Content Literacy
Goodbye Round Robin
You are asked to respond to the following questions. Feel free to use your textbook as you reflect on the information. The point of the assignment is to know what you have learned from this text.
1. Share in your own words the authors’ explanation of reading. Why is it necessary to understand this?
2. What is round robin and why is it used in many classrooms?
3. Is oral reading important? Share the reasons discussed in the text.
4. What are some of the problems associated with round robin reading?
5. How can oral reading be used when working with struggling readers? Describe two of the strategies shared and how you might use these in the classroom.
6. Why is oral reading important for comprehension? Describe two strategies you might use to develop comprehension.
7. What are the key words to remember when using oral reading for sharing and performance? Describe two of the strategies shared and how you might use these in the classroom.
Teresa Shelton
Good-Bye Round Robin
1. Comprehension is the body of reading or the most important part of reading. Why do we read? So we will be able to understand something. Reading isn’t just seeing words but instead a very complicated diverse process. Reading is the ability to use cueing systems to create meaning from text, the strategic process of confirming ideas, and the ability to be pragmatic and choose appropriate material for where they are reading and what they are reading. It is important to understand what makes up reading to be able to help students be better at reading. If a student is having difficulty, a teacher needs to see if one of the three areas is missing or lacking. If a student is trying to read a text book during a football game reality is probable very little is being comprehended. If the same book is read during study time in a classroom more is likely to be comprehended.
2. The outdated practice of calling on one student after another to read out loud a piece of text. Once your turn is done you usually don’t have to read again that day if in a large class. It is often used still today because that is how the teacher was taught or because that is what the teacher knows to teach. Even if the teacher knows it doesn’t work effectively they will often use it because it is what everyone else is using instead of one of the new ideas.
3. Oral reading is an excellent way to build comprehension, to share ideas, to help teachers assess reading of students, and to help students who struggle with reading. Oral reading for comprehension can be an excellent way to teach students how to read and then to stop and think and question what they have read. The modeling of how to read, question, look for the answers in the text is an excellent way to build skill. Also, the ability to read the text and bring their own background knowledge and share that information to a class is very important in comprehension skills. The teacher also needs oral reading to assess where a student is struggling. Perhaps a student is having difficulty with decoding, comprehension, or fluency with oral reading a teacher can pick up on the area of difficulty or where the break starts to work with a student exactly where they need help. Oral reading not round robin can create an interest in reading, help reading and listening comprehension, vocabulary, using background knowledge, using language cues, creating images of texts, predicting, fluency, inferring, and skimming text for important information.
4. Round robin creates the wrong image of reading. Round robbing doesn’t represent how we read in the real world on a daily basis. Rarely are we called unexpectedly to read something we haven’t already practiced and rarely do we have to be perfect when we read the first time. It has the chance of actually hurting students reading habits and abilities by listening to students who struggle with reading if they are good readers. Students often quit listening, zone out, read ahead, and have more trouble comprehending if students read orally who read at different levels. Simply the fact we read faster silently than orally can cause problems when the students are expected to follow along in the text to know where they will start to read if called upon. Also, the simple fact that once you have read in round robin you usually don’t read again can cause some students to misbehave or lose focus on the text simple because they know they won’t be called on again. The time it takes to read everything in round robin fashion is extreme and that time could be used on other activities or on working on the meaning of the text. Personally the round robin system can hurt students from obtaining their full ability simple because when slow or struggling readers read they don’t get to self-correct themselves. The students or teacher correct the instant a mistake is made and the struggling student never gets to practice their self-correcting skills. It is also very embarrassing to be orally corrected in front of the whole class especially several times for one paragraph. Students who struggle don’t want to be embarrassed in front of their class but often the anxiety of having to read something can cause even more mistakes when they start. Lastly, all of these problems can cause the student not to be listening to the other students read. When the student doesn’t listen to the other paragraphs being read little is being comprehended from the text which was the whole meaning of the exercise.
5. Oral reading is a tool that can help struggling readers help themselves understand where they are having difficulties. Actually hearing the way you read sentences out loud can often help a student realize that he needs to read more like the spoken language he uses every day. It also provides the teacher with a valuable tool of assessment of struggling readers. In silent reading a teacher doesn’t even know a student is having problems until an assignment, test, or the students asks for help. In oral reading the struggles can be heard and the teacher can address the issue that is the problem. If a student is reading without notice to punctuation the teacher can address it during the reading process. If a student reads without expression and loses the meaning of the text the teacher can address that one issue with the student which may correct other problems. Strategy one is the read-aloud. The teacher picks a piece of text and practices reading the text out loud with great fluency and expression. The teacher should pick something that will interest the students. After the practice the teacher should read it to the students with great enthusiasm and fluency. It is often a good idea to change voice for the different characters and change pitch for mood to get the students engaged. Make reading aloud an activity that happens on a regular basis that students can expect. The environment should make reading a positive fun experience not a requirement. As the teacher explain to the students to listen for the meaning of the story and to listening for the enjoyment of the story. Finish the read aloud by discussing the story in depth. This is the time to check for understanding of the meaning of the story, details of the story, and if they understand why the story was read with different tones of voice.
The second type is paired reading. This is when a teacher, parent, or other on level reader reads with a struggling reader. The student chooses a text to read. The two will begin by reading together. The teacher and the student decide before hand on cues for when to start reading and when to let the student read alone. The teacher is there to help the student so if the student makes a mistake the teacher first lets them self-correct. If the student doesn’t and it alters the meaning then the teacher should help the student with the word and its meaning.
6. Oral reading is important for comprehension because it gives the teacher a tool to teach the skills needed to effectively comprehend material. Teachers’ model how to read text and question what is read, how to use background knowledge to the text being read, and how reading the punctuation in a text can change meanings of text. These skills are easier to understand in oral reading because the teacher can actually read the text and model each step.
First, process is the think-aloud. It is technique where the teacher selects a text that will have challenging words or concepts in it. The teacher will begin reading the text and when she comes to a trouble spot she will stop and explain her thoughts out loud. The teacher must explain her thoughts out loud so the students understand how to do this when they are on their own reading. Finish the reading, stopping anywhere there is a difficult spot. Now allow the students to ask questions or add their ideas on how you could solve the trouble spots. The students then should practice with a partner by taking turns reading and stopping at any trouble areas. Once the students have practices with a partner have them try this concept in their silent reading.
Second, another strategy that is used to aid in comprehension is induced imagery. This is where the teacher first selects a piece of text to read aloud. Select a passage that is full of descriptive words for imagery. The passage selected should be brief especially when teaching the skill. As you read the passage explain to the students the images that form in your mind from the words you read. Explain how with you background knowledge and the words read how you form pictures in your head of what is going on in the text. Next, read another passage and have the students’ practice forming images and let them share their ideas. Let them discuss how there are many alike and many different images from the same text. If they understand the concept then allow them to do the same with their independent reading selections. A teacher should assess their ability to do this skill. Often asking the students to pick a passage from their book and drawing the image that selection holds will let the teacher know if they have the concept down.
7. Good expression and sense of meaning are used in authentic oral reading. The first strategy selected is called readers theatre. It is not traditional class plays. The scenery and all of those details are not used. This is skit where everything is based around the skit and the reading of it. This is a concept where a group of students are given a text that has characters. Each student has a character. The student will read his part silently until he is ready to practice with group. The group will practice together to be able to present the play. The practicing silently and as a group is practicing many of the skills that go with good reading. Since this is a play the students work on fluency, reading with expression, and reading with meaning. The students then will present the play to an audience often the other students in their class or to another classroom. After the play have questions to ask the audience and have them right their answers down. This practices their comprehension skills and listening skills, it also gives feedback to the theatre on whether they got their meaning across from their skit.
The second strategy is poetry club. Poetry club is an excellent tool for grades 1-5. As the teacher make it clear to your students your love of poetry. Make your room a place of poetry through posters, books, bulletin boards. First the teacher reads several poems to the class. Next the teacher shares all the different types of poetry books she has in her classroom. Make sure you have a wide variety of poetry to choose from. Tell them they must select some poems to read to the class. Explain how you had read the poems silently and then read them out loud to the class and that is what they are going to do. Give the students enough time to choose poems and practice silently. Give the students about a week to practice getting the poems just right to perform in front of the group. Allow the students times to sign up to present poem. If they want to explain why they chose a poem or information about the poet encourage this. Next allow the students to read their poems to the class. Ambiance can enhance the mood of poetry club a great deal. If you have a space that you can make the poetry club be a special event it will make the idea of sharing material even more appealing.
Goodbye Round Robin
You are asked to respond to the following questions. Feel free to use your textbook as you reflect on the information. The point of the assignment is to know what you have learned from this text.
1. Share in your own words the authors’ explanation of reading. Why is it necessary to understand this?
2. What is round robin and why is it used in many classrooms?
3. Is oral reading important? Share the reasons discussed in the text.
4. What are some of the problems associated with round robin reading?
5. How can oral reading be used when working with struggling readers? Describe two of the strategies shared and how you might use these in the classroom.
6. Why is oral reading important for comprehension? Describe two strategies you might use to develop comprehension.
7. What are the key words to remember when using oral reading for sharing and performance? Describe two of the strategies shared and how you might use these in the classroom.
Teresa Shelton
Good-Bye Round Robin
1. Comprehension is the body of reading or the most important part of reading. Why do we read? So we will be able to understand something. Reading isn’t just seeing words but instead a very complicated diverse process. Reading is the ability to use cueing systems to create meaning from text, the strategic process of confirming ideas, and the ability to be pragmatic and choose appropriate material for where they are reading and what they are reading. It is important to understand what makes up reading to be able to help students be better at reading. If a student is having difficulty, a teacher needs to see if one of the three areas is missing or lacking. If a student is trying to read a text book during a football game reality is probable very little is being comprehended. If the same book is read during study time in a classroom more is likely to be comprehended.
2. The outdated practice of calling on one student after another to read out loud a piece of text. Once your turn is done you usually don’t have to read again that day if in a large class. It is often used still today because that is how the teacher was taught or because that is what the teacher knows to teach. Even if the teacher knows it doesn’t work effectively they will often use it because it is what everyone else is using instead of one of the new ideas.
3. Oral reading is an excellent way to build comprehension, to share ideas, to help teachers assess reading of students, and to help students who struggle with reading. Oral reading for comprehension can be an excellent way to teach students how to read and then to stop and think and question what they have read. The modeling of how to read, question, look for the answers in the text is an excellent way to build skill. Also, the ability to read the text and bring their own background knowledge and share that information to a class is very important in comprehension skills. The teacher also needs oral reading to assess where a student is struggling. Perhaps a student is having difficulty with decoding, comprehension, or fluency with oral reading a teacher can pick up on the area of difficulty or where the break starts to work with a student exactly where they need help. Oral reading not round robin can create an interest in reading, help reading and listening comprehension, vocabulary, using background knowledge, using language cues, creating images of texts, predicting, fluency, inferring, and skimming text for important information.
4. Round robin creates the wrong image of reading. Round robbing doesn’t represent how we read in the real world on a daily basis. Rarely are we called unexpectedly to read something we haven’t already practiced and rarely do we have to be perfect when we read the first time. It has the chance of actually hurting students reading habits and abilities by listening to students who struggle with reading if they are good readers. Students often quit listening, zone out, read ahead, and have more trouble comprehending if students read orally who read at different levels. Simply the fact we read faster silently than orally can cause problems when the students are expected to follow along in the text to know where they will start to read if called upon. Also, the simple fact that once you have read in round robin you usually don’t read again can cause some students to misbehave or lose focus on the text simple because they know they won’t be called on again. The time it takes to read everything in round robin fashion is extreme and that time could be used on other activities or on working on the meaning of the text. Personally the round robin system can hurt students from obtaining their full ability simple because when slow or struggling readers read they don’t get to self-correct themselves. The students or teacher correct the instant a mistake is made and the struggling student never gets to practice their self-correcting skills. It is also very embarrassing to be orally corrected in front of the whole class especially several times for one paragraph. Students who struggle don’t want to be embarrassed in front of their class but often the anxiety of having to read something can cause even more mistakes when they start. Lastly, all of these problems can cause the student not to be listening to the other students read. When the student doesn’t listen to the other paragraphs being read little is being comprehended from the text which was the whole meaning of the exercise.
5. Oral reading is a tool that can help struggling readers help themselves understand where they are having difficulties. Actually hearing the way you read sentences out loud can often help a student realize that he needs to read more like the spoken language he uses every day. It also provides the teacher with a valuable tool of assessment of struggling readers. In silent reading a teacher doesn’t even know a student is having problems until an assignment, test, or the students asks for help. In oral reading the struggles can be heard and the teacher can address the issue that is the problem. If a student is reading without notice to punctuation the teacher can address it during the reading process. If a student reads without expression and loses the meaning of the text the teacher can address that one issue with the student which may correct other problems. Strategy one is the read-aloud. The teacher picks a piece of text and practices reading the text out loud with great fluency and expression. The teacher should pick something that will interest the students. After the practice the teacher should read it to the students with great enthusiasm and fluency. It is often a good idea to change voice for the different characters and change pitch for mood to get the students engaged. Make reading aloud an activity that happens on a regular basis that students can expect. The environment should make reading a positive fun experience not a requirement. As the teacher explain to the students to listen for the meaning of the story and to listening for the enjoyment of the story. Finish the read aloud by discussing the story in depth. This is the time to check for understanding of the meaning of the story, details of the story, and if they understand why the story was read with different tones of voice.
The second type is paired reading. This is when a teacher, parent, or other on level reader reads with a struggling reader. The student chooses a text to read. The two will begin by reading together. The teacher and the student decide before hand on cues for when to start reading and when to let the student read alone. The teacher is there to help the student so if the student makes a mistake the teacher first lets them self-correct. If the student doesn’t and it alters the meaning then the teacher should help the student with the word and its meaning.
6. Oral reading is important for comprehension because it gives the teacher a tool to teach the skills needed to effectively comprehend material. Teachers’ model how to read text and question what is read, how to use background knowledge to the text being read, and how reading the punctuation in a text can change meanings of text. These skills are easier to understand in oral reading because the teacher can actually read the text and model each step.
First, process is the think-aloud. It is technique where the teacher selects a text that will have challenging words or concepts in it. The teacher will begin reading the text and when she comes to a trouble spot she will stop and explain her thoughts out loud. The teacher must explain her thoughts out loud so the students understand how to do this when they are on their own reading. Finish the reading, stopping anywhere there is a difficult spot. Now allow the students to ask questions or add their ideas on how you could solve the trouble spots. The students then should practice with a partner by taking turns reading and stopping at any trouble areas. Once the students have practices with a partner have them try this concept in their silent reading.
Second, another strategy that is used to aid in comprehension is induced imagery. This is where the teacher first selects a piece of text to read aloud. Select a passage that is full of descriptive words for imagery. The passage selected should be brief especially when teaching the skill. As you read the passage explain to the students the images that form in your mind from the words you read. Explain how with you background knowledge and the words read how you form pictures in your head of what is going on in the text. Next, read another passage and have the students’ practice forming images and let them share their ideas. Let them discuss how there are many alike and many different images from the same text. If they understand the concept then allow them to do the same with their independent reading selections. A teacher should assess their ability to do this skill. Often asking the students to pick a passage from their book and drawing the image that selection holds will let the teacher know if they have the concept down.
7. Good expression and sense of meaning are used in authentic oral reading. The first strategy selected is called readers theatre. It is not traditional class plays. The scenery and all of those details are not used. This is skit where everything is based around the skit and the reading of it. This is a concept where a group of students are given a text that has characters. Each student has a character. The student will read his part silently until he is ready to practice with group. The group will practice together to be able to present the play. The practicing silently and as a group is practicing many of the skills that go with good reading. Since this is a play the students work on fluency, reading with expression, and reading with meaning. The students then will present the play to an audience often the other students in their class or to another classroom. After the play have questions to ask the audience and have them right their answers down. This practices their comprehension skills and listening skills, it also gives feedback to the theatre on whether they got their meaning across from their skit.
The second strategy is poetry club. Poetry club is an excellent tool for grades 1-5. As the teacher make it clear to your students your love of poetry. Make your room a place of poetry through posters, books, bulletin boards. First the teacher reads several poems to the class. Next the teacher shares all the different types of poetry books she has in her classroom. Make sure you have a wide variety of poetry to choose from. Tell them they must select some poems to read to the class. Explain how you had read the poems silently and then read them out loud to the class and that is what they are going to do. Give the students enough time to choose poems and practice silently. Give the students about a week to practice getting the poems just right to perform in front of the group. Allow the students times to sign up to present poem. If they want to explain why they chose a poem or information about the poet encourage this. Next allow the students to read their poems to the class. Ambiance can enhance the mood of poetry club a great deal. If you have a space that you can make the poetry club be a special event it will make the idea of sharing material even more appealing.