Chapter power points and quizzes
Forming a Personal Philosophy About Literacy Assessment and Intervention
The purpose of this chapter is to provide time to reflect on the many elements that influence reading instruction.
Chapter 1 Quiz
The Literacy Event
In this chapter, you are given an opportunity to reflect on the five components of a reading event--teacher, reader, text, context, and task.
Chapter 2 Quiz
Assessment
Chapter 3 introduces you to different means of assessing reading growth and problems.
Chapter 3 Quiz
Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
(2) phonics instruction should be systematic, explicit, and extensive;
(3) phonics instruction should include appropriate text; and
(4) phonics instruction should occur in meaningful context.
These four principles should guide teachers as they provide instruction.
Chapter 4 Power Point
Chapter 5 Power Point
Word Identification
Chapter 6 Quiz
Vocabulary Building
Chapter 7 Quiz
Comprehension of Narrative Text
Chapter 8 Quiz
Comprehension of Expository Text
Chapter 9 Quiz
Fluency
By the end of second grade, they should read and comprehend 82–108 words per minute
By the end of third grade, they should read 109 words per minute.
By the end of fourth grade, they should read and comprehend 131–147 words per minute.
By the end of fifth grade, they should read and comprehend 148–161 words per minute.
By the end of sixth grade, they should read and comprehend 162–174 words per minute.
Writing
2. scribbles—the lines and marks do not resemble letters
3. letter-like forms—the lines and marks resemble letters
4. letter strings—the child repeats letters that he knows
5. copying—the child copies from environmental print
6. invented spelling—the child corresponds letters to some sounds
7. conventional—the student spells most words correctly
Spelling
(2) the complexities of English spelling, and
(3) the orthographic patterns of words. Good and poor spellers have a number of traits. Good spellers pay attention to internal details of words, are avid readers, are writers who have found their voice, self-monitor their spelling, and have learned orthographic patterns within words. Poor spellers attempt to learn whole spelling of words, have not found their writing voice, do not recognize their own errors, and do not see patterns within words.
Chapter 12 Quiz
Tutoring
2. certified teachers
3. paraprofessionals
4. computer assisted
5. web-based tutoring
Chapter 13 Quiz
The purpose of this chapter is to provide time to reflect on the many elements that influence reading instruction.
- First, you are given the opportunity to reflect on the following four learning theories that shape literacy instruction: Constructivist Theory, the Zone of Proximal Development, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs, and the Critical Literacy Theory.
- Second, you have an opportunity to reflect on different reading models, including the part-to-whole and the whole-to-part approaches.
- Third, you learn about how English learners develop literacy skills and effective teaching practices for English learners.
- Fourth, you are given the opportunity to reflect on past and present experiences that have shaped your ideas about literacy instruction, assessing literacy problems, and helping students who struggle with reading and writing.
- Fifth, you are given information that will help you understand the importance of literacy.
- Finally, you reflect on how federal mandates regulate literacy instruction and how teachers use Response to Intervention to identify students who need special services.
Chapter 1 Quiz
The Literacy Event
In this chapter, you are given an opportunity to reflect on the five components of a reading event--teacher, reader, text, context, and task.
- An effective teacher has more influence over a child’ s ability to learn to read than does any curriculum. Effective teachers must be able to differentiate instruction and motivate all students. The chapter next discusses the role of the student in the reading event. The student brings the following elements to the process, which the teacher must consider: background knowledge, literacy knowledge, language systems, different learning styles, and different dominant multiple intelligences. Based on a student’s needs, teachers must explicitly teach reading strategies and then give the student opportunities to use them while under their supervision. The goal is for a student to use a strategy readily when reading independently. Text can be categorized into three levels of reading--easy or independent reading level (readers can read it and comprehend it with 95 percent accuracy), instructional reading level (readers can read and comprehend it with 90 to 95 percent accuracy), and frustration reading level (readers read this level with less than 90 percent accuracy). Readers should be given a good deal of time for reading texts on their easy or independent reading level; during instructional time, they should read texts on their instructional level. They should never spend time with books that are too difficult for them. The context of the reading event is the entire classroom climate: teacher’s beliefs, student grouping, and type of literary talk. Many schools now use the guided reading method, which focuses on grouping readers into small, dynamic groups, based on readers’ need. Reading tasks should be authentic. Children should be given large blocks of time for engaging in authentic writing tasks and for reading good children’s literature. Integrated reading/writing tasks should foster higher-level thinking skills instead of literal recall.
Chapter 2 Quiz
Assessment
Chapter 3 introduces you to different means of assessing reading growth and problems.
- Formal assessment includes individual and group intelligence tests, reading achievement tests, and standardized diagnostic tests.
- Informal assessment includes informal reading inventories, miscue analysis, retrospective miscue analysis, running records, cloze test, maze test, anecdotal records, checklists, rubrics, personal interest inventories, attitude surveys, and self- assessment instruments.
- Formal tests give the teacher the approximate grade level on which the student is reading. Most formal tests have subtests that indicate in which areas the student is strong and in which areas the student is weak.
- Informal tests can give teachers information about which specific cueing system—syntax, semantic or graphophonic—the student uses when reading and what type of errors or miscues the student most often makes. These informal tests also can indicate if the reading material is at the student’s independent or easy reading level, or at his instructional level, or at his frustration level. Since informal assessments are beneficial for classroom teachers, detailed instructions on how to administer and score miscue analysis, running records, cloze tests, and maze tests are given. The No Child Left Behind Act has resulted in an emphasis on aligning assessment with standards. This chapter contains instructions on how to create checklists and rubrics, based on standards.
Chapter 3 Quiz
Phonemic Awareness
- Phonemic awareness is one of the areas in which school districts must document student growth in order to qualify for Title I monies. Phonemic awareness is defined as a student’s awareness “that speech is composed of identifiable units, such as spoken words, syllable, and sounds (International Reading Association & National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1998, p. 4). It should not be confused with phonics, which is the understanding of letter–sound relationships. Phonemic awareness has seven dimensions: (1) ability to hear syllables within words, (2) ability to hear initial sounds of words, (3) ability to hear rhyming words, (4) ability to distinguish oddity, (5) ability to orally blend words, (6) ability to orally segment words, and (7) ability to manipulate sounds orally to create new words.
- It is important that teachers who work with English learners understand that their students’ native languages may not have all the phonemes of English and these language may have phonemes that are not found in English. It is prudent for teachers to be familiar with phonemes that are unique to English so they can understand why some English learners struggle with some English words.
- One of the best ways to have children become aware of the sounds within words is through language play. Listening to the sounds of words in nursery rhymes, poems, songs, jingles, and stories, as well as manipulating sounds, helps children become aware of sounds and syllables within words. Much controversy surrounds phonemic awareness. Proponents believe that it is a necessary skill in order for students to become successful readers and writers. Those who oppose intense instruction of phonemic awareness contend that it is a confusing concept. For young children, listening to individual sounds within words is impossible because such sounds are inextricably combined. A number of ways exist to assess phonemic awareness, and a number of different interventions can increase a student’s awareness of the sounds within words. A teacher should assess students who seem to be struggling with phonemic awareness and decide what each student needs in order to become proficient in literacy.
Phonics
- Most researchers and educators agree that phonics should be taught; the debate arises in how it should be taught. Some believe it should be taught as a separate subject, while others believe it should be taught in the context of reading and writing authentic passages. Since it should be taught, teachers need to learn as much about phonics as possible in order to meet the needs of young readers and in order to document student growth in this area of literacy. Teachers also need to understand strategies to teach phonics to English learners. Phonics relates to understanding the relationship between graphemes (letters) and phonemes (sound). If the English language had one sound for every letter of the alphabet, learning phonics would be easy. However, all the vowels and many consonants have more than one sound, and many phonemes can be represented in a number of ways (e.g., the long /a/ can be written ey as in they, ay as in say, or ei as in eight). Diphthongs, blends, and diagraphs also make learning English complicated.
- In addition to the graphophonic language system, the syntax system is used during reading and writing events. For example, a reader uses the syntax system to pronounce wind correctly in a sentence. Readers and writers also need to understand that words have more than one meaning (the semantic system). Consider the meaning of yard in these two sentences: I need a yard of ribbon to make this bow. I enjoy sitting in my back yard.
- It is important that teachers understand phonics and word patterns so that they can help young students understand how the English language works. It is not prudent to ask students to memorize phonics rules with all the exceptions. Instead, it is more beneficial for teachers to engage students in the study of word patterns as they encounter words in reading and writing.
- Four key principles underlie most phonics instruction:
(2) phonics instruction should be systematic, explicit, and extensive;
(3) phonics instruction should include appropriate text; and
(4) phonics instruction should occur in meaningful context.
These four principles should guide teachers as they provide instruction.
Chapter 4 Power Point
Chapter 5 Power Point
Word Identification
- Comprehension depends on a reader’s ability to recognize a large bank of words instantaneously and to analyze unknown words effortlessly. In order for this automaticity to occur, the brain must process both visual and non-visual information (Smith, 1997). The brain uses all four cueing systems—graphophonic, syntax, semantics, and pragmatic—when identifying words. Readers’ knowledge of letter–sound relationships and their ability to recognize patterns in words are vital in identifying unknown words. The ability of readers to identify words automatically is affected by their listening vocabulary, sight vocabulary, ability to use context clues, skill in visual analysis, skill in blending parts of words together, and knowledge of word parts—affixes and root words. It is also imperative that children instantaneously recognize the hundred words most frequently found in text. Teachers’ goals should be to help students recognize a large bank of words (1) without conscious attention, (2) without attending to every letter, (3) by using parts of words to identify new words, (4) by connecting unknown words to known words, and (5) by connecting spelling with word meaning. Teachers must be knowledgeable about ways to assess student’s ability to identify words and offer appropriate interventions to students who struggle.
Chapter 6 Quiz
Vocabulary Building
- Vocabulary building is one of the multifaceted factors of effective reading instruction. Students’ receptive vocabulary (words they know when listening to others and when reading) and expressive vocabulary (words they use in their speech and in their written work) are developed through everyday experiences in the environment; through vicarious experiences that include movies, DVDs, television, materials found online, and traditional and electronic books; and through direct instruction. It is helpful for teachers to show students how authors embed definitions of new words in the text. Teachers working with English learners should use many visuals, gestures, and facial expressions as they explain new words. Teachers should give the English learners time to practice saying a word and asking questions about its meaning.
- Struggling readers often have a limited vocabulary, which may be a result of limited language experiences in the home. Teachers can assess students’ vocabulary by (1) observing their vocabulary in conversation, (2) administering the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised or the Expressive Vocabulary Test, (3) administering a vocabulary subtest from a standardized test, and (4) administering an informal assessment such as a cloze test, a maze test, or a zip test. Teachers can help these students develop their vocabulary by providing shared reading experiences, hands-on experiences, field trips, online videos, audiobooks, and more.
Chapter 7 Quiz
Comprehension of Narrative Text
- Comprehension is the main purpose of reading, whether that reading is of narrative or expository text. Comprehending narrative text is different from comprehending expository text. For example, in order for readers to comprehend stories, they must understand the elements of a story—setting, characterization, plot, theme, point-of-view, and tone. They must also understand the differences among genres—realistic fiction, historical fiction, autobiographies, biographies, science fiction, fantasy, legends, and fairy tales. Comprehension requires many skills that are intricately woven together. Some of the skills that students need to develop include predicting, making inferences, drawing conclusions, visualizing, and connecting new information to background knowledge. Proficient readers develop these skills as they read stories independently at their easy reading level (independent reading level) and are exposed to stories at their instructional reading level during guided reading and other shared reading experiences. Struggling readers often need time in a tutoring session to develop these skills.
- Comprehending a text goes beyond the literal level; it includes being able to read critically so that one understands the possibly biased language authors sometimes use. Readers must also analyze the author’s perspective and use of figurative language. Critical literacy results with readers taking action.
- Most standardized achievement tests have comprehension as one of the subtests. These scores will help teachers recognize students who are not reading at grade level. Standardized diagnostic tests also help teachers understand what students know. Informal assessment—including informal reading inventories, running records, miscue analysis, cloze tests, and think-alouds—help teachers understand what students do and do not do as they read.
- Once a teacher has assessed what a student reader can and cannot do when reading, the teacher can introduce strategies and engage the student in activities before, during, and after reading that will increase the student’s reading ability.
Chapter 8 Quiz
Comprehension of Expository Text
- Many of the skills needed to comprehend narrative text, discussed in the previous chapter, are also needed to comprehend expository text—recognizing a large bank of words, analyzing words efficiently, gathering main ideas, making inferences, drawing conclusions, and so on. However, expository text is often more difficult for some readers because they lack the necessary technical vocabulary, their parents have not read expository text to them, or they are not familiar with the structure of expository text. Many students lack background knowledge on many of the topics discussed in expository texts. Proficient readers of expository text have a vast background knowledge of a variety of topics and make use of it when they read. They also have an advanced vocabulary, recognize organizational structure of the text, and can build relationships between larger units of text. They know where to go for more information on a topic. Poor readers of expository text as well as English learners often lack this knowledge.
- It is imperative that teachers explain the organizational structure of expository text—chronological or sequence, description or enumeration, listing, classification or hierarchy, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, problem and solution, and persuasion. Teaching students how to use graphic organizers will help them summarize and recall information.
- Critical literacy can be developed using expository texts in social studies. As students discuss the political, sociocultural, historical, and economic forces that affect their lives, they can be encouraged to respond to the information rather than be passive consumers of it.
- Teachers must also teach students how electronic text differs from traditional text. It is important that teachers take the time to teach students how to navigate on the Internet and how to check websites for accurate facts.
- Many schools use commercial textbooks not just for content area subjects; they also use trade books to expose students to a variety of information. It is important, therefore, that teachers know the reading level of the textbooks and the trade books they use and that they also analyze the books for eye appeal, text features, and writing style.
- Many “before reading,” “during reading,” and “after reading” strategies can help struggling readers to comprehend expository text. Teachers need to teach these strategies while engaging the students with the text. Students need time to practice a specific strategy under the supervision of the teacher, and then they need to be encouraged to use that strategy during independent reading.
Chapter 9 Quiz
Fluency
- Fluency is a critical but often neglected aspect of reading instruction. The components of fluency are rate, automaticity (recognizing words instantaneously), prosody or phrasing, understanding punctuation marks, and expression. Researchers differ on what the ideal reading rate is for elementary students, but most would agree with the following:
By the end of second grade, they should read and comprehend 82–108 words per minute
By the end of third grade, they should read 109 words per minute.
By the end of fourth grade, they should read and comprehend 131–147 words per minute.
By the end of fifth grade, they should read and comprehend 148–161 words per minute.
By the end of sixth grade, they should read and comprehend 162–174 words per minute.
- In order for students to read fluently at a proper rate, they need to recognize words automatically and understand the multiple meanings of a large bank of words.
- Automaticity has a number of sub-skills—r ecognizing sight words, associating the letter or letter combination with its sound, analyzing unknown words by recognizing chunks or syllables within words, and knowing multiple meanings of common words.
- Fluency can be assessed through formal and informal tests. A number of diagnostic tests measure fluency by calculating rate and/or accuracy. Checklists, running records, miscue analysis, and retrospective miscue analysis can be used as informal means of assessing fluency.
- Different research studies indicate that some activities that help increase a reader’s fluency are repeated oral readings, assisted reading, dyad reading, readers theatre, and choral reading.
Writing
- Research indicates that reading and writing are interrelated cognitive processes; reading helps students as they develop writing skills, and writing helps students as they develop reading skills. This chapter focuses on writing, a cognitive process that depends on the same cognitive systems as reading—semantic, syntactic, graphophonic, and pragmatic. Zecker (1999) describes seven stages of emergent writers:
2. scribbles—the lines and marks do not resemble letters
3. letter-like forms—the lines and marks resemble letters
4. letter strings—the child repeats letters that he knows
5. copying—the child copies from environmental print
6. invented spelling—the child corresponds letters to some sounds
7. conventional—the student spells most words correctly
- Writing workshops give students an opportunity to be immersed in the writing process, which includes these steps: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
- Many Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 tools are available to students. Some particular types of writing in which students can engage include graphic novel and comic book writing, digital storytelling, mapping and webbing, blogging, social networking, and global collaboration. These opportunities encourage students to polish their writing because the audience often extends past the walls of their classroom.
- A framework for assessing, talking about, and organizing writing is the 6 + 1 Trait Writing® Assessment. The traits are idea/content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, convention and presentation. Students and teachers at all levels use these traits to discuss the qualities of writing.
- When a teacher assesses a student’s writing, it is helpful to also assess her attitude toward writing and her self-perception of her writing. Different surveys and inventories can be used to assess attitude and self-perception. Rubrics and checklists, based on state standards, are informal means of assessing students’ writing development and skills.
- As teachers teach writing, it is imperative that the writing activities they use are authentic and are connected to the students’ reading. This chapter discusses a wide variety of writing activities for elementary and middle school students. A wide variety of writing activities assist children as they become proficient writers. Interactive writing is a writing event in which the teacher and student “share the pen.” Guided writing is based on the same format as guided reading: the teacher works with a small group of students who share the same writing skills and need to develop other skills.
Spelling
- Spelling is a necessary skill for fluent writing. Being a good reader does not ensure that the student is a good speller; however, research indicates that if students understand that standard spelling is necessary for communication, they become good spellers. Good spelling instruction not only helps students recognize the need for standard spelling to communicate effectively; it also teaches students to recognize patterns within words. Good teachers do not have students memorize a list of words each week. In order for teachers to be effective spelling teachers, they need background knowledge about
(2) the complexities of English spelling, and
(3) the orthographic patterns of words. Good and poor spellers have a number of traits. Good spellers pay attention to internal details of words, are avid readers, are writers who have found their voice, self-monitor their spelling, and have learned orthographic patterns within words. Poor spellers attempt to learn whole spelling of words, have not found their writing voice, do not recognize their own errors, and do not see patterns within words.
- When working with English learners, teachers need to know which strategies are effective for each spelling stage. It is also helpful if teachers understand student’s alphabet because many languages do not have the same 26-letter alphabet that English has.
- Since native Spanish speakers are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, teachers should understand the similarities between English and Spanish. Teachers should also be aware of cognates if they have Spanish-speaking students in their classrooms.
- Teachers can assess spelling using standardized tests and informal assessment tools. Standardized tests often require students to recognize a correctly spelled word from a list of four or five words. A number of researchers have developed informal assessment instruments in which teachers observe what the student already knows about spelling.
- CAFÉ is one such an informal test. Students are given a sheet of paper with boxes (fewer boxes for younger grades and more boxes for middle school students). They are then asked to write as many words as they know. From the list teachers can determine patterns in the words students misspell.
- Teachers can also develop checklists and rubrics based on their state’s standards. Using these various types of informal assessment helps them monitor which students need extra instruction in spelling
- Spelling strategies should focus on working with word patterns and should be taught in tutoring sessions or in small group sessions so that the teacher can observe students as they makes sense of word patterns.
Chapter 12 Quiz
Tutoring
- In the first decade of the twenty-first century, several initiatives at the national level have made reading a priority of elementary education. The Reading First Legislation of 2002 states that schools need to document student growth in five areas of reading—phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, fluency, text comprehension, and vocabulary. Many schools recognize that the one way to accomplish this goal is through tutoring. Tutors can be categorized into five different types:
2. certified teachers
3. paraprofessionals
4. computer assisted
5. web-based tutoring
- The International Reading Association outlines the minimum qualifications for a reading intervention teacher, a reading supervisor/coordinator, and all reading specialists. They must have a master’s degree with at least 21–27 hours in literacy and supervised reading practicum experiences.
- This chapter highlights effective training for each type of tutor and one successful tutoring program—Reading Recovery.
- A suggested lesson plan that includes objectives, a consistent format, and a place for refection is provided in the text. The chapter also contains suggestions for getting started with a tutee.
Chapter 13 Quiz