Becoming an Effective
Teacher of Reading
Chapter 1
Tompkins, G. (2010). Literacy for the 21st Century.
A Balanced Approach. Boston: Allyn & Bacon
What is Literacy
Literacy…is not a prescription of certain books to
read or concepts to devine. Rather…it is a tool,
a way to learn about the world and a means to
participate more fully in the technological
society of the 21st Century.
Principles of Effective Teaching
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Effective Teachers Understand How Children
Learn
Effective Teachers Support Children’s use of
the Four Cueing Systems
Effective Teachers Create A Community of
Learners
Effective Teachers Adopt A Balanced
Approach to Literacy Instruction]
Effective Teachers Scaffold Children’s
Reading and Writing Experiences
Principles of Effective Teaching
(con’t)
6. Effective Teachers Organize Literacy
Instruction in Various Ways
7. Effective Teachers Connect Instruction
and Assessment (“authentic
assessment”)
8. Effective Teachers become partners
with parents
Effective Teachers
Understand How Children Learn:
Learning Theories
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Behaviorism
Constructivism
Sociolinguistics
Cognitive/Information Processing
Effective Teachers
Understand How Children Learn:
Learning Theories
 Behaviorism
• teacher centered/teacher as dispenser of
•
•
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knowledge
reading is viewed as a conditioned response
Children learn by learning a series of skills and
subskills
Teacher control –rewards and punishments
Examples: Basal readers, repeated readings,
lectures, minilessons, etc.
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
Examples: KWL charts, DRTA, Lit. Focus Units,
Projects, Cooperative learning, etc
Sociolinguistics (Vygotsky)
• Oral language provides the foundation for
learning to read and write
• children learn through language and social
interaction
• Zone of Proximal Development (range
between dev. level and potential level
• Scaffolding-support mechanisms
• Authentic Literacy Activities
• culturally and socially responsive
• Critical Literacy (Friere)-Literacy as a means
of thinking about, questioning, etc… social
issues (e.g., inequities and injustices in
society
Critical Literacy As Highest
Level (Luke and Freebody)
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Code Breakers-decoding through
phonics and word identification
Text Participants- students learn about
structure and genre to understand what
they read
Text Users-read and compare texts,
genres, and write in a variety of genres
Text Critics-examine issues raised in
texts
Cognitive/Information
Processing
• unobservable mental processes
• compares mind to computer
• students are active learners using knowledge to
•
•
•
solve problems
Reading and writing integrated
Meaning making processes
Strategic reading and writing
Examples: Guided Reading, Graphic Organizers,
Grand convwesations, reciprocal questioning
Reading as a Process:
Interactive and Transactive
Interactive
 Reading and Writing are MeaningMaking Processes
 Readers use a combination of reader-based and text
based information to comprehend
Transactive/Reader Response (Rosenblatt)
 A two-way transaction between reader and text
 Readers interpretations are individualized because
they bring different background knowledge to the
text and read for different (negotiate a meaning)
 efferent stance-reading to locate information
 aesthetic stance-reading for pleasure
Effective Teachers Support Children’s use of the Four
Cueing Systems
The Phonological System-Sound-Symbol
Relationship-44 sounds and 500 ways to spell them
(phoneme, grapheme, phonological awareness,
phonemic awareness, phonics )
 The Syntactic System-the structural system the
structural system that governs how words are
combined into sentences (syntax, morpheme, root
words, affixes)
 The Semantic System- The meaning system of
English that focuses on comprehension (semantics,
synonyms, antonyms)
 The Pragmatic System –language varies depending
on social and cultural uses
See Page 13
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Classroom Community
Partner with parents
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Home-school connection (or
disconnection)
Reach out
Build knowledge
Home literacy activities (traveling book
bags, clubs, online reading, journals, etc)
Components of Balanced
Literacy Instruction
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Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Comprehension
Word Study/Vocabulary
Fluency
+
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Spelling
Writing
Assessment
Content Area Study
Scaffolding Students’ Reading
and Writing
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Modeled Reading
Shared Reading
Interactive Reading
Guided Reading
Independent Reading
See P. 21
English Language Learners
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Explicit instruction
Oral language
Small group work
Reading aloud
Background knowledge
Authentic literacy activities
Twelve Principles
(Burns, Roe, & Smith,
2002)
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5) Students should be taught word recognition
strategies that will allow them to unlock the
pronunciations and meanings of unfamiliar
words independently
6) The teacher should assess each student’s
reading ability and use the assessment as a
basis for planning instruction
7) Reading and the other language arts are
closely interrelated
8) Using complete literature selections in the
reading programs is important
Twelve Principles
(Burns, Roe, & Smith,
2002) con’t
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9)Reading is an integral part of all content area
instruction
10) The student needs to see that reading can
be an enjoyable pursuit
11) Reading should be taught in a way that
allows each child to experience success.
12) Encouragement of self-direction and selfmonitoring of reading is important
A Balanced Approach To
Literacy Instruction...
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A variety of instructional strategies
A variety of instructional material
Uses trade books, leveled books, and basal
readers
Authenic Literacy Activities
Develops Students Skills Knowledge
(decoding, comprehension, spelling, etc.)
Includes word study and phonics within
authentic literacy activities
Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, and
Viewing (integrated language arts)