Please watch this clip and respond by midnight on the 20th of August. You should write at least 2 responses. Be sure that you're responding to your classmates.
Happy posting!
Be sure to use class texts to support your answers.
REMEMBER -- there are not really any right or wrong answers, just non-supported answers.
o What strengths do you see/hear in the clip?
o What weaknesses do you hear/see in this clip?
o What would you do to deepen the students’ literacy skills?
o What do you think about your classmates’ ideas for assisting the
student? Did their ideas help you? Do you disagree with their ideas?
For a first-time 5-year-old reader, I was pretty impressed with Abby. She clearly has confidence in her ability as a reader, and is able to progress fairly quickly throughout the text. She also uses her finger to follow her reading, ensuring that she does not skip any words. The main weakness that jumps out to me is the specific text chosen--many of the words are the same and repeat. Once she learned how to say those few words, she likely could be "reading" but really just have memorized those few words. My gut feeling is that she had read this book before and might struggle with a book that used words other than "see" and "work." More variety in words would certainly strengthen her literacy skills. Beyond that, her comprehension is likely lacking but I imagine that would come in time. Still, for her age, I believe she is progressive as a literacy teacher might hope.
ReplyDelete-Robbie Havdala
I agree with Robbie on all accounts. Abby is clearly confident in her reading, as evidenced by her using a loud voice and not letting the presence of the camera impede her at all. I would add that despite the simplicity of the book, she seems like she is engaged, at least in the reading process. This is illustrated by her smile, which speaks to the joy she is finding in demonstrating this new skill of reading.
ReplyDeleteLike Robbie, I also think that the particular text selected is not very telling in terms of her reading level. To add to this discussion, I'd like to point out that the Dick and Jane "See Spot Run" books were used to teach reading to the Baby Boomers at a time when sight reading, not phonics, was all the rage. This is how my mother learned how to read, and she says she still struggles when she sees unfamiliar or uncommonly used words because she was never taught how to break them down.
*just looked it up, and these books were used in conjunction with the word sight reading method from the 30s through 70s.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that Abby is already able to read a book on her own before she has even started school. It seems from the clip that this is definitely the result of her having a parent who has time to spend encouraging and coaching her child, which is great. It just really strikes me to think how the "achievement gap" starts so young, because some students will come into Kindergarten already knowing how to read while others will come in with no reading knowledge.
ReplyDeleteBritt - that's really interesting that you found a distinction between the older reading philosophies and what is used more often now. Can anyone explain to me what exactly "sight reading" constitutes and how it differs from phonics? Is it just learning a word and then repeating it over and over for memorization? If that's the case, it seems like phonics would give students much more versatile skills since it helps them sound out unfamiliar words. I guess that's obvious but I wasn't too familiar with sight reading :).
I would like to point out the advantage of the book that Abby did read. She looked at a book that was not necessarily challenging for her, but in the long run it could be extremely valuable in both increasing her confidence as well as her fluency. I was surprised at how smoothly she read.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to teach Abby using this text I would have like to see her use the pictures within the book to describe the characters in more detail than they are given in the text itself.
I love the parent involvement that is clearly involved here as well as the investment that can be seen. Abby at this point already sees reading as fun and something that she can do well. She is well set up to enter school and succeed.
This video is a great demonstration of the development of oral fluency in a reader. Not only is Abby, from obvious practice, able to move rather quickly through each page and word, and, totally age appropriately, use her finger as a guide, she also demonstrates a great sense of confidence and accomplishment in her abilities.
ReplyDeleteThis video also stands out for me as particularly strong in the choice of reading material. After, what I presume to be, having the book read to her, or reading and working on phonics through out with a mentor, Abby is able to use the sight words that she has picked up through practice and integrate the picture for words she does not know. This book choice therefore combines the idea of guided oral repetition within a text and overtime, as well as the use of pictures as context clues to help the reader.
I agree with Tyler that the book Abby read is important to building her confidence and fluency as a reader. I would also like to point out that her ability to read a word several times and identify that word over and over again ensures that she will retain her knowledge of that word. Abby makes a mistake about halfway through the clip and goes back and corrects herself, rereading the sentence. This shows me that she is truly reading the clip and that she has not just memorized it. Britt and Robbie make very valid points and I agree that now that Abby has confidence in her reading, it is time for her to tackle some more difficult texts.
ReplyDeleteThis video displayed something that I think is so important in reading development- and that is practicing reading at home. I admire that this parent is taking the time make sure Abby is reading at home to prepare for kindergarten, and I truly believe all this home practice will increase her success working with her reading teachers in kindergarten and beyond.
ReplyDeleteI noticed Abby following along with her finger as she pronounced the words, which shows that she is focusing on a single word at a time as she decodes. This strategy, either taught to her by a parent or teacher, will be very useful if she is presented with guided reading or shared reading, as this strategy is used by many teachers to make sure the student is following along and can see how a word is correctly pronounced as it is read.
Taping Abby is a great idea, because then she can watch the video and hear herself reading and pronouncing certain words. She seems very confident, as a few of my classmates wrote earlier, which will also increase her success in a classroom setting.
In order to increase Abby's literacy skills, I would have her try texts with less repeating words, so that she can continue to increase her vocabulary. But other than that, her independent reading at home and reading development at this age is what any teacher should hope for.
It was fun watching abby read. She was so thoroughly engaged, and as many others pointed out, she was incredibly confident which made her such a fun reader.
ReplyDeleteI think her confidence with that particular book is a huge factor. It's been told to us that teachers tend to read a book with a class once and then toss it aside, moving onto the next text. but i think this really shows the value of working with and through the same text more than over and over again. it's a tangible wya to show improvement- i used to struggle through this text, now i can read it well on my own.
as lauren pointed out, i think the increased confidence also allowed he to catch her mistakes and without missing a beat, self-correct them and continue forward.
AS we discussed in class, building that comfort and that confidence with reading is so crucial. it is really the only way to get them to enjoy reading and thus build from there. It is also obvious that her home reading is truly ocmplimenting what she is learning in school, or pre-k. Her parents are clearly invested in their daughter's reading growth and education and that gos such a long way. As we've learned over the last few days, reading at least 10 minutes at home every night can make a world of difference in a child's reading growth.
Here's something that I feel hasn't been added to the discussion yet--it might be presumptuous, but it's something certainly worth nothing. Judging by the fact that a) Abby is so far ahead, b) her mother owns a video camera, and c) her mother has the time to work with her, Abby is likely not one of the students that we will be working with through Teach For America. In all probability, Abby is coming from a background of high socioeconomic status where this sort of success is virtually expected. It certainly benefits us to see where these students are and who our students are competing with, but I think it would be foolish for us to expect our students to come in like Abby in any of our classrooms. It certainly sets a bar, though.
ReplyDelete-Robbie Havdala
Strengths:
ReplyDelete-Abby is reading before entering kindergarten and reading at home! Huge pluses.
-Abby uses her finger to point at the individual words as she reads them. Although this would be unfavorable for older grades, as a younger student she is focusing on mastering the words on their own, which is developmentally appropriate for a 5 year old entering kindergarten.
-Mother complements her daughter, “Good, Abby!” and so forth as she reads, which probably makes Abby feel confident about her reading abilities and positive about reading as a hobby.
-Evidenced by her self-correction midway through the clip, it is clear that Abby self-monitors while she reads, listening to her own pronunciation and fluency as she reads.
Weaknesses:
-Maybe video taping her for a longer period? But no real weaknesses to speak of.
What would I do to deepen the student’s literacy skills:
ReplyDelete-Over time, I would wein Abby off of using her pointer finger as she reads so that she can more clearly see the sentence as a complete thought rather than a string of individual words.
Response to classmate’s ideas:
Robbie, Britt and a few others mentioned that Abby very likely could’ve memorized the story or the few words that the story uses, which is totally true. Lauren and Tyler mentioned that although this book may be too easy for Abby, Stephi noted that building comfort and confidence is crucial to nurturing a positive attitude towards reading. These points highlight that the same habits may be positive or negative depending on the student's age and reading level.
If only I could have all of my 130 8th graders read like Abby when they were five, my job would be a lot easier. This is where so much of parent involvement is one of the most powerful tools to our students education. Abby's mother who is obviously invested and committed to Abby's development as a reader is evident by the videotaping and the strengths are that Abby is practicing oral fluency, pronunciation, and reading habits. I do agree with my fellow my colleagues that this could have been a memorization practice opposed to an actual reading comprehension. However, I would be interested to see how Abby's Kindergarden teacher not only reinforce the literacy practices that she is getting done at home, but push her further in her reading comprehension.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Paul that the level of investment here is amazing! The mother's investment in her child's reading through allowing Abby access to books and obviously stressing the importance of literacy within the home is an inspiration. Also, Abby has obviously internalized a love of reading and has gained the skills necessary to understand what it means to truly read independently. Way to gradual release it mom!
ReplyDeleteAlso, once again, I think that media can play such an important role in a child's investment. Abby is not only reading but she is performing allowing her to not only speak with confidence but really show her skills. What a positive experience!
I find it absolutely incredible that Abby is able to read through this text at such a young age. Having confidence in school is so important, and Abby will enter school with much confidence in reading and will most likely receive a lot of positive feedback, which will surely foster a love of reading and learning
ReplyDeleteWith Abby's young age and the several comments about how she may be able to read this text because of "sight words", I am reminded of To Kill A Mockingbird, because of the part where Scout's teacher wants Atticus to stop having Scout read at home because she has built up so many sight words that when she reads in school she identifies words incorrectly based off the first couple of letters. That is if I remember that book correctly..., and I'm not sure if that is what is happening in this clip, but I was just reminded of it.
I don't know if this could turn out to be a problem for Abby, or if she is just very advanced in her reading abilities. She is a very lucky girl to have parents who are so invested in her learning.
When I first watched this video, I was excited at how well Abby was reading! Then going back and thinking about it, I decided to comment again. This video actually makes me sad, because I realize that this child's ability to read is not the norm. I read a statistic today saying that if the education system doesn't change, this generation will be more illiterate than the one before it. I wish every child had family or friends at home to jump start their reading growth, but I know for most our students this is not the reality. I am excited to take on the role as the person who can turn ALL students into readers like Abby at such a young age.
ReplyDeleteI am also really impressed with Abby's reading abilities. Her methods of reading the text (tracking words with finger, self correcting, etc.) are spot on. I am assuming her mother's level of investment is a huge motivating force for Abby as well as the fact that she genuinely seems to be engaged with the text. I am curious to hear her read an unfamiliar book to see what reading techniques she uses to decode the text.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I was thinking back to the conversation between Mary and Brit about the history of literacy education in America. I decided to look up a bit more about it because I was curious. I found the following information about "whole world approach" from a WikEd website.
"The whole-word approach is a method to teach reading by introducing words to children as whole units without analysis of their subword parts. (Beck and Juel 2002) The whole-word method involves teaching children to “sight read" words, that is, to be able to pronounce a whole word as a single unit.(Mayer 2003) Whole-word instruction involves associating word names with printed words. By repeated exposure to words, especially in meaningful contexts, it is expected that children will learn to read the words without any conscious attention to subword units. Hence, whole-word recognition, or the development of a whole-word vocabulary, is a goal of whole-word instruction. The idea behind this approach was that children could learn to recognize words through repeated exposure without direct attention to subword parts, unlike the phonics approach to reading. The whole-word concept is a whole to part method of teaching children to read, where as phonics is part to whole."
Apparently this approach was the norm until 1955 when Rudolph Flesch rocked the boat with his book, "Why Johnny Can't Read" which preached the benefits of phonics.
The constant reinvention of educational methodologies is so interesting to me and while, of course, I think phonics is a better route than whole-word, I wonder how often effective methodologies get left in the dust by a new fad or program.
I agree with all the previous comments about how advanced Abby's reading is and how her mother is really invested in this process. I've been thinking mainly about the parent involvement because I think that can be one of the keys for pushing many students forward. I think a teacher can push Abby forward is by having a strong relationship with her mother, so that both of them are encouraging her and communicating frequently about her progress. I understand that this can be quite difficult, but if possible, students should have someone outside the classroom that encourages them to read.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tyler who said that it is really important that Abby begin reading a book that is on her reading level and one that she can read well because it instills confidence in her that she is a good reader. It also makes it fun for Abby because students will typically like something that they are good at. It is so important to instill this at a young age because Abby will develop good habits and continue to build upon these habits to become a good reader.
ReplyDeleteAbby also uses active reading strategies such as pointing to each word while she is reading, sounding out words that she doesn't know and self correcting.
after a rewatch of the video, i want to second britt's point about sight words. i didn't fully realize how young abby was and it's obvious her exposure to words at home has made her sight words knowledge extremely high. I am interested in Alex's point about the reinvention of educational methodologies and am intrigued by the idea of sight words vs. phonics, but am unsure as to how this manifests itself here. How is that approach differentiated and how do we know it's been differentiated for abby? but i like where you were going with this, alex, and i would be interested to know how "modern" an approach abby's parents took when teaching their daughter to read.
ReplyDeleteAs many of you have mentioned, the fact that the student's family is engaging in the reading process with her is building a positive association with literacy. As Stephi points out, this student is still very young and is demonstrating a high level of oral fluency and proficiency with sight words. Also, one suggestion I have for continuing this student's upward trajectory is to expose her to books that are in her zone of proximal development; this will expose her to new words and will increase her fluency.
ReplyDeleteA lot of you have mentioned how useful a tool that videotaping readers can be. I am really impressed with Abby's reading abilities and I believe that, as Paul Joseph said, if all students could be at this level as a reader in kindergarten, our jobs would be a lot easier. Abby seems so relaxed and confident while she is reading and although one could argue that this is because she is at home, with her family, I would say that as teachers it is important to note that students are likely to do better academically in an environment in which they feel safe and comfortable.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Laura that a great next step is to expose Abby to more books on her reading level to expose her to new words. I'm sure it would be easy to find books with some of the same words that she was so confident with in this book, which would give her confidence to branch out from this book that she is so comfortable with. Since her mother seems very engaged in the process, she would be there to help Abby learn to decode the words that she doesn't recognize from this book.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the whole-word approach versus phonics:
ReplyDeleteRecently I had a conversation with my aunt, who is a Head Start teacher. She uses a phonics approach to introduce reading to her students, who are three, four, and five years old. I have witnessed the level of effectiveness in her classroom- indeed, a four year old child, who speaks only Arabic at home, read a book to me in English. However, she mentioned that my sisters, whom she taught as preschoolers, learned to read with a whole-word approach. However, she implied that they did this independently, rather than being directly instructed to memorize words by the sequence of symbols. I can see how this could be an innate learning style for many of us who are visually-oriented, and how receiving phonics instruction would only enhance our reading, especially when it comes to longer and more complex words.
Regarding book choice:
Dick and Jane books are well know for how boring they are, to put it bluntly... I honestly thought that people only kept them around as a cutesy piece of Americana! Because they were designed within a memory-based whole word approach, they rely on the repetition of a few key words. This means that the content is very narrow and there is no story line. As many have mentioned, this works well as a first step to build confidence in very young readers. After getting a Dick and Jane book down, it is time to quickly move on to more engaging and meaningful content to maintain engagement.
-Petra
Haha! That was my first reaction too when I realized Abby was reading a Dick and Jane book. I was like, "Really?!" I assumed that maybe it was the mother's. I agree that after finishing Dick and Jane, you would want to move on, especially since there are SO many wonderful children's books these days. And of course some classics, like Dr. Seuss, are endlessly engaging.
ReplyDeleteI thought Petra's comment about receiving phonics instruction as a tool to enhance the reading abilities that have already begun to form innately, perhaps in the form of whole-word, is really intriguing. I'm curious to find more scientific research on this.
When I watched this clip I was reminded of the literacy biographies that we wrote and shared on our first day of class. Abby has clearly developed the love of books and pride in ability that was crucial for so many of us in our development as literate beings. That said, many of our students will not have had those early positive experiences or their motivation to read has decreased throughout their schooling. It will our task to show reluctant readers the joy and importance of reading. I would love to read more research about the methods successful teachers use to do this.
ReplyDeleteAlex and Petra - I completely agree with you about the book choice. This child is demonstrating a level of comfort (in fluency and, seemingly, for engagement) with the text, which is a big step in building literacy. However, I think that books can be an important source of information about the world and Dick and Jane readers are limited in their representation of people across contexts. For our kids, especially, using only these types of readers do not fall into the bibliotherapeutic category. Although this is not really an obvious part of reading, it is still very important to take into account in our teaching.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing that Abby can read like this. As people mentioned above because so many words were repeated in this book, it's clear that Abby felt comfortable with the book. Therefore, it might have been a good time to practice reading comprehension strategies. Abby simply read the words, but never looked at the pictures. What kind of work did Sally do?
ReplyDeleteThis video was really interesting (if not a bit creepy). I always find parents home videos of their children a bit weird. Maybe I'll understand when I enter that world. Anyway, many of the previous comments made great points.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that people are saying these probably aren't the students we'll be working with. I worked at an elementary school in the projects last year and we had a student who was extremely advanced and worked very hard. I think it's important to remember that the stereotype of these communities is not ALWAYS the way it is. It's unfortunate that most of our kids will not read as well as Abby, even as they get older. However, it doesn't mean that some of our kids don't. And I never want to do a disservice to those kids by forgetting to challenge them.
Sharmin - I really like your thoughts on this video. Like Anne was saying in class, we use a lot of the same parts of the brain when we read and when we look at artwork/pictures. Because of this, it could be great to probe Abby further than just what the text says and ask her deeper comprehension questions based on the pictures. That would set her up with a good reading practice for the future.
ReplyDeleteI agree with those who said that it is amazing that Abby is able to read like this, but the next step would be to introduce her to new, different types of texts. It is difficult to know what her true skills and abilities in reading are based on this one clip with one book. In order to see if her ability to read this text shows her advanced reading capabilities, or shows how she has memorized this text (possibly based on how often it was read to her), we would have to see her read another book if not several more books.
ReplyDelete