Prominent Theorist Paper

Link to my Prominent Theorist Paper:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-CKV1z55O8fZ1lQcWEyeF9qTGc

Personal Model of Reading Theory

Personal Model of Reading Theory

            Looking over my previous Model of Reading Theory paper written at the beginning of this semester it seems that my beliefs and views on reading were not far off from the sociolinguistic approach that we have discussed and learned throughout this semester. From the beginning I have always viewed and taught “reading as thinking”. In fact, I even stress this to my students when teaching reading. Throughout this semester I have developed this idea even more and opened my eyes to even more evidence of this theory. 

            At the beginning of this semester we looked through chapters in Constance Weaver’s Reading Process & Practice. These chapters stressed the importance that reading is no longer just being able to put together sounds of letters. The strategy of putting together sounds to make words we find is the “skill of reading”. This skill is important when reading but not the end all to gain meaning or to “read”. In fact, we learn in later chapters that there are times we do not pronounce words correctly yet we still understand what we are reading. Thus, this skill is not as important as most teachers stress when teaching reading. Rather, the process of gaining meaning is the ultimate ability or skill to reading and what teachers should focus on.

There are many ways in which we gather meaning when reading. The ultimate way we discover meaning is through reader and text transactions. These transactions are connections to schemas within each individual reader. Schemas are experiences or knowledge that one has stored within them. When reading we make connections to these different social and situational schemas thus providing us with a transaction between reader and text and ultimately leading to understanding which translates into what we now understand as reading. Another way in which we discover meaning is through context. Like stated earlier, we may not know the correct pronunciation or sound sequence of words. However, with the use of surrounding context whether before or after words or sentences we can gather enough information to gain meaning of the words or sentences. This is also true for grammatical sequencing of words and sentences as well. The way in which sentences and words are grammatically arranged has a major influence on the ability to gain meaning from the text. Consequently, the theory still stands that the ability to read is more focused on the ability to gather meaning rather than the skill of putting sounds together.

So my big question that has been lingering over me throughout my first year of teaching is what is the best way to teach that reading is thinking? This semester we took a closer look at the comprehensive literacy approach. When compared to the teaching practices that I used throughout my first year of teaching I feel that ultimately I taught through a comprehensive approach, however, there were a few misconceptions that I had. For example, I am a big advocate for readers and writer’s workshops which include mini-lessons, group collaboration time, and individual reading and writing time. One thing that really sparked my attention this semester is the approach to teaching reading. Traditionally we would teach backwards to what a comprehensive literacy approach does beginning with phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, and then meaning. However, in a comprehensive approach this design is backwards beginning with meaning, word recognition, phonics, and then phonemic awareness. This was a major eye opener for me and a design that I will definitely implement within my future classrooms. It makes sense that in order to teach the theory that reading is thinking that we must model this through our teaching. Thus, before students’ even beginning recognizing letters and words we can begin teaching these thinking reading strategies of sequencing, predicting, problem, solution, etc. Teaching these strategies early will help the transition from learning to read to reading to learn go more smoothly.

A final major ah-ha moment I had was the implementation of phonics instruction. Previously in my teaching I had taught phonics separately from reading and writing instruction. However, there was always a struggle within me that felt that this wasn’t the correct approach. After analyzing the comprehensive literacy approach I have found that we do not need a separate phonics instruction. Rather, phonics instruction, spelling, grammar, etc. all should be incorporated into reading and writing instruction. This can be done in numerous situations. We can incorporate phonics instruction into whole group mini-lessons when referring back to a book that students are familiar with. Word patterns and sounds are easily detected and revealed when students are familiar with and understand the reading. Phonics instruction is extremely helpful during individual reading and writing conferences. This is the time to differentiate instruction and to really focus in on students’ individual needs. Overall, phonics instruction does not need to be an individual component of teaching reading. Rather, phonics should be incorporated within the different components of a comprehensive literacy approach.

In conclusion I believe that my theory of reading has not really changed. Rather, my theory has been provided with more evidence and insightful conclusions that support my belief that reading is thinking. This semester has opened my eyes to new evidences that reading is the process of gaining meaning from text. However, the biggest eye opener was how to effectively teach this theory. I have gained much knowledge of the comprehensive literacy approach that will greatly enhance my own literacy instruction and go hand in hand with my theory of reading.

Module 5: Reading Reflection

Where does phonics instruction fit within a comprehensive literacy program? When and how would you teach phonics?

My interpretation of phonics instruction in a comprehensive literacy program is that phonics is NOT its own subject. Rather, phonics is intertwined within the programs different aspects such as the read aloud, guided reading, individual reading and writing conferences, write a loud, etc. There was a lot on emphasis on the fact that phonics should not be taught separately but rather incorporated within these different areas. This makes sense with a sociolinguistic approach because meaning is where teaching reading begins, not with phonics instruction. Phonics instruction comes after students are familiar with the text and can see and hear the changes in sounds and letter formation. Last year I did a lot of individual reading and writing conferences. This was where most of my phonics instruction took place because I was able to really focus on my student’s individual needs. This brings me to another point when teaching phonics that not all students need the same instruction. Therefore how is it beneficial to teach phonics individually when not all students may be struggling in that particular area? I think the best time to teach phonics is within small groups and during individual conferences. This way you can have familiar text and also be able to pinpoint particular skills and strategies to work on.

Module 4: Instructional Challenge

Marcus is a student who very frequently miscues by substituting words that start with the same letter or first few letters of the word in the text, but his substitutions often are not syntactically or semantically acceptable (they neither sound right grammatically nor make sense). What possible teaching strategies would you suggest to help Marcus?

After skimming back through chapter 10 I feel that this situation that Marcus is in is similar to the first reader characteristic that chapter 10 presents on page 244. My initial thinking to help Marcus would be to have him listen and follow along with books on tape. It seems that he needs to have several repeated readings to become familiar with the text. By listening and following along with the text he can easily hear and see the correct pronunciation of the words. I would also do a lot of individual conferences (both reading and writing) with Marcus. During this time I would have Marcus read aloud to me and whenever he had a miscue we would stop and discuss if the word he put in made sense based on the surrounding context of the text. This would help my judge if the miscue was semantic or syntactic. Then I could better design my instruction based on whether he needed more phonics work or additional work with discovering meaning. I would also have Marcus work within small groups or read with a partner and stop after each page to discuss what was read and record thinking. Mostly I think that Marcus needs more time just reading as much as he can. The more exposure to text and sustained reading the better reader he will become.  

Module 4: Reading Reflection

After reading chapters 10 and 11 I found that in many cases I was incorporating most of the components of a Comprehensive Literacy Approach within my classroom. For example, I am a big advocate for mini-lesson which include the read-aloud and I myself model thinking while reading and also including the students by getting students opinions and thinking as well. I use shared reading a lot during poetry units but I definitely see how shared reading should be incorporated several times a week. I tried to get guided reading groups in everyday or at least have my students work with their literature groups. I started literature groups the second half of the year but next year I believe I will start them earlier because my class had a lot of success with literature groups. I luckily had a huge chunk of my day that I was able to have my reading and writing time at once. Because of this I tried to teach reading and writing as one so that they weren’t separate subjects. I feel that in a comprehensive literacy approach reading and writing go hand in hand and should be considered one rather than two separate subjects. Within my writing time my students spent a lot of time with independent writing or sustained writing. I tried really hard not to give them too much control over what I wanted them to write because I feel that the best writing comes when the students have control over what they want to write about. Also, going back to the reading, I wanted them to try a strategy that the author we were reading was using. For example, if the author used a lot of figurative language I would guide my students on how to incorporate figurative language within their writing. I was also big on reading and writing individual conferences. This was where I differentiated my instruction the most because I could really focus in on my students individual needs. In conjunction with reading mini-lesson I would also do writing mini-lesson where I would demonstrate the write-alouds as the comprehensive literacy program puts it. Here I would model the writing strategy that we were focusing on. This was always fun because as a class my students and I would write a story or poem together. Of course I would guide their responses but ultimately we were writing a piece together.  Each day I would try to incorporate an “authors chair” as I called it so that students had the opportunity to share their writing whether complete or not. I found this to be really helpful because the students LOVED sharing what they had written. It was also good for collaboration because students were able to comment on each other’s papers with a glow (something good about their paper) and a grow (something they could improve within their paper). I think one of my biggest weaknesses or area to improve would be in the reading to learn and writing to learn. This I feel I did mostly in my informational unit but with common core we will be incorporating this a lot more. Therefore I enjoyed reading more about how to use this within the classroom. Overall I feel that for the most part I have been utilizing the comprehensive literacy program but it was great to see how I can enhance my program.

Module 3: Activity 2

I definitely agree that phonics and phonemic awareness are very important aspects that contribute to successful reading and readers. However, I do not agree that just because a child or student can phonetically read are they actually reading. Reading, in my opinion, is the combination of phonemic awareness and metacognition, or the thinking while reading. It is great to hear the student in the video can “crack the code” of the sounds, however, is he reading if we don’t know if he understands what he is reading or what he is thinking or connecting to? I feel that this student is only half way reading because we are unsure of his thinking process. As teachers, especially in the primary grades, we focus a lot on phonemic awareness and not so much on the strategies of reading (i.e. retelling, summarizing, visualizing, predicting, connecting, etc.). This, as I have experienced from teaching 3^rd and now 4^th grade, has caused some issues within the intermediate grade levels because the students lack the foundation of gaining meaning from reading. Thus, as teachers, we are not building proficient readers by just teaching phonemic awareness. In order to successfully teach reading I believe we need to have a balance between teaching phonics and reading strategies. When students are exposed to both strategies then they will have the necessary foundation to become proficient readers.  

Module 3: Instructional Challange

To 5^th grade Teacher,

After observing some of your students read and then answer comprehension questions I found that most of the students were having difficulty with the comprehension of the passages. Although these students are seemingly reading above grade level based on fluency requirements I am concerned with their comprehension ability. Reading is not just about sounding out the words phonetically and in a set amount of time. Rather, reading is being able to understand the text though obtaining meaning. This can be done through making connections to schemas and using the context to gather meaning. I find that your students are struggling in this area. I would suggest moving away from the fluency practice and working on reading strategies. One way I love to monitor the use of reading strategies is through sticky notes. To begin with I would have the students read one page of their book. Then, on their sticky note have them show the use of a reading strategy (retell, summarize, make connections, predict, visualize, question, show their thinking, etc. ). You may need to demonstrate your expectations for a quality sticky note before having students do this. This strategy will really get the students to begin thinking while they read, which is what reading is all about. “Reading is Thinking” is my motto.  Have students record their sticky notes on a piece of paper and keep in their readers’ notebooks or folders. Monitor their progress through individual conferences. Note changes in their comprehension levels. Over time you will notice quality notes from your students. This will lead to better comprehension rates within your classroom. Then, when the students combine their above grade level reading fluency skill with their improved comprehension ability, you will then have a classroom of true readers!

Sincerely,

Ms. Bruce