EDLI635 Theory and Practice of Literacy Instruction

1.   Explain the three levels of words and how you can use word levels to decide which words to teach. 2.   How do you teach your students to "chunk" words as a strategy for decoding unfamiliar words? When do you provide this instruction? 3.   Based on Professor   Allington's   comments and the classroom examples, what are some ways you might foster word study in your classroom? 1) There are three basic levels of words: Words that are very familiar to all the students, words that commonly appear often that need to be taught to the students, and technical language. Words that students aren't familiar with, but appear often are the ones that teachers should focus on.  2) As students are reading, encourage them to decode words by chunks instead of using individual sounds. This can be taught through modeling, and by having them use their thumbs to cover parts of the words when they are reading on their own and they come across a word they aren't fami...

1.   How can you ensure that your struggling readers have access to texts they can easily read? 2.   How can you foster a learning environment in which students have many opportunities to practice reading? 3.   Describe ways in which you can model fluent reading in your classroom throughout the day 1) Teachers can ensure that struggling readers have access to texts they can easily read by having a library that has books on a variety of levels.  2) A teacher can create a learning environment that provides many opportunities to practice reading by having an accessible and extensive library filled with books divided by category, genre, and difficulty level. They should also create learning centers and activities that provide reading opportunities.  3) The teacher can model fluent reading by often reading aloud to the students with expression, accuracy, and smoothness, and by pointing out these characteristics to the students. The teacher should also mo...

What texts and materials do teachers have in their classrooms that support students' development of fluent reading?  The teachers have a library that is filled with age-appropriate short stories and poems. They also have a drama corner where the children can dress up and act out the stories they are reading.  How do they select vocabulary to teach in all areas of your curriculum?   The teacher chooses vocabulary based on what the students are studying in other areas of the curriculum. For example, if they are learning about bears the vocabulary they select are words related to that theme, like hibernate.  How much time do they allocate to word study?  They allocate on average about a half hour every day to word study in some form.  What word study routines do they teach and encourage their students to use?  They encourage looking at pictures and words that surround that word, looking for a smaller word they are familiar with in a bigger wor...

View my lesson plan HERE

View my lesson plan HERE

The reader is a generally strong reader so I gave her a bit of a more challenging text that was within her ability. Most of her mistakes seemed to come from the speed with which she is used to reading, and she made mistakes with words she probably could have sounded out if she had paused and taken the time to, instead of trying to breeze through it. Because she was very focused on the speed, her comprehension of the text was weak.  ELA CC Standard:  By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, in the grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. Objective: Have the reader reading with fewer mistakes and with greater comprehension by allowing her to focus on the words she is reading, as opposed to her speed.  Learning Activities: Give the student a new text and tell her that every time she makes a mistake, a funny sound is going to go off (this will enga...

   According to this running record and assessment, the child is an overall strong reader. He has great fluency, does a good job self-correcting, and seemed to remember and understand most of what he read from the last two paragraphs. He is weak with his "though" words. He made mistakes reading "though" and "through" and can use help decoding those words.  He also tends to make some careless errors, like changing words to past tense or making them plural, and occasionally inserting his own words, probably because of his understanding of the context. He should be encouraged to slow down a little perhaps, to help him avoid those types of errors. He also tends to lose the place, which leads to some frustration, but he did a good job getting back on track. Encouraging him to point while he reads can help him avoid that in the future.