Look at the bibliography of Research on Page 497-503.
Select 2 articles or books that you would want to read sometime in the future. Share how you would hope to use them in differentiating your reading instruction. Discuss the potential of sharing these choices on your grade level or area of specialty.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It is important to keep up with professional journals, readings, etc. As we all know, there is little to no money for conferences so I have made an effort to read and re-read some journals & books from y personal library and to take courses through the TRC. I loved this bibliography!! There are many that caught my interest. Robb's "Easy mini lessons for building vocabulary....." is one that I would like to read. The Reading Street program uses a lot of high level vocab they call, "Amazing Words". This is taught and reinforced during the unit and seems to be working well. I would like other strategies to help the students learn vocab especially since I am a "double dose" provider and could therefore help the students who are struggling. Sousa's "How the brain learns" is my second choice. I have a few students who have very poor working memory.....how can I help them? What does that mean for the student I have when I'm teaching reading? I think this book would help me better understand how I can reach hard to reach kids.
ReplyDeleteLiz this class was great! Thank you so much for all your hard work!
Well, I just goggled "How the Brain learns" and came across an interesting, short article from Scholastic. Thought I would share...
ReplyDeletehttp://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/brainlearns.htm
Week 5 – Professional Resources/Development
ReplyDeleteI found the bibliography valuable and helpful. I am always looking for articles on making students strategic readers. I liked the S.L. Dowhower, Supporting a strategic stance in the classroom: A comprehension framework for helping teachers help students to be strategic. When struggling readers are given the tools to improving their comprehension, can they begin to understand their own metacognitive processes. Students that are good decoders, or word callers, need to practice strategic reading.
Another article I would like to read is T. Trabasso & Bouchard’s, Teaching readers how to comprehend text strategically, in the book by C. Block and M. Pressley’s, Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices. I am always open to different approaches and ideas in the teaching of reading comprehension. My students have a variety of difficulties when reading, and the more I know, the better I am able in helping them improve. I have no problem sharing with my colleagues during grade level meetings or mini-staff development days.
Thanks Liz for a great course.
It ia always very nice to have a resource of books to strengthen one's ability in the classroom. I love finding new resources, but I only wish that there were more hours in the day to curl up and read them. Life with a toddler consists of rhyming books, free play, art projects, bath time and cuddling in bed listening to my daughter read TO ME! Upon perusing the list of books, the article "Using think-alouds to enhance children's comprehension monitoring abilities." seemed interesting. I have been struggling this year to motivate the children to apply the various strategies that are available to them for their own monitoring of text. I have modelled and modelled the strategies again and agian using varied text; both nonfiction and fiction passages. However, I am still confronted with more than half of my students who refuse to show their strategies on paper. I feel the children need to be accountable for their learning experiences. As a teacher, it is my obligation to identify the weakness in each student and make them learn techniques to strengthen their weakness. But, they must be WILLING to take risks and learn from their mistakes.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting source is the book, Questioning the Author: An approach for enhancing student engagement with Text. (Beck).
One specific lesson that I incorporated this year was to explore what an author did in two of his books. The main character existed in both books; a doctor who wanted to give his EXPERT advice on fixing a challenge for the child involved in the story. The children truly worked hard on this task... they were trying to identify why the author chose to write the things he did. This helped me to further help the children explore one specific reading comprehension skill...AUTHOR"S PURPOSE!!!!! Yikes!!!!!
There are other books, but I was told to chat about two...LOL!!!!
Liz and all others, thanks for listening to my thoughts... isn't it great to be able to READ????? LOL!
This is such a comprehensive list of book and journals. Since I admire Ralph Fletcher, I hope to read his book "Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide". I have read some of his articles and books in the past and found them informative. I have even used some of his fiction stories for children in my class. "Flying Solo" is a good story for children and one in which the children write have to write every day. I would also like to look at Gillet's book "Understanding Reading Problems: Assessment and Instruction". After I read these choices, I will pull out anything pertinent for our grade level and share it. We meet almost on a daily basis during lunch where we share ideas.
ReplyDeleteLiz, thank you for all you have done to enrich us.
Week 5
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful list of information. This is certainly something I will keep so that I can reference when different needs arise. I enjoy reading journal articles and feel like I do not get the opportunity to sit down and read them enough. I remember in college always having to read them and I found them to be a great source of information. I like the think aloud one. I think students enjoy when I do read a story aloud and then we are able to brainstorm as a group to discuss reading comprehension strategies. I also then can monitor students understanding. I also would like to take a look at Understanding reading Problems, Assessment and Instruction. This year my class is very low readers. They struggle with comprehension so I am always looking for different techniques to help those who really are struggling. Thanks Liz for another great class.
This is a very helpful collection of professional resources. From this extensive list, one article that I would check out is “Discussion-based approaches to developing understanding: Classroom instruction and student performance in middle and high school English” (Applebee et al.). Even though it is obviously geared toward teachers of secondary students, I feel that a discussion-based approach to developing comprehension is very appropriate for the middle to upper elementary grades. In short, kids love to talk! Why not integrate that into lessons as a tool to help them understand what they read? It sounds like a brilliant idea. Another resource that I would like to read is Gardner’s Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. I am a strong believer in Gardner’s theory, but I have only read summaries of it in theory textbooks. It would be interesting to read how Gardner envisions the theory playing out in reality; I imagine I would garner some great ideas of how to put the theory into practice in my own classroom.
ReplyDeleteLiz, thank you for all of your work for this class. It’s been a pleasure!
Week 5-
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful list! The bibliography has everything that you could possibly think of! I was immediately drawn to an article about inferential thinking. My class has problems in this area. They tend to be very literal and miss the hidden messages and higher level thinking. They need to develop this so that they will get more out of the books that we are reading. The article is “Improving the Inferential Comprehension of Good and Poor Fourth-grade Readers” by Hansen and Pearson. I would love to get some new ideas about this important skill.
I also want to read more about how the brain works so I am interested in the book How the Brain Works by David Sousa. Brain research has proven to be very interesting and shows us why certain things happen. I always share with my class and parents the e-mail that shows that the brain does not care about the order of the letters inside a word, you can still read the words as long as they are in context and as long as the first and last letter from each word are in the right order. I always tell the students that this is why it is sooooooo impossible to edit your own work. Yuor barin konws waht you maen! Well, I want to learn more about our mysterious brains so thanks for the link Gigi- I will follow it! Thanks to you also Liz. I really enjoyed your classes!
ReplyDeleteAs professionals, I think it is very important to keep abreast of new and worthy strategies to use in our classrooms. Years ago, we had a curriculum center at Shelter Rock ( where the reading department is now housed.) Current books, periodicals, magazines etc were circulated among the staff. Liz, your list is great. There are several refences that I will look into...
ReplyDeleteI am particularly interested in the area of writing. I would like to read The Art of Teaching Writing by Calkins. I need to find ways to motivate my students to be creative and take pride in their written pieces. They are too quick to dash off something for the mere sake of completing the assignment.
The other source I like is the same as Patti Siver's choice by Hansen and Pearson. This focuses on improving inferential comprehension in 4th graders. The children are very literal and concrete and do not read between the lines using the given information. This is a very important skill which I repeatedly review. Perhaps this will give me some new techniques so that the children an master this skill.
Liz, this has been so helpful. Thanks for your assistance.
As a first year Language Arts teacher, I am always looking for information and ideas. I especially like the article on building vocabulary. I currently have the students keep a vocabulary log, but I don't find that they are actually truly learning the vocabulary discussed in class. Building vocabulary will also be useful in their writing. The second book I would like to read is How the Brain Works. The brain is truly an amazing organ with so much more to explore. My mother-in-law passed away from early onset Alzheimer's- she was truly brilliant and an avid reader. I have a special interested in brain activity so I will also follow Gigi's link. Liz- Thank you so much for everything. This has really been helpful.
ReplyDeleteOne book I would like to read is: Using think-alouds to enhance children’s comprehension monitoring abilities by J.F. Baumann & Seifert-Kessell. I would like to read this book because I value my read alouds. I find modeling good strategies for my students to practice during read alouds are priceless. I watch them transfer the strategies into their independent reading and it is so rewarding. I would love to learn new techniques to use in my read aloud.
ReplyDeleteAnother Book I would like to read is: Words, words, words: Teaching vocabulary in grades 4-12. I teach vocabulary through conferences, strategy lessons, guided reading and read alouds, however, I would like to learn new strategies to help me incorporate new ways of teaching vocabulary in my classroom.
By reading these two books and other books I can hopefully learn new strategies to better differentiate my reading instruction. If I find new strategies that work, I will turn-key them back to my grade-level.
Great choice -- everyone -- thanks for sharing. Karen, wouldn't it be great to have a teacher resource center housed in SR -- I love that idea.
ReplyDeleteReading professional journals is very important in that it keeps you up to date with current practices. This is the next best thing, since attending conferences rarely happens anymore. Unfortunately, time does not always allow me to keep with these readings. I think these resources are great to have to enhance our curriculum. This list is a great resource. One book I would like to read is How the Brain Works, I am very interested in this because I know someone who has executive functioning problems and would hope this book could shed some light on understanding how to help her more. Another book I would like to read is Understanding Reading Problems, Assessments and Instruction. My readers have a lot of difficulty with comprehension and any new techniques to help them would be wonderful.
ReplyDeleteLiz thanks for a great class
I agree with Gigi that it is especially important to keep up with professional journals given the fact that outside staff development is extremely limited. I belong to the New York State Association for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. (TESOL) so I receive articles and information about current trends and practices in ESL. Since ESL is a state mandated program, it is important to keep up with state laws and mandates. The bibliography is great- I would love to read “Words, words, words: Teaching vocabulary in grades 4-12”. My students need to build their vocabulary so new strategies are always welcome. In many instances, I build students’ vocabulary from scratch- many are blank slates in English. They learn much faster if they have a good vocabulary in their native language.
ReplyDeleteI would also love to read “What really matters for struggling readers”. During my years at Shelter Rock, I have seen an increase in struggling ESL students- those who are learning English and who also have a disability. This population is very challenging to teach so any information would be helpful. The article entitled “he unschooled mind: How children think and how schools should teach” would also be good article to read. Research and insight into the mind of a child is always interesting and can only help me to grow as a teacher.
Thanks for another great class Liz!
What a great list of references...As I was looking over the list, there were many titles that I read in my master’s program which I found really helpful in shaping my reading program. I also read some of the other books recently to further my understanding of reading. I really like the Laura Robb books. I would love time to reread her book titled, Teaching reading in social studies, science, and math: Practical ways to weave comprehension strategies into your content area teaching. I have to remind myself that I reading can be woven in all the other areas and I can reinforce my active reading strategies in all the other content areas. Rereading this book will help remind me of these other opportunities throughout the day. Two new articles for me would be: Using think-alouds to enhance children’s comprehension monitoring abilities by Baumann, J.F. Also the article titled, Think-aloud- Modeling the cognitive processes of reading comprehension by Davey, B. These two articles seem interesting and would help add strategies to my reading instruction.
ReplyDeleteThank you for a terrific course. I really enjoyed it!
I agree with Kim, I love having resources to turn to but I find that my personal life takes up the time I used to have for professional reading. This class was great to make myself make time to learn and reflect on what I am doing.
ReplyDeleteI find that I automatically look for resources that deal with the middle school student and there are tons here. I would like to read, In the middle: Writing, reading, and learning with adolescents. I keep looking for more insights into the intermediate student. I also would like to read, Teaching vocabulary to improve reading comprehension. I find often that it is the lack of vocabulary skills that holds my students back. I find that they are not internalizing new vocab nor do they have the skills to deal with new vocab in the text. That is one reason scaffolding is so important.
The professional resources provided for week five are terrific. I especially like the journal articles which are short and sweet- the books I would have to save for summer reading. I would like to read Rasinski’s article The Fluent Reader: Oral reading strategies for building word recognition, fluency, and comprehension put out by Scholastic. I am always looking to expand upon my toolbox for reading strategies. I would also like to read Duke’s article 3.6 minutes per day: The Scarcity of informational texts in first grade.
ReplyDeleteI notice how my first grade students handle fiction texts reasonably well and as I switch over to nonfiction reading they seem to fall apart. I think they would benefit from additional direct instruction in informational text features, strategies and so on.
Liz-thanks for a great class.
This has been a wonderful class even though I have been very challenged in compleiting the work on time I do apologize. I have a very crazy life lately.
ReplyDeleteI have read all of Lucy Calkins' books and taken the writing workshop with her at TC, but I think that I would enjoy rereading it because each time I pick up something new. I would also like to continue to explore read-alouds as a means for differentiation and more on grouping in reading. I am a member of the International Reading Association for many, too many actually, years and I always learn from the journals I read. It keeps me up to date on research.
I have truly enjoyed this class and would like to continue to explore differentiation with all of you. Thank you Liz.