This week’s readings focused on various aspects of comprehension, including strategies for teacher instruction, strategies for student understanding, and how to assess comprehension. The role of the teacher plays a crucial part in reading comprehension, as the chapters have stated. The teachers set the class environment for rich learning experiences and use different strategies to scaffold student understanding. The Read, Stop, Think, Ask, Connect Strategy and strategies taught in guided reading lessons (previewing, predicting, visualizing, etc.) were just a few instructional methods we read about this week. Are the strategies discussed in the readings similar to your practices inside the classroom? What are some differences and similarities between your comprehension instruction and the examples from the texts? Where there any unfamiliar strategies that you would like to bring back to your own classroom?
Teaching within a themed unit was also an instructional method for teaching comprehension that we read about this week. Luckily, my district purchased a curriculum that develops themed units and includes stories similar in concepts and ideas for the students, so it is not a struggle to stay within a theme when teaching comprehension. However, supplemental activities and lessons are always great to include for deeper understanding in concepts. Whether you are provided with a themed literacy curriculum or not, how do you go about finding literacy resources and materials to use for your themed units in your classroom? Do you feel that the students are fully understanding the comprehension skills and strategies taught within this instructional method? What might be some pros and cons for developing themed units and lessons that you would advise novice teachers?
Along with themed units, videos, the internet, and other modes can be used to keep students engaged. These sources provide students with not only verbal learning experiences, but nonverbal as well. When do you incorporate videos into your instruction? Are there any "go to" videos or website you find yourself sharing with your students? Do you follow up on these videos or internet resources and keep your instruction continuous or do you use it once and just move on to the next concepts?
I do use strategies similar to the Read/Stop/Think -- although some of my students are in different grades--not just primary grades. I also use parts of this strategy for fictional texts as well. In fact, just today we used this when reading our book Spiderwick. My students respond well when I use the read/aloud think aloud process as outlined in Table 2-- although for fiction I will do this process at the end of just reading one page--depending on the information we have covered.
ReplyDeleteI use themed units for my younger group (math and ELA- all other subjects they are in the general education classroom). I find it extremely valuable when exposing them to vocabulary to see, hear, read, write the same words across subjects. It takes much, much planning-- at least for my group. Does anybody feel the same way?. Page 59 in DS&G states, " sustained interaction creates engagement with a topic"--but I believe for my group, repeated exposure builds vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteKaren,
DeleteI feel the same way about using themed units for my therapy sessions. I find it to be much more effective to do a theme unit so that they can "see, hear, read, and write" as you said Karen. No matter what the area I am working with (comprehension, articulation, fluency (stuttering), I believe it is a highly effective instruction method. It takes quite a bit of planning but my students tend to enjoy it more and it gives them a better context with which to associate with what they have learned and more likely to recall the information later.
Karen,
DeleteDeveloping a themed curriculum really does take a lot of time looking for related stories, developing activities, finding resources, and so much more. Like I mentioned earlier, the Wonders curriculum that our district adopted does really great with correlating concepts, vocabulary, and skills within a theme. In result, we only need to find supplemental activities and resources to help with the practice of skills. Our 2nd grade team uses a lot of videos found on Safari Montage, youtube, and other online resources to provide our students with music, visuals, and nonverbal learning.
Melinda,
DeleteThemed units really do allow the students to get more practice with seeing, hearing, reading, and writing about the same idea throughout the weeks. During the units, comprehension strategies become much easier to teach and practice due to the constant review of skills. Themed units also help with developing prior knowledge for meaningful and deeper understandings of skills later on in the curriculum (p. 59, DS&G). The Wonders curriculum that we practice provides many comprehension strategy skills to teach throughout the weeks. Think alouds, text to text/self/world connections, visualizing, predicting, and inferencing are a few skills that are explained step by step for the teacher to help with instruction. These comprehension skills help the students comprehend the text and acquire new knowledge as they build on their self-extending system.
I also incorporate videos and activities using the Smartboard, and we also use the iPads and laptops as well. My students all respond well to the use of videos and I tend to only use song videos with my younger group and more content related videos for my older group. With any technology, I do pause the video (not typically the songs--those are usually straightforward) and use strategies to ensure my students understand what they are seeing and hearing. I also pick one or two books that also has a movie to motivate my students ( Where The Red Fern Grows, Hatchet are a few examples). We watch the movie after finishing the book and then we extend our learning by completing activities which compare/contrast the movie and book.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever used GoNoodle Karen?
DeleteKaren, I also use videos to teach comprehension strategies with read. We recently just watch a book that had some pages of the actual book but also added in scenes that were more real life. This video was similar to the one that the author described about the taxi's in the text. I would stop and pause the video as the students heard cause and effect clue words and we'd discuss those. The students were much more engaged in this than they would've been having had learned it via a worksheet. When I reading this chapter I couldn't help but think of my fifth grade students that I've taught in the past, and how much more engaged they became with US history once they were able to watch the event s through video. Being able to watch what the text was trying to explain, made literacy come alive for them. As the author stated, opportunities to engage our students with authentic experiences like videos or field trips truly to allow students to become better comprehenders. This is especially true for students who come from families that may not be able to afford these experiences for their children. After reading this chapter, I feel "armed" in a sense to be able to explain to administrators why I use the tools that I do for teaching. I loved reading about why these strategies are helpful and the purposes for using them. A lot of the strategies mentioned in this chapter are strategies that I see commercially produced literacy materials trying to mimic. For example, the author explained how after a research study, several basals started to include a plethora of genres. I have also seen this with videos, as our wonders reading curriculum always uses a video at the start of each week to build background on the week's theme. I am thankful that I have this tool, because I know how time consuming it can be to find those materials, although it is also well worth the time.
DeleteWe love using digital videos in second grade, especially for literacy concepts. Our team finds many great songs and engaging videos for our students concerning grammar, there are free ebooks to access, and much more on YouTube and Safari Montage. The students loves these, because they're catchy, the songs will stay in their memories and you will hear them singing it throughout the day, and you can repeat them over and over again when you have free time (which will help build vocabulary if tier 2 or tier 3 words are present) (p. 69, DS&G). We also like to watch live video cams of various animals in their habitats, just so they can develop the nonverbal knowledge of concepts, especially if they have not experienced it first hand.
DeleteMelinda,
DeleteGoNoodle is one of our favorite websites!! The brain breaks are so much fun and sometimes it throws in some uncommon vocabulary words that intrigue the students! I haven't come across any videos that are academic, but if you know of some I would love for you to share!
Theresa my students love the brain breaks too! I was just reading somewhere today that there were academic videos and I got really excited. If I find any I will be sure and share!!
DeleteMelinda,
DeleteYes! I love GoNoodle. Our PE teachers use it as well since they have two screens in the gym. So, not only do my kids love it, as it seems all kids do.!
I also have a personal Netflix account--Bill Nye the Science Guy is a favorite as well as The Magic School Bus.
I don't have a curriculum for reading so I have to make up my own--maybe that is the exhausting part for me.
DeleteNational Geographic Kids is another site I use--they have some useful videos as well. On Page 69, "the most basic reason for interjecting videos into a unit it to create a vicarious experience for children" and I think with technology today, it can be such a useful tool.
I have also used Nearpod--which is great if you have iPads for every student which I know most don't. It is interactive and you can get immediate feedback from the way the lessons are set up ( or create your own).
One more tool I use--EPIC app on the iPad. Some of the books are read aloud( with a real voice, not a computer one) --its great--there is a wide selection of books and genres.
DeleteTeresa, we are very fortunate to have access to the themed units in wonders. As I was reading this chapter, I really enjoyed the information. I have known that these strategies are important, but chapter four really helped me to see why we teach the way we do. It validated for me that what I do is the right thing. For example on page 63, the authors pointed out that they were pleased that the teachers used in the example planned their teaching according to the standards not just the commercial bought set of materials. I had always been taught in my teaching classes that teachers shouldn’t always rely on the teaching basal. However, I have been in some districts were I’ve been told to use nothing but the district curriculum. Even with our themed wonders unit that we have now though, I still feel to go out and find supplemental material that better meets our standards. I like that Wonders incorporates the videos as well, because like the text mentioned it really has helpy to build my students prir knowledge and build their concept vocabulary. After watching the videos, the students and I always make a web of words that go with the theme. The showing of the video acts as a great springboard for our week. As the students read more about the weekly concept/theme they add to the web. In the text the author mentioned how students will use the charts placed around the room to help their writing. In my own class, I definitely think this is a benefit of themed lessons because I too have seen how with each new book my students read on the topic their knowledge grows, and so does our class web, as well as the depth of vocabulary used in their writing.
ReplyDeleteJamie,
DeleteI'm so happy to hear that you steer away from the curriculum at times as well. There are many days where I take some and leave some from the lessons and make it my own by finding more engaging and relatable content. I love bringing nonfiction stories and lessons to teach the students, because it really engages them because it is so applicable to their life. We do lots of projects in to classroom as supplemental practice as well. During center time, I give my students a choice board of projects to work on. Some options may be research-based and the students need to gather facts to create a poster or complete an activity. Another activity requires the students to read and research a specific concept and create a collage or art piece. Other projects may be to create an object using materials provided to represent a subject. Projects really keep the students engaged and apply the skills they learn to their work (p 74, DS&G).
Theresa,
ReplyDeleteI use videos at times in my therapy sessions but I am very interested in hearing how the rest of you incorporate them in your classroom lessons. I like using PBSkids.org (Between the Lions) as well as Do2Learn.com. There are many preliteracy activities and clips that are engaging for students. I don't have a smart board or a student computer in my room, or I might use websites more. At other times I'm almost glad I don't have much technology in my room. I go back and forth!!
Melinda, I like to use safari montage as well as the history channel. Readworks also has lessons sometimes that people have already found the videos for you to use to teach strategies. There is a cause and effect one that I recently used that was really good. This is the second chapter that has mentioned using video or audio recordings to teach comprehension. After reading about this strategy throughout this semester, it is definitely a tool I plan to keep using. The author explained that the visual support allows for students to comprehend and make inferences at a higher level than they may be able to with even a read aloud. This statement made me consider how beneficial this might be for my students who really use of all of their cognitive energy for decoding which takes away from their ability to comprehend like they might be able to. I think it is important for the struggling readers to still be able to practice those comprehension skills at grade level, and this seems like an effective means of doing so. Especially since the author explained on page 69, that the ability to comprehend a narrative seems to transfer across print, video, and texts.
DeleteMelinda,
DeleteI use Safari Montage very often and the kids love it too. There are so many different videos that can be accessed through this search engine. You can also find multiple videos of the same concept, so the students get repeated vocabulary and multiple exposures of the same idea. For literacy, I also use Bookflix, PebbleGo, Starfall, and StorylineOnline. These websites are also available for the students to access during computer time, so they can go back and watch them again during their free time or at home. It's great the share them after teaching a concept to provide extra instruction and exposure. They provide verbal learning experiences, as well as nonverbal as the settings and other important features are illustrated.
Thanks for all the great ideas!!
DeleteThanks ladies for a stimulating discussion on the ideas and the relation to your classrooms. Sorry I'm so late in reading this.
ReplyDelete