Assessing Reading and Language Instruction - Research Paper Example

?Reading ASSESSMENT OF READING AND LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION December 6, Introduction Reading at the first grade level is a time for the child to learn to read and read to learn. This is a very important time for it is a time for the children to learn about what makes a word. The children will learn that the letters they learned in earlier grades will form words and from the new words they learn will tell a story. To be more exact the children will learn word formation, word recognition skills through the use of Phonics and Literature. The children will continue to read pictures and to improve their basic comprehension skills. First Grade Observation In my observation of the first grade classroom the students’ desks were setup in groups of six. The teachers’ desk was placed by the classroom door. The room was decorated with many posters and projects that the children had completed. The room had many bulletin boards that were used for classroom jobs and notes that the students could look at like the lunch menu and any important classroom events that they can pass on to their parents. Some bulletin boards were to show off their art work in the other areas of the curriculum. There was an independent reading area, a game area, a listening area for stories and music, an art area and a writing area. There was a section of the classroom that could be used to practice the skills with the other students and/or the teacher. The area for direct reading instruction was in the front of the room but to the left where there were many charts with the necessary skills that they are going to learn on the journey to learn reading. The teacher also led shared reading experiences here along with language experience where the students could share a story they “wrote” to the class. There was also a variety of books of all classifications that they can choose and read from. . Reading Instruction and the Curriculum Used In a first grade classroom Reading is considered a subject where students will learn to use word recognition skills and learn about consonants and vowels through Phonics and the Bottom- up theory to Reading. Reading is a subject that must build on what the children already know. These children will bring what they learned at home from watching their parents reading the newspaper, writing notes and lists, reading the mail they received like they did in preschool and Kindergarten. The teacher will need to assess these children to see what the level they will be at during the school year. The children will need to start to make relationships between the pictures and words and to put these ideas together to understand a story that they are reading. The children will learn that the alphabet is the beginning of words. The first grader learns that letters and their arrangement matters in the words that they are learning and reading. First graders are still emergent readers and they will want to learn how to spell and then write the words that they are learning. The first grade classroom teacher must give plenty of opportunities to read and write words. They will learn that reading and writing is their way of communication. They will learn about the concepts of print and that the print represents the spoken words, they have boundaries, and are read from left to right. (Gunning, 2005) Reading can be taught in the classroom by using direct instruction and by using learning centers that were around the classroom. They will also use learning centers for Art, Music and even Computer education. The children can practice their reading and writing using their Dolch Vocabulary List and continue to practice even more sight words. Using these words the children can read and write notes and letters and drawing pictures. Reading is for exploration. “When the parents and/or the teacher read to the children they learn and develop vocabulary, expand their experiental background and makes them aware of the language of books and introduces them to basic concepts of print and how books are read and provides them with many pleasant associations with books. The children will know the power of books to create worlds based on word and story structures.” (Gunning, 2005) This starts in preschool and continues through higher grades. Reading will be interactive in the beginning but the children will assimulate to reading and listen more. Make sure that the first grader can understand what is being read. The teacher should plan to read aloud in teaching sessions on a regular basis and in these sessions the teacher should point out the beginning pages of the book as well as the story pages, for example the title page and the page that tells about the author and talk about them. When reading the story the teacher should stop reading and ask some questions about the story like ‘What do you think will happen next? Or “What do you think of the story so far? Doing this will develop story structure, build comprehension, and make personal connections. You will also develop their language and thinking skills. The teacher can also use theme units to help the children make connections with the community. The teacher can also use shared reading and language experience. Shared reading is when the children use what they have seen at home with parents and grandparents and what they observe with them and those interactions the children discover what the purpose of books are and they receive the satisfaction when they pick up a book and enjoy it to its’ fullest potential. They will figure out the concept of books. The teacher can also use language experience, which is based on real life situations and experiences. The child will tell their story with the teacher writing down just as the children are reciting. The teacher will write just as the children tell it with all the invented spellings of various words they used. If the children want to make changes to the story the teacher can make the changes with the child’s help. The child will read and re-read the story they wrote over and over again. When they do this they will want to re-write and this will start an interest in writing and spelling and build even more vocabulary. The teacher and the child can even make these stories into a book with all the words and pictures they may have drew earlier. The First Grade Curriculum In a first grade classroom there is a set curriculum for Reading. The teachers in first grade classrooms must teach the following topics: 1. Print and numeracy awareness 2. Understand and use an increasing complex vocabulary 3. Develop and demonstrate an appreciation of books “In Head Start children know that the letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named, recognize them as a word unit of print, identify at least 10 letters of the alphabet, and associate sounds with the written words.” (Gunning, 2005) Children must learn reading sequentially and that it is a process and a form of communication that uses beginning language. Learning to read is increasing their thinking skills and their oral language skills. Language experience is a way for children to read more interesting and personal type stories, but the teachers must still know how to teach the sequential steps to Reading skills for the emergent reader. Skills needed for Emergent Readers 1. The child must move from the known to the unknown 2. Move from the simple to the complex 3. From the old to the new (Zintz, 1989) In the first grade classroom ‘Readiness’ is the key word. Children will vary in the skills that they do know and what they do not know, their attention span, they will learn what is of value to them. According to Holdaway he defined “literacy set” as being composed of motivational factors, linguistic factors, operational factors and orthographic factors.” Their expectations, oral and written language skills, ability to work with print and show knowledge of the conventions of print. (Zintz, 1989) In a first grade reading curriculum the use of children’s literature “one must acknowledge that understanding can increase enjoyment still sometimes insist that such understanding cannot be actively taught.” In a book entitled ‘Literature for Young Children’ by Joan I. Glazer says that “literature is more experienced than taught and also according to Charlotte Huck “Children are developing. . . . a way of thinking about books. This should be encouraged and taught.” (Nodelman, 2003) Children need to make connections between what they read and what they see in the community which they live. According to Aidan Chambers in a discussion devoted to teaching children strategies for reading literature, and work that has persuaded us that children have an innate critical faculty for literature. Children instinctively question, report, compare and judge. Good teaching merely acknowledges and builds on the basic human instincts. These are basic skills that a practical curriculum teaches in all concept areas. Curiousity and questioning is big in this type of classroom. (Nodelman, 2002) A first grade classroom must have a variety of books available and these are: 1. Baby Books 2. Participation Books 3. Finger plays 4. Nursery rhymes 5. Alphabet books 6. Counting books 7. Concept books 8. Wordless books 9. Common experience books 10. Predictable books 11. Controlled vocabulary books All of these books and the skills they teach are all interconnected and build on one another. Starting with Baby books which teach the children to name and recognize objects and then go on to teach about the senses and helps children questions and answers, learning through rhyme and music with what is called participation books. The children can learn identification and naming skills with Alphabet books and continue to learn one to one correspondence and mathematical concepts with Counting books as well learn how to work with puzzles and read number stories. Children will learn all about making classifications, relationships when dealing with size, color, weight and location. Using Children’s Literature in a Preschool Reading Program can also teach various abstract skills as love, sharing, death and other common experiences and concerns of the child. Children also learn about predictability when using predictable books for these teach through repetition of words, language, story patterns and sequencing. After the child has reached mastery of these skills in the preschool curriculum and then they can move on to Controlled-vocabulary books like the many Basal reading series that may be used in the next level of education. In the first grade classroom the students still like to read some of the books they read when they were younger and they can practice their reading with books they already know. According to Peter Hunt from his book ‘Understanding Children’s Literature’ he wrote a note about using Picture books.”Picture books are commonly assumed to be the province of the very young or pre-literate child-a simple form that is beneath serious critical notice. However, they can be seen as children’s literature’s one genuinely original contribution to literature in general; they are a polyphonic form that embodies many codes, styles, textual devices and intertextual references and which frequently pushes at the boundaries of convention. . . . the young child can learn about the process of reading pictures.” (Hunt, 1999) Being a teacher in a first grade classroom and teaching the subject of reading it should be one of still making discoveries. Reading is also a subject where children can learn how to make comparisons and contrasts of what is in one’s environment. Reading at this level should be fun, but should start to be structured so children at this age can learn the necessary skills of understanding what to do with books. In working in a first grade classroom teachers must be able to show relationships of what is done in school and home can be done through the books they ‘read’. In trying to define a first grade curriculum one must be able to make changes to see what works for the child. Some first grade classrooms are strictly Phonics based and some are Phonics and Literature. I feel that a first grade curriculum should be both Phonics and Literature based. Once the children learn the parts of the words like the rules for vowels and consonants they can learn that these rules help to bring comprehension to what the whole word is and can now learn what it means. Children will learn to read through the use of books that are available and the skills will be learned through practice and experience. Reading is fun and should be used in a fun way. A first grade classroom is nothing without children’s literature and all that may include. Children’s literature allows for art, music, movement, and drama activities and along with these they will learn all about encoding and decoding their words and they will get their messages across and make themselves understood. Data Analysis In this first grade classroom the teacher and the students worked together. The Students were given a chance to lead part of the lesson depending on the concept to be taught. The teacher would start a lesson with a question, for example “What do you think of when the leaves change color?” This was a question at the beginning of a Language Arts lesson. The students were allowed to ask any questions but it had to pertain to the lesson. The teacher always had at least two to three activities for lesson practice or enrichment. Some the teacher lessons did include the senses to help in learning and one time the teacher made a no-bake recipe and even included taste when it was appropriate to the lesson. The teacher was able to even include sight word practice to see if they could read them and to see if they knew how to use them in language development. The teacher expected the children to use full sentences in giving answers and to try and explain if the answers were a ‘yes or no’ answer. The students were able to make simple connections of what they were learning in class and what they did at home. Some of the children were telling the teacher that is not how my mom or dad does it. The teacher was always there to help them when they needed it. There was always a question and answer period during the lessons. The teacher was very conscientious in checking for understanding. She always taught new vocabulary words when she could. Students were able to share what they had learned and were able to share how ideas were related to their life. The teacher always did a 15 to 20 minute lesson to introduce a skill and the rest of the time the students to activity centers to work on projects dealing with the new skill that was taught in the lesson and the other activities where to review the other skills that were previously taught. The teacher used the technique of story-mapping and how this reading skill could work across the curriculum. The students like to read to each and help each other out. They enjoyed all types of creative writing projects where they could make up stories and then they could write them down and make a book, they could also act the story out with their friends, or they could draw their stories in pictures. The teacher even offered a basic Spanish lesson when a Reading story or a Social Studies lesson would allow for it to happen. All activities were age-appropriate. The activities allowed the children to express themselves and they were able to share if they wanted to as long as it fit in with a particular lesson. The classroom was a fun place to learn through role play, drama, art, music and movement activities. Sharing was expected at times when trying to help the shy child learn to express themselves. Conclusion In my observation of this first grade classroom it was a very good place to learn to read. The teacher used various forms of children’s literature from all levels from the preschool level to the early third grade level. When the children would pick up a book they have read when in preschool or kindergarten they would go to the toy center and read that book to a doll or stuffed animal they picked and act like the teacher. The teacher was very well organized during the day. The teacher in this room would even ask the students their opinions of what they would like to learn and what they would like to read. There was a good selection of trade books available in this classroom and the children could talk about this book and share what they liked about it. First grade reading is still about getting the experience with books, but also learning that books are for learning what they need to know. References Gunning, Thomas G. Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students; Chapter 3 Fostering Emergent/Early Literacy Pearson Allyn & Bacon 5th edition 2005 Huck, Charlotte S., Hepler, Susan, & Hickman, Janet. Children’s Literature In the Elementary School; Chapter 4 Books to Begin On 4th edition Holt, Rinehart, Winston 1987 Hunt, Peter. Understanding Children’s Literature; Chapter 9 Decoding the Images How picture books work by Perry Nodelman, 2nd edition Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 1999 Nodelman, Perry & Reimer, Mavis. The Pleasures of Children’s Literature; Chapter 3- Teaching Children’s Literature 3rd edition Allyn & Bacon 2003 Zintz, Miles V. & Maggart, Zelda, R. The Reading Process the teacher and the learner; Chapter 6- Teaching Beginning Reading Wm. C. Brown Publishers 1989 Read More