Reading curriculum guide K-4 [1991]

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Reading Curriculum Guide
K-4
Georgia Department of Education Werner Rogers, State Superintendent of Schools
1991

READING EDUCATION (Curriculum Guide, Elementary Grades K-4)
Werner Rogers State Superintendent of Schools
1991

CONTENTS
SECTION
How to Use This Guide
Program Philosophy, Purpose and Goals
Acknowledgments
Quality Core Curriculum - Kindergarten through Grade Four
Oral and Written Language Development Dos and Don'ts Staff Development Glossary
. References
Reading Readiness Dos and Don'ts Staff Development Glossary References
The Basal Reading Program Dos and Don'ts Staff Development Glossary References
Word Recognition Dos and Don'ts Staff Development Glossary References
Vocabulary Development Dos and Don'ts Staff Development Glossary References
Remedial Reading - Comprehending the Main Idea Dos and Don'ts Staff Development Glossary References
Learning Styles and Modalities Dos and Don'ts Staff Development Glossary References
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PAGE
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1 1 5 8 9
10 10 14 15 16
17 17 22 24 26
27 27 36 40 42
45 45 52 54 55
56 56 61 63 64
65 65 70 75 76

Principal's Reading Resource Packet

81

Dos and Don'ts

82

Staff Development

85

Uses of Mapping

89

References

90

Alternative to Round Robin Reading

91

Dos and Don'ts

91

Staff Development

98

Glossary

100

References

100

Reading Assessment and Evaluation

101

Dos and Don'ts

102

Staff Development

107

Glossary

110

References

111

Children's Literature

112

Dos and Don'ts

112

Staff Development

116

Glossary

118

References

119

Parents and Reading

120

Dos and Don'ts

120

Staff Development

125

Glossary

128

References

129

Culturally Divergent Learners

130

Dos and Don'ts

130

Staff Development

136

Glossary

138

References

138

Using Computers in the Reading Program

139

Dos and Don'ts

139

Staff Development

142

Glossary

147

References

148

Study Skills

149

Dos and Don'ts

150

Staff Development

154

Explanation of Terms

156

References

157

Reading Comprehension

158

Dos and Don'ts

158

Staff Development

168

Glossary

170

References

171

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HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE This curriculum guide provides perspective and direction on the teaching of reading. The most relevant aspects of the subject are introduced here. Expert teachers and reading educators fram the state and nation offer specific insight into specific topics. The discussions presented are intended to serve as a springboard for further discussion and investigation in school-based staff development sessions. In addition to the material presented here, each area lists resources for additional investigation. Also provided in each section is a staff development component for use on the school or system level. To help support this activity, a videotape further examining the topics identified in the guide is also provided. In this way -- through individual and group discussions of the most relevant topics, in a planned staff development program -- teachers and others should gain new insight into the effective teaching of reading to all children.
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READING PROGRAM PHILOSOPHY
Reading instruction in schools often occurs in several stages; preparing to read, prekindergarten; learning to read, K-4; reading to develop understanding, 5-8; and applying and adapting what has been learned in relevant contexts, 9-12. To assist the students in developing the skills necessary to read critically and independently is the ultimate goal of the reading program.
Reading is the multisensory process of constructing meaning from written texts. To accomplish this the child must use a variety of complex and varied skills. The extent to which the child is successful in acquiring these skills will, to a great degree, determine the level of achievement that the child will attain in school.
To become an independent reader, the child must be provided with the skills that are the beginning components of reading as well as have ample opportunity to practice reading over sustained periods of time. Time to explore the written word independently is vital to the attainment of reading independence. Oral and written discussions of the text can certainly enhance the child's depth of understanding and response to the subject. For the child to become fluent and articulate, there must be time for the child to develop the control of the information presented to him.
If we are to develop proficient readers, our expectations must be clearly understood by all who would participate in the development of our children: teachers, administrators, curriculum developers, parents and, of course, the students themselves. Our expectations must be high and unwavering as we seek ways to improve the quality of the educational blend in our society.
To quote from The Report of the Commission on Reading (1985), "In a well-designed reading program, mastering the parts does not become an end in itself, but a means to an end, and there is a proper balance between practice of the parts and practice of the whole." The major priority of the reading program should be to help the children to integrate information in the text with what they already know. If successfully accomplished, the result will be students who not only can read, but who also choose to read as a part of their daily experience. Ultimately, this will determine the success of any reading program.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A special note of thanks and recognition is due staff who have provided the support essential for this project's success. Each person's contribution has a unique value due to the diversity of the project's needs.
The members of the State Elementary Reading Guide Committee -- Charles Hacker, Polly Davis-Birney and Barbara Naylor -- wish to express sincere gratitude to those who have been especially helpful in completing this document.

William Hammond, Georgia Department of Education Project Manager

Ira Aaron, University of Georgia

Writer

Evon Benson, Dekalb County Schools

Writer

Paulette Bolton, Atlanta Public Schools

Writer

Ola Brown, Valdosta State College

Writer

Evelyn Dandy, Armstrong State College

Writer

Patricia Geary, Norman College

Writer

M. Jean Greenlaw, University of North Texas

Writer

Katrena Howard, East Metro Regional Assessment Center

Writer

Regina Johnson, Atlanta Public Schools

Writer

George Mason, University of Georgia

Writer

Gloria Mixon, Atlanta University

Writer

Brenda Tiller, Albany State College

Writer

Judy True, North Georgia College

Writer

Barbara Naylor, Atlanta Public Schools

Editor

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QUALITY CORE CURRICULUM READING OBJECTIVES
Kindergarten
1. Recognizes the relationship between spoken and written language 2. Distinguishes letter, word and sentence 3. Demonstrates understanding that the purpose of reading is to obtain
meaning from print 4. Recognizes symbols, including letters and words in familiar
contexts 5. Discriminates visual similarities and differences in colors,
shapes, letters and words 6. Discriminates auditory similarities and differences in words 7. Demonstrates left to right and top to bottom progression 8. Recalls a series of three visually presented items 9. Identifies main ideas of pictures 10. Place pictures in a sequence to tell a story 11. Recognizes spoken words that signal sequence relationships such as
first, next, then 12. Makes predictions 13. Classifies by characteristics such as color, size, shape,
structure, function 14. Interprets pictures 15. Demonstrates interest in various types of literature
First Grade
1. Distinguishes between letter/word, word/sentence, left/right, beginning/ending of words and sentences
2. Demonstrates understanding that the purpose of reading is to obtain/to gain meaning from print
3. Expands reading vocabulary 4. Rereads for understanding 5. Recognizes explicit main idea, details, sequence of events and
cause-effect relationships 6. Recognizes implicit main idea, details, sequence of events and
cause-effect relationships 7. Makes predictions 8. Identifies the main character 9. Interprets the meaning of questions to give an appropriate response 10. Interprets syntactic and semantic relationships 11. Classifies and categorizes words 12. Discriminates visual similarities and differences in letters and
words 13. Recognizes auditory similarities and differences in words including
beginning sounds and ending sounds 14. Uses word families and sound-letter relationships of consonants and
single vowels in word recognition 15. Identifies grade level vocabulary words by sight 16. Recalls a series of four visually presented items
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Second Grade

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1. Reads to obtain meaning from print

2. Reads a variety of materials for information and pleasure

3. Expands reading vocabulary through formal and informal interactions

4. Rereads for understanding

5. Recognizes explicit main idea, details, sequence of events and

cause-effect relationships

6. Recognizes implicit main idea, details, sequence of events and

cause-effect relationships

7. Identifies the main characters

8. Makes predictions

9. Follows written instructions

10. Interprets syntactic and semantic relationships

II. Classifies and categorizes words

12. Recognizes auditory similarities and differences in words,

including single vowel sounds and rhyming patterns

13. Uses word families, consonant and single vowel sound-letter

relationships in word recognition

14. Identifies grade level vocabulary words by sight

15. Distinguishes between fantasy and reality in stories

Third Grade

1. Reads to obtain meaning from print 2. Reads for information and pleasure 3. Expands reading vocabulary 4. Rereads for understanding 5. Reads for a variety of purposes in different texts 6. Recognizes explicit main idea, details, sequence of events and
cause-effect relationships 7. Recognizes implicit main idea, details, sequence of events and
cause-effect relationships 8. Makes predictions and comparisons 9. Distinguishes between fantasy/realism and fact/opinion 10. Interprets written instructions 11. Classifies and categorizes words 12. Interprets syntactic and semantic relationships 13. Applies knowledge of letter/sound relationships in word recognition 14. Recognizes grade level vocabulary by sight 15. Reads a wide variety of literature

Fourth Grade

1. Reads to obtain meaning from print 2. Reads for information and pleasure 3. Expands reading vocabulary
4. Rereads for understanding 5. Reads for a variety of purposes in different kinds of texts 6. Recognizes explicit main idea, detailS, sequence of events and
cause-effect relationships 7. Recognizes implicit main idea, details, sequence of events and
cause-effect relationships

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8. Makes predictions and comparisons 9. Makes generalizations and draws conclusions 10. Distinguishes between fact and opinion 11. Recognizes relevance of data 12. Interprets written instructions 13. Classifies and categorizes words 14. Interprets syntactic and semantic relationships 15. Applies knowledge of letter/sound relationships in word recognition 16. Identifies frequency by appearing words by sight, including
content-related vocabulary 17. Reads from a wide variety of literature
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........,' ...J
ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Regina Johnson
Atlanta Public Schools
"Research indicates that children are active participants in their learning of language. They learn language in social contexts, interacting with other children and adults and actually constructing (or reconstructing) language as they learn." (Strickland & Morrow, p. 260)
Children acquire the basic grammar and syntax of the language that surrounds them at a very early age, before they begin formal training in school. Careful attention to their language development by teachers in the primary grades makes children aware of how language functions and helps them control and refine the language that they bring to school. Since the skillful use of language is basic to thinking and learning in all disciplines, it is important for teachers to spend the time and effort needed to have children develop into informed, thinking, skillful users of language, both orally and in writing. Here are some teaching DOs and DON'Ts.
DOs for developing students' language
1. DO provide more time for teaching writing and for oral discussions.
2. DO allow children to draft, write, edit and revise.
3. DO allow for lots of constructive talk and talk-related experiences (e.g., role-play, puppetry, oral recitation of poems, etc.).
4. DO learn writing evaluation methods (e.g., primary trait, holistic and analytic) .
5. DO use many and varied prewriting experiences.
6. DO write yourself! Share your compositions with your children. Be a model for both spoken and written language in your classroom.
7. DO allow opportunities for children to share each other's writing.
8. DO expose children to expanded vocabulary within a context that they can understand.
9. DO allow children to tell stories orally as well as write narratives. Then move to more complex oral and written tasks.
10. DO publish children's writing and provide them with real audiences.
DON'Ts for developing students' language
1. DON'T grade everything that students write. Establish a grading pattern and explain it to them.
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2. DON'T overemphasize spelling. Allow children to spell phonemically. They will transfer to the orthography of the language as they read and mature.
3. DON'T correct everything that your children say. Remember that fluency in both written and spoken language comes with continuous practice and accompanying praise and success.
4. DON'T be afraid to use "big words" around young children. Expose them to the beauty and variety of words and language patterns. Reading poetry to them is a good way to start.
5. DON'T expect more sophisticated writing from children than their stage of growth and development would dictate. For example, second graders are just beginning to be abstract thinkers. Don't push them into very abstract concepts in their speech or writing.
6. DON'T have young children use webbing, mapping or clustering prewriting strategies on their own. Fourth or fifth grade is more appropriate.
7. DON'T become disheartened when your children tell you they have nothing to write or talk about. Prod them one-on-one to find out what they like or are interested in. Chances are you won't be able to keep them quiet once you've found the right key.
8. DON'T be overly concerned about mechanics and grammar. Fluency is the goal for young writers -- to have their writing catch up with their talking and their talking more clearly express their thoughts.
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SAMPLE ACTIVITY

Objectives:

1. To write a sequence of events from an oral stimulus (narrative).

2. To use the oral response "May I . . . "

Materials:

1. Small slips of paper as "bus tickets" for each child in the class. (Write the words on the slip of paper.)

2. Pictures of zoo animals that you or the children have cut out. Put
tape or art gum on the back of the pictures so that they can be mounted on the board or somewhere in the room. (Slides, filmstrips or photographs may be used as well.)

3. A picture dictionary.

Procedure:

1. Tell the children that they are going on an imaginary (vicarious) trip to the zoo, and in order to go they must each know the proper way to ask to go. Repeat the following patterns to the class and then with each child.

Teacher: Students: Teacher:

Would you like to go to the zoo with me? Yes, may I go to the zoo with you, please? Yes, you may. Here is your bus ticket. (Note: Give the slip of paper on which "bus ticket" is written to each child that responds correctly. Make certain that each child gets a bus ticket.)

2. After each child has received a bus ticket, have students picture
the bus in their minds and board the bus. Continue your oral storytelling by describing their journey until you reach the zoo. Tell them they are at the zoo and ask what they want to see. As they name different animals, display the pictures and write the
name of the animals underneath. If animals are named for which there are no pictures, write the word and have at least one student in the class be the "Lexicon Looker" to look the word up in the picture dictionary and show the other children. If there is still no available picture, ask for a volunteer "Researcher" to bring in a picture for the next day.

3. Tell the children to tell the story of what they see. Use the children's name in the story instead of the first person. Ask questions to elaborate on the content that the children give. Before the story is completed, stop and have the children team in pairs to complete the story on paper with one child serving as scribe or have each child write individual endings.

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4. Have each child or pair of children read the story that was begun on the board and then the ending.
5. Publish the papers under the caption "Our Imaginary (Vicarious) Trip to the Zoo."
Evaluation: Observe students' participation in oral activities and the completion of a story sequence. Follow-up: 1. For second through fourth graders, the story sequence on the board
can be used to illustrate the value of descriptors -- adverbs and adjectives. Have the children revise by adding appropriate descriptors as a whole group activity. Revise the story on the board and guide the children through this activity, asking the appropriate questions. 2. Have children brainstorm questions they would like to know about a single animal, such as, What does a gorilla eat? Where do gorillas come from? Write the questions on the board or somewhere in the room. Leave space for the answers. Assign questions for the children to research in the school library or other resource. Give several days for the children to write in the answers. When most or all of the answers have been written, the teacher has material for a descriptive or expository paper.
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT

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Timeline: Two two-hour sessions

Objectives:

1. To demonstrate knowledge of the writing process and how to use the outlined steps.

2. To design teaching strategies to enhance students' oral language development.

Activities: (Objective #1)

Writing as a Process

1. Explain to staff the following steps in the writing process.

Diagnosing -Determining what needs to be taught -Recognizing strengths in writing -Identifying weaknesses and ways to overcome them -Helping students become able and willing to diagnose their own writing

Prewriting -Talking
-Free associating -Brainstorming -Listing -Clustering -Mapping -Questioning -Dramatizing -Heuristics -Journal writing

Writing -Drafting in various modes

Revising -Changing content, organization, style and sentence formation in written draft
Editing -Proofreading the written draft to make changes in usage, mechanics and spelling
Evaluating -Using holistic, analytic or primary trait scoring procedures

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Publishing -Displaying students' writing
2. Have teachers work in small groups, to select a topic of interest. Next, have staff use the Steps in the Writing Process beginning with the Prewriting Stage to write a brief group paper. Ask them to share this paper with others and then publish for all to enjoy.
3. Have the small groups of teachers use the Steps of Editing and Evaluation to review their students' writings. Help staff agree upon a schoolwide editing and evaluation system.
Materials: Media resources: overhead projector and overlays of writing process. Paper, pencils, pens and teacher's edition of the writing process. Writings from students at various grade levels.
Evaluation: Observe teachers' demonstration of the writing process in the classroom and displays of children's work at various stages of the writing process.
Activities: (Objective 12)
1. Instruct teachers in the following procedures in developing oral language in young learners.
Diagnosing -Determining deviations from standard English in pronunciation, syntax and linguistic structures .
Modeling -Using clear and resonant standard English sentences at all times -Using vocabulary that will challenge students to reach for new semantic understandings -Reading poetry and reciting to students often
Drilling -Using short drills only for formulaic oral language patterns (Example: telephone greetings) or to reinforce standard English structures previously taught
2. With teachers in small groups, discuss the following student practices: -Reading aloud -Reciting poetry and prose -Discussing subjects as a group -Answering in complete standard English sentences -Asking and answering questions -Giving oral presentations to various audiences -Sharing thoughts and ideas with other students
3. Have staff groups develop oral language strategies for various grade levels.
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Materials: Media resources: overhead projector and overlays of oral language development. Charts to plot strategies. Evaluation: (Both teacher and student) 1. Assessment based on criteria set by teacher and students
collaboratively. 2. Assess only for "formal" speaking situations.
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GLOSSARY Prewriting - Developing ideas by thinking, talking, listening, reading, questioning and brainstorming with classmates. Writing - Developing ideas and drafting an experimental first copy. Revising - Rearranging and rewriting sections of a draft copy. Editing - Proofreading for mechanics, spelling and usage. Oral Language - Development of the spoken language and its connection with the written word.
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-"'...1
REFERENCES Abbott, S. (1989). Talking it out: A prewriting tool. English
Journal, 78 (4), 49-51. Giacobbe, M. E. (October, 1984). Helping children become more
responsible for their writing. Livewire. NCTE Publication. Harste, J. (1990). Jerry Harste speaks on reading and writing. The
Reading Teacher, 43 (4), 316-318. Murray, D. (1984). Write to Learn. New York, New York: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston. Strickland, D. S. & Morrow, L. M. (1989). Emerging readers and writers.
The Reading Teacher, 43 (3), 260-261. Talbot, B. (1990). Writing for learning in school: Is it possible?
Language Arts, 67 (1), 47-56. Tchudi, S. (1987). The Young Writer's Handbook. New York, New York:
Macmillan.
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READING READINESS Ola Brown
Valdosta State College
"A broad experiential background is essential for success in reading because children must be familiar with the concepts and vocabulary they will see in written form in order to gain meaning from them." (Burns, Roe & Ross, p. 42)
Factors that influence reading readiness include 1) affective development, 2) experiential background, 3) cognitive development, 4) language development, 5) visual and auditory discrimination and 6) motor development. The child must also possess good hearing, vision, social and emotional health, a definite pattern of handedness and psychomotor skills.
DOs when implementing prereading in the classroom
1. DO expose children to a wide variety of children's literature, presented in numerous ways.
2. DO involve parents in the literacy development of their children during the preschool years.
3. DO provide numerous participatory and manipulative activities for children to explore and form ideas about the world around them.
4. DO provide activities for children that are developmentally appropriate.
5. DO provide initial experiences in. reading that capitalize and build upon children's linguistic strengths via the language experience approach.
6. DO provide both direct and vicarious experiences for children to build concepts and vocabulary.
7. DO provide positive experiences for children to help them grasp concepts about print, including story reading, storytelling, listening comprehension activities and opportunities for oral expression. Sensitize children to print around them.
8. DO provide a variety of activities to further develop visual and auditory skills.
9. DO provide activities for children to help establish orientation and directionality skills.
10. DO provide opportunities for children to participate in both individual and group activities.
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DON'Ts when implementing reading readiness in the classroom 1. DON'T assume that children understand the meanings of concepts
about print, e.g., words, letters, sentences, paragraphs, punctuation marks, titles, etc. 2. DON'T spend time on isolated visual discrimination training using nonlinguistic features such as geometric shapes. 3. DON'T assume that children possess adequate backgrounds of experience. Observe and talk with children to determine their experiential background and then fill in gaps where needed. 4. DON'T begin formal reading instruction based on phonics generalizations until children are performing at the concreteoperational stage of cognitive development. 5. DON'T reserve recreational reading or free reading time only for those who complete their work assignments. It should be an integral part of the reading program. 6. DON'T impose reading on children, but rather provide meaningful experiences that would encourage children to want to read. 7. DON'T engage children in isolated drills and memorization of rules without comprehension of their meanings in context. 8. DON'T stress phonics and structural analysis for children lacking metalinguistic awareness; rather, use language experiences and predictable or repetitive stories. 9. DON'T overemphasize skills at the expense of affective development. 10. DON'T rely on only one method or technique for learning; a good teacher's methodology is eclectic.
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SAMPLE ACTIVITY
Objective: To promote oral language development, elicit a language experience story, help establish sense and sequence of story and expose pupils to a new experience that will require the use of a wider vocabulary. Procedure: Mix up various picture cards and put into a box. Select one pupil at a time to choose a card from the box. Ask the student to look at the picture, show it to the class and then tell a story about the picture. The story can be real or make-believe. A brief class discussion of predicted outcomes can follow each story to actively involve the rest of the class. Materials: Tape recorder (for recording the activity and transcribing the story for the children). Evaluation: Observe pupils' ability to tell a story using the common elements of sequence and vocabulary. Follow-up: Have pupils identify known words in the transcribed story. Listen to the tape or read a related story aloud to the class.
Directed Listening Thinking Activity
A. Prepare students for listening with questions and discussion. 1. Build a background by introducing the story. 2. Ask questions that build additional background for listening and that set a purpose for listening. 3. When children have gained enough experience with questions given them, ask them to think of their own.
B. Read the story. 1. Show children the pictures as the story is read. 2. Stop a few times for reactions, comments or questions from the children. 3. Model for scaffold responses to guide students in their thinking.
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c. Discuss the reading afterward.
1. Guide the postdiscussion according to the objectives set for listening.
2. Focus on students' literal responses, inferential responses and critical responses. Discuss elements of structure such as setting, theme, plot episodes and resolution. (Morrow, pp. 104-105)
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT Tirneline: Three two-hour sessions Objectives: To demonstrate knowledge of the language experience approach and how to use it, to demonstrate use of the directed listening activity (DLA) and to acquire a large repertoire of children's literature. Activities: 1. With teachers in small groups, discuss all aspects of the language
experience approach. 2. Have the staff groups practice using the directed learning activity
with children's books. 3. Ask participants to compile a list of suitable children's books for
the prereading level. Preview these books and identify instructional possibilities for use with young children. Materials: Professional journals and textbooks, children's books and reference sources for locating different types of books, audiovisual resources including pictures and big books. Evaluation: Observe teachers as they use the language experience approach and the directed listening activity in their classrooms. Have staff complete a categorized file of children's books for developing prereading skills and for enjoyment.
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GLOSSARY
Auditory Discrimination - The ability to hear likenesses and differences between sounds. Directed Listening Activity (DLA) - A technique for structuring listening activities to ensure that students understand the content; includes introduction, purpose setting, listening, discussion and closure. Directionality - Reading from left to right and top to bottom. Kinesthetic Method - A motor approach to learning to read based on tracing letter shapes in words. Language Experience Approach - Reading instruction organized around materials written by students; students engage in experiences, talk about the experiences, write about the experiences and then read what they have written. Modality - A sensory system for receiving and processing information (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile). Reading Readiness - The time when a prereader has the skills and knowledge for reading instruction. For readers, having the knowledge required to comprehend a specific selection. Story Map - Analysis of a story according to its structure; usually based on elements such as setting, character(s), problem, story events and resolution of the problem. Tactile - Related to the sense of touch. Visual Discrimination - The ability to distinguish one visual form from another. Whole Language Approach - Reading instruction that projects an integrated conception of language through speaking, listening, reading and writing.
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REFERENCES Alexander, J. E. (ed.). (1988). Teaching Reading (3rd ed.). Boston,
Massachusetts: Scott, Foresman and Company. Burns, T., Roe, B. & Ross, G. (1982). Teaching Reading in Today's
Elementary Schools. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company. Larrick, N. (1985). A Parent's Guide to Children's Reading (5th ed.). New York, New York: Bantam. Morrow, L. M. (1989). Literacy Development In the Early Years: Helping Children Read and Write. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Stauffer, R. G. (1980). The Language-Experience Approach to the Teaching of Reading (2nd ed.). New York, New York: Harper & Row. Stoodt, B. (1989). Reading Instruction (2nd ed.). New York, New York: Harper & Row. Trelease, J. (1982). The Read Aloud Handbook. New York, New York: Penguin. White, D. (1986). Books Before Five. Exeter, New Hampshire: Heineman Educational Books. Zintz, M. V. & Maggart, Z. R. (1989). Part 2: A good beginning. In: Stauffer, R. The Reading Process: The Teacher and the Learner (5th ed.). Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown.
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THE BASAL READING PROGRAM Ola Brown
Valdosta State College
"Children who read only when in a reading group are not being taught a love of reading. The best index of the success of reading instruction is the eagerness with which children approach reading." (Stauffer, p. 288)
The basal reader is one of the most widely used approaches in the American elementary school for the teaching of reading. This approach provides a systematic technique for the teaching of reading skills. Most basal series deal with all phases of the reading program and thus provide the classroom teacher with valuable suggestions about teaching reading.
DOs when implementing the basal reading program (K-4) in the classroom
1. DO become familiar with the directed reading activity or lesson (ORA or DRL), which is the basal reading lesson format commonly used in basal series for understanding content.
2. DO spend a considerable amount of time on the preparation stage of the ORA to include establishing background information, building vocabulary and asking purpose-setting questions.
3. DO choose activities that will guide pupils in activating their prior knowledge and making initial predictions on the basis of that knowledge, as well as actively involving them in decoding and figuring out the meanings of new words. Pupils need to be given repeated opportunities to apply the skills they have been taught.
4. DO modify the ORA if the teaching objective is to develop a strategy or skill (process) so that it is taught first and applied throughout the lesson.
S. DO use oral reading as part of, or an extension of, a basal reading lesson in the following ways: a) choral reading; b) readers' theater; c) oral reading of poems and plays; and d) rereading orally for different purposes such as to prove a point.
6. DO help pupils correct oral reading errors during pupil-teacher conferences using word recognition skills such as contextual, structural and phonic clues.
7. DO maintain accurate records of each pupil's progress in skill development so the student practices only the skills that are lacking.
8. DO modify basal reading group activities on some days to include large group instruction. First, determine the reading goal,
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whether it is content, process or attitude, and then decide on the appropriate grouping arrangement for accomplishing the goal.
9. DO use as many of the modalities -- visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile -- as possible during instruction to maximize learning success.
10. DO modify basal reading seatwork to provide alternative kinds of whole language activities such as free reading of self-selected books, journal writing, listening activities, writing and illustrating language experience stories, paired oral reading, creative drama and collecting data from outside reading sources.
DON'Ts when implementing the basal reading program (K-4) in the classroom
1. DON'T use the basal reader approach as the only reading approach for all pupils, but rather as the foundation of a combined reading program, incorporating features of such approaches as language experience and individualized reading.
2. DON'T attempt to follow all procedures given in a basal teaching plan exactly from beginning to end. Be selective; use only the necessary activities, and add new ones when appropriate.
3. DON'T use the basal reader daily in the same manner. Alternative lesson plan formats may be used, e.g., starting the lesson with the enrichment activity, using the directed reading-thinking activity or alternating small group and large group instruction during the week.
4. DON'T use similar reading ability as the sole criterion for forming reading groups; rather, use other criteria such as interest, research, collaboration and cooperative learning. During whole class instruction pupils should be seated heterogeneously.
5. DON'T require all pupils to complete all stories and corresponding worksheets or workbook pages in their current basal material if their skills and ability scores indicate proficiency.
6. DON'T maintain static ability groups throughout the school year. Monitor pupil progress continually to note the need for flexibility in grouping.
7. DON'T overanalyze the basal reader stories. Select from among the numerous questions offered for each story the ones that are best suited for pupils and goals of the lesson.
8. DON'T ask pupils to follow along in their books as another pupil reads aloud, commonly known as round robin reading. If pupils are reading orally to share information, then only the reader has the information being shared while the rest of the class listens as in an audience situation.
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9. DON'T consume all of the scheduled reading time for basal reader instruction only. Allot time for self-selected reading in practical, real-life material and for recreational reading.
10. DON'T confine all pupils in a grade level or class to the set of readers for that particular grade. Consider individual differences.
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DIRECTED READING LESSON Content lesson format

Objective: To help students understand the content of the selection.

Materials: Basal readers

Procedures:

Step 1:

Introduce the selection (activate schemata and special vocabulary) .

Step 2:

Set purposes for reading the selection (for content understanding only).

Step 3:

Have students orally or silently read the selection.

Evaluation:

Step 4:

Discuss the selection (for content understanding only) .

Follow-up:

Step 5:

Teach the skills.

Step 6:

Bring closure to the lesson (by summarizing content only).

Process lesson format

Objective: To teach students a learning strategy they can apply to text material.

Materials: Basal readers

Procedures:

Step 1:

Introduce the selection as a focus for a strategy to be learned.

Step 2:

Introduce the strategy to be taught.

Step 3: Model how to use the strategy.

Step 4: Work with students as they learn the strategy.

Step 5:

Set purposes for reading the selection (include application of the strategy as well as understanding the content)

Step 6:

Have students orally or silently read the selection.

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Evaluation: Step 7:
Follow-Up: Step 8:

Discuss the selection both in terms of the content and in application of the strategy.
Bring closure to the lesson by summarizing both the content and the use of the strategy.
(Duffy & Roehler, 1989, pp. 68-69)

21

STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Suggested outline for the basal reading program (K-4) Timeline: Four one-hour sessions Objectives: 1. Introduce metacognitive control of the reading process as a viable
instructional strategy. 2. To explore the strengths and weaknesses of the basal reading
textbook, particularly in terms of the three subgoals of reading instruction (attitude, process and content goals) . 3. To identify types of grouping that can be used in basal reader instruction and means of forming these groups. 4. To explore means of modifying basal reader instruction with regard to basal text, grouping patterns, units, lessons and seatwork. 5. To review word recognition skills. Activities: 1. Divide teachers into small groups to study the structure of the basal reader lessons and determine if the three subgoals of reading instruction are included. Fill in the gaps where needed by supplementing basal materials with activities and other resources. 2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of grouping procedures. Examine in detail various types of grouping patterns. 3. Discuss comprehension and metacognition with focus on using the process of comprehension rather than teaching discrete skills in comprehension. 4. In small groups, have teachers examine the basal lessons in terms of changes needed to adjust basal reader activities to their students. Focus on alternative kinds of seatwork activities, lesson goals, unit structure of text and skills presentation. Materials: Recent journal articles and professional books on basal reader instruction education, audio-visual resources, basal reader texts and materials, trade books and other reading materials.
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Evaluation: Have teachers complete a rating sheet on the use of a basal reader (before and after the inventory). Observe staff participation in large and small group discussions. Follow-Up: Ask teachers to demonstrate how they modified the basal reader to meet the needs of all students in the classroom.
An Example of a Combined Approach Reading Lesson Plan
Reading period for third grade may be organized as follows: 1. The first 15 minutes are a free reading period in which students
silently read books of their own choice (individualized or personalized approach). 2. During the major portion of the reading period, the teacher meets separately with three different reading groups each using a different level of the basal textbook (basal text approach). 3. While the teacher is working with each basal text group, those students in the other groups are individually writing news articles about classroom events for publication in classroom newspaper; ideally, students are able to visit the local city newspaper (language experience approach). Thus, all three approaches are combined into a single reading period.
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GLOSSARY
Ability Grouping - A teacher-assigned grouping structure in which all student members have about the same ability; used primarily for developing content and process goals.
Attitude Goals - Efforts to develop a positive response to reading and an accurate concept of what reading is.
Choral Reading - The dramatic reading of poetry in a group.
Collaborative Grouping - A teacher-assigned or self-started temporary grouping structure used primarily for developing attitude goals. Students with varying abilities work together to solve a problem or to complete a task.
Comprehension Monitoring - The ongoing process of checking one's understanding as one reads.
Content Goals - Efforts to help students understand the messages conveyed by particular functional or recreational texts.
Direct Instruction - Teacher control of learning environment through structured lessons, goal setting, choice of activities and feedback.
Directed Reading/Thinking Activity (DR-TA) - An instructional method that includes three procedural steps throughout reading a passage: predicting, reading and proving.
Eclectic Approaches - Approaches that combine desirable aspects of a number of different major approaches.
Friendship Grouping - A grouping structure in which friends work together for a specific purpose and within a specified time frame.
Individualized Reading Approach - An approach to reading instruction in which pupils select their own reading materials, pace themselves and confer with teachers periodically to monitor their progress.
Interest Grouping - A grouping structure in which pupils are combined on the basis of common interests or friendships.
Mediation - The use of instructional dialogue to guide students' understanding.
Metacognition - Knowledge of the functioning of one's own mind and the conscious efforts to monitor or control this functioning.
Modeling - The act of demonstrating for students how to use and think through a given process or skill.
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Process Goals - Efforts to understand how the reading system works and how to apply strategies when reading. Read-aloud Sessions - Time regularly set aside for reading to students to generate and maintain enthusiasm and interest for reading. Reciprocal Teaching - A technique to develop comprehension and metacognition in which the teacher and students take turns being "teacher." They predict, generate questions, summarize and clarify ideas. Research Grouping - A grouping structure in which students of varying ability le~els are placed together to investigate a topic. Semantic Mapping - A note-taking and recall/study technique for identifying and recording main ideas and supporting details using graphic forms. Story Maps - Graphic outlines containing the major structural features of narratives (setting, initiating or problem episodes, succeeding episodes and resolution) .
25

REFERENCES
Aaron, I. E. (1987). Enriching the basal reading program with literature. In: Cullinan, B., ed. Children's Literature in the Reading Program. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.
Bauman, J. (1985). Whole Language Instruction and Basal Readers. Columbus, Ohio: Silver, Burdett and Ginn.
Bauman, J. F. (1984). How to expand a Basal Reader program. The Reading Teacher, 37 (7), 604-607.
Blanton, W., Moorman, G. & Wood, K. (1986). A model of direct instruction applied to the basal skills lesson. The Reading Teacher, 40, 299-305.
Cochrane, O. & Cochrane, D., et al. (1984). Reading, Writing, and Caring. Winnipeg, Canada: Whole Language Consultants Ltd.
Cooper, J. D., Warncke, E. W. & Shipman, D. A. (1988). The What and How of Reading Instruction (2nd ed.). Columbus, Ohio: Merrill Publishing Company.
Duffy, G., Roehler, L. & Putnam, J. (1987). Putting the teacher in control: Basal reading textbooks and instructional decisionmaking. Elementary School Journal, 87, 357-366.
Duffy, G. G. & Roehler, L. R. (1989). Improving Classroom Reading Instruction: A Decision-making Approach (2nd ed.). New York, New York: Random House.
Green-Wilder, J. & Kingston, A. (1986) . The depiction of reading in five popular basal series. The Reading Teacher, 39, 399-402.
Reutzel, D. R. (1985). Reconciling schema theory and the basal reading lesson. The Reading Teacher, 39, 194-197.
Russavage, P. M., Larton, L. L. & Millham, R. L. (1985). Making responsible instructional decisions about reading: What teachers think and do about basals. The Reading Teacher, 39, 314-317.
Stauffer, R. (1970). When children read. Wilson Library Bulletin, 10
(2), 288.
26

WORD RECOGNITION Brenda Tiller
Albany State College
"Word recognition is the foundation of the reading process. To be sure, there is much more to reading than word recognition.. It behooves the students of reading, then, to understand something of word recognition." (Gough, p. 225)
Children will use a variety of word recognition techniques to identify unrecognized words. While much discussion addresses phonics as a method of pronouncing words, it is only one of several techniques that can be employed to decode words. The mature, independent reader will use a multifaceted system to achieve the most appropriate pronunciation of unrecognized words in the least amount of time.
DOs when teaching word recognition
1. DO present skills in the most meaningful contexts.
2. DO teach young readers to learn to recognize words as rapidly as possible.
3. DO take into account the varied abilities and knowledge of young readers on an individual basis as instruction is planned for various skills.
4. DO provide adequate practice so that young readers can recognize and transfer words in various prints, from large flash cards to text print.
S. DO allow young readers to apply their newly gained skills through activities that use a balance of word recognition approaches.
6. DO provide phonic instruction in meaningful language contexts that allow children to understand skills conceptually and to use them effectively.
7. DO teach skills thoroughly, particularly to children who have difficulty learning or who have slow learning rates.
8. DO provide appropriate activities to ensure that readers learn skills to perform at an automatic level of usage.
9. DO provide opportunities for students to transfer skills immediately to actual reading and other practical experiences.
10. DO plan instruction to accommodate the needs of fast, moderate and slow learners.
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11. DO study what works and what doesn't work with young readers; leave the flexibility in your plans to make appropriate modifications and plan accordingly.
DON'Ts for teaching word recognition
1. DON'T teach phonetic rules in isolation. Though knowledge of the rules is important, teaching them directly to young readers is not as effective as providing them directly applicable experiences with the rules through print.
2. DON'T overemphasize one word recognition strategy over the others. Provide a balance and hence preclude the possibility of over dependence or underutilization of one approach. Failure to do so could result in a slow and tedious process rather than usage of the diverse approaches available that young readers might employ.
3. DON'T expect children who are already functioning below grade level to perform efficiently without thorough instruction and an abund~nce of applicable reinforcing activities.
4. DON'T teach words that are unique to the selection and that readers rarely meet in print. Such words can be presented to children before reading the selection or can be explained during reading. Instructional time is better spent on more useful items.
5. DON'T dwell on teaching persons, places and names. These can be presented during the content and conceptual preparation before reading.
6. DON'T expect young readers to use context clues effectively if they are not conceptually and experientially familiar with the topic.
The following approaches are commonly used in various combinations to decode or identify word parts and words.
Sight Words Context Clues Phonics Structural Analysis Dictionary Skills
SIGHT VOCABULARY:
Sight vocabulary consists of the words a young reader recognizes instantly by sight. Children succeed in their reading efforts and establish a starting point for phonics and analysis skills. Subsequently, instantly recognizable words, not requiring effort from a child, stand out as important for beginning reading. Often sight words are learned in isolation. The two basic types of sight words are content words and function or structure words.
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Note: The terms word recognition, word identification, decoding, word attack and word analysis are frequently used interchangeably.
Content words are the nouns, verbs and adjectives that convey the message of a sentence or paragraph. They are generally words of high imagery and easier to learn than function or structure words. Function words (articles, conjunctions, verb auxiliaries, prepositions and pronouns) are words of no imagery.
Function words such as the and and occur quite frequently and should therefore be introduced early in the reading program. While function words are usually very short, they should not be considered easy to learn. These words are considerably more difficult for children to learn than the content words because they lack concrete meaning.
CONTEXT CLUES
The use of context clues requires examining the known words surrounding the unfamiliar or unknown word to get clues that help the young reader discover the meaning and pronunciation of the unknown word. Remember that context clues are useful only if the reader has prior experience with and knowledge of the topic and if context reveals only one of a word's meanings. (Swaby, 1984).
Picture clues are often useful to young readers as they read. From a readiness stage in beginning to learn to read, picture clues are frequently used. They prepare the young reader for later use of context clues and may help evaluate the accuracy of the other word recognition practices being used.
PHONICS
Phonics skills involve the analysis of whole words into smaller spelling units (syllables) and the relation of these units to sounds in speech. Phonic instruction centers around teaching children rules governing letter-sound relationships and is usually presented to young readers through an analytic or synthetic approach.
In analytic approaches, a limited number of sight words are taught, perhaps SO to 100. Using these known words, the young reader is taught to make inferences about sound-letter relationships for unknown words. In synthetic approaches, the teacher first presents the individual letter-sound associations and then teaches the young readers to combine or synthesize the parts into whole words.
Both analytic and synthetic approaches present the rules of phonics and the isolated sounds of letters and letter combinations. The major difference is the timing or the sequence of concepts to be taught. The teacher, when teaching phonics, attempts to help young readers learn the relationship between the language they already speak and the language they are learning to read.
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STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
Structural analysis of words includes derived and inflected forms and compound words. While this approach is a useful one to word approach, it is most useful when combined with other word recognition methods. The sequence in decoding a word by means of structural analysis usually involves looking at the whole word, the word parts and then the whole word again. Young readers need a knowledge of root words and affixes so that they will be able to understand the changes in word forms, sound, accent and spelling. Knowledge of syllables and some generalizations about syllables in words will also prove useful to the reader. Structural analysis can be achieved with three kinds of words: words with inflectional endings, such as s, 's, es, ed, er, etc.; derived words, constructed from a root, suffix and/or prefix; or compound words.
Inflected Forms - The simplest form of structural analysis begins in the first grade through the recognition of inflectional variants. These variants are made up of a root or base word plus an ending. Young readers commonly use inflected endings when they speak and thus should easily understand such endings as they read.
Derived Forms - A derived form, or derivative, is a word made up of a root word and one or more parts called prefixes and suffixes. The reader must learn that prefixes and suffixes have meanings of their own, which, when combined with root words, may have a distinctly different meaning, such as unprepared or unstable.
Compound Words - Compound words are made up of two or more simple words, neither of which has changed form in the process. Early in their reading experiences, young readers begin to experience compound words and usually read them easily if they know the two root words from which the compound is made. Teachers must not assume, however, that the reader knows the meaning of the compound because the meanings of the roots are known.
Syllabication - Syllabication is the division of words into their pronounceable units, or syllables. It helps the young reader break words into smaller units that can be pronounced and blended back into a word which makes sense.
DICTIONARY SKILLS
While young readers are taught to make effective use of context clues, structural analysis and other word recognition skills to determine the meaning of unknown words, they must sometimes use the dictionary. The term dictionary skills refers to the use of the dictionary to determine the location, pronunciation, meaning and spelling of unfamiliar words. Other usages include determining plurals, parts of speech, verb tense, synonyms, optional pronunciation and others.
Although the use of picture dictionaries begins the development of dictionary skills at the preschool stage and early primary grades, instruction in dictionary skills usually begins in the latter primary
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grades and continues through grade 6. Before children are ready to use a dictionary, they must know the letters in the alphabet, know the correct sequence of the letters in the alphabet, be able to recognize and identify initial letters of a word and be able to recognize "before" and "after" concepts. (Swaby, 1984) Picture dictionaries refer to books in which a picture accompanies each word entry. Pictures and simple words are introduced as children begin to recognize words. The picture dictionary is sectioned in categories such as things, colors and numbers. Children recognize words through the use of pictures. Picture dictionaries often provide readers with their first independent techniques for pronouncing unrecognized words.
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Lesson on Decoding Syllables
Objectives: To teach students to count the number of syllables in words and recognize the vowel-letter pattern VC.
Materials: "Gupie" bag and bones, worksheet (attached).
Procedure:
TEACH - Introduce sample words in context. Put the following sentences on the chalkboard: The robin pulled the worm out of the ground.
Ron made a robot that looks like a man.
Read the sentences aloud with the- students. Ask how many syllables there are in robin: How many in robot? Clap the syllables, tap the syllables on the desk or table.
Explain to the students how to divide and decode words. Write practice words on the chalkboard such as robin, robot, cabin, babies, shaving and hotel. Lead them to discover that all the words in the list have something in common, i.e., a single vowel letter followed by a single consonant letter. Demonstrate how to divide the first two: rob/in, ro/bot. Discuss the difference in the two. Lead them to realize that the first syllable in robin has a VC pattern and a short vowel sound, whereas the first syllable in robot has a CV pattern and a long vowel sound. Ask them how robin would sound if it were divided like this: ro/bin. Ask them how robot would sound if it were divided like rob/ot.
PRACTICE - Let the students practice decoding some sample words on their own. For each of the remaining words on the chalkboard, have a student to divide it both ways -- before the middle consonant letter and after. Introduce "Gupie" to the students. Tell them, "This is Gupie. Divide this word and discuss the number of syllables. Feed two bones to , Gupie' for two syllables." Have the students come to the board and divide the remaining words, pronouncing them out loud each time, e.g., ca/bin and cab/in. Discuss which pronunciation makes the most sense and feed "Gupie" the correct number of bones.
Evaluation: Have students develop a generalization or rule. Ask them a question similar to "What rule can you make up about dividing a word that has a single vowel letter followed by a single consonant letter?" Accept anything similar in meaning to the following: "It can be divided either before or after the consonant letter." Then ask, "If it is divided before the consonant letter, will the vowel letter be long or short?" (Allow responses.) Next, have them test their rule on other words. Ask them to divide and decode words like the following both before and after the middle consonant letter: miner, cater, famous, shaping, Robert. Provide worksheets, games and other learning activities.
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WORD RECOGNITION

Objective: To teach students to identify the syllables correctly in a list of multisyllabic words.
Syllabication is the division of a word into syllables. Find the vowels in the following words and circle: miser final
REMEMBER: If a two-syllable word has one consonant after the first vowel and the first vowel stands for the short vowel sound, the first syllable ends with that consonant.
EXAMPLE: milser

Divide the following words. Check your work.

l. music
2. agent. 3. liner 4. table

5. nation 6. final 7. regain 8. depart

9. hotel 10. robot 11. vacant 12. bible

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WORD RECOGNITION

Objectives: To help students identify correctly the syllable that is accented and correctly identify the number of syllables in a list of multisyllabic words.

********************** Syllabication is the division of a word into syllables. Read each of the words below. The students will be asked to indicate the number of syllables in each word by holding up a place card with the correct numeral i.e., Cards 1, 2, 3, or 4.

father Walter bedroom

tea another elephant

REMEMBER: In a word with more than one syllable, one syllable is said with more force or stress. This syllable is accented and is marked with an accent mark (') to show that it is said with more stress.

Two-syllable words that are divided between two consonants are usually accented on the first syllable.

Examples:

bat'tle

lit' tIe

Mark the accented syllable in each word below. Be sure to check your work.

1. win ter 2. din ner 3. Wal ter

4. dol lar
5. fun ny 6. bar ber

7. hur ry
8. sud den 9. sin gle

Additional Activities:

PHONIC SCRAMBLE

Obtain an egg carton and 12 small objects whose names begin with different consonants. Place an object in each section. Then print the letter each object begins with in its respective hole. Instruct pupils to shake the egg carton after securing the top, then to remove the objects. Have students place each object back into the hole that has the same letter as its beginning sound. Supply an answer card showing the objects in the correct order for self-checking.

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NEWSPAPER MAZE
Young readers are always happy to recognize words they know. Ask them to look in newspapers and magazines for words they can read. Have them cut them out, bring them to school and paste them on a large sheet of newsprint on the bulletin board.
Objective: To enable students to correctly identify the number of syllables and identify the syllable that is accented in a chosen set of words.
Materials: Several sets of large flash cards with accent mark and accented words (i.e., airplane, bicycle, apple, puzzle, impossible, other words selected by teacher) .
Procedures:
REVIEW - Review with students multisyllabic words. Using flash cards, have students work in small cooperative learning groups, to identify the number of syllables Gontained in each word. Monitor the progress of the groups by walking around to various groups.
TEACH - Explain to the students that in a word with more than one syllable, one syllable is said with more stress. This syllable is accented and is marked with an accent mark. The accent mark shows that this syllable is pronounced with more stress. (Give examples using chalkboard, flash cards, etc., using such words as pepper, rattle).
Explain to students that two-syllable words that are divided between consonants are usually accented on the first syllable. (Provide examples such as cat'tle, fa'ther).
PRACTICE - Provide practice session for students marking accented syllables of words.
Evaluation: Have each student in the room to provide a vocabulary word from any content area. Write the list on the board. Ask students to then write the words, indicate the number of syllables and identify the accented syllable of each word.
Follow-up: Have the students write the names of 10 friends, count the syllables in each name and write the number.
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Suggested outline for Word Recognition
Timeline: Sessions should be planned for two days. If the session is limited to strategies, principles, etc., or just the "make and take" workshops, a day is appropriate.
Objectives:
1. To instruct staff in various approaches to teaching word recognition skills to young readers.
2. To develop instructional materials for teaching word recognition skills to young readers.
Materials: Handouts for Combination Strategy and Principles of Skill Instruction (attached) and materials for developing learning packets.
DAY ONE:
Provide examples of specific word recognition skills that could be taught in developmental phases. Note to the classroom teachers that this outline is not intended to be all inclusive and that other skills could be added in each category.
Outline of Word Recognition Skills
I. Prereading Instruction A. Auditory Discrimination 1) Hearing likeness and differences in words a) beginning parts b) ending parts c) middle parts 2) Hearing rhYming sounds in words
B. Visual Discrimination 1) Seeing likeness and differences in letters 2) Knowing the alphabet (seeing the printed form of the letters, saying their names)
II. Initial Reading Instruction A. Sight Words 1) content words/function words 2) first words based on frequency, child's preference for words and imagery level 3) picture clues
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B. Structural Analysis 1) noting s, ed, and ing endings 2) noting other endings such as ly, est 3) noting compound words 4) identifying root words 5) identifying useful prefixes and suffixes 6) dividing words into syllables to help pronunciation 7) identifying possessives and contractions
C. Pronunciation of Phonics 1) consonants 2) vowels 3) consonant blends 4) consonant digraphs 5) diphthongs
D. Use of the Dictionary 1) pronunciation clues 2) meaning clues
Swaby (1984) outlines several basic principles of skill instruction fundamental to the successful teaching of any skill. Classroom teachers might find the following information beneficial.
Principles of Skill Instruction
1. Present skills in the most meaningful context. Skills often are introduced and demonstrated in single-sentence contexts, however, which are not adequate for providing the concepts necessary for learning.
2. Teach skills thoroughly, particularly to children who have difficulty learning or who have slow learning rates. Children often fail to learn skills because too many skills are taught too superficially and too rapidly.
3. Ensure children's attention before you begin teaching the skill. Very simple strategies can be used to get their attention, including the following.
* Start instruction only when you have all children's attention.
Use statements like "I will know you are ready when your eyes are on me" or "John isn't quite ready. Let's wait until he is."
* Group the children around an uncluttered table, making sure that
they have nothing in their hands. Keep all pencils, texts and workbooks and distribute those supplies only when needed.
* Seat children who tend to be disruptive apart from each other and
close to you.
* If you need to write examples on the chalkboard, do so before
children are called to the reading group. If you spend time
37

writing on the chalkboard after children have been grouped for reading, the tone of the session will invariably be set by the most disruptive child.
* As much as possible, involve children kinesthetically in
learning.
4. Try to let children apply their newly gained skills immediately in real reading situations. Often children are taught a skill, are directed to practice it in the sparse context of a workbook and days later are exposed to the skill in actual reading. Unfortunately, by that time they have probably forgotten the skill or have no idea of the relationship between the isolated skill and the reading situation. Teachers must not only let them practice skills immediately, but must also draw their attention to the application of the new skill.
5. Take into account the abilities and knowledge of each group of children during skill instruction. Fast learners need less exposure to skills; slow learners require more exposure.
6. Learn the three basic, phases of skill development: the cognitive awareness phase, in which children become conceptually aware of the task; the accuracy phase, in which children master the task through practice and significantly minimize error; and the automatic phase, in which the skill has been overlearned to such a degree that its performance no longer requires conscious effort or overt attention. Move children through each phase of skill development and provide enough meaningful practice for students to perform skills in reading automatically.
Crowell refers to young readers' words through a combination of strategies -- a hierarchy. Readers should learn to apply strategies that are most efficient for the given situation, beginning with the most expedient and, if not successful, moving onto more time-consuming strategies. The teacher would, therefore, teach young readers to identify words rapidly by means that will distract least from comprehension and enhance problem-solving skills.
Combination Strategy
1. Sight: If the children know the word by sight, there is no further problem. If, however, the word is unfamiliar but they recognize a familiar word in part of the word, they should try to see if it seems to fit.
2. Context: If the word is not known by sight or analogy to a sight word, the children read to the end of the sentence, or perhaps a little further. They try to imagine what word would go there and make the sentence more meaningful, and look again for a familiar word within the unknown word that fits the context.
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3. Word analysis - initial letters: If the word is not known from context, the reader looks at the initial letter (or letters if the word starts with a consonant blend or digraph) and combine lettercluster-to-sound analysis and context.
4. Word analysis - ending letter cluster: If still unsure about the word, the children look at its final set of letters for a phonogram that they know. They should pronounce this, adding the beginning of the word, and see if it fits with the context. This step combines letter-cluster-to-sound analysis and context.
DAY TWO: Work Session or "Make and Take Workshop" Plan work sessions for teachers to develop learning packets on each approach or specific skills (Make and Take Workshop). Either provide the materials or ask teachers to assess the student needs before the work session and corne prepared to make materials to teach, reinforce and/or remediate skills. An alternate approach is to identify some word recognition skill(s) or an approach and have classroom teachers bring one of their favorite learning packets or games for teaching some skill and enough materials for a predetermined number of packets to be put together. Evaluation: 1. Discuss workshop topics and provide a question and answer period. 2. Evaluate student performance and/or growth on an ongoing basis. 3. Assess products from the "Make and Take" Workshop. 4. Observe teachers as they use workshop concepts in the classroom. 5. Have staff evaluate their own performance.
39

GLOSSARY
Ability Groups - Teacher-assigned instructional groups in which student members match in ability.
Accountability - Holding teachers and student responsible for student achievement; enacted by state legislatures and/or boards of education.
Affix - A prefix or a suffix.
Basal Readers - Carefully graded sequenced series of texts with workbooks. The detailed teacher's manual provides for teaching word recognition and comprehension skills.
Cloze Procedure - A testing method in which words from a passage are deleted and underlined spaces substituted. Subjects attempt to fill in the spaces with the correct words.
Combined Approach - A way to organize the reading program; instruction occurs both directly with basal text activities and directly with language experience and personalized reading activities; a teacher uses each approach to develop specific reading outcomes.
Comprehension - The process of making sense of an author's or speaker's message.
Consonant Blend - Two or more consonant letters that retain the sound of each consonant when pronounced; trap; spring; splendid.
Consonant Digraph - Two consonants that are sounded as a single sound.
Derived Form - A root word plus one or more prefixes and/or suffixes.
Digraph - Two successive letters that are sounded as a single sound within one syllable.
Diphthong - Two vowels that are combined to form a single blend sound with one syllable.
Inflected Form - A root or derived word to which an inflectional ending has been added, i.e., -s, -es, -'s, -ed, -est.
Phoneme - The smallest significant unit of sound. In English there are about 45 phonemes, 21 consonants and 9 simple vowels; the balance are combinations.
Phonics - That aspect of reading instruction in which the speech sounds of letters and groups of letters are taught.
Phonic Analysis - The process of sounding letters and groups of letters to determine how a word is pronounced.
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Prefix - One or more letters placed before a root to affect its meaning. Reading - The process of perceiving and understanding symbols in relation to the meaning they carry. Root - The member of a word family with the most simple structure. Sight Words - Words that a reader can immediately recognize on sight. Structural Analysis - A word analysis technique in which the reader identifies meaningful units within the words (i.e., roots, suffixes, prefixes, syllables, inflectional endings) and relates them to the total word. Visual Discrimination - The ability to discern differences and likenesses between visual patterns, e.g., letter forms, word pictures, geometric designs. Word Recognition - The process of identifying words according to anyone or a combination of word recognition techniques, e.g., phonetic analysis, structural analysis.
41

REFERENCES
Crowell; J. (1980). Reading Comprehension. Glenview, Illinois: Scott Foresman & Company.
Ekwall, E. E. (1985). Locating and Correcting Reading Difficulties, 4th ed. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill.
Gough, P. (1984). Word recognition. In: Pearson, P. D., ed. Handbook of Reading Research. New York, New York: Longman.
Hittleman, D. R. (1988). Developmental Reading, K-8: Teaching from a Whole-Language Perspective. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill Publishing Company.
Mason, J. M. & Au, K. H. (1986). Reading Instruction for Today. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company.
Miller, E. F. (1984). Stimulate Reading . . . with a Dictionary. In: Harris, A. J. & Sipay, E. R., eds. Reading and Reading Instruction, 3rd ed. New York, New York: Longman.
Stoodt, B. D. (1981). Reading Instruction. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Swaby, B. R. (1984). Teaching and Learning Reading: A Pragmatic Approach. Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company.
Zintz, M. V. & Maggart, Z. R. (1986). Corrective Reading. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Publishers.
CLASSROOM RESOURCES
Hover, S. (1981). An Instructor's Big Book of Reading Ideas. New York, New York: The Instructor Publications.
FEARON PUBLICATIONS
Auict, Janice. Cut & Paste Phonics, Grades 1-3, FE5540-8051. Criscuoo, Nicholas. Word Structure and Comprehension, Grades 3-5,
FE2729-90S1. Foust, Sylvia. Beginning Book of Letters and Consonant Sounds, Grades
K-2, FE0692-80S1. Foust, Sylvia. Beginning Book of Vowel Sounds, Grades K-2, FE0693-80Sl. Love, Marla. Word Structure Games, Grades 2-6, FE5802-8051. Love, Marla. Decoding Games, Grades 1-3, FES801-80Sl. Runjamin, Rosemary. New Dimensions in Dictionary Practice, Grades 4-6,
FE467l-805l. Wentrcek, Ginger. Dandy Dictionary Skills, Grades 2-4, FE1830-805l.
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FRANK SHAFFER PUBLICATIONS Beginning Kindergarten Skills, Grades K-l, FS-618. Cloze-Context Clues, Grades 3-4, FS-536. Consonant Blends, Grades 1-2, FS-7137. Compounds and Contractions, Grades 1-2, FS-7176, FS-7177. Dictionary Skills, Grades 2-6, FS-465, FS-648, FS-649. Initial Consonants, Grades 1-2, FS-7136. Prefixes/Suffixes, Grades 2-4, FS-7083, FS-481. Short/Long Vowels Read & Write, Grade 1, FS-7091, FS-7097. Special Vowels, Grades 1-3, FS-7178, FS-647. Syllables, Grades 2-3, FS-8671. Using Context Clues, Grades 1-3, FS-462. Visual Discrimination, Grades K-2, FS-409. COMPUTER ASSISTED INSTRUCTION For use on Apple systems: Snoopy's Reading Machine, Random House, 1588006047/0-676-32137-2 Phonics, American Educational, 1411093047/0-87570-005-5 For use on IBM-compatible systems: Alphabet Zoo, Spinnaker, 1204079222/5-555-04946-3 Learn to Read, American Educational, 1411098227/0-897570-013-6
43

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT Judy True
North Georgia College
"Knowledge of vocabulary, along with basic comprehension strategies, is the key to understanding both spoken and written language. A language user who recognizes and produces a diverse number of words orally has a much greater chance of becoming a successful reader. The young child who opens a book and finds it filled with known words and familiar meanings is free to concentrate on combined unique strings of words in order to arrive at the meaning intended by an author. . . . One of the major tasks facing you as a teacher is the expansion of children's knowledge of words and their meanings." (Johnson & Pearson, p. 1)
Children increase their vocabularies very rapidly during the preschool and early elementary school years. It has been estimated that children in these age groups expand their vocabularies at a rate of 1,OOO-plus words a year. However, the actual process of developing vocabulary is a complex one involving a multitude of instructional strategies.
DOs when teaching vocabulary
1. DO help students develop a stock of basic words they can recognize instantly, understand and relate to their backgrounds. These basic words include high-frequency sight words, words that are critical to a selection for understanding to take place (selection-critical words) and familiar words that have new meanings.
2. DO select words to be pretaught from students' experiences and from the materials they are to read. Cooper (1986, p. 138) outlines the following decision-making steps for identifying words to be selected for preteaching. Step 1. Read the text to determine the general story lines or key ideas. Step 2. Select words that are likely to cause students difficulty in light of their backgrounds, decoding skills and abilities to determine meaning. Step 3. Identify key concept words; delete others. Step 4. Identify which key concept words are adequately defined or given pronunciation clues in text. These do not need to be pretaught. Step 5. Identify words for which students can determine pronunciation and/or meaning by using structural analysis. These do not need to be pretaught. Step 6. Preteach words remaining on the list.
3. DO ensure that students clearly know the concept for a new word before attempting to create a link between the concept and the symbol (word). The teacher's role in early primary grades is chiefly that of introducing the written form or label for an already known concept. When establishing background for a new
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story, question the students to determine their understanding of the concepts represented by new words in the selection. If the
concept for a new word is unfamiliar to the students, extend the concept through discussion of concrete experiences such as sensory
exploration of objects and field trips; vicarious experiences or use of facsimiles such as pictures, movies and videotapes; and contextual activities extending ideas related to the concepts.

4. DO teach students contextual strategies for acquiring and developing vocabulary. Examples of context-based strategies
include preview in context, contextual redefinition, cloze variations and opinion (Seafross & Readence). (See Glossary for
explanations.)

S. DO model words and vocabulary strategies for students by letting
them hear you think aloud the steps you are using to define new
words. For example, when confronted with an unfamiliar term in context, think aloud as you seek the definition of the word using context clues, using the glossary and then using the dictionary.

6. DO teach students categorizational strategies for acquiring and developing analysis and semantic mapping. Examples of categorizational strategies include analogy, feature analysis and semantic mapping.

To use analogies, list three parts of an analogy and ask students

to create a fourth (i.e. Hat is to head: as Glove is to

.)

In feature analysis (Johnson & Pearson), create a matrix and discuss with the children how to identify features that are held in common by a selected list of words or concepts.

Semantic mapping involves (Johnson & Pearson), associations children have when they think of selected words. Draw a diagram depicting the categorization of words and concepts surrounding a topic by use, kind and properties. Semantic maps help to activate the schematic background of pupils so that you can determine the appropriateness of the reading to be done about that topic.

7. DO create a rich, stimulating classroom environment that invites
exploration of words in a wide variety of oral language, reading and writing activities. A language-rich primary grades classroom
includes recordings of literary selections, tape recorder for
recording one's own writing, a library of children's literature
selections, child-produced books and stories, learning centers, semantic maps and vocabulary webs, bulletin board displays, vocabulary games and computer activities -- all of which highlight
pupils' developing vocabulary skills. "Students must hear new
words in meaningful context, discuss the words so that expressive vocabulary develops, and then read or write the new words, again in a meaningful based lesson" (Johnson and Pearson, 1984, p. 19).

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8. DO read to children. "Next to providing experiences, reading to children is one of the best sources of help with vocabulary" (Durkin, 1987). The teacher's skillful oral rendition of a story not only gives children the sense of "story" and adds to their knowledge of the world, but also adds to their knowledge of words.
9. DO draw children's attention to words, labels and vocabulary before they read, while they read and after they read. Children must actively attend to a new word if they are to remember it. Draw attention to a new word by making sure the children are looking at the word when you introduce, write it, define it and discuss it, naming the word and having the children name it, spell it and name it again, and asking the children to look carefully at the word and compare it with other similar words. Talk about similarities and differences.
Such procedures during prereading activities will help to ensure children recognize the words when they read. A continuation of such activities after reading a selection reinforces word recognition and allows the teacher to identify words that may require review in subsequent lessons.
10. DO encourage children to practice new words through games, worksheets, wide reading and writing. Such practice is the key to reinforcing the learning of words. Vocabulary games, word notebooks and writing, whether in original compositions or in content assignments, increases the reader's ownership of words.
DON'Ts when teaching vocabulary
1. DON'T overrely on one instructional strategy for helping students to develop vocabulary. Students may require a variety of strategies to fully master and "own" difficult words and concepts.
2. DON'T leave vocabulary development to incidental learning. Vocabulary instruction must be intentional and planned.
3. DON'T practice vocabulary using only lists of isolated words. Practice activities should resemble actual "reading," and thus most vocabulary practice should be done in context.
4. DON'T assign vocabulary activities and practice exercises without providing prior instruction.
5. DON'T rely on basal manuals alone for direction in teaching vocabulary. More usually needs to be done with new words than manuals typically recommend (Durkin, 1987, p. 423). Consult the reference list in this ready reference packet.
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6. DON'T confuse vocabulary development as a comprehension skill with sight vocabulary, which is a word recognition skill. While sight words are recognized and pronounced instantly, they are words that have been learned to aid in their RECOGNITION. On the other hand, meaning vocabulary is a COMPREHENSION skill and refers to the youngster's ability to know the meaning of words in various contexts (Cooper, et al., 1979, p. 31).
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SAMPLE ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITY ONE - Introducing New Words with Whole Word Methodology
Dolores Durkin recommends the following steps as one procedure for introducing new words to early primary readers:
Objective: To teach students to name and spell a new word.
Procedures:
1. Show the new word either alone or in context. 2. If a context is used, read it. 3. Call the children's attention to the new word.
Name it. Have the children name, spell and name the word again. 4. Make certain its meaning is known, in particular the meaning it has
in the selection in which it occurs. 5. If the new word resembles other words, list one or more of them
with th~ new word. Talk about similarities and differences. 6. Erase all the words except the new one. Have the children name,
spell and name it again.
After introducing words and establishing background for the story, proceed with practice activities and the reading of the story.
Materials: Chalkboard (or group-size word cards and sentence strips) for presenting the word and contrasting words, the story as presented in textual context or chart form.
Evaluation: Following the introduction, have each student name the word as it is presented on a word card and correctly read the word aloud in a sentence or in a story.
Follow-up: Read the word(s) on sentence strips and in chart stories. Add the word to the individual reader's word bank or vocabulary notebook with a written or picture definition. Play word games that will enliven practice.
ACTIVITY TWO - Five-Step Plan for Teaching Sight Vocabulary
Johnson and Pearson suggest the following teaching plan for introducing a basic vocabulary word or a selection/critical word.
Objective: To enable students to recognize in context and use the new word in writing.
Procedures:
1. Seeing. Write the word on the chalkboard, flash card or piece of paper (e.g. use in a sentence, etc.).
2. Discussing. Read the word aloud and have children repeat it. Discuss the word as it relates to their experiences and interests.
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3. Using. Ask the children to use the word in a sentence or to suggest synonymous words or phrases. Write their suggestions on the board.
4. Defining. Ask the children, "What does this word mean to you? 5. Writing. Encourage the children to practice writing the words
using word books, personal dictionaries or sentences (p. 102).
Materials/Resources: Chalkboard, sentence strips, word cards, word books, paper, pencil, chalk.
Evaluation: Require students to name and use the word correctly when reading and writing.
Follow-up: Reinforce the word through games, workbooks and oral and silent reading.
ACTIVITY THREE - Six-Step Plan for Introducing Sight Words
Objective: To teach students to identify the new word correctly in context.
Procedures:
1. Introducing. Present the new word on the chalkboard or a flash card and say the word aloud. Present a sentence on the board or on sentence strip and read the sentence aloud while holding, underlining or framing the new word.
2. Defining. Ask the children what they know about the word or what it means to them. Invite children to suggest synonyms. Ask them to use it in a sentence (write their sentences on the board) .
3. Comparing. Present the word in a list with words similar to it in appearance. Compare the distinctive features of the word with others in the list (i.e., initial, medial, final letters; configuration; word elements).
4. Discriminating. Present a similar selection of words including several appearances of the new word (listed on board or in a small stack of flash cards). Have students point to or pick out the new word every time it appears and say it aloud each time.
5. Using. Ask the children to read the word aloud in context presented in the form of a basal reader story, a chart story or a language experience selection.
6. Writing and Reinforcing. Encourage children to practice writing the new word using word books, personal dictionaries, sentences, stories or workbooks. Reinforce the words through games and opportunities for wide reading.
Materials: Chalkboard, flash cards, sentence strips; basal reader selection, chart story or language experience selection.
Evaluation: Observe how well the children read the new words aloud when words appear in context.
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ACTIVITY FOUR - Semantic Feature Analysis Semantic Feature Analysis has been used successfully with learners from preschool through college levels. Following is an adaptation of procedures suggested by Johnson & Pearson and Heimlich & Pittelmann. Objective: To have students demonstrate their understanding of how conceptually related words differ from one another. Procedures: 1. Select a category (vegetables). 2. List (in a column) several words in that category (carrots, beans,
peas, spinach). 3. List (tn a row) several features shared by some of the words
(large, small, a leaf vegetable, a root vegetable, green). 4. Put pluses or minuses beside each word beneath each feature (happy
or sad faces can be used). 5. Encourage students to think of additional examples of the category
and additional features related to the category and then to list the words on a sheet of paper. 6. Have the students share their examples and features and add these to the matrix. Complete the matrix (pluses/minuses) for the additions suggested. 7. Discover and discuss the uniqueness of each word in the matrix. Materials: Chalkboard or chart paper. Evaluation: Ask students to explain how the word meanings (concepts) differ from one another. Follow-up: Repeat the process with other categories.
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT

This staff development plan suggests avenues through which a lead reading teacher in a school can provide in-service opportunities for primary grade teachers to explore and apply teaching strategies designed to increase students' vocabulary development.

Objective: To help staff implement selected teaching strategies in the Vocabulary Resource Packet in their classrooms.

Activities:

1. Orientation Session a. Introduce the Vocabulary Resource Packet. Give an overview of
organization and content and briefly discuss the importance of vocabulary development. Discuss specific teaching suggestions and cautions (Dos and Don'ts). Explain and clarify procedures outlined for the sample vocabulary activities presented in the packet. b. Practice Sample Activities. Invite a volunteer to tryout (and modify if desired) each sample activity. Invite volunteers to be prepared to share their reactions at the next session.

2. Reaction Session Invite volunteers to share their reactions and modifications of the sample activities. Invite teachers to share other strategies they have used successfully. Optional: Determine if there is interest in additional study of vocabulary development strategies. If several participants wish to pursue this avenue of in-service development, establish small study groups to investigate strategies in other resources (make available selected references noted in the packet) and share, report or model another strategy at the final session.

3. Optional Session. Have study groups share findings orally, in handouts or through modeling.

Timeline

Time constraints must be acknowledged -- an in-service program that "rushes" activities to meet a specific deadline (Le., Christmas vacation) will suffer. The length of time devoted to an ideal
in-service program will be perceived as an ongoing project and will vary according to the perceived needs and the level of interest of involved teachers.

Week One Week Two

Orientation meeting. Teachers tryout ideas in the packet and modify the ideas.

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Week Three.
Weeks Four/Five Week Six

Meeting two. Teachers report success and modifications of tryouts. Staff divide into study groups and receive resources for exploration. Teachers read resources and select additional strategies to tryout. Culminating Meeting. Teachers identify strategies they tried, suggest possible modifications and evaluate the in-service program.

Materials: Professional resources identified in the packet. Additional resources may be available within the individual school; others may be suggested by the curriculum director.

Follow-up: Visit classrooms. Offer to take the place of individual
teachers for a designated class period to allow them to visit a neighboring teacher's classroom during vocabulary development lessons. If possible, schedule one or two teachers to visit another classroom in a neighboring school. Consult the curriculum director for suggested classrooms and for assistance in scheduling such visitations.

Schedule an additional meeting for staff to share strategies observed and tried in their classrooms. (Concentrate on strategies that teachers found successful and worthwhile.)

Evaluation: At the culminating meeting ask each teacher to complete a
written evaluation of the workshop, commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of the different phases of the in-service: orientation, study groups and visitation.

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GLOSSARY
Basic Words - The high-frequency sight words, selection-critical words and old words with new meanings that a child must rapidly identify and understand to read successfully.
Cloze - An instructional technique in which words are deleted from a passage with blanks left in their places for students to fill in by using surrounding context.
Contextual Redefinition - A teaching technique in which students "guess" the meaning for new words in a list and then see the words in context to verify their definitions.
Key Concept Words - The printed word labels for concepts.
Modeling - The act of demonstrating for students how to identity and/or define an unrecognized or unknown word.
Opinion - A teaching technique in which small groups of students corne to a consens~s on the identity of a missing word in a sentence. Groups share sentences, identifications and reasons for their selections.
Preview in Context - New words presented in a brief sample of context and through questioning to use students' background and knowledge to help them identify the likely meaning for the word.
Selection-Critical Words - Words that are critical to the understanding of the selection.
Semantic Feature Analysis - A technique in which known words with common properties are listed and students are asked to identify features of the various words (a feature may apply to only one word in the list). Includes a matrix checking features incornmon for each word.
Semantic Mapping - A diagram depicting the categorizations of words and concepts surrounding the topic by use, kind and properties. Maps draw on associations pupils have when they think of selected words and help to activate the background of pupils so that you can determine the appropriateness of the reading to be done about a topic.
Semantic Webs - Graphic representations of the relationships among words that are constructed by connecting the related terms with lines.
54

REFERENCES Cooper, J. D., Warncke, E. W., Ramstad, P. A. & Shipman, D. A. (1979).
The What and How of Reading Instruction. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill. Cooper, J. D. (1986). Improving Reading Comprehension. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon. Devine, T. G. (1986). Teaching Reading COmprehension. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon. Durkin, D. (1987). Teaching Young Children to Read. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon. Heimlich, J. E. & Pittelmann, S. D. (1986). Semantic Mapping: Classroom Applications. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Johnson, D. & Pearson, P. D. (1984). Teaching Reading Vocabulary. New York, New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston. Seafross, L. W. & Readence, J. E. (1985). Helping Children Learn to Read. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
55

REMEDIAL READING - COMPREHENDING THE MAIN IDEA Gloria Mixon
Atlanta University
"Making sense of print is what reading is all about." (Goodman, p.
112)
Readers must be able to find key ideas to clearly understand sentence meaning. Students must be taught that the key idea of a sentence usually tells what a person or thing is or what a person or thing is doing. The completeness of the reading act depends upon the meaning constructed by the reader through interaction with the text.
DO' for implementing remedial reading
1. DO diagnose to determine mastery of explicit main idea concept when analyzing a list of related words.
2. DO use well-structured examples.
3. DO use heuristics to enable pupils to use some visual or conceptual structure to acquire the main idea skill.
4. DO integrate instruction in supporting details into all main idea instruction.
5. DO provide instructional tasks that require pupils to generate answers by writing main idea statements and supporting details whenever appropriate.
6. DO provide instructional tasks that require pupils to summarize text.
7. DO allow reasonable variation in pupils' main idea responses.
8. DO provide sufficient explanation, teaching, modeling and review.
9. DO help pupils gradually refine their performance with main ideas by moving from simple to complex reading materialS, and from short to long materials.
10. DO be sensitive to differences between main ideas that fit narrative materials as opposed to expository materials.
DON'Ts when implementing remedial reading
1. DON'T choose poorly structured and difficult examples.
2. DON'T attempt to teach what a main idea is before pupils know what a topic is.
3. DON'T teach pupils that a topic is the same as a main idea.
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4. DON'T teach pupils that titles express main ideas. 5. DON'T present camouflaged main idea questions. 6. DON'T concentrate on instructional tasks that require pupils only
to identify main ideas. 7. DON'T require uniformity in pupils' main idea responses.
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SAMPLE ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITY ONE - The Main Idea as Umbrella
Objective: To help students
review main ideas that are explicitly stated, review the umbrella concept, recognize that not all lists contain a main idea word, compose main idea statement, and test "umbrella statement" by verifying details that fit under it.
Procedures
1. Introduce the implied main idea by reviewing explicit main idea. 2. Remind pupils that in this list the main idea is stated. 3. Review the umbrella concept. 4. State the purpose of the lesson: to find implied, stated main ideas
of selected lists of words and compose the implied main idea statement. Tell how this statement is like an umbrella. 5. Place a second list on the chalkboard. Relate it to the umbrella. 6. Conclude by explaining that in the same wayan umbrella covers all of the people who might stand underneath it, the main idea statement covers all the words in a list that go with it. 7. Distribute a list that contains the broad category or umbrella statement and a list that does not contain broad category or umbrella statement. Ask pupils to supply four words that fit under the category or umbrella statement. Tell them that whether the main idea of a list of words is stated or unstated, it is always a broad or umbrella statement underneath which all words in a list must fit. 8. Listen to responses of the pupils and make necessary corrections. 9. Provide additional exercise for independent practice.
Materials: Four teacher-made word lists, chalkboard.
Evaluation: Gauge pupil participation and skill development. View the lesson as effective if all pupils correctly compose four out of five umbrella statements of an implied main idea.
Follow-up: Have pupils work together in small groups to develop additional lists. After they complete the lists, ask groups to exchange lists and compose appropriate umbrella or main idea statements for each.
58

ACTIVITY TWO - The "Table Exercise"

Objective: To help students

discover that not all paragraphs have a main idea that is stated directly,

compose main idea statements that capture the gist of the

paragraphs by using the details given,

.

test main idea statements by asking, "Does this main idea statement tell about all the details in this paragraph?" and

understand how main ideas and details go together.

Procedures

1. Introduce the concept of implied main idea by reviewing concepts of main idea explicit or stated in a topic sentence.

2. Explain that not all paragraphs have topic sentences. Therefore, the reader must figure out the main idea.

3. Present on a chart a paragraph that has no stated main idea. Read it aloud while students read silently.

4. Explain that this paragraph has no topic sentence but instead is a
list of details. Add that the paragraph still has to have a main idea, but students must figure out the main idea by looking at all
the details.

5. Determine the topic (subject) of the paragraph.

6. Read to find out what is said about the topic. Corne up with a sentence that tells the main idea.

7. List on blackboard all the details in the paragraph that tell about the topic (subject).

8. Compose a main idea sentence that covers all the details.

9. Lead pupils in seeing how a table can help to clarify the relationship between the main idea and supporting details.

10. Tell students that just as a table is supported by legs, so too, a main idea is supported by details.

11. Distribute group exercise sheets that include four paragraphs with unstated main ideas. Ask students to test the accuracy of their
responses by helping to construct main idea/detail tables.

59

12. Let students practice independently with a worksheet containing four paragraphs without stated main ideas.
Materials: Chart stand, chart tablet, marker, chalkboard, chalk, teacher-made practice sheets. Evaluation: Ask pupils to correctly develop individual main idea/supporting tables for each of the four independent practice paragraphs. Follow-up: After dividing them into small groups, have pupils choose a paragraph from a teacher-made list and write a description of the procedure for finding the implied main idea and present it to the class.
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Objective: To teach staff the five steps in the Directed Reading Activity (DRA) , examine a model implied main idea lesson which applies the DRA and develop model implied main idea lessons applying the DRA.
Activities
1. Discuss the five steps in the DRA
I. Introduction (motivation and development of background) - The teacher's role in the introduction of the lesson is to stimulate interest in the reading topic. This may be done by linking the child's eXPeriences to the topic being introduced or by using media resources to motivate or arouse interest in unfamiliar material.
II. Example - The teacher should provide specific examples of the skill lesson or the reading topic being developed. These examples should be clear and concise.
III. Direct Instruction - The teacher should be sure students know the concept being developed. This concept should be stated on the grade level of the students. The teacher's role in direct instruction is to introduce or reinforce the skill lesson or reading topic. Many strategies are used to introduce or reinforce reading skills, i.e., small group instruction, questioning techniques, specific examples, analytic-inductive reasoning, demonstrations or semantic maps and word webs. These techniques are used to help students understand and retain the material being taught.
IV. Teacher Directed Application - The teacher should monitor the progress of the students as they apply the reading skills being developed. One widely used technique in the Teacher Directed Application process is to provide purpose questions to direct the reading lesson as the students prepare to read silently. The oral reading lesson is structured by the purpose questions from the silent reading period. Oral reading development is a very important concept and should be purposefully done.
V. Independent Practice (follow-up practice) - Students should be able to demonstrate they understand the skill lesson being developed. Often teachers use chalkboard examples and workbooks to provide follow-up practice.
2. Divide teachers into small groups (by grade level) to study the "tJmbrella" and "Table" strategies presented in the student activity. Explain that they will need to adapt both strategies to meet the needs of their instructional levels.
3. Have small group present one lesson to the entire group.
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Timeline: The staff development training may be conducted in one four-hour session.
Activity 1: 30 minutes Activity 2: 90 minutes Activity 3: One hour Evaluation: Ask staff to evaluate the quality of their own lesson plans and those of their peers. Follow-up: Have teachers use the lesson plan in their classrooms.
62

GLOSSARY Definitions taken from Harr.is T. & Hodges, R. E. (1981). A Dictionary of Reading and Related Terms, Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Main Idea - The central thought, meaning or gist of a passage. Directed Reading Activity (ORA) - A step-by-step process of dealing with a reading lesson under the guidance of a teacher; developmental reading lesson. The ORA involves a lesson plan that includes preparation/readiness/motivation for reading a lesson; silent reading; vocabulary and skills development; silent and/or oral re-reading; and follow-up or culminating activities. Explicit Main Idea - The clearly stated main idea in a passage. Implicit Main Idea - The implied main idea in a passage.
63

REFERENCES Baumann, J. F. (1984). The effectiveness of a direct instruction
paradigm for teaching main idea comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 93-115.
Baumann, J. F. & Serra, J. K. (1984). The frequency and placement of main ideas in children's social studies textbooks: A modified replication of Braddock's research on topic sentences. Journal of Reading Behavior, 16, 27-40.
Brophy, J. & Good, T. L. (1986). Teacher Behavior and Student Achievement. In Wittrock, M. C., ed. Third Handbook of Research on Teaching. New York, New York: MacMillian.
Cooper, J. David. (1986). Improving Reading Comprehension. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 245-246.
Dishner, E. K. & Readence, J. E. (1977). A systematic procedure for teachiqg main idea. Reading World, 16, 292-298.
Duffy, G. G. & Roehler, L. F. (1982). Direct instruction of comprehension: What does it really mean? Reading Horizons, 23, 35-40.
Fitzgerald, J. & Speigel, D. L. (1983). Enhancing children's reading comprehension through instruction in narrative structure. Journal of Reading Behavior, 15, 19-36.
Goodman, K. S. (1984). Unity in reading. In Purves, A. C. & Niles, O. S., Becoming Readers in a Complex Society. Eighty-Third Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 79-114.
Hansen, J. (1981). The effects of inference training and practice on young children's reading comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 16, 391-417.
Hansen, J. & Pearson, P. D. (1983). An instructional study: Improving the inferential comprehension of fourth grade good and poor readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79.
64

LEARNING STYLES AND MODALITIES Katrena Howard
East Metro Regional Assessment Center
" . if children cannot learn the way we teach, we must teach them the way they learn!" (Dunn & Dunn, p. 53)
As we discover more about how students learn, we become more aware of student differences. For example, some of us are more productive when seated in a comfortable chair or stretched out on the floor, not seated at a desk, something that is traditional in most classrooms. Some of us have more difficulty remembering facts when someone tells us; it is much easier for us to remember if we visualize the information and write it down. These differences in how we'learn best are termed learning styles, and each of us has strengths in particular areas.
Individual learning style strengths and preferences certainly have implications for reading instruction. Especially in the elementary years when children are developing their self-concepts and learning to read, students must experience positive learning situations. Being aware of and providing instructional strategies that build in students' individual and most comfortable ways of learning will help to provide positive experiences. Certainly, elementary school is not too soon to teach in ways that help students become successful and independent readers. Of course, teachers must use effective teaching practices and good judgment as well as adapt instruction to match students' learning style strengths.
DOs for incorporating learning styles into your teaching
1. DO assess student learning styles by using an inventory. (Available inventories are listed in the reference section. Most of the inventories also recommend compatible instructional strategies, methods and materials).
2. DO observe students in a variety of situations and analyze their response to instruction. For example, a student who fidgets and rarely completes assignments may benefit from working with other students or by being given shorter assignments with more frequent feedback. (Use your knowledge and judgment to support or modify the results from an inventory administered to students at all levels, but especially for kindergarten and first grade students who may not be ready for a formal assessment.)
3. DO share findings about learning styles of students with them and their parents. Suggest ways that the information can be used to improve student study habits and learning. For example, an auditory learner may request that family members ask questions at the end of a homework session to help reinforce and retain the information (Gann, 1986).
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4. DO share findings about student learning styles with other teachers so that they too can adapt teaching strategies.
5. DO introduce a lesson and reinforce material in different ways. For example, in addition to telling students orally, write the information on a chalkboard, chart paper, overlay or handout; provide concrete examples and hands-on experiences, especially for younger students. Presenting information in several different ways helps to meet the needs of more students.
6. DO introduce new and difficult material through each student's perceptual modality strengths; then reinforce through students' secondary strengths (Dunn and Dunn, 1986). For example, a student who learns most easily through active participation (kinesthetic) might begin a unit with a body game, such as pantomime and then read the story (visual) or listen to the story on a tape (auditory).
7. DO allow flexibility within the classroom. Some students prefer learning in pairs or in groups (e.g., employing cooperative learning techniques, Johnson and Johnson, 1984), sitting on the floor, listening to tapes or viewing filmstrips or videos. Also permit students to change seats to adjust for lighting, temperature or sound if these elements seem to affect students' concentration.
8. DO provide opportunity for movement. Allow students to move around rather than sitting at a desk for long periods of time. Because of their developmental stage, movement is especially important for young children. Movement is also important for students who are active and have difficulty sitting at a desk for long periods.
9. DO allow students to eat if they appear to need food or drink during reading. (Carrot sticks, celery and apples are some healthy choices and are not messy.) Nibbling on fingernails or pencils and chewing gum may indicate that a student needs food.
10. DO build on student learning style strengths. Be aware, however, that the weaker areas need to be strengthened. For example, many students learn best through hands-on experiences or structured activities; yet these students need to develop good listening skills and to work in situations that require some independent decision making.
11. Do know that your learning style affects how you teach. Try to vary your teaching style so that your teaching accommodates student learning style differences.
DON'Ts for incorporating learning styles into your teaching
1. DON'T expect students to find reading enjoyable if they are taught in ways that fail to capitalize on their learning style preferences, as learning will be difficult and frustrating.
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2. DON'T confuse learning styles with abilities. No one learning style is better than another, just different.
3. DON'T restrict students by labeling them as having a particular modality strength. Although one modality remains predominant, some researchers (Barbe, Swassing, Milone, 1981; Carbo, 1983) indicate that modality strengths change over the years. Furthermore, modality preferences are related to a student's stage of development and thus evolve from tactile and kinesthetic in early childhood to visual and verbal as a student matures.
4. DON'T expect all students to learn to read by the same method. For example, phonics instruction may work for some students, but most students need an approach that focuses less on the auditory and visual modalities and that emphasizes a more eclectic approach using a combination of methods such as language experience, personal writing and children's literature.
5. DON'T expect all students to retain information that is presented through primarily one modality, e.g., auditory.
6. DON'T expect all students to sit and work on an assignment over a long period of time.
7. DON'T expect all students to learn to read by employing numerous and varied skill exercises (worksheets). Isolated skill instruction works best for students who are analytical thinkers.
8. DON'T expect all students to be at their best in the morning; some students prefer to learn during the afternoon or evening.
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SAMPLE ACTIVITY
This activity attempts to accommodate a variety of learning styles and perceptual modalities.
Objective: To enable students to put a series of actions into the correct sequence. For younger students in kindergarten and first grade, sequence is important to their developing a sense of story, to understanding a beginning, a middle and an end. It can be used to discuss how to organize and present information using different types of order, e.g., temporal, spatial.
Procedures:
1. Show students some pictures (initially, no more than three or four for younger students) depicting an event (visual modality). Ask them to think about what happened first, second and so on (auditory modality). Explain to them what to look for in each picture and describe how you think through the problem (modeling for students who need more structure in thinking).
2. Then tell students (verbally and in writing) to describe (either orally or in writing) the steps in making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Emphasize that the student is listing the steps for someone who has never made a sandwich and doesn't know what one is (e.g., a person from a foreign country or E.T.). Allow students to work individually, in pairs or in small groups of three to four. They may describe the procedure by telling, writing or drawing.
3. Once the students have listed the steps, calIon volunteers to explain their procedures. You will demonstrate the steps using bread, peanut butter and jelly. Follow the students' order of events literally. For example, as the first step, a student may say, "Put the peanut butter on the bread." You would then take the jar of peanut butter and place it on the entire loaf of bread. This is really a lot of fun! Use several of the student examples. Then eat the results.
Materials: 1) A series of pictures--newspaper cartoons are a good source. Make sure that you find something clear and obvious for the younger students. You could also copy some pictures from an illustrated book. 2) Loaf of bread, jars of peanut butter and jelly, a knife, a spoon, paper towels or napkins.
Evaluation: Have students revise their original procedures for making a sandwich. You can repeat the demonstration of making a sandwich or simply talk with the students about the difference, emphasizing the importance of order.
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Follow-up: Expose students to a story by having them read in the book, view a video or listen to a tape, another student or the teacher. Change the major events in the story and ask students to explain how the order affects the meaning of the story. Have the students put the events in the correct order.
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Training teachers to adapt teaching methods to match student learning styles is not an easy task. Most likely, staff development will need to be extensive and take place in several sessions. It is possible to acquaint teachers with the concept of learning styles in one session, but further training should be done by someone knowledgeable in using a learning style approach to instruction. Therefore, this staff development component provides a general framework for a staff development program. The objectives are divided into levels: Level one acquaints teachers with their own learning styles. Objectives at levels two, three and four provide for more in-depth training for identifying learning styles and in prescribing appropriate activities, methods and strategies to accommodate for student learning style strengths.
A first, necessary step is to obtain numerous and varied resource materials that provide information and specific suggestions for classroom instruction. Several sources are listed in the reference section. References that provide specific ideas for the teaching of reading are by Marie Carbo.
Before deciding what level is appropriate for your staff, assess, either formally or informally, the extent of teachers' knowledge of learning styles. If teachers are not familiar with learning styles and modalities, begin with level one. If teachers know the subject, however, start at whatever level matches the staff's needs. For example, teachers may understand a lot about learning styles, but need guidance in how to adapt instruction to accommodate for student learning styles; therefore, levels three and four would be appropriate.
All staff members need to be aware of the concept of learning styles and modalities, but not everyone will be "sold on" adapting their . instruction to accommodate for diverse learning styles. Thus, it might be wise to focus the more involved staff development sessions on those who are interested in and committed to trying a learning style approach to instruction. Once a few teachers are successful, others will become interested.
Those teachers who try to accommodate for a variety of student learning styles need to be given time to share strategies, resources and innovative ideas. Furthermore, these teachers need administrative support to experiment with a variety of strategies and in altering their "traditional" classrooms. Thus, the staff development training should be an ongoing process that incorporates teacher training, contributions and feedback.
LEVEL ONE
Objective: To make staff aware of their individual learning styles and understand how this information relates to reading instruction.
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Activities:
1. Ask staff members to complete an inventory that will identify their learning style strengths. If an inventory is not available, a simple checklist or chart can be used to depict specific learning styles. (Available inventories are listed in the reference section.)
2. Ask staff members to remember and discuss their most rewarding classes and/or most effective teachers and especially what made that class or teacher their most memorable. Point out that the instruction probably matched their learning style strengths.
3. Define and discuss significant terms.
a. Learning style - The way we receive and process information.
b. Reading style - "An individual's learning style when engaged in the act of reading or when learning is read" (Carbo, 1988, p. 324). For example, students who are analytical thinkers and who hear discrete sounds in words will probably learn effectively if taught to read using a phonics approach.
c. Perceptual modalities - Information is perceived through the senses: visual or spatial, auditory or verbal, tactile, and kinesthetic.
d. Teaching style - Teacher attitude and actions that influence teaching and student learning (adapted from Butler, 1984).
4. Using the results from staff members' learning style assessments, discuss how this information is related to their methods of instruction -- their teaChing style. Then discuss the possible increase in student learning if instruction matches student learning style strengths. For example, teachers would be more accepting of students who have difficulty; as students succeed, their self-concept and confidence are enhanced.
Materials: Inventory or checklist to assess learning style.
Evaluation: Ask staff members to form groups of no more than three to four and decide upon two ways they can use the information on learning styles to improve their instruction. Ask them to share these two ways with the entire group.
LEVEL TWO
Objective: To help staff members develop strategies to diagnose student learning style strengths.
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Activities:
1. Explain how teachers can administer an inventory or checklist in their classrooms and discuss how to interpret the results. (If staff members completed the activities in level one, this will have been demonstrated; thus, a reminder will be sufficient to focus their thinking.)
2. Note that in addition to using an inventory, teachers need to observe student behavior to determine ways in which their students learn most efficiently. Instruct staff to observe students' actions in a variety of situations. For example, does the student work well on one task over a long period of time or become restless? Does the student appear to work better with another student or in a group situation rather than alone?
3. Have volunteers role-play various students in a typical classroom situation. Either before or during the staff development session, distribute cards on which you have described a particular behavior. As a "teacher" works with a reading group, "students" depict these behaviors that reflect either success or frustration with a particular instructional method. "Students" might exhibit some of the following behaviors: actively listening to the teacher, eagerly reading a story or completing an activity, chewing on a pencil, staring out the window, bothering other students, asking the teacher to repeat the assignment that was just given, fidgeting, showing disinterest in reading a story. Have the rest of the staff critique the role-playing activity, identifying possible learning style strengths that these behaviors might reflect.
4. Provide the staff with further examples of how certain behaviors could indicate student learning style strengths. Then ask the staff to provide some examples and discuss.
Evaluation: Suggest that teachers administer a learning style inventory and/or closely observe student behavior before the next staff development session, noting the behaviors that are used frequently and easily. Ask teachers to be prepared to share some of the results from the inventory and observations of student behavior.
LEVEL THREE
Objective: To teach staff members to prescribe diverse activities for student learning style differences.
Activities:
1. Guide staff members in discussing the results from the inventory and/or their observation of student behavior. What kinds of information did they obtain from the results of the learning style inventory/checklist? What kinds of behaviors did they observe? How did students respond when working in a variety of situations? Do these results from the inventory seem to support or refute the teachers' observations?
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2. Using teachers' responses to the questions above, discuss how they can adapt activities to match student learning style strengths. Make sure the examples are related and applicable to teachers' own classrooms and students.
3. Place staff members into small groups so that they can generate specific activities to accommodate diverse learning styles. (Staff members may be grouped by grade level or subject area, where appropriate.) For example, they might provide both oral and written directions, allow for flexibility within the classroom and redesign classrooms to allow for informal areas. The DOs and DON'Ts section contains more specific suggestions. Sources in the reference section can provide additional ways of prescribing instructional strategies to match student learning styles.
Evaluation: Have staff members -- either individually or in small groups -- compile a list of activities that would match a variety of student learning styles identified by the inventory and observations. For example, if a student has a limited attention span, give short assignments; if a student prefers to work with others, arrange for that student to work with another or in a small group.
LEVEL 4
Objective: To train staff members to write programs and adapt lesson plans that will complement student learning style differences.
Note: This objective builds upon and extends the level three objective of prescribing activities. At this level, however, teachers will do more than provide alternative activities. Teachers will be asked to vary their instruction by increasing their repertoire of strategies. Certainly, staff development training at this level may be extended into several sessions.
Activities:
1. Provide staff members with specific strategies and methods. These strategies must be demonstrated for and practiced by the participants. The training may be done by outside experts or by staff volunteers experienced with learning style approaches. The reference section provides information on obtaining additional strategies.
2. Some examples of effective strategies that complement student learning styles are cooperative learning, circle of knowledge, brainstorming, individual contract activity packages and tactile and kinesthetic activities.
Evaluation: Have staff members design, either individually or in small groups, programs and lesson plans using a variety of instructional strategies that complement student learning style differences.
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Note: As teachers experiment, they need to be provided with continued support, feedback and opportunities to share successes and failures with one another.
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GLOSSARY Learning Style - The way we receive and process information. Reading Style - An individual's learning style when engaged in the act of reading or when learning to read (Carbo, 1988, p. 324). For example, students who are analytical thinkers and who hear discrete sounds in words will probably learn effectively if taught to read using a phonics approach. Perceptual Modalities - Perception of information through the senses: visual or spatial, auditory or verbal, tactile, and kinesthetic. Note that perceptual modality is only one element of learning style, although the terms are often used interchangeably. Carbo (1983), however, states that the perceptual modality is probably the learning style element of greatest importance in learning to read. Teaching Style - Teacher attitude and actions that influence teaching and student learning (adapted from Baker & Brown, 1984).
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REFERENCES
Baker, L. & Brown, A. L. (1984). Metacognitive Skills and Reading. In Handbook of Reading Research, edited by P. David Pearson, pp. 353-94. New York, New York: Longman.
Borg, L. & Bruener, M. (1988). Calgary's learning styles staff development program. The Journal of Staff Development, 9, 56-60.
Carbo, M. (1980). Reading style: Diagnosis, evaluation, prescription. Academic Therapy, 16, 45-52.
Carbo, M. (1981). Making books talk to children. The Reading Teacher, 35, 186-189.
Carbo, M. (1983a). Reading styles change between second and eighth grade. Educational Leadership, 40, 56-59.
Carbo, M. (1983b). Research in reading and learning style: Implications for exceptional children. Exceptional Children, 49, 486-494.
Carbo, M., Dunn, R. & Dunn, K. (1986). Teaching Students to Read Through Their Individual Learning Styles: A Practical Approach. Reston, Virginia: Reston.
Carbo, M. (1987a). Matching reading styles: Correcting ineffective instruction. Educational Leadership, 45, 55-62.
Carbo, M. (1987b). Reading styles research: "What Works" isn't always phonics. Kappan, 68, 431-435.
Carbo, M. (1987c). Deprogramming reading failure: Giving unequal learners an equal chance. Kappan, 69, 197-202.
Carbo, M. (1988). The evidence supporting reading styles: A response to Stahl. Kappan, 70, 323-327.
Cavanaugh, D. P. (1981). Student learning styles: A diagnostic/ prescriptive approach to instruction. Kappan, 63, 202-203.
Chall, J. (1989). Learning to read: The great debate 20 years later. Kappan, 70, 521-538.
Dunn, R. & Dunn, K. (1978). Teaching Students Through Their Individual Learning Styles: A Practical Approach. Reston, Virginia: Reston (an older copyright, but an excellent reference for ideas).
Dunn, K. & Dunn, R. (1986). The look of learning styles. Early Years, 16, 49-53.
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Gann, J. P. (1986). Establishing a home learning environment. A parent's guide. Anne Arundel County Public Schools.
Gregorc, A. F. (1983). Learning styles and brain research: Harbinger of an emerging psychology. Student Learning Styles and Brain Behavior. NASSP Monograph. Reston, Virginia: National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., Holubec, E. G. & Roy, P. (1984). Circles of Learning. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Ross, E. & Wright, J. (1985). Teaching Strategies to Fit the Learning Styles of Gifted Readers in the Middle Grades. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Reading Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 5-9. ED 262 388.
Staff. (1987. Schools in the middle: A report on trends and practices. NASSP Monograph. Reston, Virginia: National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Stahl, S. A. (1988). Is there evidence to support matching reading styles and initial reading methods? A reply to Carbo. Kappan, 70, 317-322.
Strahan, D. B. & Strahan, J. D. (1988). Revitalizing Remediation in the Middle Grades: An Invitational Approach. A Middle Level Essentials Special Paper. Reston, Virginia: National Association of Secondary School Principals.
INVENTORIES
Barbe, W. B., Swassing, R. H. & Milone M. N. (1980). Swassing-Barbe Checklist of Observable Modality Strength Characteristics. ZanerBloser Inc. 612 N. Park Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215.
Carbo, M. Reading Style Inventory (Grades 1-12). Learning Research Associates, P. O. Box 39, Roslyn Heights, New York 11577.
Dunn, K., Dunn, R. & Price. Learning Style Inventory Grades 3-12. Price Systems, Box 7818, Lawrence, Kansas 66046-0067.
Perrin, L. Learning Style Inventory: Primary (K-2). St. John's University Center for the Study of Learning and Teaching Styles, Utopia Parkway, Jamaica, New York 11439.
The Edmond's Learning Style Identification Exercise (ELSIE).
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The National Association for Secondary School Principals has published a number of materials related to learning styles, including an assessment instrument, the Learning Style Profile, for the diagnosis of student cognitive styles and perceptual responses and the study of instructional preferences. Write to Publication Sales, NASSP, 1904 Association Drive, Reston, Virginia 22091.
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TEACHING MATERIALS
Barbe, W. B. & Swassing, R. H., with Milone, M. N. (1980). Teaching Through Modality Strengths: Concepts and Practices. Zaner-Bloser Inc. 612 N. Park Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215.
Guild, P. B. & Garger, S. Marching to Different Drummers. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 125 N. West Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314.
The following are available from St. John's University Center for the Study of Learning and Teaching Styles, St. John's University, Utopia Parkway, Jamaica, New York 11439.
Book -- Teaching Students Through their Individual Learning Styles: A Practical Approach.
Videotape -- "The Look of Learning Styles."
Sample contract activity packages: set of six (elementary, secondary).
Filmstrips -- "Learning style: An explanation for parents"; "The learning styles of the gifted"; "How students should do homework through their learning styles."
Teacher In-service Packet on How to Design Contract Activity Packages.
Teacher In-service Packet on Alternatives to Lecture: Small Group Techniques.
SUGGESTED READINGS
Armstrong, T. (1987). In Their Own Way: Discovering and Encouraging Your Child's Personal Learning Style. Los Angeles, California: Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc.
Butler, K. A. (1983). Learning styles across content areas. Student Learning Styles and Brain Behavior. NASSP Monograph. Reston, Virginia: National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Cuccia, A. (1985). My stylish classroom. Early Years, 16, 40-41.
Dunn, R. (1982). Student Learning Styles and Brain Behavior. Reston, Virginia: National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Keefe, J. W. Learning Style Research and Practice. National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1904 Association Drive, Reston, Virginia 22091.
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Lemmon, P. (1985). A school where learning style works. Principal, 64,

26-29.

'.I'
~

McCarthy, B. (1980). Format System: Teaching to Learning Styles with

Right/left Mode Techniques. New York, New York: Excel.

Centerville Elementary in Gwinnett County uses a learning style approach to instruction.

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PRINCIPAL'S READING RESOURCE PACKET USING SEMANTIC MAPPING TO SUMMARIZE A STORY
Evelyn Dandy Armstrong State College

"Direct instruction in comprehension means explaining the steps in a thought process that gives birth to comprehension. It may mean that the teacher models a strategy by thinking aloud about how he or she is going about understanding the passage. [It] includes information on why and when to use the strategy. In one well-known study, only 45 minutes of comprehension instruction . . . were found during 17,997 minutes of observation in reading and social studies periods in 39 classrooms in 14 school districts." (Anderson, et al., pp. 72-73)

Children should have many opportunities to summarize stories they have heard or read in their basals and content covered in their health, science and social studies textbooks. Semantic mapping (also called cognitive mapping, webbing, tree diagramming, clustering) offers a way to provide direct instruction through modeling or thinking aloud. It can be easily implemented during reading instruction or content learning time.

Semantic mapping is the making of a word picture to illustrate how ideas are related to one another. Maps can take many different shapes, but basically they begin with the main idea, which is circled by the teacher. Surrounding the main idea are topic headings connected to the main idea by lines or arrows. Branching off the topic headings are significant details that reinforce those headings. What results is a map that visually presents the relationship between ideas.

Detail TOpic Heading

Main Idea or Topic

Detail Topic Heading

Detail

Detail

The teacher can use mapping with children at any grade level to
summarize a story they have heard or read. It can be used with the entire class as well as with small groups, for remedial children as well as advanced children. Teachers use the author's structure to determine the structure of the map. The author may reveal the story by using sequence, cause-effect relationships, simple listings or comparisoncontrast, shown respectively in diagrams A, B, C and D below. (See hard copy)

Once the map has been constructed, the teacher evaluates it in terms of its accuracy and the clarity with which concepts are related. Summarizing is an important study strategy that should be taught from
first grade on.

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DOs related to mapping
1. DO always follow the steps of identifying the main idea, determining the topic headings, adding and supporting details and evaluating the map.
2. DO always read the story or chapter ahead of time to understand the author's organization.
3. DO always model your thinking processes. When teaching mapping, talk children through your reasoning for the structure you have chosen and the relationships you have pointed out.
4. DO begin with stories that have simple plots and few details.
5. DO gradually have children verbalize their associations as they fill in some blank spaces in maps you create. (You might begin with having them add details to your map, then major ideas, then the topic.)
6. DO teach that a detail is significant if it furthers the storyline. If this kind of detail is omitted, the story changes.
7. DO extend mapping to teach concepts in social studies, health and science. Anything that can be outlined can be mapped.
8. DO try mapping with groups of remedial readers and less proficient learners. It is very effective with them.
9. DO try mapping with advanced learners. It can challenge.
10. DO use mapping in other ways: introducing units of study such as community helpers, the four food groups, a chapter in a science textbook.
DON'Ts related to mapping
1. DON'T start mapping with very detailed or difficult story plots. These could be very confusing.
2. DON'T assume that children understand your maps initially. Always explain how you constructed them.
3. DON'T separate mapping from group or class discussions. Maps should be presented with many opportunities for children to ask questions and volunteer suggestions.
4. DON'T use mapping for stories or sets of information that cannot be outlined in a logical way.
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SAMPLE ACTIVITY
Objective: To enable students to recall information from a story, summarize information from a story and review important vocabulary in a story.
Procedures:
(Used with "The Little Red Hen," Sunshine, Teacher's Guide, Houghton Mifflin Reading Program, 1983, pp. 48-51.)
1. Tell the children they are going to read a story about a little red hen who makes bread.
2. Using procedures suggested in the teacher's manual, establish background, introduce words and have children read the story.
3. Explain to the children that they are going to be making a special kind of map and that this map will contain the important ideas from the story.
4. Print the title of the story, The Little Red Hen, on the chalkboard and draw a circle around it.
5. Ask the children what the little red hen found at the beginning of the story. (She found some wheat.)
6. Print "found some wheat" under The Little Red Hen.
7. Ask the children what she did next -- all by herself. (She planted the wheat.)
8. Print "planted the wheat" next on the map.
9. Continue with questions emphasizing what the hen did next -- all by herself. Have the children look back in the story and find the answers if they cannot recall them.
10. Print each activity on the map and read it as you print it. Have the children decide where each activity will be placed. Be sure to emphasize why activities are placed as they are.
11. Continue with the procedure until students have contributed all seven steps on the map.
12. The next day you might reread the story having students add information they did not include the previous day. Let them decide where each new piece of information should be added.
13. Duplicate the map and give each child a copy. Let the children take it horne and use it to help retell the story to their parents or siblings.
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Materials: 1. Page 87 contains a sample of the story taken from Sunshine,
Houghton Mifflin Reading Program. This story is often included in basals in the primary grades. The story is organized in sequential order. This order decides the shape of the map. 2. Mapping can also be used for stories teachers read to children. Below is an example of a map of Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. It is taken from Norton's book (p. 360) listed in the references.
Evaluation: 1. Observe class as you work through maps with students. It is
important to model the thinking process as these maps are constructed. "Let's see, why do we put 'She asked her friends for help' here instead of there? Now, where shall we put. " 2. Retell a story from a map to test story comprehension. Constructing an original map from a story can be another way to test, once children understand the process. Follow-up: 1. Have children form cooperative groups and construct their own story maps once they have gained proficiency in map-making. Make sure the teams include a variety of ability levels and interests. They may be organized around a specific unit of study in science or social studies. 2. Give children a worksheet that has phrases or concepts that they can cut out and place in appropriate order in a map. This is a way to test story comprehension. 3. Extend mapping to include any subjects in the content areas that can be outlined. These maps can be stored and used and added to year after year. The maps can actually become a book for less proficient readers to read and summarize the important concepts.
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY
Objectives: To introduce teachers to mapping to summarize, to help teachers use mapping in their classrooms and increase the amount of direct teaching of reading comprehension.
Activities:
1. Introduce teachers to mapping by forming a map that describes mapping on an overhead projector. (See ex~les attached, p. 89). This series of maps answers the questions, What is mapping? What is the format of maps? How does mapping help children? How can I use it in my classroom? Think aloud as you reveal and describe each map.
2. Have teachers volunteer information that can be placed on a map: community helpers, different means of transportation, the four food groups; literally anything that can be outlined can be mapped. In fact, mapping is another form of outlining.
3. Use the overhead projector to show several ways mapping can be used in the elementary classroom:
a. To sumnarize a story -- Use the example of "The Little Red Hen" provided in the resource packet. Emphasize the steps to be used and modeled. Identify the topic or main idea Determine the topic headings Add the supporting details Evaluate the map
b. To introduce a unit of study on transportation -Have teachers name the different means that are covered at various grade levels.
c. To brainstorm for ideas -- Draw a spider map of the word "mapping" and teachers' suggestions of all the ways they might use mapping in their classrooms. Talk about the formats of various maps.
4. Think out loud to show teachers how they should model the steps and the formation of a map for their students.
5. Have teachers get into cooperative teams by grade levels and look through their teacher's manuals to locate stories that will lend themselves to mapping to summarize. Instruct the teachers to use the four steps mentioned above (in number 3) to construct maps.
6. At the end of the session have each group share its best mapping idea.
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I
Materials: The best materials are basal readers or content area textbooks. Teachers should use them as soon as they are presented with the concept of mapping. Additional resources include library books, short stories and newspaper articles. Evaluation: Observe the extent to which teachers are implementing mapping and modeling direct teaching of reading comprehension for their children. Maps should appear on bulletin boards, in homework assignments, in book talks -- in any subject area. Follow-up: Have the librarian construct a hall bulletin board, a library display and a booklist to make available children's books that can be mapped to show cause-effect, comparison-contrast, sequence, etc. The librarian as well as the teachers can use these stories and others in weekly booktalks for every class in the school.
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The Little Red Hen Sunshine, Teacher's Guide, Houghton Mifflin Reading Program, 1983, pp. 48-51. One day the little red hen said, "Come see what I have found! I have some wheat. I am going to plant it." "Who will help me plant the wheat?" asked the little red hen. "Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the cat. "Not I," said the pig. "Then I will plant it myself," said the little red hen. And she did. The wheat grew and grew. It grew into a big plant. "Who will help me cut the wheat?" asked the little red hen. "Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the cat. "Not I," said the pig. "Then I will cut it myself," said the little red hen. And she did. "Who will help me pound the wheat?" asked the little red hen. "Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the cat. "Not I," said the pig. "Then I will pound it myself," said the little red hen. And she did. "I will take the wheat to the mill," said the little red hen. "The mill will make the wheat into flour. Who will help me take the wheat to the mill?" "Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the cat. "Not I," said the pig. "Then I will take it myself," said the little red hen. And she did.
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"I will make bread with the flour," said the little red hen. "Who will help me make the bread?" "Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the cat. "Not I," said the pig. "Then I will make the bread myself," said the little red hen. And she did. "Now who will help me eat the bread?" asked the little red hen. "I will," said the duck. "I will," said the cat. "I will," said the pig. "Oh no," said the little red hen. "You did not help me plant the wheat. You did not help me cut the wheat. You did not help me pound the wheat. You did not help me take the wheat to the mill. You did not help me make the bread. So you will not help me eat the bread. I will eat it myself." And she did.
THE LITTLE RED HEN
found some wheat
planted the wheat
cut the wheat
pounded the wheat
took the wheat to the mill
made bread with the flour
ate the bread by herself
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USES OF HAPPING What is mapping?

a word picture that shows how
ideas are related

an instructional strategy that encourages direct
instruction

also known as cognitive mapping, webbing,
tree diagramming, clustering

topic or linear leaning tree

spider or sunburst What is the format of maps?
flow chart

can be used effectively with less proficient readers

promotes thinking

How does mapping help children?

contains only key ideas

integrates the language arts: reading, listening, speaking, writing
encourages planning, checking and evaluating

How can I use mapping in my classroom?

to brainstorm for ideas
before writing compositions

to sunmarize a story read or told

to introduce content information

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REFERENCES Anderson, R. C. et ale (1985). Becoming a Nation of Readers.
Washington, D. C.: Commission on Reading, National Institute of Education. Heimlich, J. E. & Pittelman, S. D. (1986). Semantic Mapping: Classroom Applications. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Mason, J. M. & Au, K. A. (1986). Reading Instruction For Today. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company, 262-263. Norton, D. E. (1985). The Effective Teaching of Language Arts (2nd ed.). Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill. Uttero, D. A. (1988). Activating comprehension through cooperative learning. The Reading Teacher, 41 (4), 390-395.
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AN ALTERNATIVE TO ROUND ROBIN READING Evelyn Dandy
Armstrong State College
"1 have seen classes of third and fourth graders who do not think they have 'had reading' unless they take turns reading orally. Children were not born with this understanding of what reading is; they have been brainwashed by class after class of oral reading. . . . Such a practice will be unnecessarily slow and plod the reading process." (Hillerich, p. 34)
Round robin reading or barbershop reading is the negative practice of having every child sit with a book open to the same page while one child after another reads aloud in a predicted sequence. This common practice reinforces word by word reading by placing undue emphasis upon calling words. Round robin reading deemphasizes reading for meaning because it focuses attention on the pronunciation of words rather than communica~ion of the author's meaning.
Unfortunately, many teachers are locked into this negative habit. The best a principal can do is to offer teachers a way to modify their approach to oral reading.
DOs related to four-way oral reading
1. DO always precede oral reading by having students read silently first to smooth out the rough spots.
2. DO let the students know why you have selected a particular passage for oral rereading, i.e., to develop oral expression; to read for sequence; to note significant details; to prove a point; to appreciate imagery.
3. DO have the rest of the group or class listen for the answer to a question you have posed while one group or portion of ,a group is reading.
4. DO always promote the idea that reading is a communicative process. Have students answer specific questions.
5. DO provide additional opportunities for oral reading of poetry, children's own writing and content textbooks.
6. DO be patient as you initiate this new method. Some children and teachers think oral reading IS reading.
DON'Ts related to four-way reading
1. DON'T have children read orally without having first read silently.
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2. DON'T have children read orally from selections that are on their frustration reading level -- selections in which children omit, insert and repeat words.
3. DON'T separate learning to read from reading to learn. Both go hand in hand.
4. DON'T feel that children must read aloud every single story in the basal reader.
5. DON'T evaluate children's reading ability on the basis of their oral reading. Oral reading and silent reading are different tasks. Children don't always make the same mistakes in oral reading as they do in silent reading.
6. DON'T single out poor readers and embarrass them by having them read orally without smoothing out the tough spots first for the passage they will read. Give these student lots of preparation for reading the story -- develop background, teach new vocabulary, establish purposes.
Description
Four-way oral reading is an attempt to offer a workable alternative to round robin reading. The teacher tells the students that they will be called upon at random. Because the teacher uses the following unpredictable variation, children are encouraged to keep their places. Purposes for oral reading can also be set by the teacher so that the focus will be on reading for meaning. Initial preparation involves having all children read the passage silently.
The following methods can be used with a single reading passage.
1. Choral reading is having the entire group along with the teacher read aloud in unison. The teacher begins by saying, "Everyone read together, begin."
2. Assisted reading is having two or three students read in unison. A student who may not know a word is (not noticeably) assisted by one who does.
3. Imitative reading involves having the teacher read aloud (with slightly exaggerated intonation) one or two sentences at a time while the students listen. The students then imitate what the teacher has read using the same intonation patterns.
4. Mumble reading is having all children read aloud to themselves at their own pace. This includes reading for a better understanding of a concept or idea. If children hear their own voice while they read, they may be more apt to comprehend.
The teacher should carefully select any passage that is appropriate and decide which combinations will best be used. The teacher should also
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develop questions that accompany each method -- the purpose for reading. Variations on any of the four methods could involve the entire class and include all boys, all girls or all of anyone row. Four-way oral reading is especially helpful for students who read slowly or unevenly with little or no expression. It gives students the sense that they are doing this together, so no one is singled out for embarrassment. All children have a chance to read orally in one class period. The emphasis is on reading for a purpose. In round robin reading only one child at a time can read, while other children follow along waiting for the reader to make a mistake.
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SAMPLE ACTIVITY
Objective: To give every child an opportunity to read orally, to focus upon reading as a communication process and to develop expression and fluency in oral reading.
Procedures:
1. Choose a selection that is on a suitable reading level for the class or group -- preferably the independent level or the instructional level. The students should be able to attack from 95 percent to 100 percent of the words and have a good sense of what the material means. Selections can be taken from content area textbooks also.
2. Ask students to read the selection silently for preselected purposes.
3. Determine which parts should be read aloud using choral reading, assisted reading, imitative reading and/or mumble reading. Explain these methods and assign the parts.
4. Begin by saying, "Let"s reread the part of the story that tells how.. "
Materials:
1. The example below is from Sunshine, Houghton Mifflin Reading Program.
(Page 96 contains an example of how four-way oral reading can be applied to a basal reading selection) .
2. Any reading materials on the children's instructional or independent reading levels are appropriate for four-way oral reading -- basal readers, library books, poems, science textbooks, health, social studies, etc. Each child must have a copy of the reading selection.
Evaluation: Observe children as they engage in four-way oral reading. This small and large group participation should lead to added selfconfidence when children read aloud poems, stories, letters or reports they have written. Remember, reading and writing are two sides of the same coin.
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As students reread orally, watch whether they are observing punctuation, using voice flexibility and breath control, looking up from reading material to maintain eye contact and enunciating clearly. Follow-up: 1. Have children read orally examples of their own creative writing or
compositions such as poems, stories, letters and reports. 2. Ask students to reread a passage
to answer a particular question, to read the part that has the most expression, to read the part that justifies an op~n~on, or to read the part that proves an answer. 3. As children reread orally, try to assess their miscues (errors) qualitatively. Does the error make sense in the sentence? Don't count dialect miscues, but be familiar with students' typical dialect patterns.
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Four-way oral reading applied to a basal reader
The Little Red Hen
Sunshine, Teacher's Guide, Houghton Mifflin Reading Program, 1983, pp. 48-51.
The teacher says, "Let's reread this selection to find out what the little red hen had to do to make wheat into bread."

Choral reading (Entire class)
Assisted reading (Two boys)
Assisted reading (Two girls) Mumble reading (All children) Choral reading (All girls) Assisted reading (Two boys)
Assisted reading (Two girls) Assisted reading (Two boys)
Assisted reading (Two girls) Choral reading (All boys)

One day the little red hen said, "Come see what I have found! I have some wheat. I am going to plant it."
"Who will help me plant the wheat?" asked the little red hen.
"Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the cat. "Not I," said the pig.
"Then I will plant it myself," said the little red hen. And she did.
The wheat grew and grew. It grew into a big plant.
"Who will help me cut the wheat?" asked the little red hen.
"Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the cat. "Not I," said the pig.
"Then I will cut it myself," said the little red hen. And she did.
"Who will help me pound the wheat?" asked the little red hen.
"Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the cat. "Not I," said the pig.
"Then I will pound it myself," said the little red hen. And she did.
"I will take the wheat to the mill," said the little red hen. "The mill will make the wheat into flour. Who will help me take the wheat to the mill?"

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Assisted reading (Second row)
Assisted reading (Two girls)
Assisted reading (Second row)
Assisted reading (Two boys)
Assisted reading (Two girls)
Imitative reading "Everyone read after me -- one sentence at a time."
Choral reading (Entire class)

"Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the cat. "Not I," said the pig.
"Then I will take it myself," said the little red hen. And she did.
"I will make bread with the flour," said the little red hen. "Who will help me make the bread?"
"Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the cat. "Not I," said the pig.
"Then I will make the bread myself," said the little red hen. And she did.
"Now who will help me eat the bread?" asked the little red hen.
"I will," said the duck. "I will," said the cat. "I will," said the pig.
"Oh, no," said the little red hen. "You did not help me plant the wheat. You did not help me cut the wheat. You did not help me pound the wheat. You did not help me take the wheat to the mill. You did not help me make the bread. So you will not help me eat the bread. I will eat it myself."
And she did.

"Now, who can tell me the sequence the Little Red Hen had to follow to make bread out of wheat?"

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;;."

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

~\ii\\i

,-,1

Objective: To sensitize teachers to the negative features of round

robin reading and to provide teachers an alternative to round robin

reading.

Activities:

1. Select a difficult reading passage from a technical book or magazine.

2. Appoint two observers who will record teachers' reactions (without letting other teachers know).

3. Make one copy of the passage for each teacher and distribute the copies.

4. Plunge into the reading selection without developing background,
clarifying difficult concepts or teaching vocabulary that is used in an unordinary way. Have teachers read aloud one at a time, proceeding around the group in a predictable sequence.

5. After about four or five teachers have read orally, stop and talk about their reactions.

6. Have the observers share what they have seen.

7. Brainstorm about what should have been done. Write suggestions on the board.

8. Introduce four-way reading using "The Little Red Hen" provided in the earlier part of this packet.,

9. Have teachers look in their basals or other textbooks they have brought and locate a selection that would lend itself to four-way oral reading. Give them time to decide which methods~they would use in that selection.

10. Talk also about additional purposes for oral reading. Be certain
to include using children's original stories, poems, experience charts, etc.

11. Summarize the results of the brainstorming.

Materials: A passage containing technical vocabulary or sentence structure that is extremely difficult reading for typical teachers. (Selections from the sports page from a newspaper, a medical journal, difficult directions for assembling a toy, a piece of furniture, and etc. may be used). Teacher's guides for basal readers or any other textbook.

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Note: If Sustained Silent Reading is used in your school, children can select their favorite parts of books to have the entire class or a group use four-way reading. Evaluation: Observe highly emotional responses of some teachers as they do this activity. Watch for four-way reading as you observe in classrooms. Mention four-way reading in the next meeting. Follow-up: 1. During subsequent faculty meetings, have teachers use four-way
reading for reading district directives or other memos or articles that you really want them to remember. 2. Encourage continued use of four-way reading by having the librarian make copies of short stories or interesting excerpts from popular children's books and distribute copies to the teacher. 3. At the end of the next memo you send to teachers, write, "Have you tried four-way oral reading?" 4. Incorporate four-way reading of children's original work by presenting it in PTA meetings or assembly programs. This is a good way for the entire class to participate. 5. Ask those who have tried four-way reading to share their selections.
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GLOSSARY Four-Way Oral Reading - The practice of calling on students at random to participate in oral reading. This unpredictable technique stimulates attention as students read. Round Robin Reading (also called barbershop reading) - A negative practice of having every child sit with a book open to the same page while one child after another reads aloud in a predicted sequence.
REFERENCES Alexander, J. E. & Heathington, B. S. (1988). Assessing and Correcting
Classroom Reading Problems. Glenville, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company. Cunningham, P. M. (1988). When all else fails. . . The Reading Teacher, LX, 6, 800-804. Hillerich, R. L. (1983). The Principal's Guide to Improving Reading Instruction. Newton, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon Inc. Johns, J. L. (1986). Handbook for Remediation of Reading Difficulties. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Wood, K. D. (1983). A Variation on an Old Theme: 4 Way Oral Reading. The Reading Teacher, 46 (8), 38-41.
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READING ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION Ira Aaron
University of Georgia
"I know my pupils are learning to read and that they like to read. But I don't have a lot of concrete evidence to back that statement." (First-grade teacher)
This teacher's situation, unfortunately, is all too common across the nation. Most teachers -- and schools -- would have difficulty in producing solid evidence about the quality of their programs and about how well their children read. A major weakness in reading programs lies in the area of assessment and evaluation. With care in planning, teachers can easily gather data that will help them to tell how well children are learning to read in their classrooms.
Material in this packet is designed to assist elementary teachers in reviewing some important ideas about assessment and evaluation in reading, and to add to their knowledge about how to assess and evaluate progress in reading. Some general ideas are discussed and then followed by some summary dos and don'ts in assessment and evaluation. Finally, a few selected activities are suggested for classroom use. The terms "assessment" and "evaluation" are both used here to underscore the importance of making evaluative decisions following the gathering of assessment data.
Assessment should be guided by clearly understood goals and objectives. Two questions that must be raised early in assessment are, What do you want your program to accomplish, and what do you want pupils to learn? In reality, these are two ways of stating the same question. Once these questions are answered, instruments and techniques of assessment must be selected to fit the program objectives .. Tests and informal instruments often are used with no real attempt to consider just what is being assessed, and often objectives are mismatched with instruments and techniques of assessment.
Program goals and objectives in reading instruction include the broad goals of teaching pupils to understand and to appreciate written materials as well as a number of supporting objectives. Teachers need to know what they are trying to accomplish and how to assess whether or not the objectives have been reached. For example, a kindergarten or first grade teacher may have as an objective that the program will build readiness for reading in the class. This objective can be assessed by using a commercial reading readiness test, a checklist of reading readiness abilities and a good helping of teaching judgment based on having observed a child over a period of time. Once the data are gathered, the evaluation enters into the picture. A decision needs to be made about the next step -- move into reading instruction or continue readiness instruction, with emphasis on strengthening weaknesses.
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Assessment data may be gathered by formal or informal means. Most school assessment programs include administering both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests, as well as informal techniques. The purposes served by these means of gathering data and their strengths and limitations must be kept in mind as they are used and their results interpreted. Norm-referenced reading tests, for example, offer means of comparing a pupil or a class with the performance of a norm group. Criterion-referenced reading tests, on the other hand, assess "mastery" of specific skills or knowledge. These published tests sample a fairly narrow range of reading skills. Because of the emphasis and the prominence that have been given to such tests, we tend to give undue weight to their results when educational decisions are being made. Their results for schools or school systems often are published in newspapers -- sometimes with comparisons across schools or systems and the general public can be misled into thinking that they measure everything that is important in reading.
Test results can give us useful information about a child's or a class's reading, but they don't tell us all that is important in reading. They merely sample specific behaviors of children ina reading setting. Further, different publishers' tests do not measure exactly the same skills and abilities -- or, when they do sample the same abilities, they do so in different proportions. Seldom do they tell us much about critical reading ability, for example. Further, a silent reading test furnishes no information about a child's oral interpretation. Nor do such tests tell us about a pupil's interests in reading and attitude toward reading -- and these are extremely important if we aim to develop readers who not only can read but who also will read when not forced to do so. Informal techniques, seemingly less precise, can offer valuable assessment data on both silent and oral reading as well as on interest in and attitudes toward reading.
Because of the heavy emphasis often placed on published tests and the administrative and media attention given to their results, too much confidence can be placed in test results. We must avoid letting tests determine what we teach -- lest we develop a very narrow curriculum. We can be lulled into teaching only those skills and abilities measured by the tests we are mandated to administer. We also can drift into complacency when pupils "meet criterion," when a criterion level should be considered to be a bare minimum level; many children in most classrooms should go far beyond that minimum level. We must know test limitations as well as their strengths.
DOs in reading assessment and evaluation
1. DO gather reading assessment data in terms of program objectives and use those instruments and techniques that can help you do the job most efficiently and effectively.
2. DO remember that gathering data must be followed by making judgments about those data.
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1
3. DO use test scores along with everything else you know about a child's reading to determine how well he or she is performing in reading.
4. DO understand as clearly as possible the nature of the tests norm-referenced and criterion-referenced -- being used in assessment; know what they can and cannot do in furnishing assessment data.
5. DO consider a test score as falling within a given range (such as in stanines) rather than being a specific point on a scale.
6. DO simulate taking a norm-referenced test or a criterion-referenced test before administering a new test to pupils.
7. DO use individual reading inventories with those children on which you need information about specific strengths and weaknesses as well as estimates of their instructional levels.
8. DO assess attitudes toward reading, interests and appreciation of literature as well as comprehension abilities.
9. DO involve librarians in evaluating children's attitudes toward reading and habits in reading.
DON'Ts in reading assessment and evaluation
1. DON'T waste valuable teacher and pupil time in gathering data about pupil reading if you don't have a plan for using those data.
2. DON'T forget reading program objectives when gathering assessment data, lest important aspects of the reading program be overlooked.
3. DON'T make an important decision about a child's deficiency in reading until data of several types have been gathered and studied.
4. DON'T evaluate a pupil's progress in reading on the basis of assessment data about isolated skills (i.e., letter recognition, ability to recognize words in isolation and recognition of consonant and/or vowel sounds) alone, though these may be important; don't stop the process until information is gathered about how well the pupil understands what he or she reads.
5. DON'T spend so much time in gathering data that you have insufficient time to use those data in making judgments.
6. DON'T undersell the importance of intelligent teacher observation and judgment in effective reading assessment and evaluation.
7. DON'T administer a test to your pupils without first becoming thoroughly familiar with the test content and instructions for administering the test.
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8. DON'T deviate from time constraints and instructions for administration of a norm-referenced test if you plan to interpret the results in terms of test norms.
9. DON'T make important decisions about a pupil's, class's or school's reading progress on the basis of one test alone; teacher observation data should always be fed into the decision-making process.
10. DON'T expect to get useful data on the effectiveness of a total reading program on the basis of a "before" and "after" test of general reading ability if just a few months have elapsed between tests.
11. DON'T forget in interpreting assessment data that the teacher is only one influence upon a pupil's growth in reading.
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SAMPLE ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITY ONE
Objective: To prepare for administration of a commercially published test.
Materials: Test and manual for administration of a test that will later be administered to children in your class.
Procedures: First, study the pupil test and then the manual. Next, read aloud the directions for administering each section of the test. After reading the directions each time, "take" the test. (An alternate procedure is to pair with another teacher and administer the test to each other.)
Evaluation: Decide whether you feel comfortable enough to administer the test to children.
Follow-up: If you feel inadequate, then go through the procedure again. If you feel you are ready, administer the test to children.
ACTIVITY TWO
Objective: To prepare (or select), use and interpret results of reading readiness checklist (for kindergarten and first grade teachers).
Materials: Teacher's manual for basal series at kindergarten or readiness level, local curriculum guide or any other source of a readiness checklist. Other possible sources in preparing checklist are scope and sequence charts of basal series, commercially prepared lists and methods textbooks in reading area.
Procedures: Prepare or select a checklist. Use it over several days to guide observation of a child or several children.
Evaluation: Teacher -- Decide whether you feel satisfied with the list and comfortable in using it. Pupil -- Decide whether if child rates "satisfactory" on items on the list.
Follow-up: Teacher -- If you do not feel satisfied with list, modify it; if you feel you need more practice, continue to use it for several more days before making decisions based upon the list. Pupil -- Move children who seem to be satisfactory on all or most abilities into reading preprimer-level materials; if a child is weak on one or more skills, then work toward teaching the child those skills.
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ACTIVITY THREE
Objective: To assess pupil knowledge of common inflectional endings.
Materials: A sheet containing several sentences such as the following in which words with common inflection endings are used.
l. The two boys went home.
2. We waited a long time in the hall.
3. rt was a beautiful day.
4. She was a lovely person.
5. The clock runs backward.
Procedure: Ask the pupil to read each sentence and then to tell you what the inflectional ending in each underlined word means. Accept any response tha~ clearly indicates the child knows the meaning of the ending. Make a note of any endings the child does not know.
Evaluation: Ensure pupils know all endings they have been taught.
Follow-up: Plan instruction on inflectional endings not known.
ACTIVITY FOUR
Objective: To assess children's ability to recognize and name the letters of the alphabet, both capital and lower case.
Materials: Two cards (or sheets of paper) on which the letters of the alphabet have been printed in nonsequential order, with capital letters on one card and lower-case letters on another, as in this example.
L T I Q A F M S V Y U D K ROC H WB E X Z G N J P
p j u n g z x t e b w h cor k d Y v s m f a q i 1
The same two lines of letters, as presented on the cards, should be printed on a single sheet of paper (for recording pupil errors) .
Procedure: Place the card containing the capital letters before the child and ask him/her to tell you the names of the letters in the order as printed on the card. (If needed, point to individual letters as you ask for the names.) Repeat with the lower-case letter card. Circle on the recording sheet any letter the child misses.
Evaluation: Note any letters the child misses.
Follow-up: If the child knows all or most of the letters and if other readiness factors seem satisfactory, consider beginning in preprimer-level materials. Continue readiness instruction if child misses six or eight letters.
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Objective: To assist teachers in matching program objectives and assessment instruments and techniques.
Materials: A list of reading program objectives (from local curriculum guide, commercially prepared basal reader series, state criterion-referenced test bulletin from Georgia Department of Education or some other source).
Timeline: One or two gO-minute sessions.
Activities:
1. Discuss the importance of matching program objectives and assessment instruments and techniques.
2. Using a list of reading objectives (from a local curriculum guide, if such exists), from one of the two lists given below, or from some other existing list, lead a discussion on each objective and how it can be assessed. Encourage participants to tell how they assess each objective. If needed, explain in terms of classroom reading instruction what each objective includes. (For example, work-study skills involve locating sources of information, using reference aids in texts and checking the relevancy and validity of information.)
3. As each objective is discussed, be sure that suggestions come from the group -- or from the leader -- on how that objective can best be assessed in this particular school setting.
Evaluation: After several weeks, schedule a second session, if feasible, to discuss changes teachers have made, or need to make, in assessing their reading objectives.
Follow-up: The second session will serve as a follow-up. -
OBJECTIVE LIST ONE (excerpted from previous work of preparer of this packet)
1. To develop a variety of COmprehension skills. Means of assessment: comprehension and vocabulary subtests of norm-referenced reading test; criterion-referenced test; end-ofbook test; informal reading inventory; and/or teaching observation.
2. To develop a variety of word identification skills. Means of assessment: criterion-referenced test; individual word recognition test; and/or teacher observation.
3. To develop ability to read orally in an agreeable manner. Means of assessment: teacher checklist; teacher observation.
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4. To develop ability to use work-study skills in getting information. Means of assessment: norm-referenced test; criterion-referenced test; teacher checklist; teacher observation.
5. To develo interests in an ositive attitudes toward readin Means of assessment: attitude/interest inventory; teacher librarian observations.
OBJECTIVE LIST TWO (based upon Georgia CRT objectives for grade three) 1. Student recognizes explicitly/implicitly stated main ideas,
details, sequences of events and cause and effect relationships. Means of assessment: norm-referenced test; CRT; end-of-book test; teacher checklist; teacher observation. 2. Student interprets instructions. Means of assessment: teacher-made test; CRT; observation. 3. (Included in Objective 1) 4. Student interprets semantic relationships. Means of assessment: teacher-made test; CRT; observation. 5. Student classifies words. Means of assessment: CRT; teacher-made test, observation; NRT. 6. Student matches similar sounds represented by letters. Means of assessment: CRT; informal reading inventory; observation . . 7. Student uses reference skills. Means of assessment: CRT; NRT; informal inventory; observation. 8. Student makes predictions. Means of assessment: CRT; NRT; observation. Note: CRT - Criterion-referenced test
NRT - Norm-referenced test
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Objective: To familiarize teachers with a norm-referenced test or a criterion-referenced test to be administered to participants' classes. Materials: A copy of the test and the test manual for each participant and the leader. Timeline: One session of 60 to 90 minutes at least a few days before the test is to be administered. Activities: 1. Review the purpose of the session. 2. Distribute a manual to each participant and allow three to five
minutes for participants to skim it. Then distribute the test.
3. Have participants open their manuals to the directions for administration and follow along as you read aloud the introductory comments (to be read to pupils) as if you were really administering the test to children. After reading the directions for the first subsection (with participants looking at their copies as you read), have participants read through the section of the test quickly. Call attention to time allowed (if subtests are timed). With the same pattern, go on through the test. Answer any questions that participants may have.
4. Pair participants and have each person in pairs "administer" the test to the other.
5. Respond to questions. Encourage participants to take the test and manual with them for further study. Caution them to keep the tests under their control and away from children.
Evaluation: Set up a time when those needing more help can contact the leader for that help. After the test is administered, check with teachers to see if they felt comfortable in administering the test. Follow-up: Schedule another session on interpreting test results if necessary, perhaps a few days after the test has been administered to children.
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GLOSSARY
Contento-area reading - Reading in subject areas such as history, biology, English, geography and mathematics. Requires general comprehension skills and some additional reading skills related to the content and how it is presented, such as reading maps, graphs and charts in social studies material.
Criterion-referenced Test - A test in which items are keyed to specific objectives or behaviors and on which a "criterion" (or minimum performance level) has been set. Instead of spreading out scores of students who take the test, such a test may show many scores at the upper end of the scale if students have learned well what is included in test items. A criterion-referenced test can help a teacher to tell whether a student meets criterion (minimum) level and can pinpoint strengths and weaknesses on those skills and abilities assessed by the test items.
Mastery - Usually referred to in assessment to mean that a student has met the criterion that has been set (such as answering correctly 75 percent of the items) .
Norm-referenced Test - A test on which scores may be interpreted in terms of norms established by testing large numbers of representative subjects at a given grade or age level. They provide an opportunity to compare an individual's or a class's performance with that of the norm group. Items in achievement tests are included because they discriminate among students, not because they show precisely what students have learned. They do not represent all that is taught in reading. A norm-referenced test must be administered exactly as directed in the manual if the norms are to be used for interpretation. The term "standardized" often is used along with or as a substitute for "norm-referenced."
Stanine - One way of interpreting test scores. Saying that a score falls into a particular stanine means that the score is interpreted in terms of a distribution with a mean of five and a standard deviation of two. "Stanine" is short for "standard nine." The distribution is divided into nine parts. Except for stanines one and nine, each stanine is one-half of a standard deviation in width. An advantage of using stanines in interpretation, rather than age or grade placement, is that a score is interpreted as falling within a broad band (a stanine) rather than being a precise point on a scale.
Work-study Skills - Skills used in studying (such as locating, selecting and organizing information). Same as study skills.
Note: Though the above definitions are not based on it, a good reference is: Harris, T. L. & Hodges, R. E., eds. (1981). A Dictionary of Reading and Related Terms. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.
no

REFERENCES Farr, R. & Carey, R. F. (1986). Reading: What Can Be Measured?
Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Goodman, Y. (1970). Test review: Concepts about print tests. The
Reading Teacher, 23, 455-459. Gunning, T. G. (1982). Wrong level test: Wrong information. The
Reading Teacher, 35, 902-905. Johnston, P. H. (1984). Assessment in reading. In: Pearson, P. D.,
ed. Handbook of Reading Research. New York, New York: Longman, 147-182. Johnston, P. H. (1983). Reading Comprehension Assessment: A Cognitive Basis . Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Valencia, S. & Pearson, P. D. (1987). Reading assessment: Time for a change. The Reading Teacher, 40, 726-733.
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CHILDREN'S LITERATURE M. Jean Greenlaw
University of North Texas
"I believe my mission is to teach children to love reading as well as how to read." (First grade teacher)
Literary appreciation is usually the last item on the list in most reading programs. Teachers really need to rethink their reading priorities if they have any hopes of developing lifelong reading habits. One of the best ways to encourage children to read for pleasure is to develop an appreciation for good literature.
DOs for teaching literary appreciation
1. DO read aloud to your students every day.
2. DO be an "active" teacher; do more than assign and assess.
3. DO provide a rich variety of reading materials, e.g., library books, magazines, newspapers, nonfiction.
4. DO select materials that are developmentally appropriate, e.g., books, manipulatives, books on tape, etc.
5. DO provide a balance of approaches, e.g., basal instruction, whole language, phonics, etc.
6. DO read for real purposes and write for real audiences.
7. DO be sure students understand the purpose(s) for assignments.
8. DO stress individual responses to the selection; initiate discussion, not questions and answers.
9. DO model an excitement for reading.
10. DO share your personal reading/writing experiences with students. Have students share their reading/writing experiences with the class.
DON'Ts for teaching literary appreciation
1. DON'T confuse teaching skills with teaching reading.
2. DON'T make reading just busywork.
3. DON'T teach skills for which you can't provide a purpose.
4. DON'T use workbooks and ditto sheets unless they are appropriate for learning or extending a skill.
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5. DON'T place emphasis on "right" answers in a discussion. 6. DON'T put undue emphasis on stopping to get words "correct" during
oral reading. 7. DON'T do round robin reading. 8. DON'T confuse oral reading with reading for meaning. 9. DON'T make reading a competition. 10. DON'T be controlled by the teacher's guide or curriculum guide.
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SAMPLE ACTIVITY
Objective: To enable students to develop an awareness of words with multiple meanings and to recognize the appropriate meaning for the context.
Procedures: Kindergarten through grade one
1. Present the concept in a direct statement: "Some words have more than one meaning. For example, if I say, 'I saw a good movie,' I mean that I watched it. If I say 'I will saw this wood,' I mean that I will cut the wood with a tool." A second example is, don't throw a rock at the window. I like to rock in my chair.
In each case, put the word on the chalkboard or a word card and show a picture representing the statement.
2. Ask students for other examples of words that have more than one meaning. Discuss each example, putting the word in a sentence and eliciting the different meanings.
3. Present pairs of sentences in which words with multiple meanings are used. Put the word in bold face: I will roll on the floor. I ate a roll for lunch. Have students identify the word in each sentence and explain the meaning.
4. Present multiple meaning words in list form: fly, bat, line, ran, back. Discuss each word, drawing sentences from students. Elicit from the students that it is the context that tells them the appropriate meaning of the word.
Procedures: Grades two through four
1. Follow the same procedures using homographs such as "The dove dove into the pond. Live animals live here."
Materials: Word cards, pictures to represent words in sentences, the book The Dove Dove: Funny Homograph Riddles by Marvin Terban, Clarion, 1988.
Evaluation:
1. Evaluate students' understanding of the concept based on their oral responses of original examples.
2. Evaluate students' ability to determine appropriate meaning based on their discussion of pairs of sentences.
3. Evaluate students' production of original pairs of multiple meaning words and of homographs.
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Follow-up: 1. Kindergarten through grade one, have students produce original
lists of multiple meaning words and record them on chart paper or the chalkboard. 2. Grades two through four, have students create original riddles based on homographs using the book The Dove Dove as a model. Make a book or bulletin board of their riddles.
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Objective: To teach staff the importance of schema activities to the reading process.
Activities:
1. Present the word "fantasy" on an overhead transparency.
A. Ask teachers to list five things the word means to them and to volunteer at least one of their responses to the group. From these responses, create a map, grouping by category.

win the lottery own a Jaguar

Fantasy Island Disney World

FANTASY

Paddington Winnie-the-Pooh

fairy tale make-believe

B. Repeat the activity with the word "dragon." Discuss how responses to "fantasy" would have been different if "dragon" had preceded it. All "fantasy" responses would have been related to fairy tales and adventures because "dragon" activated the schema for fairy tale and adventure.
Relate this example to the classroom. Teachers will recall situations in which student's or teacher's schema did not fit the context of the passage to be read. For instance, preparing for a discussion of the zoo, the teacher refers to lions. The student takes this to be a reference to the Detroit Lions football team.

2. As a means of activating schema before reading, present a single word or concept that is central to a children's book you have selected, such as Joanna Cole's A Snake's Body (Morrow, 1981). Ask teachers to work in small groups to brainstorm and list everything they can in two minutes that they know about the concept.
Analyze the lists for contradictory information, similar information, etc. Put the information into three groups: what teachers know, what they think they know and what they need to find out about.

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Evaluation: Have teachers work in grade ievel teams to choose a selection from their basal (or be given a children's book) and prepare
an activity for activating schema. Evaluate their ability to accomplish this activity successfully.

Timeline:

Activity 1 = 15 minutes

Activity 2 15 minutes

Evaluation = 30 minutes

Total

= One hour

Materials: Overhead projector, blank transparencies and markers, children's books, teachers' basal readers or manuals.

Follow-up: After teachers have used in class the schema-activating activity they developed in this session, as well as activities they develop personally, ask them to report how student comprehension and interest increased as a result. This can be done in a follow-up session or in writing directed to the leader of the session. It could also be
part of classroom observation.

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GLOSSARY
Children's Literature - The body of works written specifically for children.
Comprehension - 1) The process of getting the meaning of communication;* 2) The interaction of new information with old knowledge (schema).
Content Reading - Reading in subject matter areas as history, science and mathematics, usually for study purposes.*
Critical Reading - 1) The process of making judgments in reading;* 2) An act of reading in which a questioning attitude, logical analysis, and inference are used to judge the worth of what is read according to an established language.*
Decode - To change communication signals into messages; especially, to get the intended meaning from analyzing the spoken or graphic symbols of a familiar language.*
Direct Instruction - A process of instruction that includes teaching, practicing and applying.
Directed Reading Activity - A step-by-step process of dealing with a reading lesson under the guidance of a teacher.*
Expository Text - Provides information and facts and is usually found in content reading selections.
Illiteracy - The inability to read and/or write a language.*
Metacognition - The knowledge and control that students have over their own thinking and learning activities.
Modeling - The act of demonstrating for students how to use and think through a given process or skill.
Narrative Text - Generally tells a story and is the type of text usually found in literature selections.
Phonics - An approach to the teaching of reading and spelling that stresses symbol-sound relationships, especially in beginning reading instruction. *
Prior Knowledge - Knowledge that the student already possesses that can serve as a background for reading comprehension.
Readability - Ease of understanding or comprehension because of style of writing. *
Schema - An image representing reality that is held in thought.*
Taken from Harris, T. L. & Hodges, R. E., eds. (1981). A Dictionary of Reading and Related Terms. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.
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REFERENCES Anderson, R. C., et al. (1985). Becoming a Nation of Readers. Newark,
Delaware: International Reading Association. Cullinan, B., ed. (1987). Children's Literature in the Reading Program.
Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Hains, M. (1982). A Two-Way Street. Urbana, Illinois: National
Council of Teachers of English. Hardt, U. (1983). Teaching Reading with the Other Language Arts.
Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Heimlich, J. & Pittleman, S. (1986). Semantic Mapping: Classroom
Approaches. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Kimmel, M. & Segal, E. (1988). For Reading Out Loud! Delacorte. Parker, R. P. & Davis, F. A., eds. (1983). Developing Literacy: Young
Children's Use of Language. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Roser, N. & Frith, M., eds. (1983). Children's Choices: Teaching with Books Children Like. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Trelease, J. (1985). The Read-Aloud Handbook. Penguin. Wendelin, K. & Greenlaw, M. J. (1984). Storybook Classrooms: Using Children's Literature in the Reading Center. Humanics.
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PARENTS AND READING Evon Benson
Dekalb County Schools
"If a parent can spend 10 minutes a day reading a book for pleasure with their child, they not only help to improve the child's reading ability, but they convey the message that reading can be fun." (Kelley Kalinich, Fairington Elementary School, Dekalb County)
The first teachers for all children are their parents. Language usage is initiated in the home. Parents who talk with and listen to their children, who provide a nutrient learning environment and who read to them provide the best readiness for reading instruction.
The daily experiences families share with their children further expands their readiness for reading. Those experiences include trips to the zoo, local grocery store, library, shopping mall and nearby parks. Trips such as these promote conversation between parent and child and thus extend the child's listening and speaking skills.
DOs for involving parents
1. DO communicate with parents through school or telephone conferences, notes, newsletters or workshops to keep them informed concerning the reading program, student progress and individual needs.
2. DO establish specific procedures for scheduling conferences at times convenient for the parent(s), as well as the teacher.
3. DO schedule class and/or school meetings or workshops for parents.
4. DO conduct meaningful and positive individual or group conferences to keep parents informed and facilitate change.
5. DO invite parents to visit the classroom to learn more about the school program and the instructional process.
6. DO assist parents in selecting attainable goals for their children.
7. DO inform parents of their child's strengths and achievements, as well as reading skill area needs or weaknesses.
8. DO provide parents with specific information concerning procedures, activities, ideas and materials appropriate for their child's reading level and needs.
9. DO suggest home study devoid of distractions, using short work sessions scheduled at appropriate times and involving the "overlearning" of needed skills.
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10. DO listen to parents and use the information gained to aid in understanding and helping the child learn to read.
DON'Ts for involving parents
1. DON'T talk in generalizations about the student's problems.
2. DON'T provide vague remedies rather than specific suggestions for reading skill remediation.
3. DON'T always wait until a problem arises to communicate with parents.
4. DON'T confer only with parents who are coming to school to discuss a child with a problem.
5. DON'T tell parents they can do nothing to help their child learn to read.
6. DON'T. discourage parents from visiting the school and classroom.
7. DON'T communicate with parents using technical reading terminology they cannot understand.
8. DON'T accuse, argue, scold, blame, threaten or talk down to parents.
ACTIVITY ONE: PARENT CONFERENCES
Objective: To inform parents of their child's acquisition of reading skills and to increase parental participation in the educational planning for the child who needs assistance in the area of reading.
Procedure:
1. Set goals for the conference and list the areas to be discussed.
2. Schedule the conference as soon as the need arises or a problem develops.
3. Schedule the appointment by telephone or note, determining a date and time convenient for the parents, as well as the teacher.
4. Allow ample conference time (20-30 minutes) and provide for privacy.
5. Confirm the appointment the day before the established date.
6. Begin and end the conference with a positive comment about the child's progress.
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7. Be organized and prepared with necessary data and information.
8. Conduct the conference informally at a table using adult size furniture.
9. Use direct, simple vocabulary the parent can understand, avoiding education jargon and technical reading terminology.
10. Be objective, realistic, positive, courteous, considerate and friendly.
11. Avoid generalizations, discussing specific examples of the child's reading performance, sharing meaningful test scores and specifying the objectives the child is expected to master in the classroom.
12. Give parents specific suggestions and guidelines for working with their child, such as limiting the length of study time, scheduling regular study periods, reinforcing one concept at a time and rewarding progress.
13. Behave as nonauthoritatively as possible, being empathetic, listening without making judgment and allowing the parents to express their feelings and opinions.
14. Offer a plan of action and be prepared with at least one constructive suggestion or resource to give the parent to help the child in reading.
15. Mutually agree on a solution to any problem.
16. Summarize the conference and determine the next step.
Materials: Paper for parent and teacher note-taking, conference log form for documentation, simply stated handouts, including specific and appropriate reading activities and teaching techniques that parents may use with their children. (Examples: ways to read to children and methods for developing sight vocabulary using words in context) .
Evaluation: Provide a conference evaluation form to be completed by the parent(s). Record the main purpose, outcome and comments on a Conference Log form for documentation.
Follow-up: Schedule future conferences as needed. Provide any information promised during the conference. Implement the proposed solution and reevaluate progress.
ACTIVITY TWO: PARENT READING RESOURCE ROOM
Objective: To provide parents with up-to-date information about reading and materials for home use and to place reading resources and materials in a centralized location for the convenience of parents and teachers.
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Procedure:
1. Ask teachers to determine the needs and appropriate objectives for reading skills of students at their grade levels.
2. Use a questionnaire to determine parent concerns and background in reading.
3. Prepare an attractive, quiet resource area, such as a bookroom with shelves, tables, chairs, computer and appropriate supplies.
4. Provide current books, pamphlets and magazine and newspaper articles about reading skill development.
5. Purchase, construct or locate multiple copies of simple games, puzzles and activity sheets to be used for skill reinforcement.
6. Categorize and label materials by skill and grade level, providing specific, detailed, written directions for their use.
7. Provide listings of appropriate grade level activities, guidelines for reading to children and ways to help children select books to read.
8. Notify parents by PTA announcement, newsletter or conference of the availability, purpose and contents of the resource area.
9. Schedule use of the resource room at times convenient for parents and the professional staff.
10. Organize a parent checkout procedure requiring limited supervision.
11. Consider using parent volunteers to help run the resource area.
12. Encourage parents to check out resource materials.
Materials:
1. Books available from local and professional libraries.
2. Magazines such as Sesame Street, The Reading Teacher, Instructor.
3. Idea books for games and centers.
4. Commercial and teacher-constructed reading games, activity sheets and flash cards.
5. Reading computer software, labeled by skill and grade level.
Evaluation:
1. Monitor records of parents' visits to the center. Note the number of visits and their purposes.
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2. Ask parents to complete questionnaires concerning the usefulness of the resources provided.
Follow-up: Provide additional materials as they are acquired and needed. Organize a parent area for construction of suggested games and/or activities.
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Objectives:
1. To train teachers to work with parents and provide techniques parents can use at home to help develop students' reading skills.
2. To encourage parent involvement as volunteers in the school.
Activities:
1. Working with parents A. Methods of communication 1. Individual conferences 2. Telephone conversations 3. Notes or notices 4. Class meetings 5. Classroom visitation
B. Reasons for communication 1. Parent requests 2. Reading skill weaknesses 3. Work habits 4. Motivation 5. Information 6. Routine
C. Communication skills 1. Method of scheduling 2. Personal interaction a. Body language b. Nonauthoritarian attitude c. understanding, friendly, calm method of delivering information d. Usage of nontechnical vocabulary e. Provision of a comfortable meeting area
D. Content 1. Preparation and goal setting 2. Outline of problem(s), strength(s), weakness (es) 3. Skill development data (test scores, work samples, etc.) 4. Determination of solutions 5. Specific information and ideas for parent involvement
2. Encouraging parent involvement A. Planning workshops 1. Construction of reading games 2. Sharing activities and explaining reading program and process
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B. Sharing activities and techniques with parents 1. Reading aloud to children 2. Developing good attitudes toward reading 3. How to listen when a child reads 4. Motivating children to read 5. Books children like to read and books to read to their children 6. Additional activities determined by need and reading level
Timeline:
1. Working with parents - late September or early October.
2. Encouraging parent involvement - ongoing.
3. Using parent volunteers in the classroom - when appropriate.
Materials: Books on conferencing and communication with parents from profession~l and local libraries, appropriate handouts.
Evaluation: Look over documentation of parent conferences and evaluation forms completed by parents following any type of workshop or interaction between teacher and parent. Monitor the success of a parent volunteer program and decide whether to continue using volunteers (if applicable).
Follow-up: Lead discussions with staff members at the middle and end of the year concerning communication with parents. Schedule additional in-service sessions if needed.
VOLUNTEER TRAINING
Objective: To use volunteers to supplement and complement the work of the classroom teacher.
Activities:
1. Discuss staff-tutor relationships with parents.
2. Discuss the duties of a parent volunteer and the training for these duties.
3. Identify the characteristics of child growth and development.
4. Outline the steps in the reading process.
5. Provide an overview of the basal series.
6. List methods for oral reading.
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7. Share ways to select an appropriate book for the child's reading level.
8. Define reading terminology. 9. Present the levels of reading comprehension, including the types
and levels of questioning. 10. Identify the students to be served. 11. Assign parent volunteer to the classroom of a child. Timeline: 1. Sufficient time to tour the building with volunteers and introduce
them to administrators before the first session. 2. Two two-hour meetings for session content. 3. Varying time for the in-service depending upon availability of
volunteers and need. Materials: Materials used for developmental program, remediation materials and listings of techniques, duplicated activity sheets and handouts of skills, materials for construction, if applicable. Evaluation: Have parent volunteers complete a form evaluating their training. Invite teachers' reactions to the program and monitor students' progress. Follow-up: 1. Meet quarterly with volunteers to offer additional assistance and
determine their views on the program's effectiveness. 2. Meet quarterly with teachers who are using volunteers to assess the
effectiveness of the program.
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GLOSSARY Reading Resource Room - A specialized area where materials, games and skill packets are stored for use by parents and teachers. Tutor - To instruct on an individual basis, often privately.
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REFERENCES
Crisculolo, N. P. (1984). The most common questions parents ask about reading. PTA Today, 10 (2), 25.
Crisculolo, N. P. (1986). Ways to foster a home-school partnership in reading. Reading-Horizons, 26 (4), 278-282.
Demos, E. S. (1986). The reading conference: Questions, information, activities and feedback. Reading-Horizons, 26 (2), 105-111.
Fredericks, A. D. & Taylor, D. (1985). Parent Programs in Reading: Guidelines for Success. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.
Gelfer, J. I. & Perkins, P. G. (1987). Effective communication with parents: A process for parent/teacher conferences. Childhood Education, 64 (1), 19-22.
Granowsky, A., Rose, A. & Barton, N. (1983). Parents as Partners in Education. Ginn Occasional Papers. New York, New York: Ginn & Company.
IRA Parent Brochures (Free with self-addressed stamped envelope; mUltiple copies $6.50 per 100); IRA Parent Booklets ($1.75; five for $3); Reading Today (bimonthly newspaper); News for Parents (newsletter). Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.
Jowett, S. & Baginsky, M. (1988). Parents and education: A survey of their involvement and a discussion of some issues. EducationalResearch, 30 (1), 36-45.
Knox, L. & Candelaria, C. (1987). Tips for more productive parent conferences. Learning, 16 (2), 60-61.
Metropolitan Atlanta Council of International Reading Association (Parents and Reading Committee); Georgia Council of IRA (Parents and Reading Committee).
NEA Parent Involvement Series. National Education Association: Washington, D.C.
Rotter, J. C., Robinson, E. H. & Fey, M. A. (1987). Parent-Teacher Conference. Washington, D.C.: National Education Association.
Swick, K. J., Hobson, C. F. & Duff, R. E. (1979). Building Successful Parent-Teacher Partnerships. Atlanta, Georgia: Humanics.
Trelease, J. (1987). The Read-Aloud Handbook. New York, New York: Viking Penguin Inc.
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CULTURALLY DIVERGENT LEARNERS Regina Johnson
Atlanta Public Schools
" . . Children from three different groups learn language differently. How they all learn different uses for language, and how the different focuses affect their eventual success or failure in school settings. These uses of language affect children's ways of knowing and thinking about the world, and if the uses of language in the home are different from those in schools, or if the values placed on particular kinds of language use are different, children will be confused in the classroom and misunderstand the discourse." (Sager, p. 42)
Often children choose not to take part in the learning that goes on in the classroom when teachers appear not to accept the verbal and nonverbal language of their home culture. Unfortunately, because we value the standard forms of our language, the use of culturally divergent language patterns causes some teachers to assume that children are cognitively and linguistically deficient. In reality, these children are simply linguistically different. Children often show their lack of responsiveness in the classroom by being silent, while others "act out" with mischief or disrupting behavior. Although these students come to school with a cultural language system, it is necessary to help them learn the language system of the school as well. Here are some teaching DOs and DON'Ts.
DOs for teaching culturally divergent children
1. DO be a model for the use of standard English. Demonstrate through your use of the language a love for words and correct speech sounds and patterns.
2. DO read to and with students often, for reading and oral language activity is extremely important for culturally divergent children. Choose books and stories that reflect a multicultural view of life.
3. DO provide lots of oral language practice through choral speaking, show and tell, role-playing and skit dramatization, group discussion and problem solving poetry and prose recitation. Use lots of language games.
4. DO learn the features of the linguistic and cultural differences of your children and diagnose dialect features in students' speaking and writing.
5. DO teach writing as a process as you would teach it to any other children. According to the research, most children, regardless of cultural difference, do not know how to write academic discourse effectively.
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6. DO require students to respond both 'orally and in writing in complete sentences.
7. DO broaden the experiential background of your children, using oral language interaction before, during and after new experiences.
8. DO teach children to have an "ear" for a variety of language patterns and sounds. Play recordings and/or show films and videotapes of speakers of various English dialects. Even better, invite various English dialect speakers to talk with your children in the classroom. If possible, expose young children to another language system other than their own. Foreign language learning through songs and short skits is the greatest "sensitizer" to language and helps children develop an "ear."
9. DO guide children first in using the language fluently regardless of their dialect and then tackle their linguistic code switching to the standard English dialect in the classroom.
DON'TS for.teaching culturally divergent children
1. DON'T forget that children speak the way their family and neighbors speak, because these are the people with whom they have made their first linguistic identifications. Don't embarrass children about or disclaim the value of these linguistic patterns.
2. DON'T do deliberate, contrived code-switching activities in the early grades. However, at about third grade, teachers can begin code-switching activities.
3. DON'T underestimate the influence of peer speech imitations after early childhood.
4. DON'T do isolated drills of standard English patterns with primary children. By grade four, standard English drills may be helpful if done in the context of the children's own language. Such drills should be very short, individualized and used primarily to reinforce linguistic patterns that cause semantic misunderstandings.
Here are some structures to look for among black English dialect speakers.
1. Question Patterns
The student might tend to reverse the word order of the question and to either omit or use a verb tense that is not appropriate for formal speech situations. Examples:
a. What I need? (do omitted) b. Why he do that?--(inappropriate word order and verb tense) c. How it taste? (does omitted) d. Why you don't like him? (inappropriate word order) e. What you are doing? (word order) f. Why I can't play? (word order)
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2. Modals or Helping Verbs
The modals or helping verbs can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, have, will and would often present problems in classroom language~he student is likely to use two modals where only one is needed, to use a modal where a verb should be used, to use a verb where a modal should be used, etc. Examples:
a. You might ought to do it. b. You might will. c. They must don't. d. You might could. e. I done told you that. f. You must can't.
3. Negatives
The most obvious deviations here are double negatives and the use of ain't. Examples:
a. Don't nobody really know. b. Won't nobody catch us. c. I don't believe there's no ghost. d. He don't know nothing. e. It ain't my stick. f. He didn't play with none of us.
4. To Be
The verb to be is the verb most commonly misused in nonstandard English. ~s frequently omitted altogether or replaced by ain't. Examples:
a. He be mad. b. You still be makin' money. c. That a lamb. d. They ain't but so big. e. I think he a nut. f. They was brought here. g. What I mean, he's crazy.
5. Irregular Past
The children commonly misuse certain verbs in the past and perfect tenses. Examples:
a. et b. brung c. knowed d. growed e. flied
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6. Possessives Possessives are commonly misused. Examples: a. A dollar worth of change. b. Whoever foot I stepped on. c. He got to find out who book it was. d. Jack friend.
7. It
It is often used in place of there. Examples: a. It's a school up there. b. It wasn't nothin' to do. c. It's about a hundred O'liS. d. It's very little to jumpin' rope. 8. Plurals Students sometimes add an s to nouns inappropriately. Examples: a. mans b. childrens c. sheeps d. cattles e. reindeers f. foots g. feets 9. Adverbs Many adverbs are used inappropriately for classroom language. Examples: a. Even she had a cake. b. That's what mostly we call 'em. c. The most thing I did was take orders. d. I feel like this way. e. I mostly live all around here. f. He act all stupid.
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DRILL TYPES
Below are some of the basic drill types that are used in the oral language materials. An example of each drill is provided.
There are other types of drills, as well as many variations of the types listed here, but these are used most frequently.
1. Repetition
T: That is John's book. S: That is John's book. T: That is Mary's book. S: That is Mary's book.
2. Simple Substitution
T: That is John's book./Mary S: That is Mary's book. T: That is Mary's book./Sharon S: That is Sharon's book.
3. Progressive Substitution
T: That is John's book./Mary S: That is Mary's book. T: That is Mary's book./This S: This is Mary's book. T: This is Mary's book./coat S: This is Mary's coat.
4. Selective Transformation
T: Mary's book is on the floor./What? S: What's on the floor? T: Mary's book is on the floor./Where? S: Where's Mary's book?
5. Sentence Integration
T: This is a book. It's Mary's. S: This is Mary's book. T: This is a book. It's John's. S: This is John's book.
6. Sentence Expansion
T: I have a book. /big, red S: I have a big red book. T: I have a dog. / small, brown S: I have a small brown dog.
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7. Sentence Restoration T: September/thirty S: September has thirty days. T: July/thirty-one S: July has thirty-one days.
8. Deduction T: He rustles cattle./rustler S: He's a rustler. T: He herds cows./cowboy S: He's a cowboy.
9. Directed Dialog T: (Student's name) ask (student's name) if he knows how many days there are in March. S: Do you know how many days there are in March?
10. Alternative Reply T: Does he like apples or oranges? S: He likes oranges. T: Does he eat cornbread or biscuits? S: He eats biscuits.
11. Transformation T: I went to the store. S: I didn't go to the store.
12. Response to Question T: What is the opposite of East?/West S: West is the opposite of East. T: What is the opposite of heavy?/light S: Light is the opposite of heavy.
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Timeline: Two two-hour sessions
Objectives:
1. To teach staff about culturally divergent children and help them appreciate the effects of a child's culture and socioeconomic level on the learning process.
2. To work with teachers to design teaching strategies to enhance students' oral language development.
Activities:
1. Invite speakers from the community to come and discuss the cultural differences of the various children enrolled in the school.
2. Cover ~hese general guidelines for working with children of diverse ethnic origins.
(a) Learn about their culture. Find out about their language and what things are important to them.
(b) Participate in the community. Become involved in recreational activities and community service projects.
(c) Value their contribution. Take an interest in what children bring to share. Listen to what they say!
(d) Share ideas with other teachers. Observe the techniques used by teachers whom children respect. Share ideas that get results.
3. Have teachers work in small groups by grade level and select materials that would meet the various needs of all students. This should include some suitable materials of books written by the children themselves; trade books about differences in backgrounds, language and interests; high-quality comic books; and paperback books, especially the high-interest, low-vocabulary variety.
4. Lead a discussion with teachers about how to incorporate instructional strategies that would help enhance the oral language of culturally divergent children. Explore examples such as the following.
(a) Let children read orally frequently to check children's pronunciation and intonation of standard English. You may want to use a tape recorder so that you can analyze the tapes and keep a record of linguistic changes.
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(b) Use language experience stories to encourage reading and writing skills.
Evaluation: Visit classrooms to see what materials and strategies teachers are using to promote oral language development of culturally divergent children.
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GLOSSARY
Culturally Divergent Children - Children whose language patterns are different from the standard English used in the basal texts. Dialect - A regionally limited, spoken variety of a given language. Linguistically Different - Having a language or dialect that is different from a standard or from a social or educational norm.
All terms taken from Harris, T. L. & Hodges, R. E., eds. (1981). A Dictionary of Reading and Related Terms. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.
REFERENCES
Alexander, C. F. (1980). Black English dialect and the classroom teacher. The Reading Teacher, 33, 571-577.
ASCD Multicultural Education Commission (1977). Encouraging multicultural education. Educational Leadership, 34, 288-291.
Barnes, W. J. (1977). How to improve teacher behavior in multiethnic classrooms. Educational Leadership, 34, 511-515.
Brophy, J. (1982). Successful teaching strategies for the inner-city child. Phi Delta Kappan, 63, 527-530.
Burns, P. C., Roe, B. D. & Ross, E. P. (1982). Teaching Reading in Today's Elementary Schools, 4th ed. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Sager, M. B. (1989). Exploiting the reading-writing connection to engage students in text. Journal of Reading, 33, 40-43.
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USING COMPUTERS IN THE READING PROGRAM Dr. George Mason
University of Georgia
"Computers don't teach: They deliver instruction through programs developed by computer educators who have the vision and ability to integrate existing disciplines and computer-assisted instruction."
Teachers of early elementary grades can use the computer to aid them in accomplishing many of their tasks. Computers can help children discriminate between letters and words and can actually help teach the recognition of words by providing interesting games and drills in which words are repeatedly presented. Also, simple word processing programs can be used to help children learn the conventions of print (left-to-right, one printed word for each spoken word, etc.). Furthermore, computers are useful tools for helping children learn to note details, remember sequences, predict outcomes and relate main ideas to the details in passages.
DOs for using computers effectively
1. DO introduce computer programs as you would introduce a new book. Set up the computer so that a class or group can see the screen. As you load a program and start it running, discuss (1) what you do to make the computer work, (2) what appears on the screen and (3) what you expect the children to do as the program operates.
2. DO be sure the children know the names and locations of keys that they may need to press whenever they use the computer without direct teacher supervision.
3. DO pay special attention to the printed messages that computer programs display. Be sure that the messages are written in language simple enough for your students to read.
4. DO choose programs that complement the textbooks and other curricular materials you are using. The computer should help you accomplish your own curricular goals.
5. DO be alert to the relationship between programs and the peripherals (attachments to your computer). Some programs require a color screen, a speech-producing device or a printer.
6. DO try to find utility programs that allow you to type in your own word list and/or your own sentences so that you can adapt the programs to the children's own reading levels and even to the subjects or topics you are teaching them.
7. DO consider your own school and classroom arrangements when choosing programs. A computer program for children to use alone at a learning center will be different from one that serves one of your reading groups while you teach another one. Both will be
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different from a program that functions as a sort of chalkboard or flannelboard to aid you in teaching a whole class lesson.
DON'Ts for using computers effectively
1. DON'T expect more learning from a child's interaction with a computer than you would expect from a child's complete involvement in a good book. The key words here are involvement and interaction. Unless the child is actively participating in a computer-assisted reading activity, little learning may result.
2. DON'T expect all programs to motivate or involve all children. Each child is different, and each class is different. A program may work well with one child or class and not with another.
3. DON'T expect children to learn to use the computer keyboard without instruction. Many teachers draw a large keyboard diagram on chart paper and give dittoed keyboard drawings to the children for instruction in keyboarding before allowing children to work directly on the computer.
4. DON'T think of the computer as a device to be used by a student sitting alone. Pairing students is often the best way to assign them to computer activities, and groups of five can work together on a computer when teachers have carefully worked out rules (such as who will type in the answer decided upon by the group).
5. DON'T overlook good programs just because they are not labeled as reading or language arts. Many "thinking skills" programs provide excellent reading comprehension activities and many simulations designed for mathematics, science or social studies instruction are also excellent reading activities. Many Georgia first grade teachers, for example, use typing (or keyboarding) programs to help children practice letter naming and finding. Two children sit at the computer together. One watches the screen and calls out the letter to be typed. The other watches the keyboard, finding and pressing the letters that the first child calls out. The first child reports success or error to the second.
6. DON'T think of the computer as a tool to be used only during instruction. Computer programs are available to help the teacher make tests, crossword and word search puzzles, certificates, language experience stories, interactive stories, class newspapers, worksheets, cloze exercises and illustrated story books. Of course, for most of these a printer is absolutely essential.
7. DON'T allow the more aggressive or faster learning pupils to monopolize the computers available. The computer is at least as appropriate for slow-learning pupils as it is for the gifted. The computer's ability to repeat again and again while informing the pupil of the correctness of his response is especially valuable to slower or less secure pupils.
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ACcomplishing the recommended practices while observing the cautions described above requires teachers to familiarize themselves with a great many computer programs. The suggested staff development activity that follows will help introduce teachers to these programs.
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY
Since there are so many language arts programs that are appropriate for and easy to use with young children, one staff development activity that is most useful is a two-hour "program fair." Program Fairs allow teachers to tryout as many programs as they can during a scheduled time period. The staff development instructor should procure as many as possible of the programs listed at the end of this paper, and a minimum of seven computers. Then, at the beginning of the session, take 15 minutes or less to remind the teachers of the seven major purposes for which computers are used by reading teachers: (1) reading/writing readiness, (2) practicing words taught in basals or in subjects, (3) practicing word recognition/decoding skills, (4) increasing reading vocabulary, (5) improving comprehension, (6) creating activities and exercises to print out and (7) introducing children to writing and word processing. Explain that next to each of the seven computers are one or more diskettes that contain programs of one of these seven types. During the remainder of the two-hour staff development period each teacher is to spend at least 15 minutes examining each of the seven programs. To accomplish this you may wish to number the stations and assign teachers to groups one through seven. Then you may ring a bell or callout at the end of each IS-minute period so that teachers don't get carried away with a single program.
During the week following such a fair, computers and these seven programs should be available in the media center or teachers' workshop so that those who wish to become proficient with a particular program may spend time on it during free periods and after school. Those who use any of these programs with children may wish to write a brief note for the teacher's bulletin board about activities for which they found these programs useful. The following list is a selected sample of programs that Georgia teachers have used.
For Reading/Writing Readiness
INSTANT ZOO (Apple Computer) STICKYBEAR ABC (Weekly Reader) GETTING READY TO READ AND ADD (Sunburst) THE LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE RECORDER, PLUS (Teacher Support
Software) READ-A-LOGO (Teacher Support Software) RICHARD SCARRY'S BEST ELECTRONIC WORD BOOK EVER (CBS
Software) CHILDREN'S CAROUSEL (Dynacomp) N.E. GEORGIA IRA COUNCIL DISK ONE (N.E. GEORGIA IRA)
For Practicing Words Taught in a Basal Program
DON'T FALL (Apple Computer) PUZZLES AND POSTERS (MECC) WORD WORKS (Teacher Support Software) WORD WISE (TIES)
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For Practicing Word Recognition/Decoding Skills
WORD FAMILIES (Hartley) WORD MAN (DLM) WORD MUNCHER (MECC) WORD INVASION (DLM) WORD QUEST (Sunburst) WORD RADAR (DLM) WRITING TO READ (IBM)
For Increasing Reading Vocabulary
ANIMALS (Apple Computer) ANTONYMS/SYNONYMS (Hartley) CROSSWORD MAGIC (Mindscape) HOMONYNS (Hartley) STICKYBEAR OPPOSITES (Weekly Reader) VOCABULARY BASEBALL (J & S Software)
For Improving Comprehension
CLOZE PLUS (Milliken) COMPREHENSION POWER (Milliken) GETTING THE MAIN IDEA (Learning Well) HIDE 'N SEQUENCE (Sunburst) LEMONADE STAND (MECC) STORIES FROM THE PLANET ZEE (Teacher Support Software) STORYLORDS (Agency for Instructional Television) STORY MACHINE (Spinnaker) THE LOST SLIPPER (Book Lures) THE LOST MITTENS (Book Lures) TIGER'S TALE (Sunburst) WINNIE-THE-POOH IN THE HUNDRED ACRE WOODS (Sierra)
For Creating Activities/Exercises to Print Out for Children
CREATE WITH GARFIELD (DLM) MAKE-A-FLASH (Teacher Support Software) PRINT SHOP (Broderbund)
For Introducing Children to Writing and Word Processing
BANK STREET WRITER (Scholastic) GREAT BEGINNINGS (Teacher Support Software) MAGIC SLATE (Sunburst) PRIMARY EDITOR (IBM) SENTENCE STARTERS (Teacher Support Software) STORY MACHINE (Spinnaker) THE LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE RECORDERS, PLUS (Teacher
Support Software) THE WRITING WORKSHOP (Milliken)
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Teachers should be aware of the teaching opportunities that these programs provide. Principals, lead teachers and curriculum directors should do their best to help teachers become aware of these opportunities.
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SAMPLE ACTIVITY Seat your pupils in such a way that all of the children in the group or class can see the computer's video display screen. Load THE LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE RECORDER, PLUS (Teacher support software) from diskettes, talking aloud as you do so. Select a child to press arrow keys on your computer to highlight the various choices on each menu. Read these choices aloud with the children. Then select another child to press the "Return" key and thus actually make a choice among the subprograms displayed on the menu. Take dictation from the children using the subprogram "Begin a new story." As you go along, show the children how to type capital letters and when to press the "Return" key to start a new paragraph. When the story is complete, the subprogram will ask you and the children to (1) create a short title and (2) name the author. Then save the story on a diskette so that you can edit it or add to it later if you wish. When the computer shows you the alphabetical word list, you may wish to print it out as a spelling list for the class. You may also wish to have the computer read the story aloud in its robotic voice or to print out copies for the children in the group so that they may begin their own bookets by creating an illustration for each printed story. Later, after school, load the program again and this time choose the subprogram "Edit a story." Now, make a cloze test by replacing several of the words with blanks, using the underline key. Print out the new "cloze test revision" of the story (choose the 20-colurnn type size) and make enough copies for each child to have one. Before handing out the paper cloze test on the next day, load the program in your computer and discuss with the children the words that might fit the blanks. (To help make this activity easier, you also might distribute copies of the word list to the children.)
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PUBLISHERS AND ADDRESSES Agency for Instructional Technology, Box A, Bloomington, Indiana
47402-0120
Apple Computer, 20525 Mariani Avenue, Cupertino, California 95104 Book Lures, P. O. Box 9450, O'Fallon, Missouri 63366 Broderbund Software, 17 Paul Drive, San Rafael, California 94903 CBS Interactive Learning, One Fawcett Place, Greenwich, Connecticut
06836 DLM Teaching Resources, One DLM Park, Allen, Texas 75002
Dynacomp, 1427 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, New York 14618 Hartley Courseware, P. O. Box 431, Dimondale, Michigan 48821 IBM, P. O. Box 1329, Boca Raton, Florida 33422 J & S Software, 14 Vanderventer Avenue, Port Washington, New York 11050 Learning Well, 200 S. Service Road, Roslyn Heights, New York 11577 MECC <Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium), 2520 Broadway Drive,
St. Paul, Minnesota 55113 Milliken Publishing Company, 1100 Research Boulevard, St. Louis,
Missouri 63132 Mindscape, 3444 Dundee Road, Northbrook, Illinois 60062 Northeast Georgia IRA, 309 Aderhold Hall, University of Georgia, Athens,
Georgia 30602 Scholastic Inc., 730 Broadway, New York, New York 10003 Sierra, P. O. Box 485, Coarsegold, California 93614 Spinnaker Software Corporation, 1 Kendall Square, Cambridge, Maine
02139 Sunburst Communications Inc., 39 Washington Street, Pleasantville, New
York 10570 Teacher Support Software, P. O. Box 7130, Gainesville, Florida 32605 TIES, 1925 County Road, Roseville, Minnesota 55113 Weekly Reader Family Software, 245 Long Hill, Middleton, Connecticut
06457
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GLOSSARY
Diskette - A circular device enclosed in a plastic envelope (usually black) that stores the magnetic impulses that give a computer its instructions.
Load - To place a diskette in the disk drive and turn on the computer or press keys to spin the diskette so that the computer can read the program and do whatever the program directs. Menu - A list of choices shown on the computer's video display screen. Usually one presses a number or moves a "highlighter" over the choice and then presses the "Return" key or "Enter" key to choose.
Peripheral - A device connected to and operated by a computer. Printers, video display screens and speech devices are peripherals.
Printer - A computer-controlled peripheral that prints text and/or pictures on paper.
Program - A set of instructions for a computer, usually stored on a diskette or tape. Often several small programs are stored on one diskette. Sometimes a diskette holds a main program and several subprograms that the main program calls up to provide the computer with its instructions for specific tasks.
Twenty-column - A type of printing format with large type size. As the computer "types" letters and spaces across its display screen or across a sheet of paper, it puts each letter, character or space in a separate column. The fewer the columns, the larger the type. Eighty-column print is typewriter-sized. Forty-column is larger than eO-column, and 20-column print is larger still.
Utility Programs - Programs that enable teachers to create lessons for their pupils. Among the best-known utility programs are those for making posters and greeting cards, crossword puzzles and tests, and those for word processing.
Word-processing Programs - Programs that enable the writer to type in text, edit it by typing and viewing changes on the screen, save the text on a diskette and/or print it out with a printer.
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REFERENCES Anderson, J. (1989). New technologies and reading. Journal of Reading,
79 (6). Balajthy, E. (1984). Computer simulations and reading. The Reading
Teacher, 37 (7), 344-345. Balajthy, E. (1987). What are basal publishers doing with
computer-based instruction? The Reading Teacher, 41 (3), 344-345. Becker, H. J. (1988). The impact of computers on children's learning.
Principal, 12 (5), 64-70. Blanchard, J. S., Mason, G. E. & Daniel, D. (1987). Computer
Application in Reading, 3rd ed. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Hensley, F. S. & Hindes, M. A. (1989). Technology in schools, Instructional Technology Update, 2 (3), 8. Kastler, L. A. & Roser, N. (1982). The computer vs. real reading instruction. Early Years, 13 (2), 20-21. Mason, G. E. (1983). The computer in the reading clinic. The Reading Teacher, 36 (6), 504-507. Walker, D. F. (1983). Reflections on the educational potential and limitations of microcomputers. Phi Delta Kappan, 65 (2), 103-107.
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STUDY SKILLS Patricia Geary Norman College
"Students need study skills to contend with the vast array of materials used in different subjects, and the skills are best taught in relation to specific content areas. Focusing on the tasks to be achieved rather than on the skills to be mastered will also enhance the teaching of study skills." (Daines, p. 89)
Study skills are techniques, tools or methods related to the acquisition and use of information and ideas. Most good students possess the ability and techniques necessary to study efficiently. These techniques need to be included as part of the total school program because such study skills are an integral part of the entire learning process. These skills should be taught within the context of a particular course, purpose or need. Obviously, some skills need to be mastered before others are attempted. For this reason most basal textbooks used in elementary grades feature sequential skills development.
Before suggesting strategies for students' study skills, the following are some basic general principles on teaching.
Be positive and affirming.
Give students a reason to learn. (Is it interesting? Is it related to personal experience?)
Help students to experience new content through a variety of modes. (Learning centers, films, role-play, etc.)
Assist pupils to see a relationship to what has been previously studied.
Have students use a variety of senses. (Look at the material. Teach the material to others, etc.)
Permit students to be active doers and learners.
Create a community of inquiry within the classroom.
With the above general principles in mind, the following sections list the DOs and DON'Ts of teaching study skills to elementary school pupils. (Keep in mind: Study skills instruction involves students' learning better study habits, not learning how to study harder) .
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DOs for teaching study skills 1. DO model planning, organization and thoroughness in curricular
presentations and in classrooms. 2. DO give students a purpose for everything you have them do. 3. DO use real-life situations and problems. 4. DO relate what you are teaching to students' previous learning and
experiences. 5. DO provide for individual differences among students. 6. DO select content that pupils can clearly understand. 7. DO teach students the process for efficient reading: think,
question, skim, scan, read, think (SQ3R). 8. DO teach only one skill (or skill cluster) in each lesson. 9. DO teach skills in sequence. 10. DO provide reference tools such as a dictionary, a thesaurus, an
encyclopedia and an atlas. Demonstrate and encourage their use. DON'Ts for teaching study skills 1. DON'T do for pupils what they can do for themselves. 2. DON'T assume students know how to study or locate information. 3. DON'T teach study skills in isolation. 4. DON'T have students simply memorize; first have them understand. 5. DON'T fail to observe students as they perform the various tasks
needed in the classroom. 6. DON'T fail to communicate your expectations of students to them and
to their parent(s). 7. DON'T hesitate to challenge pupils. 8. DON'T forget to have fun!
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SAMPLE ACTIVITY Study Skills Inventory/Checklist
Objective: To identify study skills needed in a particular course/class. After a teacher/student conference, develop and use a study skills inventory/checklist.
Materials: Inventory/checklist (teacher/student generated), pen, pencil.
Procedures:
1. Identify study (reading) skills pupils will need for success in your course. Obviously, the majority of these skills require cognitive thinking. For example, do students need to take careful notes because of your emphasis on factual knowledge? Do they need to use maps, graphs, charts, pictures? will new vocabulary cause pupils to refer often to a glossary or dictionary? The specific study. skills important to a course need to be identified so that an inventory instrument can be tied to these identified skills. Skills instruction based on teacher/student shared understanding of what is needed in a particular course will assist students to see the value and purpose of the study skill(s).
2. Based on what you and the students deem important, construct a study skills inventory/checklist to let you easily record skills students need and master.
STUDY SKILLS INVENTORY
(Should be adapted making provision for the reading ability of pupils in K-4).
(The following listing is for example only. It is far from exhaustive!)
FINDING SKILLS
Table of contents
Index
Glossary
Dictionary
Cross-References
Encyclopedia
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Card catalogue Atlas Maps Graphs Pictures INTERPRETING SKILLS Reading to see relationships of details to main ideas Comparing Contrasting Predicting Making judgments RECORDING SKILLS Outlining Underlining Taking notes Classifying information Summarizing REMEMBERING SKILLS Reading for main idea Reading for details Recognizing key words Identifying cause and effect Utilizing memory aids
Periodically discuss and/or hand out the inventory/checklist for updating and revision. 3. Design some type of evaluation exercise to determine student
mastery or nonrnastery of specific study skills.
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4. Observe students in the classroom. Use the observations to supplement any written inventory/checklist.
5. Compare observations with students' own perceptions, strengths and weaknesses.
6. Provide direct instruction in study techniques. Evaluation/Follow-up: Meet with students individually to further assess their needs. Suggest appropriate avenues for continued development.
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STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Objectives
1. To instruct staff members of kindergarten through grade four in generating and using a Study Skills Inventory/Checklist.
2. To familiarize staff with the components of the Inventory/ Checklist - FINDING information, INTERPRETING information, RECORDING information and REMEMBERING information.
3. To teach that "study skills" are means to an end, rather than to be studied for their own sake.
Timeline: One to two hour-long sessions
Materials: Overhead projector, transparencies, student texts, paper, pencils, handouts.
Activities:
1. In a sharing session, have staff discuss and develop a rationale for integrating study skills into content reading lessons. Also help teachers think of a rationale for developing and using the Study Skills Inventory/Checklist.
2. Ask staff members to devise an inventory based on discussion and utilization of texts to be used in their respective classrooms. These inventories will be subject to change based on student input. Include FINDING, INTERPRETING, RECORDING and REMEMBERING information in the inventory.
3. Discuss methods of administering the inventory/checklist as well as collating and evaluation of the inventory/checklist and its use.
4. Design (or locate) reading (or other subject area) activities that highlight and instruct students in FINDING, INTERPRETING, RECORDING and REMEMBERING information.
Evaluation/Follow-Up: Observe classrooms to see how much study skills are emphasized. Discuss your goals for study skills instruction with classroom teachers and invite comments from students about what they are learning. Final results desired: student enjoyment and increased understanding and retention of content.
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HOW SQ3R WORKS

SURVEY

First, skim or survey the material, looking over the
whole assignment before you actually start to read
it. 1. Check the title to get an idea of what the
material is about. 2. Note the beginning and end to get a notion of
how much material the author uses to get across the ideas. 3. Pay attention to headings and subheadings. They can help you get an overall picture of the author's plan. 4. Look at charts, pictures, graphs and other illustrative material. Check the captions under each. These can also help give you clues to the overall plan. 5. Quickly read any headnotes, introductory paragraphs and summary sections. They can give you a better overview.

QUESTION

This is the crucial stage in personalizing the
assignment, making it really yours. On a separate sheet of paper, jot down the questions that you, personally, want answered. What might the author be able to tell you about the topic that you don't already know? What are YOU curious about here? Sometimes turning the headings and subheadings into questions helps.

READ

Now you are ready to actually read the assignment.

1. Read the introductory paragraphs rather

carefully.

2. Add to your personal list of questions if you

need to.

3. Skim the less important points.

4. Add difficult words to your question sheet so

that you can verify the meanings later.

5. Keep asking yourself, What is the author's main

purpose in writing this material?

REVIEW

After you have completed the reading, try to remember each section. What was the author's main purpose? What were the chief points? What was the overall plan? Try to keep the key points in mind.

RECITE

One of the best ways of understanding anything is to

tell it to someone else in your own words. At this

final stage, "tell" your answers to the questions,

either to yourself in writing or to another student

in conversation. Making a summary (which includes

answers to your questions) is also a powerful

learning method.

Devine, T. G. (1981). Teaching Study Skills. Boston, Massachusetts:

Allyn & Bacon, p. 45.

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EXPLANATION OF TERMS Interpreting Information - Examples: "Silly Sayings" - Students are challenged to think of reasons why statements are illogical or fail to make sense. For example, "I like cake on my television." "She put her socks on to keep her face warm." Interpreting/Recording Information - Give students a brief section on a topic they are studying that you have copied from a children's encyclopedia. Have them arrange the different levels of ideas and label them.
I. Main topic A. Subtopic 1. Detail (a. Subdetail) Optional
Study Strategy - Teach SQ3R study-reading strategy. (See p. 153) Rememberingo - Teach the use of memory devices such as sentences, a mnemonic aid made of words that begin with the initial letters of facts that require memorization, e.g., QUEEN SUE EATS CRABS. This sentence serves to remind students of the four types of sentences: Question, Statement, Exclamatory, Command.
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REFERENCES
Askov, E. & Kamm, K. (1982). Study Skills in the Content Areas. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon.
Daines, D. (1982). Reading in the Content Areas: Strategies for Teachers. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman.
Devine, T. (1981). Teaching Study Skills: A Guide for Teachers. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon.
Duda, P. & Sebranek, P. (1983). A Study Skills and Writing Process Workbook. Burlington, Wisconsin: Basic English Revisited.
Ekwall, E. & Shanker, J. (1985). Teaching Reading in the Elementary School. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill.
Finn, P. (1985). Helping Children Learn to Read. New York, New York: Random House.
Hafner, L. & Jolly, H. (1982). Teaching Reading to Children. New York, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Hall, M. (1981). Teaching Reading as a Language Experience. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill.
Mangrum, C., ed. (1983). Learning to Study. Providence, Rhode Island: Jamestown Publishers.
Notes Plus. (1988). Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English.
Preston, R. & Botel, M. (1981). How to Study. Chicago, Illinois: Science Research Associates.
SchmeIser, R., Christen, W. & Browning, W. (1980). Reading and Study Skills. Rehoboth, Massachusetts: Twin Oaks Publishers.
Spargo, E. & Williston, G. (1980). Timed Readings. Providence, Rhode Island: Jamestown Publishers.
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READING COMPREHENSION Paulette Bolton
Atlanta Public Schools
The primary goal of reading instruction is to teach students to comprehend what they read. Comprehension is building connections between what children know and what they are to learn. Teachers can assist students in developing their comprehension abilities if they
model comprehension processes for students,
instruct and guide students in comprehension processes before, during and after reading,
give feedback to children during reading, and
provide students with useful practice activities that allow students to move toward independence. (Seafross & Readence, p. 257)
The teacher is the key to helping children make the connection between new information and what is known. Effective teachers create an instructional environment for comprehension and have access to a repertoire of instructional strategies to help students comprehend.
In teaching comprehension it is important to understand the levels of the comprehension process.
1. The text-explicit level involves recall or getting information that is stated directly in the text. No inference is required. In answering a test-explicit question you are either right or wrong. Raphael (1984) uses the phrase "right there" to describe this type of comprehension.
2. Text-implicit comprehension requires one to examine the facts in the text and make inferences. The answer is implicitly stated rather than directly stated. Raphael (1984) calls this type of comprehension "think and search."
3. The experienced based comprehension process requires one to respond based on prior knowledge about events or situations similar to the ones in the text. A number of responses may be appropriate, and the number of responses is only limited by the respondent's prior knowledge. Such answers are not derived from the text. This process is akin to "reading beyond the lines," or, as Raphael (1984) says, "on your own."
DOs and DON'Ts for teaching reading comprehension
1. DON'T ask too many text-explicit questions. Students need to process information beyond ~hat the author says.
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2. DO ask questions at all levels of comprehension so that students have an opportunity to think about the text and are challenged in doing so including those developed to stimulate students' thinking at higher levels of comprehension.
3. DO ask questions at all stages of the instructional lesson. In the prereading stage, questions that activate students' prior knowledge will make comprehension easier, particularly text-implicit comprehension (Pearson, Hansen & Gordon). During reading, questions can be used to guide students to selected concepts in a text. Questions in a postreading activity can be used to stimulate a review process (Anderson et al.).
4. DO provide students the "right" to be incorrect and the freedom to respond. Children learn from the mistakes they make.
Allowing students the freedom to respond indicates a tolerance for divergent responses. In fact, students could give acceptable responses to questions at higher levels of comprehension that you might not have considered. Be tolerant of both mistakes and seemingly inappropriate responses to the questions asked of students. These responses are students' attempts at comprehending and figuring out the processes involved in doing so (Readence & Seafross) .
5. DO give students time to think about their responses to questions. Although rapid-fire questioning may be typical of most teachers, allowing "think time" (Gambrel) facilitates comprehension. Allow a minimum of five seconds both after asking a question and after a student gives a response. Providing students more time to process a response to a question promotes longer, more accurate responses and stimulates higher level thinking.
6. DO examine questions offered by instructional material. Do not rely solely on questions provided by text authors. They cannot be cognizant of the special needs and abilities of your students. Only you can ask questions that tailor the information so that students become involved in comprehension at various levels.
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STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING COMPREHENSION Directed Reading Activity
The Directed Reading Activity (DRA) has five components (Seafross & Readence) .
1. Readiness
Teacher prepares students to read a story by relating it to their past experiences, developing student interest and establishing purposes for reading.
2. Directed Silent Reading
Students read silently to seek answers and fulfill purposes for reading.
3. Comprehension Check and Discussion
Teacher checks to see if children have comprehended the selection and read purposefully.
4. Oral Reading
Teacher clarifies any confusion that might have arisen during silent reading, sets new purposes for reading and prepares for follow-up activities.
5. Follow-Up Activity
Teacher provides students with review reinforcement activities to enhance future learning.
Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
The Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRIA) was developed by Stauffer to promote active comprehension. The reading material is divided into appropriate segments.
Students read through each segment to define the purposes for reading and then evaluate and revise these purposes as they acquire new information. This comprehension process involves three phases (Seafross & Readence.
1. Predicting
Teacher directs students to read the title and examine any pictures that accompany the first segment of the text. Teacher encourages students to make predictions about the selection and what might happen in it using the title and pictures.
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2. Reading Students read the test silently to verify their predictions about the story or selection.
3. Proving Teacher directs students to close their texts and evaluate previous predictions in light of the information they have acquired. Teacher generates new predictions from students and repeats this process with the next segment of reading material.
Directed Inquiry Activity
The Directed Inquiry Activity (DIA) is a strategy that is used for reading factual information, especially if it is to be used for later study. In an effort to facilitate comprehension, Thomas focused on a framework that centers on predicting the answers to six key questions in a selection. 1. Students examine title pictures. 2. Students predict responses to who? what? when? where? why? how? 3. Students read to verify predictions. Teacher and students examine
predictions. Students refine predictions and continue reading.
Survey Technique
The Survey Technique was designed so that students can systematically analyze the format of the text material and its visual aids to derive purposes for reading. This strategy should be conducted with the entire class to familiarize students with the process. The following steps (Aukerman) are included in this strategy. 1. Analyze the Title
Students analyze the title and predict what will be included in the text. 2. Analyze the Subtitles Students analyze the subtitles, predict what will be included in the text and develop questions about each subsection.
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3. Analyze Other Visual Aids
Students analyze pictures, charts, graphs, maps, etc., to determine the type of information presented. 4. Read Introductory Paragraph 5. Read Concluding Paragraph 6. Derive the Main Idea Students discuss contents of the text to be read and predict ideas. These may be listed. An overall statement or main idea is developed using this information. Students read to verify their predictions.
Retelling or Recall
This strategy can add to the teacher's understanding of the reader's comprehension because it allows the teacher an opportunity to evaluate the quality, quantity and organization of the information gathered during reading (Winograd, Wixson & Lipson). During retelling:
1. Do not interfere with the student's initial responses to the material or selection. Initial requests for retelling should be initially open-ended.
2. Initiate the retelling of a selection with statement questions such as o Tell me what you have read using your own words.
o What is the (text, story or selection) about? o Tell me as much as you can about what you've read.
(Ringler & Weber) Questions, statements or probes such as the following can be used with this strategy (Winograd, Wixson & Lipson).
Questions that elicit further information 1. Tell me more about what you have read. 2. Tell me more about the characters in the story. 3. Tell me more about where this happened.
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Questions for thematic stories: 1. What is the main problem the characters face? (problem) 2. What makes it difficult for the characters to solve their
problem? (conflict) 3. How is the problem solved? (resolution) 4. What did you learn about the main characters?
(characterization) 5. What lessons are there in the story? (theme) 6. How is the setting of the story important? (setting) 7. Which event is a turning point in the story? (events) Questions for informational selections: 1. What is the central idea for the selection? (central purposes) 2. What are the main points of the subsections of this text?
(main idea) 3. What details does the selection provide to support the main
ideas? (supporting details) 4. How does the author organize the information to tell you about
the main idea? (structure) Questions to elicit effective responses: 1. Did you learn anything from reading this? 2. What did you learn? 3. Did you find the selection interesting? 4. Did you enjoy reading the selection? Why?
Using these or similar probes can help to enhance the students' ability to recall, analyze and infer important information that facilitates comprehension.
Comprehension Skills Noting Details
We cannot recall every detail from every sentence that is read. Good readers select certain parts of sentences to retain. Good readers
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effectively choose the important information in a passage, paragraph or selection to remember. This is called selecting important details.
DOs and DON'T's for enhancing students' comprehension
1. When students are reading long sentences DO have them tell you the most important information in that sentence.
2. DON'T give picky tests that focus on unimportant information.
3. DO have students defend their rationale for selecting important details.
4. DO explain to students the importance of selecting important details.
5. DO model this process before asking students to perform it independently.
6. DO begin with material on which students have a lot of background knowledge.
7. DO discuss clues that content area authors might use to highlight important facts.
Main Ideas
Good readers constantly extract general ideas from the information they are reading. The most important general point of each paragraph is usually called the main idea of that paragraph. There are four processes that help readers find the main idea.
Superordination - combining specific terms into general ones
Deletion - eliminating unimportant information
Selection - choosing general statements to retain
Invention - creating a general topic statement
DOs and DON'Ts for teaching students to find main ideas
1. DO teach the process of finding the main idea in the context of reading assignments in which this skill would be useful.
2. DO model for your students the thinking process that you use when finding the main idea.
3. DO teach students to look for patterns in the placement of topic sentences.
4. DO stress main ideas in your informal assessments and discussions.
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Predicting Outcomes
Good readers form hypotheses about what is to corne next in a passage when reading. This may involve predicting the next word, next event or outcome in a selection.
DOs and DON'Ts for helping students make predictions
1. DO ask a variety of prediction questions.
2. DON'T use predictions that have only one right answer.
3. DO read stories to students and let them predict the outcome of certain parts.
4. DO tell students the importance of making predictions when reading.
5. DO orally model your prediction process for students when reading.
6. DO allow students to predict outcomes each time you make a reading assignment.
ACTIVITY ONE: Noting Details
The following procedures are adapted from those described by Baker & Irwin.
Objective: To enable students to identify important details in sentences.
Procedures:
1. Write on the board a sentence such as "Mother stopped the car and got out."
2. Tell students you have to condense this sentence into only a few words. Ask them to help you choose the most important words in the sentence. Tell them that these words will probably be the ones that can help them picture the sentence mentally.
3. Read the sentence slowly and ask for students' help in selecting the important words.
4. Practice using several other sentences.
Materials: Several sentences that contain good descriptive details, chalk and chalkboard, paper and pencils for students.
Evaluation: Have students write five sentences and identify the important details in each.
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Follow-up: Practice this procedure working on other material and reinforce the procedure when reading to the students.
ACTIVITY TWO: Main Idea
Objective: To teach students to identify main ideas in paragraphs by selecting topic sentences. Procedures:
1. Explain to students that there are five ways in which the information in a paragraph is organized around the main idea. The following code represents these structures.
A. = topic sentence at the beginning of a paragraph B. = topic sentence at the end of a paragraph C. = topic sentence at beginning and end of a paragraph D. = topic sentence within a paragraph E. = topic sentence not stated
2. Orally introduce and illustrate the use of each of these organizational patterns.
3. Provide samples of each type and have students work on their own.
4. Use a worksheet or overhead transparency with paragraphs from content area books and trade books.
5. Use content area textbooks and trade books.
6. In steps three through five, discuss the answers, having students give reasons for their choices.
Evaluation: Ask students to identify the organizational patterns in each of the five paragraphs and to support their answer orally.
Follow-up: Pass out to each student a different main idea sentence. Have students write a paragraph containing a sentence using the pattern of their choice.
ACTIVITY THREE: Predicting Outcomes Objective: To have students complete stories by predicting story endings.
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Procedures:

1. Ask students to generate possible endings to sentences such as

"One day the teacher decided to

She

knew this would make the class happy because

"

2. Allow students to create their own story ending by predicting what they think will happen next.

3. After several suggestions have been made, change "teacher" to "king" and "class" to "his subjects." Have students develop these sentences.

4. Encourage students to explain why the story endings changed when the words changed.

Evaluation: Involve students in drawing and completing, in writing, a comic strip prediction activity.

Follow-up: Provide students with a group of sentences that constitute
the skeleton of a story. Have them complete the stories individually and share them with the class.

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STAFF DEVELOPMENT
This staff development plan is a format that elementary curriculum specialists or lead teachers can use, adapt and apply when providing elementary teachers with inservice on teaching reading comprehension.
Objectives: To teach staff to identify the three levels of the comprehension questioning process and give examples of each,
incorporate at least two comprehension questioning strategies into the daily instructional process,
implement one activity from the packet for developing comprehension skills, and
develop one activity for teaching comprehension skills.
Activities:
I. Orientation Session (30-45 minutes)
a. Introduce the Comprehension Resource Packet.
(1) Ask teachers to define comprehension.
(2) Give an overview of the organization and content of the packet.
(3) Discuss the objectives of the in-service.
(4) Discuss the levels of the comprehension questioning process. Ask teachers to give examples of each process.
(5) Review the questioning strategies for developing reading comprehension.
b. Allow teachers to practice these questioning strategies and adapt these questions to develop higher order thinking skills. Teachers will be expected to share strategies that they will use in the classroom and ways in which they will adapt these strategies to assist in improving comprehension.
c. Review the objectives and activities completed.
II. Implementation Session (45 minutes) a. Review activities from previous session.
b. Discuss the objectives of second in-service session.
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c. Review comprehension skills listed in the packet and invite teachers to share other comprehension skills. List on the chalkboard.
(1) Discuss how good readers use these skills effectively. Generate ideas from teachers and list on the chalkboard.
(2) Review suggested teaching strategies for teaching these comprehension skills. Generate additional strategies from teachers that have been successful and list.
(3) Ask teachers to develop one activity for teaching comprehension skills.
d. Review the objectives and activities completed.
III. Culminating Session
a. Ask teachers to identify comprehension skills and questioning strategies that they used or adapted to assist in improving comprehension.
b. Elicit feedback from teachers on strategies that were successful and strategies that were modified. List on the chalkboard.
c. Review objectives to determine if objectives were met.
d. Have teachers evaluate the in-service program and suggest improvements.
Materials: Professional resources identified in the Comprehensive Resource Packet and assorted arts and crafts material for making activities. Other resources may be sU9gested or requested by the curriculum specialist or lead teacher.
Follow-up: Visit classrooms of in-service participants to see how teachers are using comprehension strategies in the classroom. Schedule teachers to visit other classrooms locally or in neighboring schools to observe instruction on comprehension skills if necessary.
Feedback: Schedule an additional meeting so the curriculum specialist, instructional lead teacher and other classroom teachers can share strategies.
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GLOSSARY Reading COmprehension - Understanding what is read. Directed Reading Activity - A step-by-step process of dealing with a reading lesson under the guidance of a teacher; developmental reading lesson. Directed Reading-Thinking Activity - A process by which the chief elements are prediction and verification. Students in the prereading stage set their own purposes for reading by making predictions; as they read they verify their predictions; and in the discussion stage they check their verifications. Retelling/Recall - A process by which the reader, having orally read a story, describes what has happened in the story. In discourse analysis, a measure of comprehension. Definitions taken from Harris, T. L. & Hodges, R. E., eds. A Dictionary of Reading and Related Terms. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association, Delaware, 1981.
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REFERENCES
Anderson, R., Hubert, E., Scott, J. & Wilkinson, A. (1985). Becoming a Nation of Readers. Washington, DC: The National Institute of Education.
Aukerman, R. C. (1972). Reading in the Secondary Classroom. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Baker, I. & Irwin, J. (1989). Promoting Active Reading Comprehension Strategies. Englewood, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Cooper, J. D. (1986). Teaching Reading Comprehension. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin.
Georgia Department of Education (1984). Comprehension in the Reading Program. Atlanta, Georgia: Division of Curriculum Service.
Hirsch, E. D. (1987). Cultural Literacy. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin.
Hoffman, J. (1986). Effective teaching of reading: Research and practice. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.
Pearson, P., Hansen, J. & Gordon, C. (1979). The effect of background knowledge on explicit and implicit information. Journal of Reading Behavior, 11, 201-209.
Ringler, L. H. & Weber, C. K. (1984). A Language-Thinking Approach to Reading. San Diego, California: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Seafross, L. & Readence, J. (1989). Helping children learn to Read. Englewood, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Winograd, P., Wixson, K. & Lipson, M. (1989). Improving Basal Reading Instruction. New York, New York: Teachers College Press.
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