Reading Strategies
Comprehension is something that is vital to reading because what is the purpose if we do not understand the text. Therefore, teaching comprehension strategies needs to be something that is done everyday. The first thing mentioned in the PowerPoint was a word wall and these can be very out-dated or more for decor if not used properly. A word wall contains current content vocabulary words, high frequecny words, and key concepts, however it needs to be put somewhere where the children can see it at all times. These words should also not stay the same throughout the year, there should be no more than five words added to the wall each week for the students to begin to learn and recognize. It is also important that the wall just not sit there- it needs to be put to use and pulled in to lessons and games. There were a few mentioned in the PowerPoint that sounded very interesting and like something the students would enjoy: "Guess the Word" which is a game where the students need to guess the word with five given clues, "WORDO" which is a game that is much like BINGO but using the word wall words, and various forms of word sorts such as putting the words in different categories.
Another reading strategy mentioned was a Think Aloud and that is where a teacher models how to read a story. The teacher will read a book out loud to the class or small group stopping periodically to ask questions about the book, reread misunderstodd sections again, figure out unknown words and make predictions on the upcoming events of the story. If this is something that is done religiously then the students will begin to pick up these strategies and do them on their own and eventually subconsciously. Doing these reading strategies will make the student think about what they are reading while they are doing so.
The rest of the PowerPoint was devoted to different types of graphic organizers that will allow the child to organize their thoughts and questions in a written format. One of the ones mentioned was a KWL which is something I have personally been doing for a long time even when I was a student. With these, the child will be able to figure out what he/she already knows, what questions they have on the topic and then once they finished they will fill in what they learned through the reading whether it is answering their questions or adding in new information. This chart can also be extended to be a KWHL or a KWWL which incorporate how they could their information or where they found their information. Anticipation guides allow the students to activiate their prior knowledge or gain background knowledge on the information they are about to read so that what they are reading makes sense. 3-2-1, RAFT and Column Notes are always ways to express the students' understanding of the text after they have read the information.
Assessment of Cognitivie, School, and Home Factors
This PowerPoint was pretty interesting to me especially because the third grade students in Forsyth County Actually take a test called the CogAT which is a Cognative Abilities Test to determine which students are eligible for the gifted program. This test was very similar to the most popular test mentioned in the PowerPoint called the Wechsler Scale because it tests the students verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed. However, something that I had thought of when my students were taking this test was that I have some low readers who are actually very smart, so this test would not acurately show their intelligence. There are lots of different assessments to can be done but they all show different aspects of one's intellegence. The Stanford-Binet test needs to be administered by a trained examiner and assesses "fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasonging, visual-spatial processing, and working memory". The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test is exactly what it sounds like- the students will match a picture with a vocabulary word that describes it. This test is more focused to shy, introverted students. There are also listening, memory and word recognition tests.
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