Module 5 Summary

Video Analysis:

Word work really allows exposure to language concepts. Working together meets the needs of a variety of learners. Hands on learning exposes children to various learning concepts in which they can identify the learning task given. Teachers much have accountability in order to monitor student progress.

A talking word wall! This allows students to have the independence to find a word and listen to it be repeated without interrupting the teacher. The teacher created this using dot paper and an audio recording. What a fantastic learning opportunity. Often times word walls can create distractions. If the child is not familiar with a word it may be difficult for them to be able to correctly identify words on the word wall that actually benefit them. Audio word walls allow children to find a word and hear it be pronounced.

Spaces and Literacy:
Plan the room and implement a special place that works well for you and your students. Rooms should be utilized in order to maximize instruction. I need this book! I love how she mentions packing up your room at the end and to maximize the learning spaces by using up wall space for a good cause. This would save me so much time! I look forward to purchasing this book!!!!!! :)

Hand Pointers and Phonological Instruction:
Make a tap for each syllable heard during phonological awareness by using the hand pointer. First, allow students to tap, then show them a kinesthetic way to feel syllables by using their own body. Students will place their hand under their chin in order to feel the different syllables when speaking.

Overall, I found all of these videos to be very helpful. They are all so simple, but very realistic. Literacy is all encompassing, and children should be given several opportunities in order to express themselves while reading and writing. Literacy should range from subject to subject and should be continually engaging. Literacy leads to success. If you can read and comprehend then you can succeed anywhere within society. Literacy builds multiple foundations and is the key to learning.

Module 4 Summary

RTI 
Wright (2005) states “The quality of a school as a learning community can be measured by how effectively it addresses the needs of struggling students.” Response to Intervention (RTI) allows teachers and schools to come together and provide intensive interventions for struggling students. I believe this is an excellent way to establish a strong learning environment for all students and the RTI model can be easily adapted in order to promote a learning community. RTI requires a strong amount of progress monitoring and data collection in order to give research based interventions to aid in student success and learning.

          There are several advantages to implementing the RTI program. It is a way in which learning impairments are easily identified and students are offered a variety of interventions to promote successful learning for all students. RTI outlines specific procedures to be used based on the individual learning needs. This process has been proved to be effective for both teachers and parents. The RTI model helps teachers to outline the process in which students may be identified for special education services. The program allows intensive interventions that begin as soon as a student is thought to struggle or have difficulties retaining information.


Strategic Reading Instruction: 

There are many reading programs that can be adapted within a classroom. Each program has its own unique purpose. For example, the reading program can be core based, which meets the needs for most. There are also supplemental reading programs in which support the core of reading. Other reading programs can be utilized for reading intervention purposes, which meet the learning needs for each. 

Phonemic Awareness is understanding what reading is all about and the sounds and letter combinations that work together to form new sounds (phonograms). Phonemic awareness focuses on segmenting, blending and deleting the sounds we hear in speech. The alphabetic principle is the broad category in which phonemic awareness and phonics are included. Activities utilized within the classroom include word work, writing, investigations, and reading. This activities really build strong foundations when paired together to improve the understanding of phonemic awareness and phonics components when reading and writing. They really allow a transfer to be made. 

Once students are fluent in phonological awareness the comprehension components gradually come into play. Once students are fluent readers they are able to appropriately decode it is easier for them to understand what they have read. Good comprehension strategies take place before, during and after reading.  It is important to allow students to interact in picture walks, predictions, making connections, and asking questions. They should be able to infer and decode rapidly while reading. After reading students should be able to retell the story by including key details and the main idea.

All good readers require scaffolding. As teachers we must build the appropriate foundations of reading. Students need strong phonetic instruction in order to properly decode and thus building up to strong comprehension. 

Web Quests- Exploration of the Internet: 

Bernie Dodge describes a web quest to be an inquiry based activity in which most of the information used by learners is found on the web. Web quests are tools designed to help students focus their attention while guiding them to seek their information. Typically, they support learner's levels of thinking often including many levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Students must know their given task. This is stated at the beginning of the web quest and outlines the curricular intentions. The task should be doable, engaging and expands the student's learning. Tasks could focus on retelling, compilation, mystery, journalistic, design, creative products, consensus building, persuasion... etc.. The ideas are endless. Teachers should design the tasks, and provide all links that will guide student's learning. They should also provide a conclusion and extension for each web quest that is developed. 

Phonemic Awareness 3-Tier Model:

Most students with serious reading difficulties have problems reading words in lists.  Single word decoding problems in reading are primarily associated with problems primarily associated with problems segmenting words and syllables into phonemes (sounds). Students should be able to segment words and blend them back together by the first grade in order to grow as a successful reader. Phonemic awareness skills include rhyming words, sentence segmentation, compound word recognition, blending sounds and counting the syllables. Phonemic instruction should be systematic and explicit. Provide students with amble time to listen and watch by you modeling. They should also be given time to practice the skills on their own. The instruction should never be skipped, and should always be reviewed. 


Conquer the Code: 
Reading should be a life long process. Young readers should be surrounded with print in order to begin making needed connections in reading and writing. Students should be reading fluently with expression and comprehension by the third grade. Practice allows this to happen! Everyone gets better with practice, so why wouldn't you allow students to have many opportunities to practice reading all day not only at school, but also in their homes? For struggling readers it is important that we provide specific interventions based on what they need early on in the reading process. We want our students to be successful. There are 5 large components that make up strong readers and writers: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and text comprehension. 


Word Study & Vocabulary: 
Students use the words they hear in conversations, as well as what is on the TV and in movies. Students need to be exposed to broad contexts in order to develop broad exposure of new vocabulary. Teachers should be choosing vocabulary words that on are the student's instructional level, and they should be able to read and comprehend the meaning of the word. Students should see the words in multiple contexts in order to discover the meaning of the new vocabulary words. Teachers should provide students with extensive reading opportunities, instruction from the content and making meaning, larger more complex text pieces, and multiple exposures to the same word in order for students to build a firm vocabulary in which is actively used. Multiple connections should be developed in order for students to make genuine meaning of the word rather than just memorizing the vocabulary words. If students are actively using the words in contexts it is more likely they will remember the actual meaning of the word. Analogies are good tools to help guide students to make new meanings and connections. Using graphic organizers allow students to have a visual connection of multiple words. 

Word studies allow students to make logical decisions based on their prior knowledge. Word studies encourage students to think about various elements within the words. Word studies begin with the alphabetic principle and is dispersed throughout the grade levels with a new focus for each grade. Research says word studies are not the same for everyone, and students learn vocabulary through exposure. Repeated exposures should occur every 15-20 minutes when creating new vocabulary words to memory. 

Active Reading Strategies in Order to Improve Comprehension: 
While reading there are five key strategies that should be used in order to improve comprehension. Students should be involved in active reading by asking questions before, during and after reading. Students should visualize what they are reading, students should also infer and make predictions. Connections while reading also help students relate to what they are reading. Students should also respond while reading. With the aid of these strategies students will take control of the learning process and soon they will develop into avid readers.

Module 4: PowerPoint Presentations

Strategic Reading Instruction: 

There are many reading programs that can be adapted within a classroom. Each program has its own unique purpose. For example, the reading program can be core based, which meets the needs for most. There are also supplemental reading programs in which support the core of reading. Other reading programs can be utilized for reading intervention purposes, which meet the learning needs for each. 

Phonemic Awareness is understanding what reading is all about and the sounds and letter combinations that work together to form new sounds (phonograms). Phonemic awareness focuses on segmenting, blending and deleting the sounds we hear in speech. The alphabetic principle is the broad category in which phonemic awareness and phonics are included. Activities utilized within the classroom include word work, writing, investigations, and reading. This activities really build strong foundations when paired together to improve the understanding of phonemic awareness and phonics components when reading and writing. They really allow a transfer to be made. 

Once students are fluent in phonological awareness the comprehension components gradually come into play. Once students are fluent readers they are able to appropriately decode it is easier for them to understand what they have read. Good comprehension strategies take place before, during and after reading.  It is important to allow students to interact in picture walks, predictions, making connections, and asking questions. They should be able to infer and decode rapidly while reading. After reading students should be able to retell the story by including key details and the main idea.

All good readers require scaffolding. As teachers we must build the appropriate foundations of reading. Students need strong phonetic instruction in order to properly decode and thus building up to strong comprehension. 

Web Quests- Exploration of the Internet: 

Bernie Dodge describes a web quest to be an inquiry based activity in which most of the information used by learners is found on the web. Web quests are tools designed to help students focus their attention while guiding them to seek their information. Typically, they support learner's levels of thinking often including many levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Students must know their given task. This is stated at the beginning of the web quest and outlines the curricular intentions. The task should be doable, engaging and expands the student's learning. Tasks could focus on retelling, compilation, mystery, journalistic, design, creative products, consensus building, persuasion... etc.. The ideas are endless. Teachers should design the tasks, and provide all links that will guide student's learning. They should also provide a conclusion and extension for each web quest that is developed. 

Phonemic Awareness 3-Tier Model:

Most students with serious reading difficulties have problems reading words in lists.  Single word decoding problems in reading are primarily associated with problems primarily associated with problems segmenting words and syllables into phonemes (sounds). Students should be able to segment words and blend them back together by the first grade in order to grow as a successful reader. Phonemic awareness skills include rhyming words, sentence segmentation, compound word recognition, blending sounds and counting the syllables. Phonemic instruction should be systematic and explicit. Provide students with amble time to listen and watch by you modeling. They should also be given time to practice the skills on their own. The instruction should never be skipped, and should always be reviewed. 


Conquer the Code: 
Reading should be a life long process. Young readers should be surrounded with print in order to begin making needed connections in reading and writing. Students should be reading fluently with expression and comprehension by the third grade. Practice allows this to happen! Everyone gets better with practice, so why wouldn't you allow students to have many opportunities to practice reading all day not only at school, but also in their homes? For struggling readers it is important that we provide specific interventions based on what they need early on in the reading process. We want our students to be successful. There are 5 large components that make up strong readers and writers: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and text comprehension. 


Word Study & Vocabulary: 
Students use the words they hear in conversations, as well as what is on the TV and in movies. Students need to be exposed to broad contexts in order to develop broad exposure of new vocabulary. Teachers should be choosing vocabulary words that on are the student's instructional level, and they should be able to read and comprehend the meaning of the word. Students should see the words in multiple contexts in order to discover the meaning of the new vocabulary words. Teachers should provide students with extensive reading opportunities, instruction from the content and making meaning, larger more complex text pieces, and multiple exposures to the same word in order for students to build a firm vocabulary in which is actively used. Multiple connections should be developed in order for students to make genuine meaning of the word rather than just memorizing the vocabulary words. If students are actively using the words in contexts it is more likely they will remember the actual meaning of the word. Analogies are good tools to help guide students to make new meanings and connections. Using graphic organizers allow students to have a visual connection of multiple words. 

Word studies allow students to make logical decisions based on their prior knowledge. Word studies encourage students to think about various elements within the words. Word studies begin with the alphabetic principle and is dispersed throughout the grade levels with a new focus for each grade. Research says word studies are not the same for everyone, and students learn vocabulary through exposure. Repeated exposures should occur every 15-20 minutes when creating new vocabulary words to memory. 

Active Reading Strategies in Order to Improve Comprehension: 
While reading there are five key strategies that should be used in order to improve comprehension. Students should be involved in active reading by asking questions before, during and after reading. Students should visualize what they are reading, students should also infer and make predictions. Connections while reading also help students relate to what they are reading. Students should also respond while reading. With the aid of these strategies students will take control of the learning process and soon they will develop into avid readers.

Video Clips

Reading Rainbow new theme song: 
The new Reading Rainbow theme song creates the expectation that reading is fun. It includes children interacting with books and reading is fun. The song portrays that books can take you anywhere, as long as you are reading it is a good thing. I think it is important for teachers to remember this while teaching young learners to read. It is important that we surround our students with a wide range of text materials and allow them to choose the books they read. 

Essential Elements of Sentences in the First Grade:
They first name something (rabbit). Next, they turned to their partner to tell what the rabbit did (The rabbit ate carrots). The students are sharing parts of the sentences. They put what something is with what that something does. This is a great way to incorporate the two parts of a sentence. The children take turns adding in the parts of the sentences together. 

 First, name something (wagon). then tell what the wagon does. The wagon rolled away. Remember to place a capital at the beginning of the sentence. The teacher then reminds students to put the appropriate punctuation at the end of the sentences. 

In order to expand their thinking, the teacher explains that you can add where into the sentences. The students were very involved in the learning process and really learned about the parts of sentences by collaborating with others. 

Module 4 RTI

Getting Started With ‘Response to Intervention’: A Guide for Schools

Jim Wright

www.interventioncentral.org

January 2006

Wright (2005) states “The quality of a school as a learning community can be measured by how effectively it addresses the needs of struggling students.” Response to Intervention (RTI) allows teachers and schools to come together and provide intensive interventions for struggling students. I believe this is an excellent way to establish a strong learning environment for all students and the RTI model can be easily adapted in order to promote a learning community. RTI requires a strong amount of progress monitoring and data collection in order to give research based interventions to aid in student success and learning.

          There are several advantages to implementing the RTI program. It is a way in which learning impairments are easily identified and students are offered a variety of interventions to promote successful learning for all students. RTI outlines specific procedures to be used based on the individual learning needs. This process has been proved to be effective for both teachers and parents. The RTI model helps teachers to outline the process in which students may be identified for special education services. The program allows intensive interventions that begin as soon as a student is thought to struggle or have difficulties retaining information.

          There are several steps that should be utilized when using the RTI model. The first step is for the teacher to identify where that student is when compared to their peers of their same age level. They will then create new learning goals for the student. Next, they must discuss the reasons to poor academic achievement and whether or not students are making progress. Then an intervention is determined in which to use to make steady progress in the learning process. Scientifically based interventions are more likely to make a difference in the learning process.  In order to frequently evaluate the student’s progress, progress monitoring must be used. If the students are still failing and making little progress, special education services may be looked at and analyzed. Interventions and goals should be based on the specific norms for the student’s age group.

          Teachers must assess the student’s individual learning needs based on several factors such as, skill deficits, ‘fragile’ skills, and performance (deficit) or motivation. If a student fails to respond to several, repeated interventions, then a referral to special education is something to consider. In order to implement the RTI model effectively there are some ideas that schools should stick too. For example, it is crucial to establish a structured format for problem solving, and the school must be willing to adapt multiple ways to effectively progress monitor in order to have multiple assessment tools. Schools should first adapt educational research based learning strategies to utilize during the RTI model.