Student Survey Response Paper

When I registered for this class, one of my main concerns was my lack of knowledge and experience as an active participant in a reading program. My background as an EFL teacher, and later, as faculty, provided me opportunities to teach how to read in a second language, and be aware of the importance of reading as a study strategy in higher education contexts. However, I have never been a reading teacher in elementary or middle school, nor been part of curriculum design, or a language arts specialist. This lack of experience put me in a position where I questioned my abilities to discuss what reading leaders do and what good practices for a reading specialist are.

Reading is one of the most difficult and challenging skills to master in school. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP; 1997) reported that 40% of fourth graders, 30% of eighth graders, and 25% of twelfth graders were reading below grade level. Snow, Burns, & Griffin discovered that the percentages are even higher and the gaps even wider between grade levels in schools predominately made up of free or reduced lunch eligible student populations (as cited in Joseph, 2002). It is up to the schools and teachers to find strategies to help these struggling readers master the skills that are necessary to be better readers. Even with the growing number of programs being made available to help assist with struggling readers, most

Baseline measures of reading comprehension was conducted when intervention begin. According to the Mean scores on Comprehension quiz in each phase, the baseline results of two participants were 2.5(31%) and 2.1(26%). During the self-questioning training phase, both students increased to 7.2(90%) and 6.8(85%). Maintenance and generalization phases were administered to the students 3 to 6 weeks after the self-questioning phase. At generalization phase of intervention test, both students scored 8.0(100%) and

We received 639 open-ended survey responses from inte- grators where they talked about factors that influence their acceptance decisions. From manually coding these open-ended responses, six themes came up: technical skills (47%), the relevance of requested feature (12%), communication skills (23%), behaviour (11%), trust (4%), and pro-activeness (2%). We went deeper into non-technical aspects to uncover the expectations of integrators that may possibly explain the perceived differences in pull request acceptance decision. One key observation from these responses was the ability to com- municate. Integrators mentioned that they form an impression about the pull request based on the description of the pull request. Integrator [R496] mentioned that “bad or misleading title influence her chances of accepting the pull request”.

Academic progress depends largely on understanding, analyzing, and applying information gathered through reading (Compass Now Education Indicators 2015.) Many people involved in studying children have realized the vitality of being proficient by their third grade year. Many students go on to drop

Any Language Arts teacher can attest for the troubles, difficulties, and frustrations of advancing students’ reading skills. All too often, children arrive in classrooms behind grade level in vocabulary and reading comprehension. Furthermore, when students are behind grade level in reading comprehension it may negatively affect their performance in other subjects as well (Rasinki et al, 2012).

Educators are faced with mounting pressures of accountability and the constant quest for meaningful ways to identify various types of critical data sources, how to collect and analyze data properly, and most importantly, at the core of educator focus, is how to use the data to improve instructional outcomes for overall effectiveness (Monsaas & Engelhand, 1994; Wise, Lufkin, & Roos, 1991; Lane & Stone, 2002; Wayman, Midgely, & Stringfield, 2006; Shen & Cooley, 2008). In response to more rigorous accountability demands, educators are increasingly required to initiate changes in instructional practices and to elevate student achievement (Wise et al., 1991; Monasasa & Englehand, 1994; Halverson, Gregg, Prichett, & Thomas, 2005; Kerr, Marsh,

For our survey we chose to use the population of voluntary grade 12 students attending Leamington District Secondary School. The survey inquired about the amount of physical activity a grade 12 student took place in over the course of an average week. This was recorded as hours per week if the answer received was a decimal it was rounded appropriately up or down. The data recorded is a sample representative of the grade 12 population however, only 24 male students and 25 female students participated in the survey.

While reading Kylene Beer's text, I was struck when she stated, “ These students who struggle with reading know they struggle with reading; they know that they lack the single most important tool for success in school-- the ability to to read and make sense of texts” (6). I agree with her when she mentions that they act as if reading doesn't matter. I have encountered many past classmates that struggled with reading, and they had an indifferent attitude in the classroom. Therefore, they appeared disengaged and disconnected from the lesson. For example, I remember when a girl admitted to me that she didn't read the assigned text because she didn't understand the context. At the time, I thought that was simply an excuse to avoid reading. However,

It is imperative for teachers to be knowledgably in the subject they choose to teach. It directly impacts the student’s ability to learn. If the teacher lacks knowledge in his or her subject area then it is clearly to say the students are not being taught correctly. Over a period of time the students began to fall behind in that particular subject. Reading is skill that incorporates several different learning components (Lyon, 2014). For example, I must learn how to effectively assess phonemic awareness, so that my students can hear the correct blended sounds in my words (Lyon R. G., 2014).

participation in this seminar. Throughout this semester, I learned a great amount of information; this class became one of my favorite classes. The engaged, interactive nature of this class assisted me in learning. Participation is extremely important as it is the best way for me to learn. Bouncing of my classmate’s ideas, in in-class case studies and sharing ideas with the class was beneficial to my learning. This taught me the importance of collaboration and teamwork; something that is essential to my future in nursing. Some examples of specific things that I learned from participating in this seminar, was that substance abuse is due

Text comprehension is defined as ?demonstrating understanding of the text at the mental model level by generating inferences, interpreting, paraphrasing, translating, explaining, or summarizing information? (Otero, Lecentsn, & Graesser, 2014: p. 17). There are various studies based on the cognitive science illustrating the understanding of text in relation to its comprehension for children (Chambres, Izaute&Marescaux, 2002). Such studies develop theoretical models for the comprehension process and test the predictions of the model by collecting empirical data from readers (Readence, J & Barone, 1997). Growth in reading is considered one of the most successful undertakings for most of the students (Searfoss, 1997).

The trend in literacy studies is comprehension; how proficient readers understand what they read. Many previous studies are centered around the premise that reading proficiency is strategic, orchestrating multiple strategies that occur before, during, and after reading help make sense of what is read. More recently, some researchers have questioned this almost singular focus on strategy instruction saying that it has distracted educator’s from trying to understand instructional approaches that result in enhanced content knowledge or content engagement.

While the article described the sample thoroughly, the selection of the sample is questionable, considering the five elementary schools were selected from a larger study of the effectiveness of a differentiated reading program. In view of the unclear sample selection method utilized, it could definitely affect the results. The population of the larger study would be useful to ensure no bias exists. Although, the selection is unclear, the subjects still provided motivated, unbiased responses on the standard assessments while using their current reading

The demographics and perceptions data was also interesting to me. The perceptions data given through the parent survey showed that the RTI instruction needs to improve in the school. This was a survey answered by parents, so I am curious to know how many of them know exactly what interventions are taking place throughout the school day. Informing parents of the interventions their child is receiving is one way this can help to hopefully improve the parents’ view of the school. Appendix B also demonstrates that more work needs to be individualizing instruction. This ties in with the data shown in the demographics study. The number of students in the school has been increasing over the past five years. This means there are more students per classroom. When there are more students in the classroom, the teacher does not have as much time to work individually with each student. Finding ways to make differentiation and individualized instruction a priority in the classroom will help those students who do struggle to receive the teaching they need to succeed.