Reading Goals & Philosophy
Please visit the link to read my Position Paper which addresses my Reading Goals and Philosophy on reading.
http://heatherpearmansequencedocuments.blogspot.com/p/reading-goals-philosophy.htmlAssessment-------
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| QRI |
http://heatherpearmansequencedocuments.blogspot.com/p/reading-assessment.html
“Reading assessment refers to the observations, record keeping, and ongoing performance tests that a teacher uses to gather information about each student’s reading progress” (Reutzel & Cooter, 2009, p.11). In my classroom I will assess reading concepts because it allows the teacher to identify strengths and weaknesses, plan instruction, communicate student progress, and evaluate the effectiveness of teaching strategies
Over the course of my time at Collier Elementary I worked with a male fourth grade student who was struggling with Reading. Please visit the link to see documentation of my intervention time with the student. My assessment notebook summary covers my complete time frame with my reading assessment student.
After working with the reading assessment student I realized how important it is to assess every child in the classroom. It is amazing how much of a difference you can make working with one child for a short amount of time. All you have to do is show that you care.
There are many reading assessments you can use. Depending on the grade level, you will have a different type of assessment for your student. You may give each child the same assessment, but it is important to not do this all of the time. Not all of the students will be struggling with the same concepts in Reading.
5 Essential Components
A student that is an emergent reader will typically possess little or no skill in the task assessed and will require further instruction ( Reutzel & Cooter). Concepts and essential components that should be taught include: concepts of printed language, alphabetic knowledge, alphabetic recognition, alphabetic principles, phonemic awareness, and phonological awareness. (Reutzel & Cooter).
1. Concepts of Print-
The concepts of print, also known as print awareness ensures that children know that the text carries the message, reading of text goes from left to right, top to bottom, text goes from the left page, and then proceeds to the right, letters are the black squiggles on the page, a word is composed of letters and is surrounded by white space, punctuation marks inform inflection and meaning, a book has a front and back cover, a title page, an author, and an illustrator, and a story has a beginning, middle, and an end (Blevins). These concepts are important to teach because they are the essential components needed for a beginning reader. In my classroom I will use read aloud books with enlarged text to teach the beginning, middle, and end, words go from left to right, top to bottom, punctuation affects meaning and that a book includes an author and illustrator. I will assess concepts of print by asking children to demonstrate specific knowledge of print.
2. Alphabet Knowledge-
I will teach alphabet knowledge by using websites that are geared toward alphabetic knowledge learning. I will also teach the letters of the alphabet by beginning with the student’s names. I will assess alphabet knowledge with the use of the letter naming test. I will also follow the three second rule in my assessment.
3. Phonological Awareness-
4. Phonemic Awareness-
Phonemic awareness is “the understanding that a word is made up of sounds and the ability to manipulate sounds in spoken words” (Blevins, 2006, p.20). Phonemic awareness is important to ensure reading success because “without a thorough knowledge and understanding that words are made up of sounds, children cannot learn to read” (Blevins, 2006, p.20). In my classroom I will model and teach phonemic awareness with engagement, songs, reading, and Elkonin boxes. I will also assess a child’s understanding of phonemic awareness with the use of Elkonin boxes.
5. Alphabetic Principle-
“The alphabetic principle is the concept that letters or letter combinations represent speech sounds in whole, spoken words” (Reutzel & Cooter, 2009, p.26). To ensure reading success it is important to teach the alphabetic principle because it is the first step toward learning to decode words using phonics (Reutzel & Cooter). In my classroom I will use Elkonin boxes to teach the alphabetic principle. I will assess alphabetic principle by again, using Elkonin boxes.
Five essential components are covered in position paper!
http://heatherpearmansequencedocuments.blogspot.com/p/reading-goals-philosophy.html
Read AloudDuring my time at Collier Elementary I read many read alouds to Mrs. Dillard's fourth grade classroom. I wrote a lesson plan for one of the read alouds I presented to the classroom. In this lesson the students were predicting. We were reading Titanicat.
Please follow the link to read my lesson plan for the Titanicat Read Aloud
http://heatherpearmansequencedocuments.blogspot.com/p/reading-lesson-plans.html
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| Reading aloud to the class whole group. |
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| Students are making predictions during read aloud! |
In the above I am reading to the class whole group. This would be called a read aloud. The students are actively engaged. A Read Aloud is one of my favorite things to do in the classroom. Illustrations can be an essential part of a read aloud. Sometimes a good book can be wordless. It all depends on the reader and text. It is essential to incorporate a read aloud in the classroom on a weekly basis. Some children may only be read to in the classroom. I will use these in the classroom as much as I can. I will integrate a read aloud into all subject areas.
SHARED READING
A great way to introduce a shared reading lesson is by the use of a poem. If you follow the link below you will find my lesson plan to the " Be Glad Your Nose is on your Face" Shared Reading Lesson Plan.
Here is a picture of the lesson that I taught using the poem and the Smartboard to teach cause and effect concepts. The poem is displayed using the document camera. The students listen to the teacher read the poem fluently. The students then choral read stanzas of the poem. Together we identify cause and effect relationships among the sentences. Shared reading will be incorporated in my classroom using poems, passages, and short stories. I will use shared reading to cover many difficult concepts.
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| Students are reading poem aloud and identifying cause and effect relationships. |
SMART BOARD LESSON
Guided Reading/ Small Group Instruction
Follow Link:
http://heatherpearmansequencedocuments.blogspot.com/p/guided-reading-small-group-instruction.html
In the following pictures you will see me demonstrating guiding reading and small group instruction. During my time at Collier I worked with small groups almost every day with my cooperating teacher. This was most beneficial for the students and they seemed to get the most instruction time out of small group. One of my favorite times at Collier was small group. This was the time you really got to spend some quality time with the students and assess their understanding of the materials being taught. The link to the guided reading and small group are documents of my Reading Street instruction of "The Stranger". The instructions also come with extension activities and directions. The small group instructions follow along with the student's leveld readers. I created extension activities to go along with each of those small grops as well. Overall, small group and guided reading time was BLAST! I plan to use small groups in my classroom on a daily basis. Groups will be divided based on assessments taken at the beginning of the year. I will continue to work with groups on all concepts, not just in reading. I think small groups can benefit students in all subjects. Guided Reading will be an essential part of the classroom. There will be much planning time needed in order to meet the needs of all of the students.
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| Small group instruction extension activity |
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| Small groups working on cause and effect in The Stranger |
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| Guided Reading/Small Group. "READING STREET" |
USING READING PROGRAMS EFFECTIVELY:
Accelerated Reader
Reading Street
Accelerated Reader will more than likely be in many teachers' future classrooms.
You must know how to effectively approach and use the program in your classroom.
1. Be familiar with the program
2. Research best practice
3.Implement fair procedures
In order for AR to run smoothly in the classroom you will have to allow students to read other books that are not AR required. Schools will give rewards to students who meet certain points. Give rewards in your class for students who receive even 1 point and who are struggling with the program. You must give them confidence if you want them to succeed and enjoy reading. They will not enjoy reading if it is simply for points. Conference with each child prior to them testing.
Reading Street:
This program will likely be in many classrooms for the next few years. If you are teaching reading with reading street it is important to follow the story and its main components, but it is equally important to plan instruction for your students that involves activities outside of reading street. Extension activities are wonderful to use to cover concepts that are difficult to grasp. Centers are also useful for students when covering the material in reading street. This type of planning will take time, but it is well worth it!
Independent Reading
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| Student reading during independent reading time |
Independent reading is essential in every classroom. Students should leave your classroom with the skills, drive, and confidence to read independently at home. Students should be given time to read independently in the classroom on a daily basis. I do not believe reading time should be taken away as a punishment. Reading is a part of education and it can be FUN! Students will be assigned a designated independent reading time during the day. If free time permits students will be allowed to read their book of CHOICE! I will have an in class library that is organized by genres for students to choose books from.
Classroom Library Example:
Parental Involvement
-Newsletter home to parents expressing the importance of reading
with their child at home as much as possible.
- Parents will be encouraged to work with their child on their nightly take- home homework
-Parent/Teacher conferences will be implemented if necessary. If
a student is struggling with Reading and needs help outside of the
classroom and all routes have been taken the parents will be
contacted and we will work together to come up with a plan of
action for the student and parents.
-The role of parents in the classroom can be extremely influential to their child. Teachers can maximize or minimize the role of a parent in their classroom. The most beneficial route would be to maximize the role just as long as it was positive. I will communicate with parents by sending a daily folder home with their child. Parents will review what is enclosed, sign, and return folder the next day. Weekly newsletters will also go out every Friday to ensure the parent is notified of all events and classroom activities. If needed I will make home visits as well as conferences and phone calls.
