Phonemic Awareness and Phonics-Student’s use their knowledge about phonological system, including how to manipulate sounds in spoken words and apply phoneme-grapheme correspondences and phonics rules, as they read. They develop these abilities through phonemic awareness and phonics instruction in the primary grades. 

Word Identification-Student’s recognize common or high frequency words automatically and use their knowledge of phonics and word parts to decode unfamiliar words. Until students can recognize most of the words they’re reading, they’re slow, word-by-word readers.

Fluency-Students become fluent readers once they recognize most words automatically and read quickly with expression. This is a huge milestone because students have limited cognitive resources to devote to reading. Beginning readers use most of their energy decoding words, while fluent readers devote most their cognitive resources to comprehension. 

Vocabulary-Students think about the meaning of words they’re reading, choosing appropriate meanings, recognizing figurative uses, and relating them to their background knowledge. Knowing the meaning of words influences comprehension, because its difficult to understand when the words being read don’t make sense. 

Comprehension-Students use a combination of reader and text factors to understand what they’re reading. To create meaning, they predict, connect, monitor, repair, and use other comprehension strategies as well as their knowledge of genres, organizational patterns, and literacy devices. 

• The reading process involves a serious of stages during which readers comprehend text. 

The Reading Process

Stage 1: Prereading-occurs as readers prepare to read

• Students have both general and specific background knowledge. General knowledge is world knowledge, what students have acquired through life experiences and learning in their home communities and at school and specific knowledge is literary knowledge, what students need to read to and comprehend a text. In this stage, students activate their world and literacy background knowledge: To trigger this activation, they about the title of the book, examine the book cover and inside illustrations, and read the first paragraph. 

Stage 2: Reading- students read the book or other selection in the reading stage.  

Teachers and students use five types of reading

1.Reading aloud to students

2. Shared reading

3. Guided reading

4. Partner reading

5. Independent reading

Read aloud- When reading aloud to students, teachers use the interactive read-aloud procedure to read aloud books that developmentally appropriate but written above students’ reading levels. As they read, teachers engage students in activities rather than postponing student involvement until after reading. Students become active participants. Reading aloud has many benefits, such as introducing vocabulary, modeling comprehension strategies, and increasing students’ motivation. 

Shared reading- Teachers use shared reading to read aloud books and other texts that students can’t reading independently, modeling what fluent readers to as they involve students in enjoyable reading activities. Shared reading differs from reading aloud because children see the text as the teacher reads. 

Guided reading- Teachers use guided reading to work with groups of four or five students who read at the same level. Students do the reading themselves, although the teacher may read aloud to get them started on the first page or two. Guided reading lessons usually last 25-30 minutes. Teachers observe students, as they read during guided reading lessons. 

Stage 3: Responding-Students respond to what they’ve read and continue to negotiate the meaning after reading. 

Stage 4: Exploring-Students go back into the text to examine it more analytically. This stage is more teacher directed than the others. 

Word wall/Word sorts- Teachers and students add “important” words to the word wall posted in the classroom. Students refer to it when they write and use the words for word-study activities, including drawing word clusters and posters to highlight particular words, doing word sorts to categorize words and completing semantic feature analysis charts to examine relationships between words. 

Mini Lessons- Teachers present minilessons on procedures, concepts, strategies, and skills. They introduce the topic and make connections between the topic and examples in the featured selection students have read. 

Stage 5: Applying- Readers extend their comprehension, reflect on their understanding, and value the reading experience in this final stage. 

Readers Theater- Often students create projects to apply what they’ve learned, and these projects take many forms, including stories, slide shows, posters, readers theatre performances, essays, and podcast presentations. 

The Writing Process

The Writing Process is a series of five stages that describe what students think about and do as they write; the stages are prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. 

Stage 1: Prewriting

Prewriting is the “getting ready to write” stage. Writers begin talking, reading, and brainstorming during this stage. During this stage students should choose a topic, think about their purpose for writing, and gather and organize ideas. 

Stage 2: Drafting

Students get their ideas down on paper and write a first draft of their compositions in this stage. Drafts are usually messy and unorganized. 

Stage 3: Revising 

During the revising stage, writers refine ideas in their compositions. Revision isn’t polishing; it’s meeting the needs of readers by adding, substituting, deleting, and rearranging material. 

Stage 4: Editing

Editing is putting the piece of writing into its final form. During this time students should proofread their work and locate and mark possible errors. Once they find their errors, it’s important to correct the errors. 

Stage 5: Publishing

Students bring their compositions to life by writing final copies and by sharing them orally with an appropriate audience. Publication is powerful: Students are motivated not only to continue writing but also to improve the quality of their writing through revising and editing. 

Reading and Writing Strategies

Application to the Classroom

It is important that we as educators understand the reading and writing process. By knowing the processes, we can understand what students do as they read and write. The reading process is a complex process involving components and as educators it is imperative that we know and understand the reading and writing process in order to teach our children and have them be successful in the classroom. Teachers use the reading process to involve students in activities to teach, practice, and apply these components. In our classrooms, we will also use the writing process often. It is important that students prewrite, draft, revise, edit and publish their work! The reading and writing strategies will be useful in our future classrooms, for it is useful to always have strategies on hand to help the students. Many classrooms also integrate reading and writing activities; making connections between reading and writing is a natural part of classroom life. In our classrooms it is important that we use strategies to organize, direct, and problem- solve as our students read and write. We will use many of these concepts in chapter 2 in our future classrooms.

Principle 5: Effective Teachers Address Standards

Common Core State Standards has identified the knowledge students are expected to learn at each grade level, K-12. The Common Core Standards show teachers what should be taught-but leave up to them how this can be accomplished. The standards are organized into five strands

• Reading
• Writing
• Speaking & listening 
• Language
• Media & technology

Principle 6: Effective Teachers Scaffold Students’ Reading and Writing

• Teachers scaffold students’ reading and writing as they demonstrate, guide, and teach, and they vary the amount of support they provide according to the instructional purpose and students’ needs. 

Five levels of support:

• Modeled
• Shared
• Interactive
• Guided
• Independent

Shared Reading & Writing

Shared reading: Teachers read big books with young children. The teacher does most of the reading, but children join in to read familiar and predictable words and phrases 

Language Experience Approach: when teachers write the children’s dictation on paintings and brainstorm lists of words on the white board, for example, and teachers of older students use shared writing when they make KWL charts. 

In shared reading, students follow along as the teacher reads, and in shared writing, they suggest the words and sentences that the teacher writes. Teacher use shared reading and writing for these purposes:

• Involve students in literacy activities they can’t do independently.
• Create opportunities for students to experience success in reading and writing.
• Provide practice before students read and write independently. 

Interactive Reading and Writing 

Examples of interactive reading: Choral reading and readers theatre

Choral Reading: Students take turns reading lines of a poem.

Readers Theatre: They assume the roles of characters and read lines in a script.

Interactive writing: Students and the teacher create a text and write a message. The text is composed by the group, and the teacher assists as students write the text on chart paper. 

Teachers use interactive reading and writing for these purposes:

• Practice reading and writing high-frequency words
• Apply phonics and spelling skills 
• Read and write texts that students can’t do independently 
• Have students share their literacy expertise with classmates

Guided Reading and Writing

Minilessons: Teachers teach lessons about strategies and skills, they provide practice activities and supervise as students apply what they’re learning. In guided writing, teacher supervises students as they complete writing activities. 

Principle 7: Effective Teachers Organize for Instruction

5 Most popular programs are: guided reading, basal reading programs, literature focus units, literature circles, and reading and writing workshop. 

Nurturing English Learners
English learners benefit from participating in the same instructional programs that mainstream students do, and teachers create classroom learning contexts that respect minority students and meet their needs. 

Principle 8: Effective Teachers Differentiate Instruction 

• Effective teachers adjust their instruction because students vary in their levels of development, academic achievement, and ability. 

 Differentiation is based on Vygotsky’s idea of a zone of proximal development. If instruction is either too difficult or too easy, it isn’t effective; instead teachers must provide instruction that meets students’ instructional needs. 

Principle 9: Effective Teachers Link Instruction and Assessment 

Assessment : is an integral and ongoing part of both learning and teaching. Teachers collect and analyze data from observations, conferences and classroom tests, and then use the results to make decision about students’ academic achievement and plan interventions.

Assessment Cycle: 4 Steps

Assessment is linked to instruction. Teachers link instruction and assessment in this four step cycle below:

Classroom Assessment Tools:

Running Records: of students’ oral reading to analyze their ability to solve reading problems. 

Rubrics: to assess students’ performances, written products, and multimedia projects. 

Application to the Classroom:

As teachers, it is important that we understand the Common Core Standards, so that we are teaching our students the right material. The common core helps teachers decide what they should teach. To have students be successful we also need to be effective. Within our classrooms, we will also have to scaffold our students. There are many different levels of scaffolding and we have to use the right level within our classroom, so we are being affective. For example, I could use shared reading with my younger elementary students. I would read the book to my students while they read familiar and predictable words and phrases. As educators, we need to know and understand all 9 principles. The goal for teachers and literacy instruction is to ensure that all students achieve their full literacy potential. We need to differentiate instruction and make sure that the content we are teaching is not too hard nor too easy, otherwise we are not being an effective educator. We also need to assess our students so that we can understand how they are learning and make sure they are getting the proper learning tools and help they need in order to be successful.

Principle 1: Effective Teachers Understand How Students Learn

Behaviorism: is a teacher-centered theory

• Focuses on observable changes in behavior.
• Views the teacher’s role as providing information and supervising practice.
• Describes learning as the result of stimulus-response actions.
• Uses incentives and rewards for motivation.

Constructivism: is a student-centered theory

• Describes learning as the active construction of knowledge.
• Recognizes the important of background knowledge. 
• Views learners as innately curious. 
• Advocates collaboration, not competition. 
• Suggests ways to engage students so they can be successful.

Sociolinguistics: is another student-centered theory

• Emphasizes the important of language and social interaction on learning. 
• Views reading and writing as social and cultural activities. 
• Explains that students learn best through authentic activities.
• Describes the teacher’s role as scaffolding students’ learning. 
• Advocates culturally responsive teaching. 
• Challenges students to confront injustices and inequities in society. 

Information Processing: is another student-centered theory

• Compares the mind to a computer.
• Recommends integrating reading and writing. 
• Views reading and writing as meaning-making processes. 
• Explains that readers’ interpretations are individualized. 
• Describes students as strategic readers and writers. 

Schema Theory: Knowledge is organized into cognitive structures called schemas, and schema theory describes how students learn. 

Inquiry Learning: Learners are curious and are constantly creating their own knowledge. Collaboration is more conductive to learning than competition. 

Engagement Theory: Engaged learners are intrinsically motivated and they enjoy reading and writing activities. Engaged learners have self-efficacy, which means they have confidence that they’ll succeed and reach their goals. These theorists believe that students are more engaged when they participate in authentic literacy activities and when they collaborate with classmates in a nurturing classroom community. 

Zone of proximal development: the level between children’s actual development and their potential development.

Principle 2: Effective Teachers Support Students’ Use of the Cueing Systems

Cueing Systems

• The phonological, or sound, system.
• The syntactic, or structural, system.
• The semantic, or meaning, system.
• The pragmatic, or social and cultural use, system.

The systems above make communication possible; children and adults use all four systems as they read, write, listen and talk. 

Principle 3: Effective Teachers Create a Community of Learners

Characteristics of a Classroom Community

• Safety- The classroom is a safe place and nurtures students’ physical and emotional well-being
• Respect- The students and the teacher within the classroom interact respectfully. Students differences are honored and all students feel comfortable and important.
• High Expectations- The teachers set high expectations and want every student to be successful.
• Risk Taking- Teachers challenge students to explore new topic and try unfamiliar activities.
• Collaboration- Students work with classmates on reading and writing activities and other projects. Working in groups often increases students’ motivation to learn.
• Choice- Students make choices about the books they read, the topics they write about, and the projects they pursue within the parameters set by the teacher. When students have a choice, they’re more motivated to succeed and do well.
• Responsibility- Students are responsible for their learning, behavior, and the contributions they make.
• Family and Community Involvement- Teachers involve parents and community members in classroom activities. When parents and other adults are involved in classroom activities, students are more likely to succeed.

Principle 4: Effective Teachers Adopt a Balanced Approach to Instruction 

The balanced approach to instruction is based on a comprehensive view of literacy that combines explicit instruction, guided practice, collaborative learning, and independent reading and writing.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton