Headsprout Program

All portions of a differentiated literacy lesson can be enhanced by the use of technology. Presenting literacy materials in many forms, including technology components can create a more interactive and engaging lessons (Parette et al., 2009). Value for technology is increase when one has the opportunity to explore it individually and in ways which are tailored to the (Gritter, 2009). Embedfing technology in early childhood should not substitute face to face instruction, but rather to enhance it by meeting the diverse needs of both students and teachers.

As a future teacher of a fast-changing generation that searches restlessly for new interests, I believe that old and new must meet to keep the basic values of a balanced literacy. Focusing on prior knowledge, collaborating with colleagues, peers, families, and community, creating connections with our surrounding, and empowering students’ learning style throughout the process of gaining knowledge of reading and writing. Foremost, my personal philosophy of teaching literacy is based on constructivism and sociolinguistic, where hands on experience and guidance are priority in an informational world. To facilitate a child’s acquisition of literacy skills , as I plan for literacy instruction for my future classroom, I will take into consideration

The Fry Sight-Word Inventory is an informal, criterion-referenced screener which measures high-frequency word achievement. Fry 's Instant Words have been determined as the most common words used in English ranked in order of frequency. Specifically, Fry found that twenty-five words make up approximately a third of all items published, one-hundred words comprise almost half of all of the words found in publications, and three-hundred words make up approximately sixty-five percent of all written material. The first three-hundred words on Fry’s list should be mastered by the end of corresponding grade levels, and lists four through ten should be mastered between fourth and fifth grades. Each hundred words are broken down even further into twenty-five words per list, according to difficulty and frequency, and should be assessed sequentially. The goal of progress monitoring high-frequency word mastery is to increase fluency on high-frequency words in order to further automaticity within our students’ reading, which ultimately impacts overall comprehension.

Taking on the role as a teacher puts me in a leadership role. I chose for my artifact the ESO online training from Mr. Moss, EDEE 4330 Math class. Math seems to be the subject across the board most people is afraid of, but the ESO training provided fatal information for student’s success. I understand that I am responsible for setting an example for my students that I would be proud of them to emulate. I would love for my students to follow in my footprints and make a difference in others’ lives. It has been said, “it takes a village to raise a child”, and I know that I can be most effective when I reach out to families, colleagues, and the community, to employ the approach. It takes all that to raise well-adjusted productive members of our community, being it locally or

Jodee, Liz’s mother, worked hard mapping out Liz’s strengths in order to teach her best. She discovered that auditory learning worked best with Liz and she strived to find new methods for teaching Liz literacy skills. Together Liz and her

In 1998, I began working as a kindergarten teacher’s assistant. Pat was teaching Spanish and French enrichment classes to our elementary students’. Briefly, she taught Spanish to first through third graders and French to fourth and fifth graders. When the school day ended, and the school building was quiet, she would come by my room and teach me new “tricks” she had learned for teaching colors, numbers, and sight words to kindergarten students. She made learning a game for me and in turn, I was able to share the joy using our school’s technology equipment. However, with an ever increasing student population born literally with a technology device in their hands, this appeared to be more of a “sneaky passage into learning” for the students rather than a tough day digging into books. The information was presented in a format conducive to their 21st Century learning style.

For many decades now there has been a scope of definition for what “literacy” incorporates and those are the basics skills like reading, writing, and a variety of social and intellectual practices which involve basic communication skills, and hand and eye coordination. However, with the world of technology continually growing, and the level of diversity in the student population becoming vaster it has become necessary to also include speaking, listening, viewing, and visually aspects to the curriculum. One of the best ways to address a wide range of literacy is to pair the categories with each other based upon their connections in the real world. The categories include written language (reading & writing), spoken communication (listening & speaking), and visual language (viewing & visually representing). (Standards for the English Language Arts p. 6) Many of these can be done with a range of creative activities such as students being able to choose what they write about, share their own personal experiences in their writings, and then read them together; this helps the students stay engaged in the work they’re doing, and also increases their level of retention of the material. The importance of a student being engaged is best explained in the article “Adolescent Literacy: A Policy Brief” with, “The number of students who are not engaged with or motivated by school learning grows at

In this article Laying, Twyman, & Stikeleather discuss the Headsprout Reading Basic program. Despite the great amount of time and money spent on numerous reading programs, today’s many elementary students are still struggling academically, especially reading. Headsprout Reading Basic Program was scientifically designed and revised to help reach all students be successful readers.

Whilst investigating my literacy topic on placement I decided to not only interview my mentor teacher but also interview two students to gain their perspective on the use of technology. I believed their point of you view was valuable to my findings and wanted to discover firsthand if students are enjoying and finding the use of technology helpful in their literacy classes. Whilst assisting on placement I approached two children and interviewed them at different times, the two children in particular were very forward and honest when sharing their opinions with me. From their opinions they expressed in the short interview (refer to Appendix 1) it is evident the two students would rather read an eBook than a book and find it exciting and fun, this would cause more engagement and focus on the text. The two students also mentioned that pictures in the eBook are animated and this helps make sense of the story. It is clear that an interactive reading experience, acquires students with a greater comprehension of a text (Hutchison, Beschorner and Schmidt-Crawford 2012). These findings support my research question relating to the importance of learning literacy with the assistance of technology. Another artefact to support this matter (refer to Appendix 2) is a task students completed, which involved them writing up a draft of a poem and later they were to type up the final copy. A number of students were completing their draft on a laptop, I asked the teacher why they were not

This literature review is my work in progress for my master`s final project at Washington State University. My chair Dr.Tom Salsbury recommended some of the articles that I included in this literature review. The key words are engagement, motivation, English language Learners, reading, struggling readers, parent involvement, home literacy, literacies, home-school connections, and funds of knowledge.

Literacy: Brynlee approaches learning situations with a positive attitude and persistence. She is able to use sentence starters to help convey her ideas. Brynlee is also able to use ‘and’ in her writing to connect her ideas. She is encouraged to consistently use finger spaces in her writing to make is easier to read. She has a popsicle stick to use as a physical reminder to help organize her work. She is beginning to expand her writing by adding details. For example, when writing about our lunch she wrote, “I have a hot rod it is red”. She is also encouraged to consistently use lowercase letters inside her sentences. Brynlee has an alphabet visual on her desk as a reminder. She is also in a group for literacy that focuses on sight words and word families, which will support her in further developing her reading and writing. When reading, Brynlee is able to sound out her words and communicate her comprehension skills. She would benefit from using RAZ Kids to further develop her reading abilities. Brynlee is supported in this goal by engaging in a small-guided reading group. We focus on using

Literacy is important for young children. It’s so much a child has to know before entering kindergarten. The Essentials of Early Literacy Instruction stressed the importance of teaching literacy. Early literacy is an emerging g set of relationships between reading and writing. Today a lot of terms have been referred to for literacy development for preschoolers the term that’s mostly used is early literacy. The term was chosen because the earliest forms of literacy development are forming reading and writing concepts. Linking early literacy to play is the most effective way to for young children to learn. There are many ways educators can teach literacy activities such as rich teacher talk, storybook reading, phonologic awareness activities, alphabet activities, support for emergent writing, shared book experience, integrated, and content-focused activities, Young children understand print by oral and written language. Asking students to help read a book and turn the page help them understand the basics of a book. There are at least three critical content categories in early literacy: oral language comprehension, phonological awareness, and print knowledge. Children need to learn phonological awareness, alphabet letter knowledge, the function of written language, a sense of meaning making texts, and vocabulary. Alphabetic writing is quite difficult once children understand the language of their community they learn which words stand for which concepts in that language.

Creating a literacy-rich environment is one of the key elements of supporting children’s literacy development. Literacy-rich classrooms tend to look quite different than the traditional classroom, covered in pre-made posters and arranged with individual desks in rows, and instead, allow for teachers to design their classrooms with their students’ needs in mind. According to an article on the Sadlier School’s blog, all elements in a classroom must be meaningful, intentional, purposeful, and engaging when creating a literacy-rich classroom. This means that classroom design is created in a way that it provides frequent opportunities to be exposed to text via environmental print, instruction, and hands-on learning as well as encouraging communication and collaboration (Sadlier School, 2017).

Using Technology for Phonics Instruction in Kindergarten is an article written by Rita Suh and Victoria Gerson which can be found in The California Reader in the SPRING 2013 VOL. 46, No. 3 issue. Suh and Gerson are both graduates of the Masters in Reading/Language Arts according to https://www.ced.csulb.edu/readinglanguage-arts-grads-rita-suh-and-victoria-gerson-published-california-reader. They document through the article, their advantages to having technology in their classrooms and how it enhanced their classroom instructions.

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