EDRD 7717 Module 5: PowerPoint Analysis

Vocabulary Development

      This PowerPoint reinforced a lot of information regarding vocabulary that i have been previously taught or was aware of through experiences.A three-tiered system was discussed which was a very interesting way to organize the different levels of vocabulary. Tier one encompasses all of the vocabulary that does not require much instructional time throughout the school day because they are words that are used so frequently. The description for Tier two was very interesting because it stated that these are "words that we sometimes assume students know, but often they have only 'heard' the word". Tier three are words that are content-specific and only need to be taught when he topic is being discussed. The number one research point that was discussed in the PowerPoint and in my opinion the number one thing to take away from this reading is that vocabulary is essential to student comprehension. In order for students to gain a true vocabulary  understanding it is important that we teach the students that we put the words to use instead of giving them words that they are not going to put directly to use. 

Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words and Fluency

      This PowerPoint was extremely beneficial for ways to teach phonics, high-frequency words and fluency because it gave step by step instructions as well as activity essentials. There were explicit instructions given  to plan a beneficial lesson: "step 1: phonemic awareness and building the rime, step 2: adding the onset, step 3: adding rime, step 4: providing mixed practice, step 5: introducing the model word, step 6: guided practice, step 7: application, and step 8: spell and write". One of the ways to further assist the students was to level any books according to decoding skills needed for the text and this is something our school is actually in the process of. It was discussed that our library organize the books according to the reading levels instead of the age-old alphabetic method which I think will be so much more beneficial for the students and their reading progress. 

Vocabulary Development (#2)/ Linking Phonics and Vocabulary Development

      When a student is unaware of a word within their reading there are four reading strategies that the students may use: breaking the word into pronounceable chunks ("pronounceanble Word-Part), use words they know or that seem similar (Analogy), sound each grapheme out (Decoding), use the surrounding words to figure out the meaning (Context). While students are reading it is also important to determine if the students are too focused on one decoding strategy such as semantic, syntactic and phonemic because these need to be used in unison to be a successful reader. A few ways to build students' vocabulary knowledge is through high-frequency word repetition, listening to read alouds and allowing the students to read on their own or with a partner. This is something that I allow my students to do on a daily basis through our reading centers and I have already begun to hear a difference in their reading ability. 

       

EDRD 7717 Module 4: Video Analysis

Running Record Videos

      This first set of videos was interesting and helpful because I have been taught running records and have done them myself, but I was not given different symbols that we had to necessarily use. The symbols/system was very logical and easy to remember. We were shown how to mark omissions, insertions, repetitions, and substitutions. 

      The second video allowed us to see a running record taking place with a student involved. Besides the actual writing of the running record part, I liked the great example she set as a teacher by going back and actually having a discussion with the student about his reading. After he came to a stopping point, she had him look back at the mistakes that he had made so that he could understand how or why he was making the mistakes. This is such a great way to further the students understanding of the mistakes they may make often throughout their reading. Once students are aware of where or why they are making mistakes they will be able to keep these thoughts and teacher suggestions in the back of their mind and work on them as they continue to read without the assistance of a teacher or mentor. 

EDRD 7717 Module 4: PowerPoint Analysis

      Identifying Reading Disabilities 

      It is vital that we identify reading disabilities early and get our students help as soon as we can in order to better their chances of success. At first within the school system, there was a discrepancy definition is something that was used to determine what it meant to have a reading disability. It “said that students had a learning disability if there was a significant difference between their measured ability and their achievement”. However, there were issues with this definition, so we moved to a Response to Intervention (RTI) program which is a three tiered program. Tier one is the instruction for all the students and then as you move up through the tiers  the instruction gets more and more specialized. Lower achieving students can easily be put into the tier process in order to further their progress. For example, I have a student who was new to my school this year, so we tested her in Math and Reading to get of understanding of what knowledge and understanding she is coming to us with. She tested extremely low in reading comprehension and was put directly on tier two so that she could receive the extra assistance she needed.

      Yes, there are “stages” to learning, but these stages need to be seen as something that are not concrete but that students can fluidly move from one to another and back again if necessary. There are five stages mentioned within the reading: Emergent Literacy, Early Reading, Growing Independence, Reading to Learn, and Abstract Reading. The reading also discussed various ways of helping struggling readers, but one that I found interesting and probably need the most help with is “prevention is better than correction”. I feel like I have always been told that the students need to experience and learn from their mistakes, but if we could prevent the mistakes before they occur then the students may be less confused about the material they struggle with. 
     

Assessment: Formative & Summative

      The word “assess” derives from another word meaning “to sit with”, which implies that assessments should be done with students.

      Formative assessments are used to guide for the remaining instruction or to go back and reteach specific instruction for difficult subjects. This allows the teacher to see and understand the students’ strengths and weaknesses. Then the teacher can build upon their strengths and use those in order to teach to their weaknesses. It is something that is done multiple times throughout the length of the lessons. This allows the students to become further involved in their learning because they are able to also understand why they are having difficulties with specific content. However, this is only effective if the teacher gives feedback in a timely manner and in a way that is beneficial to the student.  Summative assessments are used to simply assess the students knowledge and understanding at the end of a unit. 

      There is too much pressure put on the students and their corresponding scores on their assessments. There needs to be more emphasis put on the students progress and "providing advice for students". The more pressure that the students put on themselves, the less likely they will be able to perform at their best because they will become overly worried and stressed. 

      

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! 

EDRD 7717 Module 3: PowerPoint Questions

"Overview of Assessment" PowerPoint:

1. What is the general purpose of assessments?
       Assessments are inteded to show the teacher what the students know and what they are struggling with. They will also aid the teacher in guiding future instruction.
2. What must assessments reflect?        Assessments must show student progress through various "academic demands".
3. What is the purpose of norm-referenced tests?        Norm-referenced test scores will show you how one student compares to others that were in the reference group. They will show whether a student is performing below or above average.
4. What is the difference in formative and summative assessments?       Formative assessments should be used throughout the total length of units or lessons in order to determine the students' strengths and weaknesses regarding the current topic. They show the teacher what content may need further explanation. Summative assessments are given at the end of units or lessons to determine the students' overall understanding.
5. Are tests a good measurement to determine student performance?        Tests may not always been accurate, but if the test's validity and reliability are taken in to account before the students are given the test then they may be more accurate in measuring student performance.
6. What are high-stakes test used for?       High-stakes tests are used to "determine whether students pass or fail", such as the CRCT taken in the third grade- if the students do not pass specific sections they are not able to move on to fourth grade.

EDRD 7717 Module 3: Video Analysis

      Phonemic awareness is the basis for an effective reader. However, the only grade I feel like I was able to experience true phonics instruction was in Kindergarten, but I was only in that class for a short period of time. I have not seen much phonics instruction in the older grades even though I think it would be beneficial to the students' overall success. I usually try to at least pull it in to our weekly spelling and vocabulary words. The student I am tutoring actually has good word pronunciation and recognition, but she has a lot of problems when it comes to comprehension. Nonetheless, throughout the length of my tutoring sessions I could begin to implement various phoneme activities. One activity that I could do is called "Stretch-A-Word" and it allows you to put a word together, stretch it out (sound it out) and then say the word as a whole. There is also a game a remade called "Roll-A-Word" where the student can roll the die where the faces have beginning phonemes and the game board has ending phonemes. The student will roll the die and if they say the word phonetically correct then they are allowed to move to the next square. These activities will allow my  student to experience various phoneme combinations that would allow her to be able to break apart unfamiliar words in to familiar phonemes. Also, due to the fact that EJ has trouble with comprehension could mean that she is spending excessive effort on decoding the story, so these activities as well as others will hopefully give her the foundation she needs to read for meaning.

EDRD 7717 Module 3: "Formative Assessment: Simply, No Additives" Response

      There is always so much talk about formative assessments, and their importance. We actually had an entire day during preplanning related to formative and summative assessments. Formative assessments are to be used throughout lessons to gain knowledge of the students' understanding as well as guide the future instruction. If there is part of the content that a majority of the students are not understanding then it is time for the teacher to reevaluate his/her teaching strategies and plan lessons to assist in lessening the confusion. As my undergraduate mentor always said, "Don't blame the corn if the corn doesn't grow". "[Formative assessments] involves making judgments about the quality of student responses and using those judgments immediately to guide and improve students' understandings and skills" (Roskos, 2012, p. 534). However, assessing and learning is not only the responsibility of the teacher. Teachers need to provide students with the tools and resources needed to set specific goals for their learning and ways to self-assess. The students need to be completely honest during their self-evaluations, expectation rubrics or content checklists, in order to truly grow as a learner. Rosko stated, "In the end- if learning is to take hold- the teacher has to hand over the cognitive work to the student who, in turn, needs to assume responsibility for getting it right" (2012, p. 536).