Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Development of Reading ability
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Development of Reading ability
This semester I was lucky enough to observe and participate at a high energy and collaborative school that strongly utilized some literacy and learning community strategies. The school that I visited over the past few weeks is Carusi Middle School, located in Cherry Hill. During my visits I was teamed with an exceptional eighth grade teacher, Ms. Bradshaw. She not only showed me her language arts classes, but also sent me to other grade levels and classes so that I could experience all types of learning environments. I was able to participate in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade humanities, special education, science, math, other language arts, and AVID (advancement via individual determination) courses. The themes that I observed were independent reading/variety of book selection, which occurred every Wednesday morning during/prior to homeroom, vocabulary lessons, balanced literacy components, and collaborative learning.
The first theme that I took notice to was the independent reading and self selection of text that occurred each and every Wednesday morning. During this time, students would read books for about twenty minutes to a half hour in the morning. In the classroom, there were shelves and shelves of books for students to select from. If, upon occasion, a student was having difficulty selecting a book, the teacher, would come to the back of the room and help the student select a text. In this way, the teacher was able to help guide the student to an appropriate level book that would challenge the student, but would also not be too difficult for him/her to interpret. The teacher would also talk with the student, asking about the book that was just completed. Did the student like the book? What did they enjo...
... middle of paper ...
...ok be and why? Was there any specific material from the text that lead to this decision? These types of questions can be difficult for students because they seem to be very abstract. Trying to make these concrete specific examples as to why The Thief Lord (for example) should be green, because…..That is an entirely student directed opinion, perspective, and analysis of the text. They simply can not refer to another classmate, because they might not have read the book, or they cannot just look up examples that were created by other students, because they might not understand why someone else would attribute that color with that book. In a very round-about way, the topics for their writing pieces are their own design, making unrecognizable and misunderstandings more common, especially if a student is not comfortable or exposed to that type of learning strategy.
Through these resources, activities, and strategies, students are able to make progress into distinguishing the main idea and supporting details in reading texts. Through this they are also able to organize thoughts to develop a topic sentence and moreover use supporting facts and details. Many of the resources and activities done in this lesson allowed the students to think for themselves and make educated guesses based on the information given. Moreover they were allowed multiple opportunities to share with one another about heir thought
In the article: Effects of Small-Group Reading Instruction and Curriculum Differences for Students Most at Risk in Kindergarten by Debra Kamps, Mary Abbott, Charles Greenwood Howard Wills, Mary Veerkamp, and ,Jorun Kaufman they argue that the implementation of small group reading intervention done on the three-tier model of prevention and intervention were beneficial to students. The study was conducted using 83 at risk (reading failure) students during the winter of kindergarten. It was an evidence-based curriculum done in groups of one to six. They concluded that students in the small interven...
Fountas, I., C., & Pinnel, G. S., (2009). When readers struggle: Teaching that works. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
...tary level. Studies show a correlation between structured programs with a comprehensive systematic way of presenting curriculum is essential for helping students make progress in school). Explicit instruction is critical in teaching reading (Graves, 2004). Incorporating the CAFÉ strategies in whole group mini lessons and then allow student to participate in the Daily 5 reading activities seem to be a place where everyone is on the same page in teaching reading. The Daily 5 structure follows the characteristic of what “good literacy instruction” should be. It is consistent, and well designed in instructional routines. It has opportunities for authentic practice in reading and writing. It is highly motivated and engages students. Assessment is on going with each student and the class as a whole and learning objective build and change over time. (Teale, 2009)
This week we started our Kindergarten Literacy program. Kindergartners had a lovely time together learning and sharing during these classes.
Growing up, I contemplated a future in the education field; I enjoyed my experiences volunteering with children and I have always been intrinsically motivated to learn. When I started college, I decided to delve into the social sciences, but I never forgot about my interest in education. The summer of my freshman year, I joined the education team through the University of Arkansas’ community development program in Belize. I worked with my co-teacher (a senior education major), and education and literature professors to create creative writing lesson plans and methods to improve literacy for underperforming children. In Belize, my co-teacher and I facilitated daily literacy skill small groups for 2nd and 3rd graders and taught creative writing lessons with 4th and 5th graders. This experience not only strengthened my desire to work in education, but also awakened my awareness of how different levels of educational privileges affect students. I recognized, however, that while I was energized by this experience, I still lacked the skills and training that would allow me to most efficiently help
We also utilize a program called Project Read. It provides literacy curriculum for grades K-12 and focuses on phonics, reading comprehension and writing. We have a few teachers on staff that have been trained to help incorporate Project Read into all of the classrooms. It utilizes lessons that are based on direct concept teaching, higher level thinking skills and can also be adapted for the SDC classes, as it can incorporate multisensory strategies. This curriculum is supposed to make an improvement on RTI scores, but we don’t have data that shows Project Read results separated from Read 180 results, so the improvement gap and growth we have experienced could be from either program or both combined.
The observed reading curriculum is implemented in an inclusion language arts education classroom in an Ohio public middle school. There are nineteen ...
Instead of doing this Puentes introduced skimming and graphic organizers. These are two important techniques for students to understand because skimming allows the students to catch the main points of what they are reading in a quick manner, while graphic organizers can help sort the students thoughts out. Leblanc integrated a phonics program by locating words featured in the book. Another strength of both Leblanc and Puentes is that they both have multiple texts that link and expand concepts, they both have a balance of teacher-and student-lead discussions, and both build a whole-class community that emphasizes important concepts. The most impressive instruction from Leblanc is balancing teacher-and student-lead discussions. She does this by bringing in a book to read to the class and emphasizing the sounds of certain words to the students, and then asks the students to think about the animals mentioned in the story and where the animals live. The most impressive instruction from Puentes is her ability to emphasize important concepts. She really drives in the point to the students that reading biographies is important and will help them in the future. She wants the biographies to help motivate the
For my community involvement project, I volunteered at Memminger Elementary School for a program called “Reading Partners.” The program focuses on helping children build strong literacy skills to carry with them into their academic careers. It requires the tutor to read to the student that has been assigned and in turn the student reads to the tutor. The program assists in teaching the students valuable reading skills. Being able to read is critical to a child’s educational success. The program works with more than 100 schools within seven states. The program is geared toward students of low-income families. The statistics for children’s literacy in the United States are astonishing. “In 2011, just thirty-four percent of the nation’s fourth graders in public school could read proficiently” (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). The program itself has had exponential success. Principals and teacher have reported that “Reading Partners” has helped increase students’ reading levels. During my time at the program I accumulated twelve volunteer hours.
Every child deserves a positive, safe, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment where they will grow academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. My role as an educator is to provide my students with this type of environment as well as an education that will help them succeed academically and become life long learners. It is the responsibility of a literacy educator to provide students with this type of environment, but also to provide instruction that will help students become successful readers and writers. There are numerous programs and philosophies about literacy and reading. Through years of experience and research, one begins to develop their own creative approach on teaching these skills. After looking at different programs and seeing the positive and negatives of each, an integrated and balanced approach of literacy seems to be the best way to teach the differing needs of each student.
... for teachers to choose materials that will hook students and motivate them to engage in their own learning. Teachers should provide multiple learning opportunities in which stu¬dents can experience success and can begin to build confidence in their ability to read, write, and think at higher level. By connecting strategies for learning, such as searching, compre¬hending, interpreting, composing, and teaching content knowledge, students are given the opportunity to succeed in their education. These elements include: fundamental skills such as phonemic awareness, phonemic decoding, and other word analysis skills that support word reading accuracy; text reading fluency; strategies for building vocabulary; strategies for understanding and using the specific textual features that distinguish different genres; and self-regulated use of reading comprehension strategies.
The learning environment connects the classroom to the community through a democratic approach. This community based learning brings the world into the classroom so students can implement social change and challenge social inequalities. The curriculum focuses on student experience and taking social action on real problems such as hunger, violence, and discrimination. It is important to instruct students to explore in group settings so they can work together to analyze and develop theories that can help each other and make a real different in the world. As a future educator, it is important to not only to teach my students the issues in our world, but how we can work together to find
The one topic that was most relevant was behavioral issues, because most of the students in this classroom had behavioral problems and it affect the way they learn. It was great to see the teacher be patience, and it was very insightful to watch how she handle each behavioral problem that arose in the classroom. Another topic that arose was the different types of instruction, but as discussed early in the paper the classroom that I observed was a direct instruction. During the time spent in the school I gained insight on how to have good classroom management, what method on teaching worked the best, how to teach children with needs, and how to better motivate the children to
Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2006). The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers.