Conclusion

New Brunswicks Language Arts Curriculum may seem outdated, having been produced in 1998. Due to that timing, however, it retains top-down philosophies learned from the provinces experience with whole language methods. This is a healthy balance for todays level-driven teaching, reminding teachers that reading is more about depth and breadth of comprehension than decoding and speed. Teachers of New Brunswick can be proud to work with a reading curriculum which has the best of both breadth and depth. The NB Reading Curriculum provides superior content which is only overlooked because other materials offer more useable structures and displays. This material would be more usable if it were presented in a web site with elaboration links such as the CAF site and a wall display like CAFs (with a more simplified wall display for kindergarten). The wall display would be more effective if it contained mnemonic icons, such as Beanie Babies. If Beanie Babies are used, teachers could improve on the text included in posters by making them more child friendly and including details more reflective of the NB Curriculum requirements. Although teachers have appreciated the Diller continuum, they would be guided more accurately by using a similar table displaying the New Brunswick Reading Curriculum. Also, because no list or table can serve the breadth and depth needed in teaching literacy, a comprehensive index of curriculum resources should be made for these strategies. There is an index in the NB Curriculum, but it does not list most of these items. Even if a teacher understands how to do a PDF word search, it will still require a lot of sorting. This could be remedied by the production of a simple digital index for the present, but would benefit most from being developed as a website. This would make it easier for teachers to understand each of the strategies without the labour of seeking them out individually in their PDF format. For example, if a teacher wanted to know what the curriculum had to say about wide reading, she would be able to search that term and discover how it is described in the GCOs and SCOs, recommendations for teaching and assessing it, how it fits in the programs design, and what standard have been set to gage its achievement. This is essential information and it needs to be immediately accessible. Beyond this textual information, video information could be employed to clarify curriculum ideas. CAF makes good use of video footage in explaining teaching methods and this has become the expectation. Reading long

chapters describing teacher-student interactions can be of limited value when a brief video clip could explain it efficiently. Documentation on teaching methods should be visually modeled and text should be reserved for elaboration. Exploring alternative teaching methods needs to be done with purposeful discernment. New approaches are worth investigating because they show what other teachers have discovered to overcome their particular obstacles. They may or may not apply to another teaching situations or challenges. If a teacher decides to alter his/her approach, it should be focused on solving a very well defined problem and any change should be implemented with that goal kept in mind. Making a change just to be current is insufficient reason to justify the time and expense needed. Implementing new systems may distract teachers from recognizing ways to alleviate their own concerns and probe more deeply into their provincial curriculum. Conclusions: 1. The New Brunswick Reading Curriculum, with its Reading Assessment Standards, is a more thorough resource for reading strategies than Strategy Sam, Beanie Babies, The CAF Menu, or Debbie Dillers continuum. 2. This valuable curriculum is neglected because of its awkward presentation (PDF). Suggestions: 1. The New Brunswick Reading Curriculum would be more usable if presented as a website, but should, at the very least, be accompanied by an electronic index for the reading strategies. Video links to show examples would be useful in this resource. 2. Reading strategies displayed in the useful structures and presentation styles of Strategy Sam, Beanie Babies, The CAF Menu, and Debbie Dillers continuum should be rewritten to more directly reflect the wording of the New Brunswick Reading Curriculum. 3. Teachers should employ new methods according to their personal concerns and the demands of their provinces curriculum. The table Strategy Coverage for Reading Displays provides a checklist with which to compare new resources.

Strategy Coverage for Reading Displays

Thinking
Reading Strategies and Behaviours

Reading Behaviours and Responses

monitor and self-correct solve unknown words high-frequency sight words predicting fluency locating information respond accurately to most literal questions retell narrative text main ideas identified

Strategy Sam

Beanie Babies

CAF

Diller

Fountas and Pinn

LITERAL RESPONSES : thinking within the text

inferring INFERENTIA L/ INTERPRETI VE RESPONSES : thinking beyond the text infer word meaning (context) uses text features to gain additional information questioning (questioning principles of order, time-space, causeeffect) draws conclusions/makes comparisons (identifying principles of order, time-space, cause-effect) personal connections(textself, text-text, text-world) preferences/ opinions identify text forms and general purpose authors style/technique fact vs. opinion / point of view purposeful book selection/wide reading

CRITICAL/ EVALUATIVE / PERSONAL RESPONSES : thinking about the text

Original created from the standards by Karen Stewart and Heather Wood, School District 2, NB, 2012. Reformatted and revised by Esther J. Hicks, 2013.

Works Cited Beanie Baby Reading Strategies. Web. http://huntersgreen.mysdhc.org/teacher/1941coriell/Reading%20Strategies

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http://www.heinemann.com/fountasandpinnell/supportingMaterials/FountasPinnell_r evdReadingTeacherArticle12_2012.pdf