Chapter 13 Discussion Group Leader- Nikolette Edge Group members- Stephanie Garcia, Jason Henderson, Alyssia Harper, Elizabeth

Franks, Nikolette Edge Jason p.223--It important to start with basics of what reading incorporates. Not every kid that comes to your class is up to par when it comes to reading skills. However, we can provide an atmosphere that encourages reading and demonstrate to them the importance of knowing how to read. I've had kids that we below reading level, but would always volunteer to read in class. p.227--It is interesting to note the link between modern, digital media to that of traditional texts. Kids are overwhelmed daily with the digital media, but often do not connect the similarities that exist between them. Also, at what point is it damaging to them with the short-hand wording and lingo of digital media and managing the correct grammar in classroom procedures? p.234--Reading strategies are numerous. It's about like anything else, we just have to pick a few good ones and do them well. Going back to the routine excerpt, the more students do the same process, the easier that task gets. Reading is just like anything else we do, the more we do it, the better we get at it. Something else I do for the kids at the beginning of the year is show them a slide that has many different scary items and I explain to them that reading is similar to most, in that it scares us. Then I show them a slide that has humorous or everyday activities and tell them that reading can be the same experience. Elizabeth pg. 223 Digital Literacy: Teachers now need to teach digital literacy as a part of literacy programs. Many of my students come to the U.S. with little or no computer skills, let alone digital literacy. I have to teach them how to turn on and off the computer as well as how to use a mouse pad. After they have learned the basics, I jump right into digital literacy. They have a lot of catching up to do. Literacy will help students learn digital literacy and vice versa. pg. 225 Least Dangerous Assumption: The example of Ruth was interesting. She was thought to be unteachable until she moved to a new school. There she was treated as capable and she learned to read and write in three years. I like the statement, Ruth had not changed; her context had changed. As teachers, we are to make the assumption will cause the least bit of damage, thereby giving students the best chance possible. pg. 231 Access to Independent Reading Level: All of my students are struggling readers. I have middle school students who read at a kindergarten/first grade level. I have curriculum that supports this (low reading levels but middle school appropriate). But there are few books available to older students that read at a low level. If you pull first grade books for them, they are reading about talking bunnies and ducks. No middle school student wants that. I have found a couple of companies that sell high interest/low reading level books. These are books about topics that interest middle schoolers, but on their level. I will be adding some of these books to my classroom library next year so that students can read something interesting independently and at their level. This will boost confidence as well as expose them to vocabulary and grammar as well as a positive reading experience.

Alyssia P-226-Having lots of options and a wide range of interest present help engage students. I love seeing what kind of books my students will pick out and I feel that this also allows me to get to know them a little better. P-231-I like the idea of thinking of literacy as a web rather than a ladder. I think that this will open the door for for successes for students. Also ensuring that we set them up for success by having material that they will be able to comprehend and is on their reading level will not only help them become more fluent readers but will also boost their confidence when reading. Pg. 238 Narrative 13.1 While in 3rd grade something similar happened with our class. Our teacher read with us for 20 minutes after lunch and our entire class would be so excited to listen to the story. She read books like "Holes" and "Tuck Everlasting". Most importantly they were stories that caught our interest and held it. Young Adult might be one of the best things for reading in schools! Stephanie p. 225 Teachers can't always help that parents don't have book access at home. But there are ways that teachers can help in our buildings. We can "provide a range of reading materials, instruction that supports student skills and desire to read, expert instruction that models and teaches comprehension, and understand the complexity of the students." Most of our students don't have that access outside of school, so we need to show them how to access it inside our buildings. p. 227 Digital Media: Being a teacher in a technology-integrated classroom, I have seen pros and cons of digital media. Yes, the students sometimes get overwhelmed and assume anything on the internet must be true. But I like the point of students being able to dig deeper into subjects. An example: our next unit we are tackling in science is the systems of the body. So I am letting the students become the teachers on a specific system of the body in groups. They first had to use their textbook to find information, but then I let them use their classroom laptops to dig a little deeper into their system. Using the technology and media sources is a different topic that does have to be learned by the students first. p. 228 RTI: Our school has implemented RTI this year, even though we are just working through the kinks. Our students are broken up into small groups based on the 80-15-5 method. There are some students that are worked with on a daily basis for reading comprehension. Then there is a group that is worked with a few times a week, and then the remainder stay in our regular classrooms for reteaching/retesting time. Being at a middle school level, this RTI time has been wonderful to see showing students that reading doesn't just stop after elementary school. Nikolette p. 227 Digital Media: Some students need visual and background information in order to get meaning from a text. I like the fact that digital media does help with this, but I also know that students then must be able to judge whether they are receiving reliable information or not. p. 228 Response to Intervention: Richard Allington says we should tailor our instruction to the individual student. This sounds like one- on- one tutoring, not teaching twenty-five students at a time. Even if using small groups this would be incredibly time consuming. Hopefully, he intends for us to try several strategies with a group and find ones that work.

p.231 Access to independent Reading Level: We know that students read at many different levels and that social studies and science books are written on a level that some students are unable to read. High stakes testing requires that we teach certain curriculum and the vocabulary itself is difficult. How can we as teachers make these textbooks accessible to all students and still have time to sleep? p. 235 Teach Strategies: When grouping students I have learned that when pairing students that are at different reading levels, it is important to make sure the gap in levels is not too great. The students need to feel like they can all contribute. When the gap is too great, one student is invariably waiting for the other to give the right answer. Also, I like the five finger rule for deciding whether a book is too difficult for a student. I will use this one.