Theory

There are several interesting theoretical articles I have studied that can be helpful in emergent literacy.  Here are some I have found useful and the summaries from my discussion groups of these articles.




https://bblearn.utk.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-271077-dt-content-rid-1020886_1/xid-1020886_1

Fitzgerald Article

         The Fitzgerald article was very interesting.  I found the discussions on the balanced approach to teaching reading very informative.  I paid special attention to the program details of Cunningham & Hall’s four blocks instruction. The four blocks instruction included: guided reading, self-selected reading, writer’s workshop, and working with words.  It struck a cord with me because it describes the type of reading instruction we have been using in my elementary school.  We implemented the guided reading method of reading instruction this past year.  It has been a big undertaking for my colleagues and I, but we have all learned so much.  The information in this article on balance describes many of the teaching methods we have been using already.  The 2^nd program discussed by Baumann included:  creating meanings and responding to good literature, skills and strategy instruction, and a balance between teacher directed versus responsive instruction. 

         The three common characteristics Fitzgerald discussed between the 2 reading techniques were 1) a focus on equal weighting of some key aspects of a program, 2) focus on the method of doing the classroom program, and 3) an inferable shared perspective on what aspects of the reading process are most important.  (Fitzgerald, page 101)  The last component was the most critical one according to this author.  She stated that the authors in this study of balanced approaches, all think that certain abilities in reading are equally important.

         I found the sets of questions that can be used to help teachers find a good starting place when reflecting on reading instruction very useful.  Some of these questions are:  ‘What knowledge about reading do I believe is most important for children?’ Or ‘What are the main goals of my classroom reading instruction?’  Thinking about these types of questions is a wonderful way to get started when deciding on which programs to implement into your classroom.  

 This article was fascinating to me.  Different authors in a study of a balanced reading program can have such differing approaches to teaching reading effectively. In my opinion, this means that there is no “one right way” to teaching reading. 

         My group discussed the different definitions of balanced reading instruction.   We reviewed the questions that the author gave us to consider when deciding which instruction best fit the needs of our students.  We discussed the two approaches and how similar the four blocks instruction is to our guided reading approach.

https://bblearn.utk.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-271077-dt-content-rid-1020887_1/courses
/ReadingEducation53083694SU2013/Duffy.pdf

Duffy and Hoffman Article

                  The members of my group and I have decided that we enjoyed the Duffy and Hoffman article the most.  It was wonderful to us that someone could put the thoughts and feelings we have about education and write them in an article!  It takes a combination of methods and practices together to help a child learn to read.  No two students will learn to read in the same way.  So I agree with the opinion of these authors that we must combine techniques and programs, and adapt parts of each to meet the needs of particular students. 

        

         We found it amusing that so little publicity is given to our successes as teachers, but if the public hears of ONE student who graduated high school without knowing how to read, THAT will make it into the news!  It is sad that so much emphasis is placed on the downfalls that happen in our world and not near as much time on our successes. It is upsetting that some children are “falling into the cracks” in education, but not all teachers should be blamed for those instances.

         We found the idea of ALL educators using a single instructional method to be problematic!  It is unbelievable that after all of our years of education and training in reading instruction that we can’t be trusted enough to make good instructional decisions on our own. The section of the article that discusses the ‘silver bullet’ (the perfect method for reading instruction) made me laugh out loud.  Our group agrees with Duffy and Hoffman “there is no perfect method.” (page 10)  Trying to push one single instructional method on all children would be ineffective and thoughtless.  It would be detrimental to reading instruction, not the key to improving it.  It frustrates me how legislators ignore the evidence. They don’t encourage us to use a variety of teaching methods that fit with the needs of our students.  Instead they pass laws and mandates that fit in with their mold of the ‘perfect method’.  I liked how the authors say that teachers describe the silver bullet as, “one size does not fit all”  (page 12).  Not every method will work for every child every time.  We need to assess the child and find out what works for him. 

         The author gives us 3 ideas that are important:

1) Teacher education is ongoing, not short-term.

2) There is a need to think differently about what teachers must learn.

3) There is a need for teacher educators to talk differently with teachers about our own favored programs and methods.

By using these ideas, it will shift the thinking of teachers, policymakers, researchers, and educators and encourage them to make thoughtful decisions.  Not just be a follower and jump on a ‘program’ bandwagon.

https://bblearn.utk.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-334056-dt-content-rid-1170175_1/courses/ReadingEducation53083694SU2013/Allington.pdf

Allington Article

         The article “What I’ve Learned About Effective Reading Instruction:  From a Decade of Studying Exemplary Elementary Classroom Teachers” went right along with the Valencia and Buly article.  We discussed how many similarities there were between them.  We talked about Dr. Allington’s 6 T’s of effective elementary literacy instruction: 

·      -Time

·      -Texts

·      -Teaching

·      -Talk

·      -Tasks

·      -Testing

We thought it fascinating that there was almost no test-preparation activity in the classrooms of the highly effective teachers.  The teachers that were studied believed that their good instruction would lead to outstanding test performance.  The less effective teachers, on the other hand, made use of packaged test prep programs.  The used the programs to make up for their lack of instruction in the classroom. (Allington, pages 740-747)

         This article, like the first, highlights how important teacher effectiveness is in student success.  Students need direct on-level instruction.  They need to be taught strategic reading strategies and have access to books that are on their reading level.  The teacher is in charge of making sure that students are getting what they need as learners on a daily basis. Teaching cannot be packaged, but needs to be done in an exemplary manner.  We need to constantly work on ourselves to become expert teachers.

https://bblearn.utk.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-334056-dt-content-rid-1170176_1/courses/ReadingEducation53083694SU2013/Valencia%20%26%20Buly.pdf
  

Valencia and Buly Article

         My group met to discuss the 2 articles for this week.  The article by Valencia and Buly sparked our interest by just reading the title.  Some of our good classroom students are not proficient on the standardized tests at times.  It is so frustrating to believe that they know the material, they have mastered the skills needed, and then when push comes to shove, they miss the mark.  We have all been very disappointed at times when it happens to another talented student. 

         We all related to the article when it said that teachers spend an enormous amount of time preparing kids for the standardized tests, even though preparation for the one test doesn’t translate into real learning (Valencia and Buly, page 520).  We completely agreed with this, but what else do you do?  This one test goes on the student’s report card.  This one test goes against us on our evaluations!  If we, teachers, do not teach to the test and students do not pass it, then we look like failures in the eyes of the state and local government officials.  It is a win or lose situation.  That is why this article about the results of a study of students who failed a typical test intrigued us. The authors described a pattern of performance, and suggestions for teachers to use to help these students be successful.   

         It was of great use to us that all the students tested were found in the regular classroom.  There were no ESL or special education students used for this study.  These were the kids who the regular classroom teacher was solely responsible for.  This was especially helpful to us regular education teachers.  We are held responsible for their success and no one else.  So we were glad this study included only those kids.  They found that all students fell into 3 categories: word identification, meaning, and fluency.  Not only did they fall into these distinct categories, but they were also found to be below grade level in all 3 areas.  We all have had students in our classrooms that have struggled in those areas.  So we were not surprised by this information.  As we discussed the rest of the findings, we agreed with the authors when they said, “one-size instruction will not fit all children” (Valencia and Buly, page 528).  There are many missing skills that different children have, and many need individualized instruction with these skills.  No two kids are alike, so individualized intensive instruction is the key to helping those kids.  We feel that our school is on the right track to helping our struggling readers succeed.  We focus on individualized study with-in our flexible, small-group instruction during our guided reading program.  We concentrate on what each child needs to focus their attentions on and build on those areas daily.  Time, money, materials, and training will help us move farther along in this process.  Our hope is to be the most effective classroom teachers we can be. 

Links to Comprehension Articles

https://bblearn.utk.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-337148-dt-content-rid-1181250_1/courses/ReadingEducation53083694SU2013/Pardo.pdf 

https://bblearn.utk.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-337148-dt-content-rid-1181249_1/courses/ReadingEducation53083694SU2013/Neufeld.pdf

https://bblearn.utk.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-337148-dt-content-rid 1181252_1/courses/ReadingEducation53083694SU2013/Dougherty%20Stahl.pdf

Comprehension Blog

            This week’s topic of discussion was comprehension.  Comprehension is something that many children struggle with.  As teachers, comprehension is always something we focus on with our students.  It is a very difficult skill to teach, as well as for children to learn.  We were excited to hear ways to help us teach this tricky skill, and even more ways to help our students understand it. 

            The first article we discussed was by Laura S. Pardo.  It was called “What every teacher needs to know about comprehension”.  We were pleasantly surprised to find out she was right on the mark.  We discussed some important areas to work with and focus on to help our kids stay on track with their comprehension skills from this article.  Here is a list of some of the important areas discussed:

·      She gave a common definition for teachers, “comprehension is a process in which readers construct meaning by interacting with text through the combination of prior knowledge and previous experience, information in the text, and the stance the reader takes in relationship to the text.” (Pardo, page 272)

·      She called the time when the comprehension should be happening “the literary event”.  (I liked that!)

·      The most important of the characteristics of good readers is the reader’s world knowledge.  Background knowledge helps them make sense of what they are reading.

·      Things that we, as teachers, can do to help are:  teach decoding skills, build fluency, help build and then activate background knowledge, teach vocabulary words, motivate them, and engage them in personal response to texts.   

·      Structures of text are important. Be sure to teach text structures, model appropriate text selections for them, and give them time to read independently to practice what you have taught them. 

·      Support the ‘transaction’ by providing explicit instruction of useful comprehension strategies (multiple strategy approaches), teach them to monitor their reading and ‘repair’ by applying appropriate strategies they have learned, use a scaffolding approach to gradually release responsibility to them, and help them see the connection between reading and writing. Good writers can become good readers.

          The next article we discussed was the one by Paul Neufeld.  The similarities between this article and Pardo’s article were amazing.  One point that really stood out to us was his comment about how limited background knowledge is a major problem in comprehension.  This was a major point in the Pardo article as well. 

          Neufeld’s article focused on comprehension strategies.  He shared some research based strategies that he says are worth teaching to students.  He broke these strategies up into 2 groups:  the getting ready to read strategies and during and after reading strategies.  We enjoyed the prompts he provided in this article.  A few we found most helpful were:

·      Why am I reading this text?

·      How is this text organized?

·      Do I sere any keywords associated with specific text structures?

·      Is what I just read clear to me?

·      What strategies could I use to help me better understand what I am reading?

We discussed how theses prompts and others would help guide our instruction with our students. 

          The purpose of last article was to review and discuss research on comprehension strategies for children in grades K-2.  She also made some recommendations for teachers on which ones can be trusted and which ones teachers need to be cautious about because they have not been researched enough.  Stahl states that, “ children who actively engage in particular cognitive strategies are likely to understand and recall more of what they read.”  (Stahl, page 598)  The key to children acquiring these strategies is the instructional techniques that the teacher uses.  We discussed several of these strategies within our group and how they would be useful in our classrooms.  I will list a few of them here: 

·      One effective strategy was gradually releasing responsibility to the students over time.

·      Use of story grammars/story maps/literature webbing (useful with folk tales or other narrative text structures)

·      5 finger retell

·      Question answering and question-answering instruction is important to prompt thinking at all levels.

·      Reciprocal teaching helps gain more meaning from text and helps with student self-monitoring

·      Literature webbing is proven effective with first graders using predictable, narrative texts

·      Text talk

·      Use of video to help with limited background knowledge (Which was a major point in both of the other articles!)

A couple strategies that are widely used, but not proven by research are the use of picture walks and the K-W-L strategy.  Stahl says more research needs to be done on the use of these common procedures. 

          There were a lot of new and interesting strategies presented in these articles.  Some of which we already use in our classrooms, and others we will try in the future.