Week 7-Assignment #1

1.     What texts and materials do teachers have in their classrooms that support students' development of fluent reading?

During Reader’s Theater, scripted lessons that are divided into reading levels are implemented. This involves choral reading, which is a great strategy for promoting fluency. The titles, such as ‘John Henry’, ‘The Boy who Cried world’ ‘Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk’, are content-related multilevel scripts that allow students of diverse abilities to work together.  Poetry is incorporated as well through recitals and reading and promotes fluency through repeated readings and reading high-content words. There is a tool called the whisper phone that helps promote fluency by having the student hear him/herself while reading any text. It helps practice intonation and help students with pacing while reading as well.

2.     How do they select vocabulary to teach in all areas of your curriculum?

Basically, when choosing vocabulary, it is first ensured that they are high-content and relating to the text . Students should learn the words through examples and meaning, not just looking up in a dictionary. For students who may need some assistance with vocabulary, the words can be pre-taught and this is generally a good practice for all students as well.

3.      How much time do they allocate to word study?

Student learn best when actually reading the word in the text, so prefacing with at least three to five minutes of teaching the actual word, including adding the words to the Word Wall and reviewing old words, is enough.

4.      What word study routines do they teach and encourage their students to use?

There are various word-decoding ‘tricks’ that are pre-taught to help with studying words and becoming more fluent in  general. It also helps students if they come across difficult words as they can then implement these ‘tricks’ to try and figure out the word by themselves. Examples of these skills are finding small words in big words, reading a difficult word slowly as you pull your finger across it, chunking words, context clues and more. Incorporating helps students comprehend any word they may find difficult and once they figure it out, they become more fluent readers.

5.      How do they differentiate instruction and tasks based on their students' needs?

Grouping and peer tutoring a couple of ways instruction is based on student’s need and abilities. Leveled readers are used as well. Picture clues and other visual aids are used to explain new high-content words, which is really helpful for ESL students as well. Furthermore, pre-teaching certain skills is practiced so students who need the extra boost are more prepared for the upcoming lesson.