14 Best Reading Practices

instructions to children, help the teacher if reading aloud to the class. Having a basic knowledge of phonics helps to support children who struggle to sound out words.

This semester I was given the opportunity to administer five different reading assessments to three different students. I had a student who was struggling, Brayden, a student who was on level, Tayanna, and a student who was above grade level, Josiah. Through this experience, I learned how to administer different assessments as well as what to look for to best help a student learn to read. In addition, I found things that were valuable in the assessment; however, I also ran into struggles while using the assessments. Conducting these gave me a better understanding of the use of reading assessments in the classroom. As I reflect on this experience, I can see that my overall understanding of reading assessments have definitely expanded.

Hobsbaum and Peters (1996) suggest that the purpose of Reading Recovery is to assist students in constructing a self-improving method of knowledge and strategies rather than teaching them a variety of reading rules. Furthermore, the teacher provides enough assistance, referred to as scaffolding, to help the student achieve a task that is within their zone of proximal development (Hobsbaum & Peters). In this way, the student can eventually begin to do tasks independently or with less scaffolding that are slightly more difficult than they can do already. Hobsbaum and Peters (1996) suggest that feedback and praise are critical for student success because the feedback and praise helps students recognize useful strategies they have used and encourage them to continue putting forth effort when reading.

In addition, a reading coach plays a huge role in the overall literacy program of the school (IRA, 2000). Many of the other information I gather about reading coaches from this research was already apparent to me, for instance assisting teachers with planning, coordinating and leading staff developments, and providing support to administering district or state assessments. Another important piece of a reading coach that I was oblivious too was reading coaches work with instructors in the improvement of rubrics and option measures for evaluating education and for instructional choice making (IRA, 2000). Although, we often met with our school’s reading specialist in regards to rubrics, it was the teacher responsibility to research and develop the rubrics on their own. An additional fact that sparks my attention is the interaction that a reading coach has with not just parents, teachers, or principals, but the school boards and community

According to Reading Rockets (2018), teachers of excellence use high quality instruction byincorporating the five reading components delivered through a coherent instructional design. Instruction should include the five components of reading that are critical elements of Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, Vocabulary, Comprehension and Phonological Awareness. Although teachers usually follow a core reading curriculum to guide instruction in whole and small group learning, the instruction should exhibit individualization to match the needs of each student and should also be taught unequivocally in classrooms that mirror positive and appealing writing activities that support literacy.

What rules should be taught? What are the best ways to teach phonics? The first recorded known phonics instruction was when Noah Webster wrote the famous Blue Back Spellers (Webster, 1798). Included in this text was a list of letters, how to spell syllables, and then passages to be memorized, and content that had been used since the early 1600s. In the mid 1800s, the word method was used to learn to read, and memorize entire words rather than analyze words according to their sounds. According to Smith (1965), Since the introduction of the word method controversy phonetic approach or a whole-word approach to early reading instruction. In this article was stated, The Great Debate (Chall,1967) and “The First Grade Studies” (Bond & Dystra,1967) phonics knowledge is essential but children must be taught to read for purpose and meaning. Furthermore, the whole language versus phonics approach taught in the context of reading and writing activities and not be isolated. Materials such as worksheets and flashcards are considered inappropriate. The Argument that children need some direct systematic sound-symbol instruction to learn to read (Adams, 1990; Stahl, Suttles, & Pagnucco, 1993). Using an approach of combining phonics instruction and teaching with in-context systematic instruction. A research project was conducted in the classrooms of several different socioeconomic (SES) levels and racially diverse communities. In this study data was collected and teachers were interviewed regarding how they taught phonics, and the importance placed on literacy instruction. The data revealed that explicit instruction is systematic, sequential presentation of phonics skills using isolated direct instructional practices. Teachers taught that letters

Teachers formally assess students’ reading ability. Reading teachers consider these six areas when looking for evidence of student learning: fluent processing; comprehension; amounts, types, and quality of reading; level of text; attitudes and interest; and responses to literature (Fountas and Pinnell “Guiding” 488). Comprehensive screening assessments are considered quick, cost effective, and repeatable to test age-appropriate skills to all students. Schools typically

Evidence was collected and documented through the use of a student survey, a parent survey, a teacher survey, and running records. The purpose of the student survey was to gain insight on the students’ perceptions of the importance of reading and how well they understood what they read. The purpose of the parent survey was to gain insight on the parents’ perceptions of their family’s reading habits at home The purpose of the teacher survey was to gain insight regarding other teachers’ perceptions of reading comprehension, problems they encountered, and solutions they implemented in their classrooms. The purpose of the running records was to find each student’s instructional reading level so that comprehension activities could be implemented for every student with a text that could be easily read by them. Over one fourth of the students were reading and comprehending below grade level.

Teaching is a career that always provides learning opportunities. There is a life-long opportunity to learn from your students and colleagues. As an administrator it is essential that I am able to provide guidance and instruction to my staff and students. However, there are always new and improved strategies and concepts introduced. This allows me to study and evaluate theories that have been introduced. This happens because it allows me to constantly stay informed and learn from others. After completing the evaluation, it allowed me to identify areas of improvement in my instructional leadership.

Follow-up: (How could you follow this lesson up? Mark formative assessment in BLACK BOLD and best practices and differentiated instruction in RED BOLD)

Administration teams must carefully monitor the progress of the stakeholders in regards to implementing improvement strategies. There are many methods that can be used to effectively and reliably measure the implementation process in nonthreatening and growth encouraging ways. Leadership teams can host formal and informal interviews, they can initiate peer reviews and PLC groups that actually look at student work, as well as do walkthroughs and formal observations. Unfortunately, sometimes classroom evaluations are seen as judgemental and threatening instead of as learning opportunities. However the implementation processes are monitored, clear and open communication is critical. Leaders must communicate with their staff and talk about the fact that change is not an event, but a process, and that the data that is being collected will be used to help the entire community grow. Teachers need to feel supported and heard-- not judged or criticised. It is important to recognize the difference between an assessment for performance and an evaluation for

The Making Words strategy is a method of teaching phonics developed by Cunningham and Cunningham (2002). This program encourages children to use their knowledge of phonemic awareness, phonics and the alphabetic principle in order to discover the sounds of the English language. Each making words activity requires about 15 minutes of instruction time. Children are each given a set of letters, and over the course of the lesson, the students will spell 12 to 15 words. Some of the words may follow a particular spelling pattern; require the student to change the onset of a word, or to manipulate the letters. At the end of the lesson, students spell a “secret” word using all the letters (Cunningham & Cunningham,

Diagnostic as previously mention in my prior post is are directed with individual students to distinguish shortfalls in particular scholarly spaces of learning, aptitudes, or capacities so that educators may choose proper educational program and direction or arrangement intervention(s) to beat these deficiencies (Mellard, Mcknight, & Woods, 2009). Diagnostic information data can be utilized to achieve benchmarks in reading by providing the educator with the proper data of their students’ assessment. Once that data is obtained, the educator can now plan accordingly to meet the needs of all students. Based on the data collected, the teacher can target the specific benchmarks that the student struggles in and put in to place beneficial strategies

Literacy educators take on a vital responsibility when it comes to educating children on literacy skills. The strength of such skills or lack thereof determines future literacy success. To assist teachers in quality literacy instruction, informal reading assessments must be utilized to direct instructional planning. Results from these assessments allow teachers to know a student’s development, thus plan accordingly for instruction as stated by Dr.Bear (Laureate Production, Inc.2014a).Informal reading assessments also guide teachers to understand a student’s frustration, instructional, and independent levels of learning. With many informal assessments to choose from, the following information describes what was used for my literacy learner known as “Student 1” and the reasons behind choosing such assessments.

A diagnostic approach is a comprehensive way of using data that is gathered by examining three components of effective of effective reading instruction. The three components are learner, instruction, and context. There are five beliefs supporting the diagnostic approach to assessing and teach reading in a comprehensive way. The first belief is diagnostics are necessary problem-solving tools for looking into any complicated system. This belief helps all learners achieve strong reading potential, educators use the three areas to be examined to find the students strengths and needs. The second belief is reading diagnosis is about knowing readers. There are two points that relate to a diagnostic approach to assessing and teaching. The first of the two is using observations and assessments. The second of the two is using what is discovered from observation and assessment techniques to plan instruction. The third belief is identifying readers’ strengths is a good first step in accelerating readers’ growth. The kids show what they need to know and what they know. The instructor uses the student’s strengths to teach the student’s needs. Some students do not get the chance to develop strengths before they become isolated and labeled. The fourth belief is identifying needs is an important part of a diagnostic approach. To help kids move forward it must be acknowledging their needs and designing appropriate instruction to address those needs. The diagnostic approach to assessing and