Foundations+of+Reading

toc =Foundations of Reading= Reading is a multifaceted process, and children need an approach to learning tha integrates many forms. Children who are first learning to read need help and encouragment in understanding the concepts behind phonics, the importance of writing, and that print can be a door into a new and unimagined world. Students who are beginning to read neet to practice vocabulary, sentence structure. They needed guided help in comprehension skills. They also need to be introduced to a variety of texts so to become fluent in recognizing vocabulary in any genre. There are three core indicators that make a good reader :
 * 1) They understand the alphabetic system of English to identify printed words
 * 2) They have and use background knowledge and strategies to obtain meaning from print
 * 3) They read fluently



Guided vs Independent Practice
Many educators are making the case for "free reading" which means giving students an allotted time in class to read whatever they want, on their own. Many schools call this "SSR" which stands for "silent sustained reading". The arguments for this method include a belief that encouraging students to read on their own during class means that they will be more inclined to read outside of class, thus developing better foundations of reading.

Both independent and guided reading are important for struggling readers, writers, and spellers. Independent practice is useful because normally students will read something that interests them. This allows for them to create a passion for reading. Students' reading capabilities can only go forward with sustained, independent reading. Guided practice, though, can allow for teachers to stop and point out interesting facts or words about the story that is being read-- possibly a vocabulary word or a foreshadow of events. Christine Moen in her article "Bringing Words to Life and into the Lives of Middle School Students" notes that she makes a point to have independent reading and read alouds in her classroom. By incorporating both, students can experience literature from different angles. Some students gather information easily through reading, while others are more inclined towards learning through listening. Either way, students are still engaging in reading.

Few children read or write before they begin school and most require intensive teaching to gain any degree of fluency. Researchers, though, have identified two important precursors to reading and writing: phonological awareness and knowledge of letters. Phonological awareness means an awareness of the sound structure of language, or an understanding of how sounds groups (phonemes) differ. Letter knowledge includes "knowledge of letter names, knowledge of letter sounds, and the ability to retrieve this information quickly and effortlessly."

Fluency
Kylene Beers defines fluency as "the ability to read smoothly and easily at a good pace with good expression." For readers to develop fluency, they must gain the ability to read a word for meaning, rather than just be able to sound it out. Especially because there are plenty of words in the English language that do not follow the standard rules. Students need to be able to recognize and read sight words, words that must be learned by sight, and high-frequency words, words that appear often in texts. "Of the approximately 600,000-plus words in English, a relatively small number appear frequently in print. Only 13 words (a, and, for, he, is, in, it, of, that, the, to, was, you) account for over 25% of the words in print and 100 words account for approximately 50%." Therefore, if kids have trouble reading these words and constructing meaning from them, students will have a very hard time with reading in general. However, there are ways to help students develop fluency. For example, it is best to not just correct or give a student a word, but to ask them questions about prefixes, suffixes, or root words.

In Cynthia S. Merrill’s article “Following a Child’s Lead Toward Literacy”, she tells the story of her third grade student, Maddie. She says that Maddie was a terrifically imaginative student that spent her time interpreting the pictures in books instead of the text. She explains Maddie’s struggle with reading and details how it was necessary to teach Maddie to read through her own writing, through her expressiveness in writing she could learn to read. She quotes Goodman by claiming that students will learn through the opportunity of writing and “express their individuality”. Merrill explained the importance of connecting writing and storytelling and reading for the students. Merrill in response the process of Maddie’s learning how to read quotes Paulo Friere (1987), “Reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continually reading the world”, in order to suggest that it is an individual process for each specific reader learning to read. Merrill pushes for openness in classrooms to discover how best to approach each student’s learning how to read. In Richard L. Allington’s article “Intervention All Day Long: New Hope for Struggling Readers”, he states that most schools are not allowing students to read at their appropriate grade levels and are imposing reading on students that is inappropriate to their particular reading leves. Allington advocates changing both the reading material that we offer students and the attack of our expectations as teachers, instead of one daily intervention of supplemental reading help, we have to coordinate our attack in order to further a struggling reader’s ability. In Walter Dean Myers’ essay “And then I read…”, he explains reading as beginning with the writing process, the decoding process of your surroundings, and interpretative and connective process. Myers describes the process of owning a language which comes firstly through verbal understanding of language: “’Ownership,’ to me, means the ability to organize my thoughts and words in a way that makes them seem to come from within me rather than existing as symbols completely apart from me.” It seems that Myers believes that the process of coming to know and utilize a language arises through ownership, through having the language as a part of your experience. He states that imagination should be a central part of learning how to “own” your language.

=Hope for Struggling Reader= It’s hard to struggle day to day, Trying to ascertain what the print’s trying to say, Being a buzzard instead of a jay, Knowing the importance, but not the way.

Researchers grapple with ways and means To help struggling readers reach their dreams Of learning to read about rays and beams, And life as it is, not as it seems.

The RAND Study Group is on the right track, Focusing on what readers have, not what they lack, Like individual differences and belonging to a pack, And valuing diversity and the teacher’s knack.

Phonemic awareness, oral language too, The RAND Study Group has taken its cue From research about what teachers must do To engage and motivate this struggling crew.

Research is key to finding a way To ensure that all children understand what words say, To comprehend and be fluent every day, And build self-esteem while engaging in word play.

Teaching vocabulary can really be hot, Word origins, mapping, contexts, the lot. Speaking and listening vocabularies dot Students’ learning landscapes, whether they like it or not.

How about writing, does it have a place In helping struggling readers win the race? In learning to think and learning to pace, And expressing ideas with aplomb and grace?

Technology, where does that fit in? Can it help struggling readers start to win? Can it generate enthusiasm again and again? And change a student frown into a grin?

Vygotsky. . . what would be his take On the plight of older readers and mistakes we all make? Standardized tests to ID the ZPD, for goodness sake! And leaving disenfranchised kids in its wake.

No, he would be disappointed to see what is done With his theories that were meant to benefit everyone. He would say struggling readers want to feel that they’ve won, With support, collaboration, not just one-on-one.

Peer tutoring, repetition, re-mediating—they’re good, Print-based instruction does what it should. Balanced instruction with age-appropriate lit could Produce the best readers in the neighborhood.

Guthrie says motivation is key To make struggling readers be all they can be. The curious reader who pursues merrily His interests and feelings of self-efficacy.

Motivation can help to keep students engaged. Including popular culture is the current rage. Giving students some choice at this stage, And real-world connections are great for this age.

But all of the current research I’ve had the pleasure to read Points to one factor that’s most important indeed. It’s the teacher who plants and nourishes the seed To motivate and encourage students to read.

Struggling readers are often defined as low achievers. The student lacks comphension skills, word recognition, study skills, and fluency. More often than not these students suffer from lack of motivation. They have low self-confidence in their reading skills and doubt that they can improve. As educators we need to be the cheerleaders standing behind these students. They need to be pushed in an encouraging manner. Their motivation needs to develop from an intrinisic place rather than an extrinsic. If teachers can change their thinking about their struggling readers from on of: low acheiver to not yet motivated, then steps can be taken to intervene

Shifting Literacy Demands
It's important to recognize that in the transitition from elementary to middle education, students are often able to read, but cannot understand the multiple dimensions of literacy. They must be taught how to interpret texts and then write about them; how to internalize the things they are reading and be able to look critically at them. Teachers should give relevant writing prompts and make the two parts of a lesson (reading and writing) clear to students.

Multiple and Social Literacy
Teachers should learn to tap into the social qualities of literacy by encouraging open discussion and the building of bridges between students. They should also recognize that there are many forms of literacy, some which aren't even book based.

Importance of Motivation
This could seem obvious, but the idea of motivation can be broken into two parts. One is Student Choice, and the other is Responsive Classom Environments. Both of these factors should be in place for a student to feel adequately motivated to succeed. Teachers should give students the option of choosing what they want to read, while still guiding them toward appropriate selections. Teachers also need to remember the importance of their classroom climate. They should encourage students to interact with texts while caringly supporting them.

A Historical Perspective: Word Analysis Skills
Delivered in 1972 by Arthur W Heilman, I thought this article would be somewhat outdated. However, the information Heilman presents holds true today. What I found most interesting from this article, is that "we have spent decades debating which should come first phonics or sight reading" (2). Like many other things, our issues with word analysis skills arise from our desire to dichotomize everything. When we divide every thing in this way, "we fail to keep in mind that learning to read is a long term developmental process."

Key Strategies for Helping Struggling Readers
It is important to realize that often times, telling a student to sound out a word will not always be helpful. Teachers should also be aware of other learning strategies like chunking, which is the process of breaking the word into smaller parts that are recognizable or a students ability to recognize certain onsets, the beginning of the word before the first vowel, and rimes, a vowel and the letters that follow.

Below is a list of helpful key strategies: Provide Books and Articles on Tape: recorded books help students connect the words on the page to a human voice and helps make them more fluent readers; use recorded books or record books yourself. Teachers should be passionate about early reading success because it is the cornerstone upon which knowledge, self-esteem, and future educational opportunities are built. Schools need teachers who are understanding and patient with struggling readers because this can set the tone for their learning for the rest of their education. Reading is interpreting and therefore interpreting is reading. Not only should we focus on making sure that our students know how to read the words on the page, but we should focus on teaching them how to extract meaning from the words they are reading. Making those connections are crucial to becoming proficient readers.
 * 1) Build supportive Relationships: one-on-one time; individualized listening, helping, encouraging; being supportive does NOT mean reading for them.
 * 2) Model Thoughtful Reading: use “think-alouds,” in which the teacher reads aloud and stops to narrate how she understands the text: asking questions, making inferences, and delving into the world of the book.
 * 3) Use Activities That Build Engagement with the Text: use activities to help readers immerse themselves in and relate to the text: drawing, role play, debating real-life issues, etc.
 * 4) Promote Self-monitoring: help students to learn how to independently detect if they are confused or having difficulty.
 * 5) Use Materials Students can Successfully Read: failure discourages readers, especially struggling readers; make sure to incorporate texts with a range of difficulty to allow readers of different levels to succeed.

Literacy Coaching
There are many mentions of the idea of "coaching". This is the idea that there is someone coming alongside teachers who is knowledgeable in the area of literacy and can help fellow educators navigate the waters of literacy education. This people are trained and can focus on the needs of individual students while the teachers conducts the entire classroom.

Using tools such as digital reading devices can be beneficial to struggling readers. This technique allows the students to manipulate the text and interact with it in a variety of ways, which is extremely beneficial to their reading comprehension.

Recommendations from Reading Research
Daneil's and Zemelam's "Major Conclusions from Six Decades of Reading Research"

=Spelling and Reading= Spelling and reading are connected because they are the reverse of each other. Reading requires one to decode and understand the sounds of a printed page, and spelling requires one to write down the sounds they hear. If students can recognize this connection it will help them to read and to spell. For both students in the middle grades and students in elementary school, the best way to improve a child's spelling is through lots of reading and lots of writing. Students passively learn how to spell by repeatedly seeing the words written in text and then getting the chance to write them out themselves. According to Sandra Wilde and "My Kids Can't Spell and I Don't Want to Deal with It", there are two reasons why a middle school student could be having difficulty with spelling: they possibly just have not read enough or they simply are not naturally inclined to spelling. Most students, however, fall in the first category. They have possibly been turned off to reading and are not getting the adequate practice of seeing and reading how words are spelled. Another point Wilde made was to not be a "spelling cop," meaning that it is not necessary to circle or point out a student's misspelled words on each and every assignment. This can hurt the student's motivation to spell correctly and make him timid when it comes to having to guess at spelling a word, like on an assessment where a dictionary cannot be used. Instead, focus on easy ways to improve spelling: have each student make a goal for spelling, teach students tricks on how to spell words right, let them focus on a few words at a time (one or two versus twenty or thirty) until they have mastered those words, etc. By not putting pressure on students to spell correctly, but giving them the adequate tools to do so will help students' spelling in the long run. In the middle grades, spelling becomes addressed indirectly— merely as part of revision in the writing process rather than in its own independent lesson. However, middle grade students are developmentally more ready to digest and analyze spelling rules in the middle grades than in the early grades in which the rules are normally taught. Teachers should consider the spelling level of their students and help the students move through the stages of spelling: alphabetic, pattern (within and between syllables), and meaning spellers. Not only will this emphasis improve their spelling skills, but also spelling instruction strengthens reading and vocabulary skills. This article suggests incorporating activities which actively study words/origins/meanings, categorize and compare words, discuss spelling concepts, and work on spelling through fun challenges in groups of two. **Vocabulary** According to Thomas Smith's article, "Teaching Vocabulary Expeditiously: Three Keys to Improving Vocabulary Instruction," there are three important elements teachers should keep in mind while teaching vocabulary, especially to middle school students:
 * 1) Kids should read a wide range of materials in all classes.
 * 2) Students should read from the same purposes as literate adults, both for information and pleasure. A sense of purpose is key to reading success.
 * 3) Students need to read a lot; volume, quantity, and practice count.
 * 4) Students should read plenty of books and articles written at a comfortable recreational level, not frustration level.
 * 5) Kids need genuine choice of reading materials: at least half of what they read should be self-selected, based on interest and curiosity.
 * 6) The classroom should become a reading community, a group of people who regularly read, talk and write together.
 * 7) <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in;">Teachers must help students develop a repertoire of thinking strategies to handle challenging texts, and guide students to be increasingly aware and in charge of their won thinking processes.
 * 8) <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in;">Students should engage in frequent interdisciplinary inquiries, projects, and where possible entire interdisciplinary courses to explore topics in depth.
 * 9) <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in;">Students of all ages need to hear powerful writing in performance: reading aloud by the teacher and other students, dramatic interpretation, audio books, etc.
 * 10) <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in;">Adolescent students need opportunities to connect with the adult literate community, starting with teachers as readers who generously share their reading lives with kids.

1. Integration: Vocabulary cannot be taught in isolation. It must be taught along with or along side other topics. They must be used in reading and writing lessons. If you are going to teach the words, make sure you create an instance where you will //use// the word. Several times students just cram for the test or quiz a few moments before and then quickly forget the words later that day. By reinforcing the use of vocabulary words, students will more likely use them in their speech or writing.

2. Meaningful use: Vocabulary words have to be applied to real world situations. Students tend to not learn something if they do not see a use for it. Smith started out the article by telling the story of another teacher who would tell students to "get to class expeditiously" during the passing periods in the hallway. By the end of the first week of school, the majority of the students in Smith's classes knew the word expeditiously, what it meant, and were now using it in their speech and writing assignments.

3. Repetition: Smith emphasized that teachers should spend less time, more often on vocabulary words. Instead of only dedicating one long period on Monday to defining vocabulary words only to revisit the words again on Friday before the quiz, Smith recommends spreading the process out over several days. Assign journal topics with the words, use definitions, have the students draw pictures to go with the words, etc.