Notes on the Reading:

What is the difference between learning to read and reading to learn?
Learning to read= reading instruction
Reading to learn= the ability to use reading to aquire new knowledge

What are the essential five areas of reading instruction ?
Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Comprehension
Vocabulary 

How can computers be used to teach reading skills?
 Students with LD respond well to systematic, repetitive, engaging, and individualized instruction.

Phonemic awareness and phonics:
Effective reading applications will:
* highlight patterns  among sounds, letters, and letter-
    sound correspondence
*provide multiple opportunites for meaningful practive
*engage students through interesting,  interactive
    activities 
*allow for customization for individual differences.

Fluency:
The multi-media capabilites of computers make them an ideal technology for providing fluency-building activities.

Strategies to increase fluency include:
*modeling fluent reading then giving students a chance
    to read the same text aloud
*providing opportunities for repeated oral reading with
    support ( help with unknown words)
*providing opportunities to practice reading with a high
    degree of success

Comprehension:
Comprehension skills can be developed by applications which include text combined with embedded comprehension strategies such as:
*summarizing
*questioning
*clarifying
*predicting
*visualizing
*reflecting

Vocabulary:
Effective vocabulary instruction includes direct instruction on vocabulary items related to a specific text a student will be reading.
 
Applications with "authoring capabilities"  provide opportunities for teachers to add their own content to exisiting templates.
 
Engagment is essential for successful reading. Intersting material can motivate struggling students to overcome the difficulties in the reading itself.  The internet can help provide emerging readers with a wealth of interesting material.

Teachers can download internet material and modify it or manipualte it in word processing documents to accomdate the individual readers skill level.

Alternately subscribing to a leveled reading Web site can  make it easy to locate reading material that is  both interesting and at the appropriate skill level for their students.  

How can computers be used to help student who are reading below grade level compensate for their reading difficulties?
By providing access to the printed word thru
Alternate Formats:
e-Text
DAISY; Digital Accessible Information SYstem 
PDF Files
MP3
Large Print
BRF: Braille Format
 
And by providing tools to access alternate formats:
*text readers
*scan/read systems

My response to the Reading:
Although the entire chapter was filled with useful information I was most interested in the final section on decision making. I was particularly interested in the question: how does an educator decide when to switch emphasis from using technology to teach a student to read to using technology to help a student read to learn.

Often I hear people express a fear of creating "learned helplessness" and not wanting struggling students to "rely" on "crutches".
But the term learned helplessness was developed to describe the result of repeated failure, not of too much support.

I really appreciated the quotes from D.L. Edyburn who advocated for a success based strategy of providing students with the appropriate compensatory tools, with the knowledge that the experience of success is the goal- not the experience of overcoming educational hurdles, nor of failing.

I believe that if we want our children to succeed, we should not be afraid to give the the tools they need to do so.

My questions for the class:
Do you think it is possible to offer a student too much support? Who should decide when it is time to remove supports, if ever? Should a student be "weaned" from support over time or allowed to use the supports until they feel they no longer need them?
 
Notes to myself- copy:
Table 3.2 Applications that Support Fluency. pg.61
Table 3.3 Applications that Support Vocabulary  Development pg. 64
Table 3.4 Applications for Developing Reading Comprehension pg. 65
Figure 3.7 Using Technology to Adapt Text for Students who struggle with reading comprehension







Leave a Reply.