Module 4: Activity 2

Which NRP topic area(s) or “missing pillar(s)” that Allington describes do you find to be most vital for children's literacy success? Why? 

Looking through both the NRP topic areas and Allington’s missing pillars, it is extremely difficult to narrow down the most vital areas for literacy success.  As important as many of the NRP’s ideas were, I felt more of a connect with Allington’s missing pillars.  I really believe that all five pillars are vital to success, but I chose three that I find the most important.  

The first pillar is access to interesting texts and choice.  In middle school, I began to lose my love of reading because I was constantly told what to read.  I was never given an opportunity to read things that interested me, or even read for pleasure in many cases.  In order to encourage students to read and to enjoy what they read, we need to give them choice, even if that means students need a little extra help with their chosen books.  

The fourth idea Allington listed was the use of different student groups when learning.  I whole heartedly believe in small group learning.  I think it is essential in reading, and really in every other subject.  Teachers teach in a whole-class manner daily, and individual teaching is great for reinforcement and focusing on strengths and weaknesses of each child.  

Reading and writing having reciprocal positive effects is also very important in my opinion.  I think it’s great to constantly draw connections between reading and writing and explain to students how they are connected.  I also think it’s important to show students with their own work how reading and writing are connected.  It would make sense that good writers are good readers, and vice versa. 

Module 4: Activity 1

What a fantastic video to watch as a teacher!  I was amazed as I was watching Robin learn to read.  His teacher used a lot of different strategies with him.  One of the first shown was establishing Robin’s phonemic awareness.  He spent time sounding out each individual letter, and then he began to chunk letters into easily recognizable sounds, like –ack.  Robin’s teacher was very patient, and kind of let him struggle sometimes.  I know that when I am working with students learning to read, it’s hard to watch them struggle, so I thought that his teacher did an excellent job giving him time to self-correct and use multiple strategies to figure words out.  

I noticed that Robin drew a lot of connections as he read.  I’m wondering if this was through advice from his teacher, or if that’s something that comes more naturally being an adult learning to read.  He also was aware of syntactic and semantic cues, which was why he reread one line several times until he knew it was something that would actually make sense.  I also really liked that he was learning to write as a way to enhance his learning to read.  

One of my favorite parts of this video, beyond watching Robin’s journey to literacy, was listening to Robin’s reasoning.  When working with young children that are four, five, and six years old, it’s hard for them to completely verbalize their thoughts.  Robin, a 50 year old man, made what he was thinking as he was reading very clear.  The strategies he was using as he read were explained well.  This video was not only a great resource as a teacher, but it was also wonderful to see Robin’s path to literacy!

Module 4: Instructional Challenge

Marcus is a student who very frequently miscues by substituting words that start with the same letter or first few letters of the word in the text, but his substitutions often are not syntactically or semantically acceptable (they neither sound right grammatically nor make sense). What possible teaching strategies would you suggest to help Marcus?

I would suggest guided reading for Marcus.  In guided reading, I like to have students whisper read the passage at the same time.  A great aspect to all students in the group whisper reading is that when Marcus miscues, he will hear the other students’ reading.  When he says the wrong word, he is hearing the correct word read aloud by other students.  He isn’t being corrected and no attention is drawn to the fact that he miscued, but he is hearing that immediate correction.  

I also think that shared reading would be a great strategy to implement with Marcus, and his class as a whole.  Big Books are a great resource for shared reading, and students love reading a big book with their teacher.  The teacher will read aloud, and the students will join in at predictable moments in the text.  The Big Book is read frequently throughout the week, and the students get more comfortable with the words.  This will help Marcus to recognize unfamiliar words, and the constant repetition could help with his miscues. 

Marcus may benefit from partner reading as well.  Having a proficient reader in the classroom, or maybe a mentor student from another grade might make Marcus feel more comfortable reading and even less embarrassed miscuing.  With a reading buddy, Marcus can work on reading for understanding and fluency.

Module 4: Reading Reflection

The reading for this week has probably been my favorite to date.  I loved reading about all of the different strategies and components in a comprehensive literacy program.  I finished my undergrad in December, and the following semester I spent subbing, including two long-term positions in the county I will be working.  Although I haven’t had my own classroom, my literacy education in undergrad was excellent, and required the implementation and study of many of the components in chapter 10.  I was also given a lot of freedom through my subbing experiences to implement new strategies.   

Guided reading was a daily activity in student teaching.  The entire county in which I student taught highly valued guided reading.  Through classes, I learned the basics, and at my school, I received trainings that the other teachers did.  This was so influential to my learning! I thought that all schools and counties stressed guided reading equally, but through my experience subbing, I never once encountered a classroom that did true guided reading.  This was really surprising to me.   

Sustained reading was a huge deal in every school I’ve been in.  For student teaching, we called it “stamina reading,” and really focused on building up the time that students could focus completely on reading, not on scanning the room, flipping through the book, or staring off into space.  In the county I will be teaching, it is referred to as DEAR, or drop everything and read.  

Before the end of my student teaching, the school hired a literacy specialist to talk about different reading and writing strategies with the teachers.  In my opinion, the most exciting area she talked about was literature circles.  I truly love the idea and purpose, and I think giving students responsibilities and expectations within a reading group is amazing, especially to their motivation. Unfortunately, I was no longer at the school when literature circles were actually implemented.

Intermittently, I will do a write-aloud or shared writing with my classes.  This was typically to demonstrate their assignment in some way.  I would show how I would complete the writing assignment in the write-aloud, and for shared writing I would call on different students to dictate different areas of a class story.  I also believe in sustained writing and writing conferences.  The sustained writing would be in the form of writer’s workshop, and writing conferences were times that the students would sign up on the board to meet with the teacher before writing their final draft. 

Although I do not have much experience in terms of years, I do feel that I have been very blessed by being able to see and implement many important strategies.  All of these strategies are ones that I feel are integral to a classroom and students’ literacy instruction.

Module 3: Activity 2

I think that phonemic awareness, or hearing sounds within words, is an important thing for students to know.  While I don’t think that this is the only thing students need to know in order to read, I do see its value, especially with the youngest readers.  The video, however focused also on nonsense words, and it stated that research shows it is a good indicator of reading success. Although I’m sure that there is evidence that has at some point proven this in particular studies, I disagree.  I’m not sure how reading words that don’t hold meaning helps readers. 

If we are teaching our students that the point of reading is to gain meaning, then we shouldn’t be giving them tasks like reading nonsense words.  When we give them nonsense words, there is no context for the word.  It is presented in the form of lists.  How can a student gain meaning from a nonsense word among many in a list?  If we are going to be consistent teachers, we need to practice what we preach.  We need to show students that nonsense words are literally meaningless, and really don’t help us become stronger readers.