RED 4510 Exam on Monday!
Define the term fluency and describe the three key elements of it; describe characteristics of fluent readers.
"Freedom from word identification problems that might hinder comprehension in silent reading or the expression of ideas in oral reading" Rate, accuracy, prosody, & comprehension which is identified as another characteristic that comes from fluency: recognizing words quickly and automatically means being a more accurate reader who uses proper intonation and phrasing/ emphasis. Students can also be accurate but slower readers, which is why a student's decoding ability as they read, affects the overall comprehension of the text Lack of fluency hinders comprehension, engagement with the text, and is usually indicative of a reader who lacks proper background knowledge/ vocabulary. (Pg. 246)
Identify how writing experiences to enhance oral language (e.g., interactive writing, student to teacher sentence dictation - see Journal Five).
Writing experiences enhance oral language because they help to think critically about both the text and express the meaning. Oral language helps students to think about text and refine their ideas by listening to and discussing with others. When students apply their oral language as well as writing experiences it will enhance their comprehension but also develop their fluency skills. Retelling is a proper oral language device for helping ensure the students receive the correct information through teacher reiteration. Students with disabilities and ELL's can benefit from explicitly taught skills that are reinforced either with the teacher or in groups. Teacher modeling also helps oral language, speaking, and listening in the "I do, we do, you do mantra," Cognizant of helping students to follow along and evolve in their comprehension level to then use those skills for new tasks such as productive writing. Incorporating all the components together.
How do writing experiences enhance comprehension for ELLs ?(Language Experience Approach).
Writing experiences help to enhance comprehension as students are prompted to think more deeply about the text. Especially in the form of graphic organizers, ELLs are able to see how the text can be broken up into main points and features and they can comprehend what is happening in the text to a greater extent in that way.
Morphemes
The smallest units of meaning in a language.
Define the term "mental model," and explain how it helps readers understand a text. Be sure to include information about "text structures."
A mental model is a model that explains how something works. They are the mental instruments you use to comprehend life, make choices, and solve problems. This is why a mental model helps readers understand the text. Mental models have the property of representing what the text is about, for example, the events, objects, and processes defined in the text, rather than textual features. Overall, a mental model should reflect the structure of the events outlined in the text, not just the text's structure.
Identify and explain the difference between domain specific vocabulary and general academic vocabulary to address the demands of academic language.
Academic vocabulary is language that is aimed at an intelligent audience. These are "Word of the Day" words, SAT words, and the words you might find on vocabulary assignments. Domain-specific vocabulary is language or word choice that is directly related to the class for which you are writing. General academic vocabulary is the language of school and tests. It is more likely to be used in written expression rather than speech.
Be able to provide an example of comprehension instruction that supports students' ability to read multiple print and digital texts and to synthesize information within, across and beyond those texts when given a prompt.
Examples of comprehension instruction that supports students' ability to read multiple print and digital texts, would be graphic organizers, such as story maps, KWL charts, and flowcharts. For the comprehension of narrative texts, story maps help students raise their awareness of the story elements the author uses to construct the story. For the comprehension of the main idea/summarization of a text, KWL charts help students organize what they know before reading the text, what they want to know, and what they learned from the text. Also, flowcharts can help students organize the order of events in a story they read. Additional examples include question answering and question generation. Question answering is where readers answer questions posed by the teacher and receive immediate feedback and question generation is where readers ask themselves questions about various aspects of the story.
What is "extended text discussion" and how might it be beneficial for students (see Journal Two).
Extended text discussion is the process of asking students questions about the text that they are reading to further analyze the text and deepen their understanding. It can be a follow-up to a previous discussion that the students have participated in and can help the students further their thinking about text structures, language, meaning, and other features of the text. It can also be done in a group setting so that students can bounce ideas off of each other and get different views on the meaning of the text. Examples of extended text discussion include quality talk, graphic organizers, and sentence starters.
How do diagrams, graphics, and graphic organizers aid in comprehending informational text?
Graphics help develop a deeper comprehension of the text by using visuals As a post-reading activity, students might fill in a timeline to capitalize on both content and structure. Or they might use a graphic organizer, in which concepts are written in circles, rectangles, or triangles, and interrelationships are shown with lines and arrows. Graphic organizers are helpful to all students but, because of their nature, are especially helpful to ELs. After reading a selection, students can complete an appropriate graphic organizer and organize the major concepts in a text and discover its underlying structural pattern. Students might also use photos or drawings to help them grasp organizational patterns. They can arrange photos for time sequence, create a series of drawings to show how to do something for an explanation, or use photos to compare and contrast different things. After arranging graphics, they can add a title, headings, and captions. Example: _____The Levels of questions _____ is a technique in which questions are asked on three levels in order to develop deeper comprehension.
Identify and explain how to apply intentional, explicit, systematic instructional practices to scaffold vocabulary and concept development (e.g., shared reading, semantic mapping, open/closed word sorts, graphic organizers, etc.).
Importance of Intensive: needs to focus on the development of academic language. Daily academic English should be integrated into the core curriculum. Providing high quality vocabulary throughout the day. Teaching essential content words in depth. Using instruction tome to address the meanings of common words, phrases, and expressions not learned. Make key concepts more accessible to EL's- will build their language skills. Page 264. 268** You want to build experimental background, relate vocabulary to that background, build word relationships, decipher word meaning through repeated exposure in the context of the passage. teaching students how to learn new words by semantics maps, but also ... word sorts: where students think about a word and it's similarities and differences among words (open sort- students decide cate. ) Closed sort is where the teacher decides. students sort the words and discuss why they sorted them the way they did... pg 277.
Building Vocabulary
Instructional activities for developing oral & aural language skills in young children may include, but are not limited to: Explicit, Systematic Phonics Instruction (including a planned scope and sequence of sounds - used with ELLs, typically-developing students, & students with disabilities) Multi-syllabic Word Instruction (also using a planned scope and sequence - used with ELLs, typically-developing students, & students with disabilities) Language-Experience Approach for listening, speaking, writing, and reading activities (popular instructional approach for ELLs and younger students) Shared reading and/or shared/interactive writing (often found within LEA instruction)•Dialogic Reading (often used during emergent literacy instruction) Word and/or Picture Sorting Others?
Define the term, "emergent literacy." After you have defined the term, describe at least three characteristics you expect to see a student demonstrate during this stage in their development. How does this relate to student's skills around fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension?
Literacy encompasses both writing and reading, emergent indicates that the child has been engaged in reading and writing before school Emergent literacy: the reading and writing behaviors that proceed and develop into conventional literacy (pg 116, gunning) A student engaged in reading/ writing before the instruction is introduced how literacy is developed before students enter school. printed messages like a cereal box Being able to understand the story based on the pictures (front & back of the book) May believe that letters represent objects, the same way that pictures represent objects, for example: they may reason that snake would be a long word because a snake is a long animal. Print motivation. Vocabulary. Print awareness. Narrative skills. Letter knowledge. Phonological awareness. all factors affected by this and contribute to fluency based on learned concepts and the alphabetic principle (which comes from developed P.A. being able to detect words in a sentence, syllables, beginning, ending sounds "i know that letters represent sounds"
Identify cognitive targets (e.g., locate/recall; integrate/interpret; critique/evaluate) and the role of cognitive development in the construction of meaning of literary and informational texts. How do specific comprehension strategies help develop these targets?
Locate & Recall: This means students are able to locate specific details in the text while providing supporting details and explanations for what is going on in the story. Integrate & Interpret: This means students are able to look at characters and plots in stories and know why a character does something and understand the motivation of that character. Critique & Evaluate: This means that the student is able to construct their own opinions about the text they've read and they can evaluate different factors about it When it comes to comprehension students have to rehearse/ reread or remember the material which is where locate and recall comes in. Then there is monitoring the student's own level of text comprehension where they use those strategies and use knowledge to further enhance their level of reading comp. this is where Integrate and evaluate are used. Last is management strategies, where students sort through all the information they are given as they come to a proper conclusion about where to find sources. Which is the critique and evaluation stage. these strategies prepare students to use known skills as they work with more complex text. The more students are prepared to evaluate a text using different methods, the more learning/ decoding can be automatic. Honing skills that help them to become proficient readers.
Be able to identify the characteristics of narrative or informational print or digital texts and how they can relate in instruction of comprehension (i.e., carry out a theme, twin text instruction, the use of graphic organizers).
Narrative text features include setting, characters, and plot. Instruction to help with comprehension includes read alouds that focus on structural elements and the motives/feelings of the characters; "what", "how", and "why" questions; story map graphic organizers; retelling the story; reenactments; writing narratives. Informational text features include a wide variety of organizational patterns (description, time sequence, explanation, problem/solution, and cause/effect). Instruction to help comprehension includes explicit instruction in the types of text structures and signal words for each; graphic organizers; and using questions to help students make connections between the text and their background knowledge. Twin text instruction is when you read a storybook that has related concepts to an informational text that is also being read. (ch. 8 Gunning/ week 10 readings and responses)
What is reciprocal teaching and how is it beneficial for students (see Journal Three).
One example of an intentional, explicit, and systematic instructional practice that can be used to scaffold students' comprehension, thinking and self-correcting is reciprocal teaching. Reciprocal teaching involves group discussion that uses explicit techniques to help students understand the content. It also involves self-monitoring. The four explicit techniques used in reciprocal teaching are predicting, question generating, clarifying and summarizing. Students use these different techniques to analyze a text, usually in groups. Reciprocal teaching also uses Vygotsky's theory of the zone of proximal development and scaffolding to gently push students slightly out of their comfort zones with comprehension. A teacher can do this by presenting the challenging aspects of these techniques to students while still supporting them when needed.
Essay Question: Think about one of the instructional strategies you learned about this semester related to teaching vocabulary. Provide an overview of the strategy and explain how this particular strategy can not only lead to the development of a student's knowledge of words, but how it can lead to deeper comprehension of a text or concept development.
One strategy helpful for teaching vocabulary is the use of semantic maps. Which separates concepts or specific vocabulary into categories that can be arranged graphically to start by introducing the term on the board (engage), and next allowing the students to brainstorm what other words they come up with that remind them of the chosen word (explore). the students are encouraged to come up with a list of as many words as possible in an open discussion(explain). next the words are grouped together and the students can point out category specifications. afterwards, a class map can be used to add the words and speak about all the categories the students included on the map (elaborate). As the students discover the meanings of new words to add to their vocabulary and their relationship with other words, they are then able to continue learning/reading and add additional words to the map (evaluate) students can assess their own understanding and make connections with the text, while the teacher can monitor progress and gained knowledge as they complete the task through relevant additional learning. Semantic maps lead to a deeper comprehension of the text by taking a word or concept and allowing students to work together to think of a way to organize the new content and use prior knowledge in their attempt of decoding the text in a visual and written way. This method facilitates open discussion, and students are encouraged to actively think, use word recall, and ask questions to help mold the way they think about a topic/ new vocab.
Know how oral/aural language and writing experiences can be used to enhance vocabulary (e.g., interactive word walls, word sorts, word charts for secondary).
Oral language and writing experiences can be used to enhance vocabulary by providing students with interactive ways for learning. Using oral language can help expand vocabulary and develop background knowledge for students. Writing experiences provide students with the opportunity to express their thinking as well as their thoughts and put it into writing. Oral language can also help students recognize and develop the sounds of the languages they hear. This will help boost their vocabulary knowledge and word meaning. The four modalities of language are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These are also referred to as the four language skills. Listening and reading are considered receptive skills or input, while speaking and writing are productive or output. Aural refers to hearing while oral refers to speaking. As a means of communication, listening plays an important role in people's life. In foreign language classrooms, listening comprehension has never drawn the same attention of educators as it now does. So it is of vital importance to teach aural English more effectively. In view of the present situation of aural English teaching and wrong ideas about it, the problems in traditional aural English teaching have been discussed, including the monotonous pattern of teaching, the ineffectiveness of teachers' roles, students' passivity, orientation at exams instead of students' abilities and so forth. Then suggestions are presented on how to teach aural English more effectively: first, diversifying patterns of teaching should throw the emphasis on teaching in authentic environments and interaction between listening and other teaching activities; secondly, teachers should design listening activities for the class, build good interaction in the class and cultivate more creative methods in their teaching to change their ineffective roles; thirdly, students' passive roles in class should also be modified by harmonizing their extrinsic motivations and intrinsic motivations; finally, the relationship between exams and development of abilities should be coordinated by using different strategies in different cases
Apply intentional, explicit, and systematic instructional practices for scaffolding development of higher order thinking, comprehension skills, comprehension monitoring and self-correcting (e.g., reciprocal teaching, "think aloud," QAR strategy, etc. - see also Comprehension Strategies).
Reading comprehension is developed through activating and adding to students' background knowledge, offering explicit teacher-led comprehension strategy instruction, and engaging students in rich discussions with their peers. Reciprocal teaching is one strategy where students slowly learn strategies as they imitate and work with the teacher. In this case group, the discussion is used and main points are emphasized as students monitor their own understanding. FOR example; The group reading a story and discussing it together as they predict info, formulate questions, note factors that may hinder their understanding in the clarifying stage, and summarizing/ paraphrasing main points. pg. 350-351 Teachers may consider using a think-aloud modeling procedure. The teacher begins by reading part of a text aloud, and as she proceeds, comments aloud on her thinking. By revealing to students her thinking, the hypotheses she has formed for the text, and anything that strikes her as difficult or unclear, the teacher demonstrates for students the processes successful readers use to comprehend a text. If a reader expects that text should make sense and has the ability to strategically self-correct comprehension problems, then reading can progress as it should. To teach an explicit comprehension strategy lesson, one can use a framework lesson plan. Question-Answer relationship (QAR) is a strategy to be used after students have read. QAR teaches students how to decipher what types of questions they are being asked and where to find the answers to them. Answers are found either in the text: a sentence or several pieces of information put together. Or answers may be found in the student's head, using background knowledge/ info from the text.... or just solely from students background/judgments.
Explain how Schema Theory, Situation Theory, and incorporating activating strategies can assist in developing a student's comprehension of a text.
Schema theory: using various processes to activate the appropriate schema. Schema is the organized knowledge that has one about people, places, things, or events. How we make sense of a text selection relying on knowledge of what we do/ don't know as units that work together to build that connection. They help us organize information and text structure as we craft new experiences and relate to old ones. (Page 311) Gunning Situation theory (mental mode): comprehension consists of multiple levels of understanding and includes surface code, propositional textbase, and the situation or mental model. Textbase: words in the written piece Prepositions: statements of information that shape a readers understanding of the situation and goals for reading comprehension text-based inferences; monitoring the meaning of the text and structures of words through repeated exposure as they build... Coherence transforming words into cohesive pieces of text that follow combining words, setting out words for headings, and an active summary. A "coherent textbase" allows for a mental model to be created and comp. to be gained from the reader interacting with the text- proper reading material, generate questions using learned strategies, make connections, and generate "Macrostructure" =prepositions and sentences together in harmony The "Microstructure," is where the reader decodes each word and connects them to form a sentence. Page 312 Gunning Paraphrasing the text into your own words is a good strategy in constructing a basic understanding of a text which can be prepared for the construction of a mental model. As students put pieces of information together with info just read to ask questions, evaluate the text, and summarize the main ideas through background knowledge and making connections.
Identify the differences between social and academic language (vocabulary, syntax, discourse) to discuss diverse texts.
Social language: the language we use in everyday conversations. Academic language is the language that is used in specific subjects where specialized vocabulary may be used.
What role does morphemes play in vocabulary development?
Teaching morphemes unlocks the structures and meanings within words. It is very useful to have a strong awareness of prefixes, suffixes, and base words. These are often spelled the same across different words, even when the sound changes, and often have a consistent purpose and/or meaning. By understanding morphemes and the role they play students can use this knowledge to build on their vocabulary development. Vocabulary development gets students actively engaged in using and thinking about word meanings and in creating relationships among words.
We want to Incorporate vocabulary instruction through analogies (e.g., cognates, Greek and Latin roots, morphemes, phonological development). How might analogy instruction be helpful for ELLs? (see Journal One)
The use of vocabulary instruction through analogies may be helpful for ELLs, because cognates and roots can help derive meaning from unknown words. Teaching affixes and roots can be considered teaching cognates. For example, while the entire word may not be the same in English and Spanish, by breaking the words into the smallest parts, the student may recognize an affix or a root. Many English and Spanish root words are the same. For example, "aud" means hear and "bio" means life. This will help the student to understand what the word means without having actually known the word.
What does it mean to: Scaffold discussions to facilitate the comprehension of text and higher-order thinking skills for students with varying English proficiency levels (using WIDA Can Do Descriptors as an aid)
There are six WIDA language proficiency levels (1- Entering, 2-Emerging, 3-Developing, 4-Expanding, 5-Bridging, and 6-Reaching). According to Gunning, scaffolding can be seen as a way to plan and group learning when it comes to readers, so there is an organized way of providing information without overloading the student and giving all the information at once. For example, a teacher can read through a text and chunk the more difficult spots, and give more time to those spots so students can work through or ask for help. Scaffolding is beneficial when working with more complex text, using the Steppingstone approach for example... struggling readers can benefit from this method to increase their comprehension by reading a text on their level, and reading ones that become more difficult to decode but all within the same topic. this is a way to build background knowledge from target level to grade level over a period of time. like reading different varieties of an autobiography until comprehension increases. The teacher selects a topic, students are prompted on key vocab/ concepts and finally, they are guided instructionally by teacher aid, or reading themselves, the text as complexity increases.
Identify ways to scaffold vocabulary instruction that develop authentic uses of English to assist English language learners in learning academic vocabulary and content (using WIDA Can Do Descriptors and creating language objectives for ELLs)
To promote full understanding, provide translations of new vocabulary words and post key vocabulary words in both languages in a prominent spot (Gunning p.286) Incorporate cognates (similar spelling/pronunciation) (Gunning p.286) Academic language should be explicitly taught in the content areas. This means that within each subject we should explicitly teach the vocabulary used for that subject. We can also use graphic organizers to help ELLs explore its connections and relationships (gunning p.287) Ex: When teaching a science lesson, introduce vocab such as "therefore", "as a result", or "for instance" Ex: When teaching a math lesson, introduce vocab such as "subtract", "takeaway", or "decreased by"
Explain how intentional, explicit, systematic instructional practices are used to scaffold accuracy, expression, rate, and reading endurance (e.g., paired reading, repeated reading, echo reading, reader's theater, etc.).
These instructional practices are effective tools because they use modeling. As a teacher, when we read with the class, we are modeling how to read smoothly and with expression. For example in echo reading the teacher will first read a sentence or phrase, then the student follows by repeating what the teacher said. The students should be reading with the same intonation as the teacher. Choral reading occurs when the teacher and students all read together or take turns reading. This strategy works well with repeated reading and benefits students' rate, endurance, and expression. This is because the readers will be practicing keeping the pace and expression that the teacher sets. Endurance will be practiced if the text is longer. Another strategy is paired reading. In this strategy, a more skilled reader pairs up with a less skilled reader. Then the two read a selected text simultaneously. The more advanced reader can ask as a "spot", to help identify and correct mistakes. Alternatively, the two readers can take turns. This practice helps with accuracy, expression and rate. To help advance accuracy, the more skilled student is there to help. Expression and rate are modeled by the more advanced student, however, they may have to read slightly slower than before. Lastly, reader's theater is a strategy that greatly benefits expression and rate. In this activity, the text is altered to fit a play, where each student acts out a different character. The students are meant to read the text as if they were actually playing the character and expressing the same feelings. (Gunning Ch. 6)
How can we Recognize an ELL's home language proficiency as a foundation and strength to support the development of oral language in English?
Using an ELLs home language as a foundation can help support the development of oral language in English because the more literate a student is in their home language, in reading, writing, and speaking, the better they will be able to gain proficiency in oral English. Making connections to similar text structures within the two languages and using cognates to help build vocabulary can help with this. Reading and writing skills will help build oral proficiency and oral language skills will help build reading and writing through practice/ comparisons and explicit teaching of the subject matter.
phonological awareness
knowledge of sounds and syllables and of the sound structure of words •Instruction and class activities only involve sounds (and at times, pictures). Instruction does not correspond print to sound •Instruction is void of graphemes.
Phonemes
smallest unit of sound
Phonics
the study of the sounds of the letters of the alphabet •Instruction intentionally connects letters to spoken sounds. •Instruction includes both graphemes and phonemes/morphemes
