Module 4: Activity 2

I personally believe Allington does the better job of outlining key components of reading instruction. Allington does this by listening and explaining the five missing pillars of reading instruction that NRP left out. The five pillars he lists are all incredibly important to the reading success of a child or any beginning reader.

The first pillar is the "access to interesting texts and choice". I agree with this pillar that kids needs available texts that they are not only able to read but they are also interested in reading. The second pillar is "matching kids with appropriate texts". He makes a great point that students will not learn from reading texts that they are unable to read. As teachers, it is important to plan our instruction around finding texts that meet students' reading level and comprehension abilities. The third pillar focuses on "writing and reading having reciprocal positive effects". Decoding texts and spelling words should be incorporated together in lessons rather than separately. The fourth pillar discusses the need for balancing "whole class teaching with small group and side-by-side instruction". Whole class instruction is important for introducing the topic or skill for the day or week. Students need the small group instruction to deepen their understanding and to get clarification on skills they are struggling with. The last pillar is the "availability of expert tutoring". This pillar essentially hopes that each child has access to an expert to provide addition support. I would argue that this pillar is often the hardest to establish. Most schools have a reading coach, however, it is nearly impossible to ensure that the reading coach can spend ample time with each student.

Although I agree with each of Allington's five pillars, I believe the most vital is pillar two which emphasizes matching kids with the right text. The goal of reading is to gather meaning and understanding. If students are reading text way above their abilities, they will have little to no comprehension and entirely too many miscues. Children need to feel confident in their reading abilities, which begins by providing the correct text. So much learning is gained when children read well and comprehend a story. If students are receiving appropriate texts, they will be able to participate in fluent reading.

Module 4: Activity 1

Robin learned to read at the age of 50 thanks to a teacher who taught him numerous reading strategies and believed in his ability to read. In the beginning, the instructor helped Robin by using letter tiles to learn word families like -ick and -ack. He began putting the tiles together to read words like pack and brick. He next caught on the strategy of chunking words. He became overjoyed when he realized ay says /A/ and used that knowledge to further chunk words. He read the sentence about Egglands best and noticed the word egg and land and was able to chunk those letters to break up a long word he was unfamiliar with. This strategy was seen again when he read his email account set-up page that said "Congratulations".

The instructor also taught Robin by reading simple text like Stone Soup. He caught himself saying gave instead of give, because he knew it was not grammatically correct and did not make sense in the story. The strategy of being able to monitor your own reading is extremely important for all beginning reading. Like Robin, students need to read and reread a sentence if it doesn't make grammatical sense to see which word they are miscueing on.

I also thought the idea of "reading the world" was so important throughout the entire video. For all of his life, Robin's wife had to read him the world. He would call her for help with signs and billboards, but now he is able to read them himself. Making real world connections are so important for beginning readers. They need to realize why reading is a necessary skill and important at every stage of life. Robin was able to finally read the world by setting up an email account, reading birthday cards and thank you notes, comic strips, the newspaper,and most importantly, reading his bible.

Module 4: Instructional Challenge

Marcus frequently miscues by substituting words that start with the same letter or first few letters of a word. His substitutions do not sound grammatically correct or make any sense. Based on this information about Marcus, I have a few suggestions as to how a teacher can best help him make fewer miscues and become a more accurate reader.

Guided Reading is a wonderful way to help a student like Marcus. Guided Reading refers to placing students into groups based on their reading needs. In a class, Marcus would be placed with other students having similar reading troubles, and the teacher would focus on working with beginning sounds and possibly chunking words. The teacher could also focus on comprehension strategies since his substitutions do not make sense in the story. If he has a better understanding of the text, he will catch himself making substitutions that do not go along with a story. For example, if the story was about Cinderella, Marcus might catch himself reading carpet instead of carriage. They have the same first three letters, but Cinderella wouldn't get into a carpet. These strategies could help Marcus immensely.

I would also provide a listening center where Marcus can follow along in a book while listening to a recording of the text. By listening to the text, Marcus can hear exactly how each word is pronounced and catch himself if he was reading it incorrectly. Weaver also discusses the importance of providing a reading tape that is slightly faster than the readers abilities. I would encourage Marcus to listen to the tape multiple times while following along, in order to practice fluency. Once Marcus feels confident in the story given to him, I would ask him to read a few pages to me. I would listen to see if any miscues still exists and listen for the improvement in his reading ability. I would also ask him comprehension questions. He struggled with comprehension since he substituted words that don't make sense in the story. I would want to ensure that he is comprehending and not just fixing the miscues he was making.

Lastly, I think Marcus could benefit from reading with a buddy. When two students read together, they can help each other with words they are not familiar with. They will catch each others miscues and help one another with comprehending the story. I would ask that the students pause after every one to two pages and discuss what has occurred so far. I believe this strategy will help Marcus with this understanding of letter sounds as well as reading comprehension.

Module 4: Reading Reflection

Chapter 10 does an excellent job of outlining various strategies of a comprehensive literacy program. There are many major components that make up a comprehensive literacy program that teachers should strive to include in their teaching. I just finished my undergraduate degree and thus my teaching experience is limited to my student teaching and internship. I have no had the opportunity to have my own classroom yet, and thus have not had experience will all of the strategies listed in the text. I am familiar with all of them and have thankfully incorporated quite a few of them into my own teaching. However, there are many that I do not have experience with and would like to try when the opportunity presents itself.

I am a huge believer in the importance of Read-Alouds. This strategy allows teachers to demonstrate reading with expression. Like the book suggests, read-alouds give me the opportunity to read books to my students that they would not be able to read themselves. I tried to include a read-aloud in almost every subject area. I found them to be most beneficial when teaching social studies. Historical read-alouds tend to have much larger and more complex words that young children aren't quite reader for. These books however are full of important information that will help my students in understanding the topic at hand. My students were engaged in the story, asked high level comprehension questions, and became interested in learning more about social studies. I also liked the end the day reading a chapter book to my students when we had extra time left during pick up.

Journals are also a component of a comprehensive literacy program. My students each had a writing journal in which they were able to write during the language arts/reading block. As a center, students could get out their journals and write about anything that came to mind. At the beginning of the year, we did an activity together to list possible writing topics. This cut down on their inability to think of something to write about and refreshed their memory on topics they might enjoy journaling about. Students were required to included mostly writing in their journal but were allowed to add a drawing to accompany their story or thoughts. Their journals also provided a great way to show parents how much their student had progressed over the course of the year by comparing the beginning to the end of the year writings.

One are of improvement that I would like to see is in reading conferences. I had writing conferences with students to look over their journals, but did not take the time to discuss what students were reading. Children love to share about their favorite story or the really cool character in their book. This also promotes a love for reading and encourages students to read more since they love to share about it. I love Weaver's idea about having students read some of their book to the teacher. This allows the teacher to assess reading strategies being used as well as whether or not the student is reading a text that suits their reading abilities. With my next group of students, I will definitely try to incorporate reading conferences.

Prominent Theorist: Jerome C. Harste

Prominent Theorist Paper: Jerome C. Harste

Click the link to access the paper.

Module 3: Activity 2

Nonsense words or pseudowords were a hot topic in many of my undergraduate reading courses. Similar to the teacher in the video, we worked with students using letter tiles to create the spelling of words. While we used similar strategies, like the slide to blend letters, we did this using actual words. The only work we did with nonsense words was in a pre- and post-test on the child's ability to read pseudowords. I see both viewpoints on using nonsense words to help struggling readers crack the code and become more proficient readers. If students are able to read pseudowords, they are likely able to read real words because they have a good understanding of letter sounds. However, pseudowords do not represent letter patterns that are typically found in words. This is where the problem with having students read nonsense words comes in. Students need to learn to read word by word rather than letter by letter. To read nonsense words, students are decoding each individual letter. Teaching real words with word patterns will help students develop more sight words and will make them more proficient readers. I like the techniques the teacher used with the letter tiles, because I have seen them to work effectively for young readers struggling with phonics. I would just adjust that strategy to include real words that follow traditional word patterns.

Module 3: Mock Memo from a Reading Specialist

Teacher, 

It is wonderful to see that your students are fluent readers reading above the grade level norms. In the early years of elementary school, it is our goal as teachers to get our students to become fluent readers. As they get into upper grades, like third grade, we must put more time into teaching comprehension strategies and encouraging students to focus on the meaning of the text. The purpose of reading is to comprehend the text rather than to finish it quickly with few errors. I have a few suggestions on ways to encourage your students to focus on the meaning of the passage, while still reading quickly and efficiently. 

First, encourage your readers to slow down. They are above grade level norms, so slowing down a bit will not hinder them in any way. Actually, slowing down is going to allow them to focus more on comprehension and less on speed. Make sure they know that their goal is to see who finishes the quickest, but rather who understands the most from what they read. 

Second, model "thinking aloud" to your students as you read. Allow them to hear the questions you are asking as you read. Here are some examples of questions to ask aloud as you read. I wonder what the main character is going to do next? I predict ... is going to happen next. I wonder why the character acted in that way. Why does the character feel ....? These are questions that will have your readers constantly thinking about the plot of the text. This will make it easier to grasp the entire meaning once the reader finishes reading. Encourage the reader to stop and ask herself similar questions to the ones you model for her. 

Lastly, make comprehension fun. I love using comprehension cubes or dice to make asking comprehension questions more exciting. Make a game out of it or allow two readers to ask questions to each other. Your readers need to know the importance of comprehension rather than speed. Make your readers feel proud of their fluency, but focus in on comprehending the text by incorporating games and make reading fun! 

Happy Reading!

Ms. Boyd 

Module 3: Reading Reflection

Marilyn Adams made a bold claim to say that rather than rely on context to read, good readers process individual letters and words in a text. I do not agree with this statement. Although this statement sounds accurate at first glance, there are large amounts of research that argue the opposite. As a reader, I would think I read letter by letter, word by word, and line by line as I go about reading a text. This however is much less efficient and takes more time. As a skillful reader, I in fact don't read the way Marilyn Adams believes I would.

Researchers have studied eye movements and fixations to prove Marilyn Adams wrong. Some key findings show how a skillful reader's eyes actually move during reading. First, "good readers do not read word-by-word if this means fixating on every word of reading every word as it is printed on the page" (Weaver, 2002). A good reader is able to understand the meaning of the text, without fixating on every word as it is printed on the page. Second, "good readers do not read word-by-word as if the words were in a list rather than in a context" (Weaver, 2002). Good readers use the context of words before and after in order to identify words. This allows readers to move at a greater speed and fixate on fewer words. Lastly, research shows that "good readers do not read strictly left to right" (Weaver, 2002). Skillful readers often look ahead or go back to repeat words and confirm their meaning. Readers go ahead in the text to identify words and clarify meaning.

The techniques of looking back in the text and looking forward, show that a reader is extremely skillful and is able to use resources in the text to derive the correct meaning. When readers read letter by letter, word by word, and line by line, they are not using all the possible resources available to them in order to grasp the meaning of the text. It takes that type of reader more time to gain meaning and comprehension, because their eyes are fixating on every word rather than checking their reading and looking ahead.

I would argue that beginning and emergent readers are the ones reading the way Marilyn Adams believes skillful readers do. When children are learning to read, they need to look at the letters for sounds in order to put them into words and then form sentences. This process reflects early reading rather than the type of reading skillful readers participate in. Marilyn Adams was more so describing this stage of reading rather than how skillful readers use previous words as well as upcoming words to read quickly and efficiently. As readers become more skillful, they too will read this way, rather than the way Marilyn Adams described.

Weaver, C. (2002). Reading process & practice. (3rd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Module 2: Activities 1 & 2

Pg. 58 Activity 3c

In order to provide a definition for these words, I tried two different approaches. First I used grammatical knowledge to determine if I thought the word was a noun, verb, or adjective. This helped me to them think of a word that sounded like word that was also a noun, verb, or adjective. For example, I thought the word creech was likely a verb. I then thought of verbs that sounded like creech. This brought the word creep to mind. Thus, I guessed that creech meant to slowly approach something.

creech: to slowly approach
droogs: a large group
glazzies: those who are disengaged from something
goloss: rain boots
malenky: easy going or laid back
messel: someone who is annoying
millicents: a group of happy people
poogly: flimsy
razrez: something sharp
skorry: unhappy
spatted: to leave angrily
zoobies: a group of animals

After reading A Clockwork Orange:

droogs: friends
spatted: to fight
skorry: quickly
malenky: small amount
zoobies: food
millicents: police or law enforcement

In order to determine the meanings while reading A Clockwork Orange, I relied heavily on context clues. I looked at the sentences before the word as well as the sentences after the word. Some words were easier to determine than others. Many of the words could have meant many different things based on the context. I still used the grammar of the sentence to determine if the word was a noun, verb, or adjective. Once I established that, I relied on the context of the story to help me come up with a definition. Although I used these strategies, I am not confident that my definitions are correct.

pg. 85 Activity 7

I did not try to read the words letter by letter. Because these words were unfamiliar to me, it would have taken too much time to read the words letter by letter. Instead, I recognized some word chunks that helped me in reading the words. For example, when reading the word submandibular, I chunked it to read it sub-man-dib-ular. This helped me break up a long and unfamiliar word in a way that made it easier for me to read.

I was not familiar with any of these words, however, I could derive some meaning based off word parts. Word parts like sub-, sapo-, -aur, extra-, and -ate help me establish some understanding of the word. To determine the definition for submandibular, I knew that sub means under something. From my knowledge of anatomy, I know the mandible is the jaw. So, submandibular must mean something about being under the jaw.

Pronouncing the words really didn't give me any insights into the meanings of the words. If anything, it helped me determine what part of speech the word was, but it did not help with the actual meaning of the word.

When I encounter words I am unfamiliar with, my first reaction is to use context clues and parts of speech. This is similar to what I did in activity 3c. If I am not able to determine meaning using these two strategies, I will typically read on. If I feel the word is necessary to my understanding of the text, I would then look it up in a dictionary.

In order for students to deal with unfamiliar words in print, we as teachers need to teach the reading process. This process should teach them how to quickly and correctly identify words they are unfamiliar with. This includes teaching them to use context clues to determine meaning. Rereading that portion of the text could also help them to understand the unknown word.If they aren't able to determine meaning from the context, they should then be equipped with the tools to look up the word.

Module 2: Instructional Challenge

OR: It my little monkey here.	ER: Is my little monkey here?
OR: We got to tell.	ER: We've got to tell.
OR: Frog look at Toad calendar.	ER: Frog looked at Toad's calendar.
OR: A word what sounded good.	ER: A word that sounded good.
OR: hisself	ER: himself
OR: I can come to your party?	ER: Can I come to your party?

At first glance, I question whether or not this is considered proficient or non-proficient reading. The original response does not mirror what would be expected from a child speaking proper English. However, the child has still derived the proper meaning from the words read. Once I understood that the child still received the correct meaning, I determined that this child should be considered a proficient reader. For anyone deeming this child non-proficient, Weaver says, "this assumption should be reconsidered in light of the evidence that understanding usually precedes oral verbalization and in light of the evidence that proficient readers make miscues that reflect their predictions, their prior knowledge, and even their preferred language structures" (Weaver, 2002, p.74)

The idea that understanding usually comes before verbalization is a new concept to me. I had never thought about it before, but in order to verbalize what we are reading, we have already had to gain an understanding of the words. If the child did not understand the passage, they wouldn't have been able to verbalize it. Although they verbalized it in their own dialect, they simply changed the words into their preferred language structure. If we speak in what is considered "proper English", that is our preferred language structure.

I also consider this child a proficient reader based on his or her ability to change the surface structure. Weaver points out that "what we often fail to realize is that such dialect translation would not be possible unless the reader had understood the deep structure of the author's sentence. Actively transacting with the text, the reader has simply expressed it in his or her own surface structure" (Weaver, 2002, pg.74). We each add or take away from the surface grammatical features as we read. When speakers from other dialects read a passage of standard English, they are doing the same to best fit their dialect. 

Weaver, C. (2002). Reading Process & Practice (3rd ed.). Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

Module 2: Reading Reflection

"The major folklore of reading instruction related to the 'theory' that reading is considered an exact process. In other words, the reader is expected to read everything exactly as printed on the page in order to understand the message of the author. In general the consuming public, legislatures, courts and too many educators hold to this theory. It is like the theory of the world being flat during the time of Columbus." -Robert Harper and Gary Kilarr

I agree with Harper and Kilarr's quote that it is folklore to consider reading an exact process. Reading is more than merging graphemes, morphemes, and phonemes to derive meaning from a word. The reading process takes into account syntactic and semantic context within sentences and an entire text. Just because a reader is able to read a passage correctly doesn't mean they are a proficient reader. A proficient reader not only correctly reads the passage, the proficient reader constructs meaning from what they have read.

Proficient readers use "tools" in order to construct meaning from words. Weaver says that "we can and do use our entire personal context of knowledge and experience, our schemas to help us identify words" (Weaver, 2002). Our social and cultural context as well as our background help us to identify words. Just because we read a word correctly, doesn't mean we have identified it. To identify a word, we pull together our background knowledge and schemas to determine what the words means to us. Person A and person B might derive two totally different meanings from a word based on their preexisting schemas or personal context. This is why we cannot consider reading an exact process. There is nothing exact about it.

The activity on pages 49 and 50 further show that reading cannot be consider an exact process. While I was able to read each sentence, many of the words had two meanings. I was able to derive meaning from the first four sentences based on the syntactic clues given. This allowed me to eliminate one of the meanings and narrow in on what the sentence is actually saying. The last four sentences, however, did not give enough context in order for me to determine the meaning. The dual meaning words caused confusion for me although I knew what each word meant. I either needed context to predict what was coming next or following context to confirm or correct my prediction (Weaver, 2002).

Lastly, page 71 sums up the idea of why we cannot consider reading to be an exact process. Weaver says "the goal of reading instruction should not be the accurate identification of every word, but rather the effective and efficient use of reading strategies in order to construct meaning" (Weaver, 2002). No reader is alike. As readers, we each use our own strategies and tools in order to construct meaning and gain an understanding of what we have read. While we both might be able to read each word correctly without any miscues, we cannot say that we had the same process in doing do. We must approach teaching reading like we approach any other subject. Each child learns in a different way. We must help them learn by presenting information in multiple ways. This will eliminate the notion that reading is an exact process where students must read words correctly in order to gain meaning.

Weaver, C. (2002). Reading process & practice. (3rd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Module 1: Activity 2

a. What is corandic?
Corandic is an emurient grof with many fribs.

b. What does corandic grank from?
Corandic granks from corite.

c. How do garkers excarp the tarances from the corite?
Garkers excarp it by glarcking the corite and starping it in tranker-clarped storbs.

d. What does the slorp finally frast?
The slorp frasts a pragety, blickant crankle.

e. What is coranda?
Coranda is a cargurt, grinkling corandic and borigen.

f. How is the corandic nacerated from the borigen?
It does done by means of loracity.

g. What do the garkers finally thrap? 
They finally thrap a glick, bracht, glupous grapant, corandic, which granks in many starps.


In order to answer the questions presented, I used the textbooks advice on what clues to follow. I used syntactic cues like function words, word endings, and word order. I relied heavily on words like other, several, is, which, with, and so on. These words were necessary in being able to decipher the order of the passage. Although I was able to answer each question, I did not comprehend any of the text. I simply used the syntactic clues and wrote verbatim. The questions were also given in the exact order in which they were written in the text. This made it very simple to look past the difficult words and answer the questions with ease.

Oftentimes, the workbooks and standardized tests our students are using ask comprehension questions like the ones above. Students are able to find the answer to the questions directly in the passage and write it word for word. Students are not required to infer or think critically. The student may be clueless about the plot of the story, but still perform well on an assessment. This gives the teacher very little data on whether or not the student actually understood what they read. This activity makes me rethink the way assessments are given. Are we really challenging our students or are we giving comprehension questions that don't require any comprehension at all?

Module 1: Activity 1

Module 1:Instructional Challenge

Hocked gems financing him, our hero defied the scornful laughter. Think of it as an egg, not a table, he said. Then three sturdy sisters sought proof, forging over vast calmness, and sometimes over turbulent peaks and valleys, until at last welcome winged creatures appeared, signifying monumental success. 

1. What are the hocked gems? 
From my limited knowledge on the word hocked, I believe it means to be taken or to be stolen. The man is being financed or paid for by stolen gems.

2. What should we think of as an egg and not a table? 
I think the author is referring to some type of journey or task. Perhaps it is something that will require continuous work and the egg is used as a metaphor for something round with no end point. The table would be considered a representation for something with a definite starting and ending point.

3. Who are the three sturdy sisters?
I do not think the author means three literal sisters in this sentence. He could be referring to three people who will accompany him or support him on his journey or task. They could be described as sturdy to show that they are strong and will be able to stand by him on his journey.

4. What kind of winged creatures appeared? 
I think the winged creatures that appeared were likely birds. They might have been a sign of good fortune on his journey or possibly a foreboding sign.

Reflection: 
My interpretation of this passage is based on my own schemas and background knowledge. Thus, each student will have a different interpretation of this passage. This passage was extremely hard for me to understand because I struggled to find a schema that matched the text. I had very little background knowledge, so it took me quite a few times reading through to begin with an idea of why this was written. In order to activate my students' schemas, I would encourage them to look up words they might not be familiar with. A definition of one of those words could activate a schema they already have and help them when deciding what the author is trying to convey. If a student is having trouble with their schema and the text matching, I would revisit the text with them and see which words are causing the trouble. Perhaps just one word is being misinterpreted and is throwing the rest of the passage off. In a task like this one, I would ensure that my students understand there is not a right or wrong answer. They are being asked for their interpretation. As long as they are able to tell me why they interpreted it the way they did, I feel they would have done an excellent job. I believe in challenging my students, but I also believe in selecting appropriate books for them. If they were to become too frustrated with a passage, I would adjust my teaching to provide a text for them that meets their needs.

Module 1: Reading Reflection

Weaver’s first two chapters focus on approaches to literacy and how children establish their motivation for reading. When learning to read, children are heavily influenced by how the teachers teach reading, which shapes how a child views reading and writing. There are two main approaches to literacy. The skills approach and the sociopsycholinguistic approach both represent two methods for teaching, both with a different focus.

The skills approach is rooted in the belief that instruction should be heavily based off phonemes. This approach focuses on teaching letter-sound correspondences, teaching children to decode words, patterns for identifying words, and often puts little emphasis on understanding the meaning of the text. This approach is more of a bottom-up model in which children begin with phonemic awareness, then add letter sounds, recognize words, and then arrive at the meaning. This type of approach also emphasizes fluency. How quickly and accurately can the student read? Often times when students are reading for speed, they don’t focus on the meaning of the text, but rather how many words per minute they have accomplished. This is one of the downfalls with this particular approach.

           

The sociopsycholinguistic approach works the opposite way. This approach would be considered a top-down theory. Understanding the meaning is the main goal for children being taught with this approach. Children start by understanding the meaning before going into recognizing words, adding letter sounds, and having phonemic awareness. How can a child gain meaning from a text if they can’t read the words? In order to gain meaning, the reader is encouraged to use background knowledge, existing schemas, context clues, and visual aids that might be provided. We read in order to gain meaning from a text, which is why this approach sounds like the better alternative to me. However, a child’s phonemic awareness is an excellent indicator of future success in reading. Because I understand the importance of phonemic awareness and phonics, I believe there needs to be a balance. I would focus more heavily on teaching meaning, while still incorporating lessons in phonemic awareness and word recognition. 

Person Model of the Theory Reading

One of my greatest motivations to go into education stems from my love of seeing children learn to read. Aside from reading being an integral part in schooling, the ability to read is an essential skill that an individual needs. Literacy leads to exploration of the world around us. It allows us to connect with one another, to learn about someone else’s experiences, and to gain an understanding of other individuals. It can take children beyond their own experiences and into their imagination.

I have developed a love for reading over the years, however at an early age, I saw reading as boring and irrelevant. Why did my teachers always make me read books about events from hundreds of years ago? How can I relate to the story I am reading? How many pages do I need to read today to finish the book on time? These were the questions I asked myself daily. I always saw reading as an assignment. It was something I had to do in order to pass a test or make a good great. Never would I have imagined reading for enjoyment. Reading for fun was a foreign concept to me.

My junior year of high school was when it all finally clicked for me. At last I had a teacher who managed to make reading interesting. She challenged me to think beyond the text and interpret the real meaning behind the author’s words. This is the kind of teacher I try to be. I want my students learn to love reading at an early age and to see the beauty behind sharing ideas through a story.

I believe in the importance of treating students as individual readers. Not every student should be given the same book. Not every student should be expected to read at the same pace. In order for a student to feel confident in their reading ability, they need to be given books that suit them. They should be challenged but capable readers. This past semester, the Daily Five was incorporated into my classroom. During the reading and language arts block, students could choose a variety of centers, all aimed at improving their literacy. Each student was given a briefcase in which to keep books specially selected for him or her. When selecting the books, I worked alongside each student. They played a part in selecting the books. My role was simply to guide them in choosing books that would best fit their reading abilities. Allowing students to have a say in what they read is one of the most important aspects of my reading philosophy. Students are much more likely to pick up a book that they had a role in choosing. I saw this each and every day as students flew through the books in their briefcase and also enjoyed reading a book or two to a friend.

           

I also believe that reading should be incorporated across the entire curriculum. I have found ways to use reading in math, social studies, and science. To become accurate and fluent readers, students need every opportunity to practice. I do this by including reading material into each lesson I teach. Math problems can be given as word problems. Students can read interesting text about history or important events. Students can read educational books about animals, weather, or the earth. Reading impacts all aspects of our daily lives, so why not involve it in all aspects of teaching?

Lastly, reading should be fun! It took me many years to enjoy reading, because teachers along the way took the fun out of it. As teachers, we need to motivate our students to develop a love and passion for reading. The best way to do this is by making reading fun. When students enjoy reading, they will want to continue even without being told to. Tap into what each student is reading. Ask them about the book they have in their hand. Act genuinely interesting in what they are reading about, and they will be proud to tell about all they have learned.