#readerly exploration

Readerly Exploration 7 - Week 15 - 12/4/23

Hanford (2018), “Hard Words: Why Aren’t Kids Being Taught to Read?”

Wills Lloyd (2021), “Smoke signals in reading education: What is with the spate of articles about changes in reading instruction?

Big Takeaway

The big takeaway I think the authors wanted was that both phonetic and decoding, as well as reading comprehension and word identification need to be taught, more phonetic than word identification, as students learn to decode reading better and make more comprehension within the area of reading.

Nugget

I learned that there is a lot more unnecessary debate in schools than there needs to be. If research is saying something is effective, we should be doing what is effective. I also learned that we are not wired to read, which I think was a really cool element to learn. I had never thought of it that way, but after reading about it in comparison to oral language, it made complete sense, its a lot more of explicit learning.

Narration

I first set up my question boxes, as annotating in the sidelines would not be effective since there is not a lot of room. I made sure to quote the part I had read that made a question pop into my head, and then I added my question and comment with it. This allowed for me to engage in the reading a little more by allowing me to ask and process the questions and feelings I had as I read, as both of these articles raised some alarming questions and made me feel some type of way about how education is being handled right now. I was definitely rather shocked at some of the things I was reading, especially challenged by the parts that talked about teachers ignoring or getting annoyed with the research that was clearly telling them an effective way to teach so that students don’t fall behind. It kills me inside to think of all the students who are just left to inherently try to read by simply being provided materials and left to try and squeeze out meaning from words they can't even decode let alone define. This was a very very interesting read to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to engage in it, especially with some of the things I see going on in my field placement that aligns with some of the topics in these articles.

Engage in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying)/As you read, annotate any questions that arise for you in the margins.

Reading 1 - Smoke Signals

“... is about whether early or beginning reading instruction should promote fundamental skills (letters and sounds; “phonics”) or higher-order skills (enjoying reading; getting the author’s ideas)” - Why is the second question even an option? While it is good to focus on the author's purpose and ultimately easier for teachers to focus on, how in the world are students going to even get to the author's purpose without understanding the author's writing and word structure?

“...that simply engaging children in “reading” (book tubs, readers’ workshop, etc.) would allow them to develop reading skills independently.” - While this is important I wonder why teachers think this notion is actually the main way they should go? Why do they think that this is the main path of reading instruction? What about those who can't read? Motivation only goes so far, before students who can't read quickly lose interest and never develop decoding skills.

“The advocates for whole language approaches argued that teaching decoding was preventing traditionally under-performing students (viz, African American students) from the “good” instruction that privileged children were getting” - Under what conditions do we classify this as “good” instruction? Is it simply because kids from better socioeconomic backgrounds are perceived as typically better readers and so the teaching is perceived to be better? Is it ignoring the issue of privileged children having home lifes that potentially help with teaching reading at earlier ages and stages, differing from less privileged children’s homes? Probably.

Not a question but more a comment, I think this author is funny, very clearly echoing my thoughts on this issue as well. 

Reading 2 - Hard Words

“Research shows that children who don't learn to read by the end of third grade are likely to remain poor readers for the rest of their lives, and they're likely to fall behind in other academic areas, too. People who struggle with reading are more likely to drop out of high school, to end up in the criminal justice system, and to live in poverty.” - What in the world are we doing? I do see this in school, especially in Urban settings, so why are we not raising so much heck that this is getting fixed? I’m curious about how no child left behind factors into this as well, seeing as clearly there are still many children left behind.

“This was not just poverty. In fact, by some estimates, one-third of America's struggling readers are from college-educated families.” - It makes me wonder, is it home life? With how busy the world is nowadays, could it be the lack of parental home reading involvement? Both parents often work, so could it be an issue of that if it is not just poverty?

“The human brain isn't wired to read.” - Interesting. Why? I understand the learning process factor, but something so important to basic societal survival, why are we not more hardwired to read?

“He referred to letters of the alphabet as "bloodless, ghastly apparitions"” - While I can understand, especially for the english language, how letters can make reading confusing with all of their different rules and sounds, how is working on only vocabulary identification (word identification) going to be any better? Wouldn't kids get confused about why words are the way they are and have no explanation? Or even more so, when encountering new words they don't intrinsically know, wouldn’t it be the same process of if they were able to sound it out? Either way the student is going to have to research the word to define it, why is the extra step of phonetic awareness considered a bad thing? If its unfamiliar either way, would it not be better to at least be able to read the word before trying to comprehend?

"Is this your science or my science?" - While I understand different teaching philosophies, how do teachers not see researched facts as effective and factual?

Readerly Exploration 6 - Week 14 - 11/27/23

Rasinski (2012), “Why Reading Fluency Should Be Hot!” (CANVAS)

Applegate, Applegate & Modla (2011), “She's My Best Reader; She Just Can't Comprehend’: Studying the Relationship Between Fluency and Comprehension” (CANVAS) 

Big Takeaway

The big takeaway I think the authors wanted was that students are just being pushed for speed reading instead of both accuracy, fluency and comprehension, which is incredibly detrimental as they are able to read text, but not take anything away from it, either because they are too focused on the reading accuracy or speed itself, or because they are unable to read and comprehend at the same time.

Nugget

I think the nugget I got from these readings is that students are falling behind. While this concept is not entirely new, these readings helped reinforce the trend we are seeing in schools with students functioning at much lower levels than what they should be being at in their actual grade, which causes them to fall behind, lose motivation, and struggle as they grow up and need the skills they aren't learning more and more. When there is nothing to build on, you cant add more skills and expect students to just grasp things, so unfortunately there is just a struggle and cycle of lack of development due to the push to get as many kids caught up and together as possible, with or without cutting important learning corners.

Narration

First I read the articles and picked out the excerpts I wanted to use. Then I talked to my boyfriend about what I read in the texts and explained some of the concepts to them, as well as some pedagogical language, before summarizing a bit more about what we were going to be doing and why we were doing it. Then I set up a recording device and recorded his and my responses to the excerpts and each others responses, having a discussion with each other. With this, it was rather easy as he is in a family of teachers and hears from me about my adventures in school, as well as my rantings about the issues I see, and then we found it easy to talk about because he was able to understand what I was saying as well as speak from his own personal experience with his schooling and his heard stories. I found reading the study a bit difficult as always, those being hard to follow. What was fun about this was enjoying hearing my boyfriend’s thoughts as well as engaging him in discussions about what I am both learning and what we both see and hear about from school and family members, plus he said something really good towards the end about pushing kids through which made me think. I wanted to do this readerly exploration with him because of that reason, since I knew he’d have some form of context and connection with this topic, especially since he has shared before his complaints about the school system that he experienced. This exploration helped me think more about how we students my age today still may be affected by these schooling changes, and also the readings helped point out to me how far we are behind and how its only getting worse, so something needs to change, and it starts with this.

Explore relationships with other people through reading by using texts as a shared experience with another person/other people or to gain insight into the perspective of another person / Choose an excerpt from your assigned course reading(s) and share with a family (ish) member to get his or her insight and perspective on it.

“A growing number of studies are demonstrating that fluency is a major concern for students in grades 4 (Daane et al., 2005; Pinnell et al., 1995) and 5, in middle school (Morris & Gaffney, 2011; Rasinski et al., 2009), and in high school (Rasinski et al., 2005). Moreover, authentic fluency instruction as described earlier in this article has shown remarkable potential for helping a wide range of students beyond the primary grades improve their fluency, overall reading achievement, and motivation for reading.”

“The most obvious and disturbing element of these findings is that there may be a considerable number of teachers who are judging the reading proficiency of their students based solely on speed, accuracy, and prosody, divorced from thoughtful comprehension.”

Readerly Exploration 3 - Week 8 - 10/9/23

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 2, “Whole-Class Reading Instruction: High-Level Support for Learning”

Sipe (2002), “Talking Back & Talking Over: Young Children’s Expressive Engagement During Read Aloud Storybooks” (CANVAS)

The big takeaway that the first reading wanted to get across was that while independent reading is important, whole-group reading is also incredibly important because it is the time to teach new concepts and skills and gives way to teaching basic reading routines so that independent reading can then happen.

The big takeaway from the second reading is about expressive engagement and how important it is for students to interact with books in ways that give them multiple avenues to digest the story, such as inserting themselves into the story, creatively acting it out, correcting the books characters, making noises along with the text or pictures and more.

A nugget I liked was the responses children give for expressive engagement are often what teachers may perceive as off task instead of understanding and engaging with the content of the book. The fact that children are making motions or are asking questions or are yelling out in reaction to the story shows that they are comprehending and engaging and teachers may shut that down, not recognizing its actually good for the students.

To do this activity, I read the articles first of course, before going and picking the activity. After picking the book activity, I tried researching books that had to do with reading books to a class, which was probably not the most helpful search yield. Then I thought of my young school years and remembered the iconic book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and how teachers and classmates and even my parents found interesting ways to use that story for engagement and fun activities that facilitated learning. So I looked it up and reread the story, picturing reading it to a class and how the readings’ lessons would factor into the lesson I would be doing if I used the book, and I realized it fit into a lot of what the readings were talking about so I decided that I would write about it since it can be used for and tied into both reading topics. Nothing too interesting happened with this readerly exploration, but I did get to read the book again, after literally not touching or reading it since I was taking care of my younger siblings many years ago. It was good for me to do this readerly exploration though because it did give me a sense of how books like this can help with the reading topics, as well as give me ideas for what to look for and use in the future for my classroom!

[Read a wide variety of genres and formats of texts to grow in their knowledge and experiences as a reader - Find a fictional text that communicates the same or similar big ideas of the assigned reading and choose an excerpt that represents those shared ideals]

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle: I picked this book because it is easily able to be used for everything the articles talk about. It is really good for whole group reading, as it can be used for an interactive read aloud. It is also really good for dramatism, where the kids can act it out, dress up for it, and engage enthusiastically with it, its good for talking back, because it has a pattern to it, so the kids may be able to say it along with, or before the teacher, or be like “no don’t eat more! Whoa that's a lot!”, good for controlling/critiquing because the kids can criticize how much or what the caterpillar decides to eat, good for inserting since the kids can talk about how they would or would not eat something the caterpillar is, and its good for taking over because the kids can make a caterpillar, a rhyme, a costume, or anything really to go along with the book that allows for the child to take responsibility of the reading.

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 2, “Whole-Class Reading Instruction: High-Level Support for Learning”

Big Takeaway: The biggest takeaway from Chapter two was whole class instruction is useful for developing skills and knowledge that everyone needs. Whole class instruction in reading introduces new skills and concepts to students and addresses instructional needs that exist for the entire class. There are several methods that are useful to implement in whole class instruction: read aloud, shared readings, direct and deliberate instruction, and close readings.

Nugget: How to plan a successful interactive read-aloud was something new that I learned. You must first select an appropriate text that corresponds to the content being learned and provides opportunity for us as teachers to model some aspect of reading or thinking. There should also be a clear purpose of what it is the book is trying to teach the students. You should also practice and preview the reading before reading it to the students because that will allow you to pause effectively, add emphasis and inflections, and prepares you for any potential questions the students may have. Additionally, the preview will assist in the animation and expression you use while reading the text. Lastly, we need to discuss the text so students are allowed to interact with peers and provides them with an opportunity to think more deeply about the text.

Sipe (2002), “Talking Back & Talking Over: Young Children’s Expressive Engagement During Read-Aloud Storybooks”

Big Takeaway: The biggest takeaway from this text was that there are several reasons as to why valuing and encouraging children's talking back and taking over responses are important in the classroom. Children can make stories their own which is a powerful way for stories to affect their lives. It is also important because we know how to extend our theory of the literary understanding of young children to include these types of response. Lastly, it is also important to emphasize the idea of literacy pleasure and playfulness. By talking back and taking over, children are able to demonstrate a passion through engagement and playfulness.

Nugget: I had never heard of the five conceptual categories that describe the controversial turns that indicate expressive engagement. The first being dramatizing which is when teachers read dialogue and change the tone and volume of their voices to interpret those of the characters in the story. By acting out the story, children extend that performance to include themselves with actions, gestures, and expressive language. The second is talking back this is when the children respond verbally to the characters in the stories. Let's say a character says "I will beat you in the race!" and the children call out "No you won't!", this is an example of talking back. Critiquing and controlling is when children create or suggest alternative plots, characters, or settings. Another example of this is when the children critique the choices the author or illustrator made, or suggesting alternatives. Inserting is when children assume the role of story characters, or shove their classmates into the story. Lastly, taking over which is when the children abandon any attempt at interpretation of the story and treat it as a launching pad for the expression of their own creativity.

Readerly Exploration:

Readerly Habit: Read a wide variety of genres and formats of texts to grow in their knowledge and experiences as a reader.

Practicing Readerly Habits: Identify a song that communicates the same or similar big ideas of the assigned reading and choose an excerpt that represents those shared ideals.

For my readerly exploration, I chose the song Pure Imagination famously known as the song in Willy Wonka. This song reminds me that we were all born with powers of creativity. We use this power to create meaning by interacting with the world in new and different ways. Creativity is necessary for connections with the world around us and with others. I was reminded of this song while reading Sipes "Talking Back and Taking Over" when it discusses one of the five conceptual categories that describe the controversial turns that indicate expressive engagement. Taking over is when the children abandon any attempt at interpretation of the story and treat it as a launching pad for the expression of their own creativity. The children are able to read something as simple as a book and interpret it into their own meaning make out of it whatever they want to. This is the very definition of creativity and pure imagination. The song fits perfectly because the singer is explaining that the world can be whatever you want it to be and you can do whatever you want in this world because of your ability to imagine and create.

Lyrics to "Pure Imagination":

Come with me and you'll be In a world of pure imagination Take a look and you'll see Into your imagination We'll begin with a spin Traveling in the world Of my creation What we'll see Will defy explanation If you want to view paradise Simply look around and view it Anything you want to, do it Wanna change the world? There's nothing to it There is no life I know To compare with Pure imagination Living there, you'll be free If you truly wish to be If you want to view paradise Simply look around and view it Anything you want to, do it Wanna change the world? There's nothing to it There is no life I know To compare with Pure imagination Living there, you'll be free If you truly wish to be