https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3 Comprehension Reflection 1. What are the main points that you have taken from the readings and our discussions?" 2. Has what we discussed changed your view of adolescent reading? If so, how? If not, why?" 3. What questions are you left with about comprehension in terms of adolescent reading? 4. If you were to teach this segment of the course in the future, would you do anything different? If so, what would you do different, and why? What would the focus of your lectures be? " 5. How will you use what we’ve discussed in your teaching? en-us 2016-10-14 17:22:16 UTC 2025-10-17 18:41:06 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Templeball.png bfriedlander https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/131317855 When we began this class back in September, I was nervous and a bit skeptical about teaching literacy and comprehension.  In fact, I scoffed at the idea of ever teaching literacy.  "I am a History teacher, why do I need to teach reading comprehension skills? They can get that in their English class!"  But, through the course, I have learned that the comprehension skills are actually quite adaptable and applicable to what I teach.  In particular, reciprocal teaching has enhanced my teaching toolbox and allows for creative collaboration amongst students, while reinforcing their prior knowledge and connecting it with the content.  
As adolescent teaching candidates, we are in a world where students are not reading enough books and are constantly glued to their phone screens. In turn, students' literacy skills have deteriorated tremendously. What I have realized about teaching reading for adolescent students, is if you can use these skills, make it fun and less intimidating, then that can give them the potential drive to read and increase their skills. ]]> 2016-10-17 21:46:31 UTC https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/131317855 https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/131318362 1. We both realized that it is important to model any strategies that we want our students to learn. It's crucial to guide them and give them many opportunities to practice the skills they need in order to work independently. 
2. Based on our discussion, our view remains the same. We are both enlightened by the conversations that we've had because we believe that every teacher should be responsible for delivering strategies that can help a student's comprehensive skills. Most importantly, teachers are the child's best resource because they can help the student achieve their literary goals. 
3. If we teach a Regents-Based class, how can we implement CSR with one text, multiple times (based on one of the articles you gave us)?
4. It would be best to have the instruction be teacher driven, rather than station teaching because it can clarify certain topics for individuals that do not teach ELA.
5. We can start off by practicing with our focus learner, and try to implement this strategy when we are given the chance in our own schools. ]]> 2016-10-17 21:50:39 UTC https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/131318362 jbanks16 https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/131319946
1. The main points I've gotten are, first, that comprehension instruction relies on concerted teaching of targeted strategies. In other words, while we model and teach isolated strategies using explicit methods, we should still be doing so in the context of authentic reading experiences, and using all strategies in concert. Both RT and CSR fit this requirement, as multi-strategy methods. The "targeted" part instruction means that we rely on specific, research based methods: specific prompts and sentence stem stems that are known to improve metacognition and higher level thinking, etc. I actually have a disagreement with how Oczkus presents RT in her book in this respect: the "Fab Four" bookmark seems relatively weak on specific strategies for clarifying an unclear idea. For example, my learning lab student is an excellent decoder, so "sound it out" is not a needed strategy, while his main, and really only, strategy is "rereading". I'm planning instruction for him by mixing RT with the more specific clarification strategies presented in Robb, because I don't want to fall back on "use the context" without being very explicit about what you can do.

2. It hasn't changed it significantly, because I've dealt with the in- and out- of class issues we've been focusing on: motivation, generally, and strategy instruction. The most useful lens for me has been the genre lens, because I see a tremendous effect on student comprehension and quality of writing when I use a traditional workshop model in general education ELA classes. My initial license is in ELA, so it's good to know that more of the strategies I use there transfer than I thought. I was also glad to talk about genres of informational text based on purpose, audience, and style, not just the cookie-cutter standard structures we are usually told to teach SPED kids (compare/contrast, problem/solution, etc.) I don't want to deprive my adolescents of complex and nuanced critical thinking opportunities just because we need to work on reading skills together. I like the genre approach because it serves this goal, honoring students' complexity of thinking and strengths by not making them feel that they are getting oversimplified versions of text structure that they can tell are meant for elementary students. I hate using texts that are designed artificially to use only one target informational text structure, for example, because it doesn't help students deal with authentic or content-area informational text. Of course, such texts have their place in short strategy mini-lessons, but they should not be the bread and butter of any class.

3. My biggest question is the eternal one - how do we win over "hearts and minds" of struggling adolescent readers to adopt an identity and habits of a wide reader? A mentor I have at Teacher's College sees himself as a lifestyle coach as much as a reading teacher, and I like that formulation: it focuses on how we can't just rely on in-school instruction to help bridge reading gaps, but really, if we are honest, need to mount a full on campaign with the student in mind. The same mentor gives the example of problem solving with students about how to work reading into their lives, because people are more likely to do something, even a desired thing, if they have a particular plan, time and location in mind and have anticipated obstacles. That coaching model is something that has influenced me powerfully, though I only aspire to it - I find myself passing the buck and throwing up my hands on the larger context that reading instruction fits into more than I'd like to.

4. I might give more examples of specific strategies that can be worked into reciprocal teaching to support the 4 strategies more explicitly - examples of sentence starters, actual prompts, etc. While I've implemented RT in several settings now and see the gains, it's a little too open ended for me without additional, more targeted instruction in how to clarify meaning. I know the strategies good readers you are complex and hard to break down, but it feels like we owe it to students to have better clarifying strategies, for example, than "reread", "ask a friend" or "read on", which Oczkus gives. This is not particularly a weakness of the class as of the RT protocol as explained, but I think having more examples of specific implementations, across content areas,  would show us "RT in context", as it were.

5. I've already implemented RT as a regular reading strategy both in my psychology class and with my learning lab student. I'm also planning to teach genre with my Learning Lab student, specifically focusing on journalism and textbook writing because my student's backup plan if he doesn't go the NBA (oy) is to be a sports writer. I'm still fumbling through how to make think alouds better and provide specific language scaffolds, but I'm quite enjoying the process.]]> 2016-10-17 22:06:01 UTC https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/131319946 jvento16 https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/131321868 1. The main points that we have taken from our discussion is how important student vocabulary is in order to improve comprehension skills. As educators, we have to find creative ways to model higher order vocabulary words into our daily lessons. When teaching vocabulary words, less is more in the sense that students should be exposed to vocabulary words, multiple contexts, but only a couple words at a time. 2. Yes, our view of adolescent reading has changed in the sense that rereading text is highly important to increase student vocabulary skills and comprehension skills. We have learned how to assess students who are older and have a low reading level and now know where to start in order to help improve their comprehension skills. 3. How do we determine a students foundational level of vocabulary? Once determining his vocabulary level, what words should we use in order for him to improve? Tier 2 words? 4. We would include prior strategies to how to teach vocabulary for different classroom settings. In addition, we would have a discussion on how vocabulary was taught in the past and elicit how ineffective it was for students and compare that to how effective teaching vocabulary is now. We will use the vocabulary game we have learned in the class to teach different context specific terms to the students. This will highly improve students diction including with tier two words and  students will be able to build on their comprehension skills. ]]> 2016-10-17 22:25:53 UTC https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/131321868 https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/131341805  1. The main point I've taken away thus far is the need for explicit teaching of literacy skills. Luckily, this is an idea that I think most special education teachers understand, but one that I believe all educators must believe. Struggling adolescent readers, with or without a classified disability, must be provided with direct instruction and specific skills to be successful.
2. This class helped me think of comprehension strategies that students can use more independently and hopefully begin to generalize.  Typically for nonfiction texts, I provide text-specific comprehension questions to support students with comprehension difficulties.  CSR, for example, is something that students can eventually master and generalize.
3. How can I support students with significant comprehension difficulties? 
 4. While I appreciate the stations and opportunity to work in groups with peers, I think I would benefit from more direct instruction and examples from the professor.
5. I hope to implement CSR, Reciprocal Teacher and VTR strategies consistently into my Social Studies and ELA classes with my students that it is cognitively appropriate.]]> 2016-10-18 01:19:14 UTC https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/131341805 epaulino16 https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/132495513 1. The main point I have taken from the readings and our discussions are the importance of vocabulary in students being able to comprehend the texts they are reading. In addition, I found it very important to model the different strategies to the student, I believe that the students will understand it better by seeing the teacher do it rather than the teacher just telling them how it's done.
2.Personally, I have never been much of a reader so when it came down to writing papers or book reports back in middle school and high school I always had trouble with vocabulary; I found myself repeating the same words throughout the paper, this class has made me change my view on the importance of vocabulary and how important it is for students not only to understand what they are reading but also help them when they write about what they have read.
3. What are different scaffolding strategies I can use when students don't understand vocabulary terms?
4. One thing I would do different is in addition to the different stations of the different strategies I would also incorporate more direct instruction between the instructor and the student. While we do learn from our peers I feel in the beginning we should learn it first from the instructor and then get additional information from our peers.
5. One thing I will use with my future students is the importance of vocabulary. Struggling in this area in the past has made me a firm believer that being exposed to different and a wide range of vocabulary is very important not only for academic reasons but just in life in general.]]> 2016-10-22 14:55:42 UTC https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/132495513 jchristensen16 https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/132857078 1. The main points I have taken from the class readings and discussion is the importance of reading and how it is taught to today's youth. In the articles we have read, I have learned different strategies to incorporate into my instruction when it comes to teaching reading across various subjects.
2. Although I have always recognized the importance of adolescent reading, I feel that this class has strengthened my views. I have learned that reading during adolescence has a direct effect on aspects such as vocabulary, literary elements, reading comprehension, and can also open them up to new ideas and cultures.
3.  I would like to learn about more ways to incorporate reading into the curriculum of students who have very low reading levels (ex: a 12th grader who reads on a kindergarten level).
4. If I were to teach this course in the future, I would provide more examples of the different strategies that can be used to teach reading. It would also be helpful to be able to look through materials (ex: perhaps bring a set of books that could be used for a close reading lesson).
5. In my teaching, I plan to utilize some of the strategies we learned in class. I think that close reading sounds like a great way to get a student interested in reading and learning about a topic they may not be familiar with. I also find that the reading is more meaningful if there is a theme to the unit rather than just choosing books at random. I would also like to try CSR and Reciprocal Reading as these are great ways to teach students how to use different skills (questioning, summarizing, learning new vocabulary) which can be use throughout their entire schooling career as well as in everyday life.]]> 2016-10-24 21:05:01 UTC https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/132857078 https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/132857154 1. The main point I have taken from the readings and discussion is the fact that vocabulary instruction is necessary in order to improve student comprehension. Explicit instruction of vocabulary through a variety of modeled strategies is important to incorporate into all classrooms (regardless of subject). Students will benefit from learning vocabulary across all content areas.
2.Before taking this class, I understood the importance of rereading a text, annotating, and explicit instruction of vocabulary in order to truly comprehend material. This class has strengthened my beliefs, and supplemented it by providing various strategies such as RT and CSR to target student needs.
3.
4. If I were to teach this class, I would provide direct instruction before sending students to separate stations. This will ensure each student is aware of the concepts in the stations before they are required to practice it themselves.
5. I am planning on implementing RT with my learning lab student and my focus learner.]]> 2016-10-24 21:05:29 UTC https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/132857154 dcardona16 https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/132857428 1. The main takeaway from the the readings and class peer discussion us the importance of vocabulary in a students' ability to comprehend text while reading. I believe the importance of the "Matthew Effect" was essential to understanding reading comprehension. The strategies were useful, I specifically plan on incorporating the CSR in my instruction.
2. Previously, I taught adolescents and reading was always a dread. My student struggled to read, understand vocabulary and were disinterested in reading altogether. I designed majority of my instruction with incorporating skills for comprehension and providing multiple opportunities for reading. However following our comprehension discussions, I believe I should incorporate more instruction on academic vocabulary. 
3.
4. If I were to teach this class, I would incorporate more real world examples (i.e videos of the strategies at work, instructional videos). Prior to station work, I would model the activity so expectations are clear. Meanwhile, I would show students videos of the strategies in a real classroom. 
5. Within my learning lab tutoring, I have been incorporating CSR.   ]]> 2016-10-24 21:07:03 UTC https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/132857428 rmargolies16 https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/132858875
1. The main point I've taken is that there are many components to comprehension instruction that must be taken into account, and vocabulary is one of them. 
2. My school teaches reading using very different methods, and I've taken away that getting students invested in their own learning, and involving them as leaders (as in Reciprocal Teaching) can be vital to facilitating their reading comprehension.
3. I would like to know how to integrate some of these models (metacognition, CSR, etc) can be fit into the more strict model I currently teach in.
4. Sometimes the station learning got a little confusing, and some more direct instruction, or maybe working in partners, would have aided in my understanding of the material.
5. I plan to include more think-pair-share and other metacognition activities into my science classes, because they are more flexible than my language arts  classes and I think could really help my students towards analyzing and concluding experiments on their own, removing my guidance gradually.]]> 2016-10-24 21:16:09 UTC https://padlet.com/xp29/5p86cunpmqv3/wish/132858875