Supporting struggling adolescent readers-Podcast

I found this podcast to be the most intriguing and more relatable topic. Although, this podcast was geared towards adolescent readers, I found the information discussed to be relatable to students of a younger age group. I was able to apply this podcast to my own life because I work in an after-school program that consists of many struggling readers. As I help them with their homework or read with them, when they are completing their reading logs, I notice the significant amount of struggle these children face when reading. My place of work contains a small library for the children to read and borrow books to read in their spare time. Once the student is done their homework, before I allow them to engage in the other activities my job offers, I make them choose a book of their choice from the library and sit and read with them the book of their choice. I notice many of them choose books that are below their reading level, because they have the confidence needed when reading the book. They feel they know the words, the context and are able to comprehend what they are reading. I also noticed the difference in excitement when they have to read a book that is not of their liking and a book that is of their liking. They have a huge sense of eagerness and excitement when they get to pick a book that sparks their interest. What I learned most from this podcast is the importance of boosting a child's confidence when they are reading. This makes the child more willing to read and gives the child a great sense of pride when they can read and comprehend what they are reading. I have seen this excitement first-hand and it is a wonderful thing to witness.

Response to Intervention (RTI): What Teachers of Reading Need to Know

This article discusses Response to Intervention and its significant effect it has on struggling students. RTI was "created because of the many problems with the discrepancy model for identifying students with learning disabilities." This program was created to help educators identify students with learning disabilities, and to respond to the student's need an to get them immediate help in the subject they are struggling in. This article continues to talk about RTI and it's importance and it's impact of educators and students. It describes what RTI entails, the processes of response to intervention when working with a student and how a student is evaluated, an d the background of how and why RTI was created. RTI has made a huge difference in many educators and students' lives. It has had an impact on many students and saved many students from falling behind in school. It allowed educators to take one step further into helping a struggling student excel and keep up with the rest of his or her fellow classmate. RTI gave students more and better opportunities to move forward and not fall behind, giving them the chance to be excellent students despite their struggles and disabilities.

The Assessment of Thoughtful Literacy in NAEP: Why the States Aren’t Measuring Up Summary

This article discusses the significant difference in the NAEP test and the state test that are given to students to test their reading levels. According to this article, the state test does not measure up to the NAEP test. Reading and Literacy is a subject that many educators nation-wide, undermine and do not spend enough time on it with their students. Many students nation-wide, are lacking in the subject of reading and are falling more and more behind as they progress to the next grade level. According to this article, many educators focus more on students reading the text that is in front of them, rather than being able to infer and comprehend the text that is in front of them. In state tests, students of course, do outstanding work in that particular test, but that is because, the bar is set extremely low on the state tests. The students are not challenged enough in the state tests, which in the long run is not beneficial to these students. When it comes to literacy, students must be challenged and must face a significant amount of difficulty, if they want to excel in the subject of literacy. Students cannot just do the bare minimum when it comes to reading. The NAEP tests puts students to the challenge and raises the bar in literacy for students. This is what the students need and deserve, if they want to excel in not only literacy, but in all subjects that is offered to them in the education system.

Week 2 Assignment-Using Assessment to Guide Instruction

       In this video, Dr. Paratore discusses the importance of literacy and the importance of various assessments to evaluate student’s progress when it comes to literacy and reading. She discusses the importance of students not only being able to read the text that is in front of them, but to also comprehend what they are reading, and acquire different language and knowledge of the text. We as teachers must learn how to assess students from different perspectives, in order to make sure that our student is an effective and strong reader.  We as teachers must use “multiple measures” when assessing our students in literacy. We can test the student in how they read something they are forced to read in a classroom or how they read when they read texts willfully. We can even evaluate students on how they read in groups or how they read on their own. There are many assessments that we can use when testing a student in literacy, it is our job to utilize them to the best of our ability in and out of the classroom. Inside of the classroom that I am observing, I noticed the teacher utilizes multiple measures when evaluating her students in literacy. She evaluates the students in groups, she evaluates them individually, and she evaluates them weekly when providing different assessments to students to see if they are on the reading level they need to be or if they need some extra-assistance in helping them read on the level they need to read on. One type of evidence the teacher I am currently observing and a type of evidence that was mentioned in the video are, running records. Other types of evidences that were mentioned in the video, that I found to be very informative was consulting with other teachers in other departments such as art, music, or computer. Another form of evidence is previous and cumulative records of the students reading assessments. I found this video interesting because, I was able to view different ideas and perspectives on how to assess students in literacy from a diverse group of teachers. I was able to compare these ideas and evaluations to other evaluations that I have witnessed in the past when observing different classrooms. This video also showed me how each teacher has their own significant way on how they assess their students and what they find to fit best in their own classroom.

Week 2 ELL Survey

1. I work at The Boy's Club of New York, located in Queens. I work with dozens of children, from various cultural backgrounds. I find it very interesting working with these students, and very enjoyable. I learn something new everyday. In my particular program, I work with ELL students, students with special needs, and behavioral problems, and I learn something from each and every student. Sometimes, it is not always me teaching the students, but it is them teaching me.

2. At my place of work, I work with students that are in ELL programs.

3. I do not have experience in teaching ELL students, I have observed them in the classroom and in my place of work. I have done activities with these students and assessed one student.

4. When observing last semester, I found the ELL students working twice as hard as students that are not in ELL programs. They want to learn how to read and write and they are so much more motivated to learning the English language than the students that are already familiar with the language. I feel that students that are not ELL students take for granted the fact they know the English language better than the ELL students.

5. The problems I found them encountering is keeping up with the other students. They tend to fall behind because of their lack of knowledge in the English language.

6. In classrooms I have observed they have ELL teachers that come in and work with the ELL students. They construct different activities with these students, such as reading a story, writing assignments, or just verbal communication with the students.

7. I would hold sessions outside of the classroom to help these students. To put these students in a more restricted environment, to help them focus and offer them one-on-one attention.