Battles of Students vs Curriculum-Based Instruction

Every day of the school year, educators are faced with battling student needs as well as demands of the curricular placed on them by the administration. Many quickly become overwhelmed as they push through the curricula but also see that their students need more than the allotted time to fully understand a concept being presented. The pressure then builds as peers are moving their classes on in curricula along with students and teachers both exhibiting stress over all that is expected to be covered in short periods of time. Often there is a split between teachers who throw up their hands and say, “My students come first;” and teachers who say, “We have to get this done.” All this does is lead to teaching frustration for everyone: students, teachers, parents, and administrators. Have you been there or seen this? The common denominator is that everyone is there for the students and wants them to have a complete understanding of the materials. Everyone involved can be coming at the instruction from a different pedagogy. Understanding your pedagogy and your students’ needs will possibly release some of this stress. 

What is your pedagogy?  Is your instruction “student-focused or curriculum-focused?” Gaining a better understanding of each of these forms of instruction along with knowing your students’ learning styles will possibly provide you some stress relief.  Starting with student-focused instruction, the teacher or instructor evaluates what the students need to understand the material and be able to apply it in life or outside the classroom. Some of the students may need additional support, more time, or need to look at the information from a different instructional approach. The student drives the timeline and the theory behind this is that they build a stronger foundation. Skills that are added later should not need as much time to master because they are able to use their applied knowledge. If you are more “curriculum-focused” the instruction is driven by the publisher? There are variables built into most curricula to deal with a large range of different instructional situations. Classroom sizes can vary from a few students to 30+ students in a class. Also, curricula may be designed for 60-minutes but schedules may only allow for 30-minutes of instruction. The real question is what is driving instruction during the day. Often teachers have one pedagogy but are working in a building where expectations are set based upon a different philosophy without them even realizing it.

When talking with teachers, the majority would probably say they are teaching because they want to help children learn. Even though that was their main reason for entering the profession, many have become very frustrated without really understanding why. Sometimes this might be because they themselves did not fully understand all the different philosophies that exist in teaching. Some might even truly believe they teach using one philosophy when really it is a completely different one. One way to find out what is driving your instruction is to STOP and LISTEN to yourself when you talk at lunch about how your class did in the morning lessons.  

Which of the following sounds the most like you?

#1 - “What a morning; we made it through the lesson. I have one group that is going to need a little more practice but the other groups seemed to be doing okay. I really liked how they were able to do a couple of problems with computers. Once we got them going the kids breezed through that center.” 

#2 - “What a morning; my class would not be quiet and listen! We needed to get that workbook page completed and I only had two students start it. They just wouldn’t listen! I’m not going to finish this unit by Friday. I do not know why they would think these students need to do problems on computers. Mine can’t even load the page.” 

Teachers who keep their focus on what the students are accomplishing and not stressing about what lesson they need to be on by Friday most often are more student-focused. They tend to be looking for better ways to serve their students and help them be successful.

Teachers who bring their frustrations about their class to the teacher’s room or to meetings tend to be curriculum focused and feel the pressure put on by the administration to have their students at a certain point by a specific date. Not realizing it, they are pushing the curriculum and their students’ behaviors digress due to lack of understanding. These teachers feel the curriculum must roll on and they hope students catch it when it spirals around again like the publisher says it will. 

Both groups would say they are there for the students. One group celebrates students’ learning while the other blames the administration for their students not learning. In many cases, teachers who change how they talk about their students with peers toward what students learn tend to have higher student success and are more positive leaders on their teams and in their buildings. The subconscious is very impactful of student learning. 

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Vocabulary, the Key to Comprehension

Language is our main form of communication, and with language comes vocabulary. Simply put vocabulary is the persons’ understanding of words being used to communicate. Vocabulary building starts at birth by the child responding to caregivers. Caregivers of young children quickly learn what different sounds and gestures that the baby makes indicating their needs. At the same time, the child is building their communication understanding and their brains continue to develop their personal vocabulary.

If you’re around young children, two to three years old, you begin to realize that many have an understanding even though their spoken vocabulary is still very limited. They are able to complete simple tasks such as, “Get your cup,” yet they are unable to say those words. This is because much of our environmental vocabulary is absorbed and applied as we experience the interaction with the activity or object. As our brains develop the skills of inference and application develop allowing our vocabulary to expand and out ability to communicate with others.

We know there is a large vocabulary gap between socioeconomic classes (Hirsch, 2003). Sparks (2013) showed that low-income children’s vocabulary entering school was between 500 and 600 words. The old school approach of teaching vocabulary by introducing the words as they are presented in the curriculum has shown that struggling students were not able to retain or use those words later in the year (Sparks, 2013). Vocabulary is something absorbed and the student does not take ownership of the word until exposure and understanding along with the application are fully experienced.  

Vocabulary is first a language skill. It begins to develop at birth and continues throughout life. Every language has its own vocabulary which ultimately leads to comprehension. Vocabulary as a reading skill plays just as important a role as comprehension. The reader needs knowledge and a base vocabulary to be able to infer words from meaning in conversations prior to using reading to build vocabulary. There is a point with every reader when the fastest way to expand vocabulary is through reading rather than conversation. Until the student has mastered their decoding and use of language inference skill they will struggle with both vocabulary and comprehension. To keep this from happening the reader has to have strong language skills so that they can then transfer them to their reading.

Students who struggle with reading will often struggle when it comes to gaining vocabulary and comprehension from text and then applying it. If you have a reader who has this struggle, you need to step back and see how strong their ability to pick up the meaning of new words is from conversations. Just because they are able to read the word and pronounce it correctly does not mean they have the ability to decipher the meaning of the word from the context of the sentence. If this is the case the reader needs additional instruction and language support.

There is no question that vocabulary is a key element to reading. Knowing the sequence in which students develop vocabulary will provide the support your students need and lead to better comprehension in their reading. So the next time you have the opportunity to work with vocabulary, stop and quickly evaluate by asking yourself, “Am I providing the type of vocabulary instruction my students need?”

References:
Hirsch, E.D., Jr. “Reading Comprehension Requires Knowledge of Words and the World: Scientific Insights to the Fourth-Grade Slump and the Nationan’s Stagnant Comprehension Scores.” American Educator, Spring 2003, pp. 10-29

Sparks, S.D. “Students Must Learn More Words, Say Studies.” Education Week, February 5, 2013.

Understanding Reading Comprehension

Reading and comprehending what is read is the ultimate goal of every reader and teacher. Achieving this goal can often be a great struggle. There are several key skills which need to be in place before most students are able to fully have success in comprehending what they read. Often struggling readers have a hard time understanding what they read, while there are some good readers who also have difficulties. Identifying the skills used to accomplish reading understanding may assist you in identifying just where your students are struggling with mastering reading comprehension.

Comprehension is a natural skill that begins at birth when the child begins receiving responses which please them from caregivers (Knoph, 1986). As the child becomes aware of sounds (language) they begin building their language comprehension. Babies are able to understand words long before they are able to speak (Holinger, 2012). Many parents teach their children sign-language as a way to communicate prior to them speaking. These simple steps are building pathways of understanding in the brain which allows the child to express their understanding.

As the child develops and grows they are building their vocabulary. Vocabulary forms a foundation for comprehension (Robb, 2015). Vocabulary is a skill in which we mainly absorb the meanings of words. Therefore the more we are exposed to the language and use our language the better we are able to connect the dots to make meaning and understanding.  The first step in building vocabulary is hearing words and connecting them to objects or events. As we develop, we also gain information for context clues. When hearing a word we are unfamiliar with, we must determine the meaning of this new word. We use the information we have gathered to make a meaning determination. All of these steps happen prior to the child ever reading any words. Vocabulary, therefore, is a language skill which begins at birth and is a vital component to future reading comprehension ability.

As a person begins learning to read they are transferring their language skills to texts. Many children have no difficulty making this transfer. For others, it is not so easy. Listening and speaking is a natural skill whereas reading and writing are man created skills and often people struggle with mastering these skills (Moats & Tolman, ND). If a person is having difficulty picking up reading skills their language development and vocabulary levels may need to be checked. Building those skills will strengthen the foundation of their reading and comprehension.

People who are struggling with reading may need to take time to focus on decoding and building their understanding of how our language is put into print. As these skills are presented to students in school, they are often presented several at a time, and some just get confused while others catch on without difficulty. If a student struggles to read, they are most likely going to struggle with writing. Some may have a strong language ability and be able to explain what they have heard, but may not have a strong understanding of word structure and most often won’t write well. This is an observation point. They are able to take and tell, but not read and write. The focus area for these students would be word structure (phonics).

Then, there are the students who have decoding down and have no problem reading but have absolutely no idea what they have just read. These students need assistance with reading comprehension. The first thing to check is language comprehension. Are they able to tell about an event or activity? Can they explain something that they watched? Can they retell something that has been read to them? If they are able to complete these tasks then chances are great they just need some support and guidance to transfer the language skill to their reading. If they are unable to do any of those tasks, step back and spend some time focusing on language comprehension.

Reading comprehension is a transferred skill from language comprehension. Prior to teaching reading comprehension, we need to check to make sure the students have an understanding of their language. Once they have language understanding, a strong vocabulary must be built. The next skill is to infer the meanings of unknown words from texts to build their vocabulary. Most students also need support and practice to retell events or passages read to them. Once they have mastered these skills, in most cases, the transfer to reading comprehension is smooth.

Do You Know the Facts About Dyslexia?

Science Jack 

Dyslexia is neurobiological in origin. The students are NOT being lazy.

People with Dyslexia often have difficulties inaccurate, and/or fluent word recognition along with poor decoding and spelling skills.

People with dyslexia have trouble with the sounds of language (phonology), yet will have average or higher cognitive skills.

Children who have a parent with dyslexia have a 50% chance of having a dyslexic brain. If both parents are dyslexic then the chance is closer to 100% that their children will be dyslexic.

Seeing letters backwards is not an indicator of dyslexia. Macdonald et al. (2017) found that 50% of educators and 76% of the general public felt that children seeing letters backwards was an indicator of dyslexia. Written communication is a man-created/designed form of communication using letters, in the case of English. Our brains are designed to see an object and remember that object, such as a cup. When we see a cup our brains know it’s a cup if it is on its side or upside down. We are also able to transfer that information we know about a cup if the cup is larger or smaller. A cup is a cup. When we move to learn about writing all of a sudden the rules change. The letter “b” is no longer a “b” when it is turned around. It is a “d.” Upside down it is  a “p.” Until the student is able to understand that letters do not operate the same as objects, all children might have reversal problems.

Dyslexia can have an impact on a student’s self-image and self-esteem. Students with dyslexia often end up feeling “dumb” and feel less capable than they really are. They often use distractions to get out of completing school activities.

Dyslexia is often classified as a learning disability when really it is a brain formation that close to 20% of populations are born with. It only becomes a disability when the learner does not fit into the education program in which they are placed. Students who have a dyslexic brain thrive in education when their instruction is provided in a format which aligns with how their brain processes information.

Because a child is born with a dyslexic brain, it is something they have for a lifetime. Dyslexics, with proper instruction, are able to learn to process and read and write well. We have also learned through science that dyslexia impacts the way a person processes information. If pathways are built in younger children they are able to transfer those processing skills. The key instructional time is between the ages of 3 and 7, therefore, waiting and allowing them more time has been disproven to be effective.  

If a child doesn’t read on grade level by the end of third grade, they have a four times greater chance of dropping out and a one in seven chance of becoming a reader as an adult.

Dyslexia is a neurological condition that causes the brain difficulty in processing information in the areas of reading, writing, and spelling. The National Institute of Health estimates that as high as 20% of the children in our schools are on some level of the dyslexia spectrum.

Many students with dyslexia remain undiagnosed. The way the system has currently established a percentage of students will not qualify for special services. General education teachers along with reading specialists and even special education teachers do not have enough training to provide the evidence-based instruction that these students need. Dyslexia is not overcome by a program because every student will need to have special skills addressed. Currently, students with dyslexia in public schools continue to fail to reach their potential, reaching frustration and not feeling misunderstood, which puts them at greater risk of dropping out. They live with frustration and continually ask themselves,  “Why can’t I read?”

How can you help?

Become aware of the characteristics of dyslexia, especially at the preschool age.

Educate yourself on scientific evidence-based early reading skills instruction.

Be proactive for each child’s education and instruction.

Letter / Word Reversals - Learning Disability?

In your classroom, do you have students who reverse letters or words such as “b” and “d,” or “saw” and “was?” Truly, this is very natural and normal for young children to make these errors. It does not necessarily indicate that there might be a learning disability or dyslexia. Our brains are designed to be able to interpret objects in 3D. Written communication is a man-created/designed form of communication using letters in the case of English. Our brains are designed to see an object and remember that object in 3D, such as a cup. When we see a cup our brains know it’s a cup if it is on its side or upside down. We are also able to transfer that information we know about a cup if the cup is larger or smaller. A cup is a cup. When we move to learn about writing, all of a sudden the rules change. The letter “b” they discover is no longer a “b” when it is turned around. It is a “d.” Upside down it is a “p.” Until the student is able to understand that letters do not operate the same way as objects. all children might have reversal problems (Macdonald et al.,(2017).

Seeing letters backwards is not an indicator of dyslexia. Macdonald et al. (2017) found that 50% of educators and 76% of the general public felt that children seeing letters backwards were an indicator of dyslexia. Students who struggle with not being able to recognize letters in isolation or write them might need some scaffolded instruction in letter identification. They need to be seeing letters in words where both letters the student is struggling with appear, such as teaching letter-naming using words like, bed, bip, dip, was, saw. Their brains need to become aware that writing is not like seeing objects, and are found in specific places in words to represent sounds.

Macdonald, K., Germine, L., Anderson, A., Christodoulou, J., & MaGrath L. M. (2017). Dispelling the Myth: Training in Education or Neuroscience Decreases but Does Not Eliminate Beliefs in Neuromyths. Front. Psychol., 10 August 2017 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01314

First Grade in January!

Happy New Year! January is a great time to do a quick check and see if your students are on track in their reading instruction. In December there are always a lot of special activities happening and now we are all back into the swing of school and the new calendar year. Below are some key skills your students should have mastered at this point in their academic year. Make sure you celebrate if they have but if they haven’t you may need to step in and provide some additional support that is not given in the curriculum. Below is a chart for Kindergarten and First Grade of key skills along with suggestions of activities you might implement into your instruction to help reinforce and get all your students to mastery. Yes the information is covered in the curriculum but quite often students needed additional reinforcement / reminders that the curriculum does not provide and we as teachers need to be pros at those 1 minute reinforcement lessons.

Kindergarten

Rapid Reading - Colors - Shapes - Letters	Having students do this will train their brain in rapid memory recall which will help them to transition to reading words.	Print off sheets with rows of colors, shapes, or letters and have the students partner read in a small group activity.
Phonemic Awareness - Hears sounds in words and is able to segment them.	Being able to hear and distinguish sounds in words will lead to students having a better ability to decode larger words along with improve spelling.	When the students line up or move back to their seats have them give you the sounds in words. When they are walking out the door or you are walking down the hall with your class ask 4 or 5 students the sounds in one or two words.
Alphabetic Principle - able to match letter to sound.	Symbols and their meaning (sounds) are stored in different parts of the brain. Children need to learn to build that pathway for rapid recall.	In small groups you can have one student say the sound on a card and the other students write the letter. Then it’s the next students’ turn to say the sound. Put a sticky note on students’ desks who are struggling with this that has four or five letters. When you walk by ask them what sound each letter makes.
Know the CVC rule - vowel is always short in a cvc word.	This is the first rule of spelling. At this point students should know all the short vowel sounds. They can look to see if the word follows the CVC pattern and know the sound. Other words at this point are sight words. Once a new spelling rule is taught a word will become a decodable word.	Have some business card size word cards and when the students are in line or walking have them read a couple of words. Write three or so CVC words on a sticky note and paste it on students desks. When you walk by ask them to read a couple of words.

First Grade

Rapid Reading - Colors - Shapes - Letters	Having students do this will train their brain in rapid memory recall which will help them to transition to reading words.	Print off sheets with rows of colors, shapes, or letters and have the students partner read in a small group activity.
Phonemic Awareness - Hears sounds in words and is able to segment them.	Being able to hear and distinguish sounds in words will lead to students having a better ability to decode larger words along with improve spelling.	When the students line up or move back to their seats have them give you the sounds in words. When they are walking out the door or you are walking down the hall with your class ask 4 or 5 students the sounds in one or two words.
Alphabetic Principle - able to match letter to sound.	Symbols and their meaning (sounds) are stored in different parts of the brain. Children need to learn to build that pathway for rapid recall.	In small groups you can have one student say the sound on a card and the other students write the letter. Then it’s the next students’ turn to say the sound. Students you know who are struggling put a sticky note on their desk with four or five letters. When you walk by ask them what sound each letter makes.
Know the CVC rule - vowel is always short in a cvc word.	This is the first rule of spelling. At this point students should know all the short vowel sounds. They can look to see if the word follows the CVC pattern and know the sound. Other words at this point are sight words. Once a new spelling rule is taught a word will become a decodable word.	Have some business card size word cards and when the students are in line or walking have them read a couple of words. Write three or so CVC words on a sticky note and paste it on students desks. When you walk by ask them to read a couple of words.
Blends - You can hear each letter’s sound in the blend.  (br, gl, pl)	A blend in linguistics counts as one sound even though you hear both. So for blendVC words the vowel is short.	Short 1 minute reviews reading words with blends.(whole class and small group) Rapid reading chars.
Digraphs - a cluster of letters that, when together, create ONE sound (ph, th, sh, tch, ch, wh)	Like blends they count as one sound making the vowel still short.	Short 1 minute reviews reading words with digraphs.(whole class and small group) Rapid reading charts.
Introduction to long vowels	For a vowel to change its sound in linguistics something has to change in the word. If the vowel is open (not followed by a consonant) the vowel in most cases is long, adding another vowel in one syllable words will change the sound.	Short 1 minute reviews reading cvce words. (whole class and small group) Rapid reading chars. Mix cvc words and cvce words.

Maximizing Reading to Children

Oral reading has the potential for providing young learners with comprehension practice which they can then transfer to their own reading.

Many classroom teachers take time during their day to read to their students. This is a wonderful opportunity for young learners to hear oral reading modeled. Over the generations along with the development of technology, time spent listening to text being read orally and discussed has decreased. As learners hear less information orally, their ability to process information and identify key points has lessened over time as well. It is key that when we are reading to students we are also providing guided discussion which guides learners to process the information being read.


How can you tell if your oral reading to your students has become “white noise” in your classroom. One major struggle readers have when reading to students is dealing with behavior. One way many teachers try to deal with behavior is to allow students to color or work on projects. If this is happening the learning objective has shifted. More often than not the reader’s voice has become “white noise” while the students are working on their project.


The major objective is to model strong reading along with building literacy / comprehension skills. This can easily be achieved by the reader stopping and engaging the learners in guided discussions with their peers. This is achieved by asking questions in which the whole group can respond or can respond with a partner next to them. The end objective is that they are then able to process these types of questions in their own reading and are also able to retell what they read. Learners cannot retell what they have read if they are unable to retell what has been read to them. In addition, they cannot then transfer the ability to answer question about information read to them. In order to be able to fully comprehend information a learner reads they must first have mastered the skills involved in processing information they have heard. Reading comprehension is a language-transferred skill.


Below is a chart with key elements young learners need to focus on when text is read to them. It is helpful to select one of the elements and focus on that element during the reading of the text. Avoid the question “who can tell me?” This allows you to become engaged with only one learner while the rest of the class waits for your discussion with the student to end. You want to provide a practice time for all your students and having the learners discuss between themselves provides that informal opportunity.

Element	Definition	Activities	Going Deep
Setting (Time)	Setting is not only the location given in a narrative but also the time it is occurring. Setting includes culture, historical period, geography, date, hour, and minute.	Where is the text taking place? What evidence in the text tells where the setting of the text is taking place? What text lets us know the time period the text is taking place?	Text to life -- How can you relate to the text? Explain the beginning, middle, and end.

Plot	The events that make up the idea of the writer. They are often laid out in a series of beginning, middle and end details being told. ●  Introduction or Exposition ●  Rising Action ●  Climax ●  Falling Action ●  Resolution	What problem was described? Explain the solution.	How do you relate to the plot? What might be a different solution?
Characterization	The details about a character(s) in a story. The author will provide the reader with information about the character such as behavior, appearance, and characteristics so readers are able to relate to the character (s).	Describe one of the characters.	How do you relate to one of the characters?
Conflict	Conflict is part of the plot. There are several types of conflicts: internal or external, man vs. man, man vs. circumstances, man vs. society, and man vs. self.	What is the conflict within the text? Who is involved in the differences?	What type of conflict happened in the text?
Point of View	How the author chooses to convey their message. ●  First Person - usually the central character of the story is speaking. ●  Second Person - Keyword you will find. “YOU.” ●  Third Person -	Who is talking in the text? What are keywords used to tell you what the point of view of the text?	How might the point of view change if told from a different person’s point of view?

	Story is being told by another person. ●  Third Person -(objective) Narrator describes the person (he, she, him, her) ●  Third Person (limited) Narrator gives specific thoughts and feeling of the characters. ●  Third Person (omniscient) the narrator is the ALL-knowing. ●  Dialogue vs. Narration
Theme	The topic of the text. It can be placed into two categories: a text’ s thematic concept or thematic statement. Thematic concept is providing the reader with something to “Think About.” A thematic statement is telling “What the author is saying about the subject.	What was the subject in this book (text) about? Were they telling us about something? What did the author want us to think about while reading their book (text).	Relate the text to your life.
Tone (Mood - Feelings)	The attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience.  Conveyed through the choice of words, or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject.  It can be formal, informal, serious, comic, sarcastic, sad, cheerful, or it may be any other existing attitude.	How are the characters feeling in the story? Share what some key words you heard that give us an idea of the mood of the text.	How do you relate to feelings expressed in the text?