Fiction vs. NonFiction

Here is a comparison of Fiction and Non-Fiction. I used a T-chart as my graphic organizer. One of the class novels we read this year was Holes by Louis Sachar. Other top Fiction texts include:

The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez (1997)
Al Capone does my Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko (2004)


Top Non-Fiction texts include:

The Life and Death of Crazy Horse by R. Freedman
The Abracadabra Kid by S. Fleischman
Any supplemental Non-Fiction material on www.readinga-z.com. (Leveled books for both Fiction and Non-Fiction)

Some elements of Fiction that support ELLs are the use of a pictures, providing a visual reference for learning. It helps students, "Make connections and construct meaning." (Hill, p.102) Also the ability to use imagination in stories, thereby creating connections to the text and referencing background knowlege. Some struggles students may have with fiction could be higher order skills such as inferring character's feelings and situational outcomes, especially when the text that may not be culturally relevant.

Some elements of Non-Fiction that support ELLs is the fact-based format, which requires readers to find information directly from the text. Many non-fiction texts do come with pictures, diagrams, etc. important for ELL processing of new concepts. Non-fiction is very vocabulary heavy, therefore, students need a lot of practice navigating through text. These pieces can be "cognitively demanding and context reduced." (Hill, p.102) Students definitely need graphic organizers to help them think through pieces that are heavily academic.

A Sheltered Lesson...

I had the opportunity to watch Ms. Krauss deliver a sheltered lesson to what looked to be middle school students. The class was ranged from intermediate to advanced readers who read on a 5th to 6th grade level. This video was demonstrating how to make reading material "comprehensible" to ELL students so they were able understand the themes in a challenging text.

In watching the video and learning about what it means to construct a comprehensible lesson for ELL students, I was truly inspired and renewed. I had always been told that in order to help readers understand more difficult material, I needed to find lower level texts about the same topic so they could still understand and follow along with the rest of the class. Now that I teach middle school, I don't want to do that; students' self-esteem and self-worth is very fragile and they don't want to stand out academically from their peers too much. This video provided many concrete techniques that I am able to transfer to my classroom right away and gives me encouragement to teach ELL students in a strong way.

Classroom Environment:

Students sat in a "U" around the room. Everyone was able to see each other during discussion. The room was bright and inviting. Students had a lot of room to read and work alone or in a group if necessary.

Teacher Techniques:

Ms. Krauss was using the book Esperanza Rising to teach inferring to her students. The reading lesson was divided into 3 parts: Pre-reading, During-Reading, and Post-reading activities. Ms. Krauss began the lesson by setting a clear outline for what students were going to learn for the day. She read the objectives and expectations to students as well as had the information posted on the board for students to see. Students were focusing on inferring while reading a text. She had a list of materials and an agenda by which students would be able to follow the course of the lesson. She began by pre-viewing vocabulary, asking students about their background knowledge, and showed pictures to reinforce the words students would be encountering in the story. She even picked out the word "bouquet" and took time to discuss how it is a word that does not look the way it sounds.

During the reading, Ms. Krauss read to the students and reminded them of some reading strategies they needed as they were reading the story together. She read slowly, clearly, and loud enough for all students to hear. She stopped often and showed a page on the overhead to discuss parts of the book and reinforce the vocabulary discussed prior to the reading of the story.

After reading, Ms. Krauss gave students clear instructions about how they were to work independently. She again reminded them of their reading strategies and what she wanted students to find and record on their sticky notes as they read through the text. She set up clear expectations for students throughout the lesson.

Student Participation:

Students were engaged with Ms. Krauss during the entire lesson. They knew what was expected of them and knew what they needed to know and be able to do by the end of the lesson. When asked questions, students participated and were able to relate to the characters and the themes of the story. At one point, Ms. Krauss asked students about the "birthday song" in Spanish. Students said they were familiar with the song and one attempted to sing part of the song for the class. This was a great way for students to connect personally to the text. When asked about vocabulary, students were able to create synonyms for more complex terms used in the text. When students were confused about a saying in the book, 'put the harvest to bed", students spoke up. The teacher reminded them of strategies and they work to apply them as they were reading the text. At the end of the lesson, student knew they were to write connections, visualization, and background knowledge information on their sticky note so they could engage with Esperanza Rising. Students were using complex texts, but were also given the necessary tools with which to engage in it successfully.

I loved Ms. Krauss' class and how alive her students were in her lesson. I am excited to try some of the techniques in my class today!

Running Record with ELL Students

I performed two running records. My first one was with a boy who speaks Spanish and the second was with a girl whose first language is Cantonese. She also speaks Vietnamese. English is her third language.
The students read a selection without having previously viewed the text. I set my timer for one minute and the students read the text as I took notes on another page. I selected students who were around the same academic level so I could compare what I noticed within the same text. I have this knowledge from conducting DRA tests of these students from the beginning of the year. Both students are performing right on a 6th grade reading level. (DRA 60)

For the Spanish speaking student, I noticed several things. First, I saw that some of the /i/ to /e/ sounds were confused in unknown words. This did not occur in words with which he was familiar. I also heard that when he pronounced a word like “chair”, he would have trouble saying it like a native English speaker would due to his accent. The word would sound more like “share”, though the pronunciation did not interfere with the meaning. This experience made me think about the fifth chapter of the Freeman text. There is a similar pronunciation reference in this chapter regarding students who produce the /d/ and /th/ sounds. “Spanish speakers acquiring English will come to understand this difference between the two languages….This is not a problem as long as the focus is on made meaning. “ (Freeman & Freeman,2004 ,p.93) This student also tended to leave the endings off of words as well. For instance, if the word was sits, he would say sit. The final thing I noticed about this student is that he would insert words, but again, this did not interfere with the meaning of the words. In reference to the book Miscue Analysis Made Easy (Wilde, 2000), these errors are classified as, “Semantically, syntactically acceptable despite uncorrected miscues. Since readers have a strong impetus to ensure that what we read sounds like language, they may leave miscues uncorrected as long as the result is grammatical.” (Wilde, 2000, p. 65) As far as meaning is concerned, the errors this student made did not affect the meaning of the text. “These distinctions involve judgment calls. When a sentence is coded syntactically acceptable, semantically acceptable and no meaning change, this is a sign that it’s been read effectively.” (Wilde, 2000, p.71) These errors are simple and can be corrected through continued oral practice within the English language.

I thought listening to the second student was quite surprising. She has no detectable accent, so much so that I did not know she spoke another language until I met her mother several months ago. She reads very quickly and made little errors in her reading. I did notice that as she spoke to her mother to translate during the parent/teacher conference that she spoke equally as fast. Perhaps this is a trademark of Chinese dialects. Her comprehension is very good. I see that she makes mistakes because of the speed at which she reads. However, she is very cognizant of going back and correcting her miscues. “There are two reasons for accepting a certain level of error in any activity. First, it usually doesn’t matter that much, is correctable, or both. Second, there’s a trade-off between error and speed or efficiency.” (Wilde, 2000, p. 26) I thought this quote really applied to this student because there are things we can work on to help her fix the minor errors she makes. We can practice slowing down and work more on expression. We also practice pausing at certain areas in longer texts to ask what the passage was about. What I really connected with in the readings for this week had to do with the chapter on English Orthography (Freeman & Freeman, 2004). In thinking about this student for this week’s blog, I wondered about the additional struggles she must have in learning English. “Chinese writing is a modern-day example of a largely ideographic writing system, and it can be read by both Mandarin and Cantonese speakers. The disadvantage of pictographic writing is that a writer has to learn a great number of different symbols, one for each idea.” (Freeman & Freeman,2000, p. 100) She seemed to have no struggles at all. It is obvious that she is getting a lot of practice as she continues to learn English.

In closing, neither student is a perfect English speaker. The time to address the minor errors these students are making is during conferencing or small group time. Increased talk time in the classroom will also help with their speaking skills and structured time to implement the things they learn by reading and in speaking can be practiced in their writing. This approach reinforces the sociopsycholinguistic and acquired approach to reading and writing.

Freeman, D.E. (2004). Essential linguistics. What you need to know to teach reading, esl, spelling, phonics, grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Wilde, S. (2000). Miscue analysis made easy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Fredericks, A.D. (2001). Guided reading in grades 3-6. Harcourt Achieve Inc.

Learning vs. Acquisition

In an earlier blog, I identified myself as a person who held a strong word recognition view of how students learn to read. However, I incorporate many of techniques from the sociopsycholinguistic view into my lessons from time to time. After reading chapter two in the Freeman text, I see how the learning view and acquisition view of writing align with the aforementioned outlooks for reading. I will now make a huge effort to begin changing my literacy instruction to a more “acquired” approach to learning.
The Learning view of writing involves direct teacher instruction; a sort of drill and kill approach to teaching. The Acquisition view allows students to focus on process and the experience of writing for seemingly better internalization of tasks, thus leading to more proficient abilities to understand written and oral language. Below is my rationale for the activity presented in chapter 2.

Directions:
Label each activity L for learning/word recognition or A for acquisition/sociopsycholinguistic view. Some activities can have both labels. Be prepared to explain your choices.

The Students:
L/Look up words in the dictionary to write definitions. (Students identify words to get the meaning of a text, often before a passage or story is read)
L/A Make a Venn diagram to compare two stories. (I said both because it is a strategy that must be directly taught by the teacher, but it is a means to process information for better understanding: comparing and contrasting stories, thereby creating a deeper understanding of texts.)
L/Practice sounding out words (Students are using phonics to recode words from written to oral form)
L/Read in round-robin fashion (Round-robin requires students to read aloud as opposed to silently.)
L/Corrects peers when they make a mistake during reading (Again, this requires texts to be read aloud instead of focusing on the overall meaning of texts, relating it to background knowledge and prior experience.)
L /A Identify words on a big book page that start with the same sound. (This requires phonemic awareness skills because of the required breakdown of phonemes, but I also thought that because this was done in real-time with a big book text, that it might also be acquisition because of the graphophonics piece as a part of word study.)
A/Group cards with classmates’ names by a criterion on such as first of last letter. (Hands-on experience and direct application of graphophonics.)
A/Write rhyming poetry and then discuss different spellings for the same sound. (Involves a mini-lesson to help focus spelling along with authentic production of a writing piece.)
L/Ask the teacher how to spell a word they don’t know. (Students are not using invented spelling strategies to think through the spelling of the word. This student was not taught that spelling mistakes may occur; not focused on the idea at hand.)
A/L Read a language experience story they have created with the teacher. (Involves student input based on students’ background. Hands-on approach. I struggled with this one!)
A/ Work in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences (Involves a hands-on approach to learning based on a language experience with which students are familiar.)
L/Divide words into syllables. (Involves segmenting words into
A/ On a worksheet, draw a line from each word to the picture that starts with the same sound. (According to Krashen’s Input Hypothesis, “To ensure that the input is comprehensible, teachers can use pictures, gestures, tone of voice, and hands-on activities.” (Freeman, pg. 38) Students are using other means to comprehend words.)
A/Make alphabet books on different topics (Students will acquire new vocabulary and it will be based on the knowledge gleaned from past experiences and new input from lessons.)

The teacher:
L/Preteaches vocabulary. (Teachers may do this to try to give students the meanings of words prior to reading a text, but students are not using strategies to help them as they come to words they may not know in texts.)
L/A Does a shared reading with a big book. (I said both because this is a text that is read aloud to students, but if using part of it to model for a mini-lesson as a strategy to use during SSR, then this could be considered acquired development.)
L/Makes sure that students read only books that fit their level. (Students are not given exposure to different types of literature, thus increasing vocabulary and meaning)
L/Has students segment words into phonemes (phonemic awareness practice, used to help students identify words correctly in texts.)
L/A writes words the students dictate for a story and has students help with spelling of difficult words. (In the beginning, this requires direct teaching, but once the logistics are down, this uses acquisition because students come up with stories due to own experiences and background; can be used as a model in a mini-lesson in preparation for authentic writing.)
A/Asks students to look around the room and find words starting with a certain letter. (Students get hands-on practice and use authentic approach to build vocabulary)
L/Uses decodable texts (Students will be able to sound out words, but may not understand read text)
L/A Sets aside time for SSR each day (students get a chance to use strategies taught in class. Exposure to multi-leveled text is important to acquire meaning and new vocabulary)
L/teaches Latin and Greek roots. (May help to acquire meaning, but may not always be helpful when words are used in different contexts.)
A/Has students meet in literature circles. (Students lead and work through authentic readings with productive discussion. Groups can be heterogeneous, so all students have exposure to a variety of texts.)
L/Conducts phonics drills (recognizing words/sounds without focusing on meaning.)
A/L Chooses predictable texts (Great piece for modeling and to take students through a meaning process if trying to understand the basics of a story. Strategies therein must be taught.)
A/L Teaches students different comprehension strategies. (Must be modeled in mini-lesson, some oral exposure, but can be carried over to SSR)
A/Does a picture walk of a new book. (Helps students predict, confirm predictions, have conversations to practice language, shows exposure to background knowledge, and practice other comprehension skills.)
L/Uses a variety of worksheets to teach different skills. (Not meeting all the modalities of learning. Kinesthetic/tactile, auditory. Need a variety of methods.)

The Sky is Falling...

For this blog, I decided to try and read a French text because I wanted to know what ELL's feel like when they are asked to try and comprehend text that may be around their frustrational reading level. I took Spanish for 5 years; 1 year in middle school and 4 years in high school. Although I am by no means fluent, I thought it'd be fun to try something new.

The adult text I looked at was a French newspaper called France Soir (France Evening) http://www.francesoir.fr
I was so frustrated looking at the articles because the pictures made since but none of the words did. It was like my glasses weren't adjusted quite right! Through my frustration, though, I was able to at least make out headlines. This biggest one of which is about a victim who was recovered from the earthquake that happened in Haiti today. Then it hit me: this must be how my kids feel as I continue to pump new information in front of them that is may be above their language acquisition level in preparation for CSAP in 6 weeks! I MUST adjust my approach to literacy immediately.

In order to find a low level French text, I went to www.readinga-z.com. It is an excellent website where a teacher can find all types of resources for literacy including texts in other languages. The text I was able to comprehend was Le Ciel Tombre (Knight) or The Sky is Falling.

Some of the metacognative tools that I used were:

1. I knew the story, so I was able to remember it in English and follow along.
2. Some of the words looked like other words I already knew in either English or Spanish (Ciel = Cielo in Spanish) and so I was able to apply that knowledge.
3. I used the pictures; character's expressions, actions, etc. to help me know what was going on.
4. I noticed my pronunciation was horrible because I didn't have an accent and I didn't know how to say words with the apostrophe between words. I'm thinking contractions...but I tried what I know about phonics and applied it here, even though phonetic rules differ in other languages.

This book is a reading level D with is a 1st grade level reader.

This exercise has taught me a lot. I really like the way the teacher scaffolded for her students - from "...spoken like to written-like" (Gibbons, 2002) throughout the science lesson in the Scaffolding Language text.
Now that I have a new perspective on the way my student might feel as developing academic readers, I'm able to understand more clearly how and why I must meet students where they are on the language acquisition continuum.

Culture Impeding Comprehension

One of my favorite things to do with children during literacy time is a Read Aloud! Although I teach "big kids", I realize that 6th graders love to have books read to them the same way the younger kids do. My school is heavy into character education, which is something that many middle schools seem to lack these days. I decided to incorporate children's literature in a way to help students truly understand some of the character traits we were working on throughout the school. The two books I've read to my students are: Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters (Steptoe, 1998) and Snowflake Bentley (Martin, 1999).

I used Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters to represent respect for others and oneself. This is an African tale similar to Cinderella, a story of which most of my students were familiar. Of course with any cultural adaptation of a story, there were obvious differences. For instance, instead two mean stepsisters and Cinderella, there were two biological sisters; one mean and one generous. Instead of a fairy godmother, there was the girls' father who reared them. Storyline aside, there are 4 cultural differences to this particular story of which the students needed further information.

1. This story takes place in Africa. Students needed some background knowledge about village life and about what region upon this story was based. They also needed to know that not every person in Africa lived in villages or dressed in the manner of the book.

2. Students needed to know what the names of the characters meant. Nyasha, the "nice" sister's name means mercy. Manyara, the "mean" sister's name means ashamed. They needed to know that their names meant something and linked to behaviors of the characters themselves.

3. The students had trouble understanding the journey and the tests each of the sisters had to endure. The tests were showing signs of their character; how they treated others was very important to the king. If she treated others poorly, how much worse might she treat the king?

4. Students also had a hard time distinguishing between a "servant" and a "slave". One misconception with my students was that because they were Africans, that when one worked for another, it automatically meant that person was a slave. I had to provided several examples to disparage that thinking!

I read Snowflake Bentley to talk about grit and hard work. Because Wilson Bentley lived so long ago, students needed context about the time which he was living. Students had challenges comprehending:

1. How people were able to get around without a "fast" mean of transportation and how far apart everyone lived from one another.

2. The beginnings of a camera as a work in progress to capture beauty. Now, students have pictures everywhere. It was hard getting them to imagine not being able to capture everything digitally like one can today.

3. How he was able to speak at colleges and universities after not attending school regularly; he dropped out to help farm at the age of 14.

4. The concept of getting sick from a disease and not getting treated for it at the hospital and how he continued to work through the sickness.

The challenge of this book was mostly about the time period and talking about the scientific advances that allow us to be as technologically savvy as we are today. The point was that because of this man's grit, we know what snowflakes look like. He endured despite challenging conditions and did not make excuses.

To summarize, once students were given a framework with which to understand the stories, they were then able to make connections to see how these books related to the character traits that we, as a learning community, are trying to reinforce everyday.

My Top 10...

Here is my "Top Ten" list of things to remember about Literacy Assessment.

1. Know the difference between Assessment and Evaluation. Although this term seems to be used interchangeably, they are two concepts that build on one another. Assessments are the information that is gathered from a student's performance. When we evaluate, we are determining whether or not the student has learned the material. We are making judgments about their knowledge. Essentially, we EVALUATE and ASSESS and adjust instruction based on the data gleaned from that judgment, therefore informing instruction.

2. Understanding Standards in crucial to assessing and evaluating what students know and are able to do. While there are debates about the usefulness and validity of high-stakes testing, determining student knowledge is very important. Standards are guidelines that set expectations about what students should know by the end of the school year. The overall goal is to ensure that all children have access to quality educational practices and are provided with those opportunities to learn and succeed.

3. Teachers should use a variety of processes by which to assess and evaluate student performance. "Quality assessment should be based on several different tasks...looking at multiple tasks can show a consistent pattern of performance." (Cooper & Kieger, 2009. p. 463). This allows a teacher to gather a variety of work samples to evaluate students strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles.

4. Daily informal interactions with students count as a form of assessment. This statement combines a few of the ideas listed in the Cooper & Kieger text under the Eight Principles to Guide Effective Assessment. Daily assessments in the form of anecdotal notes, checklists, etc. are ongoing happenings that can be placed in a student's portfolio as academic evidence of task mastery or to formulate small groups for further instruction. The constant observation of student conversations provides multidimensional assessment and uses teacher knowledge and intuition to make judgments about student progress.

5. Regularly organize, review, and update student assessment information. It is important that students are not "tracked", pigeon-holed, or classified as a certain type of learner. Since assessments can identify learning patterns, it is crucial that the information that is gathered about a student is meant to push him or her forward as a learner. This helps determine what to prepare the student for academically.

6. Use a variety of approaches by which to organize student assessment information. Some schools will have a system by which they would like teachers to have data presented. However, there are different ways that match a variety of organizational styles if a way is not specified by administration. "It does't't matter how you organize it. It only matters that you do organize it." (Cooper & Kieger, 2009. p. 465) This is particularly important to me because it shows others that I can truly justify how I've evaluated students and on what criteria.

7. Be careful about your approach to grading. It is imperative that assessment, (formal instances) are measurable and aligned to what is actually being taught. While many school districts are experimenting with their grading systems, what is important to remember is that students are being evaluated fairly. Rubrics or checklists are particularly helpful in aiding a teacher to remain unbiased about a student's quality of work. It is also an honest way to help students know how to improve when they perform a similar task in the future.

8. The assessment process should be collaborative. "We know learning is a collaborative process...[I]f this is true for learning, it is also true for assessment. As students collaborate with their teacher on assessment, they reflect...Thus, students should help you assess and evaluate their own progress in literacy." (Cooper & Kieger, 2009. p. 463) This also help students become intrinsically invested in their own learning.

9. All students are not created equal. Struggling students need different approaches to help them succeed on assessments, too. Using an a system like RTI really helps teachers hone in on reaching students at all academic ability levels. "Continual assessment of progress for struggling readers is critical. You need to monitor their growth in knowledge of strategies and skills and their application of these...as they read increasingly difficult texts." (Cooper & Kieger, 2009. p. 390) There are a variety of tools such as DIBELS, running records, or AIMSweb to aid students with progress monitoring.

10. Assessment techniques should be use selectively. "Select one or two techniques to use, and try them out. Add others if necessary." (Cooper & Kieger, 2009. p. 489) This process can be overwhelming. It is important to remember that we as teachers know our students best. Incorporating a variety of formal and informal assessments should be used regularly. Teachers should select methods and strategies that maximize student growth and are used to inform instruction.



Quinn

Relationships...

I have learned so much from the first couple of chapters of our readings for this week. The quote that stood out for me was from the Essential Linguistics text by Freeman. "Studies...show that children develop the rules of language quickly...and the do it without much correction. All this suggests that children must have a built-in capacity for language." (p15) The text talks about children and their interaction with adults. Adults seldom correct the way in which a child expresses themselves. One merely responds to it. While it is not extremely helpful to correct the way in which the child says his/her sentence, it is important to push and develop ideas and provide feedback to help develop oral meaning. I really like this because it is encouraging to a child or even an ESL student to receive that kind of specific, targeted feedback so they feel confident about communication ability.

This being said ,oral language acquisition and reading processing ability is a relationship that goes hand in hand. The Scaffolding Language text by Gibbons talks about the need to break down the learning for readers, or essentially, to meet them where they are by giving concrete feedback in a collaborative learning environment. In thinking about this relationship, I immediately thought about the excerpt in the book where the parents were speaking with the child and the child was talking about the zoo trip. The parents scaffolded their feedback in the conversation, which in turn enabled the child to expand his thinking and communication skills about the zoo experience. ESL students need that kind of targeted, scaffolded learning experience in order to be able to confidently communicate their thoughts and ideas. These two chapters helped me realize that I need to make sure I am providing these same opportunities for my students.

Experience, or the lack thereof...

I remember my first teaching job...1st grade. They were soooo cute and eager to learn.

As a Teach for America corps member, I had no official educational background. I had gone through a 5 week teacher "boot camp" that taught me the basics of what I needed to know before I got into the classroom with my own students for the first time. Some of those essentials included classroom management 101, reading state standards, how to make a basic lesson plan, and the do's and don'ts of working with the faculty and staff at school. "Be nice to the janitorial staff, or else your room won't get cleaned."

Once I was in the classroom, I realized I that I knew how to read state standards, but I didn't know what student work should look like. I also discovered that 1st grade was the first time most of my students had structured schooling and were learning to read and write; kindergarten is not mandatory in Louisiana. (My placement area for TFA)

I soon figured out what students were able to do: invented spellings, pictures with no words, initial and ending sounds with no vowels, etc. I soon learned that asking what students were saying and writing that information down was my saving grace until I learned to interpret the different types of student samples. LOTS of practice!

For a long time, I thought my role was to make students spell everything correctly. They needed to sound things out and get those words correct! I later learned that I was doing more harm than good. Writing, like reading, is learned in stages. I learned that I should encourage invented spellings while holding students accountable for grade level words (sight words, word wall words, spelling words, words being copied directly from a source, etc.)

As I began working with older students, my lack of experience showed its ugly head once again. Students were needing to write more complex pieces of writing. My 1st grade students were writing anywhere from 3 sentences to a complete 5 sentence paragraph. Now, my 3rd graders were needing to write longer pieces with more complex conventions. I was soon exposed to 6 + 1 traits, although none of the schools at which I worked had an official writing curriculum. I also began following the writer's workshop model. Students had a lot of concrete practice for writing, and I was able to give meaningful feedback, while learning to become a better writing teacher along the way. Once again, trial and error helped me flesh out outstanding, average, mediocre, and unsatisfactory writing samples-valuable information on which to base my future instruction.

Now, after having taken several courses at Regis, attending a multitude of professional development sessions, and reading countless numbers of books to further my own learning, I have learned a couple of things. I learned that reading and writing co-exist. You can't have one without the other. Duh! I learned from my Teaching Reading in Secondary Classrooms course that all students need reading and writing instruction, even past elementary school. That we can't just think someone else has taken care of this "literacy problem". I also realized that I identify most with the Word Recognition View. This view suggests that "written language must be learned." I think both the Word Recognition and Sociopsycholinguistic view can co-exist and perhaps be adapted depending on the group of students. I have spent my career working with minority and ESL students and have found that the phonics, concentrated vocabulary, and demonstrated orally reading have worked really well for their progress. While contextual clues and individual processing of material is essential for truly understanding a text, many of the students with whom I've worked initially lacked these skills on a certain level until they were given strategies by which to apply them. Again, my experience.

In conclusion, I have once again switched grades. I continue to be a learner who develops my craft and relentlessly seeks out the best ways in which educate my students.

So much to do, so little time...

I'm so lucky to be a reading teacher at my current school! This is the first time in my 6 years of teaching that I have collaborated with others about literacy and how to make our department better each week, for the rest of the year, and for years to come. What dedication! What grit!What a HUGE task awaits us as we strive to hash out a plethora of resources by which we compile and utilize to help further the learning capacity of our students!

As a new teacher at this school, I have had the pleasure of engaging in a variety of conversations with Ms. Vigil, from the best ways to use my time in the classroom as a reading-specific teacher, how to organize and collect data to further my instruction and student growth, to, "What's a good book to use to teach 6th graders poetry for my upcoming unit?" Recently, I got a chance to sit down with Ms. Vigil, a 12 year public school vetern with extensive experience as a classroom teacher and literacy coach, to ask her what her thoughts were about literacy.

She told me she has always worked with ESL students. She let me know how challenging it was to get older students and fill in the gaps that may have been missed early in their educational careers. She believes in small, homogenious groups for intense instruction, while exposing students to grade level material whenever possible. She swears by DRA and gathers this data 3 times a year. "With so many students?" I ask. No one helps us assess our 85-105 students in grades 5-8. How challenging it was to get all of those done! Whew! However, Ms. Vigil had "official" data reporting to do for DPS. She had to get all those tests done in a timely manner.

Ms. Vigil uses pneumonic devices, chants, and various learning styles to help students remember the skills and strategies necessary to be a good reader. She also tells me that she's stuck in her old ways, reluctant to give up some of her outdated practices for new research. All of these mindsets and habits aside, she still holds true to her mantra: ALL students will learn. No Excuses.