The Challenge Of Fluency

Distinguishing between the ability to read certain words, but not comprehend them is a tricky place to be. As a student it's frustrating and disheartening, and as a teacher you are left potentially feeling inadequate, not quiet sure how to help that student achieve their goal. However, in Timothy Rasinski's piece, Creating Fluent Readers, a three step guideline is created to better equip teachers in this process. The first tip given by Rasinski is for teachers to help students with their accuracy by decoding words. After students can do this, the second step is automatic processing. Thirdly, after students are able to complete the first two steps, they will begin practicing prosodic reading, which means that, "The reader must parse the text into syntactically and semantically appropriate units."

By following these steps, one can distinguish where the student falls in their deficiency, and can meet the student where they are at--focusing on how to solve the problem rather than just stating they are falling behind.

It is good to keep in mind though, as discussed in Theresa A. Deeney's article on One Minute Fluency Measurements, that some researchers believe fluency is present in students even before they can show its connectedness to the text. This point of view argues that it's manifestation however, is what we see at a later date. This is accomplished when accuracy, automaticity, and many other small parts of reading strategies are combined.

Ultimately, regardless of how fluency happens, I think it is important for students to understand that while reading, balancing words accurately and quickly all the while connecting them to the context is challenging. A lot of time, fear and failure come from a place when students feel like they are the only ones on the planet struggling with something. So, as a teacher, it is important to encourage children in this stage of reading but  also bring to their attention that this knowledge will take time to achieve.

This process can be draining at times, repetitively reading phrases and passages. That is why I found this activity to the right, as fun and silly and a way to help kids enjoy this stage of reading more! Students could each be assigned a character, or we could draw as a class one a day, and one student could read aloud to the rest of his/her peers.

From Teacher To Coach: The Study of Encouraging Your Students

It is a very interesting idea to think about teachers as coaches. I have always found myself wanting to be an encourager to my students, but to call myself a coach? Well, I've never thought of that before.

But the more I read Kathleen F. Clark's article, What Can I say Besides, "Sound it out"? Coaching word recognition in beginning reading, this idea is becoming more of a reality. Clark distinguishes what she believes to be successful techniques to coaching students into using previously learned knowledge to read. By crafting instructional cues for students to pick up, Clark believes every student will have the capacity to excel in reading. By 'coaching' readers, teachers help students reach the five steps that Classrooms That Work by Cunningham and Allington describes. A successful coach helps readers achieve:

1. Recognizing that a word is unfamiliar, one looks at all the letters in order.
2. Searching mental word banks for similar letter patterns andy eh sounds associated with them.
3. Producing pronunciation that matches that of the real world the student knows.
4. Reread the sentence to cross-check the students possible pronunciation with meaning, and if the meaning confirms pronunciation, keep reading. (If not, try again!)
5. Lastly, if the word is unfamiliar, the student would look for familiar morphemes, and chunk the word by putting letters together that usually go together in the words the student knows.

One can achieve these steps as a teacher by applying a coaching technique. In order to complete these steps, a coach provides general cues to promote thought and cues to promote a specific action like producing a pronunciation or searching one's mental word bank.

Overall, one tip for helping students read that I found most helpful through the coaching technique was detecting a smaller word within a large unknown word. This helps students accomplish some ground, and makes the word not as intimidating, and from there, they can begin to use cues and coaching tips. One way to help encourage readers to discover new words, is by speaking them out loud. A great idea of how to do this, yet still manage your classroom volume level, is a whisper phone, pictured to the right and below. This allows students to hear themselves as they read, yet is quieter to their surrounding peers. These can be homemade out of pipes, or store bought, and is a great way to incorporate interactive reading!

You Were Born A Writer

In Donna Bell and Donna Jarvis’ article, “Letting Go of the Letter of The Week” new methods are discussed on how to introduce reading and writing to elementary aged students. One of my favorite topics discussed in this article was to affirm and validate that children are already writers. The example of Mrs. Jarvis with her class was such a great idea of how to incorporate creative writing into a classroom setting at an early age. To conduct this activity the teacher should take the following steps:

1. Explain to students that they are each already writers.
2. Give students the freedom to write whatever they want.
3. Conduct an exercise where the teacher frees students of a narrow-minded idea of what a writer is by discussing different types of writing. (chart to the right)
4. Tell children to write the way they know how to write, using the chart as their guide.
5. This encourages students to practice and accept many different forms of writing communication.             

                                             

The main thing I loved about this approach was freeing students from the growing pressure placed on writing. So often students enter into situations in their later years, believing that they are not ‘good writers’. If, as a teacher I have the ability to teach my students at an early age the importance of creativity, and instill a writer’s confidence in them, I believe it would travel far in their academic life.

This also ties into what IRA NAEYC says in their position paper about teaching children to read and write.  Many topics are taken into consideration, including the increasing diversity in classrooms. As a teacher, we must be aware of this shift and variety. This idea by Jarvis is a great way to incorporate each type of learner, whether highly skilled or in beginning stages, to feel equal and on the same page.

I believe that diversity is a great addition to a classroom, because with it comes many different opinions and life experiences. This would attribute to students learning to think outside the box of their own life, and I believe having students conduct a writing journal as Jarvis has done would be an excellent way to portray this idea, and encourage students that it is okay to be different!

The Role of Influence in Reading

Looking back on my childhood, I would say that my family played a significant role in my literacy development. While I do not particularly remember my parents teaching me how to read, books and imagination were very important things in my house. My dad would read to my two sisters and I every night, sometimes even making up stories.  Grammatically, I specifically remember a day in Kindergarten when I made the mistake of thinking ‘on’ was an ‘a’ sound because the spelling of my name, Anna (which is pronounced Ah-nah). As discussed in chapter three, my background information of this sound led me to incorrectly place it with a letter. After a gentle correction from my teacher, I quickly learned what sound was connected to what letter. This is a leading example that the majority of my learning to read was conducted at school by my teachers, however, my parents helped me continue to succeed at home through practice and assignments.

Similar to the Joneses, there were other primary influences in my life growing up beside my mother. My dad was really involved in daily activities, and while my grandparents did not live in Tennessee, every November, they would come rent a house for a month near us. I would also see them every summer, and periodically throughout the year. Even my grandparents have affected my literacy development, and in fact, a couple of years ago, I received a book series containing ten books for my birthday.

Just as in Pinesville, social factors and the time of events played a crucial role in my reading experience. Going into Kindergarten I do not remember having a complete understanding of sounds and letters, however, today children are expected to start the year with a complete understanding of how to read.  There was also a heavy influence because of the community I came from. In Farragut, my town growing up, the community was very involved, with many middle class to wealthy families who are very involved in their kid’s lives. This contributed to student’s entering into school with more practice. Just as in Farragut, the community of Pinesville played a crucial role in student’s literacy development. How can we as a community encourage students to read? How can we play a part? Here is a chart of questions to ask those young readers around you! Also, these questions can be modified to be more age appropriate for the reader! Enjoy!

Theories Combined Lead to Reading More Lines!

After reading What I’ve learned about effective reading instruction by R.L. Allington, I am finding myself nodding in agreement with what she has painted throughout the pages of her work. It was very helpful for me to focus on her six points of effective elementary literacy instruction: time, text, teaching, talk, task, and testing.  As a student, I am feeling completely overwhelmed by theories, and methods of teaching. Going into this career, my reasons where solely because of the kids I would come in contact with, and how I wish to give them the support and encouragement they need to succeed and excel. Now, however, this desire and goal seems distant, as I am consumed by learning about paper work, methods, lesson plans, and grading guidelines.

I was on the phone with my dad the other day, and he asked me how my classes were this semester. I proceeded by discussing the fact that I was thoroughly enjoying the fact that I was learning things that I would apply to my profession, but at the same time, feeling completely overwhelmed by all the projects and steps in-between before becoming a teacher. He responded by reminding me that those who love children make great teachers. That some people who become teachers are fascinated with theories and what not, but that ultimately, when one is in the classroom, a theory is still a theory, and a successful teacher is one who is for his or her students. For a split second, I was reminded of why I chose this major, and my passion for education flickered once again.

This reading helped fan that flame of wanting to become an excellent teacher. My desire for this is not because I want to receive the highest test scores of the school, but rather because I want to see students succeed. Allington reminded me of that passion through her writing. Allington also assisted in my discovery that theories are needed, and that most theories interwoven, like the six T’s, are stronger when enforced as a whole. I also enjoyed reading from Classrooms That Work, and discovering that effective teachers give their students some kind of choice and responsibility when it comes to reading. Reading is so much more enjoyable when you feel like you had some kind of say in what you choose to read.

As a way to distribute responsibly to my students, I found this form to be a great resource to possibly use in my classroom some day! It encourages students to soak in what they are reading, and presents reading as something they should be proud of, and I love that!