EDRD 7717 Module 4: Opitz Reading

      Chapter 8 had to do with forms of assessing students’ oral reading through the use of IRIs (informal reading inventory), miscue analysis and running records. As we read in the book and saw in the videos, these allow the teacher and the student to see exactly where the student is having their difficulties. Once we realize analyze the student’s miscues we will be able to pick lessons or activities specific to the student’s needs. I used all of these methods going through college for various projects, but at my school we mostly use different forms of an IRI because it has the comprehension aspect as well. I think this is the most helpful because I had a student who has great word recognition, but barely understands what she is reading. So, if we were to conduct a running record with her one may think that she had no real reading issues. 
      If I had to sum up my senior year of college in the education program it would be with chapter 9 because we always talked about building our lessons around our students interests. Reading is not something that the students are very interested in, so it is important that we figure out where their interests lie and build upon them. We need to try to bring in books that the students like so that they begin to have that love for reading. 
      Chapter 10 contained the various components of comprehension. Comprehension is the essence of reading- it is why we read, so of course it is going to be something that we focus on the most within the classroom. The CRCT in third grade is filled with passages and questions that go along with it. So, it is essential that I give my students the tools they need to decipher what the passages are about. 
      Chapter 11 gave a lot of insight into vocabulary instruction and assessment. Our students are learning new vocabulary all the time from the surroundings by listening, speaking, writing and reading. In my classroom we are always talking about using our context clues while we read to figure out unknown words. We also do Daily Oral Language in the mornings which includes completing analogies and determining an unknown word. I was unaware that things that these build their vocabulary, so I am glad to see that some of the things they were discussing throughout the chapter were things I was familiar with!