One of the most important things that I took away from this chapter is how important it is for teachers to look at their students to make decisions regarding lesson plans and the ways in which we teach our students materials. Regardless of how great we think a lesson plan or teaching method is, we must constantly reflect and monitor our students’ progress and understanding to know if it is truly working for our students. A teacher told us last semester that we should scrap any lesson that is not working for our students, even if it must be done in the middle. Again, this book reiterates the importance of teaching the student, not the method. I found the six critical qualities listed on page 27 to be very important. If all teachers held these six qualities we would have very effective schools! There are also some really great activities listed on page 29. In my internship there were a few students who lacked any motivation to read. As the text states I believe that this lack in motivation was due to self-consciousness, an emphasis on competition, and a lack of interest in assigned reading. Many students feel that school is a competition. Once they display any type of struggle or weakness they lose motivation because they feel they have failed. I think that it is important to reward class efforts as well as individual efforts because it should be our goal to work together as a class and support each other in our learning. I felt very confused when reading about the Fry Readability Scale and Formula. I know Dr. Walizer said that we would get more practice over this formula in this class and I look forward to learning more about it. I think that leveling students is very useful because finding a student’s independent, instructional, and frustration level is very important in reading instruction and progress.
I wish all teachers were like Ms. Bass. I read about the activities she does in her class and how well she does everything. I want to be that teacher! I can certainly remember bad teachers I’ve had in the past as well as those teachers that were like Ms. Bass. I realize that I won’t be like Ms. Bass right out of school, but it is certainly something I am striving to become. On page 29, the text lists traits and activities of effective literacy teachers, this is something that I have copied and laminated to keep at home and later it will be in my classroom. Dr. Walizer emphasized motivation last semester in Reading Methods by introducing a read aloud before beginning our instruction in a unit or lesson because it helps the students become engaged in the activity you have planned. In my internship last semester the mentor teacher did all of the activities suggested under “self-consciousness”; Reader’s Theatre, small groups, and choral reading. However, she also did something that most teachers tell you not to do and that is Round Robin reading. So it seemed like she was doing all the other activities correctly but then contradicts her actions by throwing in Round Robin. The author points out factors that affect learning styles, such as the environment. I definitely can agree with that as I like to study in quiet, because I can think and write. My study partner from last semester lives in the same town and she likes a noisy environment, i.e. music in the background, children running around, she can study in chaos. She even stated once at my house, “It’s too quiet, I can’t think!” So, even as adults we have our own style of learning, so it’s important to keep that in mind when we set up our classrooms.
Chapter two is about making reading an experience that your students will want to remember. As a teacher, you need to make reading something that they want to do and something that they feel they are good at. Teachers need to be sure that the lesson plans that they create can meet the needs of all of their students. Differentiating instruction is so important because every child learns differently. Teachers should also try to make the information relevant and interesting to the students. The question that I had about this chapter was how to identify the best reading strategy for different students. I know that most of them work with a specific problem but what if you have one student who has many problems. Reading this chapter made me realize how important it is to motivate your students to read. As a teacher, you should help them set goals, but do not make it a competition, make it personal; something that they want to do for themselves. After reading the section on teachers, it made me think back to some of my teachers and if they had effective teaching strategies. For example, posing higher-level thinking questions. Did my teachers really make me think, yes, they did. They challenged me and everyone else in my class. The part of the reading that really connected to me was the reasons for the decline in motivation to read. Being self-conscious about reading in front of my peers did nothing but make me a basket case. I knew that they could read faster and better than I could so I didn't want to read because I knew they would make fun of me. The other part of the reading, which quickly became my favorite part, is the summary of the eight ways of teaching on page 37. I love it. I know that I am a linguistic/musical learner. I can remember anything if you put it to the tune of a song or if I write about it.
Ms. Bass reminds me so much of my reading mentor teacher. I am not kidding! My mentor is pretty much everything that Ms. Bass is and maybe more. I like a lot of the strategies that she was using with her students. I especially liked that fact she is taking time out after school and tutoring her students who are struggling with reading. If we only had more teachers like her. My daughter’s school focuses on reading and math for their kindergarten and first grade programs. I see a lot of their teachers modeling and providing activities that are listed on page 29. When I was teaching for head start I provided an entire day of literacy enriched activities. I provided so many literacy activities for my students and families to do at home as part of their home enrichment activities and one of the activities that was a huge success was our Reading Races. I developed this activity for the fall and spring for my class and our neighboring class to participate in. Several factors for me to have such a large activity for the families included: increasing their English, familiarize them to the public library and more child/parent interaction. The first one that I did I set a class goal of reading 1000 books in a month. Yes that sounds like a lot but 30 days in a month times 2 a day is 60 books per student. Having 18 students in my class I thought was a very doable goal! To kick of our race we had the local Librarian to come speak at our monthly parent meeting about how to get library cards, our school was in the same building as the library. I had each of my families sign up for library cards for themselves and their child. For each book they were read too, the reader logged the following information on the car cut outs; Title, Author, who read the book, minutes! The students were to bring their cars in daily; they would attach their car or cars on our class road. Much to my surprise my families took this activity and ran with it! Throughout the entire month of this activity I was very motivated and showed each of the students the same motivation as they would bring in their cars to attach to our road. I had contacted several outside people to come in and read to the class throughout the month. During our month we had the Mayor of our city, the Wichita Superintendant, some Hispanic leaders, police officers, and a fire fighter who all came and read to our class. At the end of the month we celebrated our 3,000+ books read with a huge pizza party! As you can imagine our hallways was filled with little cars from the top of the wall clear to the floor! I could have never imagined that this reading activity would be as successful as it turned out to be. Each year that I did this activity I change our theme of it! In this chapter the author talks about doing a class wide reading challenge versus individual challenges and having already done class wide challenges in ready, I agree that it is more beneficial and motivates the student to all participate.
Reading the section on readability and how to score books is awesome. I have been reading a lot more about the Fry Readability Formula. It seems like it might be a lot of work up front but the outcomes is so worth it. I have notice just in some of the books that my daughter reads sometimes is the level that it always says it is. I am planning on learning the formula while checking the levels of my daughter’s books.
Once again this chapter was just as amazing as the first. Looking forward to more readings in this book!
In response to Christine: I also think that the environment affects our ability to learn and that for everyone it is different. I like complete quiet when I'm writing, but when I'm reading I like to hear music in the background. I find it odd that your teacher did the reading groups, choral reading, and then threw in Round Robin. Usually if a teacher knows the good techniques, they also know the bad ones.
I am a little confused with Fry’s readability scale too. I am going to practice using some of the my daughter’s books that are already leveled. I think as anything until we start doing it and becoming familiar it seems confusing!
Christine,
I need chaos to study! I like noise around me and yes it is very hard for me to focus and stay on track when it is crazy! As I am typing this my daughters are singing and dancing in the same room as me! :)
Brandy,
Well said, reading is about making an experience that your students will want to remember. As a prior teacher that was something that I tried very hard to do. When I am back in the classroom my class will be filled with literacy enriched activities. Ms. Bass is what all teachers should strive to be!
I found it odd too that she would do all the "correct" things, but then turn around and do something that the Reading Methods course said not to do. I wasn't sure how to bring it up to the teacher either.
Jaclyn and Brooke,
I found the Fry's Readability formula to be really interesting and how fantastic that we have this tool to utilize to determine books that are not labeled with their reading level.
In Chapter Two I felt that the very first page was very informative on teaching in general. I think we all hope that we are all effective teachers when we start. Also I felt the recommendations to keep students interested in reading was very helpful. In Chapter Two in general it was describing different ways to teach and how to be a successful teacher. When reading the material about “declining in the motivation of reading” this reminds me of my niece who is in the second grade and has no interest in reading right now. I’m going to tutor her and her classmates so she stays interested reading but also work on her reading skills. She was in Title I last year and did very well at the end of the school year. But since school started she has no interest in reading at all. I will ask her to read my son a book and she will start and then she will just stop and give up. But I don’t push her and either does her family to read material that she is not interested in. She loves animals and loves to hear about them so her interest in reading will increase if it is material she loves but she loses interest real fast on material she is not interested in because she will just quit. I think that we all want to be successful teachers and what I have realized in my classes it will take practice and more practice. So far with the observations in the classroom I felt that it has helped tremendously and I’m starting to feel more comfortable. With this chapter it gave you a strategies and guidance on what you are as a person and how you will be as a teacher.
In response to Jaclyn, I see it also that students are lacking motivation to read. I see this with many students because they feel that the material that is given to them to read is not interesting so the motivation is not there. But when you find material that is interesting to them, they enjoy to read books and then they show excitement for reading.
After reading about Ms. Bass, I have to admit that I am worried I will not get everything done during the day. Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies all should be taught throughout the day. I worry that I will short change something. I have heard about teachers dropping science to do extra reading and I don't think I could do that and consider myself to be an effective teacher. I will have to work at incorporating reading into all my subjects in order to accomplish what I will want to. This chapter gave a good amount of information on the different ways of presenting the material. It will be good to get to know your students and to gauge the instruction based off of their needs. I can't wait to try my hand at this. The area that interested me the most was the information on the metacognitive strategies. I didn't realize that poor readers were usually low in this area. I have never used think-alouds in teaching students to read. This will be an important tool for the students who are not familiar with how to handle unknown words that they run across in the text. Reading about the way text is leveled was interesting as well. The school I work at currently uses the lexile system. It is handy to be able to go to their website and type in the title of a book and see if it is at my daughters level. There are times where books are not listed by lexile though. I was interested in the Fry readability formula. I grabbed one of the books I read this last and tried it out on it. It was only leveled at 7th grade. I was shocked that it was so low. I have always heard that newspapers are written at a middle school level. It might be fun to test an article written in a newspaper or magazine to see at what level they are as well. This will be a handy tool to have available while working with students in reading.
In response to Brooke W. - I like your idea of the races. One of the fifth grade classes that I work in uses a racing theme with accelerated reader points. I like the idea of a class working toward a common goal better though. It provides more of a team like feeling.
In response to Brandy - I agree that motivation is key. I believe that this motivation has to come along in the early grades because by the time middle school arrives, it is extremely hard to motivate the students to read. If a teacher can get them hooked on reading early in school, it makes a world of difference.
I agree with those of you who have already commented, Ms. Bass sounds like a great role model teacher. I have learned a lot from watching effective teachers and have been compiling a list of great ideas and activities to use in the classroom. It reads a lot like those listed in the introduction to this chapter. I was just talking to an older teacher the other day who said that she never spent any time in a classroom while she was getting her degree until she was student teaching. I am so thankful that we are able to spend a lot of time working with different teachers in different settings as we progress. Chapter 2 again provides some great information to help me become an effective teacher. I found a lot of the information to be repeated from previous courses but I read each page as though it were new material. I really liked the section on student motivation and I really think this is key to student success in reading. I also think the learning styles are an important aspect to consider when working with students. The classroom environment is an area that my reading mentor teacher worked on to help students find a comfortable place to read. She had several bean bags and soft chairs that students used during SSR and the other students were able to move around the room to find a spot they were comfortable with. I have read about Fry’s readability formula in several courses but have not worked with it hands on. I am not comfortable with it at this time and need to use it in a real context in order to become more familiar with it.
Response to Christine: My mentor teacher in my reading internship did many different activities as well but she also had the students do some round robin reading. She spent a lot of time working with students on their reading abilities and provided a lot of time for the students to read but then had the round robin in there once in a while. I think it was simply an easy activity to use sometimes. Response to Brooke W: The Reading Race sounds like a great activity and it sounds like you really made it a success. It is great that you were able to involve so many families and people from the community. I know that my desire to read more came through influence from my parents and other adults who stressed how important it is to read.
This chapter really proved to me how complex reading can be. The author stressed how important it is to provide an atmosphere where students can be successful. I loved the example of Ms. Bass –what an excellent teacher! I liked the lists of traits of effective literacy teachers and I think these traits are something we should all be reminded of often. I also found the reasons for low motivation in reading to be interesting. I found it helpful that the author expanded on each of those along with suggestions to increase motivation. I grew up loving reading so that’s something I’ve always wondered how to do – motivate students who do not like to read. I have heard about the Fry Readability before; however, I don’t have much background knowledge with it. I would love to observe this in a school if I get the chance. Overall another great chapter!
In response to Christine D: I agree with you – how awesome would it be if all teachers were like Ms. Bass! I thought the list of traits on page 29 was great and sometime we should all strive towards. Laminating that list is a great idea! I also thought that you made a good point that even as adults we all have our own learning style so in our classroom it is so important that we get to know each of our students and adapt and make accommodations to their unique learning styles as well.
When reading the scenario of Ms. Bass’s 1st grade class I kept thinking about all of the wonderful ideas she has implemented in her classroom but there was a nagging question of how! After doing my reading and language arts internship last semester I realize how busy the day is with special, recess, lunch and breaks for snack and bathroom. I do think that a different type of curriculum may allow for more flexibility and from the classroom I was in last semester I did see many times when students were given task work that was out of a workbook and many times there were times that the students worked on morning work where I thought this time could be better utilized. I also know that many of these activities were provided by the school district and expected to be used. I thought that there was too much time where the students were no actively engaged in learning. This scenario was a refreshing read and really provided some great ideas that not only would I like to implement in my own classroom but also several literacy ideas that I would like to use in my tutoring sessions. I specifically loved the part of reading the poetry from a flip chart as well as putting the song lyrics into a pocket chart. I thought this would be great for the Vowel Code Rap. One of the areas I have notices when planning my instructional units is differentiating instruction. I do think that when I have my own classroom it would be easier because you really know the strengths and weaknesses of each student and their learning style. Reading this section of the chapter made the who process much more simple than I expected. I think that with anxiety about this I also made it more complicated. 2 areas of this chapter that were confusion were the areas of learning styles and the Fry Readability Formula. As far as the learning styles that were discussed in this chapter there were so many that it was hard to identify how you identify the learning styles and which research is best for identification. I am hoping that we will have an opportunity to use the readability formula. This is an area that concerns me with the tutoring portion of this course. How will I know the specifics of their needs without having any other information to go on? I am sure we will be accessing the readers and when and how to do this is something that I am excited to learn about.
Kacey, I also found the reasons for the lack of motivation for reading to be very useful. It is very important that we try to understand why students may lack motivation in reading so that we can get them motivated. I think it is very helpful to take an interest inventory so that we can try to supply the students with books that they will enjoy reading. It's also very unfortunate that many kids do not grow up reading books or seeing their parents enjoy reading. I just hope that I will be able to help motivate my students!
Tara, I felt like the classroom I interned in last semester was always racing against the clock! It seemed like the teacher did not have enough time in the day! Planning will definitely be important once we start teaching. In this particular classroom the teacher had a difficult time getting students to transition quickly which used a great deal of time that could have been spent towards learning, but I know it can be difficult when you have over 25 2nd graders to get moving.
My response to Tyler Gill, I too find that some of this material we are reading is the same as what I have read before. However I do like the format and I find that it is more reader friendly. This may be due the fact that I already have the pathway for the material or that I actually really enjoy reading this. I too enjoyed the part about motivation and environment. In my fist education class our teacher advised us to keep note cards with us in all of our observations. These note card were to be used to write down things that we saw that we would like to use in our own classroom. I have a note card box full of ideas. I find that when I go back through them I have forgotten many of the things I saw. One that I specifically sticks out for me with motivation is the reading adventure. It was a simple pop up tent that the teacher filled with pillows and such. On the outside she put the names and book covers of books and then the students put up book reviews. I have also seen where the teachers use sheet of translucent fabric over some of the lights in room to make the more inviting. I think that we are so lucky to have the many opportunities to be in the classroom. I have a friend that is going through the Baker education program and she has not had nearly amount of classroom time that we get in our program. That is the best part of my day!
I think you are on the right track by planning to encourage your niece to read with information that she may be more interested in. If she loves animals I imagine you could spend a lifetime presenting her with reading material she would enjoy. There are SO many reading resources available for young students about animals! And many of them tie into a subject area also for example math and science. Thank goodness for the inventive and imaginative minds of great authors! They will help us survive a classroom with generally unenthusiastic readers With seeing how many of the younger elementary students, well I guess just many of them of all ages, don't enjoy reading it can be frustrating. I agree with you that finding things our students find interesting and can relate to will be the way to go!
This chapter has been particularly informative for me. The scenario at the very beginning was extremely interesting and I was curious to continue reading to find out the strategies Ms. Bass was using so successfully. I have often wondered why teachers don't spend more curricular time integrating reading and especially writing into all subject areas. I know general reading is incorporated into all subjects, but I think with a bit more time and creativity a stronger reading and writing focus could be employed into all subjects. I am always amazed at how weak many students' overall reading skills are. I remember the "Book-it" program when I was little. I would read night and day if it meant I would get pizza! I don't necessarily like the idea of bribing children to read, but I think a little reasonable incentive goes a long way with everyone. There are so many methods and creative ways to incorporate fun into reading, we just have to make the time.
From Chapter 2 I really liked the suggested principles for being an effective teacher. Number one took me aback a little because I had never realized the truth that it holds. It says to focus on the students and their learning, not on the lesson you worked to create. This made me remember how impressed I was with one of my lessons for my social studies observation last semester and how easy it can be to get caught up in the lesson presentation itself instead of what its purpose is in the first place....the students. It's okay to be proud of our creations, but our students' success and progress should be our ultimate goal.
I really enjoyed reading this chapter since all of the information in it is useful and applicable. I am a big fan of multiple intelligence teaching and therefore thoroughly enjoyed the table explaining the eight ways of teaching. Anything offering helpful suggestions for me is always a plus!
I received some great ideas from reading the chapter 2 scenario about Ms. Bass’s first-grade classroom. It sounds like such a great atmosphere to be a part of! I also enjoyed learning about the teacher, student, text, context, and task process. There are so many components that have to come together to create a successful reading event. In order to be effective, literacy teachers must differentiate instruction and motivate students to read. Personally, I think that motivating students to read is a very important factor in the reading process. Just as our text mentions on page 30, motivation severely declines as students’ progress throughout school. Teachers need to be able to recognize why a student is uninspired to read and then do something about it. I will be working with 5th grade students during my tutoring sessions. Lack of motivation will probably be a big factor for my students. I want to be able to create a safe atmosphere for those that lack confidence, encourage each student without making our tutoring session a competition, and help students choose books they are interested in. I hope to not only assist them with fluency, vocabulary, decoding, and comprehension, but also get them excited about reading!
Shylah Clark-Jarvis… I used to love the Book-it program from Pizza Hut! I’d forgotten about it but as you mentioned, it really got me pumped up to read. And you are right about creating activities to help weave reading and language arts into all subjects. It may not be the simplest or quickest way to teach a lesson, but teaching the students is what really matters. Reading the scenario about Ms. Bass’s classroom made me realize how attainable having a literacy rich classroom really is if the teacher is willing to be creative and integrative.
Yea for Ms. Bass...She represents what we should all strive for as teachers! Fortunately, I had more good teachers than bad in my school years, but those bad ones definitely stand out. From the chapter, I really like how figure 2.1 lists the traits and activities of effective literacy teachers. In looking through the info on readability tests, I'm still not sure about using the Fry graph - I need to spend a little more time figuring that one out! One of the most important sentiments of the whole chapter was the very last sentence in the conclusion..."Have fun with language so that your literary passion will be infectious." In the spirit of us all getting ready to tutor small groups, that's a great thought. We still have a lot to learn, and our techniques with our groups won't be perfect, but we can all strive to relax, have fun with it, and pass on a love of reading!
We should all strive to put at least a little bit of Ms. Bass into our own teaching style! By now we have all probably experience just how difficult reading can be, whether it is on a personal level or from observations/internships of students in the classroom. Students need to be in an environment that encourages their reading abilities not one that makes them discouraged. This chpater proided us with a list traits of what makes an effective literacy teacher. We beginning teachers we need to keep these traits in mind when creating lessons and working with students. If students are in an environment that does not encourage their reading, they are often uninterested in trying to better their reading skills. This chapter also provided suggestions on how to increase reading motivation in students. It is certain we will all come across students who do not enjoy reading and it is up to us to change this negative opinion about reading into a positive one by providing students with a variety of reading material and activities that truly captures the student's interest. I am a little nervous about using the Fry Readability, but mostly because I have only been introduced to it, but have never actually applied it. I look forward to using it in our tutoring sessions to provide students with litature that meets their needs and intersts.
In response to Alisha G...Sounds like you already have some great tutoring ideas and enthusiasm for your niece and other 2nd graders. I also really appreciated how motivation was a key topic in this chapter. We can learn wonderful techniques all day long about teaching literacy skills, but without the knowledge of how to motivate our students, those other tools will be wasted. Thanks for sharing! Julie
I too agreed with the book that students seem lost motivation as they go through out their school years. I am going to be working with Kindergarteners in my internship and they of course love stories. My challenge will be choosing books that are not too long in which they end up losing interest, but there are a lot of children books out there. However, children in the high grades have a variety of likes and dislikes when it comes to stories, but I am sure you will enjoy your experience. It is amazing the changes we notice in children in a short time span.
I liked reading about Ms. Bass’s classroom. That’s how I want my classroom to be. She uses so many techniques for her students and that’s how I want to teach my students. My favorite part of this chapter was reading about selecting appropriate texts and leveled books. I visited some of the websites in the leveled books section. I never knew that there were so many ways to find out the level of a book that you want your students to read. The chapter talked a little bit about Accelerated Reader. Accelerated Reader was really big in my school. I always loved finding out what reading level I was, reading those books, and improving my reading level. I really liked how the chapter gave you a list of criteria for determining the level of instructional books.
I agree with you that we need to keep those traits in mind. I also believe like you do that we all should strive to be more like Ms. Bass. I have also been introduced to the Fry Readability in my Children's Literature class. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy.
On page 28 of the text I found this quote, “Good teaching is inevitably the fine art of connecting content and kids—of doing what it takes to adapt how we teach so what we teach takes hold in the lives and minds of students.” I think this quote summarizes the chapter pretty well and actually what we have been taught throughout our major courses. It doesn’t matter if we are brilliant and know the content, if we can’t reach students and teach them materials in ways that they can understand we are not doing our job. I agree with the quotes in the section on motivation. Being able to motivate a child to read sets them up for greater success in reading because they want to do it and find it relevant. What can we do besides have children practice their reading to help with self-consciousness? I have a question from the list provided on pg. 27. It says don’t focus so much on the lessons we create, but on the children and their learning. I completely agree with this, but in a way doesn’t this mean it’s better for us to write more general lesson plans and make the adaptations to them as we go along, than to write to very detailed and specific ones? My class was very competitive growing up. We use to race to see who could get the most stickers on charts etc. My third grade teacher found a great way to make us work together instead of being in constant battle with each other. On a bulletin board we had a class reading log. Every time we finished a book, we gave a short report to the class on it, and got to add a small paper smiley face to the board. After every so many smiley faces were added we got a class reward. When the whole board was full we had a huge class bbq at her house! Teaching children to use their skills/previous knowledge and strategies or language systems to aid them in metacognition. Being able to figure out what a word is or means on their own, makes a child a more confident reader and helps them remember what that word because it took extra work to figure it out. As teachers we all have the opportunity to be effective reading instructors. We just have to be willing to take the time and out for the effort to teach in ways that meet the diverse needs of students.
It’s amazing how much motivation is lost to read as we get older! I noticed it just going from my 4th grade internship to my 6th grade one. I think it is partially because as we get into the upper grades, reading is less of the child’s choice, but as a requirement for classes. The amount of reading done from text books takes away from the time a teacher can allow for free reading, and from the want of children to read on their own. I always felt like I did enough reading for classes that I didn’t want to read a book when I wasn’t forced to. Good luck with your 5th graders!
This chapter was basically a reinforcement of everything that has been taught on during the courses in the education program. Teachers are supposed to learn each student’s interests, abilities, weaknesses, etc. to better educate them. I especially liked the beginning scenario! I want to be just like Ms. Bass when I am in my own classroom. She makes it seem so easy to instruct students and get all of the different activities into one day and also have students that are achieving success! While reading through the chapter, I started noticing how many times I thought of my internship classes last semester. I was in a first grade classroom with a variety of different students on different educational levels. I can now relate to so much of this information from the chapter because I have seen it in action. My mentor teacher was amazing at creating lessons that accommodated each student’s different learning styles and levels. She also knew her students very well and encouraged them to succeed at everything they did. I guess in a way my mentor teacher last semester to me is like Ms. Bass in that she strives to reach her students in all of her lessons and wants the students to succeed. Again this is exactly how I want to be in my classroom. I always hear about that one teacher that made a difference in so many students’ lives. Well, I want to be that teacher!
In response to Janel…I totally agree with your quote from the book! Reaching students in the classroom is so important and a teacher could be the greatest teacher ever but still not be effective because the students did not understand the material. Your teacher’s idea for getting the class to work together was great! I also liked the ideas in the book about working together as a class with a bulletin board project.
Before moving into the “meat” of this chapter, I thought I’d start by responding to one of the statements posed by the text on page 30, “Motivation frequently makes the difference between learning that is temporary and superficial and learning that is permanent and internalized” (Edmunds and Bauserman, 2006). This quote is a reflection on the content of this chapter; that is, how to encourage and maintain the motivation of students to read. Learning that most students arrive in kindergarten willing and eager to read, and are losing that eagerness by the end of grade school, only reinforces the concept of motivation as a key factor in keeping students wanting to read.
Many of this information was covered in Dr. Walizer’s class last semester. However, this text goes into greater detail in actually instructing new teachers in specific ways of keeping motivation high, by examining students’ learning styles, and giving many, many ideas and hints. For example, the chart on page 29 was incredible; I truly enjoy having things spelled out for me, and this chart, as well as the hypothetical story at the beginning of the chapter, has given me many ideas for running my own classroom.
For curiosity’s sake, I took both the learning styles inventory (although the link at the Memletic’s site was down, I found a few more), and the multiple intelligences inventory. I am very much a visual learner, needing to see things, even if only in my head. When I remember information from a book, I can actually picture where on the page, and where in the book, I found the information. I also discovered that I score highest in verbal/linguistic intelligence. I hope that these are tests that I can replicate in the classroom to give me a better idea of my students’ needs and interests.
On a final note, it was interesting to read about global, analytical, and combination learning processes. Several years ago I toured the local Boys and Girls Club. The homework room was set up with four corners. One corner was brightly lit and offered tables and chairs, and music available on headphones. One corner was brightly lit, but quiet and with soft chairs. One corner was dimly lit, but with music available, and the final corner was dimly lit, quiet, with soft beanbag chairs. They recognized that different students needed different environments to study effectively.
In response to Tyler G. I also agree that Ms. Bass sounds like a teacher we all should try to emulate on some levels. In fact, considering the pages of our textbook are perforated, I might just pull out those pages and keep them handy for when I have my own classroom!
Chapter 2 talked about how to make reading an enjoyable experience for students so they will enjoy reading the rest of their lives. I especially enjoyed the recommendations the book mentioned on increasing motivation for your students.
I guess the question I have is if I were to use the Dr. Seuss books in my tutoring, which website would I use for assessing the grade level for my 1st graders and would any of these sites provide a reading quiz?
I think the reading has me looking at how students become frustrated and give up on trying to learn how to read. If this happens to students in 1st grade, it could devastate their entire education. I personally know a senior in high school who this has happened to and I am worried when he heads off to college this fall.
I substituted 2nd grade this past week and the students were working on Kansas day comprehension short stories. They would read a short story and either answer a few questions that were fill in the blank, write a complete sentence or do a crossword puzzle. A few of the students managed to do three of these books in the allotted 45-minute period. The other students only managed to finish one or two. After reading this chapter, I now understand more about how students are at different reading levels.
Response to Tyler….. I agree that we re-learning material, but repetition is the key for everyone, right? I also agree with you on the student motivation being my favorite part of the chapter. My mentor teacher last semester had beanbag also for the students to use during SSR and they were used as a reward for students who completed their homework or had their planner signed consecutively for the week.
I thought this chapter gave a bunch of great ideas for teachers to use to make children love reading. There are so many children today that hate reading, and this chapter covered reasons why they may hate reading. I thought it was very helpful that the author told us the main reasons and then how to help children conquer their fears of reading. These are great strategies for teachers to remember and refer back to all the time to help children love reading. I really liked the ideas of having the children pick books that really interest them and then list them on the white board for the rest of the class to see. They list the book they just read and they write a comment on why they loved that book. This is a great way for the children to share their joy of reading with the rest of the class. Ms. Bass is a great teacher and I want to make my children love reading like she made her students love reading. I think the tips this book gives us about reading will help all of us become a ms. Bass.
Response to Debbie M: I also thought this was a great chapter because it gave us tips on how to make children enjoy reading and how to use strategies in the classroom to make them continue to enjoy reading.
While reading “The Literacy Event” I gained an abundance of information I must use during the tutoring process. I know it’s also information that will be necessary for future teaching, but I couldn’t help applying everything I read to what is approaching: my own individual students! They will depend on ME to be an effective teacher. That is a bit scary, but I’m excited.
I really appreciated the deeper explanation of the Fry Readability Test. In our Reading and Language Arts methods text it didn’t give the details of how you actually score the passages using the chart. I was able to see how the chart is used and can understand why it is used for assessment. The passages about motivation were inspiring and I plan to use those guidelines as a checklist for preparing the next couple weeks.
I also picked up from the reading how important it is for students to be interested in the readings. But no matter how much we may help students love to read, I think it's sad that when it comes to testing for NCLB they get assigned readings that may not interest them at all. I think it is so important to help kids enjoy reading so that when it comes time for testing, they can read the passage even though they might not be interested in it.
As many of you have previously stated I am in awe of Ms. Bass. How she is able to accomplish all of that in one day is amazing. It also reintegrated to me on how important it is to integrate throughout the day with everything you do. I have seen some amazing teachers and with the pressures put on them to have their students get certain scores it is crucial for them to integrate. I really liked a few different topics in this chapter, first was the chart on page 29. It discusses 29 effective activities and ideas for an effective teacher. Also, I am a huge Gardner's fan, I think that children learn and retain so much more when we include the 8 intelligences. I have seen several teachers do this and I have noticed that the students retain and are interested in the information for a longer period of time. Finally it was good to see the Fry Readability formula again. The more I see this and read about it the more I start to understand it. It still confuses me but I am starting to get it. Is the Fry Readability done frequently, I have never seen a teacher use this?
I also wanted to mention the section on Motivation. This is what I feel will set us as future educators at a higher level, the main concept we have learned in the majority of our classes is to motivate, prove to the students why it is important and get their attention. If we can do this then we will have half the battle won. This is simply my opinion.
Isn't it refreshing to see what is discussed in the chapter in real life. I think we all have that one teacher who just went the extra mile, I have also seen several teachers when they first get out of school how excited and motivated they are then the fire dies. I am hope that we can retain that fire and be that teacher our students remember.
The ten principles on page 27 for teachers was really interesting to me. I enjoyed the different ideas they gave. I tagged the different activities on pages 25 and 26. I plan to engage those activities in my classroom. Mrs. Bass would have been a great teacher to internship under. She seems like she really engaged the students in literacy and the students enjoyed it and learned well from the different activities. Differentiating instruction is connecting content and kids. There are four ways to differentiate instruction: content, process/activities, product and learning styles. The section of reasons for the decline in motivation to read, was quite interesting. I never thought about these reasons before now. The most interesting reason was not recognizing those that had fewer books read. The students think of it as competition, but teachers need to make sure to acknowledge all levels no matter what. The three ways to build reading confidence were choral reading, buddy reading and small groups. It mentions that whole class rewards are better than individual rewards. I really like that idea and never thought how it hinders the less fortunate readers. Let the students make their own choice on what books they read as much as possible. They are more interested in the topic and are willing to read the books more and get into the topic. When they are forced to read about a topic they don’t enjoy they prefer not to read as much and then there reading abilities go down and they don’t have the desire to read as much or as often. I agree with this myself. I hated that we had to read certain books in high school English, but when I am able to choose the book on my own, I find myself being glued to the book more often and I enjoy reading that book. I love to read anyways, but I find myself not understanding the book or getting into as much if I am reading a book on a topic I was told to read. I always find myself reading the back cover of the book to get an idea what the story is about. I also know that if I can’t get interested in the book within the first few pages or the first chapter, I most likely am not going to get into it later in the book and it will end up being a waste of my time. I really enjoyed learning about the different learning styles on page 35. It was great to know what they were called and how they learned best. The summary of the eight ways of teaching on page 37 was good and I plan on looking back at this and using the different ways to see which one works best for me. The three reading levels was great to look at and read about. This will help a teacher learn and understand their students a lot better.
In response to Jen H – I also liked the list on page 29 of the book for traits and activities of effective literacy teachers. I think it is important for us to know how to be effective. I have the same thought on the Fry Readability. I never see a teacher use it either. I don’t understand it but the more I see it and read about it, the more I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel in understanding it a little more. Eventually I think I will totally understand it and be able to use it when needed. I would not feel comfortable right now to use it if I needed to. I agree with your thought on motivation. I think the more the students are motivated to do something the more willing they are to do it. They will want to keep doing the activity whether it be reading or math or science.
I really enjoyed reading this chapter. It talks about how to keep students motivated and what makes an effective reading teacher. In the reading it talks about looking to the students and what their interests are to keep them motivated. I have to say that I rarely see this happening where I work. The teachers use the same book titles every year. Some of the books are good to read, but I sometimes feel like they should try something new or present the lessons in a different way. One example is in a fourth grade class where they read the same book every year. The teacher commented that the previous year's class really enjoyed the book and did a really good job in getting the main ideas that the book was trying to convey. Then she said she didn't think this class would fair as well because they didn't seem to have the same kind of understanding. I assumed after the first chapter she would adjust her plan and possibly add more scaffolding to the lessons, but she didn't. It was a very good book, and although all of the children could read it very well and could tell what happened in the story, none of them could grasp the nuances of the book and how characters changed. It would have been fantastic for students that were motivated to using higher level thinking and questioning. Anyway, I guess I brought that up because of the learning styles and I tried to log on for the quiz but I couldn't. I was curious.
I love to read as well and like you if it is book I enjoy I will read it from cover to cover in one sitting if possible. I usually will always finish a book I start, but if it takes me longer to get into it I tend to be able to put it down. I would really struggle if I were in school now because I loved to make my own choices and read a variety of things.
I think that the quote is great too. It made me think about what I do not see in the classroom now and what I want to bring to my tutoring sessions when they begin.
Chapter 2 discussed the literacy event. One particular section of the reading that I really enjoyed was Differentiating Instruction. Our classrooms will be full of diverse learners ranging in skills and cultures. It is important to make modifications and accommodations to lesson plans because one lesson plan will not reach/teach all students. I love how the book says, "...emphasize is not on teachers teaching a set curriculum, but rather on their providing an enriched environment that enables all students to build on their existing knowledge." Lessons are created to actually teach the material to the students instead of teaching the curriculum. Another section I particularly like was over the different learning styles. A lot of the theorist mentioned and their theories I had never heard of. This section was a fun read for me because I found myself trying to decide which learning style I fit in the different theories. I'm glad this chapter went into detail about the criteria for leveled books. This chapter introduced me to new information and is making me that much more excited about getting out in the field and begin tutoring.
In response to Jen Hittle – I too am a fan of Gardner. I believe it is important to include ways to use all of the intelligences in our lessons to reach all of our students. The Fry Readability formula confuses me as well. I’ve seen and read about it multiple times but still can’t quite figure it out. With more experience with it, I will soon come to understand it.
This chapter has showed me many ways I can be more effective as a teacher. Some of these techniques include being understanding of each students uniqueness, model expressive reading, avoiding published materials, and using big books. Many students dislike reading because they do not want to read something boring and therefore are bored with the material. This is why chapter two emphasized ways to increase motivation. I dreaded reading growing up and could have used some of these techniques to connect with it more. One thing I liked was the strategies for reading because they can help students understand what they are reading. Students could look at pictures for clues or think of a word that would make sense to the context. One last part of chapter two I thought was beneficial was the summary of eight ways of teaching. Students want to learn in different ways and some have to be moving, singing, or connecting it with themselves to understand it. This chart gave many examples of ways to make reading interesting. In the class I para in, if a student is struggling reading, we either help them sound out the word by using sounds or show them pictures to connect it with what they are reading. This is one good reason for pictures in their books.
In response to Royce K.: I see the same thing happening in classes I encounter. In my high school English/Literature classes, you could predict a year or two ahead of time because teacher taught the same old thing every year with no change during the same time. It was books that was not completely interesting to high school students. I believe this may be true for a few of the elementary classrooms I've seen too.
Chapter two gives numerous characteristics of effective teachers. I agree that a teacher who can truly reach out to the students and help them to learn and grow would definitely posses the traits mentioned in this chapter. Chapter two also talks about the decline in motivation to read and ways to combat it in the classroom. When I was going to school I don’t remember ever having a “classroom library” and I’m seeing it more and more in my internships. I think it’s a great idea because you can’t always let students be going to and from the library. My favorite part in chapter two talked about the different reading levels and how to select appropriate texts for these levels. Too often we see a child pick up a book that is too difficult and then become overly frustrated when he/she can’t read it. A question that I thought of while reading this chapter is why different book companies will level books differently. It would make sense to level all books on the same scale to make it easier for students, parents, and teachers. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to read. Even in first grade I’d often get in trouble for reading while I was supposed to be doing something else so sometimes it’s very hard for me to understand why some children don’t like to read. I can remember many of my classmates hating to read and grumbling when we had to read out loud. I realize now that most of them were frustrated because the books we were reading in class were too hard for them to understand and it they had no motivation to read. This chapter allowed me to look back and realize that something as simple as the level of the book can make, or break a child’s motivation to read.
Lori, I also liked the part about teaching the students to look for clues in the pictures to help them figure out what a word might be. The only problem with that is that eventually there will be no picture and they will have to rely simply on context clues. I hope that everyone will teach their children how to use both to help them out even more. Do you think you would have liked reading more if you had been allowed to find books that interested you?
When I was in elementary school, I remember not wanting to read at all because the only I never had the motivation to do it. Another reason was that we did the AR program and I hated reading the books that were labeled according to our grade level. None of the books were interesting or fun to read; I felt like I was being forced to read and I also felt like I was frowned upon if I chose not to read. Motivation is something that most students lack when it comes to reading; as the book says, in between first and fifth grade something happens to some children where they have no desire to read. As teachers, we need to encourage or motivate students to read for fun and for their learning benefit. Allowing them to have a wide range of reading materials can help them broaden their knowledge, and by allowing them to have time to read on their own allows for them to read independently with confidence. One of the reasons students might loose their motivation for reading is because they might be self-consciousness about their reading proficiency. In primary grade levels, when children hear other children reading at a good rate, they might start to feel self-conscious because they might not be able to read as well as the others. Some of the reasons that the book listed to fix these problems would be to allow the students to select from a wide variety of book selections such as what I mentioned above. They give some really good recommendations to help motivate students to read in the text.
Another interesting section I read in the book was the section over differentiating instruction; as elementary classroom teachers, we will be exposed to diverse students of all backgrounds and will be introduced to special needs children also. Since each student is different they will ultimately learn in different ways also. In order to help each student succeed, it is important for us as teachers to provide each student with the right learning materials to help him or her learn at an effective rate. In my internship classroom last semester, there were different materials my mentor teacher used for those students at a lower learning level and those who were at a higher learning level. For those children who were at a lower level, she had a word search that only had 4 words to find instead of 10. Since those students who were at a higher level were getting the easier word searches done, she gave them harder ones instead; this way everyone would finish about the same time. It was a great way to meet the needs of all her students and no one really knew the difference either. Meeting the needs of each student is important and as teachers, we have to constantly be aware of how our kids are learning. By being aware of this, we will be able to help them succeed and become effective classroom teachers.
Shaina, I agree. In my elementary school, the books were labeled by grade level and I hated it. Even though I was reading at the level I was suppose to be, I hated being told that I had to read the books at my level and that I couldn't read anything more challenging. It was almost as if they didn't have faith that I could read that good. In our classrooms, I think it would be great to be able to pick books according to the students reading level and allowing them to pick their own books.
This chapter confirmed a lot of things for me as a pre-service educator. It is important for teachers to look at their students when they are lesson planning and figuring out assessments. I am currently student teaching and when I plan my lessons one of the first things I have to do is consider who I am teaching and then what I am teaching. I think this comes with the territory of making sure your lessons are developmentally appropriate. I know in the class where I am student teaching; knowing my students is important because whereas the textbook may say one thing; I have to determine if it is appropriate and through assessment of various types (observation, quizzes etc) I know my student’s strengths and their weaknesses. This chapter outlined 6 critical qualities that a teacher must (not can) have! I like #2 which was assessment of individual progress and connecting reading instruction to previous experiences. I am confused about Fry’s Readability. We read some information concerning this in Curriculum and Assessment with Dr. Taggart but I’m still confused.
I think this chapter is very important to read as a future educator because it stresses how important it is to make the child’s reading experience memorable. You want the student to enjoy reading, and not dread the fact that they have to read a book. There was a statement that really stuck out to me when I was reading the text, it was on page 34 and it said, “Effective teachers attempt to learn all they can about students’ learning preferences, not so they can label students, but so they can better understand students and provide the best learning environment that is conductive to their learning.” I think every teacher needs to keep that statement in mind because I don’t feel like students should be “labeled” at all times in the classroom. I loved reading about Ms. Bass! When I read one of the activities about how Ms. Bass read to the students four times a day, which just made me smile. She read a variety of text, and I think that is great to do in the classroom. I loved when Dr. Walizer read to us every day in Reading Methods. I felt myself looking forward to the next day of class when she would read the story, and I think elementary-age students would love that! My only question would be, how do you keep the different levels separated? I felt like some of them were very similar. This chapter provided several ways to motivate students when dealing with reading, and I think that is a key factor when teaching students. I was glad the chapter provided different Figures for me to refer back to.
First of all, to answer your question, I don’t think there is one strategy that works the best. I think there are several strategies that will benefit each student differently. I liked reading about your past experience with teachers, and I think that is a great reflecting tool. You can reflect on what you enjoyed doing, and also things you didn’t enjoy doing. I think you can teach yourself a lot about what it takes to become an effective teacher. I really enjoyed reading the eight ways of teaching as well. I think they are an easy read, and really neat to learn about!
I still love all of the information provided in this book! I found the ten principles for all teachers to make teaching effective were very important. The following quote really stood out to me while reading this chapter: “Good teaching is inevitably the fine art of connecting content and kids- of doing what it takes to adapt how we teach so what we teach takes hold in the lives and minds of students (Tomlinson & Jarvis, 2006).” My reading mentor teacher did a great job of differentiating instruction for her students. The students were always challenged and having fun doing various activities that improved their knowledge in subjects across the entire curriculum. Figure 2.1 is something I feel will help me immensely as a future educator. The recommendations for increasing motivation are definitely important and I feel they will help me in my tutoring session this semester as well. Things such as letting students select their own books that are on their reading levels, giving ample time for silent independent reading, and suggesting books based on the students’ interests are all ideas that I feel will be beneficial to me as an educator and tutor this semester. In my internship there were many students who at first did not have an interest in reading, but by being given the opportunity to choose their own materials and then perform multiple activities on what they had read; their love for reading began to form. The chapter also addressed Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences which are important to remember when teaching a diverse population of students who will all have different abilities and interests. Overall, I think this chapter really put into perspective the vast amount of material and instruction that goes into teaching reading and language arts. It is important that we adhere to every student’s needs while making sure the reading is not in the frustration level for the student. Does anyone have any tips or tools to getting a student interested in reading?
In response to Shelby—I love the quote that you chose from page 34! I completely agree with that statement in that educators need to learn personal information about their students’ interests and skills so that they can better the instruction. I also thought that the story of Mrs. Bass was very inspirational and reminded me too of Dr. Walizer! Reading about Spencer every morning really got my attention and added to my love of reading. It is important that as educators we use multiple activities and tools to get all students interested in reading while providing them a vast amount of reading materials to choose from.
In response to Jaclyn C.....I agree that we need to look to our students when deciding what to teach. We are all going to have students that learn at different rates as well as learn in different ways. If reflection and assessment is a constant tool that we use then we will know how our students are doing and whether what we are teaching is being understood.
In reading Chapter 2, I found that the 10 principles on pg 27 to be very interesting. The ones that stood out for me were 4) Be flexible, 5) respect students and parents the way you want to be respected, and especially 10) Be PASSIONATE about teaching: be animated! I think that if a teacher is truly passionate about teaching, then the students see that and are motivated to do their best and succeed. The activities that are listed on pg. 29 were very interesting to me as well.
The chapter talks about the reasons for the decline in the motivation to read. I think that the major reason for this is the students feel like that they are afraid that they will be teased or ridiculed when reading. Children need to find books that are of interest to them.
My daughter is a struggling reader, she has never wanted to read nor enjoyed it. She is now in junior high and is reading more and more. I think that a lot of this has to do with the teachers she has had in the last couple of years. She has been able to choose the type of books that she reads instead of being told what books that she has to read. I think that choice is very important for students, they need to be able to find a topic that is of interest to them to read about.
I thought that your post really summed Chapter 2 up nicely! I think that it is vital to help instill a love of reading into your students although not all students will love to read. I wouldn't consider myself to love to read unless I find the perfect book (and if I can find time). My son would much rather play outside and do something physical to read so it is more of a struggle to get him to read compared to my daughter.
You have an amazing memory of your teachers! I cannot recall much about my teachers, especially in regards to reading.
I am really enjoying this book. I love how each chapter starts with a scenario because it helps me to see how different situations can be handled differently than just my way of thinking. This chapter was good because it discussed the effectiveness of teachers. There are so many opportunities to teach students, you can veer from your lesson plan occasionally and seize those teachable moments. I think one of the most important things a teacher can do is show their students that they truly care about them. I think that is such an important characteristic of an effective teacher. I like the quote on page 28, “Good teaching is inevitably the fine art of connecting content and kids-of doing what it takes to adapt how we teach so what we teach takes hold in the lives and minds of students”. I think that this quote hits the nail on the head so perfectly. We have to adapt our instruction to the learning styles of our students. This chapter also discussed the reasons students lose motivation to read and how to build that motivation back up. It is important to show students different strategies for reading. Teachers should model how these strategies work.
Margaret, those same 2 principles stood out to me as well. I think it is so important to respect your students. If you show them respect then in return they will show you respect. I have seen too many teachers that are not flexible in their teaching style and have seen the students suffer from that, so I think that flexibility is very important.
Chapter 2 – The Literacy Event One of my favorite parts of this chapter was the section titled, Teachers. I love the idea of creating a set of principles that will make teaching more effective. The list that the book provided on page 26 is a great starting point. I also found the list about effective literacy teachers particulary helpful. The larger list of traits and activities of effective literacy teachers on page 29 was awesome also!
One of my biggest concerns of being in my own classroom is being able to reach each student. That thought seems overwhelming to me at times. The chart on page 37 about the eight ways to teach was very helpful. I am really looking forward to tutoring because I am working with three children on completely different levels of reading. I cannot wait to put all of this to work!
The beginning story was very motivating and encouraging to me. Obviously, as an upcoming teacher I want to get as many ideas on how to manage my classroom time as best as possible, and this list of events really helped me imagine what a real classroom’s day can look like. Also, the reward system she used was a great addition to my list of classroom ideas well. Besides this example of a classroom’s activities, I found the ten principles for all teachers on page 27 to be an excellent list of expectations to set for myself. I even jotted down in my notes while reading that I want to type this list out for myself and keep it posted somewhere where it can always been seen by me. My favorite principle from this list though, was number nine: when asked a question for which you do not have the answer, admit that you do not know it, but you will attempt to find the answer. I think doing this and showing students that you are a “normal” individual like everyone else they know may ease them into trusting you a little more. Some shy students can be nervous about approaching a teacher one-on-one, I know this because I was a very shy little girl, so providing the chance to show students you aren’t a super-human may be helpful! Each section of this chapter was very interesting and motivating, but I would have to say that the teacher section was one that I will truly reread and refer back to. It seems to help me feel a little more prepared now. Besides the opening story and the ten principles, I also really liked the traits and activities of effective literacy teachers list on page 29. I have always loved to read, but been a little nervous about teaching student reading, so this list was a great help to me. I am a little bit anxious about the tutoring sessions this semester, but excited as well! After reading this chapter I seem to feel more comfortable on how things may go just by reading over these lists. I am a very list-oriented person, so these were especially helpful to me!
In response to Margaret W., I am on the same page as you. I really enjoyed the ten principles and the traits and activities lists. I found some very helpful tips in these lists. You pointed out some great principles from the list on page 27. I really liked number four, be flexible, as well. I think it is important that we show the students that we are flexible and willing to help them whenever it is possible. I think doing so will help build trust between ourselves and our students.
You mentioned the decline in motivation to read. For this, I really liked the list on page 38 on the criteria for selecting reading texts. I have fifth graders that I plan on tutoring for this course, and I am a bit worried about how I will choose texts for them to read. So I think the interest inventory we are required to do at the beginning of our sessions will be very crucial to provide myself with information, as well as referring to this list!
One of the most important things that I took away from this chapter is how important it is for teachers to look at their students to make decisions regarding lesson plans and the ways in which we teach our students materials. Regardless of how great we think a lesson plan or teaching method is, we must constantly reflect and monitor our students’ progress and understanding to know if it is truly working for our students. A teacher told us last semester that we should scrap any lesson that is not working for our students, even if it must be done in the middle. Again, this book reiterates the importance of teaching the student, not the method. I found the six critical qualities listed on page 27 to be very important. If all teachers held these six qualities we would have very effective schools! There are also some really great activities listed on page 29.
ReplyDeleteIn my internship there were a few students who lacked any motivation to read. As the text states I believe that this lack in motivation was due to self-consciousness, an emphasis on competition, and a lack of interest in assigned reading. Many students feel that school is a competition. Once they display any type of struggle or weakness they lose motivation because they feel they have failed. I think that it is important to reward class efforts as well as individual efforts because it should be our goal to work together as a class and support each other in our learning.
I felt very confused when reading about the Fry Readability Scale and Formula. I know Dr. Walizer said that we would get more practice over this formula in this class and I look forward to learning more about it. I think that leveling students is very useful because finding a student’s independent, instructional, and frustration level is very important in reading instruction and progress.
I wish all teachers were like Ms. Bass. I read about the activities she does in her class and how well she does everything. I want to be that teacher! I can certainly remember bad teachers I’ve had in the past as well as those teachers that were like Ms. Bass. I realize that I won’t be like Ms. Bass right out of school, but it is certainly something I am striving to become. On page 29, the text lists traits and activities of effective literacy teachers, this is something that I have copied and laminated to keep at home and later it will be in my classroom. Dr. Walizer emphasized motivation last semester in Reading Methods by introducing a read aloud before beginning our instruction in a unit or lesson because it helps the students become engaged in the activity you have planned.
ReplyDeleteIn my internship last semester the mentor teacher did all of the activities suggested under “self-consciousness”; Reader’s Theatre, small groups, and choral reading. However, she also did something that most teachers tell you not to do and that is Round Robin reading. So it seemed like she was doing all the other activities correctly but then contradicts her actions by throwing in Round Robin.
The author points out factors that affect learning styles, such as the environment. I definitely can agree with that as I like to study in quiet, because I can think and write. My study partner from last semester lives in the same town and she likes a noisy environment, i.e. music in the background, children running around, she can study in chaos. She even stated once at my house, “It’s too quiet, I can’t think!” So, even as adults we have our own style of learning, so it’s important to keep that in mind when we set up our classrooms.
Chapter two is about making reading an experience that your students will want to remember. As a teacher, you need to make reading something that they want to do and something that they feel they are good at. Teachers need to be sure that the lesson plans that they create can meet the needs of all of their students. Differentiating instruction is so important because every child learns differently. Teachers should also try to make the information relevant and interesting to the students.
ReplyDeleteThe question that I had about this chapter was how to identify the best reading strategy for different students. I know that most of them work with a specific problem but what if you have one student who has many problems.
Reading this chapter made me realize how important it is to motivate your students to read. As a teacher, you should help them set goals, but do not make it a competition, make it personal; something that they want to do for themselves.
After reading the section on teachers, it made me think back to some of my teachers and if they had effective teaching strategies. For example, posing higher-level thinking questions. Did my teachers really make me think, yes, they did. They challenged me and everyone else in my class.
The part of the reading that really connected to me was the reasons for the decline in motivation to read. Being self-conscious about reading in front of my peers did nothing but make me a basket case. I knew that they could read faster and better than I could so I didn't want to read because I knew they would make fun of me. The other part of the reading, which quickly became my favorite part, is the summary of the eight ways of teaching on page 37. I love it. I know that I am a linguistic/musical learner. I can remember anything if you put it to the tune of a song or if I write about it.
Ms. Bass reminds me so much of my reading mentor teacher. I am not kidding! My mentor is pretty much everything that Ms. Bass is and maybe more. I like a lot of the strategies that she was using with her students. I especially liked that fact she is taking time out after school and tutoring her students who are struggling with reading. If we only had more teachers like her. My daughter’s school focuses on reading and math for their kindergarten and first grade programs. I see a lot of their teachers modeling and providing activities that are listed on page 29. When I was teaching for head start I provided an entire day of literacy enriched activities. I provided so many literacy activities for my students and families to do at home as part of their home enrichment activities and one of the activities that was a huge success was our Reading Races. I developed this activity for the fall and spring for my class and our neighboring class to participate in. Several factors for me to have such a large activity for the families included: increasing their English, familiarize them to the public library and more child/parent interaction. The first one that I did I set a class goal of reading 1000 books in a month. Yes that sounds like a lot but 30 days in a month times 2 a day is 60 books per student. Having 18 students in my class I thought was a very doable goal! To kick of our race we had the local Librarian to come speak at our monthly parent meeting about how to get library cards, our school was in the same building as the library. I had each of my families sign up for library cards for themselves and their child. For each book they were read too, the reader logged the following information on the car cut outs; Title, Author, who read the book, minutes! The students were to bring their cars in daily; they would attach their car or cars on our class road. Much to my surprise my families took this activity and ran with it! Throughout the entire month of this activity I was very motivated and showed each of the students the same motivation as they would bring in their cars to attach to our road. I had contacted several outside people to come in and read to the class throughout the month. During our month we had the Mayor of our city, the Wichita Superintendant, some Hispanic leaders, police officers, and a fire fighter who all came and read to our class. At the end of the month we celebrated our 3,000+ books read with a huge pizza party! As you can imagine our hallways was filled with little cars from the top of the wall clear to the floor! I could have never imagined that this reading activity would be as successful as it turned out to be. Each year that I did this activity I change our theme of it! In this chapter the author talks about doing a class wide reading challenge versus individual challenges and having already done class wide challenges in ready, I agree that it is more beneficial and motivates the student to all participate.
ReplyDeleteReading the section on readability and how to score books is awesome. I have been reading a lot more about the Fry Readability Formula. It seems like it might be a lot of work up front but the outcomes is so worth it. I have notice just in some of the books that my daughter reads sometimes is the level that it always says it is. I am planning on learning the formula while checking the levels of my daughter’s books.
Once again this chapter was just as amazing as the first. Looking forward to more readings in this book!
In response to Christine:
ReplyDeleteI also think that the environment affects our ability to learn and that for everyone it is different. I like complete quiet when I'm writing, but when I'm reading I like to hear music in the background.
I find it odd that your teacher did the reading groups, choral reading, and then threw in Round Robin. Usually if a teacher knows the good techniques, they also know the bad ones.
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ReplyDeleteJaclyn C,
ReplyDeleteI am a little confused with Fry’s readability scale too. I am going to practice using some of the my daughter’s books that are already leveled. I think as anything until we start doing it and becoming familiar it seems confusing!
Christine,
I need chaos to study! I like noise around me and yes it is very hard for me to focus and stay on track when it is crazy! As I am typing this my daughters are singing and dancing in the same room as me! :)
Brandy,
Well said, reading is about making an experience that your students will want to remember. As a prior teacher that was something that I tried very hard to do. When I am back in the classroom my class will be filled with literacy enriched activities. Ms. Bass is what all teachers should strive to be!
Brandy,
ReplyDeleteI found it odd too that she would do all the "correct" things, but then turn around and do something that the Reading Methods course said not to do. I wasn't sure how to bring it up to the teacher either.
Jaclyn and Brooke,
I found the Fry's Readability formula to be really interesting and how fantastic that we have this tool to utilize to determine books that are not labeled with their reading level.
Christine
In Chapter Two I felt that the very first page was very informative on teaching in general. I think we all hope that we are all effective teachers when we start. Also I felt the recommendations to keep students interested in reading was very helpful. In Chapter Two in general it was describing different ways to teach and how to be a successful teacher. When reading the material about “declining in the motivation of reading” this reminds me of my niece who is in the second grade and has no interest in reading right now. I’m going to tutor her and her classmates so she stays interested reading but also work on her reading skills. She was in Title I last year and did very well at the end of the school year. But since school started she has no interest in reading at all. I will ask her to read my son a book and she will start and then she will just stop and give up. But I don’t push her and either does her family to read material that she is not interested in. She loves animals and loves to hear about them so her interest in reading will increase if it is material she loves but she loses interest real fast on material she is not interested in because she will just quit. I think that we all want to be successful teachers and what I have realized in my classes it will take practice and more practice. So far with the observations in the classroom I felt that it has helped tremendously and I’m starting to feel more comfortable. With this chapter it gave you a strategies and guidance on what you are as a person and how you will be as a teacher.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jaclyn, I see it also that students are lacking motivation to read. I see this with many students because they feel that the material that is given to them to read is not interesting so the motivation is not there. But when you find material that is interesting to them, they enjoy to read books and then they show excitement for reading.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading about Ms. Bass, I have to admit that I am worried I will not get everything done during the day. Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies all should be taught throughout the day. I worry that I will short change something. I have heard about teachers dropping science to do extra reading and I don't think I could do that and consider myself to be an effective teacher. I will have to work at incorporating reading into all my subjects in order to accomplish what I will want to. This chapter gave a good amount of information on the different ways of presenting the material. It will be good to get to know your students and to gauge the instruction based off of their needs. I can't wait to try my hand at this. The area that interested me the most was the information on the metacognitive strategies. I didn't realize that poor readers were usually low in this area. I have never used think-alouds in teaching students to read. This will be an important tool for the students who are not familiar with how to handle unknown words that they run across in the text. Reading about the way text is leveled was interesting as well. The school I work at currently uses the lexile system. It is handy to be able to go to their website and type in the title of a book and see if it is at my daughters level. There are times where books are not listed by lexile though. I was interested in the Fry readability formula. I grabbed one of the books I read this last and tried it out on it. It was only leveled at 7th grade. I was shocked that it was so low. I have always heard that newspapers are written at a middle school level. It might be fun to test an article written in a newspaper or magazine to see at what level they are as well. This will be a handy tool to have available while working with students in reading.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Brooke W. - I like your idea of the races. One of the fifth grade classes that I work in uses a racing theme with accelerated reader points. I like the idea of a class working toward a common goal better though. It provides more of a team like feeling.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Brandy - I agree that motivation is key. I believe that this motivation has to come along in the early grades because by the time middle school arrives, it is extremely hard to motivate the students to read. If a teacher can get them hooked on reading early in school, it makes a world of difference.
ReplyDeleteI agree with those of you who have already commented, Ms. Bass sounds like a great role model teacher. I have learned a lot from watching effective teachers and have been compiling a list of great ideas and activities to use in the classroom. It reads a lot like those listed in the introduction to this chapter. I was just talking to an older teacher the other day who said that she never spent any time in a classroom while she was getting her degree until she was student teaching. I am so thankful that we are able to spend a lot of time working with different teachers in different settings as we progress.
ReplyDeleteChapter 2 again provides some great information to help me become an effective teacher. I found a lot of the information to be repeated from previous courses but I read each page as though it were new material. I really liked the section on student motivation and I really think this is key to student success in reading. I also think the learning styles are an important aspect to consider when working with students. The classroom environment is an area that my reading mentor teacher worked on to help students find a comfortable place to read. She had several bean bags and soft chairs that students used during SSR and the other students were able to move around the room to find a spot they were comfortable with. I have read about Fry’s readability formula in several courses but have not worked with it hands on. I am not comfortable with it at this time and need to use it in a real context in order to become more familiar with it.
Response to Christine:
My mentor teacher in my reading internship did many different activities as well but she also had the students do some round robin reading. She spent a lot of time working with students on their reading abilities and provided a lot of time for the students to read but then had the round robin in there once in a while. I think it was simply an easy activity to use sometimes.
Response to Brooke W:
The Reading Race sounds like a great activity and it sounds like you really made it a success. It is great that you were able to involve so many families and people from the community. I know that my desire to read more came through influence from my parents and other adults who stressed how important it is to read.
This chapter really proved to me how complex reading can be. The author stressed how important it is to provide an atmosphere where students can be successful. I loved the example of Ms. Bass –what an excellent teacher! I liked the lists of traits of effective literacy teachers and I think these traits are something we should all be reminded of often. I also found the reasons for low motivation in reading to be interesting. I found it helpful that the author expanded on each of those along with suggestions to increase motivation. I grew up loving reading so that’s something I’ve always wondered how to do – motivate students who do not like to read. I have heard about the Fry Readability before; however, I don’t have much background knowledge with it. I would love to observe this in a school if I get the chance. Overall another great chapter!
ReplyDeleteIn response to Christine D:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you – how awesome would it be if all teachers were like Ms. Bass! I thought the list of traits on page 29 was great and sometime we should all strive towards. Laminating that list is a great idea! I also thought that you made a good point that even as adults we all have our own learning style so in our classroom it is so important that we get to know each of our students and adapt and make accommodations to their unique learning styles as well.
When reading the scenario of Ms. Bass’s 1st grade class I kept thinking about all of the wonderful ideas she has implemented in her classroom but there was a nagging question of how! After doing my reading and language arts internship last semester I realize how busy the day is with special, recess, lunch and breaks for snack and bathroom. I do think that a different type of curriculum may allow for more flexibility and from the classroom I was in last semester I did see many times when students were given task work that was out of a workbook and many times there were times that the students worked on morning work where I thought this time could be better utilized. I also know that many of these activities were provided by the school district and expected to be used. I thought that there was too much time where the students were no actively engaged in learning. This scenario was a refreshing read and really provided some great ideas that not only would I like to implement in my own classroom but also several literacy ideas that I would like to use in my tutoring sessions. I specifically loved the part of reading the poetry from a flip chart as well as putting the song lyrics into a pocket chart. I thought this would be great for the Vowel Code Rap. One of the areas I have notices when planning my instructional units is differentiating instruction. I do think that when I have my own classroom it would be easier because you really know the strengths and weaknesses of each student and their learning style. Reading this section of the chapter made the who process much more simple than I expected. I think that with anxiety about this I also made it more complicated. 2 areas of this chapter that were confusion were the areas of learning styles and the Fry Readability Formula. As far as the learning styles that were discussed in this chapter there were so many that it was hard to identify how you identify the learning styles and which research is best for identification. I am hoping that we will have an opportunity to use the readability formula. This is an area that concerns me with the tutoring portion of this course. How will I know the specifics of their needs without having any other information to go on? I am sure we will be accessing the readers and when and how to do this is something that I am excited to learn about.
ReplyDeleteKacey,
ReplyDeleteI also found the reasons for the lack of motivation for reading to be very useful. It is very important that we try to understand why students may lack motivation in reading so that we can get them motivated. I think it is very helpful to take an interest inventory so that we can try to supply the students with books that they will enjoy reading. It's also very unfortunate that many kids do not grow up reading books or seeing their parents enjoy reading. I just hope that I will be able to help motivate my students!
Tara,
ReplyDeleteI felt like the classroom I interned in last semester was always racing against the clock! It seemed like the teacher did not have enough time in the day! Planning will definitely be important once we start teaching. In this particular classroom the teacher had a difficult time getting students to transition quickly which used a great deal of time that could have been spent towards learning, but I know it can be difficult when you have over 25 2nd graders to get moving.
My response to Tyler Gill,
ReplyDeleteI too find that some of this material we are reading is the same as what I have read before. However I do like the format and I find that it is more reader friendly. This may be due the fact that I already have the pathway for the material or that I actually really enjoy reading this. I too enjoyed the part about motivation and environment. In my fist education class our teacher advised us to keep note cards with us in all of our observations. These note card were to be used to write down things that we saw that we would like to use in our own classroom. I have a note card box full of ideas. I find that when I go back through them I have forgotten many of the things I saw. One that I specifically sticks out for me with motivation is the reading adventure. It was a simple pop up tent that the teacher filled with pillows and such. On the outside she put the names and book covers of books and then the students put up book reviews. I have also seen where the teachers use sheet of translucent fabric over some of the lights in room to make the more inviting. I think that we are so lucky to have the many opportunities to be in the classroom. I have a friend that is going through the Baker education program and she has not had nearly amount of classroom time that we get in our program. That is the best part of my day!
Alisha,
ReplyDeleteI think you are on the right track by planning to encourage your niece to read with information that she may be more interested in. If she loves animals I imagine you could spend a lifetime presenting her with reading material she would enjoy. There are SO many reading resources available for young students about animals! And many of them tie into a subject area also for example math and science. Thank goodness for the inventive and imaginative minds of great authors! They will help us survive a classroom with generally unenthusiastic readers
With seeing how many of the younger elementary students, well I guess just many of them of all ages, don't enjoy reading it can be frustrating. I agree with you that finding things our students find interesting and can relate to will be the way to go!
This chapter has been particularly informative for me. The scenario at the very beginning was extremely interesting and I was curious to continue reading to find out the strategies Ms. Bass was using so successfully. I have often wondered why teachers don't spend more curricular time integrating reading and especially writing into all subject areas. I know general reading is incorporated into all subjects, but I think with a bit more time and creativity a stronger reading and writing focus could be employed into all subjects. I am always amazed at how weak many students' overall reading skills are. I remember the "Book-it" program when I was little. I would read night and day if it meant I would get pizza! I don't necessarily like the idea of bribing children to read, but I think a little reasonable incentive goes a long way with everyone. There are so many methods and creative ways to incorporate fun into reading, we just have to make the time.
ReplyDeleteFrom Chapter 2 I really liked the suggested principles for being an effective teacher. Number one took me aback a little because I had never realized the truth that it holds. It says to focus on the students and their learning, not on the lesson you worked to create. This made me remember how impressed I was with one of my lessons for my social studies observation last semester and how easy it can be to get caught up in the lesson presentation itself instead of what its purpose is in the first place....the students. It's okay to be proud of our creations, but our students' success and progress should be our ultimate goal.
I really enjoyed reading this chapter since all of the information in it is useful and applicable. I am a big fan of multiple intelligence teaching and therefore thoroughly enjoyed the table explaining the eight ways of teaching. Anything offering helpful suggestions for me is always a plus!
I received some great ideas from reading the chapter 2 scenario about Ms. Bass’s first-grade classroom. It sounds like such a great atmosphere to be a part of! I also enjoyed learning about the teacher, student, text, context, and task process. There are so many components that have to come together to create a successful reading event. In order to be effective, literacy teachers must differentiate instruction and motivate students to read. Personally, I think that motivating students to read is a very important factor in the reading process. Just as our text mentions on page 30, motivation severely declines as students’ progress throughout school. Teachers need to be able to recognize why a student is uninspired to read and then do something about it. I will be working with 5th grade students during my tutoring sessions. Lack of motivation will probably be a big factor for my students. I want to be able to create a safe atmosphere for those that lack confidence, encourage each student without making our tutoring session a competition, and help students choose books they are interested in. I hope to not only assist them with fluency, vocabulary, decoding, and comprehension, but also get them excited about reading!
ReplyDeleteShylah Clark-Jarvis…
ReplyDeleteI used to love the Book-it program from Pizza Hut! I’d forgotten about it but as you mentioned, it really got me pumped up to read. And you are right about creating activities to help weave reading and language arts into all subjects. It may not be the simplest or quickest way to teach a lesson, but teaching the students is what really matters. Reading the scenario about Ms. Bass’s classroom made me realize how attainable having a literacy rich classroom really is if the teacher is willing to be creative and integrative.
Yea for Ms. Bass...She represents what we should all strive for as teachers! Fortunately, I had more good teachers than bad in my school years, but those bad ones definitely stand out. From the chapter, I really like how figure 2.1 lists the traits and activities of effective literacy teachers. In looking through the info on readability tests, I'm still not sure about using the Fry graph - I need to spend a little more time figuring that one out! One of the most important sentiments of the whole chapter was the very last sentence in the conclusion..."Have fun with language so that your literary passion will be infectious." In the spirit of us all getting ready to tutor small groups, that's a great thought. We still have a lot to learn, and our techniques with our groups won't be perfect, but we can all strive to relax, have fun with it, and pass on a love of reading!
ReplyDeleteWe should all strive to put at least a little bit of Ms. Bass into our own teaching style! By now we have all probably experience just how difficult reading can be, whether it is on a personal level or from observations/internships of students in the classroom. Students need to be in an environment that encourages their reading abilities not one that makes them discouraged. This chpater proided us with a list traits of what makes an effective literacy teacher. We beginning teachers we need to keep these traits in mind when creating lessons and working with students. If students are in an environment that does not encourage their reading, they are often uninterested in trying to better their reading skills. This chapter also provided suggestions on how to increase reading motivation in students. It is certain we will all come across students who do not enjoy reading and it is up to us to change this negative opinion about reading into a positive one by providing students with a variety of reading material and activities that truly captures the student's interest.
ReplyDeleteI am a little nervous about using the Fry Readability, but mostly because I have only been introduced to it, but have never actually applied it. I look forward to using it in our tutoring sessions to provide students with litature that meets their needs and intersts.
In response to Alisha G...Sounds like you already have some great tutoring ideas and enthusiasm for your niece and other 2nd graders. I also really appreciated how motivation was a key topic in this chapter. We can learn wonderful techniques all day long about teaching literacy skills, but without the knowledge of how to motivate our students, those other tools will be wasted. Thanks for sharing! Julie
ReplyDeleteIn response to Hannah B.,
ReplyDeleteI too agreed with the book that students seem lost motivation as they go through out their school years. I am going to be working with Kindergarteners in my internship and they of course love stories. My challenge will be choosing books that are not too long in which they end up losing interest, but there are a lot of children books out there. However, children in the high grades have a variety of likes and dislikes when it comes to stories, but I am sure you will enjoy your experience. It is amazing the changes we notice in children in a short time span.
I liked reading about Ms. Bass’s classroom. That’s how I want my classroom to be. She uses so many techniques for her students and that’s how I want to teach my students. My favorite part of this chapter was reading about selecting appropriate texts and leveled books. I visited some of the websites in the leveled books section. I never knew that there were so many ways to find out the level of a book that you want your students to read. The chapter talked a little bit about Accelerated Reader. Accelerated Reader was really big in my school. I always loved finding out what reading level I was, reading those books, and improving my reading level. I really liked how the chapter gave you a list of criteria for determining the level of instructional books.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Ashley R
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we need to keep those traits in mind. I also believe like you do that we all should strive to be more like Ms. Bass. I have also been introduced to the Fry Readability in my Children's Literature class. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy.
On page 28 of the text I found this quote, “Good teaching is inevitably the fine art of connecting content and kids—of doing what it takes to adapt how we teach so what we teach takes hold in the lives and minds of students.” I think this quote summarizes the chapter pretty well and actually what we have been taught throughout our major courses. It doesn’t matter if we are brilliant and know the content, if we can’t reach students and teach them materials in ways that they can understand we are not doing our job. I agree with the quotes in the section on motivation. Being able to motivate a child to read sets them up for greater success in reading because they want to do it and find it relevant. What can we do besides have children practice their reading to help with self-consciousness?
ReplyDeleteI have a question from the list provided on pg. 27. It says don’t focus so much on the lessons we create, but on the children and their learning. I completely agree with this, but in a way doesn’t this mean it’s better for us to write more general lesson plans and make the adaptations to them as we go along, than to write to very detailed and specific ones?
My class was very competitive growing up. We use to race to see who could get the most stickers on charts etc. My third grade teacher found a great way to make us work together instead of being in constant battle with each other. On a bulletin board we had a class reading log. Every time we finished a book, we gave a short report to the class on it, and got to add a small paper smiley face to the board. After every so many smiley faces were added we got a class reward. When the whole board was full we had a huge class bbq at her house!
Teaching children to use their skills/previous knowledge and strategies or language systems to aid them in metacognition. Being able to figure out what a word is or means on their own, makes a child a more confident reader and helps them remember what that word because it took extra work to figure it out.
As teachers we all have the opportunity to be effective reading instructors. We just have to be willing to take the time and out for the effort to teach in ways that meet the diverse needs of students.
In response to Hannah B.
ReplyDeleteIt’s amazing how much motivation is lost to read as we get older! I noticed it just going from my 4th grade internship to my 6th grade one. I think it is partially because as we get into the upper grades, reading is less of the child’s choice, but as a requirement for classes. The amount of reading done from text books takes away from the time a teacher can allow for free reading, and from the want of children to read on their own. I always felt like I did enough reading for classes that I didn’t want to read a book when I wasn’t forced to. Good luck with your 5th graders!
This chapter was basically a reinforcement of everything that has been taught on during the courses in the education program. Teachers are supposed to learn each student’s interests, abilities, weaknesses, etc. to better educate them. I especially liked the beginning scenario! I want to be just like Ms. Bass when I am in my own classroom. She makes it seem so easy to instruct students and get all of the different activities into one day and also have students that are achieving success!
ReplyDeleteWhile reading through the chapter, I started noticing how many times I thought of my internship classes last semester. I was in a first grade classroom with a variety of different students on different educational levels. I can now relate to so much of this information from the chapter because I have seen it in action. My mentor teacher was amazing at creating lessons that accommodated each student’s different learning styles and levels. She also knew her students very well and encouraged them to succeed at everything they did. I guess in a way my mentor teacher last semester to me is like Ms. Bass in that she strives to reach her students in all of her lessons and wants the students to succeed. Again this is exactly how I want to be in my classroom. I always hear about that one teacher that made a difference in so many students’ lives. Well, I want to be that teacher!
In response to Janel…I totally agree with your quote from the book! Reaching students in the classroom is so important and a teacher could be the greatest teacher ever but still not be effective because the students did not understand the material. Your teacher’s idea for getting the class to work together was great! I also liked the ideas in the book about working together as a class with a bulletin board project.
ReplyDeleteBefore moving into the “meat” of this chapter, I thought I’d start by responding to one of the statements posed by the text on page 30, “Motivation frequently makes the difference between learning that is temporary and superficial and learning that is permanent and internalized” (Edmunds and Bauserman, 2006). This quote is a reflection on the content of this chapter; that is, how to encourage and maintain the motivation of students to read. Learning that most students arrive in kindergarten willing and eager to read, and are losing that eagerness by the end of grade school, only reinforces the concept of motivation as a key factor in keeping students wanting to read.
ReplyDeleteMany of this information was covered in Dr. Walizer’s class last semester. However, this text goes into greater detail in actually instructing new teachers in specific ways of keeping motivation high, by examining students’ learning styles, and giving many, many ideas and hints. For example, the chart on page 29 was incredible; I truly enjoy having things spelled out for me, and this chart, as well as the hypothetical story at the beginning of the chapter, has given me many ideas for running my own classroom.
For curiosity’s sake, I took both the learning styles inventory (although the link at the Memletic’s site was down, I found a few more), and the multiple intelligences inventory. I am very much a visual learner, needing to see things, even if only in my head. When I remember information from a book, I can actually picture where on the page, and where in the book, I found the information. I also discovered that I score highest in verbal/linguistic intelligence. I hope that these are tests that I can replicate in the classroom to give me a better idea of my students’ needs and interests.
On a final note, it was interesting to read about global, analytical, and combination learning processes. Several years ago I toured the local Boys and Girls Club. The homework room was set up with four corners. One corner was brightly lit and offered tables and chairs, and music available on headphones. One corner was brightly lit, but quiet and with soft chairs. One corner was dimly lit, but with music available, and the final corner was dimly lit, quiet, with soft beanbag chairs. They recognized that different students needed different environments to study effectively.
In response to Tyler G.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that Ms. Bass sounds like a teacher we all should try to emulate on some levels. In fact, considering the pages of our textbook are perforated, I might just pull out those pages and keep them handy for when I have my own classroom!
Chapter 2 talked about how to make reading an enjoyable experience for students so they will enjoy reading the rest of their lives. I especially enjoyed the recommendations the book mentioned on increasing motivation for your students.
ReplyDeleteI guess the question I have is if I were to use the Dr. Seuss books in my tutoring, which website would I use for assessing the grade level for my 1st graders and would any of these sites provide a reading quiz?
I think the reading has me looking at how students become frustrated and give up on trying to learn how to read. If this happens to students in 1st grade, it could devastate their entire education. I personally know a senior in high school who this has happened to and I am worried when he heads off to college this fall.
I substituted 2nd grade this past week and the students were working on Kansas day comprehension short stories. They would read a short story and either answer a few questions that were fill in the blank, write a complete sentence or do a crossword puzzle. A few of the students managed to do three of these books in the allotted 45-minute period. The other students only managed to finish one or two. After reading this chapter, I now understand more about how students are at different reading levels.
Response to Tyler…..
ReplyDeleteI agree that we re-learning material, but repetition is the key for everyone, right? I also agree with you on the student motivation being my favorite part of the chapter. My mentor teacher last semester had beanbag also for the students to use during SSR and they were used as a reward for students who completed their homework or had their planner signed consecutively for the week.
I thought this chapter gave a bunch of great ideas for teachers to use to make children love reading.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many children today that hate reading, and this chapter covered reasons why they may hate reading. I thought it was very helpful that the author told us the main reasons and then how to help children conquer their fears of reading.
These are great strategies for teachers to remember and refer back to all the time to help children love reading.
I really liked the ideas of having the children pick books that really interest them and then list them on the white board for the rest of the class to see. They list the book they just read and they write a comment on why they loved that book. This is a great way for the children to share their joy of reading with the rest of the class.
Ms. Bass is a great teacher and I want to make my children love reading like she made her students love reading. I think the tips this book gives us about reading will help all of us become a ms. Bass.
Response to Debbie M:
ReplyDeleteI also thought this was a great chapter because it gave us tips on how to make children enjoy reading and how to use strategies in the classroom to make them continue to enjoy reading.
While reading “The Literacy Event” I gained an abundance of information I must use during the tutoring process. I know it’s also information that will be necessary for future teaching, but I couldn’t help applying everything I read to what is approaching: my own individual students! They will depend on ME to be an effective teacher. That is a bit scary, but I’m excited.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated the deeper explanation of the Fry Readability Test. In our Reading and Language Arts methods text it didn’t give the details of how you actually score the passages using the chart. I was able to see how the chart is used and can understand why it is used for assessment. The passages about motivation were inspiring and I plan to use those guidelines as a checklist for preparing the next couple weeks.
In response to Kiley A,
ReplyDeleteI also picked up from the reading how important it is for students to be interested in the readings. But no matter how much we may help students love to read, I think it's sad that when it comes to testing for NCLB they get assigned readings that may not interest them at all. I think it is so important to help kids enjoy reading so that when it comes time for testing, they can read the passage even though they might not be interested in it.
As many of you have previously stated I am in awe of Ms. Bass. How she is able to accomplish all of that in one day is amazing. It also reintegrated to me on how important it is to integrate throughout the day with everything you do. I have seen some amazing teachers and with the pressures put on them to have their students get certain scores it is crucial for them to integrate.
ReplyDeleteI really liked a few different topics in this chapter, first was the chart on page 29. It discusses 29 effective activities and ideas for an effective teacher.
Also, I am a huge Gardner's fan, I think that children learn and retain so much more when we include the 8 intelligences. I have seen several teachers do this and I have noticed that the students retain and are interested in the information for a longer period of time.
Finally it was good to see the Fry Readability formula again. The more I see this and read about it the more I start to understand it. It still confuses me but I am starting to get it. Is the Fry Readability done frequently, I have never seen a teacher use this?
I also wanted to mention the section on Motivation. This is what I feel will set us as future educators at a higher level, the main concept we have learned in the majority of our classes is to motivate, prove to the students why it is important and get their attention. If we can do this then we will have half the battle won. This is simply my opinion.
In response to Becky H,
ReplyDeleteIsn't it refreshing to see what is discussed in the chapter in real life. I think we all have that one teacher who just went the extra mile, I have also seen several teachers when they first get out of school how excited and motivated they are then the fire dies. I am hope that we can retain that fire and be that teacher our students remember.
The ten principles on page 27 for teachers was really interesting to me. I enjoyed the different ideas they gave. I tagged the different activities on pages 25 and 26. I plan to engage those activities in my classroom. Mrs. Bass would have been a great teacher to internship under. She seems like she really engaged the students in literacy and the students enjoyed it and learned well from the different activities. Differentiating instruction is connecting content and kids. There are four ways to differentiate instruction: content, process/activities, product and learning styles. The section of reasons for the decline in motivation to read, was quite interesting. I never thought about these reasons before now. The most interesting reason was not recognizing those that had fewer books read. The students think of it as competition, but teachers need to make sure to acknowledge all levels no matter what. The three ways to build reading confidence were choral reading, buddy reading and small groups. It mentions that whole class rewards are better than individual rewards. I really like that idea and never thought how it hinders the less fortunate readers.
ReplyDeleteLet the students make their own choice on what books they read as much as possible. They are more interested in the topic and are willing to read the books more and get into the topic. When they are forced to read about a topic they don’t enjoy they prefer not to read as much and then there reading abilities go down and they don’t have the desire to read as much or as often. I agree with this myself. I hated that we had to read certain books in high school English, but when I am able to choose the book on my own, I find myself being glued to the book more often and I enjoy reading that book. I love to read anyways, but I find myself not understanding the book or getting into as much if I am reading a book on a topic I was told to read. I always find myself reading the back cover of the book to get an idea what the story is about. I also know that if I can’t get interested in the book within the first few pages or the first chapter, I most likely am not going to get into it later in the book and it will end up being a waste of my time. I really enjoyed learning about the different learning styles on page 35. It was great to know what they were called and how they learned best. The summary of the eight ways of teaching on page 37 was good and I plan on looking back at this and using the different ways to see which one works best for me. The three reading levels was great to look at and read about. This will help a teacher learn and understand their students a lot better.
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ReplyDeleteIn response to Jen H –
ReplyDeleteI also liked the list on page 29 of the book for traits and activities of effective literacy teachers. I think it is important for us to know how to be effective. I have the same thought on the Fry Readability. I never see a teacher use it either. I don’t understand it but the more I see it and read about it, the more I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel in understanding it a little more. Eventually I think I will totally understand it and be able to use it when needed. I would not feel comfortable right now to use it if I needed to. I agree with your thought on motivation. I think the more the students are motivated to do something the more willing they are to do it. They will want to keep doing the activity whether it be reading or math or science.
I really enjoyed reading this chapter. It talks about how to keep students motivated and what makes an effective reading teacher. In the reading it talks about looking to the students and what their interests are to keep them motivated. I have to say that I rarely see this happening where I work. The teachers use the same book titles every year. Some of the books are good to read, but I sometimes feel like they should try something new or present the lessons in a different way. One example is in a fourth grade class where they read the same book every year. The teacher commented that the previous year's class really enjoyed the book and did a really good job in getting the main ideas that the book was trying to convey. Then she said she didn't think this class would fair as well because they didn't seem to have the same kind of understanding. I assumed after the first chapter she would adjust her plan and possibly add more scaffolding to the lessons, but she didn't. It was a very good book, and although all of the children could read it very well and could tell what happened in the story, none of them could grasp the nuances of the book and how characters changed. It would have been fantastic for students that were motivated to using higher level thinking and questioning.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I guess I brought that up because of the learning styles and I tried to log on for the quiz but I couldn't. I was curious.
In reference to April B.
ReplyDeleteI love to read as well and like you if it is book I enjoy I will read it from cover to cover in one sitting if possible. I usually will always finish a book I start, but if it takes me longer to get into it I tend to be able to put it down. I would really struggle if I were in school now because I loved to make my own choices and read a variety of things.
In response to Sara Childs
ReplyDeleteI think that the quote is great too. It made me think about what I do not see in the classroom now and what I want to bring to my tutoring sessions when they begin.
Chapter 2 discussed the literacy event. One particular section of the reading that I really enjoyed was Differentiating Instruction. Our classrooms will be full of diverse learners ranging in skills and cultures. It is important to make modifications and accommodations to lesson plans because one lesson plan will not reach/teach all students. I love how the book says, "...emphasize is not on teachers teaching a set curriculum, but rather on their providing an enriched environment that enables all students to build on their existing knowledge." Lessons are created to actually teach the material to the students instead of teaching the curriculum. Another section I particularly like was over the different learning styles. A lot of the theorist mentioned and their theories I had never heard of. This section was a fun read for me because I found myself trying to decide which learning style I fit in the different theories. I'm glad this chapter went into detail about the criteria for leveled books. This chapter introduced me to new information and is making me that much more excited about getting out in the field and begin tutoring.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jen Hittle – I too am a fan of Gardner. I believe it is important to include ways to use all of the intelligences in our lessons to reach all of our students. The Fry Readability formula confuses me as well. I’ve seen and read about it multiple times but still can’t quite figure it out. With more experience with it, I will soon come to understand it.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter has showed me many ways I can be more effective as a teacher. Some of these techniques include being understanding of each students uniqueness, model expressive reading, avoiding published materials, and using big books. Many students dislike reading because they do not want to read something boring and therefore are bored with the material. This is why chapter two emphasized ways to increase motivation. I dreaded reading growing up and could have used some of these techniques to connect with it more. One thing I liked was the strategies for reading because they can help students understand what they are reading. Students could look at pictures for clues or think of a word that would make sense to the context. One last part of chapter two I thought was beneficial was the summary of eight ways of teaching. Students want to learn in different ways and some have to be moving, singing, or connecting it with themselves to understand it. This chart gave many examples of ways to make reading interesting. In the class I para in, if a student is struggling reading, we either help them sound out the word by using sounds or show them pictures to connect it with what they are reading. This is one good reason for pictures in their books.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Royce K.:
ReplyDeleteI see the same thing happening in classes I encounter. In my high school English/Literature classes, you could predict a year or two ahead of time because teacher taught the same old thing every year with no change during the same time. It was books that was not completely interesting to high school students. I believe this may be true for a few of the elementary classrooms I've seen too.
Chapter two gives numerous characteristics of effective teachers. I agree that a teacher who can truly reach out to the students and help them to learn and grow would definitely posses the traits mentioned in this chapter. Chapter two also talks about the decline in motivation to read and ways to combat it in the classroom. When I was going to school I don’t remember ever having a “classroom library” and I’m seeing it more and more in my internships. I think it’s a great idea because you can’t always let students be going to and from the library. My favorite part in chapter two talked about the different reading levels and how to select appropriate texts for these levels. Too often we see a child pick up a book that is too difficult and then become overly frustrated when he/she can’t read it.
ReplyDeleteA question that I thought of while reading this chapter is why different book companies will level books differently. It would make sense to level all books on the same scale to make it easier for students, parents, and teachers.
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to read. Even in first grade I’d often get in trouble for reading while I was supposed to be doing something else so sometimes it’s very hard for me to understand why some children don’t like to read. I can remember many of my classmates hating to read and grumbling when we had to read out loud. I realize now that most of them were frustrated because the books we were reading in class were too hard for them to understand and it they had no motivation to read. This chapter allowed me to look back and realize that something as simple as the level of the book can make, or break a child’s motivation to read.
Lori,
ReplyDeleteI also liked the part about teaching the students to look for clues in the pictures to help them figure out what a word might be. The only problem with that is that eventually there will be no picture and they will have to rely simply on context clues. I hope that everyone will teach their children how to use both to help them out even more.
Do you think you would have liked reading more if you had been allowed to find books that interested you?
When I was in elementary school, I remember not wanting to read at all because the only I never had the motivation to do it. Another reason was that we did the AR program and I hated reading the books that were labeled according to our grade level. None of the books were interesting or fun to read; I felt like I was being forced to read and I also felt like I was frowned upon if I chose not to read. Motivation is something that most students lack when it comes to reading; as the book says, in between first and fifth grade something happens to some children where they have no desire to read. As teachers, we need to encourage or motivate students to read for fun and for their learning benefit. Allowing them to have a wide range of reading materials can help them broaden their knowledge, and by allowing them to have time to read on their own allows for them to read independently with confidence. One of the reasons students might loose their motivation for reading is because they might be self-consciousness about their reading proficiency. In primary grade levels, when children hear other children reading at a good rate, they might start to feel self-conscious because they might not be able to read as well as the others. Some of the reasons that the book listed to fix these problems would be to allow the students to select from a wide variety of book selections such as what I mentioned above. They give some really good recommendations to help motivate students to read in the text.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting section I read in the book was the section over differentiating instruction; as elementary classroom teachers, we will be exposed to diverse students of all backgrounds and will be introduced to special needs children also. Since each student is different they will ultimately learn in different ways also. In order to help each student succeed, it is important for us as teachers to provide each student with the right learning materials to help him or her learn at an effective rate. In my internship classroom last semester, there were different materials my mentor teacher used for those students at a lower learning level and those who were at a higher learning level. For those children who were at a lower level, she had a word search that only had 4 words to find instead of 10. Since those students who were at a higher level were getting the easier word searches done, she gave them harder ones instead; this way everyone would finish about the same time. It was a great way to meet the needs of all her students and no one really knew the difference either. Meeting the needs of each student is important and as teachers, we have to constantly be aware of how our kids are learning. By being aware of this, we will be able to help them succeed and become effective classroom teachers.
Shaina,
ReplyDeleteI agree. In my elementary school, the books were labeled by grade level and I hated it. Even though I was reading at the level I was suppose to be, I hated being told that I had to read the books at my level and that I couldn't read anything more challenging. It was almost as if they didn't have faith that I could read that good. In our classrooms, I think it would be great to be able to pick books according to the students reading level and allowing them to pick their own books.
This chapter confirmed a lot of things for me as a pre-service educator. It is important for teachers to look at their students when they are lesson planning and figuring out assessments. I am currently student teaching and when I plan my lessons one of the first things I have to do is consider who I am teaching and then what I am teaching. I think this comes with the territory of making sure your lessons are developmentally appropriate. I know in the class where I am student teaching; knowing my students is important because whereas the textbook may say one thing; I have to determine if it is appropriate and through assessment of various types (observation, quizzes etc) I know my student’s strengths and their weaknesses. This chapter outlined 6 critical qualities that a teacher must (not can) have! I like #2 which was assessment of individual progress and connecting reading instruction to previous experiences. I am confused about Fry’s Readability. We read some information concerning this in Curriculum and Assessment with Dr. Taggart but I’m still confused.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Sara - I agree with you! Motivation is a key factor in reading! We have to keep students motivated to read!
ReplyDeleteI think this chapter is very important to read as a future educator because it stresses how important it is to make the child’s reading experience memorable. You want the student to enjoy reading, and not dread the fact that they have to read a book. There was a statement that really stuck out to me when I was reading the text, it was on page 34 and it said, “Effective teachers attempt to learn all they can about students’ learning preferences, not so they can label students, but so they can better understand students and provide the best learning environment that is conductive to their learning.” I think every teacher needs to keep that statement in mind because I don’t feel like students should be “labeled” at all times in the classroom. I loved reading about Ms. Bass! When I read one of the activities about how Ms. Bass read to the students four times a day, which just made me smile. She read a variety of text, and I think that is great to do in the classroom. I loved when Dr. Walizer read to us every day in Reading Methods. I felt myself looking forward to the next day of class when she would read the story, and I think elementary-age students would love that! My only question would be, how do you keep the different levels separated? I felt like some of them were very similar. This chapter provided several ways to motivate students when dealing with reading, and I think that is a key factor when teaching students. I was glad the chapter provided different Figures for me to refer back to.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Brandy:
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, to answer your question, I don’t think there is one strategy that works the best. I think there are several strategies that will benefit each student differently. I liked reading about your past experience with teachers, and I think that is a great reflecting tool. You can reflect on what you enjoyed doing, and also things you didn’t enjoy doing. I think you can teach yourself a lot about what it takes to become an effective teacher. I really enjoyed reading the eight ways of teaching as well. I think they are an easy read, and really neat to learn about!
I still love all of the information provided in this book! I found the ten principles for all teachers to make teaching effective were very important. The following quote really stood out to me while reading this chapter: “Good teaching is inevitably the fine art of connecting content and kids- of doing what it takes to adapt how we teach so what we teach takes hold in the lives and minds of students (Tomlinson & Jarvis, 2006).” My reading mentor teacher did a great job of differentiating instruction for her students. The students were always challenged and having fun doing various activities that improved their knowledge in subjects across the entire curriculum. Figure 2.1 is something I feel will help me immensely as a future educator. The recommendations for increasing motivation are definitely important and I feel they will help me in my tutoring session this semester as well. Things such as letting students select their own books that are on their reading levels, giving ample time for silent independent reading, and suggesting books based on the students’ interests are all ideas that I feel will be beneficial to me as an educator and tutor this semester. In my internship there were many students who at first did not have an interest in reading, but by being given the opportunity to choose their own materials and then perform multiple activities on what they had read; their love for reading began to form. The chapter also addressed Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences which are important to remember when teaching a diverse population of students who will all have different abilities and interests. Overall, I think this chapter really put into perspective the vast amount of material and instruction that goes into teaching reading and language arts. It is important that we adhere to every student’s needs while making sure the reading is not in the frustration level for the student. Does anyone have any tips or tools to getting a student interested in reading?
ReplyDeleteIn response to Shelby—I love the quote that you chose from page 34! I completely agree with that statement in that educators need to learn personal information about their students’ interests and skills so that they can better the instruction. I also thought that the story of Mrs. Bass was very inspirational and reminded me too of Dr. Walizer! Reading about Spencer every morning really got my attention and added to my love of reading. It is important that as educators we use multiple activities and tools to get all students interested in reading while providing them a vast amount of reading materials to choose from.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jaclyn C.....I agree that we need to look to our students when deciding what to teach. We are all going to have students that learn at different rates as well as learn in different ways. If reflection and assessment is a constant tool that we use then we will know how our students are doing and whether what we are teaching is being understood.
ReplyDeleteIn reading Chapter 2, I found that the 10 principles on pg 27 to be very interesting. The ones that stood out for me were 4) Be flexible, 5) respect students and parents the way you want to be respected, and especially 10) Be PASSIONATE about teaching: be animated! I think that if a teacher is truly passionate about teaching, then the students see that and are motivated to do their best and succeed. The activities that are listed on pg. 29 were very interesting to me as well.
ReplyDeleteThe chapter talks about the reasons for the decline in the motivation to read. I think that the major reason for this is the students feel like that they are afraid that they will be teased or ridiculed when reading. Children need to find books that are of interest to them.
My daughter is a struggling reader, she has never wanted to read nor enjoyed it. She is now in junior high and is reading more and more. I think that a lot of this has to do with the teachers she has had in the last couple of years. She has been able to choose the type of books that she reads instead of being told what books that she has to read. I think that choice is very important for students, they need to be able to find a topic that is of interest to them to read about.
In response to Brandy:
ReplyDeleteI thought that your post really summed Chapter 2 up nicely! I think that it is vital to help instill a love of reading into your students although not all students will love to read. I wouldn't consider myself to love to read unless I find the perfect book (and if I can find time). My son would much rather play outside and do something physical to read so it is more of a struggle to get him to read compared to my daughter.
You have an amazing memory of your teachers! I cannot recall much about my teachers, especially in regards to reading.
Thanks for posting!
I am really enjoying this book. I love how each chapter starts with a scenario because it helps me to see how different situations can be handled differently than just my way of thinking. This chapter was good because it discussed the effectiveness of teachers. There are so many opportunities to teach students, you can veer from your lesson plan occasionally and seize those teachable moments. I think one of the most important things a teacher can do is show their students that they truly care about them. I think that is such an important characteristic of an effective teacher. I like the quote on page 28, “Good teaching is inevitably the fine art of connecting content and kids-of doing what it takes to adapt how we teach so what we teach takes hold in the lives and minds of students”. I think that this quote hits the nail on the head so perfectly. We have to adapt our instruction to the learning styles of our students. This chapter also discussed the reasons students lose motivation to read and how to build that motivation back up. It is important to show students different strategies for reading. Teachers should model how these strategies work.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, those same 2 principles stood out to me as well. I think it is so important to respect your students. If you show them respect then in return they will show you respect. I have seen too many teachers that are not flexible in their teaching style and have seen the students suffer from that, so I think that flexibility is very important.
ReplyDeleteKelsey M. sounds like you had a great mentor teacher for reading.
ReplyDeleteChapter 2 – The Literacy Event
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite parts of this chapter was the section titled, Teachers. I love the idea of creating a set of principles that will make teaching more effective. The list that the book provided on page 26 is a great starting point. I also found the list about effective literacy teachers particulary helpful. The larger list of traits and activities of effective literacy teachers on page 29 was awesome also!
One of my biggest concerns of being in my own classroom is being able to reach each student. That thought seems overwhelming to me at times. The chart on page 37 about the eight ways to teach was very helpful. I am really looking forward to tutoring because I am working with three children on completely different levels of reading. I cannot wait to put all of this to work!
The beginning story was very motivating and encouraging to me. Obviously, as an upcoming teacher I want to get as many ideas on how to manage my classroom time as best as possible, and this list of events really helped me imagine what a real classroom’s day can look like. Also, the reward system she used was a great addition to my list of classroom ideas well. Besides this example of a classroom’s activities, I found the ten principles for all teachers on page 27 to be an excellent list of expectations to set for myself. I even jotted down in my notes while reading that I want to type this list out for myself and keep it posted somewhere where it can always been seen by me. My favorite principle from this list though, was number nine: when asked a question for which you do not have the answer, admit that you do not know it, but you will attempt to find the answer. I think doing this and showing students that you are a “normal” individual like everyone else they know may ease them into trusting you a little more. Some shy students can be nervous about approaching a teacher one-on-one, I know this because I was a very shy little girl, so providing the chance to show students you aren’t a super-human may be helpful! Each section of this chapter was very interesting and motivating, but I would have to say that the teacher section was one that I will truly reread and refer back to. It seems to help me feel a little more prepared now. Besides the opening story and the ten principles, I also really liked the traits and activities of effective literacy teachers list on page 29. I have always loved to read, but been a little nervous about teaching student reading, so this list was a great help to me. I am a little bit anxious about the tutoring sessions this semester, but excited as well! After reading this chapter I seem to feel more comfortable on how things may go just by reading over these lists. I am a very list-oriented person, so these were especially helpful to me!
ReplyDeleteIn response to Margaret W., I am on the same page as you. I really enjoyed the ten principles and the traits and activities lists. I found some very helpful tips in these lists. You pointed out some great principles from the list on page 27. I really liked number four, be flexible, as well. I think it is important that we show the students that we are flexible and willing to help them whenever it is possible. I think doing so will help build trust between ourselves and our students.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned the decline in motivation to read. For this, I really liked the list on page 38 on the criteria for selecting reading texts. I have fifth graders that I plan on tutoring for this course, and I am a bit worried about how I will choose texts for them to read. So I think the interest inventory we are required to do at the beginning of our sessions will be very crucial to provide myself with information, as well as referring to this list!