Read Blog 4

Erica Scully
The readings assigned this week were focused on word study for
children in the letter- name alphabetic stage and comprehension. Both
Words their Way and Classrooms that Work gave valuable insight on
how teachers can help further progress literacy development by
modeling, practice, and reinforcement. Reading about literacy
development of students in the Letter- Name alphabetic stage was
interesting because I was placed in a first grade practicum classroom
last fall; therefore I was able to make a lot of solid connections
between the chapter and my real life experiences. One thing that really
stuck out to me about this stage of development is the significance
emphasis that is placed on forming a concept of word and mastering
the use of high-frequency vocabulary. Before reading chapter 5 I had
never heard of the two levels of concept of words in textrudimentary and firm. I learned that rudimentary concept of word
is the beginning stage where students often use memory and the very
beginning of constants to help them read very simple texts, while firm
concept of word demonstrates a more sophisticated ability to self
correct and locate sight words. I believe that these two phases of
reading are important for teachers to study because students can be in
the same overall stage of word study (letter name-alphabetic stage),
but still be progressing at different levels within that stage.

One idea from chapter 7 in Classrooms that Work that I intend to

use in my future classroom is Think- Alouds when fostering
comprehension growth. In order to teach comprehension skills teachers
have to demonstrate the significance of simultaneously thinking about
what they are reading while they read it. I feel that this concept can be
extremely difficult to teach without some sort of concrete
representation on the type of thinking that should be done. Chapter 7
gave a lot of great insight on starting sentences to get students
thinking such as this reminds me ofI wonder ifSo far I have
learned thatI can imagine what its like to etc. It is important for
teachers to model this strategy out loud to the class before they can
do it themselves when they read independently. I have started to see
some of this done in my third grade practicum placement this year
which is exciting to be able to make the connections.