Module 5: Video Reflection

Rubrics- an Introduction

The Rubrics video introduces the concept of a rubric for assessment by giving examples of rubrics as they could relate to the assessment of a cookie. Because I am familiar with rubrics the concept was not new to me but I do need to use them more often in my classroom. Usually when I have used them in the past, I have assessed using specific point values but I do like how the rubrics presented used a percentage of possible points so that it could be applied to any point value.

Module 5: Slideshow Reflections

Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Fluency

This slideshow relates how students learn phonics to learning high-frequency words and how it improves fluency. It offered specific instructional activities for building word pattern knowledge. This comes at a great time for me because I was beginning to feel that I was running out of ideas for teaching word families. We quite often make flip books and do sorts to learn the patterns. As we read we make lists of rhyming words but it was getting a little boring. I believe next I will have the students make little  books, where a different word from the same family is on each page and they can illustrate. The computer program that we used for Shared Reading in my classroom already involves word building and memory games but we always do an extra activity or two to supplement. The most important point made in the presentation was that you have to match the skills to the texts that are currently being used. If students don’t have the opportunity to apply the skills, it will not be useful to them.

Linking Phonics and Vocabulary Development

This short slideshow reiterated that phonics is not a stand-alone skill in regards to literacy development; it is meant to give the student the necessary skills to be able to read independently and read for meaning, increasing vocabulary at the same time. Phonics instruction must be made meaningful by aligning the texts being read to the skills being taught. I find this true and have caught myself in the past just throwing lessons together without taking the time to align all of the components. It is so much more meaningful when thoughtfully organized in such a way that students are able to make connections between the skills and their application. If opportunities are not provided, they will not be able to make the connections independently and learn by analogy as a result.

Vocabulary Development

This presentation gave several examples of word-analysis strategies. I hate hearing a student prompted to “sound it out.” This tells me that the adult who is working with them does not have a sound knowledge of the different ways students analyze new words; decoding should be a last resort. I enjoy letting students come back to a word after finishing that portion of a reading passage if they need to so they can think about what makes sense using semantic and syntactic clues; they need to be able to look back at what they are reading anyway to monitor comprehension.

 I enjoyed the portion of the presentation on direct/indirect methods and strategies for teaching high frequency words. In my classroom the instructional methods have to be fairly predictable and routine because of the specific learning needs of my students but I like to add in a new and fun activity once a week or so to make sure they are mastering the skills and not just the routine. Some strategies that I may incorporate are the Carbo Recorded Book Method (because I feel the books on tape do move too fast for younger students) and making Little Books; we have made little books for content areas before and the students really enjoyed looking back at them later.  

 Assessing Vocabulary

This particular slideshow explains the different levels of new vocabulary, key points for instruction, and suggestions for assessment. I found the samples of vocabulary assessments to be the most useful part of the presentation; this section has made me think about how I might modify these assessments to use with my students. Our vocabulary assessments rely on the students’ receptive language skills because of their delays in expressive language; usually by identifying a picture or word from a field of 3 or matching. I think I would like to use an adapted version of the vocabulary rating scale to assess knowledge of words on the 2^nd and 3^rd tiers of vocabulary words.  

Module 5: Text Reflections, Ch.'s 11, 13, & 14

Ch. 11 of the Opitz text explains the importance of student vocabulary development as it relates to other aspects of reading skills, how vocabulary develops, how vocabulary can be assessed, and provides guidelines and strategies for effective vocabulary instruction. Vocabulary development is something that I have to work very hard to support in my classroom because all of my students have a severe language delay. I have to plan and implement explicit, intensive instruction to build the vocabulary of my students. As it is mentioned in the text we begin with labeling common objects and move towards actions and descriptions; we start with the concrete and move towards the abstract.

Because my action research is based on an intervention to support listening and reading comprehension, I have also been thinking lately about the relationship between vocabulary and comprehension. If I were to ask a student if the character from a story is creative or dull, they would first have to be familiar enough with those words to make an educated guess. This tells me that as the text explained, vocabulary is a predictor of comprehension.

In Ch. 13, study skills and learning strategies are explored. As I was reading, I was wanting to show my teenage daughter that all of the things that I’ve been telling her for years and getting on to her for are true; good study skills involves developing good habits like a consistent study schedule in a place that is free of distractions. I also found the checklists in this chapter to be a good reference because it’s difficult to explain exactly what good study skills look like because of the independent nature of the activity.

This chapter reminded me that in my own classroom I need to slow down and provide more explicit instruction in study skills or just demonstrate more thoroughly through modeling and think alouds how we get information from texts. This may just be presenting students with the resources and then using strategies such as questioning, skimming, or note taking to demonstrate how they can be effective means to focus learning.

Finally, Ch. 14 promotes and explains different ways that parents can be involved in schools. It is widely accepted that parental involvement promotes higher student achievement; this chapter explains several ways that can be achieved and tips for parents on how to support their child’s reading needs. I thought the most interesting part of the chapter was the section that explained TV and computer use as not necessarily having a negative impact on students’ literacy skills. I suppose thought that is consistent with the formats in which people currently gain information.

Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement: Assessment and instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Module 4: Text Reflections

I found the points made in Chapter 9 of the Opitz text to be so very true. Students who are exposed to more and different types of text are usually much more proficient readers; I can always tell a difference in my kindergartners who are exposed to different types of text and whose parents read with them at home.
In my classroom I attempt to expose my students to as many different types of text as possible but I end up most often relying on basal readers and predictable books which are probably my favorite. Predictable books are wonderful for rhyme and word family activities as well as comprehension strategies such as sequencing. The students are usually engaged by the rhythm and the illustrations so are much more likely to respond to the text than some other types.
In the 10^th chapter of the Opitz text, comprehension is addressed. The first point made in the chapter that struck me as so very relevant, was the statement on p. 210 that explained the relationship between listening and reading comprehension. I have seen how one affects the other because all of my students have a developmental language delay. A student can have amazing word recognition and fluency but if they don’t have a grasp of spoken language, it greatly affects their reading comprehension.
As it especially relevant to my day to day work in regards to language and cognitive development, I found the section on schema theory very interesting. It’s so fascinating to me how new information is assimilated with prior knowledge.
The rest of the chapter goes on to explain the different levels of comprehension, from literal meaning to creative reading where the student uses information presented to come up with alternatives to the author’s ideas. The chapter further explains comprehension strategies with tables explaining each. This will serve as a useful reference for later.
Chapter 11 of the Opitz text explains how new vocabulary is acquired, different levels of vocabulary knowledge, and strategies for instruction. I found the most useful portion of the chapter to be the table that illustrates a Diagnostic Checklist for Vocabulary Development on p. 266. This checklist is an excellent developmental scale of vocabulary acquisition. I will be referencing this chapter further as I try to add new strategies for teaching vocabulary.

Module 4: Video Reflections

Running Records 1-3:
These videos illustrate how to correctly code a running record; all of the markings for correctly called out words, omissions, substitutions, insertions, repetitions, and sounding out of words with or without self-corrections are demonstrated. This was an excellent refresher for me because I had forgotten some of the symbols used. I have rarely used running records in my classroom in the past because the levels of my readers have varied so much. This is an assessment strategy that I could implement with some of my students if they are ready for it.

Running Records: Assessing & Improving Fluency & Comprehension
This video was a good example of brining a student’s attention to how they read, including accuracy and voice, while paying close attention to fluency signals like punctuation. The student read a short passage from a non-fiction text and was re-directed to some portions that were read fluently and a couple of miscues. I feel it is so important to mention just as many correctly read portions as miscues with the student to maintain confidence while reading aloud.

Balanced Literacy Diet
I thought this extension-type activity of a re-telling was wonderful. This kind of theatrical play based on literature. The favorite portion of any weekly literacy lesson in my primary classroom is the extension activity because it allows for more active participation and the students can demonstrate their understanding of the text in an engaging way.  

Module 4: Assessment: Formative & Summative Reflection

I am in complete agreement with the statement in the presentation, "It is widely and empirically argued that formative assessment has the greatest impact on learning and achievement" (slide 7). I find this to be especially true in my classroom where summative assessments are rarely implemented, formative assessments are used daily, and student progress guides instruction. This provides me with the opportunity to continually respond and modify instruction.
I have found that in a classroom with only 4 students, where each is served by an IEP, I have very few reasons to compare my students to each other and except for the rare circumstances when I have to compare them to a typically developed peer, I often forget about all of the skills that they have not yet developed and only see their progress. This realization helps me to ignore everything but planning instruction that is student specific and suited to their individual needs.

Module 4: Identifying Reading Disabilities Reflection

Because all of my students receive special education services, I have never participated in the RTI process, although I have observed it. In this case, the student had some decoding difficulties which were affecting fluency and comprehension. As this student was in third grade and had a good foundation of phonics and phonemic awareness, a whole to part instructional approach was used to segment words that were not read with automaticity into onsets and rimes, drawing attention to the sounds and using word families to generalize and provide opportunities to learn by analogy.
This particular student was on Tier 2 for a short time and after the personalized interventions had been implemented, building on what the student already knew, in a supportive environment where progress was continually monitored, she was placed back on Tier 1 where the standard classroom instruction is used.
This student's reading difficulties were indicated by spelling tests, fluency assessments, and the DRA. These assessments indicated that spelling patterns were delaying proficient fluency and comprehension.