Taberski+Part+2

=​​Taberski Part 2: Comments, insights, new learning, etc = Chapter 4

Setting aside times for reading conferences allows the students to know what they should be focusing on. In the beginning the students and the teacher will work together to find out what stage in reading the child is, and identify some skills and strategies to focus on. This is also the time to find the books best suited for independent reading. It is the teacher’s responsibility to learn about each child and address their needs. An exact amount of time does not have to be determined, but you must give the child what they need in the time you have with them. Transitional and fluent readers do not need help figuring out most of the words but they do need to explain to the teacher how they figured out the way to read the word. Regardless of the stages that children are in, the child must know how to use strategies. Reading the words is not the only thing that is important to children. They must also be able understand the elements of stories, and how the story goes together as a whole. Directing students to new genres and new topics within genres is important to the fluent readers. If a child is favoring a particular genre of books, the teacher should step in to help the student select something different. Student in the classroom need to understand the importance of practice reading, rereading, and seldom read a book only once. Writing notes to the children reminding them of a reading strategy does help the child for the day. When a child is at the beginning stages of reading it is not uncommon that most of their reading is fiction. When a teacher tries to stay focused on organization the easier it will be to assess the children strengths and needs. Children’s reading environment needs to be calm, structured, and supportive. The teacher needs to assess and confer with children. Chapter 5 A running record is a graphic account of a child’s oral reading. Reading is the process that occurs in the brain without tangible and permanent evidence. Running records help the teacher decide whether a book is at the child’s correct reading level, analyze a child’s miscues to see which cuing system and strategies they use most frequently and ones they should be using. It also helps the teacher track the child’s reading progress over time. Teachers should look closely at children’s reading behaviors and help them revise their theory of reading. By doing this the teacher will have a clear vision of what each child understands. Marie Clay developed the running record. Running records can be taken and it allows the teacher to have more chances to record children’s oral reading rather than preparing the text and relying on pre-published books and assessment tools. Running records provide greater flexibility and more opportunities for assessment, because of the ease of doing them. Running records have advantages than out way any other assessment tools. First they are more of a tool for teaching rather than an instrument to report on children status in the class. They also provide explicit information, and can be done frequently. The more samples that you take the more likely you are to get an accurate picture of the child’s reading. Self corrections are important indicators that the child is monitoring his own reading. To determine a child’s accuracy rate with a text can be done by counting the errors and comparing t the number to the total number of words that the student has read all together. If a child makes between 1 and 5 miscues every 100 words and has a satisfactory understanding of what was read, odds are they will be able to read books of that level. The extent to which a teacher should introduce a test should depend on the child’s stage in reading. It is essential to help children find appropriate books by counting the errors in their running record and estimating their rate of accuracy. It is also just important to use running records to access children’s thinking. When children read they need to remember to consider what makes sense as they are reading. By taking running records throughout the year the teacher can review the progress that the child has made from the beginning of the year to the end. Chapter 6 Rather than having children write about what they read, have the students tell you instead. It is important that when you are having the students retell the story that they are not telling you the entire story but the main events in the story. Some readers who may be struggling can not retell a story unless they do it page for page, because they never put it together in their minds. The book may have been to hard or taken to many days to complete. Students like this may need to be taught more comprehension strategies. Having good understanding of how confident and accurate the child is about what they read is a good sign they are on the correct level. Introducing characters, story elements, setting, problems, and resolution is also usually revealed a child’s attempt to retell what they have been reading. Explain what your purpose is at the beginning for the kids to know what you want. When recording how much a child can retell of a text you only have to record enough to assess the comprehension. It is the teacher’s responsibility to determine how well the child understands the text that they are reading. If the child does understand the teacher should note it somewhere and also if the student does not understand. If the teacher does not think that the child does not comprehend what they read, finding out why is a must. It may difficultly of the words level or the text level. Some students can appear to be able to read words but they have no clue of what they are reading. A child may also be reading to many words incorrectly or because she wasn’t thinking about the story. The best way to determine is to take a running record of her reading the text and consider what to do next. Again, just because a child is reading the words does not mean they comprehend what they read. The difficulty may lay in the ability to integrate all the parts together to make a whole. There are two types of planned reading discussion. One is to gather basic reading information about a child’s attitudes toward reading and the books they like to read. The second is to help the teacher gather more specific types of information about the child’s attitude and preferences to the teacher can support the reading and level that the student should be on.

 Josh VanHorn Chapter 4 Reading conferences are done individually or in a small group. She generally completes them in the morning with her reading block. At the beginning of the year the conferences are held with all the students many times a week. As the year progresses the conferences are done less and less with all of the students. The students who are still emergent and early readers she conferences with often. Those who understand the reading strategies will not need the conferences, but to choose leveled books and different genres of books. She clearly states that she does not give equal time to all students, but she gives the time according to those who need it. Some children are able to work independently with the reading strategies and continue to progress with out all of the teacher’s attention. The best part of the conference is the quick one-on-one assessments of the child’s reading skills. She completes running records to identify what reading strategies the children need help with in their future lessons. The conferences drive her teaching strategies. Chapter 5 Running records are a crucial assessment tool for young readers. The author uses these during her conference times. At the beginning of the year, just like the conferences, she completes them with everyone to identify what level of books a child needs to be reading. As the year progresses her running records are focused on the early and emergent readers. When she does assess the more skillful readers she is assessing the use of strategies the student is using to understand words and the story. It is very important to match children with appropriate books so that they can read the books independently and focus on the story and using strategies to figure out the words, and not sounding out each word and losing the meaning of the story. Reading is problem solving and making sense of a story. Children need the essential tools to accomplish these tasks. A teacher needs to evaluate the students to drive her lessons. Children need to be taught to use phonics, meaning, and structure of the language. Running records show how a student is using these strategies, because it does not just look at the miscues but what type of error it is. By observing how the child makes a mistake will show you how to teach the child to change the miscue into a self-correction. Miscues are "logical, systematic representations of how children understand the reading process and the cuing system they use." Running records will provide you with information to know if the child is matched with the right text, it will allow you to analyze a child’s miscues, and you can track the child’s reading progress throughout the year. The running record is made simple so that you may use them often and on different texts that the children or teacher choose. Running records are a tool for teaching. You need this information to drive your instruction. I really enjoyed reading how to make the marks for the miscues and what they mean. Short hand is great so that you do not have to stop the child while he/she is reading. The best line of the whole chapter is, "My assessments aren’t perfect, but they’re definitely better than not learning about my children at all." This shows that she is a classroom teacher and she understands that by getting the information from your student you can decide where to go in your instruction and that you do not have to get it perfect for it to help you. It needs to be done to the best of your ability and with classroom schedules time is not your best friend, so get as much done as you can. Our jobs are to teach the children to the best of our ability and allow them to grow academically. Chapter 6 Retelling a story shows the teacher how much the student understands what he/she understands what he/she just read in a book. Sometimes teachers use a running record to identify what a student needs to fix in their reading strategies, but other times you need to change the assessment tool and find what the student understands in the book. This will let you know if the book is too hard and the student can not comprehend, because of taking too much time to read the words and problem solve in the book. Early readers do not understand what "retelling" means, so they tell you each event page by page. When the student learns the explanation of your expectations the child can take the time to retell the main ideas of the story. This needs to start at an early age. Children are always asked what is the main idea and details of a story. This is seen in many state tests and everyday classroom use throughout their educational career. Sometime the children who tell page by page have not thought about the book and may need to reread the book a second time to find the meaning of the book. If a retelling assessment was given and the child has no understanding of the book, you may need to revert back to a running record and find out what the child is lacking on their reading skills to help them become a successful reader. Remember that a combination of assessment tools can and need to be used when conferencing with a child to identify books that are at the child’s level. You always want a wide range of materials in the child’s hand for independent reading and group reading. The more materials a child has equals more reading practice.