Chapter 12 + Professional Development

“Coach initiated significant changes in literacy instruction. Both teachers and principals believed that these changes had made a difference for students.” (Steckel, p.16)

Coaches are the ones that have to initiate the change they wish to see.  If you don’t take a step out of your comfort zone, then no one will be successful and you won’t be achieving what you wish to as a reading coach.

“The most significant changes included

■ Increased use of formative assessments, such as running records, reading logs, and samples of student writing to supplement standardized assessments

■ Matching of materials to the instructional needs of individual students

■ Collection and organization of literacy materials in classroom libraries

■ Teacher-led, small-group guided reading and writing sessions

■ Conferences with individual students to document progress and provide feedback

■ More time allotted for independent reading and writing, with opportunities for students to self-select high-interest books and writing topics

■ Direct instruction, in the form of brief mini-lessons, designed to model skills and strategies specific to needs of students in the class” (Steckel, p.17)

For myself, I definitely started doing more running records when my coach suggested it.  I found a way to incorporate them into my guided reading rather than wait to do them as more of a summative assessment.

Steckel, B. (2009) Fulfilling the Promise of Literacy Coaches in Urban Schools: What Does It Take to Make an Impact? The Reading Teacher, 63(1), pp.14-23

Chapter 12: Supporting Effective Teaching with Professional Development

“Principals who are supportive and knowledgeable about instructional leadership may actively collaborate with literacy coaches, even taking the lead in building a school learning community that promotes effective professional development.” (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, p.394)

If the expectation is set high, professionals will continue to develop at your school.  If the principal wants to create a community of learning then there will be continuous professional development available.

“Professional development should be embedded within the school day and relate to what teachers are actually teaching.  It should be part of what is happening every day, rather than occur outside of the school day, with sessions weeks or months apart.” (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, p.401)

I think this is a powerful philosophy and more people should think this way.  Professional development within your own classroom is definitely more hands-on and applicable to you as a teacher.  I think this is why literacy coaches are so valuable because they can work with teachers within their own classrooms on what that specific teacher needs in order to grow.

Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J. A., & Mraz, M. (2014). Content area reading: literacy and learning across the curriculum (Eleventh ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.

Moody Learning Log April 6, 2014

Moody Learning Log April 6, 2014

Chapter 7

“The Directed Reading-Thinking Activity fosters critical awareness and thinking by engaging learners in a process that involves prediction, verification, interpretation and judgment.”  (p.225)

I think the most important part of this comprehension strategy is the judgment part.  Being able to judge whether you are right or wrong is a necessary life skill.  Also, being able to judge and accept everyone’s point of view is a critical reading strategy to have. 

“In think-alouds, teachers make their thinking explicit by verbalizing their thoughts while reading orally.”  (p.201)

Thinking out loud helps me to analyze what I’m reading, the same is good to model to students.  Sometimes they don’t know what to think or what questions to ask themselves when their reading, so if we model what we are thinking it will become more real to the students and they will begin to apply it on their own.

Chapter 8

“The oral interaction in team learning gives more students a change to use terms.  Students can exchange ideas, share insights, and justify responses in a nonthreatening situation.” (p. 259)

My students love to talk to each other, so giving opportunities to learn from each other is what I try to do every day.  You still have to guide them with what language to use and what they should talk about, but it allows them to share their thoughts and be heard.

“Demonstrating how to use context, word structure, and the dictionary provides students with several basic strategies for vocabulary learning that will last a lifetime.” (p.269)

The hardest thing for students to get past is not knowing what a word means.  It will throw off the whole idea of a story if they don’t know what a word means, so making sure we teach how to figure out the meaning of a word is very necessary in the classroom.

Chapter 9

“Before reading, Writing to Learn activities help students tap into prior knowledge and make connections between the “old” (what they already know) and the “new” (what they will be learning about).” (p. 285)

I use this in my classroom, because in order for students to become engaged in the learning they have to have something to connect it to.  The learning then becomes their responsibility because they are challenging what they already know in writing.

“Response journals create permanent records of what readers are feeling and thinking as they interact with texts.  A response journal allows students to record their thoughts about text and emotional reactions to them.” (p. 291)

Keeping a journal is a great reading comprehension tool because it brings your thoughts from your mind to the paper (or computer.)  The act of writing what you are thinking makes you actually think and reflect on what you are reading.

Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J. A., & Mraz, M. (2014). Content area reading: literacy and learning across the curriculum (Eleventh ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.

Article on Comprehension: Picture It!

“For younger readers or readers who find it difficult to organize their thoughts in a story map -  which is the sequential identification of each of the five story elements noted previously, from setting to resolution - the Picture It! strategy begins with a visual interpretation of story grammar - a pictorial of the five elements of a story.” (p. 65)

I think this is a great strategy because reading is often like watching a movie in your head, encouraging drawing pictures of what they see will help them remember the story as a visual and not just words on a page.

“In addition to providing a visual picture of a story's main idea, Picture It! can be used to teach new vocabulary. As students struggle to develop their art work, they'll find that certain emotions, motivations, and so forth are hard to depict. Students may wish to incorporate vocabulary into their pictures to exemplify these concepts.” (p. 67)

I big thing with the younger children is labeling what they are drawing.  They can use words to explain their drawing and feelings that might be hard since the point isn’t to be an artist.

Naughton, V. M. (2008) Picture It! The Reading Teacher, 66(1), pp.65-68.