Math Interview - Strategies

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Description of Need or Opportunity –Part A (812)

Description of Need or Opportunity –Part A

First grade is a year where reading success is essential. Much of the year is spent developing the reading strategies, practicing and modeling fluency, and assessing comprehension. I have found that students benefit from hearing fluent readers read to them. Through this project I would like to incorporate technology to increase reading fluency in first graders. Being a fluent reader is linked to comprehension and understanding. Fluency doesn’t ensure comprehension, but comprehension is difficult without fluency. If a reader is constantly stopping to decode and figure out unknown words, most likely meaning will be disrupted and the process of reading becomes long and laborious.

I would like to incorporate books on iPods to increase reading fluency. Currently, I have a listening center in my classroom that takes both tapes and CDs. Unfortunately, many of the books on tape are outdated, worn, or falling apart. The books on CDs are more current, but are not as functional for first grade use. Students often scratch the CDs or the story skips while playing. This creates for an unpleasant experience and doesn’t effectively model fluent reading. Additionally, I can only order books on tape or CD that are offered in book stores or scholastic. Many students have books that they are interested in reading, but the listening resources are not available on tape or CD. If I incorporate the use of iPods, I could download books that students were currently reading or interested in. I could also incorporate books that I already have available in my classroom. This would also broaden my “listening library” and be more user-friendly. The iPods would also deliver one on one modeling of fluent reading at any level.

Students would have an opportunity to use these resources during Reading Workshop. I envision students listening to one to two picture books a day using the iPod. Several students could listen to the same story and just pass the iPod when they finish. I would begin this process with students that are struggling with their own reading fluency, but if resources are available, I would like all students to have the opportunity.

During this course, I will use my personal iPod to download books to use in my classroom. I will allow several students to use this resource daily. If this seems to positively affect their reading fluency, I will write a grant when the course concludes to receive additional resources.

There are several websites available to download free books and search children’s books. Three of those websites are listed below.

http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/genre/Children

http://storynory.com/

http://www.playtime-books.com/

According the National Reading Panel (2000), fluency is the ability to read text with speed, accuracy and proper expression. Fluent readers:

· Recognize words automatically

· Read aloud effortlessly and with expression

· Do not have to concentrate on decoding

· Can focus on comprehension

According to Brenda-Jean Tyler from the Department of Special Education at The University of Texas at Austin, research suggests that “effective interventions for building fluency include an explicit model of fluent reading, multiple opportunities to repeatedly read familiar text independently and with corrective feedback, and established performance criteria for increasing text difficulty.” (J Learn Disabil September/October 2002 vol. 35 no. 5 386-406).

Below is a link that describes how students can play a larger role in assessing their own reading fluency with the use of new technologies. The focus is on the actual fluency assessment as opposed to building the fluency skills, but providing feedback would be beneficial for older students to improve.

http://doit.aurorak12.org/2010/02/07/reading-fluency-i-pod-touch/

Here are several links about teachers already using iPods in the classroom.

http://ipodclassroom.wikispaces.com/

http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/ipods-in-the-classroom

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites070.shtml

To determine if this project is successful, I will conduct a pre-assessment taking into account the students’ current reading rate, use of expression, and heeding punctuation using a Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). After several weeks listening to books on the iPods, I will conduct the same assessment again to verify if changes are evident.

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