Module+10+Questions

Participants: Ashly Call, Lori Jones, Audra Bull, PJ Parsons - Group 2

Module 10 Questions:

1. What does research say about the topic?

LJ - Research says that there is a relationship between reading and learning. It supports the visible and invisible dimensions of content area reading. Strategy instruction where the teachers are engaging in explicit instructional routines to develop students' metacognition of reading strategies in the content area classrooms.

AC - First of all, the main research is that teaching adolescents literacy strategies is super important! Then, the chapter discusses the different research that has been done in study skills, cognition, and social constructivism. With study skills, Herber (1964) found success with using guide materials or study guides. I found this interesting because this was a predominant instructional strategy in my middle and high school years 35 years after the research was conducted. Another topic that was researched was strategic instruction. This is an area that has shown to be successful with elementary students all the way to college students. Basically, research says to model and let students practice and apply the strategy.

AB - Every teacher is a literacy teacher, regardless of grade or subject taught. Skills taught in reading classes apply to content materials, but students must adapt the skills to meet the specifics of each subject. Readers are in a better position to comprehend whenever they use prior knowledge (schema) to create meaning. Knowledge of text structure is crucial. Metacognitive ability and strategic learning are related to age and amount of reading experience. Constructivists believe learners construct knowledge from inside minds.

PJ--Ashly, you're funny. When I was in school, they were still using the skills based reading instruction. I'm saying how long ago that was! I found it interesting earlier in the 20th century to the mid-20th century, many believed if you teach children to read while they were young and in elementary school, that skill would develop naturally and follow them through the rest of their lives. Around the 1990s, people began to notice there was a lack of research related to adolescents, yet there was evidence showing weaknesses in reading abilities (I blame it on the invention of the video game!). Now, with all the technological advances, adolescents entering the adult world will need to be able to read and write on advanced levels of literacy to be able to perform their jobs (p. 185). There are visible and invisible dimensions meaning direct, explicit teaching by the teacher and scaffolding of students and then practice by the students with the strategies taught, respectively. I'm tired. Historically, we've had shifts from skills based reading instruction, to cognitive and now a possible constructivist shift is in the making at our present time.

2. Why is adolescent literacy more critical than ever?

LJ - I feel that more than ever the middle school age are suffering. They come in as low readers and then some content area teachers only teach content and do not use strategies to help them become better readers. Students therefore are missing out at a very crucial time of their lives. I have recently spoken to a grandparent and she said that her son was a wonderful straight A student all through elementary but got to middle school and was expected to be a student that knew how to organize and adjust within the first few weeks and his grades suffered. These students need to be taught strategies to make them successful.

AC - I love what the Commissiion on Adolescent Literacy of the IRA had to say, "They will need literacy to cope with the flood of information they will find everywhere they turn." Print is everywhere! As these adolescents grow up and get jobs, they will need it more and more to understand job applications, user manuals, memos, etc. Any job where they can achieve success will require them to use literacy on a daily basis. Adolescent literacy is crucial because we live in America and we want our students to be successful and achieve their dreams.

AB - My mom graduate high school in 1967. After I was born in 1969, my mom got a job at Southwestern Bell as a telephone operator. My grandpa congratulated her on getting a ‘good’ job she “could keep to retirement”. Grandpa came from a time where you needed enough skills to get a good job where one stayed until retirement. The job market is not the same today. The worker of today needs to be versatile, intelligent, and educated. The core set of skills needed today verses 1969 is highly technical. My mom used punch cards and huge circuit boards to transfer calls. Having a basic set of skills will no longer pay the bills. The chasm between the have’s and have not’s can be measured in terms of literacy skills. For today’s generation literacy skills encompasses more than the three Rs. One has to be technically literate and then flexible enough to roll with the ever changing technology landscape.

PJ--You said, ladies. With the technological advances in the world today and more coming faster and faster, plus the shift in American jobs from labor intensive to informational intensive, students of today will be faced with so much literacy in their jobs that if their skills are lacking or lagging, we can almost count on them being on the poverty list as far as earning power goes. I have a friend whose dad never learned how to read, but he opened his own business of a little gas and grocery store plus he ran cattle. He became a rich man, but like AB said, those days are gone. The mom and pop shops don't survive against the retail giants. You can't even fill out paper applications in many places anymore. It's on a computer kiosk in customer service. If you can't type or read, how are going to fill out applications? My husband is currently having to redo his resume and the potential employer wants it sent via the internet. He doesn't know how to do it, so he asked me to do it. If I hadn't had online classes, I wouldn't know how to do it! It's a technically competitive job force now and our students have to be ready when they leave high school to survive in it. Reading and writing is how that will be accomplished.

3. Content area reading starts any time a teacher reads expository text to a classroom. How can you improve your content area instruction in your class?

LJ - I feel that content can be taught through reading instruction. Why not use social studies to teach students how to summarize? I teach kindergarten so this doesn't apply as much to me but I do feel that I need to start building that foundation. I don't think subjects are individual they are learned together so teach them together.

AC - I will be teaching 3rd grade next year so I will need to include more strategies in content area reading. I plan to do KWL charts, use visuals, experiments, and anything else that can access previous knowledge or allow them to acquire knowledge before reading the text. I also would like to focus on the text structure of textbooks to give my students an introduction to what it's like to read science and social studies texts.

AB - I have to focus on naming. I teach the comprehension skills but I do so blindly. In creating my instructional framework I instinctually knew that I was on the right track but I couldn’t have told you or the students why. I have to be more deliberate in teaching the comprehension skill. Next, I have to scaffold. I have a tendency to pull hit-n-runs. I don’t teach transfer. I do it myself and am aware of scaffolding in my planning but I do not deliberately teach transfer.

PJ--I agree with all your comments. Even though I teach mostly reading and math, I do teach using visual aids like Venn diagrams, KWL charts with content area to teach reading strategies and textbook approaches to the upper level students. With the lower elementary, I use trade books to teach concepts about science and social studies and incorporate those into my reading instruction. Now, I feel I have way more things to use to teach reading strategies, no matter what I'm teaching. I will use music, websites on the Smart board, on the laptops, round table activites, small-group instruction, and games to teach reading comprehension through reading strategies. The next few weeks before school starts, I'm going to have to develop a plan and a framework outline so I have the end in mind when I begin (cognitive clarity).

4. Your questions for the group?

LJ - 1. Since I do not teach in the middle schools what is the biggest obstacle teachers at this level face?

AB - Where do you want me to start? ha ha Motivation is the biggie. By the time they get to me, the struggling students have been mentally, emotionally beaten down. They don't believe in themselves so they give up and pretend they don't care. The key is getting through that shell. I don't know how to tell someone else how to do that other than to love their students and look beyond the surface behavior to what is causing the poor choces. I think of myself as an Italian momma (even though I am not Italian). I give my kids a lot of structure coupled with a lot of love.

AC - Like you, I teach early childhood, but I have younger sisters who are around middle school age. At school, my sisters do the bare minimum. They know what to do to get an A or a B and do nothing more than that. I can't really judge them because I was the same way. However, I think that teachers need to set high expectations for their students and hold their students accountable for the work they do.

MS: THE MOST IMPORTANT FOUNDATION IS HAVING THE STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THAT EVERYTHING THEY DO IS VALUABLE AND SHOULD BE ACCOMPLISHED WITH THE MOST EFFECTIVE RESOURCES AND SKILLS. TOO MANY STUDENTS LEARN UNDERACHIEVEMENT OR LAZINESS AT THE LOWER LEVELS AND ARE NEVER CHALLENGED TO ALWAYS WORK TOWARD THE BEST. 3. What opportunities do I have to help adolescents through my classroom?
 * 2. As I stated I teach kindergarten, how can I effectively build the foundation to help my students?

AC - The first thing that comes to mind is that you are building a foundation for these students to use as they grow older. The knowledge and beliefs about reading that you pass onto them will be their first impressions of the importance of reading. Also, I think there are some strategies that can be modified for all grades like a KWL chart or teaching beginning concepts of text structure (like pictures and captions in nonfiction texts).

AC - 1. The chapter states “teachers who hold constructivist beliefs recognize that student learn with text, not necessarily from text.” What activities would you suggest to help students learn with text?* 2. Which of the paradigms matches your personal beliefs most? 3. What do you think about the statement, “Every teacher is a teacher of reading?” Do you agree or disagree?

AB - *1. Think back to the most difficult class you had in high school. How big of a difference would it have been if the teacher had taught you how to read the material? Explain.

AC - Chemistry was the class where I had the hardest time. Reading a chemistry textbook was not only boring, but difficult. I remember trying to read it, but giving up because I really couldn't understand it. I used my notes from class to study. If my teacher had focused on vocabulary and discussed text structure, I think I would have been able to understand Chemistry better. 2 What is the key “keeper” from this whole reading specialist program? 3. What is or should the content be for early elementary?

PJ-- 2. Wouldn't block scheduling be a better design for middle and high schools because by the time these teachers take role each hour and do classroom management, they only have about 35 instructional minutes? Why aren't there more schools on block scheduling for more indepth teaching?
 * 1. Are after school tutoring programs as successful with middle and high school students as they are with elementary students in extra instruction on how to read? Or are the adolescents too busy with sports and other extracurricular activities to want to attend after school tutoring?

AC - I think there are pros and cons to block scheduling. There is more instructional time and students can focus more on fewere classes. However, I am glad I did not have block scheduling. My attention span at that age capped at about 45 minutes. Any more than that and I was daydreaming.

3. The text said there's a current shift in paradigms going toward social constructivism. Isn't a combination of cognition and learning and social constructivism the best models for teaching students to read? They both have good features that can be used interchangeably, don't you think?

AC - I agree with you PJ. I think the best teaching is a combination of many theories. I feel I lean more to cognition, but I see the value and purpose of social constructivism as well.

Step 6 - Case Study #8 is due - See Wiki Swansomf.