This week the students in fifth grade did a mock writing assignment.  They were given two pieces of paper: one to plan on and one to write on.  The prompt they were given stated:  Should students be allowed to chew gum in school, why or why not? The students struggled with this writing assignment, and had a lot of difficulty planning out their papers.

What have you taught in your internship?

Because we were only there one day this week and they had an assignment due, I did not teach anything.  I was however, able to observe the students as they worked hard on their writing assignments.

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

This was our last week at Moravian Falls, and I could tell the fifth graders would definitely miss their interns.  I enjoyed being an intern at Moravian Falls because it let me get an in-depth view of what it is like to be in a diversely populated school.  I also enjoyed being in fifth grade because I have only ever been in a first grade class before, this allowed me to see a whole other side of teaching.

This week the students of fifth grade read informational books about gravity and force and motion.  Then on thursday they were given a quiz on these books and the information they learned from them.  These questions were very similar to the ones on the EOG .  Also, every class they break off in to groups to work with the tutor on vocabulary.

What have you taught in your internship?

This week I helped the students read their informational books and take the correct notes that would be used to help them study for their quiz.

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

I think it was interesting to see how they responded differently to the informational books.  They had a lot of trouble writing down the important information, and putting it in their own words.  They really wanted to just copy down the whole page, so i had to keep reminding them to put it in their own words and to summarize.

On Tuesday, the students if 5th grade took their weekly vocabulary test.  They were given they entire hour to complete it.  On Thursday, the students went over a practice EOG that they had previous taken.  This particular article was chosen to go over because so many students had done poorly on it.

What have you taught in your internship?

I have not taught anything this week.  However, I was asked by Ms. Simpson to sit with a student  to keep him focused during the review of the mock EOG.

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

I really still admire my teacher.  I can really see how frustrating it is to see your students so unmotivated this close to EOGs.  But Ms. Simpson sticks through it and she really pushes them to try and do their best, she really never gives up on them.  I am very interested to see how the 5th grade reading EOG scores will be this year.  Also, when going over the practice EOG Ms. Simpson was explaining to us that the entire 5th grade got one of the questions wrong, but that it probably would not be thrown out.  This just really blows my mind because I feel like they don’t want us to teach to the test but yet they frown upon students who do bad?

In the 5th grade reading class, they are split up into groups.  Each of the three groups will go to a vocabulary center, a guided reading center, and the do a daily work on their own.  This is the same for every class.

What have you taught in your internship?

I have mostly been working one on one with students.  I have been helping them to read, and to complete their daily work (definitions, synonyms, and analogies).

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

The reading teacher, relates very well to her students.  I absolutely love her teaching style and she does the bets that she can with her students and their various circumstances.

Post any questions that you have about teaching/learning.

• 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.