Within the article by Neufeld discussed many different effective approaches to assess the three components of Fluency(accuracy, reading spead, prosody). Before they discussed that, they first gave teachers strategies to prepare their students before reading, and during and after reading, so the students will get the most information out of the material possible.
Getting ready to read strategies:1. Clarifying a purpose for reading. 2. Over viewing the text. 3. Activate prior knowledge relevant to the text. 4. Make predictions about the text.
During and after reading strategies: 1. Attending to text structure (organizational logic of a text.) 2. Creating summaries (oral, written, visual) -Teaching students to summarize what htey have read is another strategy that has been shown to improve their overall comprehension. 3. Monitoring comprehension and seeking clarification using fix-up strategies (teaching students the importance of monitoring their understanding of what they are reading and helping them develop tools for doing so is an important aspect of effective comprehension instruction.
In my field placement classroom, I've noticed that my students' development in word identification and fluency is at a bit of a lower level than where it should be at. I wonder if this is because of the Spanish immersion program. I have noticed that when the students write in English, the mistakes are mistakes from their confusion between the Spanish and English language and letter sounds. Sometimes I wonder if the Spanish immersion program will hold them back in their native language. They are at a very crucial time, learning the basics of literacy, should it be taught in English first? There have been many complications with word identifaction and fluency in the sense that they will read an English word with the spanish sounds and completely change its meaning. I understand that it is good for young children to learn another language because that is the best time for them to soak it up, but I wonder if the spanish is confusing them because the parents are not helping them at home in English, as they learn in spanish all day at school.
Lauren and Rose: How do your students in your classroom vary in fluency, and what approaches work for them best?
Effective comprehension strategies instruction- Phase 1: Explicit instruction of individual strategies:1. Introduction and Justification 2. Modeling 3. Guided Practice. 4. Independent practice
ReplyDeletePhase 2:Teaching for Self- Regulated strategy use
Using web diagrams (Visual Summaries)
• Teaching a few comprehension strategies well is more effective than teaching many strategies poorly (Brown, 2002).
• Teach students to use strategies flexibly, adapting them to their needs, their individual preferences, and the text at hand (Pressley, 2002c).
• Remember that reading comprehension strategies are a means to an end and not the end. The end is helping students become ex- pert comprehenders of challenging texts.
• Students need many opportunities to practice the strategies they are learning (Brown, 2002).
• Becoming an effective teacher of reading comprehension takes most teachers several years (Brown & Coy-Ogan, 1993).
(Neufeld)
I found the article practically interesting and it made me think back to TE 301 when we had to perform a running record and our child study. My study child was an ELL student, and had great fluency but was lacking in comprehension. I think this article would have been beneficial if I would have had the opportunity to read it last year. However, I still am glad that I read it! This year in my kindergarten placement I have seen a great progress with my students fluency, and feel most of the students are where they need to be; most, but not all. All of the students are getting better and reading on their own, and have improved greatly with their letter-sound knowledge. My CT has shown me her literacy assessments for the students, and they all have improved. It’s really awesome to be able to see the progress these students have made! Gabe, I found your post really interesting because your students are learning everything in Spanish. I think this would be extremely difficult and also worry that these students have yet to master English, which makes me wonder how are they mastering and learning in Spanish.
ReplyDeleteThe students in my classroom vary very much in their fluency ability. Some students are very far behind and can hardly read at a first grade level, while others are reading at a fifth grade level.
ReplyDeleteI found the article very informative, and found the things you pointed out to be helpful. These things included the getting ready to read strategies and the during and after reading strategies.
I understand where both of your worries are coming from in relation to Gabe's students not learning sufficient English skills, however, I have to disagree with you. I say this because there have been many studies that show a positive influence in all subject areas when native English speakers are placed in an immersion second language classroom. I do not know all the details to this, but I believe this helps the brain's critical thinking skills because the students are able to practice their second language in school, while they practice English, their natie language all the time outside of school, and during Engligh instruction time in class.
I am worried I will not be as effective at teaching language arts skills such as fluency and comprehension as I should be... But Gabe, the quote you put up by Brown and Coy-Ogan is encouraging and makes me remember we will not be, nor have to be perfect when we first start out teaching.