It is important to expose students to more than just concrete identification words like ‘chair’ or ‘horse’ but broaden their base of word knowledge to include abstract words as well. Children speak the words they have heard and later recognize those words within the context of literature. When a student has heard a word within a context, verbally used the word to express thinking and can identify and associate meaning to the word with in a text, they will be likely to use the word in written communication as well. Academically speaking, the same rules apply. Students need to hear academic language used within a
“The disconnect between text and reader is especially noticeable in content areas where readers must interact with highly specialized and technical language” (Vacca & Vacca, 2008, p. 348). For students to find success in a content area classroom, educators need to engage students in reading with the use of instructional strategies (Vacca & Vacca, 2008). Strategies used in content area classrooms vary with purpose. “What a teacher does before reading, during reading, and after reading (B-D-A) is crucial to active and purposeful reading” (Vacca & Vacca, 2008, p. 346). Before reading activities help students get ready to read by motivating the readers, activating prior knowledge, and introducing key vocabulary.
The first step is pre teaching vocabulary in which teacher needs to introduce and review new vocabularies that relate to stories or information they are going to read. Then as they became more familiar with new vocabularies they will continue to build their vocabulary skill by making some sentences from those vocabularies. It is not their reading fluency increase but also their reading comprehension. Subsequently teacher must provide background knowledge in second step for example giving students some questions from general questions then slowly increase to the specific questions, showing some pictures about the material which students are going to read, allowing students to share about the topic. But before provide them with background knowledge teacher must measure students the level of prior knowledge about the material which is given to the students.
In Ransinski web seminar relating to the topic of fluency, he mentions how around the country reading fluency is defined as teaching children to read fast. On the other hand, Ransinski disagrees and believes that fluency is the bridge to comprehension, and that it is the deeper structure of language which ultimately means meaning. He also believes that students should be able to dive deep in to reading and break through the surface structure for a student to understand the full meaning of a text. Even if you considered the five components of reading which are; phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary development, and reading comprehension all of these components deal with fluency. In order for a student to master fluency they must be able to master the five components of reading as well.
Teachers must also observe and make assessments regularly, modifying the environment as needed to enhance integrated development of all domains. The theme “All About Me” could be used to create such learning centers. The teacher will introduce this theme by reading “This is Me” by Richard Scarry, in which Arthur Pig learns about parts of his body, and what he can do with them. Reading to children is the catalyst for language development. When children are read to, they see that reading is valuable.
Students must ask themselves, “What did my instructor say about this chapter or subject when it was assigned?” and “What do I already know about this subject?” Reading in order to find the answer gives students a purpose for reading. Read. As students begin to read, they must look for answers to the questions they asked in the prior step. Students will reread captions under pictures and graphs, note all underlined and bold printed words or phrases, and pay special attention to underlined, italicized, bold printed words or phrases. For more difficult passages, reading speed should be reduced.
The children use their thinking and cognitive skills to become literate. Concept books are a way for teachers to teach their students early literacy skills. One way to use a concept book is by reading to the class and discus what the book is about. Children are able to learn new words that they hear from books and it can help them expand their vocabulary so they can be able to improve their communication skills. Another way to use concept books is to use them to introduce ideas, serve reinforce concepts or to add further information to a topic that children have already explored through direct experience (Giorgis & Glazer, 2009, p. 146).
April 21, 2011 Fourth grade Reading Comprehension SUNY Fredonia EDU 105-05 Table of contents: Focus and learning goals Standards IRA/NCTE Standards Blooms Taxonomy Goal Overview Assessment Plan Technology Evaluation/Assessment Instructional Decision Making Analysis of Student Learning Focus/Goal * Increase student’s knowledge of comparing and contrasting * Make them more familiar with a Venn diagram as a graphic organizer Learning goals * Teach students what compare is * Teach students what contrast is * Teach students how to compare and contrast two different subjects Standards * Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding * Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information. * Standard 2: Language for Literary Response and Expression * Students will read and listen to oral, written, and electronically produced texts and performances from American and world literature; relate texts and performances to their own lives; and develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the texts and performances represent. As speakers and writers, students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for self-expression and artistic creation.
By asking students to construct meaning from books and other selections that are designed for use at various grade levels, a student's level of development can be assessed. Teachers are encouraged to set standards or expectations in order to then determine a student's developmental level in relation to those standards (Lamme & Hysmith, 1991). Variety of Materials Portfolios can consist of a wide variety of materials: teacher notes, teacher-completed checklists, student self-
COMPONENT 1 – LANGUAGE FOR TEACHERS TASK 2 – Evaluation of the learner’s spoken language INTRODUCTION: The following paper introduces the analysis of the class I observed for the purpose of evaluating the students spoken ability. It gives a brief summary of the students profile and the aims of the lesson observed, as well as some samples of accurate and inaccurate use of the language. Finally there is a summary of some concrete action points I would take in the classroom with this group to overcome these weak areas. 1. The group that I have chosen for the observation of this task consisted of intermediate students.