Summary of what was learned through the discussions: “Effective teachers demonstrate their responsibility and commitment to ensuring that their students are successful when they adopt to the nine principles” (Tompkins, 2017, p.32). One thing I learned that is most important in my own personal opinion from week twos discussion is that in order to have all the other principles fall into place and work a classroom culture (principle three) needs to be created from day one and built upon as the year goes on. Week three’s discussion really focused on the variety of reading topics and what works best for particular situations. One thing that I gathered from this discussion is that “no single instructional program best represents the balanced approach to literacy; instead teachers organize instruction by creating something that fits their students needs but follows the standards or curricular guidlines” (Tompkins, 2017, p. 24).
Vocabulary:
Principle 5- Teachers address standards in the classroom
Principle 6- Teachers support students reading and writing development
Principle 7- How teachers organize instruction using more than just one program
Principle 8- How teachers differentiate instruction so that everyone in the classroom can be successful
Principle 9- How instruction and assessments are linked
scaffolding- helps a student to solve a problem, carry out a given task or reach a goal through gradual shedding of outside assistance.
shared reading- teacher does most of the reading and children are asked to join in to read familiar words and or phrases. Teachers use it to read big books to younger children
Language Experience Approach- students suggest words and or sentences that the teacher writes on a chart
choral reading- one example of interactive reading where students take turns reading lines or sentences
readers theatre- a second example of interactive reading where students take on roles of characters and read lines that are in a script
interactive writing- an activity where both students and teacher create a text and write a message. Text is composed by the group of students and the teacher will assist as the students write the text on a chart paper
guided reading- students read and listen to leveled books chose by the teacher through online resources
literature circles- students read or listen to books, complete a role assignment, research topics online and create a wiki about the book to share with others
differentiation- involves adjusting the content, the process and the product. Vygotsky’s idea of zone of proximal development
Nuturing English Learners- use of explicit instruction, use of oral language, small group work, reading aloud, knowing background info, authentic literacy activities. They must participate in the same instructional programs.
assessment- an integral and ongoing part of learning and teaching
running records- formative assessment used to document teacher observations of students errors and corrections
linking instruction and assessments in four steps- step 1-planning-uses knowledge knnown, step 2-monitoring- look at progress while observing, conferencing and checking work and then make modifications if needed, step 3-evaluating- use of rubrics and checklists to assess projects and collect samplesand step 4-reflecting– judge effectiveness of instruction and think about how they can adapt instruction to improve learing
rubrics- a guide to evaluate students work
Application to the classroom: This section of chapter one focuses on how to organize instruction to better support students in their reading and writing development. Which will help me link both instruction and assessment so that all my students can be successful. One thing I need to remember is the instruction-assessment cycle so that I am not blaming my students when they don’t understand something.
Amanda Jachthuber 