Classroom structure: Organizing Literature

Know that we are equipped with multiple methods and ways to teach reading, how do we pull it all together? How do we make sure that, as teachers, we are conducting reading activities in an organized, non confusing, instructional way?

First, just as discussed in Classrooms That Work, an efficient teacher has a schedule daily of what her students are doing. Successful teachers also have plans on how they are going to accomplish lessons and activities in class.  "Expert teachers also use a four-part process to scaffold student understanding during small-group guided instruction," according to Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher. This requires that the teacher be more knowledgable on the subject than the student so that the student may receive proper answers. Thus, in an organized classroom the teacher not only has a plan, but is appropriately equipped with the right answers. (*An example of this can be found to the right.)

Another way to create an organized classroom is to understand that there are many ways one can conduct a reading activity. But a successful teacher would consider his or her's particular class and students. As discussed in Allington's piece, The Schools We Have. The Schools We Need., too many schools practice generic plans of reading rather than thinking of personal ways to help students excel.

In conclusion, while there are many ways to create and organize how you teach reading, a daily schedule and a personal plan will contribute heavily to a successful classroom.

1. What are some things you deem necessary to include in a daily schedule?
2. How do you know how to modify an assignment to student's personal needs?

Assessment

"The more different ways I teach, the more children I reach."

Teaching reading is as simple as discussed in chapter eleven of Classrooms that Work by Cunningham and Allington. To accommodate for the multiple different types of learners in a classroom, it is important to consider how different teaching methods can help improve each students learning experience of reading.

One way to do this is by using a variety of collaborative groupings. You can divide the class up into partners and have students take turns talking, reading, or writing.

You can also divide the class into literature circles, selecting in advance four to six books that are related in some way and assigning one to each group. Within each group, just as we did in our reading education book clubs, each student can be assigned a weekly role of a discussion direction, passage master, vocabulary enricher, connector, and illustrator. As the teacher, you can even personalize these too the books, giving them more appealing names and duties to your students.

Another way to practice a different approach to reading is through coaching groups. This is a great method if, as the teacher, you realize that your students are having a hard time pronouncing unfamiliar words. Through this approach, you can teach students word identification strategies.

Other ideas to consider as you plan a reading activity are partnering older struggling readers to tutor younger struggling readers, find and train a tutor for your most needly child, use the latest technology, and finally, use other resources such a reading specialist and programs.

To the right is an exercise that involves making connections from a book onto sticky notes. This is a great way to discover what intrigues your students, and where they are confused! 

Questions to consider:
1. What is a method that you feel strongly about? One that you will practice in your own classroom?
2. Is there one method this exercise would fit best with? Or, could it be used in multiple methods?

Guided Reading

After reading Anita Iaqunita's article, Guided Reading: A Research-Based Response to the Challenges of Early Reading Instruction, I was enlightened to acquire some new facts on guided reading. Did you know that the early years are the focus for prevention of reading difficulties because those who begin to lag behind demonstrates that children who get off to a poor start in reading rarely catch back up.

It is estimated that one in three children experience significant difficulties in learning to read. Accroding to stats from Iaquinta's article, a child who is a poor reader in first grade is 88% more likely to remain a poor reader in fourth grade.

Guided reading has become what is known as "the best practice" for today's balanced literacy instruction, and is a great tool to help usher young readers into stronger fluency.

According to Iaquinta, guided reading has three different purposes:

1. to meet the varying instructional needs of all the students in the classroom, enabling them to greatly expand their reading powers.
2. to teach students to read increasingly difficult texts with understanding and fluency
3. to construct meaning while using problem-solving strategies to figure out unfamiliar words that deal with complex stench structures, and understand concepts or ideas not previously encountered.

As a teacher, we should consider the level of the child's ability in reading, and make groups accordingly. The teacher's goal in guided reading it to, "Strive to provide the most effective instruction possible and to match the difficulty of the material with the student's current abilities.:

With this said, material should provide a challenge that is just right for the student. A couple questions I will leave you with:

1. How do you balance pushing a student enough, but not too much when it comes to level of guided reading?
2. What are ways you can make sure you are not overlooking the student's personal needs when orchestrating guided reading?

To the right is a great work sheet that the whole class can use and apply to their specific level. This way, kids do not feel as singled out if they are in different groups.

Vocabulary and Read Alouds

"Just as a house needs a strong foundation, so reading comprehension depends on a strong base of oral language and concept development." This statement made by Camille L.Z. Blachowicz and Peter Fisher triggers the truth of why vocabulary is so important to reading.

How do we assist in helping build up our students vocabulary base? Bridget Dalton and Dana L. Grisham discuss possible techniques to help students. Recommendations such as encouraging wide reading, teaching words and word learning strategies, and promoting active learning and interest in words in a new way by integrating technology. These processes can be manifested with the help of digital tools, media, and the internet. Five strategies were discussed to encourage students in a better vocabulary base. These included:

1. Learn from visual displays of word relationships within text.
2. Take a digital vocabulary field trip.
3. Connect fun and learning with online vocabulary games.
4.  Have students express media to express vocabulary knowledge.
5. Take advantage of online word reference tools that are also teaching tools

In the current age we live in, it is increasingly becoming more necessary that teachers incorporate technology into the classroom. I found some great websites in relation to vocabulary on a post by the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning Site on 16 websites that can be used as vocab tools.This is a great source for students in the upper elementary grade levels, all the way up to college! 

Comprehension Strategies

In Anne E. Gregory and Mary Ann Cahill's piece Kindergartners Can Do It, Too! Comprehension Strategies for Early Readers I was shocked to discover that even children in Kindgergarten understood what a schema was, and that ultimately they were engaging in meaning construction. The teacher mentioned in this article implementing these ideas marvelously to her students, making the ideas accessible to her students.

There must be many things as teachers we think our students are not capable of. But I believe if we simply and modify the ideas, transforming phrases and ideas to fit what they already know, the information will be applicable, just as portrayed here with reading this book to Kindergartners. 

How do we do this though? Sharon Ruth Gill discusses strategies to comprehension in her article, The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction. 

One way Gill discusses to assist students in comprehension is first, as a teacher, understanding different factors that affect comprehension. The three biggest factors of comprehension are the reader, the text, and the situation. However, your own personal views affect how you perceive comprehension also. For example, I believe learning is similar to a learning theory known as social cognitivism. This view that states the learners environment, behavior, and cognition all influence how they learn. My understanding, as brought up by Gill will be different because of this view I have on learning. So, personally, I believe that relating information back to the student, and making it relevant to them--whether that be to their current place in life, their behavior, or past experience--is a great way to further practice comprehension. 

Overall, as a teacher, it is important to not only form your own ideas about comprehension, but to continually seek new council and opinions on how best to achieve comprehension. One idea I found on Pinterest that I loved and thought was very creative was having students make a retelling bracelet (left). Each color has a specific purpose: the green bead is the beginning of the story, the blue beads are the story components in the middle, and the red bead is the end of the story. To help kids recall the story, have them slide a bead from right to left as they retell what they heard. Another idea is having a story board that is filled out as a class during reading or after reading of the story (upper right corner) to establish comprehension on the topic. 

Compentence

While reading What every teacher needs to know about comprehension by Laura S. Pardo, I found her definition of comprehension very interesting. She made this idea visible in figure one (below). Basically, Pardo believes comprehension is the connection between the reader and the text.

Pardo also discusses the fact that a very important aspect in students achieving comprehension is their world knowledge. It is very interesting to think that the amount a student knows about the world influences how well they can comprehend a particular story, but it makes sense.

This is why, just as it was discussed in Classrooms That Work, it is important to, "Develop thoughtful comprehenders". As teachers, we get the opportunity to open a whole new world to our students, and reading a great way to do this! Comprehending is a very large aspect of reading, as teachers we should encourage our students to engage more in the world around them. The more they know, the more they will discover while they read!

A great way to encourage readers in being conscience and aware of what's happening around them is by creating an activity for them to do where based off of their surroundings, they create and write their own stories, then pass them around to classmates to read. I remember doing this in elementary school and loved it. This is also a great way for readers to discover how reading can be fun and creative! One possible idea that may better engage readers is for students to create a story based off of world surroundings, but pretending they are super heroes. I love this idea because it combines world knowledge and creativity!

Poetry Performance

Poetry Performance:  The purpose is to have students learn the importance of varying the pitch, rate and volume of their voices. Emphasizing different words will alter the meaning of the poem that the students are reading.

Exercise #1:

1. Use the following poem by Bruce Lansky for this exercise.

My Baby Sister

My baby sister’s
really swell.
I love her smile,
but not her smell.

(Note: All poems used in this study guide are copyright by Bruce Lansky.)

2. Have students take turns reading the poem emphasizing one word over the others. For example the first student reads it emphasizing "My" and the second student reads the poem emphasizing "baby," and so on until the last student has read the poem emphasizing the last word "smell."

3. Reading the selected word with emphasis means to say it louder, slower and more dramatically than the other words in the poem. If you emphasize "My" it means my baby sister as opposed to yours. If you emphasize "baby" it may mean your baby sister as opposed to your older sister.

4. Discuss how the meaning of the poem changes as different words are emphasized.

5. Teach your students that as they practice other poems to present in class that they can decide which words to emphasize. They can underline these words so that they can identify these words as they practice their poems.

**This definition and exercise is found at http://www.poetryteachers.com/poetclass/performpoetry.htm