Week 8 Comprehension

This weeks readings taught me a lot about what comprehension strategies I use while reading and what strategies work best for me. First, I reflected on what books and text I comprehend the best. The text I comprehend the best is text that matches my reading level, text that interests me, and text that keeps me interested. I have often found myself putting down a book that I was very interested in reading simply because I did not continue to be intrigued by it. I lose interest and stop thinking about the characters, the storyline, and other aspects of the text. Not only does interest aid in my comprehension, but I also comprehend text best when it is at my reading level and matches my personal vocabulary. If I am reading a text that I do not understand and is difficult for me to read, I get very frusterated and usually put it down quickly. I also find that if I follow part or all of the reading process as distinguished in the Tempkins text that I will stay interested in a text and stay interested. By staying interested in a text i am more likely to question myself and to comprehend the meating of the text more. 

After thinking about how I comprehend text I have thought a lot about how my students in my mentor teachers classroom comprehend text. I have seen my students visualize and make connections with text. This is something that they often do and connect it with writing activities. Throughout the Profiles in Comprehension text I noticed many types of answers that my students were providing. Since my students had responded with a range of answers, I am able ot determine their individual reading strategies and how they are comprehending text. I learned that many of my students are 'fuzzy thinkers." In order to build on these strategies I would provide lessons as suggested in the article.These lessons can include story maps, think-alouds, and venn diagrams. These will help to build on my students current inderstanding of the text and allow them to further comprehend in a deeper manner. 

Week 8 Post

    According to Applegate, students have many different reading behaviors.  So much so, these different behaviors began to form a pattern which allowed Applegate to define 8 different groups of reading comprehension and behaviors.  First, there are the Literalists who prefer answering questions directly from the test.  Therefore, literalists do very well when a teacher asks Recall questions; however, they tend to perform more poorly on standarized tests which do not require all literal reading.  Next, Fuzzy Thinkers are a group of students who comprehend information very vaguely and imprecisely.  They are able to answer most questions asked of them, but not able to explain evidence to back up their answers.  Third, Left Fielders are students who answer questions with information that has little or nothing to do with the text.  However, they are able to elaborate on their answers with a large amount of confidence.  Moving on, Quiz Contestants are students similar to Left Fielders.  They often answer questions to the text based on logical thinking rather from what they just read.  Quiz Contestants answers, though disconnected from the text, are usually more logical than Left Fielder’s answers though. Fifth, Politicians are students who answer questions with what they think you want to hear.  Therefore, it is common for them to be unable to back up their answers with evidence.  Sixth, Dodgers are students who dodge answering a question they don’t feel comfortable answering.  They’ll often reword the question and respond to the new question they came up with.  The more sophisticated a dodger is, the closer their new question will relate to the original question.  Next, Authors are students who often write very long responses because they feel they do not know the exact answer, but want to show they at least recall a lot form the story.  Lastly, Minimalists are students who answer with simple responses and very rarely elaborate.  There is both a Type A and Type B which explains different reasoning behind Minimalist’s short answers.  After looking back at all the types, I think I would fit in best with the literalists.  I am usually so concerned about finding an exact answer that a teacher may be looking for, that I lose confidence in myself to come up with my own answer.  Thinking back on assignments and quizzes that I have taken throughout my educational career, I almost always perform better on questions based more on Recall than questions that aren’t specifically from a term or concept in the text.

Siebers week 8

I figured it out lol

                As we have discussed in the past, I am not a confident reader. After reading the two chapters in the book I am better able to understand why my reading comprehension is lacking. The major problem I have when it comes to reading is that I do not comprehend. I can read and read but then I look back and realize I remember nothing about what I just read. I think there are two specific aspects of reading that I struggle with that don’t allow me to comprehend as well as others. First, when I was a beginning reader, I remember that my word identification was very slow and for longer words I usually guessed the word because I found sounding out words difficult. Therefore I think my phonemic awareness needed to improve in order for me to comprehend what I was reading. The other aspect I found challenging was fluency, as I was unable to recognize words quickly and therefore could not read fluently. These going into figuring out each individual word in the text.

                I think the students in my kindergarten placement are still in the stages of identifying words and building their knowledge of phonics, therefore most of the children are not to the point that they can comprehend what they read. Most of the reading that goes on in this class is shared reading, where the children can see the text as the teacher reads it via the smart board or a big book, guided reading, where the teacher works with a few children at a time, or interactive read-alouds, where the children reads the book aloud to the class. These strategies are the ones that require more teacher support, which I think is appropriate for a kindergarten classroom. There are also times when the teacher allows for independent reading, but she then supplies many different books as different reading levels. To facilitate comprehension, I see my mentor teacher doing a lot of grand conversations, which usually occur right after they do an interactive read-aloud or a shared reading. During these conversations I usually hear connections from the text to the children and occasionally from the text to the world.

                One problem these reading brought to my attention was the lack of background knowledge the English Language Learners might have when it comes to many of the stories I have seen read to them. The children who are just learning English are the ones that zone out or start doing other things during readings. This could be caused by their need for more background knowledge. I think if my teacher talked through some of the cultural knowledge and a few of the less common words in the book before reading, these children would find it easier to comprehend what is going on in the story. 

Week 7: What do you think?

Lupita: 
In order to help Lupita succeed in her classroom Mrs. Potter can incorporate some new tasks into her daily rutine and also create specific tasks for just Lupita. First, it is important that she assess Lupita to find out where she is academically. She can do informal and formal assessments to see what she knows in each of the subjects. This is important for Mrs. Potter to do this so that she is able to find out what Lupita knows and what she is yet to learn. It would be a waste of Mrs. Potter's time to be reteaching Luptia concepts. I am asuming that Lupita is a English language learner, since she just moved from Mexico, so it is important that Mrs. Potter encourages dialoge with this student in some way so that she is encouraged to engage in classroom activities. Mrs. Potter can help Lupita pay attention during her instruction by including pictures with words to help her learn the meaning of them. Since Lupita is quiet and probably too shy to talk in front of the entire class, I suggest that Mrs. Potter encourage Lupita to participate in a different way. For example, in stead of having Lupita ask questions in front of the class by raising her hand, she can write them down. Mrs. Potter can check with Lupita after instruction to ensure that her questions are answered. Another important thing for Mrs. Potter to do, is to model. Instead of just giving verbal directions on how to comeplete something, she can also model the correct way to do it. 

In order to address Lupita's lack of academic skills it is much trickier. It wouldnt make sense for Mrs. Potter to review kindergarten and first grade material, because it is not fair to the rest of her students who have already mastered those concepts. This means that Mrs. Potter must incorporate these lessons specifically for Lupita. Lupita can begin to learn academic concepts through play and class free time. For example, Lupita likes to do puzzles, so Mrs. Potter could have puzzles that are themed to what they are currently learning in class to help reinforce the lessons, or on concepts that Lupita has not yet learned, but should have already in the past. 

I would also encourage her to move Lupita's desk to the front of the room. Having her close to the front can help Mrs. Potter to ensure that she is engaged and not forgotten in the large class. I would also encourage Mrs. Potter to use partner work or small group work to encourage Lupita to communicate with her classmates. She can get help from a partner if needed and can gain confidence in a smaller group setting. 

There could be a chance that Lupita has a learning disability. If she continues to not respond well to academic instruction and does not seem to be making progress then Mrs. Potter should encourage the school to test Lupita for a learning disability. It is important that Mrs. Potter does not give up on Lupita in order to help her avoid being help back to repeat second grade. I suggest that Mrs. Potter encourages Lupita to work hard, to model, and encourage her to communicate in the classroom. It is important that she find out what Lupita is interested in, in order to motivate her to learn the second grade material. 

Week 7 Post

    It looks as if Eddie is struggling with ADHD so there are many things Mrs. Potter can do to accommodate to his needs.  First of all, it has been proven through research that visual support is key when assisting students with autism, ADD, ADHD, developmental disabilities, etc.  Breitfelder states, "In a classroom setting this support could be for direction following, schedules, rules, and understanding instruction."  These visual supports can be anything from photographs to computer icons, and they are proven to help not only struggling students, but ALL students in the classroom.  Breitfelder states, "Students who have difficulty with verbal language can have: eased transitions, feeling of empowerment by having visual choices, clearly defined expectations through the use of pictures, longer attention span, reduced anxiety, concepts become more concrete, and the ability to help express his or her thoughts." One way Mrs. Potter could incorporate a visual support is through a large, daily schedule that displays the day's main events through pictures.  Studies have shown that these schedules increase on-task behavior and decrease the teachers need to prompt students from one activity to the next.  This alone could help Eddie in many ways.  By the tadpole example Mrs. Potter explained, Eddie clearly has a problem staying focused and on task.  Therefore, this schedule could increase his chances of staying on task and not becoming distracted.  Also, if daily schedules decrease the amount of time teachers need to prompt their students, that means there would be shorter/easier transitions overall; therefore, Eddie would be less likely to become distracted and/or hyper during transitions.  Another accommodation Mrs. Potter can consider is a behavior modification chart. Breitfelder states, "behavior modification charts help students understand the desired behavior and the reinforcer they can obtain from completing the behavior asked of them.  Behavior modification has been used to successfully treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, ADD/ADHD, and other disorders."  One way to create this chart is by displaying the desired behavior on one side and the reinforcer on the other.  The side with the desired behavior will say "First" on top and will be placed on a green background.  The side with the reinforcer will say "Then" on top and will be placed on a red background.  This way, students understand they need to complete the desired behavior in order to receive the reinforcer.  Furthermore, the different color changes show how students can "go" (green) to complete the desired behavior, but they must "stop" (red) once they receive their reinforcer.  Students will then know to listen for further instruction before moving on to another activity.