The Reading Process System

Reading Catching Readers Before They Fall has introduced me to the reading process system. Pat Johnson and Katie Keier first explore the reality those in almost all classrooms regardless of their methods and strategies have students who struggle with reading. Johnson and Keier first point out that we as instructors should look to successful readers and observe their strategies and behaviors while reading. It is then that we see that they have the ability to make sense of their reading, fix their own errors while self-monitoring, and use their background knowledge. While observing these successful readers we can deconstruct comprehension to clearly see their strategies. By doing this we can see all the different ways students construct a reading process and help struggling readers do the same.

To help struggling readers construct a reading process system teachers can model behaviors and strategies, think aloud, and share demonstrations. Some of the strategies listed in the text include predicting, self-monitoring, making connections, visualizing, questioning, and adjusting. Many of these strategies must be working simultaneously in order for them to work appropriately and create a successful reader.

Johnson and Keier also point out the importance to intervene earlier rather than later when you notice that a student is struggling. Otherwise it is easy for students to continue making mistakes and those habits become more difficult to change over time. Johnson and Keier tell us that every reader uses the same reading process. However, it is up to the educator to create an individual track for each student. While this can prove to be challenging for teachers once they see the success that tailoring for each student has they will become motivated to do so.

When trying to help a struggling reader create a reading system it is important to consider their zone of proximal development (zpd). This means that when moving forward you need to know where the students current level of ability lies and choose tasks within their abilities that will help them create strategies to help them become a proficient reader. Vygotsky introduced zpd as well as zone of actual development (zad), which is described as the tasks that a child can easily do alone. The zpd are tasks that are challenging for a child but can be accomplished with support from a teacher. Vygotsky also points out the importance of modeling the task, doing the task with the student, and eventually allowing the students to try the task independently. 

Literacy Dig

Last week I took part in a literacy dig with 5 of my peers. We chose to do this at a local co-op grocery store. During this literacy dig we observed all the different forms of literacy within the store. This included items such as instructional signage, price labels, and product information. After taking 30 minutes to gather and record evidence of literacy, my group discovered that literacy is all over the store in many different forms.

We first discussed the layout of the store. The downstairs is the main shopping area where a shopper must know the culture of grocery shopping in order to navigate the area. The products are arranged in aisles with no overhead signage to indicate what is in each aisle. Written words were used to communicate instructions, directions, labels, and advertisements. In the downstairs area we noticed basic signage as well as some signage that included vocabulary that is very specific to this location. These words included co-op, organic, gluten free, homeopathic, and non-GMO. We also observed spoken literacy between shopper, employees, shoppers on their phones, shoppers with their friends and family, and shoppers with their children. 

The upstairs area was a somewhat different environment. This area was setup much like a coffee bar with a counter for people to order coffee and snacks with tables taking over the rest of the floor space. In this area we also noticed instructional signage as well as menu items and their prices. We noticed that all menu items were written in chalk and all letters were lower case. As for spoken literature we observed many people on their laptops with a few small groups of people having conversations.

When observing people in the grocery store we noticed that they were interacting with literacy by reading the pricing information for products as well as looking at nutritional information on items. In the upstairs café area people were reading the menu to make decisions about what they wanted to order. We noticed people at the meat counter were reading the instruction on how to order. All of these items are very important for someone to read in order to make their shopping experience a success.

When comparing our literacy dig with "The Donut House: Real World Literacy in an Urban Kindergarten Classroom" by Rebecca Powell and Nancy Davidson, our group discussed what running an in-the-classroom grocery store would look like.  Students would need to create many of the same items that were needed in the doughnut shop. Students would need to create items such as a budget, newsletter, menu, letters to supplies, logos, membership cards, food labels, and instructional signs, employee manuals. Our group also discussed how they if using this grocery store in the same project as the doughnut shop you could bring in people from the local community to help the students such as a banker, farmer, graphic designer, financial planner, a member of city council, a chef, and a nutritionist. 

Welcome

Welcome to my Reading and Language Arts blog. My name is Ashley, and I am studying to become an elementary school teacher. The purpose of this blog will be for me to share ideas and information about early childhood literacy. Stay tuned!