Bethany

Bethany Lepley

6/15 1st Wiki Post Smart Answers Section II Round Robin I was taught in undergrad school that round robin reading was a negative approach to teaching reading. Yet when I went into the classrooms for student teaching there was a lot of round robin reading within groups and as a class. Generally the teacher would call on the students who wanted to read and not pressure others to read out loud. This teacher used a variety of different reading strategies but if round robin was only used in one classroom it wouldn’t be effective at all. I completely agree with the research that states that round robin reading is not a good use of class time. I can relate to when I was in school and the teacher gave us each sections to read. I was definitely focusing on that section and not listening to when anyone else read. Being a special education teacher it kills me every time I’m in a regular education inclusion classroom and the teacher does round robin reading. There are those students who are either skipped which in turn points out to the other students that that student can’t read the content or who struggle and get embarrassed just trying to get through the content. There are way more effective reading practices, such as choral reading, that can be used within the classroom instead of round robin reading.

Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning p.22-29 By looking at text books through the idea of a, “text frame,” is a great way to give the student a purpose for reading. I can recall this year with my 4 8th graders in my resource room we were pulling information out of their science textbook to answer questions at the end of the chapter. At the end of the year, their science teacher had given them a packet of questions to work through at the end of each chapter within the textbook. It was a way to get through the book by the time the year was over. My students couldn’t read the textbook so they would obviously look for key words in the question to find the answer during the chapter or completely give up. They weren’t accomplishing anything with that assignment but to get the work completed and move on. It would have been important to have relooked at the material and have the students ask themselves, “What is the point of the material?” They could have pulled from the text frame ideas and could have seen, “well this happens because of this.” This could have organized their learning and thinking a lot more than an, “I just have to get this done,” attitude. I think when a teacher doesn’t use the text as a resource but as the whole basis of what they are accomplishing in class the attitudes of a student reading a textbook certainly changes. By the time they are in high school they will have no desire to use a textbook in any way. This is why creating a purpose for reading, other than just answering questions, is an important approach. As well as, deciding how to frame what the student is reading into context.

Bethany, I can related to your experience with your resource room students. In my post I described my team's science/social studies model. I'm actually the science teacher for my pull out learning support students, but also have struggling reading students from regular education in my class as well. I remember the point of vire you are describing in your post. The "Ugh, what are they assigning my students, or they don't really understand how my students learn and what fosters their succcess." Upon being in the room with my students, teaching them a content subject, and having the regular education teacher to co-teach with as well, I think I bring that special education perspective to the fore front. Text frames, as I stated in my post as well, would surely set our students up with a "frame" to help guide their navigation of materials. The text frame questions the text provides use would be great as posters in our classrooms that students could refer to when indenpendently working to refresh their memories, or for we as teachers to refernce while teaching. On a side note, one great strategy my co-teacher got me using is a "survey" of the content textbook lessons, before the students even read. They look at the title of the lesson, headings, vocabulary, any images/graphs/charts, and captions. Usually my kids do very well picking out that information. My partner refers to it as TIC HIS so they can remember it. (title, introduction, captions, headings, illustrations, and special print words (vocab.) The students then make a prediction based on that information alone before even reading. -Melissa

6/17 2nd Wiki Post I can relate to the following statement in the, __Literacy Lessons__ book p.13, pertaining to districts buying new reading curriculum,

“Far too often a program is purchased and little or no effort is given to teachers who must follow the program. The teachers may not understand the theoretical framework of the program, the scope and sequence of the entire curriculum, and how their lessons are a part of the developmental process for change.”

My district purchased Read 180 and system 44 at the beginning of this school year. We were given training a year before it was provided over the summer. By the time it came to the district a lot of us weren’t fresh on the training that was provided. I was expected to teach both within my classroom and I was trained in the System 44 a month before we started using it with the kids and only a select few were retrained in the READ 180. There was a follow-up training that our district said we would get but we never did receive that 3 months after we started implementing it. I was using SRA within my resource classroom so I was excited about the new programs and so were my kids. We were all excited months before we even received them but they were dropped in our teacher laps and we were expected to start implementing the programs as soon as possible. I was used to juggling things within my room so switching back and forth in the programs was a challenge but I tried my best. The groups weren’t leveled and a lot of students that needed the System 44, which is the lower level, were denied it and the teachers had to teach kids with little phonics skills the higher program. Needless to say, it was a bit of a mess this year. Some of my kids did improve a bit and I have one student that it didn’t work at all for. I was just curious if any other teachers were thrown into reading programs with little guidance on how to implement it with your students as well?

6/18/11 Bethany, Unfortunately, this has happened to me as well! This past year, I was trained in Read180, and I was supposed to begin implementing it in my Reading for Comprehension class. However, with the budget, it was never purchased. I keep being told that when we find the money we will purchase it. When that actually happens, I will need to re-do the training all over again! Before the talk of Read180 even began, I was trained to start a comprehension class that had never been taught before in my school. I was trained in REWARDS and REWARDS Plus. I found that these programs were far too advanced for the students who were placed in my class, because they all struggled with decoding as well. I was also told to use some of the SRA Comprehension, but I think that program is horrible! I know where you're coming from-it really stinks sometimes! Caitlin

6/18 Bethany~ Unfortunately, my district has a habit of handing us resources but never offer trainings, or, the timing of training is not beneficial. Last year we took bits of the LFS approach and applied the concepts in our classrooms. We had one training which was the week before school started, I prefer learning new programs at the end of the school year, so the summer can be used preparing. I do understand the frustration of forgetting the details if trainings are held too early. Our district assigned a math and literacy coach to each elementary building, they are very helpful when new programs arrive because they usually have more knowledge and training. I definitely utilize them, I've asked for their help in explaining program details, modeling lessons and receiving feedback on lessons. It seems that many districts do the same thing!

6/20 Bethany Lepley __Classroom Strategies__ on p.104, 111

I LOVE the idea of an interactive reading guide. I think this really would be beneficial for my students in their regular education classrooms. So many times they would bring me questions and pages they had to read out of a text book for science or social studies and I wouldn't know where to begin with them. I didn't have time within my classroom to read the entire sections in-depth becuase we had things to complete in my class as well. I think an interactive reading guide would have been a great organizer for them to complete with a partner. My students would still need help with reading. It gives them a purpose for reading and I think that's a wonderful learning tool. I also really like the idea of magnet summaries. My students love things that are hands on and tools they can manipulate. Being in a LFS school we always need an engaging summary or motivator. The magnet summaries could work in my classroom either way.

Bethany – I’m glad you are finding some good resource ideas in the Strategies text. I think the magnet summaries would be high interest for your kids. Dr. P.

Bethany Lepley 6/22

I found the section in, “Smart Answers” (p.68) about phonics to be very interesting. Linking this to the conversation we had in class on Tuesday, it shows that phonics is often given too much attention over other methods. It’s better to teach phonics in context rather than individualizing each sound and letter blends. The reading program I teach in my class, System 44, does a lot with focusing on the letter sounds and breaking each sound apart for a lesson on the 44 sounds in the English language. It does also do a great job of applying these sounds within words and giving meaning. Such as there is always a ELL section at the end of a lesson. I use that section for my students as well because they have learning disabilities and struggle with identifying the concept without extra practice. I use the ELL words and meanings and turn them into my student’s spelling words for the week. There’s also a, “Decodable Digest,” book that comes along with the program and provides high interest passages that the students can read and those words pop up within the reading, along with the letter blends and sounds being focused on in that weeks lesson. I even have trouble with all the phonics rules, at times, so I know my students need that application to keep them refreshed and a way to remember the phonics. I took a lot of this passage to mean that we don’t even just use the rules in the classroom but have the students go to the playground, lunch room, etc. to use these rules. Without the context there’s no real connection.

I wonder how many times I take teaching phonics out of context and don’t allow for my students to interact with the words themselves. I thought this especially after reading on p. 81 in, “Smart Answers”, about phonics instruction not benefiting the reading of students above first grade. I feel that I do, sometimes, focus more on the rule and correcting the student then allowing them to engage in the print. I do believe that they need to be corrected but allowing them to discover that on their own, is something I don’t allow to happen enough. I am guilty of not wanting my students to be wrong too often I find myself scaffolding to the point that I wonder what they really understood. With my students in learning support I worry too much about their emotional side of things, since they’re use to being wrong in classes and don’t even try, that I over scaffold to get an answer at times.

6/24

Bethany Lepley


 * Literacy Lessons p.70**

Motivating my students to read is huge. Especially in middle school with students who have learning disabilities and are struggling readers. It is very hard for me to find book to put in my classroom library that are on a 3rd grade level but on a 8th grade interest level. I think literacy circles are a great idea. I will certainly utilize them within my classroom for next year. I think it’s a great way for the students to interact with the text. I think literature circles would really be a great way for students to understand the concept of nonfiction reading. I also really like the relationship between sports and reading comprehension on p. 116 in the book, __Literacy Lessons__. I think those connections to sports can really help students remember the different parts of reading comprehension through their schema. I will also try and utilize the idea of the comprehension beach balls and teach balls. I could even use this concept in math class with simple multiplication facts the students need to learn.

Bethany – You continue to build excellent connections between what you are reading and your classroom practice. Well done. Dr. P.

6/27 Bethany Lepley __Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning__ (p.121) I really appreciated the idea of paired reviews. I struggle with closing my lessons with quick summarizing because often times the bell rings or the lesson gets thrown off. I have a lot of different groups of students working on separate things and it makes it difficult to bring them back together. I really liked the idea of the 3 minute pause. Those are questions that can be asked quickly and elicit and quick response. They also give me points to start off the next class period answering what questions they may have. My students struggle for thinking on their own. A lot of times they will say, “I don’t know” or repeat what the other student just said. They really need to be taught how to paraphrase and clarify on their own, as I was working on this past year. The quote from the book, “many students cling to the habit of reading new material only once, whether they truly understand it or not.” (p.121) depicts my students. They often would have a textbook and read it only for the answer, not worrying about the other content. Why do more work than they have to, was their motto. I think teaching this strategy would take a while within my classroom but would be a very efficient summarizing strategy once learned.

6/29 Bethany Lepley Smart Answers Section 5 I experienced the DIBELS test when I was student teaching. So many times I think fluency is separated from comprehension. When we time students reading they tend to want to read quickly and say the words and phrases without meaning. I run into this within my own classroom. I have the students read a sentence. Then I will read the sentence with fluidity and have them repeat. Sometimes my students will read as fast as they can when they repeat and I ask them if that’s how I sounded. They can’t answer questions about what they read following then. I my school district use DIBELS in the elementary school. I’m sure there is good in the test otherwise schools wouldn’t use it, however, I wonder why they chose to use a reading test that doesn’t correspond to testing comprehension as well. I am guilty of timing my students reading for words per minute. A lot of their goals relate to reading fluency and counting words per minute. They also have comprehension goals, however, after reading this passage it has made me think more about how to assess my students fluency or words per minute.

6/30/11 Bethany, Your example of have your student read a sentence, then you read the with fluidity, and they say it back as fast as possible hit home .In a way it shows what we have created by having student complete fluency drills so often. Everything seems to become a race even when they have the model to guide them. I think the piece we miss a lot of the time (probably due to all the testing demands) is that reading is supposed to inform us in some manner. Reading isn’t supposed to be done as fast as possible. If I had more freedom, it would make more sense to emphasize comprehension, reading for meaning, and discussing interpretations. Yes, fluency influences comprehension; however, my students especially may never be fluent readers so they need to be provided strategies that will assist them in comprehension. Melissa

6/30 Bethany, I agree with your position that fluency and comprehension goals should be intertwined. The goal of fluency for students should not be reading as fast as they can, but rather reading in a way that helps the text make sense. My school district uses Dibels, and my students get so flustered with reading as fast as they can that many of my fourth graders who benchmark in WPM still get poor scores on the accuracy scale because they miss or substitute easy sight words like a, an, but, the, etc. I try to stress to my students that reading more slowly and more accurately is more beneficial, and "impresses me more" than students that read overly quickly and miss simple sight words. The Dibels test that we do added a Retell section this year. When students are finished with the passage, they are expected to summarize what they read giving significant details in correct order. I feel that the addition of the Retell piece is moving in the right direction, but I think the message still needs to be more clearly conveyed to students that the fastest reader in the room isn't always necessarily the "best" reader in the room.

-Rachael

7/1/11 Bethany Lepley

Literacy Lessons pp. 133-136

I found the vocabulary section in, __Literacy Lesson__, to be very beneficial to my teaching. I’m always looking for new ways to teach vocabulary. I have a smart board in my classroom and have used websites such as, starfall.com, to have students interact with that text on the Smartboard. My school also has a subscription to Discovery Learning Channel and we can download all sorts of educational videos. This is a great resource to teach vocabulary as well. I love the examples that the, __Literacy Lesson__ p.134, gives for shows like, “Deadliest Catch”. I have middle school students but my students have very low reading levels. It’s always very hard for me to find text or examples that are on their interest levels but also on their comprehension and reading levels. I love the idea of using a wii in the classroom as well. I think that would be a great educational resource to draw from. I think that would be a highly motivational tool for my own students.