What Kind of Text: For Whom and When?
textual Scaffolding for Beginning Readers
Jessie Fishel
Ci 815 Advanced Methods and Strategies
Wichita State University
11/01/2012
Abstract
This assignment is an article critic of an article written by two classroom elementary teachers. Many teachers wonder at the best type of books to assign to their students for ultimate reading achievement growth. This article discusses the different types of literature, the purpose of these types of literature, and the best type of readers to be matched with each type of literature.
What Kind of Text: For Whom and When?
Textual Scaffolding for Beginning Readers
Summary:
This article highlighted the debate teachers have when choosing which texts to use with their students while teaching beginning reading skills (p 292). Such text types examined in this article were easy readers, predictable texts, decodable leveled books, basal stories, and authentic literature (literature that does not use a controlled vocabulary or rhyme to create a simple language). This article followed two first grade teachers examining the special needs of individual students in their classroom.
Synopsis
This article highlights the debate teachers often have as to which type of text is best to read to students: decodable leveled books or typical basal stories typically found in most literature. The author persuades the reader to ask a different question, “Rather than asking “which is best,” we can ask, “Which type of text is best suited to achieve what purposes with whom, and when? (p 293)” This question was highlighted with a narrative of two seasoned teachers and their co-workers and their self reflection into the different types of text found in their classrooms. The decodable texts and easy readers helped to build children’s reading confidence gradually, but the stories often lacked rich plot, characters, and story descriptions. On the other hand, award winning picture/story books and the basal stories were often rich and more complex, but daunting for beginning readers.
The next part of the article included narratives highlighting some of the teachers different students and their individual reading needs. The first case was about a boy name Travis that had difficulties sounding out words and tracking print left to right. Travis was in the first stage of reading where readers learn about print. The teacher matched Travis to easy predictable text and easy readers to help teach him basic print concepts. The second case study was about a girl named Shamika whom had a strong knowledge of letters and their sounds before entering her first grade classroom. Shamika was in the second reading phase the author called “breaking the code” where the student begins to understand simple spelling patterns, sound out multiple syllable words, and was becoming fluent while reading print. The teacher lead Shamika in various word attack games and strategies while introducing decodable readers to her that bridged the gap between easy readers and traditional literature. The third case study was about a first grader named Patrick that was a very fluent reader. His challenge was that he was not interested in reading. His teacher matched him with easy readers (like Frog and toad are friends) and traditional children literature.
In summary, the teachers gave a few tips on how they taught their students reading. Everyday the teacher read from both authentic literature and nonfiction books. Authentic literature is defined as when authors do not used a controlled vocabulary or pattern in their stories. In short the author came to the conclusion that no one single type of text is best for students, and that students benefit from having a variety of text to learn from during all different stages of their learning to read.
Application
This article was mentioned by an instructor presenting Letrs training to the Butler County Cooperative teachers, a training that focused on how/why teaching phonics to students is so important. As a teacher it helped me to see a way to merge my “authentic literature class library” with my schools “basal books and leveled decodable readers”. Although my students are not first graders, they do share many of the same reading characteristics of the students case studies highlighted in this article. As a result of this article I will amp up my phonics instruction to include more deconstruction and segmenting of phonemes, and well as introduce more expository text to my students. At the beginning of the school year, I had struggled about which types of books to assign to my students. I chose to allow my students to select books from all the categories : three easy decodable books, two leveled Accelerated Reader books, and 2 authentic literature books from any reading level they chose. This article reassures me I was in the right track with having them choose books from across the categories.
Reflection
I highly enjoyed reading this article and found it interesting to compare the different types of books found in our classrooms. I would recommend this article to any teacher seeking to improve the reading levels of their students and struggling to find the right balance of stories. This article also highlighted the need for teachers to not use a single basal book in their classroom to solely teach reading, but allow time and practice for students to get differentiated reading practice in the classroom environment.
Reference:
Brown, K. J. (1999-2000, December/January). What kind of text: for whom and
when? [Textual scaffolding for beginning readers]. The Reading Teacher,
53(4), 292-307.
Ci 815 Advanced Methods and Strategies
Wichita State University
11/01/2012
Abstract
This assignment is an article critic of an article written by two classroom elementary teachers. Many teachers wonder at the best type of books to assign to their students for ultimate reading achievement growth. This article discusses the different types of literature, the purpose of these types of literature, and the best type of readers to be matched with each type of literature.
What Kind of Text: For Whom and When?
Textual Scaffolding for Beginning Readers
Summary:
This article highlighted the debate teachers have when choosing which texts to use with their students while teaching beginning reading skills (p 292). Such text types examined in this article were easy readers, predictable texts, decodable leveled books, basal stories, and authentic literature (literature that does not use a controlled vocabulary or rhyme to create a simple language). This article followed two first grade teachers examining the special needs of individual students in their classroom.
Synopsis
This article highlights the debate teachers often have as to which type of text is best to read to students: decodable leveled books or typical basal stories typically found in most literature. The author persuades the reader to ask a different question, “Rather than asking “which is best,” we can ask, “Which type of text is best suited to achieve what purposes with whom, and when? (p 293)” This question was highlighted with a narrative of two seasoned teachers and their co-workers and their self reflection into the different types of text found in their classrooms. The decodable texts and easy readers helped to build children’s reading confidence gradually, but the stories often lacked rich plot, characters, and story descriptions. On the other hand, award winning picture/story books and the basal stories were often rich and more complex, but daunting for beginning readers.
The next part of the article included narratives highlighting some of the teachers different students and their individual reading needs. The first case was about a boy name Travis that had difficulties sounding out words and tracking print left to right. Travis was in the first stage of reading where readers learn about print. The teacher matched Travis to easy predictable text and easy readers to help teach him basic print concepts. The second case study was about a girl named Shamika whom had a strong knowledge of letters and their sounds before entering her first grade classroom. Shamika was in the second reading phase the author called “breaking the code” where the student begins to understand simple spelling patterns, sound out multiple syllable words, and was becoming fluent while reading print. The teacher lead Shamika in various word attack games and strategies while introducing decodable readers to her that bridged the gap between easy readers and traditional literature. The third case study was about a first grader named Patrick that was a very fluent reader. His challenge was that he was not interested in reading. His teacher matched him with easy readers (like Frog and toad are friends) and traditional children literature.
In summary, the teachers gave a few tips on how they taught their students reading. Everyday the teacher read from both authentic literature and nonfiction books. Authentic literature is defined as when authors do not used a controlled vocabulary or pattern in their stories. In short the author came to the conclusion that no one single type of text is best for students, and that students benefit from having a variety of text to learn from during all different stages of their learning to read.
Application
This article was mentioned by an instructor presenting Letrs training to the Butler County Cooperative teachers, a training that focused on how/why teaching phonics to students is so important. As a teacher it helped me to see a way to merge my “authentic literature class library” with my schools “basal books and leveled decodable readers”. Although my students are not first graders, they do share many of the same reading characteristics of the students case studies highlighted in this article. As a result of this article I will amp up my phonics instruction to include more deconstruction and segmenting of phonemes, and well as introduce more expository text to my students. At the beginning of the school year, I had struggled about which types of books to assign to my students. I chose to allow my students to select books from all the categories : three easy decodable books, two leveled Accelerated Reader books, and 2 authentic literature books from any reading level they chose. This article reassures me I was in the right track with having them choose books from across the categories.
Reflection
I highly enjoyed reading this article and found it interesting to compare the different types of books found in our classrooms. I would recommend this article to any teacher seeking to improve the reading levels of their students and struggling to find the right balance of stories. This article also highlighted the need for teachers to not use a single basal book in their classroom to solely teach reading, but allow time and practice for students to get differentiated reading practice in the classroom environment.
Reference:
Brown, K. J. (1999-2000, December/January). What kind of text: for whom and
when? [Textual scaffolding for beginning readers]. The Reading Teacher,
53(4), 292-307.