My last lesson during my GLT , was a word study activity in which the learners had to stretch out words and write down all the sounds they heard. This involved both a whole group activity and an independent piece. For the whole group activity, learners were given a picture and they volunteered to help me stretch out the word and write down all the sounds they heard. The pictures were that of a bus, a tent, and a cow. They heard all of the sounds in bus and cow but came up with “tnt” for tent. I explained to them that it is okay if not everyone hears the same amount of sounds. I fostered the idea that if a learner only hears the first sound, that’s okay, because that is all they hear. After I had the learners help me stretch out the words, to label the three pictures, I had them do the same task independently, where they had to stretch out the following words: bib, fork, lamp, and pig. From this lesson, learners learned, and were further reinforced, in practicing how to stretch out words and writing all the sounds they hear. Often times they stretch out words during word study, but then write very few sounds in their words during Writer’s Workshop. This lesson was supposed to help them to get used to writing all the sounds they hear in a word and also to see if they are starting to at least write down the beginning and end sounds, the two sounds we have been specifically working on. Overall, my learners did great. I was impressed that almost all of my learners had a least the beginning and the ending sounds down. Though they may not have been correct, they were writing down the sound that they heard. Furthermore, the majority of my learners had middle sounds down too. Since the task was very individualized, and allowed learners to work at their own developmental level, very few learners struggled. I had some learners who were writing down three or four sounds in words, and I had one little girl who only wrote the beginning sound for each word. I was so excited for my little girl who only wrote the beginning sound though, because she never puts down any sounds or letters down in her Writer’s Workshop notebook unless someone is right next to her stretching out the words with her. Therefore, I was really excited to see she was able to do the task independently. The only two learners who struggled were the two that struggled with the lesson before, in which I had the learners, supply the end letter of a word based upon the end sound. Child M still had trouble with identifying any letter. He kept saying that he did not know, and unless I was not to him stretching out the word, he did not write many sounds down. When I did scaffold him, he was able to get the majority of sounds, but he is not yet independent. My second child, Child C, struggled with the task because, as I said in my other reflection, though he is able to identify the letter needed, based upon the sound, he does not yet know what the letters look like, in order to write them down.
Though I was really excited with what I was seeing, I know that the data is not accurate for some of my learners. I know that some of my learners who struggle with word study, would not have independently written four sounds for the word lamp. This showed me that the child who did this, clearly copied off the person next to him. It is not to say that he does not have the ability to do the task, but he is still working on beginning sounds and is just starting to be able to independently stretch out a word just for the beginning sound. Thus, I know some of the results for a few of my learners is inaccurate, as I know some of them shared results with one another. From this lesson, I learned that my learners are becoming really strong in hearing more than just the beginning and ending sounds. My hopes were that my learners at least were able to identify the beginning and ending sounds, but I was happily surprised when the majority of my learners wrote the middle sounds also. This shows me that my learners are hearing more sounds in words and that they are ready for more in-depth word instruction. For my learners who struggled with the task, I will provide one on one support for them during times such as the Daily 5, where I would either grab them to work with them in a small group, or just work alongside them as they work on a task. I would also continue to provide activities in which the learners have to stretch out a word and write all the sounds they hear, and provide more activities that involve sound/letter associations. I believe the more practice my learners get, the stronger they will become and the more secure the concept will become. Once the concept of writing down all the sounds they hear in a word because secure enough that my learners are writing various sounds for a word, independently, during Writer’s Workshop, I will move on.
Overall, the lesson went really well. The only thing that I would change is I would have moved my learners around the room, so that they could not see each other’s paper. I had wanted to use this lesson as an assessment, and I could tell that at least 6 of my learners copied off of the person next to them, based upon my knowledge of them and what they wrote. Thus, the results were skewed and did not create an accurate picture of all of my learners’ understanding.
Friday, November 19, 2010
GLT- Lesson 2 reflection
One of my word study lessons involved my learners writing in the ending letter of a word based upon the ending sound. For example, the learners were given a picture of a bear with “bea_” next to it. Learners had to orally stretch out the word bear to identify the end sound and than write the letter that is associated with the end sound. I first did this whole group, with three pictures. The learners helped me to stretch out my pictures for the ending sound. Afterwards, my learners got their own page with pictures and they had to supply the end letter, based on the sound, independently. The intent of this lesson was for learners to start stretching out words for the sounds, focusing in on the end sound. Furthermore, learners were learning to associate specific sounds with their corresponding letters. During large group, I heard all my learners stretching out the words with me, and the majority of them were eager to tell me the letter or the sound at the end of the word. My class got them alright. One little boy, however, struggled. When I asked him to help me with one of the words, he said k. The letter was a g and so I kept saying, /g/. He kept saying the letter was a k. I then provided him two choices, saying, does it sound like gate or fish. At this point, he still said that the sound I was making was that of a /k/. Similarly, he was my only learner who struggled with the task. As I walked around, during my lesson, I heard the learners orally stretching out the words and enunciating the end sound. They independently wrote the end sounds and correctly got the write letter. Child M, however, did not. My teacher and I supported him, by providing choices for each word, but he could not even identify the end sound in any of the words on his page. This was interesting to me, because he was able to sort pictures based upon end sounds. What I have come to believe, from watching him during Writer’s Workshop, also, is that he hears things differently than he produces them. He thinks we are often saying things incorrectly, for example, his last name, when he says it the same way we are saying it. I think that he has some hearing difficulties with certain sounds. During this lesson some of my learners, who are still working on beginning sounds, did the same activity but with the first sound missing instead of the last. Three of my four friends did great. My fourth friend, who struggled, struggles because though he can associate letters and sounds and vice versa, he does not know what the letters look like. Thus, having him write in the beginning letter was extremely challenging, because he doesn’t even know where to look on an alphabet chart to help him.
I cannot say for certainty, however, that all my learners could successfully complete this task. Since the learners sit so close together, and since they often talk amongst themselves during word study, it is hard to know if they copied off of each other or not. I cannot catch everyone and sometimes it is hard to monitor. Regardless, from this lesson, I learned how confidently the majority of my learners are with letter/sound associations. I also learned that not only can they identify what letter goes at the end of a word based upon the sound, but they are able to independently write the letter. At the beginning of the year, a good portion of my learners did not know how to write every letter, so it was really good to see that a lot of my learners were able to supply the end letter without looking at any alphabet chart.
For those learners who seemed to struggle with the lesson, for example, Child M, I will pull him during times like the Daily 5, to do more practice with ending sounds. Furthermore, I will put a lot of ending sound activities in the word study bin for the daily five. These will be activities open to all my learners to strengthen their ending sound knowledge. I probably would not do to many more lessons on direct ending sound lessons though, because the majority of my learners have ending sounds down and are exhibiting writing ending sounds in their writing. However, I will continue to foster learners stretching out words for as many sounds as they hear.
If I were to do this lesson again, I would move my learners around the room, so they would not be tempted to copy down what the person next to them did. This way, I would be better able to assess what they, as an individual learner, knew. Overall though, I would not change anything else in my lesson, because I felt that for the most part, the lesson was very successful and the learners did well.
I cannot say for certainty, however, that all my learners could successfully complete this task. Since the learners sit so close together, and since they often talk amongst themselves during word study, it is hard to know if they copied off of each other or not. I cannot catch everyone and sometimes it is hard to monitor. Regardless, from this lesson, I learned how confidently the majority of my learners are with letter/sound associations. I also learned that not only can they identify what letter goes at the end of a word based upon the sound, but they are able to independently write the letter. At the beginning of the year, a good portion of my learners did not know how to write every letter, so it was really good to see that a lot of my learners were able to supply the end letter without looking at any alphabet chart.
For those learners who seemed to struggle with the lesson, for example, Child M, I will pull him during times like the Daily 5, to do more practice with ending sounds. Furthermore, I will put a lot of ending sound activities in the word study bin for the daily five. These will be activities open to all my learners to strengthen their ending sound knowledge. I probably would not do to many more lessons on direct ending sound lessons though, because the majority of my learners have ending sounds down and are exhibiting writing ending sounds in their writing. However, I will continue to foster learners stretching out words for as many sounds as they hear.
If I were to do this lesson again, I would move my learners around the room, so they would not be tempted to copy down what the person next to them did. This way, I would be better able to assess what they, as an individual learner, knew. Overall though, I would not change anything else in my lesson, because I felt that for the most part, the lesson was very successful and the learners did well.
Monday, November 15, 2010
GLT reflection
Inquiry 2- Reflection
• What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?
My students learned how good readers sound and how to read poetry. They learned several new high frequency words, how to make text-to-self connections, how to find patterns that will help them remember what will come next, and to notice and use rhyming words. The children as a whole successfully recited their poem in front of the class. None of them needed assistance as they orally recited it. I will discover which students need additional assistance after we give our spelling test in a week or so. The children will need to correctly spell their “snap words” alone as well as in a sentence dictation.
• What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?
Some children read the poem with inflection and excitement as they orally recited it and others read it in a monotone voice. When we discussed the meaning of the poem on Monday, some children knew the meaning of autumn and why the poem was about leaves and others was unsure of the meaning thus causing confusion about why the poem was talking about leaves. Those children who understood that this poem talks about what happens during the fall and the events that the fall brings really had a firm grasp on the overall meaning of the poem.
• What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
The children have been working on their shared poetry unit for a couple months now. Many are very aware of the weekly schedule of events (Monday they will get a new poem, discuss meaning, and find snap words, Tuesday they will make text-to-self connections, Wednesday they will find structural patterns, Thursday they will find rhyming visual patterns, and Friday they will orally recite their poem) and thus notice and comment on things that will be coming up in the coming days. They are truly taking notice of these vital elements of reading and applying them in other areas of literacy such as reader’s workshop partner reading, independent reading, writer’s workshop, and guided reading. It really surprises me how much the children are aware and eager to learn these things throughout the weeks. I am also surprised at the success rate of the children’s snap word oral test. I am very curious how the children will do spelling their snap words in a sentence dictation test.
• When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
We do a lot of work on our shared reading poems and snap words in Daily 5 centers as the week goes on. They will read and highlight the weekly snap words in their poetry binders. I will observe the children as they perform these tasks to see who can easily identify the snap words on their own in the poem and who still struggle to read like a reader to find the word wall words. The children also use their poetry binders in the oral language center during Daily 5. They will be paired up in partners and read their poems aloud to their partner. Observing this center will allow me to see who is fluent in reading and remembering their poems and the strategies that they use to remember poems that they have learned in the past.
• If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?
If I were to re-teach this lesson, I would like to spend more time expanding each day’s lessons; especially Tuesday’s lesson. I only have a limited amount of time that I can use to cover the shared reading lesson. I have approximately 10-15 minutes to review prior lessons, read the poem a few times by myself with and without body motions, have the children read the poem a few times with and without body motions, and then teach the daily mini lesson; making sure that I discuss the importance of the lesson, and then close the lesson by summarizing the main points of the lesson and finishing with the children practicing their poem one final time with motions. This is a lot to get done in a short amount of time and I often feel that I rush through things to stay within my time restraints. I wish that I could spend more time listening to the children share their personal text-to-self connections. I want the children to know that I value their stories and give the children the chance to share with the class if they would like. Obviously, I know that this is something that is out of my control but I want to work more on how to balance and manage my time better so that I spend the most time covering the material that I deem as the most significant. I think that by slowing down the pace a little and having more time to delve a little deeper into the lesson, the children that may be struggling a little bit to grasp the daily lessons would benefit more by the slower pace.
• What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?
My students learned how good readers sound and how to read poetry. They learned several new high frequency words, how to make text-to-self connections, how to find patterns that will help them remember what will come next, and to notice and use rhyming words. The children as a whole successfully recited their poem in front of the class. None of them needed assistance as they orally recited it. I will discover which students need additional assistance after we give our spelling test in a week or so. The children will need to correctly spell their “snap words” alone as well as in a sentence dictation.
• What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?
Some children read the poem with inflection and excitement as they orally recited it and others read it in a monotone voice. When we discussed the meaning of the poem on Monday, some children knew the meaning of autumn and why the poem was about leaves and others was unsure of the meaning thus causing confusion about why the poem was talking about leaves. Those children who understood that this poem talks about what happens during the fall and the events that the fall brings really had a firm grasp on the overall meaning of the poem.
• What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
The children have been working on their shared poetry unit for a couple months now. Many are very aware of the weekly schedule of events (Monday they will get a new poem, discuss meaning, and find snap words, Tuesday they will make text-to-self connections, Wednesday they will find structural patterns, Thursday they will find rhyming visual patterns, and Friday they will orally recite their poem) and thus notice and comment on things that will be coming up in the coming days. They are truly taking notice of these vital elements of reading and applying them in other areas of literacy such as reader’s workshop partner reading, independent reading, writer’s workshop, and guided reading. It really surprises me how much the children are aware and eager to learn these things throughout the weeks. I am also surprised at the success rate of the children’s snap word oral test. I am very curious how the children will do spelling their snap words in a sentence dictation test.
• When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
We do a lot of work on our shared reading poems and snap words in Daily 5 centers as the week goes on. They will read and highlight the weekly snap words in their poetry binders. I will observe the children as they perform these tasks to see who can easily identify the snap words on their own in the poem and who still struggle to read like a reader to find the word wall words. The children also use their poetry binders in the oral language center during Daily 5. They will be paired up in partners and read their poems aloud to their partner. Observing this center will allow me to see who is fluent in reading and remembering their poems and the strategies that they use to remember poems that they have learned in the past.
• If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?
If I were to re-teach this lesson, I would like to spend more time expanding each day’s lessons; especially Tuesday’s lesson. I only have a limited amount of time that I can use to cover the shared reading lesson. I have approximately 10-15 minutes to review prior lessons, read the poem a few times by myself with and without body motions, have the children read the poem a few times with and without body motions, and then teach the daily mini lesson; making sure that I discuss the importance of the lesson, and then close the lesson by summarizing the main points of the lesson and finishing with the children practicing their poem one final time with motions. This is a lot to get done in a short amount of time and I often feel that I rush through things to stay within my time restraints. I wish that I could spend more time listening to the children share their personal text-to-self connections. I want the children to know that I value their stories and give the children the chance to share with the class if they would like. Obviously, I know that this is something that is out of my control but I want to work more on how to balance and manage my time better so that I spend the most time covering the material that I deem as the most significant. I think that by slowing down the pace a little and having more time to delve a little deeper into the lesson, the children that may be struggling a little bit to grasp the daily lessons would benefit more by the slower pace.
GLT- Lesson 1 Reflection
One of the first lessons I did during my guided lead teaching involved me teaching my learners about ending sounds in words. The lesson I did required learners to sort pictures based upon their end sound. The two sounds my learners worked with were /t/ and /n/. The day before, my learners engaged in this activity as a whole group, in which they all worked together to identify end sounds in words. However, the sounds and the pictures were different. Thus, on the second day, the task was the same, but the objective was for them to independently engage in sorting pictures. I retouched upon what we had done the previous day, modeled how we sorted them (engaging the learners as I did it), and showed them what they were to do when they went back to their seats. I made sure to identify all of the various pictures with them, and I had them say the words with me, so that they could emphasize and hear the end sound in the words. Four of my learners in my class are still struggling with beginning sounds, and so I had them do the same sorting activity but based upon the beginning sound of a word instead of the ending sound.
From the lesson, I learned that a high portion of my learners were able to independently do this task. They quickly started cutting out the pictures and were able to identify which pictures went with which ones, in a timely matter. My learners’ ability to sort the objects based upon the end sounds, independently, told me a lot about what they knew. It showed me what they had learned, along with what they knew beyond ending sounds. I learned that my learners are able to hear end sounds in words, are able to know those end sounds are associated with a specific letter in the alphabet, understand specific letter/sound combinations, understand that words are made up of multiple different sounds, and are able to hear the various sounds in a word. Beyond the information I gained regarding my learners knowledge with ending sounds, I also learned that my learners are able to independently say words and can hear the different sounds in words. This tells me that they are able to segment words in their heads and pick out the ending sound, discriminating between various sounds. My learners, who engaged with the beginning sounds task, also did quite well. In doing the task correctly, with limited support from me, they showed me that they understood the same types of things my friends who worked on ending sounds did, except in light of beginning sounds. They understand that words are made up of different sounds, that some sounds are at the beginning of a word, that they can distinguish between the various sounds in a word and isolate the one that we are working on, and that they can listen and distinguish between sounds.
Three of my learners struggled with the task. They were able to get at least 5 out of the 8 pictures sorted, but struggled with a few. I noticed that my learners, who struggled with a few pictures, were struggling with the segmenting of the word to hear the individual sounds. For example, one of my learners started to sort the pictures based upon the beginning sound, instead of the end sound. He had sorted his other four pictures by their end sound, but than started to sort the rest of his pictures based upon their beginning sound. When I pointed this out to him, he still had trouble figuring out the end sound. He kept telling me the beginning sound in each word. However, when I sat down with these three learners and had them say what each picture showed, they were able to tell me which column the picture should be in. Thus, with scaffolding, they were able to complete the task. My friends who worked on beginning sounds were all successful with the task. They completed the task independently, and sorted all of the pictures correctly.
Though my lesson seemed really successful and it seemed as though my learners really understood the concept, I know it might be a false perception. Since learners were doing the work at their tables, I know that they may have looked at each other’s papers and may have copied what the person next to them did. Thus, I am not sure if all my learners independently sorted the pictures correctly, or if they looked at other friends and moved their pictures based upon what their friends had. All in all, I am thus unsure as to how independent my learners worked and how much of the product was a reflection of their own knowledge, or of the knowledge of another student. I will be able to paint a more accurate picture of my learners’ understandings when I do more ending sound activities with them and they are separated from those around them.
In order to support my learners who seemed challenged by the task of sorting pictures, based upon either the ending sound or the beginning sound, I will provide extra opportunities for them to get exposure to the concepts. The first thing I will do is, I will put activities that require my learners to work on ending sounds and beginning sounds on the word study shelves to choose from during the daily 5, activities such as ending sound bingo, ending sound concentration, sorting activities, etc. I will also provide multiple more lessons on the concepts of ending and beginning sounds. Some of the lessons I will do will require my learners to play ending sound and beginning sound concentration games, supply the ending sound of a word orally, write the letter needed at the end of a word, based upon the ending sound, etc. These other lessons will help strengthen their understanding of ending and beginning sounds and will help me to better assess how secure their understanding of ending and beginning sounds are, and where to go next with them. Lastly, if it seems that the majority of my learners understand the concepts, I will move on in my unit of word study and than pull a small group, of those learners that seemed to be challenged by beginning or ending sounds, to work with them. I would pull the two groups, those who needed work with beginning sounds and those who needed help with ending sounds, at different times.
If I were to do this lesson again, I would definitely do a little bit more modeling on how my learners were to sort based upon the end sound in a word. I would provide a few more words and ask for the end sound. A lot of my learners were telling me the letter, not the sound, and so I feel that more examples might have helped all of my learners understand what I was asking. Furthermore, I would have sorted a few of the pictures based upon the beginning sound, after showing them the correct way to sort the pictures, and ask the learners what was wrong with how I sorted. I would have them point out the error so that they could see what I did not want them to do. I told the learners that I wanted them to sort by end sounds, but a lot of time, my learners need to see what not to do so that they have a concrete example of what is not their task. Thus, if I had done that, I feel as though my three learners, who seemed challenged by the task, might have been more cognizant of what they were doing, and may not have made their errors.
From the lesson, I learned that a high portion of my learners were able to independently do this task. They quickly started cutting out the pictures and were able to identify which pictures went with which ones, in a timely matter. My learners’ ability to sort the objects based upon the end sounds, independently, told me a lot about what they knew. It showed me what they had learned, along with what they knew beyond ending sounds. I learned that my learners are able to hear end sounds in words, are able to know those end sounds are associated with a specific letter in the alphabet, understand specific letter/sound combinations, understand that words are made up of multiple different sounds, and are able to hear the various sounds in a word. Beyond the information I gained regarding my learners knowledge with ending sounds, I also learned that my learners are able to independently say words and can hear the different sounds in words. This tells me that they are able to segment words in their heads and pick out the ending sound, discriminating between various sounds. My learners, who engaged with the beginning sounds task, also did quite well. In doing the task correctly, with limited support from me, they showed me that they understood the same types of things my friends who worked on ending sounds did, except in light of beginning sounds. They understand that words are made up of different sounds, that some sounds are at the beginning of a word, that they can distinguish between the various sounds in a word and isolate the one that we are working on, and that they can listen and distinguish between sounds.
Three of my learners struggled with the task. They were able to get at least 5 out of the 8 pictures sorted, but struggled with a few. I noticed that my learners, who struggled with a few pictures, were struggling with the segmenting of the word to hear the individual sounds. For example, one of my learners started to sort the pictures based upon the beginning sound, instead of the end sound. He had sorted his other four pictures by their end sound, but than started to sort the rest of his pictures based upon their beginning sound. When I pointed this out to him, he still had trouble figuring out the end sound. He kept telling me the beginning sound in each word. However, when I sat down with these three learners and had them say what each picture showed, they were able to tell me which column the picture should be in. Thus, with scaffolding, they were able to complete the task. My friends who worked on beginning sounds were all successful with the task. They completed the task independently, and sorted all of the pictures correctly.
Though my lesson seemed really successful and it seemed as though my learners really understood the concept, I know it might be a false perception. Since learners were doing the work at their tables, I know that they may have looked at each other’s papers and may have copied what the person next to them did. Thus, I am not sure if all my learners independently sorted the pictures correctly, or if they looked at other friends and moved their pictures based upon what their friends had. All in all, I am thus unsure as to how independent my learners worked and how much of the product was a reflection of their own knowledge, or of the knowledge of another student. I will be able to paint a more accurate picture of my learners’ understandings when I do more ending sound activities with them and they are separated from those around them.
In order to support my learners who seemed challenged by the task of sorting pictures, based upon either the ending sound or the beginning sound, I will provide extra opportunities for them to get exposure to the concepts. The first thing I will do is, I will put activities that require my learners to work on ending sounds and beginning sounds on the word study shelves to choose from during the daily 5, activities such as ending sound bingo, ending sound concentration, sorting activities, etc. I will also provide multiple more lessons on the concepts of ending and beginning sounds. Some of the lessons I will do will require my learners to play ending sound and beginning sound concentration games, supply the ending sound of a word orally, write the letter needed at the end of a word, based upon the ending sound, etc. These other lessons will help strengthen their understanding of ending and beginning sounds and will help me to better assess how secure their understanding of ending and beginning sounds are, and where to go next with them. Lastly, if it seems that the majority of my learners understand the concepts, I will move on in my unit of word study and than pull a small group, of those learners that seemed to be challenged by beginning or ending sounds, to work with them. I would pull the two groups, those who needed work with beginning sounds and those who needed help with ending sounds, at different times.
If I were to do this lesson again, I would definitely do a little bit more modeling on how my learners were to sort based upon the end sound in a word. I would provide a few more words and ask for the end sound. A lot of my learners were telling me the letter, not the sound, and so I feel that more examples might have helped all of my learners understand what I was asking. Furthermore, I would have sorted a few of the pictures based upon the beginning sound, after showing them the correct way to sort the pictures, and ask the learners what was wrong with how I sorted. I would have them point out the error so that they could see what I did not want them to do. I told the learners that I wanted them to sort by end sounds, but a lot of time, my learners need to see what not to do so that they have a concrete example of what is not their task. Thus, if I had done that, I feel as though my three learners, who seemed challenged by the task, might have been more cognizant of what they were doing, and may not have made their errors.
GLT Blog
During my lessons, the students were mainly supposed to focus on visualizing, thinking of ideas that were different from other students’ ideas, and learning information from nonfiction text. I think that a lot of the students had a hard time visualizing. When I asked them to picture “tooth traditions” in their heads, and think about what the different traditions would look like without the picture, about half of the students became anxious and told me they did not know how to do that. After this happened I read a passage for them and explained out loud what I was thinking to help me visualize what was happening. A lot of them still wanted to see the pictures and told me they could not do this, but then when we were retelling our favorite traditions a lot of them were using hand gestures and movements to retell just like I had used.
Another idea that caused students to struggle during my lesson was recalling information that was different than something someone else had already mentioned. This happens a lot in my classroom, students often repeat what someone else has already said or their work ends up looking like the picture/story I modeled for them. I thought this was a very important part of the lesson because the students need so much practice with it every day. Most of the students did a good job giving original answers, however some students repeated which caused the students who understood the task to get annoyed.
I learned a lot about how my students interpret nonfiction based on the pictures. In the book where I was having students visualize, they had a lot of trouble recalling facts without teacher prompts. In nonfiction books where there are pictures with the information, the students remembered much more information and they were able to tell me information that I had not read from the text.
If I were to teach the same lesson again, I would have the students practice visualizing something easy before we moved into the nonfiction text. I might have them visualize their room or something they were more familiar with before we moved on to new information. Many of them were so upset I would not show them the pictures that they were unable to concentrate on what I was saying and the lesson was lost on those students.
Monday, October 18, 2010
October 18th- Relationship between Fluency and Comprehension
Whenever I have thought about the various reading components, I have always thought of everything from word recognition, concepts about print, fluency, phonological and phonemic awareness, word study, as factors that increase comprehension. To me, all the different reading components work together to help a child comprehend a text. Therefore, I believe that when each component becomes stronger, a child has a greater chance that their comprehension will increase. All of the factors, to me, make a proficient reader, and as Keene and Zimmermann (2007) talk about in Mosaic of Thought: The Power of Comprehension Strategy Instruction, comprehension is able to be focused on when learners are proficient readers. In order to be a proficient reader, learners must have word recognition skills, decoding abilities, a fairly high vocabulary (dependent on their age), accuracy, automaticity, fluency, and prosody to name a few. Thus, to me, fluency is a backbone that is essential to comprehension. When learners are not fluent, all of their energy is put towards trying to decode and use context clues or structural clues to figure out words, that phrases are lost, and when phrases are not understood, paragraphs or multiple sentences slip by. Pretty soon the learner has no comprehension of what the story is about. As Rasinski points out, in her article, Reading Fluency Instruction: Moving Beyond Accuracy, Automaticity, and Prosody, fluency needs to be set in place in order for a learner to get past the surface value of the words on the page and start to understand the deeper meaning that lies behind the words.
Currently, in my kindergarten class, I have not had experience with fluency, assessing my learners with fluency, or even teaching fluency. My learners have just started learning how to handle books and look at pictures to tell a story. No emphasis has been placed on fluency, or even reading specific words on a page. Mini-lessons have been devoted to learning how to look at the beginning sounds of a word to try and figure out a word and using illustrations as context clues, but that is the extent of what my learners have learned, in regards to reading. Thus, I have very little knowledge on how we are going to assess my learners in regards to fluency or how it will be taught. I am really interested to see if it is going to be taught altogether, in unison, like Rasinski suggests in her article, or if compression and fluency are going to be taught in isolation from one another. However, I have had experience with how my learners have started approaching automaticity and accuracy. My class has specific popcorn words that they need to know, sort of like word wall words. These are words that “pop-up”: everywhere and that they are required to know. After they have been introduced for a two week span, there is no reason why they should not be able to read the popcorn words or spell them correctly. I am really curious now, after reading this weeks reading, to see if my teacher is going to then start incorporating a fluency component with the popcorn words or if she is going to teach all four components, including comprehension, separately.
In order to fully understand my learners’ reading development, I need to know what they know about letter/sound relationships. Since I am in a kindergarten class, we are teaching them the fundamentals of how to look at words, while teaching them that words are made up of sounds which are represented by letters. Thus, in order to know if my learners are going to be able to stretch out a word to try and decode it, let alone read it with accuracy, automaticity, fluency, prosody, or for comprehension, I need to know if they know which sounds are associated with which letters. I know that I have a handful of learners who do not know which sounds go with which letters, and it makes it very hard for them, both in their reading and their writing. It’s even harder when I have learners who can hear a sound, tell me the letter, but has no clue what the letter looks like. This tells me if that learner was to then try to decode a word in a book, they would be unable to because they would not be able to recognize the letters enough to know what sound went with it. I could find out this information by giving my learners an assessment in which I provide them with a sound and they would have to tell me the letter that is associated with it. This would help me to know which letters my learners knew, how many sound/letters my learners, on average, knew, and if any sounds were exceptionally tricky.
Currently, in my kindergarten class, I have not had experience with fluency, assessing my learners with fluency, or even teaching fluency. My learners have just started learning how to handle books and look at pictures to tell a story. No emphasis has been placed on fluency, or even reading specific words on a page. Mini-lessons have been devoted to learning how to look at the beginning sounds of a word to try and figure out a word and using illustrations as context clues, but that is the extent of what my learners have learned, in regards to reading. Thus, I have very little knowledge on how we are going to assess my learners in regards to fluency or how it will be taught. I am really interested to see if it is going to be taught altogether, in unison, like Rasinski suggests in her article, or if compression and fluency are going to be taught in isolation from one another. However, I have had experience with how my learners have started approaching automaticity and accuracy. My class has specific popcorn words that they need to know, sort of like word wall words. These are words that “pop-up”: everywhere and that they are required to know. After they have been introduced for a two week span, there is no reason why they should not be able to read the popcorn words or spell them correctly. I am really curious now, after reading this weeks reading, to see if my teacher is going to then start incorporating a fluency component with the popcorn words or if she is going to teach all four components, including comprehension, separately.
In order to fully understand my learners’ reading development, I need to know what they know about letter/sound relationships. Since I am in a kindergarten class, we are teaching them the fundamentals of how to look at words, while teaching them that words are made up of sounds which are represented by letters. Thus, in order to know if my learners are going to be able to stretch out a word to try and decode it, let alone read it with accuracy, automaticity, fluency, prosody, or for comprehension, I need to know if they know which sounds are associated with which letters. I know that I have a handful of learners who do not know which sounds go with which letters, and it makes it very hard for them, both in their reading and their writing. It’s even harder when I have learners who can hear a sound, tell me the letter, but has no clue what the letter looks like. This tells me if that learner was to then try to decode a word in a book, they would be unable to because they would not be able to recognize the letters enough to know what sound went with it. I could find out this information by giving my learners an assessment in which I provide them with a sound and they would have to tell me the letter that is associated with it. This would help me to know which letters my learners knew, how many sound/letters my learners, on average, knew, and if any sounds were exceptionally tricky.
Fluency and Comprehension Blog
Many teachers focus on fluency and comprehension lessons individually without making the connection between the two. Some other teachers stress that one is more important than the other and thus stress the significance of that one. I believe that reading comprehension and reading fluency go hand in hand. When you really think about it, can you really have reading comprehension if you do not have reading fluency? It would be extremely difficult to understand and make sense of what you had just read if you couldn’t read the text smoothly without extensive reading mistakes. In our guided reading groups, my CT works with small groups of children who have been grouped based upon their DRA independent reading level. Each group is assigned a level appropriate book that will work on skills that the children may struggle with. She sets up mini lessons with these books to work of these areas that affect their fluency. She takes extensive records of their progress and learned skills as the weeks go by. We introduce word wall words or “snap words” in our shared reading lessons every week. These are words the children need to know in a “snap” and are used in many different activities throughout the week. This strategy will help the children’s fluency development because it increases their sight words and vocabulary which allows for a more fluid reading. We need to know what their comprehension level is. As I said before, without reading fluency, comprehension is going to be extremely difficult. Likewise, having reading comprehension increases fluency. When you know what the author is telling you in the story, unfamiliar words are easier to understand when the context of the unknown word is understood. For instance, my children are doing a poetry unit every week. Every Monday they learn a new poem with new snap words. Often, there are words in our poems that are unfamiliar to many of my students. We spend a significant amount of time on explaining the meaning of the poem and what the author is trying to tell us through his words. The children are building up their reading comprehension a great deal from this exercise. On last week’s poem, the word “posts” came up. Several children raised their hands and immediately asked me what posts were. I told them to wait to ask this question until after we discussed the meaning and if they couldn’t figure it out after that then they may raise their hands and ask again. After our discussion, I asked if there were any questions of if their questions were already answered. No one raised a hand so I ask the children if they could answer their own question. The child that initially asked the question raised his hand and said “it’s like a pole right?” This will help him remember the word because he now understands how it relates with the other words in the story.
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