Effective Reading Instruction

The first article I read was Frey and Fisher, Identifying instruction moves during guided learning. The main thing that stood out to me the most in this article was the charts of the instructional decision-making tree and the types of questions to determine student knowledge. The first chart of the tree was one that I had seen in my Elementary Ed. 422 class. I think it is a very helpful chart for new teachers to follow. It is often difficult to determine what the next step is after asking a student a question. This chart guides teachers along this process. The second chart is also very helpful for beginner teachers. I have had trouble figuring out what type of questions I should ask to find out how much the student knows. This chart gives multiple different question types, the purpose of the questions, and examples for each.

The second article I read was Pinnell, Every child a reader: What one teacher can do. I felt that this article summarized all the things we have discussed in class. Under number two, Put Your Theory into Action, listed multiple techniques that we have learned about. Two points in this section really stood out to me. The first was ensure students read continuous text every day through reading workshops. This gives the children the opportunity to pick out their own book and have control over what they were reading. I think it is very important to allow students to read books they are interested in. If you do not allow them this freedom, students become discouraged from reading. The other point that stood out to me was make sure students write continuous text every day through writing workshops. I think sometimes teachers forget the importance of writing in reading instruction. Writing is crucial for a child to become literate and a fluent reader. Students need to be able to exhibit the ability to create words and put them together in a meaningful way.