Mosaic Readings: 10/19/10

Reading comprehension and reading fluency are related in that they are crucial in the development of readers both young and old. Reading comprehension is the ability to understand the meaning and message behind a text – it revolves around the skills of monitoring one’s thinking while reading and asking questions that further promote and guide one’s thought processes. Reading fluency is having the knowledge of the letter sounds that create words. When a reader can accurately piece together letter sounds and read the words they create, they are able to read a text without focusing on decoding. As was stated in Mosaic of Thought, “children need to learn letters, sounds, and words, but simultaneously they must be learning about the meaning held in those symbols on the page” (Keene & Zimmermann, 2007, p. 22). Therefore, these terms are directly correlated to each other because if one cannot read the words they will not be able to understand. Conversely, if they are just reading the words without thinking about their meaning in relation to the story, they will not comprehend the text either.

Thus far in my classroom, I have seen both fluency and comprehension assessed in the form of the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment). This test is administered in order to assign a “reading level” to each student based on their reading fluency and comprehension skills of a previously determined leveled text. I helped to proctor these tests and was amazed to see how much the two elements (fluency and comprehension) relate. There were many students who would read very quickly, but when asked questions at the end could not even remember a character’s name. One case I found particularly interesting occurred with one of our highest readers. He is well above grade level in terms of fluency, however, scored below grade level when his comprehension was assessed. From this experience, I learned that I can’t judge a student by how quickly he or she reads and assume that he or she has comprehended the story. By doing the DRA tests, we have a general idea of what our students are struggling with both independently and as whole.

In order to fully assess my students’ reading development, I will need to take a closer look at which aspect in particular (in regard to fluency and comprehension) they are having difficulties with. I will need to know if, for example, they are not monitoring as they are reading or have difficulty in synthesizing information. I believe the best way to gain this information is to use anecdotal records and conferring during independent reading time. Having the this time to focus on each child as they read and decipher their successes and difficulties allows for individualized goals as well as instruction.

Readings 10-19-10

The readings this week focused on reading comprehension and strategies for students to comprehend text. There is an important relationship between comprehension and reading fluency. Reading fluency is the ability for our students to read text accurately while comprehending the text. The students need to use their decoding skills, word recognition, and more in order to be reading with fluency. In other words, reading fluency allows students to begin to comprehend text. If a student is a fluent reader they are able to focus more on the meaning of the text and how to reflect upon what they have read. Mosaic of Thought introduced seven principle comprehension strategies that can be used and focused on, "listening to the voice in your mind that speaks while you read" (Keene and Zimmerman, page 14). These strategies can be used with fluent readers in order to monitor their comprehension. The strategies revolve around students reading the text and using strategies to listen to the text and the reflections that occur within their mind as they read. In order for students to be successful in comprehension of text they need to have the bridge built, which is fluency.
Within my classroom, fluency is assessed during literacy instruction and using the Development Reading Assessment (DRA). The students have recently been asked to read aloud text with the class. This has helped my CT and I assess the students that have difficulty identifying words and if this affects their comprehension of text. In addition, we have been finishing up with our DRA testing that allows us to obtain our students levels in literacy. We have students with varying levels of fluency and comprehension. I have students who are fluent readers and able to comprehend text, while others struggle with fluency and comprehension of text. The assessments we have incorporated into the classroom and through DRA have helped us focus on students and help to develop fluency skills with students that will lead to comprehension.
In order to fully understand my students' reading development I need to know what skills are challenging for my students. I need to know if my students need more development with decoding, word recognition, sentence structure, etc. to help them have reading fluency and comprehension. To find this out, I could read individually with students to understand how they read and which areas of text they struggle. In addition, I could give students a mini-lesson or assessment that involves different reading strategies to identify which students or areas that require more support and/or development.
Reading comprehension is important for our students to be able to develop. However, in order for students to comprehend text they need to have reading fluency. The two literacy aspects are interconnected and important to develop successful readers!

Gill (2007)

This article discussed the importance of using poetry to teach children about using emotions, and the importance of selecting words in writing. It stated that often times, teachers get caught up thinking that, in a poetry unit, the most important aspect is to expose students to sophisticated poetry from a hundred years ago. The article argued in favor of exposing students to a wide variety of poetry that they will be interested in. There are several 20th century poets that are worthy of being present in elementary classrooms and this is what teachers need to be reading to their students have them value poetry.
I would definitely use poetry in my first and second grade classroom! I have always been hesitant about poetry because I never liked adult poetry. I was always told that children’s poetry was not “real poetry” so I thought I didn’t like poetry. However, after reading this article, I realize that is not true. Children’s poetry is perfect for showing students how to rearrange words in their writing and how to write with emotion. I would implement poetry into our normal writer’s workshop time. Students are allowed to write about anything, and so they could write about anything in the form of poetry one week. Poetry would be a great lesson to teach strategies of word order and word choice. It would also be helpful for getting students to use their senses in their writing. Once students developed these skills in poetry, they would transfer into their everyday writing. As a professional teaching this, I would need to learn more about how to write good poetry myself. I would need to take workshops on incorporating emotion into writing, as well as word choice.
My unit that I will be teaching is a reading unit. However, using the students’ writing samples from writing workshop can help me determine what kinds of strategies they need to work on. If I could find books that use those strategies, my students would benefit in both reading and writing from my lessons!

Gill: The Forgotten Genre of Poetry

Summary: This article focused on the importance of poetry as a genre for reading and writing. Gill discussed that many teachers expect students to evaluate and decompose poetry written by authors, but forget to emphasize the meaning of poetry. He continues to give examples of how he incorporated poetry into his classroom by modeling and allowing students to write freely. Gill emphasized that poetry is a way for students to express themselves, their feelings, their experiences through written work. He also discussed that poetry is one of the least popular genres for children's literature and that teacher should pursue to pressure publishers to print books related to children's poetry instead of adult poetry. Children should be exposed to illustrated poetry books so that the genre is never forgotten.

This was important for me to read because my classroom incorporates poetry reading every week. The students are given a poem to study all week and are required to recite the poem Monday. The students are exposed to children's poetry on a daily basis that is both within the classroom and outside of the classroom. This article helped link the Writer's Workshop material I read to how I can incorporate that with poetry. I think it would be beneficial for my students to begin writing their own poetry in their notebooks to express themselves. This would be a way to incorporate productive Writer's Workshop that focuses on the students real life experiences and promotes the genre into writing techniques and not just reading and reciting someone else's work. As a professional, I need to identify what my students know about writing poetry. I need to make sure that my students know how to write poetry that focuses on events and feelings the reader can experience. Poetry can be a way for my students to begin a different aspect of writing and focus on how to incorporate feelings and desires into their writing.

This module has helped me to think about how I can use writing as a means of assessment during my unit development. The book that we will be using can and should incorporate reflection through writing. I notice now that I can have students participate in discussions of the book and allow them to write their feelings about a book through multiple writing techniques. The students should have the ability to experience more writing during literacy instruction instead of it all being reading, short answer, and unit assessment worksheets. I think that allowing the students to write a summary, alternate ending, poetry, etc as a assessment could benefit their success in assessment.

Kovalcik & Certo: The Poetry Cafe is Open!

Summary: This article details a poetry unit (including 4 mini-lessons and a list of suggested children’s poetry books) that culminates in the form of a poetry reading in a class made café. Each Writer’s Workshop lesson consists of a mini-lesson, then independent writing (while teachers do conferences), and lastly a sharing session. The mini-lessons are: color and rhyme, repetition and alliteration, onomatopoeias, and collaborative poetry (writing a poem as a class.) As the class continues to create their own pieces throughout the unit, teachers differentiate instruction according to each students needs. One of example from the article occurred when a student was struggling with the grammatical and spelling aspect of writing. To negate him from focusing on these negatives, the teacher allowed him to articulate his poem while she wrote it down. Finally, when all the children have published a final piece, they share their poetry with their families.

This article was perfect for me to read because it is what I will be taking over in terms of literacy throughout guided lead teaching. Additionally, my mentor teacher and I have been discussing having a poetry reading event in our classroom, as well. Therefore, it was very insightful to see how other teachers approached this unit. It was also helpful because the way that the teachers from the article had their Writer’s Workshop set up is exactly how my classroom’s is, as well. We have a mini-lesson, independent writing, and sharing time. The only difference is that we have a partner writing section right after independent writing. This is a time where students can read and help edit each other’s work. The mini-lessons associated with this article will be included in my unit, too. The topics of color, rhyme, repetition, alliteration, and onomatopoeias are all crucial elements to learning poetry. However, the main part that I have taken from this article that will enrich my instruction is that relating to differentiation. I know that my students are at varying writing levels, and I was concerned that I would not know how to cater to each student’s educational needs. The advice to write a poem for struggling children and to scaffold them through the writing process is an idea I definitely will use. Too often I feel pressure that students need to be writing for themselves, I never thought to have them verbalize their ideas until they were comfortable enough to write them.

The only problem I had with this article was that I feel as though it did not contain enough mini-lessons for an entire poetry unit. I believe that there needs to be more time for the students to practice what they have learned and create numerous poems. My poetry unit will be ranging (on and off) for 2 months, which is more appropriate for the grade level I am in.

Lastly, by reviewing the assessment section of this online module, I have learned that I need to get to know my students as writers prior to starting my poetry unit. That being said, I think that the “Thinking about Yourself as a Writer” sheet would be an insightful survey to give my students. To really prepare myself, I would like to adapt the document in order to incorporate my student’s feelings about poetry and about their selves as poets. This will clue me on their past experiences as well as how comfortable they are with the new genre of writing.

Book Club Plus

One aspect of literacy that I haven’t seen much in my classroom is book discussions. We have time for whole group read aloud, individual reading, partner reading, writing, and spelling. However, students are never given a chance to discuss what they read. Occasionally after the whole group read aloud, the class will be asked a few questions about how the book related to something else we are doing. However, this typically only allows a few students to contribute, and the rest only get to sit and listen. My assumption is that as the year goes on, there will be more opportunity for book discussions. We are still kind of in the “launching” phase of Daily 5, so maybe once the students are up to the proper length of reading and have learned and practiced all of the routines, we will focus more on discussion.
Because of this, I found the description of the fishbowl to be quite helpful. In addition to being a great strategy for having a discussion, it can also be helpful to move into more independent discussions. Having a group model a book discussion before having students try it themselves would be useful, especially with my first and second graders. We use modeling for everything! Anytime that the students are attempting a new task, or any task that requires them to be independent, we model the expected behaviors. By doing so, students are given ideas of what the activity should look and sound like, so they have no excuse for not following the expectations.
Assessment is something I also struggle with in my first/second grade class. I find that it is difficult for me to tell a student that they are not meeting my expectations. However, I really liked the “I Can Self Evaluation” idea. Giving students a chance to evaluate themselves can help them become aware of anything they are not understanding. Then, it may not be as much of a shock when they hear this same feedback from the teacher. My classroom does a little of this with their check in after each reading period. Each student gives a thumb at their heart (up for doing a good job, sideways for needs improvement). This is just for them and the teacher to see if they are aware of how they are meeting expectations. Having a written record of this would be helpful though to use in future conversations with the student, parents, or other teachers.

Book Club Plus! 10/05/10

As I read the readings from Book Club Plus!, I noticed that there are many implementations that my Collaborating Teacher has within the classroom. While I observe literacy instruction in the classroom, I notice that my CT chooses books that range in skill level for read aloud. My CT has been modeling reading skills through the read aloud portion of literacy instruction. She is illustrating to the students "what thoughtful readers do is central to comprehension strategy instruction" (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, George, Hasty, Highfield, 118). We have readers that vary across reading levels (we are still obtaining DRA information), but my CT finds it important to include all levels in her read aloud selections. The ability to provide students with a range of text allows them to experience with the words and make connections across literacy. Thus far in the year, we have not allowed students to make their own book selections due to the fact that we have not obtained all DRA. Instead, my teacher reads to the students or has them follow along to a book on tape. My CT models correct "reading behaviors" by stopping and asking productive questions to the students. She may ask them to define a word, summarize, or predict. The students are gaining skills for being good readers through think alouds as described in Book Club Plus!. As stated in chapter 7, "think alouds give students the opportunity to see our thinking when we read: the connections we make, the questions asked, our interferences, and our predictions" (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, George, Hasty, Highfield, 117). These skills that my teacher is exposing the students to on a daily basis will be carried over into their independent reading time. Modeling correct reading is essential to students' literacy development and thier ability to make text-text and text-self connections.
One aspect of the Book Club Plus! that I would like to incorporate into my classroom is group work. I would like to assign groups upon different academic levels and social skills. I think that grouping students together would benefit their learning from one another. I have a diversity of learners across reading level, verbal levels, and personalities that tends to surface during literacy instruction. Throughout the past few weeks, I have noticed that students act a certain way relative to one another. However, I think that if I were to have literacy groupwork it would be beneficial to my students literacy environment and learning.

Book Club Plus! Readings: 10/3/10

While reading the Book Club Plus! chapters, I was reminded of a book that my mentor teacher had me read prior to the school year starting entitled, Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades, by Debbie Miller. It details many of the same classroom talk and managing tactics that I have seen both in the readings as well as in my classroom. Throughout literacy instruction in my classroom the selection of literature is very important, as was stated in chapter 7 of Book Club Plus! and throughout the Debbie Miller piece. My students greatly range in their reading levels as well as in their interests, thus choosing which types of books we place in the class library is crucial. My mentor teacher has divided books by grouping them by theme, series, and (sometimes) authors. She then places them in their own clearly labeled basket. For example, we have a basket full of the Amelia Bedelia series, one for Dr. Suess books, and another for nursery rhymes and songbooks. Then, to differentiate by level, each student has their own basket that she places “just right” books in order for them to read during independent reading. These books are chosen according to the child’s reading level and their interest, and eventually, the students will be able to chose their own “just right” books. Another technique that my teacher uses that follows the Book Club Plus! and Debbie Miller book is the relevance to curriculum goals. In fact, she uses the curriculum goals to plan her mini-lessons for reader’s and writer’s workshop. Prior to having the students read or write independently, there is a lesson or focus of the day. This lesson may be a comprehension strategy or a way to make meaning of a word when they don’t know. In this way, all of the curriculum requirements are met while being guided by the GLCE’s. Lastly, read alouds are a large component of my mentor teacher’s literacy program. She uses this time to create “opportunities for intertextual connections and opportunities to students to texts they might not otherwise read independently” (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, George, Hasty & Highfield, 2004, p. 117). While she reads she is constantly asking questions to support their comprehension and model how a “good reader reads.” Additionally, when she is finished, she has them make text-to-self, text-to-text connections, and text-to-world connections. This part of literacy instruction is so important to my mentor that we usually read 2-3 books aloud each day!

One aspect of the Book Club Plus! book club that I would like to try in my classroom is the addition of the fish bowl technique in order to inspire a good conversation about a book. We have many high level students, and it is our goal to have them host book clubs while we are working with the students who are struggling (of course, the struggling students would participate sometimes, as well). However, before they began to conduct their own book club, I feel that they would need to have one modeled for them (by adults) in a fish bowl fashion. Once that had occurred, I would give the students time to talk about what they saw, what they were confused about, and how they would do a book club themselves. Then, to add extra support in the beginning, I would have a teacher involved in the initial book clubs. The teacher would ask provoking questions and guide the conversation until the students were comfortable by themselves. Finally, I would have the students do their own book club while a teacher observed. I think this process would be highly beneficial to all students, and I am excited to see how it works in my second grade classroom!