Interactive Reading

I really enjoyed this week's reading material on making connections with the text and reading comprehension. The article "Kindergarteners Can Do It, Too!" by Gregory and Cahill explained great ideas and comprehension strategies for early readers. We tend to think that reading comprehension is geared towards upper elementary grades, but according to Gregory and Cahill kindergarteners can do it too!

I have heard of several cases where teachers assign signals for their students as a silent indicator. For example, a 3rd grade class I observed used numbers to indicate specific requests. If students held up one finger they were finished with their work, two fingers meant they needed more time, three fingers meant they wanted to get a book from the classroom library, and so on. However, I have never heard of using hand signals as a strategy for reading comprehension.

In the article, Mrs. Hope used hand signals in her classroom to help her students make connections with the text. Students would make the letter "C" with their hands if they made a connection, the letter "V" if they had a visualization or mind movie, or wiggle their finger if they had any questions or "I wonders" about the text. This strategy not only allows the teacher to see how much the students are comprehending the text but it keeps them engaged and interacting with the text.

As a teacher begins the story the "I wonders" can be written on the board so the students can discuss the questions brought up before and after the story. After the book is finished the students can determine if their questions were answered in the text or if they will have to use their brains to find the answer. After the story the students can also take their connections and visualizations and draw them on paper. The visualizations from each student can be presented and displayed in the classroom to illustrate what each student took away from the story.

This is an excellent reading comprehension strategy for all elementary grades. The hand signals constantly keep the students engaged and interacting with the reading. The follow up activities clarify and answer any questions that may arise from the text. Overall, the strategy is a fun way to help readers learn how to comprehend text and I will use this strategy in the future!

Here are some other interest reading comprehension strategies that are easy to incorporate in the classroom.

A Tool for Reading: Using Whiteboards During Guided Reading

 

Reader's Notebook: Promoting Comprehension Strategies through Letter Writing 

Questions

• What are some other reading comprehension strategies that you have seen or experienced in a classroom?

Fast or Fluent?

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Rasinski's article on creating fluent readers pointed out a valid problem with teaching fluency. Many teachers and students may have the wrong idea of fluency. Being a fluent reader is far more than finishing a book as fast as you can. A fluent reader can not only read through a book without any trouble they comprehend the material they are reading.

I can relate to the confusion of fast and fluent reading. I can remember when 'fast' reading begin to become a daily habit. When I was in fourth grade my teacher assigned me an unrealistic goal for Accelerated Reader. Instead of taking my time and absorbing the material in the book I would speed read and take test after test to achieve my goal. I did not do well on the tests but if I took enough I could get my points. This became a pattern throughout the rest of elementary school and into middle school. I knew that I could just get by if I crammed in my readings. My teachers thought I was a fluent reader but I was really just skimming through the lines really fast.

This problem became apparent when I entered high school. I was placed in honors English and we immediately hit the books. I did my readings every night but this did not show on my quizzes and tests. I became extremely frustrated because I did not know why I was struggling on the tests. I became lost in the material and overwhelmed. I finally talked to my teacher and she showed me a few techniques to help me comprehend the material. The techniques required me to slow down, a lot. I noticed an immediate change and actually understood what I was reading. I had became programmed to read as fast as I could and I did not realize this was a problem until high school. Thank goodness I had an excellent teacher who was prepared to help with fluency although we were in high school.

Questions

• Were you tested on how fast you could read as a young student?
• How do you think this could affect students in the future?

Fundamentals are Forever!

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Making Words
In every elementary classroom you are sure to find evidence of word making activities. From rearranging magnets to writing on a dry erase board students are taught to create their own words in the early stages of reading and writing. The key word in the last sentence is early stages. In elementary school we are repetitively taught the fundamentals of reading and writing. When we advance to the middle grades we are often expected to know all of the fundamentals and jump straight into middle school material. This may not be the case for everyone but this is true from my personal experience.

The section on making 'Big Word Lessons' brought this matter to my attention when the authors gave an example lesson plan of making words geared towards older students. I believe that it is common for fundamentals to be thrown to the side once we reach middle and high school. I do not think that teachers should ever stop incorporating fundamentals, such as word making, into lessons.

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The importance of fundamentals can be related to basketball. When you are 6 years old you are taught the fundamentals of basketball such as dribbling, shooting and passing. Throughout elementary school you continue to work on the fundamentals at every practice. Once you reach middle school your coach does not forget about the fundamentals. You continue to start every practice with dribbling and passing. Even in high school and college teams warm up by shooting lay-ups. Coaches never stop teaching fundamentals.

Now think about this in terms of school. Let's say the fundamentals of reading and writing are work recognition, word making, and comprehension. Although we may focus more on these fundamentals in elementary grades we should still take the time to incorporate these skills in the beginning of class of the semester. From my personal experience in middle school I struggled with vocabulary and word recognition. I was thrown into advanced reading and our teacher expected us to know everything she threw upon us even if it was above our reading level. I became farther behind and gave up because she did not take the time to work on the fundamentals on a higher level.

Activities such as the 'Big Word Lessons' or 'Daily Journals' could take a small amount of time out of class to reassure fundamentals.

• Are you familiar with any fundamental activities that contributed to your learning in middle or high school?
• Do you agree or disagree with the continuing fundamentals in the middle and high school grades?

Sound It Out!

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This week's readings were interesting and I have had experience with similar methods mentioned in the readings. I know that this topic I am about to share is not exactly on cue with the readings, but it was something that was on my mind as I read.

Last year I volunteered in a 3rd grade classroom twice a week. I had to implement a project in the classroom and I chose to focus on reading. I had the opportunity to work with children in four different reading level groups. I was at first taken back on the learning gap between the students. The higher level reading group could read chapter books without any problems while the lower level reading group struggle to pronounce basic words.

After I had spent more time with each group I immediately noticed a huge difference between the groups. It was the confidence of the students. The higher level readers knew that they were good at reading so they enjoyed challenging themselves. The lower level readers knew that they were not strong readers so they were the first ones to give up. A lack in their confidence had a lot to do with pressure from other students openly saying they were terrible at reading. I then made it my goal to change their attitudes in reading and to become confident in their reading skills.

All of the students knew how to use simple methods for sounding out unknown words, but they did not want to try. They would rather have someone tell them the word then trying to sound it out themselves. One particular student in the lower group despised reading aloud and would ask me to tell him the words. I constantly reassured the student that they could do it by themselves. It was a struggle to get the student to cooperate at first but I eventually got the student to give it a try. It was like a light switch had been flipped. All the student needed was to be reassured that they could read and that they were good at reading.

As the semester went on I realized that a large part of the learning gap was not because students were not as intelligent as others it was because they did not have confidence in themselves. In my opinion, this is a huge problem in a classroom that detracts from a student's education. I questioned my teacher about the situation and she explained to me that she had tried multiple ways to eliminate the taunting but it was not feasible to make every single student respect each other and get through the material for each day.

A teacher can have all the methods and materials they need to be an effective teacher but what happens when the students are detracting from their own learning? I have thought of a few questions and I wanted to get some feedback.

• What are effective ways to eliminate taunting in the classroom when punishment is not controlling the problem?
• Did you ever experience a similar situation when another student negatively influenced your learning environment?
• What are some creative ways to encourage students to not give up when they aren't familiar with a word or any material in general?