Week 7 - Assignment 3

1.  Use a lot of vocabulary words within each lesson. When you get to a new word stop and have students help you figure out what the word could mean, this is what helps them develop a good vocabulary and fluency in reading.
Level 1: Familiar Words: Don't need to teach, very common words.
Level 2: Words that are a bit more challenging and appear often, needs to be taught.
Level 3: Highly technical words used in science, biology classes etc..
Need to focus on the second level of words, and help the class develop a strong vocabulary. Most of these words appear in books that the children read and that's how you can implement these new words in the lesson. Draw the words from the material that your reading them, no need for fluency lessons, just implement it in all other lessons by pointing out new words and explaining them.

2. Teach the child to tear off the beginning and end of the words and read the middle, once the child can pronounce it add on the beginning and then the end and have the child put the word back together and say it. Once the child gets a hang of it just of them cover the beginning and end with their fingers. Eventually the child shouldn't need to cover anything at all and read the word on their own without breaking it up.

3. I gained a lot of knowledge on instructional practiced for fluency from Professor Allington. One specific idea that I really like and want to implement in my own classroom is the whole idea of the importance of the teacher reading out loud to the class modeling what a fluent reader does. By reading with expression and excitement. I have seen teachers who read books to their students as if they are acting in a play! It makes the book so alive and real for the students and shows them how they should be feeling when they read a book on their own. I also like the idea of implementing a word wall in the classroom, by adding new words onto the wall so that the students can visualize all the new vocabulary words they learned.
I strongly agree that the best way to have our students become better and more fluent readers is for them to read, read, and read some more!!! Books are the best teachers!