I Taught All Five Of Mr. Smith 's Sixth Grade English Class

This has deepened my understanding of the big 5 concepts of literacy (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension) through understanding what criteria can be used to determinate what is effective developmental for a reader and what needs improvement. The Informal Reading Inventory is one example of this because it allows me to assess word recognition, oral and silent reading, comprehension, and literacy capacity. All of which is valuable information which I can then use as a reading teacher to determine further instructional moves. While I have yet to have a place to fully put these assessment techniques into my full practice as a first year teacher. Learning about how to properly assess these components has better equipped me to think about my students' literacy abilities and further strategize my instructional planning to meet the diversity of their literacy

In high school, we would skim, read, annotate, and then discuss what we read in class. Applying the steps described in the reading process handout, I have been able to comprehend this essay in a more impactful way.

CCSS and teachers together need to be viewed as “sponsors of literacy” (99). Scherff discovered that her teaching strategies already fit into the CCSS, which inspired her to develop a chart including critical and higher-order questions and discussion starters along with the CCSS nine anchor reading standards questioning approaches for each level. Two doctoral candidates were asked to collaborate and describe how the CCSS fits into their role as teachers. The first candidate, Allison Wynhoff Olsen describes her initial fear of the standards and how to implement them in her classroom. Her mentor showed her how to bundle and combine aspects that met CCSS. It is important to work with the standards because “educators have agency to help all students work toward powerful literacy education” (104). Olsen introduces Simon’s article “Starting with What Is’: Exploring Response and Responsibility to Student writing through Collaborative Inquiry” to show a new way of reviewing student papers collaboratively with other teachers instead of “individually from a deficit perspective” (105). This kind of approach encourages students to more freedom to express themselves and create a “broader social change” (105). Teachers must incorporate the CCSS in their classroom; however, they must also take into consideration the needs of each student and adjust their teaching strategies to reach the common goal of promoting literacy. The second candidate, Emily Nemeth describes two students demonstrating different learning styles and how teachers needs to keep in mind the needs of each unique student when designing classroom plans following the CCSS. She stresses the importance of supporting preservice teachers with “theoretical and pedagogical framings” to accompany the CCSS they must abide by in the classroom (109). The CCSS fails to take

Numerous studies have been conducted on the use of informal reading inventories. These assessments have been used to assess the literacy skills of students through using word lists and passages. This paper examines the validity, reliability, and an overall utility of the Informal Reading Inventory assessment by Paul Burns and Betty Roe. This paper examines how effective this assessment is for educators in determining the measure of a student’s literacy level and ability to comprehend English.

While all fields of academia possess some level of practical application, there remains an ever-important and all-encompassing skill which is needed to truly understand each subject: reading. Though literacy rates in the US near 100%, literacy unaccompanied by tools such as context, critical analysis, and sufficient skepticism can leave one lost in arduous texts and vulnerable to flawed arguments. This notion is rarely rejected by anyone at face value, rather, questions regarding the implementation and perceived importance of certain reading strategies alienates differing camps. Many attempts at mitigating the dilemma of subpar reading comprehension have been made, most notably, Daniel Willingham's proposed reform of early education, Michael

To assist students to “read with purpose and anticipation,” Vacca et al. (2014, p. 173) suggests, in their book Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum, that teachers need to “create an instructional context” that activates their students’ “prior knowledge” and helps them to become interested in a lesson. Throughout chapter six, “Activating Prior Knowledge and Interest,” Vacca et al. (2014, pp. 172-173) explain instructional strategies that can lead students to “read with purpose and anticipation.” This chapter presents the reader with a plethora of instructional strategies and means for applying them, along with example for real educators. As I journeyed through this chapter, I discovered many instructional strategies,

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.

Chapter two summary talks about the purpose of reading assessment which there three; identifying the students reading behaviors, determining reading level, and assess students’ progress. When you’re a good reader you don’t realize the different ways you read different genre or material like a story versus informational text and how both are different methods of comprehension, questioning, and vocabulary. Another part of reading good readers don’t know about is that we exhibit a variety of behaviors like building their lexicon, making inferences and determining which information is important. The purpose of reading assessment is to assess the reader’s level. The common assessment is testing the student’s ability to read and comprehend text at different grade levels. Another way of knowing the student has a reading problem is when they are able to read their own grade level text but instead a lower level text, Besides that they are put into three levels of reading; instructional level, independent level, and frustration level. When determining the students reading level so many factors comes into play and as teachers we need to know.

Teachers routinely monitor and assess the reading levels and progress of individual students. This ongoing evaluation directs and informs instruction.

Once the basic skills of reading are learned, like vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency, there is rarely any more practice being done and most of the time is dedicated to the writing process. At the college level, professors have limited time to talk about everything, therefore reading instruction unintentionally yet easily gets ignored when professors want to move on and talk about other material. The article “Not Just for Writing Anymore: What WAC Can Teach Us About Reading to Learn” by Mary Lou Odom discusses the importance of reading to learn and how many students and faculty struggle with this concept. Odom emphasizes that students receive little to no additional instruction in reading once they have mastered the skills taught at

Annotating what I struggle with, not what others think is difficult helps me customize my book to my benefit. It’s about helping you understand your reading and helps you out. Being graded on annotating puts extra stress on students who already are having a hard time understanding the book they’re reading. People learn in many different ways, some

After reading Susan D. Blum I do very much believe that reading is being valued less and less and that students are not using reading as a daily tool. Even for me I believe reading is getting rare as I skim a lot of my reading instead of actually reading it. The idea of assigned reading, as the core activity of college students, is old. Students these days don’t value reading as much as they don’t believe it’s a necessity in class. However, I’ve thought that about this many times and I believe if you don’t read then you won’t be able to do well in the class and won’t ever grasp the full knowledge that might be necessary.

The use of formal and informal reading assessments provide important data that allow educators to identify at risk students (Tompkins, 2010). The data collected from the assessments address any factors that may prohibit the development of students’ reading and writing skills. In addition to the assessments, the more an educator can learn about students’ backgrounds and their past reading, language development, and writing experiences the more instructional strategies can be designed to specifically meet the needs of diverse learners in the classroom.

Majority of english classes require that the students engage with a minimum of one book. I began this year with a complete understanding that this course will heavily incorporate and revolve around works of literature. I did not expect to learn skills that would better my understanding while reading. A very important lesson in regards to reading skills were the cornell note taking strategy. Prior to this year, I have never came across this type of note taking and I am forever grateful for this skill.