Module 6: Assessment of Young Learners

        Assessment, whether formal or informal, is a critical component of any balanced literacy program at all levels. In the early childhood classroom use of assessment data is integral in getting to know emergent readers and supporting them as they begin their formal reading and writing experiences in school. If used systematically and to inform instruction, the administering of assessments can beneficial for students and also for teachers as they plan lessons and educational activities. This assessment is especially important for English Language Learners who as research discussed below will show, tend to score below their English only peers in literacy assessments at the primary level. This is something that teachers cannot just accept, but instead need to use the assessment data to combat the phenomenon and support their growth.

       In her article "Using Literacy Assessment Results to Improve Teaching for English Language Learners," Lori A. Helman (2005) discusses how giving the Phonological Awareness Literacy Assessment (PALS) to ELL students can provide critical data to reveal students needing support in reading. The results of the PALS, which has three parts; word recognition in isolation, spelling inventory, and oral reading in context, can be used to level readers. The levels described are emergent, beginning, and beyond. The results can also be used determine necessary supports, provide early interventions, and identify challenging literacy concepts across the group and use this information to adjust and augment curriculum.

        JoAnn M. Farver, Jonathan Nakamoto, Christopher J. Lonegan (2007)also discuss assessment of ELLs and how assessment in both English and Spanish (or native language) can provide even more information about possible reading challenges and needs. In their article titled "Assessing Preschoolers’ Emergent Literacy Skills in English and Spanish with the Get Ready to Read! Screening Tool," the authors discuss how this specially designed screening, which “ assess[es] print knowledge, letter-name and sound knowledge, rhyming, initial sound matching, compound word blending, and knowledge of writing” can provide valuable information to teachers working with preschool students (p.164). The screening garnered similar to results to more time consuming assessments like the PALS.

Both articles reveal a universal challenge that teachers of ELL students face. Acquiring reading and writing competence is challenging for all learners and when a language is also new this challenge is multiplied. It is critical that teachers are using assessment as a tool to help meet the needs of ELL readers and inform instruction. Two specific themes emerged across the texts and I will discuss them below.

Reading Deficits and Difficulties Should be Identified as Soon as Possible.

     Both articles make it a point to share that the sooner we are able to determine which readers might need additional support, the more likely they are to catch up to their peers and grade level benchmarks. Helman draws the readers' attention to the Matthew Effect, a long standing phenomenon where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In this case she explains that readers who are struggling from the onset continue to struggle and their struggles grow in magnitude over time. By using assessment, teachers can identify students' needs sooner so they do not become larger gaps as time progresses (p.675). Catching critical warning signs earlier can help prevent later reading challenges.

       Farver et. al. echo this sentiment in their discussion of the need for early and comprehensive assessment data of preschool ELL students. They share that “Reading problems become increasingly difficult to overcome the longer they exist—often to the extent that children may “learn to be learning disabled” (p.162). If readers are identified during the emergent and even pre-emergent stage it is more likely that they will only be plagued temporarily as struggling readers. This is so important because challenges that students face in reading in elementary school are often based on emergent reading abilities (or lack there of) in preschool and kindergarten. If we identify these students sooner we can provide them with targeted and differentiated support beginning in preschool so that these problems disappear by the elementary years.

As the image above shows, though simplified, without foundational skills students' reading achievement remains somewhat stagnant throughout elementary school. By identifying readers who need support and supporting them in their phonemic awareness, word knowledge, and oral language, we can support them in achieving at or above grade level.

Assessment Should be Used to Guide Instruction.

Helman makes it very clear throughout her text that the assessment should serve an immediate instructional purpose. To begin in the case study she shared, where first-third grade ELL students in Nevada were given the PALS assessment, the data provided invaluable information to teachers. “It identified students in need of extra support in their development of early literacy skills; it provided a way for schools, districts, and the NREA management team to monitor students’ progress; and, perhaps what was most important, it clearly outlined crucial aspects of early literacy growth, thus guiding teachers to form instructional groups, focus their teaching goals, and meet individual student’s needs” (p.669). 

On an individual student level one particular teacher was able to see how two students, who scores similarly overall, had very different needs. Carlos, had very strong comprehension and needed an intervention to support his understanding of short vowel sounds in reading and writing. While Rosita had very high word recognition but struggled with comprehending the plot of a story. Her results show that "she would likely benefit from reading activities that focus on meaning making and conceptual development. Her example shows how a literacy assessment can point teachers in the direction of doing in-depth follow-up that will help uncover specific student needs” (p.673). This last thought is huge. The assessment results are giving teachers direction and a plan as to what they need to do to support their individual students and what additional assessments might be needed to get a full picture of this students' literacy development. 

The same is true in the discussion of screening and assessments at the preschool level in the article written by Farver and colleagues. “Recent investigations have also suggested that school-age nondisabled and disabled readers can be differentiated early in their preschool years by the variability in their emergent literacy skills as measured by oral language, phonological awareness, and letter knowledge” (p.162). The results of the screening allows teachers to differentiate the students in their class so that they are delivering targeted instruction that will allow the students to work at their own individual zones of proximal development. The results of the screening help teachers determine what level and frequency of intervention is needed. The screening can also inform the teacher as to the need for further assessment in a specific targeted area (p.174).  

While I do not currently teach many emergent readers, the use of assessment to drive and modify instruction on an individual and full class level is something that I employ in my daily teaching practice. Recently I have been spending more time thinking of the relationship between assessment and instruction as a cycle.

As the image above shows teachers must plan lessons based on curriculum and grade level standards, present this content to students, analyze the effectiveness it in the form of assessments, and then adjust based on that analysis. The adjustment connects to this theme I have uncovered in the articles. Teachers need to be responsive to the results of assessment and adjust the content, grouping, or manner of delivery, so that all students, especially those identified as struggling, can be successful in the classroom.

Farver, J. M., Nakamoto, J., & Lonigan, C. J. (2007, November 16). Assessing preschoolers’ emergent literacy skills in English and Spanish with            the Get Ready to Read! screening tool. Annals of Dyslexia, 57, 161-178. 

Helman, L. A. (2005, April). Using literacy assessment results to improve teaching for English-language learners. International Reading                         Association, 58(7), 668-677. 

   

Module 3: Supporting Emergent Readers

At the end of first grade it is critical that students are not only decoding and reading with appropriate fluency, but they should also be comprehending the story they are reading. For Orlando comprehension is a challenge. Even looking at main idea, Orlando struggles to answer a basic comprehension question. With this in mind the team has suggested three different strategies that may be used to help him meet specific instructional goals in terms of his comprehension. These goals are discussed in a collection of STAR Sheets.

To begin the team feels that Orlando should be able to use the strategies of predicting, summarizing, and questioning. To predict the teacher might choose to use the “story title, a scanning of pictures, of from past experience with the topics, themes, or characters in the story” (The Iris Center). Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas (2011) feel that some of this strategy instruction can be done through the interactive read-aloud. By inviting students to turn and talk to discuss what they believe will happen next and activating background knowledge during the book introduction, Orlando may see the skill modeled before he is expected to do it on his own (p.119).

When it comes to summarizing The Iris Center advocates for teaching students how to shrink a larger paragraph or story into either a sentence or 10 words or less focusing on the “who” and “what.” Pinnell and Fountas explain that readers of all ages think within the text, think about the text, and think beyond the text. At the within text level students are expected to “remember important information and carry it forward” (p.137). This is something Orlando is struggling with. While it is important to teach this skill to him with instructional level books, he can also benefit from listening to his teacher model summarizing and having the opportunity to summarize books when they are read aloud (p.138). The first STAR Sheet also talks about questioning (p.14). Orlando will need to answer who, what, when, where, and why questions about the books he is reading.

Another suggestion to support Orlando that resulted from the consultation with the reading specialist was to use additional graphic organizers. The organizers would provide an opportunity to retell the story in multiple ways. This could be according to transition words, story markers, or story elements. No matter what type of organizer is chosen it is critical that Orlando is explicitly taught how to use it. This should involve modeling and opportunities for guided practice before he is expected to use the graphic alone (STAR Sheets p. 15).

Below is another type of organizer that might be beneficial for Orlando to work on the problem and solution in a story. The book Speak Up! By John Lockyer is a level F guided reading book that follows a pattern. All of the characters want to know what the weather is like up high with the giraffe, but he cannot hear them so he asks them to “Speak up!” Eventually they solve the problem by standing one on top of the other until they reach high enough the ask the giraffe the question. While the graphic organizer may seem very simple, the arrow that flows from problem to solution indicates an important relationship that will exist throughout books.  

The authors of the STAR Sheets document also discuss “us[ing] imagery to create a mental picture of the story. This reminds me of Jodi G. Welsch’s article “Playing Within and Beyond the Story: Encouraging Book-Related Pretend Play,” and her discussion of using “play around stories to encourage the development of critical comprehension skills” (p.138). While this isn’t exactly the same as retelling, the students constructed meaning from a box of objects that related to a story that they had read. This type of retelling may also benefit Orlando as he works towards increased reading comprehension and ability to summarize and discuss the stories he is reading.
Finally the authors of the STAR Sheets advocate for using repeated reading to increase fluency. By becoming a fluent reader, Orlando will be able to "spend more of his energy on comprehension and less on decoding" (p.29). This work can be done in partner reading or group repeated reading. Whatever strategy is chosen it is important that the procedure is modeled explicitly for Orlando and that he is uses passages that are short and interesting. Since his largest academic challenge at this moment is comprehension, repeated reading will pave the way for him to have more space in his working memory to focus on his primary reading goals.

 

Module 1: Living and Learning in the PreK Classroom

In their article "Repeated interactive read-alouds in preschool and kindergarten," Lea M. McGee and Judith A Schickedanz (2007) discuss an approach to making read aloud meaningful and academically beneficial in preschool and kindergarten classrooms. The authors suggest using repeated interactive read-alouds as a way to share books with children. Their observations have shown that most primary classrooms lack sophisticated picture books and rely too heavily on predictable texts. In the interactive read aloud teachers use sophisticated texts to “model the role of ideal reader as they read aloud” (p.343). 

There are three rounds of reading aloud that consist of the same four components that become progressively more student driven as they go on.  Each of the three read alouds begins a book introduction that is crafted “to make the problem exist” since young readers do not often naturally focus on this aspect of a story (p.344). Next the teacher inserts vocabulary support for 5-10 pre-selected words with a verbal, visual, or kinesthetic enhancement. While reading the teacher thinks aloud about what is happening in the story, modeling active reading strategies and asking questions to the students. Finally, each individual read aloud ends with an after reading “why” question that is scaffolded with additional questions as needed for students to answer the overarching question. What is unique about the third and final reading is that during the final read-aloud students are actively reconstructing the story (p.346). In all, this approach helps students to develop analytic discussion skills that will be beneficial as they continue developing as readers.

This method of sharing picture books is important because of the academic literacy benefits that it provides to young readers. It is critical that emergent readers develop comprehension skills and expand their vocabulary, and interactive read-aloud is the perfect vehicle to make this happen. The authors discuss how simply reading a book to students has minimal effect on “accelerating children’s oral vocabulary development and listening comprehension” (p. 343). This approach is systematic and gives preschool and kindergarten teachers a framework to employ during their reading block so that the read aloud can do exactly what a standard read aloud is often unable to do for young readers.

It is important that early literacy educators take the time to prepare for this type of instruction. Reading through the illustrated example for Oonga Boonga (p.348-350) it is clear that teachers need to be planning their questions, selecting their vocabulary, and determining what will be a part of the book introduction before beginning each read-aloud. This preparatory work will allow early childhood educators to maximize read aloud time and the potential for increasing oral comprehension and developing vocabulary. It is also important that preschool and kindergarten teachers select high quality books that are sophisticted and not predictable in order for this method to be effective.

      To end, I would like to share a video that does an excellent job of modeling the first interactive read-aloud in a kindergarten classroom in line with the article we read this week. The teacher shows how dramatic gestures, pointing to salient parts of the illustration, and inserting a word explanation while reading (p.344) are all ways to support her students' vocabulary development. She also models thinking aloud, even having the students practice sentence starters that they can use to answer during reading and after reading questions with a partner. 

        

McGee, L. M., & Schickedanz, J. A. (2007, May). Repeated interactive read-alouds in preschool and kindergarten. International Reading Association, 60(8), 343-351. 

Literacy Autobiography

              From the earliest age that I can recall I remember my parents encouraging me to read. My dad used to read Goodnight Moon to me nightly when I was going to sleep. Eventually he has told me that I would pretend to be reading the book back to him without even looking at the words. When I was little I had to take a nebulizer before bed and the only way I would sit still for him to administer the medication was if he would read to me during the process. Besides being read to from birth, I also remember seeing my parents as readers.   I remember a dialogue between my dad and I that went something like this. I asked my dad “What are you doing?” He replied, “I am reading.” To which I asked, “How can you be reading? I don’t hear you.” Once I understood that reading didn’t have to be out loud, I would want to be a part of the experience with my dad. When he finished a section he would give it to me to “read” and I would try to mimic the way he held it up.  

             I do not remember exactly how or when I learned to read, but I do not recall any struggles and I was excited to read in my free time. Upon entering kindergarten I had the basics down because I remember getting special stickers for knowing the alphabet and being able to write my name. My parents supported my reading journey in school by constantly reading with me at home. Trips to the library with my dad and brother were common weekend endeavors growing up, and even though I now read on a digital reader, I will often go to the library or a book store to add books I want to read to the list I keep on my phone. 

            Throughout elementary school I prepared book reports on bare books. These reports required a combination of reading and writing skills. We would read a book as a book club and then prepare a variety of pages like character profiles, summaries, and illustrations. In early elementary school I recall creating one of these reports for a Judy Blume book. I enjoyed reading the book and even more presenting my work to my classmates. In general my memories of literacy in elementary school were positive. In reflection I feel that these early positive literacy experiences allowed me to be eager to read in middle school and high school.

            As I entered middle school I began to see the shift between learning to read and reading to learn. Of course at the time I didn't realize this was happening, but there was much less time spent in class learning active reading strategies and more time spent reading content area texts in order to gain information. Every class besides English had a textbook, and while most of the reading was done at home, the expectation was that we were reading because texts assessed what we learned in class and what we read. In English class where we read novels there was never a choice of what we read. We all read To Kill a Mockingbird in seventh grade and Romeo and Juliet in eighth grade. My independent reading wavered somewhat at this time because of the academic reading demands, but I did not develop a distaste for reading. 

           In high school reading became a part of every course I took. I recall reading in my science and social studies classes in preparations for assessments and at times even in class. The heaviest reading workload I had was during AP U.S. History. The textbook was quite dense and I do not remember the teacher giving us any specific strategies for how to best read it. I recall taking a lot of notes as I read and creating outlines for each of the chapters. I think that this strategy for tackling the text came from conversations I had with upperclassmen who had already taken the class. I don't recall much active engagement with the text. The work in class ranged from debates to simulations and analyzing primary source documents rather than reading, but the success of the activities seemed to depend on whether or not we had done the reading. 

            By college, reading became a necessity to be a successful student. Most of my reading was class material and most of my writing was nonfiction to fit a particular assignment. As a competent reader and writer I was able to use the skills I had gained throughout my literacy development to be successful in my college courses. I try, even with my reading for graduate school and PLCs at work, to always be reading a fiction book of my own. I enjoy historical fiction, especially books that took place during the holocaust or slavery times. Some I have enjoyed recently are Wench, Sarah's Key, The Kitchen House, and The Baker's Daughter. Most recently I read the realistic fiction book Kitchens of the Great Midwest over the summer. 
          As a fourth grade reading teacher I use my positive and true experiences with reading to connect with my students. This year I began a system where we display what we are reading in a library envelope and I have included one for myself and my student teacher. Currently mine lists the textbook for our graduate class. I explained to my students that even as an adult I am still a reader and reading is a critical part of my life and success as a teacher. Making reading a shared experiences allows some reluctant readers to "buy in" and helps to shape their early reading lives. I do not remember a specific teacher who did this for me, but reading was never a chore and I hope to develop the same mindset in my students. 

Module 6: Assessment

       Teachers spend their entire day teaching students. They teach content, skills and strategies, and even how to reflect. In order to ensure that students are actually learning what is being taught, it is critical that they are assessed in some way. Many assessments are districtwide or part of a packaged curriculum, but there are also assessments conducted informally during every lesson that help pave the path of instruction. The results of these assessments can determine students' achievement and be used to improve this achievement by shifting the instruction in the classroom or level of support as needed.

              According to the National Institute of Literacy (2007) formative assessments are the most useful in determining whether students met the objective for individual lessons in the curriculum. These assessments are considered formative "evidence from them is used to adapt instruction to meet student needs” (p.28). In the end this is what I feel assessment should be for; to make sure that students are meeting a lesson's objective and to adjust instruction accordingly if not. Using questioning as a gage of skill development and process is one of the most meaningful types of assessments we have access to as teachers. Asking the right questions can not only reveal whether students understand a concept, but also whether are not they are using a reading skill or strategy effectively. A teacher might ask students to turn and talk to answer "What does the word isolation mean?" and then write on a post-it "How did you figure out the meaning of the word isolation?" The answer to the first question would reveal content understanding and the second strategy use (p. 28).

            Tamara L. Jetton and Patricia A. Alexander (2001) introduce us to another type of assessment: interest assessment. There are two types of interest that teachers should be aware of and attempt to assess; individual interest and situational interest. Individual interest “represents a concern that reaches deeply into an individual’s cognitive and affective nature,” while “Situational interest, is evoked from the immediate environment and can be more temporal or fleeting.... In other words, this manifestation of arousal is not linked to an individual’s sense of self as much as to the attributes of the current situation or context” (p. 305). What this means is students might be interested because they feel the content personally connects to or affects them or their interest stems from the engagement they are getting from the content or way it is being presented. Interest is important because it often determines the level at which students will comprehend. High levels of interest in reading materials have been linked to deeper levels of comprehension (p. 308). Interest can best be assessed through a think aloud, but this process is not perfect. However teachers choose to do so, knowing students' interest level and catering the content and presentation of material to meet student interest can help ensure they are learning what is being taught.

  

            While much of the work of assessing students, especially informally falls on the classroom teacher, the reading specialist also plays a part. Reading specialists have a critical importance in schools from the elementary to the secondary level. Their work can range from providing direct student support, working with teachers to find ways to support individual students or ways to improve the curriculum to meet the needs of all students, and working with administrators in designing curriculum and assessment. Often this results int he administration of diagnostic assessments, which according to Jetton and Alexander can determine students current level of reading ability and how that ability stacks up to grade level expectations. In addition, these assessments can be used to "design instruction that integrates information learned in steps one through four and that results in content and literacy development" (p. 30).

            When it comes to assessments, reading specialists have the additional goal of making sure that the summative assessments a school is choosing truly assesses what is being taught. In the video module by the Wisconsin DPI featuring Laura Adams and Barb Novac, I was introduced to the idea of conducting a Literary Assessment Review. In a Literary Assessment Review teachers, specialists, coaches, and administrators get together to discuss the state of assessments in the district. Rather than looking at assessments broadly they determine their purpose for a review from the onset. One such purpose could be to look at the content of the assessment and ensure that what is being assessed matches the objectives for the school or the greater common core standards. Once the purpose is established the team specifies grade levels they will be considering when looking at assessments and then lists all assessments. Once this base work is done, details are then listed about each assessment and analyzed by the team. The team then makes a plan for improving the assessments as needed. 

              In my district the common assessments used in literacy from kindergarten through fifth grade are Teacher's College Running Records, quarterly Writing on Demand graded according to rubrics from Lucy Calkins, Words Their Way inventories, and Prose Constructed Responses graded according to the PARCC rubric. It is important that the reading specialist understands each of these assessments and what the "Meeting Grade Level" expectations are for each assessment at each grade level. Once specialists are aware of the expectation, they need to know what can be done for students who are not meeting the standard on any of these assessments and whether the responsibility for providing that intervention lies on the teacher the specialist or some other support staff in the building. 

        For curriculum decisions data from all of the sources along with anecdotal data from teachers shared at curriculum meetings is used. One example is that the "Meeting Grade Level" standard for narrative writing was changed based on a consensus across teachers and the numbers that expecting students in fourth grade to write at a level 10 in September and a level 10 again in June didn't make sense. Since most of the students who had scored a 10 in June scored at a 9 in September, the expectation was adjusted. The types of narrative skills taught throughout the year were also adjusted with the first unit being more of a repeat of third grade with a few lessons on different types of endings for stories. In June students were taught about flashbacks, foreshadowing, and varying dialogue tags, all skills that would help students to score a 10. 

  

      The only data used for student decisions in ILA are running records. The only way students can receive basic skills support in reading, unless they qualify for special education services, is if their running record score for the end of the quarter is "Below Grade Level." In fourth grade students are supposed to be reading at a level Q for the end of third quarter. To receive additional support from the reading specialist they must be at a level O or lower. While I understand there needs to be a cut off, there are some students that might be at a P running record, but need to support in writing about their reading or students who have stalled at level P for multiple quarters. With the way the system is currently designed, these students are not pulled or supported by the reading specialist at all. 

     In conclusion, assessments are a very interesting part of the educational system, especially at the elementary level. They should be constantly evolving and used to inform instruction. The specialist in the schools should not only understand the formative assessments and how to support students who do not meet expectations, but they should also be a liaison to curriculum supervisors in sharing how assessments or curriculum need to be modified for student success. Results on assessments can reveal gaps in instruction and curriculum that need to be addressed. 

Module 4: Writing

         It has been well established across current research and the Common Core State Standards that the job of teaching literacy no longer rests solely in the hands of the ILA or English teacher. This is true for reading and vocabulary development, along with writing. Content area teachers must be infusing writing assignments and instruction in their classes, and at the elementary level, writing must exist across the day and content areas. As Dr. Paul Rodgers shares in this video about content area writing, teachers in the content area are going to have to take some responsibility to teach writing. Students must be engaged and motivated to want to write in the content area. To do this they must see writing as a key component in their success as a science, social studies, or math student.

       One way to increase this motivation and engagement, is to add in an aspect of competition. Douglas Fischer and Nancy Frey (2013) introduce the idea of power writing in their article titled "A Range of Writing Across the Content Areas." In this approach, the teacher puts a word or phrase on the board and gives students one minute to write about it. After writing they identify any errors in their writing and count their words. This procedure is repeated 2-3 more times in the same class session, potentially about another word or phrase related to the course content. At the end of the period students plot their highest word count in a place where they keep a running graph for the year (p. 97). While the authors do not explicitly say so, the students are competing with themselves to increase their writing fluency each day and have a graph to show for their growth.

      This strategy also motivates and engages students because of the impact that power writing has on the comprehension of the content. Many of the students who were exposed to this writing strategy noted that they really didn't have many thoughts or deep understanding about the topic before they began writing (p.97). By allowing the students to focus their learning and respond to a concept from class, they are engaged in making meaning and ensuring understanding. Teachers would often respond to students' writing in the form of a conference or follow-up lesson based on areas of needs that are revealed through their error analysis and their responses. This type of support is individualized and responsive to students needs so this can hopefully motivate them to take ownership of their own work.

    Another way to engage students is to gradually release responsibility when it comes to writing tasks. This can be done through shared and interactive writing, that Fischer and Frey explore later in the article. In shared writing the teacher transcribes what the students are saying, while in interactive writing the students and teacher work together to discuss ideas and then the students write the final product (p.97-98). Both of these strategies can work across the content areas. In science, the classes might complete a shared or interactive writing for a claim they could make about a content area, or in social studies, to summarize a new concept or event that they learned about in that particular class period.

     In "Teaching Adolescent ELs to Write Academic-Style Persuasive Essays," Kathleen Ramos (2014) talks specifically about working with non-native English speakers and developing their academic written language. She introduces an approach for teaching specific genres of writing called the Reading to Learn approach. “This approach centers on the notion of guided interaction in the context of shared experience in which teachers 'make visible' the language resources that function to create meanings in school valued genres" (p. 656). Teachers explicitly introduce language resources that students should be using as they write, unpack a model text in the genre together, write together, and eventually write independently. In this case the progression focused on writing persuasive essays about amnesty for illegal immigrants, but I feel this genre-based pedagogy could be used to teach any type of academic writing. Student motivation and engagement levels were high because of how involved they were in developing their own understanding and learning in each step of the process.

In a secondary content area classroom, the same procedure could be used to teach how to write a formal lab report. The teacher would begin by helping the students to build background knowledge about the topic of the lab in the "Building Field Stage." Once they had developed vocabulary and a comfort level with the concepts they would move into the "Preparing to Read Stage" where they would become familiar with the structure of a lab report by reading lab reports that would serve as mentor text and discussing what is common among all of them. The teacher would be sure to have reports that likely show the introduction, hypothesis, materials, procedure, results, discussion, and conclusion. The teacher would need to teach them explicitly about the type of language used in a scientific lab report and then closely read the report color coding the language that they find that meets the criteria.

At this point the students would be ready to write. Their first lab report, according to the series of stages laid out by Ramos, should be an interactive writing for the teacher and the class or a small group of students. The class might perform an experiment, for example how does fertilizer affect plant growth, and then work together to write up the results. This is called the "Joint Construction Stage." During this time the teacher is able to give feedback and coach the students towards the desired written product, based on the assessment tool that he or she would need to create. Teachers and students move through a series of steps known as "Focus, Propose, Affirm, Elaborate, and Direct," where the teacher is supporting their students in moving towards independent writing in a particular genre (p. 662). Finally, students are ready to write a lab report independently in the final stage "The Individual Construction Stage."

Module 2: Comprehension

       As an elementary teacher I have been really intrigued to see the prevalence of a gradual release model in many of the resources I have looked at for this class. I always felt as a student that there was very little modeling and guided practice in the secondary classroom, but the research seems to point to the power of these practices to increase student comprehension and vocabulary development in the content area class. Across the board I saw a theme emerge of the need for modeling and guided practice before students are able to complete a comprehension or vocabulary task independently. This was true in the Vanderbilt resource and the article I read.
   
    When looking at the Vanderbilt resource I learned the importance of selecting the right words to be taught and supporting students in the active processing of these words. According to Paul Beavers, it is critical that students are having input in what words are taught, based on the holes in their understanding, and their background knowledge is activated. Anita Archer, who was featured often in the resource, explicitly drew connections between vocabulary words and content area concepts so that students had a context for which to understand the new information. Students should also be taught how to use the text to derive meaning and begin to develop a self-awareness of when text does not make sense due to a lack of vocabulary. It is not an effective practice to give students a list of de-contextualized words and expect them to memorize their meaning.

         The online resource then moved on to talk about comprehension. They began by discussing activating prior knowledge, stating the merits of previewing reading material and using short video clips to expose students to requisite materials. From there the module moved on to monitoring comprehension, and teaching students how to do so. Students can monitor their comprehension by stopping to chunk and summarize as they read, generating the main idea of a section of text, and using "fix-up" strategies when they realize they are not comprehending effectively. Graphic organizers can be used as well and should be chosen based on the teacher's goals and the text type of structure. Even in fourth grade students learned that compare and contrast texts warrant a Venn Diagram, while time lines are more useful for taking notes about chronological texts. Finally, having students generate questions as viable and beneficial strategies to increase comprehension.

       I am going to focus on the final strategy that was introduced in the Vanderbilt resource: answering questions using a QAR strategy because that was the topic of the article I read. In Using Collaboration, Co-Teaching, and Question Answer Relationships to Enhance Content Area Literacy, Fenty et. al. (2012) share a strategy known to help students with knowing how to answer questions properly and how and when to use the text for support. The article specifically talks about how the strategy can support readers with a LD classification receiving the majority of their instruction in a mainstream setting, but it was also used with the non-classified students in the classes.

     Mrs. Hunt, a special education teacher profiled in the article, stresses the importance of collaboration with the general education teacher in introducing and supporting use of the QAR strategy. The teachers need to see themselves as equal players in the planning and instructional duties, each bringing an expertise to the table. Typically the special education teacher is more adept in strategy usage and the classroom teacher in content knowledge. With a solid team the strategy can be extremely effective (p.32). According to the article, "Researchers who have examined the use of QAR have found student improvements in deciphering types of comprehension questions, answering comprehension questions, and overall comprehension ability" (p.30).

       

      As shown above, the types of comprehension questions the authors refer to are first split into to big categories "In the Book" and "In Your Head." For the "In the Book" questions the text is used explicitly, while "In Your Head" questions may rely entirely on the reader's own experiences, as is the case for "On Your Own" questions. From there each category is divided even further with the text based questions either having the answers all in one place (Right There) or scattered across the text (Think & Search). Besides "On Your Own Questions," the reader might have to make an inference using their own knowledge and clues from the text (Author & You). Knowing the type of question will help support the reader in answering the question correctly, which was a commonly observed problem for struggling readers in the content area question.

     Mrs. Hunt used the QAR across content area classrooms and had lessons beginning with the most teacher support and eventually allowing students to identify the type of question and answer the questions independently. Throughout students were expected to articulate their thinking, both about the answer to the question and rationale for categorizing a question in a certain way. Even when students were eventually ready to complete a QAR task independently after seeing the skill modeled and engaging in guided practice, they still met with a partner or small group after to share their work and explain their process (p.36). QAR can be used by teachers of all content areas, and for the sake of the students comprehension skill development and ability to learn from nonfiction texts, it is important that they do so.