1.    What are the three dimensions of fluency? How can you assess each dimension?

     1.  Accuracy in word decoding- Readers must be able to sound out the words in a text with minimal errors.  In terms of skills, this dimension refers to phonics and other strategies for decoding words.

Assessment- Calculate the percentage of words a reader can accurately decode on grade-level material.  An accuracy level of 90-95% is usually considered adequate.  Thus, a 3^rd grader who is progressing normally in decoding accuracy should be able to read a 100-word text written at a 3^rd grade level with no more than 10 uncorrected decoding errors.

     2.  Automatic processing- Readers need to expend as little mental effort as possible in the decoding aspect of reading so that they can use their finite cognitive resources for meaning making.

Assessment- Look at the student’s reading rate.  Reading rates increase as students mature, so the target reading rate increases as students move through school.  Have students orally read a grade-level passage for 60 seconds and then calculate the number of words read correctly (corrected errors count as words read correctly).  Compare students’ scores with target rates (oral fluency norms) for each grade-level.  Readers who fall 20-30% below the target rate will normally require additional instruction.

     3.  Prosodic reading- The reader must parse the text into syntactically and semantically appropriate units.  If readers read quickly and accurately but with no expression in their voices, if they place equal emphasis on every word and have no sense of phrasing, and if they ignore most punctuation, then it is unlikely that they will fully understand the text.

Assessment- Listen to a student read a grade-level passage and then judge the quality of the reading using a rubric that scores a student on the elements of expression and volume, phrasing, smoothness, and pace.  Students who score poorly may be considered at risk in this dimension of reading fluency.

2.    Rasinski refers to fluency as a “bridge” between decoding and comprehension. What does he mean by the “bridge” metaphor?

Successful reading requires readers to process the text (the surface level of reading) and comprehend the text (the deeper meaning).  Reading fluency acts as the link between the two aspects.  Reading fluency refers to the reader’s ability to develop control over surface-level text processing so that he or she can focus on understanding the deeper levels of meaning embedded in the text.  Once a reader has a firm grasp on decoding, he/she can focus on improving comprehension skills.

3.    What instructional methods does Rasinski suggest for students with difficulties in automatic and prosodic reading?

The two methods suggested by Rasinski to help students improve reading fluency are assisted readings and repeated readings. 

Assisted readings might involve the teacher reading a passage aloud to students, with the students following along, first silently and then aloud as a group.  Another approach is to have students orally read a passage with a partner who is at the same reading level.  More fluent readers may also be partnered with students who are having difficulty with reading.  Students may also silently read while listening to a fluent rendering of the passage on tape.

Repeated readings lead not only to improvement in reading the passage but also to improvement in decoding, reading rate, prosodic reading, and comprehension of passages that the reader has not previously seen.  Passages meant to be read aloud as a performance- poetry, for example, or scripts, speeches, monologues, dialogues, jokes, and riddles- are perfect texts for developing fluency.

4.    Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MFS) is used to measure prosodic quality of oral reading. List components of the MFS and describe what each refers to (p. 49).

A.  Expression and Volume- This refers to how a student reads a passage with regard to the amount of feeling in his/her reading and the magnitude of sound of their voice (ranges from quiet to loud).  The student may read quietly with little expression or vary their enthusiasm and volume to match the passage.

B.  Phrasing- This refers to how a student reads a passage with regard to stress and intonation, run-ons, and choppiness.  Readers may range from having little sense of phrase boundaries and read word-by-word to having a good grasp of phrasing with appropriate expression.

C.  Smoothness- This refers to how a student reads a passage with regard to pauses, hesitations, sound-outs, repetitions, and/or multiple attempts.  Readers may range from making frequent pauses and hesitations to reading smoothly with some breaks, resolving word and structure difficulties quickly through self-correction.

D.  Pace- This refers to the rate at which a student reads a passage.  Readers may range from reading slowly and laboriously to reading consistently at a conversational pace.  

5. Given what you have learned in class, what do you think is the most efficient way to measure prosody?

I think the most efficient way to measure prosody is to provide students with various venues to demonstrate their reading abilities.  By allowing students the opportunity to read in a multitude of settings, a teacher can accurately assess fluency skills.  Small group readings, poetry readings, and echo readings are just a few of the settings a teacher can utilize to aid in assessment.  The variety of venues allows students to find “comfort zones”.  Some students will be comfortable in one-on-one situations while others will prefer performance type readings.  The variety of venues provides a teacher with a more complete assessment of a student’s abilities than limiting the student to one type of reading.  It is also important to track progress throughout the year at regular intervals, using the same criteria for each evaluation. 

1. What grade is Curt in?

            Curt is in third grade.

1. Look at the summary of scores in the table on page 170.  Notice that there are scores for the grade-level lists of words from the Word Recognition Test (Flash and Untimed) and scores for orally reading grade-level passages (accuracy of word reading, e.g. percentage of words read correctly and rate, expressed in number of words read per minute).  

a1. What was the flash score for words at:

first-grade level?               second-grade level?                          third-grade level?

75%                                     50%                                                   20%

b1. What was the accuracy score at:

1-2 level?                         2-1 level?                2-2 level?

97%                                   90%                         84%

c1. What was the rate score at: 

1-2 level?                         2-1 level?                2-2 level?

65%                                   44%                         36%

d1. Look at the spelling scores in Table 5.2 on page 172:

What was the percentage correct score for: 

first-grade words             second-grade words

            60%                                    0%

Consider the expected scores in the following tables, then compare those expectations to the scores Curt produced.  

     With the Word Recognition Test, flash scores are generally interpreted as follows: 

90-100%   indicates          Independent Level 

60-85%     indicates          Instruction Level 

Below 50%   indicates     Frustration Level

e1. Which grade-level flash score is the best choice for Instruction Level?

1-2 (75%)

  With oral reading accuracy, scores are generally interpreted as follows:

98-100%   indicates          Independent Level

95-97%     indicates          Instruction Level 

Below 92%   indicates     Frustration Level 

*Note: 92-94% accuracy is marginal; take a close look at Rate.

e2. Which grade-level accuracy score is the best choice for Instruction Level?

1-2 (97%)

     With oral reading rate, expected grade-level ranges are as follows: 

  Grade                                    Words per minute

  1st                          45-85             

  2^nd                             80-120

  3^rd                              95-135 

e3. What do Curt’s rate scores indicate about his grade-level reading? Where is he instructional according to rate?

Curt’s rate scores indicate that he functioning on a first-grade reading level but he is relatively slow on first-grade passages.

     With spelling scores, around 50% correct indicates Instruction Level.

e4. What do Curt’s spelling scores indicate about his Instruction Level.

Curt is also on a first-grade spelling level. 

e5. Put all of these scores together, and what do they indicate Curt’s reading level to be?

Curt is a late-first-grade to early-second-grade reader.  He possesses a solid base of first-grade word knowledge, but his lack of word recognition automaticity may be contributing to his slow word by word reading style.

1. Look at the spelling errors that Curt makes. What stage of word knowledge is Curt in?

Curt is between the Within-Word Pattern stage and the Letter-Name stage.

Why do you pick this stage of development? What are the key characteristics?

In his spellings, Curt represented short vowels conventionally (FIL for fill; DRES for dress) and showed good knowledge of consonant clusters (PLAT, TRANE, and THIK).  These are characteristics of a speller at the Within-Word Pattern stage.  However, Curt reverted to the Letter-Name stage when he failed to mark long vowels in several words (e.g., DRIV, CHAS, and FLOT).

4.  Describe partner reading.

Partner reading, one form of guided reading, often begins with a preview.  Before reading a selection, the student and the tutor “walk through” the pictures on the first four to six pages, speculating on what is happening in the pictures and what may happen later in the story.  The child and tutor then return to the opening page and begin to partner read (alternate pages), with the tutor usually taking the first turn.  The tutor and child alternate pages as the read the story aloud, with the tutor asking comprehension questions now and then.  The tutor’s oral reading of every other page provides a fluent model for the child to emulate.

1. Which is harder for a student, partner reading or DRTA?

DRTA is harder for a student because the student is responsible for comprehension of the story in addition to reading the text.  The teacher asks specific questions at appropriate stopping points to verify student comprehension of the story.

1. In planning a DRTA, what is important about selecting places to stop?

When selecting places to stop, the teacher should consciously consider points in the story that lend themselves to questions about what has happened thus far and what might happen as the story continues.  Choosing these breaks allows the teacher to check the student’s comprehension of plot-relevant information and enables the child to make predictions about what might happen in the story. 

1. In planning a DRTA, what is important about deciding questions to ask? What kind of questions? How many?

It is important to consider the information you want a student to extract from the story.  The focus of a DRTA is comprehension of a story.  Questions should be ones that help students concentrate on information that aids with comprehension. At the initial stop, three questions should be planned.  The first two questions seek information about the story setting and the characters that are introduced on the first two pages.  The third question asks the child if he/she wants to keep or change his/her original prediction-and why or why not.  For the second part of the story, three more questions are planned.  Two of these check the child’s comprehension of plot-relevant information.  The third question asks the child to predict what might happen next in the story.  The questioning at the third stop can be handled in two different ways.  One way combines a retelling question with a prediction question.  Begin by asking the child to retell what happened in the section he/she has just finished reading-Part III.  If the child’s summarization of the events is incomplete, the tutor can probe for further information.  If necessary, the tutor can have the child reread parts of the text.  With the retelling established, the stage is set for a prediction question.  An alternative questioning strategy for the third stop simply involves asking the child how he/she thinks the story will end.  Questioning at the end of the story can and should be handled in several different ways, depending on the particular story being read.  Sometimes a straightforward recap question is called for.

Evidence exists for the positive impact of storybook reading on comprehension and vocabulary development, but the evidence for the positive impact on reading words is minimal.

Q1. What is the Simple View of Reading? Explain how it works.

The Simple View of Reading is a reading model proposed by Gough and Tunmer (1986).  The simple view suggests that there are two, non-intersecting factors in reading comprehension, decoding and language comprehension.  In the model, as a person’s ability to decode words drops toward zero, then reading comprehension will also drop toward zero, regardless of the child’s language comprehension.  If a person’s language comprehension drops to zero (as when one is reading a regularly spelled language that one does not understand) then reading comprehension also drops toward zero.

What part of the Simple View of Reading does storybook reading most likely impact? 

The part of Simple View Reading that storybook reading most likely impacts is language comprehension, word recognition, or both.

Q2. What are Ehri’s 4 stages of word recognition? Name each and give a short description.

1. Visual cue reading- children recognize words through distinctive visual features, such as the “tail” in monkey, or the two “eyes” in look. 

2.  Phonemic cue reading/partial alphabetic coding- once they develop rudimentary phonemic awareness, they begin to use salient letters to identify words.  They usually begin this process with the initial letters of words, but sometimes use other letters as cues as well.

3.  Full alphabetic coding- child examines each letter of a word.  This skill may come with instruction in decoding, or children may develop it on their own. 

4.  Word recognition-  Letter-by-letter decoding in turn gives way, with practice, to consolidated word recognition, in which a reader uses groups of letters, either as chunks or through analogies, to recognize words automatically, as proficient readers do.

Q3. On page 368, there is a good definition of Phonemic Awareness. What is it? (Remember it.)

Phonemic awareness is that part of phonological awareness which deals with phonemes, rather than syllables or onsets and rimes. 

Q4. On page 370, we learn that knowledge of the alphabet is necessary for beginning to learn to read and spell words. There is a developmental sequence to learning about the alphabet: What is it?

The developmental sequence to learning about the alphabet is:

• The recitation of the alphabet (usually the ABC song)
• The naming of individual letters
• The printing of those letters
• The identification of letter sounds.

Q5. What is the value in “reading to” or having children “read” alphabet books?

Reading alphabet books to young children significantly improves their phonemic awareness. 

Q6. What is the value in children’s fingerpointing as they read?

The value in children’s fingerpointing as they read is that the children are matching print to speech, a skill that seems to be related to children’s ability to use initial (and possibly final) letter cues to recognize words.  The ability to track print appears to be the nexus of storybook reading, alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, and the development of word recognition.

Q7. What is a predictable book and what is its value in helping children learn to read?

A predictable book contains a repeated linguistic pattern that children can use to support their reading.  An example would be “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? I see a red bird looking at me.  Red bird, red bird, what do you see?” and so on.  Such books usually carry the pattern throughout, until it is finally broken at the end.  Patterns can be more or less complex, and the books’ predictability can come from text placement, the amount of support given by the pictures, or the familiarity of the content, as well as from linguistic patterns.

On page 377, we learn that most likely children become aware of vowel phonemes in words through reading words. So, reading helps drive full phonemic awareness.

 Q8. So, in the end, what role does storybook reading play in helping children learn to read?

Storybook reading plays a small but crucial role in developing children’s word recognition skills.  This small role may be expressed in small correlations, especially with measures of word recognition.  Alphabet books and patterned texts have particular roles to play in children’s learning about print. 

Specifically, what role does storybook reading play in developing vocabulary and comprehension? 

Alphabet books may lead children to the realizations that letters represent sounds, and that words can be thought of as collections of sounds- the beginning of both the alphabetic principle and phonemic awareness.  Conventional storybooks are a wonderful source for language development, in terms of both vocabulary and syntax.

What role does storybook reading play in developing children’s word recognition skills?

Word recognition growth seems to be aided by repetition.  Once children begin to use initial consonant cues to aid in word recognition, patterned books may play an important role.  While conventional storybooks may be a wonderful source for language development, the characteristics that make them useful for oral language development, vocabulary diversity, and complex language probably impede growth in word recognition.

What other things can help with children’s development of word recognition skills?

Other things that can help with children’s development of word recognition skills are non-immediate talk, meaning talk used to discuss personal experiences or the use of general knowledge to make predictions or draw inferences; and print-oriented storybook reading.  Print-oriented storybook reading includes fingerpointing, tracking of print, comments, questions, and requests about print.  Utilizing these aspects can produce an improvement in children’s knowledge of literacy concepts.

Is there a reading crisis in America?

There is not a reading crisis in America in the sense that today’s students are not learning to read as well as earlier students did.  The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been tracking scores since 1971 and scores for nine-year-olds have remained virtually unchanged for the entire time.  Also, an international study of reading found that U.S. fourth graders were among the best in the world in reading.  The crisis in America is that reading performance is not increasing.  Most importantly, there are too many children who have extremely poor reading skills, and these children remain disproportionately poor and minority. 

Disadvantaged children in the United States have both fewer family resources to support literacy (such as books in their home) and are far more likely to attend underfunded, inadequate schools than are children from more affluent homes.  A student who leaves school reading at a low level is unemployable in any but the most menial occupations.  Fundamental societal problems could be alleviated if every child could read adequately.  I believe it is the state of Virginia that determines how many jails it will need based on the literacy rate of its second graders.

Are we doing as well as we should in elementary school?

No, we are not doing as well as we should in elementary school.  On the 1998 NAEP, 27 percent of Caucasian students scored below the “basic” level (basic is the very minimal requirement).  Minority students fared much worse.  Sixty-four percent of African-American students, 60 percent of Hispanic students, and 53 percent of American Indian fourth graders scored below “basic”.  Asian/Pacific Islander students also scored 31 percent below “basic”.

How instruction can impact children:

Children are faced with a multitude of issues preventing them from becoming capable readers.  While there is no one solution to reach every child, Slavin and Morris suggest placing young readers into categories to help identify the issues facing each group.

Natural readers make up about 40-50% of children.  These children seem to learn to read no matter what.  Often, these are children who were read to from an early age, whose parents value reading themselves, who developed excellent language skills, and knowledge about sounds and letters before their first day of school.  However, even children without these advantages are often natural readers, and learn to read with little effort regardless of teaching method.  These children still need good teaching to achieve their full potential as readers and writers.

Teachable readers make up about 30-40% of children.  These children can learn to read with effective instruction, but who would be at risk without it.  For these children, the quality of reading instruction they receive, especially in the early grades, can be the difference between success and failure throughout their schooling.  A teachable reader is likely to need a well-organized, step-by-step approach to reading instruction, frequent assessment, and immediate intervention if things start to go wrong.

Tutorable readers make up about 10-20% of children.  Tutorable readers are those who are at risk for reading failure even with good-quality classroom instruction, but who could be adequate readers if they have well-structured tutoring in the early grades.  Additional categories of potential readers who need individual attention (in addition to good teaching) include children who need eyeglasses, hearing aids, behavioral or emotional interventions, family services, or other nonacademic assistance to be able to profit from classroom instruction and (if necessary) tutoring.  Tutorable children constitute a large proportion of children who are unnecessarily assigned to special education for reading disabilities, who are of normal intelligence who failed to learn to read.

True dyslexics make up about 1-2% of children.  A very small proportion of children would not learn to read even with high-quality classroom instruction and one-to-one tutoring.  The number currently assigned to special education for learning disabilities is about 5% nationally, because it excludes those who would have learned to read with tutors.  Children in this category may benefit from more intensive and multisensory therapies.

English language learners.  Children who do not speak English at home may fall into any of the above categories, but their limited proficiency in English adds an additional problem.  It is unclear whether bi-lingual or English immersion is best for these children.  If children are taught in their native language, they must learn to read well in that language and then experience effective programs to help them make the transition to English reading.  If they are taught in English, they need accommodations in their classroom instruction as well as assistance to help them rapidly acquire the English spoken in school.

Example: Average School (Hardin Park)

100 first graders in 4 classrooms (25 in each)

Categories                                Percentage                   Count               Count

Of Students                                                                  in School   in Classroom

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              (100)                (25)

Natural Readers (40-50%)        50%                         50                    12

Teachable (30-40%)                  35%                         35                      8 

Tutorable (10-20%)                    13%                        13                      4

True Dyslexics (1-2%)                  2%                           2                      1

____________________________________________________________________

 Morris (Ch. 2)

Explain what Morris means by the traditional role of kindergarten is “to level the playing field” in terms of literacy experience.

Morris means that kindergarten should prepare the children most in need of help for the reading challenges they would face in first grade.  Children from different socioeconomic backgrounds have very different experiences with literacy.  Children in middle to upper-class families are likely to have been exposed to reading and are knowledgeable of the alphabet and letter-sound relationships.  Children from working to poor-class families may lack exposure to books and may have no alphabet knowledge.  Kindergarten should serve as the means to closing the gap between these two groups and preparing the children for first grade.   

What literacy activities should be included in a kindergarten reading program?

A kindergarten reading program should include reading aloud to children, guided contextual reading, letter-sound study, and writing.  These literacy activities are meant to support a meaningful, curriculum of science, art, math, and social studies.

Why read aloud to children? (5 things children learn)

There are definite advantages to reading aloud to children. 

•  Such reading helps children extend their experiences beyond their immediate surroundings.
•  Provides children with a vocabulary to name the new experiences.
•  Acquaints them with the characteristic rhythms and structures of written language (which are different from spoken  language). 
•  Listening to a story also involves the child in creating a mental image and sustaining it over time (over several pages) in a quest for meaning.  
• Children learn to use language symbols to create a mental world beyond the present context.  They begin to realize they have the power to create possible or imaginary worlds through words.

 Why is guided contextual reading important in kindergarten?

Guided contextual reading in kindergarten is print-related instruction (e.g., concepts of print, alphabet, letter-sound correspondences, and early sight vocabulary).  Having this type of instruction in kindergarten will help prepare children for the unique demands of first-grade reading.

 What is echo reading?

 Echo reading is when the teacher reads and then the child echos.  There are two major methods or contexts associated with echo reading: (1) dictated experience stories, and (2) big books (enlarged books with predictable text).

 Describe dictated experience stories (language experience approach—LEA)

The dictated experience method involves using children’s own experiences, recorded in their own language, to teach them to read.  A shared experience is recounted by a group of children, written down on chart paper by the teacher, and then reread by the children with the teacher’s support. 

•  Day 1: The teacher leads a discussion about a shared experience.  Following a short oral discussion the children dictate two or three sentences describing the experience, and the teacher records these few sentences on chart paper. The teacher then models a reading of the completed story while finger pointing. Finally, the children join in choral reading the story several times as the teacher continues pointing to the words on the chart paper.
•  Day 2: The choral reading continues with the teacher asking questions regarding the story, such as “What is the first letter in this word?”
•  Day 3: The teacher works with small groups of children (6-8) at a time.  Each child has a copy of the story on an 8” by 11” sheet of paper.  The teacher reads the story several times and the children attempt to follow along on their own copy.  The children must then illustrate the story on the top half of their paper.  The teacher may ask each child to demonstrate his or her ability to finger-point read the story.

The teacher needs to control story length so that, at a given point in the year, the children can memorize the text and successfully practice finger-point reading and word and letter location.

Describe big book approach (shared reading approach)

The big book method incorporates an oversized book with pages measuring approximately 18” x 24”.  The pictures and accompanying print are oversized so that a group of children sitting around a teacher can follow along visually as the teacher reads.  The language patterns in most big books are natural and rhythmic, oftentimes featuring repetitive refrains.  High-frequency words are repeated four or more times.  The repetition of sight words which is very important to a beginning reader occurs in a predictable context of natural-sounding sentence patterns.  Guiding the reading of a big book is much like guiding the reading of a dictated story.  As with dictated stories, the length of a big book, and especially the amount of text on each page, are important considerations.

 Why include both LEA and shared reading methods in kindergarten?

Because of both their underlying similarities and distinctive differences, dictated stories and big books complement each other in a beginning reading program.  One difference between the two is that dictated stories contain the spoken sentence patterns of kindergarten-aged children while big books contain the written sentence patterns of children’s literature.  Also, dictated stories allow kindergartners to capture and preserve classroom experiences by writing them down in their own language.  Big books, on the other hand, present new literary experiences to children (settings, story plots, and vocabulary terms). 

The consistent use of both methods in the kindergarten classroom will extend children’s experiences and nurture their language development, and also help them master some basic print-related understandings.  For example, over time the kindergartners will learn to read left to right, to match spoken words to printed words as they read, and to use sentence context along with beginning consonant cues to identify words in text.

 Why is finger pointing so important for early readers?

Finger-pointing is so important for early readers because it helps children master print-related understandings such as matching spoken words to printed words and learning beginning consonant cues to identify words in text.

Questions about letter-sound study:

 Can someone clarify for me the difference between gradual phoneme segmentation training and explicit phoneme segmentation training that is paired with letter-sound instruction?

 Questions about early writing:

The text provides the example of the teacher asking her student about writing the word dog.  The student correctly identifies the beginning consonant as d.  The teacher proceeds to ask, “What comes after the d?”  After saying the word, the child decides the letter g.  The teacher praises the student and moves on to another word.  Although I completely understand the progression, I am curious how to keep children from being confused.  As this student’s writing abilities improve, they will realize that there is an o between the d and the g even though the teacher praised the student for choosing g as the next letter.

 Is there a role for independent reading in kindergarten?

Yes, I believe there is a role for independent reading in kindergarten.  A kindergarten reading program is the foundation for children to build literacy skills upon.  Children will add to their foundations at very different rates.  Independent reading allows children the freedom to develop personal skills at a pace that is comfortable to each child.  Children are more likely to foster a love of reading if they are not held back or pushed too hard.

Questions about early assessment and how it informs instruction.

Morris (Ch. 3)

What does Fraatz (1987) mean by “paradox of collective instruction”?

Fraatz is referring to the fact that first-grade teachers must provide reading instruction for everyone, while simultaneously addressing individual differences among their students.

What are the three critical components of learning to read?

Beginning readers must learn to:

1.  Attend to individual sounds within words

2. Decode printed words by matching letters to sounds

3. Automatize decoding or word-level processing so that the mind can concentrate on the meaning of what is being read.

List the four tasks that the first-grade teacher can use to assess individual children’s reading ability during the first week of school. Describe what each task is used to assess?

1.  Alphabet- Used to assess how many upper- and lower-case alphabet letters the child can identify when the teacher points to them in a random order.  The task is also used to assess how many lower-case letters the child can write as the teacher dictates them in random order.  By the end of kindergarten, a child should be able to name 22 or more of the lower-case letters.  A score of 18-21 is marginal, and the child who can name 17 or fewer may be at risk at the beginning of first grade.

2.  Concept of word in text- Assesses a child’s ability to finger-point read and match spoken words to written words.  The child finger-point reads four sentences (4 points) and attempts to identify two target words within each sentence when the teacher points to the words (8 points).  A child with a firm grasp of the spoken word-written word match in reading should score 10 or higher on this 12-point task.  A score of 7-9 indicates a marginal grasp of the concept, and a score of 6 or lower may indicate guessing behavior.

3.  Spelling- Used to asses a child’s phonemic awareness.  For the task, the child attempts a sound-it-out spelling of six words dictated by the teacher.  The six words (back, feet, step, jump, road, and dig) include 20 possible phonemes.

4.  Word recognition- Assesses a child’s ability to recognize frequently occurring sight words and their ability to decode words.  A score of 5 or higher on this 10-word test indicates that the child can probably read simple stories.  However, even if the child fails to read any of the words correctly, important information can be gained from his or her word-reading attempts. 

What are some of the challenges of small-group instruction that face students and teachers?

Small-group instruction poses a few challenges for students and teachers.  Classroom teachers are faced with significant organizational and management problems such as what to do with the children who are not in the reading circles with them.  Some educators believe that children’s self-esteem can be harmed by placement in a low-reading group.  Also, children who are “locked into” a low-reading group placement across several grades can fall significantly behind their peers in reading.

How does Supported Oral Reading (SOR) differ from round robin reading in guiding children’s contextual reading?

Supported Oral Reading differs from round robin reading in guiding children’s contextual reading because it is a more efficient and adaptable small-group reading routine.  There is a natural progression in the reader’s skills.  Day one begins with the teacher previewing and echo reading.  Day two consists of partner reading where a “strong” reader and a “weak” reader are paired up.  On day three the children demonstrate their reading accuracy to their teacher one by one.  The process alleviates the self-conscious child reading aloud and the inattentiveness of the other children who are supposedly following along during the round robin reading.  

Why is appropriate leveling of books important and how has it been used in intervention and classroom settings?

Appropriate leveling of books is important because it provides a range of text difficulty levels within the first grade.  This leveling allows students to be placed at the appropriate “instructional level” and to pace him or her gradually but efficiently through the graded reading curriculum.  It has been used in intervention programs to help at-risk children learn to read and in the classroom to efficiently teach different skill levels of readers.

Describe the developmental sequence of word study instruction. What does the continuum consist of? Why is it recommended that teachers follow such a sequence of instruction?

The developmental sequence of word study instruction facilitates a learner’s movement from one conceptual level to the next.  For example, mastery of beginning consonants prepares the child for word-family sorts.  The continuum consists of beginning consonants, word families, short vowels, and one-syllable vowel patterns.  It is recommended that teachers follow such a sequence because a child’s learning of concepts further along the continuum will depend, in part, on his or her mastery of concepts introduced earlier.

How could you assess where a beginning reader’s is at on the continuum of word recognition skill?

You can assess where a beginning reader is at on the continuum of word recognition skill by analyzing his or her invented spellings.  This evaluation will let you know if the student represents beginning and ending consonants or medial vowels in his or her spelling.

Describe word sorting activities to teach beginning sound consonants and short-vowel word families.

For beginning consonant sounds-

First, children practice sorting picture cards into columns by beginning consonant sound.  Then they attend to the sound-letter pairings (/b/ = b; /m/ = m; /s/ =s).

Once beginning consonant sounds are mastered, short vowel families-

The group sorts 12 short a words into 3 rhyming patterns.  The teacher begins by arraying 3 header words on the table.  The children must be able to read the headers (hat, man, cap).

Next, the teacher models how to sort one or two short a words under the appropriate header.  He or she demonstrates the new word (e.g., sat) can be read by referring to the header (hat-sat).

Finally, the children take turns sorting the remaining word cards, reading down the column each time they sort a word (hat-sat, rat, flat; man-ran, pan, can; cap- map, tap, trap).

What skills does word sorting help develop in beginning readers coupled with word games and spell checks?

When coupled with word games and spell checks, word sorting helps develop sight vocabulary and decoding facility.  That is, children learn to read many short-vowel words at sight (e.g., cat, fan, sit, top, etc.) and to decode or “sound out” others (clap, tip, fed, shop, etc.) that are not sight words.

What is instructional pacing? What factors were found by Barr (1974, 1982) to affect effective pacing?

Pacing refers to the first-grade teacher’s skill in guiding his or her students through a set of graded reading materials.  The concept is extremely important because the farther children progress in the first-grade reading curriculum, the higher their reading achievement at the end of the year.  Barr found that four factors tended to affect effective pacing.  These factors are:

1.  Difficulty of the classroom reading materials

2.  Time allocated to reading instructions

3.  Number of low readers in the classroom

4.  The teacher’s years of experience teaching first grade

In what ways can writing help beginning reader’s development?

From a reading perspective, writing in the early months of first grade can help children develop phoneme awareness.  As the year progresses, writing allows first-grade readers to assume the stance of an author; it affords them continual opportunities to read and reread text (both their own and their classmates); and it provides children a purposeful arena for experimenting with, practicing, and eventually internalizing letter-sounds, spelling patterns, and sight words.

What are three tasks that could be used to assess end-of-year reading achievement? Describe the tasks briefly.

Word recognition task- The child attempts to read a list of 40 words, graded in difficulty from early first grade to mid-second grade.  If the child is unable to read a word within 3 seconds, the examiner moves on to the next word.  Testing continues until the child misses 7 words in a row.

Spelling task- The child attempts to spell a list of 15 words.  Each of the 15 words is scored according to a developmental rubric.  This scoring system, which assigns 0 to 5 points per word, takes into account both phonemic and orthographic properties of children’s spellings.

Passage reading task- The child reads aloud up to six passages that progress in difficulty from early first grade to late second grade.  The final four passages (primer, late first grade, early second grade, and late second grade) contain 100 words each.  The child begins reading at Level 1 and progresses through as many passages as he or she can.  As the child reads aloud, the examiner keeps a running record of errors made and time needed to complete the passage.  The examiner discontinues the passage reading if the child’s oral reading falls below 85% accuracy on the second passage or 90% accuracy on one of the later passages.

The article cites Werner and Kaplan (1950a, 1950b) and states that the two conditions under which children learn vocabulary are:  through direct and explicit reference by adults when they name or define words and through incidental encounters with words in verbal contexts.  Incidental encounters include hearing words in conversations, on television, and in stories.

What evidence is there that reading aloud to children can increase their vocabularies?

The article presents results from multiple studies that indicate reading aloud to children directly affects their vocabulary growth.  Direct classroom instruction alone cannot account for the significant vocabulary growth displayed by school-age children.  Nagy (1987) concluded that an average amount of reading probably accounts for one third of a child’s annual vocabulary growth and regular reading can result in substantial vocabulary growth.  It is unlikely however, that Children in grades K-2 will increase their vocabularies substantially through reading because they encounter few unfamiliar words in the books they are required to read at school.  Their oral language is more advanced than the vocabularies found in these books because only the most frequent words are used to construct primary-grade reading materials.  The vocabulary growth for K-2 is strongly correlated to having stories read aloud.  Individual vocabulary growth is dependent on various factors such as a child’s prior vocabulary knowledge and ability to understand surrounding context.

Does it matter what teachers read to students?  In other words, if you are reading aloud to students in your kindergarten class, should you care about the richness in the language that a book does or does not have?  What kinds of books are best to read aloud to students if we want to build their vocabularies?

Yes, it definitely matters what teachers read to students.  While teachers should read stories that appeal to students, they must be sure to focus on the vocabulary within the text.  The books should contain some words whose meanings are unfamiliar but not so many unknown words that their comprehension of the story is limited.

Why do you think you should focus on emphasizing vocabulary in your lessons with students?  Does this apply to read aloud activities?

Vocabulary should be a focal point in my lessons with my students because vocabulary plays an important role in academic success.  Vocabulary size is strongly correlated with children’s overall school achievement (Wells, 1986).  It has a direct effect on how a child will perform in all areas of the curriculum.  Read aloud activities can always be enriched through vocabulary enhancement.  New words can be explained during the reading session and additional activities to help students remember difficult words can be utilized.

What role will reading to students play in your teaching?

Reading to students will play a significant role in my teaching.  No matter what grade I teach, my students will benefit from being read aloud to.  Even adults can expand their vocabularies through the experience of a reading session.  My daughter is in high school and she still has teachers who read to their classes.  Reading aloud in a classroom will benefit the majority of students in a classroom no matter what their age.

Finger-pointing can be very beneficial for a child when developing concept of word and phonemic awareness.  It aids the child in matching spoken words to printed words.  Teachers can also utilize finger-pointing as a tool to help a beginner reader gain early literacy skills.  After reading a story aloud with the child, a teacher can return to the text and model for the child how to match the spoken words to printed words.  The teacher can point to each word as he or she says it, and stress the first letter sound in each word as an aid to identification (e.g. when pointing to the word “dog” the adult can stress the “d” sound to model for the child how to use beginning sound knowledge to identify words in context).

Describe the 4-stage model of early literacy.

Stage one:  Beginning consonant knowledge

Stage two:  Concept of word in text

Stage three:  Phoneme segmentation ability

Stage four:  Word recognition

Describe what this means “It is not in the telling, but it is in the very act of reading that Jack will actually learn how to read.” p.10

If Jack does not experience beginning sound awareness and the concept of word in text for himself, he will not learn these early literacy skills.  Telling Jack about initial consonant sounds, ending letters, and spacing between words does get him closer to reading.  He must be an active participant in the literary process.

What instruction helps develop beginning readers’ awareness of words and phonemes?

There are a various methods of instruction that help develop beginning readers’ awareness of words and phonemes.  These methods include:  reading aloud to students, modeling finger-point reading of familiar texts, echo reading, choral reading, partner reading, buddy reading, text copies, language experience approach, concept of word center, cut-up-a-sentence, and be-the-sentence.