Jen Cwik Final Reading Response!!!

The reading  from this semester that I took the time to read over again was the Mem Fox chapter from "Reading Magic."  I had skimmed through this article earlier in the semester (if we're being honest here)--skimmed enough to understand that this chapter was all about reading aloud and how it should be done.  Reading through this chapter again, though, I was extremely pleased by the way that the chapter was set up: organized into distinct sections, each with its own tip or trick.  Each tip was explained in depth and even with examples, like when she enunciated filled in a sentence because that word is seemingly unimportant but held much meaning in that context in Koala Lou.  The chapter of tips and tricks ended with her realization that you can learn from talking about reading aloud, but ultimately the best way to become great at reading aloud is to be exposed to great read alouds.  I have had many great read aloud experiences myself, even recently, when the book is over and I'm like "wow" that was so captivating.  I hope that these experiences have shaped me into a great reader for my future students.

Miscue Analysis Response

From reading the Goodman article, I have realized that miscue analysis is a very important tool in understanding the way that readers think. It is pointed out that it is not the quantity of the miscues that matters but the quality of them. I think that this is a really important point to take away. I could make a lot of mistakes while reading, but if they are mistakes that do not take away from the content of the text then they are quality miscues. The quality of the miscue says a lot about the reader. The ability to summarize and answer questions at the end also tells a lot about the reader. It is important for teachers to perform miscue analysis tests so that they can better understand their students and their reading ability. It was helpful to go back and read this article because it helped me to better understand how to perform a miscue analysis and how to analyze one. These are both important skills to have as a general education teacher. I really loved that it had the short hand modeled and explained. That part was really helpful and it is definitely something I will reflect back on when I am starting my first year of teaching.

Supporting English Language Learners and Struggling Readers with the "Partner Reading and Content, Too" Routine

This article by Ogle and Kovtum expressed some of the findings from a study conducted on reading fluency and comprehension among English Language Learners and struggling readers in general. A growing percentage, roughly 10% of all students K-12th grade, are in fact English Language Learners and these students tend to have difficulties acquiring a comprehensive understanding of the content material, particularly in social studies and science units. Although most students will have developed a conversational understanding and mastery of English within two to the three years, the truth of the matter is that a real comprehensive proficiency of English takes an average of six years for ELL students to acquire. That time lapse between proper understanding and the teaching that they are still exposed to during the developmental period can no doubt be the source of most of their problems in succeeding within the classroom. 

This study researched methods and approaches for teachers to utilize within the classroom to help bridge the gap between readers. The biggest change that teachers are recommended to make inside their classrooms is to provide students with real opportunities to read the material and then to interact with it to develop a sense of ownership over the content. In other words, the students need to be able to ask their own questions and exchange thoughts in open conversation with other peers to discover the deeper meaning of the readings as well as to internalize these skills and knowledge for themselves. In addition, these habits and reading strategies need to be demonstrated by the teacher to the students and then explored by the students so that they know how to actively read content material and locate the items that they need. Next, active teachers monitor the progress of the class as a whole, as well as individually, to ensure that everyone is developing properly and to redirect students as needed to help them reach their expected goals for the year.  Lastly, the reading material will only be effective in helping ELL and struggling readers to improve if it is at an academically appropriate level for the readers. 

In brief, this article was a helpful piece to read as it highlighted some of the most commonly unaddressed issues within a struggling reading classroom. In addition, the research results introduce key techniques to help students past these obstacles and to succeed in the classroom. As a teacher, I will make sure to use these practices from the beginning, regardless of my classroom population, so that all my students can benefit and become proficient readers across curricular content areas. 

Reading Response 5

Summary:
Miller Chapter 6
Miller opens the chapter by creating the image of a classroom transformed into a poetry night at a coffee house. Students enthusiastically share poetry they have written with the intention of painting images in the minds of listeners. She precedes to talk about the unit she did was her students about painting images in readers minds. She spent a lot of time reading to them and asking them about what they see in their heads when she reads certain this. She seems to do a very good job of getting the kids excited about the topic. One of the things that stood out to me was when she brought in poetry written by her former students. She had them take the poems and draw pictures of what they saw in their heads. Then, she put them up in the classroom. She also had the students analyze how the images they saw changed after discussions and second readings. At the end of the Chapter, she lists the important aspects of mental images and helpful texts.

Miller Chapter 7
Miller discusses many things in this chapter that connect to having high expectations for her students. She expects that her students can have discussions on their own and facilitate their own learning. She also trusts them to make good decisions about what they do each do. She organizes them into book clubs where they get to start their own discussions and pick their own books. She also allows them to have free time during reader's workshop where they can read on their own, with partners, with a group, or they can work on projects that enhance their understanding of what they are reading. They also conduct research. Because Miller allows her students to have choice in what they are learning about, they are extremely engaged. She also taught her students different ways to engage with the texts they were reading. Instead of doing busy work type projects, she had them think about their thinking and take note of what they are taking in with sticky notes, notebook entries, Venn diagrams, and more. All of this was done to help the students elicit a deeper understanding of what they are reading.

Miller Chapter 8
In this chapter, Miller talks about helping her students learn to infer. In the beginning of the chapter, she shows the reader that her students truly understand how to make inferences because they apply it outside of reading time with a girl's broken cell phone. She starts to teach them how to make inferences by modeling how she infers the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Then, she has the students discuss what she did to help her infer. Next, she had the students work with her to infer things. Then, it was time for them to work on it on their own. The students really liked to look at poems as riddles. They tried really hard to infer what poems were really about. This seemed to engage them the most. Once again, she lists the important things to take away from teaching inferences and texts that are good for teaching inferences.

Smith
In this reading, Smith discusses how reading works in her classroom. During reading time in her classroom, the students do what they want to help them further understand their readings. They work together or independently. Later in the year she introduces literature study groups. She gets a small group together. They pick a book and spend the week preparing what they want to discuss. During the discussions, she serves as an encourager and observer mostly. She notes important concepts that students struggle with or feel strongly about and finds ways to bring those into the classroom. Smith finds that doing this as an assignment encourages the students to also do it on their own. She sees increased in depth discussions of what the students are reading. Overall, her work with reading seems to have increased the students interest in reading inside and outside of school.

This image of students working in reading groups represents the many aspects of good reading habits and skills that are discussed within all three chapters of the Miller textbook. In addition, the image demonstrates how a teacher can delegate responsibilities to individual groups while becoming an active member of the reading community herself.  

"I want students to appreciate literature as aesthetic experience and grow in their ability to respond to it in more sophisticated ways. I also want them to value literature for the roles it can play in their lives."

-Smith

MISCUE ANALYSIS FOR CLASSROOM TEACHERS: SOME HISTORY AND SOME PROCEDURES ByYetta M. Goodman

Summary:

The term "miscue" is an unexpected response made while reading, either by the listener or the reader.  These responses provide information about the reader's language and concept knowledge that they possess.  Miscue is used instead of the word "error" to describe these responses because "error" has a negative connotation, and miscues can sometimes be acceptable in the semantics of the sentence.  Miscue analysis is conducted through the reader orally reading a semi-familiar, yet sufficiently challenging, paragraph to a listener, marking the miscues.  The listener carefully marks down the miscues, regressions, and other behaviors of the reader while reading.  Listeners determine the "quality" of the miscues made, meaning that some miscues can be acceptable in the given sentence, and some are not.  Miscues reveal a lot about the reader: like their knowledge of grammatical sentence structure--including nouns, verbs, and their relationship with each other in a sentence.  Overall, the use of miscues in learning more about readers is important because we cannot always look at "mistakes" or "errors" in the oral reading as a negative thing, but as the presence of other knowledge. 


"During this problem-solving process, readers either confirm as they read and keep reading or disconfirm when their reading does not make sense or sound like language. If their reading does not make sense, they self-correct selectively to support their construction of a meaningful text." (Goodman p. 1)

I liked this quote because it shows how readers selectively make their miscues in order to validate their own preconceived interpretations, not because the readers simple do not know any better.  

He is an example of a miscue analysis sheet. The teacher has made markings based on the child's reading. As you can see, the student has a fair amount of miscues in the beginning, which decrease toward the end.

Kyle's New Class Expectations

The fact that we are already into week nine out of fifteen is a scary thought when you realize how fast time has flown by this semester. Naturally, we have covered quite a lot in class during that time and have spent a decent amount of time exploring each topic in deep thought or class conversations. At the moment I do not have any lingering questions that still nag me from previous discussions. I feel that the dialogue in this class largely contributes to this well-developed understanding of the material from each week. The few topics that I would like to possible explore in some spare time during class are how to go about advocating change within a school without coming off as arrogant or disrespectful to peers as a new faculty member, how to best handle difficult family members of your students, and how to balance the line between taking risks in your classroom and following the curriculum to the word when working in a less supportive district of teacher creativity. (Wow that is a but of a run-on sentence, sorry about that.)

Jen's New Class Expectations

This class has most definitely exceeded my expectations already. The organization of the class helps us to cover each topic fully and very in-depth, not causing any holes to be in our understanding.  I definitely would want to learn about how to avoid the road blocks that we will encounter in our experiences: PSSA's, set curriculum, unsupportive principals, etc.  These are my fears about my future classroom and helpful advice is always welcomed.