When children enter school, it is important for teachers to understand that each child brings with them their own set of experiences and background knowledge. Some children are fortunate to bring with them a strong vocabulary, which can translate to these students having between 4,000 and 8,000 more word meanings by the second grade than their peers with weak vocabularies, therefore it is important to intervene in the early grades to help prevent such a vast discrepancy and strengthen the vocabulary of the students who enter school less prepared. This article represents the findings of adding small-group interventions to first grade classroom’s Read Aloud Curriculum with the expectation that it would improve vocabulary for students identified …show more content…
“A Read Aloud Curriculum integrates intentional direct comprehension and explicit vocabulary instruction into read alouds while maintaining the integrity of an authentic read aloud experience that would be highly engaging for students (Fien, et al., 2011).” The Read Aloud program is structures as to “(a) set a purpose for reading, (b) building vocabulary knowledge, (c) making text-to-text and text-to-life connections, and (d) having students retell stories or information on a regular basis (Fien, et al., 2011).” The problem is that Read Alouds by themselves do not help close the gap between children who enter school with strong vocabularies and children who enter school with weak vocabularies, accordingly the gap between students with strong and weak vocabularies only grows as the children progress through school. Another setback for students with weak vocabularies is that there is a direct link between word knowledge and comprehension, consequently the children with weak vocabularies will struggle with comprehension. Small-group instruction shows promise in improving student’s vocabularies thus improving their comprehension. By spending more time with the text and receiving instruction in a group of 2-5 students, those with weak vocabularies have shown improvement in their word knowledge and
“The more you read, the more things you know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” This is how Dr. Seuss thought of reading, and I think of it in much the same way. Literacy is everywhere and influences us every day, therefore, it plays a major part in each of our lives. I believe that reading is an interactive activity in which learning happens, or as Clay (2001) defines it, “…a message-getting, problem-solving activity” (p. 1). Reading is the process through which one reads information and from doing so, constructs meaning about the material. The more exposure and practice one has with reading, the more knowledge one gains. In this paper, I will begin by discussing my own personal educational philosophy, then continue by stating and explaining four of my beliefs about the reading process and the research that is found to support each of them before sharing the remaining questions I have about literacy. I am an existentialist, and a strong supporter of a balanced literacy approach. My beliefs about literacy come from these foundations and perspectives that I embrace. For students to be successful in their literacy development, I believe that identity acceptance in the classroom is crucial, instruction for all students must be differentiated, direct and explicit instruction is at times necessary, and vocabulary is a significant component in the ‘Big Five’ of children’s literacy development.
The reason I conclude this is because I was unable to read the book in less than ten minutes with emotion. Though I manipulated the ‘I do, we do, you do’ strategy, I was incapable of properly using the strategy. Because I have never utilized the ‘I do, we do, you do’ strategy, it was challenging to carry out. What I think would benefit me for future read aloud lessons would be to create my own detailed lesson plan. Also, for future read aloud lessons, I must practice at least a week in advance before I teach, because the time frame in which I had to get prepared was
In a similar study by Pentimonti and Justice (2009), preschool teachers used scaffolds as a way to gain language and literacy ideas that may be significant to children who are struggling. This method will help struggling children to be more effective. When the whole group read aloud, the teacher used high and low support scaffolds. Teachers used videotaped classroom surveillance to conduct whole group read aloud sessions in their respective classroom. Young students figure out how to discuss words, stories and characters, and answer questions about these components of the content through the joint read-aloud communication. Perusing resoundingly gives a connection through which adults and kids share a joint subject center which bears an open
“Anderson, what’s the DOW stock valued at today?” inquires a wealthy businessman, with a hint of concern. In the world of wealth management, this is not an uncommon question, considering that stock holders obsess about their return on investment. Similarly, in the world of academia and educational research, authorities obsess about effective instruction and frequently ask, “what is the current value of literacy?” Educator Jim Trelease uses his book to answer this (The Read-Aloud Handbook, 2013). Academically, Trelease gives readers a synopsis of why classrooms need reading aloud time and how they can capitalize it; in addition to the facts, Jim uses a personal tone to remind readers that literacy education is an investment in everyone’s future.
Bryan Campus (mother, Edith Sanchez). Spoke to both parent and case manager (Byran has an IEP for ADD) and we have a meeting on Wednesday, December 9th at 10:00 am at Winton MS.
One third of schools in the United States are located within rural areas. Rural areas are known to be small towns where people are known for a southern way of life. These areas are also known for high poverty and geographic seclusion. With these characteristics for an environment, it is difficult to maintain an upright school atmosphere. Most schools in rural areas are lacking high qualified teachers and the school itself is failing to develop strategies to help struggling readers in early elementary school.
The purpose of this study was to investigate if small-group instruction as an addition to the Read Aloud Curriculum could improve 1st grade student’s scores in vocabulary knowledge, comprehension through retelling a narrative and retelling learned facts from an expository text.
* Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning about key events, ideas and information in texts that they listen to, view and read by drawing on growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features (ACELY1660), (ACARA, 2012). Learning to read is essentially learning to decode and understand the words/language written in the story and to construct meanings from those words (literacy) (Nicole & Roberts, 1993). The more language the children (and adults) hear and read the more developed their vocabulary will become (Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998, Nicole & Roberts, 1993, Anderson et al, 1985). Reading fluency is enhanced with an enlarged
Reading aloud can be used to provide motivation and enjoyment, build background and develop academic vocabulary, teach specific strategies and skills for comprehension, and model fluent reading. Along with these purposes there are two different kinds of read-alouds: general and instruction. A general read aloud is used to great enjoyment in reading for the students and also create a motivation for students to read independently. Instructional read-aloud builds background knowledge for the students and introduces new concepts they may have not heard or learned
An intervention program that is less time-consuming than a 1:1 approach are small group programs. Small group programs are effective because of the social interaction between the teacher and students (Ross & Begeny, 2011). Fien et al. (2011) quantitative study observed the “effect of small group instruction on the vocabulary and comprehension of first-grade students” (p. 307). Researchers divided 102 first graders into two groups: small group or whole-class reading curriculum. Results suggested that students in the small group outperformed the students in the control group on expository retells (.89 points) and vocabulary knowledge (5.89 points) (Fien et al, 2011). Another small group program that enhances students reading fluency and
Storytelling and “talk and literacy” can be both considered to be two great activities that teachers and parents can include in everyday experiences. Sharing picture books, listening to a story aloud, drawing, coloring and early writing are all samples of literacy; however, reading aloud helps students gain experiences for later samples where students may transfer comprehension to writing. Listening also increases engaged conversation, while offering insight of comprehension of text (Early literacy development, 2006). When introduced properly oral language development should increase in areas such as inexpressive skills, receptive, and vocabulary usage.
Instructional processes for reading instruction have been argued about throughout time, though it has since been studied and determined that success in reading relates to acquisition of phonological awareness and word knowledge (National Reading Panel, 2000, p. 2-1). Word knowledge is the association of sounds and meaning, later transcribed to a symbolic system used to decode reading. Though without phonemes, the written language becomes ‘arbitrary’ (Yopp & Yoop, 2000, p. 131). Whilst these features are detrimental to language and literacy learning in
Read alouds are important component of the Elementary Language Arts classroom because it helps students with new vocabulary words, comprehension skills and encourages them to like and participate in the reading. Read alouds allow students to ask questions about the story so they can get a better understanding of what they are reading. When a teacher chooses a specific strategy to share with the class, she is asking them to play close attention and explore the strategy with him/her. It allows students to use their listening skills and pay close attention to listen for the words that rhyme or to make connections to their own life.
This article explains the theoretical underpinnings of vocabulary instruction and its importance to content area teaching. Additionally, the article provides four methods for educators to implement vocabulary learning in their classrooms. The article begins by indicating that vocabulary is a “predictor” for reading comprehension ability and students’ reading performance. Moreover, when a reader knows more words they can read more complex texts and write with more sophistication. The authors note that vocabulary knowledge needs intensify as students move up the middle and upper-secondary grades, with students needing to know well over 88,500 word families by the time they enter the ninth grade. In order to meet this need, content area teachers should focus not on direct instruction of vocabulary - e.g., assigning vocabulary list for defining and using in sentences - but rather focus on more context dependent vocabulary instruction. The recommended methods for teaching vocabulary in the secondary grades include: assigning (1) wide reading (reading 60 mins a day = 2,250,000 words a year); (2) select specific words and phrases to teach; (3) model word solving; and (4) utilize words in discussion. Ultimately, vocabulary is central to content area learning and it is important for vocabulary to
When data from students who had average accuracy and fluency scores, but lower comprehension scores were compared to data from those with similar accuracy and fluency but average comprehension, the consistent differences were found to be lower oral language and vocabulary skills in the poor comprehenders upon entry into formal schooling. (Nation, Cocksey, Taylor & Bishop) Thousands of dollars each year are spent on intervention, trying to improve the reading of children that show delays. When one reads, the clear goal is comprehension of what is read. Without communication of ideas between the author and reader, decoding texts is pointless. Most intervention programs are focused on phonics and word decoding. Oral language interventions concurrent with vocabulary and comprehension tasks at age eight have been shown to lead to significant improvements in reading comprehension. (Nation, et al., 2010). Reading comprehension is not merely a product of being able to decode words and sentences. How we teach children to process and integrate the ideas found in text can have a large impact on their ability to function in a world of ever expanding knowledge and information.