Sharing Research: Can Graphic Texts Help Readers Find Information?

http://www.readingwithpictures.org/2014/11/can-graphic-texts-aid-readers-in-finding-information/

I was never a huge fan of comic books; however, my close-in-age cousin and my sister were ginormous fans and I was a voracious reader, so I read Archie, Superman and all the rest of the image laden texts.  

When they came back in vogue wrapped up in nice story book forms a few years ago, I began reading them again, so that I could recommend them to my students.  Somehow, I knew my reluctant readers might find the images and limited text appealing!

Naomi Kruger-Arram went a bit further and shared her research in the link above. She wasn't a huge fan of graphic works either, but as a teacher, she plunged in and has done lots of reading and research ABOUT TODAY'S GRAPHIC TEXTS.

She shares her research: 

• They are not only motivational because they look cool.  Some of the readers found pictures made it easier to visualize or understand what was taking place in the text. 
• Students felt like graphic texts had fewer words even when there was not much of a difference when compared to traditional texts.

She concludes that graphic texts may not just be "cool" or "easier."  They might actually help readers and support learning.  No matter what, it is an area that we teachers need to consider when teaching and supporting diverse learners.  it's also an area for action research in our classrooms 

Sight word mastery in kindergarten? IRA says, "Better not be all you do!"

http://www.reading.org/reading-today/research/post/lrp/2014/10/09/should-we-be-teaching-100-sight-words-to-kindergartners-

International Reading Association

2 hrs · 

Researcher Marcia Invernizzi says drilling kindergartners about sight words can do more harm than good. See what else she has to say about teaching young learners.

Should we be teaching 100 sight words to kindergartners?

According to Marcia Invernizzi, drilling kindergartners with high frequency words on flashcards is unlikely to support the development of their sight word vocabulary.

READING.ORG

A Classic Tale

Ah yes....last week we renamed this classic book, "The Different Duckling." 

After all, he really was not ugly, just different from the others.

We concluded the central message was 

It's OK to be different.

Now, after CLOSE READING, thinking, discussing,

My students decided that the story REALLY should be called.

The Baby Cygnet

or

The Ducklings and the Cygnet. 

Close reading has us all

Looking at word choice, pictures, and characters

In a reflective and critical light.   

Mastering the Teaching Game

Mastering the Teaching Game

Over on Edutopia this week, Tomlinson shared a post, Mastering the Teaching Game.  It's a good one for this time of year as we "gear up" and "psych up" for a new year with new challenges and all the potential that new learning can offer.

I spent some time in the past few days setting up my room.  There is a lovely, inviting reading area and the charts and books are ready to go.  While it may not be Pinterest worthy, I think it looks inviting and enticing.....and I was proud of how it looks.....and thinking I was all set.....until I read this article and was reminded that we also need to prepare our HEADS and our HEARTS to teach......and to learn.......it's not just about pretty spaces and images.....

This article, which you really should read, is based on a successful tennis coach, Coach Groeneveld, because as we all know, what teachers REALLY DO is to COACH learning!

"All human beings can achieve far more than they believe they can."

"Success comes from the desire to work hard to achieve a goal." 

"It's not enough to only teach skills."

"Make sure the player [student]takes responsibility for his or her decisions."

 
"Being a good coach [teacher]means dissecting the player's [student's] game"

"When there is resistance from a player [student], don't take no for an answer." 

"There's no single way to coach [teach]players [students]."

Reaching ALL Readers (Sight, Phonics and other Approaches)

I've spent a good deal of my adult life guiding, supporting and helping others find the joy and wonder in the printed word.  Sometimes, learning to read appears to happen like magic; however, there were years of experiences that serve as a foundation to the miracle of reading! 

Sometimes, learning to read is hard; however, if parents and teachers carefully analyze a student's relative strengths and needs, all students can learn to read.    

For many students, the "need" is opportunities to learn the phonetic code.  Programs like Fundations have made their fortune out of teaching the code.  Learning the complex ways that sounds can work in English offers all of us the means to read words and ideas we do not yet know.  While that may not seem like something we need, it does allow us to read scientific terms as well as names and the ideas of others outside of our experiences.  Some findings suggest students with language, speech and articulation difficulties, including apraxia of speech, may benefit from this type of approach.

Yet for other students, the need is opportunities to learn a fund of sight words.  There is some research that suggests diverse students benefit from structured sight based approaches. Students with Downs Syndrome as well as students with significant hearing/speech/articulation difficulties may benefit from a fund of sight words that can serve as a base for their own understanding of the code. I wrote about some of that research in this article http://journals.cec.sped.org/tecplus/vol5/iss3/art3/
Other students just find comfort in the predictable and repeated words that are found in sight word based programs such as these.

Some readers benefit from Language Experience approaches too!
Someresources to think about as we all prepare to return to school and face the need to teach ALL children to be readers!

• http://journals.cec.sped.org/tecplus/vol5/iss3/art3/
• http://pridelearningcenter.com/2013/01/29/childhood-apraxia-of-speech-and-reading-help/
• http://ereadingpro.com/ProductSeries-IWLD.htm
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3251281/
• Supporting Individuals with Down syndrome and other ... - DSAW
• www.dsaw.org/Data/Sites/3/media/resources/peer.../a11took-kit.pdf
• READING PROGRAMS/HELPFUL WEBSITES ... and for older non-verbal children ... grades 1-3 and 4-6 with games, sight words, teacher links, kids links and

• http://www.down-syndrome.org/practice/349/practice-349.pdf
• [PPT] Teaching Reading to Children with Down Syndrome 
• www.dsgsemi.org/pdf/TeachingReadingtoChildrenwithDS08.ppt 

• Providing Effective Literacy Instruction to Students With Down ...

  www.bsnpta.org/.../VOL.36NO.4MarApr2004_TEC_Al_Otaiba36-4.pdf

How to live and work effectively

 I'm a support teacher, 

Sharing classrooms and students.

I observe, I reflect

Thoughts on sticky notes.

Here are a few

That appear to impact

How to work effectively with

And live happily with

People

Laugh, Smile

Be fair, Be kind

Be nice

Share

Don't boast

Think before you react

Protect, Trust

Respect property

Respect ideas

Respect words

Clean up after yourself

Admit when you are wrong

Overlook when others are wrong

Forgive and forget

Be patient

After I wrote this list, 

I thought it sounded kind of familiar

....it was!  

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten 

    

Maslow: A new perspective

Interesting....makes you stop and think!
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/addressing-our-needs-maslow-hierarchy-lori-desautels?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blog-maslow-hierarchy-image

Assessment-Guided Instruction

I sometimes wonder if our students realize how much we learn through reading and reflecting as we teach! As I finish up the paperwork after a semester immersed in assessment, thanks to "teaching" about it, I really need to document my thoughts.......  

It's easy to talk the talk and much harder to walk the walk in the area of assessment-guided, differentiated instruction. Knowing a student's strengths and needs is a lot of work, takes time and requires more than one assessment!  Yet, it is essential for effective teaching and supports learning for all students.  For our strongest and for our most struggling students, assessment-guided instruction makes all the difference in the world.  Programs and formats work best when we can use our students' strengths to support their needs.  

Classroom teachers use:

Pretests help us know what a learner can do before we start teaching a specific skill' however, they are rarely diagnostic in their focus and cannot, usually, spot weaknesses or holes that might stand in the way of new learning.  In addition, pretests measure progress at a moment in time rather than as learning occurs.  
Formative assessments is integrated into our teaching, seamlessly. Do-nows and exit tickets are some of my own favorite means of formative assessment; however, running records (the real Marie Clay kind), turn and talks and thumbs up are also pretty much integrated into every day teaching in most classrooms.   Some studies (Stiggins) suggest students gain much more in classrooms where formative assessments guide instruction.
Summative assessments are used at the end of a unit of study to measure student learning.  
Screening assessments help us to know which students might need more support.  They are typically given at the beginning of a year as a measure of which students might need support. They measure prior learning. 

Literacy specialist/special education teachers use all of these plus:

Progress monitoring assessment are used to determine if an intervention or a strategy is making a difference.  

Diagnostic assessments help us understanding how student's learn and identify strengths and needs. For students who struggle, this must be a part of what we do so that we can effectively modify/differentiate instruction.

Here are a few places to start:

Dibles    https://dibels.uoregon.edu/
Reading A-Z     http://www.readinga-z.com/assessments/phonics-assessment/
Los Angels County   http://teams.lacoe.edu/reading/assessments/assessments.html

SDE  http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/curriculum/cali/elementary_assessments_4-9-12.pdf

K-12    https://eprcontent.k12.com/placement/placement/placement_langarts_2.html
Scholastic  http://www.senia.asia/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/CORE-Phonics-Survey-Scholastic.pdf
LINCS    http://lincs.ed.gov/readingprofiles/MC_Word_Analysis.htm
Fuchs: www.studentprogress.org/library/training/.../usingcbmreading.pdf 
Easy CBMs https://www.google.com/#q=progress+monitoring+assessments
RTI  http://www.rti4success.org/essential-components-rti/progress-monitoring
Intervention Central http://www.interventioncentral.org/curriculum-based-measurement-reading-math-assesment-tests
A Good Read: http://books.google.com/books?id=-30OYvQsfGMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Fountas and Pinnell