Chapter 6 & 7 Post and Reply Due 10-09-2011 DeVries, B. A. (2011) Literacy assessment and intervention for the elementary classroom Chapter 6- Word Identification Chapter 7- Vocabulary
1. Analysis of reading/issue. Chapter 6 is about word identification and Chapter 7 is about vocabulary building. In chapter 6, the text discusses the four cueing systems that teachers should know to assist students with identifying words. There is also discussion about the components of word identification and all the types of words students should be identifying while reading. In both chapters, there were ways to assess both word identification and vocabulary building. As always, the strategies and activities from both chapters are useful. Chapter 7 provides discussion on how to increase students’ vocabulary and how to meet the needs of struggling vocabulary learners. 2. Questions/contradictions about the reading/issues. I don’t have any questions about these chapters or subjects at this time. 3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently? I thought the word identification was interesting because it gave specific cues teachers should be paying attention and working toward. I also found the components of word identification interesting because I didn’t realize some of those were part of that group. 4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience. When I was in 5th grade, we started using a specific vocabulary program. I don’t know the name of the program, but it included very difficult words that gradually increased in difficulty through 8th grade. We always had to transfer all of the words and definitions into a notebook that we then used to study from for the test each week. This program did work and was very beneficial in my vocabulary development.
I'm not familiar with the vocabulary program you were using in school, but I do always remember writing definitions to weekly vocabulary words. If we weren't writing definitions we drew pictures that made us symbolize the definition. Personally for me it worked, but I also know that I learn best when things are in literal context or I have visuals. I think these type of programs / instructional styles can be beneficial, but teachers need to use extreme caution and plan for entire classrooms of students and discover what works best for all students to achieve success.
In response to Katie and Emily..... My memories of my primary school days, we would have a list of vocabulary words and have to write the definition. We would, at the end of the week, have a test over the words and definition. This is all I remember regarding vocabulary words, however, I now know I learned a lot of vocabulary by visiting different places and reading or watching movies and seeing or hearing them in context with language or reading!
I love that with each chapter information from previous chapters is reviewed. Most textbooks mention something and you rarely see or read about it after that point. The four cueing systems not only work with phonemic awareness (Chapter 5), but also play a key role in word identification (Chapter 6). I also like that the book relates formal and informal assessments to each topic. There are also several ideas about the types of assessments that can be used. This is important for educators to be aware of, especially when needing to track progress of students in various areas.
The first thing I noticed in Chapter 7 was that there are about 800 words added to the English language on a yearly basis (page 153). That blew me away, and it’s hard for me to grasp that, probably because I don’t keep track of any time I hear a new word each year. It’s clear that background knowledge plays a key role in much of a child’s success, even in reading. It’s incredibly important for students to be engaged in conversation and story time type activities prior to entering school. Students are at quite a disadvantage if they are not given these additional resources or experiences, and I understand that some students are at disadvantages based upon their cultures (Educational Psychology – socioeconomic status, poverty, race, etc.).
I also love that there are so many examples throughout the chapters, and even resources that would be fitting for particular skill instruction and development.
Emily - I too was SHOCKED to find out that on a yearly basis there are 800 words added to the English language. It makes me wonder how I am ever going to teach my students all the common words as well as the words that are added each an every year.
I also like the flow of this textbook and how it reviews previous information before delving into the new. One of the most interesting parts of this weeks read was how it related formal and informal assessments to the topics. You're right, it is important for educators to be aware of the different types of assessments they can use. I think this information is very useful for us in tutoring as well so we can monitor our students progress and target the skills they're still lacking in. In chapter 7 I mentioned that fact about 800 words being added to the English language to my husband and he couldn't believe it either. It just seems like a crazy number but this fact also provides information on why the English language is one of the hardest languages to learn.
Chapter six talks about word identification, this is so important when teaching students to read. If they do not understand what a word is, how are they going to be about to read? In relation to that chapter seven is about building vocabulary, meaning gaining knowledge of several different vocabulary words. In chapter six it talks a lot about cueing. It states that there are four cueing systems that educators need to know when teaching students who are struggling with identifying vocabulary words. I feel that these two chapters could almost be combined into one large chapter. I believe this is what I enjoy most about this text book, it is easy to read and it relates to its self in every chapter. I believe I am going to see if some of the listed activities will relate to my tutoring sessions. This week I am still focusing on vocabulary, however I have now found my new content focus for the rest of the semester. I am hoping to focus on phonemic awareness which still deals with vocabulary and word identification.
As I have stated before I was a struggling reading when I was younger and I still have that fear sometimes. However, I believe the information in these two chapters with the four cueing systems I will have enough knowledge to help students who are similar to what I was growing up. There are two students who I am tutoring who I feel have confidence issues with reading. I am eager to share my story with them to help build their confidence as a reader.
I commented on the layout of this textbook as well. It seems in more textbooks you read about something and you never hear about it again, but with this textbook things are continuously being repeated. The repetition definitely makes me stop and think, "Oh yeah, I read about this back here." It's nice that it is all connected (it's common sense that information in a textbook should be, but I don't think all textbooks are like that). It makes learning things so much easier when it is constantly brought back into play.
Matraca, I completely agree that this text is very easy to read and I enjoy reading it each week. I also determined that my focus will be phonemic awareness and from looking at the standards there really aren't very many to choose from. I will definitely need to be integrating across the curriculum and these chapters have a lot of great ideas to use for vocabulary. My students also have zero confidence about reading. One has even straight out told me he's afraid to read out loud in class or even to his parents. I hope to start building his confidence with the things I have planned this week.
This text book has been so easy to read. My focus is also phonemic awareness and Im find that with the pretests that I gave this was the best focus to go with. Im glad my students are young and feel confident to answer questions and not scared to try and read aloud.
The thing that stuck with me the most out of chapters 6&7 is how big of a role children’s parents and pre-k years play into the reading development. It mentions more then once that most struggling readers are coming from low-income famiies. When young raeders encounter an unknown word they can use their receptive and or expressive vocabularies to figure out what it is. However, they won’t have these vocabularies to reference to if they are not exposed to new vocabulary frequently. Every child’s sight word vocabulary can differ depending on his or her personal experiences. When I worked at a preschool I remember this one little boy in particular that always talked like a baby, and my coworkers and I never understood why. Then one day his mother picked him up and I found out he talked to us the way she talked to him. I completely agree that a students life before school affects there vocabulary.
In chapter 6 when it discussed visual analysis it mentions that struggling readers tend to mechanically sound out the word from left to right. This can work but not if the sound of certain letters change when more letters are added to a syllable. I believe this where my 1st grade students are struggling. I’ve learned through my assessments that they do have a pretty good bank of sight words but when it comes to new words they’re lost. They also don’t have all the tools and knowledge, like knowing their phonograms, to sound out the words left from right. The game, unscramble the sentence, is very similar to what I’m doing this week in tutoring with a pattern story. I also found an initial sound bingo in the appendix that would be great to try. It’s important to remember that children come from different background. Their life and personal experiences will affect how much they know when they reach my classroom. Tutoring my students has helped me with learning how to identify what students are struggling with and that is going to be one of the most important lessons I learn through this experience. I would really like to try out using poems in my tutoring sessions because they are strongly recommended throughout this book and from Mrs. Stoppel. The book states that the vocabulary used in poems is richer and more interesting in regular text.
I like how you described the visual analysis of struggling readers. I also found the initial sound bingo activity and think it would be a good game to integrate into a classroom or a tutoring session. I also think that poetry is a wonderful means of teaching vocabulary. Poetry is a colorful world that many chidlren love when they have the opprotunity to explore the genre.
I was also surprised about the role parents play. Now days though if a student goes into Kindergarten without knowing the ABC's they will be very behind the other children. It is important for children to be in school early so they can keep up with children their age.
Chapter six contained a lot of new information for me. First I was not familiar with the four cueing system which is made up of syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and graphophonic systems. With my tutoring group I’ve noticed that they rely a lot on syntax to help them make sense of certain words they try to read. My students tend to repeat sentences a lot when they struggle on a word and now I know that they’re using syntax to find the right term. I’m glad to know that my students are utilizing this tool in their reading. The knowledge I gained about syntax also helped me understand one reason why English language learners may struggle with reading. Syntax differs from language to language so their language can’t simply be replaced by English words. After the four cueing system I really enjoyed learning about the different informal assessments. I think informal assessments are a huge part of the tutoring process. I am always trying to assess my students constantly to try to target the skills they need to improve on in a short amount of time. Knowing my different options for assessments will be really helpful for me to organize and for my students to succeed.
The first part of the chapter on general background really confirmed the importance of doing mastery word learning and vocabulary activities with students before having them read texts with the words in them. The text says that students’ knowledge of words is the single greatest predictor of their reading comprehension. I’m finding this will my tutoring students. Over the past two weeks we’ve been focusing on comprehension. One day we didn’t get through all of our vocab words before we began reading and I found that my students really struggled with the words in the chapter that they didn’t have prior knowledge on. This really caused their comprehension to suffer. I didn’t know how important general background was until this tutoring experience. There was a lot more interesting information in this chapter but I want to talk about one of the activities listed at the end of the chapter. The activity “Word Expert Cards” sounds really interesting and fun to me. For a tutoring program that took place more than two days a week this would really be a great activity for students to study key vocabulary for guided reading. I love the idea of students teaching students vocabulary terms. I think it’s sometimes easier for them to translate information in kid friendly language than it is for teachers.
I learned a lot in these two chapters but my favorite thing overall would be the activities at the end of the chapters. There are so many activities that would be beneficial for my tutoring kids. I don’t have any questions right now but am interested in learning more about using some of these activities in the classroom.
Shannon- I also found the information on syntax very informative. Its amazing to see their little minds working to find the right word when they are struggling and they don't even know that is that they are doing! Great post!
Chapter six was focused on word identification. I find this to be extremely important as it is something that my 2nd graders in my tutoring group are struggling with. Two of my students knew about 70% of the Rebecca Sitton sight words but one of my students was struggling majorly. She is able to sound out the words and reach a final word but struggles with knowing them by sight. I found this chapter and the resources provided by the text to be very helpful and informative as to how I can help her learn word identification. I love, LOVE the idea of personal word walls. Especially when it comes to a small tutoring group. You can get really personal and work one on one with the student on the words they don't recognize by sight.
Chapter seven focuses on vocab building. I really enjoyed reading about the language concepts and examples. I am tutoring 2nd grade students but interning in 6th grade. I have seen some bulletin boards near the reading/language arts classroom with some of these terms on them. I think that one thing we definitely need to keep in mind when building students vocabulary is their dialect and home life. Incorrect grammar is incorrect grammar but sometimes students are speaking in their own dialect. For example, in Kansas we say "pop" regarding a beverage but in other states they call it a "soda" or "coke" or "soda pop". Just because students don't say everything the way we teach them doesn't always mean they are saying it incorrectly.
Kristle - Isn't it amazing how big a difference it makes when students have trouble with word identification? It is so apparent when you see it! My frustration is that my 2nd grade students actually did really well with the R.S. words, but they struggle reading so many words during guided reading. They spend so much time decoding words, that by the time they're done reading a passage, they can't remember what they read! I think once they are able to tackle the decoding issues, that vocabulary building may seem more fun for them. It will be a great benefit once they get to that stage!!
I think you're right about keeping dialect and home life in mind! Students build knowledge off of what they already know. One of the chapters discussed how different students might interpret different words based on their location. The book used the example of the difference in the word "blizzard" between students from different locations in the U.S.
You make a good point about the use of incorrect grammar and whether it is incorrect depending on the area you are located. It can easily just vary from household to household. For example, the little boy I babysit, who is 5, he has discovered that in his house that call the noon meal lunch but when he comes out to the farm and we visit my mother-n-law's home they call it diner. This goes to show communication and vocabulary vary from city limits to 15 miles away to the farm.
Nicole Schell 1. Analysis of the reading/issue: Chapters 6 & 7 came along for me just in the nick of time! Word Identification and Vocabulary Building go hand in hand. The text says that it is so important for students to build a strong and varied vocabulary. There have been tests that prove that the better a person’s vocabulary, the more successful they are in their academic pursuits. Why? Because they have so much information and knowledge from which to draw! This information and knowledge comes from having a wide range of experiences and a lot of conversation with a variety of people. Unfortunately, not all students have the opportunity for those types of experiences. That is where the word identification comes into play. When students haven’t encountered specific words, they have no prior knowledge from which to draw meaning or conclusions during their reading. Struggling students sometimes still have problems even decoding and identifying these words. We still have to instruct our students in how to recognize these words, how to decode them, and how to figure out what they mean. As we do this, we are building their vocabulary! Not all our students will be on the same vocabulary level, so we then have to know how to provide instruction and support for all levels of students. The last key piece of the equation is assessing whether or not students have learned and acquired the vocabulary we have been teaching. The assessment process is very important to check for student understanding, application of skills and strategies, and overall progress of students regarding these two areas. 2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue: My question would be when is it best to start introducing suffixes, prefixes, compound words, etc? (Either the age or the skill level.) 3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently? I always like the sections that include information about ELL instruction. I have only worked with a few students who were considered ELL, so I am always looking for strategies and information that will help me in this area. I imagine that it would be really hard for an ELL student to learn the English language and make all the connections between words in our language! Some words sound the same but have different meanings or spellings, while other words are spelling the same but have multiple meaning. It has to be confusing. They may also not have the experiences necessary to provide them with the vocabulary they need to be ready for school. I like the idea of reading informal books and providing activities for these students so that they can learn new words. Using realia, drama, and pictures are also great ways to help ELL students learn new vocabulary. I have to stop and put myself in their shoes to better understand what might help me, too, in circumstances such as theirs. 4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience: I have led many station times with first and second graders in the last few years. It is amazing how much difference it makes when students can determine what a word says in text and then draw meaning from the recognition of that word. Students who have limited experiences or trouble decoding words are at such a disadvantage when they are reading and encounter words they don’t know or have never heard of. It’s like leaving a big hole in the middle of the story, because they don’t understand all of the information and can’t make sense of the story. I love introducing students to new words! One speaker at last year’s reading conference in Emporia said that she feels acquiring a large vocabulary is one of the best things a student can do. It affects every part of their education, so it is so helpful to know a large amount of words and actually know what they mean. I certainly have been able to tell the difference! I plan to make it a major part of my instruction, no matter what grade level I end up teaching.
I would assume that you would teach those things at their skill levels, however if a student is below they maybe in a class where they will be taught the skill even if it is above their level. I know many teachers in the schools where I sub break their classes into two groups so that would work. However if you are in a small school you will have to go with the majority of your kids. Just my thoughts.
A teacher is one who brings us tools and enables us to use them. Ralph Waldo Emerson Another great quote! At teh beginning of chapter 6 the four cuing systems are discussed: syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and praphophonic. The next section in the chapter talks about word indentification. This is a section is broken down into two sections: word knowledge and word analysis skills. All the suggestions for how to teach these skills is written in a way that is useful to the reader. For example, under sight words an example is given to use short poetry that students will enjoy and select five sight words to work on during the poetry. Again I think the most useful part of these chapters is the assessment examples. The part titled A Guided Readoing Session is also something I will be utilizing in tutoring sessions. I also love the idea of Dolch Bingo. I think I will use some of the activities in chapter 6 in future tutoring sessions to increase word identification. Chapter 7 begins with another good quote. "The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for." Ludwig Wittgenstein One of the first things to jump out at me while reading this chapter was the section titled Accepting Students and Their Limited Vocabulary. These students should be included in class discussions and be given opportunities to use oral language as a means of increasing word comprehension. The Schoolyard Safari activity is one that I would like to use in a classroom setting. Technology is a big component to vocabulary building and should be integrated into lesson plans.
I also liked the assessment examples. This book gives so many assessments that we can use in our tutoring groups. Vocabulary is a great things for students and it goes great with comprehension.
The very first part in chapter 6 that talks about what teachers should know is great. It says that students do not only need to know how to recite lists of vocabulary words. By putting together all the information you teach them they will understand the text. Word knowledge is also a important factor. If the child can read the word but not understand the meaning of the word in text they will not develop comprehension. One main thing I learned from this chapter was the difference between sight words and sight vocabulary. Sight words are irregularly spelled words that we teach children because either you can't sound them out or they are oddly spelled. The book gives many informal assessments that you can use to assess your children. It also gives many activities for helping children with word identification.
Chapter 7 is about building the vocabulary itself. These two chapters go along great together because they both discuss the importance of vocabulary. Today in tutoring I actually tried to widen my students vocabulary. They were not thinking of -ar words that were outside the box. So I gave them clues and then they got a good idea of what other -ar words are out there not just the common ones. I like how one part of the book breaks word learning down into tiers. Most of our daily conversation is in tier 1; while most of our classroom time we are in tier 3 just because we are talking about education specific vocabulary. I love the activity that you give the students a topic and they must name as many words that go in that topic as they can. The topic can be something as simple as food. They can add pizza, corn, bread or candy. All of these words would work and it would make them think about all the different foods. As the children get older you can expand on this and make it more educational.
By choosing a topic and instructing students to name as many words as they can, I think you can really tell a lot about the students. If the subject was food, you can pick up on what food they like. If the subject was activities they do for fun, you learn what their interests are. So not only are students learning new vocabulary from each other, you as a teacher have the opportunity to learn information about each student, too!
Chapter 6 discussed word identification and chapter 7 was over vocabulary building. Chapter 6 is very important if students don’t understand what a word is, they won’t be able to read it. Building vocabulary is an important skill that students should have. I have experienced not having a large vocabulary so I feel it is important for students to have a large vocabulary. These two chapters correlate so well together. Like I have stated before I’m not the strongest reader, but I feel these two chapters will help me teach my students. The four cueing systems were very formative and feel they will help students who are similar to me in reading.
I thought the four cuing systems would be very beneficial as well! These chapters gave me a ton of ideas of how to build up vocabulary with the group of students that I tutor. Good luck with your new strategies!
I agree Megan. These chapters went very well together and they will help all of us help our students. The chapters had some really good ideas on way for helping students. Chunking the words will help a lot of students. I use the phonograms with my tutoring students and that has helped them quite a bit. I do find that in the last six sessions they are already doing better and I think the information that I have taken from this text has helped me a lot.
These chapters included quite a few pieces of information that I was unaware of. The English language is a tricky one, but it's so important for us to help our students master it. I think the most important thing to keep in mind came from chapter 7. In chapter 7, the author pointed out that there is a strong correlation between vocabulary and comprehension. Our goal as teachers is for our students to comprehend what they are learning, isn't it?
Before we can help our students create strong vocabularies, we must teach them word identification. Learning about the four cueing systems (syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and graphophonic) was very beneficial. I think this book is especially good at including information about ELL students, which is an area I am not totally comfortable with. Considering I am currently working with three, the more this book includes, the better. My ELL students have actually been amongst the best scores in segmenting words, but when I listen to them talk, I notice syntactic errors. For example, one of my students was asking about a word and she asked, "What it is?" rather than, "What is it?"
My ELL students obviously are going to have different experiences than the other students in the group, but I had no idea how much of an impact socioeconomic status made in education. I was astounded to read that by age three, children in higher income families have heard around 30 million more words than children from lower income families. Those from higher income families also enter first grade knowing about 20,000 words compared to 5,000 for students in lower income homes. I can hardly wrap my head around that.
The amount of words in the English language is truly amazing. I had no idea that students learn approximately seven words a day from first through twelfth grade. That is a lot of learning and teaching to do! It's helpful to know that students can learn 8-10 vocabulary words a week. It's also important to keep in mind that incorporating those words into vocabulary games helps students to learn them. I would like to do some more searching to find vocabulary games for kindergarten students.
The English language is one of the hardest to learn in the world. I think that comprehension is in all parts of education. And I do agree with you that a teacher’s goal is to comprehend what they’re learning. It’s very encouraging to know that students can learn 8-10 vocabulary words a day because, as they get into the higher reading levels, that’s one of the things teacher’s should be concentrating on. Teachers should work on building the vocabulary of lower income children so they aren’t behind the other students. Plus, that will help them as they move through the levels.
You two are right on planning to have your students comprehend 8-10 words a day. Thinking of the hundreds of words that we come across daily in all the subjects that we teach, this should be a very attainable goal. I think it is important that teachers remember that it is important to build vocabulary throughout the day in all subjects, not just in a reading curriculum.
Chapter 6 discusses how word identification is an important factor in an individual's learning experience. This chapter provides information on the different components to word identification. It provides various assessment forms for word identification, such as Dolch Basic Sight assessment and Fry. Assessments are used for assessing receptive sight, context, blending, and structural analysis. This chapter also provides various activities for useful learning. I found it interesting that there are two types of vocabulary, receptive and expressive. Receptive consists of the words individuals know in conversation and reading of text. Expressive is vocabulary used in speech and writing. Chapter 7 is vocabulary building. Students in grades 1-12th learn approximately 7 words a day.Beck, McKeown, and Kucan describe their 3 word tiers; common vocab, less frequent but interesting vocab, and vocab associated with particular content. It is unique how we learn vocab through our daily experiences, activities, and where we live. Ruth Heller describes her use of words in new ways; such as school of fish or lock of hair. This chapter also provides knowledge of meeting the needs of English Learners vocab by implementing vocab instruction that builds from one grade to the next; implement strategies that help infer word meanings; and the use of visual images and graphic organizers. It also provides assessment tools and classroom activities.
Chapters 6 and 7 are particularly helpful this week for me as I am discovering that the students in my tutoring group need practice on vocabulary word recognition and increasing sight words. The four cueing systems would really help students understand their word knowledge better. I am going to implement many strategies that will hopefully increase these skills with first graders at a beginning reading level. This week I am going to try Dolch List Bingo, hopefully this will increase student’s word recognition! I would also like to try the website that the text offers, http://www.candohelperpage.com/, I think this would be really great for repetition practice! Considering that the students I tutor love being outside, I think a schoolyard safari would be a really fun vocabulary word practice. Besides being outside, the students will have the opportunity to move around, which is always a favorite with this group.
I like how you said you want to incorporate something the students enjoy into a vocabulary lesson. I was using a leveled reader about a fishing derby, and with my vocabulary I made fishing poles with wooden dowels, string, and a paperclip. I cut out fish on my Cricut machine, and attached magnets to one side and wrote the words and definitions on the other. The first day we just used the words, and defined them together using knowledge we had. The second day I added in the definitions and they had to pick the word or tell me the definition based on if they picked up a word or definition. My students are in the third grade and asked if I can use the fishing activity every day! There are so many great activities that you can use with vocabulary!
I have been trying to get my students to tell me what they like to do, but they say it is whatever. Just the other day they told me they did not like to read, and I asked them if they would tell me what they like to read. They would not give me an answer, so I am glad that you try to use what your students love to help them learn.
I think teaching them to love to read is teaching them first what you love about reading. It also takes finding a lot of resources or ideals to incorporate into assignments to get to know what will get them to love reading also.
1. Analysis of the reading/issue. Chapter 6 was about word identification and chapter 7 was about vocabulary building. I found it interesting that the text says that students achieve automatic word identification when they read full text. This means that instead of doing word list drill they should be working on phrases. This information was very helpful. This chapter also listed goal that a reading instructor should be about to follow through with. 1) Learn how to use the four cueing systems. 2) Learn the components of word identification. 3) Increase their range of strategies for analyzing words. I found the four cueing system to be very helpful. One thing that the chapter also touched on was that students need to learn to break apart words and chunk them, doing this is a great way for students to learn how to figure out words. The chapter also discussed the over 800 new words are added every year! That is just amazing. Students gain seven words a day and by the time they are a senior in high school they have mastered over 40,000 words. I find this so interesting that students have such a high vocabulary. I guess I never thought of it before. Assessing students vocabulary is very important and it helps to create a growth charts so that the teacher can track the growth. The vocabulary chapter also had a lot of good activities to help with the students’ vocabulary growth. 2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue. I was just wondering if it better to learn through short sentence then why do teachers do so many flash cards with single words on them? 3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently? I found the information in these chapters to be very helpful, especially chapter 6. I think this chapter will be very useful in my tutoring group. I think my students will benefit from learning to chunk words. There for we do phonograms during each session. 4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience. My students are going to be working on fluency these chapters have given me good ideas to incorporate into the tutoring, but also in my classroom. I wish when I was growing up I would have gotten some of these strategies used with me. I think that would have helped me to be a better reader.
Chapter six offers a wealth of information on reading instruction. The four cueing systems were discussed in detail so that teachers are able to understand the needs of early readers. Word identification was discussed and figure 6.1 was helpfully in understanding the knowledge and skill levels. The most interesting part of this chapter to me was the statement that no foreign language can be translated word-for-word into English. It is imperative to echo read for our ELL students, so that they can hear the words. Chapter 7 focused on building vocabulary. I have always been a big fan of using poetry in reading instruction. I was please to read in the text that poetry is used to introduce new words and allow the reader to develop vivid pictures in their minds. I was also impressed by the sections on assessment. Informal assessment can happen is so many ways. I plan to use informal assessment daily and log results in a progress report for my students. Formal assessments as discussed are usually multiple choice assessments. I feel that it is fair to offer a variety of question types on the formative assessment to meet the needs of all my students.
Chapter 6: Word Identification This chapter starts out with what teachers should know and the four cueing systems. Syntactic system described as the system of grammar and sentence structure. Semantic system refers to the mean of words, sentences, and longer passages in language. Pragmatic system refers to the situational context of a word, sentence, or passage. Graphophonic system refers to relationships between letters and their sounds. Then it moves into components of word identification: word knowledge, sight words, and sight vocabulary. Word analysis skills: context clues, blending polysyllabic words, and structural analysis. There are different types of assessments. Informal assessments include checklists. Then finally this chapter ends with formal assessments which would be diagnostic tests. I have no questions about this chapter. This chapter helps me see the different ways to teach students words they may not know. The activities at the end are a great way to get started, and I can branch of off those to get new ideas. My students have trouble sometimes remembering what the words mean, so these activities will help! Chapter 7: Vocabulary Building There are seven aspects of knowing a word, and those include pronunciation, relationship to other words, and multiple meanings. Develop a love for words, deliver rich instruction, teach strategies to help decipher, and engage students actively in a wide rage of text are different ways to help meet the vocabulary needs of struggling readers. The text then goes on to give six ways to help meet the vocabulary needs of English learners. I have no questions about this chapter. Again this chapter has the actives at the end that can be used and to get more ideas from. I am excited to see what I can do with my students in tutoring with these ideas! When I was younger I had to go to a reading class to get extra help, and I remember that I sometimes had to just work on the vocabulary. Since that time I have loved to read, it helped me, and I want to help my students.
-The main focus of chapter 6 is word identification. Teachers need to know that students do not become proficient readers by just memorizing lists of words; instead, students use their visual skills to see the print and graphics, put all of the information together, and remember it by reading. There are four cueing systems that students use to become proficient reading: 1. Syntactic system, 2. Semantic system, 3. Pragmatic system, and 4. Graphophonic system. For students to be able to identify words, they must know words and be able to use word analysis skills. Components of word knowledge include receptive and expressive vocabularies, sight words, and sight vocabulary. Components of word analysis skills include using context clues, a visual analysis of monosyllabic words, and the ability to blend polysyllabic words. As mentioned in previous chapters, there are ways to informally and formally assess students’ skills. -Chapter 7 focuses on vocabulary building. I agree very much with the first statement made under the General Background heading: “Research indicates a strong correlation between readers’ vocabulary knowledge and their reading comprehension. I think if students can recognize words and understand their meaning, there is no doubt that students will understand what they are reading much more. To increase students’ vocabularies, we as teachers can focus on the students’ life experiences as well as vicarious experiences. To meet the vocabulary needs of struggling readers, there are a couple of practices that can help those students. Those practices include developing a love of words through word play, teaching words students need to know through instruction, teaching students to identify word parts or use a dictionary, and finally engaging students in a wide range of texts. -I do not have any questions at this time. -The section about increasing student vocabulary in chapter 7 made me stop and think for a minute. I really like the idea of teaching students the meaning of words that they hear in their everyday life. I think that is a great way for students to pick up on new words. When students learn about those words in their classroom, it is so easy for them to apply their newly learned knowledge at home. Students are given the positive encouragement they need when they apply that new knowledge. Once students master the vocabulary they hear every day, they slowly take what they have learned and branch out to learn about words that are not heard as often in their everyday life. -Dr. Walizer touched on the subject of teaching spelling without a speller in Reading and Language Arts methods. It makes sense for students to learn to spell words that they hear every day, learn the meanings of those words, and apply what they have learned at home. We have been continuously taught to connect new information to what students already know. What better way to help a child learn to spell and improve his/her vocabulary by relating it to his/her everyday life.
Chapter 6 deals with word identification and chapter 7 is solely targeting building vocabulary.
A few things stuck out to me in chapter 6. They are:
The four cueing systems. This broke down word identification in a way I had never seen before. The Syntactic system helped me to know that ELL students cannot just substitute English words in for their native language words and get the same meaning. The English language is unique in our word play. The Semantic system reminded me of just how many sentences and phrases in our English language that have multiple meanings. I will definitely keep that in mind when working with word identification with my students. The Pragmatic system helped me realize that a students' background knowledge could greatly affect how that student perceives the statement or sentence. And the last system, the Graphophonic system reinforced the relationship of letters to their respected sounds. Looking through some of the score sheets in chapter 6 was helpful as well.
Chapter 7 again was over building a student's vocabulary. About halfway through the chapter I got hooked on the assessment section of the chapter. I believe I was so incredibly interested in this part because I automatically envisioned spelling tests as about the only way to assess vocabulary. The informal assessment section here reinforced that just by conversing with a student, the teacher had an informal way to assess vocabulary. That was not all, as there were other assessments listed; such as cloze tests, maze tests, zip tests, and synonym tests. Reading about all of those different informal tests put me at ease in regards to vocabulary. My vocab comfortability is better now.
Chapter six discussed the topic of word identification. The chapter discussed that students become proficient not by memorizing words but by they “use visual information for print and graphics; put together the information to gain the literal meaning of the text; remember it while reading, thinking beyond the text” (Pinnell, 2006, p.79). Students use a combination of different systems to read. These systems are the syntactic (grammar and sentence structure), semantic(meaning of words), pragmatic(situational context of the word), and graphophonic(relationship between letters and their sounds) and proficient readers cue these systems automatically when reading. In order for struggling readers to become proficient and pleasurable, students must develop an automaticity to recognize sight words. Students who have this ability to quickly recognize words without conscious attention, recognize words without attending to every letter, use parts of words to identify new words, and connect spelling with word meaning. The text stated that proficient readers also have a strong receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary this means they are able to understand vocabulary while in conversation or listening and also are able to use the words when speaking or writing. The book gave many examples of activities of page133 to implement in the classroom to enhance these skills or use as interventions in the classroom. After reading this chapter, I understood the importance of teaching sight words and that they are teaching the students so much more than merely memorizing a word quickly. Chapter seven discussed the topic of vocabulary building in the classroom. The text stated that, “it is imperative for teachers to understand how; proficient readers naturally enrich their vocabulary, to explicitly teach vocabulary, to meet the vocabulary needs of English learners, and to access struggling readers’ vocabulary”(Pinnell, 2006, p.153). The ultimate goal of teaching reading is for our students to be able to fluently read with strong comprehension of the text. The book states that for students to become proficient readers they have to be able to comprehend what they are reading, and in order to do that they need to understand the meaning of the words they are reading. This is where strong or large working vocabulary knowledge comes into play. I loved reading about how to build vocabulary with children by life experiences, vicarious experiences, and explicit instruction. In my primary school days, we would have a list of vocabulary words and have to write the definition. We would, at the end of the week, have a test over the words and definition. This is all I remember regarding vocabulary words, however, I now know I learned a lot of vocabulary by visiting different places and reading or watching movies and seeing or hearing them in context with language or reading!
I think when we look at background knowledge we can see it when they have such a hard time retelling a story they read. If they don't know or have never really experienced the word before it makes it difficult to put into words themselves. Vocabulary sure has changed since I was in elementary.
I think the intervention sections and the information on the assessments are very valuable. I love reading how teachers are able to use everyday activities and lessons to assess how a child is doing. This means that we have to pay very close attention the students and how they are able to learn and achieve. The syntax information in chapter 6 was also very informative and something that I am sure I will have to review more while I am still studying to become a teacher and also while I am a teacher.
Chapter 6 word identification; as I was reading about syntactic system it seems that this can’t simply be taught it has to be practiced and learned by doing. This is definitely showing us another reason to read to children. When I first started the teaching field I thought it was kind of crazy to read during math and other times. I thought reading was important but when time is essential for math is it so important. I just keep proving myself wrong. If you have ever tried to learn Spanish, you would notice that they say the noun first and then the verb. “The dog is hungry” “The hungry dog.” So it makes sense that it would be harder for an ELL student to read. Some words having multiple meanings could be very confusing. So do we teach multiple meanings when children are very young or wait until they are in say in 3rd grade? I really didn’t know how sight words trickle onto each other; known and unknown to simple and complex, and to literal to metaphorical. A reader really needs to be able to do both. With younger children I tend to choose to have them sound it out, I need to practice more with chuncking or referring to prefix and suffixes. In the schools I see a lot of focus on sight words. They like to do things in the hall to show off the learning. One that comes to mind is a moon and then each child has a rocket ship with their name on it. When the children learn 10 words the student’s rocket ships move closer and closer to the moon. It makes the children excited about winning. Chapter 7 vocabulary building; when I think of vocabulary building I think of taking words as they learn them and finding other words that mean the same. I also think of speech. The more we talk to students and get them to talk back the better their vocabulary will become. Life experiences are one reason I really like the internet. The children can’t hop on a plane and go to the beach so bring it to them. Down load a video, from the beach, and find a sent that is similar to the beach, bring it alive. The more hands on that you can give them the better they can understand a word. If you think about it like this; gheieerhty – this is the word I’m giving you, so now you what it means right? Wrong? Now, if I put a picture of a bird in front of you and point to it and say gheieerhty, now you understand better, right? I think it is so important to go over vocabulary a story before you read the story. Give the children a highlighter or a paper taped to their desk, when they don’t know a word or what it means teach them to write it down so you can go over it with them later. We have to remember that all of our children have come from different environments and we need to remember that their vocabulary is going to be at a very different range. I really like the intervention section of this is another good resource. I see the multiple meaning races for 2nd grade and that answers some of my question earlier in the blog. Cognate picture cards can be a great game for me to use with my 1st graders.
I too thought it was strange when I would walk into a classroom and see that they were carrying over reading into other core subjects, such as science or math - but the truth of the mater is, the basis for almost any core subject has to begin with reading. In order to read directions to complete a math problem, one must be able to comprehend what the sentence is asking us to do or solve. In science, we have to follow sequences and read text to answer questions, make observations, and so forth. The case study at the beginning of chapter 7 was a good example of this.
On another note, I love the creative ways that teachers help encourage the learning process, such as your moon and rockets that you talked about. I have also seen teachers use a large pizza and students wrote their names on pepperoni and whoever had the most pepperoni pizzas was doing the best. However, I could see how this type of strategy could also hinder student performance if they are not a strong reader and thus didn't have any pepperoni's up or their rocket wasn't getting closer to the moon.
Chapter 6 & 7 are 2 chapters that go together well. Chapter 6 tells about word identification. I found it interesting how the brain recognizes words and letters. On pg. 127 at the top where it says that word recognition includes recognizing words without conscious attention, this made me think of the emails or Facebook posts that people post the words backwords and you have to read them. These posts have always been interesting because I realized that my brain recognized the letters that make up a word even if they are not in the right order, and I can still read a word like bike even if it is spelled ekib. I think this would be considered automatic word identification. I think it is amazing how our brains can just look at something and immediately get it. I also understand how giving students every opportunity to become fluent readers by constantly giving them sight words and introducing them to the different words is important. I am tutoring 3rd graders and I thought that sight words are not as important in this grade as the earlier ones but I am beginning to think differently. These students still need to be able to practice identifying the sight words so they can immediately know what those words are and other words that might have the sight words in their prefix, suffix, or body. Chapter 7 had a very interesting opening scenario and I think it proved a very valuable point. If a student does not have background knowledge to understand what is being read, or said than they will just get frustrated about not getting it. We have to be able to help students understand a broad list of words so they will not be frustrated. I found the dialog on pg. 154 interesting as well. When my children were little I am not sure I spoke so elaborately to them, I think I was more like the adult speaking to Mary. I was educated but I think a lot of times it was easier to just say things like "hear the bird singing." because I was busy and didn't take the time to see what kind of bird was singing. I am lucky to have children who are good readers so I probably was able to impart some vocabulary on them but I wish I could have read this book when I was a new mother so I would know how important it is to take the time to listen and pay attention to your child. I think these types of experiences will help me to be a better teacher know than I would have then.
I thought of the same thing, Jen. One element constantly came to mind when reading about the identification. Often on Facebook there will be a post in which letters are jumbled and mixed around yet the first and last letters remain the same. But, because of the way our brains function, we can read the passage as easily as if it were written properly.
Chapter 6 addresses word identification. It begins by describing four cueing systems which “proficient readers simultaneously use” for word identification. They are syntactic (“grammar and sentence structure”), semantic (which refers to the meaning of “words, sentences, and longer passages”), pragmatic (“the situational context of a word, sentence or passage”), and graphophonic (“relationship between letters and sounds”). While I knew that all of these were used when reading, I hadn’t heard of them as the four cueing systems or thought of them as being used simultaneously for word identification. However, I see how I could use these four different systems to help a student figure out a word. I also like what was said under “Intervention,” “Having struggling readers memorize lists of words is fruitless. Rather help them learn how to think about words by looking for familiar parts within words.” For word identification to become automatic students must learn to quickly identify parts of words and link them to meaning, context, etc. With practice, this becomes more automatic and less laborious. Lastly, this chapter listed many great activities to help build word identification skills and which grades they can be used with. Chapter 7 addresses vocabulary building. This chapter begins by discussing how vocabulary affects comprehension and how environment can affect vocabulary, especially in young children. The chapter went on to further say how a student’s vocabulary could be increased, including through life experiences, vicarious experiences, and explicit instruction. What I have learned about how vocabulary can be increased will help me as I introduce vocabulary words for our guided reading stories. This chapter also had several great activities for vocabulary building which I may try to use when introducing vocabulary in my tutoring group.
I also learned many new strategies which I am going to try in my tutoring group. I also found the chapter on word identification interesting because it broke down the process of word identification, which is helpful as we are helping students to learn to identify words. I also found the dialogue on page 154 interesting. I think it is important to expose young children to words, even if we relate it to a simpler word at the same time. They will still have heard the higher level word, and at some time may be able to recall it more easily.
Chapter 6 was over word identification. First off, I want to say that in the beginning case study, Mr. Morris had simple but useful ideas such as making flashcards for sight words and for having students create compound words. I hadn't thought of that before, but I may be including that in an upcoming lesson plan because I think students would enjoy a more hands-on approach towards fluency and vocabulary rather than reading from a list. With that being said, I thought it was interesting that the text stated that rote memorization is not the way that students learn how to read fluently, but rather being able to apply the four cueing systems - syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and graphophonic. It's also interesting that ELL students would struggle learning the English language because of the syntax that native English speakers use - but it is true since no other language can be translated word for word to English; when they said that in the text, it was like a lightbulb came on for a definite reason on why it's important to read to ELL students, so they can become comfortable and knowledgeable with English syntax. Another particular assessment strategy was noted in the text using the following website: http://np.harlan.k12.ia.us/reading_center.htm and I found the information very reliable and useful! IF YOU HAVEN'T VISITED THE WEBSITE, CHECK IT OUT! It will be extremely useful for lesson planning. Of course, the activities outlined at the end of Chapter 6 were extremely useful as well.
Chapter 7 was on vocabulary building, which is a key component to my tutoring group in helping them become more fluent readers and build comprehension. One of the most remarkable topics of this chapter was within the first sentence when the text claimed that roughly 800 new words are added to the English language each year, which is an enormous amount of vocabulary and I can honestly say that I have made a conscience effort to learn any new words this year so far – so I am definitely behind! I really enjoyed the emphasis that this chapter placed on poetry and actually looked up some of Jack Prelutsky’s books and I plan on ordering some soon because on Amazon you can “peek” inside the books before you purchase and the poems I read are creative, original and entertaining and great for almost all ages – not to mention will help build vocabulary skills and reading comprehension because you use context and picture clues in some. I also think that as future educators, we take on a great importance with building vocabulary skills at any grade level and need to take ownership over that by creating new ways to introduce vocabulary. An example in the text of this was instead of saying “walk in the halls,” a teacher could say “saunter and not scurry in the halls.” – Not only would this grab student’ attentions, but would create a moment to introduce new vocabulary. I love that idea!
Thanks for sharing the website. I sometimes forget to look at the resources at the end of the chapter and on the side of the pages. I'm usually so focused on the material. I have been trying to find games to allow the student to play in my tutoring groups but I haven't found any that I just love. I checked out the website called education Place and the games seemed to be realistic and fun for my age of students. (So many of the games that I kept finding for my second graders seemed too immature.) I also found it crazy that each year 800 words are added to the English language. I love the look in students eyes when you read poems to them and they realize that words they commonly use can be used in so many different ways to create different meanings.
This week we read chapter 6, word identification and chapter 7, vocabulary building. Word identification is a major topic in the 2nd grade curriculum. My students are very good at this task, because first they have a large bank of sight words, they also are able to recognize the structure of words and they are able to use context clues to identify unknown words. Figure 6.2 outlines the main components of word identification, as teachers it’s important that we understand these so that we are able to figure out why students are struggling with these tasks. It was interesting to learn that oral expressive vocabulary is usually larger than written vocabulary. I don’t know if this is true for me, I have become accustume to expressing my thoughts through my writing as a virtual student. I catch myself using words that I commonly do not use in my everyday speak. Also in this chapter it explains the many different way of assessing the student’s ability to use the main components involved in word identification. The next chapter discussed the building vocabulary. A student’s vocabulary is directly effect by his or her environment which intern is the single greatest predictor of their reading comprehension. A person’s vocabulary increases through life experience, vicarious experience, and direct instruction. The next sections focus on struggling readers, English Learners, and how to increase their vocabulary. Finally along with chapter 6 this one has so many great activities to help students. I especially like the activity wordo. I also think its interesting that word searches are good activities. Many times I think they are just used as busy work or time fillers and now there is an actual reason to use them. Also they can easily be tied to just about any lesson.
Rebecca--I also found chapter 7 (vocabulary) to be very informative. I enjoyed reading how a person's vocabulary increases through life experiences, vicarious experience, and direct instruction. I also enjoyed learning about how to increase vocabulary. I believe this is going to be my content focus and I know there are many activities and online vocabulary games that students would love to plan and will actually help their vocabulary at the same time. I can't wait to try to find these great online games to use with my tutoring students.
Chapters 6 and 7 go well hand in hand as one can not be achieved or understood without the other. Word identification is essential when developing and building upon word segmentation. However, if a student does not have the proper word background, segmentation and identification can suffer. One element constantly came to mind when reading about the identification. Often on Facebook there will be a post in which letters are jumbled and mixed around yet the first and last letters remain the same. But, because of the way our brains function, we can read the passage as easily as if it were written properly. I believe that in order for us to be effective educators, it is essential that we build a strong foundation and patch up the cracks and holes along the way.
I do agree with you Megin. These chapters do go hand in hand. They both need each other like macaroni and cheese. You can't have one with out the other. I too have noticed the jumbled letters, I find it so amazing how our brains work.
I agree with you Megin. These chapters need to both be understood. I also think that it is important that we have a strong basis on our word knowledge, without being strong readers we would not be able to make the association of the jumbled up words.
Chapter 6 was covers the importance of word identification. This chapter goes in great detail over what teachers must know. It is very important of the four cueing systems. Even though in so many of my courses, it has been discussed what pragmatics, semantics, syntax, graphonphic is, it’s a great review because I always seem to get these terms mixed up. This chapter goes in depth about the components of word identification. Through my reading and language arts methods course I learned the importance of sight words, context clues, etc. Reading over those sections was a great review for me. The chapter also talks about assessments (which I know quite a bit about). I like informal assessments the best. I enjoy using checklists, and rubrics etc. Also as always I really like the activities the chapter lists. I really see myself implementing these with my students. This chapter was a great review for me. Therefore I do not have any questions. Although I would have like it if the text provided more details on assessing students with special needs along with instructing them.
Chapter 7 talks about vocabulary building. Vocabulary building is something that should not be stopped in elementary school. This should continue out through adulthood. Having a large vocabulary can increase comprehension (and make you sound smart). I am familiar with life experiences and vicarious experiences from my previous course. However, explicit instruction (selecting vocabulary and guidelines) was unfamiliar with me. I liked how the text numbered the information for me. This allowed me to understand the text better. I liked the examples of assessments used in this chapter. This gave me a good idea on how I should assess my students (especially with English learners). Also with every blog I write I always like to see the activities. I can see my students enjoying these activities than a worksheet. I do not have any questions for this chapter. The chapter does a great explanation.
I also prefer the informal methods of assessment. i think that observations are one of the most beneficial ways to assess students progress because most times they do not know that they are being assessed and therefore can work without pressure. Many students do not test well under pressure. I also like how the text gives examples that can be used later in my professional career. i used to think that it was ridiculous the amount of money spent on textbooks that I would never use again but now I am so happy that I am building my professional library.
Chapter 6 discussed how students develop reading skills. It highlights how students are able to recognize and organize letters into words and their level of complex thought process to transform from reading words from left-to-right in less advanced readers to more advanced readers who are able to look at the whole word and use vowel adding consonants after. I find two things about chapter six very interesting: the cuing system and the explanation about how readers become proficient. It is easy to fall into the trap that if students are able to memorize a large vocabulary they should be a proficient reader but that is not the case. There are many other factors that contribute to reading fluency. I was not aware of the four cueing systems: syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and graphophonic. Of these the most interesting to me and most important, relevant to the students I am tutoring, is the pragmatic system. It is fascinating and can be easily overlooked how much environment and experience dictate the type of vocabulary students are familiar with. The example used by the book is the different geographic regions in the U.S. have different climates and so the vocabulary of a student in the south will vary greatly from a student in the north, who is very familiar with blizzards and vocabulary that can describe a blizzard. I feel this translates, as also mentioned by the book, to students in poverty who are exposed to fewer experiences than their middle-class counterparts, thus their vocabulary will be completely different and likely limited. I also find it interesting that because of the derivation of the English language intermediate and middle school students who have become familiar with Latin and Greek words have an advantage and would like to consider how to expose these languages to early readers to possible aid in comprehension. Chapter 7 discusses vocabulary and ways readers can build vocabulary. It discussed how larger vocabulary increases reading comprehension. An important topic broached by this chapter is the fact that socioeconomic status dictates the vocabulary children are exposed to in early life and dictates the amount of words they have in their vocabulary by the time they begin schooling. This is important concept in the classrooms where I teach here in Tacoma, WA because there is a predominate low-income population and thus with the vast majority of the students I have been working with I have seen first-hand their limited vocabulary and how this does in fact impact reading and reading comprehension. Due to the population of students I work with, I especially liked the suggestions for engaging struggling readers who were not exposed to a large vocabulary with building a love of words and increasing their word bank. I think playing word games and giving them age appropriate crossword puzzles are very good ideas to get students engaged and I particularly like having more student interaction by putting them in charge of putting up a new word on the bulletin board daily. The statement that resonated with me is that teachers cannot change a students’ SES but teachers can provide all student with a literary-rich environment to narrow the achievement gap.
Stacy W., the statement you referenced at the end of your post is an excellent reminder to us as teachers where our focus should be. Sometimes we find children in situations we desperately wish we could change. Though we can't change a student's personal circumstances, we can give them the tools they need to succeed. This is true for all subjects. We need to remember to focus on what we can do for the students instead of all the things about them out of our control.
Chapter 6 was about word identification and chapter 7 was over vocabulary. These were both informative chapters to read, especially since we are all deciding what our content focus is going to be throughout our tutoring sessions. The last two chapters were over fluency and phonics so these two chapters finish talking about the different content focuses we could choose from. I thought my content focus was going to be over fluency but after reading chapter 7 (Vocabulary), I think I may change mine. Like all content focuses, I believe vocabulary is very important. There are so many activities I think about when I read this section of the book. I enjoyed how the text provided readers with activities and skills to teach vocabulary. For example, personal experiences, crossword puzzles, and games would be a great way to teach vocabulary. I know there are many different online games that would be very beneficial for this content focus. Not only is vocabulary important in reading, word identification is also a very key aspect. Without word identification, students can not read. Word identification is recognizing and organizing letters into words and how to read those words, left to right. I really enjoyed from this chapter the section on how readers become proficient. I believe this is very important, especially for the younger readers who are just learning how to read. Overall, I found both of these chapters to be very beneficial for this class and am glad it provided us with great, useful information that will be very beneficial when writing our lesson plans for our tutoring sessions and when we are writing our lesson plans for our own classrooms in the near future.
I found it interesting on how many students and people increase their vocabulary without realizing it by, like you said through personal experiences. I like the idea of using crossword puzzles and other games to help students increase their vocabulary.
In reading chapter 6 in the book I learned about the different cueing systems for helping children learn how to read. There are so many different things that students must understand when reading. There are many words that have the same spelling but are pronounced differently depending on their meaning in a sentence. Also when the students read a passage their pragmatic system, which means their prior knowledge has a great deal to do with their understanding of the content of the text. Before reading this chapter and working with students on their reading skills I had no idea how many different variables there were when it came to assisting students with their reading skill. In chapter 7 the text discusses the vocabulary of a student and the different ways they increase their vocabulary. Life experiences have an effect on their vocabulary and also through watching educational videos or reading books. I think that both of these chapters are very important and have shed light on strategies of teaching reading.
My favorite section of chapter 6 is the suggested sequence for teaching syllables and affixes to English learners in figure 6.3 on page 132. I knew that ESOL students need to learn these skills, but this provides an ordered and structured way for doing it. This sequence could be used for any student needing help in this area and not only ESOL students. In chapter 7 I liked the nine questions to ask yourself when selecting vocabulary words to focus on during lessons in the selecting vocabulary for explicit instruction section on pate 156. When choosing vocab words I try to pick words I think my students might not be familiar with, but need to know to understand the story as a whole. I now know there is more to it than that such as common onset and rimes, previously known synonyms and antonyms, multiple meanings etc. As with most of the other chapters, I find the suggested activities for teaching the skills listed in the book to be extremely helpful resources to use both now and in the future.
I agree that page 132 offers very valuable information for teachers that have ESOL learners. About 1/4 of our school population is ESOL, so any advantage I can get to help them is a plus. Until I read chapter 7, I never thought about how to choose words to study. Definitely, page 156 is a good format to follow when choosing words to study. I also liked the six guidelines for introducing vocabulary words that followed the above section. I believe that section will be utilized by me very soon.
Chapter 6 was about word identification. It contained lots of good information that I needed to help me in my tutoring groups. I believe my favorite part of the chapter was the strategies and activities. I am still struggling to find hands-on activities for my students, so this is a great resource. I know for math methods, that was the best thing about our book is all of the activities it included in each lesson. Chapter 7 was about vocabulary building. I found that I built my vocabulary in this chapter because there were terms I have not used in years or have never used. It is always wonderful when the text includes books that you can read to your students that relate to the concepts like in figure 7.3. I am a big believer in teaching through literature. One of my favorite parts of chapter 7 was the section on "Meeting the needs of struggling readers". The four practices they suggest for vocabulary instruction will be very beneficial to me. And once again, chapter 7 included many hands-on activities for me to put in my toolbox for later use.
1. Analysis of reading/issue.
ReplyDeleteChapter 6 is about word identification and Chapter 7 is about vocabulary building. In chapter 6, the text discusses the four cueing systems that teachers should know to assist students with identifying words. There is also discussion about the components of word identification and all the types of words students should be identifying while reading. In both chapters, there were ways to assess both word identification and vocabulary building. As always, the strategies and activities from both chapters are useful. Chapter 7 provides discussion on how to increase students’ vocabulary and how to meet the needs of struggling vocabulary learners.
2. Questions/contradictions about the reading/issues.
I don’t have any questions about these chapters or subjects at this time.
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently?
I thought the word identification was interesting because it gave specific cues teachers should be paying attention and working toward. I also found the components of word identification interesting because I didn’t realize some of those were part of that group.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience.
When I was in 5th grade, we started using a specific vocabulary program. I don’t know the name of the program, but it included very difficult words that gradually increased in difficulty through 8th grade. We always had to transfer all of the words and definitions into a notebook that we then used to study from for the test each week. This program did work and was very beneficial in my vocabulary development.
I'm not familiar with the vocabulary program you were using in school, but I do always remember writing definitions to weekly vocabulary words. If we weren't writing definitions we drew pictures that made us symbolize the definition. Personally for me it worked, but I also know that I learn best when things are in literal context or I have visuals. I think these type of programs / instructional styles can be beneficial, but teachers need to use extreme caution and plan for entire classrooms of students and discover what works best for all students to achieve success.
DeleteIn response to Katie and Emily.....
DeleteMy memories of my primary school days, we would have a list of vocabulary words and have to write the definition. We would, at the end of the week, have a test over the words and definition. This is all I remember regarding vocabulary words, however, I now know I learned a lot of vocabulary by visiting different places and reading or watching movies and seeing or hearing them in context with language or reading!
I love that with each chapter information from previous chapters is reviewed. Most textbooks mention something and you rarely see or read about it after that point. The four cueing systems not only work with phonemic awareness (Chapter 5), but also play a key role in word identification (Chapter 6). I also like that the book relates formal and informal assessments to each topic. There are also several ideas about the types of assessments that can be used. This is important for educators to be aware of, especially when needing to track progress of students in various areas.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I noticed in Chapter 7 was that there are about 800 words added to the English language on a yearly basis (page 153). That blew me away, and it’s hard for me to grasp that, probably because I don’t keep track of any time I hear a new word each year. It’s clear that background knowledge plays a key role in much of a child’s success, even in reading. It’s incredibly important for students to be engaged in conversation and story time type activities prior to entering school. Students are at quite a disadvantage if they are not given these additional resources or experiences, and I understand that some students are at disadvantages based upon their cultures (Educational Psychology – socioeconomic status, poverty, race, etc.).
I also love that there are so many examples throughout the chapters, and even resources that would be fitting for particular skill instruction and development.
Emily - I too was SHOCKED to find out that on a yearly basis there are 800 words added to the English language. It makes me wonder how I am ever going to teach my students all the common words as well as the words that are added each an every year.
DeleteEmily,
DeleteI also like the flow of this textbook and how it reviews previous information before delving into the new. One of the most interesting parts of this weeks read was how it related formal and informal assessments to the topics. You're right, it is important for educators to be aware of the different types of assessments they can use. I think this information is very useful for us in tutoring as well so we can monitor our students progress and target the skills they're still lacking in. In chapter 7 I mentioned that fact about 800 words being added to the English language to my husband and he couldn't believe it either. It just seems like a crazy number but this fact also provides information on why the English language is one of the hardest languages to learn.
Chapter six talks about word identification, this is so important when teaching students to read. If they do not understand what a word is, how are they going to be about to read? In relation to that chapter seven is about building vocabulary, meaning gaining knowledge of several different vocabulary words. In chapter six it talks a lot about cueing. It states that there are four cueing systems that educators need to know when teaching students who are struggling with identifying vocabulary words. I feel that these two chapters could almost be combined into one large chapter. I believe this is what I enjoy most about this text book, it is easy to read and it relates to its self in every chapter. I believe I am going to see if some of the listed activities will relate to my tutoring sessions. This week I am still focusing on vocabulary, however I have now found my new content focus for the rest of the semester. I am hoping to focus on phonemic awareness which still deals with vocabulary and word identification.
ReplyDeleteAs I have stated before I was a struggling reading when I was younger and I still have that fear sometimes. However, I believe the information in these two chapters with the four cueing systems I will have enough knowledge to help students who are similar to what I was growing up. There are two students who I am tutoring who I feel have confidence issues with reading. I am eager to share my story with them to help build their confidence as a reader.
I commented on the layout of this textbook as well. It seems in more textbooks you read about something and you never hear about it again, but with this textbook things are continuously being repeated. The repetition definitely makes me stop and think, "Oh yeah, I read about this back here." It's nice that it is all connected (it's common sense that information in a textbook should be, but I don't think all textbooks are like that). It makes learning things so much easier when it is constantly brought back into play.
DeleteMatraca, I completely agree that this text is very easy to read and I enjoy reading it each week. I also determined that my focus will be phonemic awareness and from looking at the standards there really aren't very many to choose from. I will definitely need to be integrating across the curriculum and these chapters have a lot of great ideas to use for vocabulary. My students also have zero confidence about reading. One has even straight out told me he's afraid to read out loud in class or even to his parents. I hope to start building his confidence with the things I have planned this week.
DeleteThis text book has been so easy to read. My focus is also phonemic awareness and Im find that with the pretests that I gave this was the best focus to go with. Im glad my students are young and feel confident to answer questions and not scared to try and read aloud.
DeleteThe thing that stuck with me the most out of chapters 6&7 is how big of a role children’s parents and pre-k years play into the reading development. It mentions more then once that most struggling readers are coming from low-income famiies. When young raeders encounter an unknown word they can use their receptive and or expressive vocabularies to figure out what it is. However, they won’t have these vocabularies to reference to if they are not exposed to new vocabulary frequently. Every child’s sight word vocabulary can differ depending on his or her personal experiences. When I worked at a preschool I remember this one little boy in particular that always talked like a baby, and my coworkers and I never understood why. Then one day his mother picked him up and I found out he talked to us the way she talked to him. I completely agree that a students life before school affects there vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 6 when it discussed visual analysis it mentions that struggling readers tend to mechanically sound out the word from left to right. This can work but not if the sound of certain letters change when more letters are added to a syllable. I believe this where my 1st grade students are struggling. I’ve learned through my assessments that they do have a pretty good bank of sight words but when it comes to new words they’re lost. They also don’t have all the tools and knowledge, like knowing their phonograms, to sound out the words left from right. The game, unscramble the sentence, is very similar to what I’m doing this week in tutoring with a pattern story. I also found an initial sound bingo in the appendix that would be great to try. It’s important to remember that children come from different background. Their life and personal experiences will affect how much they know when they reach my classroom. Tutoring my students has helped me with learning how to identify what students are struggling with and that is going to be one of the most important lessons I learn through this experience. I would really like to try out using poems in my tutoring sessions because they are strongly recommended throughout this book and from Mrs. Stoppel. The book states that the vocabulary used in poems is richer and more interesting in regular text.
I like how you described the visual analysis of struggling readers. I also found the initial sound bingo activity and think it would be a good game to integrate into a classroom or a tutoring session.
DeleteI also think that poetry is a wonderful means of teaching vocabulary. Poetry is a colorful world that many chidlren love when they have the opprotunity to explore the genre.
I was also surprised about the role parents play. Now days though if a student goes into Kindergarten without knowing the ABC's they will be very behind the other children. It is important for children to be in school early so they can keep up with children their age.
DeleteChapter six contained a lot of new information for me. First I was not familiar with the four cueing system which is made up of syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and graphophonic systems. With my tutoring group I’ve noticed that they rely a lot on syntax to help them make sense of certain words they try to read. My students tend to repeat sentences a lot when they struggle on a word and now I know that they’re using syntax to find the right term. I’m glad to know that my students are utilizing this tool in their reading. The knowledge I gained about syntax also helped me understand one reason why English language learners may struggle with reading. Syntax differs from language to language so their language can’t simply be replaced by English words. After the four cueing system I really enjoyed learning about the different informal assessments. I think informal assessments are a huge part of the tutoring process. I am always trying to assess my students constantly to try to target the skills they need to improve on in a short amount of time. Knowing my different options for assessments will be really helpful for me to organize and for my students to succeed.
ReplyDeleteThe first part of the chapter on general background really confirmed the importance of doing mastery word learning and vocabulary activities with students before having them read texts with the words in them. The text says that students’ knowledge of words is the single greatest predictor of their reading comprehension. I’m finding this will my tutoring students. Over the past two weeks we’ve been focusing on comprehension. One day we didn’t get through all of our vocab words before we began reading and I found that my students really struggled with the words in the chapter that they didn’t have prior knowledge on. This really caused their comprehension to suffer. I didn’t know how important general background was until this tutoring experience. There was a lot more interesting information in this chapter but I want to talk about one of the activities listed at the end of the chapter. The activity “Word Expert Cards” sounds really interesting and fun to me. For a tutoring program that took place more than two days a week this would really be a great activity for students to study key vocabulary for guided reading. I love the idea of students teaching students vocabulary terms. I think it’s sometimes easier for them to translate information in kid friendly language than it is for teachers.
I learned a lot in these two chapters but my favorite thing overall would be the activities at the end of the chapters. There are so many activities that would be beneficial for my tutoring kids. I don’t have any questions right now but am interested in learning more about using some of these activities in the classroom.
Shannon- I also found the information on syntax very informative. Its amazing to see their little minds working to find the right word when they are struggling and they don't even know that is that they are doing! Great post!
DeleteChapter six was focused on word identification. I find this to be extremely important as it is something that my 2nd graders in my tutoring group are struggling with. Two of my students knew about 70% of the Rebecca Sitton sight words but one of my students was struggling majorly. She is able to sound out the words and reach a final word but struggles with knowing them by sight. I found this chapter and the resources provided by the text to be very helpful and informative as to how I can help her learn word identification. I love, LOVE the idea of personal word walls. Especially when it comes to a small tutoring group. You can get really personal and work one on one with the student on the words they don't recognize by sight.
ReplyDeleteChapter seven focuses on vocab building. I really enjoyed reading about the language concepts and examples. I am tutoring 2nd grade students but interning in 6th grade. I have seen some bulletin boards near the reading/language arts classroom with some of these terms on them. I think that one thing we definitely need to keep in mind when building students vocabulary is their dialect and home life. Incorrect grammar is incorrect grammar but sometimes students are speaking in their own dialect. For example, in Kansas we say "pop" regarding a beverage but in other states they call it a "soda" or "coke" or "soda pop". Just because students don't say everything the way we teach them doesn't always mean they are saying it incorrectly.
Kristle - Isn't it amazing how big a difference it makes when students have trouble with word identification? It is so apparent when you see it! My frustration is that my 2nd grade students actually did really well with the R.S. words, but they struggle reading so many words during guided reading. They spend so much time decoding words, that by the time they're done reading a passage, they can't remember what they read! I think once they are able to tackle the decoding issues, that vocabulary building may seem more fun for them. It will be a great benefit once they get to that stage!!
DeleteKristle,
DeleteI think you're right about keeping dialect and home life in mind! Students build knowledge off of what they already know. One of the chapters discussed how different students might interpret different words based on their location. The book used the example of the difference in the word "blizzard" between students from different locations in the U.S.
You make a good point about the use of incorrect grammar and whether it is incorrect depending on the area you are located. It can easily just vary from household to household. For example, the little boy I babysit, who is 5, he has discovered that in his house that call the noon meal lunch but when he comes out to the farm and we visit my mother-n-law's home they call it diner. This goes to show communication and vocabulary vary from city limits to 15 miles away to the farm.
DeleteNicole Schell
ReplyDelete1. Analysis of the reading/issue: Chapters 6 & 7 came along for me just in the nick of time! Word Identification and Vocabulary Building go hand in hand. The text says that it is so important for students to build a strong and varied vocabulary. There have been tests that prove that the better a person’s vocabulary, the more successful they are in their academic pursuits. Why? Because they have so much information and knowledge from which to draw! This information and knowledge comes from having a wide range of experiences and a lot of conversation with a variety of people. Unfortunately, not all students have the opportunity for those types of experiences. That is where the word identification comes into play. When students haven’t encountered specific words, they have no prior knowledge from which to draw meaning or conclusions during their reading. Struggling students sometimes still have problems even decoding and identifying these words. We still have to instruct our students in how to recognize these words, how to decode them, and how to figure out what they mean. As we do this, we are building their vocabulary! Not all our students will be on the same vocabulary level, so we then have to know how to provide instruction and support for all levels of students. The last key piece of the equation is assessing whether or not students have learned and acquired the vocabulary we have been teaching. The assessment process is very important to check for student understanding, application of skills and strategies, and overall progress of students regarding these two areas.
2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue: My question would be when is it best to start introducing suffixes, prefixes, compound words, etc? (Either the age or the skill level.)
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently? I always like the sections that include information about ELL instruction. I have only worked with a few students who were considered ELL, so I am always looking for strategies and information that will help me in this area. I imagine that it would be really hard for an ELL student to learn the English language and make all the connections between words in our language! Some words sound the same but have different meanings or spellings, while other words are spelling the same but have multiple meaning. It has to be confusing. They may also not have the experiences necessary to provide them with the vocabulary they need to be ready for school. I like the idea of reading informal books and providing activities for these students so that they can learn new words. Using realia, drama, and pictures are also great ways to help ELL students learn new vocabulary. I have to stop and put myself in their shoes to better understand what might help me, too, in circumstances such as theirs.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience: I have led many station times with first and second graders in the last few years. It is amazing how much difference it makes when students can determine what a word says in text and then draw meaning from the recognition of that word. Students who have limited experiences or trouble decoding words are at such a disadvantage when they are reading and encounter words they don’t know or have never heard of. It’s like leaving a big hole in the middle of the story, because they don’t understand all of the information and can’t make sense of the story. I love introducing students to new words! One speaker at last year’s reading conference in Emporia said that she feels acquiring a large vocabulary is one of the best things a student can do. It affects every part of their education, so it is so helpful to know a large amount of words and actually know what they mean. I certainly have been able to tell the difference! I plan to make it a major part of my instruction, no matter what grade level I end up teaching.
I would assume that you would teach those things at their skill levels, however if a student is below they maybe in a class where they will be taught the skill even if it is above their level. I know many teachers in the schools where I sub break their classes into two groups so that would work. However if you are in a small school you will have to go with the majority of your kids. Just my thoughts.
DeleteA teacher is one who brings us tools and enables us to use them. Ralph Waldo Emerson
ReplyDeleteAnother great quote! At teh beginning of chapter 6 the four cuing systems are discussed: syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and praphophonic. The next section in the chapter talks about word indentification. This is a section is broken down into two sections: word knowledge and word analysis skills. All the suggestions for how to teach these skills is written in a way that is useful to the reader. For example, under sight words an example is given to use short poetry that students will enjoy and select five sight words to work on during the poetry.
Again I think the most useful part of these chapters is the assessment examples. The part titled A Guided Readoing Session is also something I will be utilizing in tutoring sessions. I also love the idea of Dolch Bingo. I think I will use some of the activities in chapter 6 in future tutoring sessions to increase word identification.
Chapter 7 begins with another good quote. "The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for." Ludwig Wittgenstein
One of the first things to jump out at me while reading this chapter was the section titled Accepting Students and Their Limited Vocabulary. These students should be included in class discussions and be given opportunities to use oral language as a means of increasing word comprehension.
The Schoolyard Safari activity is one that I would like to use in a classroom setting. Technology is a big component to vocabulary building and should be integrated into lesson plans.
I also liked the assessment examples. This book gives so many assessments that we can use in our tutoring groups. Vocabulary is a great things for students and it goes great with comprehension.
DeleteThe very first part in chapter 6 that talks about what teachers should know is great. It says that students do not only need to know how to recite lists of vocabulary words. By putting together all the information you teach them they will understand the text. Word knowledge is also a important factor. If the child can read the word but not understand the meaning of the word in text they will not develop comprehension. One main thing I learned from this chapter was the difference between sight words and sight vocabulary. Sight words are irregularly spelled words that we teach children because either you can't sound them out or they are oddly spelled. The book gives many informal assessments that you can use to assess your children. It also gives many activities for helping children with word identification.
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 is about building the vocabulary itself. These two chapters go along great together because they both discuss the importance of vocabulary. Today in tutoring I actually tried to widen my students vocabulary. They were not thinking of -ar words that were outside the box. So I gave them clues and then they got a good idea of what other -ar words are out there not just the common ones. I like how one part of the book breaks word learning down into tiers. Most of our daily conversation is in tier 1; while most of our classroom time we are in tier 3 just because we are talking about education specific vocabulary. I love the activity that you give the students a topic and they must name as many words that go in that topic as they can. The topic can be something as simple as food. They can add pizza, corn, bread or candy. All of these words would work and it would make them think about all the different foods. As the children get older you can expand on this and make it more educational.
By choosing a topic and instructing students to name as many words as they can, I think you can really tell a lot about the students. If the subject was food, you can pick up on what food they like. If the subject was activities they do for fun, you learn what their interests are. So not only are students learning new vocabulary from each other, you as a teacher have the opportunity to learn information about each student, too!
DeleteChapter 6 discussed word identification and chapter 7 was over vocabulary building. Chapter 6 is very important if students don’t understand what a word is, they won’t be able to read it. Building vocabulary is an important skill that students should have. I have experienced not having a large vocabulary so I feel it is important for students to have a large vocabulary. These two chapters correlate so well together.
ReplyDeleteLike I have stated before I’m not the strongest reader, but I feel these two chapters will help me teach my students. The four cueing systems were very formative and feel they will help students who are similar to me in reading.
I thought the four cuing systems would be very beneficial as well! These chapters gave me a ton of ideas of how to build up vocabulary with the group of students that I tutor. Good luck with your new strategies!
DeleteI agree Megan. These chapters went very well together and they will help all of us help our students. The chapters had some really good ideas on way for helping students. Chunking the words will help a lot of students. I use the phonograms with my tutoring students and that has helped them quite a bit. I do find that in the last six sessions they are already doing better and I think the information that I have taken from this text has helped me a lot.
DeleteThese chapters included quite a few pieces of information that I was unaware of. The English language is a tricky one, but it's so important for us to help our students master it. I think the most important thing to keep in mind came from chapter 7. In chapter 7, the author pointed out that there is a strong correlation between vocabulary and comprehension. Our goal as teachers is for our students to comprehend what they are learning, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteBefore we can help our students create strong vocabularies, we must teach them word identification. Learning about the four cueing systems (syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and graphophonic) was very beneficial. I think this book is especially good at including information about ELL students, which is an area I am not totally comfortable with. Considering I am currently working with three, the more this book includes, the better. My ELL students have actually been amongst the best scores in segmenting words, but when I listen to them talk, I notice syntactic errors. For example, one of my students was asking about a word and she asked, "What it is?" rather than, "What is it?"
My ELL students obviously are going to have different experiences than the other students in the group, but I had no idea how much of an impact socioeconomic status made in education. I was astounded to read that by age three, children in higher income families have heard around 30 million more words than children from lower income families. Those from higher income families also enter first grade knowing about 20,000 words compared to 5,000 for students in lower income homes. I can hardly wrap my head around that.
The amount of words in the English language is truly amazing. I had no idea that students learn approximately seven words a day from first through twelfth grade. That is a lot of learning and teaching to do! It's helpful to know that students can learn 8-10 vocabulary words a week. It's also important to keep in mind that incorporating those words into vocabulary games helps students to learn them. I would like to do some more searching to find vocabulary games for kindergarten students.
The English language is one of the hardest to learn in the world. I think that comprehension is in all parts of education. And I do agree with you that a teacher’s goal is to comprehend what they’re learning. It’s very encouraging to know that students can learn 8-10 vocabulary words a day because, as they get into the higher reading levels, that’s one of the things teacher’s should be concentrating on. Teachers should work on building the vocabulary of lower income children so they aren’t behind the other students. Plus, that will help them as they move through the levels.
DeleteYou two are right on planning to have your students comprehend 8-10 words a day. Thinking of the hundreds of words that we come across daily in all the subjects that we teach, this should be a very attainable goal. I think it is important that teachers remember that it is important to build vocabulary throughout the day in all subjects, not just in a reading curriculum.
DeleteChapter 6 discusses how word identification is an important factor in an individual's learning experience. This chapter provides information on the different components to word identification. It provides various assessment forms for word identification, such as Dolch Basic Sight assessment and Fry. Assessments are used for assessing receptive sight, context, blending, and structural analysis. This chapter also provides various activities for useful learning. I found it interesting that there are two types of vocabulary, receptive and expressive. Receptive consists of the words individuals know in conversation and reading of text. Expressive is vocabulary used in speech and writing.
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 is vocabulary building. Students in grades 1-12th learn approximately 7 words a day.Beck, McKeown, and Kucan describe their 3 word tiers; common vocab, less frequent but interesting vocab, and vocab associated with particular content. It is unique how we learn vocab through our daily experiences, activities, and where we live. Ruth Heller describes her use of words in new ways; such as school of fish or lock of hair. This chapter also provides knowledge of meeting the needs of English Learners vocab by implementing vocab instruction that builds from one grade to the next; implement strategies that help infer word meanings; and the use of visual images and graphic organizers. It also provides assessment tools and classroom activities.
Chapters 6 and 7 are particularly helpful this week for me as I am discovering that the students in my tutoring group need practice on vocabulary word recognition and increasing sight words. The four cueing systems would really help students understand their word knowledge better. I am going to implement many strategies that will hopefully increase these skills with first graders at a beginning reading level. This week I am going to try Dolch List Bingo, hopefully this will increase student’s word recognition! I would also like to try the website that the text offers, http://www.candohelperpage.com/, I think this would be really great for repetition practice! Considering that the students I tutor love being outside, I think a schoolyard safari would be a really fun vocabulary word practice. Besides being outside, the students will have the opportunity to move around, which is always a favorite with this group.
ReplyDeleteI like how you said you want to incorporate something the students enjoy into a vocabulary lesson. I was using a leveled reader about a fishing derby, and with my vocabulary I made fishing poles with wooden dowels, string, and a paperclip. I cut out fish on my Cricut machine, and attached magnets to one side and wrote the words and definitions on the other. The first day we just used the words, and defined them together using knowledge we had. The second day I added in the definitions and they had to pick the word or tell me the definition based on if they picked up a word or definition. My students are in the third grade and asked if I can use the fishing activity every day! There are so many great activities that you can use with vocabulary!
DeleteI have been trying to get my students to tell me what they like to do, but they say it is whatever. Just the other day they told me they did not like to read, and I asked them if they would tell me what they like to read. They would not give me an answer, so I am glad that you try to use what your students love to help them learn.
DeleteI think teaching them to love to read is teaching them first what you love about reading. It also takes finding a lot of resources or ideals to incorporate into assignments to get to know what will get them to love reading also.
Delete1. Analysis of the reading/issue.
ReplyDeleteChapter 6 was about word identification and chapter 7 was about vocabulary building. I found it interesting that the text says that students achieve automatic word identification when they read full text. This means that instead of doing word list drill they should be working on phrases. This information was very helpful. This chapter also listed goal that a reading instructor should be about to follow through with. 1) Learn how to use the four cueing systems. 2) Learn the components of word identification. 3) Increase their range of strategies for analyzing words. I found the four cueing system to be very helpful. One thing that the chapter also touched on was that students need to learn to break apart words and chunk them, doing this is a great way for students to learn how to figure out words. The chapter also discussed the over 800 new words are added every year! That is just amazing. Students gain seven words a day and by the time they are a senior in high school they have mastered over 40,000 words. I find this so interesting that students have such a high vocabulary. I guess I never thought of it before. Assessing students vocabulary is very important and it helps to create a growth charts so that the teacher can track the growth. The vocabulary chapter also had a lot of good activities to help with the students’ vocabulary growth.
2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue.
I was just wondering if it better to learn through short sentence then why do teachers do so many flash cards with single words on them?
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently?
I found the information in these chapters to be very helpful, especially chapter 6. I think this chapter will be very useful in my tutoring group. I think my students will benefit from learning to chunk words. There for we do phonograms during each session.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience.
My students are going to be working on fluency these chapters have given me good ideas to incorporate into the tutoring, but also in my classroom. I wish when I was growing up I would have gotten some of these strategies used with me. I think that would have helped me to be a better reader.
Chapter six offers a wealth of information on reading instruction. The four cueing systems were discussed in detail so that teachers are able to understand the needs of early readers. Word identification was discussed and figure 6.1 was helpfully in understanding the knowledge and skill levels. The most interesting part of this chapter to me was the statement that no foreign language can be translated word-for-word into English. It is imperative to echo read for our ELL students, so that they can hear the words.
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 focused on building vocabulary. I have always been a big fan of using poetry in reading instruction. I was please to read in the text that poetry is used to introduce new words and allow the reader to develop vivid pictures in their minds. I was also impressed by the sections on assessment. Informal assessment can happen is so many ways. I plan to use informal assessment daily and log results in a progress report for my students. Formal assessments as discussed are usually multiple choice assessments. I feel that it is fair to offer a variety of question types on the formative assessment to meet the needs of all my students.
Chapter 6: Word Identification
ReplyDeleteThis chapter starts out with what teachers should know and the four cueing systems. Syntactic system described as the system of grammar and sentence structure. Semantic system refers to the mean of words, sentences, and longer passages in language. Pragmatic system refers to the situational context of a word, sentence, or passage. Graphophonic system refers to relationships between letters and their sounds. Then it moves into components of word identification: word knowledge, sight words, and sight vocabulary. Word analysis skills: context clues, blending polysyllabic words, and structural analysis. There are different types of assessments. Informal assessments include checklists. Then finally this chapter ends with formal assessments which would be diagnostic tests. I have no questions about this chapter. This chapter helps me see the different ways to teach students words they may not know. The activities at the end are a great way to get started, and I can branch of off those to get new ideas. My students have trouble sometimes remembering what the words mean, so these activities will help!
Chapter 7: Vocabulary Building
There are seven aspects of knowing a word, and those include pronunciation, relationship to other words, and multiple meanings. Develop a love for words, deliver rich instruction, teach strategies to help decipher, and engage students actively in a wide rage of text are different ways to help meet the vocabulary needs of struggling readers. The text then goes on to give six ways to help meet the vocabulary needs of English learners. I have no questions about this chapter. Again this chapter has the actives at the end that can be used and to get more ideas from. I am excited to see what I can do with my students in tutoring with these ideas! When I was younger I had to go to a reading class to get extra help, and I remember that I sometimes had to just work on the vocabulary. Since that time I have loved to read, it helped me, and I want to help my students.
-The main focus of chapter 6 is word identification. Teachers need to know that students do not become proficient readers by just memorizing lists of words; instead, students use their visual skills to see the print and graphics, put all of the information together, and remember it by reading. There are four cueing systems that students use to become proficient reading: 1. Syntactic system, 2. Semantic system, 3. Pragmatic system, and 4. Graphophonic system. For students to be able to identify words, they must know words and be able to use word analysis skills. Components of word knowledge include receptive and expressive vocabularies, sight words, and sight vocabulary. Components of word analysis skills include using context clues, a visual analysis of monosyllabic words, and the ability to blend polysyllabic words. As mentioned in previous chapters, there are ways to informally and formally assess students’ skills.
ReplyDelete-Chapter 7 focuses on vocabulary building. I agree very much with the first statement made under the General Background heading: “Research indicates a strong correlation between readers’ vocabulary knowledge and their reading comprehension. I think if students can recognize words and understand their meaning, there is no doubt that students will understand what they are reading much more. To increase students’ vocabularies, we as teachers can focus on the students’ life experiences as well as vicarious experiences. To meet the vocabulary needs of struggling readers, there are a couple of practices that can help those students. Those practices include developing a love of words through word play, teaching words students need to know through instruction, teaching students to identify word parts or use a dictionary, and finally engaging students in a wide range of texts.
-I do not have any questions at this time.
-The section about increasing student vocabulary in chapter 7 made me stop and think for a minute. I really like the idea of teaching students the meaning of words that they hear in their everyday life. I think that is a great way for students to pick up on new words. When students learn about those words in their classroom, it is so easy for them to apply their newly learned knowledge at home. Students are given the positive encouragement they need when they apply that new knowledge. Once students master the vocabulary they hear every day, they slowly take what they have learned and branch out to learn about words that are not heard as often in their everyday life.
-Dr. Walizer touched on the subject of teaching spelling without a speller in Reading and Language Arts methods. It makes sense for students to learn to spell words that they hear every day, learn the meanings of those words, and apply what they have learned at home. We have been continuously taught to connect new information to what students already know. What better way to help a child learn to spell and improve his/her vocabulary by relating it to his/her everyday life.
Chapter 6 deals with word identification and chapter 7 is solely targeting building vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteA few things stuck out to me in chapter 6. They are:
The four cueing systems. This broke down word identification in a way I had never seen before. The Syntactic system helped me to know that ELL students cannot just substitute English words in for their native language words and get the same meaning. The English language is unique in our word play. The Semantic system reminded me of just how many sentences and phrases in our English language that have multiple meanings. I will definitely keep that in mind when working with word identification with my students. The Pragmatic system helped me realize that a students' background knowledge could greatly affect how that student perceives the statement or sentence. And the last system, the Graphophonic system reinforced the relationship of letters to their respected sounds. Looking through some of the score sheets in chapter 6 was helpful as well.
Chapter 7 again was over building a student's vocabulary. About halfway through the chapter I got hooked on the assessment section of the chapter. I believe I was so incredibly interested in this part because I automatically envisioned spelling tests as about the only way to assess vocabulary. The informal assessment section here reinforced that just by conversing with a student, the teacher had an informal way to assess vocabulary. That was not all, as there were other assessments listed; such as cloze tests, maze tests, zip tests, and synonym tests. Reading about all of those different informal tests put me at ease in regards to vocabulary. My vocab comfortability is better now.
These were 2 good chapters!
Chapter six discussed the topic of word identification. The chapter discussed that students become proficient not by memorizing words but by they “use visual information for print and graphics; put together the information to gain the literal meaning of the text; remember it while reading, thinking beyond the text” (Pinnell, 2006, p.79). Students use a combination of different systems to read. These systems are the syntactic (grammar and sentence structure), semantic(meaning of words), pragmatic(situational context of the word), and graphophonic(relationship between letters and their sounds) and proficient readers cue these systems automatically when reading. In order for struggling readers to become proficient and pleasurable, students must develop an automaticity to recognize sight words. Students who have this ability to quickly recognize words without conscious attention, recognize words without attending to every letter, use parts of words to identify new words, and connect spelling with word meaning. The text stated that proficient readers also have a strong receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary this means they are able to understand vocabulary while in conversation or listening and also are able to use the words when speaking or writing. The book gave many examples of activities of page133 to implement in the classroom to enhance these skills or use as interventions in the classroom. After reading this chapter, I understood the importance of teaching sight words and that they are teaching the students so much more than merely memorizing a word quickly.
DeleteChapter seven discussed the topic of vocabulary building in the classroom. The text stated that, “it is imperative for teachers to understand how; proficient readers naturally enrich their vocabulary, to explicitly teach vocabulary, to meet the vocabulary needs of English learners, and to access struggling readers’ vocabulary”(Pinnell, 2006, p.153). The ultimate goal of teaching reading is for our students to be able to fluently read with strong comprehension of the text. The book states that for students to become proficient readers they have to be able to comprehend what they are reading, and in order to do that they need to understand the meaning of the words they are reading. This is where strong or large working vocabulary knowledge comes into play. I loved reading about how to build vocabulary with children by life experiences, vicarious experiences, and explicit instruction. In my primary school days, we would have a list of vocabulary words and have to write the definition. We would, at the end of the week, have a test over the words and definition. This is all I remember regarding vocabulary words, however, I now know I learned a lot of vocabulary by visiting different places and reading or watching movies and seeing or hearing them in context with language or reading!
I think when we look at background knowledge we can see it when they have such a hard time retelling a story they read. If they don't know or have never really experienced the word before it makes it difficult to put into words themselves. Vocabulary sure has changed since I was in elementary.
DeleteCody,
DeleteI think the intervention sections and the information on the assessments are very valuable. I love reading how teachers are able to use everyday activities and lessons to assess how a child is doing. This means that we have to pay very close attention the students and how they are able to learn and achieve. The syntax information in chapter 6 was also very informative and something that I am sure I will have to review more while I am still studying to become a teacher and also while I am a teacher.
oops I posted on the wrong person, sorry :0
DeleteChapter 6 word identification; as I was reading about syntactic system it seems that this can’t simply be taught it has to be practiced and learned by doing. This is definitely showing us another reason to read to children. When I first started the teaching field I thought it was kind of crazy to read during math and other times. I thought reading was important but when time is essential for math is it so important. I just keep proving myself wrong. If you have ever tried to learn Spanish, you would notice that they say the noun first and then the verb. “The dog is hungry” “The hungry dog.” So it makes sense that it would be harder for an ELL student to read. Some words having multiple meanings could be very confusing. So do we teach multiple meanings when children are very young or wait until they are in say in 3rd grade? I really didn’t know how sight words trickle onto each other; known and unknown to simple and complex, and to literal to metaphorical. A reader really needs to be able to do both. With younger children I tend to choose to have them sound it out, I need to practice more with chuncking or referring to prefix and suffixes. In the schools I see a lot of focus on sight words. They like to do things in the hall to show off the learning. One that comes to mind is a moon and then each child has a rocket ship with their name on it. When the children learn 10 words the student’s rocket ships move closer and closer to the moon. It makes the children excited about winning. Chapter 7 vocabulary building; when I think of vocabulary building I think of taking words as they learn them and finding other words that mean the same. I also think of speech. The more we talk to students and get them to talk back the better their vocabulary will become. Life experiences are one reason I really like the internet. The children can’t hop on a plane and go to the beach so bring it to them. Down load a video, from the beach, and find a sent that is similar to the beach, bring it alive. The more hands on that you can give them the better they can understand a word. If you think about it like this; gheieerhty – this is the word I’m giving you, so now you what it means right? Wrong? Now, if I put a picture of a bird in front of you and point to it and say gheieerhty, now you understand better, right? I think it is so important to go over vocabulary a story before you read the story. Give the children a highlighter or a paper taped to their desk, when they don’t know a word or what it means teach them to write it down so you can go over it with them later. We have to remember that all of our children have come from different environments and we need to remember that their vocabulary is going to be at a very different range. I really like the intervention section of this is another good resource. I see the multiple meaning races for 2nd grade and that answers some of my question earlier in the blog. Cognate picture cards can be a great game for me to use with my 1st graders.
ReplyDeleteTammy -
DeleteI too thought it was strange when I would walk into a classroom and see that they were carrying over reading into other core subjects, such as science or math - but the truth of the mater is, the basis for almost any core subject has to begin with reading. In order to read directions to complete a math problem, one must be able to comprehend what the sentence is asking us to do or solve. In science, we have to follow sequences and read text to answer questions, make observations, and so forth. The case study at the beginning of chapter 7 was a good example of this.
On another note, I love the creative ways that teachers help encourage the learning process, such as your moon and rockets that you talked about. I have also seen teachers use a large pizza and students wrote their names on pepperoni and whoever had the most pepperoni pizzas was doing the best. However, I could see how this type of strategy could also hinder student performance if they are not a strong reader and thus didn't have any pepperoni's up or their rocket wasn't getting closer to the moon.
Chapter 6 & 7 are 2 chapters that go together well. Chapter 6 tells about word identification. I found it interesting how the brain recognizes words and letters. On pg. 127 at the top where it says that word recognition includes recognizing words without conscious attention, this made me think of the emails or Facebook posts that people post the words backwords and you have to read them. These posts have always been interesting because I realized that my brain recognized the letters that make up a word even if they are not in the right order, and I can still read a word like bike even if it is spelled ekib. I think this would be considered automatic word identification. I think it is amazing how our brains can just look at something and immediately get it. I also understand how giving students every opportunity to become fluent readers by constantly giving them sight words and introducing them to the different words is important. I am tutoring 3rd graders and I thought that sight words are not as important in this grade as the earlier ones but I am beginning to think differently. These students still need to be able to practice identifying the sight words so they can immediately know what those words are and other words that might have the sight words in their prefix, suffix, or body. Chapter 7 had a very interesting opening scenario and I think it proved a very valuable point. If a student does not have background knowledge to understand what is being read, or said than they will just get frustrated about not getting it. We have to be able to help students understand a broad list of words so they will not be frustrated. I found the dialog on pg. 154 interesting as well. When my children were little I am not sure I spoke so elaborately to them, I think I was more like the adult speaking to Mary. I was educated but I think a lot of times it was easier to just say things like "hear the bird singing." because I was busy and didn't take the time to see what kind of bird was singing. I am lucky to have children who are good readers so I probably was able to impart some vocabulary on them but I wish I could have read this book when I was a new mother so I would know how important it is to take the time to listen and pay attention to your child. I think these types of experiences will help me to be a better teacher know than I would have then.
ReplyDeleteI thought of the same thing, Jen. One element constantly came to mind when reading about the identification. Often on Facebook there will be a post in which letters are jumbled and mixed around yet the first and last letters remain the same. But, because of the way our brains function, we can read the passage as easily as if it were written properly.
DeleteChapter 6 addresses word identification. It begins by describing four cueing systems which “proficient readers simultaneously use” for word identification. They are syntactic (“grammar and sentence structure”), semantic (which refers to the meaning of “words, sentences, and longer passages”), pragmatic (“the situational context of a word, sentence or passage”), and graphophonic (“relationship between letters and sounds”). While I knew that all of these were used when reading, I hadn’t heard of them as the four cueing systems or thought of them as being used simultaneously for word identification. However, I see how I could use these four different systems to help a student figure out a word. I also like what was said under “Intervention,” “Having struggling readers memorize lists of words is fruitless. Rather help them learn how to think about words by looking for familiar parts within words.” For word identification to become automatic students must learn to quickly identify parts of words and link them to meaning, context, etc. With practice, this becomes more automatic and less laborious. Lastly, this chapter listed many great activities to help build word identification skills and which grades they can be used with.
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 addresses vocabulary building. This chapter begins by discussing how vocabulary affects comprehension and how environment can affect vocabulary, especially in young children. The chapter went on to further say how a student’s vocabulary could be increased, including through life experiences, vicarious experiences, and explicit instruction. What I have learned about how vocabulary can be increased will help me as I introduce vocabulary words for our guided reading stories. This chapter also had several great activities for vocabulary building which I may try to use when introducing vocabulary in my tutoring group.
@ Jen Watson
ReplyDeleteI also learned many new strategies which I am going to try in my tutoring group. I also found the chapter on word identification interesting because it broke down the process of word identification, which is helpful as we are helping students to learn to identify words. I also found the dialogue on page 154 interesting. I think it is important to expose young children to words, even if we relate it to a simpler word at the same time. They will still have heard the higher level word, and at some time may be able to recall it more easily.
Chapter 6 was over word identification. First off, I want to say that in the beginning case study, Mr. Morris had simple but useful ideas such as making flashcards for sight words and for having students create compound words. I hadn't thought of that before, but I may be including that in an upcoming lesson plan because I think students would enjoy a more hands-on approach towards fluency and vocabulary rather than reading from a list. With that being said, I thought it was interesting that the text stated that rote memorization is not the way that students learn how to read fluently, but rather being able to apply the four cueing systems - syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and graphophonic. It's also interesting that ELL students would struggle learning the English language because of the syntax that native English speakers use - but it is true since no other language can be translated word for word to English; when they said that in the text, it was like a lightbulb came on for a definite reason on why it's important to read to ELL students, so they can become comfortable and knowledgeable with English syntax. Another particular assessment strategy was noted in the text using the following website: http://np.harlan.k12.ia.us/reading_center.htm and I found the information very reliable and useful! IF YOU HAVEN'T VISITED THE WEBSITE, CHECK IT OUT! It will be extremely useful for lesson planning. Of course, the activities outlined at the end of Chapter 6 were extremely useful as well.
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 was on vocabulary building, which is a key component to my tutoring group in helping them become more fluent readers and build comprehension. One of the most remarkable topics of this chapter was within the first sentence when the text claimed that roughly 800 new words are added to the English language each year, which is an enormous amount of vocabulary and I can honestly say that I have made a conscience effort to learn any new words this year so far – so I am definitely behind! I really enjoyed the emphasis that this chapter placed on poetry and actually looked up some of Jack Prelutsky’s books and I plan on ordering some soon because on Amazon you can “peek” inside the books before you purchase and the poems I read are creative, original and entertaining and great for almost all ages – not to mention will help build vocabulary skills and reading comprehension because you use context and picture clues in some. I also think that as future educators, we take on a great importance with building vocabulary skills at any grade level and need to take ownership over that by creating new ways to introduce vocabulary. An example in the text of this was instead of saying “walk in the halls,” a teacher could say “saunter and not scurry in the halls.” – Not only would this grab student’ attentions, but would create a moment to introduce new vocabulary. I love that idea!
Thanks for sharing the website. I sometimes forget to look at the resources at the end of the chapter and on the side of the pages. I'm usually so focused on the material. I have been trying to find games to allow the student to play in my tutoring groups but I haven't found any that I just love. I checked out the website called education Place and the games seemed to be realistic and fun for my age of students. (So many of the games that I kept finding for my second graders seemed too immature.) I also found it crazy that each year 800 words are added to the English language. I love the look in students eyes when you read poems to them and they realize that words they commonly use can be used in so many different ways to create different meanings.
DeleteThis week we read chapter 6, word identification and chapter 7, vocabulary building. Word identification is a major topic in the 2nd grade curriculum. My students are very good at this task, because first they have a large bank of sight words, they also are able to recognize the structure of words and they are able to use context clues to identify unknown words. Figure 6.2 outlines the main components of word identification, as teachers it’s important that we understand these so that we are able to figure out why students are struggling with these tasks. It was interesting to learn that oral expressive vocabulary is usually larger than written vocabulary. I don’t know if this is true for me, I have become accustume to expressing my thoughts through my writing as a virtual student. I catch myself using words that I commonly do not use in my everyday speak. Also in this chapter it explains the many different way of assessing the student’s ability to use the main components involved in word identification. The next chapter discussed the building vocabulary. A student’s vocabulary is directly effect by his or her environment which intern is the single greatest predictor of their reading comprehension. A person’s vocabulary increases through life experience, vicarious experience, and direct instruction. The next sections focus on struggling readers, English Learners, and how to increase their vocabulary. Finally along with chapter 6 this one has so many great activities to help students. I especially like the activity wordo. I also think its interesting that word searches are good activities. Many times I think they are just used as busy work or time fillers and now there is an actual reason to use them. Also they can easily be tied to just about any lesson.
ReplyDeleteRebecca--I also found chapter 7 (vocabulary) to be very informative. I enjoyed reading how a person's vocabulary increases through life experiences, vicarious experience, and direct instruction. I also enjoyed learning about how to increase vocabulary. I believe this is going to be my content focus and I know there are many activities and online vocabulary games that students would love to plan and will actually help their vocabulary at the same time. I can't wait to try to find these great online games to use with my tutoring students.
DeleteChapters 6 and 7 go well hand in hand as one can not be achieved or understood without the other. Word identification is essential when developing and building upon word segmentation. However, if a student does not have the proper word background, segmentation and identification can suffer. One element constantly came to mind when reading about the identification. Often on Facebook there will be a post in which letters are jumbled and mixed around yet the first and last letters remain the same. But, because of the way our brains function, we can read the passage as easily as if it were written properly. I believe that in order for us to be effective educators, it is essential that we build a strong foundation and patch up the cracks and holes along the way.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you Megin. These chapters do go hand in hand. They both need each other like macaroni and cheese. You can't have one with out the other. I too have noticed the jumbled letters, I find it so amazing how our brains work.
DeleteI agree with you Megin. These chapters need to both be understood. I also think that it is important that we have a strong basis on our word knowledge, without being strong readers we would not be able to make the association of the jumbled up words.
DeleteChapter 6 was covers the importance of word identification. This chapter goes in great detail over what teachers must know. It is very important of the four cueing systems. Even though in so many of my courses, it has been discussed what pragmatics, semantics, syntax, graphonphic is, it’s a great review because I always seem to get these terms mixed up. This chapter goes in depth about the components of word identification. Through my reading and language arts methods course I learned the importance of sight words, context clues, etc. Reading over those sections was a great review for me. The chapter also talks about assessments (which I know quite a bit about). I like informal assessments the best. I enjoy using checklists, and rubrics etc. Also as always I really like the activities the chapter lists. I really see myself implementing these with my students. This chapter was a great review for me. Therefore I do not have any questions. Although I would have like it if the text provided more details on assessing students with special needs along with instructing them.
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 talks about vocabulary building. Vocabulary building is something that should not be stopped in elementary school. This should continue out through adulthood. Having a large vocabulary can increase comprehension (and make you sound smart). I am familiar with life experiences and vicarious experiences from my previous course. However, explicit instruction (selecting vocabulary and guidelines) was unfamiliar with me. I liked how the text numbered the information for me. This allowed me to understand the text better. I liked the examples of assessments used in this chapter. This gave me a good idea on how I should assess my students (especially with English learners). Also with every blog I write I always like to see the activities. I can see my students enjoying these activities than a worksheet. I do not have any questions for this chapter. The chapter does a great explanation.
I also prefer the informal methods of assessment. i think that observations are one of the most beneficial ways to assess students progress because most times they do not know that they are being assessed and therefore can work without pressure. Many students do not test well under pressure. I also like how the text gives examples that can be used later in my professional career. i used to think that it was ridiculous the amount of money spent on textbooks that I would never use again but now I am so happy that I am building my professional library.
DeleteChapter 6 discussed how students develop reading skills. It highlights how students are able to recognize and organize letters into words and their level of complex thought process to transform from reading words from left-to-right in less advanced readers to more advanced readers who are able to look at the whole word and use vowel adding consonants after. I find two things about chapter six very interesting: the cuing system and the explanation about how readers become proficient. It is easy to fall into the trap that if students are able to memorize a large vocabulary they should be a proficient reader but that is not the case. There are many other factors that contribute to reading fluency. I was not aware of the four cueing systems: syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and graphophonic. Of these the most interesting to me and most important, relevant to the students I am tutoring, is the pragmatic system. It is fascinating and can be easily overlooked how much environment and experience dictate the type of vocabulary students are familiar with. The example used by the book is the different geographic regions in the U.S. have different climates and so the vocabulary of a student in the south will vary greatly from a student in the north, who is very familiar with blizzards and vocabulary that can describe a blizzard. I feel this translates, as also mentioned by the book, to students in poverty who are exposed to fewer experiences than their middle-class counterparts, thus their vocabulary will be completely different and likely limited. I also find it interesting that because of the derivation of the English language intermediate and middle school students who have become familiar with Latin and Greek words have an advantage and would like to consider how to expose these languages to early readers to possible aid in comprehension.
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 discusses vocabulary and ways readers can build vocabulary. It discussed how larger vocabulary increases reading comprehension. An important topic broached by this chapter is the fact that socioeconomic status dictates the vocabulary children are exposed to in early life and dictates the amount of words they have in their vocabulary by the time they begin schooling. This is important concept in the classrooms where I teach here in Tacoma, WA because there is a predominate low-income population and thus with the vast majority of the students I have been working with I have seen first-hand their limited vocabulary and how this does in fact impact reading and reading comprehension. Due to the population of students I work with, I especially liked the suggestions for engaging struggling readers who were not exposed to a large vocabulary with building a love of words and increasing their word bank. I think playing word games and giving them age appropriate crossword puzzles are very good ideas to get students engaged and I particularly like having more student interaction by putting them in charge of putting up a new word on the bulletin board daily. The statement that resonated with me is that teachers cannot change a students’ SES but teachers can provide all student with a literary-rich environment to narrow the achievement gap.
Stacy W., the statement you referenced at the end of your post is an excellent reminder to us as teachers where our focus should be. Sometimes we find children in situations we desperately wish we could change. Though we can't change a student's personal circumstances, we can give them the tools they need to succeed. This is true for all subjects. We need to remember to focus on what we can do for the students instead of all the things about them out of our control.
DeleteChapter 6 was about word identification and chapter 7 was over vocabulary. These were both informative chapters to read, especially since we are all deciding what our content focus is going to be throughout our tutoring sessions. The last two chapters were over fluency and phonics so these two chapters finish talking about the different content focuses we could choose from. I thought my content focus was going to be over fluency but after reading chapter 7 (Vocabulary), I think I may change mine. Like all content focuses, I believe vocabulary is very important. There are so many activities I think about when I read this section of the book. I enjoyed how the text provided readers with activities and skills to teach vocabulary. For example, personal experiences, crossword puzzles, and games would be a great way to teach vocabulary. I know there are many different online games that would be very beneficial for this content focus. Not only is vocabulary important in reading, word identification is also a very key aspect. Without word identification, students can not read. Word identification is recognizing and organizing letters into words and how to read those words, left to right. I really enjoyed from this chapter the section on how readers become proficient. I believe this is very important, especially for the younger readers who are just learning how to read. Overall, I found both of these chapters to be very beneficial for this class and am glad it provided us with great, useful information that will be very beneficial when writing our lesson plans for our tutoring sessions and when we are writing our lesson plans for our own classrooms in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting on how many students and people increase their vocabulary without realizing it by, like you said through personal experiences. I like the idea of using crossword puzzles and other games to help students increase their vocabulary.
DeleteIn reading chapter 6 in the book I learned about the different cueing systems for helping children learn how to read. There are so many different things that students must understand when reading. There are many words that have the same spelling but are pronounced differently depending on their meaning in a sentence. Also when the students read a passage their pragmatic system, which means their prior knowledge has a great deal to do with their understanding of the content of the text. Before reading this chapter and working with students on their reading skills I had no idea how many different variables there were when it came to assisting students with their reading skill.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 7 the text discusses the vocabulary of a student and the different ways they increase their vocabulary. Life experiences have an effect on their vocabulary and also through watching educational videos or reading books. I think that both of these chapters are very important and have shed light on strategies of teaching reading.
My favorite section of chapter 6 is the suggested sequence for teaching syllables and affixes to English learners in figure 6.3 on page 132. I knew that ESOL students need to learn these skills, but this provides an ordered and structured way for doing it. This sequence could be used for any student needing help in this area and not only ESOL students.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 7 I liked the nine questions to ask yourself when selecting vocabulary words to focus on during lessons in the selecting vocabulary for explicit instruction section on pate 156. When choosing vocab words I try to pick words I think my students might not be familiar with, but need to know to understand the story as a whole. I now know there is more to it than that such as common onset and rimes, previously known synonyms and antonyms, multiple meanings etc. As with most of the other chapters, I find the suggested activities for teaching the skills listed in the book to be extremely helpful resources to use both now and in the future.
I agree that page 132 offers very valuable information for teachers that have ESOL learners. About 1/4 of our school population is ESOL, so any advantage I can get to help them is a plus. Until I read chapter 7, I never thought about how to choose words to study. Definitely, page 156 is a good format to follow when choosing words to study. I also liked the six guidelines for introducing vocabulary words that followed the above section. I believe that section will be utilized by me very soon.
DeleteChapter 6 was about word identification. It contained lots of good information that I needed to help me in my tutoring groups. I believe my favorite part of the chapter was the strategies and activities. I am still struggling to find hands-on activities for my students, so this is a great resource. I know for math methods, that was the best thing about our book is all of the activities it included in each lesson. Chapter 7 was about vocabulary building. I found that I built my vocabulary in this chapter because there were terms I have not used in years or have never used. It is always wonderful when the text includes books that you can read to your students that relate to the concepts like in figure 7.3. I am a big believer in teaching through literature. One of my favorite parts of chapter 7 was the section on "Meeting the needs of struggling readers". The four practices they suggest for vocabulary instruction will be very beneficial to me. And once again, chapter 7 included many hands-on activities for me to put in my toolbox for later use.
ReplyDelete