Module 1 Reading Reflections

Important Concepts from the Reading
1. Early research as well as present research both reflect the fact that literacy begins at home. It states that there is a direct correlation between parents' involvement in their child's education and that reading aloud to their children is a key factor in early literacy. These findings also suggest that children from these homes will be early readers and they do better in school (Durkin, 1966).


2. Another key concept I found was the importance of the development of partnerships between parents and teachers, with the bottom line being that the teachers make the difference. Bringing home and school together is up to the teachers, ensuring that parents are involved, giving them the tools they need. In doing so, no matter what educational level the parents are on, they will make a difference in the education of their child (Epstein, 1986).


3. In my classroom, I also find it a huge obstacle on motivating a large number of my students to read, stick to reading the whole book, and simply finishing their work (or just doing it for that matter). It was eye-opening to read what Ogbu (1981) suggested about the resistence among culturally diverse backgrounds about the value of education. Ogbu stated that among the African American culture, there have not been many illustrations of a connection between education and job opportunities and points out the existence of a job ceiling. Teachers cannot just demonstrate the value of literacy, they must win the students over in reading, thus creating a deep appreciation of schooling and reading (Au, 1998).

IMPLEMENTATION

Since there were so many concepts in the readings, it was difficult to choose just one to implement in my classroom.  But I'd have to say that improving home to school relations would be the highest on my priority list. Paratore suggests ways to improve this important aspect of school to home relationships. One idea was to conduct one or two home visits to interview parents to find out what they do, what they know, and how they do it in regards to literacy in the home. The information obtained would be very useful in the classroom, as I would know what would be the best strategies to use for that particular student (1984).

The changes I would make would include a stronger parent-teacher connection, including the implementation of effective programs or ways to get parents involved more in their child's education.

 

SQP2RS Reading Strategy

(Squeepers)

Title of Article or Chapter: What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction, Chapters 3 & 17

 

Survey:

Before I read the chapters, I looked over the book title, read the back cover, then went to the specific chapters and read the chapter titles, headings and captions (if there were any).

Questions:

1. What do I know about reading instruction compared to the chapters in the text?

2. Will I understand the key words being used within the text?

3. Will the information be helpful and useful in my classroom?

Predict:

1. I will know most of the concepts about reading instruction that will be discussed in the text since I have learned so much in the NSU reading master's program.

2. Again, I feel that I will understand and know most of the key words used in the text, but I am confident I will be exposed to new vocabulary and concepts by reading the text.

3. I predict there will be several things that I will learn and be able to use in my classroom from the researchers of this book.

Read!

I read the text.

Respond:

After reading the two chapters, I found that the general predictions to the questions I asked were spot-on.

Summarize:

The first section of the reading was Chapter 3, and it was generally about helping beginning readers to succeed by bringing home and school together. There were many cases and examples which reiterated the importance of parents' involvement in their children's education. Careful thought and reflection are keys to improving on teacher-parent relationships in ensuring student academic success. Questions for discussion at the end of chapter 3 gave great ideas for getting parents involved more effectively. Chapter 17 discussed multicultural factors and effective instruction of students with diverse backgrounds. Lots of challenges were discussed in improving reading instruction among these groups of diverse students.  One of the greatest was bringing these students to high levels of reading achievement.  Five of the major challenges were: 1) how to motivate students; 2) how to help struggling readers; 3) how to work effectively with English language learners; 4) how to teach in a culturally responsive way; and 5) how to assess student progress. Each challenge was fully addressed, using research-based practices to help answer these challenges raised by teachers.

 

Effects in the Classroom

Using the SQP2RS reading strategy was effective for my reading of Chapters 3 & 17. I found that it helped me focus on the research provided by the authors. For my 8th grade English classroom, I would consider SQP2RS to be a very effective strategy when responding to literature readings, short stories, and poetry. Handing out the squeepers strategy, going over it together once, and modeling what is expected would give them more understanding of how the strategy works when reading for deeper meaning of any material they encountered throughout every content area where reading is required.

 

 References

Farstrup, F, Samuels, S.J., & et., al. (2002). What research has to say about reading instruction. Newark: International Reading Association.