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?