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Perhaps the most important skills that children develop in school are those rooted in
literacy. Engendering deep and pervasive knowledge about how and why we use language
provides students with a central system with which they are able to interact with a plethora of
facets of information. Ensuring that our students are capable and critically skilled in reading and
writing, from informational texts to literature and grammar to spelling conventions, provides
them with the powerful tool sets crucial to thriving in the academic setting. In this diagnostic
case study of a intermediate level student, I was given the opportunity to examine the
develop an in-depth literacy profile and provide informed recommendations for further
education.
Reading is seeing the world an author writes by decoding symbols and applying our
personal experience to what we understand those symbols to mean. The education of the
intermediate reader should address both the more personal experience of constructing meaning,
Process, Constance Weaver (2009) suggests an approach I wholeheartedly believe in. This is the
“shared reading experience” in which “progression from whole texts to words and word
parts” (pg. xix) marks a comprehensive awareness of phonetical concerns which is secondary to
the experience of the process of reading. Phonics skills are only a small part of the strategies and
skills employed by readers when they make meaning while reading. The reading experience “is a
process of orchestrating various skills into effective strategies for processing text” (pg. xvii).
In order to make meaning from what they decode, students need to be able to relate it to
their personal knowledge, or schema. Once they make personal connections to the words that
phonemic awareness allowed them to comprehend, they rely increasingly on other aspects of
literacy to help them construct the bigger picture. Shared reading experiences give students
opportunities to hear how words fit and flow in relation to one another. These same read-alouds
and group reading exercises will give them an ear of familiarity with broader concepts like
reading to and with them, as well as having discussions about those readings, scaffolding the
Students also need to be led to and taught the myriad strategies available to help them be
better readers. Neufeld (2005) stresses the importance of explicitly teaching students how to use
and apply strategies (pg. 302). Going through the process of introducing, modeling, and
application of these strategies. Strategies that involve modeling reading habits, guided reading,
and reflecting on what they read provide the strongest link between the reader and the text. The
interrelated acts of listening and speaking, as well as writing also aid in the transmission of these
instructions.
Strickland, Ganske, and Monroe (2002) explain in great detail many engaging reading
and writing strategies students and teachers can use before, during, and after reading to improve
overarching and deeper comprehension, and encourage proficient expression. Motivating readers
by creating a book-rich classroom environment with a teacher who models a love of reading and
writing while offering reading choices, opportunities for social interaction, and access to a large
MILLER MASTER’S PORTFOLIO !3
volume of books are the most effective incentives to motivate kids to read and write. Students
who struggle with comprehension benefit from strategies that introduce them to text structures
and pictures as sources of information, help them monitor their understanding by asking quality
questions, and learn to summarize what they read. Students who have trouble with writing or
who are intimidated by writing need safe, supportive classroom environments where writing
instruction mirrors the writing process, with strategies for each component of the process:
prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Writing can be encouraged by engaging
students in oral brainstorming and utilizing mentor texts for guidance in structure.
While I firmly believe in the crucial role cooperative learning plays in reading and
individualized. The strategies employed in classrooms have a varied affect on the diverse ways
that students learn. Personalized reading and writing choices as well as progress conferences are
effective ways to individualize student goals and the means by which students will reach them.
Atwell (2015) provides students with the time and attention to look together at student strengths,
My experience working closely with a middle school student and examining her literacy
skills, habits, and preferences gave me the opportunity to reflect upon how early literacy
experiences shape and determine achievement to a certain extent. Engaging the student in
conversations about her reading and writing experiences revealed not only patterns in her own
development, but confirmed many of the tenets about the influences on literacy that I hold to be
true. Early and frequent exposure to high quality literature and having reading role models are
two positive influences that have powerful and lasting implications for student success.
MILLER MASTER’S PORTFOLIO !4
Diving deeper into the technical details of the student’s reading habits, I found that the
miscue analysis I completed on the student provided some valuable information about her
strengths in reading and allowed me to make appropriate and informed recommendations to her
teacher for further reading. Examining writing samples from the student and assessing the quality
based on the six traits of writing and her spelling development stage, I was able to consider her
strengths, areas where she needed additional support, and offer her teacher individualized
References
Atwell, N. (2015). In the middle: A lifetime of learning about writing, reading, and adolescents.
Neufeld, P. (2005). Comprehension instruction in content area classes. The Reading Teacher.
59,4: 302.
Strickland, D. S., Ganske, K., & Monroe, J. K. (2002). Supporting struggling readers and
Weaver, C. (2009). Reading process: Brief edition of reading process and practice. Portsmouth,
NH: Heinemann.