English Language Arts

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English Language Arts Reading (EC-4)
Presented by Rebecca Cobian-Quiett,
M.Ed. TeXes Review Session
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Language Arts 40 of test

1. Phonological and phonemic awareness
2. Literacy Development
3. Analysis and Decoding
4. Reading Fluency
5. Reading Comprehension
6. Research and Comprehension skills in content
   areas
7. Writing conventions
8. Development of written communication
9. Assessment of developing literacy

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WEEK 1
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Domain I, Competency 001
The teacher understands the importance of oral
language, knows the developmental processes of
oral language, and provides children with varied
opportunities to develop listening and speaking
skills.
Examples 26, 30
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A pre-kindergarten teacher could best promote the
development of childrens listening skills by
Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
6

1. pausing occasionally when speaking to ask
   individual children to repeat what the teacher
   just said.
2. using attentive listening behavior when the
   children are speaking.
3. integrating specific listening activities as a
   routine element in the daily schedule.
4. frequently reminding the children to think hard
   about what they are hearing.

Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
7

• Oral language
• The skills in listening involve
• enjoying the words of a speaker
• evaluating the message of a speaker
• an appreciation of the spoken language
• Prior to reading a new story to several
  kindergarten children, oral language could be
  promoted by first evaluating the background
  knowledge of the children.

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Oral language Children ought to have various
opportunities to adapt spoken language for a
variety of purposes, audiences, and
occasions. Childrens oral language and
communication skills are better developed through
conversations with peers and adults as compared
to electronic audio media such as CDs, tapes, or
television.
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Domain I, Competency 002
The teacher understands phonological and phonemic
awareness and employs a variety of approaches to
help children develop phonological and phonemic
awareness.
Answer the following questions from TEXES
Generalist practice test 1 ,3, 8, 9, 36
10
A kindergarten teacher engages children in an
activity in which different sounds are
substituted for the initial consonant of a
repeated word in a familiar song (e.g. Row, Row,
Row Your Boat becomes Mow, Mow, Mow Your
Boat). This activity is most likely to promote
literacy development by helping the children
Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
11

1. Distinguish onsets and rimes.
2. Blend the sounds in words.
3. Relate phonemes to letters.
4. Recognize word boundaries.

Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
12

• Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
• Onsets an onset is the initial single phoneme
  (sound) in a word
• Rime is the remaining set of phonemes in the
  word e.g. in sat, the onset is /s/ and the
  rime is /at/

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness (PHONOSOUND)

• Phonological awareness
• an awareness of and the ability to manipulate
  sounds
• Phonemic awareness
• the understanding that spoken words can be
  divided into separate sounds

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

• Phonemic awareness is
• the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate
  individual sounds --phonemes--in spoken words

• Phonemic awareness is important because
• it improves childrens word reading and reading
  comprehension
• it helps children learn to spell

Info provided by National Institute for Literacy
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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

• Phonemic awareness can be developed through a
  number of activities, including asking children
  to

• identify phonemes
• categorize phonemes
• blend phonemes to form words
• segment words into phonemes
• delete or add phonemes to form new words
• substitute phonemes to make new words

Info provided by National Institute for Literacy
16
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

• Phonemic awareness instruction is most effective

• when children are taught to manipulate phonemes
  by using the letters of the alphabet
• when instruction focuses on only one or two
  rather than several types of phoneme manipulation

Info provided by National Institute for Literacy
17
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

• Phonics instruction

• helps children learn the relationships between
  the letters of written language and the sounds of
  spoken language

• Phonics instruction is important because

• it leads to an understanding of the alphabetic
  principle -- the systematic and predictable
  relationships between written letters and spoken
  sounds.

Info provided by National Institute for Literacy
18
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

• Programs of phonics instruction are effective
  when they are

• systemic -- the plan of instruction includes a
  carefully selected set of letter-sound
  relationships that are organized into a logical
  sequence
• explicit -- the programs provide teachers with
  precise directions for the teaching of these
  relationships

Info provided by National Institute for Literacy
19
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

• Effective phonics programs provide

• ample opportunities for children to apply what
  they are learning about letters and sounds to the
  reading of words, sentences, and stories

Info provided by National Institute for Literacy
20
Domain I, Competency 003
The teacher understands the importance of the
alphabetic principle for reading English and
provides instruction that helps children
understand the relationship between printed words
and spoken language.
Answer the following questions from TEXES
Generalist practice test 4, 5, 20
21
A kindergarten teacher begins instruction in
letter-sound correspondence by teaching students
the sounds associated with m, s, t, and b. Which
of the following steps would be most appropriate
for the teacher to take next?
Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
22

1. Teach students the short vowel sounds of two or
   three separate vowels to enable the students to
   begin reading familiar CVC words.
2. Teach students the sounds most commonly
   associated with all of the remaining consonants
   in the alphabet.
3. Teach all of the long and short vowel sounds to
   help students understand the idea that one letter
   may be associated with two sounds.
4. Teach students how to sound out CVCC words by
   using the consonant sounds they already have
   learned.

Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
23

• Alphabetic Principle
• Important elements of the alphabetic principle
  include
• graphophonemic knowledge
• relationship of letters in print to spoken words
• letter names
• Childrens alphabetical skills should be
  monitored with formal and informal assessments in
  a continuous manner.
• The alphabetic principle identifies a
  relationship between the visual and the auditory
• The alphabetic principle helps students to
  understand the relationship between printed
  words and spoken language.

A B C
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• Alphabetic Principle Instruction
• Most effective instruction is
• Explicit
• Teacher directed
• Systematic

A B C
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Domain I, Competency 004
The teacher understands that literacy develops
over time, progressing from emergent to
proficient stages and uses a variety of
approaches to support the development of
childrens literacy.
Answer the following questions from TEXES
Generalist practice test 2 , 12, 17, 28, 35,
39, 44
26
Renee, a preschooler, shows her teacher a picture
she has drawn of her puppy. She tells the
teacher, It says, This is my puppy,
Oscar. Renees writing demonstrates that she
has an understanding of which of the following
concepts about print?
ENREE
Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
27

1. Words are read from left to right.
2. Print carries meaning
3. Letters correspond with sounds.
4. Sentences are composed of words.

Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
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Literacy Development emergent literacy
describes a childs early unconventional attempts
at reading, writing, and listening. The term was
coined by Marie Clay The Texas Profile of
Reading Index (TPRI)and the Tejas Lee are
examples of a formal assessment of childrens
literacy development.
DOG ?
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Literacy Development EARLY LEARNING Important
early understandings related to print are that
the childs own name can be made with letters,
hearing written language can be enjoyable, and
writing can provide information such as what
something is or where something is located.
DOG ?
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Literacy Development

• provide explicit and systemic instruction
• reinforce activities to promote students
  literacy development
• provide children frequent and intensive
  opportunities to read

DOG DOG
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WEEK 2
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Domain I, Competency 005
The teacher understands the importance of word
analysis and decoding for reading and provides
many opportunities for children to improve their
word-analysis and decoding abilities.
Examples 14 , 15, 16, 18, 22, 34, 43
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Which of the following general guidelines should
a first-grade teacher follow when selecting texts
for beginning readers?
Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
34

1. Provide mostly texts in which the vocabulary
   consists of regular and irregular sight words
   that students have already memorized.
2. Provide students primarily with texts that relate
   to content-area learning.
3. Provide mostly phonetically regular texts that
   allow students to apply their knowledge of
   letter-sound relationships.
4. Provide students primarily with texts that the
   teacher has already read aloud in class.

Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
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Word-analysis and Decoding skills Syntax refers
to the knowledge of English word
order. Decoding is the identification of words
by using letter-sound association and structural
analysis. Word recognition skills require
decoding, blending, and structural analysis.
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Word analysis and decoding skills An onset
refers to the initial letter or letters before
the first vowel in a word. The ending part of a
word that contains the vowel and the remainder of
the word is described by the term
rimes Frequently occurring words in childrens
reading materials are called, high frequency
words. A sight word becomes part of a readers
instant mental retrieval upon reading without
needing to use word-analysis.
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Domain I, Competency 006
The teacher understands the importance of fluency
for reading comprehension and provides many
opportunities for children to improve their
reading fluency.
Examples 11 , 21, 31
38
A second-grade teacher observes that a student
uses his finger to point to each word in a text
as he reads it aloud. The teacher responds by
guiding the student to discontinue this practice.
Which of the following statements best describes
the rationale for this response?
Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
39

1. Pointing to individual words while reading can
   distract students from systematic decoding.
2. Students who get in the habit of pointing to
   individual words while reading aloud often, have
   difficulty learning to read silently.
3. Pointing to individual words while reading can
   interfere with the development of reading
   fluency.
4. Students who get in the habit of pointing to
   individual words while reading aloud often have
   difficulty developing phonemic awareness.

Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
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Reading Fluency

• Fluency is.
• Fluency is important because..

• the ability to read a text accurately and quickly
• it frees students to understand what they read

Info provided by National Institute for Literacy
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Reading Fluency

• Reading fluency can be developed.
• Monitoring student progress in reading fluency

• by modeling fluent reading
• by having students engage in repeated oral
  reading
• is useful in evaluating instruction and setting
  instructional goals
• can be motivating to students

Info provided by National Institute for Literacy
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Strategies Promoting Fluency Students
efficiency of word analysis through phonics
(graphophonemic), structural (syntactic), and
analysis of words in context (for meaning,
semantics). Match the reading material with the
text structure, prior knowledge, and reading
skills of the reader. Encourage reading in
children by introducing new books frequently and
by reading only part of the book aloud.
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Strategies Promoting Fluency Rereading portions
of text Readers Theater Repeated reading of
the book Selection of reading material of
appropriate difficulty Selection of reading
material that connects with students interests,
background experiences, and culture. In this
manner, contextualized experiences will be
facilitated.
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• Strategies of Fluent Readers
• ?Active reasoning
• ?Interactive transaction between the text and the
  reader.
• Prediction about what is about to be read. The
  prediction is confirmed or rejected based on
  three cueing systems
• Semantic
• Syntactic
• Graphophonemic

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Domain I, Competency 007
The teacher understands the importance reading
for understanding, knows the components of
comprehension, and teaches children strategies
for improving their comprehension.
Examples 24 , 29, 32, 33, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42
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Which of the following strategies is most
effective for promoting students content area
vocabulary development?
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1. Providing ongoing, corrective feedback in
   pronunciation during reading activities
2. Giving frequent, short vocabulary quizzes
3. Having students look up the definitions of a set
   of assigned words in the dictionary
4. Semantically grouping new vocabulary words with
   familiar words that have similar meanings

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The 3 Cueing Systems on which predictions are
made Semantic prior knowledge, or schema, as
well as the cultural knowledge that enables the
reader to reconstruct meaning from the
text. Syntactic predicts on the basis of what
is going to sound or feel right. A
well-developed syntactic system will enable the
intuitive prediction of the word that most
probably fits. Graphophonic based on sounds of
speech represented by letters and clusters of
letters, and punctuation relates to the
intonation patterns of spoken language.
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• Reading Comprehension
• Critical cognitive processing includes
• Problem solving
• Analysis
• Comparing and contrasting
• Evaluative comprehension
• Character development

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• Reading Comprehension
• The following six strategies appear to have a
  firm scientific basis for improving text
  comprehension
• Monitoring comprehension
• be aware of what they do understand
• identify what they do not understand
• use appropriate fix-up strategies to resolve
  problems in comprehension
• Use graphic and semantic organizers
• help students focus on text structure as they
  read
• provide students with tools they can use to
  examine and visually represent relationships in a
  text
• help students write well-organized summaries of
  text

Info provided by National Institute for Literacy
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• Reading Comprehension
• Answering questions
• give students a purpose for reading
• focus students attention on what they are to
  learn
• help students to think actively as they read
• encourage students to monitor their comprehension
• help students to review content and relate what
  they have learned to what they already know
• Generating questions
• Recognizing story structure
• Summarizing
• identify or generate main ideas
• connect the main or central ideas
• eliminate redundant and unnecessary
  information
• remember what they read

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Reading Comprehension Schema theory is model of
reading comprehension that refers to what readers
may already know about a topic. Self monitoring
is when a student mentally keeps track of whether
she is making sense of what is being read. The
KWL strategy assesses what a student knows, will
learn, and did learn. It is likely to activate a
students prior knowledge prior to reading.
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Comprehension Skills in the Content
Areas Graphic organizers can help assess the
prior knowledge about a topic. Prompting
predictions about a topic and then confirming
those predictions result in teacher modeling of a
necessary reading process. Scaffolding refers
to process in which teachers guide students with
modeling and support.
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Comprehension Skills in the Content
Areas Semantic mapping, concept webs, and
graphic organizers all can enhance comprehension
skills in the content areas. Cooperative
learning involves effective attributes for
students such as social development, self-esteem,
shared knowledge. Older students with reading
problems can benefit from teaching reading within
the content areas, think aloud activities, and
teacher modeling. An expository text
indicates informational non-fiction books.
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• Comprehension Skills in the Content Areas
• Criticisms of content area textbooks
• difficult reading level for some students to read
  and comprehend
• over emphasis on factual material
• overemphasis on literal facts and details.
• Concepts mapping can be useful
• as a pre-reading activity
• as a post reading activity
• as an organizational strategy

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• Reading Comprehension
• Literal comprehension includes the identification
  / recalling of details, following directions,
  classifying ideas, etc.
• Interpretative comprehension includes predicting
  outcomes, relating the text to their background
  knowledge and experiences, making associations,
  etc.

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• A SUCCESSFUL READER .
• tests each prediction
• confirms or rejects each prediction
• corrects when necessary
• applies cueing systems flexibility and in an
  integrated manner
• picks out key words that carry the most meaning
• predicts what is about to be read on the basis of
  semantic and syntactic information

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Domain I, Competency 008
The teacher understands the importance of
research and comprehension skills to children's
academic success and provides children with
instruction that promotes their acquisition and
effective use of these skills in the content
areas.
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• Students in a fourth-grade class work in
• small groups to complete a prereading
• "anticipation guide." The guide lists
• statements that relate to the content of an
• assigned science chapter. Students decide
• whether each statement is most likely true
• or false and write "T" or "F" next to each
• statement. After reading the chapter,
• students revisit the guide and revise their
• T/F designations as necessary, based on
• information in the chapter.

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• This instructional activity is most likely to
  support students' reading development in which of
  the following ways?
• A. activating students' prior knowledge
• and setting a purpose for reading
• B. prompting students to identify and
• interpret key vocabulary in the text
• C. helping students distinguish fact
• from opinion in informational texts
• D. helping students understand how an
• author's point of view affects the
• presentation of information

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• Use the information below to answer the two
  questions that follow.
• A second-grade teacher wants to develop students'
  content-area reading skills by helping the
• students understand information presented in
  tables. The teacher designs the following
  activity in
• connection with a thematic unit on trees.
• The teacher reads aloud and discusses a story
  about trees and an age-appropriate informational
• book about tree leaves.
• Each student selects one leaf from a science
  exhibit that includes samples of various types of
• leaves.
• The teacher displays a large, blank, two-column
  table. The teacher makes headers for the columns
• by drawing the pinnate (feather-like) leaf
  pattern at the top of the first column and
  drawing the
• palmate (hand-like) leaf pattern at the top of
  the second column. The teacher discusses each
  leaf
• pattern with the class.
• Each student shows his or her leaf to the class.

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• Which of the following extensions of the activity
  described
• above would most effectively promote students'
  ability to
• interpret information presented in tables?
• After each student shows his or her leaf, the
  teacher has students work with a partner to draw
  a picture of the leaf.
• B. The teacher attaches a written label to each
  leaf in the table, identifying the name of the
  tree from which the leaf was taken.
• C. After each student shows his or her leaf, the
  teacher guides the class to decide whether the
  leaf belongs in the first or second column.
• D. The teacher tapes each leaf in the appropriate
  column in the table after the student has shown
  it to the class.

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• The teacher wants to help students understand
  that tables summarize ideas
• and information. Which of the following
  strategies would best address this
• goal?
• A. The teacher helps students brainstorm a title
  for each column, and for the table as a whole,
  and then writes the final titles on the table.
• B. The teacher shows students examples of a
  variety of other simple tables and asks students
  how the tables are alike.
• C. The teacher briefly reviews for students the
  steps they took to make the table and encourages
  students to talk about what they have learned.
• D. The teacher has students work in small groups
  to create their own
• simple tables.

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WEEK 3
65
Domain I, Competency 009
The teacher understands the conventions of
writing in English and provides instruction that
helps children develop proficiency in using
writing conventions.
Examples 6 , 19
66
A first-grade teacher who is working with a group
of beginning readers gives each student a set of
word cards. On each card is printed a word that
the students already have learned to read (e.g.
he, she, sees, loves, has, the, a, dog, cat,
pail). The teacher shows the students how to
arrange the cards to create a statement (e.g. she
sees the cat). Students then create their own
statements and read them aloud. One goal of this
activity is to promote students reading
development by reinforcing word recognition
skills. In addition, this activity can be
expected to promote students writing development
by
Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
67

1. helping them learn to view writing as a useful
   tool for communication.
2. promoting their recognition of similarities and
   differences between written and oral language.
3. building their understanding of basic syntactic
   structures
4. helping develop their understanding of the value
   of writing conventions (e.g. capitalization,
   punctuation).

Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
68
Writing Conventions The stages of writing
development include pre-phonemic, phonemic,
transitional, and conventional. Some
predictable stages in the process of acquiring
the conventions of writing are making
mock-letters, scribbling, and reading
environmental print. In the conventional stage
of spelling development, a child would apply the
basic rules of English to spelling and correctly
spell at least 90 of the words they
write. Grammar, capitalization, and punctuation
are considered conventions of the English
language.
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Writing Conventions A student who understands
the function of writing but cannot yet make the
forms of writing is in the pre-communicative
stages of writing development. Cutting with
scissors, tearing paper, painting, and drawing
are examples of hands-on activities that could
promote the development of fine motor skills.
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Domain I, Competency 010
The teacher understands that writing to
communicate is a developmental process and
provides instruction that promotes childrens
competence in written communication.
Examples 7, 25, 27
71
Which of the following statements best defines
freewriting and its use in the writing process?
Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
72

1. Freewriting involves writing continuously for a
   specified amount of time and is best used by
   student writers to generate ideas for their
   writing.
2. Freewriting involves writing without the use of
   punctuation and is best used by teachers to
   demonstrate how punctuation helps the reader
   understand a text.
3. Freewriting involves writing in a personal diary
   for ones own satisfaction and is best used by
   student writers to maintain creative fluency.
4. Freewritng involves writing on specific topics
   that will not be revised or graded and is best
   used by teachers to build students confidence in
   their ability to write essays.

Example provided by TeXes Preparation Manual
73

• Development of Written Communication
• Writing process
• Pre-writing
• Drafting
• Editing
• Revising
• Language processes involve reading, writing,
  listening and speaking.
• Early writing reflects the childs understanding
  of the function of writing, the form of writing,
  and the childs understanding of how writing
  works.

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Development of Written Communication Skills
related to writing such as spelling, handwriting,
punctuation, and spacing are known as writing
mechanics. Free-writing involves writing
continuously for a specified amount of time and
is best used by student writers to generate ideas
for their writing. A mnemonic device helps
learners to remember by using an association to
trigger memory retrieval. The main goal of
revising writing, is to allow the student to
think about the text in a new and more elaborate
way.
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Domain I, Competency 011
The teacher understands the basic principles of
literacy assessment and uses a variety of
assessments to guide literacy instruction.
Examples 10 , 13, 23
76
A third-grade teacher has made the following
notes about the reading performance of Ashley,
one of her students.
Example provided by TeXess Preparation Manual
77
Ashleys oral reading speed and accuracy are
about average for the class. Her errors, which
tend to occur when she encounters polysyllabic,
unfamiliar words, usually consist of substituting
real words or nonsense words that are
structurally similar the printed words rather
than words that are semantically or syntactically
correct. Ashleys performance or oral and
written comprehension questions that are based on
silent and oral reading selections is also
average for the class however, her miscues, if
numerous, sometimes seem to interfere with her
comprehension
Example provided by TeXess Preparation Manual
78

• Based on the teachers notes about Ashleys
  reading performance, Ashley would benefit most
  from instruction to help her
• recognize high-frequency words with regular and
  irregular spellings.
• use context clues and monitor her comprehension
  as she reads.
• apply knowledge of phonics to decode unfamiliar
  words.
• improve reading fluency and vocabulary skills

Example provided by TeXess Preparation Manual
79

• Assessment of Literacy Development
• The main goal of assessment is to adapt
  instruction.
• A students listening level serves as an estimate
  of the students potential for reading
  improvement.
• Difficulty of a text
• length of the words and sentences
• complexity of the sentence structure
• readers prior knowledge of the subject.

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• Assessment of Literacy Development
• Cloze procedure
• reading passage in which words have been
  systematically replaced by blanks
• Corrective reading instruction
• supporting the readers strengths as well as
  meeting the needs of the student.
• Ongoing assessments
• Observations
• Checklists
• Daily performance samples
• High-stakes assessment.
• Major decisions made from the results of one test
  score

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Strategies for Creating Effective, Valid,
Practical Classroom Tests Validity - Items
should be clear and uncomplicated - Directions
should be clear - Tasks should be familiar
and relate to course objectives - Format
should be carefully constructed, but simple to
read
82
Resources Put Reading First www.nifl.gov TeXes
Preparation Manual http//www.excet.nesinc.com/ind
ex.asp
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These are all strategies that you have probably
heard numerous times - but the best strategy that
you as a teacher can use is Showing students
that you care.
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Go teach and show students that you care !