Organizing Literacy Instruction Dr. Joanne McKay LEE 213

What is Literacy? Language-Based –Vocabulary Cognitive Skills –ZPD –Scaffolding Background Experiences Cultural Practices

Major Approaches to Teaching Literacy Bottom-Up –Direct Instruction Sequential Subskills –Part-to-Whole –Explicit –Sequential Focus on TEXT Top-Down –Whole Language Holistic processes –Whole-to-Part –Natural –In Context Focus on READER

Major Approaches to Teaching Literacy Interactionist Perspective Melds the Bottom-up/Top-down together Direct explicit instruction with opportunities to use literacy for real purposes and use of language naturally in contexts Considers how reader/text interact with skills and readers’ knowledge

Principles of Literacy Instruction 1. Choice of Reading 2. Instructional Level 3. Purposeful & Contextual 4. Connections 5. Promote Independence 6. Goals & Systematic 7. Engaging Events 8. Ongoing Assessment 9. Build Language Proficiency

Guided Reading An Overview

The Goal of Guided Reading is… To enable children to read for meaning at all times

Guided Reading Steps 1.Introduction- Let students know what they are about to learn. Connect the new material to students' prior knowledge and the text being studied. 2.Teacher modeling- Show students how to use the strategy. Teacher think-aloud techniques are effective for this.

Guided Reading Steps 3.Guided practice- have students gradually take charge of the strategy and begin to require less support from you. 4.Independent practice- Give the students opportunities to try the strategy in new situations and to reflect on how it has been useful.

Guided Reading Explicitly teaches students to: 1.Use knowledge of language patterns, phonics and background knowledge to access meaning from print 2.Apply strategies while reading real texts 3.Make connections to what they already know 4.Monitor comprehension while reading

Components of Guided Reading New Book- Build & Guide strategies –Intro & Predict –Picture Walk-Discuss Predictions –Read-- Discuss--- Reread Word Work- Develop word knowledge Familiar Book- Develop sight word & practice strategies Writing Process- Extend comprehension & apply reading strategies and word knowledge

Comprehension: Processes and strategies 3 levels of comprehension: 1.Literal 2. Inferential 3. Evaluative (critical)

What is comprehension? It is a multi-faceted process in which readers engage with text Children can know all the words but not understand what they are reading. We need background knowledge, and the context must somehow relate to our own experiences. The text-the words and presentation of the material-can affect comprehension We read differently for different purposes depending on the situation and context. (enjoyment or information)

Research-Based Reading Recovery (Clay, 1985) Fountas & Pinnell (1996) Cunningham (1995)

Reading Strategies to Develop Use of picture clues Preview & Predict Use of context clues Reread difficult parts Use phonics Make connections with prior knowledge Monitor comprehension & SELF-CORRECT

Comprehension sub- processes MICROPROCESSES: Deals with fluency: Sentence level comprehension, chunking phrases INTEGRATIVE PROCESSES: Connections between referents (pronouns, connectors, etc.) from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph. MACROPROCESSES: The overall structure of the text: narrative structure, expository structure ELABORATIVE PROCESSES: Connecting new texts to self and other texts read METACOGNITIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring one’s own comprehension and problem-solving strategies

Integrative Processes Referring back to text as a reference for information Recognizing pronoun referents from one sentence or paragraph to the next Question children, relate to cohesive links in the text Cloze activities

Macroprocesses Story structure (literary elements) Expository structure Imaging: good readers form pictures in their heads as they read Grand conversations Summarizing the story Story reenactments, retellings

Elaborative Processes Making intertextual connections Text to self Text to world Text to text Venn diagrams comparing new texts to familiar texts Identifying words, situations that relate to other experiences

Metacognitive Processes Monitor their own comprehension Use problem-solving strategies to read and write Think aloud Prediction/confirmation activities

While reading…

Strategies used by readers and writers Tapping prior knowledge Predicting Organizing ideas Figuring out unknown words Visualizing Making connections Applying fix-up strategies Revising meaning Monitoring Playing with language Summarizing Evaluating