Connie Henderson RE 5100 # 2 Take Home Exam Teaching Beginning Readers and Writers Dr. Gill
Connie Henderson RE 5100 # 2 Take Home Exam Teaching Beginning Readers and Writers Dr. Gill
1 (A)If I were in a position to guide the development of a new literacy reading program, many questions would need to be addressed. One question might be: How much reading do students need to do on a daily basis in order to make a year’s growth in reading? Research by Richard Allington in his book, What Really Matters for Struggling Readers Page 44, has shown that students reading a minimum of 90 minutes a day can make one year’s growth in reading. This was determined by studying how much reading students do each day that make one year’s growth each year in school. Researchers followed them and recorded how much they read in school. They were video taped at home and asked to keep reading logs. Occasionally they were quizzed about what they said they were reading. How much a student reads is very important. A study of fifth graders showed that the top readers read as much in two months as the bottom readers had read in their lives.
1. (B) If students need to read 90 minutes per day to make one year’s growth, how and when will that reading be done? The recommendation is to use the literacy block time divided this way: 40% Reading at Instructional level = 40 minutes, 30% Writing for genuine purposes = 30 minutes, 20% Word Study = 20 minutes, and 10% = 10 minutes being read to. (I rounded the minutes). The 90 minutes is actual time the student is reading during a day. A student reading at his instructional level for a 40 minute block may only be reading 30 minutes. There is listening time as other students read, time for instructions from the teacher and time for the teacher to provide background and answer questions, and off-task time by the student. The teacher needs to provide time daily in the group for him to read, reread, read to her, or partner read. Students need time daily dedicated to reading at their independent levels. This reading needs to be done for 30 minutes per day. This could independent or partner reading. Especially the struggling readers could listen and follow along to books on CD. Reading for meaning should be done all day long across the curriculum. Teachers can obtain leveled science and social studies materials. Students could spend 10 minutes daily reading these materials. Students should read at home for 20 minutes each night. This is approximately 90 minutes of reading for the child each day.
1. (C) Students reading below grade level must increase the time they spend reading at their instructional or independent level to 120 minutes. For these struggling readers the guided reading time actually spent reading with the teacher is very important and should be increased to 50 minutes daily (40% of 120 minutes rounded up). Ideally, a teacher assistant or a volunteer could help the teacher to make sure they read and are instructed during this time. These students need encouragement and immediate help from the teacher when they struggle. In the group the teacher could use more choral reading and echo reading support their efforts. While she works with part of the group, the other part of her group could listen to the story again on CD, listen to the next story on CD, or partner read the story they just finished. They would read 30 minutes daily on their independent level, 10 minutes in science and social studies with leveled material, and 30 minutes nightly at home. Truly providing the amounts of time research indicates is necessary for students to learn to read well is a challenge that must be accepted.
2. (A) How much reading material would I need for a year for a student reading below grade level? First, this student will need to read 120 minutes per day to begin to close the gap between where he is and his grade level.
I first want to recreate an example given in class for practice, and then I’ll compute my example. The example given in class was of a fourth grader reading on a third grade level. This student reads 100 wpm. The average third grade book has about 100 words per page, thus if he reads 120 minutes per day he could read 120 pages each day. 120 pages x 5 days per week = 600 pages in a week. 600 pages per week x 36 school weeks in a year = 21,600 pages per year. 21,600 pages divided by 60 pages per book = 360 books needed per year for a fourth grader reading at a third grade level.
I have a third grader reading at a first grade level who reads 60 wpm. The average first grade book has about 30 words per page. He could read 2 pages per minute. If this student reads 120 minutes daily he could 240 pages per day. 240 x 180 school days in a year = 43,200 pages in a year. The average first grade book has 60 pages so 43,200 divided by 60 = 720 books this child could read in one year.
2. (B) Should teachers teach students at grade level, or at the students’ instructional level? The debate rages because starting at third grade in N.C., and probably in many other states, students must take some type of standardized end-of-year test for promotion. Because students must take their grade level test some people argue that teachers should teach them at that level and try to teach them those skills so they’ll have some knowledge, some preparation. I say NO! NO! NO! A quick check of true E-O-G scores tracked over several years will show students below grade level, taught at grade level, do
not score at grade level on E-O-G tests. How could they? Years of research that can be found in books and papers has proved that students must be taught at their instructional level to learn and progress. All of the proven and effective programs have taught students at their instructional and independent levels. Just look at the top readers in any class. Where are we instructing them? They are instructed at their independent levels all day! A study in Virginia in 1992 asked students reading in the top quartile on standardized tests to read from their school books and their self-selected books. They averaged 2 mistakes per 100 words with fluency and good comprehension. They were reading all day with 98% accuracy: their independent level. (In comparison the lowest readers in the study were also asked to read from their books and they made 18 mistakes per 100 words. They were daily being instructed at grade level, probably, but it was unfortunately their frustration level). How is instructing the top students at their independent level where they are successful and comfortable working for them? GREAT! They continue to make at least one year’s growth every year they are in school! Teaching at a child’ instructional can be compared to lifting weights. You start where it’s comfortable and gradually increase the weight. Muscles and reading skills are built over time starting with the skills the person has and then building. Learning to read requires acquiring a series of skills. It’s our job as teachers to teach so all students can acquire those skills. If we don’t, students will fall behind and fall further behind each school year. That seems like cruel and unusual punishment when we know teaching at a student’s instructional level works! Dr. Morris’ testing of 2nd grade readers each year for three years found that those who made a year’s growth per year could read grade level material with 95% word recognition accuracy, adequate speed, and good comprehension –that is, grade level was their instructional level.
3. (A) To what extent does a working orthographic knowledge necessary to become an accomplished reader? Orthographic knowledge has to do with knowing letters and learning the patterns they make in print. Reading begins first with a child visually recognizing the letters of our alphabet. He then learns patterns that occur together to make our words. He progresses as he learns how to spell and say the words and as he learns their meanings. But it all begins with visually recognizing the letters quickly as he sees them. He can then turn them into words with meaning and really read. Charles Profetti’s limited capacity model states the brain just has so much power. Simply stated if the brain has 10 watts of power and the reader has to use 5 to process the print to recognize the letters, their sounds, and recognize spelling patterns, the brain has limited capacity to think about and understand what is read. This aligns with Marilyn Jager-Adams 4 Processor Model. Reading is a process of interrelated connections between letters, sounds, spelling patterns, meaning and context to allow reading and comprehension. A good reader has strong skills in all 4 processors: Phonological (Sound), Orthographic (letters and spelling patterns), Meaning, and Context. Even if some letters are changed to random numbers, his Orthographic and Meaning Processors can construct meaning from the text because he has the knowledge stored from thousands and thousands of exposures to the words he has had in reading. If a child lacks letter knowledge or lacks knowledge in patterns that make up words too much effort goes into decoding to allow him to read and understand what is read. Eye movement researchers have learned that our eye notices every letter in words as we read. If we see compound frocture instead of fracture our mind fixes it because good readers have seen it correctly so many times the orthographic and meaning processors work together immediately to make sense of what we see. While his conscious mind was attending to meaning (subconsciously) his orthographic processor was noticing every letter thereby learning and reinforcing phonics/spelling as he read. The more easily and automatically a reader can process and recognize words, the better he can read and understand what he reads. Orthographic knowledge is vital for a child to learn to read. Children without sound orthographic knowledge struggle to read and often avoid even trying to read. They fail to have the exposure to print that helps them gain spelling pattern knowledge and word meaning knowledge that allows them to read successfully. They don’t gain new skill because they don’t practice and they fall further and further behind their peers each year.
3. (B) 1. Reading for meaning/pleasure at his independent level increases a student’s phonics/ spelling, word recognition, and meaning vocabulary. How? A student’s independent level is where he can read with 98% accuracy. This is easy for him. He is not struggling to read and understand the words. As a student reads at his independent level he is exposed to words he can read thus reinforcing the phonics, the spelling patterns, quick word recognition, and the meanings of these words. So, the more he reads the stronger his skills become. Learning the spelling patterns and phonics here can give him skills he can apply when he encounters new words of similar pattern. When he can quickly recognize words he is reading his brain is free to focus on the meaning of words so he can comprehend what he is reading. He is not struggling letter by letter or word by word. His reading is automatic and his fluency increases. Reading at this level is rewarding and pleasurable. That means he’s likely to keep reading and as he does he becomes a better reader.
3. (B) 2. How can writing for genuine purposes feeling free to try to spell words not known increase a student’s phonics/spelling, word recognition, and meaning vocabulary? When students write for genuine purposes they are using all they know about the sounds letters make and spelling patterns on their instructional level. They are trying out what they know about how to spell words. Given on-going chances to use what he knows about how words are spelled he will compare what he writes to what he see when he reads. He will learn how to spell new words. If invented spelling is encouraged he will use what he knows to try to spell words (hypothesizing) and begin to understand how words are correctly spelled compared to how he spells them.
4. (A) “The none tolled hymn she had scene a pare of bare feat in hour rheum.” An accomplished reader is confused at first when reading this. However, the confusion is only momentary. Why? Marilyn Jaegar Adams used a 4 Processor Model to explain what goes on as we read. Simply explained these processors are: 1. The Orthographic Processor processes letters we see in text and makes sense of their sequences and patterns. 2. The Phonological Processor matches sounds to print. 3. The Meaning Processor contains our knowledge of what words mean. 4. The Context Processor makes meaning of the text that is being read. Quickly understanding the above sentence means the reader has strong skills in all 4 processors. When print and sound are processed correctly but the meaning does not match the context, the processors work together using overlapping knowledge and in tenths of seconds the reader understands what was meant by what was written. However, to do this quickly and successfully the reader must be strong in all four processors. This can happen over time as the result of thousands and thousands of exposures to print. The more times a student has seen a word in print the more easily he can read it and connect it to a meaning. All those exposures to print also means he has multiple meanings and the processors can work together (merging information) to recognize the word and apply its correct meaning to the context.
4 (B) What can I infer from the above example regarding reading intervention? The Orthographic Processor reads the right sounds as we read the words. But the Meaning Processor encounters difficulty because the words don’t carry the meaning that fits the context of the sentence. In a good reader the processors overlap and immediately pull from our knowledge the correct word for the context. This can’t happen without thousands and thousands of exposures to the spelling of words in print. To create successful readers we must immerse children in huge amounts of reading and keep them reading at their instructional and independent levels so the knowledge will be stored and the 4 processors can work together. In reading amount counts!
5. (A) Reading to children from books with rich language and compelling plots that are written well above third grade reading level is so important during the K-3 grades. Some children have been read to for 1500 hours before they came to school while other children have only been read to less than 50 hours. All students will benefit by being read to, but some have an overwhelming need for this experience because they lack so much experience in this area. When students are read to they learn how books work. They see books are read, left to right. They learn concept of word, how speech matches print. They learn how books create the context, tell the story, and make us feel. They learn books can make us touch, hear and taste what the author is trying to share with us. Hearing books read aloud helps students learn “book language.” Vocabulary is different in books than it is in our daily spoken language. In books students learn other new vocabulary that carries heavy meaning, descriptions, and feelings. It increases their listening vocabulary. Having these rich vocabulary experiences at an early age helps them avoid the fourth grade slump when students can call words but they can’t make meaning out of text. This was presented so clearly in Dr. Gill’s class when he showed us two stories written by a child. The one the child wrote was simple with few details. But, the one he dictated was unbelievably detailed. From listening to books being read he had a very sophisticated listening vocabulary even though his writing skills were far below his listening vocabulary. They learn the rhythm of book language through punctuation, through vocabulary, and through word meanings. Reading books across all genres allows students to have new experiences or add to some of their experiences. All this background knowledge helps students when they are reading because reading and comprehending requires making connections. As the teacher reads she should give students experiences in predicting. This gives them practice for when they will read on their own because good readers are always engaged and predicting. From listening to stories students learn how stories are constructed and what a good story sound like. Then, when he is asked to write a story he knows how to create a good story and has the vocabulary to express his thoughts. Reading to students gives them the foundation they need to begin to read. It continues to add skills in vocabulary, knowledge of how stories are written, and it adds new knowledge and increases the knowledge they already have. Our best readers entered school with the experience of being read to extensively and regularly. We should learn from that and continue this practice for all students in school.