After reading chapter four, Help Children to Write and Keep Writing, and chapter 7, Conditions for Effective Writing, I found a lot of useful tips and things about teaching kids to write. Both chapters provide useful information that I have written down and plan to use someday in my classroom! Here is some things that I found especially useful from the chapters.
In the chapter, Help Children to Write and Keep Writing, the introduction said something to me that I strongly agree with. It said that teachers should write along side students. I think that demonstrating that you as the teacher have a love for writing is such great representation for students to see that writing is not just something you do in school and then forget about it. This chapter kind of splits up the tips by grades. It starts out with kindergarten and first grade. A few things that I really enjoyed when it discussed writing in kindergarten and first grade was that the teacher demonstrates by using pictures and then labeling the picture. The students help the teacher label by sounding out the words. This was something I just saw in my field on Thursday. The teacher was talking to the students about a memory that she had and was having the students label the picture with her on the board. I think that is a particularly good way to help students learn how to label their pictures that represent is shown. Another thing I liked that the chapter discussed was writers who want you to help them spell every word correctly. This happens a lot to me in field. The author suggested telling the student that they "will give them one because they don't have time to do them all." I could help my students do that too but sometimes I like to help my students with the decoding process because it helps them since they are still new to the phonemes. I also loved the idea about giving the student a short note that they could probably decode but if they cannot, they can ask a neighbor. Then for second to fifth grade, I liked the idea of teaching to students to listen to themselves as well as "receiving the text" which is listening and understanding classmates text.
In the chapter, Conditions for Effective Writing, I was shocked to read that students need to be writing for at least four days out of the school week and for 35-45 minutes. That is a lot of time. I liked that the author provided suggestions on how to find this time. One thing that I found was a particularly a good idea was having students do it first thing in the morning. I think that's a pretty good idea. The chapter also discussed how you need to represent choice, response, demonstration, room structure, and evaluation. A couple of the most important things I read was students need to hear from other students, not just the teacher. I think that's an important thing to note as a future teacher. I also liked the discussion on how it needs to be demonstrated. It gives a good example of how art teachers just don't tell students to draw without showing them so the same has to be done in writing. The author makes the point that during their first year, they did not do this. I think that this is important to note too.
Overall, both chapters had great tips for teaching writing in all grades. I liked the examples that it provided with dialogue as well as different ideas for how to incorporate the writing.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Every Mark on the Page
Reading the article, Every Mark on the
Page: Educating Family and Community Members about Young Children’s Writing by
Kate Cusumano, was such an enjoyable read for me as a future educator but especially for me as I'm working in a kindergarten classroom. I don't think before entering this field experience I realized just how little kindergarteners know about writing.
They very first thing the article starts out with saying things like "My daughter still uses only capital letters," "My son, Samuel, squishes all the words together," or "my child can't spell like that." These parents panic somewhat resembled my thoughts my first couple weeks in kindergarten. I think I'm extremely lucky to work with kindergarten during this field experience because it's by far my most challenging obstacle as an undergraduate education major. I like these parents thought the same things. Our teacher uses a writing prompt everyday. It's October and students still squish their words together and only use capital (or lowercase letters) and they can't spell at all. But to see how far they've come in just over a month of working there is awesome and wild.
I like that the author explains the importance of noticing what the student does right. When I saw the picture of the flag was done by a kindergartner I, too, was impressed because none of the kindergartners in my class could do that (so far). I noticed a lot of the strengths the author points out. That the author of the flag and story uses more words than pictures. Something kindergartners do not do in the beginning of the year (or even midway. My students are not there yet). She knows punctuation is important. Her invented spelling makes sense meaning that you can actually decode what she has written by thinking like a kindergartener. Remembering that they mostly only know sounds of individual words.
I love the idea of having a newsletter and/or workshops for families to attend. I think it's important for the family members to understand that students are often where they need to be. In my field experience during their writing notebook time, I had a hard time not correcting their spelling when we would sound words out to write in their books! So I can relate to these parents. I think that offering them some guidance on what to expect and what is okay is such a good idea. Like the article says, pushing students to conventional spelling can ruin their writing. We want to help parents create students who love to write. Writing is often about being creative! Helping parents understand how not to take away this love for writing can greatly benefit students.
They very first thing the article starts out with saying things like "My daughter still uses only capital letters," "My son, Samuel, squishes all the words together," or "my child can't spell like that." These parents panic somewhat resembled my thoughts my first couple weeks in kindergarten. I think I'm extremely lucky to work with kindergarten during this field experience because it's by far my most challenging obstacle as an undergraduate education major. I like these parents thought the same things. Our teacher uses a writing prompt everyday. It's October and students still squish their words together and only use capital (or lowercase letters) and they can't spell at all. But to see how far they've come in just over a month of working there is awesome and wild.
I like that the author explains the importance of noticing what the student does right. When I saw the picture of the flag was done by a kindergartner I, too, was impressed because none of the kindergartners in my class could do that (so far). I noticed a lot of the strengths the author points out. That the author of the flag and story uses more words than pictures. Something kindergartners do not do in the beginning of the year (or even midway. My students are not there yet). She knows punctuation is important. Her invented spelling makes sense meaning that you can actually decode what she has written by thinking like a kindergartener. Remembering that they mostly only know sounds of individual words.
I love the idea of having a newsletter and/or workshops for families to attend. I think it's important for the family members to understand that students are often where they need to be. In my field experience during their writing notebook time, I had a hard time not correcting their spelling when we would sound words out to write in their books! So I can relate to these parents. I think that offering them some guidance on what to expect and what is okay is such a good idea. Like the article says, pushing students to conventional spelling can ruin their writing. We want to help parents create students who love to write. Writing is often about being creative! Helping parents understand how not to take away this love for writing can greatly benefit students.
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Every week I read the readings assigned for E339 and I find myself learning so much information. Before when I attended another university, I took a reading class where it was no where near as beneficial as E339 so I am truly amazed as how much I learn and feel better about teaching reading. This week we read two readings one about teaching phonemic awareness and the other about phonics.
In the first reading, it was really interested that it's focus was so strongly on phonemic awareness because in a previous reading from Catching Readers Before They Fall, one of the chapter's stated that phonemic awareness should only be taught five hours throughout the year while this chapter said it should be taught twenty. The chapter from Catching Readers Before They Fall made the point that you do not want to overdo phonemic awareness so I think that you have to take how many hours are recommended with a grain of salt. It really depends on your students and what you think they will benefit from.
Additionally, the beginning of the chapter talks about using songs and rhyming poems which I have noticed done in my field work. I'm in kindergarten so I see a lot of this type of stuff. Every week the students have an assigned nursery rhyme for the whole week where they read it every day a couple times a day. I think that this is great. Not only for phonemic awareness but it helps students who do not know how to read yet memorize the words and then make connections.
Something else that I had never heard of was the YOPP Test. I thought that this was a great assessment and very quick too. I liked that the chapter had an example of what it looked like in the chapter. Also, I found it super beneficial all of the books that chapter listed! I enjoyed the different things the YOPP listed to do for extra help. One other thing that really stuck out to me was the brief piece about invented spelling, page 11, where it talked about how this actually can benefit students because it helps them with sounds!
The second reading was "From Phonics to Fluency." The chapter is essentially just definitions that teachers should know that relate to reading. I actually really liked this chapter because it wasn't too many definitions but enough. Some I knew but there was some I did not know. For example when I was school, we learned "y" was sometimes a vowel but the reading said sometimes "w." I certainly never knew that at all!
In the first reading, it was really interested that it's focus was so strongly on phonemic awareness because in a previous reading from Catching Readers Before They Fall, one of the chapter's stated that phonemic awareness should only be taught five hours throughout the year while this chapter said it should be taught twenty. The chapter from Catching Readers Before They Fall made the point that you do not want to overdo phonemic awareness so I think that you have to take how many hours are recommended with a grain of salt. It really depends on your students and what you think they will benefit from.
Additionally, the beginning of the chapter talks about using songs and rhyming poems which I have noticed done in my field work. I'm in kindergarten so I see a lot of this type of stuff. Every week the students have an assigned nursery rhyme for the whole week where they read it every day a couple times a day. I think that this is great. Not only for phonemic awareness but it helps students who do not know how to read yet memorize the words and then make connections.
Something else that I had never heard of was the YOPP Test. I thought that this was a great assessment and very quick too. I liked that the chapter had an example of what it looked like in the chapter. Also, I found it super beneficial all of the books that chapter listed! I enjoyed the different things the YOPP listed to do for extra help. One other thing that really stuck out to me was the brief piece about invented spelling, page 11, where it talked about how this actually can benefit students because it helps them with sounds!
The second reading was "From Phonics to Fluency." The chapter is essentially just definitions that teachers should know that relate to reading. I actually really liked this chapter because it wasn't too many definitions but enough. Some I knew but there was some I did not know. For example when I was school, we learned "y" was sometimes a vowel but the reading said sometimes "w." I certainly never knew that at all!
Sunday, October 12, 2014
"Making Decisions for Individual Learners Within a Small-Group Setting"
In the webcast, Making Decisions for Individual Learners Within in a Small Group Setting, I was flooded with important reminders as well as new ideas about teaching reading. The webcast has three important women speak about a few different important key aspects to help reading.
We've definitely heard many different things Pat has said before because of our book, Catching Readers Before They Fall. Much of what Pat had said in the webcast goes off what she says in the books. She talks more about the three ways to figure out a word when they are struggling. I like when Pat talks about if a student is struggling, don't have them use the same strategy again. If a student is only using visual, have the student use meaning! Another thing that really stuck out to me in Pat's talk was when she quotes Frank Smith saying, "Reading depends on more than what is behind the eyes - on the non visual items than on the visual information in front of them." This is so important! If you would have asked me this before I started out into my school for teaching, I would of wondered how that possible could be true! But it is! We as teachers have to make sure students have these non visual items in their mind helping them process and understand the visual information presented. If the do not have non visual information, they will not do as well with the visual information presented to them.
Pat also discusses that we are teaching the readers, not the book. To me this struck as extremely important too. It took me surprise for a moment because I was like wait, we don't teach the book? But of course not, we are teaching the reader. The book is irrelevant if the students are not taught the correct reading processes. This is the most important part. It's easy to get caught up in teaching the book, but we have to beware. Our students learning process is much important. We have to plan our instruction according to that most.
Diane talks about some stuff that I think I knew was important but sometimes I overlook. She talks about how we have to know the strengths of our readers. This is crucial in understanding our students. We have to know what they can do to build off of this when teaching them. She also talks about how we should have one or two things that they need to work on. One or two. I think that's an important idea because we should not and cannot do too much or our students will feel lost and won't understand. Again Diane expands on the idea Pat discusses about teaching the readers, NOT the books. She too goes on about how we must pick books that teach our students what they need to understand. We must pick our books based on what strategies our readers need.
Finally, Mary talks about ELL and small groups. I think that Mary's discussion provided me with the most ah-ha moments because I've never really been sure how to help ELL without knowing their language. In fact, I use to think it was impossible to help them if they were not able to speak to me but I no longer have this view (Thank God!). I think one important point made was that we need to know our ELL! We need to know them on a deeper level to help them become proficient readers in English. There are so many ways Mary provides us with to help ELL to become proficient readers. In my class at University Elementary, there is a little girl who mostly speaks Korean. She does not speak much English. The last time we were there, the writing prompt was "I like fall because ___." Emily (the ELL) wasn't able to understand what exactly fall meant. One thing Mary talked about was how we need to know what knowledge they possess in reading strategies in their own language. I think this is important. This can help us build off of their knowledge of those strategies even if they are in another language. I grew up in a town with a ton of Hispanics so I've seen first hand how teachers let these ELL fall behind. The strategies that Mary provides are super beneficial for me to know to help my future ELL. I hope that I can continue learning about helping ELL become proficient readers in English because I think it's important not to let them fall behind or they may never catch back up!
Overall, I found such great tips from these three women. They provided us with great examples in each to help us better understand what we can do as teachers. This kind of learning is great for me because it's so much better to hear experienced teachers to understand ways that they actually know are capable of working.
We've definitely heard many different things Pat has said before because of our book, Catching Readers Before They Fall. Much of what Pat had said in the webcast goes off what she says in the books. She talks more about the three ways to figure out a word when they are struggling. I like when Pat talks about if a student is struggling, don't have them use the same strategy again. If a student is only using visual, have the student use meaning! Another thing that really stuck out to me in Pat's talk was when she quotes Frank Smith saying, "Reading depends on more than what is behind the eyes - on the non visual items than on the visual information in front of them." This is so important! If you would have asked me this before I started out into my school for teaching, I would of wondered how that possible could be true! But it is! We as teachers have to make sure students have these non visual items in their mind helping them process and understand the visual information presented. If the do not have non visual information, they will not do as well with the visual information presented to them.
Pat also discusses that we are teaching the readers, not the book. To me this struck as extremely important too. It took me surprise for a moment because I was like wait, we don't teach the book? But of course not, we are teaching the reader. The book is irrelevant if the students are not taught the correct reading processes. This is the most important part. It's easy to get caught up in teaching the book, but we have to beware. Our students learning process is much important. We have to plan our instruction according to that most.
Diane talks about some stuff that I think I knew was important but sometimes I overlook. She talks about how we have to know the strengths of our readers. This is crucial in understanding our students. We have to know what they can do to build off of this when teaching them. She also talks about how we should have one or two things that they need to work on. One or two. I think that's an important idea because we should not and cannot do too much or our students will feel lost and won't understand. Again Diane expands on the idea Pat discusses about teaching the readers, NOT the books. She too goes on about how we must pick books that teach our students what they need to understand. We must pick our books based on what strategies our readers need.
Finally, Mary talks about ELL and small groups. I think that Mary's discussion provided me with the most ah-ha moments because I've never really been sure how to help ELL without knowing their language. In fact, I use to think it was impossible to help them if they were not able to speak to me but I no longer have this view (Thank God!). I think one important point made was that we need to know our ELL! We need to know them on a deeper level to help them become proficient readers in English. There are so many ways Mary provides us with to help ELL to become proficient readers. In my class at University Elementary, there is a little girl who mostly speaks Korean. She does not speak much English. The last time we were there, the writing prompt was "I like fall because ___." Emily (the ELL) wasn't able to understand what exactly fall meant. One thing Mary talked about was how we need to know what knowledge they possess in reading strategies in their own language. I think this is important. This can help us build off of their knowledge of those strategies even if they are in another language. I grew up in a town with a ton of Hispanics so I've seen first hand how teachers let these ELL fall behind. The strategies that Mary provides are super beneficial for me to know to help my future ELL. I hope that I can continue learning about helping ELL become proficient readers in English because I think it's important not to let them fall behind or they may never catch back up!
Overall, I found such great tips from these three women. They provided us with great examples in each to help us better understand what we can do as teachers. This kind of learning is great for me because it's so much better to hear experienced teachers to understand ways that they actually know are capable of working.
"I thought I knew how to teach reading, but Whoa!"
Chapter 7, I thought I knew how to teach reading, but Whoa, was a little bit scary at first. With the chapter beginning by introducing us to a real teacher who had so many different grade levels in one classroom was a little bit scary for me! That would be quite a challenge so having this chapter go in depth to help better understand what we can do for that made me feel a little bit better.
First, I liked the section Finding a Starting Point because I like where Katie advices her this new teacher to start with what she know like read alouds, community writing, and independent reading. This way the new teacher, Rachel, could determine the strengths and weaknesses of each child specifically and she would not have to set up guided reading groups within the first month or so, it said. This made me a feel a little relieved. Another thing the next section goes on to say is that there does not have to be a set teaching sequence. You can move around based on the needs of your students. The chapter goes on to discuss different strategies in more depth. All of the discussions on each of the strategies are pretty informational but I liked a few best.
The strategy discussing voice/print match was pretty interesting to me. I liked the emphasis on which of the two pictures better represented one to practice with which talks about practicing with one with essentially enough spacing to use your pointer finger. Then after this section, there was a couple ideas that were suggested if students were still struggling which I liked because I feel like some struggling readers may not fully connect to just using the pointer finger. I personally felt like the idea of getting a book with the students name to have repetition was such a good idea.
Another thing that chapter talked about that really stuck out to me was the different between phonics and phonemic awareness! I really hadn't known that or at least realized it. I think another thing that stuck out to me was that you should not put too much emphasis on phonemic awareness. I liked that it gave the example of only needing to use phonemic awareness with a couple letters because they get the concept so they do not need to do every single letter.
The last strategy that I found really ah-ha about was fluency! I do not recall really being taught to read with expression as much as I think it should be. Emphasizing fluency can really make readers fall in love with reading, understand what they are reading, and learning to love what they are reading. When I was in middle school, my history teacher had use accents to read so that it was interesting to us. I liked doing it and sometimes with boring texts, I try to read really excitingly.
Finally, I like that the authors have a section that makes suggestions for teachers. These may be something to look back on when I am a first year teacher, or anytime I need guidance with readers! I mostly loved the closing remarks about how sometimes the hardest to teach are the hardest to love. I feel this rings true in many cases but as teachers it should be our passion to teach these students.
First, I liked the section Finding a Starting Point because I like where Katie advices her this new teacher to start with what she know like read alouds, community writing, and independent reading. This way the new teacher, Rachel, could determine the strengths and weaknesses of each child specifically and she would not have to set up guided reading groups within the first month or so, it said. This made me a feel a little relieved. Another thing the next section goes on to say is that there does not have to be a set teaching sequence. You can move around based on the needs of your students. The chapter goes on to discuss different strategies in more depth. All of the discussions on each of the strategies are pretty informational but I liked a few best.
The strategy discussing voice/print match was pretty interesting to me. I liked the emphasis on which of the two pictures better represented one to practice with which talks about practicing with one with essentially enough spacing to use your pointer finger. Then after this section, there was a couple ideas that were suggested if students were still struggling which I liked because I feel like some struggling readers may not fully connect to just using the pointer finger. I personally felt like the idea of getting a book with the students name to have repetition was such a good idea.
Another thing that chapter talked about that really stuck out to me was the different between phonics and phonemic awareness! I really hadn't known that or at least realized it. I think another thing that stuck out to me was that you should not put too much emphasis on phonemic awareness. I liked that it gave the example of only needing to use phonemic awareness with a couple letters because they get the concept so they do not need to do every single letter.
The last strategy that I found really ah-ha about was fluency! I do not recall really being taught to read with expression as much as I think it should be. Emphasizing fluency can really make readers fall in love with reading, understand what they are reading, and learning to love what they are reading. When I was in middle school, my history teacher had use accents to read so that it was interesting to us. I liked doing it and sometimes with boring texts, I try to read really excitingly.
Finally, I like that the authors have a section that makes suggestions for teachers. These may be something to look back on when I am a first year teacher, or anytime I need guidance with readers! I mostly loved the closing remarks about how sometimes the hardest to teach are the hardest to love. I feel this rings true in many cases but as teachers it should be our passion to teach these students.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Chapter 5&10: Catching Readers Before They Fall
Chapter 5, A Comprehensive Literacy Framework, talked about the several different ways to read to, with, and by children as well as writing to, with, and by children. The book provides such sufficient examples that are going to be extremely helpful as we move forward with out classrooms at University but mostly as we move toward our future classrooms.
I think one of the big things that the chapter stresses is the need for flexibility from the teacher in these areas. One of the first things the authors discuss is that although all are necessary in the day, it's important that you know not all deserve equal time. It varies and depends solely on the needs of the students. The need for flexibility is reiterated through out the entire chapter. The teacher has to be flexible. Sometimes students need different things at different times. For example, on page 81, the authors talk about the chart being grouped by levels but sometimes it's specific needs. I think this can be especially beneficial in any classroom. For example, I'm working with kindergarten right now in my field experience. I think that grouping the children by specific needs at this time can be helpful. Some of the students can write letters correctly but many write them backwards while others use capital and lowercase interchangeably so that can be an example of how to group the students. I think that's a really helpful hint to teachers.
Another really important concept that the chapter discussed was this need to give children time to read. Just like the article we read by Allington earlier this semester, it's important to give students at least ninety minutes of reading time. This book discusses the need for reading time because if it's not there then students cannot use the processes they are learning. Another additional thing I liked that piggy backed with this is under the "Sample Daily Schedule," reading and writing practices took place in other subjects besides just reading and writing time. It was under math and science/social studies!
The Sample Daily Schedule really opened my mind up to some new ideas. Again, I loved that reading and writing were present through out the entire day in every subject, not just writing and reading. We are moving out of this reading and writing time only during our literacy blocks as we progress but when I was younger it wasn't exactly like that. Another awesome thing that I liked about the Sample Daily Schedule was the "explore time" first thing in the morning. I have never heard of or seen this in a classroom and I think it's wonderful. It allows students to engage but get their thoughts together first thing in the morning!
Chapter 10, Assessment: Looking Closely at Readers, provides great examples for how to help assess students. The very first page of the chapter quotes Fountas and Pinnel, "You cannot see into children's minds but their behaviors can guide your teaching decisions." I think this is important to note because I personally feel that by watching children you can learn so much about them. You cannot learn about the child if you are not watching their behaviors. And if you are but you are not writing them down then essentially you may miss a pattern or something very big. Another point on this page I liked was that you have to pay attention to what could be contributing to why a struggling reading is struggling. I believe by understanding this, you are likely to help them much more.
An important thing that I am taking away from this chapter is the importance in keeping track of your students each and every day. Like I said, I think this can help with numerous amounts of things. I like the way that the chapter gives pictures of how Katie does her tracking. I also noted how the authors discussed the need for keeping certain goals. In more than one example, Katie has clear goals and an approximate amount of time she wants to accomplish these goals. I think it's important to do this with your readers if only for those that are struggling. It helps guide you as a teacher.
Although I find these tools helpful, I think that we are approaching an era where we have better ways to keep track of things than in a binder. Many different applications and sites offer wonderful ways to track students learning needs. I think in my classroom, I will probably take notes daily but then track them into a site or app that I will be using. I think this provides a good way to look over the notes and think a little bit more about them too.
I think one of the big things that the chapter stresses is the need for flexibility from the teacher in these areas. One of the first things the authors discuss is that although all are necessary in the day, it's important that you know not all deserve equal time. It varies and depends solely on the needs of the students. The need for flexibility is reiterated through out the entire chapter. The teacher has to be flexible. Sometimes students need different things at different times. For example, on page 81, the authors talk about the chart being grouped by levels but sometimes it's specific needs. I think this can be especially beneficial in any classroom. For example, I'm working with kindergarten right now in my field experience. I think that grouping the children by specific needs at this time can be helpful. Some of the students can write letters correctly but many write them backwards while others use capital and lowercase interchangeably so that can be an example of how to group the students. I think that's a really helpful hint to teachers.
Another really important concept that the chapter discussed was this need to give children time to read. Just like the article we read by Allington earlier this semester, it's important to give students at least ninety minutes of reading time. This book discusses the need for reading time because if it's not there then students cannot use the processes they are learning. Another additional thing I liked that piggy backed with this is under the "Sample Daily Schedule," reading and writing practices took place in other subjects besides just reading and writing time. It was under math and science/social studies!
The Sample Daily Schedule really opened my mind up to some new ideas. Again, I loved that reading and writing were present through out the entire day in every subject, not just writing and reading. We are moving out of this reading and writing time only during our literacy blocks as we progress but when I was younger it wasn't exactly like that. Another awesome thing that I liked about the Sample Daily Schedule was the "explore time" first thing in the morning. I have never heard of or seen this in a classroom and I think it's wonderful. It allows students to engage but get their thoughts together first thing in the morning!
Chapter 10, Assessment: Looking Closely at Readers, provides great examples for how to help assess students. The very first page of the chapter quotes Fountas and Pinnel, "You cannot see into children's minds but their behaviors can guide your teaching decisions." I think this is important to note because I personally feel that by watching children you can learn so much about them. You cannot learn about the child if you are not watching their behaviors. And if you are but you are not writing them down then essentially you may miss a pattern or something very big. Another point on this page I liked was that you have to pay attention to what could be contributing to why a struggling reading is struggling. I believe by understanding this, you are likely to help them much more.
An important thing that I am taking away from this chapter is the importance in keeping track of your students each and every day. Like I said, I think this can help with numerous amounts of things. I like the way that the chapter gives pictures of how Katie does her tracking. I also noted how the authors discussed the need for keeping certain goals. In more than one example, Katie has clear goals and an approximate amount of time she wants to accomplish these goals. I think it's important to do this with your readers if only for those that are struggling. It helps guide you as a teacher.
Although I find these tools helpful, I think that we are approaching an era where we have better ways to keep track of things than in a binder. Many different applications and sites offer wonderful ways to track students learning needs. I think in my classroom, I will probably take notes daily but then track them into a site or app that I will be using. I think this provides a good way to look over the notes and think a little bit more about them too.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Catching Readers Before They Fall (Chapter 4)
Chapter 4, Beyond Sound Out, is some of the best new information I have received in a while. The Chapter expands on this idea about finding more strategies to figure out a word than just sounding it out. The "sounding it out" method has been something that I have been told since I was younger and it's something I always hate telling students - because it doesn't always work. In fact, it barely ever works when it needs to.
The reason I found this chapter so beneficial and full of great information is because it gives me as a future teacher a better way to help students when they're struggling. Anytime I've worked with students and they look at me to find a word, I always use the "sound it out" method because it's what I've always been taught. The beginning of the chapter discusses that this method only has about 50-60% of words working in it's favor. Sure, it's got the majority on it's side but it what about the additional 40-50% of words in our language? We can't only use a method that doesn't work the way it should therefore handicapping our children. If the students can't figure out an alternative way besides sounding it out then our students will not learn the words that they cannot sound out therefore making their text sometimes totally not understandable. Which if we aren't learning to understand, then what are we doing?
The strategies that the authors find useful to help students find out a word they cannot read is by meaning, structure, and visual. So for meaning, students are using their knowledge of the text around, the pictures, or context of the story to make sense. For the structure students are using their knowledge of spoken language to know if it sounds right. The visual is by seeing the letter and sounds and seeing if the word looks right. Before I even left the first page where the authors introduces these strategies, I felt that knowing these was going to improve my reading instruction drastically.
My favorite part about the authors of this text is that they use what they've actually done in a classroom to give examples to us. This chapter had so many great examples for how to help children based on different things. The author helped show the conversation that worked with the student and alternate ways that might work. I think this is important in the text because it provides us with this knowledge of how the students might react to what we say and can help us pretend this is our scenario too.
I think that one of my favorite parts about the strategies is teaching the students structure. Students know how to talk in day to day language obviously much better than they can read (most of the time and especially earlier on). This means students know what sounds right. I think this strategy is my favorite that I use and that I can help students use too. By finding out the word (or maybe not) and seeing if it makes sense in our day to day language, students can really understand if the word can go. Even if it isn't the correct word, the making sure it sounds right can still help students.
I just really enjoyed this chapter because of it's emphasize on decoding (sounding out) not working all the time. At one point, the authors even discuss that if students do this with every word (even if they are getting the right word), it slows down there reading therefore possibly making them unable to comprehend the text because of the slow speed they are going. This chapter provides readers with excellent ways, and real examples, of how to help students figure out words beyond the sounding out. I loved it.
The reason I found this chapter so beneficial and full of great information is because it gives me as a future teacher a better way to help students when they're struggling. Anytime I've worked with students and they look at me to find a word, I always use the "sound it out" method because it's what I've always been taught. The beginning of the chapter discusses that this method only has about 50-60% of words working in it's favor. Sure, it's got the majority on it's side but it what about the additional 40-50% of words in our language? We can't only use a method that doesn't work the way it should therefore handicapping our children. If the students can't figure out an alternative way besides sounding it out then our students will not learn the words that they cannot sound out therefore making their text sometimes totally not understandable. Which if we aren't learning to understand, then what are we doing?
The strategies that the authors find useful to help students find out a word they cannot read is by meaning, structure, and visual. So for meaning, students are using their knowledge of the text around, the pictures, or context of the story to make sense. For the structure students are using their knowledge of spoken language to know if it sounds right. The visual is by seeing the letter and sounds and seeing if the word looks right. Before I even left the first page where the authors introduces these strategies, I felt that knowing these was going to improve my reading instruction drastically.
My favorite part about the authors of this text is that they use what they've actually done in a classroom to give examples to us. This chapter had so many great examples for how to help children based on different things. The author helped show the conversation that worked with the student and alternate ways that might work. I think this is important in the text because it provides us with this knowledge of how the students might react to what we say and can help us pretend this is our scenario too.
I think that one of my favorite parts about the strategies is teaching the students structure. Students know how to talk in day to day language obviously much better than they can read (most of the time and especially earlier on). This means students know what sounds right. I think this strategy is my favorite that I use and that I can help students use too. By finding out the word (or maybe not) and seeing if it makes sense in our day to day language, students can really understand if the word can go. Even if it isn't the correct word, the making sure it sounds right can still help students.
I just really enjoyed this chapter because of it's emphasize on decoding (sounding out) not working all the time. At one point, the authors even discuss that if students do this with every word (even if they are getting the right word), it slows down there reading therefore possibly making them unable to comprehend the text because of the slow speed they are going. This chapter provides readers with excellent ways, and real examples, of how to help students figure out words beyond the sounding out. I loved it.
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