The following is the data collection that was used to determine if the use of realia improves reading comprehension. IRI Running record, Phonics Inventory, and Interest Inventory. The study focuses on two 8th grade students who are both placed in a general Language Arts classroom setting and exhibit difficulties with reading comprehension. The purpose of collecting data and gathering information was to determine the areas of strength and weakness for each student and to determine if using realia will improve reading comprehension.
Student A is a 15 year old, eighth grader who struggles with reading comprehension as well as staying engaged and focused in classroom lessons/readings. Student A comes from a Hispanic home where both mother and father speak only Spanish. He speaks very fluently English and has recently struggled to improve his Spanish speaking skills. Although his family came from Cuba, Student A was born and raised in Miami. He speaks primarily in English with friends and in school. Student A uses Spanish only with his family and at home. According to the Interest Inventory, Student A does not enjoy reading and prefers to play Xbox, be with friends, or play baseball. Student A is very passionate about baseball and is always up to date on games, scores, and player information. He expressed that learning about baseball was something that was of interest to him.
Student B is a 15 year old, eighth grader who is currently reading at grade level but also struggles at times with reading comprehension and staying focused. Student B comes from a Hispanic home where both parents are bilingual and have high expectations of her. Student B speaks both English and Spanish and does so fluently, her first language is Spanish. Acco...
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...ered 10 questions about what they read. Using information from the reading and the realia presented to them the students had to use complete sentences to answer 10 questions about the text and write a paragraph summary of the article. Students were given approximately 25-30 minutes to complete the questions and summary.
Student A and B were very involved during this post-test and were able to receive an 85% passing score on their questions and summary. Both Student A and B went back in their summaries to refer to the realia presented to them. The post-test data concluded that using realia and implementing it in the beginning OR throughout your lesson proves to improve reading comprehension and the ability to recall terms/concepts. Through the incorporation of authentic realia and virtual realia students are able to improve their reading comprehension. (See Figure 1)
Objective 2: As the students engage in think, pair, share activities they will refer to the text to complete the assignment. They will learn from each other, receive feedback, and will also have a chance to engage in public speaking while discussing the story. This instructional strategy will encourage the students to reflect about the questions, share their ideas with their partner, fill out a worksheet with 5 questions, and then share their ideas with the rest of the class. Some of the questions on the worksheet will include:
While reading, when a word did not seem to make sense, Student A was able to correct on her own without having to take much time to make the correction. Student A also showed great correcting skills throughout the read aloud. When she mispronounced a word she immediately recognized that it sounded wrong and corrected it. Throughout the Jessie, Champion Skater, Student
The technique relies on a holistic approach that adopts instructions that allow students to actively participate in the learning process. This is easier for children that feel that the society appreciates their diversity through bilingualism and biliteracy. The society and parents need to encourage children to take up bilingual classes because they offer a lot of benefit to the society through favoring critical thinking, rationality, and sensitivity to other cultures, empathy, and detached or balanced awareness. However, Sonia Nieto mirrors a society that is made to fake being American and become ashamed of their family. It helps appreciate that it is not by choice that anyone speaks any other language as the first language and that the society and community influence the language of choice. Therefore, bilingualism cannot be detached from any community that freely promotes and accommodate the language spoken by the other community. Children and community members learn each other’s language without disregarding each other favoring effective learning that influences bilingualism and biliteracy in the long
Moreover, the student demonstrated a high reading ability that is somewhat beyond their grade level. I have identified that he is on or above his expected reading level. He should be provided enrichment in reading. By discovering this, his teachers can plan accordingly to build on his present skills and help him develop into a well-rounded reader.
Although we see many immigrants who drop out of school and have a challenging time adjusting to their new lives it is up to the teacher to help and inspire these kids to be the best they can be. Some of the ways teachers can do this are to learn about communication, the culture the student has, and using a support system through the school and with the children’s families. It is a difficult task to comprehend what these children have been through and even harder to make a connection with them. That is why all teachers need these resources and the drive to see children like Enrique succeed in education and throughout
When we asked these teachers whether they supported or were against the bilingual education system, they each shouted their answer as if it were instinctive. Although they had different reasons why, each and every one of the teachers said they supported the system without a doubt. We were given a multitude of reasons why bilingual education is advantageous. Ms. Velez stated that she supports bilingual education because, first and foremost, she is a product of it, and second because she believes the program allows the children to earn credit and learn the language at the same time. She said that if the non-English speaking child were immersed in the English mainstream classes they will fail, and as a result the already high drop out rate of Latinos would increase. Ms. Harrison felt that the bilingual education program would be even stronger and more effective if it served more of the ethnic groups in Hartford. The Vietnamese, Lao, and Albanian students are often put in transitional classes because there are not enough in that particular ethnic group to create a bilingual class that will help them to learn English, while maintaining their primary language. Presently, the state requires twenty students who need assistance in the same language to hire a teacher to create a class for them. She also stated that the students in bilingual education classes have just as many difficulties in academics as do the students in mainstream education, and that the bilingual education program is often used as a scapegoat for those students not achieving.
The education system faces a great challenge in serving immigrant youth when it comes to incorporating them in the classroom. The language acquisition is easier for younger children and increases with the time spent in the United States but these newly arriving immigrant teens have a very limited time not only to learn English, but to study the required material for standardize testing, and catch up to their native English speaking peers before graduation. Thus, performing under this enormous amount of pressure can leave students feeling overwhelm and with a higher chance of subsequently drop out.
In addition, there are 33 more students who act as a control group for the post test result. The students were given some quotes with practice paraphrasing from the original source. Furthermore, the test materials were given and accomplished as in-class activities. Weekly paraphrasing homework was due with one practice for one week and turned a week after in class. This practice was due for six weeks long.
From my experience, bilingual education was a disadvantage during my childhood. At the age of twelve, I was introduced into a bilingual classroom for the first time. The crowded classroom was a combination of seventh and eighth grade Spanish-speaking students, who ranged from the ages of twelve to fifteen. The idea of bilingual education was to help students who weren’t fluent in the English language. The main focus of bilingual education was to teach English and, at the same time, teach a very basic knowledge of the core curriculum subjects: Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Unfortunately, bilingual education had academic, psychological, and social disadvantages for me.
Slavin, R. E., Lake, C., Davis, S., & Maden, N. A. (2012). Effective Programs for Struggling Readers: A Best-Evidence Synthesis. Best Evidence Encyclopedia.
My personal literacy development has been a constant struggle since my arrival in America as a boy with a Spanish-speaking mother and a bi-lingual father. We spoke Spanish at home. As I began school I could only speak a small amount of English and understood only slightly more. I learnt, as young children do, through listening to the people around me and using any visual aids I could to scaffold the gaps in my understanding (Winch, Johnston, March, Ljungdahl, Holliday, 2012). My lack of basic literacy affected every area of my learning with only math classes allowing me to feel slightly comfortable due to the international nature of numerical literacy. I quickly developed the oracy skills required to be able to contribute to social and academic situations but unfortunately developed other ways to hide my lack of progress in other areas.
When it comes to literacy, authentic pedagogies recommends an immersion in meaningful reading and writing experiences, rather than focusing on the protocols of rules and adherence to conventions (Parsons & Ward, 2011). For example, if a student reads and enjoys a book by their favourite author, and he feels that his peers might also enjoy reading it too, rather than writing a book report he can create a book review for the class that models the format for book reviews found in newspapers or magazines. This experience is just like a real literacy experience they have in life - reading for fun, reading to find out, and by having authentic literacy experiences in the classroom, students will be better able to transfer their classroom learning to real life (Kalantzis, 2005). One limitation of authentic pedagogy is its strict adherence to the natural process of learning through immersion rather than being explicitly told information. However having many opportunities to hear and read authentic literature and to respond to literature in a variety of ways, it will enable students to develop their abilities to use letter-sound correspondence or phonics becoming more effective constructors of meaning (Kalantzis &
It is important that when selecting complex text educators look for specific factors that would meet each reader’s needs. These factors include language proficiency, background knowledge and experiences, and level of motivation. Depending on the factors mentioned, the educators can differentiate the instruction to meet the needs of the students where they could read a text and apply strategies learned. It is important to understand the text complexity because we do want readers to read text which are not challenging enough or that are extremely challenge that would make their self-efficacy low. Therefore, when Fisher & Frey (2012) stated the factors to take into consideration when selecting a text are established, readers would interact with the text. Moreover, the use of comprehension strategies like question and answer relationships (Reutzel & Cooter, 2016) would help the readers comprehend the text as they read
comprehension instruction: A comparison of instruction for strategies and content approaches ―[Electronic version]. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(3), 218–253.
Wright, S., Caputa, F., & Fugett, A. (2013).Using e-readers and internet resources to support comprehension. Educational Technology and Society, 16(1), 367-379. Retrieved from Scopus database