Blog #9

In the article, Teaching Phonemic Awareness, it discusses how incorporating songs into the curriculum can help children with sounding out words. The children will sing songs together and this allows the teacher to hear them say the words and see what they need to work on. I like this idea because it seems fun and will get children excited to learn. Also reading aloud nursery rhymes will help teach phonemic awareness. For example, children can read Hey Diddle Diddle to help them with letter D. This is an idea I also like because there is a wide variety of nursery rhymes to choose from and children can pick out certain poems to read.

Blog #8

I really am enjoying my time I spend with my second graders. Me and Erika got a chance to do a small read aloud to the students and I believe it went well. I am really happy my teacher is giving us a chance to be more involved in the classroom.
One thing I find interesting about my case study student is that he only likes to talk about Minecraft: which is a video game. When he starts to talk about Minecraft, he won't stop. He will not focus on anything I ask him too. I talk to my instructor for Wednesday's class and ask her what I should do when it is all he talks about. She said to tell him he only gets three minutes of Minecraft talk during the time period we are together. She also said that I could have him read about Minecraft too me since it is something he is interested in. Having him write a letter to the creator or writing out tips is another idea she gave. I am going to try these ideas with him this Thursday and see if it works.

Blog #7

My experience with my case study student has been going better! I actually got him to read and write more for me. He was hesitant at first when I asked him to write but I eventually got him to. He kept saying the usual that he doesn't like to write. He wrote about Minecraft again but he wrote more this time. I told him he had to read for me and he tried to get out of it by saying lets read next week. I wanted him to read for me so I could see how well he could read. I told him he only had to read a few pages and he agreed to it. He is one of the lower level students in reading but he read fairly well. I am just glad I finally got him to read for me.

Blog #6

Lately I have been working with my field experience case study and I do not think it is going as well I was hoping. My student is really nice and seems eager to talk about anything but reading and writing. He is one of the students who is on the lower reading level scale. He seems really smart but just isn't interested in reading and writing. 

When reading to him, he seems to get distracted easily. When I try to utilize some of the strategies we have learned in class, he seems to not want to listen. I will ask a question and he will half way answer it and start talking about other things. I even picked out books centered around subjects he likes. I had the same experience when I told him he was writing for me during out meeting. He responded with, "I hate writing," and then started to talk about other things. I eventually got him to write but he would not read back to me. I have no idea how to go from here but I hope I eventually figure it out so we both can have a positive experience. 

Blog #5

            For this webcast, Pat Johnson gave a lot of advice on how to teach students to become better readers. Pat Johnson discussed that when teaching in small groups, we as teachers need to make instructional decisions.  When working with small groups, it is important that teachers teach students more than just how to read, but how to understand the material that is read. Teachers need to teach them strategies that help build their reading process system. When teaching children, the end goal is to have students self-iniate strategies and behaviors while they are reading. 
              During this webcast Pat discussed three main ideas about how students read using the methods of meaning, syntactic, and visual. The meaning method is when students use pictures to help understand what they are reading.  Syntactic is when students will just know the words in the book just from speaking them.  When students use the visual method they are using their phonics skills. When reading, students should grasp onto these methods and use whatever method that helps them become better readers. 
          Not all students will be great readers when they first start out, so that is why we as teachers will have to be motivated to help them develop the reading strategies they need. I like the idea of students working in small groups in the same reading level. When they are in the same reading level, it seems as if it easier to teach and connect with the students.  

Blog #4

       In chapter five it is said that If the teachers are going to support their hardest-to-teach readers as they learn to build a reading process system, then the classroom environment must allow time for teachers to do just that. I believe that it is crucial for teachers to set up a good learning environment in the classroom. To do this they have to construct a literary framework that allows them to do a variety of activities with their students so that they can build their own reading process system. Reading aloud, sharing reading, conferring with readers and assessing them are some activities to can be used to sit up the reading process system.
 Reading aloud helps every student out with reading. It gives the teacher a chance to model reading and introduce their reading strategies. Conferring and assessing gives the teacher the chance to see where each student is at with the reading process system. Shared reading is when the teacher does the reading and encourages the students to join in. 
Al of these activities are important to the reading process system. It's important to always include these activities when the building the reading process system. 

Blog #3

Many readers struggle when they are reading and have trouble understanding their reading. There are many different ways on how to teach students how read, pronounce the words correctly, and understand the meaning of what they are reading. In the reading, it talks about how teachers should model for the students so they get a better understanding and see how some mistakes can be easily made. For example, the books says to accidentally substitute a wrong word but then quickly show how you monitor yourself for making sense. This show children how to quickly correct errors while reading and also that it helps make the reading make sense.

In class on Monday we learned about a few strategies to help students become better readers. The one that seemed that be the most effective was "make a mental image or picture in for head." This allows the children to actually think about what is going on in the book. The teacher will read a page or two without showing any pictures and then the students will produce an image in their head.

Blog #2

In a classroom, there is always a group of students who struggle when it comes to reading. A reader who struggles when it comes to reading hasn't fully grasped the concept of figuring out the meaning of texts they are reading or they do not try to figure out what the passage is saying. It's up to the teacher to try to teach the student how to correctly read and help them figure out a way to connect and understand the text they are reading. As a future educator, I plan on helping my students become a successful reader and learn about their struggles when they read.

This semester I am in a second grade classroom for my field placement and I really like how the teacher facilitates her reading time. She splits up the children and the children go to the different classrooms depending on their reading level. This gives the students who have lower reading levels the chance to work on stuff they really need to work on. I was in the classroom where the students with lower reading levels worked together. The teacher wanted to make sure each student felt comfortable and never seemed to get frustrated with a student. I really enjoyed watching this reading block because all of the encouragement and positivity. After their reading block and all of the students met back up, the teacher would ask the students who was the best reader that day or who was improving. Almost everyone had an idea and I really liked how they all had something to say about each other. As a future educator, I hope to be as positive and encouraging when it comes to each subject.

Chapter 2 and 3

In the article, What Matters Most discusses reading and how much reading can effect a student's academic achievement. A student who reads more has a higher academic standing versus the student who doesn't read as much.  Some studies have shown that the average higher- achieving student read approximately three times as much each week as their lower-achieving classmates. It is said in the article that planning time for reading is important. Some teachers claim that is hard for them to plan a big reading block into their day because of the time it takes up. Teachers have to be efficient in planning and using their time wisely. As a future educator, I plan to stress how important reading is to my students and get them to understand how significant it is to learn how to enjoy reading. 

Kids Need Books They Can Read is an article that discuss that children needs to read books they can connect with and they are at the appropriate reading level. It is mentioned that children do better in class when the books they read are easier to read. Marie Clay, the developer of the Reading Recovery intervention says that we need to refocus our attention on the importance of matching children with books at an appropriate level. She sums it up that in the Reading Recovery program the main idea involves moving the child successfully through a sequence of increasingly difficult little books. I agree that this is a good idea because a child needs to start somewhere and get better as the time goes along. Besides testing children and figuring out their reading level, children can figure out if material is too difficult for them in way that doesn't involve testing. The three finger rule can be easily taught to students. Children will read the first two pages and if they read three words they do not understand, the book is too difficult for them. Not only should they be able to understand the text, children should also find an interest in what they are reading. Letting a child choose what they are reading can spark an interest in reading.