I am so excited to have guest, Lindsay Pahe, facilitating and sharing information on Goal 3!!! Please be sure to respond to Goal 3 in the comments section following her post.
Goal 3: Supporting Print Work
I have to say that this has been my favorite goal so far.
Maybe because I’m a running record nerd who loves taking them, analyzing them,
and using them to teach my students based on their specific needs. Maybe it’s
because I’m so passionate about trying to get other teachers to see how
important this is and what a difference it can make for our young readers!!!
Maybe it’s because I felt like she was speaking my language with terms like
self-extending system, running records, cross checking, and three sources of
information. On top of that she is continuously referring to Clay’s work, which
lets me know this author is one smart chick. Yes, I do believe that makes me a
literacy nerd!!
This goal starts out by stating what we all know to be true:
“In order to construct accurate meaning from a text, children need to read
words correctly, integrating 3 sources of information: meaning, syntax, and
visual. We all know that just how IMPORTANT it is for our readers. I sometimes get frustrated
with other folks who don’t put enough emphasis on something that is so basic,
yet so IMPORTANT.
Jennifer goes on to say “Sometimes, as children are
learning to read, they overemphasize on one or two of the sources of
information or use each inconsistently. This affects their accuracy rate and
often ultimately limits their comprehension of the text”. I think we all see
this when we are using one of the sources as part of a teaching prompt. It’s
easy to get caught up in “makes sense, makes sense, makes sense” and forget to
emphasize “makes sense AND looks right”. Our students then become more focused
on the source that we are emphasizing and this results in the overemphasis of
one or two of the sources. Reading this sentence confirms what we already know
but also reminds us how important it is to emphasize a balance for our students
so that they will use all three sources together and independently. It also
reminds us that in order for our students to reach the ultimate goal of reading
(comprehension) we must emphasize all 3 sources equally. I love how she refers to it as juggling 3
balls in the air. How true is that – if you are juggling you are always using
ALL of them and you can’t stop to just use one.
Serravallo also points out that the strategies in this
chapter are best taught in combination with a systematic word study/phonics
program and reiterates that “isolated phonics skill work without the
application in books is show to be of limited effectiveness”. Again, a reminder
that balance is key.
While I could go on
and on probably about most strategies in this chapter I will try to limit
myself to 2.
The first one I will talk about is 3.1: Check the Picture for
Help.
I think this is something we all encourage our students to do when we
tell them to check their picture first and then keep their eyes on the words.
What stood out to me here was that Serravallo really limited checking the
picture for help to 2 levels: A and B. She says that “for children reading at
level C and beyond, this is an important strategy to balance with explicit
strategies to decode the print”. I think that it is important for us to
remember that some strategies are a better fit for certain levels and in this particular
example, starting at Level C students need to do more than just check the
picture to be successful.
I think what I love most about 3.10: Juggle all Three Balls is the chart provided.
I’m
definitely going to create an anchor chart just like this. I love the language
here where Jennifer says “When you get to a tricky word you don’t know, it’s
important that you do more than just try to sound the word out”. Exactly! You
have to be thinking about what makes sense, sounds right, and looks right –
WAAAAYY more effective!!
QUESTION: So, as you were reading this chapter what really got you
excited?? What specific lesson language and/or prompts did you read about that
you can try to incorporate more effectively?
So I loved so many of the awesome strategies in this chapter it was really hard to narrow my preferences down. I will just state some of the prompts, tips or information that really stuck out. With 3.1 (Check the pictures for Help) I felt like it was important to see that it's imperative for reading on levels A-B as echoed by Lindsay, but also it is a strategy to use through level K. I think it's important to share this with parents because they need to understand that pictures support understanding! The use of pictures teaches students how to visualize for later when pictures are not present. With 3.3 (Use a Word You Know) I like the way Jennifer prompts specifically for cross-checking when she says, "...makes sense AND it matches the letters I see too". I think I have to get better at teaching students 3.6: Try, Try, Try Again. So many times students may try something but if it doesn't work, they immediately give up trying to problem solve. Using a Reading Strategies chart similar to that on pg 85 would be useful. Boy, one of my FAVORITE strategies was 3.12 and I am guessing that many of you could relate to this when students constantly try to look at words letter by letter vs using words parts. I like how Jen says to "group letters that make sounds together". I have used this with a student whom I tutor and it is HELPING!!! This kind of goes along with 3.14 (Run into the First Part) and I think I have to do a better job of getting readers to say that first part and go right into searching rather than slowing down or stopping. Finally I like how Jennifer addresses the strategy of skipping the word, reading on, and then rereading to problem solve. I was always uneasy of when to introduce this and like that she gives a tentative starting level of E. There are so many great strategies to use to help meet each student's needs. I feel like an excited carpenter with a new tool belt full of brand new or repolished tools!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the strategy of reading ahead. That was kind of a taboo strategy in the Reading Recovery days for fear that the students weren't looking through words. After working with a student this summer who was going into third grade I have changed my opinion as well. This student had NO knowledge of medial parts. After working through the medial parts and vowel patterns I did introduce the reading ahead strategy. It actually helped her to search because it reinforced meaning while she looked left to right to check her attempt. I think it is all in the timing that you introduce reading ahead insuring that the student can look through words!
DeleteHard to pick because this goal was sooo good! I really loved 3.7 Slow Down the Zoom,Zoom,Zoom to Make Sense. The anchor chart provides a nice visual for students to understand that they should always be thinking. I think we need to be deliberate in modeling that thinking even in the very lowest levels because it is so hard to reteach a student who just reads words because they have never listened to there reading! I think my favorite was 3.11 though. So many students see their word study work as separate and they DO NOT transfer it to their reading. Teachers need to be very deliberate in digging those ditches for their students early on so they know how to apply their word study skills. Modeling is a big part of how to support readers to use the visual information from other parts of their learning!
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