Module 5 Blog Entry

Hello again! I think it is safe to say that we all benefited from the information Dr. Powell presented to us about reading comprehension and critical literacy this week! I know Ashleigh and I had some great discussions about the many things we learned! I hope you find my post insightful!

We both started off this module of course by reading the module guide. Here, I was immediately reintroduced to the concept and structure of the Reading Workshop. I learned about the major routines that must be put in place for effective instruction. As I learned in Module 4, a whole class mini lesson is essential to begin with because it establishes a problem and introduces a strategy to solve the problem. The module guide mentioned that small group time should be a time used for guided reading. I can tell this is an important aspect of the reading workshop process! I learned that other methods for helping a child learn to read include the implementation of literature circles and individual conferences with students. I can see how talking one-on-one with students, especially ones who are struggling with the reading process, is essential. I understand that there is a lot more that goes on during the reading workshop. Essentially, I think the point of it is to get different groups of students working and engaged on many different tasks. I like how this time allows the teacher to be free to work with groups or individual students in order to address potential problems and build different literacy skills. As I read through this description, I tried to visualize this routine going on in my future classroom. I can see one group answering questions about a book they have been reading, while some students are working on “center” activities that address concepts learned that week in class (vocabulary, phonics, etc). Clearly, there are many opportunities available. Oh the possibilities!!

Other things introduced to students during this time are activities suggested in The Daily Five. I have heard the daily five mentioned a few times before but never fully understood what it was or what was involved. I will say that I really like this idea. Ashleigh agreed with me on this one! I like how the authors or—“the sisters” explained how things were before and after they implemented The Daily Five, even including a chart to depict how much things have changed in terms of classroom management (pg. 7-9). The reoccurring theme I see among the changes is the fact that responsibility is handed over from the teacher to the student in many aspects. This is such positive news, but as a future teacher, it’s kind of scary to think about how my first couple of years will go. Will it be chaotic and unorganized as the described their experiences or will it be a rather pleasant process? These are things I am always thinking about. Nevertheless, it’s great that these teachers have put together this system to help other teachers plan more effective and efficient reading sessions. I love how they gave a step-by-step flow chart of how The Daily Five literacy block is structured (pg. 14). I am anxious to read further and dig deeper into what The Daily Five instruction really involves.

To add to the idea of implementing The Daily Five in the classroom, Serafini introduces another important activity to consider—literature circles. Of all the chapters I have read of Serafini’s The Reading Workshop, this one (chapter 7) is my favorite so far! There was a lot of helpful things mentioned! He explains the process of working with literature study groups so clearly! Before establishing study groups, he explains that teachers must determine whether or not their students are ready for this type of learning. He says that students need to: 1) have experienced literature and 2) have had worked well with others in collaborative groups (pg. 88-89). When he is working with an introductory literature group, Serafini mentions that they often “pull back” and discuss/establish expectations for the group. I liked reading about the students developing the T-chart listing “helpers and blockers” to identify things that may and may not help generate worthwhile discussion (pg.92-93). It was interesting to read about how students who are really interested are the only ones who can join a group after hearing a preview of the book. They even have to sign a contract saying that they agree with all of the expectations and are committed to stay with the group until finished and engage in the discussions (pg. 98). I like what he said on page 102: “I believe it is through sharing our ideas, not by asking a series of “critical thinking” questions, that we facilitate these discussions.” This was an interesting statement because all along, we have discussed the importance of asking critical questions. It was nice to hear a different perspective. Ultimately, I think Serafini sums this chapter up perfectly by stressing the importance of reading aloud and having discussions in the classroom. He maintains that these are what set the stage for effective literature study group times (pg. 105). It was great to hear him talk about things I have been hearing all along!

One part of the Reading Workshop that was emphasized throughout this module was Guided Reading. The document Dr. Powell made available for us was very helpful because it answered many questions such as “what are the principles of Guided Reading?,” “what do I need to conduct Guided Reading groups?,” and “how is Guided Reading structured?” Ultimately, I learned that the process of Guided Reading is used as a time for teachers to support students in reading text they cannot read for themselves. This is the optimal time in which effective reading strategies are taught to different learners. I liked how the document provided me with instructional formats appropriate for the different types of learners and what other children do while the teacher conducts guided reading.

After reading a little bit about The Reading Workshop, I was introduced with the task of examining and learning about the things I need to know to carry out this process in my classroom. Many of the specifics I needed to learn came from Nell Duke and David Pearson’s article, “Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension.” This article was really, really long but it provided me with a lot of useful information. First of all, I like how they listed what students need in Balanced Comprehensive Instruction in the classroom. From what I read, I could see that this has a lot to do with making the classroom an environment in which reading is constantly encouraged and discussed. I did notice that their suggested model of Comprehension Instruction is quite similar to the components of a 5E lesson plan we learned about last week. I like how they explained each step and stressed the importance of teaching and elaborating on different strategies to use when reading (pg. 208-209). I thought their model and explanation of the Gradual Release of Responsibility was a little difficult to understand, so I was glad Dr. Powell provided us with the link to a different source about the concept to help me better understand it. This informed me of the different levels of instruction in which responsibility is handed over from teacher to student. I learned that the teacher assumes most of the responsibility during Demonstration and Guided Practice but is then turned over to the learners for Independent Practice and Application.

Ashleigh and I also discussed the fact that Duke and Peterson touched on some other important areas to consider when planning balanced comprehensive instruction and making the transition from teacher to student responsibility go as smoothly as possible. Things such as choosing appropriate text for students to read, being mindful of student motivation, and conducting ongoing assessments are all very important during this process (pg. 211-212). I like how the authors also gave a list of six strategies to use for effective individual comprehension: prediction, text structure, summarization, questioning/questions, think-aloud, and visual representations of text (pg. 212-218). The authors note that these techniques have been proven to help students gain comprehension when reading. I can see how this is true because I often do these things when I am reading something. I am a visual learner and am constantly using the visual representation of text strategy so figure 10.2 in the article is exactly how I go about learning. You can tell me the process of digestion all you want and I might understand it, but put it in a flow -chart with boxes and arrows, I will probably remember it better, especially when it comes time for a test! The same goes with maps and webs like in figure 10.3. Although I don’t use these kinds of maps that often now, I remember how useful they were in elementary school, especially when it came time to write about something.

The article goes into much detail about the use of effective comprehension routines. One strategy they discuss is reciprocal teaching (pg. 225). This one was interesting to me because it ultimately leads children to “become the teacher” themselves. Here, students gradually obtain familiar use with strategies taught by the teacher. I like how Duke and Peterson included two short pieces of dialogue between teachers and their students as examples of reciprocal teaching (pg. 226-227). Another effective routine the authors touched were Questioning the Author (pg. 230-231) and one that I had never hear of: Students Achieving Independent Learning (SAIL). This is a program that many schools use to get children who are struggling in reading to be able to improve and reach a desired level (pg. 288).

I understand that with anything that has been researched, there will always be an argument of whether or not the research is flawed or inconsistent. I like how Duke and Peterson addressed this issue and provided readers with very interesting questions to consider about the challenges of comprehension research. It’s funny to me to think about comprehension. Sometimes, I find it hard to comprehend what comprehension really is. As mentioned, it is necessary to wonder if comprehension will ever be fully understood. Although all the questions addressed in this section are all very important, I spent more time thinking about the following question: “Will we acknowledge that comprehension-learning is different for different people?” I couldn’t help but think about how true this is! Since learning is different for everybody, I can see how important it is to take the strategies and routines I read about in this article and teach them to my students to help them learn more effectively. Most importantly, teachers ought to take these ideas and apply them to their teachings to help students have positive learning experiences. To me, making this process easier is what teaching is all about!

Ultimately, I feel like this article was very useful and did a great job explaining the many different strategies teachers can use to help their students effectively develop reading comprehension. I like how the authors included figure 10.6 in with the article. Ashleigh and I both feel that this is an important tool for teachers to have available to see if their instruction and classroom creates an environment in which children are able to efficiently develop comprehension skills. Although I have yet to begin my field experiences for other EDN courses, I know that I will look out for the many things mentioned on this list as I observe. I know this is something I will definitely consider using when I begin teaching in my own classroom. I would want to use it because it will help me see how well students are responding to my instruction in certain areas. This list will remind me to check and see if students are able to use specific strategies, determine how much time they spend reading, and assessing their motivation during the process. To me, this seems like a good way for teachers to evaluate their performances as a teacher. If not too many things on the list are not checked off, then it may mean that he/she needs to go back and improve instruction.

To add to the discussion of strategies and techniques, I will say that the plethora of websites and videos Dr. Powell gave us was a bit overwhelming but this is definitely a list to keep handy when teaching the major reading comprehension strategies!

I just wanted to expand on the comments Dr. Powell made about the Excellent Public School Act passed in 2012. The requirements associated with this law seems a bit extreme to me. Ashleigh and I discussed this issue and agreed that forcing struggling students into such programs would not be beneficial to them. Although strict reading instruction is vital in the classroom, I feel that a minimum of 90 minutes a day is too much, especially if a student is struggling in specific areas. Like Dr. Powell mentioned, excessive instruction may help students learn how to correctly read words, but it does nothing to help them develop the comprehension skills they need! In addition to instruction, students need time to just read! It’s sad to think about all the students who were held back in school because of their struggles in reading. A lot of times, I think there are better options to consider than retaining students. I see it creating more problems, especially since research shows that retention is not an effective method of improvement!

I was glad to learn more about Comprehension from Dr. Powell in her talking PowerPoints. She first brought up that to some people, reading comprehension may seem invisible but there are different indicators to determine whether or not a child has lost meaning of the text (just as we learned in the module about assessing reading). Although there are many ways to determine if a child has comprehended something, I learned that there is a big difference between TESTING comprehension and TEACHING comprehension. This is where the roles of using reading strategies teaching techniques become most important (on a side note, I thought the ecb.org and carnegiefoundation.org websites offered great ideas for teaching strategies and techniques)! The thought of teaching comprehension may seem complex and hard to understand, but it did help to think about comprehension as something that happens BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER we read. To help me better understand, I attempted to fill out the chart below as I listened to the video.


Before Predicting, Asking questions, assessing prior knowledge, monitoring for sense making, self-correcting/using fix-up strategies
During Predicting, Thinking aloud, Asking questions, assessing prior knowledge, monitoring for sense making, self-correcting/using fix-up strategies, making connections, inferring, creating mental images or visualizing, determining importance of facts or relevancy of information, summarizing
After Digging deeper, synthesizing information, verifying information.

I thought it was interesting to hear Dr. Powell talk about the use of mini lessons being a tool to use as a time for teaching students strategies and techniques. The many possible strategies to use she explains were all similar to the ones I learned about from Duke and Peterson’s article I talked about earlier. It was a nice recap! She even went into detail about the bigger, “Macro” techniques we use during the Reading Workshop such as shared reading, mini-lessons, and literature circles. Also things we have learned about throughout this course so far. I like how she laid out a possible format of what a 90-minute Reading Workshop may follow a similar schedule as this: Word Study, mini lessons, shared reading experience, guided reading groups, and literature circles. Outside of this time, opportunities for independent reading and writing and a time for a teacher read aloud should be implemented. I think this is a very important thing to keep in mind because this sets the structure for a mini-lesson. Mini-lessons are developed after introducing and reading a book/piece of text to a group of students. The next day, students are introduced to a particular strategy. There is obviously a lot that goes on during this 90-minute block of reading time! There is so much to think about so it was rather difficult for me to “dream” up the ideal activities that might go on in my future classroom!

I’m glad that Dr. Powell addressed the issue of what exactly comprehension is at the end of the first comprehension video. To sum it all up, I gathered that is has a lot to do with predicting, questioning, and making connections before, during, and after reading. As mentioned, it is important to teach students to start thinking about their own thinking. In other words—teach them to develop metacognition. Of course, there is a lot that goes into this such as assisting, demonstrating, and modeling!

Ashleigh and I talked about how the YouTube videos about thinking aloud listed in the module guide were helpful because we were able to see how this allows students to develop comprehension using the steps mentioned above (predicting, questioning, and making connections before reading). I think this is a very interesting process and judging from the second video, it can be used with many different types of texts—not just picture books. It would be interesting to incorporate a think aloud and a read aloud during a tutoring session.

I learned a lot while listening and reading along with the “Teaching Reading Comprehension with Researched Techniques—Part 2” PowerPoint. I think the most important thing to remember about teaching comprehension is that children learn by asking questions! The ideas that Dr. Powell gave about using the Question-Answer-Relationship (QAR) method and having children use sticky notes or literature notebooks to record notes were interesting (slide 2). I had never heard of QAR, so I really learned new ways to help students find ways to answer questions: Right There Questions, Author and You Questions, Think and Search Questions, and On My Own Questions) (slide 3). I feel like these are things I will be using in my own teaching one day! The information within the PowerPoint about “thinking-aloud” and reciprocal was also interesting! The slide about schemas (slide 7-8) reminded me a lot about assessment because you can tell if a child knows what a story’s structure is by having them do a retelling—something that I did on the second day of assessment. The information on slide 9 about the many other ways to assess story structure was very helpful! I liked the tip given to teachers on kidbibs.com (link on slide 9) that gives teachers the idea of doing scrambled stories. I had never heard of this before but I think this teaching strategy can help students with sequencing events and remembering important parts within a story! I was a little bit more familiar with story frames and circular story maps because I remember doing something similar while I was in elementary school (slide 9). Listening to the podcast through the link on slide 10 was very informative. I learned a lot about how their method of “read, write, and talk” is a great thing to use in the classroom. What I took from this recording was that teachers should get their students excited and involved in reading. It was surprised to hear one of them say that the more challenging the text teachers give, the more interaction they have with their classmates. What a great way to build community! I thought back to thinking about my own educational experiences when the presentation talked about using graphic organizers because I remember using just about all of the ones mentioned on slide 11. Webs and Vann diagrams were among the most used! I used the K-W-L chart mostly in middle and high school and from what I remembered; I did learn something from that because my teachers would often revisit the lists to answer questions. I also learned a lot about the importance of critical literacy through the podcast link on slide 12. Throughout the podcast, I listened to Greg McClure giving his thoughts about his experiences with writing and sharing ideas in the classroom. It was interesting to listen to the poem his class came up with. It really went into depth about the fact that as teachers, we are responsible for teaching groups of diverse students in a diverse society. How true! This brought me back to the first module of this course—when we learned about becoming 21st Century teachers for 21st Century learners. The last slide of this PowerPoint was a great ending point because it helped me tie in everything I have learned about inquiry and the process of reading and applying it to mini-lessons.

To add to the idea of Critical Literacy, I thought the article (https://learn.uncw.edu/bbcswebdav/...) was helpful because it described the process of reading aloud to students and the many benefits that come from it. I used to think that reading aloud does little to help children read, but clearly, that’s where you begin! Again, from reading this, I was reminded of the importance of developing critical questions when read-aloud and using these questions to conduct a mini-lesson (pg. 78). However, the most important step is choosing the correct book to read and draw the questions from. I understand that this can be a challenging task—finding a book that all the students will find interesting in order to have meaningful conversation is not easy (pg.77). I was enlightened by Dr. Powell’s comments about Critical Literacy on Blackboard. Reading and writing are very important aspects of social change! Many authors represent their own thoughts and ideas through their texts, so children are exposed to a lot of new things as they read. So as teachers, we need to keep in mind that we are not helping them learn to read, we are helping change the future! This idea stuck with me, especially after scanning the Critical Literacy from theeducation.tas.gov… document!

I feel like I learned a lot from the Reading Comprehension videos on the Annenberg learner website. The first video made me think hard about how to improve students’ comprehension. It was interesting to note the different characteristics of “good readers.” Such traits include collecting background knowledge, looking at text structure, and asking questions (around 7:30 in video). These are all things that we have been learning about throughout this module. I also noticed that the video heavily focused on the idea that teachers are to be coaches when it comes to learning reading comprehension. I like how Nell Duke mentions that many teachers should be out to create a reading culture for students (around 16:30). As a future teacher, this is what I would want for my future students. I like how the video touched on the importance on monitoring those students who may be struggling with reading comprehension (25:00).

I think the other video found on the Annenberg Learner website, called to “Close Reading for Understanding” was insightful because the teacher in the video, Dana Robertson, addressed some interesting concepts as he read aloud. I did think that the way he read (read-stop-read-stop) was rather confusing. I know he was trying to model a strategy during reading, but I think it made it hard to understand and put the text all together (around 4:00). I like how he would instruct students to “turn and talk (8:00).” I think this is a great way for students to become exposed to different ideas and points of views! I thought the comment he made around 15:03 was so true. He simply said that “assessment drives instruction.” This statement really solidifies everything I have come to know about assessment. It can tell you so much about a child! I like how he has the students write down their thoughts and questions about the text they read. I can relate this idea back to the PowerPoint that discussed the QAR method. There were a lot of other things I saw the teacher doing in this video to help students develop better comprehension skills.

The article on readingrockets.org was an eye-opening read! As a future teacher, my biggest fear is not being good at helping children develop skills to become readers, especially if I ever teach Kindergarten because that’s where they will begin learning more about reading. I have had many teachers tell me that it is not as hard as it seems, but to me, it’s a lot! I was glad that this piece touched what reading instruction looks like. This article stressed the importance of helping beginning readers become fluent readers by using the process of rereading text and reading aloud to them. I noted how motivation plays a big part in this process as well. It can be hard to motivate student to want to read. I know this because the student I am tutoring has no desire to want to read. It is my hope that he will soon understand that reading can be fun so that he can overcome his struggles. Through reading this piece, I am reminded that having shared book experiences as we have discussed, is also an important part of developing fluent readers. It was great to read about the different ways to help on-level readers maintain fluency and help struggling readers improve. I liked how Dr. Powell mentioned a few other techniques to help students develop fluent reading skills. They include Reader’s Theaters, Choral Reading, and Radio Reading. These are all new to me and possible strategies I may use! Although the information learned in this piece is valuable, there are some things we must keep in mind. These caveats include: 1) raising a student’s fluency score is the main objective with reading instruction and 2) there is still a lot to learn about fluency practice.

For teachers, the instruction of reading comprehension and critical literacy is important, not only because it helps build a better future for many children, but because the Common Core State Standards has the ultimate say in what teachers should be teaching! As the Standard’s mission statement explains, “The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them.” To me, as a future teacher, this means that I MUST follow these guidelines—my job will depend on it! Although I feel that going by these standards is important, it is interesting to me that all educators put so much faith into the standards alone. After looking through the Key Points about the English Language Arts Standards, I realize that there are big expectations associated with these standards and it is essential that they be implemented in the classroom!

Wow! So I had A LOT to say about the things I learned this week! I enjoyed reading up on some of the things and had great discussions with my blog partner, Ashleigh. I am sure that more masses of great information is yet to come.
Thank you for reading my post! See you next week!

Kelsey