June 28th/30th Readings

In Running Records: For classroom teachers is a guideline for how to implement a running record as part of your classroom assessment. It explains how to actually do a running record, how to record the results, how to score the results, and how to interpret it. I found this book very helpful because it outlined exactly how to perform a running record and keep track of your student's progress over time. I will definitely be using this in my future classroom.

The article Matching Texts and Readers talks about leveling and how to find suitable texts that match the level of reading that children are on. It details a 10 step leveling system to help teachers determine which level a book should be on. They consider vocabulary, size and layout of print, predictability, illustration support, complexity of concepts. By matching texts to readers, it helps them to get the best kind of practicing for their reading level to further develop their reading skills. I found this article very valuable in that it is a very important topic. If children are being given texts that are far out of their reach they may become frustrated and discouraged, in contrast if the texts are too easy they will become bored. It is very important to make sure that children have texts that challenge them, while not overwhelming them.

The article The schools we have. The schools we need. talks about the authors opinion of necessary reforms in elementary schools. The article offers a variety of issues which need to be changed including experience vs. ability, curriculum vs. instruction, and teaching vs. assigning. The article goes on to offer five steps to begin making these changes happen. I thought this article was interesting, although a little extreme. The changes suggested would definitely be hard to make possible although I think some are valid points, such as the need for reform about comprehension as opposed to question answering.

The article Looking Inside the Classrooms discussed determining effecting reading instructions strategies. After doing studies of teachers and their teaching practices over an extended period of time it was determined that different age groups responded more positively in their learning outcomes to different teaching styles. I was not at all surprised to find that small group instruction was one of the most valuable practices in the younger grades.