Effective Teachers of Reading
(con’t)
Effective Teachers
Understand How Children Learn:
Learning Theories
• Behaviorism (Skinner)
▫ teacher centered/teacher as dispenser of
knowledge
▫ reading is viewed as a conditioned response
▫ children learn by learning a series of skills and subskills
▫ Teachers use instruction to teach in a planned
sequential order
▫ students work individually
▫ teacher control –rewards and punishments
Constructivism (Piaget)▫ emphasis on background knowledge/schema and
prior experiences
▫ children actively construct meaning/knowledge
(Dewey)
▫ Teachers engage students with classroom
experiences
▫ Collaboration-students work together to construct
meaning
▫ Engagement –engaged students believe they can
succeed/have high self-efficacy (Bandura)
▫ Motivation-engaged students are motivated
Sociolinguistics (Vygotsky)
▫ Oral language provides the foundation for learning to
read and write
▫ children learn through language and social
interaction
▫ Reading and writing are social and cultural activities
▫ Zone of Proximal Development (range between dev.
level and potential level
▫ Teacher’s role as scaffolding-support mechanisms
▫ Authentic Literacy Activities
▫ culturally and socially responsive
▫ Incorporates “Critical Literacy” (Friere)-challenges
students to confront injustices and inequities in
society
Cognitive/Information Processing
▫ unobservable mental processes
▫ compares mind to computer
▫ students are active learners using knowledge to
solve problems
▫ Reading and writing integrated
▫ Reading and Writing are Meaning making
processes
▫ Describes Students as Strategic Readers
▫ Reader’s interpretations are individualized
Transactive/Reader Response
(Rosenblatt)
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Readers interpretations are individualized
Readers create meaning as they readA two way transaction between readers and texts
efferent stance- reading for information
aesthetic stance- reading for pleasure
Students may use a combination of the two
Teachers need to clearly set purpose
Teachers need to give students opportunities to read
aesthetically to develop a love of reading
Linking Theory to Practice
Sociolinguistic Theory
Classroom Practice
• Children learn by interacting
with one another through
language
• Children’ learn best through
authentic activities
• Teacher’s role is scaffolding—a
facilitator
• Literature Circles – In
literature circles, students are
able read and discuss
literature of their choice. The
teacher sets the guidelines, but
the students are ultimately in
charge of the literature circle
meetings
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Effective Teachers Use a Balanced
Approach (Comprehensive View of
Literacy)
Combines: explicit instruction, guided practice,
collaborative learning, and independent reading and
writing
• Involves oral language, reading, and writing
• Involves phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency,
vocabulary, comprehension, and writing
• Includes the writing process, qualities of good
writing, spelling, grammar
• Reading is a foundation for content area learning
• Students collaborate and work together
• Student participate in authentic activities and texts
YOUR TURN: GROUP WORK
Effective Teachers SCAFFOLD through:
• Modeled Reading- Group 1
• Shared Reading- Group 2
• Interactive Reading- Group 3
• Guided Reading – Group 4
• Independent Reading – Group 5
Use the Chart Paper and Markers Provided to
describe and illustrate the type of Literacy
Instruction Assigned to your Group.
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