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All the questions about " Elementary Literacy " that have been answered are listed below. To search for specific questions, enter one or more search terms. There are 112 questions currently posted in the database that match this query. Displaying question 1 through 112 Question: I have a 7th grade student with Autism who is able to read aloud beautifully. He is so fluent and expressive that you would never suspect that he has no idea what he's reading. Are there any strategies that have proven effective in increasing comprehension for this population of students? I'm not even sure what a realistic expectation should be. At times, he is able to answer very literal questions, at other times he isn't even in the ballpark. Do you know of any research that has been conducted on Autistic children and their reading abilities? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : autism, reading disability, comprehension Answer : Dear Susan:While I don't pretend to be an expert on all of the implications of autism and reading, there are a few things you should know. The decoding perfection and oral reading you are hearing from your autistic student is a very common trait. Where these students flounder is in the area of comprehension. According to some researchers, even students with dyslexia are better comprehenders than are autistic students even though autistic children appear to have better phonological decoding skills. For more on this topic, you might want to check out The British Journal of Developmental Psychology, Vol.1 (1983), pp-329-342. Answered by : Question: How many times a week do you recommend meeting with a reading group that is 3 years above grade level. Also, do you have any good ideas on activities to do with that group besides literature circles and reader's theatre? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : above-average readers, responding to reading Answer : Dear Kelly:You are, indeed, lucky to have such avid readers. First, don't underestimate the power of sustained silent reading. The best way to become a good reader is to read a lot. There are a number of things I would do to direct these students into higher-level thinking. First, have you thought of doing author studies with this group? It would be a wonderful way for them to explore the writing styles of the same author as well as to compare and contrast the different styles of multiple authors. You didn't mention the grade level at which you teach, so it's difficult to recommend a specific author. Some of my favorites are Pat Pollaco, Tommie DiPaulo, Jan Brett, Avi, Gary Paulsen, Jerry Spinilli, and Lois Lowry. Two good books to help guide you in these studies are "The Allure of Authors: Author Studies in The Elementary Classroom" by Carol Brennan Jenkins and "The Author Studies Handbook" by Laura Kotch and Leslie Zackman. If you go to the Amazon.com website and type in these titles, you'll be able to browse through selected pages of each text. This will allow you to see if they are appropriate for your use. A second thing you could do is study different genres. Historical fiction, books about courage, non-fiction books, etc. are just three areas you could explore. If you could build one themed genre unit yet this spring, it would give you a chance to field-test it. If your students enjoyed it, you could develop more units this summer while sitting on the beach. Have you thought about having the students keep response journals? Each day, they could write in their journals. You, in turn, would write back to them so there would be a running dialog between you and this group. You would need to take time to teach them how to respond to their reading. Reggie Routman's book "Conversations" has some excellent ideas in this regard. I would try to meet individually with each student in this group once per week. You might also call the group together for one or two meetings per week. This would keep everyone on track and help provide you with an opportunity to clarify any misunderstandings that may develop. Good luck with these readers. They should bring you much happiness in your day-to-day teaching. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, I am a first and second grade teacher who has taught Sped Resource as well as looped in the regular education classroom setting. As a regular education teacher, I have a high population of students that have special needs. My question to you is on the topic of guided reading. Although I use guided reading daily in the classroom, I am not sure if I am using it correctly and do not necessarily agree with all of the concepts. I do understand that the purpose of guided reading is to eventually have your students take on more responsibility to become independent readers. I incorporate picture walks, discuss challenging vocabulary within the text, make predictions, and discuss and implement a variety of reading strategies. My concern is that students are supposed to quietly read the text independently. I have observed this to be highly distractible to the other students (especially working in an open classroom setting) and difficult to assess students' reading abilities. How can a teacher be sure if students are actually reading texts with success? Although "round robin" reading is not a common practice in the classroom today, I find it beneficial in many ways. What is your view on guided reading, including using it with the special needs' population? What would a typical guided reading lesson consist of ? Thank you in advance for your help. Kim Vogel ELED-686 Attleboro, MA Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : guided reading, oral reading Answer : Dear Kim:Guided reading is one of many tools a competent teacher of reading needs to have in his/her teaching arsenal. The component parts of a typical guided reading lesson include the following: Selecting appropriate text Preparing an introduction to the story Prepping students on the meaning, language, and visual information in the text Reading for a purpose During the reading, the teacher: Listens to student read independently (not in a round-robin fashion) Observes their use of strategies Makes notes about the strategies used After the reading: Talks about the story Have students give personal connections Assesses their understanding Extends the learning through additional reading or activities My experience with first- and second-grade students is that there will always be a few who haven't transitioned into silent reading. Thus, you'll have some who need to subvocalize or whisper read until they have their self-extending reading systems in place. I've heard of some teachers who build telephone receiver-like devices out of PVC tubing so students can speak into the elbow of the tube and have their voice amplified at their ear. I'm heading to my local Home Depot to build a couple of these devices to see if they really work. I'll let you know if I have any success. Finally, the only way to check and see if these students are reading successfully is to conduct weekly or bi-weekly running records. You should be doing this already since good teachers always let their assessment drive their instruction. If you don't know your students' needs, you're flying by the seat of your pants. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, I am a seventh and eighth grade special needs teacher and I find that most of the students on my caseload strongly dislike reading. This is most likely due to the fact that the material they are required to read is above their reading level. I know that I can't change the school's curriculum, but I would like to provide my students with some high interest lower level reading material that they can read during their pleasure reading time and hopefully enjoy. My thought is that if they find a few books that they actually enjoy reading they will begin to change their overall view of reading for the better. What authors and/or titles would you suggest for students who are in the seventh and eighth grade but are reading anywhere from a third to sixth grade level? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : special needs, authors Answer : Dear Special Needs Teacher:Imagine how frustrating it would be to be enrolled in an advanced physics course year after year and not comprehending anything that is being discussed. That's the way that struggling readers feel each day they come to school. Hour after hour, they are asked to read at their frustration level. A variety of conditions may have led to this situation but the issue we now face is what to do about it. Here are some suggestions. 1. I would start by spending a part of each day doing read alouds. The reason for this is simple. These kids need to see reading as an enjoyable activity. I have never found anyone who doesn't enjoy listening to a well-read story. Some books these kids might like include Holes by Jerry Spinelli, Nothing But the Truth by Avi, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, The Giver by Lois Lowry, and Hoot by Carl Hiaasen. 2. A good source of books to pique the interest of your students would be the Young Adult books given the Newbery Medal or Honor awards. Each year three or more books earn these awards. You can print out a list by going to the American Library Association's web site. 3. My all-time favorite young adult author is Gary Paulsen. Maybe it's because he was a non-reader growing up and now has such empathy for hooking kids on reading. For your really reluctant readers, he has two paperback series that you might use. One is called World of Adventure Series. The other is the Culpepper Adventures. Both are high interest, low readability. Of course there's also the entire series of "Brian" books starting with Hatchet, and then moving on to The River, Brian's Return, and Brian's Winter. I just did a guest reader engagement in a fifth-grade during which I read parts of Guts: The True Story Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books. I specifically chose the goriest sections of the book to read in an attempt to hook some of the older boys. They loved it. I think your eighth graders would react similarly. Finally, it's important that these students see you as an avid reader. I would bring books to class that you've found exciting and share those books with them. They need to see that reading can be an entertaining part of an adult's life. They may not see that type of modeling in the homes from which they come. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, I am a reading specialist who is working on building literacy circles in a sixth grade classroom. It seems to evoke more inferential discussion which pleases me, but my struggling readers (3 or 4)will not read the text on their own. They chose the text, but I find the only way for them to participate is for me to read aloud to them while the other groups are preparing for thier circle. Is this appropriate? Do you have any suggestions? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : literature circles, struggling readers, response journals Answer : Dear Laura:There may be several things operating here. First, the book that they chose may be written at their frustration level. Have you done a running record on them to see how they read the material? They should have at least 95% word recognition and a self-correction ratio of no higher than 1:3(i.e. for every three miscues, they self-correct at least once). These figures would indicate that they are reading material at their level. Secondly, I can only speculate why they won't read material on their own. As Doctor Phil McGraw likes to say, "You can only get what you ask for." These students have asked for someone to read to them and people have obliged. Thus, it's less demanding and more enjoyable to be read to than to have to read yourself. Thirdly, are they truly interested in the material that they picked or did they simply choose a book to appease their teacher? I would think a book such as Stone Fox by John Reynolds would be a good choice for these students. Perhaps YOU have to select the book they should read. After all, children can't make all the choices in their lives. Finally, perhaps literature circles aren't the best vehicles to teach these four students. Why don't you try response journals? Each day, they would be required to respond to what they've read. You, in turn, would write something back to them. Furthermore, you could meet with these students individually so there wouldn't be the shame of having to read anything aloud in front of their peers. They could read selected pieces to you. You could still call the group together for discussions but they wouldn't be required to assume any of the duties assigned in literature circles. Regie Routman has some excellent ideas for responding to literature in her book Conversations. Check it out. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, I currently have a student who has excellent listening comprehension, but who struggles to read even simple, repetitive texts. He does not recognize sight words that he has been repeatedly exposed to since September. He cannot identify words in isolation or in context. On an informal reading inventory administered in December, he scored pre-primer. Our reading tutor was unable to score his recent DRA she said (although I have not seen the results yet). His parents have purchased Hooked on Phonics to help him with his phonemic awareness and phonics skills, and I find in school that he has gotten much, much worse since they started this. He now tries to sound out pratically every word-last week he sounded out the word "at." I am at a point in the year where I need to recommend students for second grade and I am very hesitant to send him there because I know that he will not be able to do the work that will be required of him. His parents are almost insisting that they do not want him held back. I was wondering if you had an opinion about retention in the primary grades. I feel that his reading difficulty is developmental, not due to a learning difficulty. If he repeats, he will be in another first grade class where the teacher uses a Basal series and a phonics workbook for instruction. I am currently using a Guided Reading model and Words Their Way by Bear. In your experience, would it significantly harm or benefit a student like this if he is retained? Thanks, Erin Clark Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : first grade, retention Answer : Dear Erin:This poor little guy is certainly caught between a rock and a hard spot. In this case, the rock is his reading performance and the hard spots are his parents. It certainly sounds like you've identified his major problem: he's developmental not ready for formal reading instruction. If, after one year, he still doesn't have a corpus of sight words that he can use, he is, indeed, in deep trouble. As much as I dislike retaining students, if it has to be done, first grade is the spot to do it. We have numerous students in our summer reading clinic who are in exactly the same situation. After one year in first grade, they are still woefully behind in their reading ability. In many cases, seeing that these kids get excellent reading instruction and support services coupled with repeating first grade is just what the doctor ordered. My suggestion to you is that you enlist the help of your principal and reading specialist and start compiling data to show these parents that this little guy is at such a high risk, it is inadvisable to send him into second grade. It sounds like the parents have the best interest of the child in mind; otherwise they wouldn't have purchased the Hooked On Phonics program for him. Such programs are seldom the quick fix parents hope for, however. Other options available to you and the parents are a highly-qualified private reading tutor or enrolling the child in the Rhode Island College Summer Literacy Program. Both these options might provide the parents with more data to help them make a more informed decision regarding the retention option for their son. In the end, the parents will be responsible for making the choice they feel best suits this child. Let's hope it is the right one. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, I am currently a student in your ELED 686 course. I have a second grade student who has made very little progress in reading. He has repeated second grade and receives intensive resource. He does not recall sight words even though they are on our word wall and are repeatedly used in his independent reading books. He does not use onsets or rimes to decode words. The only strategy he uses is to look at the picture. In his guided reading group, we read a book about dogs. After discussing the book, I asked him to tell me a sentence about dogs. Although he was able to do this, he was unable to read the sentence he dictated to me! I have begun to use phonemic awareness activities but with little success. What course of action should I take now? Marilyn Buchanan Dr. M.L. King, Jr. School Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : language experience, sight words Answer : Dear Marilyn:It seems to me that this student has problems that far exceed your ability as a classroom teacher to deliver. As an eight- or nine-year-old, he should have certainly made some progress in reading, but from what you describe, he is at a very, very basic level. I would guess that this child needs special services that you simply can't provide because you have a class of other needy children. If this child hasn't been referred to special services, he should be. If you decide to have him remain in your class, I doubt whether a program that relies heavily on phonemic awareness is going to help him. The abstractness of sound-letter relationships may throw him for a loop. If anything, I would guess this child needs concrete language experiences. I would base most of my efforts along the lines of short language-experience lessons derived from first-hand experiences. I would also start a word box of high frequency words he uses in his dictation. Tracing these words with his finger will force him to focus on the distinctive features of letters and words. The words should be reviewed each day. When he attempts to write sentences on his own, he could use the word box to help him spell these words. Good luck. You've certainly got a challenge on your hands. Answered by : Question: Do you feel it is necessary to work on comprehension strategies with my lowest group daily after they have already met with the reading teacher for 30 minutes? I wonder if I should only concentrate on word work and let the reading teacher work on the comprehension piece. Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : word work, comprehension, pull-out programs Answer : Dear Pat:Your question strikes at the heart of the pull-out model of reading instruction. The answer, it seems to me, is not who does what as much as do you and the reading teacher both know what goes on during each other's instructional episodes? It's important that the lines of communication remain open between the two of you. Is there any reason that the reading teacher's instruction couldn't take place in your classroom? This would allow you to know exactly what's going on during reading class. It would also permit the two of you to have brief, informal chats once she finishes working with your students. It's important that students who receive supplemental reading services don't spend the bulk of their time only working on word work activities. They need ample opportunities to integrate what they've learned into the reading of connected text. Richard Allington's research with poorer readers revealed that these poorer readers received substantially fewer opportunities to read connected text than did their better reading peers. In other words, they received exactly what they DIDN'T need?more isolated skill and drill. I think that's always the danger in pull-out programs. It's also important to keep in mind that word work is only a small portion of the literacy block. Students need lots of opportunities to read and write. Keeping the lines of communication open between the reading teacher and yourself will only benefit your struggling readers. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, According to our Balanced Literacy framework, third grade has 1 hour for Reader's Workshop (independent reading with conferencing) and 1/2 hour for Guided Reading per day. I have 26 students and at best am able to conference with each child once a week. Do you think that independent reading is beneficial enough to all students to use such a large percentage of the day? I feel the students need more direct instruction. Caroline Providence, Rhode Island Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : independent reading Answer : Dear Caroline:You raise an interesting question regarding independent reading versus guided reading. I've learned that third grade is a crucial turning point for many students. Your better readers are able to sustain their independent reading for longer and longer periods of time. Yet, poorer readers need continued guidance and structure if they are to become independent decoders and comprehenders. Are your administrative curriculum mandates so inflexible that you can't adjust these guidelines? I would meet with my principal and literacy coach and explain what you feel would be in the best interests of your students. I would also be prepared to lay out a plan of how you want to accommodate the reading needs of your students. If there were other third-grade teachers in your building, I would also enlist them in this discussion. Teachers are in the best position to know and understand their students. It's the job of your literacy coach and principal to support teachers as you tailor your instruction to fit the demands of your students. Answered by : Question: Do you have any good activities to do with reading groups that are three years above grade level other than literature circles and reader's theatre? I'm looking for ideas that will keep them challenged as well as help them grow as a reader. Also, how often would you meet with this group? Kelly Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : SSR, author studies, genre studies, response journals Answer : Dear Kelly:You are, indeed, lucky to have such avid readers. First, don't underestimate the power of sustained silent reading. The best way to become a good reader is to read a lot. There are a number of things I would do to direct these students into higher-level thinking. First, have you thought of doing author studies with this group? It would be a wonderful way for them to explore the writing styles of the same author as well as to compare and contrast the different styles of multiple authors. You didn't mention the grade level at which you teach, so it's difficult to recommend a specific author. Some of my favorites are Pat Pollaco, Tommie DiPaulo, Jan Brett, Avi, Gary Paulsen, Jerry Spinilli, and Lois Lowry. Two good books to help guide you in these studies are "The Allure of Authors: Author Studies in The Elementary Classroom" by Carol Brennan Jenkins and "The Author Studies Handbook" by Laura Kotch and Leslie Zackman. If you go to the Amazon.com website and type in these titles, you'll be able to browse through selected pages of each text. This will allow you to see if they are appropriate for your use. A second thing you could do is study different genres. Historical fiction, books about courage, non-fiction books, etc. are just three areas you could explore. If you could build one themed genre unit yet this spring, it would give you a chance to field-test it. If your students enjoyed it, you could develop more units this summer while sitting on the beach. Have you thought about having the students keep response journals? Each day, they could write in their journals. You, in turn, would write back to them so there would be a running dialog between you and this group. You would need to take time to teach them how to respond to their reading. Reggie Routman's book "Conversations" has some excellent ideas in this regard. I would try to meet individually with each student in this group once per week. You might also call the group together for one or two meetings per week. This would keep everyone on track and help provide you with an opportunity to clarify any misunderstandings that may develop. Good luck with these readers. They should bring you much happiness in your day-to-day teaching. Answered by : Question: I am preparing a presentation for fellow classmates about the 'Success For All' Reading Program. I wondered what your opinion is of this particular model? thanks Lisa Special Educator Wakefield, RI Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Success for All Answer : Dear Lisa:Most of the research that has been done on the Success for All Program has been undertaken and reported by the program's developers, Robert Slavin and co-workers. My understanding is that the Success for All Foundation now employs about 400 employees and has a budget of roughly $40 million per year. At one time in my career, I worked for a university Research and Development Center. Our operation was entirely dependent upon federal and outside funding. There was a tremendous pressure to put the best spin possible on everything we did because many people's jobs depended upon that annual funding. I learned that bad data was sometimes not reported or at least certainly downplayed. Good data was touted as absolute truth. In reality, the real truth lied somewhere between. I can't imagine the SFAF is any different, although I'm only speculating. The Foundation does offer publications depicting success in Hartford, CT and Massachusetts schools. The Foundation also offers printed summaries and independent reviews of its program. Also, at the present time, the SFA program has been touted as being aligned with the National Reading Panel's and the No Child Left Behind Act guidelines. This should boost the program's visibility. My first-hand experience with the reading program left me with several questions. In a first-grade, for example, they had finished the program before the end of the school year. Because there were no additional materials, the teacher decided to re-read the books that had already been covered. The first-graders weren't thrilled with this decision. I found the program to be very prescriptive as well. At the intermediate grades, the range of reading abilities was so great that students with a wide range of ages ended up in the same groups. Older students seemed out of place sitting next to much younger students. I didn't like all the movement among classes, either. Teachers found it hard to integrate content area reading with the rest of the language arts program. So, I guess my feelings are lukewarm, especially in light of the expense of the program. I'm still inclined to put any extra money a district has into teacher training and building libraries. That's how students learn to read ? good instruction and lots of time practicing the crafts of reading and writing. Before adopting any program, educators should compare how program guidelines compare with known best practices. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, I teach 8th grade social studies and I have two very different questions for you. 1. Are you aware of any research that discusses the effects that looping in the middle school may have specifically on literacy? 2. So much of the professional literature is geared toward the elementary teacher who has an entire day to devote to reading and writing. In the middle school we see kids from 40 minutes to one hour per day. Where should our emphasis be? On reading text, or writing? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : looping, social studies Answer : Dear Barbara:I went to my middle-school guru to seek his advice on looping. Here's what I learned. About twenty-five percent of middle schools use looping as an option. Supposedly, looping does have a positive effect on the academic achievement of middle school students. There are probably some other positive emotional effects on students as well since they are with the same teachers for more than one year. Teachers, thus, get to know their students better since they are with them for longer periods of time. Since you live in Rhode Island, you might be interested in knowing that Barrington, Coventry, and Foster are three districts presently employ the "looping" model. A literacy teacher at Barrington Middle School was also named "Teacher of the Year" in Rhode Island. You might find it interesting to talk to her. Her name is Althea Telford. Also, Davis Middle School's Kathy Mellor, an ESL teacher, was the 2004 National Teacher of the Year. She might be another valuable resource to contact. In such a small state, we indeed have some excellent educators. In the second part of your question you ask whether the emphasis in literacy should be on reading or writing. Why does it need to be a choice? These are complementary processes and it would seem to me that you would want to have the option of focusing on each of these areas. For most students, reading is the easier of the two processes, but writing shouldn't be neglected. Specifically, I would stress having students keep response journals where they could write responses to materials that are being read. I've used two- or three-column response journals with older students. In the former case, students pick out pertinent information from their texts or readings and then respond in writing. In three-column response journals, the third column is used to tie in information they read to world knowledge. Journals can also be read by teachers who then, in turn, write back to the students. Here are some prompts to get your students writing about the content they are reading: 1. What new information did you learn about the subject? 2. What additional questions do you have? 3. What else do you want to know about the subject? Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, Hi! I actually have three questions. It seems that the term guided reading has become a catch phrase in my building for many different things. There is a friendly debate among my colleagues as to what the components of a good guided reading program includes. Would you please comment on this? My second question follows. In my building there are guided reading books supplied for K-2. I am a third grade teacher and don't have that option available, therefore, I must use tradebooks. Unfortunately, at third grade these books are usually long. This makes it difficult when a need to move up or down is realized midbook. Any suggestions? Now for my third and final question. I have a student who has very stong reading comprehension. He is an avid reader and writes incredible stories. My delemma is this - he is not phrased and fluent. When you speak to the child he is often stilted as if he is lost in his own thoughts, however, fluency in speech is far better than in reading. When he is grouped according to his reading level, it is clear the other students are impatient with him. What can I do to help this student? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Answer : Dear Deana:You double posted your question. You should have already received a reply. Best Wishes Answered by : Question: Dear Experts, I am a Special Educator for grades 4 and 5. I just received an ESL student from the fourth grade. My question to you is, how can I tell if she has a learning disability in reading? She has been in this country for five years. She speaks Spanish fluently at home and English at school. Thanks, Sharon Coventry, RI Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : ESL, learning disabled Answer : Dear Sharon:You raise a difficult question. On the one hand, a reading disability is usually defined as a discrepancy between a person's capacity to learn and their actual performance in reading. Usually, capacity is determined by some valid and reliable measure of intelligence. Doing a running record and determining the grade-level performance of the child can determine reading capacity. If the child is performing at grade level and has an average IQ, we would consider her to be working up to her capacity. The rub comes when we attempt to determine a child's intellectual capacity. So many instruments use knowledge of vocabulary to be a good determiner of intelligence. With ESL students, there is frequently a gap between their knowledge of English and their true academic potential. If she's been in this country for five years, however, I would assume her English is good, even though Spanish is the dominant language spoken at home. Why is it important that you are able to determine if she has a learning disability? If she is having difficulty learning to read, you still need to address WHY she isn't learning. Using an LD label does not explain where her issues lie. Even non-ESL students who are classified as learning disabled still need to receive focused instruction before they will learn to read. Here's what I suggest. Administer a running record on leveled material that she can read. Attempt to determine her instructional level. Once you've done the running record, analyze the miscues and see if she is using one of the three cuing systems more than the other (i.e. meaning, structure, or visual). If she is, that may be part of the problem. To determine her potential for learning, you can orally read her increasingly difficult passages and ask her comprehension questions after you're done reading each. If she can answer the questions from passages you've read, there probably is a reading disability because there will be a discrepancy between what she can read and comprehend and what she can comprehend what you have read. There's nothing hard and fast about this formula but it will at least provide you with some additional insights that should help you. Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, Hi! I actually have three questions. It seems that the term guided reading has become a catch phrase in my building for many different things. There is a friendly debate among my colleagues as to what the components of a good guided reading program includes. Would you please comment on this? My second question follows. In my building there are guided reading books supplied for K-2. I am a third grade teacher and don't have that option available, therefore, I must use tradebooks. Unfortunately, at third grade these books are usually long. This makes it difficult when a need to move up or down is realized midbook. Any suggestions? Now for my third and final question. I have a student who has very stong reading comprehension. He is an avid reader and writes incredible stories. My delemma is this - he is not phrased and fluent. When you speak to the child he is often stilted as if he is lost in his own thoughts, however, fluency in speech is far better than in reading. When he is grouped according to his reading level, it is clear the other students are impatient with him. What can I do to help this student? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : guided reading, oral reading Answer : Dear Deana:Some of the common characteristics of guided reading are all students working at their instructional level, students being introduced to the text that they will read, students reading for a purpose, students working on specific skills and knowing what they are working to improve, and reading for meaning. In my experience, advanced third graders can move from guided reading into chapter books doing their reading in literature circles. The operative word here is "advanced." Many of the third graders I see, however, aren't mature enough to handle the independence required of literature groups. Now is the time of the year when I would talk to my principal and let him/her know that you need to order materials. Usually, this is the time when budgets are proposed. You need to make your concerns known NOW. Finally, it seems to me that your advanced reader is strong in many aspects. Perhaps you are placing too much emphasis on his oral reading. If he has good comprehension and loves to read, why not play to his strengths and worry less about his oral reading. Let's face it. Some readers will always struggle with their oral reading skills. Other than school, however, seldom are we asked to demonstrate our oral reading ability. I would suggest praising his comprehension and downplay his oral reading. If you insist on better oral reading, one of the best things you can do is to allow the child to first silently read the passage and then orally read it at a later time. Not only will rereadings make him more fluent, it should also increase his comprehension. Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, As a special education teacher I co-teach 2 math classes this year and work with students who are achieving at different levels in math as well as in reading and writing. We have noticed that our students have a great deal of difficulty explaining their work in writing. Specifically, students are often asked to compare and contrast their solutions but the answers we get do not show an understanding of the question asked or the math they have completed. We model how to describe mathematcial solutions on an everyday basis in class. We have also tried using content area strategies such as concept maps with the students but they still seem to struggle when they need to explain their work. Do you have any suggestions on how we could help improve our students' writing in math class? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : math Answer : Dear Michele:From your question, it sounds like the students are able to arrive at the correct answers to the math questions. Your dilemma is that they simply can't explain their answers. Is that correct? If so, you are probably witnessing a mismatch between their instruction and your assessments. By this, I mean, that over the years, product (i.e. answer) has been stressed more than the process. If this is the case, it's understandable that they arrive at the right answers. That's essentially what they've been taught to do. Let's assume, though, for discussion purposes, that this isn't the case. You are witnessing an equal number of correct AND incorrect answers. Then, there's a high probability that the students simply don't know how to approach the problems with which they are presented. I'm not going to try to be a math expert. There's much too much I don't understand, but, I would suggest you go to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) website (www.nctm.org). Here, you can type in your search words (e.g. reading and geometry) and find a plethora of hits. Just typing in "reading and math" will give you almost 10,000 sources! Since you didn't describe the specific area(s) in which your students were experiencing trouble, this website will allow you to focus your search. Also, a professional book that many teachers find useful is David J. Whitin's, Read Any Good Math Lately? (Heinemann). While now over a decade old, it is still a popular read. Answered by : Question: I am currently trying to teach my students how to write a summary after they read a book. What are some good and effective ways to teach this topic without having students wanting to write about "all" the information they have read? Are there any specific books or activites that I can use with my students to teach this topic? Thank you, Super summarizer Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : summarizing, comprehension Answer : Dear Super Summarizer:I suspect that the reason your students are trying to write about everything is that they are unsure of what you are looking for. So, here are a few suggestions. Have you modeled each aspect of what you are looking for through short mini-lessons? Have you broken this down into the generally acceptable categories of characters, setting, plot, problem, resolution, etc.? I think you might scaffold each of these as separate lessons, showing your summarizers specifically what you are looking for. A second suggestion I would offer is to have a set of specific questions to guide your summarizers. They need not answer all questions each time the group meets but could, perhaps, focus on only one or two of the questions. There are a number of excellent professional books on the market that should help you fine-tune your writers. One of the classics is Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading Groups by Harvey Daniels. Daniels and Nancy Steineke have also written a book that might be helpful. It's called Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles. A third good text is Moving Forward with Literature Circles: How to Plan, Manage, and Evaluate Literature Circles That Deepen Understanding and Foster a Love of Reading by Day, Spiegel, McLellan, and Brown. Finally, there's 25 Reproducible Literature Circle Role Sheets for Fiction and Non-Fiction by Moen, Mitchell, and Grossmann. Let me close by telling you how much I value what you are trying to do. Not only are you bringing quality literature and enjoyment to your students, but also I love the way you are trying to fine-tune your own teaching skills. Tackling these kinds of questions is the way that good teachers become GREAT teachers. Answered by : Question: I am currently teaching half-day kindergarten and am planning for next year. A colleague and I were wondering about the "big picture" in literacy instruction. We've just finished reading two professional books (Kid Writing and Reading With Meaning) and loved them both. (Our district is most likely adopting the Scott Foresman reading series.) We loved the information from the professional books, but we're struggling to figure out how to implement both a reading and a writing workshop. Currently, we have a 45 minute Writer's Workshop when the children arrive. We use center time for Guided Reading. Also, we have whole group reading instruction involving strategies and concepts- some from Scott Foresman and some from Debbie Miller. We are meeting with our literacy coach to further discuss this, but we were wondering if you had any suggestions. Thank you! Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : kindergarten, literacy Answer : Dear Kerry:Kudos to you for planning ahead for next year. I've always considered the spring of the academic year to be a good time to try out some new ideas that I may want to implement on a broader scale come fall. It sounds like this is exactly what you are attempting to do. The two books you are reading are excellent sources to grasp the big picture. Another favorite of mine is entitled "And With a Light Touch" by Carol Avery. It's available from Amazon.com for $37.00. While intended for first-grade teachers, you'll find much of the information pertinent to your students. It appears your major challenge is to find enough time to do everything you want. My advice is to keep it simple. One of the greatest gifts you can give your students is a curiosity toward reading and writing. I think you may be doing that already. Have you considered meeting with the first-grade teachers in your building and hearing what they have to say about students entering their classrooms each fall? Are there skill gaps that they've noticed? I would devote some time each day to read alouds. Kindergarteners (as well as everyone else) love to be read to. You could choose books that emphasize phonemic awareness. Poetry books are also a great hit with this age. I would also focus on some high-frequency words that would have high utility in easy-to-read books. Have you thought about enlisting the help of some parent volunteers? Kindergartener's attention spans are so short; it's always nice to have extra hands to help out. Whatever you do, don't burden these students with isolated skill sheets. Adopting a reading series always puts you at risk of falling into this trap. Good luck. Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, I would like some advice on how to help a particular student in my second grade classroom. He was progressing in his reading earlier in the year but has since leveled off. His DRA instructional level is currently at a 16. He doesn't self monitor when he reads at all. When he sees a word that he doesn't know, he just calls out a word and moves on. The word usually begins with the same letter, but often doesn't look right in any other way and doesn't make sense. He is an ELL student with a relatively good grasp of English with some difficulty with particular vocabulary. If I am reading with him, I am able to prompt him to look back at where he got stuck and think about whether the word he said looks right or make sense and go from there. However without my prompting, he just keeps reading. Do you have any advice on any strategies that I could use with this boy. Thanks for your help. Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : impulsivity, ELL, self-monitoring Answer : Dear Ruth:You have correctly identified this second-grader's problem. He doesn't self-monitor. Your first step is to get him to stop calling out words that don't make sense in the context of the sentence. One prompt that you might try is a four-step phrase: Stop ? Look ? Think ? Say. This will slow him down and force him to the crucial third step ? Think! Once you get him to perform this act, he will soon no longer need you to monitor for him. In fact, that's the last thing you want to do because he will appeal to you for help. You might try using this prompt with him, too: "I'm going to read what you just read. Tell me if that makes sense." Here are several other prompts: "Let's read it again to make sense." "Is that like the way we talk?" Since he is fluent in English, he should have no trouble identifying inappropriate substituted words. By continually impressing on him that reading must make sense, you'll be on your way to making him become a fluent reader. You may be wondering why this particular child developed this habit. I would guess there are two possible explanations. First, if he was taught to read in his native language, he's probably learned that there is a high phoneme-grapheme correspondence in this language. The second possible cause could be his first-grade instruction. Students who have been taught with an extensive phonic program frequently fail to monitor what they read because they are over-attending to the visual aspects of the language at the expense of the meaning of print. In severe cases, these students may even substitute nonsense words for unknown words and then continue reading, never realizing that they are miscuing. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, I am second grade teacher in a small Catholic school. We currently use one basal series for literacy instruction. We also have one set of leveled readers, one grade level below, that go along with the series. In planning for next year, there are limited funds available to purchase materials and supplies to supplement our program. While I agree that a program cannot replace an effective teacher with knowledge of literacy instruction, I was hoping you could suggest how best to allocate funds to purchase materials (books, manipulatives, equipment, etc) that would support current best practices in literacy instruction. I guess I am looking for what your wish list would be in a primary classroom in terms of literacy materials. If you could put this in order of importance that would be helpful. Also, as a beginning reading specialist, what books would you suggest as must haves in my own personal library that would again serve as resources in supporting best practices in literacy instruction. Thank you and I look forward to your guidance. Sincerely, Debbie Hegarty Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : materials, professional books Answer : Dear Debbie:Here is a list of some materials I would suggest. Developmental Reading Assessment ? Primary Kit Rigby PM Starter Leveled Readers to cover your instructional range Easy-to-Read Library Books Sets of books for authors study (i.e. Arnold Lobel, Eric Carle, etc.) A collection of books for Read-Alouds based on strategies you are attempting to model and teach. I would estimate you could easily spend $2,000 for these materials. Perhaps your principal has a discretionary account that could be used for some of these things. Is there a school PTO that could donate some money for your cause? How about a classroom bake sale? One thing is for certain. If you want to deliver best-practice instruction, it will cost money. The professional books question is more achievable, in my mind, because you'll be paying for these out of your own pocket. So, here's my basic professional library: Classrooms That Work ? Cunningham and Allington Mosaic of Thought ? Keene and Zimmermann Strategies That Work ? Harvey and Goudvis Reading with Meaning - Debbie Miller Guided Reading ? Fountas and Pinnell Guided Readers and Writers 3-6 ? Fountas and Pinnell Word Journeys ? Kathy Ganske Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies- Jeffrey Wilhelm Teaching for Comprehension in Reading ? Grades K-2 ? Pinnell and Scharer Kid Writing ? Feldgus and Cardonick Conversations ? Reggie Routman Reading Essentials ? Reggie Routman Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, I am a current student in your ELED 686 course. What do you think are the best strategies for helping children master sight words, particularly students who cannot read the sight words expected for their grade placement. The only strategy I have ever witnessed in practice was flashcards, and I am assuming there are better ways. Thank you. Melissa Cohen, Graduate Student Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Sight Words Answer : Dear Melissa:Sight words, by definition, are words that appear frequently in print or in speech. They are the service words of the English language and consist of articles, conjunctions, prepositions, and the like. These words account for approximately sixty percent of all the running words primary students are asked to read. As such, it's extremely important that they be learned to an automatic level of recall as early as possible. There are many sight word lists, the most common of which is the Dolch 220 Sight Word List. Regardless of what list you select, there is a high correlation of commonality among the lists. Many first- and second-grade teachers use these words as word wall words. As such, they are in constant display in front of the students. Repeatedly being exposed to these words is, obviously, a good thing. It's also a good reminder to the teacher that these words need to be learned. In an attempt to help students learn the words to automaticity, some teachers have sent the words home and asked parents to put the words on flashcards. While well intended, seeing words in isolation on cards forces students to use only the visual (phonological) cueing system if the word is unknown at sight. Or, to put it another way, if the child doesn't know the word, the only strategy he/she can employ to unlock it is to "sound it out." Unfortunately, many sight words are not phonologically regular and, hence, can't be sounded out. A better strategy for parents and teachers is to put the target sight word in a short sentence and then highlight the target word by writing it in a different color or underlining it. For example: "I like to laugh." Here, the target word is "laugh." Obviously, it this word was phonologically regular, it would be spelled "laff." When encountering the word in the short sentence, the child can rely on context to help him/her unlock and recognize the word. If you want, you can write the word in isolation on the back of the card. It's a quick check to see if the word can be recognized WITHOUT the context of the sentence. It's also important to give children many and frequent opportunities to read these words in easy-to-read books. There are many "I Can Read" books that are loaded with these sight words. Lastly, parents can simply take dictation from their children and transcribe the words into simple sentences. Most of the words young children use are sight words. By going back and reading these sentences, children will get additional practice on these important words. Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, I teach K-2 special education students who all come to me as beginning readers with varying knowledge of reading skills and strategies. I have 2 students this year with similar reading abilities. Both of them now recognize all of their letters and letter sounds and about 30 sight vocabulary words. They both have an excellent "general" knowledge, which really helps them when reading. I have been using a combination of reading programs with them. We focus a lot on strategies like using picture clues, using context cues, using known words or word chunks to help them with new words... The problem that I am experiencing with both of them is that they both have difficulty retaining sight words and they are unable to use letter/sound association when reading. We have used the Wilson program (we tap out words, we make and break words) in addition to the Rigby reading materials. My grade 2 student has made it to a Rigby level 5 by using pictures and his general knowledge and knowing what makes sense. Unfortunately his progress is slowing because he is coming across more and more words that he can't figure out based on the pictures or context. Do you have any other suggestions as to what I could do to help this student progress and attain the skill necessary to be a successful reader? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Sight words, automaticity, picture clues Answer : Dear Teacher:It sounds like you are doing all the right things with this student. By that, I mean you are showing him that it's important to integrate all three cueing systems as he reads: meaning, visual, and structure. From the sounds of it, though, he is now becoming overly dependent upon picture clues. My hunch is that this is the easiest way he knows of unlocking unknown words. Unfortunately, once the demands of reading increase and he is expected to know more words, this strategy becomes less useful. It seems to me that the danger you now run into is attempting to expose him to too many words before he has mastered a small corpus of words to the level of automatic recall. In other words, it is better to overlearn the 30 or so words he now has and then slowly introduce him to two or three new words per week. You want the known words to be at the automatic level of recall so it takes almost no effort to identify the words. Now comes the tricky part - building new words. I would suggest building his store of new words by using word families (rimes). Take the two target families of AB and ED. With the former, you can have him build words like cab, jab, tab, grab, etc. With the latter, you can build words like red, bed, fed, sled, etc. Notice that the two target rimes are graphically dissimilar so they are less apt to be confused as word building takes place. Once the new words are built, put them on cards and spend time each day sorting them. You can do speed sorts to see how fast he can do it. This may be motivating for him and give both of you a sense of accomplishment. To help you choose which rimes to use, I would peruse the Rigby books you want to use with him. Choose those that are going to appear in the story. You don't want him to loose sight of the fact that good readers use all three cueing systems. Another caution: don't attempt to learn too much too fast. Again, automaticity is the key concept you are working toward. What you are trying to do is build a solid foundation for this student. A good source for word building words and ideas is Kathy Ganske's book Word Journeys (ISBN# 1-57230-559-2). It's available from Guilford Press. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, Currently, I am working as a special educator using the pull-out and in-class model. We have been working on using various skills to increase comprehension and help us become more active readers in our texts. Some strategies that we are using (from Strategies That Work & Mosaic of Thought) are using questioning strategies, making connections with text, making inferences and creating visualizations. However, I find that students have great difficulty applying these skills to gain information and understanding from expository text, especially their social studies textbooks (that the regular education teachers are required to use). I reinforce themes and content with trade books and other materials. However, what are some suggestions and strategies to increase their comprehension of this type of text, particulary the social studies textbooks, where they can become more active readers and gain understanding and knowledge? Any suggestions and strategies would be helpful. Thank you, Shelly Goudreau RIC Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : content material, kwl, study skills Answer : Dear Shelly:You are to be commended on your efforts to help improve the comprehension of your students. And, Strategies That Work and Mosaic of Thought are two excellent books to help improve student's comprehension of narrative text. I believe your limited success is not due to your efforts and intentions. These are commendable. I believe you are now ready to move on to the next step. Let me explain. I like to view comprehension instruction from the perspective of two branches of a tree. One branch leads to all the strategies that help students comprehend narrative text. That's where you've been focusing your efforts. The other branch, however, leads to a totally different set of instructional strategies. That's where you now need to explore. Here are some things you might try. Have you tried the KWL strategy? KWL stands for What I Know, What I Don't Know, and What I Want to Learn. Create three columns on the board. Have students fill out the first two columns. As they read and discuss their material, fill out the third column. Have you shown these students how authors write their texts to assist students to better comprehend? Have you talked about the use of center headings and side headings? Do these students use the text glossaries to understand unfamiliar words? Have these students been taught to read for a purpose. In other words, have they been taught to raise questions before they read and then read to find answers to these questions? Sometimes having students read the questions at the end of a chapter is the first step in learning about chapter content. Have you tried that? Do these students know how to use maps, graphs, tables and other graphic pieces of information? Frequently, these visuals go a long way in helping to improve comprehension. Don't be afraid to use videos to help provide background information to these students. Without adequate background knowledge, it's hard to link new learning to previous learning. Over the years, I've traveled extensively around the world. Now, when I read about European capitals, Russian cities, emperors, or geological formations, I'm easily available to make connections. I sometimes see social studies teachers present so much abstract information it's easy to see why students can't make connections. They don't have the background information (or interest) to do this cognitive link-up. Another effective strategy you might try is to have them write in a response journal or a learning log. Both are ways that help students better understand what they are reading. Having them write about "I wonder?" questions elevates their level of involvement and should improve their comprehension. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude: Although spelling and reading are intricately connected, it does not seem to be reciprocal. Kindergarten and Primary students' reading definitely benefits from multiple opportunities to write using developmental spelling, but no amount of reading seems to improve many students' spelling. I suspect that when someone consistently misspells a word they internalize their spelling as correct. My school (K-3) is looking for an effective spelling program for the high frequency words. Do you have any suggestions or insights? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : spelling Answer : Dear Teacher:I would direct your attention to two excellent paperback books. The first is entitled Word Journeys (ISBN# 1-57230-559-2) by Kathy Ganske; the second is Words Their Way by Donald Bear, et al. (ISBN# 0-13-021339-X). Both books examine the developmental nature of spelling and include assessments to determine where students fall along this continuum. Once you have determined your classroom profile, you can engage your students in developmentally appropriate word sorting activities so they will become strategic spellers and not simply robots who mindlessly memorize words each week for spelling tests and then promptly forget them. Since spelling is such a visual act, it's important that you build time into your literacy block for recreational reading and writing. It is only through repeated exposure to words in print that students will become better spellers. As an aside, I find it interesting how many adults continue to be poor spellers. My hunch is that it's due to the fact that they're not readers or writers themselves. Yet, many of these same individuals argue vociferously for a return to spelling lists and weekly spelling tests because they think it will help their children become better spellers. Obviously, such outdated instructional methods have failed miserably with them. Answered by : Question: How can a classroom teacher determine a student's proper DRA or Rigby level if the child being tested has Dyslexia? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Grade 5, dyslexia, DRA Answer : Dear Teacher:First a word about labels. Over the years, I've found that labels do little to help students become better readers. More often than not, they are used as an excuse for not being able to help a child become a better reader. Having said that, I DO know that some children have extremely difficult times learning to read. And, I DO think their problems might be neurologically based. Nevertheless, we still have a professional obligation to help the student. (Can you imagine an oncologist refusing to help a lung cancer victim because he/she smokes cigarettes?) Now, back to your question. The reason for administrating a Developmental Reading Assessment or Rigby PM Benchmark assessment is to determine a child's instructional level. Remember, this is the level at which there is roughly 95% word recognition and 75% comprehension. These figures, however, aren't etched in stone. They are only rough guidelines to help you find the appropriate level. Instead of over relying on these two instruments, I would base more of my decision on teacher intuition and use the test data to substantiate or refute what I know about the child. What you may be referring to in your question is the wide swings in performance that students with neurological issues sometimes exhibit. As a professional, you need to rely on your professional judgment and not on a single assessment. A series of informal running records, given over a period of time, should reveal a pattern of behavior at a specific level. You should have more confidence in these repeated assessments than in the one-shot DRA or Rigby Assessment. Answered by : Question: what is the best way to teach kids to write Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : writing Answer : Dear Kristen:I would be happy to answer your question but I need more information. Can you describe your situation, grade level, age, and the problems you are experiencing? It will help me tailor an answer to your question. Thanks. Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, I am presently in your ELED 686 Wed pm class. I would like to thank you for sharing this Knowledge Loom – I've already shared this info with teachers in my building… and am excited about the possibilities for professional development. At this time, I have several questions but will pose this: Currently, I am an eighth grade middle school teacher. Many students in eighth grade who struggle with reading (even mildly) have a great deal of difficulty reading aloud in front of their peers. (I recognize one factor as the social piece). What do you think is the best way to approach this? If they are not fluent readers, some teaches feel that students need to practice reading aloud in front of an audience. Others, however, feel if the student is not a fluent reader, the teacher should always read aloud to the whole class when introducing a new story/passage, etc. to "model" fluent reading and demonstrate good reading strategies for reading new material. What are your views on this issue? Would it be okay to ask another question? Although, now that I have started this, I have lots of questions… If you could give advice to a new teacher – what would you suggest as the most 'effective' – result-producing - reading program available today to help students gain reading skills? This is very general, I realize, however, if a new teacher were beginning = what should he/she invest in for a reading program? Thank you. I look forward to your response. Lisa Owensby Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : content material, frustration level reading Answer : Dear Lisa:First, I'm glad you are sharing your discovery of the Knowledge Loom with other teachers as you explore professional development opportunities. There is no better way to help students become interested and competent readers than to have informed teachers deliver literacy instruction based on best practices. Now, on to your questions. The problem you identify?having struggling readers read content material...is an age-old issue that we continually need to work on to overcome. Content area subjects are loaded with long, technical words and terms that are the bain of poor readers. Having these students stand before their classmates and "practice reading" is probably the worst thing you can do with these students. The reason these students are struggling is that the material is too difficult for them. It's probably written at their frustration level. Being asked to perform fluent reading in front of a class is about as effective as blood letting to cure a common fever! Having the teacher "model" fluent reading isn't a bad idea, but it begs the question. These struggling readers aren't understanding what they are being asked to read. The material is written at their frustration level! The simple solution for these problem readers is to find material on the topics under study that is written on an easier level. This is much more difficult than it sounds, though. Furthermore, content area teachers are more often than not, primarily interested in covering the material in the content textbook. Rather than spend the time and energy?which is considerable?trying to find alternative texts for these students, it's just easier to have someone more proficient read the text aloud. The problem with this "solution" is that it doesn't require the poorer readers to practice what they desperately need?practice reading easy connected text. If these teachers wanted to be proactive, they could think about units of study instead of simply covering the readings in a textbook. Take the issue of slavery, for example. There are many relatively easy-to-read young adolescent books that eighth graders could read. "Sarney" and "Nightjohn" are two wonderful books written by Gary Paulsen, a perennial favorite of students this age. Having students read from a variety of sources and then coming together to discuss issues also results in a spirited, more authentic learning situation. Richard Allington once wrote an excellent article in Educational Leadership (Volume 60, No. 3), November 2002. It was entitled "You Can't Learn Much From Books You Can't Read." In it, he addresses the issue you mentioned. I'll be shorter with my next answer to your question. Use the money that would be spent on materials for staff development and classroom libraries. Your teachers will be thrilled and it will be a better investment for all concerned. Answered by : Question: Dear Experts: I am a volunteer working with a small group of first-grade students who are considered to be "struggling". Although each student has his or her own issues, all four students seem unable to monitor themselves while they orally read. In fact, I do not think these students hear themselves at all! The school district where I volunteer uses a phonics-based series, so it is no surprise that the students rely on decoding in every reading assignment. How can I help these students begin to listen to themselves as they read and start to use other strategies besides decoding? Leah Chesney Dartmouth, MA Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : metacognition, phonics Answer : Dear Leah:What you are experiencing is symptomatic of programs that stress one cueing system over the other. In this case, the visual cues (i.e. phonics) have been emphasized so much that these four students don't seem to have a clue that one's primary purpose for reading is to enjoy or learn something. My hunch is that if you would conduct a running record of their oral reading, you would see a preponderance of visual miscues and there would be a very, very low self-correction rate among these readers. As learners, all of us learn what we are taught. When one is taught phonics, that's what one will learn. If meaning is taught, that's what we'll learn. Teaching these students to rely solely on the visual cueing system is like teaching them to dog paddle in the pool. They may be able to move from one end to the other given enough time, but wouldn't it be better to teach them the breast-stroke, the crawl, and the side-stroke? How much more enjoyable their swimming would be if they could use a variety of means to propel themselves in the water. The same goes for reading. Yes, they are being taught an important skill, but there's so much more to reading than simply being able to sound out words. No doubt, these students envision reading to be akin to reading words on a set of flashcards! How exciting can that be? Furthermore, it's impossible to monitor your reading when you operate solely at the visual level. How can a child ask himself/herself "Does that make sense?" when they are operating at the /c/c/c - a/a/a/a/ - t/t/t/t/t "cat" level? There are a couple of things you can do as a volunteer. Read aloud to these students. Ask them to predict what might happen as you examine book titles. They can also predict as you continue to read. You can ask them to make connections with the story and how it relates to their lives. Finally, you can use big books and cover some of the words with Post-Its. See if the students can predict the covered words. All of these activities are meaning-based strategies and that's what these students need. A good text you might enjoy reading is "Improving Comprehension With Think-Aloud Strategies" by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. It's available from Scholastic Professional Books (ISBN# 0-439-21859-4). The price is $14.95. Happy Reading! Answered by : Question: Many discricts have begun to divide the 7 comprehension strategies discussed in the work of Ellin Keene into units specific to grade levels. Do you feel all grades should cover each of the strategies on some level, or certian grades should cover one or two strategies very deeply? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : comprehension Answer : Dear Ellin Keene Supporter:The work of Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmermann, "Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop" is one of the best and most provocative books on teaching comprehension that has come out in the past decade. I highly recommend it to the uninitiated. Now, on to your question. Comprehension, it seems to me, is something that never stops occurring. Indeed, just this past weekend, I was reading an obituary of a famous New Hampshire woman who passed away at the age of 102. When she was 94 years old, the obituary informed the reader, she enrolled in a university extension course entitled "Creative Thinking." Now that's what I call on-going comprehension. I wonder if she ever "mastered" one of the seven comprehension strategies? It seems to me, that comprehension, by its very nature, defies what some might call a "mastery" level. Learning is so complex and so multifaceted, that we continually layer learning upon learning. Take the study of dinosaurs, for example. This is a topic of great interest to many elementary-age students. Can one ever learn all there is about dinosaurs? What constitutes "mastery" of this topic? Certainly not reaching a score of 80% or more correct on a series of comprehension test questions. In fact, Keene and Zimmermann explicitly state?"that teachers focus instructional time and creative energy on helping students gradually learn to use these strategies as they read a variety of texts in all grade levels." At a practical implementation level, it might be helpful if teachers focused on one or two of the skills mentioned by Keene and Zimmermann but I would hope eventually, all teachers would be comfortable and competent enough to focus on all seven areas as they attempt to increase students' comprehension. Answered by : Question: I recently started working with a 3rd grade student who is reading at a readiness level. This child has had small group and special education services for years, but he does not seem to be "getting it" (reading skills)...I do not know for certain what has been done with him in regards to strategies in the past, so I am now trying to design a reading and writing program that will help him make progress as a reader. He has significant trouble with phonics and sight words, however he has excellect oral comprehension and great ideas.I have been utilizing a wide variety of strategies with this child but in your opinion, specifically, how can I best help this child to become a reader? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : special education, phonics, sight words Answer : Dear Reader:Obviously, this student has a significant gap between his grade placement and his reading performance. Other than that, it's difficult to determine why this should be. Let me offer some questions that may help you in your instructional efforts. First, why was this student referred for special education services? If there is a significant gap between the child's intellectual ability and performance, the child may already be working at an appropriate level. Secondly, why hasn't the child been able to grasp simple phonic generalizations? Thirdly, why hasn't the child been able to develop a corpus of known sight words after three years of instruction? Fourth, why is his aural comprehension better than his reading comprehension? Finally, have any of the strategies that you've used connected with this student? My hunch is that this student has compensated for his poor reading ability by becoming an astute listener. That's the way he acquires most of his information since he's unable to process text. Your job, now, is to figure out where he is on a developmental continuum of learning to read. What skills does he KNOW? Build on the positive. He must have some decoding ability as well as a small collection of known sight words. Use these as your benchmarks and move forward from this point. I would also build in a writing component to your instruction. If he has such great ideas, give him opportunities to use these in his writing. His writing should give you some insights into his command of phonics. You might read some of Kathy Ganske's book Word Journeys. It will help you place him at an appropriate spelling level. I would also check with his previous teachers. Why hasn't this child made better progress? If you want this child to become a reader, you must provide opportunities for him to read CONNECTED TEXT! Forget about worksheets and isolated phonics exercises. I can only speculate, but the evidence is clear that students who need to read connected text the most are frequently the ones who get it the least. You need to change that. Finally, teach him that he needs to monitor what he is reading to see if it makes sense. Again, I can only speculate, but I would be willing to bet that most of his instruction up to this point has focused on the visual queing system at the expense of learning to monitor whether sentences make sense. It sounds like you have your work cut out for you. Worry less about finding a label for this reader and more on what he needs to move ahead in his reading. Your efforts could be greatly rewarded. Answered by : Question: I am an Enrichment Specialist in a district that uses the STAR Reading Test (as one method) to identify students for services in "Gifted Ed." However, many teachers in my district believe that it is unfair to use the STAR Test to select our talent pool students. They beleive that the test produces inflated scores. Is this true? Does the STAR Reading Test measure a child's reading ability accurately? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : tests, gifted readers Answer : Dear Reader:I'm not sure which STAR test you are talking about. The California Department of Education has developed an instrument entitled Standardized Testing and Reporting (or STAR) and the Renaissance Learning Corporation has a STAR Reading Test. In either case, I don't have copies of these instruments at my disposal so it's difficult to comment specifically about either. As a rule of thumb, however, norm-referenced reading tests tend to over-estimate the reading level of students by as much as one or two grade levels. Questions about the technical qualities of standardized test scores can usually be answered by obtaining the technical manual from the test publisher. This document should show how the designed test measures against other popular norm-referenced reading tests. If the publisher is unable or unwilling to share this technical manual with you, I would be suspicious of the test. At a more local level, you might conduct your own "mini-study." You could take a sample of students and administer them both the STAR test and a running record assessment using a popular assessment package such as the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). This would allow a quick answer to your question. One last comment about norm-referenced reading tests. They usually do an adequate job of ranking classes of students but aren't very reliable when it comes to looking at individual students. Perhaps you could rely more on teacher informal evaluations and teacher intuition to place students in the gifted program and not depend on the standardized tests to such a degree? Answered by : Question: Vocabulary is such a critical factor influencing comprehension -- but teachers often have limited assessment information to work from, to help determine who needs LOTS of focus in this area, and who needs a more "general" degree of focus. Any thoughts as to ways to informally, but effectively, assess vocabulary? Sue Biggam Vermont Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : vocabulary, assessment Answer : Well, you certainly hit the nail on the head. Vocabulary IS a key ingredient of reading comprehension. In fact, it accounts for about 60% of the variance in comprehension scores. What that translates into is the fact that if you have a wide and varied vocabulary, you'll probably do well on tests of reading comprehension, all other things being equal.In your question, you indicated that you were interested in INFORMAL ways to measure comprehension. If that's the case, I'm going to assume that your teachers aren't interested in doing any among-student comparisons. So, we'll not discuss things like standardized reading tests, informal reading inventories, word lists, and other norm-referenced instruments. Instead, we'll look only at informal classroom measures and procedures. One thing that your teachers could do is to use teacher-constructed cloze or maze passages in which they've selectively deleted specific vocabulary words. A student's ability to supply the correct word would give him/her an indication of word knowledge. This might be especially effective if teachers wanted to measure understanding of expository text. Another way to measure students' vocabulary growth is through literature circle discussions. Usually, there is one student each day to serve as the "Word Wizard." This person's job is to bring new and unfamiliar words to the attention of other readers in the group. Another informal measure is to conference with students and discuss books they are reading during the Sustained Silent Reading period. When I sit with a student and listen to them read an excerpt from their chosen book, I always spend a few minutes focusing on words that might be new to them. Here are a few words that come to mind from a couple of Gary Paulsen's Newbery Award winning books that could challenge students: keening, hummock, ulu, umiak, and cache. Even adults may find these challenging. This brings up another assessment strategy. When listening to a child read in a conference setting, see if he/she can comprehend new words through using the context of the sentence or paragraphs. You can also use retellings to determine whether a student is able to understand new vocabulary words. If you are reading expository texts, you can develop an informal test of roughly ten questions on the assigned reading. Three or four of these questions should focus on specific vocabulary questions. Writing samples are also a good way to see if the student's vocabulary is growing. If writing samples are kept in a portfolio, you should see greater use of new words as the student continues to read and write throughout the year. Asking a child to give a synonym or antonym for a given word is also a good way to informally check on vocabulary development. Or, have the child draw a picture of the new word. Vocabulary (semantic) maps are good graphic ways to assess students' understanding of words or concepts. Yet, another way to determine vocabulary development is to use words learned from a classroom word wall. These can be assessed in students' daily writing. I find that the problem is not so much as how to assess vocabulary, as it is to figure out a way to manage record keeping or grading of vocabulary development. I've gotten beyond worrying about this, though. Instead, I spend more of my energy on ensuring that my read-alouds stress new vocabulary. I want my students to read widely and freely, because I know that broad reading is one of the best ways to increase vocabulary. Finally, I want my students to inquisitive about words. I delight when they write new vocabulary words on sticky-notes and bring the words to my attention. If I can develop this word curiosity, I know that they'll be life-long learners and their vocabulary will continue to grow long after they leave my classroom. Even as an adult, I still marvel at how many new words I learn each week when I read the New York Times Book Review. I try to use these newly learned vocabulary words in my speech and in my writing. That way, I'm assuming ownership of the words. We want students to adopt this same principle. My suggestion: Keep the focus on teaching vocabulary and don't become bogged down in assessment. Answered by : Question: what is the best way for a kindergarden child to learn how to write? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : writing, kindergarten Answer : Dear Kindergarten Teacher:The simple answer, of course, is to make sure the child comes from a literate home where books and print are a vital part of every day. Given that type of environment, research has shown that that child will come to school with about 1,000 more hours of literacy experience than the child who comes from a less fortunate background. But, I don't think that's the answer you are looking for. Wouldn't it be nice if those types of students blessed us all? Let's assume, though, that you are working with a child with no communication disorders and of average or above intelligence. What experiences would I recommend? First, the child must see a need for communication. One of the best ways to begin this is to use read-alouds on a daily basis. As you read to the child, ask him to predict events in the story. Think-alouds are also powerful steps in showing the child how adults think about books. When I do Think-Alouds, I use Post-Its to mark pages where I want to describe to the students what I'm thinking about or how I'm processing text. By doing so, you are being a model of how adults read. The ultimate goal of any read-aloud is to demonstrate that reading must make sense and it's all about communicating and connecting with another human being - regardless of age. This will encourage any young child to want to write. Second, you've got to make time available for writing. You need to write with your students. One way you can do this is through Shared Writing. A good beginning is to have the students interview you. Young children always have a plethora of questions to ask their teacher. After a short interview session, you can ask the students to dictate sentences about what they learned during the interview. A typical story might be something like this: Dr. Rude is married. He has four children. He likes dogs. He likes to ski. He likes to sail. Once the sentences are transcribed, it's time to do some choral reading. You read first, then have the students join you while you point to the words. These "interviews" can occur throughout the classroom with one student being interviewed each day. If that doesn't spark an interest in writing, nothing will. Thirdly, having students illustrate special events in their lives and then attempting to write something about them gets them on the road to being involved writers. Here are some illustrated stories from a kindergarten class: First I was jippming on the cochi with my cousin. (First, I was jumping on the couch with my cousin.) First I w My Grand ma House. (First, I went to my grandma's house.) I was plaain wih my brother. (I was playing with my brother.) I wEt in SAib. (I went inside.) As you can see by these three illustrations, the clear purpose for writing is to communicate - even with five-year-olds. Obviously, some children may come to school ready to write. Others may only be ready after spending the entire year in kindergarten. There is no "one size fits all" program. You might want to read more about kindergarteners and writing by getting hold of Kid Writing by Eileen G. Feldgus & Isabell Cardonic (ISBN# 0-322-06435-X) available from The Wright Group/McGraw-Hill. Answered by : Question: What role do you think "literacy manipulatives" and hands-on learning play in successful literacy instruction for primary students? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : manipulatives Answer : Dear Reader:By the term "literacy manipulatives" I'm assuming you mean things like Elkonian boxes, white write-on boards, sandpaper letters, magnetic letters, and the like and not what some people call modality-based materials. To my knowledge, there are no research studies that specifically support methodologies designed to address "learning modalities." In fact, there is no scientific basis for the fact that "learning modalities" actually exist. Be that as it may, many professional teacher texts still devote space to discussing learning modalities. In my experience, this topic appears more in texts dealing with special populations than those on reading/writing instruction. Having said that, I think having young children use manipulatives makes eminent sense. If you are familiar with the work of the Reading Recovery movement, you know teachers are taught to cut words apart into letters and then replace them in an attempt to develop their phonological awareness of print and sound. The same thing has been done with sentences; words are cut apart and students read the words and then reformulate them back into sentences. Russell Stauffer and his associates at the University of Delaware advocated this approach back in the 1960s. White write-on boards are especially good for getting every student to respond upon a teacher's command. This "every pupil response" method allows the teacher to quickly determine who understands a taught concept and who's missing the point. I'm especially impressed with the work of Kathy Ganske (Word Journeys - ISBN# 1-57230-559-2) and Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston (Words Their Way - ISBN#0-13-021339-X). Their writing has been based on the developmental spelling process that all students pass through as they move from emergent spelling toward conventional spelling. Much of their work is based on the principles of onsets and rimes and relies on sorting techniques to develop spelling and reading strategies. Manipulating letters by sorting is a central focus of their work. If you haven't read either of these books, I suggest you start with Ganske's. Most teachers find it easier to read and an excellent first step toward improving their literacy program. One last point. Manipulatives provide opportunities for students to do something other than dull and dry dittos and worksheets. They provide a welcome relief from the sit-still-in-your-desk drudgery that takes place in some classroom. Even with adult learners in my college classes, I find they are more engaged learners if I can structure our three-hour classes to include hands-on activities using manipulatives. Don't children deserve the same? Answered by : Question: What is research showing in regard to teaching reading using a basal series or using whole language. I know that the best would be to use a combination of both, but what is research showing in classrooms where whole language was the only reading instruction? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : basal reader, whole language Answer : Dear Loom User:Your question goes back many, many years. During the 1960's the US Office of Education funded a series of investigations entitled The First-Grade Reading Studies. After an exhaustive effort, they were led to conclude that there was more variance WITHIN any one approach than there was BETWEEN approaches. In other words, teachers' implementation of an approach led to vast differences between how the basal readers were used just as a more whole-language approach was implemented differently among teachers who used this approach. There were no significant differences between approaches. That was the bottom line. Interestingly, what they also found was that the teacher accounted for about five times more of the variance in student performance than the approach. In other words, good teachers are what account for students learning to read. Here's a real-world example of how the teacher impacts learning. In one of the schools in which I work, there was a reshuffling of teachers at the last minute last fall. As I recall, it occurred the day before school started. A superb first-grade teacher was moved into a reading specialist's job in another school. A teacher filled her first-grade vacancy but she had never taught first grade before. The results were disastrous. Now, one year later, most of these former first-graders are in the second grade. They are struggling because they didn't have a good literacy foundation in first grade. This has never happened in this school before. In my mind, it's clearly the result of an unprepared first-grade teacher. So, who says the teacher doesn't make a difference? The sad part is that these second-grade students are paying the price for unfocused instruction. Answered by : Question: Where can I get intensive reading services for my son? He is in fifth grade and reads at a beginning third grade level. I am desparate for help. We get reading services through the school and some private tutoring in re: phonemic awareness which he completely missed in his schooling. We also provide support at home. Aside from this difficulty he is a bright and motivated child. Any ideas? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : tutoring, phonemic awareness, phonics Answer : Dear Knowledge Loom Reader:Thanks for your question. It is a reoccurring theme sounded by concerned parents who don't know where to turn. Fortunately, you seem to have already taken some steps to help your son. For this you are to be commended. Hopefully he is on his way to become a more fluent and interested reader. Let me offer some suggestions that may continue to steer you in the right direction. First, your question about support services. Generally, there are three avenues you can explore. The first is to contact commercial operations that offer tutoring. Sylvan Learning Centers and other private companies are becoming more and more involved in the tutoring arena. The problem with these commercial ventures is a) they are very, very expensive, b) the programs they prescribe are more or less standardized and not tailored to the specific needs of each client, and c) they are frequently staffed by tutors who are not highly trained and certified as reading specialists. I have talked to parents who have explored sending their children to these centers and the prices they are quoted can sometimes exceed $10,000 for a package of services. It's not cheap. Your second option is to call local colleges and universities in your area and ask if they have a reading or literacy clinic. At our institution, for example, we offer a summer literacy clinic where we train our M.Ed. in Reading candidates. The tutors have a minimum of four advanced reading courses before they are allowed to tutor. The tutoring takes place under supervision of a university professor and a certified experienced public school reading specialist. A thorough diagnostic workup is performed and an extensive case study report with recommendations for home and school is prepared. We charge less than $50 for this service. As you might expect, the demand for this service exceeds our ability to provide all the help we wish we could offer. Nevertheless, we help between 35-60 students every summer. The final option is private tutoring. This is an excellent avenue to explore PROVIDING you hire a highly qualified tutor. So often I see tutoring done by someone without the professional credentials. This gives false hope to both the student and the parent. Personally, I wouldn't recommend hiring anyone who hasn't undergone a supervised clinical training session such as we provide in our summer literacy program. Expect to pay $30.00 - $50.00 per hour. It's not cheap but when you think you pay your local car mechanic $60.00 or more per hour, it's a deal. Your local college or university may have a list of qualified tutors you could contact. Now, let's move on to your son. There are several questions I would like to raise. First, if he's in fifth grade, why is he receiving instruction in phonemic awareness? This is a skill that is covered in most kindergartens or first-grades. While it's possible that he is unable to hear differences in sounds, it's hard for me to believe that after five years of schooling he hasn't picked this up in some shape or form. Are you sure you didn't mean to say he is not proficient in applying phonic generalizations? Secondly, if he is reading at a third-grade level, he probably has some gaps in his skill development. If he's been receiving instruction in phonemic awareness skills, my fear would be that he's been excessively drilled in phonics to the exclusion of using context and semantics to help him decode and understand text. In the jargon of the profession, we say he should be able to orchestrate the integration of the phonological, syntactic, and semantic cueing systems. If he's reading word-by-word, it's a sure tip-off that he's only using phonics. Also, when he's reading orally and makes a miscue (mistake) in his reading, does he self-correct? If he doesn't, it's another sign that he's not reading for meaning but is simply operating at the word level. Answered by : Question: Please post some research about direct instruction related to reading. Thanks Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Direct Instruction Answer : Dear Knowledge Loom User:Thanks for your question. I must confess, I feel like a US Marine on patrol in Baghdad, driving slowly in my Humvee, and knowing full well, that at any moment, an explosive device may be detonated under or on either side of me. When questions about Direct Instruction arise, there are about as many answers and believers as there are Presidential candidates' answers to election-related questions. So, I'm not going to attempt to persuade you one way or another. But, before I provide you with some useable websites, I want to share a recent experience that should help you weigh whatever you read. About two weeks ago, I was invited to attend Grandparent's Day at my granddaughter and grandson's school. They attend a VERY exclusive private school in the Boston area. In over forty years of working in schools from one end of the country to another, I don't think I've ever witnessed such exclusivity. Yearly tuition is well into the five-figure range per child. I was especially interested in learning about the literacy program used in my second-grade granddaughter's room. She is a vociferous reader and reads well above grade level. Almost all of her classmates are equally talented. As I sat by her side during the day, I had an opportunity to get a handle on what literacy instruction looked like in her classroom. Here's what I saw. In her writing portfolio, there was only one piece of written work. It consisted of four squiggly lines on a ditto sheet. The students were asked to use each of the squiggly lines as a starting point for drawing a picture. Then, they were to write a sentence about each picture. Hence, there were four unrelated sentences on this paper. The reading program consisted of three parts - an SRA kit, a Barnell-Loft Specific Skills workbook, and some paperback books placed on a three-shelf armoire in the rear of the room. The SRA kit and the Barnell-Loft workbook were the same materials I used as a beginning teacher in the late 1960s! I had expected better. The next week, I was back in my wife's inner-city school working with the teachers and my graduate students. Many of the children in this school are ELL students. In their homes, they speak Spanish, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Cambodian, and Chinese. The rest of the students are from low socio-economic backgrounds where many of the parents have had bad experiences when they were students. Literacy does not hold a high place in the majority of these homes. Most of the teachers in this building, however, are master teachers. They work long hours and voluntarily meet in staff development sessions after school. They practice the craft of teaching as espoused by Regie Routman, Lucy Calkins, Don Graves, Marie Clay, Richard Allington, Pat Cunningham, Irene Fountas, Gay Su Pinnell, Stephen Krashen, and a host of other leading educators. Weekly running records are on file for every primary-grade student. Students write with voice and construct elaborate stories. Students are avid readers who partake in shared reading and writing as well as literature circles. It is a print-rich environment. In short, it is instruction at its best. Yet, most of these students struggle to read at grade level. They come to school with a dearth of literacy experiences and live in homes where reading and writing are not valued. Nevertheless, in spite of it, they learn to read and write and enjoy it in the process. My point is there are so many other factors that influence reading ability other than instructional materials. I repeatedly tell my students that the skill and knowledge of the teacher has been proven to be about five times more powerful than the materials he or she uses. Having said that, here are some websites you can go to if you want to learn more about Direct Instruction. http://www.jefflindsay.com/EducData.shtml http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/DI.html http://www.newphonics.com/ http://www.aasa.org/reform/Approach/direct.htm http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/catalog/ModelDetails.asp?ModelID=13 http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/diarticle.html You need to be aware, however, that stakeholders in the program do much of the research done on Direct Instruction. Professors at the University of Oregon receive large federal grants to popularize their work and to advance the Direct Instruction movement. In addition, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company has published many of the Direct Instruction materials. Mr. McGraw has long been a friend of the Bush family and has been alleged to be one of the major political contributors to the George W. Bush campaign. He also has been tied to the Barbara Bush Foundation. None of this is new information. It has been printed in a variety of books. My point is simply you need to be extremely cautious when you read claims for Direct Instruction. Personally, I'm still putting my money on teachers, not materials. Finally, let me direct you to an excellent report on the No Child Left Behind Act. It is entitled "Listening to Teachers: Classroom Realities and No Child Left Behind." It is a publication of the Harvard University Civil Rights Project. Since much of the Direct Instruction movement is linked to the NCLB movement, it should provide provocative reading. The website is: http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/articles/NCLB_Survey_Report.pdf. Happy reading. Answered by : Question: Why do educators insist that all children start reading instruction at the same age whether they are ready or not? Isn't that counter productive for some children? Wouldn't they be better off if we worked on their foundation before trying to build the house? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : NILD therapy, special education, learning disabilities, research Answer : I am not familiar with National Institute for Learning Disabilities (NILD) therapy and do not have a special education background. I did a quick web search and noted that the NILD website has posted some research claims at http://www.nild.net but have no way of evaluating that research. It sounds like one comparison study was done by the director -- you can see it at http://www.nild.net/research.htm if you have not already. Certainly the program appears "research-grounded" but that is not the same thing as having "proven effectiveness" through research.Their approach seems to include intensive explicit 1:1 instruction (two 80 minute sessions per week with an NILD educational therapist) in learning strategies -- although the research suggests that this is effective, it is not clear for whom it best works under what circumstances. The website indicates that most students work with the program 3-5 years to attain "independent academic functoning". Again, claims are not supported for specific types of learning disabilities. Further searching on the web indicates the program has been in existence since the 1960s and many Christian schools link to their site. Many sites have, as you probably know, testimonials by parents and students. Many linking sites have quotes such as the following:"The NILD program is distinctly Christian, recognizing God as the designer of the human brain and therefore as the source of all knowledge and wisdom. The NILD program seeks to honor Christ by keeping Him as the central focus for all levels of program development, instructing and service delivery." http://www.hamiltonag.org/HCA/meeting_the_need.htm On my quick romp through the web, I did not find any research specifically targeted to high school or, indeed, much reference to use in high schools. I am also not sure how NILD's approach compares to the following brain-based approaches, all of which do have research supporting their claims of effectiveness: The Strategic Instruction Model from the Center for Research on Learning http://www.ku-crl.org/ Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes http://www.lblp.com/ Read Right Systems http://www.readright.com/ I hope this is helpful. Regards, Julie Answered by : Question: Hello Dr. Rude! I am tutoring a 4th grade boy in reading, writing and spelling. I notice that he consistently mixes up his "b"'s and "d"'s! How can I help him? Thank you, Janet Barton Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : reversals, writing Answer : Dear Janet:By this time, your student should have overcome any reversals that may have plagued him earlier in his career. I'm assuming that most of his reversals are in his spelling and not his reading. If this is the case, a strategy that I've used with these type of students is to first get them to identify their right and left hand. Once that's established and there's no confusion, I have them draw a straight vertical line on a piece of paper. Then, I give them the prompt of "You always want to be right!" Get it. "Be right." Or..."b" right. That simple nudge is usually enough to get them to see that you add the "circle" to the "right" side of the vertical line. Another thing you could try is to provide the confusing word on an idex card to the child. Have him say the word while tracing it. When he feels comfortable enough to write the word from memory, have him flip the card over and write the word on scratch paper. Next, have him check the accuracy by flipping the index card back over. If he has it reproduced correctlly, you can add the index card to his set of learned words. I hope these two strategies help. Answered by : Question: I am currently trying to teach a nonverbal student with autism letter identification. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have tried Edmark, felt, and numerous hands on activities. None seem to be working. Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Answer :(The Knowledge Loom is grateful to Janet Graetz for providing the following response on autism and literacy. Ms. Graetz is an experienced teacher of children with autism and is currently a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University.) Teaching a nonverbal child with autism to read can be a challenge. It sounds as though you have already attempted many techniques. Although the child has autism and is nonverbal, you may still explore the effects of phonological awareness training. The article, "Phonological Awareness and Early Reading: A Meta-analysis of Experimetnal Training Studies" (1999), presents an overview of studies in phonological training, although not specifically with children with autism. You might also consider computer programs. Another article, "Increasing Reading and Communication Skills in Children with Autism Through an Interactive Multimedia Computer Program" (1995), reviews a study that examined the effects of using an interactive and child-initiated microcomputer program to teach reading and communication skills. Results showed that children with autism increased both their word reading and their phonological awareness through the use of the program. If you continue to have difficulties, you might consider having the child dispense with letter identification and concentrate on word recognition. The Indiana Resource Center for Autism developed a booklet entitled, "Functional Programming for People for Autism," which describes teacher-made materials for teaching reading. It uses an experience approach built around the Dolch Basic Sight Word List. It addresses word configuration and word ending and beginning sounds. There is also a list of functional, survival words that should be introduced to children with disabilities. Sometimes the abstract words just mean nothing to a child with autism. He may read "ball," but not understand the word "that." An article, "Comprehension of Concrete and Abstract Words in Autistic Children" (1990), presents the results of a study with eleven children with autism (ages 8-19) who were administered both concrete and abstract words. Two excellent online resources are the Center for the Study of Autism http://www.autism.org/ and Autism Resources at http://www.autism-resources.com . Both sites contain many links to almost every homepage on autism on the internet and may provide more information. Good luck in you endeavor! References: Phonological awareness and early reading: A meta-analysis of experimetnal training studies. (1999, September). The Journal of Educational Psychology, 91 (3), 403-414. (Author to be added.) Heimann, M., Nelson, K.E., & Tjus, T. (1995, October). Increasing reading and communication skills in children with autism through an interactive multimedia computer program. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 25, 459-480. Eskes, G.A. (1990, March). Comprehension of concrete and abstract words in autistic children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 20 (1), 61-73. Answered by : Question: I teach first grade. This year, we seem to have a group of very immature first graders. Although they seem to grasp the basic essentials of letters and sounds, they have difficulty focusing on reading. It has been suggested that we stop our reading program (McGraw Hill) and teach nothing but readiness until these children develop more advanced listening and work skills.Teaching them how to do worksheets and to follow directions. I am afraid that in so doing, we will discourage children from wanting to read and experiencing the joy of reading. With emmergent readers, is it really important to drill on basic skills or to introduce a reading program in the hopes that the listening and working skills will develop as time passes? thank you donna Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Answer :As you ask questions (and receive answers) concerning how to meet the needs of your "immature first graders," I know you will get suggestions from a number of sources. I can provide you with information about reading research. Research indicates that learning to read is multifaceted and complex. You do not want to provide instruction that emphasizes just one aspect of learning to read and ignores the others. In a broad sense, reading instruction should give attention to: * using the spelling-sound conventions of the writing system * using one's knowledge (including vocabulary) and comprehension strategies to obtain information from print In good instruction, these goals are not only addressed but are also well integrated throughout reading instruction. So in answering your initial question, it seems to me that both extremes of instructional methods (readiness skills drill or waiting for them to develop as the time passes) are contrary to what we know is necessary for a good beginning reading program. Here are a couple of resources that might help you with your decision making on this issue: * Burns, M.S., Griffin, P., and Snow, C.E. (Eds.). (1998). Starting out right: A guide to promoting children's reading success. Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Available on the web at http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/sor/ * Adams, M.J., Foorman, B.R., Lundberg, I., and Beeler, T.D. (1998). Phonemic awareness in young children. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Answered by : Question: What research is there on full time kindergarten verses half day? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Answer :Research on full-day kindergarten versus half-day kindergarten indicates that full-day kindergarten is positively related to academic achievement and positive social behavior through first grade (Cryan, Sheehan, Weichel and Bandy-Hedden, 1992; Johnson, 1994; Rothenberg, 1995). However, for success in a full day kindergarten, the nature of the curriculum and quality of teaching that accompany the longer day must be carefully examined (Karweit, 1992). There are many questions one should ask about the curriculum and teaching strategies to maximize positive outcomes that we want for kindergarteners. * Should kindergartens provide highly academic programs using didactic teaching in which children achieve basic skills, develop negative motivation toward school and dependence on teachers or should kindergartens be child-centered programs in which children have higher expectations for success on academic tasks and less dependence on teachers (Stipek, Feiler, Daniels and Milburn, 1995)? * What kind of program enhances kindergarten children's activity level, attention, adaptability, social behavior, and preacademic skills that are so integral for success in the primary grades (National Reading Panel, 1999; Snow, Burns, and Griffin, 1998; Burns, Griffin, and Snow, 1999)? * Is it possible to integrate child-centered and didactic approaches (Badrova and Leong, 1996; French and Song, 1998)? Okay, so I asked more questions than I answered, but I do think these questions are so integral to decisions about kindergarten that they have to be considered along with the question of length of day. I hope in reading the articles referenced that you will be able to answer ALL of the necessary questions. Bodrova, E., and Leong, D.J. (1996). Tools of the mind: The Vygotskian approach to early childhood education. Columbus, OH: Merrill. Burns, M.S., Griffin, P., and Snow, C.E. (1999). Starting out right: A guide to promoting children's reading success. http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/sor http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/sor/ Cryan, J., Sheehan, R., Weichel, J., and Bandy-Hedden, I.G. (1992). Success outcomes of full-day kindergarten: More Positive Behavior and Increased Achievement in the Years After. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 7 (2), 187-203. EJ 450 525. French, L., and Song, M. (1998). Developmentally appropriate teacher-directed approaches: images from Korean kindergartens. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 30, 409-430. Johnson, J., (1994). Language development component: All day kindergarten program 1992-1993. Ohio Disadvantaged Pupil Program Fund. Final Evaluation Report. Columbus, OH: Columbus Public Schools, Department of Program Evaluation. Karweit, N. (1992). The kindergarten experience. Educational leadership 49 (6), 82-86. EJ 441 182. National Reading Panel. (1999). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read. http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/smallbook.htm Snow, C.E., Burns, M.S., and Griffin, P. (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. http://books.nap.edu/catalog/6023.html Stipek, D., Feiler, R., Daniels, D., and Milburn, S. (1995). Effects of different instructional approaches on young children's achievement and motivation. Child Development, 66 (1), 209-223. EJ 501 879. Rothenberg, D. (1995). Full-Day Kindergarten Programs. http://ericeece.org/pubs/digests/1995/drkind95.html Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, My school system like many others are facing serious budget concerns. Our principal has proposed cutting a part time early reading intervention teacher who works with at risk first graders (Reading Recovery model without the benefit of training)and replacing her with a paraprofessional, combining kindergarten and first grade students next year due to small class sizes (there would be 12 students in 2 full day k classes) in order to eliminate a teacher. What research could help me convince him that this combination class is not a good idea, small class size is appropriate for the primary years and the importance of trained reading teachers to work with high risk children? Thanks, Linda Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : transition first-grade, at-risk students, paraprofessionals Answer : Dear Linda:I?m afraid you are caught between a rock and a hard spot. It sounds as if you are facing an administrative decision that is based purely on finances. When push comes to shove, the buck usually stops with administrators (no pun intended) and they are required to be fiscally responsible for the operation of their schools. It appears as if this is what you have encountered. That?s the bad news. Perhaps you?ll be able to convince him to reverse his thinking on the other two pedagogical fronts, though. I would be very reluctant to merge a full-day kindergarten class with a group of first-graders. The range of abilities in this class would be tremendous. Couple that with the fact that kindergarteners need a totally different type of learning environment than do first graders and you have the potential for a real disaster. I don't know how a teacher could begin to meet all the needs of this diverse group. I once spent some time in a transition first-grade class in New Hampshire. These were kindergarteners who had spent one year in kindergarten and still weren?t ready for first grade. They were placed in a transition room with a truly superb teacher who provided an excellent literate model for these fifteen or so students. I videotaped in this classroom on several different occasions, and it was clear after reviewing the tapes that most of these kids would have been lost in a first grade. It was halfway through the school year and they were only just beginning to understand the nuances of print in books and writing. So, the transition worked very well for them. In the merged classroom you describe, there will be some students already reading and others who won't be ready for a year or more. How can a teacher address such varying needs? The second point you raise about replacing a reading teacher with a paraprofessional is probably the worst pedagogical decision that could be made. Richard Allington has written at length about at-risk students needing the best-qualified teachers working with them. That?s why Reading Recovery teachers do such a great job when paired with the lowest performing first graders. They know, in great detail, exactly what is needed for these at-risk students. The success of Reading Recovery is well documented in a text that reviews the research from Reading Recovery programs. It?s available from Heinemann Publishing Company. You can order it on-line. Expecting a paraprofessional to know what to do with at-risk kids simply doesn?t make any sense and will probably cause these students irreparable harm. It would be akin to having me teach you how to cook. I don't know the difference between a zester and a zuccinni. You don?t need me. You need someone of Julia Child?s caliber. Answered by : Question: [The question below follows up on the previous question and response.] Thanks for the response. I actually am working with a national corporation that is looking into investing in such a program. Waht do you know about RIF (Reading is Fundamental)? The folks I am working with would like to customize a literacy program based on research, but they do not want to start from scratch. Any other ideas based on this additional information? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : literacy programs, reading programs, research, research-based, Reading is Fundamental Answer : Here's some further information that may help you.Reading is Fundamental is a national program that is used in many schools. Basically, it is a book distribution program where at periodic intervals, students are allowed to select, free, library books that they may keep. The origins of RIF go back to the mid-1960s. They have a wonderful website (www.rif.org) that you might enjoy. One thing we know about reading instruction is that if children are to become good readers, they must do copious amounts of reading. What better way to get them reading than by providing them with personal copies of books? Since you don't want to start from scratch, here are four resources you should read. The Report of the National Reading Panel. While this report has generated much controversy, expect it to be in the news more and more. There is an Executive Summary that is also available. Be sure to read the Minority Report submitted by one of the Panel's members. Also, be alerted to the fact that over half of the report deals solely with phonics and gives short shrift to many other important aspects of reading instruction. Nevertheless, this report stirred legislatures to fund the No Child Left Behind Act and that's where the money is in today's reading education field. Next, I would read Richard Allington's and Patricia Cunningham's Classrooms That Work and Schools That Work. Both are available from Allyn and Bacon Publishing Company. These two book present clear and readable scenarios about what goes on in exemplary schools. Finally, if you want to develop a research base for everything that you propose, I suggest you get hold of a copy of the Handbook of Reading Research, Volume III edited by Kamil, Mosenthal, Pearson, and Barr. It's available from Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. It's 1,000 pages of research studies and how they impact instruction. It's not an easy read, but you seem to be a bright person and it may become your most important resource as you undertake this important job. Good luck to you. Answered by : Question: I am a kindergarten teacher in Providence. My class this year is challenging to say the least. My concerns are regarding guided reading groups. Because of the frequent disruptions with behavior problems I find it difficult to get to my reading groups consistently. My question is this>>> What activities can I do whole group that might strengthen my student reading abilities? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : kindergarten reading, guided reading Answer : Dear Kindergarten Teacher:Your first job, as you correctly identified, is to work on classroom management. If you eventually want to have small groups working in your kindergarten, they have to be able to work independently for at least a short period of time. Otherwise, you're going to be interrupted constantly as you work with another group. One of the best activities you can do with your whole group is to do read alouds. If you do these with big books, you can follow some of the same procedures teachers use when working in guided reading groups. This provides a powerful model of how mature readers process text. You can do picture walks so students begin to gain an understanding of story grammar (characters, setting, plot, etc.) It's also an excellent time to introduce students to new words that may appear in the story. These vocabulary discussions will go a long way into developing their comprehension. It's also the time to talk about any particular text structure the author uses (e.g. use of dialogue, use of bold print, or use of unusual language patterns). Once you begin reading the story, it's a good idea to make connections between the story and your life. This will prove to be a powerful model for your kindergarteners. No doubt, they will soon want to make their own connections to the story. Finally, if the story lends itself to using onset and rimes, as many stories for young children do, it's a perfect place to work on phonemic awareness, the precursor to phonics instruction. Two resources you might want to check out are: The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease With a Light Touch by Bobbi Fisher The Trelease book will give you specific recommendations for books you could use. The Fisher book will provide you with step-by-step instructions on working with young readers and writers. Answered by : Question: I am in search of national corporations and/or foundations that conduct researched-based, early literacy programs that demonstrate measurable success? Can you help me locate such programs? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : grants, programs, teacher training Answer : Dear Searcher:Life would be simple if we could simply dip into a basket of ?proven? programs and apply them to our respective school districts. And, of course, if corporations or foundations backed these programs, they could be available at a fraction of the cost of a commercially-based literacy program. Unfortunately, I know of no corporations or foundations that produce programs such as the one you?ve mentioned. After talking to several of my colleagues, I think your best bet might be to explore what grants and/or programs are available through your State Department of Education. My hunch is that you may be able to find some grant money available if you link up your local educational system with an institution of higher education. State education departments are usually interested in facilitating these types of linkages between higher education and LEAs. They usually serve as the broker for any federal monies that have been allocated to improve literacy instruction. You might also want to check out the Federal Money Retriever (www.fedmoney.com/grants). It is a software program that may be helpful. Two programs I have had personal experience with are Reading Recovery and Success For All. Both programs have extensive field test data that attest to their worth. Reading Recovery, as you may already know, requires teachers to receive a year-long training program and then continue their learning through continuing contact. It is also intended only for struggling first-graders. Success For All is intended for a much broader range of grades and requires that a high percentage of teachers in the school agree to participate. Unlike Reading Recovery, most of the lessons are direct instruction and are based on a very prescriptive teaching methodology. A final piece of advice. Instead of searching for the ?silver bullet? program, why not focus on staff development? Investing in teachers usually has long-lasting positive effects and, in my experience, has a much better payoff for both teachers and students. Answered by : Question: How do you promote, or teach to increase, fluency in the middle school? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : fluency, repeated reading, rate, SSR Answer : Dear Teacher:I?m afraid what you are witnessing is only symptomatic of the real problem facing you and these students. If a student is not phrased and fluent by the time they reach the middle-school level, you have a steep hill to climb. No doubt, what you are witnessing are students who have not had sufficient positive reading experiences either at home and/or at school up to this point. And, like all of us, we tend to avoid situations and experiences where we aren?t good at something. These students haven?t found success in reading and now, here they are on your doorstep, and they are still marginal readers. There are four factors that may account for their limited fluency. First, they must be able to automatic decode the text. If they aren?t masterful decoders, their fluency will suffer. Next, they must be able to sustain a moderate reading rate. We usually express this in number of words read per minute. Then, they must demonstrate stress, pitch, and juncture. In other words, when they read written dialog, it should sound like someone actually speaking. Finally, they should be able to chunk text so they don?t end up reading word-by-word. Failure to do this results in a monotone word-by-word fashion that sounds like someone is simply flashing cards to them and they?re saying the words. Your challenge is to take these students and find pleasurable reading experiences where they can experience success. This, however, is easier said than done. Nevertheless, here are some strategies you can try. Repeated reading of the same material is perhaps the easiest way to improve fluency. Unfortunately, many middle school content teachers, because their students have such difficulty reading science and social studies textbooks, simply have students engage in round-robin reading. This is unfortunate for a number of reasons for even most good readers can?t be phrased and fluent on the first reading of text material. You could try buddy reading. First, the students read the material silently to themselves. Then, students pair up sitting shoulder to shoulder but facing opposite directions. Then, they take turns re-reading assigned material. Reader?s Theater or choral reading is sometimes used, depending upon the material you are reading. Check out your web browser for some good leads regarding reader?s theater. The last thing to remember is that your students must have opportunities to read and re-read authentic and motivating material. This usual means self-selected silent reading needs to be built into your middle-school program. Without lots of practice, these students will not become phrased and fluent readers. Don?t feel guilty about allowing sustained silent reading. It?s in these students? best interests. Answered by : Question: For older students, middle to high school aged, who have not mastered some of the basic reading skills (vowel blends, digraphs, dipthongs etc..) what recommedations do you have for teaching them the skills they are lacking? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : phonics, middle school Answer : My first recommendation is to tailor your instruction according to the needs of the students. Giving everyone the same treatment at this level is DEADLY and you will turn the pack against you.I would have a serious discussion with these students and let them know you are there to help fill in the gaps in their reading ability. You might explain to them that there are many reasons for these gaps. Sometimes the students themselves are to blame; other times, the educational field is to blame. The point now, though, is that you?re there to help them. Next I would use a simple phonics assessment to see where they have gaps. Then I would group according to need. At this age, they should pick up on the new learning rather quickly. I would give them lots of opportunities to read material of their choice: material that is written at their instructional level. Requiring them to read material written at their frustration level will make your instruction seem like a sham. One of the reasons these kids are poor readers is that they don?t read because it?s too difficult for them. I think you can see that this is the old chicken-egg dilemma. Your job is to break the cycle. This will be a tough assignment. Good luck. Answered by : Question: Is guided reading developmentally appropriate for half-day kindergartners? Is phonemic awareness the best predictor/indicator for a child to be successful as a life-long reader? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : kindergarten, guided reading, phonemic awareness Answer : Let me begin by apologizing for not responding to your question earlier. We could blame it on cyberspace but the truth is, it just got sandwiched between a list of other questions and overlooked.I think you may be asking the wrong question in part one of your inquiry. Because of developmental differences in children, we need to look at individual children and not all kindergartens lumped into one category. Obviously, in some situations, there may be a few kindergarteners that are ready to engage in guided reading. There is going to be a much larger group, however, who could benefit from doing other developmentally appropriate activities like listening to rhymes, chants, and singing. You could do some things with big books that would be beneficial for everyone, too. Take, for example, using a big book for repeated readings by you, the teacher. After a couple of readings over a few days, you could cover key words that contain a similar phonetic sound with Post-Its. Or, you could cover high-frequency sight words such as ?the,? ?and,? and ?saw.? Then, when you?re reading to your group, have the children make predictions about what the covered word might be. The phonemic awareness issue is one that we will look back on in twenty years and shake our head. Yes, there is a high correclation between students who are phonemically aware and later reading success. But, simply possessing this ability is no guarantee that successful reading will follow. It?s just one of those skills that happens to correlate with later reading success. Do all children need to be phonemically aware to become readers. No. If you want an insightful look at phonemic awareness, get hold of Frank Smith?s new book entitled Unspeakable Acts: Unnatural Practices published by Heinemann (ISBN# 0-325-00619-9). Smith says, ?Lack of ?phonemic awareness? is a handicap that only strikes children who can?t make sense of the instruction?? He then goes on to say that phonemic awareness problems are best cured by learning to read. He also claims phonemic awareness is a bogus construct that has been employed to explain the frequent failure of phonics instruction. You?ll have to decide for yourself. My take on phonemic awareness ?training? is that it will take time away from more valuable instructional reading activities. Answered by : Question: wHAT ARE SOME GOOD STRATEGIES TO TEACH INFEREING TO MY STUDENTS? MANY OF MY STUDENTS FIND THIS TO BE A DIFFICULT READING SKILL TO LEARN. Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : inferencing, comprehension Answer : Higher order comprehension skills are always more difficult to teach than simply assessing factual recall questions. I think the key word in your question is teach. Simply asking students inferential questions will not improve their comprehension since that process is assessment and not teaching.Now that we?ve cleared up the differences between teaching and assessment, here are some things you should keep in mind when working with your students. Being able to inference requires students to use their prior knowledge (schema) to draw conclusions and make unique interpretations of the text. This means much of your instruction needs to revolve around the give-and-take of discussions. Students also need to learn how to make predictions (directed reading-thinking activity). Other activities could focus on trying to persuade peers to their point of view on a reading. Students can be taught to infer before reading, during reading, and after reading. Inferring requires reflective analysis. This may be difficult for impulsive students. Try to get them to reflect on their answers before blurting out responses. I?m not sure what grade level you teach but if you are working with young children, but some good texts to use to teach inferring are No, David! by David Shannon and The Table Where Rich People Sit by Byrd Baylor. Another wonderful book by Baylor is I?m in Charge of Celebrations. This latter book can be used with older students, too. Answered by : Question: What are your thoughts and comments on The Wilson Reading program? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Wilson Reading Program, phonics Answer : The Wilson Reading Program is a phonics-based approach to reading instruction based on the Orton-Gillingham philosophy. Students work from letter sounds to syllables to words to sentences. From a theoretical standpoint, it would be called a bottom-up approach to reading. Or, to put it another way, it is a program that is based primarily on the visual cueing system.Contrary to almost everything you read about any commercial program claiming to being research-based or scientifically proven, there is scant evidence that any one program is significantly better than another. The critical factor in teaching reading is the TEACHER, not the program. Nevertheless, claims and counterclaims will continue to be leveled ad naseum. Since you asked for my opinion, though, I?ll give it to you. Here?s where I come down on these types of programs. Any program that fails to offer students a balanced approach between decoding and meaning runs the risk of giving students a skewed perception of reading. Many programs, such as the Wilson Program, require students to spend time drilling on learning to pronounce nonsense words. Then, artificially contrived reading passages are offered, closely controlling the sound-symbol relationships of the words. Seldom does this make for engaging, high-quality literature. Let me offer, what I think is a better alternative. I suggest you integrate an assessment-guided approach to phonics, spelling, and vocabulary by purchasing a copy of Word Journeys by Kathy Ganske (Guilford Press) or Words Their Way by Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, and Johnston (Pearson Publishers). Following the guidelines in either book will help you tailor your instruction to your students? needs, ensure that they receive a healthy dose of phonics instruction, and use meaningful words as they grow as readers and writers. Integrate a high-quality literature program with your students and you will be well on your way to offering a ?best-practices? approach to reading and writing. Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude: I am beginning work with a small group of paraprofessionals who will eventually be entering early childhood centers as child care assistants. One of their responsibilities will be to create and facillitate developmentally appropriate literacy activities for the children aged 2-5, under the guidance of the lead teacher. The assistants are of varying ages and experiences. I am looking for a few informative books that will be able to identify the ages and stages of early literacy and provide basic activities to build from; however I do not want scare them with deeply theorectical information. Any suggestions? Thank you. J.G. Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : paraprofessionals, professional books Answer : Dear J.G.It sounds as if you are undertaking a wonderful project. Under your guidance, you can create a group of assistants that can play a vital role in the literacy of your youngsters. Here are a few books I would have available: With a Light Touch ? Bobbi Fisher Strategies for Developing Emergent Literacy ? Wilma Miller Using Literature Activities to Teach Content Areas to Emergent Readers ? Mildred R. Donoghue Each of these books is laced with ideas that can be used with your children. Teacher read-alouds, poems, chants, songs, etc. should be the primary focus of your teachers. I would stay away from worksheets and workbooks. Also, don?t forget to purchase some wordless picture books for these kids. Put some fun in their learning. Good luck Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, I was wondering if a teacher should level all his/her books in the classroom library collection. I know books need to be leveled for guided reading purposes, but I've heard mixed reviews about leveling all the books in the classroom. Does this limit the child from selecting a book that might be of interest but out of his/her reading level? What should I do? Thank you! Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : leveled texts Answer : Dear Textbook Leveler:Why does it have to be a choice? You are absolutely correct when you mentioned leveling books for your guided reading lessons. The reason behind this leveling is that you want some new learning to take place during each guided reading lesson. By leveling the texts, you are increasing the chance of students reading at their instructional reading level. This is the level at which some new learning takes place but the book isn?t so easy that it isn?t challenging or so difficult it?s frustrating. So, by all means, use the leveled books for your guided reading. Depending upon the size of your library, you may or may not want to continue leveling the rest of your books. Some teachers level all their books and allow students to select books only from boxes from which they can read fluently. Teachers often label these boxes by alphabetical characters such as Levels, L, M, N, and so on. Sometimes, teachers have boxes that represent different authors. At the fourth grade, for example, you may have some Jack Prelutsky, Judy Blume, Cynthia Rylant, and Roald Dahl boxes. By organizing your books by authors, you are preparing your students to move into author studies. One rule you can institute in your room is to have every child make sure he/she has four library books in his/herdesk at any one time. Three of the books must be at their appropriate levels; the fourth is a free-choice book. That allows students to experiment with different authors, topics, and levels. Conceivably, the free-choice book could be frustrating to read from cover to cover, but perhaps the student only wants to look at some of the photographs in the book. We don?t want to stand in the way of children exploring books that may interest them. Along the way, I think you need to talk to your students about how to choose books. This topic makes a great mini-lesson. As part of the lesson, you need to talk about the three levels of books ? easy books, just-right books, and challenge books. You also want to teach them the Five-Finger Rule. That is, as they read a page and encounter difficult words, they should put one finger down. If they have all five fingers down before they finish a page of their selected book, the book is too difficult. Good luck. It sounds like you?re moving in the right direction. Answered by : Question: I am currently enrolled in Rhode Island College's Masters of Arts in Teaching Program, and this semester I am taking Teaching Elementary School Science. One of the course requirements is to prepare and teach a science unit. Through science inquiry experiments, stduents learn to make observations and record their observations in a journal for further study later in the unit. I listened to the students verbalize their observations regarding their experiments. Their observations were excellent; descriptive, detailed, and often quite unique. After listening to their descriptions, I said to the students, "those are excellent observations and be sure to record what you just said in your journals." Later, when I would come back, there would be nothing written in their journals regarding these observations. When I shared this with my cooperating teacher, she said that she had noticed this also. She knows this is a problem and she has shown the students how to observe and record their observations. She also stated that she has modeled how to make the observations and write the information into a journal on numerous occasions. The students still have difficulty doing this. I have two questions: 1. What is the cause of this? 2. What strategies can a teacher use in order to assist students to transform their verbal observations into a written form? Thank you, RIC Student Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : writing, content areas Answer : Dear RIC Student:You have identified a pressing problem for many intermediate-grade teachers. From what you?ve written, the problem doesn?t appear to lie in the students? observations; it?s simply a matter of putting these observations into writing. Your first question is ?what causes this?? Here?s my hunch. You have probably done a good job getting students to collect the facts from their observations. What you may have failed to do, however, is to synthesize this information and be able to write something new about what they?ve observed. Simply collecting facts from observations isn?t very exciting. Excitement comes when we can take all these facts and turn them into some meaningful information that will affect our lives. If you are studying about nocturnal birds, for instance, how might everything you learn about them affect your life? Or, if you are studying about the effects of carbon dioxide on the atmosphere, what bearings will that have on our lifestyle? What you need to do is model this next step for your students. Be prepared to do this a number of times. You?re aiming for some higher-level thinking and it may take several sessions before you reap any benefits. This brings me to my final point. I think what you might do is re-examine how you are modeling your instruction for the students. Perhaps you are expecting too much, too soon? If you want to see how one teacher modeled her non-fiction writing lessons for her students, I suggest you get a copy of Writing About Reading by Janet Angelillo (Heinemann, 2003). Beginning on page 112 and running to 122, Angelillo describes a twenty-day sequence for modeling lessons in the content area. Twenty days! Most of us have a tendency to conduct what I call ?high generalization lessons? that simply mention what we want kids to do. Students, however, need much better scaffolding. I think by reading the Angelillo text, you?ll see what I mean. Good luck in your quest. Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, I work with older students who struggle with decoding. When I read to them or allow them to listen to books on tape they can comprehend higher level texts. However, they don't even attempt to read even those texts that are at their level because they have become frustrated with reading. What can I do to help them decode words and encourage them to attempt to read texts at their independent reading levels? Thanks, Michele Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : High Interest books, onsets, rimes, Word Journeys, phonics Answer : Dear Michele:These types of students present huge challenges for classroom and reading teachers. For any number of reasons, they haven?t unlocked the decoding aspects of reading and hence, they are left adrift on a sea of increasingly more challenging words. And, like ships adrift, unless they are rescued, they will eventually sink into the depths of being true non-readers, or worse, high school dropouts. As you mentioned, these students have learned to compensate for their lack of reading ability by being astute listeners. Some kids become remarkable in their ability to take in and repeat verbal information. But, just as you mentioned, whenever they encounter the printed word, they are stumped. Your fist challenge is to convince these students that reading is a worthwhile activity. It sounds like you?ve already started this because you?ve been reading to them and letting them listen to books on tape. This is only your hook, however. The real challenge comes when you try to find high interest, low-vocabulary books that they can read. Some good choices here are magazines such as Sports Illustrated for Kids and some of the Gary Paulsen ?Adventure Series? books. Don?t confuse these books with some of Paulsen?s other great reads. The ?Adventure Series? books are written specifically for students such as you work with. Your next hurdle will be to get these students to learn some strategies for breaking words into easily recognized chunks. I would suggest you work with onsets and rimes. One collection of popular rimes accounts for over 500 common words. That?s a lot of bang for the buck. Another thing you could do is to give your class a long, multisyllabic word each day and have a class discussion about how they might break the word down into recognizable parts. This is where the chunking work comes in. I?ve been amazed at even second grader?s ability to attack long words when this process has been implemented. The last thing I would do is integrate a spelling program that is based on principles of sorting words by their component parts. Kathy Ganske?s Word Journeys is a good place to start. By administering her diagnostic spelling test, you can determine exactly what your students need. At the risk of perhaps offending some, I would NOT attempt to institute a synthetic phonics program. These kids have probably failed because of this approach. And, even if they haven?t, any program that forces older students to deal with b/a/t and f/a/t is going to be the ultimate turnoff. Good luck. You have your work cut out for you but the rewards for helping this type of student are enormous. Answered by : Question: I have a boy in second grade who needs help with improving his reading fluency. Whether he is reading at his instructional level, or at a very easy level, he reads, WORD for WORD for WORD for WORD. I know he is reading for meaning because he is able to self-correct miscues by the end of a sentence without any prompting to do so, and he is always able to retell a story he has read, or answer comprehension questions accurately. He is reading easier material in order to practice fluency and is performing repeated readings of some these easier texts. He is also trying not to finger-point to every word while he is reading. I know that modeling good reading during read alouds is an important strategy, but do you have any other suggestions for helping this boy to improve fluency? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : fluency, word-by-word reading, finger pointing, reader's theatre Answer : Dear Teacher:Kudos to you. You seem to have a good handle on this poor second grader. What you are witnessing, in my estimation, is the residual effects of first-grade instruction that has focused extensively on reading for accuracy. I?m amazed that this student has good comprehension. That?s certainly a plus. Furthermore, your use of repeated readings and using very easy reading material is just what the doctor ordered. There are several other strategies you might try with this student to help him break the finger pointing habit. Have you tried having him put his pointer fingers at the beginning and end of each line of text that he?s reading? You should model this first and show him how it sounds to read phrased and fluently. Move your fingers down the text, line by line. In some situations, I?ve seen students so habituated to finger pointing to the words, that I?ve had to place my hands on top of theirs to keep them from going back to pointing at the words. Another strategy is to use the narrow edge of a plain-colored bookmark and use it to ?push? or ?pull? the words in phrased chunks in each sentence. This can be very effective. Have the student read the sentence over and over until he/she hears how it sounds to be phrased. Again, you want to model this behavior first so the student knows exactly what you are looking for. Finally, you might want to try the Reader?s Theatre strategy with your students. This strategy has kids read respective parts in simple plays. A website you might check out is Aaronshep.com/rt/RTE.html. He provides teachers with a good collection of reader theatre plays, scripted and ready to use. Another website to check out is Teachervision.fen.com/lesson-plans/lesson-6527.html. It?s a collection of other reader theatre?s web resources. In addition to these techniques, keep in mind that this child is only a second grader and probably doesn?t have a vast store of sight words under his/her belt. As he/she develops a larger sight vocabulary, the reading should become more fluent. If you use the strategies identified above, you?ll be helping this child experience the true pleasures of reading. Good luck. Answered by : Question: I am currently tutoring a Second grade child in Reading. He is currently reading at about a level 14 DRA. When reading he has difficulty with sight words. If I show the sight words to him in isolation he knows them with no problem. What can I do to help him carry this over into his reading? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : sight words Answer : Dear Tutor:I assume that you are referring to words on the Dolch 220 Basic Sight Word List. If so, I doubt that he has mastered all of these words to a level of automatic recall since the majority of children don?t reach this level of achievement until the middle or end of third grade. And, if you are tutoring this second grader, it?s obviously because he needs help in reading. Having said that, here is what you need to do. First, determine what specific Dolch words he can identify within a one-second exposure. You are looking for automaticity. There can be no hesitation or sounding out. He needs to identify the word quickly and easily. Next, I would do a running record on this child to make sure he is, indeed, reading at a Level 14 text. Level 14 corresponds to about the end of first grade reading. You are looking to find his instructional level, which is about 93% word recognition, and good recall of the story. Look at his self-correction ratio. He shouldn?t exceed a 1:3 correction ratio. That means for every three miscues, he self corrects at least once. If his ratio is 1:4 or higher, you need to drop back to a more appropriate level. Also, check to see if he integrates and uses Meaning, Structure, or Visual interchangeably. I would bet he relies on visual cues to the exclusion of the other two. The issue of him being able to identify the words in isolation but not in the context of a story is unusual. Usually, it is just the opposite. Having the syntax of the sentence usually allows a much higher percentage of sight words to be identified in context than in isolation. Here?s my best guess at what is happening. This child is not monitoring his reading. He is probably a victim of a heavy decoding instructional program at school or perhaps the child of a parent who works with him flashing word cards. In his mind, reading is the act of saying individual words. I would speculate that he doesn?t read for meaning and hasn?t developed the ability to self-monitor his reading. That?s why his sight word recognition in context is below what it is in isolation. You need to make sure this child is reading very easy material and that he reads to gain meaning from the story. Have you used prediction strategies with this child? Do you do a picture walk through the story before reading it? Do you have him read to find answers to questions he generates? All of these things will teach him the importance of reading for meaning. I would also have mom or dad read to him so he can see the value of listening to a story. We read for enjoyment and to learn new information, not to simply sound out words. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude: I am currently a second grade, regular ed teacher who has an academically diverse population of children in the classroom. The childrens' reading levels range from a Level 3 (preprimer) to a Level 40 (4th grade). Last year when I had these students (looping), I had 6 reading groups, modified for the special needs and at-risk students and tried to come up with enrichment activities for the high functioning students. This year, I have found many of my students have progressed and are reading more at the same level. However; I still have special need students at approximately a level 6+ while others are at a 40. Having a background in special education and teaching it for 4 years, I feel the I am comfortable in modifying and using techniques to work with my low functioning readers. My concern is that I am not meeting the needs of my higher functioning readers. For my stronger readers, I am only able to meet with them twice a week for guided reading (although we do other forms of reading)and feel that I need to do more to challenge them. I am not used to working with such high level readers and feel that I could do more to meet their needs and increase their enthusuiasm for reading. Could you please give me some advice as to how I can challenge them, how many times a week I should be reading with them for guided reading, and any enrichment activities that I can use with these students? Having such a diverse population, I often question my teaching strategies and at times, become discouraged because I feel I can do more for these children if I had the resources and time! Thank you in advance for your help! Kim, RIC student Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : silent reading, guided reading Answer : Dear second-grade teacher:Resources and time?the bane of all educators, regardless if they teach preschool or college. Compounding your situation is the wide range of reading abilities that you must deal with. Let me see if I can ease your pain. Probably the easiest and most productive thing you can do for your better readers, beyond your twice-per-week guiding reading time, is to allow them opportunities to practice reading silently. We become better readers by practicing. Athletes call this specificity training. Readers become readers by reading. As a teacher, however, you?re probably thinking that you need to be constantly supplying them with instruction. One of my outstanding second-grade teacher friends told me, however, that she truly became a good teacher when she was secure and knowledgeable enough to ?surrender? to her learners. What she was trying to say, I think, is that you don?t always have to have worksheets and the likes to keep kids profitably employed. There?s no better way to become a fluent reader than by reading books of your own choosing. Having said that, you still need to have some broad boundaries that your students can work within. One thing you could do is to do author studies with these students. Tommie DiPaolo and Marc Brown are two favorites of students this age. Beverly Cleary is another popular author. Another idea you could explore is having your advanced readers read books based on the same genre or theme. You would need to put together a collection of book boxes from which they could choose, but it would be moving the students toward more mature reading by offering them choice. Another thing you should explore is how books that are read during their free time could be shared with other students in your class. Making book jackets, dioramas, posters, and other similar activities would keep these kids engaged during the reading time. If you have an aide who works in your classroom, she could work with these students once you have assigned them tasks. Have you thought about enlisting these students to become guest readers in a first-grade or kindergarten class? Young children love to strut their stuff with children who are just entering the early stages of literacy. Of course, you would need to work out the details with teachers of these younger students. If you don?t want to send these kids to another teacher?s room, they could do buddy reading with a partner. Have you thought about getting them involved in writing activities? Response journals based on their reading are a tangible way to see if they comprehend what they?ve read. If they are taught to make text-to-self and text-to-text connections, they?ll have a lot to write about. If you want to move into some worksheet type activities, you could have these students do story maps, character webs, or compare-contrast activities. Or, have them use Post-Its to mark tricky parts in their reading. We call them ?Stickies for Trickies.? Then, when you meet with these students during a conference, you?ll be able to focus your instruction on their specific skill needs. All of these activities are predicated on the idea that you have excellent classroom management skills. If you want to read how others in your situation have handled these transitional phases of their teaching careers, take a look at Chapter 14 of Teaching Comprehension in Reading: Grades K-2 by Gay Su Pinnell and Patricia L. Scharer (Scholastic Publishing Company, 2003). The entire chapter is about management and is written in a question-answer format. One last point. As with all good teaching, you?ll need to model the behaviors you expect of these students. Then, using a gradual release of responsibility model, you can slowly turn these students loose to become the best that they can become. And, remember this key word?Surrender. I think you?ll be pleasantly surprised at what these students will do if given the opportunity. Answered by : Question: How can you help children with fluency? They may be good readers but don't get the fluency aspect. What activities can be done to reinforce this other then modeling? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : fluency Answer : Let?s begin by first defining fluency. Fluency usually means to read easily, smoothly, and with expression. Generally, fluent readers usually have good comprehension although this isn?t always the case. Let?s assume, however, that you?re operating on the premise that if you develop your students? fluency, their comprehension will improve. Here are some strategies ? in addition to modeling ? that you might try.Repeated Readings. Repeated readings of easy books are one of the best ways to improve comprehension. Depending upon the age of your students, you might also use predictable books. The predictable language patterns allow the student to focus on how something is said in addition to what is said. Nursery rhymes or rhyming poetry works well for this purpose, too. The important thing to keep in mind is that the materials must be written at an easy level. Guided Reading. If you are using guided reading lessons, this is an excellent place to focus on dialogue and punctuation. A prompt such as ?read that again, just like _____ might say it? sometimes helps students get the hang of it. Buddy Reading. Pairing students up, sitting side by side but facing in the opposite direction allows students to practice their reading with a buddy without disrupting everyone else in the classroom. In some cases, you may want to tape record these students so they can hear themselves read at a later time. Shared Reading. Shared reading can be done either by you, the teacher, or by students who have special pieces in their reading that they want to share with their peers. You can instruct students to practice reading and rereading what they will be sharing. Everyone wants to hear GOOD readers read orally. In your question, you mentioned that you were interested in strategies other than modeling. Modeling, however, is so important that it deserves further mention. There?s nothing quite so pleasurable as listening to a good reader read from a book. Why do you think Books on Tape are so popular? Probably the best professional reader I?ve ever listened to was the gentleman who recorded Pat Conroy?s Prince of Tides. I was mesmerized by the story AND the reader. It inspired me to practice my own oral reading until I got to the point where I felt comfortable reading aloud to my students. I still enjoy listening to books recorded by professional reader Peter Coyote. He?s so talented that he reads scripts for many PBS documentaries. While most of us will never be that good, it behooves us to present good models for our students. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, I saw in Sunday's paper that a local school district was advertising for Orton Gillingham tutors. What is the training required for this program and what are the proponents of the program? Also, if you could give a brief description of the Wilson and Phonology-Project Read progams. How do these three programs compare with the Reading Recovery program? Thank you, Kelly RIC student. Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Orton-Gillingham, Wilson Reading Program, Reading Recovery Answer : Dear Kelly:The Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching disabled readers has been around for more than half a century. In Providence, the Hamilton School unit at Wheeler School is the local school who specializes in this type of teaching. I suggest you call the Hamilton Institute at 401/ 751-7049. They conduct the training. Training is offered in the summer for two weeks. Following that, you must complete 100 hours of supervision that generally takes one year. The Wilson Program is much newer in its development. A teacher in southeastern Massachusetts developed it. The program stresses the visual (phonological) cueing system over meaning and structure cueing systems. Most of the words that are initially learned have a high degree of phonic regularity. The program also makes extensive use of nonsense words. Project Read is a Minnesota-based program. The co-developers of this program have a history of affiliation with the Orton-Gillingham Society and have worked with learning disabled readers. According to the Project Read website: Project Read©/Language Circle© is cost effective. The cost per Project Read student is about 10% of the cost of funding a special education "pull out" program. Project Read's principles of systematic learning, direct concept teaching, and multisensory strategies reach the alternative instructional needs of students, thereby reducing the number of students referred for special services. All three of these programs are based on the assumption that students need a high degree of grapheme-phoneme regularity in the initial reading material. In other words, phonics plays an important role in learning to read. Let me begin by saying that I?m sure there are many hard-core reading cases that may have been helped by any one of these programs. Here?s were I part company with them, however. I believe that all children come to the learning-to-read table with a strong language component already in place. Our jobs as teachers is to capitalize on the strengths of this language knowledge and teach students a small core of decoding strategies to enable them to use meaning, structure, and visual cueing systems when they encounter print. Too often, programs like the ones you mentioned unintentionally send the wrong message to students. Reading is not primarily about sounding out letters; it is about getting meaning from the printed page. That?s why all of us read... to get the message that is presented in print. It?s not about being able to say bah when we see the letter b. Finally, let me alert you to the fact that in your educational career, you will encounter scores of these ?home-brewed? reading programs. At times, it seems as if these have become cottage industries, established, in many cases, by well-meaning educators. With the increased costs of educating special education students, many school districts have sought training in these programs so that classroom teachers can deliver instruction instead of having the child pulled out and taught by a special education teacher. In short, district financial pressures are behind the movement to return more special education students to be mainstreamed in regular classroom settings. With the increase in parental rights, special education directors are under the gun to provide required services to students with IEPs. When parents request special programs such as the ones you mentioned, districts are obliged to deliver. As far as Reading Recovery is concerned, these three programs couldn?t be more different. If you stretched these programs along a continuum, the three programs you asked about would be at the far end of the line; Reading Recovery would be more toward the center of the continuum or perhaps a little left of center. Answered by : Question: I am a new first grade teacher with many students who are struggling readers. One child is of particular concern to me. It was recommended that she be retained in K, but this option was not acceptable to her parents. She has little phonemic awareness, knew 4 site words after 6 weeks of study (in context and in isolation) and copies any writng that we do from other students(in order to compensate) unless she is moved to one of our writing tables.Her writing is mostly letter strings that do not correspond to her ideas and these strings are written over and over. She also has difficulty responding to questions (e.g.what was your favorite part of the story?)She often seems sad and distant. I also noitced she has little retention of information even after repeated review. My goal is to help this child find some type of literacy success.I have been working with her one on one with her writing as much as I can with 22 other children who also need my attention during writing time. I have had her parents work with her on her site words and on a simple decodable text so that she has a book that she can read in order to build her confidence. I purposly made her my first student guest reader( each student reads a "just right" book to the class each week in order to meet the standard of reading 25 books/year)so that she would feel good about herself as a reader. After she had practiced with me, she was our first guest reader and it went very well. She is now practicing her second book. We are both excited! I do read-alouds/think alouds daily with my students and I model whenever possible. My question(s) is what else can I be doing to take this child to the next step in her literacy development? Are her issues developmental or could there be more to it? I want the best for her and for her to find literacy success. Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : first-grade, skills Answer : Dear First-Grade Teacher:Being a first-grade teacher is an awesome responsibility. Not only are you attempting to cope with the struggles of any first-year teacher but you, indeed, have a challenging youngster on your hands. From your question, it appears that your kindergarten teacher also identified this child as a high-risk individual. So, both of you have concerns about this child?s chance of success in first-grade. In short, she truly seems to be a high-risk individual. Now that you?ve had a chance to weigh in on this child?s chance for success, have you discussed this case with your school principal? Perhaps?and this may be a long shot?the parents can be convinced that there are now two different teachers who have concern for their child and maybe retention isn?t such a bad option after all. Let?s assume that this first recourse doesn?t convince Mom and Dad that ?Sally? really does have a problem. Then the ball is clearly in your court to do what you can to help her progress. First, I think you are definitely on the right track. You want to build on this student?s strengths, albeit, as limited as they might be. So, what does the child possess as strengths? Well, she has a limited sight vocabulary. That?s good. Really simple books that have repetitive language patterns would be appropriate for her. The text should be something like: ?I see red balloons. I see green balloons. I see blue balloons.? Got the pattern? This child needs to develop a corpus of easy sight words. Next, I would want to know what other abilities this child possesses. Can she track on print? Does she understand that for each word we say, there is a corresponding word on the page? What phonemic awareness skills does she possess? Is she able to hear the /S/ sound in Sally? Can she sort pictures of objects that begin with this sound? Can she tell you any other words that begin with the /S/ sound? These are only a few of the questions that need to be answered. You might want to look at Mary Clay?s Observation Survey to learn about other questions and see what additional assessments might be made on this child. This child, and other struggling readers in your class, needs to see you write simple sentences on chart paper. This will demonstrate the one-to-one correspondence between words and print. These short sentences can then be reproduced and cut apart. She can then arrange the words to make sense in the sentence. Have you thought about making a ?Words I Can Write? booklet for her? And, don?t forget some simple word building activities using easy onsets and rimes such as the ?ot,? ?ip,? and ?am? rimes. Having her repeatedly read easy text will also go a long way in helping her become more fluent. If you have a reading specialist in your school, I would also involve him/her in working with this child. He/She may be able to provide you with even more insights. I would also bring this child to a multi-disciplinary team meeting (or whatever it is called in your school). It sounds as if are doing as much as any first-year teacher can be expected to do. Educators are not miracle workers: especially beginning teachers. We are professionals who give our heart and souls to our students. Parents and society are also responsible for our children. Answered by : Question: Since I have not been in the field of education in the New England area for a number of years, I am interested in knowing by what methods the local K-5 schools incorporate to teach reading. Is it whole language, trade books, phonics, combination of methods? What's in, what's out? A.M. Attleboro Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : guided reading, literature circles, assessment Answer : Dear A.M:This is a great question for someone returning to the field of education. When you asked about what methods ?local schools? used, I?m going to assume that you mean schools in Southeastern New England and not schools specifically in Attleboro, MA. First, a caveat. It is always dangerous to generalize. Nowhere is this truer than in education and it?s even more dangerous to generalize in the area of literacy education. Here?s how I read the educational picture of today. We are presently in an era of great disruption in literacy education. For the past decade, teachers have been working hard to implement strategies such as guided reading, authentic assessment, portfolios, writing workshops, and the like. As a result, I have seen K-5 students discover the joys of reading and writing. It?s heartwarming to see kids actually get excited about reading books by popular children?s authors, creating their own journals and class books, and generally embracing literacy across the board. Remember, this is in an era of electronic gizmos such as Playstation II, Gameboy, and the proliferation of TVs, videos, and CDs. In short, there?s a lot of competition for children?s reading time. Even with that competition, most kids still love to read providing they?re getting good instruction at school. Another factor to consider is that today?s teaching workforce is a mature group who probably average fifteen to twenty or more years of teaching experience. They know what works with kids. Most have great intuition because they are parents as well as teachers. Most of these teachers give their hearts and souls for their students. I read somewhere that the average teacher spends roughly $600 of his/her own money to provide instructional materials above and beyond what the district provides for students. Enter the new movement to make educators more accountable. We are presently embarking upon new waters where federal and state legislative mandates have put all educators on the defensive. The new battle cry is ?Accountability.? Plain and simple, this translates to high-stakes testing. Teachers, aides, and students are now required to partake in the high-stakes testing movement. Everyone is being judged on the basis of a single test score. Newspapers and the Internet identify ?low performing? schools. Soon, teachers will be likewise identified. In my estimation, while the intention of accountability is noble, relying on a single psychometric measure to determine the quality of education is absurd. Politicians have assumed they know more about education than educators. This is very much like a parent-child relationship where governments have become the parent and educators are the children. The parent has threatened to punish the child who doesn?t conform. Those of us who are parents, know that this approach is doomed for failure. As parents, we can only guide our children or we?ll soon be faced with rebellious kids. We are now in a similar situation where the educational establishment is about to implode because of unrealistic and arbitrary standards imposed from outside. This means that if you walk into most classrooms today, you will find teachers who have spent a good part of their professional careers building a rich, literate classroom environment and who are now being forced to implement federally subsidized programs that are out of touch with local needs. Three nights a week I listen to young and old teachers alike in my classes lash out in frustration. They are confused, torn between what they know is best for their students and what they are being asked to do, but most of all, they are angry. VERY ANGRY! They have seen what they?ve worked so hard to implement, dashed in front of their very eyes. So, a typical teacher that you might visit is trying to implement what he/he knows is a ?best practices? program but is feeling a tremendous pressure to implement a federally subsidized literacy program mandated by the school administration. Federal monies are driving all of this. How this all plays out is anyone?s guess at this point. My advice is to stay tuned, get involved, and do what is best for students. Educators can no longer sit idly on the sidelines. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, There is a question that frequently arises during the reading assessment process. Some students that take the assessment are on i.e.p.'s which state that quizzes and tests can be read aloud to them. If the child knows what a word means but does not know how to decode the word on the vocabulary portion of the test then should the student be penalized for not having decoding skills? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : assessment, IEPs, vocabulary Answer : An interesting dilemma. It seems to me that the question that needs to be answered is ?Why are we administering this assessment?? Of equal importance is the issue of the different types of vocabulary knowledge a student possesses. Let?s do the easy work first and focus on vocabulary.First, there is listening vocabulary. Our listening vocabularies are usually the most extensive of the four types of vocabulary. We?ve all heard words from a young age and so we?re constantly expanding our listening vocabulary. Second, there?s reading vocabulary. Just as the name implies, our reading vocabulary is based on what we read. That?s why it?s important to provide ample and varied opportunities to read silently in school each day. The more we read, the more new words we encounter and the more we continue to build this important vocabulary. Next, there?s our speaking vocabulary. In order to have an extensive speaking vocabulary, we must either hear or read a plethora of new words throughout our life. So, as you can see, our listening and reading vocabularies are receptive processes. Surround ourselves with rich language and we?ll soon be speaking like our surroundings. Finally, there?s our writing vocabulary. This is the smallest of the four types of vocabularies because it?s easier to listen, read, and speak than it is to write. As you can probably surmise, our speaking and writing vocabularies rely on our generative abilities. Now back to your question. Your students on IEPs have accommodations made so their lack of reading abilities doesn?t interfere with their understanding of text material. Taken to an extreme, a partially sighted individual may have difficulty recognizing the printed word on the page because of physical disabilities but may be able to understand better than a fully-sighted individual if the material is read to him. In fact, the Kurtzweil optical scanners have been developed for exactly these types of individuals. Having this machine ?read? the print and then transcribe the words into processed digitized speech accommodates their faulty vision. I?m going to assume, though, that your students have no physical vision disabilities but simply haven?t figured out how to process coded text. That?s why the IEP permits materials to be read orally to these students. The tricky part of your question lies in the phrase ??on the vocabulary portion of the test?? If you?re talking about teacher-produced tests or other classroom-related assessments, it seems clear to me that you MUST read the test questions to the student. It?s the law. It?s in the IEP. Everyone has signed off on the fact that this is what is to be done. If you or your colleagues don?t like it, you need to rewrite the IEP. Let?s assume, however, that we are talking about high-stakes testing that is conducted and reported to some outside agency such as the State Department of Education. These tests must be administered under strict protocols or else the test scores mean nothing. If you are talking about this type of testing, I suggest you contact your State Department of Education and get clarification on this matter. One last point. If you?ve been following the national educational news, you know that some districts have manipulated conditions to improve their school and district test scores. It?s an unfortunate situation and one of the spin-offs of high-stakes testing. My hunch is that this situation will only get worse before it gets better. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, My question pertains to guided reading. I would like to know what the best practice is regarding the following: amount of time spent per day in guided reading, the number of times each group meets per week, concerns with regard to flexible grouping, general grouping guidelines, the maximum number of groups,and general expected progression for students over time. Thank you, Beth RIC student Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : guided reading Answer : Dear Beth:You may call it a ?question,? but I call it ?questions!? Six of them if I county correctly. But let?s not quibble about minor details. I?ll try to answer each, point by point. Amount of Time Spent Each Day. Most of the teachers I know who are using guided reading have integrated it into a reading/writing workshop approach, so while some kids are reading, others may be writing. As it turns out, the better part of an entire morning is spent doing these activities. Recess and itinerate teachers help break this time up, too, so it?s not as if it?s a solid 3-4 hour block of non-stop literacy activities. Number of Times Per Week. Guided reading is a daily part of most teachers? literacy block. Read alouds, word work, and daily writing are also part of this block. So, five days per week are spent working in these areas. Flexible Grouping. The beauty of guided reading is that teachers usually use shorter texts such as the Rigby PM Starters or something comparable. This means that children can be moved easily from group to group. The underlying premise in all of this is that ASSESSMENT DRIVES INSTRUCTION. Many teachers keep assessment notebooks. In these notebooks (one notebook per child), you find running record data, anecdotal comments, and the like. In short, it?s an up-to-the-minute record of each child?s performance. It?s current. It?s authentic. Thus, when you see a child is struggling, you move him down a level. If you notice that someone is reading material that is too easy, you move him/her up a level. Remember, correct placement in a guided reading program is finding the spot where there is some new learning taking place as the child reads. That?s why it?s called GUIDED reading. General Grouping Guidelines. In addition to having students placed at their instructional levels, it?s also important to determine what strategies the child has in place and what strategies must be refined. When you are doing running records with students and doing what we call ?second level of miscue analysis? you can quickly determine whether the student is using primarily the meaning, structure, or visual cueing systems to help him/her decode new unfamiliar words. Ideally, you would like to see a student use a balance of all three systems. If a student over relies on one system to the exclusion of the other two, you need to teach him/her how to use the other systems. We call it ?orchestrating the three cueing systems.? Maximum Number of Groups. This will vary widely, depending upon the grade level you?re looking at. A second-grade teacher friend of mine presently has seven groups operating in her classroom. They range from a low of Level 6 to a high of Level 22. Fortunately, she has a reading specialist who works with her in her room so they?re able to keep all these groups profitably occupied. Even so, I?m not sure it?s possible to have more groups than this. It gets to a point where I become concerned with ?teacher sanity.? Expected Progression Over Time. Naturally, you want to see improvement in all of your students. Some students need to spend more time at a level before moving ahead. Others forge on through to high and higher levels. Somewhere around the end of third grade or beginning of fourth grade, students are ready to move out of guided reading and move into literature circles. This is always an exciting time because now most of the kids are ready for chapter books. Furthermore, it is more and more difficult to think of the finely gradated levels of text and reading that we witnessed in the primary grades. Good luck on your guided reading journey, Beth. Answered by : Question: Dear Dr. Rude, My question has to do with sustained silent reading time. What kinds of reading materials do you recommend for students to be reading during this independent time? Are comic books or magazines or ok or should students be reading chapter books. Should it vary according to grade level? Also, do you have suggestions on how to motivate uninterested readers to stay on task during this time? Thank you! Janet Barton Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : sustained silent reading, engagement Answer : Dear Janet:You have raised a question near and dear to my heart?sustained silent reading. If we want students to become fluent readers, we must provide opportunities for them, at school, where they can practice their craft. According to research conducted by Richard Allington, the average elementary school child reads connected text for only eight minutes per day! Eight minutes! It should be clear that one isn?t going to improve their reading significantly unless there are many and varied opportunities to practice sustained silent reading. In theory, I?m not opposed to allowing some children to read comic books or magazines. In fact, with older disabled readers, this may be the only way to hook them on reading because they?ve experienced such failure with traditional curricular material. However, there are many, many better ways to engage normal developmental readers in silent reading. I think it all starts out with the teacher sharing a love of reading with his/her students. In addition to simply discussing good books the teacher has read, he/she also needs to select high-quality literature to read TO the students. The reason for selecting good literature is that it provides a wonderful model to discuss how authors use various styles in their writing. You want the good literature to have a payoff when your students write. Even at the early primary grades, you can begin to do simple authors studies. As students mature and move into the intermediate grades and middle school, the Newbery Award books make a wonderful common core of books to discuss. Again, the writing styles of these authors provide powerful models for young authors. Naturally, you?ll want to vary the time you allow for SSR. In the kindergarten (yes, kindergarten!), ten minutes is about the maximum that kids can stay on task. You should be reading silently at this time, too. With older students at the upper elementary grades and older, you can easily devote 30-45 minutes to SSR. The best way to keep kids on task is to engage them in interesting activities. Spend time reading aloud to them each day. Jim Trelease?s Reading Aloud Handbook may help you select appropriate titles. You need to hook your readers on the pleasure of reading. I still read aloud to my college graduate students. They tell me it?s one of the best parts of the day for them and they?re continually urging me to read another chapter! I try to be a good model for them and to get them hooked on reading. So, ENGAGEMENT should be your mantra. One last piece of advice. Some of my favorite teachers use what they call chairback reading. Children have a bag that fits over the back of their desk chair. Students are required to have four books in their bag at all times. Three of the books must be at the ?just right? level (i.e. their instructional level). The fourth book can be an ?easy? or ?challenging? book. Whenever students have finished their regular classroom work, they are encouraged to read silently at their desk, using one of the books from their bag. These students quickly discover the joy or reading. Answered by : Question: Hi Dr. Rude, I need some names of professionals in the area that can commit some time to my faculty for professional development. My faculty is in need of Guided reading training. Do you know of anyone in the field that has some time to dedicate to improving implementation of guided reading in my school? Contacts and numbers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Sherry Ryan Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : guided reading, professional development Answer : Dear Sherry:Your request is one of many that I hear from reading teachers who are working with their faculties to improve the quality of reading instruction in the classroom. Your question seems VERY specific. To help others who are in your predicament, I?ll attempt to answer it in a more general way in the hope that you may be able to answer your own questions. So, bear with me. First, I think you should look within your system for teachers who are doing a good job with their guided reading program. This is important for two reasons. First, locals have much more credence than the outside expert who comes in for a one-shot workshop. The problems that teachers face are reoccurring and there will be many questions as your teachers begin to implement and refine their teaching strategies. Secondly, no one knows your population as well as teachers you work with. Next, I think you need to look at staff development as an on-going effort for everyone to refine his or her craft. So, it?s not just about learning about guided reading, although that may be the major focus today. But, it?s about continually striving to become a better teacher in all facets of literacy instruction. Another factor to consider is that not all teachers may be ready to move into this approach at the same time. The strategy I recommend is for literacy specialists to ?go with the winners.? That is, start out by embracing those teachers who are eager to change their reading instruction. Once you have a solid cohort of people moving ahead, these ?leaders? can be invaluable to you by answering other teachers? questions as they attempt to implement the strategies of guided reading. I hope this helps you get moving toward focused guided reading instruction. Answered by : Question: At my school we have implemented a new "Anthology Program". This program gives you everything you need to fill the requirements in Language Arts, from the prospective of the No Child Left Behind Initiative. One of the components of the program is the child's weekly spelling words. I work with the first grade students. The spelling words are partially based on a spelling pattern. For example, last week was the "ack" spelling pattern. They had pack, sack, rack and tack as part of their ten weekly words. Both the first grade teacher and myself feel this is a concept to be taught, but not as weekly spelling words. Especially with first graders who need a good core of basic sight words. Some of them didn't have any idea what tack or sack meant. Would it be more beneficial to the students to continue to use the Anthology words or to use sight words? Thanks, A F.R. City Teacher Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Anthology programs, No Child Left Behind, spelling, sight words Answer : Dear A.F.R. City TeacherMy higher order comprehension skills lead me to believe there is a plethora of mixed feelings on your part as you initiate this new program. I can understand your conundrum. First, more and more teachers are being asked to abandon what they know has been working with children because administrators in their system have decided to impose a single program on all children. It sounds like this is where you might be coming from. If that's the case, I'm in your corner. I know of no single program that is going to meet the needs of all students. If you adhere to the philosophy that assessment should drive a teacher's instruction, imposing one program on all children doesn't make any sense. The range of differences in a single classroom are simply too great to be addressed by a single program?regardless of what is printed on the packaging material! Now to your spelling issue. Using onsets and rimes as part of your literacy program makes good sense. Onsets and rimes seem to inherently make more sense to children and they seem to be integrated in long-term memory better than are isolated phonic generalizations taught in a synthetic approach. Your bone of contention seems to be which rimes to teach and when. I would think there should be some flexibility available to you so if you wanted to alter the sequence of instruction, you should be able to make that type of adjustment. And, why do these onsets and rimes need to be taught only during spelling? Common sense would seem to dictate that they could be taught during reading or writing. In other words, whenever there is a teachable situation, you should capitalize on it. Now to the issue of teaching sight words. Of course, these are important words. Some of them could be used as spelling words but you could also make them part of your word wall words. In one school I know, all the first-grade teachers got together and agreed upon what words should be used on their word wall. As it turned out, about 87% of the words were sight words that could be found on the Dolch Sight Vocabulary word list. These teachers knew the importance of these words and wanted to make sure their students knew them. In closing, let me offer some advice. As with so many things in life, this issue doesn't have to be one of choosing Approach A over Approach B. You should be able to find some compromise where onsets, rimes, AND sight words all play an important part of your instructional program. As far as the imposition of the anthology program goes, you seem to have been the victim of an administrative political decision. Answered by : Question: Upon entering my son's first grade classroom last week, I encountered the school's literacy coach speaking with the students about "music,munchkin applause and transitioning." I was compelled to ask her about the program she appeared to be implementing in my child's classroom. She explained that it was a program out of Denver, Colorado called Reading With Meaning. It was devised to enhance comprehension and focusses on transfering responsibility from the teacher to the students. Some of the key phrases she used were "rituals, routines and artifacts." The woman who devised the program is Debbie Miller. What do you know about this program and is it successful? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Reading for meaning, connections, first grade, Debbie Miller Answer : I would quickly call your florist and have a dozen roses shipped to your son?s literacy coach! Let me see if I can explain what you witnessed and what your son experiences each day he goes to school.Debbie Miller is a classroom teacher who teaches in the Denver Public Schools. She has thirty years of experience. She brings this experience to her in-service work with the Denver-based Public Education and Business coalition. The program your son is enrolled in is based on the tenets she describes in her book, Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades (Stenhouse Publishers). You can go to the Stenhouse website, www.stenhouse.com, or to Amazon.com to order this text. It is an excellent read. The program Miller describes isn?t a commercially produced and marketed program. Instead, it is based on what experts in the field of literacy have been proposing for the past decade. Not long ago, someone on the Loom asked about the one reading skill I would propose over any others. My answer was Making Connections. This is one of the major underpinnings of Miller?s suggested program. She teaches her students to make text-to-self connections at a very early age. (As an aside, I?ve witnessed first-grade classroom teachers able to do this within weeks of starting school.) She also espouses teaching decoding and comprehension side-by-side. Do children learn? Miller contends that they do because she measures student progress with Marie Clay?s Observation Survey and the Joetta Beaver?s Developmental Reading Assessment kit. She also keeps detailed anecdotal records of each student?s progress. Assessment doesn?t get any more authentic than this. Teaching is done through modeling reading behavior, doing think-alouds, giving students ample guided practice as well as independent practice, and having them apply what they learn. This Gradual Release of Responsibility model is how all learners learn?you and I included. If you want to see Debbie Miller?s classroom in action, you can order the video Strategy Instruction in Action (Stenhouse) by Harvey and Goudvis. In the meantime, enjoy watching your son grow into a child who not only can read but someone who enjoys reading. Answered by : Question: If you had to pick one reading strategy above all others as being the most important in teaching children from grades 2-4, what would it be and why? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : comprehension, making connections Answer : Wasn?t it King Midas who was granted a single wish? On the outside chance that this wish will turn all children into avid readers and reduce the incidence of children who struggle with reading, here?s my best shot.The one skill that ALL readers need, from pre-schoolers to retirees is the ability to make connections with the texts we read or have read to us. Just as in life, we want to make connections, for without connections, there is no meaning (comprehension). That?s why books like Good Dog, Carl, Where the Wild Things Are, Stone Fox and The Giver have such universal appeal, from the early years in school until the middle and high school years. And, when we think about it, why do books like Tuesdays With Morrie find such an audience with adults? Because we all know someone who has suffered from that terrible disease, cancer, and we immediately make a connection with the story and the main character, Morrie. Gary Paulsen, the universally acclaimed young adult author said it well in an interview I once saw. He said, ?The major job of an author is to get inside the reader?s head. Once you?re in there, you can do all kinds of things.? So, writers understand the importance of making that connection early in their books. It?s called The Lead. All writers continually write, edit, rewrite, and rewrite some more, all because they want to make a connection with their reader. In The Winter Room, Paulsen has a wonderful opening to the book. He writes about why books can?t have sounds, can?t have smells, and can?t have light. Then he goes on to say, ?The book needs you.? Without you, there can?t be sounds, smells, and light. The instructional terms that we use and the strategies we teach are called text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections. Getting your students to make these connections will make your life richer and your teaching more meaningful. To learn more about these strategies, read Strategies That Work by Havey and Goudvis. One last point. Teaching about connections isn?t the only comprehension skill students need. But, remember, you only gave me one wish! Answered by : Question: As a special educator , I am encountering more and more children who have had so many years of intense phonetic training through the Wilson program that by the time they reach 6-7th grade they are unable to recognize sight words. I repeatedly see students who at the age of 12 are trying to phonetically decode words like ..(people, sign and write) . These are words they should know by sight in the 6th and 7th grade . They seem to be overly trained and automatically begin this decoding process , they assume they do not know the word. I now have numerous kids who do not read fluently, nor do they comprehend what they read. How can I help these overally trained students? Are there any ways to "reverse" this training? Also , they have provided our special educators with the Soar To Success Program to address those students with weak comprehension skills. Are you aware of this program and if so , what if any are the benefits of using this approach? Thank you , Dawn Giard Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : phonics, special education, sight words Answer : Dear Dawn:What you are experiencing is a phenomenon that is a result of a single-minded approach to teaching students. These students are victims of a teaching method that stresses one facet of decoding over the multifaceted approach that students need and deserve. Further complicating this situation is that since so much effort has been spent stressing decoding ? and especially phonics ? that these individuals haven?t been taught to integrate language structure as one of their decoding cueing systems. Complicating this even more is the fact that over relying on phonics means that comprehension monitoring gets pushed aside. In short, either implicitly or explicitly, these poor students have been led to believe that reading is nothing more than saying words correctly. These students have habituated bad reading habits as a result of their instruction. Just as many downhill skiers haven?t learned how to unweight their uphill ski during a parallel turn or some tennis players haven?t learned the correct mechanics of the forehand swing?and have been doing it wrong for so many years, so, too, have these sixth-graders been practicing bad habits. That?s why it?s important to stress comprehension, fluency, AND decoding from the earliest stages of literacy. You now have a formidable task ahead of you. These students obviously are reluctant to read at this stage of the game. You must hook them on the pleasures of reading. This isn?t going to be easy. Good read-alouds are one way to draw their attention back to reading. Reading a book such as Holes by Louis Sacar or Wringer by Jerry Spinnelli, or How Angel Peterson Got His Name by Gary Paulsen might appeal to these kids. Then you must get them to read VERY EASY material. You want to prove to them that they can recognize some words on sight and don?t have to sound out every word. All of this is easy for me to say but will be challenging for you to do. I would also be proactive and attempt to set up a meeting with these students? earlier teachers. While well intended, their results speak for themselves. Something has to change. I?m not familiar with Soar to Success, the program you mentioned. I did check out their website (www.schooldirect.com) and browsed though it. It is reported to be a comprehension development program aligned with Reading First. The developers claim that the program has been field-tested and a copy of the field-test report can be obtained by calling 877-806-8020. You might want to check it out. One last word. I always place my wagers on smart teachers rather than programs. Answered by : Question: Can you provide a list of scientifically research-based comprehension programs for the primary? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : reading comprehension, scientifically research-based programs, primary reading Answer : Dear Teacher of Reading Comprehension:You ask a wonderful question that is being raised by thousands of other educators who are attempting to do the right thing and help their students become not only good decoders, but more importantly, good comprehenders. Trying to do this in today?s world of high-stakes testing and political pressures is certainly bewildering and confusing. Let me see if I can shed some light on this issue. First, know that research has demonstrated that the classroom teacher has roughly five times more influence on student performance than does the program the teacher uses. To make this point with my students, I show them a video I made of four different first-grade teachers, in four different regions of the country. All of these teachers are using the exact same program and were video taped within three or four weeks of each other. The difference between their teachings is astounding. Other researchers have documented this and have concluded that there is more variation in the teaching WITHIN a particular program than BETWEEN different programs. So, what?s a person to do? My advice is don?t be wooed by promises and slogans that many of today?s publishers are using to sell their products. There is no educational clearinghouse that acts as an independent reviewer of products (such as Consumer Reports Magazine) and, thus, virtually anyone can label their program as ?scientifically based.? Furthermore, most of the programs that I?ve examined that carry this label tend to stress decoding skills to the detriment of comprehension. If you want to improve the comprehension of your students, I suggest you form a study group of teachers within your school and start reading the following texts. They will take you a lot closer to achieving your goal of developing students who CAN and WANT to read: Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis. Stenhouse Publishing Company. Teaching for Comprehension in Reading: K-2. Gay Su Pinnell and Patricia Scharer. Scholastic Publishing Company. What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs. Richard Allington. Allyn & Bacon. Schools That Work: Where All Children Read and Write. Richard Allington and Patricia Cunningham. Allyn & Bacon. Classrooms That Work: They Can All Read and Write. Patricia Cunningham and Richard Allington. Allyn & Bacon. These are all books that teachers in my field-placement school read and use. The result of their professional discussions has led to a consistent language of instruction that kids understand as they move from grade to grade over the years. It?s a wonderful place for me to work and bring my college students so they can see first-hand what exemplary instruction looks like. One last point. If you want your students to be good readers, you must model your own reading processes for them. Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, Is guided reading developmentally appropriate for half-day kindergartners? Thanks, Lori Is phonemic awareness ability the best predictor/indicator for a child to be successful as a life-long reader? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : kindergarten, phonemic awareness Answer :
Answered by : Question: As a 1st grade teacher with children in the Reading Recovery Program, I have lots of questions. What does research say about the long term effects? How long, if at all, are children tracked? What is the percentage of Reading Recovery students that exit successfully? What percentage are still successful after a few years? If these students are tracked how is it done? Thanks! Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : first grade, Reading Recovery Answer :Dear First-Grade Teacher:
Answered by : Question: Can you please explain the new PLP, Personal Literacy PLans required for all children receiving services? I was lead to believe that it is like an IEP for children not meeting the standard. Where did this originate? erica
Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Personalized Learning Plans (PLP) Answer :
Answered by : Question: I have a student recieving reading services from me at this time. He was tested for Special Education and qualified to recieve services. The parents refused SpEd services so he will stay with title one reading help. He is having a lot of difficulty understanding directions and comprehending what he is reading. I feel that I have done everything that I know. We have worked on pre-reading strategies, think alouds, read alouds, visuals. I feel stuck. Any suggestions. I am currently using teh book, Strategies That Work. He should really have an IEP. As a reading teacher, can I legally write up some goals and help the teacher modify his work?
Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : IEPs, Special Services Answer :
Answered by : Question: Many teachers use retelling as a tool to assess comprehension. I have read recently about using it as a comprehension strategy. Can you share more about this topic; examples, resources, is it true?
Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : comprehension, retelling Answer : Indeed, retelling has been used as an assessment strategy for many
Now for a look at the teaching of retelling. We know that
If you want to learn more about retelling, I suggest you purchase a
Answered by : Question: I have a second grade student(repeater)who tested at a level 10 back in October. Her reading level is now between a 16/18. In January she started receiving literacy with the reading teacher once a week for a 1/2 an hour. I have her in a guided reading group and I also take her independently. She is still not fluent and struggles when she comes to a tricky word. She makes errors with sightwords she should know and she does not do much self correcting. Although I have seen some growth I believe it still hasn't come together for her. She had been tested last year for resource but did not qualify. She scored in the average range. She is a B student in other subjects and tries her best. What should I make sure I am doing daily with her so that her reading level and fluency can improve? After noticing all the m,s and v's on her running record I am not sure how I should adjust my teaching strategies. Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : meaning, structure, visual, meaning, leveled text Answer :Dear Second-Grade Teacher: First, the good news. It appears as if this student is at least of
Now the bad news. I serious doubt whether sending this child to
While this child has started to build a corpus of sight words, it
You also indicated that she has a plethora of Meaning, Structural,
Lastly, if you are doing guided reading lessons with her, it's
Answered by : Question: This has been a challenging year to say the least. I teach Kindergarten and I have many behavior problems this year. I spend a great deal of time on behavior management and dealing with sudden outburst, which takes away from my teaching. I do not meet with my reading groups as often as I would like. Do you have any suggestions of activities that I can do whole group that would benefit my students and help raise their ability to read independently? It is a big concern of mine because I feel my behavior problem students are taking away from my other students. I have had several meetings with parents principals and school counselor but unfortunately the behaviors are demonstrated frequently. Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : kindergarten, independent reading Answer :Dear Kindergarten Teacher: I feel your pain. We have all had classes that drive us crazy for
I know of no "silver bullet" for easily changing the dynamics of a
Perhaps at issue here is your expectation. Maybe children in this
If we are talking about absolute chaos in your room, you don't need
Answered by : Question: I have a student, first grade, who can read words in isolation, but cannot read from written text. He has a great deal of difficulty with one to one and directionality. Do you have any suggestions on what I can do to help him read a text? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : print-speech correspondence, developmental spelling, word-by-word reading Answer :Dear First-Grade Teacher: Sounds to me as if you have a developmental reader who is just ready to make the transition into connected text. Whenever I hear a description of a struggling reader, I'm always tempted to speculate what instruction has occurred up to this point. Perhaps some instruction was based on the flashing of words on cards and what you are witnessing is the result of that instruction? Why can't this child read from written text? Perhaps it's because he hasn't made the 1:1 correspondence between print and speech? For many youngsters, finger pointing helps make this connection. By the end of first grade, however, you need to fade the finger pointing or it becomes a liability and will slow the child's rate. As an interim step, you might have the child use the pointer finger of each hand to frame the line of text. One teacher I know uses an index card on which she's drawn a green Magic Marker line on the top edge of the card. This seems to help the child attend to the print.
A wonderful way to introduce students to reading is through their writing. We all know that a child's writing evolves along a developmental continuum, so don't expect perfection right off the bat. There will be lots of phonological attempts to write words. If the child tries to write a sentence under a picture he's drawn, you need to transcribe his words in traditional orthography so he can see how words will appear in print. This is the basis, of course, for the language-experience approach to reading. As a variation, the child can dictate the sentence to you or an aide. You or your aides do the transcription.
Don't forget the power of reading very easy books. Rigby Publishing Company has a variety of these from which to choose. So do many other publishers of children's reading material. Easy "I Can Read" books are also appropriate.
Answered by : Question: If you were going to visit some classrooms to conduct an informal assessment of the instructional practices and learning opportunities provided to students, what evidence or indicators would you look for? What are some key characteristics of best practices being used in a classroom? What type of information would you seek for a more in-depth analysis? We are trying to create a preliminary checklist to stimulate self-reflection and collaboration among teachers, principal and other school staff. Do you know of existing checklists that might serve as a reference? Thanks, Professional Development Coordinator, San Diego Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : best practices, reading, writing, assessment Answer : Dear Checklist Creator:I commend you for attempting to develop a systematic approach to improving instruction. And, you are smart to start by creating a preliminary checklist. My advice is to start at the grassroots level, working with teachers who are interested in improving their instruction. That means, perhaps creating a draft document to which these teachers could react. It's always easier to react to something than to develop something from scratch. A good source to start building this list of behaviors would be to examine the qualities of best practices in reading and writing found in Best Practice: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools by Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde (1998) Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Publishing Company. Here are the two lists: QUALITIES OF BEST PRACTICE IN TEACHING READING Reading means getting meaning from print. Reading is a process. Hearing books read aloud is the beginning of learning to read. Reading is the best practice for learning to read. An effective reading program exposes students to a wide and rich array of print and goes beyond the use of the basal. Choice is an integral part of literate behavior. Teachers should model reading. Effective teachers of reading help children actively use reading and writing as tools for learning. Children learn reading best in a low-risk environment. Young children should have well-structured instruction in phonics. Teachers should provide daily opportunities for children to share and discuss what they have been reading and writing. Writing experiences are provided at all grade levels. Reading assessment should match classroom practice. Schools that are effective in teaching reading have an ethos that supports reading. QUALITIES OF BEST PRACTICE IN TEACHING WRITING All children can and should write. Teachers must help students find real purposes to write. Students need to take ownership and responsibility. Effective writing programs involve the complete writing process. Teachers can help students get started. Teachers help students draft and revise. Grammar and mechanics are best learned in the context of actual writing. Students need real audiences and a classroom context of shared learning. Writing should extend throughout the curriculum. Effective teachers use evaluation constructively and efficiently. Let's assume that the teachers would buy into most of these practices. I would see your next step to prioritize which practices most people want to improve. Obviously, there is enough material here to keep a staff occupied for years, if not decades. So, think in realistic terms and don't try to accomplish too much too fast. That can only lead to failure and frustration. To give you an example of how this works in practical terms, let me describe a situation in one of the schools in which I work. A group of first-grade teachers wanted to refine their guided reading practice. Collectively, they decided they to focus on their picture walk-throughs and story introductions. Each of six teachers volunteered to let me videotape one of their lessons. Then, every other week, for twelve weeks, the six teachers met after school, along with the reading specialist, and viewed one of their videos. Each teacher provided insight and feedback on what they observed. Through this process, each teacher refined her craft and became a more reflective practitioner. By moving slowly and steadily toward a common goal, they are becoming better teachers. One caution. In your question, you mentioned the word "indicators." I would caution you to keep your eye on the improvement of instruction for students and not simply to produce a rubric or checklist to see that everyone is marching along in time to the same drummer. The latter will develop more naturally if the former is the driving forces in helping students become better readers and writers. Answered by : Question: I work with a child who has difficulty with comprehension. The issue does not seem to be lack of vocabulary. He reads fairly fluently. I have been working on fluency and he has made great progress, and I believed that his comprehension would improve also. That doesn't seem to be happening. Any suggestions?
Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : comprehension, miscues, self-correction ratio Answer :An interesting dilemma, to be sure. Let's look at the positive first. As you mentioned, he seems to have a good vocabulary. This tells me he probably comes from a literate background and he's been tuning in to the language around him. It also indicates that there should be lots of potential for growth. Another plus is that your work on fluency is beginning to pay off. That means that his decoding skills seem appropriate for the level at which he is working. I'm assuming that he is correctly placed at his instructional level, as well.
Answered by : Question: My fourth grade class is deeply immersed in a study of non-fiction texts. Can you suggest any reading comprehension strategies that will help them to see the 'big picture' behind what they are reading? Many of the reading comp strategies we've used so far have focused on recalling isolated fact, and I need help in moving them beyond this step.
Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : comprehension, ReQuest, QAR, KWL, Preview, Anticipation Guides Answer :Dear Fourth-Grade Teacher:
Answered by : Question: Looking for research on looping, especially at the elementary level. Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : looping, teacher effects Answer : Looping, or the process of having students and teachers move together through two or more grades has been a growing practice in some parts of the country although its history dates back to the early 1900s and is popular in some European countries. One of the theories underlying this practice is that teachers better understand their students once they've had a year to work with them. Thus, it only seems to make eminent sense that these same teachers could pick up in the fall of the next year and build upon the successes learned in the previous year or years. There's not much quantitative research to support this practice but there is some qualitative data that supports it.Looping, in my mind, is somewhat similar to the ungraded schools of several decades ago. The difference is that in looping, you have students in the same grade move through the grades year after year. The ungraded plan has multi-age students grouped together. As a graduate student research associate, I used to work at a regional educational research and development center. The job of the center staff was to explore and promote non-graded schooling as well as work closely to improve the curricula of these schools. My specialty was to work in the area of reading. After working in these schools, I came to the conclusion that the quality of the teachers and their ability to deliver high-quality instruction was more important than the organizational pattern of the school. This observation was substantiated by large-scale studies of how to teach reading. These investigations also led researchers to conclude that reading methodology varied widely among teachers using the same approach, and, in the end, the teacher was a more important variable than the approach the teacher used. Having said that, let's go back to the 'research' on looping. Here's what I've found. When all is said and done, it seems that research on looping finds that it is at least as good as conventional grouping plans and sometimes even better.. In other words, students don't suffer any negative effects. If I had school-aged children who had a wonderful teacher who was interested in looping to the next grade with them, I would be very supportive of this practice. If the teacher was less than I hoped? Well, I think you get the picture. It's all about the teacher, not the organizational plan or the materials. Answered by : Question: Is it fair to ask ESL and special education students to read the passages for the state assessment test in language arts and then answer the related comprehension questions? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : ESL, politics, special education, comprehension Answer : No, it's not fair. What you are experiencing is a political decision over which you have almost no control. My hunch is that there is probably some political motive for asking these children to take the same tests students whose primary language is English or who don't have some learning disability are required to take. I won't even speculate about these motives.Pedagogically, I believe it is inappropriate to ask these two groups of students to do the same tasks that others are asked to do. Having been in similar testing situations, I've seen these kids become frustrated and resort to random guessing, pattern marking, or simply "shutting down." We all know these students won't perform to the expected standards. There are some proactive steps you can take, however. First, you should explain to them that it is not your decision to take the test. Tell them that their performance on the test will not determine whether they pass to the next grade. Other students take the same test. Your job is to empathize with them and assure them that you want them to do well and you'll be doing everything in your power to make them better readers and writers. Assure them that you're on their side and encourage them to do the best they can. As a final note, every time I encounter the word "fair," I'm reminded of my father and father-in-law. Both are WWII veterans who are now in their 80s, both are widowers, and one of them experienced 160% casualties in their unit during the European theater (they sent in lots of reinforcements). Both suggest that the word "fair" needs to be struck from the dictionary, because life isn't fair. It's a sad fact that these students are asked to do things that are well beyond their capabilities. Answered by : Question: I have noticed that today's children spend many hours in front of a computer. They are either surfing the internet, playing video games, or chatting with their friends online. As a classroom teacher I would like to use the computer as a way to motivate the students to read. How can online libraries and e-text best be used to enhance reading instruction in the middle level grades? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : computers, electronic dictionaries, e-mail, e-text Answer :Indeed, these are exciting technological times. On any one day, I receive e-mail from friends in Norway, Nepal, and China. All are teaching kids to read English. In the next minute I'm surfing the web looking at hotel rooms in another part of the world, planning my next vacation. I can even read foreign news accounts on line. We truly have become globalized to an extent most of us never imagined. This is the world our students have inherited.
Answered by : Question: As a kindergarten teacher preparing my class for first grade, I plan for a daily writing activity; writing letters, journals, weekend news, etc., which the children enjoy. At this last point of the year, should I be correcting minor misspellings of sight words or let them continue with invented spelling? We do have a word wall and word families posted which I refer them to.
Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : kindergarten, KidWriting, phonemic awareness, spelling Answer :Dear Kindergarten Teacher:
Answered by : Question: I feel reading is the most important subject taught to our students. Too often, in my limited experience, I have seen a poor performing reader be set up for failure in other subjects. For example with the math literacy connection, poor readers also struggle to read the word problems. This past week during our Standardized Math Testing, my poorest reader (1st Grade level in the 3rd grade) struggled to figure out what the questions were aksing him. Although teachers are allowed to read the questions, this student is so self conscious about his reading ability he asked for my help three times. My question, I know, is not easy to answer. In your opinion, given your experience working with lower level readers, what is the best approach to teaching below level readers? If they come in on a low first grade level and leave me on a high first grade level, have I done my job? All the rage now is about guided reading. While I see the benefits of the program for on and above level readers, I feel the Guided Reading Program does not provide all the support a below level reader needs. I have tried increasing word work for more phonics reinformcement and I work one on one with this student, but I thought I would have seen more progress by now than what I am seeing. His hearing is fine as is his vision. His family does not want him tested as they feel he is "immature" and will "catch up". I feel there must be more I can do. Is there? Thank you.
Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : leveled text, decoding, comprehension, monitoring Answer :
Answered by : Question: My students' reading levels range from second grade level to seventh grade level. Because of this wide range, I have 4 reading groups in my classroom. Do you have any suggestions about how I can utilize the highest reading group to help with the lower reading groups, keeping in mind that these fifth grade children can be sensitive to classroom placement?
Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : literature circles, WEB, buddy reading, sharing Answer :First, congratulations on attempting to meet the needs of your class by establishing four reading groups. Having been a fifth-grade teacher, I know the range of abilities can be great. Perhaps it's time to think 'outside the box' as far as your grouping is concerned, though. Let me explain.
Answered by : Question: Due to the fact that I am a teacher in the Cranston School Dept., my students must use the accelerated reader program. Therefore, their reading must be limited to select books that have tests that go along with them. Many students do not get particularly excited about what they are reading or even selecting a new book. How can I encourage and inspire these middle school students to read when they hold a negative or ambivalent attitude toward reading? What are some strategies which I can utilize in my classroom?
Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : accelerated reader, computers, interests Answer :Dear Cranston Teacher:
Answered by : Question: I am currently working with a third grade ESL spanish student who is having difficulty with the short vowel sounds. She will spell the word him / hem, the word his/ hes/ the word them/ tham, the word they/ thay. What kind of strategies can I use to teach her to monitor her spelling and to help her "hear" the different sounds in the short vowels? She also has a difficult time with the long vowel sounds especially when the silent e is followed i.e. pine, cane, bake etc... Thank you K-12 ESL teacher, Rhode Island Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : ESL, phonics, phonic interference, onsets, rimes Answer :Dear K-12 ESL Teacher:
Answered by : Question: I work with a student in the third grade who is very far behind all of her classmates. Recent tests by the school interventionists indicate that she is almost two grade levels below, especially in reading. The possibility of retaining her has been discussed but the second graders coming up are already past her educationally. Her teacher and the interventionists do not want to retain her but I worry about what will happen to her next year. My question is, is there anything that can be done to help her now? I wanted to know if there were any specific reading teachniques that I could use with her now that might help her at least feel confident in the work that she is able to complete? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : diagnosis, Reading Recovery, tutoring Answer : This is an all to frequent dilemma facing all of us in education. My feeling is that retention, in and of itself, isn't going to solve this child's problem--especially now that she's already in third grade.There are many effective techniques that may help this child. The problem is, we don't know what she needs at this point in time. In other words, someone needs to do an extensive diagnosis of her strengths and weaknesses; then we can start to talk about which techniques will help her. The purpose of these assessments is to establish where literacy instruction needs to begin. My suggestion is to talk to the parents and see if they can afford to have a QUALIFIED reading specialist do some testing with her. Someone with a master's degree in reading or who is Reading Recovery trained would be my recommendation. If the parents can't afford this, another option might be to have her apply for enrollment in a college or university summer literacy clinic. Usually, these services are offered at a modest expense and the parents would get an extensive workup at the end of the clinic. A written report would detail what steps both the parents and teachers need to follow to help this child. Whatever the parents decide to do, they should not hire a tutor who hasn't been trained to work with disabled readers and writers. All too often, I see well-meaning parents hire an aunt, cousin, undergraduate teacher education major, or someone else who has good intentions but simply doesn't possess the expertise to do the job. Seldom does this type of arrangement work out. The child has high expectations, but the tutor can seldom deliver. If you had a heart condition, wouldn't you want to be treated by a cardiologist instead of a general practitioner? This child needs the same type of quality care. In the meantime, make sure she's reading material at her independent and instructional level. Answered by : Question: I am looking for some advice on a 3rd grade student I am working with who is making very little progress in his reading/writing skills. In the afternoon, I work with small guided reading groups. I currently work with a 3rd grade student in a pull-out capacity due to the dynamics of the group (There are 5 students ranging frpm grades 2-5). This 3rd grade student has made very little progress. I began working with him in November and he began reading at a Level F. Now, in March, he is a Level H, however, his fluency is inconsistent. He does read for meaning and his errors are usually MSV errors. He rarely self-monitors. I also do some word work with him on a regular basis and he still does not have control over short or long vowels. This child is on an IEP, has been retained twice, and is actually on the same level and struggling with the same vowel concepts he was one year ago at his last IEP meeting. Unfortunately, I am the only additional service he gets 3 times a week. He is in a regular education classroom the rest of the day where his work is not modified. He is a very hard worker! I really need help in where I should go next with this child. Thanks! Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : reading level, onsets, rimes, synthetic phonics Answer : I will be brutally honest with you. As long as this student is in a regular classroom and his work is not modified, there is little chance that he will improve significantly in reading. You see him for roughly three hours per week; the regular classroom teacher sees him for roughly twenty to twenty-five hours. My hunch is that most of his instruction is at his frustration level. Is it any wonder that he doesn't self monitor and he makes little progress in reading and writing?Now that I've railed, let's see what we can do to help this child. First, you need to get a grip on what he CAN do. What abilities does he possess? You need to identify his strengths. You mention that he has trouble with vowels. I suggest you redirect your instruction to focus on onsets and rimes. These will be undoubtedly easier for him than synthetic phonics instruction in isolation. What type of sight vocabulary does he have? He needs to learn a corpus of words that are learned to a level of automatic recall. The reason this child doesn't monitor is that he has been drilled and drilled on isolated phonics elements. All of his attention has been focused on the word level of meaning. He needs to monitor at the sentence level. The child must become a phrased and fluent reader. In order to become phrased, he must be reading easy text. This will allow him to read natural breaks in text punctuation, dialogue, etc. This, hopefully, will produce a shift and improve his comprehension. Once this is underway, introduce unseen easy text and provide only monitoring prompts. For example, when he hesitates at a difficult spot in the text, ask, "What do you notice?" He is old enough that you can explain what monitoring is and why it is important. Direct him to stop at difficult spots and you will help him. Explain that all good readers know when they are in trouble because READING MUST MAKE SENSE! A reminder: Before a reader can pause and stop at difficult spots, monitoring the error must occur consistently. In your question, you stated that his miscues are usually M (meaning), S (structure), and V (visual). Are you saying that he makes roughly equal numbers of miscues on all three cueing sources? I would bet that most of his miscues fall into the V category since this is where he is receiving the bulk of his instruction. If his self-correction ratio isn't in the 1:2 or 1:3 area, the material is too hard for him and you need to drop down to an appropriate level. You certainly have your work cut out for you. But, until his classroom instruction is modified to fit his level of performance, I wouldn't expect any significant gains. One last bombshell. If he has an IEP, why doesn't it require his classroom instruction to be at an appropriate level? It sounds to me like this student might benefit from an in-depth evaluation from someone outside of the school system. He's certainly not getting what he needs now. Answered by : Question: I am a first grade teacher in a private school. I have heard and read so much about the benefits of guided reading. I would like to implement a guided reading program in my classroom, but I have some concerns about starting. I have twenty-six students, no aide, and very few trade books outside of those connected to our reading series. In addition, I am the newest (heard about guided reading!) teacher at my school. Up to this point (Feb), I have only taught using whole groups with the basal series. No one else at my school is using or likely will use a guided reading model. I teach in a primary school, PreK-3. The chances are very likely that any student remaining in my school system will not again be in a classroom using the guided reading model. Please give me your opinion/advice on whether or not you feel it will be in the best interests of my students to use guided reading.
Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : first-grade, guided reading Answer :Dear First-Grade Teacher:
Answered by : Question: How can a third grade teacher enhance comprehension strategies that low, struggling readers aren't grasping after extensive vocabulary enrichment, teacher directed lessons, guided reading groups, teacher modeling and peer tutoring and modeling? These students are already receiving Special Services in the form of a pull out resource program.
Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : comprehension, pull-out programs, third-grade Answer :Dear Third-Grade Teacher:
Answered by : Question: I over the past month or so I have been teaching my students how to make connections to their reading in order to enhance their comprehension skills. They have caught on very quickly, and love sharing their connections with me, and the rest of the class. I wonder if a list of great books, particularly picture books, has been compiled that are good to use while teaching children how to make connections. I specifically wonder how teachers have taught very young students (first grade) how to make text-to-world connections. Thanks for your help! Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : first grade, comprehension, text-to-world connections Answer :Dear First-Grade Teacher:
Answered by : Question: What specific recommendations do you have for teaching fluency? Having some fluency would help students with decoding and comprehension. As I poll the teachers in my building, it seems that fluency comes in as a 'final' strategy rather than one which should be used in conjuction with others. Many teachers tell me they have their students read an easier text repeatedly for fluency. But how does that student transfer that strategy when the text is not so easy? Recommending some literature or web sites would be great! I would love to have something concrete in order to show the teachers different ways to teach fluency. Thank you! Sherry Ryan Reading Specialist Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : fluency Answer : Dear Sherry:I love going into schools, listening to children read, and taking a running record of their oral reading. Like a detective, I listen carefully to their reading. You can tell a lot about the type of reading instruction they've been given. I suspect that fluency hasn't been a major emphasis in the primary grades in your school, although I'm only guessing because you didn't mention the grade levels in your building. You are absolutely right when you mention that fluency must be taught in conjunction with other decoding and comprehension strategies. If you've ever sat in on Reading Recovery teachers' lessons, you'll quickly see how much they emphasize phrasing and fluency as part of their instruction. Remember, Reading Recovery students are the lowest performers in first-grade classrooms. Thus, it's never too early to begin focusing on reading fluency. But, back to my detective analogy. If you have students who are not fluent readers, there's a chance that their early instructional programs have focused on decoding to the detriment of comprehension (and fluency). Students from these classrooms frequently end up to be "word callers" because we become what we have been taught. Fluency, just so we are clear, is the rate that students read text. Phrasing, another important facet of instruction, is the degree to which students honor dialogue, acknowledge punctuation marks, read groups of words naturally, and know when there are supposed to be breaks in the text. Your teachers are on the right track when they have students read easier material to practice their fluency. Certainly, we can't be fluent if we're reading at our frustration level! I would encourage them--especially the primary grade teachers--to not look at fluency as an "add on." It's an important facet of being able to comprehend. Having said that, you need to keep in mind that as students become older, they may be adequate comprehenders but may lack the fluency that you expected at the primary grades. As content material becomes more prevalent, we just don't read as fluently. Also keep in mind that some of the most fluent readers don't necessarily comprehend everything they read. So, use common sense. Our ultimate goal is to make connections with our reading and have good comprehension. Assessing fluency information can be found in Strickland, Ganski, and Monroe's "Supporting Struggling Readers and Writers" (Stenhouse Publishers). Some good sources to gain additional information on how to teach this topic can be found in Regie Routman's texts "Conversations" on pages 128-129 and "Teaching Essentials," page 128. Also check Opitz and Rasinski's "Good-Bye Round Robin," pages 58-60. These last three texts are all available from Heinemann Publishers. Don't forget the power of modeling good fluency for your teachers and their students. Maybe you could go in to their classrooms and model fluent reading by doing some read-alouds to their students. By working hand-in-hand with your teachers, the students should be the ultimate benefactors. Answered by : Question: I presently tutor some upper elementary students who have difficulty taking notes from content material that they are reading. What are some instructional techniques I can use to facilitate the development of these skills? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : study skills, content area Answer : Teaching notetaking skills is difficult for many students but especially for students who are struggling readers, which, I assume these students are since you are tutoring them.Your first priority is to determine whether the material they are reading is easy enough for them to read. If you examine some contemporary middle-school science textbooks, for example, you may be surprised to see the vocabulary words today's students are expected to know. If the material isn't written at their instructional level, you've solved your first problem. You need to find materials they can read. You can't expect them to be good notetakers if they can't decode and comprehend. Let's assume that they've overcome this first hurdle. If that's the case, then I would teach them to use some of the graphic organizers to help them structure their thinking and, hence, improve their retention of facts. Webbing is one good strategy. Put the main idea in the center of the web and let the supporting details spread out from the inner circle. Don't worry about neatness at this point. You are simply getting them to think about connections. Venn diagrams are sometimes useful in doing compare-contrast activities. Again, the diagrams present a visual representation that aids memory. I sometimes use an 'H' Chart for comparisons between, say, a book and a movie. On one leg of the H the book details are listed. On the other leg, the movie details are listed. On the connecting stem between the legs, commonalities found between the two are entered. Compare-contrast activities can also be done by simply making lists under appropriate headings. Simple, but effective. How about using the K-W-L strategy? Three columns are drawn on a sheet of paper. K stands for What You Know. W stands for What You Want to Know. L stands for what you've learned by reading the selection. Again, simple but effective. If you want to teach your students about sequences of events, have them draw a series of boxes on their paper. Connect the boxes by single arrows. The events are entered from left-to-right. Semantic Feature Analysis charts are also good to use in science education. On one axis of the grid, animals, for example, would be listed. On the other axis, characteristics of each species are listed. At the intersections of the grid, a '+' is placed if the animal has a specific characteristic. If it doesn't, a '-' is entered. Finally, there's the old SQ3R technique: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review. It's been around for as long as I can remember, but it works. Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, I have had many opportunities to teach in one particular K classroom and have gotten to know the children fairly well. There is one child that stands out in my mind because she has a great understanding of beginning letter/sound relationships. What would be the best approach to continue her progress,more practice with beginning sounds or middle and ending sounds as well? Thanks-DL Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : emerging literacy, kindergarten Answer : Dear DL:I'm sure there are hundreds of kindergarten teachers out there who would love to have an entire class of this type of student. I would also venture to guess that this child's knowledge of reading is a result of a wonderful home environment. We know, for example, that children who come to school from literate home environments have about 1,000 hours of experience over their less fortunate counterparts. Talk about a head start! This child already has a jump-start down the decoding avenue. Now is the time to move into very simple books. There are always wordless picture books but I would be surprised if this child wasn't already past that point and was ready to delve into something more challenging. The 'I Can Read' Books would be one place to start. 'Bright and Early Books for Beginning Beginners' are also good. Bill Martin's 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear' and 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom' are classics. Author Mercer Mayer has a vast collection of easy-to-read books, too. Some of them are 'The New Baby,' 'Just Me and Dad,' ' Me Too!,' and 'All By Myself.' My point is, there are hundreds of good books out there for students like this. For now, let's let this reader experience the true joy of reading books. She'll have ample opportunity in first grade and thereafter to learn all the nuances of the phonological queuing system. You might also start shared reading and shared writing activities with this child. One last point. I would make an effort to praise this child's parents. Parenting is tough work in today's world and these parents have obviously placed a priority on their child's education. They need to hear what a good job they've done. Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, I am doing guided reading 3 times a week and meeting with each group each day. I am doing writing one day a week and on Fridays we only have time for a spelling test for RLA. I do mini lessons in spelling, grammar, and test prep on the days of guided reading. I want to incorporate literature circles into my curriculum as well, but I don't know how. There just doesn't seem to be enough time to fit it all in. Any ideas? Thanks! -Mary Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : guided reading, literature circles Answer : Dear Mary:I have a hunch that you are feeling overwhelmed, a more and more common feeling among educators at all levels. Everyone seems to be demanding more of us but where do we find the time to do all we know needs to be done? There are three easy-to-read professional books that might help you solve your time conundrum. They are:
Each of these books addresses the issue of insufficient time during the school day. All are published by Heinemann Publishers. My next suggestion would be to hook up with a teacher of about the same grade level who is facing the same issues. Life is much easier if you have someone to confide in and cooperatively solve the educational issues you are encountering. Meet with her on a weekly basis and talk about your successes and 'plops.' You will learn much from each other and you can serve as each other's cheerleader. Another thing to keep in mind is to pace yourself. Teaching is more like running a marathon than running a sprint. Even the 'superteachers' I know have been refining their craft for many, many years--and they're still not satisfied. Don't try to do too much in too short of time. Bite off manageable bits and think about methodically improving your instruction each year. Now to the specifics. If you want to get a handle on the day-to-day implementation of literature circles, get hold of Harvey Daniel's Literature Circles book. It is practical and down-to-earth. Another good source is Guiding Readers and Writers: Grades 3-6, by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell. They devote fifty pages describing literature study in groups. Also, if your children are ready to move into literature circles, you shouldn't have to continue your guided reading lessons since guided reading is a precursor to getting your kids to the point where you can move into the literature circles. Once your students have the reading process firmly in place, you can move on to the literature circles. Answered by : Question: I used the SIRI to find a reading level on a 7th grade student. Her independent reading level is at grade 2. Her instructional level is grade 3, and her frustration level is a grade 4. She is currently receiving the Wilson Reading Program. My question is, even though I used the SIRI in Jan., can I administer the SIRI in a few months to see if her reading level increased or stayed the same? Do I use the same stories I used before? I used both narrative and expository stories. If I am unable to use the SIRI, is there another Informal Reading Inventory that I can use? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : SIRI, IRIs, running records Answer :Dear SIRI User:
Answered by : Question: I am a literacy coach for grades 2 and 3 in a school district that has many ESL classrooms. I am working with a 3rd grade ESL classroom with many children who are still reading at a preprimer level. I have advised the teacher to try a direct reading instruction program that will highlight learning to read embedded with phonics and phonemic awareness. This is only for the guided reading group portion of the ELA program. What are your thoughts about the best practices for these children? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : ESL, phonics, phonemic awareness Answer : Teaching reading is always a challenging job but when you layer on the issues of dealing with an ESL population, you have another whole set of issues to keep in mind. Having said that, I want you to know that as I thought about your question, I felt that I should run my answer by one of the best teachers I have seen in my thirty plus years in teaching and teacher education. I have the utmost respect for her wisdom. Her name is Eni Desmond and she teaches an ESL second grade in Rhode Island. So, here are our combined thoughts.As we thought about your question, there were some questions that we couldn't answer. How long have these children been in this country? Is their problem low language skills or low reading ability? What is their level of English? Were they literate in their first language? Answers to these questions will have a bearing on the instruction you should deliver. Unfortunately, we don't know the answers to these questions, so we'll do the best we can with the information we have. Let's begin with this thought. Have you ever traveled to a foreign country and tried to learn the language as you paged through your guidebook? If you have, you probably started by learning individual words that had meaning to you. Food is always important in my life, so I usually try to read the menu in a restaurant. So, if I'm in France and want a steak, I look for 'entrecote' on the menu. If I'm in Germany and want sausages, I ask for 'wurstchen.' Bread in France? 'Le pain'..in Germany? 'Das brot.' These words all have meaning to me. The key word here is 'meaning.' Once I've learned a few additional key words, such as 'please,' 'thank you,' 'yes' and 'no,' I can move on to phrases 'Where is the airport?' Or, 'Where is the railroad station?' Meaning is driving my language. Of course, there are times when the words are so long or the phonetics of the language so unique, that I have to drop down to the 'sound' level. Take the word 'llama' in Spanish, for example. I need to know that the double L sounds like the 'y' in English. But, my driving motivation behind all my learning is to make sense of what I'm reading. The last thing I need is to have instruction in phonics. The same is true for your students. If you embed too much phonics into your ESL program, you are sending a message to your students that the way to read is to sound out every word. This is a dangerous path, especially for ESL students since they probably represent a wide variety of other languages and the sounds of their oral language are not exactly the same as in English. In Eni's class, for example, there are five different mother tongues. Her primary goal is to actively engage students, as quickly as possible, in the reading/writing process and get them to be independent readers and writers, because it is only through practice that we improve our reading (or any other learning, for that matter.) ESL learners also bring another issue to the table. They need to know the English vocabulary words that represent objects in our world. Vocabulary knowledge is what will help them comprehend what they read. For that reason, it's important to have a print-rich environment so children are immersed in print. When you think about it, this is exactly what any child, ESL or native speakers of English need. ESL children, though, must be familiar with the English language if they are to be expected to use all three cueing systems and not rely solely on phonics. Because speakers of other languages also have a different syntactic structure than we do in English, they need to hear and use English in a variety of settings so that their spoken English syntax matches the syntax of the text. This only happens if you are immersed in rich oral language settings. You also need to be careful when you choose books for guided reading with these students. Book language is much different than the foreign language they know. You want to use books that have a carefully chosen syntactic pattern so they can begin to use cueing systems in addition to only visual cues (i.e. phonics). By doing a good job of selecting appropriate books, your students will start to develop the metacognitive strategies that allow them to self-monitor their reading and be engaged in what they read. My advice to you would be to concentrate not so much on simple phonics but to think about the many facets of reading that make children better readers: predicting words and story structure, story telling, read-alouds, sharing books, writing, summarizing, and making connections by what they hear when read to or when reading independently. Children need to be engaged in their learning. When you do read-alouds with ESL students, you want to emphasize the importance of having students make text-to-self connections. That way, reading will take on meaning for them. The bottom line is phonics, by itself, won't make them better readers. For further reading on this topic, you might enjoy reading Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom, by Pauline Gibbons. It can be ordered from Heinemann Publishers. Answered by : Question: Greetings, I am trying to find data for what I internally believe. I teach first grade, utilize journal writing on a daily basis and have found it to be a strong contributor to teaching children to read. It prompts them to use blends, listen for patterns (rhyming words strategy in spelling) and become alert to new vocabulary or story sense when reading or being read to. I am looking for research that I can use to confirm or refine this practice. Can you help me? In advance, I thank you. Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : journal writing, best practices, research Answer : Dear First Grade Teacher:Kudos to you for allowing your intuition to help guide you toward good instruction. Like many teachers, you have seen what works with your students. Now you want to substantiate your beliefs with research data. Experienced teachers do this all the time. They have hypotheses about children's literacy and then look for hard data, such as test results, to support their views. Inexperienced teachers sometimes lack the background knowledge to trust their intuition and so they are more apt to look to hard data first and be reluctant to trust their intuition. Over the years, I have seen teachers pressured to adapt Program X over Program Y. Seldom is there data to support these changes. In fact, Rona Fillippo, a professor at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts has spent many years working with diverse experts in the field of literacy to find a common ground regarding literacy instruction. Her latest book, 'Reading Researchers in Search of Common Ground' (International Reading Association), gives a wonderful historical perspective regarding where our profession presently finds itself. I highly recommend it. Your question, it seems to me, is easiest answered by looking at what we have learned about "best practices" in reading and writing. In their book Best Practice: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools, Zemelman, Daniels and Hyde list the characteristics of best practices in each of these two areas. Here is what they found: QUALITIES OF BEST PRACTICE IN TEACHING READING Reading means getting meaning from print. Reading is a process. Hearing books read aloud is the beginning of learning to read. Reading is the best practice for learning to read. An effective reading program exposes students to a wide and rich array of print and goes beyond the use of the basal. Choice is an integral part of literate behavior. Teachers should model reading. Effective teachers of reading help children actively use reading and writing as tools for learning. Children learn reading best in a low-risk environment. Young children should have well-structured instruction in phonics. Teachers should provide daily opportunities for children to share and discuss what they have been reading and writing. Writing experiences are provided at all grade levels. Reading assessment should match classroom practice. Schools that are effective in teaching reading have an ethos that supports reading. QUALITIES OF BEST PRACTICE IN TEACHING WRITING All children can and should write. Teachers must help students find real purposes to write. Students need to take ownership and responsibility. Effective writing programs involve the complete writing process. Teachers can help students get started. Teachers help students draft and revise. Grammar and mechanics are best learned in the context of actual writing. Students need real audiences and a classroom context of shared learning. Writing should extend throughout the curriculum. Effective teachers use evaluation constructively and efficiently. Zemelman, Steven, Harvey Daniels & Arthur Hyde (1998) Best Practice: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Publishing Company. If you want additional information, I suggest you read Patricia Cunningham and Richard Allington's book Classrooms That Work: They Can ALL Read and Write and Richard Allington & Patricia Cunningham's Schools That Work (Allyn & Bacon). Another good read is Allington's What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs (Addison-Wesley). Allington has spent his entire professional career looking at compensatory reading programs as well as examining classrooms and school literacy programs. You'll enjoy what he has to say. Keep doing what you are doing. You are providing your students with the gifts of reading and writing. Answered by : Question: Please advise me on what you feel is the best way to teach Dolch/Sight words to 2 students in my class that are having great difficulty with fluency. They came into my class (Grade 2) on an A/B level and I can't seem to advance them very quickly along in their leveled readers. I really feel the delay is that they can't retain the Sight words that they have learned. Maybe there is a different stategy to teach Sight words so that they become part of their reading vocabulary forever. I have tried games Bingo, Fish etc. and I have also tried a dry erase board and reward systems for the one who remember the greatest amount of words from day to day. I really think that they both try hard to remember the words,but sometimes the word that they think the Sight word is doesn't even look or sound the same. Help! Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : sight words, fluency, writing Answer : Dear Help:I think the key point you make is in your last sentence. That is, the sight words your students are miscuing on don't even look or sound the same. That tells me that these two students are randomly guessing at the unknown words. So, let's back up and think about how fluent readers read text. Good readers make use of three cuing systems?phonics, semantics, and syntax. These are also known as the visual, meaning, and structure cuing systems. In order to learn how to orchestrate these three cuing systems simultaneously, students need to see these sight words in connected text. In your question, you mentioned that you've tried games such as Bingo, Fish, etc. This tells me that there is a very high probability that you are attempting to teach these words in isolation. This is a common (but unfortunate) practice. When a reader sees a word in isolation, the only way the word can be decoded is through using the phonological (visual) cuing system. Attempting to teach words only in isolation sends an implicit message to students that the only way to decode words is by 'sounding it out.' Many of the sight words are phonically irregular, so they can't be sounded out. So, in essence, you are denying students the opportunity to practice using the most important facet of reading instruction?reading for meaning. If you are going to use homemade games to teach sight words, at least put the target words in short phrases or simple sentences. That way, readers can monitor what they are reading and ask themselves, 'does what I read make sense?' An excellent way to teach sight words is through the students' own writing. Dictated language-experience stories are a wonderful way to give practice on sight words. By using students' own language, you'll discover that about 60% of the words they dictate are on the Dolch Sight Word List. When selecting words to teach, there are three things to keep in mind. First, keep the number of words to be learned to a minimum. Secondly, select words that are graphically DISIMILAR, such as 'to' and 'saw' instead of 'three' and 'there.' Finally, don't add new words to the list to be learned until these words are learned to the point of automatic recall and can be quickly identified in a variety of different settings. Another good writing technique is to have students created their own multi-page draft books. Each page of the book is sectioned off into quarters. In the upper right-hand quarter, students illustrate their story. In the upper left-hand quarter, they attempt to write about their picture. The teacher prints the correct orthographic representation of the story in the lower left-hand quarter of the page. Finally, the student copies the teacher's version in the lower right-hand quarter. Again, you'll find that about 60% of the words students use will be sight words from the Dolch List. The power of using students' writing is that they have a tremendous drive to make their stories meaningful and interesting. Also, don't overlook the power of reading easy-to-read books. Lists of leveled books can be found at a number of popular websites and in professional books. After doing a quick check on a selection of easy-to-read, lower-level Rigby books, I found that 74% of the words in the collection were also found on the Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary Test. A similar check of popular I-Can-Read books found 59% of the words were on the Dolch list. These are the kinds of materials students need extensive practice reading. Now you have a variety of ways to incorporate all three cuing systems into your instruction. It's also a chance to start impressing upon your students the importance of monitoring what they are reading. But, I'll leave that for another Loom response. Answered by : Question: What legal obligation do private schools have (especially Catholic schools) to provide special services for students with special needs? For instance, suppose a student is found to be dyslexic or have another type of reading disability while a student at a private school. Who is required to provide services? The school or the district in which the child lives? And...if the school is obligated, and they do not have the resources available, can the child be privately tutored to fulfill the services due? Likewise with the district? One more question...(thank you)...About 4-5 years ago, I researched dyslexia and different types of treatment. Some of the newest treatments "on the market" at that time were software programs. Are these programs still available and have they been found to be effective? Is the software considered to be a viable part of servicing a dyslexic student or do teachers and tutors still rely on the 'tried and true' methods only? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : private schools, special education, dyslexia Answer : You raise an interesting question that many teachers outside of our public school systems raise as they attempt to provide for the individual needs of their students. As with so many things in life, there is no simple answer to your question, but I think I can help you sort through how you might approach this problem.My understanding of the law requiring providing services for children in private schools is that before services can be provided, the child's legal caregiver must petition the public school district within which they live before services with public funds can be provided. The request for services is made with the Special Education Director in the district. There are a series of strict timelines that must then be followed by the public school officials. Here's the catch. The child must have a severe discrepancy between performance and ability AND must have a recognized learning disability. All of this is spelled out in the federal regulations that are available from the Special Education Director in the respective district. Simply having a 'reading disability' doesn't qualify for outside funding or services. Obviously, things are more complex than this and there are many options available to the child's caregiver. As you might expect, there are many legal as well as pedagogical issues that surround this thorny issue. In the second part of your question you asked about dyslexia and educational software. My bias is that labels aren't useful in identifying individuals with reading problems. More often than not, the labels simply serve as a means for people to give up on students. You know, 'He can't read because he has dyslexia.' Everyone is off the hook. Having said that, I have encountered a few individuals in clinical settings whose reading behavior has been so bizarre, it simply couldn't be explained. For example, we once had a young teenage female in our reading clinic that would miscue on over 50% of the text she would read. When asked to do a retelling of the story, she could virtually do a verbatim recollection of the text. Clearly, she was processing information in a most unusual way. These types of cases--the ones that truly may be dyslexic--account for only a very small proportion of the population--maybe 2-5% at best. In my experience, there are no 'silver bullets' to helping students become fluent readers and comprehenders. Children learn to read best when taught by knowledgeable teachers who effectively model the reading process and then provide students with many and varied opportunities to read connected text. My thoughts about technology are found in an answer to an earlier question. You can check what our technology experts think by going to the Loom's 'Good Models of Teaching with Technology.' Answered by : Question: I teach third grade in a full inclusion class. One of the things I do to work on fluency with some of my struggling readers is having them reread familiar texts. However, for my students that are at grade level, it is more difficult to do that because of the length of many of the texts we read. I have tried giving them poems to reread and share with each other. I was wondering if you could share any other strategies that would help my third graders with their fluency. Thank you! Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : fluency, phrasing Answer :
Answered by : Question: Dr. Rude, when dealing with diversity in the classroom, how do best assess or grade a student when they have a strong dialect? Would you as the teacher say that the student has clear and concise language? Thanks, Shannon Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Diversity, assessment, ESL Answer :Dear Shannon: Thank you for your question. In it, you ask about 'diversity,' 'assessment,' 'dialect,' and 'clear and concise language.' Each of these terms conjures up enough thoughts to fill a book, but I'll try to be concise and highlight what I feel are important issues dealing with each. First, there's the diversity issue. Rather than look at it as a problem, I would attempt to stand back and consider how you could celebrate the fact that you have so many languages or dialects in your class. One practical way to begin this celebration is through doing read-alouds to your children. Since you didn't mention the ages of the children you teach, it's hard to give you specific titles but one excellent source to consult is Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook. Your librarian or local bookstore can supply you with a copy. Also, check out his website at www.Trelease-on-Reading.com. Even if you are dealing with older children, you can use easy-to-read picture books. The key is the message you are attempting to send to your children...let's celebrate our differences. In this shrinking world of increased globalization, you will be helping your students develop a tolerance for diversity. Assessment is another whole issue. If you are talking about mandated statewide, norm-referenced assessment, you don't have many options but to go along with the prescribed procedures. More importantly, however, is the day-to-day, informal formative type of assessment that most classroom teachers value. This type of assessment should drive all your instruction. It seems to me, that one of the most important types of assessments you can do is to take periodic running records of your students' reading. In one school I work with, most of the teachers keep an assessment notebook for their class. Each week or two, every child receives a running record assessment. So, for example, if I want to see Shannon's progress, the teacher simply flips to the pages in her notebook where your running records are kept. The complete running record, along with anecdotal notes are kept for each reading. This allows the teacher to see what cueing systems the child is using (structural, meaning, or visual) as well review the notes made during the reading. This type of assessment is especially valuable to students who bring a second language to school or to those who speak in dialect. The running record allows the teacher, perhaps with the reading teacher or ESL teacher, to analyze why the child miscues when reading. You want to make sure you look at the self-correction ratio of miscues. Students whose self-correction ratio is greater than 1:3 probably aren't monitoring successfully and their comprehension is apt to be poor. Remember, all of us read to comprehend. Without comprehension, are we really reading? Most reading experts don't consider dialect miscues to have an important bearing on comprehension. Comprehension instruction and development is readily fostered through read-alouds, especially in ESL classrooms. These lessons allow second-language learners to be immersed in rich oral language and guided in a systematic way to think about story, elements, and language. Finally, there's the issue of "clear and concise language." In my mind, this means language that the child speaks and can comprehend. When the child arrives at school, however, it usually means Standard English. All of us, as teachers, have the responsibility to model good English -- spoken and written -- for our students. This is a process that occurs throughout our life. We learn by hearing others use language, by listening or reading text that supports the language we are attempting to teach, and through our writing. It is incumbent upon all of us, at all levels -- preschool to graduate level education -- to immerse our students in this type of environment. Let's stop blaming our students' earlier teachers (or parents) and do the job we're trained to do. It's not easy but the rewards are worth the effort. Good luck, Shannon. Answered by : Question: A number of software programs have been developed in recent years to help children learn to read. What issues should teachers consider when integrating computer technology into their reading instruction? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : technology, software, decoding, comprehension Answer : In today's technological world, this is a question facing more and more teachers and administrators. In addition to school personnel, parents are asking this question of their child's teacher, too.For teachers and those associated with classroom instruction, I think the overriding question is "What do I expect the software to accomplish?" If, for example, you expect software to teach your students to become better at comprehending text material, you may be disappointed. Much of the software purporting to "teach" comprehension really doesn't teach comprehension strategies at all. Instead, it assesses a child's ability to answer a series of questions after reading passages. In a sense, these activities are nothing more than electronic worksheets. Of course, the computer can do a wonderful job of recording the students' performance on these tasks and store the scores in an easily retrievable data base. If, on the other hand, you are interested in teaching and assessing rudimentary phonemic awareness and other decoding skills, there are some excellent programs that are available. These programs allow students to become proficient at letter identification, matching letters and sounds, and learning basic high frequency sight words. One of the best uses of computer technology, in my opinion, is to use this technology for writing by allowing students to compose sentences and stories. With today's software technology, interesting graphics can be merged into the text, creating attractive written pieces. And, since writing is the reciprocal process of reading, both reading and writing improve. Some teachers create class books, written and illustrated by the children. These books are "published" and sent home at the end of the school year. Some intermediate grade teachers also allow students to use the World Wide Web. Again, this is an excellent use of the technology. In one classroom I recently visited, students were working in literature circles. The "Word Wizard" for the day used the web to check out the meaning of unknown words other students in the group might encounter. Finally, there is the issue of cost. Software programs aren't cheap. If lack of funds is a problem in your school, you may decide books give you more "bang for the buck." If, however, you are lucky and need not worry about costs, some carefully chosen software may help you meet your educational goals and objectives. Answered by : Question: Could educators, parents, administrators, and even students please give me YOUR short, precise definition of "family literacy?" I know about the gov. definition -- but I am interested in the WORKING definition. Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Answer : Family literacy programs, in a broad sense, seek to enhance literacy within families. Examples of the goals of family literacy programs vary. The following are some possible goals:
The variations among family literacy projects are enormous. Integral to the very nature of a successful program is that it is customized to meet the needs of the particular families it is serving.
Answered by : Question: Is there any research that specifically say what time of day k-3 students learn reading and language skills? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Answer : (The Knowledge Loom is grateful to Dr. M. Susan Burns for sharing her expertise in early literacy and answering the following questions, unless otherwise noted, for "Ask an Expert." Dr. Burns is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Education, George Mason University.)In reviews of research on beginning reading instruction by various experts, I have not located a body of converging evidence addressing Time-of-School-Day and effective reading instruction. (By converging evidence I am referring to a body of research from which experts can make a judgment based on the preponderance of evidence. Research is highly convergent when a series of experiments consistently support a given theory while collectively eliminating the most important competing explanations. Although no single experiment can rule out all alternative explanations, taken collectively, a series of partially diagnostic studies can lead to a strong conclusion if the data converge [Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998, p. 35].)
So my answer to your question, Is there any research that says specifically what time of day K-3 students learn reading and language skills? I have not found multiple research findings with converging results that suggest a particular Time-of-School-Day that is best for reading instruction.
However, if you are interested in further pursuit of this question in your own research, you might want to read an article by Zephaniah T. Davis, entitled "Effects of Time-of-Day of Instruction on Beginning Reading Achievement." It can be found in the Journal of Educational Research, 40 (3), 138-140.
Answered by : Question: I teach second grade. I have to quit teaching reading daily a 9:55 (just when I'm getting started!) and take my kids to special classes. I have repeatedly requested that our specials be moved to the PM because I feel young children need to be taught reading in the AM with uninterupted time. What are you thoughts on this subject? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Answer : How frustrating it must be to have your teaching time interrupted! We do know that a successful reading program requires that ALL school staff support the need to give young children the time in reading instruction (McChesney, 1998.) Of course, when given sufficient time for reading instruction, your allocation of time in different instructional activities is essential (McNinch, Shaffer, Campbell, & Rakes, 1998; McChesney, 1998).Also, in terms of AM or PM teaching of reading, please see the previous response given (above) on the question concerning time of day when k-3 students best learn reading and language skills.
References:
McChesney, J. (1998, November). Are we willing to do what it takes to improve reading? Principal, 78 (2), 28-29.
McNinch, G., Shaffer, G., Campbell, P., & Rakes, S. (1998). Allocation of time in reading. Reading Horizons, 39 (2), 123-130.
Answered by : Question: I have just finished reading Pat Cunningham's Four Blocks model. This is very similiar to what I do with my second graders, but I like the way the program is organized and I am going to attempt to setup and run my classroom using the 4 blocks model this year.It has given me some good ideals. Any thoughts or comments? Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Answer : By now you have most likely set up your classroom using the Four Blocks Model. One of the goals you have for your second grade is to develop a clear plan across the days and weeks of the school year.
Pat Cunningham's Four Blocks Model is one that can help with a plan to answer these questions. Research on the program indicates that children showed significant improvement in their reading abilities. The following article gives an update on the progress made by children whose teachers used the Four Blocks Model:
Answered by : Question: My school is currently working with read-alouds and modeling strategies that good readers use in thinking about stories to aid in comprehension skills. Does anyone know if there is a comprehensive list of good read-alouds that are appropriate for various grade levels? Thanks Asked by: Expert's keyword(s) : Answer : Most publishers of reading programs include lists of read-alouds in their teacher editions. When reviewing these lists, there are a few principles to keep in mind to guide your selection. Read-alouds should contain high-interest materials and present opportunities to introduce interesting vocabulary and new information to students. The content should not be too easy, but challenging to the student's comprehension level.
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