Learning about reading and the many different processes, skills, methods, and models have shifted my thinking to how much more I need to learn. Reading for school, work, pleasure and or on social media all contribute to my current reading practices coupled with the controversial secretary of education, Betsy Devos. With a divided country suggesting that Devos IS the best candidate for the position and on the opposing side suggesting that she is NOT the appropriate candidate for the job. Either way for the time being she IS the person responsible for federal policies and programs.

In the article, Summary of The Politics of Literacy By David Davenport and Jeffrey M. Jones outlines the pre-Devos era and delves into the history of the N.C.L.B act and investigates the opposite philosophies of our current Secretary of Education’s views and focuses on the Federal education reform policy created by George Bush Jr. The many, many pages of the N.C.L.B act shaped and shapes the way public school reading is designed. Ensuring that educators are held accountable teachers must qualify as“highly qualified” in their content area and school districts must demonstrate progress on their PAY Adequate Progress from year to year.

Reflecting on my work with younger students I try to learn as much as I can about the children while collecting baseline data. One measure I found particularly useful in the research was the journal article, A test for assessing Phonemic Awareness in Young Children by Hallie Kay Yopp. The evidence suggested in the research states that strong phonemic awareness may contribute to the latter stages of a developed reader. Adding more tools to a tool belt supports educators and their ability to support complex students!

Fast and furious was the theme of the coursework from the semester. Reading and re-reading research articles, making sense of theorists and making connections pioneered my “almost” 8-week marathon race. Summarizing and applying the brain processes needed to work properly in order for reading to happen is almost mind-boggling. My perception of brain functions was not entirely wrong rather learning to identify correlating research and using the research to support ideas is an enormous takeaway. Articulating thoughtfully and clearly current practices guided from research-based studies has supported my growth as a literacy educator.

      Phonemic awareness is defined as one of the components that assist with reading and spelling comprehension. Research suggests that the acquisition of identifying sounds in a word lays the framework for phonics, then growing into fluency and encoding skills. Researchers have suggested that educators of early education programs introduce, practice and then teach their students to apply phonemic awareness skills in order to support early emerging literacies.

       The Yopp-Singer assessment identifies students abilities to break down phonemes in a word then used as a predictor of future reading achievement. In the test, teachers are given various words to read aloud to students and in return, the students are expected to identify the individual sounds in those particular words. The 22 question-based assessment predicts future reading achievement as evident through the research.

      Measuring the validity of the Yopp-Singer assessment the study incorporates a sampling of a group of kindergartners in a middle-income school district located in southern California.  Overall, the study earned a high score indicating that the test was tried and true. Another study measuring the Yopp-Singer’s integrity consists of a group of youngsters reading achievement throughout their elementary careers. The focus of the study connects the Yopp-Singer assessment to both a nonsense word reading test and some of the subtests from a normed referenced standardized test proving the validity of the phonemic awareness assessment.

       Implementing the Yopp-Singer assessment along with norm-referenced screenings will provide early elementary educators and related services information that will assist with student programming. Identifying phonemic awareness abilities and deficits will provide professionals with the information needed for tailored literacy services. If a student presents himself with strong abilities to recognize sounds in word that student may have acquired the beginning thread of know-how in order to connect the next bridge in literacy; phonics skills. Or perhaps a student may present himself with the inability to recognize sounds in the middle sounds of words. The educator will tailor the instructor to support that area of weakness in order to build fluent phonemic recognition. Early education providers are charged with the task of assessing phonemic awareness skills in order to begin supporting the early emergent reader. Integrating the Yopp-Singer assessment method will help educators plan their instruction.

Mindfulness is a practice I integrate into my everyday teaching. Guiding students to practice the skill of living in the moment supports students abilities to think about their own thinking while learning. In the article, Metacognition by Nancy Chick explores the higher order thinking skill of Metacognition while discovering and learning problem solving approaches.

Teaching the art of metacognition requires students to look at complex situations while reflecting on their own abilities. Students who are presented with arduous tasks may pause and think about what effective way(s) to approach the problem and why. Teaching reading, particularly in the High school years students, is often charged with the task of explaining how they came to their point while reflecting on how they got there. Meaningful questioning exercises students know how connecting what they know about a particular topic to what they hope to learn about a subject. More so, guiding students to discover their errors and why those errors occurred also builds metacognitive skills. This practice can be connected to any content area in almost any disciplines.

Guiding students to recognize what skills they are stronger and weaker may shape how they acquire information. For instance, if students realize they learn best while reading students may initiate learning tasks that are visually centered. This newly acquired skill may then be scaffolded and connected to something they already know.

Overall, it is important to recognize that teaching metacognition should be explicitly taught however this art should be practiced daily in order to apply it to academic, social and even emotional circumstances.

I have always admired those who have to take the path less traveled. Creating channels supporting underperforming students literacy achievements reflects the work of the In2Books program from the District of Columbia’s Public School District. The In2Books program otherwise referred to as the 12B program displays a concentrated study of literacy programming in urban educational settings focusing on grades 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

The study focused on teachers implementing a pen pal exchange between students and their appointed professionals. The goal was to connect both parties through their letter exchanges while engaging students in literacy-rich activities, whereas, practicing listening and speaking skills, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing based activities through a continuous cycle. Teachers closely monitored the growth of the relationships between the students and pen pal professionals while assigning culminating activities based off of a writing workshop approach that reinforces specific research-based ways on writing letters.

The study compared veteran educators who implemented the 12B project to non-veteran 12B educators. The research measured achievement using the Stanford Achievement Test 9th edition (SAT-9), a nationally normed reading assessment, that analyzes both explicit and implicit questioning in addition to multiple reading comprehension subtests. The study showed 2nd year Veteran teachers students achieved higher scores in grade 2, 3 a 4 than non-12B teachers’ students (Teale and Gambrell 2007, p.731). In addition, students of first-year teachers who implemented the 12B program scored higher in grades 3 and 4, however, scores were equivalent in grades 2 whether or not the 12B program was implemented (Teale and Gambrell 2007, p.731).

The concept of creating pen pal relationships modeling off of the 12B program is a meaningful way of creating relationships while focusing on writing skills. Utilizing this framework as a way of teaching writing allows student exploration while building activities off of what they are already accomplishing!

The title of the article, Learning About Literacy A 30-Year Journey is exactly that. Authors David Pearson and Diane Stephens begin their expedition in the early 1960’s and drop off somewhere in the mid-nineties leaving its audiences inundated with scholarly theories, questionable practices, and policy reforms.

Spearheading the 30-year journey begins with the linguists.  Linguists believed reading was a language process. Linguists explored language learning within the context of individuals own oral and written expressions. In and around the height of the linguist movement Dr. Noam Chomsky theorized the transformation of language structures.  Citing evidence that language comprehension could not be attributed to the cluster of like words in a sentence. Rather he believed people were wired to acquire language in the environment where they lived.

The next main emphasis of study discovered youngsters inventing their own rules about how they perceived oral language. In other words, children were active participants in their own language. Making up their own rules; adding and or omitting sounds on the end of words or using the wrong tense of a verb.

Another perspective into language acquisition can be based upon the three cue systems. Semantic cues inferring clues within reading, syntactic cues made up of word rules, patterns and grammar and graph phonemes the recognition of letters, sound to letter relationship and letter to sound correspondence. This approach followed a “hands-on” method. Children being the revolutionaries behind their own reading!

One of the most highlighted perspectives from the research evolves from the Psychological point of view of learning. The highly acclaimed schema theory states that all knowledge is organized into units which then goes into memory storage. Schemata represent knowledge relating to objects and the relationship with those particular objects. Connecting one schema to another readers are storing information and strengthening comprehension skills.  Building new knowledge on top of previous knowledge is a practice I use and have used for quite some time. The active and mindful approach allows students to identify relationships, causes and reinforces critical thinking skills in readers.

One of my favorite takeaways from the research poses questions that invite debate, unsettledness sprinkled with a bit of inspiration that could quite possibly continue the 30-year journey. One particular example of contention relates to assessment. On one end I acknowledge the need for meaningful authentic assessment and on the other end swallowing the current testing models that are used in some educational settings feel irrelevant and unworthy of the testee.  Although a topic as such is of course not objective rather quite subjective. I deem it highly necessary to ensure the assessment reflects a diverse collection of student works. Collaborating with colleagues, using both formal and informal means of assessment in addition to creating a portfolio of instruction correlating to what the student is being tested on.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton