Topic: Literacy Leaders

10-second review: What is a literacy leader? people who believe that reading is a joyful activity that enriches lives. They continue to grow in their own reading.

Title: “Teachers as Literacy Leaders.” JD Turner, et al. Reading Teacher (November 2009), 254-256. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Quote: “Literacy leaders seek to challenge their students to think deeply about what they read, for the depth of their thinking is the pathway to intellectual growth.”

Comment: Reading is thinking. Teachers must use reading to stimulate their own thought. And they must convey that same spirit to their students. It is not enough to read. You have to think and reflect on what you read. Unless teachers can convey that spirit to their students, students will never love reading. Reading is ideas. Reflecting and thinking about those ideas will keep students reading. RayS.

Topic: Mathematics Vocabulary.

10-second review: Many words in mathematics have a general meaning, but also a math-specific meaning. Teachers need to focus on the meaning in math of these words. Examples of such words follow.

Title: “Designing Vocabulary Instruction in Mathematics.” Me Pierce and LM Fontaine. Reading Teacher (November 2009), 239-243. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Examples of words with general meanings and more specific meanings in math: key, pattern, rule, another way, area, shade, true, belongs, foot/feet, kind, match, model, order, problem, result, ruler, table.

The complete article provides a chart with the general meaning and the math-specific meaning of each of these words.

Comment: Don’t assume students know how to apply these words in math. RayS.

Note: Blog will resume on Monday, November 30, 2009.

Topic: Vocabulary.

10-second review: A technique for teaching vocabulary.

Title: “Using Lemony Snicket to Bring Smiles to Your Vocabulary Lessons.” LM Arter and AP Nilsen. Reading Teacher (November 2009), 235-238. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Summary/Quote: “Rather than restricting the study of vocabulary to 20 minutes on Mondays (when you pass out the list) and 20 minutes on Fridays (when you give the quiz), stop whatever you are doing and give a vocabulary mini-lesson whenever an interesting word comes up.” p. 238.

Summary/Quote: “Extend such lessons by teaching the word and its relatives, because the meanings of related words will reinforce students’ learning and memories.” p. 238.

Comment: Example: ego, egotist, egotistical, egoist, egomaniac, egomaniacal, alter ego, etc. Teaching the word’s relatives is a good idea. So is pre-teaching unfamiliar vocabulary before the students read and having the students collect 3 x 5 index cards with the word and its pronunciation (if needed) on one side and a brief one-, two-, or three-word meaning on the other side. The briefer the meaning, the more easily students will remember the meaning of the word. Frequent review of these cards is important. RayS.

Topic: Unusual Orthographic Features of Writing.

10-second review: Point out to students how authors use unusual orthographic features to convey meaning.

Title: “ ‘We-e-el-l’ or ‘We’ll’: Children Negotiating Orthographic Features of A Letter to Amy.” P Arya, P Wilson, P Martens. Reading Teacher (November 2009), 224-233. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Summary/Quote: “This study shows that orthographic features of text, including spelling, line breaks, fonts, and so forth, influence readers’ comprehending but…not necessarily comprehension.”

Comment: The authors make the point that we do a lot of things—gestures, etc.—when we speak to convey feelings but we are limited in conveying the same feelings in writing. Such orthographic tricks certainly contribute to comprehension. RayS.

Topic: Parent, Child and Reflections on Learning to Read.

10-second review: Parent discusses her experiences in reading with her child who is having difficulty in reading.

Title: “Parents and Children and Reflecting Together: The possibilities of Family Retrospective Miscue Analysis.” B Kabuto. Reading Teacher (November 2009), 212-221. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Summary: The mother remembers when she discovered that she did not have to read every single word in order to understand what she was reading. Yet she was expecting her child to read every word. The mother then began to realize that every miscue is not destructive of comprehension. An example of what can happen when parents reflect on how they learned to read, giving insight into what to expect when the child reads.

Comment: Another reason for not insisting on slavish word-by-word reading. but, most valuable for me is parents’ reflecting on how they learned to read and thus beginning to understand how learning to read looks to their children. RayS.

Topic: Read-alouds and Vocabulary

10-second review: Prepare for reading aloud in order to increase students’ vocabulary.

Title: “Vocabulary Development During Read-Alouds: Primary Practices.” K J Kindle. Reading Teacher (November 2009), 202-211. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Summary: Pick out the words in the story that are likely to be unfamiliar to students and crucial to the meaning of the story. Decide how to deal with these words when you encounter them as you read. Some strategies: questioning, providing a definition, providing a synonym, providing examples, clarifying or correcting students’ responses, extending a student-generated definition, labeling (connecting the word with a picture in the book).

Comment: Makes sense to prepare for reading aloud by selecting the important unfamiliar words from the story and deciding how best to deal with them when you encounter them. RayS.

Topic: Good Teachers

10-second review: Lorenza Lara is the Secondary Literacy Coordinator for the Denver (Colorado) Public Schools, with 16 high schools and 16 middle schools. She suggests one characteristic of a good teacher.

Title: “Literacy Instruction for Adolescent English Learners: An Interview with Lorenza Lara.” David W. Moore. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (October 2009), 173-175.

Quote. Lorenza Lara: “I believe that educators who continually question the effectiveness of what they are doing in the classroom are the ones who eventually become master teachers. They are the ones who continually look for answers to complex questions through investigation and evaluation. They are the educators who see teaching and learning as a lifetime commitment.” p. 175.

Comment; One of my regrets as a retired language arts supervisor was my failing to encourage teachers to engage in action research. RayS.