Week 6: Kucer Ch. 3 and B & M Ch. 9

Kucer chapter 3 and B&M Chapter 9

Kucer

The relationship of oral and written language is very interesting and quite complex.  If you spend anytime in a classroom this is easy to observe.  The way students speak to one another is often different than the way that they would speak to the teacher.   The way the teacher speaks to the child is different than that of a colleague.   Even with these differences in oral communication, written communication has a different context.  It is not the same as oral language. Kucer noted oral and written language differences along these dimensions: pragmatic, text type, genre, text structure, semantic, syntactic, morphemic, phonological, orthographic, graphophonemic and graphemic.

Written language moves past dialect and common verbal errors, and can endure the passage of time.  Written language is more prescriptive in nature and is processed differently than oral communication.  There is less concern about using larger words in written language because the reader can go back and reread for further meaning.  

Given all of the information presented by Kucer, I am reminded as a teacher about the complexity of asking a student to express themselves in written form.  There are many phonics rules that I try to teach my students.  Kucer showed the complexity of the topic and the relative disagreement about the most important rules.

Often, I ask the student to follow these phonics rules, and cross from oral communication to a written one.  This can be a really difficult task.   I try to provide my students with daily writing opportunities that are not graded on any phonics skills but simply written communication.  

It was very interesting to read about the history of the development of the English spelling system.  I think it is important for teachers to remember the differences between oral and written communication, then take that into account when considering the complexity of letter sound relationships.  

B&M Ch. 9

The National Early Literacy Panel relayed that  phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge are the two most powerful predictors of early literacy achievement.  These skills are essential to reading. It seems we should make it a priority to ensure that all early childhood children have the tools they need to be strong in these areas.

It is important to note, that phonological awareness and phonics are two different things.  Alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness are the foundation for phonics instruction.  These two elements aren’t sufficient on their own, but together give kids the tools they need to become strong readers and writers.  

Phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge need to be assessed in order to ensure that all students are progressing.  This can be done through the use of hands-on activities like using cubes to represent syllables heard or identifying letters using tiles.  

Assessment needs to drive the instruction within the classroom. If most students are missing a particular skill, this should be addressed with whole class instruction.  If only a few kids are missing the skill, it could be addressed in a small group or one-on-one.  We often do this for older grades, but the same principle of formative assessments driving instruction should apply to early childhood students also.  

Phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge are foundational skills that are critical in the development of good readers and writers!

Questions:  

1. Kucer Questions:
1. What do you think are the best ways to help young learners make the connection that oral and written language are very different from one another?
2. Is it necessary to teach the differences of these to the students in your classroom?
3. What do you think are the most significant distinctions between oral and written language? Why?
4. When considering phonics in written language, there were few generalizations across basal readers about phonics rules.  How so we know which one are the most important to teach?
5. How do think inventive spelling in useful in the early childhood classroom?
2. B&M Questions:
1. Why are phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge the two greatest indicators of reading success as stated in our chapter?
2. Why do you think phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge reciprocal in nature?
3. What are some ways to help students who have missed some basic phonological skills?
4. Why should phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge be taught explicitly?  How have you done this?
5. How are phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge related to writing?
6. Why should assessment help drive instruction in an early childhood classroom?

Article:

Regarding the articles this week, I read “Moving to Assessment-Guided Differentiated Instruction to Support Young Children’s Alphabet Knowledge,” by Shayne B Piasta.  Piasta’s purpose for writing this article was to express the importance of moving beyond whole group instruction for alphabet knowledge, to providing alphabet knowledge instruction based on assessment data.  

She noted that alphabet knowledge is one of the key indicators of future literacy success.   Also, difficulty acquiring this knowledge is an indicator of future reading difficulties.  These students could have difficulty with speech and language, developmental delays, English as a second language, and lack of background.

Research suggests that not all letters are learned at the same rate.  Letters at the beginning of the alphabet are often learned more readily than those toward the end. The frequency of the use of the letter affects learning.  Letter names and sounds don’t always correspond.  Letters with distinct shapes are easier for students to remember.  

Given this information, Piasta admonished educators to use assessment-guided differentiated instruction.  First, the child needs to be given a diagnostic alphabet assessment.  The child identifies the name and sounds of upper and lowercase letters.  Based off of this information, the instructor can decide who needs certain letters and sounds taught.  This can help guide instruction.  These needs can be addressed in small groups or one-on-one.  

Piasta supported the use of assessments and differentiated instruction to help a diverse population of alphabet learners in the classroom. This avoids the one-size-fits all approach to instruction.  This allows students to be taught according to their academic needs leading to more children being strong in alphabet knowledge thus future literacy success.   

Week 5: Explicit Assingment

This week we have an explicit assignment from Dr. Beach. I will set up here the information we need to complete the assignment.

Task 1: We are to come up with 10 academic vocabulary words necessary for novice teachers to know related to understanding language and oral language development. Five words from the book Kucer book and five words from the other two books, S&H and B&M.

Five words from the Kucer book with definitions.
1
2
3
4
5

Five words from the S&H and B&M with definitions.
1
2
3
4
5

Two chapters from the S&H book to focus on:
1
2

Task 2: Choose two topics and create a piece to put in the ibook that will help preservice teachers understand about vocabulary development.

Choice 1:  the systems of language and word learning
Choice 2: language variation and word learning
Choice 3: teaching vocabulary
Choice 4: assessing vocabulary
Choice 5: language rich classrooms
Choice 6: independence in word learning  

We can all vote or agree on what we would like to do. I can only say that I do not know how to put the final piece on Google doc and give Dr. Beach access. I appreciate some help on that.

*Reminder* assignment is due by Friday

Week 4: Oral Language and Vocabulary Part 1

Silverman & Hartranft Chapter 2: Principles of Effective Vocabulary Instruction

Ensuring students have a solid vocabulary base is a challenging task for teachers, especially of  young children, as students should be taught approximately 300-500 new words each year. Since teaching 2-3 new words each day becomes an insurmountable task, teachers must be intentional in selecting the words they teach, and focusing on words that they will encounter across multiple domains as well as ones that will be most helpful as they encounter multiple texts in school is highly encouraged by multiple researchers. Teachers must also take into consideration the breadth, the number of words, and depth, the level of meaning, when teaching vocabulary as well since some words may be needed as a base for future encounters while others may need to be explored in depth. Using picture books with rich, complex language is recommended to explicitly teach vocabulary. These picture books should be from different genres and include good pictorial support as well as representations of different cultures and experiences.

I found the number of different words a student will encounter throughout their school career quite staggering although it made sense once I thought about it. I also found the approaches in choosing which words to teach interesting but daunting! I definitely stopped to think about how I approach vocabulary in my classroom, and I am in the process of incorporating more picture books even though I'm teaching 8th grade. 

Questions:
 1. What is a reasonable number of words to explicitly teach each week/unit in your classroom? What about implicitly?
2. As you read new texts, do you point out vocabulary words you have studied in the past, and, if so, how do you determine which ones to focus on?
3. Do you challenge your students to use their new vocabulary words in their conversations or their writing?

Silverman & Hartranft Chapter 3: Explicit and Extended Vocabulary Instruction

Gradual release of responsibility is a staple instructional method in the classroom, and when used with vocabulary instruction, it can increase the depth of vocabulary knowledge, especially Multidimensional Vocabulary Program (MVP). The MVP (how can you not like a program with a name like that!) guides students from the initial introduction of the word by the teacher to the exposure in many contexts to the application of the word on their own. 

I thought the strategies were quite interesting and some could easily be used in upper grades. I know I'd like to try Closed Choices for some of our vocabulary words as students definitely struggle with how to use them correctly in a sentence. I'd also like to use Related Words by having students connect vocabulary words with words they already know as well as ones they learn in the future.

Explicitly teaching vocabulary through pre-reading, during reading and after reading activities also increases students' understanding of vocabulary. Only 2-3 vocabulary words should be focused on during pre-reading to ensure students stay focused. When the word is encountered in the text, its definition and context should be discussed to reinforce its meaning. After reading, more contexts in which the word is found could be added, and students should be encouraged to use the word on their own with the proper scaffolding and support in place. Practice with and application of new vocabulary words could be done with writing, projects, and centers.

Questions:
1. Which strategies do you find most effective for your classroom?
2. Which activities do your students seem to enjoy (and learn from!) the most?

Silverman & Hartranft Chapter 6: Assessing Vocabulary Knowledge

Assessing vocabulary knowledge can be tricky because there are many facets to the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge, and assessing all facets of each word would be nearly impossible, especially when vocabulary may be known receptively (heard/read) but perhaps not expressively (speech/writing) or students may be able to communicate knowledge orally but not through reading and writing. However, assessments must be conducted to ensure student progress is continual and on-par with grade-level expectations and so adjustments to instruction can be made and/or interventions can be created especially for students who may encounter difficulties.

There are options to screen and assess progress for different grade levels which are not time consuming and assess grade-level vocabulary, but they can be dependent on other vocabulary skills which may not be developed and can show just a small part of what students know. Diagnostic assessments help identify troublesome areas for students' vocabulary development but are most often administered by speech-language pathologists and not classroom teachers. Data from the assessments can help focus instruction on particular aspects of vocabulary development. Finally, outcome assessments allows comparisons of individual students or groups of students to their peers. They are able to be administered in groups and are norm-based, but they are limited in the information given on individual's strengths and weaknesses.

Vocabulary assessments can be developed by teachers as well and can include pointing to the picture of the vocabulary word and having the students give a definition or select the best word in a cloze sentence. Also, focusing teachers can assess morphological awareness by having them create or break apart compound words (real and made up) and morphological comprehension through context clues and strategy usage.

I have definitely encountered various levels of vocabulary knowledge with my students, but I really don't have much experience with norm-based assessments with the exception of the Gates-MacGinitie test. I definitely incorporate the context clues and strategy use tasks in my classroom, but I'd be interested to see how well my students would do on morphology tasks!

Questions:
1. Do you administer any of the assessments regularly? How do you apply the data to your instruction?
2. Do you incorporate made-up words into your vocabulary assessments? If so, how often?