Transcript Chapter 1

Chapter 1
The Nature of Literacy
and Today’s Students
Key Terms to Know
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Reading—a process of constructing meaning
from print
Phonology—the language component that
consists of producing and understanding
sounds
Morphology—the component of language
that has to do with meaningful word parts,
such as root words and affixes
Key Terms Continued
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Syntax-the way words are arranged in a sentence
Semantics—the component of language that has to
do with meaning
Graphophonic—component of language that has to
do with letter/sound correspondence
Pragmatics—component of language that has to do
with engaging in effective communication
Prosody—the component of language that has to do
with rhythm of speech: pitch, stress, juncture
Behaviorism
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What is behaviorism?
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Philosophy of learning that describes all the activities of an organism in
terms of observable actions or behaviors.
Stresses observable responses to stimuli.
Describe characteristics.
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Learning consists of the acquisition of new behaviors.
Responses that are reinforced increase in frequency.
Responses that are not reinforces are extinguished (do not occur again).
Behaviors are learned or increased when reinforcers are used (e.g., praise,
privileges, gold star, other type of reward).
Basic principle of behaviorism is that we tend to repeat behaviors that are
rewarding and avoid those that are not.
Behaviorism-Example of a
Program
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Reading Mastery is an example of a program that takes a
behavioristic approach.
Describe what that program looks like.
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Students first learn letter sounds and then learn to blend the
sounds to learn new words.
The teacher points to a letter and says, "Here is a new sound.”
The teacher touches the letter and says the sound for the letter.
Students are told to say the sound of the letter when the teacher
touches the letter.
Signals are used so that students respond in unison.
Individual students are called on to say the sound.
Cognitivism
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What is cognitivism?
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Describe 3 characteristics.
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Philosophy of learning that describes the activities of an organism in terms
of observable actions or behaviors and internal or mental states.
Based on the proposition that mental processes exist and can be studied.
Humans are active participants in their learning rather than passive.
Reinforcement is seen as being important to learning because it a)
strengthens responses, b) is a source of information and feedback.
This approach tends to be student-centered.
Piaget's theories are considered to be an example of a
cognitive approach to learning.
Jean Piaget
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Piaget is also considered to be constructivist, which is a philosophy of
learning that describes learning as an active process in which the learner
constructs mental models of reality. They don’t simply reproduce what
they hear.
Piaget believed that children interact with the world around them.
Children’s thinking is qualitatively different from adult’s thinking and that
it evolves through a series of hierarchical stages.
Through adaptation or interaction with the environment, children build
schemes that help them make sense of the world.
Adaptation includes two complementary processes:
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Assimilation—the process of incorporating new ideas into existing ones
Accommodation—the process through which concepts or schema are
modified or new ones are created to accommodate new knowledge.
L.S. Vygotsky
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Similar to Piaget, Vygotsky also believed that
children interact with the world around them.
Vygotsky also stressed the importance of social
factors in cognitive development.
He also distinguished between actual development
and potential development.
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Known as ZPD
Refers to the difference between what a child can do on his
own and what the child can do with help.
Scaffolding
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What is scaffolding?
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Temporary support structures provided to student to assist
them as they learn new information or complete assigned
tasks.
How does it work?
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The idea is that the teacher introduces a new concept or topic
by demonstrating or modeling it to students.
Students are then given the opportunity to practice this
concept as a class, then perhaps in a smaller group.
The student then takes what he/she has learned about the
topic/concept and applies it independently.
Examples of Scaffolding
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What are examples of scaffolding?
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modeling,
demonstration,
prompts or guides,
essential questions,
scoring guides or rubrics,
graphic organizers.
Implications of Piaget’s and
Vygotsky’s Theories
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Provide students with hands-on experiences and
opportunities to make discoveries.
Be aware of and plan for individual differences.
Children learn best when activities are
developmentally appropriate.
Classrooms should be rich in verbal guidance
through interaction with the teacher and with peers.
The Reader’s Role in the Reading
Process
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Louise Rosenblatt describes every reading act as an
event, or a transaction, that involves a reader and a
text.
Every reader takes a stance, or attitude, towards the
text:
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efferent: the focus is on obtaining or carrying away
information from the reading.
aesthetic: the focus is on the reading experience, the
rhythm of the words, the past experiences called up when
reading
Approaches to Reading Instruction #1
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Bottom-Up
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The kind of processing where meaning is derived from the
accurate, sequential processing of words.
This model emphasizes a single-direction, part-to-whole
processing of a text.
The emphasis is on the text rather than the reader’s
background knowledge or language ability.
Instruction proceeds from simple to complex—children first
learn names and shapes of letters, next they learn
consonant sounds, followed by more simple and more
complex vowel correspondence.
Approaches to Reading Instruction #2
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Top-Down
– Learning to read should be holistic and natural through immersion
in print.
– Refers to how meaning is derived by using one’s background
knowledge, language ability, and expectations.
– Reading is a meaning-driven process.
– Readers identify letters or words only to confirm their assumptions
about the meaning of the text.
– The emphasis is on the reader rather than the text.
Proponents of the top-down approach generally agree that
comprehension is the basis for decoding skills, not a singular result,
and meaning is brought to print, not derived from print (from
www.sil.org).
Approaches to Reading Instruction #3
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Interactive
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This model assume that skills at all levels are interactively
available to process and interpret the text (Grabe 1988).
Good readers are both good decoders and good interpreters of
text, their decoding skills becoming more automatic but no less
important as their reading skill develops (Eskey 1988).
Belief that reading involves processing text and using one’s
background knowledge and language ability.
It is a blending of both bottom-up and top-down.
Interactive continued
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Skills are taught directly and systematically while also having
students read whole books and write for real purposes.
To properly achieve fluency and accuracy, developing readers
must work at perfecting both their bottom-up recognition skills
and their top-down interpretation strategies. Good reading (that
is fluent and accurate reading) can result only from a constant
interaction between these processes.
Fluent reading entails both skillful decoding and relating
information to prior knowledge (Eskey, 1988).
From http://nadabs.tripod.com/reading/#interact
Reading and Writing Program for
Today’s Students—10 Principles
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Children learn to read by reading.
Reading should be easy—but not too easy (no more than 2-5%
of words are difficult in a text).
Instruction should be functional and contextual.
Build bridges and connections between children’s experiences
and what they are about to read.
Promote independence so that children are able to eventually
use skills on their own.
Believe that all children can read and write.
The literacy program should be goal-oriented and systematic.
Build students’ motivation and sense of competence.
Build student’s language proficiency.
Use ongoing assessment to determine how students are
progressing.
Highly Effective Teachers
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Are caring and have high expectations
Balance instruction with skills being taught when needed, and
the skills relate to the reading and writing being done by
students.
Use every opportunity to teach and reinforce skills.
Use prompts and other devices to scaffold students’ learning.
Are well-organized with clearly established routines and
maintain a classroom atmosphere of cooperation.
Have well-stocked classrooms with a variety of reading
materials.
Match materials and tasks to what students are able to do—
within their developmental levels.