Teaching Vocabulary

Assignment 1

•What texts and materials do teachers have in their classrooms that support students' development of fluent reading?

The classroom library is full of interesting books that the students can choose from. The students are encouraged to go to the “reading corner” often. New books are brought in from the public library every few weeks so the students have a good reading selection. The classroom word wall contains many familiar words with confusing spelling or new words that were learned in class.

•How do they select vocabulary to teach in all areas of your curriculum?

Students learned new words in context and were also encouraged to use context as a clue to figure out what a word means.

•How much time do they allocate to word study?

Vocabulary was not stressed as a separate lesson. While students would take turns reading a selection and an unfamiliar word came up, the teacher would write it on the board, give students a chance to think about what it might mean and then the class would discuss it. They would give examples of where the word can be found and how it would be used.

•What word study routines do they teach and encourage their students to use?

The word wall was where new words would be placed for the students to always be able to see them and practice reading them. They would have an easier time reading and understanding similar words to the ones on the word wall because they were able to access them easily. 

 

•How do they differentiate instruction and tasks based on their students' needs?

The students were given books to read that were on that their reading level. If the book was too difficult or too easy, they would get a different one that was appropriate for them. The students would often read together with peers on their own level, or with someone above their level to help them out.

Assignment 2:

1. How can you ensure that your struggling readers have access to texts they can easily read?

When teachers know at which level of reading their students are, they can provide appropriate reading materials. All levels of books should be available for students, so students can choose what is just right for them. If students are below grade level in reading, then the teacher should have below grade level texts in the classroom library. The books should also be ones that students are interested in and have background knowledge and experience in.

2. How can you foster a learning environment in which students have many opportunities to practice reading?

When students have high success reading material available (books that they can read by themselves with a high fluency rate), they will probably practice reading more. Teachers should have a “rich supply of reading material that is tied to key content standard” and a big collection of books. Allowing students to go to the classroom library after they completed their work will provide more opportunities too.

3. Describe ways in which you can model fluent reading in your classroom throughout the day.

During read aloud time, students can listen to the teacher model fluent reading. The teacher should comment on her use of inflection and use of intonation because students may not pick up on it on their own.

Assignment 3:

1. Explain the three levels of words and how you can use word levels to decide which words to teach.

Familiar words are words that probably don't need to be taught because students usually know them already. The next group of words are words that we do need to teach because they are used often, yet students may not know what it means. The focus of teacher instruction should be on these words. The last level of words are unique words that can be taught under the subject to which the words apply.

2. How do you teach your students to "chunk" words as a strategy for decoding unfamiliar words? When do you provide this instruction?

Students can learn new words by pronouncing just a chunk of the word at a time. Teachers can demonstrate how to read the new word by tearing the words apart either at the beginning and end or somewhere in the middle. Then students can use their thumbs to break up the word. After enough practice, students can do the strategy in their heads, without their fingers. Teachers should use explicit instruction and strategy teaching to help their students gain a vocabulary,

3. Based on Professor Allington's comments and the classroom examples, what are some ways you might foster word study in your classroom?

I would try to teach these strategies to the students and ask students what strategies they will use when a problem comes up. I would teach vocabulary by asking students what a word means according to context. Teaching new words doesn't need to take a lot of time. Using them in a quick lesson and reading texts that have the new words will be very beneficial.

Phonics Lesson Plan
Grade/Level	Grade 1
Activity Details	open  Sound Buttons Blending activity on students' computers Introduce set 1 letters – s, a, t, p Say the letters with their sounds aloud with the students Tell the students to find the letter that makes the word “a” and put it on a tab Tell the students to add a letter to make the word “at”, as in “I will see you at noon.” Tell the students to switch a letter to make the word “as”,as in “My picture is as nice as yours.” Tell the students to add a letter to make the word “sat”, as in “I sat in the chair.” Tell the students to switch a letter to make the word “pat”, as in “I gave the dog a pat.” Tell the students to move around the letters to make the word “tap”, as in “I will tap you on the head.” Tell the students to switch a letter to make the word “sap”, as in “There is sap in that tree.” Allow the students to try to make new words with the set 2 letters if they can
Standards	USA- Common Core State Standards (June 2010) Subject: English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects Grade: Kindergartners: Content Area: Foundational Skills Strand: Reading Domain: Phonological Awareness Standard: 2. Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes). a. Recognize and produce rhyming words. b. Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words. c. Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words. d. Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonent-vowel-consonent, or CVC) words.* (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.) e. Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
Assessment	The teacher should informally assess the students to evaluate whether or not they are able to follow all directions and create the correct word.

 Teaching Phonics

“Reading fluency” is when students can read quickly, accurately, and with expression. Students should not be made to read more quickly, with intonation, it will come when they are ready. When students begin to recognize more words, their reading becomes more smooth and fluent. Therefore, accuracy and basic word recognition should be given a lot of focus on the classroom so that students can get as much practice as they can on order to become fluent readers. Fluency is important to help with comprehension because when the reading is choppy and without flow, it is hard to understand the text. It can be difficult for students to answer comprehension questions on the reading if they have just stumbled through the passage.

I would apply fluency assessment in my classroom by measuring reading speed and accuracy of my students. I would do this by obtaining a WCPM (words correct per minute) score. I would have the students individually read from an unpracticed regular classroom passage for one minute and determine how many words the students can read correctly. I would chart their score on a graph to see the students' progress. By monitoring the reading fluency progress of my students, I will see if my instruction is effective and what my goals for the student should be. The students will be motivated to keep trying and improving their fluency when they see their fluency growth represented in the graphs.

There are many ways to instruct fluency development in the classroom. I loved the reading theater idea. It's a really great way to get students motivated to read; it “gives students a real reason to read aloud” (Hasbrouck, 2006). Guided oral reading is also good for students to practice while hearing how it should sound. In small groups, I would read aloud with the students and then have them reread it to themselves and then reread the same passage to a peer. Rereading is so important for students struggling with fluency. Reading with feedback can be done one-on-one. First the teacher reads the passage and then the students reread the same passage and the teacher provides feedback so the student will know what was read correctly and what wasn't. While the teacher is busy helping a specific group of students, the others can use their time efficiently by listening to a passage on tape while reading along and continuing to practice that text until it is read fluently. I would try to give the students a lot of opportunity to read and reread. I would model fluent reading by reading aloud to the students while the students read along silently from their own copies of the text or from big book that they can follow along.