Blog 3

In the text Catching Readers Before They Fall, I chose the chapter titled "I Thought I Knew How to Teach Reading, but Whoa!" Johnson and Keier (2010) explain some strategies in this chapter that teachers can use as a starting point with struggling readers. Some of the starting points include: letter identification, writing vocabulary, hearing and recording sounds in words, high-frequency word assessment, read alouds, shared reading with big book and poems, community writing, and time for independent reading (Johnson and Keier, 2010). Johnson and Keier (2010) states that teachers should look at working with struggling readers in a positive way in three ways: expect that the lowest-achieving children can learn to read and write, support children as they learn how to learn, and believe that you are the one who will teach this child to read and write (Johnson and Keier, 2010). Some early key strategies that were suggested for teachers to use included: thinking strategies to predict words, phonemic awareness, self-monitoring, and early fluency (Johnson and Keier, 2010). Johnson and Keier (2010) state that to teach directionality, teachers can write a sentence and cut them apart as the child practices pulling down the words after the teacher models. I started using this strategy with my first graders last year and this year to practice fluency along with directionality. I chose sentences that I knew would have a challenging word or words as a teaching point. then, I sent home in an envelope for students to practice at home. Johnson and Keier (2010) states that we should chose to begin reading books and writing messages to show children reading and writing as meaningful. "Thinking about reading is emphasized every time we read with students" (Johnson and Keier, 2010). If we do not take time to involve students in conversation, "we miss opportunities to get students to make connections, infer, and ask questions about what they are reading" (Johnson and Keier, 2010). Phonics is very important to teach to early readers because "many letters make a variety of sounds, and different letters or letter combinations can represent many sounds" (Johnson and Keier, 2010). Currently, I have three struggling readers who are struggling in this area because they do not remember the sounds of some blends and digraphs, as well as the letters that have more than one sound such as "g." Teachers can be flexible when teaching phonics and phonemic awareness by teaching it during transitions, before related arts, or at the end of the day. One concept in the chapter I liked was when Katie worked with three students on phonemic awareness by giving them three cards of a sun, table, pig, and BINGO chips. She called out words for students to match the beginning sound by placing the chips on the card. She would say "pencil/sun, pencil/table, or pencil/pig" as students determined the matched beginning sound. I am going to use this process with my struggling readers to practice blends, digraphs, and word families. Self-monitoring was also discussed in this chapter. I teach this strategy during mini-lessons, but based on my observations I know I have to go back and reteach it to remind my struggling readers. Lastly, when working with students on early fluency I liked the idea of "performances" after the teacher models. Last week my students and I read a lot of Dr. Seuss books during mini-lessons and partner reading in honor of his birthday. I shared with them how we did a reader's theater of Green Eggs and Ham when I taught at summer reading camp. So, now my students want to "perform" for our principal and reading coach. Now, they are preparing for their performances. Instead of performing Green Eggs and Ham I now think we are going to do "The Wonderful World of Dr. Seuss" as each group of partners choose a book to perform a few pages. This will build their fluency and they will have fun at the same time.