Rasinski 2004

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

• Accuracy in Word Decoding:  Calculate the percentage of words a reader can accurately decode on grade-level material.
• Automatic Processing:  look at the students reading rate; reading rate can be determined by having students read a grade level passage for 60 seconds and then calculating the number of words read correctly.
• Prosodic Reading:  Asses by listening to a student read a grade level passage and then judge the quality of the reading by using a rubric.

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

The bridge represents the three dimensions that connect reading fluency to comprehension.  The three dimensions allow students to gain skills on how to decode words, gain finite cognitive resources, and how to correctly read so that they fully understand the text.
3.    What instructional methods does Rasinski suggest for students with difficulties in automatic and prosodic reading?

Assisted readings and repeated readings, both improve automaticity and prosodic reading.
4.    Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MFS) is used to measure prosodic quality of oral reading. List components of the MFS and describe briefly what each refers to (p. 49).

• Expression and Volume:  refers to how the child says the words (loudness, expression and pronunciation).
• Phrasing: refers to how the child reads. Whether or not the child read choppily or knew how to read in particular phrases.
• Smoothness:  refers to how the child reads, if they pause or hesitate with words.
• Pace: refers to how fast or slow the child reads.  Conversational pace is ideal.

Curt Assignment 2

1. What grade is Curt in?

Third Grade

2.  What was the flash score for words at: first-grade level? second-grade level? Third-grade level?

1^st grade:  75%

2^nd grade: 50%

3^rd grade:  20%

3.  What was the accuracy score at: 1-2 level? 2-1 level? 2-2 level?

1-2 level: 97%

2-1 level: 90%

2-2 level: 84%

4.  What was the rate score at: 1-2 level? 2-1 level? 2-2 level?

1-2 level: 65wpm

2-1 level: 44wpm

2-2 level: 36wpm

5.  What was the percentage correct score for: first-grade words? second-grade words?

First Grade words: 60%

Second Grade words: 0%

Consider the following expected scores, 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.

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.

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

Grade–Words per minute

1^st–45-85

2^nd–80-120

3^rd–95-135

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

6.  Which grade-level flash score is the best choice for Instruction Level? (*Note: 92-94% accuracy is marginal; take a close look at Rate.)

Curt is at the instructional level (60%-85%) in his first grade level flash scores (75%).

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

First grade, Curt’s accuracy scores were 97% (the top half of the instructional level.)

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

They indicated that he is sufficient in the first grade level.  He is instructional at the second grade level.

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

Because scores around 50% indicate instructional level, he could still be partially instructed in the first grade level and then move into the second grade level (in which he scored 0%).

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

All of these scores indicate that Curt is a late-first grade to early second-grade reading level.  He has a base of 1^st grade words, but his instructional level will be based on comprehension.

K. Stahl article

1. Describe in broad stokes the reading processes that take place during comprehension of informational text (p. 362, under Construction of Meaning and Concept Development with Informational Texts).

Accessing accurate relevant knowledge, managing top-down and bottom-up mental processes, and constructing a coherent mental representation through pruning and organizational processes (Anderson & Pearson, 1984; Black, 1985; Kintsch, 1998; van den Broek et al., 2005).

2. Specify the effect that background knowledge may have on constructing mental representations from informational text. Why should teachers be concerned about activating prior knowledge?

Background knowledge may have the child relying on inaccurate or irrelevant information, this could alter their view of the information they are reading.  Teachers should be concerned and aware of activating the child’s background knowledge because it limits their collection of the present informational material.

3. What are the three instructional approaches that can be used to help primary-grade students comprehend informational text? Describe their common (p. 365) and distinctive features (p. 363-5).

Picture Walk, Know-Want and Learn-Learn, and Directed Reading Thinking Activity.  The things that they have in common are: An emphasis on reader engagement and social meditation, Activation of relevant prior knowledge, Anticipation of what information might be likely to include in a text.  A Picture Walk asks students to preview the entire book before reading a page by page discussion of predictions.  If teaching a PW the teacher must also preselect and pre-teach vocabulary in the text.  In a KWL approach allows students to share what the know about topics, this discussion is not always beneficial because students cannot stay focused on the text.  In a DRTA, you hold a discussion with predictions and then students read selections from the text intermittently.

4. What is the purpose of the experimental study reported?

To investigate the effects of the three instructional methods of how readers engage with informational texts.

5. Who were the subjects?

31 second-grade students in two demographically similar schools, in the same Midwest city. All students were proficient in English. There were 25 African-Americans, 3 European-Americans, 1 Latino, and 2 Asian/Pacific Islanders. Of the participants, there were 16 boys and 15 girls.

6. Describe the reading materials used during the intervention.

Informational texts that the second grade students would recognize.  The texts were about different science topics: Spiders, the moon, how water changes form, and insects.

7. How long did the experiment last?

“The cycles were conducted consecutively during the first half of the academic year with a three-week break between the cycles.”

8. What were the experimental conditions?

School A:  Three groups from students in each of the three homerooms.  The fourth groups had one student from each of the two homerooms and two students from the third homeroom.

School B:  Group 5 and 8 were formed from one homeroom.  Group 6 and 7 were formed from the other homeroom.

9. Describe the procedures specific to the Picture Walk, KWL, DRTA, and the Control Group conditions.

Picture Walk: began with a brief overview of the text, then an interactive discussion about the book while going by page-by-page and talking about pictures and text, at this time you can also tie in the students prior knowledge.  Questions like “What words would you use to describe what you see happening on this page?” or “What do you think the writer is going to be teaching us about on this page?” were asked.  This introduced new vocabulary.

KWL: each students wrote what they knew of their own KWL chart, then the group made a large KWL chart.  Students then categorized the information .  Next, they placed questions in the “What I want to Learn” category.  This is all done before reading the actual text, the students then mumble read the text.  After reading, the “What I learned” column is filled out.

DRTA:  Students form predictions based on title, cover, prior knowledge, and table of contents.  They then mumble read a section of text, and discussions are held at the end of every section.  Predictions are then generated about the section coming up.

Control Group:  Student read same informational texts.  There was then a short overview of the text, the students mumble read the text and then drew a picture about something based on the text.

10. What measures were used to determine the relative effectiveness of the treatments? Describe the measures briefly.

VRT:  whether vocabulary gains were occurring, and whether any of the treatments was superior in helping children become familiar with the content vocabulary.

Maze:  Timed multiple choice assessment, and tested micro-level processing, general

reading, and monitoring for meaning.

Free Recall:  When students responded to a prompt:  “Please tell me everything you can remember about the book. Also tell me anything the book made you think of.”

Cued recall:  each student is asked to answer three explicit and three implicit questions based on that day’s text.

Post Interview Intervention: Individual interviews to see if the students gained knowledge of the two common strategies, activation of prior knowledge and prediction.

11. Which treatment(s) were found to be more effective in increasing students’ vocabulary knowledge and maze performance (p. 381)?

None of the treatments did significantly better than the other of increasing students vocabulary.  But PW and DRTA resulted in much higher scores than the control in the maze performance.

12. Students’ comprehension of the texts was greater under the DRTA condition than KWL and the control conditions. What do you think explains DRTA’s advantage over the KWL condition (p. 382)?

Because during a DTRA the students are closely reading the text and the teacher guidance helped students focus on the important ideas.  The teacher assistance also helped students better to understand difficult textual concepts.

13. It was found that the treatments did not differ in the quality and quantity of students’ retellings (p. 384). In other words, students were not differentially affected by the treatments in the way they integrated textual information with prior knowledge. What does this finding mean in terms of the different emphases employed by experience-based (KWL) vs. text-based (DRTA) treatments?

This means that emphasis placed on treatments such as, KWL and DRTA, do not affect the quality/quantity of the students’ retellings.

14. In light of the findings from this study, what conclusions can you draw about the role of teacher support in children’s construction of mental representations from informational text?

Teachers provide support during the procedures of a PW, KWL and a DRTA.  The teachers help the students create concrete mental ideas by clearing up any questions the students may have of the text.  Teachers also guide the students to understand the key points and vocabulary in informational texts.  Teachers provide a lot of support for children to understand these difficult informational texts.

Words Their Way 2

1. How does a Preliterate (Emergent) speller read and write?

Students write with “scribbles, letter like forms, or random letters that have no phonetic relationship with the words they believe they are writing.”  While reading they use cues (restaurant names, friends names) especially when the words starts with the same letter.  Children often use logos and visual cues to remember words.

1. How does a Letter Name-Alphabetic speller read and write?

A letter-name alphabetic speller will read aloud, word by word, and finger point read.  They will write word by word and may write up to a few lines.  They are in the partial alphabetic phase.  These spellers often confuse vowels in words when they read and write.  They also must still read aloud because they have to vocalize the letter sounds.

1. How does a Within Word Pattern speller read and write?

These spellers are gaining some fluency in reading aloud and expression while reading aloud.  They have gained more organization in their writing and have begun to form paragraphs, they can also write more quickly due to an established vocabulary.  They are in the consolidated alphabetic phase (when reading is supported by familiarity with frequently occurring letter pattern units.)  Students begin to read independently and silently.

1. How does a Syllable and Affixes speller read and write?

They read with speed and accuracy, orally and silently.  These students enjoy writing persuasive essays, editorials, poetry or their own fantasy and realistic fictions.

1. How does a Derivational Relations speller read and write?

These students read with their own interests and professional needs in mind.  They write with purpose and use a variety of writing styles

6. What is the existing research evidence on the relationship between spelling and reading. Briefly describe research findings discussed on page 20.

“Students who receive additional spelling instruction perform better on reading tasks such as oral reading, silent reading comprehension, and other reading-related measures in addition to spelling (Berninger et aI., 1998; Goulandris, 1992; Graham, Harris, & Chorzempa, 2002; McCandliss, Beck, Sandak, & Perfetti, 2003).” Morris and Perney (1984) found that first graders’ invented spellings were a better predictor of end-of-grade reading than a standardized reading readiness test.   Sawyer et a1. (1997) reported that a child’s score on a developmental spelling inventory (Ganske, 1999) was a more powerful predictor of decoding than phonemic awareness tasks such as segmentation.

Ehro and Rosenthal Assignment

1. What was the hypothesis tested by the researchers?

The hypothesis that was tested by Ehri and Rosenthal is that students will learn the pronunciations and meanings of new words when they see the spelling of those words compared to when they do not.

1. Who were the subjects?

• 20 second graders, mean age of 7 years, 7 months.  Enrolled in an urban school.  Students were at the second grade reading level, but the vocabulary level was below average.
• 32 5^th graders, low ses school.  Low and high reading levels.

1. What were the experimental conditions?

Students were taught pronunciations and meanings of 2 sets of 6 nouns.  Spellings were only shown in one set.  The words were also said in sentences to clarify meanings.  They were given a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 9 trials.  Trials after the initial trial tested the student’s ability to recall previous spellings.

1. What did the treatment involve?

Teaching of unfamiliar words with the spellings, and one treatment of unfamiliar words without the spellings.

1. Which group (spelling-present vs. spelling-absent) gained more in vocabulary learning?  How were the groups’ recall of pronunciations affected by the treatment?

The group that had the spelling present when trying to learn new vocabulary actually did learn more vocabulary.  “Findings showed that after one day, students still recalled pronunciations better when they had seen spellings than when they had not, indicating that the impact of spellings lasted beyond the end of training.”

1. Why do you think that fifth graders who were high on a word reading task benefited more from the spelling aids than their peers with less orthographic experience and knowledge, even though the two groups did not differ on receptive vocabulary knowledge?

The fifth graders that were on a high reading level benefitted more because their knowledge was further along (especially with grapho phonemic and larger syllabic patterns)  than that of their peers with a lower reading level.

7. What general conclusions were derived from the study findings by the authors? What implications were offered for vocabulary learning and instruction?

To teach spellings and pronunciations it is better show the spelling of the word than to not show it.  Students who already had a higher reading level benefitted more than those who did not have a higher reading level.  To learn new vocabulary it is best to show the spelling of the word.

Curt Assignment

• · Look at the spelling errors that Curt makes. What stage of word knowledge is Curt in?  Why do you pick this stage of development? What are the key characteristics?

Curt is in the Letter name stage.  He has mastered the preliterate stage because he knows the beginning consonants.  He is spelling what he hears, and is getting his long and short vowels wrong.  Some key characteristics of letter name stage are: Spelling what you hear, not understanding markers because they are silent, and getting short vowels incorrect.

• Describe partner reading.

Begins with a preview of the book, then the instructor and the student alternate reading pages.  The tutor typically reads the first page, and then the tutor and the student alternate reading the story aloud.  The tutor can also ask comprehension questions throughout.

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

DRTA is more difficult for the student because it makes the student think while reading, and learn from the reading.

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

You should select places to stop where you can ask questions about what has happened so far, and what could happen in the story.  A good rule of thumb is to select sections when the plot turns, or anticipation builds.

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

You should ask questions at each stopping point.  The questions should be about what is happening in the story and what could happen in the story.  Instructors should ask about 2-4 questions per stop.

Stahl (2003)

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

The simple view of reading states that there are there are two factors in reading comprehension: Decoding (D) and Language Comprehension (C) in an equation RC=D*C.  If a student’s decoding ability drops towards zero, then their reading comprehension will also drop towards zero.

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

Storybook reading has effects on language comprehension, word recognition, or both.

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

Visual cue reading:  child recognizes words through distinctive visual features.

Phonemic cue reading:  they use salient letters to identify words, typically the initial letters of words.

Full alphabetic coding:  child examines each letter of the word

Phonemic awareness: Phonological awareness

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 the alphabet include:  naming the individual letters, the printing of those letters, and the identification of letter sounds.

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

“Children who are read alphabet books may develop the insight that one can think about words as containing sounds.”  Children who were read alphabet books first could not make sense of why “M” might stand for “mouse.” (Yaden, Smolkin, and MasGillivary)

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

It allows them to build the print-to-speech match skill.  With fingerpointing they usually provide the initial phoneme, and use final consonants in spelling.

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.  These books allow children to concentrate on the words, using the text as support.  They also allow children to read more accurately, and eventually read by themselves after shared readings.

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

Storybook reading develops children’s decoding and language comprehension skills; these in turn develop the reading comprehension of the student.  The alphabet books also help the students learn to read by enhancing their vocabulary and their print recognition.

Words Their Way (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2008)

Emergent Stage:

In this stage, children in the age range of 0-5 years, students begin to make writing efforts.  Their “writing” can range from random scribbles to actual letters.  Early in the emergent stage, children draw large scribbles and their writing is no different from their drawing.  In the middle of the emergent stage, children will use a “script” to tell a story, but there is still no actual difference between the letters and drawings.  Towards the end of the emergent stage, the child’s writing begins to include prominent sounds in a words.  By the end of the entire stage, the alphabetic principle (letters represent sounds in a systematic way) should be mastered.

Letter-Name Alphabetic:

This is the stage where children are formally taught to read, typically 5-8 years old.  In this stage, children will usually use “names of the letters as cues to the sound they want to represent.”  In the early part of this stage children will apply the alphabetic principle to consonants, their writing will also lack spacing between words.  In early letter-name alphabetic stage, students also begin to find “matches between letters and spoken words by how the sound is made or articulated in the mouth.”  In the middle of the letter-name alphabetic stage, children begin to segment their sounds and use consonant blends. In the middle part of this stage they are also using single syllable words to represent sounds that they hear.  Towards the end of the letter-name alphabetic stage, the “student has gained full phonemic segmentation, bu they still tend to leave out personal nasals while spelling.”

Within-Word Pattern Spelling:

In this stage students can read and spell many words correctly (mostly single syllable words).  This stage ranges from the age of 7 to around 10 years old, the beginning of this stage is typically marked by the student independently reading.    Before reaching this stage students have mastered: short vowel words, consonant blends, digraphs and preconsonantal nasals.  In the Within-Word pattern stage, students are introduced to patterns mostly within single syllable words.  While learning these patterns students typically hear long vowel sounds but select the wrong patterns while writing.

Syllables and Affixes:

In this stage, students learn to put meaning and spelling patterns together.  They use affixes, suffixes, and prefixes to represent meaning in words.  While writing most students tend to make errors in two syllable words, infleacted endings, syllable junctures, and open first syllables.  This stage helps the most with expanding students vocabularies.

Derivational Relations:

During this stage, students begin to learn how “words share common derivations and related base words and word roots.  In derivational words the spelling is usually different.  When teaching these words to students it is best to go back to the word root , this will “help the student spell the derived root word correctly.  Most vowel sounds are absorbed into the derivational form of the words, so students tend to have the most trouble with these words.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

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

That teachers must provide reading instruction for everyone while simultaneously addressing individual differences among their students.

2. What are the three critical components of learning to read?

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 meanings of what is being read.

3. 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: names uppercase letters then lower case as teacher points to them.  Writes lower case letters to dictation.
2. Concept of word in-text:  Finger point reads 4 sentences.  Identify 2 target words with in each sentence.
3. Spelling Task:  Sound it out spelling of 6 words spoken by the teacher.  (predicts success in first grade, allows them to demonstrate phonemic awareness.)
4. Word recognition:  read 5 frequently occurring sight words and 5 decodable words.  Assesses if the child can read simple stories.

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

SOR is more sectioned out in that it has the teacher reading then the students echoing the teacher.  Next there is partner reading and finally there is expert reading.  Round Robin reading simply starts with the students asking each student to read about 2-3 sentences.

5. Why is appropriate leveling of books important?

Appropriate leveling of books is important because as you excel in school the reading does get more advanced.  This is especially important because with the reading becoming more advanced, end of the year assessments are also becoming more intense.

6. 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?

Students move on the word study chart from left to right.  It begins with Beginning consonants, then word families, short vowels, and finally one syllable vowel patterns.  This sequence of instruction allows the student bring important knowledge to each new step allowing them to reach full word recognition.

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

A good way to begin is to analyze their invented spelling.  This lets the teacher recognize if the child knows beginning consonants or can recognize short vowel sounds.  Small group readings or guided readings are also good.

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

Some word sorting activities for beginning sound consonants consist of sorting picture cards into columns by the beginning consonant sound.  For short vowel word families the student studies 5 short vowels at a time, in rhyming word format.  This can happen by sorting 12 short vowel words into three rhyming patterns.  The teacher models how to sort one or two words under the appropriate header.  Last, the children take turns sorting the remaining cards.

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

Students have gained the ability to recognize words and sound out others.  Word sorting also helps them to reach the beginning levels of reading and writing.

10. What is instructional pacing?

This refers to the teacher’s skill in guiding his or her students through a set of graded reading materials.  Four factors influence a teachers pacing of reading instruction: 1)  Difficultly of the classroom reading materials  2)  time allocated to reading instruction, 3)  number of low readers in the classroom, 4)  the teachers years of experience of teaching that grade.

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

Writing early on helps develop phoneme awareness, and lets students practice and understand letter-sounds, spelling patterns and sight words.

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

Word recognition- read a list of 40 words, if a child is unable to read a word within 3 seconds (continue until he/she misses 7 in a row)

Spelling task-  Spell a list of 15 words, scored by developmental rubric.  Scored 0-75, 55+ is strong.

Passage reading task-  Reads aloud up to 6 passages that progress in difficulty, from early 1^st grade to late 2^nd.  Scored 0-6, score received is the reading level the child has reached.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

1. That in most kindergarten classes they were not preparing the students that were in most need of help for the reading challenges that they would face in first grade.
2. Reading aloud to children, guided contextual reading, letter sound study, and writing.
3. 1. Helps children extend their experiences beyond their immediate surroundings.

2.  Provides them with a vocabulary to name the new experiences.

3.  Acquaints them with the characteristic rhythms and structures of written language.

4.  Provides them with a different sort of introduction to written language.

5.  Allows the child to create a mental image.

4.  Extends the children’s experiences and nature of their language development.  Also helps them master some print related understandings.

5.  Uses children’s own experiences to teach them to read.

Day 1:  Discuss a shared experience; dictate 2 to 3 sentences describing the experience and then record on chart paper.

Day2:  Choral-read the story several times, with finger pointing.  While reading ask questions: Where do you start reading?  What do periods tell us to do?  Can you find another word that starts                         with a “p”?

Day 3:  Works with 6-8 students at a time.  Ask students to illustrate.  Ask them to finger print read the story.  Then the teacher can point randomly to words, asking if the child recognizes the word.

6.             Day 1:  Introduce new book, read and ask questions.  Read the story again, and have students read along.

Day 2: Choral read the story one or more times.  The teacher can have children some up and finger point read a given page or identify specific words.

Day 3:  Small groups:  teacher observes individual children’s ability to finger point read small sections of the story.

7.  Both include natural language patterns, the process of reading is continually modeled by the teacher.  Both emphasize group choral-reading, and both rely on memory and repetition to support children’s initial reading attempts.  Both provide a rich multilayered language experience that children can draw from at different levels.

8.  Independent reading can be utilized after going through the multiple readings of a book.  After all the steps of both LEA and shared reading, a child can independently read a book.  This is good because itr shows that the student understands what he or she is reading.