Chapter 8

Quotes:

(p.228) Calkin (2001) talks about how books that are most appropriate for working on fluency in intermediate grades are those that are relatively easy, have long sentences, use authentic and natural language (language that is similar to how we talk), and contain many high-frequency words.

(p.246) Bomer (2001) said "children need to know how to have a good conversation that build on and follow a line of thinking... they need to learn how to listen and respond to one another in a way that creates connections and builds a conversation history over time.

Questions:

1. While reading this chapter, it just makes me wonder how important is fluency in reading? If reading is to make meaning? Is it important that you are able to read fast?

2. How can you explicitly teach students to be aware of how they are thinking when they are reading a story? 

Issue:

For ELD 1 or 2 students who are in 3rd - 5th grade, how can you balance the four-resource model without emphasizing code-breaking or one other component? 

Chapter 7

I wonder...

• This teacher showed literacy as a socially constructed event by creating and building context or schema for children to draw from, allowing the children to experience different scenarios and activities so they can make sense of what they are learning in the classroom.
• Reading big books, creating a writing journal, drawing pictures based on the story discussed in class, exposing the students to meaningful environmental print [words in the book was posted in their word charts, word walls], and providing access to picture dictionaries.
• When students see the connectedness of activities, and not just separate chunks of skills being introduced, literacy becomes more meaningful and relevant to them. When students then get a book, they don't see it as a task "they have to do" because it helps them become better readers, in terms of their fluency, etc. Instead, they see the book as a tool to create meaning of the world around them. The book is a source of knowledge that can enrich their lives. When they write in their notebooks, they don't see it as something that they have to do, but instead, they will see it as a form of self-expression, a way to extend their learning, a way to put down their thoughts that they can revisit, review or even edit at a later time if they want to. Oral retellings is not viewed as a way to measure how good you are in the English language, but instead will be viewed as a tool for self-expression, a way to share out your ideas, thoughts, and wonderings even.
• When beginning readers see predictable texts, or see books using a predictable pattern in language, they will not stress over the complexity of the word form itself, but will try to make meaning from the pictures or illustrations in the book. This will give them a lower affective filter in trying or attempting to read books. Reading becomes enjoyable and less stressful.
• Ms. Simon's method in teaching reading is similar to my experience when I was beginning to teach kindergarten in my country. A lot of reading books that we have access to needed a lot of background building on my part. There are a lot of words in the books that we read that we are not familiar with, or is not part of our environment. I had to create scenarios and make sure my students will at least have an idea of what we are talking about. I recall these experience because I had to exert an extra effort to do so, and it was very time consuming for me. However, I also know that I want my students to have authentic materials in the classroom. Therefore, towards the end of the year, my class ended up creating our own books, from stories and folktales we have in our country. I saw that my students, when I give them the free time to pick a book and read, almost all of them go for the books we made. It just made sense!

Questions for Further Reflection:

• I feel that code breaking practices have dominated beginning reading instruction because it is viewed as a prerequisite or an instrumental component in the reading process. When students are not able to decode, it is assumed that they will have a harder time making meaning of what they are reading. In the prescriptive (traditional) approach, code breaking is seen as a stand-alone part of the curriculum that can easily be implemented by teachers using a scripted curriculum. 
• It is important to have a range of text materials in the classroom library to expose students to different genres, themes, as well as literary elements. This way, students have a wider base in terms of background building, as well as, wider choice to what interests them.
• I have observed some of the classroom experiences and illustrations mentioned here. However, there are not too many classrooms that provide students with flexibility in making choices, opportunities to be exposed to themes that is not mandated in their curriculum, or even allowed to make meaning to what they are reading. If students do not think, speak, or write the way 'the curriculum' wants them to, these students are viewed as different and needy students. They are seen as students needing help or needing intervention, sometimes even special education.

Chapter 6

I wonder...

• Kadin knows that reading is a meaningful process. He constantly refers to the picture to make sense of what he is trying to read. He knows that when he gets stuck, his mom is a good resource to help him get unstuck. 
• Some of the textual features that contribute to Kadin's reading process are predictability of texts, repetition, use of rhythm and rhyme.
• It is evident in this vignette that Kadin knows that stories have a beginning, middle, and an end, especially he knows when to say, "The end." He also knows that the stories that he read used repetitive phrases that helped him read the books better and faster.

Further Reflections...

• If I were to create my own preschool, I have to make sure that the environment is print-rich. It has centers that promote literacy. This preschool will also utilize technology as one of its teaching tool as well as a resource for both the teacher and the students. The environment must also be reflective of the different cultures represented in my school. The decorations and materials I will use will be "authentic" and as much as possible, not commercially produced. 
• The underlying theories of emergent literacy, which states that literacy emerges before children are formally taught to read and that the social setting for literacy instruction is not ignored, matches guiding principle #1 which states that literacy practices are socially and culturally constructed. A student who comes in the classroom brings in his/her culture, ways of life, and different literacy practices in the home. Students, even before you teach them how to read, has a whole lifetime of experience that he/she brings along as he/she enters the classroom. Principle #6 says, literacy practices expand to include everyday texts and multimodal texts also aligns with emergent literacy theory that literacy encompasses the whole act of reading, not merely decoding. When a student reads, the student creates meaning or sense with what he/she is reading. Reading is not merely a book and reader activity, reading is involved in all the aspects of a students life.