Kelsie's Blog

A Look at Literacy Programs for Beginners

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Emergent literacy is a concept that supports learning to read in a positive home environment where children are in the process of becoming literate from birth. This will help children create schemas about reading and writing from personal experiences. Children are always becoming  readers and writers and that they are born ready to learn about literacy and continue to grow in their understandings throughout life. The challenge of working with beginners lies in scaffolding learning and weaving together experiences that build on children’s knowledge of language and their previous interactions with texts.

Beginners should be immersed in storybook experiences. These include read-alouds, read alongs, interactive writing, rereadings of favorite texts, and independent reading and writing. They help accomplish the following instructional goals:

• To motivate beginners to want to read and write
• to interest beginners in listening to, reading, and writing stories, with emphasis on predicting, sharing, and extending personal meaning
• To help beginners understand what reading and writing are all about
• To encourage beginners to respond to stories be drawing, writing, and dramatizing their explorations of texts
• To invite beginners to construct meaning through the use of picture cues and storybook illustrations
• To help beginners gain familiarity with “book language” and the meaning of terms that figure in literacy instruction
• To teach beginners about directionality
• To teach beginners the meaning of word and the function of space in establishing boundaries between words
• To teach beginners alphabetic principles of written language
• To teach beginners to predict words that “must come next” in a sentence
• To teach beginners to recognize words that they are interested in learning or that occur frequently in meaningful contexts

These goals are not sequential in the sense that one must be accomplished before another is attempted.

Learning About Features of Written Language

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Children’s understanding of the relationship between speech and print can be included in linguistic awareness, which children must develop. The purpose of reading is to communicate ideas. Children also need to become aware of the technical features of reading, this includes:

• printed letters
• words
• sentences
• syllables
• sounds
• punctuation marks

If children are to succeed in reading, they must acquire linguistic awareness and understand the language of reading instruction.

Assessing Concepts About Print

The Concepts About Print Test examines not only what knowledge of print children possessed but also how their understanding of print changed. This test is individually given to a child. The teacher engages the child in a conversation and asks the child if he or she will help in reading a story. The teacher can then assess the child’s concepts of print as they read the book together.

Learning About Letters and Sounds

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Children must learn that a word can be separated into sounds and that the segmented or separated sounds can be represented be letters which is the beginning of phonics. Phonemes are the minimal sound units that can be represented in written language. The alphabetic principle suggests that letters in the alphabet map to phonemes. Phonics is used to refer to the child’s identification of words by their sounds. This process involves the association of speech sounds with letters.

Phonemic awareness refers to an insight about oral language and the ability to segment and manipulate the sounds of speech. Phonemic awareness includes:

• Phonemic isolation: Students are recognizing individual sounds in a word
• Phoneme identity: Recognizing the same sound in different word
• Phoneme categorization: Recognizing a word in a set that doesn’t fit with the others
• Blending: Requires students to blend a series of orally presented sounds to form a word
• Segmenting beginning and ending sounds in words: Students can isolate sounds at the beginning and ends of words
• Segmenting separate sounds in a word: Students can segment separate sounds in a word
• Phoneme deletion, addition, and substitution: Students take away or add something to make a new word

Phonological awareness is the ability to hear, recognize, and play with the sounds in our language. It’s the recognition that sounds in English can be broken down into smaller and smaller parts. Phonological awareness is auditory. Phonological awareness includes:

• Sentences can be broken down into words
• Words can be broken down into syllables
• Words can be broken down into individual sounds
• Words can begin or end with the same sound
• The individual sounds of words can be blended together
• The individual sounds of words can be manipulated (added, deleted, or substituted)

Phonological awareness also includes rhyming (rimes), alliteration (words beginning with the same sound), sentence segmenting, syllable bending and segmenting, and phonemic awareness.

We can also teach students phonemic segmentation by using Elkonin Boxes. Elkonin boxes follow these steps:

1. Give the student a picture of a familiar object
2. Next say the word slowly and deliberately allowing the student to heat the sounds that can be naturally segmented
3. Now ask the student to repeat the word, modeling the way you said it
4. Continue to model
5. Walk the child through the procedure by attempting it together several times
6. Show another picture and then the word
7. Phase out the picture stimulus and the use of counters and squares
   

   

   Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R. T., & Gove, M. K. (2012). Reading and learning to read (8th ed.). New York: Longman. 

Classroom Application

I will teach phonological and phonemic awareness by showing how words can be broken down into smaller parts known as phonemes or sounds. Elkonin boxes can be used for this, especially words that have sounds that don’t make the typical sound of the letter if it were by itself. There are also concepts of print that I realized was important before reading this chapter such as knowing where the front of the book is. So, this is something to work on too.

Phases of Literacy Development

Phase 1: Awareness and Exploration

Begins at birth and continues through preschool. Children become curious about print. Will begin to recognize logos and environmental labels. Starts scribbling and can start to identify letters and sounds. This is a great stage to incorporate environmental print. This means labeling items around the room as well as having common items with print on around the room.

Phase 2: Experimental Reading and Writing

Starts around kindergarten. Students will understand the basic concept, enjoy having stories read to them, and will start making connections to letters and their sounds, rhyming words. Will also begin to write letters and high-frequency words.

Phase 3: Early Reading and Writing

Starts at 1st grade when students are getting more direct instruction from a teacher. Students will begin to read simple stories and write about things they know. They will develop strategies for comprehension such as making predictions. Start to read more fluently because they are recognizing more words by sight. Begins to understand punctuation and capitalization.

Phase 4: Transitional Reading and Writing

Starts in 2nd grade. Students are reading more fluently and are using more comprehension strategies. Will increase their word identification strategies, sight-word recognition, reading fluency, sustained silent reading, conventional spelling, and proofreading when writing.

Phase 5: Independent and Productive Reading and Writing

Starts in 3rd grade. Students are becoming independent readers and writers. They are extending and refining their literacy skills and strategies.

How Reading Develops

Family is the greatest influence on a child. Family needs to be encouraging of a child’s reading and just exposing them to print. Also, if parents are reading, their children will be more likely to want to read too. “Children begin learning about reading and writing at a very early age by observing and interacting with adults and other children as they use literature in everyday activities” (Vacca, Vacca, & Gove, 2012, p. 107). Children need to learn that print is useful and has meaning.

How Writing Develops

Young children will learn about writing through exploration, this means they will experiment with scribbling. Early scribbling is equivalent to babbling in oral language development.

Older students will use invented spelling. Invented spelling is when students are writing and spelling words how they sound which is not always correct. These students have not quite learned all the rules of spelling yet. Teachers should encourage this, some advantages of doing this are:

• students are making connections between letters and their sounds
• students are becoming more independent writers and will ask for less help spelling words
• students will have more time to write what they want and will be more engaged in their writing

Literate Learning Environments

Literate environments are also very important at a young age. Early readers thrive in environments where an adult or someone the student looks up to has a high regard for reading. Literate environments include allowing students to scribble, draw, and write. Multiple materials should be offered to encourage students to read and write. This environment could include:

• A book area or library
• A listening area
• A Computer area
• Writing area

Core Language and Literacy Skills

Oral Language Comprehension

This is the ability to speak and listen with understanding. This includes grammar, word meanings, and listening comprehension. Students should be able to quickly recognize words they hear and connect new information with what they already know. Shared book reading, singing songs, fingerplays, storytelling, and dramatic play are just some ways to encourage oral language.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is used to describe the words you know and can use. There are two kinds of vocabulary: receptive (listening) and receptive (talking). Reading aloud is the single most important activity for building knowledge and skills children need for later reading.

Phonological Awareness

This involves hearing the sounds in language separate from the meaning of the word. Teachers should use read-aloud books, nursery rhymes, riddles, songs, and poems that play with language and manipulate sounds.

Alphabet Knowledge

This is the ability to name and write all 26 letters of the alphabet.

Developmental Writing

Developmental writing is the first attempts at spelling words and writing. Writing materials should always be available to students to give them opportunities to write.

Print Knowledge

The ability to recognize print and understand that is works in a specific way. To teach print knowledge, the teacher can collect pictures and have the students label them, writing text under a student’s drawing, and having children identify words in their environment.

Developing Early Literacy Skills

The routines and practices that support the items listed above.

Language Experiences

A language experience story is when a student is sharing a story and the teacher is writing it down. This shows the student that what they say can be turned into print and that print has meaning.

Shared reading is when the teacher and beginner readers read and reread favorite stories, songs, poems, and rhymes. This is used to show students what a book is, what an “expert” reader does with a book as it is read, and what makes a story a story.

Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R. T., & Gove, M. K. (2012). Reading and learning to read (8th ed.). New York: Longman.

Classroom Application

This chapter was so important with taking about literacy for our youngest learners. I liked the phases of literacy development. I want to work with the younger students so to see where students are developmentally and where they should be next. It is also important to remember that even though the book stated a phase starting at a certain grade level, all students are different and develop differently. That means that the whole first grade class may not be in the Early Reading and Writing phase, some may be above or below. I just always like to know where students could go next.

English Language Learners (ELL) Developmental Language Levels

Response Protocol

“Designed to help teachers better their understanding of students’ language development and broaden their repertoire for meeting the needs of this special population” (Vacca, Vacca & Gove, 2012, p. 72). Some examples are shown below:

Contributions Approach – Teachers include culturally specific celebrations and holidays such as Martin Luther King Day and Columbus Day.

Additive Approach – A thematic approach, where a teacher might incorporate multicultural issues into the curriculum for a unit but they don’t always.

Transformative Approach – Teachers try to help students to learn diverse ethnic and cultural perspectives by giving them opportunities to read about concepts and events, make judgement about them, think critically, and come up with their own ideas and opinions.

Decision-Making and Social-Action Approach – Let’s students do activities and projects related to the cultural issues they have read about.

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Instructional Beliefs About Academic and Cognitive Diversity

Academic and cognitive diversity are grounded in definitions, categories, and labels. These result is legislation stepping in and creating new guidelines and policies. This is where the term exceptional children came from. The exceptional child refers to a students who is either above or below the norm. This means these students need adapted material to meet their needs. These exceptionalities include:

• learning disabilities
• emotional and behavioral disorders
• mental retardation
• intellectual gifts and talents

The Public Law 94-142, or the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which was passed in 1975 has several principles that are still in effect today. These include:

• Nondiscriminatory identification and evaluation
• Free, appropriate public education
• Least restrictive environment
• Parent and student participation and shared decision making.

The law was then redesigned and the IDEA 2004 was added. This allowed for procedures to identifying students with specific learning disabilities:

• The states must not require that the criteria for determining a specific learning disability include a severe discrepancy between intellectual ability and achievement.
• The states may use alternative research-based methods to determine whether a student has a specific learning disability.
• The states must allow the use of a child’s response to scientifically research-based intervention when identifying specific learning disabilities.
• With respect to language arts, the criteria include failure of the child to adequately achieve in any one of the following areas: oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skills, fluency, or reading comprehension when provided with appropriate instruction based on state standards.

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Instructional Principles for Academic and Cognitive Diversity

The essential components of an effective literacy program include instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. Some useful guidelines include:

• Students need to be engaged with authentic texts
• Students with diverse abilities need to see reading as purposeful
• Students who differ in their reading abilities need experiences with literacy tasks that are highly engaging that are focused on their interests as learners
• Students who struggle need teachers who can guide them towards success
• Teachers of students with a variety of abilities need to be focused
• Effective teachers involve parents

Inclusion is when children with special needs are included in the regular education classroom and will receive help from the classroom teacher and a special education teacher. This gives them the opportunity to learn from their peers as well as developing social skills and making friends.

Literacy coaches provide long-term professional development for teachers that result in improved reading achievement. Characteristics of literacy coaches include:

• Strong understanding of the reading process
• Excellence in teaching reading
• Exemplary communication skills with peers
• Skill in literacy assessment and instructional practices

Differentiated Instruction help different learners who have different needs. The teacher proactively plan various ways to teach and express learning based on his/her knowledge of his/her students and their needs. Differentiated instruction can be done in whole class, small group, and individual instruction. Differentiation can look like using different reading topics, different reading levels, or different student interests.

Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R. T., & Gove, M. K. (2012). Reading and learning to read (8th ed.). New York: Longman.

Classroom Application

I think it is important that we know the different laws that are developed to help the students with exceptionalities. It’s also important to know how to use inclusion, literacy coaches, and differentiated instruction. These are things that will be implemented in the classroom no matter where you work because all students are different.

Instructional Approaches

Basal Reading Approach

• Provides everything needed for a complete reading program
• Wide variety of genres
• Provides scope and sequence (lesson taught in order, students move from level to level) of skills and strategies
• Based on the assumption that students learn to read by reading, writing, and talking about meaningful topics
• Used in small group situations typically at the elementary level
• Word recognition skills are used to expand meaningful reading, discussing, and writing

Language Experience Approach (LEA)

• Includes story dictation, recording the language of children on paper and using what is said as the basis for reading instruction
• Also includes “planned and continuous activities such as individual- and group-dictated stories, the building of word banks of known words, creative writing activities, oral reading of prose and poetry by teacher and students, directed reading-thinking lessons, the investigation of interests using multiple materials, and keeping record of student progress” (Vacca, Vacca, & Gove, 2012, p.48)
• Embraces natural language and uses background experiences (this can be very useful for English Language Learners)

Integrated Language Arts Approach

• Extends the concept of language experience by immersing students in reading, writing, talking, listening, and viewing activities
• The language arts support each other and are connected through the use of informative and imaginative literature

Literature Based Approach

• Accommodate each students differences and focuses on meaning, interest, and enjoyment
• Students select their own books
• Students can write different endings to stories or events that happened in their lives, this could be similar to other stories they have read
• Students can also use what they read in stories to help in their real life such as conflict resolution because of a way characters in a story handled a similar situation

Technology Based Approach/Instruction

• Learning to read through the use of technology
• Started with the development of the CD-ROM, made learning to read more engaging and interactive
• Online opportunities can be easily incorporated into the classroom and can help to greatly enhance the learning of students
• “Technology increases the availability of reading material, changes the way in which reading takes place, provides individual learning opportunities, and encourages students to use good judgement in locating and using information” (Vacca, Vacca, and Gove, 2012, p. 52)

Instructional Scaffolding

• Students become aware of the use of skills and strategies that they need to be successful
• Scaffolding means the students are getting help to do something that they are unable to do on their own at first. Instructional scaffolding means teachers support literacy learning by teaching students the skills and strategies that will lead them to learning how to do it independently
• Can be provided through well-timed questions, explanations, demonstrations, practice, and application. This can all be combined into mini-lessons which provide explicit strategy instruction for students who need instructional guidance with skills and strategies for reading
• Mini-lessons allow teachers to share insight and knowledge with the students that they might not ever come across
• Explicit instruction involves strategic learning, not habit formation

Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R. T., & Gove, M. K. (2012). Reading and learning to read (8th ed.). New York: Longman.

Classroom Application

I think all of these strategies can be used in the classroom. I like the idea of using LEA after students go on a field trip to create a book that is made up of their ideas. I think that technology is becoming a huge part of the school system but is also a great resource like ReadingAtoZ. I will also use scaffolding and explicit instruction through the use of mini-lessons.

 

The Importance of Belief Systems

A belief system influences the way a teacher teaches. Each teacher can have a different belief system but almost all teachers will agree that the main goal of teaching reading is “to teach children to become independent readers and learners” (Vacca, 2012, p.4).

A systematic instructional approach is an approach the may be effected by a teacher’s belief system. This approach includes direct teaching and a logical instructional sequence. This gives plenty of chance to practice specific skills along a logical timeline.

How Teachers Come to Know About Reading and Learning to Read

Teachers come to know about reading and learning to read in different ways. These ways consist of personal knowledge, practical knowledge, and professional knowledge.

Personal knowledge comes from how a teacher was taught. The way the teacher teaches helps to construct the personal knowledge for their students. Autobiographical narratives can also help to connect personal history as a reader to what is being taught. An autobiographical narrative will help to understand a readers past as well as goals they may have in the future.

Practical knowledge comes from a teachers experience in the classroom as well as experiences outside of the classroom. Teachers can observe their students in the classroom setting and in the community, this can help the teacher to see what learning style may work best for the students as well as things that may be motivating to them.

Professional knowledge comes from workshops, conferences, coworkers, and other professional development opportunities. Teachers may also get a literacy coach. A literacy coach can support a teacher who is just starting in a classroom or they could be a mentor to others who just need some additional help. 

Cognitive Insights into Reading and Learning to Read

One of the most important cognitive aspects to reading and learning to read is the alphabetic principle. The alphabetic principle states that there is a relationship between letters and sounds. Teachers need to understand that children learn the sounds through speech before they realize there are symbols (letters) to represent them.

Skilled readers can also chunk words together into syllables automatically. This knowledge of spelling patterns are also known as orthographic knowledge. This means knowing that the group of letters tion is pronounced “tion” and a skilled reader can figure this out quickly without having to think about it.

Schema Theory can also be used for reading and learning to read, especially reading comprehension. A schemata represents the prior knowledge, experiences, conceptual understandings, attitudes, values, skills, and procedures that a reader brings to a reading situation. If students can bring previous experiences into a reading situation, they will be able to better understand what they are reading as well as being able to remember what is read better. The more a student hears, sees, reads, and experiences new information, the more they will be able to comprehend when they are reading.

Metacognition is defined as “by Ann Brown (1985), refers to knowledge about and regulation of some form of cognitive activity” (Vacca, 2012, p. 20). There are three parts to this:

1. Self-Knowledge: What students think of themselves as readers
2. Task Knowledge: How to do the tasks and strategies that can be used
3. Self-Monitoring: Students monitoring what they are reading and understanding

When a student is reading and they come to a word they don’t know, there are four options for what the teacher can do.

1. Tell the student the word
2. Have the student sound it out
3. Have the student make an educated guess
4. Have the student say blank and keep reading

Each option can be used to help a student to become a better reader. Options 2-4 can be used before option 1 to give the student an opportunity to figure it out. With option 3, the student needs to use the implicit message to figure out the word. The implicit message is what the reading is suppose to say so the student can use context clues to figure out the unknown word. The teacher can also make the implicit message explicit. This means the teacher is using modeling, demonstrating, explaining, rationale-building, thinking aloud, and reflecting. This allows the teacher to help students to develop their metacognitive awareness and strategic knowledge.

Reading from a Language Perspective

Jean Piaget observed children and how they interacted with their environment. Piaget thinks that as children explore their environment they develop meaning to the events they are experiencing. Children need to interact with the environment around them to develop language.

Lev Vygotsky believed that children played a role in their own learning, this is similar to Piaget. Vygotsky thought children needed to experience external languages before they could develop an inner voice.

Readers look for information cues in written language through these three systems:

1. Graphophonemic System: This is the print that it provided to the reader as the major source of information.
2. Syntactic System: This provides the grammatical relationship within the sentence patterns. This means that a student uses the way words are arranged in a sentence to make sense of what the text means.
3. Semantic System: The reader brings background knowledge, experiences, conceptual understandings, attitudes, beliefs, and values (or in other words, schemata).

There are four steps to literacy development. These steps are:

1. Text intent: understanding what the author intended to write
2. Negotiability: creating a meaningful message
3. Risk-taking: making hypotheses and testing them
4. Fine-tuning: using text as a resource for following texts

Models of Reading 

• Bottom-Up Models of Reading – the process of translating print to meaning starts with the print.
• Top-Down Models of Reading – the process of translating print to meaning starts with the reader’s prior knowledge.
• Interactive Models of Reading – the process of translating print to meaning starts with both the print and the reader’s prior knowledge.

RTI (Response to Intervention)

RTI is used to identify and instruct those who struggle with reading. RTI uses a three-tier approach.

• Tier 1 – All students receive research-based instruction
• Tier 2 – More intensive instruction provided to a smaller group of students
• Tier 3 – Even more intensive instruction, typically one-on-one to target specific problems

Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R. T., & Gove, M. K. (2012). Reading and learning to read (8th ed.). New York: Longman. 

Classroom Application

Some day I will have beliefs of my own in my classroom that will effect the way I teach reading to students. I will also need to understand the students and their backgrounds to help them to learn to the best of their abilities. I liked the different options for helping a student to figure out an unknown word and will definitely use those in my classroom too. RTI will also be used in my classroom some day to help students who are struggling readers to get the most help they need to help them stay at their grade level.

Reading to Learn

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Trade Books: High-quality picture and chapter books used in teaching thematic units. These books can be found in science, social studies, or other topics. They help students learn about these topics because they can make connections to their own lives or background knowledge they already have.

Text Sets: A collection of books or other reading materials on topics in a thematic unit. This could include items such as:

• Maps
• Brochures
• Digital Articles
• Films and Videos
• Magazines
• Newspapers
• Nonfiction Books
• Photographs
• Poems or Songs
• Reference Books
• Stories
• Websites

Mentor Text: The use of stories, nonfiction books, and poems that students are familiar with to model what the writer did. Teachers reread these texts and point out certain things they want the students to listen for such as the use of strong verbs, writing from different perspectives, or the tone of putting adjectives after nouns.

Writing to Learn

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Learning logs are a great way for students to record and react to what they have learned in social studies, science, or other areas.

Double-entry journals are used for multiple types of information. The journal pages are divided into two parts, for example, the students could write facts on one side and their opinions or reactions on the other side.

Quickwriting is when students write on a topic for 5-10 minutes just letting thoughts flow and not focusing so much on the grammar. This could be used at the beginning of a lesson where students write down the things they know about a topic.

Demonstrating Learning

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Essays are used for students to explain, analyze, and persuade. These essays are usually no longer than 2 pages talking about a personal topic or a national/international issue. They are written in the voice of the student.

Students could also work together to make a collaborative book. Each student could write their own page or they could work in small groups to write chapters.

Textbooks

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To make textbooks easier to understand, the reading process can be used:

Stage 1: Prereading – Teachers can prepare students to read the chapter by doing these things:

• Activate and build students’ background knowledge about the topic
• Introduce big ideas and technical words
• Set purpose for reading
• Preview the text

Teachers can use KWL charts to show what the students already know, what they want to learn, and what they did learn. Anticipation guides can also be used to introduce a set of statements on the topic of the chapter, students can agree or disagree with these statements, and check their answers as they read.  Teachers can also use a prereading plan where they present a big idea to the students and the students brainstorm words and ideas related to it. Students can also preview the chapter by looking at the headings and turning them into questions. The students then need to read to find the answer to these questions. This is known as the question-answer relationship.

Step 2: Reading – Teachers can support students as they read in these ways:

• Ensure that students can read the assignment
• Assist students in identifying the big idea
• Help students organize ideas and details

Stage 3: Responding – Teachers help students with comprehension as they think, talk, and write about what they have read in these ways:

• Clarify students’ misunderstandings
• Help students summarize the big ideas
• Make connections to students’ lives

This is also where you could use quick writes or double entry journals.

Stage 4: Exploring – Students are asked to look more into the text and focus on vocabulary, examine the text, and analyze the big ideas in these ways:

• Have students study vocabulary words
• Review the big ideas in the chapter
• Help students to connect the big ideas and details

Students create semantic feature analysis charts or data charts to record information according to the big idea. They can also do word sorts to emphasize the relationships among the big ideas.

Stage 5: Applying – Students then create projects to apply what they have learned. Teachers support students by:

• Expanding students’ knowledge about the topic
• Having students personalize their learning
• Expecting students to share their knowledge

Learning How to Study

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As students study, they do these things:

• Restate the big ideas in their own words
• Make connections among the big ideas
• Add details to each of the big ideas
• Ask questions about the importance of the ideas
• Monitor whether they understand the ideas

Students can take notes, use the question-answer relationship, or the SQ4R study strategy. This strategy is a six step technique usually not taught until 7th and 8th grade. SQ4R means survey, question, read, recite, relate, and review. This strategy has been researched to be successful unless students are in a hurry and skip a step.

How to Plan a Thematic Unit

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1. Determine the Focus
2. Collect a Text Set
3. Coordinate Textbook Readings
4. Locate Digital and Multimedia Materials
5. Plan Instructional Activities
6. Identify Minilesson Topics
7. Plan Ways to Differentiate Instruction
8. Brainstorm Possible Projects
9. Plan for Assessment

Alternative Assessment: Some students may have difficulty with regular assessments because they don’t understand, especially English Learners. Teachers need to find different ways of assessing these students, such as having them draw pictures about big ideas and adding words to the word wall so that they can label or write a little bit about what they drew instead of writing an essay. They can also talk with the teacher about what they learned.

All above information comes from:
Tompkins, G. E. (2017). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson

Classroom Application

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I liked how the reading process was also used for a textbook. I would use a lot of the prereading strategies that I listed above. I also liked the alternative assessment because sometimes even students who aren’t English Learners struggle with understanding the assessment that is being used, I think this is a great way to see how every student is learning.

Differentiation

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All students learn differently and are at different levels of their learning, because of this teachers need to differentiate, or teach things differently, their lessons to help all students learn to the best of their abilities. There are three ways that teachers can differentiate their instruction. The change the content that the students need to learn, the instructional process used to teach, and the products of what the students need to create to show what they learned.

• Differentiating the Content: For literacy the content consists of the knowledge, strategies, and skills the students are suppose to know by the end of their grade level. Some students will need more instruction and practice than other students, while others may need less. For those that need less, they may receive more complex work. The teacher needs to assess their students before deciding how they will differentiate activities.
• Differentiating the Process: The process is the instruction the teacher uses, the materials used, and the activities the students are involved in to be the most successful. This could be grouping the students by grade level and having appropriate activities for each.
• Differentiating the Product: The product shows what the students have learned. This may be what the understand and how they will apply it. Students could create projects. Projects can be differentiated depending on the creating process involved or the requirements involved in creating it.

Grouping for Instruction

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Teachers typically use three different types of groups: whole class, small group, or individually. To chose a grouping the teacher needs to think about their purpose, the complexity of the activity, and the students’ learning needs. These groups should change throughout the school year.

Guided Reading:

• Usually done in small groups
• Used to give students more teacher support when decoding and comprehending what they are reading, to learn reading strategies, or help students become independent readers

Tiered Activities

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Tiered activities focus on the same knowledge but differ in complexity. These activities help all student be successful not matter if they are above, below, or at grade level. The activities should still be interesting and engaging to each student as well as requiring the same amount of effort from each students. Teachers vary the activities by varying the complexity of thinking, the level of reading materials, the form of expression or the way that the students would show what they learned, and what the students will do during each activity.

Literacy Centers are meaningful and purposeful literacy activities that are usually done in small groups.

Struggling Readers and Writers

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Students with early literacy exposer are seen to have better reading and writing skills than those who have not. This could be done by parents simply reading to their child(ren).

Struggling Readers:

It is very important to identify struggling readers so that they can get the help they need as soon as possible. Some of the factors include:

• Difficulty developing concepts about written language, phonemic awareness, letter names, and phoneme-grapheme correspondences
• Slower to respond than classmates when asked to identify words
• Behavior that deviates from school norms

How to Address Struggling Readers Problems

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Struggling Writers:
Some students will have a hard time developing and organizing their ideas, some struggle with word choice and writing complete sentences and effective transitions, and others have problems with spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar skills. Others may struggle with the writing process and using writing strategies.

How to Address Struggling Writers Problems

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High Quality Instruction:

To avoid having student struggle with reading and writing, they need to have high quality instruction and using intervention when needed. Teachers use these four components to enhance the literacy development:

• Personalizing Instruction
• Using Appropriate Instructional Materials
• Expanding Teachers’ Expertise
• Collaborating With Literacy Coaches

Interventions

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Intervention programs help students who are low achieving with reading and writing and help to accelerate their literacy learning.

• Early Intervention: This is designed for preschoolers, kindergartener, and first graders.
• Reading Recovery: This program is for first graders. It uses 30-minute daily one-on-one tutoring by trained teachers for 12 to 30 weeks. It includes:
  • Rereading familiar books
  • Independently reading the book introduced in the previous lesson
  • Learning decoding and comprehension strategies
  • Writing sentences
  • Reading a new book with teacher support
• Response to Intervention (RTI): A schoolwide initiative to identify students who are struggling quickly, promote high-quality classroom instruction, provide effective interventions, and increase the students success.
  • Tier 1: Screening and Prevention
  • Tier 2: Early Intervention
  • Tier 3: Intensive Intervention
• Interventions For Older Students: The intervention should include these components:
  • High-Quality Instruction
  • Instructional-Level Reading Material
  • More Time for Reading

All above information comes from:
Tompkins, G. E. (2017). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson

Classroom Application

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This chapter helped with identifying students who are struggling with reading an writing. I liked all the different ways to differentiate activities especially the tiered activities which is something I will definitely use in my classroom someday.

Teaching With Basal Reading Programs

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Basal reading programs are commercial reading programs that have been around for many years. Some of these programs from years ago did not teach much phonics but more memorization. Basal reading programs today concentrate on cultural diversity and introducing strategies for reading especially phonics.

Components:

• Selections in grade-level textbooks
• Instruction about decoding and comprehension strategies and skills
• Workbook assignments
• Independent reading opportunities

Materials in Basal Reading Programs:

Teaching With Literature Focus Units

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A literature focus unit typically uses one story but could also use multiple stories of the same genre or from the same author.

Steps in Developing a Unit

Step 1: Select the Literature – The book could include a picture-book, a novel, a nonfiction book, or a book of poetry. There should be at least one copy for each student. The teacher then selects related stories; this could include sequels, books written by the same author, or books from the same genre; to include in the classroom library for students to read independently. The teacher also find supplementary materials related to the focus story, such as stuffed animals, book boxes which could be used to introduce the story, and information about the author and illustrator. Also, many picture books have larger versions which can be used during shared reading time. DVDs or books on tape could be used too.

Step 2: Set Goals – Teachers develop goals that work along with standards that students are expected to accomplish by the end of the unit.

Step 3: Develop a Unit Plan – Teachers read or reread a book and decides what the focus for learning will be. This focus could include an element of the story structure, a historical setting, word play, the author or genre, or a topic related to the story such as the weather or desert life. After the focus is decided on, activities are chosen to be used at each of the five stages of reading.

Step 4: Coordinate Grouping Patterns With Activities – Teachers need to think about how they will use whole-group, small-groups, partners, and individual work during this unit. Groupings should be alternated during various activities of the unit.

Step 5: Create a Time Schedule – The teacher needs to create a schedule that gives students plenty of time to move through the 5 steps in the reading process and complete the activities that go along with it. Minilessons may be incorporated to teach reading or writing strategies, also, to introduce specific activities or assignments.

Step 6: Assess Students – Teachers plan their assessment strategies when planning the goals for the unit as well as the book they choose. Informal assessment is used to evaluate what is working well and what needs to be changed. By the end of the unit, students will have a final project that they will be assessed on. Students can also receive folders to keep all of their work in throughout the unit making it easier for the students to keep track of their work and for the teacher to assess it at the end of the unit. The students should receive a checklist of assignment so they can keep track of them as they are finishing them.

Literature Circles

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Literature circles are small, student-led book discussion groups.

Key Features of Literature Circles:

• Choice: The students choose the book and the groups they will participate in. The students set a schedule, choose the roles they will take during discussion time, and decide how they will share the book with their classmates.
• Literature: The books should be interesting and at the students’ reading level. When first introducing literature circles, teachers should choose picture books or easy to read books so students can understand how literature circles work. The teacher should make sure to read each book and be able to be excited about the book so they can introduce the books well to the students and get them excited about them too.
• Response: Students meet several times to discuss the book. The students will summarize the reading, make connections, learn vocabulary, and explore the author’s use of text factors.

Types of Talk During Literature Circle Discussions:

Roles Students Play in Literature Circles:

Implementing Literature Circles:

• Step 1: Select Books
• Step 2: Form Literature Circles
• Step 3: Read the Book
• Step 4: Participate in a Discussion
• Step 5: Teach Minilessons
• Step 6: Share With the Class
• Step 7: Assess Learning

Reading and Writing Workshops

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Students participate in authentic reading and writing projects during these workshops. There are three main characteristics:

• Time: Students are given plenty of time to read and write. For reading students should get 30-60 minutes and for writing they should get 30-45 minutes to work through the processes.
• Choice: Students choose the books they read and what they write about.
• Response: Students use reading logs to respond to their books and then have conferences with their teacher about what they read. Teachers also periodically collect the students reading logs and will write notes about their responses. Students also share their rough drafts with classmates and share the completed draft with an audience.

Sustained Silent Reading (SSR):

This is where students choose a book to silently read during a time that is set aside during the school day for reading. SSR and reading workshops are similar because the students are choosing their own books. However, SSR focuses just on reading where reading workshops focus on reading, responding, sharing, teaching minilessons, and reading aloud to students.

Management of the Workshops:

Workshops take time for the students to figure out what they are suppose to be doing. For reading workshops, students need to learn how to correctly choose a book and other reading workshop procedures. For writing workshops, students need to learn how to use the writing process when working on a piece of writing. The teacher need to talk through and model what the workshop will look like so students can see and hear what they are expected to do.

All above information comes from:
Tompkins, G. E. (2017). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson

Classroom Application

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In my classroom, I will use the strategies for using basal reading programs, literature circles, and reading and writing workshops. When using literature circles, the roles will be posted for students to see so they know what their roles can be and decide who will do what. I would also post the Goldilocks Strategy for choosing books so that students will understand what it means to choose a book that is best for them.

Text Factors of Stories

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There are three important factors that are most important:

• Genres: Categories of literature; such as, stories, informational books (nonfiction) and poetry. There are sub categories to each category too.
• Text Structures: To organize texts and emphasize the important ideas; such as, sequence, comparison, and cause and effect.
• Text Features: To achieve a particular effect in an author’s writing. These include symbolism and tone is stories, and headings and indexes in nonfiction books.

Narrative Genres:

Elements of Story Structure:

• Plot is the sequence of events involving characters in conflict situations; based on the goals of one or more characters and the process they go through to accomplish them.
• Characters are the people or personified animals in the story.
• Setting is generally thought of as where the story takes place but also includes weather, time period, and time.
• Point of view depends on who is telling the story and their view.
  • First person viewpoint: Used to look through one characters view point and usually uses the pronoun “I”
  • Omniscient viewpoint: The author sees and knows all, telling the reader about each character and their thoughts.
  • Limited omniscient viewpoint: Told from the authors viewpoint but focuses on one character.
  • Objective viewpoint: Readers are eyewitnesses to the story and are confined to the immediate scene. They are not aware of what the characters are thinking, just what they are doing.
• Theme is the underlying meaning of a story, usually deals with the characters’ emotions and values.

Narrative Devices:

Text Factors of Nonfiction Books

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Some nonfiction genres include alphabet books, biographies, and reference books.

Expository Text Structures:

Text Factors of Poetry

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Poetic Forms:

• Acrostics – Students use a keyword to form an acrostic poem
• Apology Poems – Students write poems apologizing for something they are secretly glad they did
• Bilingual Poems – Students write a poem and incorporate words from a different language
• Color Poems – Students start each line of their poem with a color
• Concrete Poems – The words and lines on a poem are arranged to help convey the meaning of the poem.
• Found Poems – Students arrange words from newspapers, magazines, etc. to create a poem
• Haiku – A Japanese poem arranged by number of syllables (5, 7, 5) per line
• List Poems – Students create a poem from a list they compose on a certain topic
• Odes – Celebrate everyday objects, especially things that aren’t usually appreciated
• Poems for Two Voices – Students write poems side-by-side that may contain the same words or not. One person reads the right column and one reads the left column at the same time to create a duet

Assessing Knowledge of Text Factors

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Step 1: Planning – When planning the teacher needs to think of the text factors they want to teach and how they will monitor and assess students’ progress.

Step 2: Monitoring – Teachers monitor students by observing and conferencing with students during reading and writing activities.

Step 3: Evaluating – Teachers encourage students to apply their knowledge of genres, structural elements, and literacy devices. These things should be included in rubrics or checklist.

Step 4: Reflecting – Teachers ask students to reflect on how they are growing in their ability to use text factors to comprehend complex texts. Teachers also reflect on the effectiveness of their instruction.

All above information comes from:
Tompkins, G. E. (2017). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson

Classroom Application

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I would expose students to a variety of genres and talk about the differences between them. We could make a comparison chart between the genre we are looking at and the previous one we looked at to see the differences but also maybe some similarities. Students should also talk about the elements of story structure to talk about the different stories. Of course the assessing of knowledge of text factors will be used too.

Comprehension

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Comprehension: A thinking process that is creative and multifaceted in which students engage and understand the text. Comprehension is the main goal of reading.

Text Complexity: How well a reader can complete an assignment with a particular text. This is one way to check comprehension.

What Readers Think About When Reading: Readers think of many things while reading and comprehending texts. These things can include:

• Active prior knowledge
• Examine text to uncover its organization
• Make predictions
• Connect to their own experiences
• Create mental images
• Draw inferences
• Notice symbols and other literacy devices
• Monitor their understanding

These activities can be known as reader and text factors.

Comprehension Strategies

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Comprehension strategies are thoughtful behaviors that students use to facilitate their understanding as they read. There are many different strategies that can be used.

Comprehension Skills: Students use comprehension strategies to identify main ideas and they use these comprehension skills:

• Recognizing details
• Noticing similarities and differences
• Identifying topic sentences
• Comparing and Contrasting main ideas and details
• Matching causes and effects
• Sequencing details
• Paraphrasing ideas
• Choosing a good title for a text

How Comprehension Strategies Fit Into the Reading Process:

How to Create an Expectation of Comprehension: Teachers can create expectations of comprehension in these ways:

• Involving students in authentic reading activities every day
• Providing access to well-stocked classroom libraries
• Teaching students to use comprehension strategies
• Ensuring that students are fluent readers
• Providing opportunities for students to talk about the books they are reading
• Linking vocabulary instruction to underlying concepts

Ways to Teach Comprehension:

Assessing Comprehension

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Step 1: Planning – Teachers decide how they will teach comprehension strategies and then decide how to monitor students’ progress.

Step 2: Monitoring – Teachers informally assess the students’ comprehension daily. These are some of the informal assessment procedures:

• Cloze Procedure: Teachers test the students’ understanding by having students provide the deleted words from a passage taken from a text they’ve already read.
• Story Retelling: Teachers ask students to retell stories they have read or listened to during read aloud time. This should be organized and use the big ideas from the story.

Step 3: Evaluating – Evaluation can use the same methods used in monitoring including the ones listed above and running records and think-alouds.

Step 4: Reflecting – Students meet with the teacher for a conference to reflect on what they have learned about reading factors.

Motivation

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All above information comes from:
Tompkins, G. E. (2017). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson

Classroom Application

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I will definitely use the informal assessment procedures. I find informal assessments to sometimes be more effective than formal assessments because the students don’t feel as pressured to do well because they don’t realize they are being tested. I also think keeping students motivated is very important so knowing the factors that could affects students motivation will be helpful to keep them motivated.