Chapter 10 Supplementary Literacy Lessons with Carla

This chapter discusses Carla who is a supplemental first-grade literacy program teacher. Carla works with four children for forty-five minutes a day devoting fifteen minutes each to three primary segments: familiar and shared reading; mini-lessons, journal and assisted writing; and guided reading. The goal is using structured predictable formats to create independency and lessons are given in an natural context for helping young children learn how to transfer their knowledge across varied circumstances.

The children walk in and are ready for the familiar routine of reading quietly during this time Carla takes running records of 1 or 2 students and she reminds them of reading with fingers, matching words they are saying. The transition consists of chanting a familiar poem. Her goal is that the kids will have 50 poems memorized by the end of the year which promotes all types of literacy skills. The next activity is shared reading in which the children use special cues to associate letter and sound relationships. During a familiar poem read, Carla explicitly demonstrate early behavior such as starting position, one-to-one matching and return sweep. Children locate words, discuss words and write words as they discuss beginning sounds and rhyming words.

In assisted writing and mini-lesson the children use magnetic letters and discuss familiar sounds and letters. They easily move onto base words and medial and ending sounds. In interactive writing, the children have their writing tools of writers which helps them to focus on print concepts, sounds in words, letter knowledge and fluency. They begin to write a story about eating at McDonald’s which of course is a shared experience as children contributed their own knowledge. They focus on writing, rereading, sounding out words and editing/revising. As their skills increase they move onto journal writing about a familiar story and their experiences with the story. Carla validates their stories by listening to them and praising them for their concepts of print as she records their story correctly underneath the children’s writing.

As they move to guided reading, children are chanting a poem. Carla chose a book that meets their present needs: spacing, words I and a are frequently used for one-to-one matching, strong picture support for unknown words, simple complete sentences, high correlation between picture and text. She introduces a new book and children read on their own as she circulates and observes their behavior; intervening only when students are losing meaning. At the end the students take three or four familiar books to take home and read.

Ten weeks later the students still use familiar reading in personal baskets, no longer need ABC chart reading, poems are still used occasionally for word analysis and fluent reading, word analysis versus letter recognition, revising and editing during and after independent writing, longer complex stories spanning over days. As their skills and strategies increased the level of support from Carla changed and students are becoming more independent and competent in their skills.  The conditions of this particular classroomm was perfect for literacy development so that was the framing question it addressed in detail.  If every class (k-3) had this type of classroom, literacy would not be a concern.

Again this scenario is ideal and has seen success. My niece, Violet, experienced this type of supplementary support in first grade and is now an on grade level reader. She received this support for about three-fourths of the year in the Rio Rancho Public School District. She is able to read independently and continues to work on her skills. This type of support should be given to all students at some level of intervention. In our school our intervention rests on the homeroom teachers’ shoulders as grade level groups are formed and students are ability grouped with fifteen to twenty students per level. The groups are dynamic and change with teachers supporting documentation. The programs used do not focus on individual ability but group ability which is probably the down side of the program. Guided reading is non-existent in the way described in this book. Students read together or round robin style and we wonder why reading skills do not increase. Another reason is the big intervention classes, individual help is very little and students begin to display reading habits of reading on without creating meaning, mumbling unknown words rather than solving them and wanting to be speed readers instead of fluent readers. One reason our administrator does not hire a reading teacher is due to data results that 70% or more of our student in K-2 are reading below grade level therefore reading intervention is placed on the grade level teachers school-wide. Usually Kindergarten make significant gains by the end of the year but by first grade and into second grade the numbers of non-proficient readers increases. I know now that reading for meaning is the problem because students cannot answer the comprehension questions correctly when they do not understand the story or passage. The problem probably starts at the level of not being able to push past decoding and being required to comprehend text and answer questions correctly assuming the students have all the skills and strategies to transfer. At CCS a majority of the teachers teach the surface level of reading rather than the reading Discourse the students need to succeed.

Do your schools have reading teachers or does the responsibility rest on the homeroom teachers?  What do you think would be better?  having reading teachers or a reading coach for homeroom teachers?



Ch. 11 Working Together

Literacy must take place when many dedicated people work together to ensure every child’s right to literacy (p. 155).

This last blog about “Apprenticeship in Literacy” is about working with peers and experts on a common goal to improve their teaching abilities in order to promote literacy for all students. The team identifies long and short term goals for personal change. This is accomplished through learning to guide assessment, active demonstration with follow-up discussions, seeking help in professional development, problem-solving together, monitoring children’s progress and sharing nuts and bolts of what really works in their classroom. They strive to create a balanced literacy approach in the classroom.

What I found helpful is the discussion and feedback on student progress. Teachers learn how to look critically at students work in order to assist in planning lessons. Teachers get different perspectives on student progress as they develop their own. This is similar to grade level meetings that are held every week at our schools we just need to have deeper conversations about student progress.

With video recordings, teachers see how their language supports or diminishes learning and how language increases to support construction of knowledge. Another form of support that was important was how they viewed commercial videotapes of guided reading and shared reading to learn how to teach using a balanced approach. As they learn they begin to observe and coach one another during their own guided reading groups. This strategy helped them to refine their own teaching interactions. They also shared running records, writing samples, book selections and word-building activities to ensure their methods and analysis of children’s reading behavior were congruent.

The increased use of running records, guided reading, familiar reading, assisted writing, journal writing and writing conferences indicated changes over time due to literacy team meetings. These tools help teachers apply their theories of how children learn and apply to practice. They learn the relevance of scaffold instruction aimed at potential levels of development, the importance of modeling and coaching to lead children to accomplish new learning tasks, the value of established routines, assisted versus independent activities, explicit feedback and problem solving solutions.  This answered the framing question of:  What conditions promote literacy development?  The teachers found that they need to have critical conversations of themselves and the classrooms in order to promote literacy. 

The authors encourage teachers to look critically at their teaching and take steps to change in order to assist students in their journey to literacy. We all need to tweek our methods to improve ourselves. This was a good ending to a very informative book about literacy.

Does your school have a literacy team?  What types of changes occured?  What changes still need to be made?

Chapter 9 A Day with Angela and Her first Graders

Angela is a first grade teacher who is a great reading teacher according to the observations and descriptions of what is happening in her classroom. The authors describe what she is doing and what her students are doing as well as the dialogue that occurs throughout the literacy block. The various aspects of apprenticeship in literacy are in action in her classroom. Her ideal classroom runs very smooth and efficiently as the children know their expectations and focus on their activities.

Her classroom would be the ideal of every teacher but I could not help thinking about what could go wrong. The scenarios did not depict what happens when children are not working in their zone of proximal development and they get distracted and begin to distract others in their centers. The knowledgeable planning comes from the observations of where children are at in terms of ability as well as the expectations. I am sure that transitional moves that require planning could occur the very next day for some groups or individuals so being prepared and having the time to create and/or prepare activities/lessons is essential. And of course teacher time means staying after work or taking it home for the evening. Another situation I could see occurring is dealing with the student who does not come to school to learn but for social interaction or to play. This student would have a hard time doing independent work without the teacher constantly monitoring progress. I don’t want to be too negative but I think even with the best planned classroom these types of scenarios could occur. So back to the premise of creating an organized and predictable environment that builds on instructional routines that promotes independency in children. I think teachers should strive to have the best classroom everyday and work at building literacy in children on a daily basis.

Are classroom teachers able to have this ideal classroom everyday? If yes, can you share some suggestions?

Ch 8 Establishing Routines and Organizing the Classroom

In order for students to work in their zone of proximal development or the zone of actual development children need opportunities to work with flexible groupings in an organized classroom (p. 103).

Children need a well-organized learning environment to promote independence with familiar routines. Self-regulation comes from learning how to organize, plan and rehearse the learning structure of the classroom. Small grouping and whole grouping are used to provide experiences at grade level or at the students’ individual levels. The development of a rotating schedule allows for interactions with all students throughout the day or block within heterogeneous or homogeneous groups. And of course organizing materials is key to a successfully smooth functioning classroom. An assignment board lets students know where they are going for that day or what options they have as well as what areas are open for that day during literacy time. Students know what to do because the teacher has already explicitly demonstrated the activity and is supervising to increase their responsibility. Materials vary according to what is available, collected or purchased and design is up to the teacher and her specific needs when meeting with groups of students.

Some areas to consider are:

Attribute Sort - use magnetic letters, letter cards or cereal

Writing Wall - butcher paper, markers

Word Building - picture cards and magnetic letters to make words

Rhythm and Rhyme Center - enlarged copies of poems, songs, chants, pointer,

word cards, etc…

Book Nook Corner - bookshelves for leveled books, baskets, big books, pointers beanbag chairs, stuffed animals

Writing corner - assorted paper, greeting cards, writing tools

Name Corner - cards with names, pocket chart, letters

Other areas could include computer area, listening area, book sharing area, or author of the week.

This chapter was full of activities to promote independence in children. With explicit demonstrations, guidance from a knowledgeable person children become competent learners. As children move through the literacy activities, the teacher has time to work with small groups who need guided instruction. The framing question of what conditions promote literacy development is answered in this chapter. The conditions include a well organized classroom in which children learn self-management techniques for guiding their own learning, established routines so kids can focus on the literacy tasks, carefully planned lessons to enable independency. This chapter validated best practices and the idea of centers to create capable students for tomorrow’s world.

Do reading programs allow for literacy centers or are they more focused on reading and comprehension?

Are most administrators able to see literacy centers as valuable teaching tools?

Can these types of centers be geared toward upper elementary without making it seem too low level? Especially if students are in need of practice in 4^th, 5^th or 6^th grade?

Chapter 7 Developing Phonetic Skills

The question asked for this chapter is: Where does phonics instruction fit into an apprenticeship approach to literacy? In the literacy apprenticeship, teachers design instructional interactions around continuous texts both reading and writing that help shape young children’s development of phonemic knowledge (p. 89). During this process of learning, the brain is doing amazing things to enable “reading” to occur. Teachers strengthen interconnections between related information. Problem-solving strategies are helping to make sense of print, the eyes pick up visual information at the direction of the brain, the brain classifies information according to existing categories and in the end the brain integrates the visual information with other sources of knowledge. This allows the student to make sense of an abstract form - the letter according to Dorn et al ( 1998).

Beginning readers use onsets and rime as an analogy strategy for solving words. Onset is any consonant sounds that precede the vowel and rime is the vowel and any consonant sounds that come after it. Over 500 primary level words can be derived from a set of only thirty-seven rimes. With this knowledge teachers can help students acquire many cues and strategies for acquiring words and more words. The authors state that in a literacy apprenticeship, there is not scope and sequence for learning particular letters and sounds; rather, the learning is guided by the knowledge that children bring to the task. This knowledge again rests on observation, anecdotal notes and some assessments.

Several scenarios and dialogues about using onsets and rimes with small groups of young readers includes positive scaffold interactions between teacher and students and reflections of actions and to articulate what they have done. I like how they included always reflecting back to the learning process to help the students internalize what they have accomplished.

Another activity I liked was using poetry to activate knowledge of spelling patterns with an organizing activity. About 20 word tiles are given to each student and they classify words according to how the words are the same or different such as: words that start the same, words that end the same, rhyming words, one-, two-, three- syllable words, words in the class dictionary, words on the word wall, words that end in ed, ing, er. As students classify, the teacher facilitates and assists where necessary. Another thing that happens is students start trading tiles to make their groups complete which to me is cooperative/collaborative learning without being told or directed. I liked this activity.

Promoting familiarity with frequently encountered words helps students engage in memorable activities to focus on visual features. This is similar to creating a literate enriched classroom through using word walls, narrow strips taped to desks, use of personal dictionaries, etc… The goal is knowing words instantly and thus allowing the students to focus on the real task of reading which is to construct meaning. If students experience difficultly with words their reading fluency will be disrupted.

The chapter answered the framing question about learning to read and touches on the relationship between literacy and reading discipline. According to Wikipedia: Literacy has been described as the ability to read for knowledge and write coherently and think critically about the written word.  A reader learns the act of reading through progression. Once these skills are acquired the reader can attain full language literacy, which includes the abilities to approach printed material with critical analysis, inference and synthesis; to write with accuracy and coherence; and to use information and insights from text as the basis for informed decisions and creative thought. (Wikipedia, accessed on July 8, 2012) So in the end we want to create capable literate students to think critically.

Links for phonetic activities:

http://www.ehow.co.uk/info_7935961_activity-multisyllabic-words-third-grade.html

http://www.ehow.com/info_7840949_phonemic-awareness-activities-3rd-grade.html

Chapter 6

Independent Writing

“Independent writing gives children personal opportunities to apply

recently demonstrated techniques and strategies. The teacher has a

chance to observe how the children use their skills, strategies, and

conceptual knowledge on their own. By comparing the writing samples

of a child across time, the teacher sees just how a child is regulating his

or her own writing development.” (p. 73)

This chapter is all about students writing independently from emergent writers to early writers and ending with fluent writers. The sample dialogues between student and teacher depict the teacher supporting the students and validating their knowledge. This validation helps students to a new level of perceptual attention. When students are ready she models how words are similar, how students can help themselves and is constantly facilitating them to reread their writing and to focus on their message to their audience. Along with this the chapter shows stages in writing and spelling development.

One statement that surprised me and at the same time did not surprise me: Teachers who work with struggling readers sometimes express concern because children know something one day but are unable to recognize the same information in a different situation or at another time. The authors call this movement along a developmental continuum. The teacher needs to be aware of where the child is in terms of graph phonemic awareness, spacing, directional movement and letter formations and use this knowledge to lift the child to a higher level. (p. 77)

One interesting different strategy for producing writers that used to be valued but is hardly used any more is storytelling in front of peers before writing independently which serves two purposes: (a) it places value on the child as a storyteller with a message to write about and (b) it enables the child to practice the story’s meaning which he can then use to monitor the written version. (p. 80) I think students would love doing this plus it opens doors to other genres of literacy.

Writing aloud is another strategy that helps students learn how to compose longer stretches of text for different purposes and audiences and to demonstrate some strategies for solving selected words within the text (p. 81). This is teacher directed as she demonstrates and models the writing process.

Another statement that caught my attention was “children are behaving like writers who have a message to share with an audience.” This statement validates our own learning as teachers about Secondary Discourse and academic socialization or academic literacies. The students are learning within a Secondary Discourse to be, say, value, believe as writers for particular audiences. Students here are writing to communicate.

I enjoyed reading the sample dialogues between students and teachers it validated my teaching of writing but also allowed me to see where I could improve as a writing teacher. I also like the reflective questions that teachers can ask themselves when they are observing students as writers.

　

Here are some links for writing stages that could be helpful:

Developmental Stages of Writing
http://www.education.com/reference/article/developmental-stages-writing/?page=2

The Traditional Stages of Writing Development

http://www.ehow.com/info_8179355_traditional-stges-writing-development.html

Stages of Writing

http://www.learningtowrite.ecsd.net/stages%20of%20writing.html

Images of Development Stages of Writing

bing.com/images

Stages of Spelling Development

http://www.education.com/reference/article/stages-spelling-development/

Invented Spelling and Spelling Development

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/267/

Chapter 5 Assisted Writing

            Assisted Writing involves a knowledgeable teacher who is able to provide guided opportunities for students to learn how to use things they know such as skills, strategies and facts to initiate problem-solving activities in different situations (p. 56).  Children are able to apply their personal knowledge to independent work, and then with practice they soon take the responsibility of writing as they move to higher levels of intellectual development.  Explicit clear demonstrations and guided practice are imperative.  The authors call this validation and activation to help children acquire higher-level understanding. The continuum of assisted writing includes:  interactive writing, writing aloud, revising and editing; the focus always being that students are working to convey their message.

             In the examples given for interactive writing with emergent readers and early writers, I saw my classroom during writing time.  It was great to see I was on the right track.  We would look for chunks and stretch words out to hear the sounds to talk about beginning, middle, and ending sounds.  The missing piece was the use of magnetic letters and individual dry-erase boards.  These materials add variety and stimulate motivation to write.

            As children become more competent writers they transition to Writing Aloud.  The teacher is the main scribe and writes with explicit attention to the forming of words based on what the students know which incorporates problem-solving strategies.  During this social dialogue the teacher prompts the children to assume responsibility for parts of the writing process they are able to control.  This is the “sloppy copy.”  Revising and editing involves solving words through teacher demonstrations of problem solving always keeping the focus on composing meaningful text.  The authors call this moving from interpsychological plan (group problem-solving) to the intrapsychological plan (individual problem-solving) as he/she internalizes generative processes for moving his/her development forward (p. 67).  This process is accomplished with a knowledgeable teacher in a supportive environment and aligns with self-regulatory learning. 

            Another part of Writing Aloud would be to assist students who are willing to share their writing piece with help from the class in revising and editing.  The class helps the individual student through collaborative approach to revision while rules of ownership are honored as each new suggestion is presented to the author for his/her approval (p. 70).  This helps students move toward independent writing through collaborative revising and editing as well as holding more individual conferences with the teacher.

            After reading this chapter about writing I went back to my kinder class.  In my class after observing students who could begin to write independently I assumed that they were on their way to becoming better writers on their own with little help from teacher.  This assumption probably hindered their progress as I spent more time with struggling writers than my proficient writers.  So I saw myself as Jeremy and Rachael’s teacher in writing

            “A common characteristic of struggling writers is their reluctance to take risks with their writing; their stories are often controlled by the words and letters they know, rather than the message they want to share” (p. 58).  This made me think of some of my students in my Kindergarten class last year.  I praised them for using words they knew but they would be stuck on unknown words and not use problem-solving strategies demonstrated to them.  I sound like Jeremy and Rachael’s teacher again. 

            Our classes are so diverse in terms of ability so we have to use our time wisely in order to facilitate learners with scaffold activities and interactions to promote higher levels of learning as they strengthen their secondary discourses in literacy.  All learners deserve the opportunity to excel.  This chapter touched on the framing question of what is the difference between writing to communicate and writing to learn.  These involve secondary discourse with different genre within the writing discourse.  And it also helps students to develop meta-knowledge of writing in all subject areas. 

Ch. 4 Guided Reading

            With younger children guided reading helps children develop an appreciation and understanding of the story and at the same time stimulates problem-solving conversations about how to apply reading strategies in context which leads to competent independent reading (p. 41).  This chapter details the elements and types of guided reading that can start in Kinder and 1^st  then onto 2^nd and 3^rd grade .    When children show signs of print awareness such as:  knowing the difference between letters and words, explore print on walls, notice that same words appear over and over in different contexts, etc… it is time for guided reading.

            Book selection should be based on children’s level of knowledge and experience as well as meets the goal of instruction.  The focus at the beginning is to prepare kids through matching one-to-one, using first letter cues, noticing chunks, or what do students do at point of difficulty?  As students become more competent they can discuss characters, plot, author’s writing style, characteristics of the genre or literary devices used by the author.  During the book introduction the teacher helps children build meaning with a brief overview, exposes them to structure by identifying language phrases and patterns and introduces the children to visual or graphophonetic cues by finding frequently encountered words they know or predict words using first letter cues which are all sources of information that independent readers use.  

            I have seen teachers use guided reading and have done this myself and round robin reading seemed to come into play here but the book stated “Each child begins reading at his or her own pace.” Instructional interactions with the children are determined by children’s’ strengths and needs. In this small group activity, class size is important and ability levels have to match so that the support matches the level of the group.  I have observed students less capable of reading at their own pace so they begin to parrot a more able reader sitting next to them.  I have also seen guided reading begin as partner reading when developmentally students are not at the stage of helping one another effectively.  The important aspect of guided reading at the kinder and first grade level is the teachers’ ability to observe children’s processing behavior and responding appropriately because this is where students are learning to read.

            For more fluent readers say in 2^nd and 3^rd, book selection is based on interest, content, thematic units and story genre with complex structures such as repetition, cumulative, cultural, chronological, problem-centered, and rhythm and rhyme.  This is where students begin reading to learn as they see how information is presented in a variety of ways, make comparisons and contrasts between texts, explore author’s style, develop comprehension skills, and increase mastery of story elements.  One of the statements that caught my attention was when the authors stated that instead of introducing vocabulary words or potentially difficult words before reading the story the teacher should select one or two appropriate words  to discuss and build knowledge of the word or to use magnetic letters or white board to illustrate problem-solving techniques after the first read.  This contrasts with most reading programs where vocabulary is introduced before the first read.  So students have to incorporate their reading strategies full force during the time students are reading silently.  The scenarios in the book give explicit examples of how guided reading should look like and the role of the teacher.

            What happens to guided reading when questions at the end of a story becomes the priority rather than reading to learn?