Flint Chapter 8 on Intermediate and accomplished readers and writers really resonated with me this week because I am in a 4th grade classroom and a majority of the day is spent on establishing good literacy practices. Word study strategies is something that I see often in my class. The students spend about 30 minutes everyday focusing on word study. So far I have seen them study affixes, and patterns especially dealing with vowel sounds. Usually the students are given a worksheet that has a few examples of the strategy and then they are given a list of words that they have to identify. I really liked the Roots and Branches activity in the book. That is definitely something authentic that I feel I could incorporate into my classroom.
I also found the sections focusing in reading with fluency and comprehension very informative. Many teachers consider reading with fluency to be fast readers, but I believe that not only must the reader read at a well established pace, but they must also comprehend what they have read. Many times you will get a reader who can read fast, but has no idea what they have just read. Speed does not equate with competence. I think that as a teacher we must address the misconception that reading with fluency means being a fast reader.
As for comprehension strategies, I see a wide range of use of graphic organizers used in my 4th grade classroom. I also feel that making connections (text-to-self, text-to-world & text-to-text) is key to the reading process. Everyday my teacher does an interactive read aloud with the class and she is always focusing on making connections and predictions. This gets the students really involved and by doing the read aloud the teacher is demonstrating the think aloud process.
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I also really loved the roots and branches idea!! I think it would be a great daily activity! I think it is wonderful that your teacher spends so much time on word study. We usually spend 15 minutes atleast but that is also probably the difference in our grade levels. I also think it is neat your teacher still does daily read alouds for your fourth graders. I remember loving all the way through middle school being read aloud too. I think read alouds no matter what age only continue to help model great reading strategies!
ReplyDeleteIt was good to see your reflecting thoughtst on how your classroom experiences relate to the chapter. I'm in a third grade class and I have not seen my teacher use word study, so I wonder if it will begin in my class later in the school year or if this is something that is started in the fourth grade. Great Blog!
ReplyDeleteI agree Liz. Slow and steady wins the race. Speed isn't everything and I think we need to remind our students of that. Often they feel that speed means they are better readers, when often those that read quickly don't comprehend the text read as well. Our ELLs feel the pressure to measure up to their English speaking peers, so we must do our best to encourage them in other ways.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I feel like graphic organizers can be VERY helpful in the classroom. My CT uses them all the time when discussing new skills and it seems to help the students learn the skill with accuracy.