Special Education : Questions And Answers And Teachings

1. It is imperative for teachers to not only monitor their students’ behavior in the classroom, but also to assess their students’ literacy development effectively, so they could be ensured of their students’ learning progress, which is the most significant point Tompkins makes in Chapter

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

My early reading experiences reflect the history that Vogt and Shearer (2011) describe in the first chapter of Reading Specialists and Literacy Coaches in the Real World. The basal reading programs of the 1970s and 1980s included “leveled readers, phonics activities, and a great deal of comprehension skill practice, usually found on the pages of the accompanying workbooks. The programs also included highly structured, detailed teacher’s guides, with different lesson plans for each of the three instructional groups” (Vogt & Shearer, 2011, p.13).

The amount of people who live with disabilities is a controversial number. Depending on what law and diagnostic tools used, a person may have a visible disability, or one that may lie beneath the surface of his or her appearance. Some people believe that the term “disability” is merely a label use to hold back, or prescribe helplessness. Meanwhile, individuals who have been properly diagnosed with disabilities struggle to maintain respect and acceptance every day. In plain language, there is a lot of misunderstanding between people with disabilities and those without. It is firstly important to get everyone on the same page regarding the definition of disability.

Within my school literacy lesson will be planed by the teachers, the teacher will go over the

The literacy block should consist of a balance of whole-group, small-group, and independent practice. Tyner states, “The challenge in orchestrating the literacy block can be best described as putting together a literacy jigsaw puzzle.” (Tyner,2009). The components of a balanced literacy block should include modeled reading such as a read-aloud which should include texts above the students’ reading level, modeled writing so that teachers have the opportunity to demonstrate how a writer thinks while writing about a text, shared reading which includes the teacher reading most of the text but also allows the students to engage in choral reading with grade-level appropriate texts, shared writing to be used to focus on comprehension but may include the writing process as long as it is used together, small-group differentiated reading and writing, and independent reading and writing so that students can use the skills learned previously to produce a final product.

Can you remember what your teacher taught you back in kindergarten? Chances are she was introducing you to the basics of reading and writing. Literacy is the ability to read and write, and because I did not think I was very good at either of the two, it had never been my favorite thing to do. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I had an English class that I actually enjoyed. My teacher was Ms. Holly Eubanks. The past classes had boasted about how good of a teacher Ms. Eubanks was and how, even though she may take a while to grade your papers, she was always trying to help you improve in every possible way she could. On the first day

In what type of school do you teach? (Type an “X” next to the appropriate description; if “other” applies, provide a brief description.)

Literacy is a vital part of all later learning. Because of this, the children will engage in hands on activities that relates to what they have read and give them opportunities to make up their own versions, as well as make up their own stories. They will have a large group story time and a partner reading time. An ample variety of books will be available at all times. Signs with words and pictures will be posted around the classroom showing, daily activities, objects that are used daily, and the placement of toys and

a. First, I’ve seen literacy being enforced across the different content areas. For example, at my school, students are expected to read their independent reading books for the first ten minutes of math class, similar to their English Language Arts class.

Pea Ridge High School (PRHS) has long prided itself of being a high achieving school in academics; it is number six in the state for the 2013-2014 school year. Since the implementation of the Common Core Standards, PRHS has found itself having to reteach educators to use the literacy standards because most in the non-literacy/math disciplines still use the Arkansas Frameworks. Not only has the literacy standards been an arduous task to implement in the literacy areas, the high school struggles with the concept of teaching literacy in the areas that are not necessarily considered literacy areas.

For this assignment, I completed a survey to assess my school’s literacy program by using a survey that was adapted from by Patty, Maschoff, & Ransom (1996) to analyze the instructional program and the school’s infrastructure. To be able to answer my survey, I needed to go colleagues of mine in the English Department and to my administration to help with these questions. Being a math teacher, we hardly ever discuss the literacy and the students’ acquisition of it in our department meeting during staff development days. Since I am not truly current with literacy acquisition in education, I am hoping to understand more from this process so I can help all my students. I want them to be able to read texts related to math and find

However, regarding the entire high school, there are many areas in our literacy program that could use attention. I was shocked to discover that our literacy program infrastructure, fundamentally, does not exist; we do not have a program or even a librarian. My greatest concern is that we do not currently have an ongoing summative assessment process which we can use to truly identify students’ areas of need. A testing program could work to also strengthen our differentiated instruction since we would be able to provide students specific assistance in

Leah, I too found it to be an eye opener regarding the statement listed in Task #2 (When we say students can’t read, what does that mean?). The text states: “95% of the textbooks that districts buy and publishers get lots of money for are written at least 2 grade levels above the grade level it is written for. So, unless the teacher modifies the reading and provides other resources, the student is always asked to read something at her/his frustrational level.” I cannot believe that we are actually doing something like this, expecting students to learn not one grade level higher but two! I think that the majority of students nowadays is more advanced than we were back in the day. This is due to technology. As a Childcare provider, I have seen children from 1- to 5-years-old playing with and/on cellphone devices, tablets, laptops, and computers. This is very surprising to me! As a result, I think that this has helped children to learn at a faster pace. I feel that where the school system once lacked the ability to address these students educational needs, due to lack of advanced technology; they have now come up with a way to catch up to where these students are by providing textbooks that are written at least 2 grade levels above their actual grade level. Looking at this text from both sides, I would say that this could be both a good and bad thing. We are talking about a textbook! In today’s society, students are more likely to read a book using a computer rather than

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