THE BENEFITS OF READING it is extraordinary how people’s minds can be expanded by reading. In order to have this experience, the mind must follow the reading wherever it goes. For example, if one read about a story that happens on the ocean when the sun rises with some dolphins playing around in a beautiful landscape, the reader must imagine the place where the story is happening. In addition,
Valentine (2001) states, “Reading books expand your knowledge, introduces us to new ideas and may even improve our writing skills” (para1). Therefore reading is a very powerful activity because it improves concentration, helps people to become more imaginative and allows one to understand other people point of view.
Reading improves our concentration. This happens because reading makes our mind follow the description of the lecture. While we are reading, we are following-through the reading and being concentrated. It means that we are paying attention to the reading. For example, a person gets very submerged in the lecture when they are reading. One time I was talking to a friend and she started reading a magazine while I was talking to her. She got very submerged in the lecture that she wasn’t even paying attention anymore to what I was telling her.
Reading submerges readers to a place where they can imagine what the lecture is about. As soon as the reader starts reading, the person makes images in his mind about what the lecture says. According to Shaw (2001), “Also it is critically important that students are given the opportunity to create, modify, and internalize requirements and standards in the process of reading…“ (p.189). From my experience, when I read, I imagine the description the author gives http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/17805.html SUPPORTING IMPROVED READING COMPREHENSION
As technology continues to become a staple of every-day learning, educators continue to integrate Assistive Technology (AT) tools into the classroom. Incorporating AT into the curriculum can provide for the student multiple means to complete their work and focus on achieving academic success. In the case of computer-based instruction, powerful applications can be used to complement the curriculum. AT provides a method to collect and analyze data, provide immediate feedback, and provide individualized instruction on the basis of the student's ability level and specific needs.
Students with special educational needs are being educated in inclusive classrooms where grade-level performance is expected. As a result, educators are turning to AT as a means to deliver individualized instruction to students with diverse learning needs, abilities, and disabilities. Inclusion of a strategic AT program should be targeted towards assisting all students, regardless of subject area or age/grade level. Literacy is the gateway to all learning; Assistive Technology improves reading comprehension for students, while building confidence, independence, and self-directedness.
Assistive Technology is the use of “any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities” (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 1994). AT reading tools, or text-to-speech tools, include hardware and software designed to make text-based materials more accessible for individuals who experience difficulty with reading. Common features of AT reading tools include scanning, reformatting, navigating, or speaking of text out loud.
The most common AT reading tools come in the form of text-to-speech (TTS) recognition. TTS technology may be appropriate for improving the comprehension of below-average and reading-disabled readers (Leong, 1995). Literacy is an area in which AT can act as a scaffold to students with learning disabilities (LD). As many as 8 to 10 students with LD have reading problems so significant that they cannot read and understand grade-level material (Lerner, 2003). According to Lerner (2003), AT literacy tools can be effective in four ways: (1) by making it possible for students to correct or build on deficient skills that will make them more self-sufficient; (2) by making the learning experience more effective and enjoyable whereby a greater volume of learning will take place; (3) allowing for self-monitoring and self-evaluation; (4) providing self-instruction. http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/202830.html?page=2 TEACHING BALANCED LITERACY IN THE FIRST GRADE
As an educator, my mission is to provide a supportive, all inclusive curriculum, develop partnerships with parents, and respect cultural diversity, while encouraging students to learn through interaction, exploration, and experimentation. Among these things, I plan to teach balanced literacy in my first grade classroom. My classroom will be student centered, encouraging my students to be active participants. They will be encouraged to explore and seek out new things on their own. Inclusion is very important in my classroom, as it should be in any classroom. I will make sure all of my students feel that they are a part of the class. For example, if I have a student who does not speak in my classroom, I will always try to incorporate something into the lesson where he can show me his answer, whether it is by picture, by sign, or any other means that he can express himself. I will also make sure that he is included in groups. For instance, he would do partner work just like the other students. I think it is important that all teachers realize the vitality of making sure every student is included in all aspects of the classroom and school communities. The only exception would be for students who need a specific accommodation that calls for them to be in an individual setting to better suit their needs.
Balanced literacy will be a priority in my first grade classroom because I want to share the importance of reading and writing with my students. It will be especially important with my first graders because they are still in the process of learning how to read and how to use the reading strategies. Balanced literacy involves techniques to help all students read and write, with the main one being gradual release of responsibility. Defined by Ellen Levy, gradual release of responsibility is a successful approach for moving classroom instruction from teacher-centered, whole group delivery to student-centered collaboration and independentpractice (Levy, 2007). This may also be referred to as "I do it, we do it, you do it, which lends itself to a plan of instruction that calls for demonstration, prompting, and practice (Levy, 2007). The teacher models, does guided practice with the students, the students do independent practice, and the student then apply what they have learned not only in reading, but across the curriculum. There are three main components of a balanced literacy approach; reading, writing, and word study. The balanced literacy approach bases its focus on different types of reading and writing. The types of reading and writing are found within the Reading and Writing Workshops.
My students will know the purpose of them reading and writing every day. I will simply tell them that reading is something that they use every day in almost everything they do. It connects to all of the content areas. I will then go on to give them examples. For instance, I would say something like when you are given a word problem in math; you have to be able to read the words in order to solve it. I will also tell my students that we not only read to new information, but for fun as well. The reading workshop consists of a read aloud, shared reading, guided reading, reading conferences, and independent reading. It is important that students know what level they are at, so I will make it my priority to inform my students of their reading levels and make sure that they are choosing books that are appropriate for their level.
Students are learning how to work together, make choices, talk about what they have read, and set goals for themselves. During the reading workshop, I will first give a book talk then a mini-lesson. In the minilesson, I will introduce one concept and give clear examples so that students understand why they are learning what I am teaching. At the end of the mini-lesson, I will remind students why they learned the concept and how they will use it when they read independently. Afterwards, I will have students engage in independent reading. Independent reading needs to be a quiet time where students read by themselves.
At the start of the school year, I will give mini-lessons on how to select books and what they should be doing during each part of the workshop. Next I will confer with students and share ideas. When conferring with students, they should be thinking about themselves as readers. My students will be introduced to the term "metacognition", so that they know how to think critically and "think about their thinking". I will always have my students reflect on their learning. Guided reading is next during the reading workshop, and during guided reading, I will select a text to introduce to the students while working on one of the comprehension strategies or concepts that they need to know in the first grade, such as character traits. I will model what I want students to do and they will then apply what they have learned. http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/201222.html?page=3 Reading Comprehension Instruction of Effective Grades 5 and 6 Saint Lucian Teachers
Sargusingh-Terrance, Lisa Merlene
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10289/2506
Date: 2008
Type: Thesis
Degree Name: Master of Education (MEd)
Publisher: The University of Waikato
Rights: All items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
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Abstract:
This study set out primarily to investigate the nature of reading comprehension instruction in Saint Lucia, and to examine the explanations of teachers with regard to the factors that they perceive contribute to Grade 6 students' failure in the main idea comprehension test in the national Common Entrance Examination in Saint Lucia. Four effective Grades 5 and 6 teachers (two per grade) from two Saint Lucian primary schools participated in a total of four individual semi-structured interviews and were observed in their regularly scheduled reading comprehension lessons. A total of 27 lessons were observed and audio tape-recorded to examine the nature of reading comprehension instruction in the classrooms. From this cohort of lessons, a sample of 16 lessons was randomly selected and transcribed to determine the presence of direct instruction in comprehension strategies, and the quality of instruction that took place. This quality was measured and described in terms of the elements of the Direct Instruction Model (Pearson Dole, 1987), the nature of questioning, and time allotted to instruction. This data was also used to make comparisons between Grades 5 and 6 classes. The results show that the four teachers perceived that there are four areas of blame for students' poor performance in reading comprehension: the teacher's inability to instruct, the students' poor decoding and comprehension abilities, the inadequacy of the main idea test, and the teaching materials available for teaching comprehension. However, the main factor perceived by teachers as contributing to the students' poor performance is teachers' inability to instruct. Nonetheless, the observation of the Grades 5 and 6 effective teachers' reading comprehension lessons showed that these teachers were indeed teaching a number of comprehension strategies. They relied predominantly on the question answering strategy in all their lessons which was mainly taught in combination with other strategies. However, it was the teaching of summarization through the main idea that was the dominant strategy more explicitly taught in 7 of the 16 lessons observed, appearing more frequently in the Grade 6 classes. An assessment of the quality of the reading comprehension instruction revealed that 11 of1 6 lessons, included all the four elements of direct instruction, and were rated as 'excellent' in quality. None of the lessons had fewer than two elements identified on the model. An assessment of the types of questions asked also showed that questioning was used both for the purpose of assessment and as an instructional strategy. The timing of the lessons support the quality of instruction, as 90% of the total time observed was allotted to instruction. The greater portion of that time went to guided practice (38%) and independent practice (33%) of reading comprehension strategies. This study shows that explicit comprehension instruction of strategies is evident in the reading comprehension classes of the 4 effective Saint Lucian Grades 5 and 6 teachers. It is therefore recommended that educational officials ensure that similar practices are maintained in other Saint Lucian classes, that the reading comprehension instruction practices of a wider cross section of Saint Lucian teachers be examined, and that future research looks into other probable causes of students' failure on the main idea comprehension test. http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/2506 Author: Rebecca J. Baier
Title: Reading Comprehension and Reading Strategies
Graduate Degreemajor: MS Education
Research Advisor: Dr. Amy Carole Schlieve
MonthNear: December, 2005 Number of Pages: 53 Style
Manual Used: American Psychological Association, sth edition
ABSTRACT
It was hypothesized that students who use reading comprehension strategies while reading retain more information and comprehend the text better. It was also hypothesized that students who have good reading comprehension skills perform better on reading comprehension tests. Fourteen sixth grade students in a small town private school were identified for this study. The students were given the Qualitative Reading Inventory - 4 reading comprehension pretests after determining their individual reading levels. The students then began a six-week long study of the Self-Questioning Reading Strategy. At the conclusion of the study the students were again given the Qualitative Reading Inventory - 4 reading comprehension posttests. A comparison of the percent correct on the reading comprehension pretests and posttests was taken. Twelve of the fourteen sixth grade students demonstrated improvement in the reading comprehension scores. Two of the fourteen students resulted in no change in the reading comprehension scores. There were no students that exhibited a decline in scores. It was concluded that the sixth grade literature students performed better on the posttests where they used the Self-Questioning Reading Strategy. Further study recommendations included completing this study on different age groups or using different reading comprehension strategies.
http://www2.uwstout.edu/content/lib/thesis/2005/2005baierr.pdf