Week 12 Assignment #2

Prezi Presentation:
https://prezi.com/view/ebELlB7kP0Q3lRXwP4K4/

Week 12 Assignment #1

Summary of Technology to Support Literacy



"In this age of multimedia, a new kind of storytelling has emerged. Digital Storytelling takes the art of storytelling and adds elements of sound, video, and photo images to create a multi-dimensional tale that draws the reader into the story. It's an excellent tool to encourage students to take their writing to a new level as well as a way to bring technology into your curriculum."

The above quote is from scholastic.com; it is an excellent starting point, but not the entirety of technology and how it can support literacy. It should be much more. Technology is best used as an integrated tool which incorporates student interaction and engagement. An excellent example of that is starfall.com. More than just watching an interesting video or photos.

I found the article/brochure from from the Reading Association to be almost prophetic. It is ironic, reading an article about technology, to learn about supporting literacy by using technology; however published in 2001; which in the technology sphere, is, well, put it this way, it was 3 years before Gmail launched.
Anyways, the article itself proved to be on point: "To become fully literate in today's world, students must become proficient in the new literacies of ICT. Therefore, literacy educators have a responsibility to effectively integrate these technologies into the literacy curriculum in order to prepare students for the literacy future they deserve."

The types of technology which I integrate into my classroom, include: internet multimedia platforms (youtube, vimeo etc..) as well as interactive applications, such as starfall, and virtual field trips using museum websites and google maps!




My lesson plan for Kindergarten Students, reading the book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle
and technology integration!.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KuUPeqIJnN1zZA1SLWu2m7MVSFhddQMbHc7zqdyp5bs/edit?usp=sharing

Week 11 Assignment #3

Reflection on Teaching Expository Text Structures to Facilitate Reading Comprehension

The entire point of expository text is to inform, or teach the reader. The author of the text will use structure in his or her thinking. It is therefore crucial for the reader to be able to understand the structure in order to follow the authors line of thought and to comprehend the text! Like everything in reading comprehension, the more the reader can focus on understanding the text, and not trying to decipher structure, the more the reader will be able to understand. 

A great tool for aiding in teaching students how to think about text structure is a graphic organizer!, which segways into the next part of the assignment : mini-lesson plans using graphic organizers!

Mini Lessons

 1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yGbpeQrUeFfIBYEcIHYPvuY5R7FuvUoUiE1hZJuW3jY/edit?usp=sharing

2. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nCsJZdUS72dvMIpQ9c6rDqiG3s-uLBZyO3AO2K73590/edit?usp=sharing

3. https://docs.google.com/document/d/10bbdBus32OIw0IsvXGzi264ZpZ_b4vAN-vWkjRcFmUQ/edit?usp=sharing

Week 10 Assignment #4

You can view my lesson plan here

Week 9 Assignment #3

The Qualitative Reading Inventory-5 is intended for students  K-12. It can be used to provide appropriate information

to identify a student’s instructional level, determine areas of reading in which the student is having difficulty and to document growth based on a type of instructional program or intervention.

When used to determine a student’s reading levels, the QRI-5 can help find the levels

at which a student can read independently, read with instructional guidance, and read

with frustration. The QRI-5 can also be used to determine if a student’s reading levels are

below his or her chronological grade level.

DIBELS - Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills are 

formative early literacy assessment was created by Dr. Roland Good and Dr. Ruth Kaminski of the Dynamic Measurement Group - they have since renamed it  Acadience Reading. They are a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of early literacy skills from K-6th grade. They are designed to be short (60 seconds) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills. These assessments are performed using a computerized handheld device like a smart phone.

DIBELS are comprised of seven measures to function as indicators of phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency with connected text, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. The measures that encompass Dibels are Initial Sounds Fluency (ISF), Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF), Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF), Oral Reading Fluency (ORF), Retell Fluency (RTF), and Word Use Fluency (WUF).  DIBELS were designed for use in identifying children experiencing difficulty in acquisition of basic early literacy skills in order to provide support early and prevent the occurrence of later reading difficulties.

Differences: DIBELS and QRI-5 : 

1)  QRI-5 goes until 12th grade while DIBELS only until 6th.

2) DIBELS also has a time limit for each assessment, which 60 seconds. The QRI-5 also has some timed assessments but they are not used on all grade levels.

3) The QRI-5 and DIBELS are designed to identify students having difficulty in achieving basic literacy skills, however, DIBELS is more specific; it assesses issues such as phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The QRI-5 is a little different; it has word lists, concept questions (accessing prior knowledge), miscue analysis, retelling, and comprehension questions.

Similarities

1) Both the QRI-5 and DIBELS are used to identify reading levels and match students to suitable text, to verify a suspected reading problem, to determine strength and needs of a student, and recommend paths for interventions. 

Both QRI-5 and DIBELS can be used in the classroom in the beginning of each year in assessing what each student's fluency, comprehension, phonemic etc.. levels is and for determining how to best intervene with a student if need be. They also are critical in determining whether interventions are working and how well students are progressing. As teachers we must have a very good understanding of how well our students are reading in order to properly address each students needs!!!