Due April 5th
Turn to “Important Points About a Reading Process System” on page 22. Pick one point to post and elaborate on, connected with your classroom instruction.
Respond to one other person on the blog about their connection to the classroom.
Every reader constructs his or her own system. A few years ago I was privileged to receive Reading Recovery Instruction. What I find is that I am trying to find out where students are through constant assessment and monitoring: running records, written words tracked, words read tracked, etc. Then asking students what they see and hear. Looking in their brains and letting them teach me. It is like the math programs, if the system works for the student and still solves the problems, don't fix it. I think I like this part of reading the most, getting to see what is inside students and having them show me unique ways of looking at things.
ReplyDeleteWow! I am really impressed with this book. I like that this book emphasizes that in every reading curriculum, most of the students learn to read. But, there are always a few who are struggling and falling behind. As teachers, it's important to not place blame on the student -- but rather to recognize that every single student can learn to read if the teacher understands what is needed to develop a reading process system.
ReplyDeleteThere are two points about the reading process system that seem to go hand in hand. First, the goal of the fluent reader is for the strategies to work quickly and flexibly. Second, the only way to make this happen is to put those skills to use with reading material that is right at the student's level.
To sum up the last two paragraphs: every student can learn to read. All of them need to develop the same skills. However, some students simply need more time and practice to develop them.
I really get a good taste of this philosophy when I spend time in a first grade general education classroom. After listening to the basal story only one time, most of the students in the class will recognize the pattern of the story, remember a handful of the longest words from the story that would be too hard to decode (such as watermelon or katydid), use pictures as clues to the events in the story and remember the correct way to decode certain words. In short -- they quickly gather a huge number of tools they need to build speed and accuracy with the story. After reading it out loud twice, almost every single student can read it fluently.
Many identified students, on the other hand, often have to hear the story two or three times before they notice that lines/themes/words repeat or remember the order of the events in the story. And, they must read it five or six times before they can correctly remember and predict the really difficult words that are specific to the story, and remember how to quickly decode easy words in the story. Ultimately, all of my students are capable of reading the stories presented in class -- but they need to experience it nine to ten times as opposed to two or three times. And, ultimately, all of my students are relying on the same skills in order to quickly and accurately interpret the text.
It's also important to remember that students will best develop these skills when they practice them on texts that are not too easy and not too hard. So, most weeks, it's not really in the student's best interest to rely on classroom texts to build these skills. However, with certain stories from class, it's a worthwhile use of our time.
I chose the first point to elaborate on. "A reading process system is composed of a multitude of strategies". It seems that some of the students I have are lacking many of the strategies on this chart. They are so busy decoding the words that the rest of it just goes out the window. Since I started using the Spell Read program I have seen some of them start being able to use different strategies. It wasn't necessarily that the strategies weren't there, they just never got around to using them. The books we read are right at their level, which allows them to visualize, ask questions, relate to the text, etc. Also, as their decoding skills improve, so does their ability to use the strategies they already have as well as to learn new strategies that I teach.
ReplyDeleteDot,
ReplyDeleteI like your point of view on if a student's system works and solves the problem, don't fix it. That makes a lot of sense to me. Just as not all kids learn in the same way, they can use the strategies for reading in their own way too. There have been many times that I am expecting kids to do or say something a certain way, when they surprise me with something else. It may not have been what I would have come up with, but totally right anyway.
"The goal of a fluent reader is for the strategies to work quickly and flexibly."
ReplyDeleteThe reading program I use is Success For All. I teach first grade students. The students I have typically struggle and sound out every word. When school starts the only tool in their "toolbox" seems to be sound-it-out. We work really hard to teach many different strategies students can use and by the end of the first quarter they are choosing different tools from their "toolbox."
Once students put different strategies to work they are not afraid to use them. Struggling students become better readers, but still lack the flexibility and quickness needed to become fluent readers. Right now I am working on fluency with many of the readers in my class. By modeling and practicing one or two sentences over and over the fluency begins to come. I have found that backing up and reading books from the first of the year help tremendously with fluency.
1st Grade Teacher -
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on your comment that readers need the text they are reading to be at their level - not too easy and not too hard. If it is too easy they don't have to utilize the strategies they have learned. If it is too difficult they find that they have little or no success. Students need to be challenged and also to be successful in order to develop into confident readers.
"The system becomes stronger the more it is put to use."
ReplyDeleteI think that each student has their own system of reading and the skills we are teaching just add to it. The more we help students practice a certain skill the stronger they become. Implementing the SpellRead program in my room has definitely help my students become stronger readers. As I have taught Spellread the students are taking the skills they are learning and applying them when they read the Spellread books and then during AR time. By the students learning and using these skills they are just becoming stronger.
Tonya, I agree with the SpellRead system getting stronger as they use it. I still have to remind them to point and sweep or tell them that is one or our SpellRead sounds, but then they are able to decode the word.
ReplyDeleteTeresa
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment about backing up and reading books from the first of the year. In my plans I have a group of kids that is reading a book from the beginning of the year and reading it this time sounds much better than it did then.
Rae Lynn
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that many kids are lacking the skills on the list and that its not that they didn't have them it's that they never have put the skills to use. I do beleive that with the spellread program it does help the students put these skills to use in order to become better readers. Since we have started the program I have seen the students abilities to read just take off.
The interaction of the strategic actions is crucial. The strategies overlap, interconnect, and support each other
ReplyDeleteI believe everything in reading is interconnected. I have taught students who are extremely fluent, but could not visualize, or summarize, or infer. At the same time, I have had students who could not self-monitor and had no fluency, but if they figured out the words they could comprehend everything. I think it is really hard to teach the interaction between the strategies. Talking with the students about what they are reading is a good way to try to make some of the connections. The students who have difficulty decoding and with fluency are easier to help. The Spell Read program does a good job of focusing on this. We can see and hear the problems they are having. The students with visualizing and inferring difficulties are harder to help. We can't see where the problems are. I am excited to read more in this book.
Teresa,
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about the student's "toolbox". I agree too many students think the only way to figure a word out is to decode, "sound it out". It is fun to be able to help a student add to their "toolbox"
I like your comments about the Spell Read program. I haven't had the opportunity to try and utilize that program, but that is exactly what we were hoping. It does make me a bit jealous of you guys. But excited for you also.
ReplyDeleteI think "toolbox" is a real visual for me in teaching students. I have been wrapping my head around what that means for me as a teacher and how to get those toolboxes filled.
I agree that so many of our students have trouble getting away from S O words. And that automaticity, or rapid response is so hard.
I sure found lots to reflect from all your comments. Can't wait for the second round.
Dot
ReplyDeleteI think we are adding to the students toolboxes everyday without knowing it. Most of the time I just think that students don't know how to choose what to use from their toolbox or even how to decide what to choose.
I love that thought Tonya! I think the consistent introduction of strategies in a paced curriculum, helps the kids learn to apply the strategies that work for them. It just takes them a wile to figure out what to use in certain situations. The book states, "A major problem for children who struggle is that they are not putting a reading process system together in their heads to help them read with understanding and fluency."
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly our kids, but with the strategies we show them, and some graphic organizing, we can help them build one.