rather than spending all of their time comprehending. I would, as previously stated, use this after a more in-depth study than what Ms. Rebecca instituted, but still allow the students an opportunity to move upward throughout the year as she does. Game instruction is always an exciting activity for students, and even memorization has it's place, so long as it is not substituted for comprehension activities. I also admire the idea of a point system, but I would have to drum of alternatives than money as rewards for students doing well each week. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the teacher I have worked with for two years on a more in-depth basis, and admire her more so for developing her own niche for teaching and allowing it to blossom within each of her students.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Interview with Ms. Rebecca*: A Fourth Grade Teacher at Washington* Elementary Full Service Community School Program
E:
What grade level do you teach and where?
R:
I teach fourth grade at Washington* Elementary Community School.
E:
How differentiated are the reading levels of the students that you teach?
R:
They vary, now I could tell you what reading groups I have, which is B through
E. Or I could say to you that I have grade levels second grade all the way up
through eighth.
E:
So how does B through E translate to second through eighth?
R:
My Bs are more second and third, my Cs are third to fourth.
E:
So it’s like the second half of one year and the beginning of the second?
R:
Yeah, exactly.
E:
Alright. How do you integrate instruction for these differentiated reading
levels into whole group/ class activities?
R:
By the skill, and not so much the story. Like if you’re working on main idea. I
basically use something that nobody uses; I use the main idea from a story that
nobody’s previously read.
E:
So do you ask like different kids different questions based on what reading
level they’re at, if you are doing it in a whole group?
R:
I find myself doing that, although I don’t agree with doing that. A child may be a low reader but can
conceptualize the answer to very big questions. I have one child in
particular who I’m thinking of right now who is very good orally, but not
written. It’s hard to tell sometimes.
E:
I don’t think reading level always translates to comprehension.
R:
It doesn’t. Or even greater skills than just comprehension, retaining and using
the information to do like analysis.
E:
Do you find that the students that can analyze the best are analyzing the best
when you're reading it? Versus themselves reading it, since they aren’t at a
higher reading level?
R:
I’m going to say yes and
no. Yes if its something they're reading that they don’t really care about or
are not interested in. And no if it is.
E:
How do you use individualized, one-on-one instruction to help children who are
behind and challenge those who might be ahead? Or are you working more to get
them all on the same level?
R:
No. To get them all on the same level, that’s just unfair. I’ve got students
who work on special projects, like I’ve got two special projects this week that
I know that only five will do.
E:
Is that for the students that are ahead?
R:
Yeah. When they finish their work they can start on their special projects. I
get kids who aren’t ahead, who want to do the special projects, because sometimes
it involves cutting out, gluing, artistic things. Sometimes you’ll have kids
who are artistic that aren’t really into writing and reading.
E:
So what do the special projects entail, or do they vary from week to week?
R:
They vary from week to week, and it always involves memorization. Always.
E:
Do they have to present to the whole class?
R:
That’s extra points if they do, so they don’t turn that down.
E:
Can you explain your point system?
R:
Okay it’s complicated. And I’ll tell you what I’ve got such a wide variety of
kids this year that some of them will keep up with their own points too. So I’m
accommodating that. They have their own sheet to add up their own points. They
may not know it but they’re analyzing their own work. If they get three checks,
they can get their 100 line points.
E:
So you only have to do it three out of the five days?
R:
I’d like them to all get line grades every day of the week if that can happen.
E:
If they do, do they get extra points?
R:
They do, they do. Every 100 points is a dime. So every 1000 points is a dollar.
Now when we start working on decimals, they really get that. It really
reinforces their knowledge of money, which they don’t have a whole lot of
experience with.
E:
And do you think the parents, by and large, agree with you giving money to
their children?
R:
Oh, absolutely. I’ve never had a parent turn me down. And I always ask. And
they’ve always agreed with that.
I
find that students: like this student has got 1,540 points. Now, when we get
more into decimals he’s going to know that that’s a dollar and forty-five
cents. He’s going to know, because it’s just a matter of moving that decimal
point. If he had another five there, we’d work on rounding up. That keeps them
in charge, and let’s them know that what they do here is just as important as
going out and working in the real world, because this is a job.
E:
Do most of them keep track of their own points?
R:
No, in fact, this is just a new thing. Last year, when they were just third
graders, no way. But now, since they all ask, “How many points to I have now?
How many points do I have now?” I decided that this is what we’re going to do,
as big fourth graders. The difference between them now and after Christmas
break is enormous, and they’re going to struggle with that. They’re making
goals for what they want to spend their money on, and they know what they have
to do to do it. Now I have had kids who have earned up to thirteen dollar in a
week. Ask me for workbooks; I will never turn you down! I will hand you a
workbook if you want to do it. You know sometimes I have handed them workbooks
with answers in the back. I know that seems unfair, but when you think about
it, if they’re looking at it, they’re actually reading it to get the answer
down. And they’re comprehending whether or not they know it or not. On some
level they’re still learning. That’s just part of memorization. I believe in
memorization more than I think a lot of people do. I still have kids who can
tell me the order of the planets, form two years ago.
E:
I think if you teach it the right way, like with a song or something, it can be
really helpful. You’ll remember it for a long time.
So
do you use a lot of worksheets in your class? Do you think that’s a good way to
instruct kids?
R:
In this instance, it is, to a degree, because they have half homework they can
work on, half the class they have to work on homework. And they get points. If
they get homework done in reading, it’s a thousand points, math a thousand
points, and that’s always in worksheet form. As far as their reading, it has to
be. It has to be because there’s no way you can accommodate.
E:
So the way you introduce reading into other subjects is mostly through
worksheets? You do classroom discussion too; I’ve seen you do that.
R:
Oh yeah, definitely. I try to integrate. I have reading that talks about
quotients and science concepts, social studies, but the reading samples I use
for my kids are al varied. Is it prime or composite, that’s math, using
landforms, social studies, physical science for group C, and life science for
D.
E:
How do you decide when a kid gets moved up a group?
R:
I do a fluency assessment. I do student interviews. We talk about behaviors, we
talk about goals, we talk about their skills, and we do a two-minute reading
sample. And basically, what I do, is see what level they are on. This is where
they land as of two weeks ago, so it’s pretty fresh. They get a chance to move
up.
E: Do you do it only on words per
minute?
R: I do. I do it because that’s all
I’ve got time to be able to work on with.
And that’s where the volunteers come in. We’ll get volunteers to come in and do
that too, since that’s one-on-one.
E:
How important do you think it is to know every child’s reading levels and
habits and how do you keep track of such?
R:
It’s essential. You have to know where they’re at. In the beginning what I do
is a reading assessment, an interest inventory. That’s how I sneak in their
birthdays. It’s just a little student information thing that tells me what they
like. I know that at this point in their academics they’re over Magic Treehouse
books, and Zack Files, they’re done with that. They’re more into Diary of a
Wimpy Kid. You can see the progression with those. We’re going to read novels
too; we’re going to read books.
E:
Are they reading books in their actual classes yet?
R:
I don’t know if fourth grade is or not. I know fifth grade read the Wynne Dixie
book.
E:
Alright. Final question: do you think standardized test preparation in any way
impedes a teacher’s ability to individualize reading instruction?
R:
Oh it has to, doesn’t it? If you’re tested on something you have absolutely no
interest in, or you were hungry that morning, you’re shoes weren’t tied and you
tripped. That one day that you’re taking that test something terrible could
happen, and it seems like you're never caught on the one day where you feel
like you’re on top of the world. And hey, if you do that’s great too.
E:
Do you have any way of making what they have to be tested on more interesting?
R:
Oh yeah, we play games all the time. This thing back here is filled with all
sorts of games. Word
games, math games, they’re very competitive. You know that; you’ve seen
them. You’ve taken score plenty of times.
E:
Alright. Good to go!
R:
Awesome.
*Names
have been changed to uphold confidentiality
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Wielding Word Wizards
Vocabulary-Building Techniques and Tips
Integrating Technology into Vocabulary Instruction:
Website Use:
wordcentral.com
vocabulary.com
wordplays.com
wordle.net -creation of word clouds based on provided text
wordsift.com -alternate word cloud tool
trackstar.4teachers.org -create online field trip for students
vocabulary.co.il
visualthesaurus.com
freerice.com -Online vocab game that donates rice to countries in need
Current Event Websites for Children:
timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news -Time for Kids
weeklyreader.com/featurezone -Weekly Reader
kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids -National Geographic Kids
sciencenewsforkids.org -Science News for Kids
"We can all remember learning lots of new words the year we had a teacher who was an avid punster, a crossword puzzle aficionado, or a general lover of word play." (Blancowicz)
"Parents of struggling readers often ask us how they can help their children. Along with saying, 'Read to them,' we now make sure to add, 'Play word games with them." (Blancowicz)
Improving Vocabulary Acquisition in the Classroom:
a) Attitude, attitude attitude!
"Teachers who model and encourage adept diction foster curiosity and interest about word in their students." (Allen 366)
It is the teacher's responsibility to promote interest in vocabulary acquisition through modeling an interest and enthusiasm in continuous self-improvement in her classroom.
b) Choosing Appropriate Words
"Tier 2 includes words that are key to comprehension and are frequently used by 'mature language users'" (Allen).
"Tier-two words are words many students don't know but will need to know" (Allington)
Teachers need to chose words from the "second-tier". That is, they should chose words that are common and used by mature speakers and writers, but that perhaps most of the classroom has not yet been exposed to. Of course, this instruction comes after the students have developed a base vocabulary to work off of.
"To have an effect on reading comprehension, vocabulary instruction should include multiple exposures to a word, teach both definitions and contexts, and engage students in deep processing" (Bek et. al., 2008)
Whether through the use of word walls, vocabulary-focused skits, or repeated read-alouds, each teacher needs to find their own way to expose students to age-appropriate vocabulary and relate it back to the students in a concrete and meaningful way.
d) Draw attention to different levels of word knowledge
"1- I have never heard that word
2- I heard the word but I don't know what it means
3- I think I know what that word means
4- I'm sure I know what that word means
5- I can make a good sentence with that word" (Allington)
Allow students an opportunity to display their relative, individual knowledge of the instructed words by holding up the appropriate number of fingers before, during, and after vocabulary instruction.
e)Word Consciousness
The ultimate goal of this integrated instruction is that students will begin learning words on their own, voluntarily. As Teachers, we hope to instill a desire to continue our own education inside and outside the classroom.
How much of a role should technology and online games have in classroom instruction, whether for vocabulary instruction, online field trips, or other purposes?
Allen, Stephanie and Holly Lane. The Vocabulary-Rich Classroom: Modeling Sophisticated Word Use to Promote Word Consciousness and Vocabulary Growth.
Allington, Richard and Patricia Cunningham. Classrooms that Work: They Can All Read and Write.
Blanchowicz, Camille and Peter Fisher. Vocabulary Lessons: Research points to four practices that teachers can use to expand students' vocabularies and improve their reading.
Dalton, Bridget and Dana Grisham. eVoc Strategies: 10 Ways to Use Technology to Build Vocabulary.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654931174/
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654931165/
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654931153/
Monday, November 4, 2013
Developing Thoughtful Comprehenders
Fun and Exciting Comprehension Strategies:
Books provide a great opportunity for self-expression; allow
them to get into their "interview characters" (3) maybe even having
the interviewer pkay one of the characters in the book as well.
1). Literature Conversations: Remember to treat every text as a conversation piece, and open up the conversation to the entire
class by asking open-ended, primarily opinion and experience based questions that can relate
to the given text.
2) Questioning the Author: Split up an in-class reading into sections, position your classroom in a circle, and draft up
questions that focus on what message and information the author is trying to convey,
highlighting what the student is already expected to know as a reader.
3) Oprah Winfrey Interview: The teacher can set the classroom up into an interview room, with an interviewer
and the cast of a specific book at the forefront. The teacher
begins the activity as the interviewer the first few times, and slowly releases autonomy
over the activity to her students over the year. *this activity is a great opportunity for self-
expression and for the students to take on the persona of the characters.
Remember to institute the Gradual Release of Responsibility model in your activities. Begin by modeling what behavior you expect and then allow the students to garner more and ore responsibility until they are able to lead the activity themselves. This may take a month or it might take a year, depending on the activity.
How would you determine as a teacher how quickly to let your students assume responsibility for certain activities?
And finally, Happy Belated Halloween!
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| http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654895437/ |
Disclaimer: I have been doing my readings according to the original syllabus on accident, and thus these readings are for last week, and last week's blog is technically on the material we were to have read for this week.
Pardo. What ever teacher needs to know about comprehension.
Allington, Richard and Patricia Cunningham. Classrooms that Work: They Can All Read and Write.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Comprehension Strategies
Making Connections: Our Own Daily Lives and Experiences
"Smith (1975) defined comprehension as 'relating new experiences to the already known... Anything [readers] cannot relate to what they know already will not make sense; it will be nonsense"(Gill 108).
"Using the think-aloud strategy, Mrs. Hope guided the students to categorize their connections by modeling text-to-self, text-to-text, or text-to-world connections. Through this categorization, students better understood ways in which to connect and make meaning with texts" (Gregory 516).
Comprehension is inclusive of the reader, the text, and the purpose. Why are you reading a certain piece of literature? More importantly, why are you trying to make your classroom read it? What sets this work apart, i.e. what makes it worthy of instruction?
There has been a large push recently toward integrating text into every aspect of a student's day, beyond just Language Arts class and into Science, Math, and every mundane activity from lining up to looking around a classroom. Children are exposed to text rich environments, and need to learn quickly the importance of text in order to learn most effectively. This can be modeled by parents and teachers, from writing a letter to writing memos to sending emails.
However, when it comes to making children most invested in improving their reading, students have to be presented with passages that are INTERESTING TO THEM. They have to be able to connect it to something they've done, read, heard, or seen in order to assimilate it with their current knowledge or schema of the world. This idea of text connections can be introduced as early into schooling as kindergarten, perhaps through a catchy, easily memorizable song like the one shown above.
Gill, Sharon. The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction.
Gregory, Anne and Mary Cahill. Kindergarteners Can Do It, Too! Comprehension Strategies for Early Readers.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Fostering Fluency
What Exactly is Fluency?
For those of us who are unaware of the variable
components of fluency, myself included, they are as follows:
1) Accuracy
2) Rate or Speed
3) Prosody
all of which combine to influence:
4) Comprehension (Deeney)
Although the menagerie of assessments available for determining "fluency" often focus simply on accuracy and rate only, we as teachers need to remember that:
"Although such quick assessments may not be definitive, they do provide teachers and school administrators with a method for screening new students tracking sstudents' ongoing progress in the various dimensions of reading fluency, and identifying the students who may require additional assessment and instruction." (Rasinski 47)
The tests themselves may not determine fluency, but they surely aid in developing a knowledge base of what type of reader a student is, which is valuable as an aid for drafting future lesson plans.
Prior to being able to TEACH anything, a teacher must first LEARN about their students and their various learning styles.
The following website offers a lot of helpful activities for fostering fluency,
ranging from individualized to whole-classroom instruction:
http://www.readingresource.net/readingfluency.html
How apparent do you think this shifting viewpoint (or shifting common knowledge) of fluency is going to affect one-minute assessments and other similar activities and their use in the classroom?
How important is using a word wall for fostering fluency in your future classroom?
Allington, Richard and Patricia Cunningham. Fostering Fluency: Classrooms that Work: They Can All Read and Write.
Deeney, Theresa. One Minute Fluency Measures: Mixed Messages in Assessment and Instruction.
Rasinski, Timothy. Creating Fluent Readers.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Making Words: Enhancing the Invented Spelling-Decodinh Connection
"
"Clarke (1998) compared the effectiveness of invented spelling versus an emphasis on correct spelling in first-grade classrooms. The children who had invented spellings were superior to the others on measures of word decoding at the end of the year, In general, as children improve in the phonetic sophistication of their invented spellings, their later success in learning to read words becomes much more likely"
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| http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654693404/ |
(Cunningham & Cunningham 107)
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| http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654693398/ |
The shift from proposing a classroom wherein students are expected to learn to spell correctly immediately to one wherein incorrect spelling is, not only accepted, but also rewarded, is an interesting topic of research in early childhood education. My mother still has some of my "early writing" impregnated with incorrect spelling like the example on the left; in fact, I even have some pieces of writing from when I worked at a daycare, as well as some from my niece when she was younger.
It is incredibly crucial to not just view this as a cute habit of young writers, but also as a stepping stone into more effective writing. In fact, as the quote above suggests, fostering this type of behavior, as well as successfully bridging the gap into correct spelling with phonics instruction in the classroom, can be a key indicator of future spelling success.
But then the problem arises:
How does a teacher transition from rewarding invented spelling to fostering correct spelling without the children responding negatively to the shift in values?
What are some ways that a teacher can promote invented spelling while also teaching phonics instruction? Would this best be handled in a personal or group setting?
Cunningham, James and Patricia Cunningham. Making Words: Enhancing the invented spelling-decoding connection.
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