Brittany Holmes

CIRG 653

Module 6

While reading these chapters, three topics really stood out to me. Concepts about print,

shared reading, and assessment techniques are all things that I work on with my students on a

regular basis.

As a 4th grade teacher, one would not think that I would still focus on concepts about

print with my students. However, it is still something that my students need practice with on a

pretty regular basis. According to the text, “the concepts that children need to learn about

print include directional movement, one-to-one matching (of spoken words to printed words)

and book conventions (Clay, 2014, pgs. 101-102).” While most of my students know the basics

of print, they still struggle with some of the concepts. For example, many of my students do

not know where to look for specific things in a book. They do not always know the different

parts of a book, which can make understanding how to look for information difficult. Also,

when writing, my students do not know which side of the paper to write on or that they need

to write completely across the page. This shows that my students do not know how to produce

print in the correct format. To try to teach this to my students I often point out the formatting

of the stories we are reading and compare it with the writing that the students produce. Some

of my students have improved with this over time, while some still need work with it. We have

talked as a staff, and because this is a skill that most of the upper grade students are missing

the lower grade teachers are going to focus on it more.

 The practice that I use on a daily basis with my students is shared reading. According to

the text, shared reading “is the practice of reading stories, informational text, chants, poems, or

songs often in enlarged text, while the class follows along or joins in (Gunning, 2016, p. 169).” I

love shared reading and I do it as often as I can with my students. I do it not only in core

reading class, but across the curriculum as well. I always start off reading a new story by doing

an interactive read aloud. “In an interactive reading, students become involved in the reading

process by responding to the teacher-reader’s prompts and probes. The teacher-reader might

also model making predictions or drawing inferences (Gunning, 2016, p. 119).”

As 4th graders, my students need to really focus on comprehension and digging into the

text. By doing this read aloud at the beginning of each story I am able to take the reading

burden away from my students and they can focus on listening to what is happening in the

story and interpreting the information. This often leads to great discussions in my class that

enhance the learning experience. After the teacher read aloud we read through the story in a

shared reading format. My students whisper read along with me as we read through the story

again. By doing this, students are able to practice their reading out loud while still hearing me

model fluency. My students enjoy reading this way and I think their reading has really

improved since the beginning of the year.

Finally, the third strategy that I use often in my class is assessment. I do a formal

assessment once a week at the end of each reading story, but I do informal assessments on a

daily basis with my students. According to the text, “teachers can put together a measure that

is geared to their own concept of literacy that meshes with their literacy program. Although it

can be a paper-and-pencil test to allow for group administration, an informal type of one-to-
one assessment often works better (Gunning, 2016, p. 165).” For my particular reading

program I listen to my students read as often as I can. As mentioned above, I frequently have

my students whisper read. While they do this I walk around the room and listen to specific

students read. I take notes on my students and keep the data for future reference. I work in a

pod classroom that has a Title I teacher. I share this data with her and she can use it for future

intervention lessons. I also do running records on my students to keep track of which skills we

need to focus on as a class. I believe I get more useful information out of my informal

assessments than I do my end of the week formal assessments.

I use the information from my informal assessments to plan my future lessons and

decide which students need specific scaffolds. These assessments allow for my instruction to

be more meaningful and I can address the specific needs of my students. As a school our

weekly goal is for our students to get an 80% or better on their reading test. By doing these

small assessments frequently more of my students are hitting that goal because I am addressing

their specific needs in order to succeed.

My goal is for my students to be able to read successfully throughout their life and to

retain the skills that I teach them for the short period of time they are my students. The

different concepts that are taught in these chapters help me grow as at teacher so that I can be

more prepared to help my students reach their goals. I am looking forward to continuing to

grow with my students.

 References

Clay, M. M. (2014). By different paths to common outcomes: literacy learning and teaching.

Auckland, New Zealand: Global Education Systems Ltd.

Gunning, T. G. (2016). Creating literacy instruction for all students. Hoboken, NJ: Pearson

Education, Inc.