Prompts, and Cues, and Scaffolds...Oh My!

      I have been wondering about the best way to ask questions without directly giving the answer away to my students. I found the article by Frey and Fisher entitled "Idenfitying Instructional Moves During Guided Learning" very helpful in discussing different types of questions to ask your students. Not only do they provide a list of different types of questions and examples of when they are best used, but they also include a section on cues. There are visual cues, environmental cues, verbal cues, and physical cues. I like the idea of using questions to guide students to the right answer. It is never fun to have the answer told to you when you are trying to figure something out for yourself. I think that as teachers, we many times need to just "cool it" and give our students the opportunity to come up with the correct answer.
      While all of these cues and prompts may be a good idea (a great idea, in fact), it can be a little overwhelming to know how to implement them into the classroom. I appreciated Chapter 12 in the Allington and Cunningham textbook which gave examples of how to structure your day in the classroom. I also appreciated the way that they incorporated some of their own ideas that have been used throughout the textbook and worked them into the schedule.
      Overall, I feel much more confident on different ways to actually "teach" my students so that they will be able to construct the most amount of meaning from my instructions and lessons.

      When do you think you need to use more than simply prompting and cueing? Do you think that the techniques offered in this article would give you a good basis of informal assessment? I sure do!

Real Life Teaching Moment

For my real life observation, I was actually the teacher. I had planned to go to the Child and Hearing Services on campus and observe one of their "literacy immersion" lessons. However, things don't alway go as you want them to go.
I am doing a pre-student teaching practicum over at the school for the deaf, and just so happened to teach a lesson on reading this week (...well, it was planned...). My students are very language delayed, so even though they are in high school, they read at about a third grade reading level. I go to the school on Wednesdays and Thursdays for two different "blocks" (read: class periods). On Wednesday we read a book called "The Breakfast Story" in preparation for a lesson I had prepared to do on Thursday about McDonalds and using money to order for your food. I only worked with one student for my reading lesson, and that really helped boost my confidence. I was able to use several strategies we have discussed in this REED 430 class. One of the strategies that I used was introducing vocabulary before we read the story. My student "Sam" (not his real name) was eager to read the story, without looking at the pictures first. I had him slow down and look at the pictures. We discussed the pictures. We even learned some new signs based off of the pictures alone, that weren't printed on the next page. When "Sam" had finished reading the story, I asked him if he liked art. He said he did. I asked him if he wanted to be an illustrator. He of course said yes, even though he asked "Yeah, but what's an illustrator anyways?" I was then able to describe what's the difference between an author and an illustrator. I gave "Sam" a blank piece of paper and a few markers. I told him that he couldn't look at the pictures in the book, but I wanted him to draw me some pictures of how he thought it might look to him. There was one page that said something like "I am going to breakfast at a restaurant near my new apartment in my new neighbourhood." He drew a picture of houses and then lots of stick people. I asked him who the people were and he said "Neighbours! You can't have a neighbourhood without neighbours!" Oh, that's right; silly me :)

The lesson went really well and I feel like I accomplished a few important things:
1. taught and introduced new vocabulary
2. used visualization and comprehension strategies by having "Sam" draw the pictures
3. used guided principles by looking at the pictures and discussing them before and after reading the story
4. scaffolding by asking him questions about topics he already knew in order to add new/more knowledge

All of these things were successful and I would not have been able to use them if I had not taken this class!

Guided Reading

The article I found for this week was called "Modified Guided Reading: Gateway to English as a Second Language and Literacy Learning" by Mary A. Avalos, Alina Plasencia, Celina Chavez, Josefa Rascon. This document can be found on UTK's web database. The article discussed how to use a guided reading program with ELL students. This is of great interest to me since most deaf and hard of hearing (HoH) students are severely language delayed. English is difficult for them to learn because it is a different language than ASL. This article applies to my professional life very well. I think that many of the concepts for teaching ELL students can be applied to deaf/HoH students as well. A few key points from the text: 

• The reading texts need to “present a reasonable challenge but also present an opportunity for potential success.”

• An ELL student's L1 reading level is tied to their L2 reading level. If they know how to read in L1, they have the process down of what all goes into reading. However, they must now apply these properties of reading to L2.

 I really like this quote from the text about the benefits of guided reading in general: 

• “Guided reading provides teachers with a systematic, yet open-ended framework for evaluating students’ needs while building upon the strengths students have already demonstrated.”

• Modified guided reading helps because these ELL students are put with other fluent speakers of English and are given time to read in English, discuss in English, and share their thoughts in English.

• I really like the idea of going through the figurative language, and also the homophones, homographs, and heteronyms.
  
• I also think it is a great idea to provide background knowledge before jumping into a story. If there are a few key words in the story that the child does not know the meaning of, then they will more than likely be confused throughout the story.  

Do you have any suggestions on how to best use a guided reading program for language delayed children? What are some books you have used in the past, and do you think you would be able to use them across a broad spectrum of reading abilities? 

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is a huge part of any language; whether written or spoken. These two articles, along with the Allington reading, suggest that developing vocabulary is very important in order for children to become skilled readers. I heartily agree. I also like some of the suggestions offered in the articles in order to promote vocabulary development. I have done observations in UT's Speech and Hearing Science speech pathology labs. In these sessions, vocabulary is introduced to hard of hearing children via worksheets and whiteboards. I was so bored when I would go to my observations of these lessons because 1) little to no understanding was taking place from week to week 2) the activities were based off of rote memorization 3) we had to sit down for the full hour session. In order to introduce vocabulary, I believe that it is important to provide ample opportunities for students to discover vocabulary through play! When children play, they naturally include language. If you provide activities, such as those suggested in the articles, that infuse play/action and interaction with language, you will see an huge improvement not only in the student's vocabulary, but also in the student's ability to use language as a tool of communication.

Can you think of a situation where play would NOT be an appropriate method for introducing new vocabulary? (Play includes modeling, acting it out, role play, natural play, experiments, etc...basically hands-on activities).

Comprende? Reading Comprehension

There were two things that really stood out to me from the Allington reading and the Pardo article. The first was the method of KWL-- Know-Want to Know- Learned. As pictured below, students use some form of graphic organizer (can be as simple as a piece of paper) with three sections. In the Know section, students write down what they already know about material before they read/studied/were lectured on the material. In the Want to Know section, students come up with several questions that they hope to have answered. The Want to Know is also completed before the reading/activity/lecture. The Learned section is filled out after the reading/activity/lecture and contains answers to things in the Want to Know section, and possibly additional information. I feel like this is a great way to make reading a more concrete activity by allowing students to use visuals (and in the case of the students pictured below, manipulatives).

 

The second tool that I found helpful was the idea that in order for students to comprehend what they read, they must be able to relate to it in some form or fashion. My sister Amanda always told me of this theory of having "hooks" in your brain. The hooks hold all the knowledge you have ever accumulated. The hooks themselves are categorized and organized by topic. If a student is trying to learn a new concept, or read new material, for which they do not have a hook to already hang that information on, they will have to mentally rearrange their brains to create a brand new hook. Reading comprehension, to me, is all about creating those new hooks for students before you read, and then by reading the text, giving the students new information to hang on those brand new hooks. 

Is It Word Games? Or Games with Words?

Regardless of whether it is word games, or games with words, using printed words in the form of games is one great idea on how to promote "decoding" in your classroom. In the Yopp and Yopp article, I appreciated their strategies to make words have more of an association with the text. However, I wonder if this really works? It seems like their suggestions of writing down main words from the text, breaking the students up into groups, asking those groups specific questions, having whole-class discussions, and then lecturing obased off those words seem a little abstract. I wonder if the kids can still recall the definitions of the words once they go home that night? I wonder if there is another way to introduce and use vocabulary at the middle/ high school level? What are your thoughts? I do agree with Yopp and Yopp, however, that this method is probably a lot more effective than rote memorization and repetitive word lists of vocabulary.

In the Cunningham and Cunningham article (...side note- did it strike anyone else as odd that both of the articles we were assigned to read were written by two authors of the same name? mother/daughter and husband/wife...just random), I actually DID like their Making Words game that they have created. I think this would be a great thing to implement in the classrooms at the school for the deaf. Deaf kids have a hard time with language of any sorts; partially because it is so abstract, and partially because they cannot hear the sounds of spoken English. This game, Making Words, would be highly useful to teach blends, familiar patterns, the necessity of a vowel in every word, and so much more! I will try this activity with my students very soon!

"Can You Hear Me? ... Good!"

We've all heard those Verizon commercials where the man asks "can you hear me? ..Good!" Well, in the aspects of phonemic awareness, my deaf students can't hear me, and its not good! So then what?
Phonics is such an important part of reading. If we cannot "hear" the word in our heads, we will probably have a difficult time understanding it. In the same way, deaf children struggle with phonics because they cannot hear the words. Many deaf children are math and science lovers because the English language is too abstract for them. When they deal with numbers, it makes sense. When they deal with words they have never seen before, they are at a total loss. There are a couple of programs that have been developed for deaf children including cued speech and visual phonics. These methods visually and manually express phonemes so that deaf kids can actually "see the sound" of the phoneme. I think both of these methods are great ideas, and know they have been used with some success. The one thing I know is that I am very glad I am not going to be working with elementary students because then I won't have to teach them how to read! I know that even at the high school level my deaf kids will struggle with reading.

Cued Speech 

 Visual Phonics
http://seethesound.org/materials.html

Can you think of any ways that you would work with deaf and/or hard of hearing high school kids to *continue* to promote good reading skills and phonemic awareness? 

Fluency

I've never really heard the term "fluency" to refer to reading before. I thought "fluency" was only associated with foreign languages. However, after reading the two articles and the chapter from Allington's book (Chapter 5), I have a better grasp on fluency. I have heard of the DIBLES test before, but never knew what it assessed.

I love the idea of fostering fluency through repetition and by books on tape. When I first heard of the suggestion for repetition, I though "but of course! In order to read something through completely fluently, you need to practice reading that material." However, I think the overall point of "fluency" is that yes, they do practice in the classroom, but they can use their fluency skills outside the classroom too. In order to be a fluent reader, the student must also have confidence. I think it's really important to create a classroom environment where students feel free to make mistakes.
I love the idea of the book on tape to give the kids a model of how the text is supposed to be read. I also like the idea the book pointed out of recording yourself and your class reading aloud. That way, you can kill two birds with one stone--teach the lesson to the students in front of you, plus have an "audio activity" for the future. 

On a more personal note, my mom and sister and I would take our 120 lbs yellow lab into the schools for the kids to read to Murray. The kids greatly benefited from having a "therapy pet" in their classroom because they felt comfortable reading books to Murray that were "baby books". We told these struggling readers that Murray wasn't very smart (...which he's not) and so he love to listen to all kinds of books. It definitely boosted the kids' confidence to be left in a corner with a fuzzy yellow dog and have one-on-one reading time with Murray. I would love to implement this idea of having a therapy pet into my classroom.

Print is Everywhere

One of the biggest "take aways" from this weeks readings is that fact that print is everywhere. In our daily environments, we see different forms of print in advertising, on license plates, on grocery store receipts, and...well...everywhere! After reading "Letting Go of the 'Letter of the Week'" article, I better understand how to promote literacy and print recognition to young children. The position paper by the IRA/NAEYC also helped me understand that children need to see print as it is related to them. It makes sense that kindergartners would shout out the names of their favourite restaurants when presented with the company's name (...or logo, rather).

I have never thought about the need to make print relevant to children before. I guess this is why so many kindergarten teachers spend so much time on introducing classmates names and the different letters involved in those names; children learn best if the concepts they are presented are connected in some sort of personal way to themselves.

Isn't that how we all learn best, though? Wouldn't you learn better about a plant fungus that was rare if you knew it grew in your hometown? Wouldn't you approach chemistry with more gusto if 80% of the people in your hometown worked at the state's chemical factory? Why is it that once we reach middle school, our education becomes less relevant to us? I am now on a goal to make education not only meaningful and hands-on, but now also relevant to my students.

Reading, Moving, and Learning

After reading "The Jones Family's Culture of Literacy" and Allington's Chapter 3, I certainly appreciate the early influences of literacy in my own life. My parents always read to me, and they themselves were "model readers". I was also homeschooled, so we did tons of reading at our house for academic purposes. 

There are many good tips for promoting literacy and teaching kids how to read in Allington's Chapter 3. I did not like, however, the idea of the a child being "King for the Day". I think that it puts too much attention on already-too-egocentric 4-and 5-year-olds. Instead, I think you could use a different animal, or colour, or just about any concrete object that is familiar to the child and use that as an example of literacy. 

When my younger sister was in Pre-K (homeschooled, though), my mom would have "Buddy Day". On Buddy Day, my mom and Em would go around and engage in activities that connected to that day's letter. For example, one Buddy Day was "P Day" and they studied all different things that had the letter P. To this day, Em still talks about the stuffed puppy, purple pom- pom hat, and trip to the playground. If you do fun, hands-on activities kids will be way more likely to remember them, and also to associate the new concepts to familiar objects/activities. I really liked the idea that was suggested in Allington's Chapter 3 about having the kids hold laminated cards that had the letters on them, line up in front of the class, and sign the "Alphabet Song". 

What are some good ideas you have to get kids moving and that are connected to/with teaching literacy? Are there any specific memories you have from early elementary school where you learned a specific letter of the alphabet?