I'll explain later - Required Writting

How will you apply reading instruction techniques when working with students?

41% of SPPS students are in a home with a language other than English.  I work in a setting where we serve a high percentage of second language students so this percentage rings very true to me and my students.  I will apply reading instruction techniques in several ways as I move forward.

Longitudinal study at University of Kansas, 6month old babies observed until they were 3 years old and found that to learn beginning phonics in 1^st grade students need a vocabulary of 10,000-12,000 words – The more kids interact the more they are prepared for success when learning to read.  As the research states it is important for these kids to just be engaged and experience language so that they can being to develop their own prior knowledge or “files” that they can access when decoding language.  I will provide as many experiential learning activities so that kids can begin to pair words with their meaning. For example a common word we teach is “force”.  When teaching the vocabulary I will also provide opportunities to actually feel and experience forces as well as see the way forces are generated and interact.

Kids who haven’t been primed for learning phonics by being played with and read to are not ready for phonics until 3^rd grade.  Because phonics is usually taught earlier than 3^rd grade these unprepared kids don’t learn the code of language.  When engaging kids in writing assignments many of my students are reluctant to express themselves for fear of being wrong in terms of spelling or content.  I will continue to encourage these kids to hear the words they are writing and also provide other avenues for expressing the content such as through pictures and play acting.  I will also facilitate the process by writing responses with the students.

The trend of kids not knowing words has a tendency to follow them throughout their educational career making it difficult for them to keep up and especially pass state Basic Standards Tests.  One of the big problems is that the kids just don’t have enough life experience and therefore vocabulary to understand the content they are faced with.  One of the ways I will help with vocabulary development is by pairing new vocabulary words with visual examples of the words.  We will also practice hearing the words and verbalizing them as well as pairing the words with logical kinesthetic actions.

8^th grade students scoring below 54% don’t just need a little help to pass they need a lot. Some of these kids may be reading at a 3^rd grade level so they need help from reading teachers in the areas of vocabulary, writing practice, learning strategies and the 100 most frequently used words. Working with these students toward passing the state test represents a significant investment.

Kids who failed in the mid range, 55-74 percent don’t need as much help and are best assisted by helping them access the things they are already good at or giving them a little boost in their life experience to draw from when decoding the written word. Teaching specific learning strategies along with vocabulary development including how words are assembled from component parts is a good approach to helping these students.

Even kids who pass the Basic Skills Test can still use help in improving their reading.  These kids may be working really hard to understand what they are reading and they can be taught strategies to help them become more efficient readers.  With all of the needs at the lower end this is an area that can be easily overlooked.  However scaffolding is not just for kids who need help but provides a structure for differentiating instruction which gives students at all reading levels opportunities to grow.

 It is important to teach and support reading strategies throughout the entire school because it provides students with continuous opportunities and resources for improving their reading.  Improvements in reading don’t happen quickly so it is important that everyone works toward the same goals of increasing literacy.

Al Greenfield Ph.D. suggests that meaningful reading extends beyond just being able to answers questions about the text correctly. When reading is meaningful there should be a synergy between meaning, visualization and structure of the text.

Michael Pressley from Notre Dame suggests that a great way to approach fiction and nonfiction is to first engage in the prior knowledge you already have about it. Based on this approach lesson formats would pretty much be flipped on its head by moving the actual reading back and beginning with a significant section of pre-reading activities.

There are many variables out of the control our control as teachers but there are some that we can control and that make a big difference. For example the type of lessons we create especially in how we structure the lesson regarding activation students’ prior knowledge and giving students opportunities to create new prior knowledge.