Transcript ED 302 The Five Reading Components

The Five Reading Components
By Dana Karls
Balanced Literacy in the Classroom
-SynopsisBalanced literacy is a method for teaching literacy that includes an
array of various proven and effective methods for improving reading,
writing and listening proficiency. This includes reading aloud, shared
reading, guided reading, independent reading, modeled/shared reading,
interactive reading, and independent reading. All of these methods have
been proven extremely effective in not only teaching children to read, but
in helping to expand their minds and abilities in many areas of academics.
I believe that all of these methods are extremely important and must
be implemented together in order for the methods to compliment one
another. All of these methods overlap and are extensions of one another.
As a future teacher, I plan to integrate myriad reading and writing
strategies into my classroom as much and as often as possible. The five
components of literacy- phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency,
vocabulary, and comprehension- will help me provide excellent and
invaluable literacy education for my future learners.
I will include a wide range of material and instruction to meet the
personal needs and unique learning styles in my diverse classroom,
making sure that every single student gets the individualized and quality
education that he or she deserves- no matter what.
Wisconsin Teaching Standards
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and
structures of the disciplines he or she teaches and can create learning
experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for pupils.
The teacher understands how children with broad ranges of ability learn and
provides instruction that supports their intellectual, social and personal
development.
The teacher understands how pupils differ in their approaches to learning
and the barriers that impede learning and can adapt instruction to meet the
diverse needs of pupils, including those with disabilities and exceptionalities.
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies,
including the use of technology to encourage children’s development of
critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.
The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and
behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social
interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
Teaching Standards - Cont’d
6.
The teacher uses effective verbal and nonverbal communication techniques
as well as instructional media and technology to foster active inquiry,
collaboration and supportive interaction in the classroom.
7. The teacher organizes and plans systematic instruction based upon
knowledge of subject matter, pupils, the community and curriculum goals.
8. The teacher understands and uses formal and informal assessment
strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social, and
physical development of the pupil.
9. The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effect
of his or her choices and actions on pupils, parents, professionals in the
learning community and others and who actively seeks out opportunities to
grow professionally.
10. The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and
agencies in the larger community to support pupil learning and well being
and who acts with integrity, fairness and in an ethical manner.
Phonemic Awareness
What it is:
The ability to hear, identify and manipulate sounds in
spoken words.
Phonemic Awareness
Students must be able to hear sounds, single
them out, delete and add them, and play with
them in oral language. This ability leads to
greater reading achievement later in school.
Mini-Lesson:
Using Names to Build Phonemic
Awareness
1. Introduction: This activity helps students to hear
and recognize rhyming words.
2. Level: Kindergarten – 2nd grade
3. Procedure: Choose children whose names have lots
of rhyming words to come forward. Say a word that
rhymes with one of the names and have the
children say the word along with the name of the
rhyming child.
4. Assessment: Have students make up their own
rhymes, using their own names or names of their
classmates.
Mini-Lesson:
“Using Names to Build
Phonemic Awareness”
5. Methods and Considerations for Diverse Learners:
Students who are struggling may choose the
rhyming words from a given selection that includes
rhyming and non-rhyming words. Students in need
of more challenge can be given a word and asked to
list as many rhyming words as they can.
6. Reflection: I like this activity- it is simple and
effective. It helps students gain an understanding of
how sounds go together and it also helps students
manipulate and have fun with oral language.
-adapted from “Phonics They Use” by Patricia M. Cunningham
Phonics
What it is:
The relation between letters and sounds in
written words or instructional method that
teaches children these connections.
Phonics
Phonics helps students to understand that the
sounds they hear spoken everyday have a logical and
fairly systematic representation in written language.
This understanding is the basis for reading words.
Mini-Lesson:
“Changing a Hen to a Fox”
1. Introduction: This activity helps children listen to
and consider one letter of a word at a time and
manipulate words through this process.
2. Level: 1st grade
3. Procedure: Have students “change a hen into a fox”
by writing a word on the board and having them
change one letter at a time. Begin with “HEN”, have
students copy the word on their papers or white
boards. Tell them, “Now change the hen to a pen”,
and they decide they have to change the h to a p.
Mini-Lesson:
“Changing a Hen to a Fox”
continue on with: “now change your pen into a
pet”, “can you change pet to pit?” (the teacher
helps them stretch out the vowels to decide
which letter to change), “now change pit to sit”,
“next change sit to six”, “then change six to fix”,
and “finally, change fix to fox”.
4. Assessment: The teacher asks each student in
turn which letter they believe should be changed
in order to get to the next word. She can check
each student’s paper to make sure they are
changing the correct letter.
Mini-Lesson:
“Changing a Hen to a Fox”
5. Methods and Considerations for Diverse Learners:
Students who are struggling may be given more
guidance in stretching out the sounds of each letter
and pointing out which letters sound similar to
letters in other words. Students in need of further
challenge may be asked to change bug into hen (or
something similar) on their own.
6. Reflection: I think that this activity is extremely
relevant and effective for helping students to isolate
parts of words and to understand that these parts
can be manipulated to form other written words.
-adapted from “Phonics They Use” by Patricia M. Cunningham
Fluency
What it is:
Fluency is the ability to read most words in
context quickly, accurately, and with appropriate
expression.
Fluency
Fluency is critical to reading because it
helps students focus their attention on the
content instead of spending their energy
decoding text.
Students need to hear and see what fluent
reading is. They should always have many
opportunities for reading aloud, buddy
reading, and listening to books on tape.
Mini-Lesson:
“Choral Reading”
1. Introduction: This activity helps students become more
fluent readers through repeated readings of an
enjoyable text with rich vocabulary.
2. Level: All levels, depending on text difficulty.
3. Procedure: The teacher chooses a short passage-often a
poem- that will appeal to her students and reads the
passage aloud several times, modeling fluent reading.
Meaning of the poem and vocabulary words are built
through discussion.
Students each receive their own copy of the poem and
the teacher and the class do a choral reading of the
poem several times, with different students reading
different parts each time through.
Mini-Lesson:
“Choral Reading”
The students are paired and take turns reading the passage to each
other several times. The children help each other and respond to
each other with praise and encouragement.
4. Assessment: The teacher may walk around the room during
partner time and observe the students reading to each other.
5. Methods and Considerations for Diverse Learners: Students who
struggle with a difficult text may be given a simpler passage and
keep reading it for days or weeks with guidance and
encouragement from the teacher. Students who excel may be
given more difficult passages and asked to read them aloud in
front of the class or in groups.
6. Reflection: I really like this activity because it gets everyone
involved on many different levels. It allows advanced learners a
chance to challenge themselves and to help others, and it allows
struggling students to practice and improve without stress or
pressure. This is a great way to help students practice hearing,
reading, and speaking fluently every day.
-adapted from “Phonics They Use” by Patricia M. Cunningham
Vocabulary
What it is:
Vocabulary is the words that we must know in
order to communicate effectively. There are four
types of vocabulary:
Listening- the words we need to know to
understand what we hear.
Speaking- words we use when we speak.
Reading- words we need to know to
understand what we read.
Writing- words we use in writing.
Vocabulary
Children use their oral vocabulary
to make sense of the words they see in print and hear in the
world. Readers must know the meaning of most words in a
text before they can understand what they are reading.
Mini-Lesson:
“Making a Word Wall”
1. Introduction: Children need to associate
meaning with the abstract connecting words
that are frequently found in text. These words
should be displayed in a readily accessible and
viewable place- a word wall.
2. Level: all levels
3. Procedure: Create a large bulletin board and
add words gradually- about five per week. These
should be common words found often in the
writing that students encounter or words that
will be useful for the students to know during a
particular unit or lesson.
Mini-Lesson:
“Making a Word Wall”
make words accessible and where everyone can see
them. Use a variety of colors to organize the words in
the most logical manner to aid students’
understanding.
Practice the words by chanting and writing them. Do a
variety of review activities to provide enough practice
so that the words are read and spelled constantly.
Enforce correct spelling of word-wall words in all
student writing.
4. Assessment- the teacher can conduct spelling “trys”
where students write or say word-wall words after a
teacher prompt. The students get a point for every
correctly spelled word, but are not penalized for
incorrect answers.
Mini-Lesson:
“Making a Word Wall”
5. Methods and Considerations for Diverse Learners: Provide
a great variety of review activities, such as repeated writing,
saying, and hearing words, for students who struggle with
visual learning. For students who excel at word-wall
activities, have them write a short story using the word-wall
words, or provide advanced words on flashcards for them to
strengthen their vocabularies.
6. Reflection: I really like the idea of “doing” a word wall, as
opposed to simply having one in the classroom and
expecting students to use it or learn from it. The more the
teacher facilitates interaction with the word wall, the more
that the students will learn and develop rich vocabularies
that they can actually use.
-adapted from “Phonics They Use” by Patricia M. Cunningham
Comprehension
What it is: The ability to understand and gain
meaning from what has been read.
Comprehension
Comprehension is the most
vital aspect of reading - comprehension is how we
learn and grow from what we read. Without
comprehension words would “go in one ear and out
the other” and no knowledge would be gained.
Mini-Lesson:
“Beach Ball Activity”
1. Introduction: This activity is a fun and effective way to see if
your students are comprehending the text they are reading.
2. Level: All levels, depending on difficulty of text and questions
3. Procedure: Before class, write a question about the text on
each section of the ball. The questions should pertain to
various aspects of the story: main characters, plot,
predictions, favorite part of the story, message, similar
stories, etc.
Toss the ball to one student at a time and have the student
try to answer the question that is facing her when she
catches the ball. The student can then toss the ball to
another student or the teacher can be “all-time tosser”.
Mini-Lesson:
“Beach Ball Activity”
4. Assessment: The teacher can pay attention to students’ answers
to see which students are truly understanding the text and which
students need more practice.
5. Methods and Considerations for Diverse Learners: The teacher
can create two beach balls: one with higher level questions on the
text and one with simpler questions about the text. She can toss
the appropriate ball to each student in turn, depending on how
much she believes they need to be challenged. If students are
uncomfortable answering in front of the whole class, the teacher
can divide the students into groups and have them do the activity
within their groups.
6. Reflection: I really like this activity. I think that students would
find it much more exciting than simply answering questions about
a text. It is a fun and low pressure activity which is also a great
way to assess the students without having to give any tests or
grades.
Overall Reflection
This project on the five reading components has helped me truly realize the incredible
importance, not to mention effectiveness, of implementing a quality and interactive balanced
literacy program in my future classroom. I have always had a great love for reading and a
desire to help others learn to love reading, but through this class I have gained real-life skills
with which I can actually use to help others learn to read. Coming into the class I certainly did
not know the differences between phonics, phonemic awareness, and phonological
awareness. Now, not only do I know the differences, but I know how to effectively implement
these strategies, and many, many more, to help guide and instruct a classroom full of language
learners.
Throughout this class I have gained countless
strategies, ideas, lesson plans, materials, and much more so that
when I finally enter the real world of teaching, I will be armed
with everything I could have hoped for to help my students get
the best education possible. I know that each of my students will
have unique backgrounds, talents, needs, and preferences, and I
am enthusiastic and well-prepared to make sure that each and
every student that comes through my door gets the best
education possible, including the very best literacy instruction
they could ever hope for.