My Role in Reading and Language Arts

Comprehensive Exam Question #1 RE 5710 Dr. Trathen

Cheryl Gaines Question #1

Reading has been an important part of my life for many years. I remember the excitement of discovering my first “real” book. The more I read, the more I loved reading. I traveled to new places, had new experiences, and made new friends from the pages of books. As I grew, my love of reading and learning grew. It grew into a love of teaching…teaching others to read and to discover the adventure and excitement waiting for them between the pages of books.

I started my teaching career as an eighth grade reading teacher fourteen years ago. I couldn’t wait to share a love of reading with my students! Imagine my shock and disbelief when I came to realize many of my students hated to read. I couldn’t understand how this was even possible. I soon came to understand it wasn’t the stories the students hated…they just couldn’t read well enough to enjoy them. I knew I had to get them past this hurdle and teach them how exciting reading could be! I wanted my student to discover the wonder that reading had always brought to me. However, I didn’t know where to begin. This was middle school after all. I had been prepared to teach story comprehension to older students, and was not prepared to teach early reading skills and how to read. Reading difficulties encountered by these students had caused them to give up and decide they “hated” to read. I believe reading is essential for success in life. So, I determined to help my students get past this obstacle.

For years, I’ve tried different methods with some level of success. My desire to teach students a love of reading has grown over the years. I entered the Reading

Master’s program at Appalachian State with this goal in mind…to learn the best strategies to help struggling readers gain confidence and skill in reading and

2 Question #1 understanding literature. Even though I teach older students, many of their problems started when they were only beginning readers. In order to help them, I needed a better understanding of beginning readers to help me diagnose the problems these students were experiencing and why.

I currently teach eighth grade English/Language Arts and have developed a pretty good reading program based on trial and error as well as many techniques and methods learned throughout the reading program at Appalachian State. Over the course of my studies, I have become increasingly interested in the literacy of struggling readers. It is my goal to discover and develop better methods of helping future generations of readers become literate and develop a love of reading.

Assessment in Reading/Language Arts

Assessment is crucial to the development of a good reading program. Only through assessment can teachers understand and address the diverse needs of their students. I use many different forms of formal and informal assessment throughout the school year. My students come to me in leveled groups based on the previous year’s standardized End of Grade testing. I am not fully convinced of the value of this standardized assessment. In my experience, many very bright students get plugged into low level classes based on one bad test score. These scores don’t always represent the true ability of a child and within a class many abilities levels may exit. Therefore, I start the school year with my own assessments to discover the range of abilities within my classes. I use several different assessments.

First, students are given a formal assessment with a variety of questions and passages measuring their knowledge of various reading concepts. Sometimes, this is a

3 Question #1 pretest created by the county and sometimes I use other diagnostic tests. I especially like to use the diagnostic test from NC Reading Coach. This assessment is given within the first week of school to assess each student’s strengths and weaknesses in reading.

Knowing what reading concepts are most difficult for my students helps me focus instruction in those areas. This allows me to better individualize my instruction. Based on this assessment, I also know how to group students within my class for instruction.

After the initial formal assessment, benchmark assessments of a similar type are administered every quarter to check on growth and identify continued areas of need.

Another initial assessment I use is a vocabulary inventory. I develop a list of words from story vocabulary. The words are leveled and are words the students will encounter throughout the year as we cover a variety of stories. For this assessment, students review the list of words and organize them under one of three columns: 1)

Words I Know, 2) Word I Think I Know and 3) Words I Don’t Know. Next I have them try to match the vocabulary with their definitions. Based on their recognition of words and meanings, I can predict with some accuracy their level of fluency and ability level.

In my low level reading class, I complete an individual reading inventory on each student performing below proficiency levels in reading based on the formal assessment scores. I conduct these sessions during after school tutorial or during the school day during their remediation period with cooperation from their teacher. By completing a full

IRI, I can better understand the individual problems my low leveled readers face as they struggling through a text. This allows me to group students within my class for leveled instruction based on specific needs.

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Throughout instruction, I informally assess student learning through whole and small group discussion and individual conferencing. I have found a student’s ability to discuss literature is a very good indicator of his or her understanding of the topic. Not only does it provide evidence of basic comprehension, but also of higher level thinking when the student is able to think through a topic and make connections. I realize whole class discussion is difficult for some students, so I also utilize small group discussions of literature and monitor by circulating among the groups. To assure the participation of every group member, students are asked to evaluate and comment on the contribution of each member of their group after the discussion. This holds every student accountable for adding to the discussion and assures that all students are engage. This method seems to work well and encourages participation from every student.

During literature circles and other group activities, I also use conferencing to assess understanding. I meet with each group every couple of days and ask questions about the reading. Many times, these questions stem from comments I have overheard when listening to the group in discussion. I pose questions to help them look beyond the facts and experience the text on a deeper level. The students’ ability and willingness to respond helps me assess their level of understanding.

I administer formal assessments after most literature units, but I also think it’s important to provide opportunities for informal post-assessment. Many student who don’t perform well on formal tests, excels using this type of assessment. Projects such as a multi-genre collection, a poster, a performance, or other creative project can measure comprehension just as well as formal tests if done properly. Rubrics providing the required criteria can help insure students produce successful assessment projects.

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Writing activities can also be used to assess learning. I use writing assessment with every unit. Much of the writing is reflective. These writing assignments allow me to assess a student’s understanding of the content being studied. Writing is collected into a portfolio and periodically reviewed and assessed by me and the student using a rubric. Self assessment allows students to reflect on new material and review old material. It’s important for a student to internalize and reflect on material read and their individual learning from various units of study.

Materials Used for Reading/Language Arts Instruction

I use a variety of materials in my classroom. The first thing I refer to is the North

Carolina Standard Course of Study. This is my initial guide for everything I teach. All other materials help me fulfill the goals set forth in the NCSCS.

My first instructional tool is a county adopted textbook. I read and evaluate each story and choose the ones I deem best to meet my goals. The textbook is only used as a starting point for instruction. For every story I teach from the textbook, I bring in many supplemental materials to enhance the unit of study. I use a variety of music, newspaper and magazine articles, web pages, encyclopedias, nonfiction books, children’s books, and poetry to introduce and expand on themes or units of study.

These supplemental materials help build student interest. When students are interested, they become personally involved and maximal learning occurs.

Besides stories from the textbook, I use leveled high-interest trade books for literature circles and individual silent reading. Because these books are leveled, I can provide books to my students at their level of reading proficiency. This allows student to gain confidence in their reading ability and encourages them to read more thereby

6 Question #1 improving their reading skills through practice. I also use a variety of novel sets. Some are used in small groups, but many are read as a class. Many of the novels are used to expand on themes introduced in short stories from the student textbook.

Word list, word walls, dictionaries and thesauruses are used throughout the year to teach vocabulary or for word study activities and a variety of graphic organizers help reinforce various reading concepts in literature.

Technology is an important component to learning in my classroom. I utilize several web quests created specifically for my students and our units of study. The internet is used for research and a variety of software like Power Point, Microsoft Word,

Excel, Inspiration and others are used to complete assignments. Technology allows students to be creative and express themselves in a variety of ways.

Methods for Reading Instruction

By middle school, it’s important that students learn to comprehend a text while reading independantly. The more practice students get reading silently, the more fluent they will become. This is a difficult transition for some students, especially low-leveled readers who are used to hearing the text aloud. Knowing this, I give them many opportunities to practice silent reading. (For students who severely struggle with reading

I allow partner reading several days a week to give them a little extra support.) A time is set aside each day for 20 to 30 minutes of sustained silent reading (SSR). This is a structured time which ends with students using the 5 W’s to write a quick summary of each day’s reading. In the summary, students tell who they read about, what the character was doing, where and when it took place, and why it happened. Answering these questions helps guide the students’ independent reading by giving them a

7 Question #1 purpose for reading and keeping them focused on the content. At the end of a novel, each student is required to pass an Accelerated Reader (AR) test or complete a full story map and summary of the book. Keeping daily summary notes on the novel reinforces students’ comprehension of the text and helps them successfully complete the novel on their own.

However, there are still many reading techniques which need to be taught and modeled for them to become better readers. Therefore, some texts are read aloud by me or as a whole class. Prior to reading, I guide students in pre-reading activities such as previewing the pictures and titles from texts, author studies, and anticipation guides.

Anticipation guides activate the prior knowledge of students and prepares them for reading by arousing their interest in the topic. It also gives them a purpose for reading and helps encourage higher level thinking. As we read in a whole class setting, I model questioning techniques during reading. By learning to question passages from the text during reading, students will learn to “think” about the texts as they read. Other guided reading strategies I use with my students are Directed Reading Thinking Activity

(DRTA), Question-Answer-Relationship (QAR), and Know/Want to Know/Learned

(KWL). As we read through texts, I guide students in making predictions based on the evidence provided using the DRTA model. After students make predictions we continue reading stopping periodically to talk about whether they were right or not …or whether they changed their minds as they read and why. It is not enough to have student just answer comprehension questions at the end of a texts. The way they learn to comprehend text on their own is to understand why they think about questions in certain ways. QAR models help them with this. At the end of a passage, I have students

8 Question #1 discuss what kinds of questions are being asked and how they can find this information, whether in the texts or using other strategies. I reinforce higher level thinking by asking students to create their own questions from texts using Bloom’s and Marzano’s questioning stems. By developing questions using these stems, students learn to not only comprehend texts, but also to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate it. KWL charts help students activate prior knowledge, but also add to that knowledge as they read and learn new facts. Reaction guides also help students reflect on what they have learned from a text. All of these methods reinforce learning and reading skills, thus assuring reading comprehension. Though reading may be done in a whole class setting, I organize students into cooperate learning groups for much of the follow-up activity. Not only do we focus on questioning techniques, but I also use many concept maps and graphic organizers to help students organize their thoughts about the texts or identify story elements and reading concepts. Much of this work is done cooperatively. Support of a group can help students gain confidence in their ideas and help them feel more secure in sharing their thoughts with the whole class in subsequent discussions. It also allows students an opportunity to learn from one another.

Reader’s Theater and performance poetry are other ways in which student’s work cooperatively. Reader’s theater allows students to better understand characterization by playing different roles and “becoming” a character in a story.

Students are forced to think about how the character may feel in specific situations and project this in their reading. Performance poetry requires students to analyze the lines and think about what the author meant by the lines and how they can best get this across using action. This gives them a purpose for reading and helps them find

9 Question #1 meaning in the lines. Both of these methods are creative and enjoyable, but help students look deeper into reading concepts of characterization, meaning, and author’s purpose.

Another reading instruction method I utilize is literature circles. Creating literature circles based on each student’s independent reading level allows me to offer every student a chance to read high interest books at their appropriate reading and interest level which can help promote fluency in reading. The students can the practice good reading strategies with the support of their group members. I begin with “book talks” appropriate for the leveled groups. Individual students choose their top three choices based on interest. I use this information along with each students reading level to develop leveled groups. The groups are given a guide for reading and a blank pacing guide. They work as a group to developing their pacing guide based on a particular time period allotted. Once this is done, they assign jobs to members of their group and begin reading. By allowing students to help form and set up their own groups, it gives them ownership and they begin to understand they are responsible for their own learning and the learning of the members of their group. I give each group a packet to guide their reading and conference with them periodically to check on progress. The packet includes vocabulary word study to promote fluency, higher level questioning activities, summaries, and several reading concept maps to increase comprehension. At the end of the novel, each group will come up with a way to present their novel to the class. This can take the form of a multi-genre project, poetry reading, skit, or any other creative method the group devises. Literature circles allow students to practice all of the reading concepts and strategies which have been taught in class with the support of a group.

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Each reading methods is useful at different times throughout the year. I’m a huge proponent of using them all instead of getting stuck in a rut using only one. Students need to understand there are many skills and strategies involved in understanding literature and using various methods allows them to find the one that works best for them. All of these methods will help middle school students become more fluent in reading as they practice reading skills and increase their vocabulary word knowledge.

Meeting Instructional Needs of Diverse Leveled Learners

Other than grouping students into leveled reading groups for literature circles, I choose to heterogeneously group students for most other cooperative group work. By mixing ability levels, struggling readers can benefit from the skills of higher level readers. It gives struggling readers support and allows the higher level readers to reinforce their knowledge through peer-teaching. I also use a method of “chunking” assignments to meet the needs of lower leveled readers. I assign only one small part of an assignment at a time, stopping to discuss each section before we move on to the next. These struggling readers need the extra support chunking offers, whereas, my higher level students may be able to move on without it. I also differentiate instruction by offering tiered assignments. When using tiered assignments, all students have a common topic and introduction activity. Initial reading or discussion is the same. After the initial activities or assignments, students break off into groups or work independently based on the follow-up assignment they choose or are assigned. Each assignment will meet the same goals but allows students to complete an activity best suited to their needs or interests. These assignments may be constructed using varying levels of

11 Question #1 ability, interest levels and/or learning styles. Using tiered assignments meets the needs of diverse learners in the classroom while accomplishing the desired goals.

My struggling readers also have the assistance of an inclusion teacher who helps them with specific assignments. With the support of this teacher, I can provide more one-on-one instruction and better meet the needs of my low level readers.

Language Arts Instruction

I structure my year through genre study. I begin the year with a discussion of literary genres. We start by focusing on fiction. Students are taught to identifying the parts of a short story using story maps. Each day I teach mini-lessons on literary concepts found in fiction. Next we move into poetry. Students learn how to identify and understand each poetic device as well as recognize various types of poems. I reinforce these concepts by having students create their own poems using specific poetic devices and forms. Later we begin reading short plays and study dramatic form through reader’s theater. Throughout the other genres, I use nonfiction texts to support learning. I use copies of primary documents, essays and nonfiction articles on topics of study to create multi-text units of both fiction and nonfiction. These nonfiction texts add authenticity to the other genres as well as increase interest in the topics. As a culmination to each of these units of study, students demonstrate their knowledge of the author’s craft by producing their own samples of each genre in writing. As a culminating project, students develop multi-genre projects demonstrating their knowledge of all genres.

In middle school, word study focuses less on spelling and more on the meaning of words. We do not have student assigned or class sets of spelling books. However, I use a variety of vocabulary words from novels and short stories to create list for the

12 Question #1 students to learn. The instruction focuses on word meaning and usage. During this study we also, discuss synonyms and antonyms for vocabulary words. Other than story vocabulary, word study primarily consists of the origin and relationship between words. I introduce many Greek and Latin roots to my students and they develop list using these roots. We study the meaning of common prefixes and suffixes. Students use their knowledge of word parts to figure out unfamiliar words. Analogies are another way I include word study in instruction. Every week, I introduce a different relationship between words in analogies (part to whole, synonyms, etc.) Students develop their own analogies based on the sample relationship and trade with a partner to solve. After several weeks, students are given an assessment combining a number of analogies to test their ability to recognize the relationship between words.

Reading Response

The ability of students to respond to literature is a primary goal of reading.

Reading response allows students to make personal connections and reinforce learned concepts. Student responses to reading can also help teachers assess student learning.

Response to reading can be in the form of discussion or writing. My students keep a journal for reading responses. Sometimes I give them very specific prompts, but at other times they just write their thoughts about the literature and how they feel connected to a character, an event, or theme from the story. By guiding students to respond to literature, we provide a method for them to construct personal meaning from the texts and better understand the author’s craft. One way my students enjoying is by writing “I

Am” poems on topics studied. These are shared with the class on a voluntary basis. I always encourage my students to share their personal responses in whatever form they

13 Question #1 are constructed. It is a continued learning experience when students bring their personal thoughts and ideas to a discussion on a passage of texts. I allow them to begin by writing down their thoughts, then sharing them with a seat partner. After which, I encourage students to share their response with the whole class. Many wonderful conversations have resulted from the personal responses of my students during whole class discussion. Sometimes, contradictory ideas are presented and students have the opportunity to “see” a situation from another’s eyes. These are times of growing and better understanding.

Other than response journals and discussion, I ask students to produce many forms of response in writing. Responses can be in the form of poems, letters, biographical sketches, memoirs, essays or many other types of writing. These are all kept in a writing portfolio of student work. Sometimes the responses involve more then writing and discussion. Students may write and sing a song or create a poster or other display to present to the class. They may even respond by creating a skit or dramatic reading. Reading response demonstrates knowledge acquired during a unit of study. It also expands on that knowledge as students synthesis information and personal experience to create a culminating product or response to literature.

Conclusion

My classroom methods are a culmination of experience and research of new and tried and true practices. It is my desire to be the best reading/ language arts teacher possible. I will continue to grow as an educator as I study and become more informed of good teaching practices. My goal is to continue preparing students to be literate, successful adults who will value education and love reading as much as I do.