Learning Log Chapter 10

Kayleigh ScannellEDU572Professor WarhamReadings from Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, by Barbra J. WalkerLearning Log Chapter 10

“Teacher development is viewed as an active process where the teachers engage in instruction and reflection in order to advance their understanding of teaching reading.”

During my two different student teacher placements I have had the opportunity to attend many teacher/professional development seminars. I was able to learn from my cooperating teacher and her colleagues. I was given the opportunity to learn how they work, for instance usually there is a speaker that opens and introduces the topic of the meetings. He or she usually brings handouts of information for everyone to take with them. Following the distribution, groups are formed to discuss their practices and questions for the speaker. Within the group there is usually a task that requires the teachers to work collaboratively to come up with some teaching strategies. Then the presenter will redirect the attention and ask each group to discuss their findings. Lastly, a question and answer segment follows. These teaching development seminars are extremely beneficial because it allows the teacher to share their experiences and learn new instruction.


“When instructional decisions are made, sometimes the literacy coach models the classroom instruction so that the teacher can see “instruction in action” and observe students’ responses to the instructional activities.”

I agree this is a very helpful approach to help teach teachers how to effectively connect with their students. The reading coach is the expert and having the opportunity to bounce ideas off of him/her is very helpful. Also by having the opportunity to teach in front of a literacy coach is great tool because he/she can provide adequate feedback that will aid in your future instruction. It will also be great because the literacy coach can provide new and effective reading strategies to incorporate into lesson plans and unit plans.


“In the initial interaction that occurred between one literacy coach and a classroom teacher, they developed collaborative interactions to jointly solve problem issues in classroom learning.”

The ultimate goal is to work collaboratively to help plan and problem solve issues in the classroom. The literacy coach and the classroom teacher should be able to bring different perspectives to the classroom yet; they should feed off of each other and grow. At my first student teaching placement at Emmet Belknap, I was a CT and I worked in many classes. I started the day with science, then English, next was social studies, math, health, and lastly study hall. I co-taught with all of these teachers and some days I would teacher the lesson and other days they would. Overall, it was a very nice balance and it work out nicely for the students.


“Besides student learning, a feature of teacher development includes forming collaborative groups that share their knowledge and practice with each other.”

Like stated about in response one, collaborative groups are a part of teacher development because it provides the teacher time to share their teaching experiences. This is very helpful because teachers can hear what works and what does not; the teachers compare their teaching strategies. Teachers also steal and/or borrow teaching strategies from one another. Teachers also find ways to tweak or adjust strategies that were not successful in the past.



“In fact, many literacy coaches are talking the lead in forming Early Intervening Teams of the Response to Intervention Initiative in Special Education.”

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend an “Innovative Response to Intervention (RTI) Practices” seminar on Tuesday night. It was hosted at Niagara University by the Phi Delta Kappa Chapter 047. Here we learned about the three tier process and the appropriate steps to take before referring students to special education. Jim Wright, the speaker, emphasized how important literacy is and the strategies used to help correct some students who struggle in certain areas. The goal is to catch the weaker struggling learners and provide them with services that can help push them back on track.

Learning Log Chapter 9

Kayleigh Scannell
EDU572
Professor Warham
Readings from Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, by Barbra J. Walker
Learning Log Chapter 9

“Knowledge about instructional materials allows teachers and students to make changes that can advance student reading performances”.

There are many instructional materials also known as resources that can be found quickly yet are very helpful. Resources provide explanations and examples that aid to the learning. For instance, the student that I am working with is a seventh grader but his frustration level was that of a fifth grader. He needs some extra help and guidance to help him improve his reading. When creating my lesson plans I felt that I had to change some of my instructional materials and strategies because I thought my student needed work in one specific area but instead he need work in a few different areas; therefore I changed the focus of my lessons to add more instructional materials to aid his weaknesses.


“Chapter books do not have an instructional manual, nor are they designated to a specific grade level”.

I like chapter books because they are catered towards the middle school and junior high school age levels. The student I am working with is a low reader but he is very sensitive. I feel that he should not be embarrassed at what he is reading, he should be happy about what he is reading. I do not want him to feel different because he has to read lower level book in front of the other kids so I was able to use chapter books. This helped drastically with his confidence because he felt as if what he was reading was the same as the other kids.


“Social studies topics are found in various places on the Internet; however, newspaper and current events Web sites are exceptionally useful for middle and high school”.

What I did my second student teaching placement at Niagara Falls High School, I taught social studies. I would always be searching the internet to create lesson plans and homework assignments. I remember doing an internet assignment based on the presidential election. I had the students work on the computer to find different articles about their selected candidate and research their stances on certain issues. The class was able to find the information on the internet and we used the internet research to defend our classroom debate. The internet is a critical tool in school especially in Social Studies classes.


“The diagnostic teacher evaluates the type of material she is using and considers factors that will help her match the material to the instructional level, interests, and needs of the reading”.

The goal is to find something that the student will like that matches the instructional level and needs of the reader. This can be a difficult task depending on the student. Most students that are struggling to read do not really know what types of books they like they simply just tell you what they are interested in and hopefully you can find a book or even better a book series. I would always try to find a few books that are compatible with the appropriate reading levels and then have the student choose.


“The Fry readability graph is based on the number of syllables in a word and the number of words in a sentence. It is easy to use and provides an estimate of the reading level of the text.”

I have used this method to analyze a student’s readability level before. It is accurate, quick, and very practical because it only calls for 100 words and a stop watch. In my personal opinion, the hardest part of doing assessment is finding the time to do them for every student. That is one reason why I highly recommend using this method. For instance a teacher could assess her entire class by doing an around the world read a loud by timing his/her students read.

Learning Log Chapter 7

Kayleigh Scannell
EDU572
Professor Warham
Readings from Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, by Barbra J. Walker
Learning Log # 5 Chapter 7

“Prior to instruction, the diagnostic teacher decides on certain task conditions that will enhance learning for a particular student.”

This is a strategy that I started to use in the middle of my student teaching because I became more and more comfortable with planning. I realized that the more I planned for each of my special education students the better prepared I would be for them. The same goes for assessing a test, if one was to think out and plan certain tasks for certain students then the comfort rate may increase and also it may increase learning and productivity.


“After the baseline data have been established, the teacher designs a diagnosis lesson based on her hypotheses about the student’s reading.”

This approach establishes the conditions of learning and where to begin based on the instructional lesson. It helps the diagnostic teacher select which technique would work best with the student. By using the baseline from the students reading performance the teacher has a better understanding of where to focus and concentrate towards. The teacher may make modifications that are based on the students needs during the instruction. This good part is that by doing all the tests the teacher will be able to assess the student on the spot and focus the instruction towards him or her one- on-one.


“The diagnostic teacher assesses reading and changes as a result of instruction by selecting a reading passage that is moderately difficult”

The idea it to find a passage that is moderately difficult because it will provide the best assessment. If the story is too easy then you need to do another one until it becomes moderately difficult. If the story is too hard then the student will be frustrated from the beginning and another story will have to be selected. Overall the best passage to select is a moderately difficult because it will provide the most accurate assessment.



“Next she instructed the lesson using the reciprocal teaching, returning to concepts missed during the first section of the text to model the process and to clear up misconceptions about the story”

This is a great idea because students learn best from their own personal mistakes. When the diagnostic teacher goes back and models the process it will provide a demonstration of how to go back and check to make sure you understand. Also it is a strategy that will help the student with self-corrections. I used to always go over worksheet or questions that I had my students complete but I would also ask the students how they found the answer in addition to the correct one.




“By teaching the lesson using selected materials and techniques, the diagnostic teacher assess the student’s learning as she teaches and evaluates reading growth as the result of her instruction”

The purpose of using selected materials and techniques during the diagnostic lesson is to record and track the changes and or improvements of the student and also monitor progress while instructing. I think that it is very important to assess the student as much as possible by watching behaviors and observing. During instructional time is a great time to watch and see the student’s body language. It is crucial to know if you have the student with you or not and how to adjust and or make changes to redirect him.

Learning Log Chapter 4

Kayleigh Scannell
EDU572
Professor Warham
Readings from Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, by Barbra J. Walker
Learning Log # 4 Chapters 4

“Effective diagnostic teaching results in a balance of contextual reading with strategy and skill instruction”

When I was student teaching my seventh grade remedial English class I did make use of both techniques however; I noticed that I focused more on the strategy and skill instruction. Because according to Walker, “strategy and skill instruction provides minilessons” in a particular area of skill. Based on the students, some ADD and ADHD, I would find myself practicing strategies and skill a lot with in minilessons. I would rarely spend that whole class on one full story. Instead I would focus on passages to show my point and practice that.


“Effective diagnosis teaching is supported by a balance between text selected by the student and text selected by the teacher”

I like this idea a lot. I think that it will help the students more because they will have a connection to the text they or their classmates select. I also think that having a balance between texts such as the style it is written in helps the students become better overall readers. For example the language in a textbook differs from a pleasure reading book. The different types of writing styles I think will be beneficial to the students in literacy.


“This supportive beginning allows students to read text beyond their instructional reading level; therefore, the teacher assesses performance after instruction, waiting at least 20 minutes before asking the student to read part of the selection for an assessment.”

At this point, the students shall be able to read the story at the independent level because the teacher and student together read it prior. When the story was read prior the students level was at instructional, hence the need for teacher guidance. This approach helps the students become better readers because they have direct instruction which allows the students to learn according to their individual needs and not the needs of the entire class. Any questions or misunderstandings will be caught during the direct instruction and will be re-taught or clarified for a better understanding.


“Constructing a graph or self-assessment rubric of strategy use provides an avenue for the students and teachers to discuss the strategies that students are using and how the strategies or skills will enhance active reading.”

I really love the idea of constructing a chart or graph because it can show the progress of the students and their improvements during the year. It also is great because it makes the students focus on specific strategies and skills and they can write their understanding of them. This is also another way of assessment, self-assessment. It is good to have the students be able to assess themselves because they will gain a better knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses. After identifying the weaknesses then the direction and focus is catered toward those weaker areas. It is also good because the students can continue to use these methods and practice these skills during other subjects of instruction.


“Writers envision what they want to say, and as they write, they revise the content by checking ideas to see whether they are making sense.”

Writing is a process and I remember teaching my seventh graders how to think when writing. I told them to write directly what you want to say and then go back and make and changes necessary such as spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. However, when I showed them how to write on the board it came easily to me because I knew the proper techniques, so I improvised. I wrote a response to a story we read and began to write it on the chalkboard; however it was not successful because the students were not listening to what I was trying to write about but instead correcting my mistakes. One way it was good because they practiced these skill but I could use another method. Any ideas?

Chapters 5&6

Kayleigh Scannell
EDU572
Professor Warham
Readings from Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, by Barbra J. Walker
Learning Log # 3 Chapters 5 and 6


“The student’s frustration reading level provides an estimate of the level at which the reader is not fluent and has little recall of textual information.”

During my student teaching as a CT teacher, I was able to observe a reading assessment given by the special education teacher. Here is where she had the students do multiple reading tasks one of which was to find the frustration reading level. She later explained that when this level is found during the student testing, that specific section of the test ends. The frustration level is the level of where the student is most challenged when reading.

“Most informal reading inventories include a word identification assessment, which includes lists of words representing frequent words at a particular grade level.”

For one of my undergraduate classes at Niagara, I was to give part of the Woodcock Johnson Assessment. This assessment was focused on special education students however, I remember that word identification was a big section. It had words that were appropriate for different grade levels. The students were to repeat the word for pronunciation, testing phonemic awareness. I agree that informal and some formal assessments focus on the word identification strategy.


“The diagnostic teacher has the students orally retell the story or has the student write a story summary”.

I used this approach many times. For instance when I was teaching my remedial English class of seventh graders it took too long to have the students write a summary so I would ask the students questions which ultimately had the students summarize the story as a class. The students liked this because they could share with one another their findings.
I also used this method with my ninth graders but I had them write a summary of an article that was history related.


“In a self-report, students are asked which strategies they use and how often they use these strategies to understand and remember information’

I love this idea because it gives awareness and ownership to the students. My first teaching placement used this method to try to get a feel for the students at the beginning of the year and to see where the student thought they were. It was interesting to see how honest the students were about their own abilities to read and practices they used. My teacher told me that she ends the year with the same survey and the students can see how they progressed over the school year. It is an interesting technique they I will steal for my classroom one day.


“To cross-check oral reading behavior with comprehension, the oral reading is followed by an oral retelling. Then he asks the comprehension questions he constructed”

Read-alouds are beneficial to the students in many ways spelling, fluency, and phonemics however; it does not mean the child understands what they are reading. I had a student with just this problem, he could read well but he did not understand a lot of what he read. One way I helped was by asking questions during the read-aloud for the entire class to answer. I did not single him out in front of the other students by asking him what he just read. I made it a volunteer bases.

Chapters 5&6

Kayleigh Scannell
EDU572
Professor Warham
Readings from Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, by Barbra J. Walker

Learning Log # 3 Chapters 5 and 6


“The student’s frustration reading level provides an estimate of the level at which the reader is not fluent and has little recall of textual information.”

During my student teaching as a CT teacher, I was able to observe a reading assessment given by the special education teacher. Here is where she had the students do multiple reading tasks one of which was to find the frustration reading level. She later explained that when this level is found during the student testing, that specific section of the test ends. The frustration level is the level of where the student is most challenged when reading.

“Most informal reading inventories include a word identification assessment, which includes lists of words representing frequent words at a particular grade level.”

For one of my undergraduate classes at Niagara, I was to give part of the Woodcock Johnson Assessment. This assessment was focused on special education students however, I remember that word identification was a big section. It had words that were appropriate for different grade levels. The students were to repeat the word for pronunciation, testing phonemic awareness. I agree that informal and some formal assessments focus on the word identification strategy.


“The diagnostic teacher has the students orally retell the story or has the student write a story summary”.

I used this approach many times. For instance when I was teaching my remedial English class of seventh graders it took too long to have the students write a summary so I would ask the students questions which ultimately had the students summarize the story as a class. The students liked this because they could share with one another their findings.
I also used this method with my ninth graders but I had them write a summary of an article that was history related.


“In a self-report, students are asked which strategies they use and how often they use these strategies to understand and remember information’

I love this idea because it gives awareness and ownership to the students. My first teaching placement used this method to try to get a feel for the students at the beginning of the year and to see where the student thought they were. It was interesting to see how honest the students were about their own abilities to read and practices they used. My teacher told me that she ends the year with the same survey and the students can see how they progressed over the school year. It is an interesting technique they I will steal for my classroom one day.


“To cross-check oral reading behavior with comprehension, the oral reading is followed by an oral retelling. Then he asks the comprehension questions he constructed”

Read-alouds are beneficial to the students in many ways spelling, fluency, and phonemics however; it does not mean the child understands what they are reading. I had a student with just this problem, he could read well but he did not understand a lot of what he read. One way I helped was by asking questions during the read-aloud for the entire class to answer. I did not single him out in front of the other students by asking him what he just read. I made it a volunteer bases.

Kayleigh Scannell
EDU572
Professor Warham
Readings from Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, by Barbra J. Walker
Learning Log # 2 Chapters 3

“Realizing that learning is a social activity, the diagnostic teacher creates a classroom that invites all cultures, all types of learners, and all types of disabilities to engage in literate activities as she honors their personal histories.”

In my student teaching placement, I was teaching a 7th grade diverse English classroom with multiple special education students. I had the students form a big circle with their desks to give a more comfortable feel. We were working on reading stories from around the world, one of which was about Native Americans. In the class was a Native American student who volunteered to teach the class about some of his native cultures and traditions. This appealed to the students and hooked their interest to the story and reading.


“Increasing the wait time from 1 second to 3 seconds positively affects the number of student responses as well as the organization of the response”

I remember doing this specifically. I would tell the students not to raise their hands right away. I would tell them I was going to ask questions and to think of an answer. Then, I would tell the students when they could raise their hands to answer. Some students preferred to write down there answers so they would not forget.


“As she continues to demonstrate this active meaning search, the teacher illustrates the self-questioning process that goes through the mind of an active reader.”

My 7th graders were working on finding context-clues. I would have worksheets that helped explain how to find them and also provide them with examples of their own to do. I would show the students by modeling and using the self-questioning process however, I would ask the students for their ideas and connection. Together as a class we would do a few, then they would independently do a few, and lastly we would join together and not only review the answers but we would review the process of how we got the answers.


“Using the unique strengths of the individual learners in her classroom, she reduces stress for each learner”

Some students are extremely sensitive with their reading levels especially when we do read-aloud. In fact, some students love it because they can show of how well they read while other dread being called on. When I call on a student I usually give the smaller or easier paragraph to the weaker students, this helps them gain some confidence and feel comfortable reading out loud. By having good teacher-student relationships I am sensitive to the individual’s differences.


“The diagnostic teacher engages students by personally responding to literature, discussing her own personal change as a result of reading and writing experiences”

I feel this quote is extremely important to the students because then need to hear and see that literacy is a hard process and that reading to some people does not come easy. I would tell my classes that it took me a while to read (and purposely leave out the grade because I wouldn’t want any student to become frustrated). I make a personal connection to the students and try to relate to them and that together we can become better readers. I also tell them that every day they read the get better.

Learning Log #1

Kayleigh Scannell
EDU572
Professor Warham
Readings from Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, by Barbra J. Walker
Learning Log # 1 Chapters 1 and 2

The active readers use strategies like revising predictions, self-questioning, and clarifying as they monitor their understanding.

When I was student teaching, I taught a seventh grade special education English class that had very weak readers. I remember I would have the students read aloud a short story by going around the room. After the story I would ask the student’s questions to assess their comprehension. After that I would show the students how I read stories by dissect the material. I would then read the story out loud to the students and stop to ask questions and summarize what I had read. This helped the students comprehend and understand what was occurring in the story. The students seemed to really like it because they would understand the full story and not bits and pieces of it.


Diagnostic teaching means that assessment occurs during the lesson. Thus, the assessment information derived is both practical and valid because it is gained through authentic literacy activities.

Every day in English class the students would be expected to pick up a worksheet when they entered the classroom and begin working on it. This “BellWork” or worksheet was focused on capitalization and the student’s were to correct the mistakes but changing them. As the students performed this task I circulated the room to assess them. I noticed many of the students struggled, so I told the students to flip their paper over and look up at the board. I then explained the rules to capitalization and provided many examples of the proper usage. I then had the students try again by flipping over their paper and fixing the mistakes. The students seemed to have a better understanding.


Students’ knowledge of the world and the words they use to describe their experiences influences comprehension and word identification.

I taught a student that spoke Spanish at home and both of his parents have dropped out of high school. He had also told me that he has never been out of Western NY. He was a wonderful boy who happened to struggle with reading, writing, and spelling. I assigned a writing assignment for homework and he nervously turned in a paper that was very difficult to read. I pulled him aside and asked him to read it to me as I wrote it down. I showed him the difference between the two and explained the corrections. Needless to say, I graded the content and met with him during lunch to help him.


The students’ engagement is based on the reasons and expectations that they have for participating in a reading event.

When I was tutoring during Learn and Serve at Gaskill Middle School I was faced with many struggling readers one in particular. He was not excited about reading at all so I began talking to him and allowed him to choose any book from the bookcase. He chose Stuart Little which was way below his reading level however, I asked him why his said that he liked the little mouse on the cover. I instantly acted excited and happy he chose that particular book, I made it seem special. This was my way of getting the student excited to read. I then told him that I would read some then he had to read some that way we were reading together.

Sometimes when conferencing, the diagnostic teacher conducts a mini assessment to identify problem areas.

When I was observing a second grade classroom, the teacher assigned a writing response based on a reading. The class was independently working on this while the teacher in the back had mini conferences with a few of the students. She was able to assess the students reading and writing levels in addition to make corrections of the students work. It was interesting because she asked the students what they thought of the difficulty level of the passage. The students were honest and told the teacher their trouble areas.

kscannell

Hello Everyone,
My name is Kayleigh Scannell and I just recently graduated in December and have decided to earn my master's degree in literacy. I graduated with a Social Studies and Special Education degree in grades 7-12. I am also on the Niagara Women's Basketball team here at Niagara and I am from Boston, MA. I enjoy playing basketball and reading on my free time. I am excited about this class and interested in meeting all of you.
Thanks,
Kayleigh