A Curriculum Analysis of the Glencoe McGraw-Hill Texas Treasure Literature Curriculum The Texas Treasure Literature Curriculum is published by Glencoe McGraw-Hill, and based on the information provided from their website and textbooks, I discovered the authorship team includes senior program consultants, program consultants, special consultants, Glencoe’s National Reading and Language Arts Advisory Council, and a Texas Advisory Board. Most of these members hold Ph.D.’s in fields such as Reading, Literacy, as well as Curriculum and Instruction. The two senior program consultants, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph. D., and Douglas Fisher, Ph. D., are both published authors, and many of the other consultants are as well. One of the special consultant’s is Dinah Zike a classroom teacher and consultant, who created the graphic organizer, Foldables®. The Texas Advisory Board consists of Texas teachers from high schools and middle schools through the state. Collectively, their classroom-tested and validated instructional practices form the basis of the program. Based on synopses of the consultants, I concluded that engaging today’s adolescent learners into reading and writing is the goal of this curriculum. One of the senior program consultants, Jeffery Wilhelm states, “People read for enjoyment, to help themselves think, to solve problems, and to get work done. Their reading is often organized around “inquiry” questions. These questions help them explore how what they learn can help make a
Currently, I am embarking on a captivating journey through the valley of literacy coaching. Before, enrolling in this program, I was apprehensive and unsure of how I would balance work, school, and home, but somehow I managed. I am roughly, two semesters away from my goal and anxiously awaiting everything to come in to fruition. Over the past two years, I have gained a great deal of knowledge and I have expanded my teacher tool-box. Focusing on adult learning, organizational change, professional development and school culture; I have learned the roles of a literacy coach and reading specialist and how they should contribute to schools.
Shared book reading focuses on developing comprehension, alphabetics, and general reading achievement to enhance student literacy achievement. The teacher selects a text and reads it aloud to a student and/or group of students. The shared book reading program allows the teacher to model reading strategies, increase alphabetic skills, and activate and increase comprehension skills through targeted questions, prompts, and strategies. During the reading the teacher prompts students with strategic prompts and/or questions to engage the students in the text. Moreover, the teacher directs the students to key elements within the pictures, words, and/or text features. The teacher tailors the shared reading experience to meet the needs of the participants (International Reading Association Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Committee, 2012). Hence, educators are able to alter prompts, questions, and strategies to enhance the learning needs of
This critique is on the evaluation program of Freedom School Partners Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools. This evaluation report was composed in October of 2013 by Dr. D. Bruce Taylor, Dr. Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo, and Dr. Crystal Glover members of The Center for Adolescent Literacies at UNC Charlotte, North Carolina. This is the fifth evaluation of The Freedom School Partners Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools. The main purpose of this evaluation is to analyze the outcome of this summer program on a student’s reading accomplishments while attending a Freedom School Partners in Charlotte. Ten of the nineteen Freedom Schools were chosen for evaluation.
Recently, according to Lucero & Montanero (2012) in their article Rhetorical structure and graphic organizers: effects on learning from a history text research on reading comprehension has evolved from not only strategy teaching to the analysis of activities to promote constructive learning (Lucero & Montanero, 2012). In order to comprehend an academic text, readers are required to consistently evaluate, elaborate and review text information. These types of inferential activities will promote an active role in the student 's task and in turn improve the quality of the process. This aligns perfectly with the basic definition of inquiry learning. Again, this supports how teaching nonfiction reading strategies early on to elementary students will help them be successful within an inquiry based learning system. Lucero & Montanero (2012) suggest that some of these engagement activities teachers could use are summarizing, asking and answering text-based questions , thinking aloud during reading and designing graphic organizers to aid student comprehension (Lucero & Montanero, 2012).
For this project, we worked with Eloise Leatham. She is a kindergartener, 5 years old, from St. Paul. She attends Saint Paul Academy, a secular private school in St. Paul. She is exposed to books on a regular basis, as she has an 8-year-old sister who loves to read. Her parents, who are both working professionals with a relatively high income, read to Eloise and her sister every night before bed. Both parents enjoy reading, and have instilled a value for reading in their girls. Eloise attended preschool for 3 years, and was exposed to reading and writing there as well. She speaks fondly of her preschool experience, and continues to enjoy going to school now that she is in kindergarten.
Over all, her work has been cited 440 times in other scholarly works. Considered a reliable source among her peers, her writing consists of analyzing what is hot and not in common core literacy standards, the utilization of pattern books in the classroom, reading techniques for mentally or physically disabled students, utilizing Pinterest as a tool in developing content knowledge, and diagnostic and correction of reading habits. Additionally, in 2007 Grote-Garcia contributed to a scholarly article on professional resources. Furthermore, several of her articles have been published Literacy Today. The submission process for Literacy Today simply involves an individual submitting a question, pitch, or article to the provided email on their website on Literacy Today’s website (December). Overall, Stephanie Grote-Garcia’s professional opinion is that educators need to stay on top of the hottest trends in literacy development and comprehension building in the classroom (Google Scholar). This includes the utilization of pattern books, reevaluating common core’s literacy impact on struggling readers, and developing a student’s knowledge base in struggling readers. Throughout all the material that she has contributed to, all possess the common thread of developing literacy skills in students.
The purpose of this study is to examine how the strategies implemented within the classroom are set in place to increase young adult literature engagement towards African-American males in middle through high-school classrooms living in a sector of North Texas. The research questions framing the study are as follows:
Michael Henry’s article “Whats with This Summer Reading” has readers pondering why summer reading has students “moving one step further from reading.” Michael Henry explains that one day he saw a teenager becoming very frustrated with the book he was reading. He asked why the young man was reading the book and the boy said, because it was a summer reading assignment. This made Henry think and he began to research summer reading assignments. He wanted to find out what was causing so much frustration.
In advanced classes, books are used to help demonstrate and reiterate what has been taught. A Critical Handbook of Children’s Literature by Rebecca J. Lukens, Jacquelin J. Smith, and Cynthia Miller Coffel is a great utensil in digging deeper into the world of writing. One of the main goals of the Lukens text is to give readers a more in depth understanding of what exactly makes a written piece quality literature.
Educators develop creative techniques and processes that enhance imagination and innovation that allow others to create products of worth, function, and purpose. As a complementary process, critical thinking activities guide earners across enabling skills of conception and perception to the processes of inferential thought involving analytical reasoning, evaluation, and
Furthermore, themes and lessons are taught throughout school and should be nurtured by the right novels. Without these pieces the curriculum would not be the same. For instance, “To Kill a Mockingbird” was taken out of the English curriculum in the Biloxi school district due to inappropriate words used and the themes it talks about. Although, the book teaches crucial themes
Nonfiction has become an increasingly essential component in the Language Arts curriculum, particularly in sates that have adopted the Common Core standards. This infusion of more nonfiction in reading, literature and writing classes has led to teachers looking for quality nonfiction for their students. As a result of this interest in nonfiction, nonfiction authors have been asked to visit classrooms and libraries. Three authors, Sue Macy, Wendell Minor, and David Adler share their experiences, and “take-a-ways” gained interacting with students during school visits.
Reading surveys are helpful tool in helping teachers of reading understands their students as readers. Reading surveys gages student’s interests, habits, and the strategies the student uses while engaging in the activity of reading. Reading surveys such as the Index of Reading Awareness ask specific questions such as “what is the hardest part of reading for you?” or “what would help you become a better reader (Jacobs & Paris, 1987). Each assessment has a scoring guide that can help teachers see what specific skills students are having trouble with.
Families are often encouraged to provide a variety of reading material for their children, especially at an early age, to give children plenty of options when learning how to read. When children are provided with a variety of reading material at home, they see that a high value is placed on reading. If parents value reading at home, children tend to value it also, and the more a child is encouraged to read at home, the more they will want to engage in reading in general. By being involved in their child’s reading development, parents can give their children a firm foundation to reading prior to entering grade school which will lead to a lifetime of reading enjoyment and
My philosophy of literacy is centered on providing a learning environment rich in authentic literature, instruction that is engaging, fun, and balanced, collaborative, and also involving families in the child’s education. My ultimate goal of literacy instruction is to help children become lifelong readers and writers by providing the skills necessary to comprehend, construct, and make meaning of text, speak, and write. (Torgesen, 2002). According to the National Reading Panel, there are five essential components that must be taught in effective reading programs: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. (Reading Horizons). According to Konza (2014), reading instruction should be changed to six foundational reading elements, adding oral language and early literacy. I also believe that early literacy should be