RED 6540 Assessment in Literacy: Blog Post 5 (weeks 14-15)

"The literature on school-level reform presents multiple studies on the complexities of school-level change, specifically school infrastructure arguments" (Baccellieri, 2010, p. 23).  Research also shows that restructuring alone will not help (Baccellieri, 2010).

"The nature of relationships among the adults within a school is another critical factor related to the success of reform efforts" (Baccellieri, 2010, p. 23).  Collaborative leadership practices are imperative. 

Baccellieri (2010) states that some literature suggests that in order to make significant change in the culture of a school, multiple rather than a single reform strategy must be implemented so the reform will take hold.

     In developing a framework aimed at improving teaching and learning leading to improved student
     achievement, the five core principles as stated by Baccellieri (2010) are as follows: 

1. Improve student learning by improving classroom instruction...
2. Improve classroom instruction through teacher learning of  new knowledge, skills, and dispositions...
3. Support teacher learning through professional learning communities...
4. Structure professional learning communities by providing teachers with the time and resources to discuss student learning outcomes and how to improve those outcomes...
5. Encourage shared discussion of standards-based formative assessments, including student writing, conducted in a professional learning community supported by multiple systems and structures, which can lead to changes in classroom practice. (p.31-32)

 "The term professional learning community is self-defining" (Baccellieri, 2010, p. 47).

"Isolation is the enemy of improvement" (Baccellieri, 2010, p. 72).

In order for teacher meetings and collaborative efforts to improve teaching and learning, a climate of trust an mutual respect is vital.  Curriculum consistency within and across grades is important and providing new instruction materials may be an important first step (Baccellieri, 2010).

Teachers need to have opportunities to talk about and reflect on their practices.  These types of conversations foster change (Baccellieri, 2010).

"Acceptance of collective responsibility for improving teaching and learning is an important characteristic of a professional learning community" (Baccellieri, 2010, p. 121). Innovation with a view to improve student achievement is fundamental to gaining teachers' growing expertise and skill in a PLC (Baccellieri, 2010).

     Data demonstrate that by making connections among the degree of rigor expected of the student
     work, the focus for weekly grade-level team meetings, and teacher professional development
     workshops, this reform has the potential to accelerate the quality of teacher conversations on    
     teaching and learning. (p. 146-147)

This approach also has the potential to providing educaaators the ability to address student learning needs today rather than waiting for the reform to become established (Baccellieri, 2010).




References

Baccellieri, P. (2010). Professional learning communities: Using data in decision making to improve student learning. Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Education.

 

RED 6540 Assessment in Literacy: Blog Post 4 (weeks 11-13)

Response to Intervention (RTI) normally involves three tiers of support.  The first tier "represents instruction and services available to all students, generally provided at the classroom level" (Brozo, 2009-2010).  Brozo (2009-2010) goes on to explain the second tier's objective is to work short-term with small groups of students who need help.  Tier three involves the more intense level of instruction.  It is usually carried out on a one-to-one basis.  The tier of support a student is placed in depends on their needs with the least amount of extra support provided for the student to make successful gains (Brozo, 2009-2010).

Interestingly, the majority of research done on RTI is at the elementary level.  As a result, middle and high schools have been forced to devise their own intervention plans.  Three vital questions for secondary professionals when considering how they are going to devise an RTI-like program include:

1. Is RTI a feasible structure for secondary literacy?
2. Is RTI the most effective model for a comprehensive secondary literacy program?
3. Can RTI provide responsive literacy instruction for all students (Brozo, 2009-2010)?

RTI's goal is to prevent reading difficulties.  There are many details that need to be worked out in order to insure that RTI can be successful at the secondary level, and all teachers must be on board and commited to making RTI work (Brozo, 2009-2010).

     "The key principle of RTI² is that any intervention is predicated on the notion that Tier 1 core
     instruction is responsive, standards-based, and data-driven... instruction be scaffolded so that
     students on all points of the learning continuum can benefit from the educational environment of
     the general education classroom." (Fischer & Frey, 2010, p. 25)
 

References

Brozo, W. G. (2009-2010). Response to intervention or responsive instruction?  Challenges and possibilites of response to intervention for adolescent literacy.  Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53 (4), 277-281.


Fischer, D. & Frey, N. (2010). Enhancing RTI: How to ensure success with effective classroom instruction and intervention.Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Article: What Reflects a Great School? Not Test Scores

Assessments and schools

 I found this article recently and found it quite interesting.  Whole-school achievement was discussed.  The three interconnected factors considered essential are trust, collaboration, and authenticity.  

RED 6540 Assessment in Literacy: Blog Post 3 (weeks 8-10)

Many schools have more recently reorganized their schedules to allow for professional learning communities (PLCs) to allow for common planning among teachers (Boudett, 2014).  Making time to meet in PLCs can be challenging, but meeting once or twice a month as a team with an agenda will be helpful.  In my experience, it can be challenging to bring everything together from the various members to create a collaborative plan to move forward.  Too often we are working so hard independently, and we forget we are all working towards the same goal of students moving successfully through school.

Some tips for creating an effective data display include the following:

• providing a complete title
• name of assessment and subject
• what grade level was tested?
• name of school
• dates of assessments
• how many students were tested?

• chart should be simple and easy to read
• chart style should be appropriate for intended purpose
• space and color used well
• appropriate font size
• appropriate labels included
• data-point values (Boudett, 2014).

Just get started.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Often times, the idea of needing to be sure you include everything can be enough to completely overwhelm even the most level headed person.  It is not possible to include every single thing when digging into data.  Take one problem and work through that.  Often that one simple problem will address many other related problems.  The important thing to remember is to just get started (Boudett, 2014).

"The problem of practice is directly related to the learner-centered problem; based on evidence found when examining instruction; within the school's control' a statement about practice, not a question; and specific and small" (Boudett, 2014).

Four main tasks to help investigate instruction and articulate problem of practice:

1. Link learning and teaching
2. Develop skill of observing practice
3. Develop shared understanding of effective practice
4. Analyze current practice (Boudett, 2014).

Developing an action plan is not a singular item to be done.  In fact, it is one step in a process.  Plan, solve, look back on plan and results, understand and learn, and then plan once again.  This should be a part of a continuous cycle.

It is imperative for school leaders to "communicate the action plan clearly, integrate the plan into the ongoing work of the school a,d use teams for support and internal accountability" (Boudett, 2014).  Everyone needs to be on the same page and working towards accomplishing the main objective.



References

Boudett, K. P., City, E. A., Murnane, R. J. (2014). Data Wise. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard
     Education Press.

RED 6540 Assessment in Literacy: Blog Post 2 (weeks 5-7)

"We need to have teachers that are expertly trained to do the best daily assessments as they can.  That informs their instruction which should lead to the best achievement among all students" (Afflerbach, 2012). 

"We want critical readers" (Afflerbach, 2012).  We want children to think about and apply higher level skills to what they are reading.  This skill must be explicitly taught and reinforced as children are taught how to read.  Interestingly, Afflerbach discussed how children make a switch from learning to reading to reading to learn around third grade, yet he pointed out how students do not or at least should not be no longer learning to read.  As they read higher level texts, they are learning new skills and strategies pertaining to the particular type of text they are reading.

"Schools should help students master basic reading skills, build sight word vocabularies, independently determine the meaning of a vocabulary word, read as quickly and accurately as the current task demands" and learn to comprehend literally, infrentially, and critically (Afflerbach, 2012).

It is unethical  to use a single measure to determine achievement, teacher goodness, and school accountability (Afflerbach, 2012).  Does this happen?  Unfortunately, it is something that occurs in our schools.  Another point I would like to address is how it is unethical when teacher goodness is determined for one (the current) teacher based on an assessment that covers more than one year's worth of material. 

According to Black and Wiliam (1998), formative assessment is at the heart of effective teaching.  It is imperative teachers are aware of their students progress and difficulties when it comes to learning so they can adjust their teaching to meet their students needs. 

The six characteristics of high-quality classroom-based formative assessments include:

1. involves frequent, short-cycle assessment
2. can take a variety of forms
3. have clear, well-defined targets
4. provide sufficient detail about student understanding, knowledge, and skill to propse next instructional steps
5. followed by appropriate types of feedback and instructional adjustments
6. involve students in self- and peer-assessment (Torgesen & Miller, 2009).

Allington (2002) explains three things that exemplary teacher do to overcome the hurtle of textbooks that are too difficult for students.  First, they "created a multi-sourced and multi-leveled curriculum that did not rely on traditional content-area textbooks" (Allington, 2002).  They used the textbooks still but only as one component of the materials they used.  Secondly, they allowed students to have a choice as they learn and demonstrate what they have learned.  Finally, these teachers provided individualized instruction depending on students' needs.

Applegate, Quinn, & Applegate (2006) list the "eight profiles of thinking that surface when students are given higher order questions" as literalists, fuzzy thinkers, left fielders, quiz contestants, politicians, dodgers, authors, minimalists.  Interventions are listed for each of the specific profiles.  Working through these obstacles and interventions can help move the students towards effective, rewarding, and engaged reading.

Dennis (2009-2010) discusses a struggle many teachers face--a tension between what we are supposed to teach and what we know our students need.  It is imperative that students are looked at individually and instruction is based on their needs and abilities.  Too often, students are taught based on a preset program created for all struggling readers.  Not individualizing student learning is detrimental and can prevent students from growing and learning to their potential.  Dennis (2009-2010) provided a recommendation for a five step process to "match adolescents' unique literacy needs and involve the entire school community." 


References

Afflerbach, P. (2012). Assessments. IRA Podcast. Podcast retrieved from http://www.reading.org
     /downloads/podcasts/II-Afflerbach.mp3
Allington, R. (2002). You can't learn from much from books you can't read. Educational Leadership,
     15-19.
Applegate, M. D., Quinn, K. B., & Applegate, A. J.  (2006). Profiles in comprehension. International 
     Reading Association, 48-57.
Black,  P. & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom
     assessment. The Phi Delta Kappan, 80 (2), 139-144.
Dennis, D. (2009-2010). "I'm not stupid": How assessment drives (in)appropriate reading instruction.
     Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(4), 283-290.
Torgesen, J. K. & Miller, D. H. (2009). Assessments to guide adolescent literacy instruction. Florida 
     Center for Reading Research Center on Instruction.

RED 6540 Assessment in Literacy: Blog Post 1 (weeks 1-4)

"A valid test measures what it was designed to measure," and "a reliable test is consistent... yields similar results over time with similar students under similar situations" (Caldwell, 2008).  Validity and reliability are two distinctly different concepts  when it comes to studying assessments, yet they seem to be concepts that are often used interchangeably or plainly just misunderstood.

The first step of the assessment process is to pinpoint the "good reader behaviors you are teaching and assessing" and tie those in with the standards.  Secondly, you must collect evidence that is appropriate to what you are assessing.  Next, you analyze the evidence.  Lastly, you must decide the performance of each student and the effectiveness of your instruction. 

Should incompletes be factored into a student's grade?  Should effort or attendance be factored into a student's grade?  The grade would certainly be more valid with all assignments completed so that the grade can be a true reflection of one's ability (Caldwell, 2008).  How is this something that can be enforced though?  How can students' effort be given credit if only one grade may be given? 

Few items with "finer-grained levels of detail" lead to lower levels of reliability in tests, yet those few items have a very good potential for being more instructionally useful. (Boudett, City, Murnane, 2014).

The logographic stage of reading words is when "children identify words much as they identify pictures."  Instead of matching letters and sounds, they use visual cues (Caldwell & Leslie, 2009).

Students then move into the alphabetic stage of word learning.  They start to associate some of the letters with the sound they hear but in an incomplete way.  Next they move into a controlled word recognition stage.  During this stage, students begin sounding out words but this ends up being a very "labor-intensive process."  The next stage is automatic word recognition.  Word recognition becomes effortless and the reading rate begins to increase.  Oral reading becomes more expressive.  Eventually, they are able to read more difficult words and sound out longer, unfamiliar words.  Strategic reading is the stage where students have "efficient word identification in place... turn their attention to strategies for more advance comprehension" (Caldwell & Leslie, 2009).

References

Boudett, K. P., City, E. A., Murnane, R. J. (2014). Data Wise. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard  
     Education Press.
Caldwell, J. S. & Leslie, L. (2009). Patterns of reading difficulty Intervention Strategies to Follow
     Informal Reading Inventory Assessment: So What Do I Do Now? USA: Pearson Higher Ed.
Invernizzi, M. A., Landrum, T. J., Howell, J. L., & Warley, H. P. (2005). Toward the peaceful
     coexistence of test developers, policymakers, and teachers in an era of accountability. The
     Reading Teacher, 58(7), 610-618.

Teachers as Readers: How has what I read changed over time?

 I have continued reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd along with various news articles and blogs.  A few of my favorite blogs include the following:

• Andrea Dekker
• Make It Love It
• Confessions of a Homeschooler
• Pioneer Woman
• Green Kid Crafts Blog

I was going through my "blog roll" and many of the blogs that I used to read are no longer active.  Several are things I'm no longer interested in (blogs geared towards parenting babies, toddlers, and preschoolers), or rather things that I've moved past. 
I can remember reading Nancy Drew and Babysitter Club books as a preteen.  The characters in books and relationships between characters that was most interesting for me to learn about as I read.  Even as an adult, most of the books, news articles, blog entries I'm drawn to revolve around human behavior and interactions.

Learning Log: Article on Literacy Coaches

L'Allier, Elish-Piper, and Bean (2010)'s article discussed the important traits and qualifications of effective literacy coaches.  I found it interesting how much more effective literacy coaches are if they have a reading teachers endorsement, certification, or master's degree.  Of course, that makes sense that someone who has taken many classes specifically in reading to be more effective that someone who has not.  I know that it's not necessarily a requirement for schools to hire someone with these qualifications.  I would imagine that would be because there aren't enough teachers with those qualifications, but I'm not entirely sure.  Next, L'Allier et al., (2010) defined teacher-oriented coaches as those who spent between 41% and 52% of their time interacting with teachers.  L'Allier et al., (2010) look at the results of several studies whose results indicated that students benefited the most when coaches' time is spent working directly with teachers to help them improve their teaching.  More gains in reading were seen when coaches could be considered teacher-orientated coaches.  All the coaches I have known have expressed at one time or another how numerous their obligations were.  The 7 guiding principles are as follows:

1. coaching requires specialized knowledge
2. time working with teachers is the focus of coaching
3. collaborative relationships are essential for coaching
4. coaching that supports student reading achievement focuses on a set of core activities
5. coaching must be both intentional and opportunistic
6. coaches must be literacy leaders 
7. coaching evolves over time

References:

L'Allier,  S., Elish-Piper, L., & Bean, R. M. (2010). What matters for elementary literacy coaching?
        Guiding principles for instructional improvement and student achievement. The 
        Reading Teacher, 63(7), pp. 544-554.

Learning Log: Chapter 12

According to Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011), the responsibilities of a literacy coach can be staggering.  What makes a good literacy coach?  Based upon my past experiences, I decided to compile a list of attributes that I found to be helpful with literacy coaches I have personally worked with.

• willing to work one-on-one with me
• modeled various types of lessons when requested
• maintained confidentiality
• would seek out additional information if unsure of something
• helped guide me through the process of assessments
• provided timely feedback including helpful suggestions
• easy to talk with
• provided training, resources
• attended grade level meetings
• observed, non-intrusive
• shared materials such as teacher resource books and books to read to the class

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Teachers as Readers: Why do people journal?

I have been reading  The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd these last couple of weeks.  In addition, I have read various news articles.

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed keeping journals.  I can remember keeping different journals in classes thoughout my schooling.  In addition, I often would write in a diary or something similar.  Several years ago, I started blogging and that has become to way I frequently journal.  I enjoy being able to write down my thoughts and feelings, writing about things that are new and different for me, including photos or other small artifacts.  One of the things I most enjoy about journalling (is that a word?) is being able to look back on what I have written.  Whether it's a week later or several years later, I have always enjoyed being able to look back and see what was going on at a particular point in my life.  I can't ever remember keeping a journal to document what I'm reading (besides for classes of course!).  The times I do keep some sort of journal for a class, I have found that I do end up understanding the reading material better and also I usually think beyond the text.

Learning Log: Article on Vocabulary

This particular article describes a model that one teacher uses in her third grade classroom to explicitly teach vocabulary.  There was some discussion on whether it would be better to allow students to incidentally learn new words or whether it should be through focused vocabulary instruction.  Several of the activities described in the article are things that I have used myself or can adapt and use such as the tic-tac-toe activity using new and previous vocabulary words and illustrating vocabulary words.  I like the idea of having the word box that students can contribute to, allowing students to help pick out the words they will learn about.  This particular model seems easy to set up, maintain, and use in a classroom.  I can see it being beneficial to student learning and vocabulary development.


References:

Feezell, G. (2012). Robust Vocabulary Instruction In A Readers' Workshop. The Reading Teacher 66
             (3), 233-237.

Learning Log: Chapter 9

According to Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011), "Writing facilitates learning by helping students to explore, clarify, and think deeply about the ideas and concepts they encounter in reading" (p. 279).  For the most part, I've taught kindergarten and preschool.  The students I've taught are in the very early stages of learning how to write.  We've always focused on modeling the writing process for students, teaching the writing crafts, allowing students to choose their topics, exposing them to different types of writing (fiction, non-fiction, persuasive, etc.), allowing students to choose their own topics, and giving time every single day to allow students to work on learning how to write.  More recently, there has been a bigger push to incorporate writing into every subject area.  We had journals for each of the subjects in the kindergarten classroom I taught in last year. 

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Learning Log: Chapter 8

 

I've used list-group-label, brainstorming, word sorts, word maps, various graphic organizers while teaching vocabulary.  Teaching vocabulary is so complicated since it really requires you to teach words in many different ways, every day.  It's not something where you figure out one or two great ways of teaching it and then you have an effective way to teach vocabulary.  With each child being so different, having different needs, different backgrounds and knowledge bases, and then an endless supply of words to work on learning, it's necessary to evaluate which strategies will be most effective, and continue to reevaluate and change how you are teaching vocabulary.  The strong connection between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension is indisputable (Vacca, et al., 2011). 

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Learning Log: Chapter 7

Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011) discussed five basic steps when using think-alouds.  The first is to select passages in a text to read orally that include particular points of difficulty, ambiguities, contradictions, or unknown words.  Next, have students follow silently and listen to the teacher as the text is being read and think-alouds are being modeled.  Then students can with in pairs to practice this strategy.  Students should then work independently.  And lastly, think-alouds should be integrated into other lessons and think-alouds should be continued to be modeled as appropriate (Vacca, et al., 2011).  Frequently, I've used think-alouds while teaching and found the strategy to be very effective for the young students I've taught over the years.  With think-alouds, students are able to know what you are thinking about while reading and why.  I've always used think-alouds to some extent every single day of teaching.  I've used the K-W-L strategy as well, and that too has worked well.  I don't use it as frequently.

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

OAR 3

Instead of using My Education Lab for my OAR, I viewed videos on teachingchannel. I found several videos on motivation in literacy and posted a few of them above. The first video talked about motivation in general terms while the other two videos discussed using creative movement and technology as motivators for students. Creative movement and technology seem to be things that students really enjoy engaging in, and if tied into literacy, I could see a big benefit to creating that motivation they need. I'm not of what other questions where asked on MyEducLab, but feel free to ask away.


I'm using think alouds as my strategy for my comprehension strategy paper and project. I decided to use this strategy because I felt that it's vitally important for us, as teachers, to model our thinking as we read to our students, no matter the age of our students. Also I feel that it's important for students to be able to tell us about their thinking as they read so that we can help better guide students towards become more effective readers. I have used think alouds in my teaching over the years, but I think it's something that I can improve upon. I would like my current and future students to benefit from having a teacher who is very effective at using think alouds as a strategy and teaching them to us the strategy as well. The student I am working with for this project seems to understand what she's reading, but has a hard time verbalizing what she's reading or why she does certain things as she's reading along. I think it would really benefit her to use this strategy.

Learning Log: Article on Self Efficacy and Motivation

 Afflerbach et al. (2013) stated that successful readers have high self-efficacy; "they expect to be challenged by different texts and tasks, and they expect to meet those challenges" (pp. 440).

 I focused on the part of the article that discussed a 1st grader (reluctant reader) and his teacher.  The teacher used both research-proven classroom strategies to guide her instruction plus she offered direct, formative feedback.  She helped the young student to realize his efforts lead to his successes.  All this combined resulted in an increase in motivation and engagement in reading.

I have worked with students who have struggled with reading and they, in large part, were not really motivated to read.  Moving them from a lower self-efficacy to a higher self-efficacy is certainly a struggle but it is possible over time and with patience along with the different factors discussed in the article.  It's amazing to me how much more students learn when they just believe in themselves.





References 


Afflerbach, P., Byeong-Young, C., Kim, J., Crassas, M. E., & Doyle, B. (2013). Reading: What else 

             matters besides strategies and skills? The Reading Teacher 66(6), 440-448.

Teachers as Readers: Self-efficacy and motivation

Last week, I read For One More Day by Mitch Albom.  I just finished reading I Will Carry You: The Sacred Dance of Grief and Joy by Angie Smith a few days ago, and have now begun reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.


Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011) states that a high level of self-efficacy in content literacy situations is exhibited in confident learners, and vice versa.  Science is one subject that I have always struggled with personally, and I cannot ever remember feeling confident when it came to learning something of a scientific nature.  Looking back, I do believe that it negatively effected my motivation to succeed in science.  I took the required two science classes in high school to satisfy graduation requirements but did not pursue any further science instruction beyond that.

Reading and writing were two subjects that I had a fairly high level of self-efficacy.  I was very motivated in those subjects and wanted to succeed.  They're also the two subjects I most enjoy teaching.  I love teaching children how to read and write.  In kindergarten, most of them go from children who can maybe write their name, read a word or two, and hopefully know several letters and sounds, and by the end of their year of kindergarten, they're writing sentences and reading books.  I love guiding them through that progress and watch that growth.

My daughter loves reading.  She's six years old; we homeschool.  Her and I sit together most days, and we each read our own books.  It's fun now that we're at the point where we can talk to each other a bit about what we are reading independently. 

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Learning Log: Chapter 6

I found McGinley and Denner's explanation of story impressions interesting (as cited in Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2011, p. 176).  It has be thinking about how I could adapt it to use with younger learners (kindergarten-1st grade).  For example, the story chain would need to be shorter (due to shorter texts, short attention spans, working with a very new idea for young learners).  A lot would need to be modeled (perhaps even an entire book modeled and then introduce a new book for students to try this with).  

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Teachers as Readers: Interest before reading

Currently, I am reading For One More Day by Mitch Albom.  I read another book by Mitch Albom not too long ago, titled The Five People You Meet in Heaven.  One of my aunts and I were discussing books we both read recently, and she highly recommended The Five People You Meet in Heaven to me.  She told me just a little bit about the book, but it was enough to motivate me to want to read the book.  I thoroughly enjoyed the first book I read by Albom, and decided to look to see if he had written any other books of interest to me.  I noticed two that I felt would be worth getting on my nook and reading as time allowed, For One More Day and Tuesdays with Morrie.  I read the overviews for several of his books and also read several of the reviews.  Doing so motivated me to buy the books.  I also purchased another book just tonight titled I Will Carry You: The Sacred Dance of Grief and Joy by Angie Smith.  What motivated me to get this particular book was that I heard the author on a radio show tonight.  She talked about her book and the topic was of interest for me, but also of interest was her style of talking (which I'm hoping carries over into her writing).  Creating interest very often leads to motivation (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2011).  This statement is true whether we are students in fourth grade or adults just looking for a book to read in our spare time.

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Learning Log: Chapter 5

Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011) discuss a "B-D-A instructional framework" as what a teacher does before reading (interest and motivation are key), during reading (think alouds and active participation), and after reading activities (follow up is critical).  While previously teaching kindergarten and currently homeschooling my own child, very often I will use this sort of framework to plan out my lessons.  In my experience, the after reading activities can be the easiest to forget about.

Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011) explained how explicit strategy instruction "attempts not only to show students what to do but also why, how,  and when."  It's so important to allow students the time to practice what they've learned and to give them real, authentic tasks.  Students need to know how they're doing as well.  It's been easy for me to do this with my daughter.  I found it more of a challenge in the classroom, giving students the feedback that they needed.  They would receive feedback, just not as consistently or often as I felt necessary.

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Teachers as Readers: Problems with Textbook-only Instruction

One of the first problems with textbook-only instruction that comes to mind is the inaccuracies.  A few years back, my husband read a book that he insisted I also read.  It was Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen.  The book was interesting, and I had never realized how much was misrepresented in some of today's textbooks for a variety of reasons.  There definitely is a value to having and using textbooks, but they do have limitations.  When using textbooks only, only one perspective is given.  I've used textbooks while in school that were the exact same textbooks my parents used growing up (their classmates names were written in the front cover of the book along with the year used); the material was, needless to say, quite outdated.  Another big problem is that many textbooks are boring.  They don't lend themselves to allowing students to learn about what interests them.

I think that as teachers, we need to utilize a variety of resources.  Textbooks can be one of those, but we need to branch out and use the numerous other resources we have available to us.  

References

Loewen, J. W., (1995). Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong. New York: New Press.

Learning Log: New Literacies Article

Karchmer-Klein and Shinar (2012) propose four principles to guide teachers' thinking as they utilize technology to support teaching and literacy learning in modern classrooms.  The principles include being aware of the constant changes in literacy due to technological advancements, recognizing the complexity of new literacies, even those growing up immersed in technology have much to learn, and reconsidering assessment methods.


I just missed the cutoff for being considered a digital native according to this article and others I've read on similar subjects.  I remember using a computer for the first time (as a senior in high school).  Yet over the course of my freshman year of college (immediately following high school), I learned to use the computer for a good variety of things including word processing, creating presentations (through programs such as PowerPoint), and email.

I can see the value in utilizing the new literacies as an individual, as a teacher, and through my teaching of students.  Sometimes, it seems like there is some hesitation to embrace something new, such as the new literacies, because it's an unknown for some.  Sometimes, it's a lack of knowing how to integrate them into teaching or even how to use a particular type of technology.  There's also the problem of outdated technology equipment in classrooms or lack of enough equipment in classrooms.

The new literacies allow for students' learning to extend further than before and supports students' abilities to read and write for real purposes (Karchmer-Klein & Shinar, 2012).

References 

Karchmer-Klein, R. & Shinar, V. H. (2012). Guiding principles for supporting new literacies in 

           your classroom. The Reading Teacher, 65 (5), 288-293. 

Learning Log: Chapter 11

As a teacher of young students (all my experience has pretty much been with preschool and kindergarten students), I cannot recall ever using textbooks in a classroom.  That said, I have used many, many trade books.  Trade books provide rich narrative and informational content (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2011).  On a daily basis, I read trade books to my daughter (who I home school).  There are so many to choose from, and the library is an excellent resource to gather trade books for teaching purposes.  I've found that using trade books allows me to customize what I am teaching and allows for students to select books of interest.

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Teachers as Readers: How is studying a text different from reading it?

Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011) discuss how students are expected to learn more with the texts at a higher frequency as they progress through their schooling.  Students can merely read what is before them, or they can study it.  What is the difference?

Frequently, I read through news articles.  I tend to gravitate towards articles on health related issues.  When reading something that I find interesting, such as an Aleccia (2014) article today about a cluster of birth defects in Washington state, I will read through the article and then continue reading about the subject matter to gain more information about what I have read.  If I had only read that particular article, I would have retained some of the information that I read.  For that particular article, I studied the topic in greater depth and could tell you about what the article discussed plus additional information that I read by further reading about the subject through other sources.

Is it necessary to study every text one reads?  Definitely no.  I think at times, we will study a text because we are required to and the other times we study a text is out of personal interest on a particular topic.  


References

Aleccia, J. (2014, February 17). 'Bizarre' Cluster of Severe Birth Defects Haunts Health Experts,  

         NBC News. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/bizarre-cluster-severe- 

         birth-defects-haunts-health-experts-n24986

 


Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading:  literacy and learning across 
           the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.