Comparing Reading And Writing Strategies

The baseline data was established using the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System (BAS). This test assesses reading comprehension through the process of students reading a text at the appropriate instructional reading level and answering comprehension questions. This assessment tool measures students' ability for accuracy, self correction, fluency, comprehension, and writing. An overall level score is given through a letter identification, A-Z. For the baseline data purpose the letters A-Z were numbered off 1-26 to give the students' scores an adequate numerical score. The assessment determines whether students exceed expectations, meet expectations, approaches expectations, or does not meet expectation. A third-grade student at the

Scaffolding for this student would include activities to develop the technical vocabulary necessary to understand the reading materials, or having the teacher provide reading materials appropriate to the child’s reading level. Additional instruction may be needed in reading skills, to support the student in a reading activity. The zone of proximal development explains the need for student and task to match, making the task of learning attainable (p87). Teaching to one zone of proximal development is likely to leave some students frustrated and confused, while others can coast through the lesson (p88). It is not so important for the teacher to know exactly what the student’s status is, rather to be aware when the students are becoming frustrated, and are in need of more practice, or when the task is just right for the individual (p89).

Times are changing. Literacy is not only a problem that the English teacher has to deal with. Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write (Oxford Dictionaries). However, you have to use different skills to read a novel than you do with reading a science question. So it only makes that literacy should be taught in different ways for each different subject. It does a student no good to be able to physically read a science question but have no idea what it’s asking for. The last five years have seen unprecedented attention given to the literacy achievement of adolescents in secondary schools in the United States. Spurred by the release of flat or declining reading scores on national tests. (Donahue, Daane & Grigg, 2003). This could be easily linked to a lack of literacy techniques being taught in schools.

Starting from the parents, the child must inherit the instinct of wanting to learn to read, developing the curiosity that comes with the increase of knowledge, interaction with others and building positive memories, that motivate the child’s learning to read. An approach that Vygotsky supported promoting scaffolding, a guided process that adults use to teach students how to master a skill, in this case a reading and writing skills. Children begin from the womb recognizing parent’s voices, singing tone for then building connections through prints and letter sounds in an environment that promotes literacy with stories, songs, games, group activities with families, “All about me” share, and “Show and tell”, to display and build a sense of belonging in the class. Nevertheless, incorporating strategies or methods that facilitate learning to read stimulated by own personal learning style. Most young children learn kinesthetically and are visually-sensory prompted to hands on experiences, using appropriate materials in a different setting. Foremost, with an ongoing informal and formal assessment to evaluate students’ pre-knowledge at the beginning of the scholastic year, students’ way of learning, feelings, and connections through the year, and at every lesson, check for understanding, and ways to improve the next step. Ongoing assessment is part of the whole learning process, it will tell you how the students learn, and achieve appropriate reading and writing goals. A good reader promotes a good writer and vice versa, but a firm stepping stone during the developmental stages, in rich literacy environments, attempting to positive interactive experiences, and always monitored, influences the chances of the child sense of wanting to learn to

The need for basic literacy skills is vital in order for our nation to continue to operate successfully. With approximately 5 million students, graduating below the National Standard for Literacy and unable to read, we must take a look at the curriculum and teaching techniques to assess whether the current systems need to be revised to better assure ALL students are successful. (Adolescent Literacy: A Policy Research Belief p. 1) The issue begins first with the definition of “Literacy”, and the fact that there are several aspects of literacy which are not currently included in the curriculum. Another issue is the “old” standards which are in place do not support the level of diversity which is now seen in many school systems. Then

Robert Pondiscio states “To be educated in the liberal arts is to have a broad grasp of literature, art, music, history and the sciences. That's also a fair description of what it takes to be a good reader…If you're a good reader, it's not because you've learned, practiced and mastered the "skill" of reading. Once a child learns to “decode” fluently, a child's ability to read with understanding rests heavily on whether the child knows something about the topic he or she is reading about.” While we focus on English and math being core parts of what we use in everyday life we must also focus on how to get the younger generation to grasp and have a full understanding on what they are reading. It is one thing to literally read something and absorb nothing out of the text that was read, but a completely different story for a child to read something, understand its meaning, and also reflect on what they have

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.

Reading and writing is crucial for increasing achievement among people of all ethnicities. For many young kids, books are their primary source of learning how to read and write besides the parameter of the classroom. However, there is a significant decrease in the literacy rate found in African-American communities. There is a need for stronger literacy education for this particular group of the population. A huge problem associated with that can be attributed the failure of the public school system to effectively educate the youth. According to the 2009 NAEP data, only 33 percent of 4th graders and 32 percent of 8th graders in the U.S performed at or above proficiency in reading on national tests. These results are very discouraging, in the African-American community, but the results are even worse because only 16 percent of African American 4th graders and 14 percent of African American 8th graders performed at or above the grade proficiency level in 2009.

After presenting the data from content area diagnostic and district level assessments, as well as pertinent research related to this topic, the team expressed their interest and motivation to help close the achievement gaps in reading comprehension. In addition to our team, district level specialists and outside vendors have been contacted and will provide support and their expertise relating to improving student reading comprehension

Learning how to read is one of the biggest fundamentals of learning how to live and communicate in today’s modern world. Everyone learns how to read and write differently. There are multiple teaching styles and everyone learns how to read and write at different speeds however, what happens when a student struggles to learn how to read and write? If someone does not have a good foundation of reading and writing comprehension it can affect how people preserve them. I believe that everyone is a writer but everyone has their own style and language with writing. Someone’s level of reading and writing comprehension does not determine their level of intelligence.

After taking the literacy survey I asked my dad why he thought reading was important. He gave me a look that said I’ve told you this a million times and said, “Reading is the key to success.” This is a common truth. However, the real question is, if reading is so necessary, then what can I do to master it. After twenty-one years of life I cannot say that I know all there is to know about reading and writing, but I can say that through my experiences I have learned to love reading and it has made all the difference.

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

Reading – the ability to represent the sounds of language by written symbols has existed for approximately 4000 to 5000 years and is inarguably one of the most fundamental and wonderful technique humans have ever developed. However, despite much effort and funding dedicating to wide literacy development, even now in America for instance, 50% of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth grade level (National Center for Learning Disabilities). In order for the entire population of today’s society to have proper reading skills, scholars and educators around the world realize that literacy movements need to focus on much earlier stages of human development. Researchers in the education field have reached a consensus that reading is crucial in childhood by revealing supporting evidence from studies focused on children aged 0-6 years, 6-12, and young adolescents. Many interesting findings also include that reading proficiency of children is critical because it can reflect society’s criminal and economical status. Moreover, modern studies show that the importance of childhood reading cannot be fully explained without mentioning the environment where children are raised, as the environment greatly affects children’s reading proficiency.

Many students are passed on through the education system without having proper reading skills. These skills consist of fluency, comprehension, and phonemic awareness. Reading skills are foundational building blocks for elementary aged students. Students who lack proper reading skills, such as fluency or the rate in which they read, will ultimately lack comprehension of what they are reading due to the amount of time in which it takes the students to read. This leads to the question, how does fifth grade students lack of fluency affect his or her reading comprehension? Unfortunately, because reading skills taught in kindergarten and first grade focus mainly on phonemic

When data from students who had average accuracy and fluency scores, but lower comprehension scores were compared to data from those with similar accuracy and fluency but average comprehension, the consistent differences were found to be lower oral language and vocabulary skills in the poor comprehenders upon entry into formal schooling. (Nation, Cocksey, Taylor & Bishop) Thousands of dollars each year are spent on intervention, trying to improve the reading of children that show delays. When one reads, the clear goal is comprehension of what is read. Without communication of ideas between the author and reader, decoding texts is pointless. Most intervention programs are focused on phonics and word decoding. Oral language interventions concurrent with vocabulary and comprehension tasks at age eight have been shown to lead to significant improvements in reading comprehension. (Nation, et al., 2010). Reading comprehension is not merely a product of being able to decode words and sentences. How we teach children to process and integrate the ideas found in text can have a large impact on their ability to function in a world of ever expanding knowledge and information.