Effective ECE Classrooms

Effective ECE Classrooms:

S&H 10:

In this chapter the authors discusses how to implement vocabulary instruction from prekindergarten through second grade. This is a key component to an environment that supports literacy and language development.  Throughout this text the authors went into detail about the various pieces of vocabulary instruction.  This chapter was meant to pull all of those facts together in a way that would prove useful to classroom teachers.  The author provided examples of rich literacy environments that used assessment to drive instruction, with instructional techniques specified.  These included explicit and extended instruction leading to word awareness and word learning strategies.

One key component to an environment that supports literacy and language development is a schoolwide investment in vocabulary instruction.  This is a shared responsibility that doesn’t stop at the class doors but goes beyond to all parts of the school.  Vocabulary instruction integrated across areas is most beneficial.  

Within the classroom there are various ways to support literacy and language development.  One is through the use of co-teaching.  This is somewhat out of the teacher’s control.  While I feel this is a wonderful tool, it isn’t always available.  Working with a co-teacher can be very beneficial to students providing many opportunities for small group instruction and hands-on learning.

Vocabulary instruction takes on different appearances even in early childhood classrooms, thus the authors provide examples at four different grade levels to reinforce how effective instruction looks at various grade levels.

This definitely reminded me of the need for vocabulary usage throughout the school day across the subject areas.   I like the idea of giving the kids a little motivation to try to use new words throughout the day.  This could be a high five or a class cheer.

B&M ch4:

This chapter specifically spoke about quality preschool programs.  There has been a lot of research that I have read and this chapter confirms, that early literacy skills are a predictor of future reading success.  This is a logical connection but is great to know that it is research based.  High quality preschool can have large effects on emergent literacy and vocabulary.  

Brain research shows that there is a “window of opportunity” that opens in a child’s mind due to rapid brain development in preschool age children.  This is a time interventions make a huge impact.  This is also a time where the lack of interaction also has a huge impact on a child.  

What is high quality preschool?  According to the author and a focus beyond literacy, a high quality preschool program is composed of  interaction with a child that develops physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and language domains.  The focus of this blog is on language and literacy, but a young child does not develop these skills in isolation.  They are interrelated and affect one another.

Oral language is one component of a quality preschool programs.  This is a foundation for learning and includes listening comprehension, verbal expression, and vocabulary development.  The author stresses the importance of teachers engaging children in beneficial conversations that expand and extend language.  Also, interactive experiences with book are very effective on oral language development.

Phonological awareness is another component to a preschool program.  This forms the basis for the early decoding and spelling of words.   This skill is rarely simply acquired but is gained through planned instructional activities.  I loved the song activity the author mentioned.  THe kids replace the first letter of their name in a song.  This is a natural way for kids to make connections to sounds.

Alphabet knowledge is another component of a quality pre-k program. This often comes as a result of other literacy activities.  The author warns against just drilling a child over letters.  This is not developmentally appropriate for a preschool child.  Children need to be given opportunities to explore a letter and the sound it makes in rich literacy environment.  This includes the use of magnetic letters, stamps, real world materials, and name identification.

Concepts about print are key to becoming a successful reader.  This is a process that happens from pre-k through first and second grade depending on the child.  This is largely influenced by the literacy experiences that children have.  In the classroom it is important that books be placed throughout the room, not just in the library area.  I have included them in many centers, at the front of the room, on audio playback, poetry on the walls, etc.  Also, there needs to be both narrative and informational books.

Writing development in another factor in an effective pre-k program.  This is a process of engagement with print long before actual printing begins.  The child can make a picture and the adult can dictate what the child says.  There should be opportunities for students to write in centers and other times throughout the day.

B&M 14:

Emergent literacy involves the use of play as a part of acquiring literacy.  Play-literacy now has strong theory to support it’s use though research is still being conducted in this area.  Literacy rich play environments contain the presence of many types of print materials and play that stimulate interaction.

A literacy rich play environment be designed with proper room to accommodate a small group of children.  It should have graphics and information that is child friendly.  There should be enough materials and writing supplies for bookmaking and storytelling.  The area needs to be appealing. Good organization, predictability, and a welcoming mood helps it run smoothly.  

There are two types of play discussed in this chapter: topic-oriented dramatic play and play- contingent literacy instruction. My understanding of topic oriented, is play that is centered around a theme like shopping in a grocery story.  Play- contingent literacy instruction is where a story is chosen, read aloud, and discussed.  The story is acted out.  Then parts of the classroom are made to look like the setting of the story.  The class is divided into group of characters.  The story is reread and the class acts out the story.  

Differentiation and Diversity

Differentiation and Diversity

What makes classroom diverse?

• children from different cultures
• different linguistic backgrounds
• different socioeconomic levels
• different cognitive variables

We call this a heterogeneous classroom. We use different ways and teaching methods to help reach all of our children in any given classroom. There is Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Response to Intervention (RTI), and Interactive Strategies Approach (ISA) to name a few.

Three uses in UDL to help reach a heterogeneous classroom:

1. Support recognition learning, provide multiple means of representation
2. Support strategic learning and provide multiple means of action and expression
3. Support affective learning by providing multiple means of engagement.

With words use verbal explanations, pictures, gestures videos, present your ideas, lessons, and vocabulary words through different mediums. Try generalizing words against different contexts. Let the children process, visualize and manipulate lesson plans in more than one way.

The purpose of UDL is not to modify the content you are teaching but to provide more than one way to learn it!

Multiple means of representation:

• connect prior knowledge
• offer linguistic support
• use multiple representation to present words and concepts
• use graphs, highlighting texts and relations among words

Memory

• paraphrase, role play, using visualizations and mnemonics

Communicate what you mean in alternate ways

• generalize over different mediums

Teach self support

• student goal setting
• student step by step instructions
• think aloud
• self monitoring

Let the student choose what to learn:

• use peer collaboration
• self assessment
• reflection
• graph charts

Purpose and uses of RTI. There are three tiers in RTI. The basis of this intervention is to find those students who are having trouble and to give them extra support to bring them up to grade level. Each level is using an alternate curriculum than what is happening in a general education classroom. This could be to reach ELL students, Specific Learning Disability (SLD), Specific Learning Intervention (SLI), Intellectual Disabled (ID) and others. These are often used before placing a child on an individualized education placement (IEP).

Tier1: Using professional development
Tier 2: daily one to one express support
Tier 3: Using both 1 and 2 interventions

Interactive Strategies Approach (ISA) is an early literacy intervention that is not an actual program. ISA is used to construct meaning and high knowledge of syntactic and semantic knowledge in new words and how they relate to one another. This is not evidence based but it does have some success by teaching the basics of language and reading and giving children a good foundation.

Differentiation and Diversity

What makes classroom diverse?

• children from different cultures
• different linguistic backgrounds
• different socioeconomic levels
• different cognitive variables

We call this a heterogeneous classroom. We use different ways and teaching methods to help reach all of our children in any given classroom. There is Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Response to Intervention (RTI), and Interactive Strategies Approach (ISA) to name a few.

Three uses in UDL to help reach a heterogeneous classroom:

1. Support recognition learning, provide multiple means of representation
2. Support strategic learning and provide multiple means of action and expression
3. Support affective learning by providing multiple means of engagement.

With words use verbal explanations, pictures, gestures videos, present your ideas, lessons, and vocabulary words through different mediums. Try generalizing words against different contexts. Let the children process, visualize and manipulate lesson plans in more than one way.

The purpose of UDL is not to modify the content you are teaching but to provide more than one way to learn it!

Multiple means of representation:

• connect prior knowledge
• offer linguistic support
• use multiple representation to present words and concepts
• use graphs, highlighting texts and relations among words

Memory

• paraphrase, role play, using visualizations and mnemonics

Communicate what you mean in alternate ways

• generalize over different mediums

Teach self support

• student goal setting
• student step by step instructions
• think aloud
• self monitoring

Let the student choose what to learn:

• use peer collaboration
• self assessment
• reflection
• graph charts

Purpose and uses of RTI. There are three tiers in RTI. The basis of this intervention is to find those students who are having trouble and to give them extra support to bring them up to grade level. Each level is using an alternate curriculum than what is happening in a general education classroom. This could be to reach ELL students, Specific Learning Disability (SLD), Specific Learning Intervention (SLI), Intellectual Disabled (ID) and others. These are often used before placing a child on an individualized education placement (IEP).

Tier1: Using professional development
Tier 2: daily one to one express support
Tier 3: Using both 1 and 2 interventions

Interactive Strategies Approach (ISA) is an early literacy intervention that is not an actual program. ISA is used to construct meaning and high knowledge of syntactic and semantic knowledge in new words and how they relate to one another. This is not evidence based but it does have some success by teaching the basics of language and reading and giving children a good foundation.

Bridging Home and School

V&F 4:

One thing that I really admired about the case study discussed in this chapter is how motivating it is for all of the students, including ELLs. The teacher exposed students to podcasts, and their curiosity was peaked. They expressed a desire to work with podcasts, and they came up with a lot of the content--on their own. Subrina realized that the podcasts were not accessible for all of their families, and I think the teacher might not have realized the importance of that without Subrina's help. I love all of this because, as the text says, it was "an opportunity for the children to take on the position of 'agents'" (45). In doing so, their "awareness of audience was expanded to include notions of access, domination, diversity, and privilege," which is helping them become more socioculturally aware and be better critical thinkers (45). Whenever I picture these types of conversations, I have a hard time picturing it with children who are younger than middle school age, but this semester I am truly realizing that young children can talk about privilege, power, and diversity without having to over simplify it. That's reminiscent of how some schools have their single, glossed-over "multicultural day" to celebrate some people who aren't a part of mainstream culture, before going back to gearing school toward mainstream culture for the rest of the year. We can absolutely do better for our young children, and that is the first step in bridging the school/home gap, I think.

Another take-away I got from this chapter was the importance of play and imagination, without over-structuring it. I thought it was a good point that play provides "learning environments that are not part of scripted learning models," which is especially helpful for students struggling with language barriers (48). I also like the idea that it helps them develop a more well-rounded way of seeing the world and acting in the world, and it opens up the way they "think about possibilities for the future" (48).

- How else can we invite students to become agents in bridging the gap between home and school?
- How can we make our communications with families more accessible to their various linguistic and cultural contexts?
- Why do you think play has the effects described above?

S&H 9:

I think this chapter does a good job of outlining a lot of things teachers need to consider when reaching out to parents to support word learning at home. Teachers need to make parents aware of two main things: 1:) What words/themes need to be covered. 2.) What activities parents can do. I think a lot of teachers likely stop here and don't take into account some of the other considerations in this chapter. Teachers need to get to know their students' families so that they can gain a sense of what activities are easy and which ones are difficult for some parents/students to implement. I thought the habitat activities on page 196 were especially interesting because the student does not have to bring anything physical back to school--only his/her experiences. That way, students whose parents could not or did not implement the activities are not punished, and they can still benefit from hearing about the experiences and word use of those who did complete the activities.

I really like the sound of the FLAME program, for several reasons. I like that the parents are learning English alongside their children, and I think it's great that the parents are positioned as teachers. I also like that there is a strong emphasis on parent input and feedback so as to help the program best serve their needs. Learning is collaborative, and the program is responsive to particular families and cultures, and I think that is essential.

- Even when the activities are easy and accessible, I think you will likely still get some reluctant parents or have parents who can't seem to find the time for the activities. How can we reach out to these reluctant or busy families to engage them in their student's word learning at home?
- Which of the home activities discussed in the chapter do you think parents are most willing to do? Which one(s) might cause the most resistance or issues?
- Have you ever had parents come to your class to do an activity with the kids? What do you think the potential benefits and potential issues of that are?
- How can we best work with ELL parents when we cannot implement a program like FLAME?

B&M 1:

Most research shows that parental involvement with their children's education has a unique influence on their child's motivation and achievement. Particularly, "parental communication of the value of education," as well as their expectations (directly and indirectly expressed) impact students' goals, motivation, and achievement" (5). Achievement gaps can often be connected to differences in environments at home during the summer and at school during the school year. Achievement gaps related to parent involvement are also connected to student attendance, which parents can strongly influence. Both of these factors can be positively changed with the use of outreach programs, especially for families of certain socioeconomic backgrounds.

Another finding that struck me in this chapter was the positive impact of recruiting and training parents to volunteer. I would personally feel odd about asking parents to give up their time like that, but if it's voluntary, I do think it can support instruction a lot. I also like the way at-home activities can create a sort of formative "feedback loop" in which children are engaged in learning throughout the whole day, and their experiences inform instruction. I do also admire the way so many early elementary teachers send regular messages home to families, and I think that my family would have been more involved if my teachers had done so when I was young. My family is the perfect case of parents who care but don't go out of their way to help--teachers can easily get the support and involvement these parents y reaching out to them and communicating regularly with them.

- Which strategies from table 1.1 do you implement? Which ones should you probably implement for the families in your school?
- What sort of parent outreach and training have you done?
- Why is the feedback loop potentially so valuable in conjunction with formative assessments/

Week 12

Chapter 9:  Understanding Literacy as Social Practices

In this chapter Kucer relayed the connections of various social groups and the impact of these groups on literacy. Literacy when looked at cognitively and linguistically, operates within a common set of rules that govern the language and guides the forms that are taken on.  The focus of this type of view is on text as it is read is “cracked” or “coded.” Kucer encouraged the reader to look beyond cognitive and linguistic views only to see see the social dimensions of written language. This view of literacy lead Kucer to explain literacy in three ways literacy event, literacy practices, and literacy performances.  Literacy moves beyond the individual possessing it to a particular group and the purpose and views of literacy in that group.

The exercise Dr. Beach had us complete and the text expounded on, was a great connection to the groups that we each see our literacy tied too and how those groups overlap.  Kucer continued and gave examples of a professor’s literacy events and an artists.   It was interesting they were a part of a group together (the university), but their purposes for each literacy event was quite different.  The professor saw many of his literacy events overlapping between work and continuing education.  The artist saw distinct areas where literacy was for her job versus her work.  

As we see ourselves and our students as a part of various social groups, it is important to remember that the identity of the individual in the group is dynamic and changing.  One social group can take precedence over another.  Social groups are also dynamic and evolving since they are comprised of people and influenced by culture. This leads us to what is meant by discourse with a lower d.  It is a spance of language that is unified and meaningful to a social group.  Discourse with a capital D shows the appropriate way(s) to use discourse in a social group.  

Keeping all of this in mind, they way students see literacy can vary greatly from a school definition of literacy.  The culture of the family, as well as, socioeconomic  status can affect the child’s view of literacy.  Cultural modeling can be a valuable tool in the classroom to connect what is known about literacy to support academic learning.  It is important to understand what cultural groups are in the classroom in order to plan appropriate literacy events, practices, and performances.  Socioeconomics is not the only factor affecting literacy.  Cultures within that group also affect the views of literacy.  

I used to teach first grade in an inner-city school.  The primary population was African-American students.  At first I always wanted them to raise their hands in the class and be quiet to show respect for the speaker. (I did teach them how to do this!!)  But, I had to connect learning activities that were heavily contextualized.  Each student was a part of the class in a more vocal manner.  Some groups would have considered it chaotic, but learning was taking place.  

1. What did you learn from examining your own literacy practices?  How could this affect your view of literacy as a reading teacher?

2. What cultures do you see represented in your classrooms or classrooms you have seen if you don’t teach in the classroom?  What types of literacy events, practices, or performances are a part of those social groups?  Given that knowledge, what would be some appropriate cultural modeling you could use in the classroom?

Chapter 10: The Authority of Written Discourse

In this chapter Kucer is observing the individual as a text critic and text user.  Text is created and used within social groups.  That information is reflected and is a part of sociocultural dimensions of literacy.  In the classroom materials are considered a power relationship within society.  The creators of the texts are sponsored by certain social groups thus giving them a portion of power.  On a practical level, this reminds me of history books that provide only a partial view of a particular event in history, or there is a particular slant one direction or another.  

Power and control are at the center of the Common Core debate. Children are not one-size-fits-all in education, though standards can help guide that instruction.  Kucer says that some ideologies conflict with appropriate ways to teach young children how to read.  Specifically, he says that different groups, such as the Christian Coalition, have conflicts over how reading is taught due to their perspective of the Bible being interpreted through exegesis.  I am an Evangelical Christian and totally disagree with this statement.  As a teacher I can teach kids using research proven methods, and yes I still use exegesis to read my Bible.  Just because I am a Christian doesn’t mean I can teach kids to read in a way that is critical in nature.  (I am stepping off of my soapbox now.) I will relay that my prior statements do support the discussion of the chapter about being a part of social groups.  In Social Constructionism the key to understanding of any text always involves power and control.

As teachers we need to be aware of the background of our students and what they bring to the reading of a text.  As teachers we need to help them discover the various implicit meaning found within and teach critical responses.  Reading critically is a necessity for students.  Kucer concluded say that the authority of written discourse varies as the groups involved with the discourse vary.

1. Do you see power and control at work with the curriculum provided for you to use in your classroom?  Do you agree with what and how it guides your instruction?  (If you are not a teacher- just observations that may apply to you.)
2. How do we teach young children to think critically about texts that are read?  How does this look in the classroom?

Week 11

We have so much to cover this week so I hope to hit on the highlights and ask a question about each. I have read all the material so I am going to post on everything but those that split up the chapters please expand the chapters you read so we can all benefit.

B&M 5
Meaning making now comes in multiple modes, not just the written word. Now we have photography and movies that dominate all else with action packed stories and ideas. We know that writing is not  simply writing down what we say. Written expression is a different art. With media having advanced so much we have many different ways of expressing our thoughts and ideas. Language has also changed with out acronyms and short phrasing while texting and emailing.

Question: How are going to change our teaching styles in the new age of technology and how are we going to want our students respond to this change? What are our new parameters and how do we assess them?


B&M 6
Using media to teach language, receptive and expressive. Using media has been found to improve reading and vocabulary word usage and meaning. It is thought that we all use dual decoding. We take in verbal and non verbal cues to create meaning in the environment around us. When watching a movie or video that is telling a story our minds can take in the words of the story and the images portrayed. It was found that for Ell learners (English as a second language) that using this method greatly improved their vocabulary since they received the information that their minds could respond to in more that one aspect. This is especially helpful with low language learners and those that are at risk. We know that using more than one teaching method helps to gather more students in the (teaching net) and reach more students at the same time. Using things like children's television shows also creates synergy. You can watch Dora the Explorer and have meanings and information be repeated to you by watching the show again, going out in the community like Wal-Mart and seeing the character popularized. These repetitive images and ideas will promote remembering and therefore learning.

Question: Can we create learning environments with media or is it for entertainment only and therefore we are creating nonlearning environments ultimately.

S&H 8
Dual coding can broaden or breadth and depth of a subject. We now have multimedia to promote learning.
Videos

• Have been found to show better learning in ELL learners
• Content matters
• Videos can be good for receptive learning

Digital Texts

• Can be used in whole classroom settings when there is a great diversity of students such as race, language, at risk children and special needs children
• Promotes better expressive language when used with videos as apposed to static imagery

Computer Programs

• Not a lot studies done on computer software programs
• when used with oral language students assessed better than oral language alone

Question: How to determine good media from bad media? List any that you have tried and worked for the benefit of us all!

V&F 5,6,8
The purpose of these chapters was to give us an idea of how technology can help improve us as teachers and educators. Today everyone must be proficient in technology to be considered literate. We cannot only be readers and writers anymore. Kids where taught to use pod casts and decipher things such as commercials. Why we are drawn to things, what makes something attractive in imagery and wording. Children where also taught to satisfy their whims using email and looking up information at the speed of email and internet.

Question: Is it possible to teach someone to use information communication in a meaningful way vs. a non meaningful way?

Digital Storytellling
Digital storytelling article shows us the benefits of scaffolding teaching using technology. Technology can minimize the digital divide and promote diverse teaching. You are showing children to take and give meaning in multiple ways to make the greater independent thinkers.

Week 9: Teaching comprehension, fluency, writing and critical literacy

V&F Chapter 1: Setting a Context for Exploring Critical Literacies Using Technology

New technologies provide many more opportunities for students to interact with texts via critical literacy, but can also serve as another limiting factor as not all students have equal access. Technology can also provide the opportunity for students to construct multimodal texts with a purpose and to distribute their works to the appropriate audiences. For early elementary students, technology can be a new and exciting way to explore the world around them in a way that they may not be able to via traditional methods. 

Critical literacy is composed of principles which include having a critical perspective when interacting with texts and lessons and incorporating students' diversity and backgrounds within the classroom. Another principle is understanding that all texts have purpose and are constructed with perspective so that none are neutral but all connect the reader to the world. And, just as texts are constructed with perspective, the reader brings his/her own perspective to the reading, so there is always discourse occurring, there are always sociopolitical systems working, and there is always an opportunity for change and transformation through critical literacy. Texts are designed (created) in order to convey information through social interaction and can be written in ways that promote change; change occurs when texts are redesigned (analyzed/rewritten) in response to an analysis of the problem and to the creation of a possible solution.

Questions:

How can educators best balance incorporating new technology into the classroom, responsibly engaging in critical literacy, and encouraging text design and redesign without overshadowing traditional instruction?

What is the best way for technology to be responsibly incorporated into the classroom so that students understand the bias, perspective, and validity of texts?

B&M Chapter 12: Real Books, Real Reading: Effective Fluency Instruction

Fluency is a combination of three factors that combine to enhance comprehension, and it is imperative that the three aspects of fluency are emphasized so that one or two are not developed at the expense of the other. Accuracy and automaticity are important components as they require students to recognize words quickly (automatically) and accurately so that they are not mired down in decoding thereby losing the ability to comprehend what is being read. Prosody, however, is as equally important, but it often focused on less frequently than the other two because the majority of reading assessments such as DIBELS and AIMsweb focus on reading rates. Prosodic ability, reading with with proper intonation and expression, plays a vital role in comprehension as well because it allows students to become more engaged and connected with the text which leads to deeper levels of comprehension as well as more motivation to read.

Accuracy, automaticity, and prosody cannot be taught independently with the expectation of increased comprehension, and modeling, scaffolding, and practice are the most effective ways to teach them equally. Prosodic readings encourage comprehension and demonstrate what good reading sounds like. Read alouds are beneficial and should be continued into the upper grades, but they should also be balanced with plenty of opportunities for students to read independently with proper scaffolded instruction such as echo and choral readings. Students must be exposed to a variety of challenging texts and given plenty of opportunities to explore and interact with them as well. Oral Recitation, Fluency-Oriented Oral Reading/Wide Fluency-Oriented Oral Reading (FOOR/WIDE FOOR), and Repeated Readings are three effective, researched-based instructional strategies that will increase fluency.

Questions:

How do you ensure you balance teaching accuracy and automaticity with teaching prosody? Are there other techniques that you use besides the ones listed above?

Short, challenging, interesting texts should be used for repeated readings. Should these readings be from a grade level higher than they typically read? What genres of texts do you have the most success with?

Reading Comprehension: What Every Teacher Needs to Know

Comprehension comes when a reader is able to successfully read and interact with a text, make connections to and with the information it contains, and construct meaning through social mediation. Good readers actively participate in reading and construct meaning by implementing metacognitive and reading strategies that allow them to monitor and question their reading, decode unfamiliar words, and use text structures to their advantage. Good readers are motivated and engaged; they read more frequently, read a wider variety of texts, and read for more reasons than unmotivated readers. They also want to learn and and can make connections more easily with the text. 

Effective teachers know that comprehension is of the utmost importance and that their role is to assist students' engagement with the text through strategic lessons incorporating explicit instruction, scaffolding, and student participation. In addition, effective teachers know (and believe) that all students are able to learn and provide differentiation, motivation, and the correct texts to encourage learning and that it is important to have extensive opportunities for students to interact with texts and writing in a print-rich environment. They also apply their students' needs and interests to their extensive literacy knowledge so they can create diverse lessons with a variety of purposes and modify their lessons as needed as they monitor via formative assessments. Finally, they use formative assessments to drive and differentiate student instruction. These can take the form of observations, discussions, informal responses, and others.

Comprehension strategies (previewing, self-questioning, making connections, visualizing, knowing how words work, monitoring, summarizing, and evaluating) must be explicitly taught through gradual release of responsibility, scaffolding, and appropriate differentiation. In addition to comprehension strategies, vocabulary strategies must also be taught explicitly and independently through context clues. Vocabulary development can be influenced by the amount and frequency of reading a students does, teacher read alouds, multiple exposures, and opportunities to use words multiple times. Vocabulary words should be intentionally chosen and should be cross-curricular and categorized as often as possible, and students should learn both denotation as well as the contextual meaning of words.

Frequent interaction with multiple types of texts also increases comprehension. Students should be able to interact easy and independent-level texts on their own, with instructional-level texts with some teacher guidance, and with frustration-level texts via read alouds, books on CDs, and other scaffolded approaches. Students should be encouraged to read increasingly difficult selections especially when taking their interests into consideration. Students' responses to texts also increases comprehension, and responses should include oral, written, and alternative options that appeal to student interests and learning styles.

Finally, deeper-level comprehension should be encouraged through critical literacy. That is, students should be able to understand more than just the words on the page by actively questioning the text and the author's purpose. Critical literacy is the deep analyzation and evaluation, not passive acceptance of, a text by examining and questioning the relationship between the reader and author. This process is taught by modeling critical reading and questioning and ensuring students interact with a wide variety of critical literacy texts.

Questions:

How do you incorporate critical literacy in your classroom? What have you found to be the most effective way for students to interact with and question what they have read?

Do you incorporate thematic units into your classroom as a means to introduce a variety of texts, cross-curricular vocabulary, and a variety of responses? How do your students respond? Is there a higher rate of comprehension and vocabulary success?

List of strategies:
Here are a list of some strategies listed in the readings. I do not have experience in the elementary classroom, but I've listed a couple of the strategies that I use in the hopes that maybe they'd be applicable to the elementary level.

Oral Recitation (fluency)
FOOR/Wide FOOR (fluency)
Repeated Readings (fluency)
Draw and Write Retelling (summarizing)
Think alouds (comprehension strategies)
Bookmark Technique (formative assessment)
Concept of Definition Map (formative assessment)
K-W-L (formative assessment)
GIST (summary)
Summarize a story/section in a picture
5-Finger summary
Vocabulary Squares
Annotating text (metacognition)