Using Reader’s Theater to Develop Reading Fluency

My class has been doing a lot of reader’s theater relating to our Fairy Tale theme. Students are working very well together and even the reluctant readers are participating well. Some of the parts have only a few lines or words, while other parts are spoken together. Consequently I feel this enables my reluctant readers to feel more successful but also less self conscious. Our goal has been to develop expression and fluency. Reader’s theater in one strategy I have found effective in getting students to reread and practice the same passage over and over again while keeping them engaged and working cooperatively with others. Having gone over the rubric for reading fluency, each student is aware of what they are striving toward. Most are able to tell me what they liked about their reading and what they think they could improve on. I’ve been pleased with everyone’s effort.

Looking Back At Research

For each field study I have done a great amount of research and reading. Even articles that turned out not to be relevant to my field study got me thinking and making connections to my own teaching practice and how I can incorporate the ideas into my classroom. I find myself making connections to articles on what is happening in education, in newspapers and in the news. For example, recently the news has reported on gender differences in learning styles and how boys are lagging behind girls particularly in reading. Research articles directed and impacted how I conducted my field study immensely. For example, I developed literacy centers to incorporate more differential learning in my class and reading about how teachers have evaluated reading fluency has helped me develop assessment that works for my classroom as well I have begun using ipods more often in practicing reading and oral language.

Most of my research comes form Ebsco and Google Scholar. There are other research resources but I have been overwhelmed just by the material available on these two sites. I find that I am reading articles about different topics and interests so much so that I lose track of time. When I am planning my lessons I reflect back on my research and try to implement the ideas, for example, research defines one element of fluency as the ability to read smoothly in a specific amount of time. I am encouraging students to practice repeated readings to improve their fluency rate. I now have a fluency scale to score students' reading.

Vygotsky's zone of proximity resonates with me often as I reflect at how my students are learning. When I read an article, in the back of my mind I am thinking about Howard Rheingold's "crap detection" and using a critical lens to sift out was is factual.
There isn't anyone author I've followed, I have relied on authors suggested in my course work and by following bibliographies or links found during my field study research. As well, I have found the PLC groups helpful, a few of my favorites are Edutopia, Tom Barrett on twitter, and Classroom 2.0.

I enjoy reading articles more than research papers. I see myself continuing to read articles on trends and topics I am interested in. I probably won't do as much reading but I think I will continue to make it a part of my professional development.

A New Wondering

In the last few months I have noticed how much my students have enjoyed Reader's Theater. Even my more reluctant readers are engaged and seem to be enjoying their time reading. I also am enjoying the oral reading technique. Students are receptive to instruction, and willing to do repeated readings. I have been doing some reading on the use of reader's theater in the classroom to develop oral reading fluency. There is some suggestion that it is a strategy that also develops comprehension because the students is focussed less on decoding and more on the meaning. I will be incorporating reader's theater more often over the next few weeks as part of a balanced literacy program. My hope is to re-ignite the love of reading in students whose attitude toward reading has become more negative over the years because they don't see themselves as "good" readers. I'll let you know how it is coming along.

Research Article

I've been doing a lot of reading on differentiated literacy instruction for my field study. I am looking at differential learning through the use of literacy centers that accommodate the learning styles and interests of boys and girls. One article is titled Accommodating differences: variations in differentiated literacy instruction in Grade 2/3 classrooms by Ruthanne Tobin and Alison McInnes. The article addresses how to support student's literacy needs with differentiated instruction (DI) and the varied approaches to DI. Teachers provided more scaffolding for struggling literacy learners by offering a variety of tiered work products, tutoring, and additional supports. Two teachers were discussed, each one approaching DI in a different way. One teacher gives her students book bundles. She teaches a skill to all the students and the students have the same activity but a varying degrees of difficulty. The second teacher used literacy centers. The articles have changed my practice in that it made me reflect on the organization of my class and whether is promotes literacy for boys and girls. As well, I wondered how my teaching practice was accommodating the literacy needs of my students and in particular the struggling learners. I began to think of literacy centers that would engage grade three students.
The article links to 2 capacities. They are:
• engage in a critical cycle of action-reflection to understand and develop your practice
• draw on educational theories, research and philosophies to inform your use of technologies to support teaching and learning

Who Owns Information on the web?

Information on the web has become a free for all. People are posting information and people are taking information. Whether the information is accurate is something the user needs to determine and also be critical of. Information on the web often has pdf files to download which implies the author would like you to access it. Personally I feel comfortable using ideas from the internet but when I do several questions come to mind such as: What is the author's intent? Is the information valid? How much should I use before it becomes plagiarizing or cheating? Now, I know I will use information keeping in mind the author's purpose for posting the content and not take a part of it and use it out of context for my own personal gain. But there will be people who use the web information out of context, for commercial use, or for reasons other than the author's original intent. Now that I know more about Creative Commons, as a teacher I will make students aware what is out there that can be used and what is protected.

How Do We Help Our Students Gather Information Using Digital Resources?

I think before students are given the opportunity to use digital media to gather information for reports etc. A lot of time should be spent front loading the activity with the skills students will need. Nobody owns the information on the web, it is public domain and most authors are no even mentioned. Therefre skills such as the ability to discern what sites would be appropriate and reliable is very important as well, vocabulary students might come across needs to be taught, and how to pick out main ideas or key words from the passages needs to be taught. Once students have a strong foundation, the next step should be for the teacher to decide what is it she/he wants the students to learn and what digital resources would effectively support the outcome and just as importantly, what digital resources are available to the teacher to use. The older the student the lesson ownership the teacher needs to take for laying out sites to visit and types of information to gather. However, regardless, the teacher will need to have clearly laid out expectations and information for students to access. Things to plan for are: predetermined sites to be used, paragraphs tagged, graphic organizers, adaptations in place for struggling students and what is going to be the final project for assessment.

Should We Use Popular Culture In Our Classroom?

I think using popular culture in the classroom can be an interesting way of capturing students' attention and engaging them in the lesson. However, like any media, whether on the internet, radio, or TV, it needs to be critically assessed by the teacher. What is the purpose of the site and it's usefulness to the lesson? Can the message be misinterpreted? Who is the intended audience of the message? Since the meaning presented in the media can be taken differently by different viewers, the teacher has a difficult job in not only justifying the use of the media to support her curriculum and lesson but ensuring that it is appropriate for her students. As well, students need to be educated to critically view media so as not to be misdirected or misinformed. It comes down to what is media literacy and how are schools going to address it? I think the Ministry of Education needs to look at developing curriculum as part of the technology outcomes, on media literacy. What do we want students to know that is appropriate for their age group? Where can teachers access resources to teach media literacy? Filtering and critically reflecting depends largely on the viewer's developmental stage. For example, preschoolers typically have media controlled by their parents while teenagers are given more freedom and are more able to grasp critically thinking skills and ideas with more understanding. It is not solely the responsibility of the teacher to develop media literacy but also of parents and the producers of the media. It is impossible to take every example and teach the embedded purpose of created media in each one. The main goal is the teach the skills for students to be able to apply them the situations on their own.