portfolio

I. 759-011
Identify assessment techniques for decoding.
Includes techniques for assessing sight vocabulary, phonic ananlysis skills, structural
analysis skills, contextual analysis skills, and student's abilities to read aloud fluently.

Activity Option #1 and M2L2A2 inabled me with a better understanding of how I can attempt to better meet the specific needs of individual students as discussed in Falk's "Testing the Way Children Learn:Principles for Valid Literacy Assessment." Administering Marie Clay's Observational Survey allowed me to determine a number of items, such as letter identification, sight word recognition, concept of print, writing behavior, hearing and recording sound, along with listening to the subject read from a selected reading piece. These items assisted me in determining the variety of skills that my subject had in order to read a continuous text. I was able to determine that my subject had the skills of an emergent reader with good handling and directionality skills. I was also able to see that she struggled with sounding out words quickly and effectively even though she knew most all letter-sounds. The site I linked will show the areas of assessment along with the results, strengths, weaknessess, and useful strategies.

II. 759-032
Identify strategies to promote appreciation and enjoyment of books and reading.
Includes factors that influence reading interest, enjoyment, methods, and activities
for promoting appreciation of books and reading at school and at home.

From reading M2L3A3 Spiegel's "Reader Response Approaches and the Growth of Readers" and completing Activity Option #2, I have a renewed awareness of the importance of making reading authentic for students by having it done for the purpose for them. The activity I completed supported one of the statements that the article said, "Meaning is constructed, interpreted, and revised by readers themselves, not by literary critics, professors, or even authors." The subject I reported on was able to relate her own personal experiences to the character that she had previously read about. She had focused on how the character may have felt based on her personal feelings dealing with her mother. For a detailed account of the Reader Response, click on the above M2L3A3.

III.759-040
Understand research in reading
               Includes sources for current research, criteria for evaluating research, current
               trends in reading research and instruction, and ways that the reading specialist
               can apply current research.

I recently sumitted a project paper for another course that asked the question, "What stages of development do ESL students progress through in order to produce written language?" For this paper I reviewed the research dealing with the question, I interviewed teachers, and sat in on classrooms to help compile the information needed for the question. Because I feel that writing is an element and a process of reading I believe that this paper represents my understanding of research in reading.   Sources for current research were sited as well as their findings and suggestions for application of the research. The classroom findings and the review of the research echoed each other: encourage ESL learners to write as often and as much as possible. Create opportunities where children spontaneously write with a purpose for a real audience (Perez & Torres-Guzman, 1992). Whether they are learning to write in their native language or a second language, children will learn to write through practice, observation, trial-and-error, and positive feedback from peers and adults. Children are likely to make rapid progress in a second language when reading and writing are a part of normal, daily classroom activities.

IV. 759-025
Understand the various approaches to reading instruction.
                Includes objectives, assumptions, methods, activities, and materials related to
                various approaches; and ways of integrating instructional approaches in various
                situations.

I have selected the Letter-to-the-Editor Project to demonstrate an understanding to the approaches to reading instruction.   By completing this project I was able to analyze the skills-based approach, the meaning based approach, and the approach that combines the two which is referred to as balanced literacy. Atwell (cited in Merrill, 2000) believes that the teaching of reading requires solid skill instruction, including phonics and phonemic awareness (awareness of the separate sounds in words), imbedded in enjoyable reading and writing experiences with whole texts to facilitate the construction of meaning. In other words, balanced reading instruction in the classroom combines the best of phonics instruction and the whole-language approach to teach both skills and meaning and to meet the reading needs of individual children.

V.759-003
Analyze factors that influence reading development.
Includes sociological, physiological, psychological, and educational factors.

I selected M1LA2 Dahl and Scharer's article "Phonic Instruction and Student Achievement in Whole Languagge First-Grade Classrooms "because I felt it confirmed my beliefs about having skills-based lessons integrated with meaning based instruction so that students can better use and apply the instruction rather than having it not relate to what they are doing at all. From Baines' article M1L5A2 "From Tripod to Cosmos: A New Metaphor for the Language Art", I believe the reiteration of the importance of setting a "central importance" in creating a "community of readers within the classroom whose members discuss, analyze, and share their reactions to texts" will help me in creating a classroom environment where students will use classroom talk as an effective method to learn how to speak and write for specific purposes and varied audiences.