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Nikki Meyer 10
Reading Log 4/7/11
Professor McKool

The Essentials of Teaching Children To Read (Chapter 7):

Chapter 7
Observations-
 Content standards refer to broad description. Performance standards
are examples and definitions of knowledge and skills that students
should achieve in particular subject area. Opportunity-to-learn
standards address conditions necessary at each level of the education
system to provide all students with opportunities to master content
standards and meet performance standards.
 A basal reading program is a “collection of student texts and
workbooks, teacher’s manuals, and supplemental reading materials for
developmental reading and sometimes writing instruction.
 Basal readers are composed of a student text, a teacher’s edition,
student workbooks, a teacher’s edition workbook, supplemental
practice exercises, enrichment activities, a big book, leveled readers,
phonic or decodable readers, and an end-of-unit and end-of-book test.
 A scope sequence chart describes the range of skills and concepts to be
taught in a basal program as well as the sequence in which these are to
be presented.
 End of the year tests are a good way to assess a students reading level,
ability and comprehension.
 An instructional management system allows teachers to keep accurate
records from year to year regarding each child’s progress through
adopted basal reading program’s scope and sequence of skills.
 Basal reading programs have themed units, which is a selection of
topics divided into units to teach to the children such as confirming
predictions, previewing and predicting and setting and purpose.
 Buddy reading allows students to read aloud basal stories together,
either taking turns or in unison.

Wonderings-
 What grade do students and teachers start working in a basal reading
program?
 Now every student is a good test taker so how does a teacher know
that the grade reflected on the end of the year test is a true reflection
often student’s reading abilities?
 With buddy reading, how can a teacher assure that the students are
actually reading instead of playing around or talking about off topic
situations? Would that we a proper classroom management skill or is
it inevitable?
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Connections-
 Back in elementary school, I recall using workbooks to help learn how
to read so I assume I was in a basal reading program.
 Back in elementary school, I remember reading units being arranged in
units, especially when it came to predicting stories and drawing our
own conclusions and understanding the structure of the content.
 In the first grade classroom, many students use buddy reading during
independent reading time and even buddy read with me.

Balanced Literacy (Review):

I enjoyed the book, Balanced Literacy by Linda Chen because it gave in depth
insight into the workings of children’s language, literacy and psychological development
in the classroom. In Balanced Literacy, upcoming or seasoned teachers can learn about
students language and literacy development, understand how to perform an interactive
read-aloud and their importance and help students advance academically from word
work, shared readings, writing workshops, guided reading and interactive read-aloud.
The book gives multiple definitions and examples to help teachers understand more in
depth about the chapter and its purpose as it applies to students.
The book helps educate teachers about their students and how their students learn
and with that type of knowledge, teachers can grow as educators. The first chapter starts
off with discussing language development, explaining components of language, second
language acquisition, the stages of language development, and language functions and
forms. As the book continues, teachers can read about different forms of literacy
enhancing exercises to perform in the classroom and how to implement them properly so
the students benefit the most. The books gives examples of assessments, charts, graphs,
schedules and much more to help teachers gain a better understanding of what they can
do in the classroom. Overall, Balanced Literacy is a great book for aspiring teachers to
gain understanding of their students, how they learn and ways they can make learning
literacy fun, exciting and effective.