ect (1999) explained why: It nurtures a love and appreciation for the sound and power of language. Poetry can help us see differently, understand ourselves and others, and validate our hu man experience. It...enhances thinking skills, and pro motes personal connections.... Such attributes deserve a closer look.
This explanation pulled on my heart strings! I have always been so fond of poetry and I could not have elaborated on the amazing personal benefits more perfects than Perfect.
I highly recommend storyscape.io for all levels of education
This would be great for teachers and students because it will be something that they both become familiar with. As students progress through school they can challenge themselves through the tool because they will be comfortable with all of its possibilities.
I highly recommend storyscape.io for all levels of education.
I think this is a great idea. Although it may have more of an effect at an earlier age, it doesn't mean it cannot be used throughout all levels of education. In higher grades it can be used for creative writing or design classes as well as reading.
whole, teacher judgment must be exercised. The instructional progression detailed in this article should not be used for all phonic elements, with all children, or with all literature selections
This is a goop point that you should not use this all the time. Only use this strategy if you think it will work well with your students.
Essentially, the whole-part-whole framework connects learning to pronounce words with real read ing.
I like this whole-part-whole approach because it allows for the children to get a phonics lesson with real text, rather than just random words or letters on a worksheet.
"Research evidence over the past 70 years indicates over whelmingly that direct instruction in phonics is needed and contributes to better develop ment of decoding, word recognition, and com prehension
It is proven that phonics instruction will help our students with their word decoding, recognition and comprehension. I think that phonics instruction is very important at a young age and would be very beneficial to our students.
arious research studies in dicated that children in typical primary grade classrooms read independently only 7 to 8 minutes per day;
Reading for 7 to 8 minutes a day is not beneficial. This is not enough time for students to even become engaged in what they are reading, let alone learn anything. Students should be given the opportunity to read for At LEAST 30 minutes per day.
om concern centers on making sure that students use their time wisely during the reading perio
As long as students are engaged in their reading, and they are able to have meaningful discussions about what they read, than they are using their reading time wisely. There should not be such an emphasis on structured learning during reading instruction because it will make students dread it. Let them have fun. Let them be engaged. And let them learn to love reading,
o read for their own purposes and participate in reading with the children.
This is so important. Students learn by example. If teachers are not implementing what they teach in their own lives students won't take them seriously. Reading is a way of life-long learning, and students should be able to see their teachers taking advantage of that.
y this we mean that children should make these choices within a reasonable and responsibly managed classroom structure
I like this approach to reader's workshop because it allows students to take responsibility for their own learning. I have learned through experience that students love being given independence (don't give too much) because they feel trusted and mature. However, I think this would only work well in upper elementary and higher grades because younger students need more instruction and guidance.
n short, workbooks and practice books have become, in large measure, the ma jor means of managing reading instruction
I was really upset when I read this because that means that the majority of reading instruction is not actually spent reading. Students should learn to love reading, not hate it because they are forced to complete boat loads of worksheets every time they read something. Teachers should instead, allow students to do hands on projects or work in small groups to discuss books.
r. Sheets also notes that mini-lessons force him to be concise in his demonstrations of skills in real reading situations.
When Mr. Sheets is forced to be concise it can be very beneficial for the students. Since he has to be short and to the point the children are given the information right away and not given too much all at once to take in.
ome teachers like to act in the role of "recorder" for the group or "wait in silence."
I like the idea of the teacher as the "recorder" for the group. This allows for the kids to all stay engaged in what everyone is talking, while you get to write down what everyone is saying so you can reflect on it later.
elf-selected reading. During SSR stu dents may become involved in one or more ac tivities (see Figure 1). To begin the workshop, students and teachers spend 10 minutes en gaged in free reading of a book they have cho sen for recreational reading or they may be reading goal pages established in their litera ture response group.
I like that kids are able to read books of their choice so that they are more engaged. It will help keep them more interested in reading and help with their reading skills.
any educators saw the need to move away from traditional teacher centered instruction in favor of creating more student centered opportunities for learning in their classroom
I love this approach to learning because it is the way that I learn best. I do not think that it is beneficial for teachers to simply lecture students all day. Students need to learn to work with one another through problem solving and hands on activities.
iterature circles provide for great discussions about books and get students to want to read."
Literature circles are a great way to get students engaged in their reading, but this is only beneficial if students are able to work appropriately and efficiently with one another.
n another group, two students continued kick ing each other throughout the meeting, which caused both students to miss questions asked by other mem bers and impeded their ability to engage with the text, not to mention disrupted other members.
It seems to me that this class is not ready to work in groups. Direct instruction would be the most beneficial for this class because it would not give them the opportunity to work with one another. This privilege needs to be taken away until the students know how to appropriately behave with one another.
he teacher and I thought we had given the stu S dents the skills to productively discuss a text, but as soon as we pulled away to let them lead the group on their own instances like the previous example became far too frequent.
This is an important lesson to learn as a teacher. The directions and guidance that we give students does not always prepare them as much as we think it will. If this is the case, teachers must redirect their lesson to teach students the skills that have not yet been mastered. This is not a failed lesson, just a modified one.
he boys in this group were supposed to be dis cussing their role sheets that they had prepared on Freak the Mighty. Instead, however, Evan used this op portunity to bully Dale about his shoes.
This example shows just how easily a well planned lesson can go off track because of a student's behavior. As future teachers it is important to be prepared to go into school with one plan, but be able to redirect that plan in a minutes notice to accommodate what is currently going on in the classroom.
riting complete sentences writing sentences that ask a question
These are two very important skills that kids should learn at a young age. I think it is great that the kids learn these things so they can better develop their writing from an early age. Complete sentences will also help them in oral language as well.
any op portunities for connecting reading de coding skills with writing occur during these sessions.
decoding skills for children are so important especially at a young age. If they can "learn to read" earlier then later on they will be "reading to learn" a lot more.
ost of my direct writing instruc tion takes place during these brief ses sions, which may last up to 15 minutes.
Personally I learn better from direct instructions rather than a big long lesson where some information may be lost. This is a good idea to have these mini lessons, as they are very beneficial to the kids.
“begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development’. (p. 33).
This is so important for people to realize. Children are born with the ability to understand anything that is taught to them whether it is sophisticated or not because they have open minds. Educators need to keep this in mind so that they stop sheltering children from abstract concepts and ideas that will actually help them in the future.
Yet a growing body of research makes it clear that children begin to internalize dominant beliefs about gender as early as preschool
This was very interesting to read because it puts the way we act about certain things in front of children into perspective. My mother is an educator and the entire time I was growing up she never assumed that I was heterosexual (though I am). She would always say things like "when you grow up and have a husband or a wife..." She would also never make me wear a dress if I didn't want to. If we were going somewhere formal she would let me wear pants and a nice shirt if that's what I wanted to do. After reading this it made wonder if my mom did this because she knew how quickly children learn to internalize dominant gender beliefs. I think this is important for all people to know, not just educators, because it will help children to feel more comfortable about being true to themselves.
Cultural expectations about gender are folded into, for example, the spoken and tacit rules for how women and men, girls and boys, should dress and carry their bodies and engage with others and make decisions about relationships, family, and careers.
This is something that definitely needs to be addressed in schools. Most schools require that girls wear dresses to dances and boys wear suits, or that at graduation girls wear one color gown while the boys wear another. Schools need to stop dividing students based on gender so that no student is singled out. Instead, guidelines for sports teams, dress codes, and dances should be generalized to apply to all students no matter their gender.
The project of this dissertation is to transform the social order with the aim of achieving increased support for those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA), but it is equally about dismantling misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia so that all people, regardless of their sexual or gender identity, can be free
This is something that I feel very strongly about. I don't think society should continue to normalize heterosexual relationships. Instead, homosexual and heterosexual relationships should be treated equally. Children should not only read books with heterosexual relationships, and they should not learn only about heterosexual people that have changed the world. There should be an equal amount of same-sex relationships and homosexuals taught in the classroom so that students will realize that one is not superior to the other. It sickens me that society has looked down upon the LGBTQIA community for so long. Everyone should be loved without being judged and it is so important to teach this to children starting at a young age.
The first emergency that drives this dissertation is the need to create livable educational spaces for queer bodies.
A student's education experience should be a safe and welcoming one. No child should feel like he/she cannot be themselves when they are in school because it will greatly hinder his/her learning. Giving children the opportunity to fully be themselves, and showing children that their sexuality is accepted, will allow them to focus on their learning instead of getting distracted trying to hide who they really are.
The first emergency that drives this dissertation is the need to create livable educational spaces for queer bodies.
I find it horrible that some students do not receive a quality education because of their sexuality. Teachers need to be fully prepared and qualified to teach all students regardless of their race or sexual orientation.
Appropriate cultural tools for interrogating gender include transmedia narratives and platforms, which can enable learners to develop an attunement to, appropriate, and reinscribe messages about gender in a personally and culturally meaningful way.
Knowledge really is power. Students need to be educated about gender and gender differences early on in a non-accusatory or judgmental way in a way that is suitable for their age/place in life.
Money was apparently the first to propose a distinction, in the late 1950s, between sex and gender (Money & Ehrhardt, 1972; Udry, 1994).
I think that today some people still are unaware of the distinction. As a future teacher knowing this distinction is key being a socially competent teacher.
inquiry into race and racism (Tatum, 2003; Van Ausdale & Feagin, 2007), sexual orientation and heterosexism (Ryan, Patraw, & Bednar, 2013; Sapon-Shevin, 1999; Swartz, 2003), and gender and sexism (Bryan, 2012; Ryan et al., 2013)
Wow! I find this to be very interesting. I think that racism in the home definitely can leave children more sensitive to seeing differences early on.
Further, recent work with young children suggests they have a greater capacity for abstract reasoning and engaging with sophisticated concepts than is typically assumed
Children are very brilliant. I think at times teachers can underestimate what their students can understand and think. It is our job as teachers to see the full abilities of both academic and emotional sects, and provide accordingly.
implicit in larger symptoms of cultural dysfunction, as in ongoing efforts to silence, bully, intimidate, and threaten women who speak up against sexism in video games and other popular media, as well as in cultural messages about masculinity that lead male-identified people to distance themselves from their emotional experiences and to engage,
I think that teachers have a crucial role in future society. By not allowing these "cultural dysfunctions" in the classroom, students learn early on that bullying for any reason is not accepted or tolerated.
In contrast, the transactional perspective is based on the belief that meaning is constructed in thetransaction between a particular reader and a particular text
I really like this view. People come to a text with a suitcase full of memories and experience so a text could mean many different things to many different people. With this view the reader is an active participant in what is being learned.
teachers may lack the appropriate preservice coursework and in-serviceprofessional development necessary for effective implementation of quality literature-based readingprograms
This is a huge problem. If teachers are unable to know what literature to pick and how to teach it, children are going to suffer greatly. Courses in literature are crucial to expose teachers to what is available to teach and learn.
“child-centered” approaches (Atwell, 1987), in which students andteachers select literature to read and to discuss in groups, and respond to the literature by drawing onthe experiences they bring to the texts and the meanings they construct during reading
I think that this "child-centered" approach is really crucial for the children to be exposed to. It is when they can interpret a book for themselves using their own lives and experience that a book can become a real, valuable experience.
Children’s literature may be regarded as a space for constructing critical conversations andinterpretations, where both teachers and students negotiate meanings, discuss the systems of powerinherent in the meanings available, and share experiences of how these stories relate to their lives andcommunities (Serafini, 2001a).
I really like this point! As a future teacher I think that students coming up with ideas is necessary for not only learning to read a text but learning to respond to a text (without someone telling you what it means right away).
Many proponents of thisapproach suggest that in order to balance reading instruction, it is necessary to “inject” some direct,systematic phonics into a whole language classroom (Adams & Bruck, 1995; Honig, 1995).
This way of talking about reading instruction is very scientific. It seems that with this view there is a step by step procedure for success. I find this very interesting in comparison to looser views.
Meaning is located in the text and can be uncovered through close textual analysis
I agree with this! In order to discover meaning in a text teachers must show students how to look into a text and find what it is really meaning (especially if there is more than just what is written implied.)
This change in our classroom libraries will also allow children of the dominant culture to see literature about others who look different and live differently.
Not all students are exposed to different cultures and ethnicities at home. As teachers, it is our job to educate students about diversity so that they are not misinformed about people who may look differently than they do. A great way to teach students about different cultures is through literature.
They must also see African-American artists, writers, political leaders, judges, mathematicians, astronauts, and scientists. The same is true for children of other ethnicities. They must see authors and illustrators who look like them on book jackets.
It is so important for students to feel like they have the ability to accomplish their dreams. What better way to do this than to provide books for students to read that portray characters of their own race or background that overcame struggles and successfully accomplished their own dreams. Students should not feel like they cannot be successful because of the color of their skin. Allow students to learn that the color of one's skin does not determine their success. The drive and dedication that one possesses does.
They found that good readers make connections to themselves and their communities. When classroom collections are largely by and about white people, white children have many more opportunities to make connections and become proficient readers.
This part of the article helped me to realize just how important it is for students to have the opportunity to read books that they can relate to. One of the reading techniques that I was asked to use all throughout school was making connections to the texts that I read. In order to do this, I had to think about how my life was similar to that of the character's in a particular story. I never seemed to have a hard time doing this because I grew up as a middle class white child reading stories about other middle class white children. How are minority students supposed to make connections to stories that are not at all similar to their own lives? If we want all children to be proficient readers than it is imperative that we give them all an equal opportunity to become such. All classrooms should have libraries that contain books with diverse characters.
In July 2013, CELL presented SAP with a list of 150 multicultural titles, which were recommended by educators from across the country and by more than thirty award committees. All the books were annotated and excerpts were provided. The 700+ PowerPoint slides of the project can be found here. SAP then sent the project to Stanford University’s Understanding Language Program for validation of text complexity. The Council of Chief State School Officers has yet to make the addition to the CCSS website
Reading this was very unsettling. The Common Core State Standards were created so that all children are required to learn the same material in each grade level. Therefore, one can assume that the goal of the standards is to provide the best possible education for all students. If this is the case, then why has the Common Core not updated their website to include multicultural titles? These books would help many students to connect to literature in a more personal way because the characters are similar to them, but they would also help all students to better understand different ethnicities and backgrounds. Adding these titles to the Common Core website would only be benefit students.So why is the Council of Chief State School Officers so hesitant to do so?
When the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were introduced in 2009—2010 , the literacy needs of half the children in the United States were neglected. Of 171 texts recommended for elementary children in Appendix B of the CCSS, there are only 18 by authors of color, and few books reflect the lives of children of color and the poor.
Unfortunately, this statistic did not surprise me. My four year old little brother is half white and half black, growing up in a biracial household. I am constantly looking for books with characters that he can relate to, but never seem to have any luck. Diversity is all around us, yet children's literature doesn't seem to portray this. I don't think that students should only read books that have characters that are similar to them, but I do believe that children should be given an opportunity to read a variety of books with characters of many different backgrounds.
Why does seeing themselves in books matter to children? Rudine Sims Bishop, professor emerita of The Ohio State University, frames the problem with the metaphor of “mirror” and “window” books. All children need both.
I really like this point that all children need "mirror" or "window" books. I have never heard this reference before reading this article but I could not agree more with it. It is so important for students to be able to read books that reflect things that may happen in their own life or see characters who may act or look very similar to them.
demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
An adequate story to use to convey this reading standard for Literature K-5 would be The Snitches by Dr. Seuss, for the central message is about getting along and respecting one another, despite physical differences. This should be easy for students to understand based on character emotions and major events in the story.
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text
At this point in reading, first graders should be able to make predictions and inferences, prior to, during, ad after the reading of a text. First graders will be able to do this by using key information as well as context clues from the text, such as descriptive details, punctuations denoting voice inflections, pictures, etc.
Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text
Fourth grade students must have knowledge about what a theme is. They must be able to use this knowledge to identify the themes of multiple pieces of literature.
They must also have the skill to pull out key details of texts in order to summarize story-lines.
Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.
Fifth grade students must know the definition of third-person point of view omniscient, third-person point of view limited, first person point of view, and second person point of view.
Students must also have the skill set that allows them to understand how these different points of view effect the way a particular text is told.
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.
A third grade students must have the skill to understand that some words have multiple meanings. They must also have the skill to use a dictionary so that they can look up the definitions of words.
These students also need the knowledge that allows them to understand that things are not always meant literally.
Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
A second grade student must know the definition of characters, challenges, and major events.
They must have knowledge about reactions and how events play a role in how characters develop throughout a story.
They must have the skill to identify the actions of characters and what events or challenges occurred in a story.
A good lesson to go along with this standard would be to read a book and then make a cause and effect chart as a class. This can help students identify the reactions of a character and what caused them to react this way.
Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text
This would require that students have the knowledge of different points of view in a text and how to identify when the point of view changes.
A good story to help practice this skill is Me First by Helen Lester. Most of this story is told by the narrator, but there are parts of the story that switch and are told from Pinkerton's and the Sandwitch's point of view. The classroom teacher can have students identify when the story changes point of view and how they knew that this was happening.
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
In younger grades it is very important for teachers to pause periodically while reading a story so that students have an opportunity to ask questions that they may have or make predictions about what they think may happen and what details in the story make them think this. Teachers can help students to come up with predictions by asking them questions about things that have already happened in the story. This helps students to stay engaged in and will also help them to answer questions that the teacher asks after the story is over.
In order to do this skill students must have knowledge about what key details are. Without this knowledge, students may try to retell the story using details that are not important to the plot.
A good story to exercise this skill is Goldilocks and the Three Bears because there are three key details that lead to the bears discovering Goldilocks in their bedroom. As the story is being read, the teacher can pause after Goldilocks tries all of their oatmeal and have students predict what might happen next. The teacher can also have students talk about how they would feel if they were the bears and discovered that someone had been in their home.
After the story is over, the teacher can ask the class to describe the three things that Goldilocks did in the bears' home.
With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
Kindergartners must be able to retell a story that has been read to them in the past that includes key details.
To help students exercise this skill, teachers can read two books from the same series. For example, "Mrs. Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten" and "Mrs. Bindergarten and the 100th Day of School." These books would be read at separate times, but after the second book is read, the teacher can ask students what Mrs. Bindergarten did in the first book, and then have them explain what she did in the second book. I believe these books would be useful for this skill because they share the same character which will help to spark the students' memories.
In order for students to master this skill they must have knowledge of different stories so that they can retell them. They also must have the knowledge of what it means to retell a story.
Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
1st Grade students must have the knowledge of what makes a character different than a setting. Knowledge of these definitions and parts of a text is crucial to being able to describe what is going on.
Looking at a Strega Nona book that has many elaborate characters and scenes could be very helpful. Ask students who is the character on this page? What is the setting on this page?
Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters,
Like in life, characters In texts have different perspectives and teaching this is crucial! 2nd grade student must be able to look at individual characters and where they are coming from. A good example to use would be the text My Mouth is A Volcano because the teachers view of the boy is different that the classes view of the boy, and the boys perceptions of what he is feeling.
Ask and answer questions
Kindergarten students must be able to identify that they do not know certain words, and then know to ask for help or ways to get to know words. Having everyone in the class underline 3 words they do not know in a text and then going around and talking about them could be helpful
With prompting and support, r
Teachers of 1st graders must provide appropriate instruction on how to read different pieces of literature. Exposure to different types of literature such as poetry is important. 1st graders must be able to read texts and know how to approach reading them even if they struggle. And teachers need to know how to prompt them without doing the work for the students. Having a weekly "poem in my pocket" could be helpful if teachers go over it and refer back to it/do activities with it throughout the week.
Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics
5th grade students must be able to look at books of the same genre and compare the texts within that genre to each other. It is here they can make connections between how plots of different stories have similar makings within that genre. An activity a fifth grade teacher could do would be to look at the magic tree house series (pick one of the books) and the A to Z Mysteries series (pick one of the books. Although they are different series how they develop the stories (exposition/settings/characters) are very similar. Making a T-chart with the order in which events happen could be very helpful!
read and comprehend
3rd grade students must be able to read and understand different types of literature appropriate to 3rd graders independently. Having SSR sessions and then journaling about what was read, and then sharing could help greatly in understanding/getting better at reading.
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
5th grade students must be able to look at a text and what the words imply, especially in figurative language. An awesome example show students figurative language would be any of the books in the Amelia Bedelia series, because she is constantly misreading figurative language and would be a great start/talking point for looking at figurative language, plus they are all great reads!
Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.
5th grade students need to know how to look at texts as a whole and how they interconnect. An example could be looking at The Orange Tree Poem (John Shaw Neilson) and look at how it would be hard for the stanzas to make sense without all of them there.
Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e
4th grade students must be able to compare and contrast different themes in texts because it is what makes them different. Example Question: A good question in all texts would be "what do you think the author wanted to teach us". Here the themes of the texts could be talked about and contrasted by students.
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
5th grade students must be able to look at a text as a whole in order to fully understand the meaning of it. By looking at the smaller parts that make up a story (such as characters and what makes them different from each other/why they are included) is crucial in reading, not just staring, at literature. Making a venn diagram with two characters and seeing how they are different and how they are connected could greatly help 5th graders see how characters interact and contrast.
Describe the overall structure of a story
A 2nd grade student must be able to describe how a story is laid out.
Knowledge
I think a good example of this is Charlotte's Web
name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.
A kindergarten student must be able to know the author of a story or book.
Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
A third grade student must describe different aspects of the characters in a story and explain their actions in the story.
Describe traits and explain character's actions.
A good story for this standard would be Being Frank because the story focuses on the character Frank and his different traits, feelings and actions through a sequence of events.
it is important that correct information be transmitted in the classroom. If we allow errors to go uncorrected, the remainder of the class either thinks you did not hear the mistake or thinks what the student said was correct.
Even though it might makes us uncomfortable, I agree that it is important to correct our students because if another student thinks what the student said was correct when it wasn't then they will think no one made a mistake.
Remember that we teach students these meaningful word parts to increase their stock of information so that they will be able to make intelligent choices when decoding and pronouncing unfamiliar words
This is important and I agree that if we teach them these meaningful parts then they can use it to decode and pronounce new words in the future.
Kindergarten students should read and hear lots of nursery rhymes, common songs, and poems
Rhymes and Songs are activities that may not seem important when it comes to a kindergarten class, but these everyday activities are exposing them to phonological awareness in a fun and productive way.
Kindergarten students need to learn to discriminate categories of sounds
This activity is something that is very simple to do with the kids and I can see how this is something important when it comes to exposing the kids to phonological awareness
One of the first tasks of school is to show students how books work. Throughout Kindergarten and first grade, teachers constantly review the elements of books and the concepts of print
This is very important especially to kids who are in Kindergarten and First Grade like mentioned. The first step is to show children how books work so they can build upon that and when they learn to read they know how to go through a book.
Explicit and systematic phonics instruction is the most efficient and effective way to teach students to decode, and thus to read independently.
Once children learn to decode then they can stop wasting time trying to decode the words and will be able to read by themselves and understand what they are reading.
Remember that our explanations of these spelling patterns are suited to the learning capacities of adults, not children.
This is important to keep in mind because as teachers we need to find different ways to explain these spelling patterns so that the children can understand.
This is the basis for the familiar old phonics rule, “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking
This is a rule I never heard of and I think it could actually come in handy when it comes to helping kids pronounce words and know which sounds to pronounce.
Many sounds can be spelled in multiple ways, and some graphemes (letters or letter combinations) can represent more than one sound.
iphthongs are sounds produced when the mouth moves from one formation to another within a single syllable.
This is fascinating and I never took the time or had any reason to realize that when saying certain sounds it can cause our mouths to change shape.
Now that you know which consonant sounds are likely to be confused, you can be on the lookout for students who struggle to hear or articulate them. Help students to “feel” how sounds are different by thinking about the different speech organs that are used to make each one
After reading this section, I feel more prepared on how to help my future students pronounce and distinguish the difference between certain consonants.
The Groupsof phonemes cannot be as easily distinguished as the pairs, but there is a clear logic to their grouping. The nasalsinclude consonant phonemes that are produced by exhaling all of the air through your nose. All of the nasal sounds are voiced; you can feel the vibration of the vocal chords through the nose if you hold a finger beside your nose.
I am eager to learn the nasal sounds that are made when certain constant phonemes are pronounced. I myself have never noticed my nose making certain sounds when pronouncing words.
Some of these are stop pairs, meaning that the production of the sound completely stops the flow of air through the mouth at some point.
After reading the chart showing examples of the "Stop Pairs", I didn't realize until now that certain constants stop the flow of air though the mouth at some point when pronouncing words with these constants in them. I learned where the tongue ends up when pronouncing certain stop pairs in w
We all know that English is comprised of consonants and vowels, but many of us may be unaware that this classification has nothing to do with the letter symbols per se, but instead what our speech organs do to produce the sound.
I was unaware that when a letter is considered a vowel or constant, it has nothing to do with the letter but the sound it makes. I am curious to learn more.
Understanding how our mouths work as we pronounce soundshelps us to listen and watch our students more critically. In a room of children reading chorally, it’s easy to spot those who cannot decode or articulate by the formation of their mouths
If we can understand how mouths work as we pronounce sounds, then we can listen and watch our students more closely because we will be able to see right away who is struggling based on their mouth formations. This is an important piece of knowledge and will help make sure all the students are pronouncing words corectly.
Once you know the precise method of articulating these sounds, you will be able to provide explicit corrective feedback to improve students’ phonological awareness and phoneme production.
I agree with this statement 100%.
As a writer of English, you may occasionally refer to spelling conventions (such as “i before e, except after c”) but probably generally rely upon memory and constant repetition to cue spelling patterns.
I always find myself referring to spelling conventions in my head when I write words. I agree that writers generally rely upon memory and constant reputation to cue spelling patterns. This takes time, but once you got that down, writing is a breeze.
George Bernard Shaw once ridiculed the English language by saying that you could spell fish GHOTI, using the gh in rough, the o in women, and the ti in caution.
I took the time to try this and while the new spelling didn't sound exactly like fish, it was pretty close. It makes me wonder what other words could be spelled differently and sound the same.
This chapter will also show you how to assist students so far below grade level that the word study content of your program’s lessons is effectively unintelligible to them.
This information is important because every teacher is going to have students who are far below grade level and we should know how to help them.
Most reading programs are written by highly skilled educators with extensive knowledge of the English language and of current research. Unfortunately, their teachers’ manuals do not explain why the word study activities they require are effective or how they match the linguistic underpinnings of our language
I'm curious to learn the reasoning behind reading programs because as a future teacher, this information can help us understand more of how we are teaching.
Writing Workshops
I used to do these when I was in 6th grade and they helped tremendously when it came
Vocabulary, background knowledge, and the use of comprehension strategies all impact how well we understand what we read.
All of these come to play in terms of reading comprehension. I feel like all of these are important and play their own role in helping us understand what we read.
Research has shown that students who can read with accuracy and fluency are better able to comprehend the material because they are spending the majority of their time thinking about the text and not deciphering the words.
This is a valid point and drives home the point that I made earlier about spending too much time decoding words takes way from a story or text.
Have students read the same passage repeatedly to improve rate and accuracy Monitor and track speed and accuracy
This is another thing teachers have their students do for homework that I noticed at the after school program I work at. I have witnessed students reading a passage 3 times and indeed their speed and accuracy greatly improved after reading it for the third time. The teachers have their parents I've them a score on how they did.
For example, students who encounter the word “ungrateful” will be able to decode it quickly if they can recognize the words’ three meaningful parts (its prefix, root, and suffix) and comprehend it easily if they understand the meaning of each part.
I work at an after school program and sometimes the kids for homework have to identify prefixes and suffixes as well as put parts of words together to create words.
To this end, the teaching of both phonological and phonemic awareness and phonics and the alphabetic principle are very important in Kindergarten. In the phonological
Alphabetical Principle: is the understanding that words are made up of letters and letters represent sounds. If a child understands these letter-sound associations, he is on the way to reading and writing words.
Thus, one key task of the kindergarten teacher is to build students’ motivation to read books by building their foundational reading skills and exposing them to a wide variety of texts through the Read Aloud.
I want to be a kindergarten teacher, so this is something I will keep in the back of my mind if I get the opportunity to teach that grade level.
“First grade is the time when children bring together the many language and literacy skills they have been attaining—book and print awareness, phonemic awareness, letter and word knowledge, background information about different topics—and start getting comfortable with the conventions of associating letters and sounds.
A kindergarten teacher has a very important job because the skills their students acquire are very important to them in first grade
For many children, first grade is the time when they move from “pretend reading” to conventional reading
I work at an after school program and noticed that kindergarteners pretend to read when they "read" to me while first graders can actually read.
Unfortunately, disparate quality of past literacy instruction begins to evidence itself quite dramatically in second and third grade
A kindergarten and first grade teacher have a very important job when it comes to instructing kids to read
Third grade students learn to write in cursive
I was in third grade when I learned to write in cursive. I've noticed that the younger grades are fascinated by cursive and sometimes try to write in it at work.
Excellent teachers of literacy recognize the high returns that come from careful and constant assessment of their students’ literacy skills.
It is important to assess the students literacy skills so as a teacher we can recognize what we need to do to help.
One of the most profound and personal connections that young children make to print involves their names. The presence of students’ names in several locations around the elementary classroom (on classroom management charts, reading group lists, classroom job boards, etc.) is of great importance as an instructional tool for new readers.
I will keep this in the back of my mind and think of this when I am setting up my own classroom in the future. I never really thought of this as book and print awareness until now.
Without quick, accurate reading, comprehension is near impossible. We simply cannot focus on understanding a story if we must spend all of our time decoding the words on the page
This is so true. If we spend a lot of time trying to decode words, then less time will be spent focusing on understanding the story and we will miss the meaning. I felt like this when I took Spanish and did not know many words, by the end of the story after looking up all the words, I had no idea what I had just read.
word and structural analysis skills.
Definition: "The process of using familiar word parts (base words, prefixes, and suffixes) to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words."
phonics and the alphabetic principle
Definition: "The goal of phonics instruction is to help children to learn and be able to use the Alphabetic Principle. The alphabetic principle is the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds."
phonological and phonemic awareness
Definition: "Identify and manipulate individual sounds of spoken words. Both phonics and spelling focus on the letter sound relationship in WRITTEN words."
book and print awareness,
Definition: "Print awareness is a child's earliest understanding that written language carries meaning. The foundation of all other literacy learning builds upon this knowledge."
beginning readers who receive explicit, systematic phonics instruction and practice decoding simple words and reading easy books will eventually find that their ability to decode has become so automatic that they have to expend little cognitive energy on the process.
This is great but I feel like readers shouldn't just read "like robots". The students should be thinking about the words and what they are reading. This way of reading might not always work.
children master the important skills, strategies, and knowledge they need to become successful readers and writers most quickly and effectively if their teachers integrate both systematic instruction in letter-sound relationships and critical thinking about literature in to their literacy classrooms Researchers and educators often refer to this multi-faceted approach as “balanced literacy” instruction.
I am curious to find out what these systematic instructions are
The emphasis on teaching students to recognize whole words automatically and to use clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words became known as the whole language approach.
I never heard of this approach before and it actually makes a lot of sense to have the students do it this way and not have them decode words.
A landmark study conducted at the University of Kansas examined the exposure to verbal language of children in several socio-economic settings and found a dramatic difference in the total number of words heard by children at the high end of the socio-economic scale (45 million words over four years) and the children in the lowest sector of the socio-economic scale (13 million). All children will show up for Kindergarten on the same day, but one may have heard 32 million fewer words in his or her lifetime, a fact that will almost certainly affect how quickly a child can decode and understand words.9 Clearly, environmental factors—including those at play before children ever arrive at school—have an enormous impact on students’ literacy development.
I never really thought about how many words children are being exposed to before starting kindergarten could have such a big impact on how quickly they can decode and understand words. But after reading about this study, it makes sense to me now.
the literacy skills of students in the under-resourced schools where we teach often lag well behind those of children in wealthier areas.
This point in particular stuck out to me because it's true and it's not okay that some students don't get the same opportunities as other children when it comes to learning to read and write.
Young, capable readers will seize the opportunities provided in a literacy-infused classroom and develop invaluable confidence in their own abilities, which leads directly to success in other subjects such as social studies, math, and science.
Without being able to read and write, then children will struggle in other subjects because all of them involve reading and writing in one form or another.
children who read well in the early grades are far more successful in later school years
The sooner children are exposed to literature, the better and more successful they will be in the future.
No single method of intervention will have as dramatic an effect on a student’s future learning and success than a solid foundation in literacy.
Without having the ability to read and write, then a student's future is dim. These two necessary skills are needed all through schooling and life.
, it is essential that elementary teachers follow the constant cycle of diagnosis, instruction, and assessment that is the crucible of excellent instruction
This cycle is something that if done correctly can be very beneficial to a student
Perhaps the most obvious benefit of such an initial diagnosis is that it shows you where to begin your instruction.
This is very important because if you know where to start then you can help the students build upon them.
Phonological Awareness Tests.
This test is necessary and can really help a student.
Finally, you can ask individual students to read from a Word List, which contains short lists of progressively more challenging words. When a student says a word incorrectly or skips it, the teacher records that as a “miscall.”
I never seen anything like this and really like this form of testing.
As the name implies, this assessment approach requires students to retell a story to the teacher that the student has read. By recording what aspects of the story the child recognizes and retells, the teacher establishes a picture of the student’s literacy skills.
I could see how this type of assessment could be very helpful in determining what the child considers important enough to remember. I do not necessarily remember doing this in school but its a simple assessment that can tell a lot about a child.
To measure a student’s fluency (also called oral reading rate), you would conduct a Timed Reading Exercise with a text on this student’s independent reading level
This exercise is something I would do with my students because I think the speed of a child reading is important when determining what level they are on.
Most teachers—even at the kindergarten and first grade level—find that rubrics are an invaluable tool.
Why is this so? Is it because children's reading skills are so different from one another at this age or is because without many skills in terms of literacy, you can't evaluate a child?
They use graphic organizers, story maps and outlining techniques to teach students the form and structure of various genres of text.
I feel like these are very helpful in terms of seeing what the children understood and took away from the story.
Running records, which are useful for students of all grade levels, do not have to be complicated.
Running records are something that can be easily done and can be helpful in the long run when tracking a students progress.
Running records, which are useful for students of all grade levels, do not have to be complicated.
Running records are something that can be easily done and can be helpful in the long run when tracking a students progress.
some teachers use the “five finger rule,” where the student is asked (and taught, so he can use this method to choose texts he reads on his own) to read an approximately 100-word passage and put up a finger every time he comes across a word he can’t read. If he puts up fewer than five fingers, the text is at his independent level and he will be able to read it and comprehend it without assistance from the teacher; the process of doing so will also build his fluency, due to the repeated exposure to words he already knows.
I never heard of the "five finger rule" until now and realize how important is when letting kids read and choose books they want.
lassroom Snapshot: Word Study
create a classroom word wall and have the children help come up with some of the words
Improve students’ ability to hear sounds by working with rhymes, riddles, and stories;
can be done during transition time
print awareness
creating a print rich environment can help
we should use tier 2 vocabulary that we will identify with the students. Sticky notes can help keep our instruction intentional and on track.
second grade, Ms. Cleary’s students build their comprehension during the Read Aloud and in Shared Reading. During these times, students are listening to a book read to them or are supported by the voices of other fluent readers; thus, their cognitive energy is freed to think strategically about the texts. In fourth grade, however, students are able to use comprehension strategies during Independent Reading; for most students, decoding has become an automatic process. The fourth graders with weak decoding skills (Clayton, Shawnice, and Troy) listen to a book on tape during this time to improve their reading fluency and also attend Mr. Moreno’s small group for additional instruction in troublesome spelling patterns.
This shows the difference in reading between 2nd and 4th grade readers. 4th graders- decoding has become automatic and they are now able to focus on comprehension. where 2nd graders need to listen to another reader to free up cognitive energy to comprehend.
Phonological and phonemic awareness
Reading Habits Checklist.
develop your students’ prior knowledge by allowing them to share their knowledge of the subject and giving the class important information they will require to make sense of the text.
it is important to understand the context of a text. so build background knowledge
frustration levels of your students
it is important to keep this in mind when teaching so the child doesn't give up altogether
prefix, root, and suffix
Understanding the function of print and the characteristics of books and other print materials
book and print awareness ie. a book walk
One of the most profound and personal connections that young childre
their names
honics (decoding words by examining relationships between sounds and letters)
absence of literacy skills is one of the key indicators of the achievement ga
more than 74% of children who enter first grade at risk for reading failure will continue to struggle to read into adulthood.3 Weak literacy skills will prohibit these children from accessing entire fields of knowledge
absence of literacy skills is one of the key indicators of the achievement gap
absence of literacy skills is one of the key indicators of the achievement ga
not learning to read early=risk getting left behind
it's another thing entirely to observe a ten year old who can only read 40 words per minute at the beginning of fourth grade, when he should be reading over 100
startling example of achievement gaps
dramatic difference in the total number of words heard by children at the high end of the socio-economic scale (45 million words over four years) and the children in the lowest sector of the socio-economic scale (13 millio
dramatic difference in the total number of words heard by children at the high end of the socio-economic scale (45 million words over four years) and the children in the lowest sector of the socio-economic scale (13 million
environment impacts students literacy ie. # words heard before entering school
Upon encountering a word that had not been taught, children were told to use picture or context clues to determine its meaning.
Upon encountering a word that had not been taught, children were told to use picture or context clues to determine its meaning.
whole language approach
bothdecoding and comprehension processes
=balanced literacy Teachers provide instruction on foundational skills then opportunities to practice
by reading books on their independent level and thinking about more challenging books that are read aloud to them.
Children learn best this way gradual increase in difficulty foundational skills->practice those skills->read independently->critical thinking about challenging books read aloud to them
mental energy can be used to read and comprehend increasingly complex words and texts.
What Is Literacy?
Phonological Awareness: Understanding that the spoken language is made up of units of sounds, such as sentences, words, and syllables
ntain both syllables and individual sounds, or phonemes. They should be able to hear and produce rhyming and alliteration, as well as begin to segment and blend simple words (to break the word cat down into the sounds /c... a... t/ and put those sounds together again to say cat). Students should also be able to recognize, name, and easily write the individual letters of the alphabet (both capital and lowercase), and know their corresponding sounds
Children become, in a real sense, independent readers.
diagnosing your students’ abilities and progress is a necessary foundation for achieving the significant academic gains that your students must make in order to catch up with students in more privileged communities
Formulating students' IEP is the most effective way for students to make progress and gains in their education.
First grade is the time when children bring together the many language and literacy skills they have been attaining—book and print awareness, phonemic awareness, letter and word knowledge, background information about different topics—and start getting comfortable with the conventions of associating letters and sounds
Standard for 1st grade?
Phonological Awarenes
pre-writing strategies
common roots, prefixes, and suffixes)
A close look at this graphic shows us that our ability to decode—to translate individual letters or various combinations thereof into speech sounds to identify and read words—is built upon our book and print awareness, phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics and the alphabetic principle, and word and structural analysis skills. Our ability to comprehend—to actively read and understand language—is based on our background knowledge, vocabulary, and ability to use comprehension strategies. Finally, our ability to read fluently—with speed, accuracy, and expression—is dependent on our ability to read non-decodable words on “sight,” to decode with such automaticity that we spend no mental energy in the process, and to read with appropriate phrasing. Reading fluency is the bridge from decoding to comprehension, hence its placement in the graphic.
Decoding is amazing. We are able to look at words, and understand them. They are just lines put in a certain order and we can look at it and find meaning.
We simply cannot focus on understanding a story if we must spend all of our time decoding the words on the page
An example of this is when I was taking a spanish course. I did not have a good understanding of the language so I constantly found myself looking up sentences word by word. If we had to do that all the time we wouldn't even bother with language.
Most teachers develop students’ Book and Print Awareness through constant, explicit modeling. When they hold up a Big Book that the class is reading, they “think aloud” about how to hold the book, where to start reading, and in what direction. While a teacher is writing the morning news on the board for his first graders, he might ask the students, “Should I start at the top of the board or the bottom?”
It is important as a teacher to constantly remind ourselves that our students have 0 knowledge of these concepts. Asking a question about writing orientation may be silly to us, but it is truly helpful to students.
Understanding that the spoken language is made up of units of sounds, such as sentences, words, and syllables
understanding that language has rules that break it up into understandable sections
Understanding that spoken words are made up of individual phonemes (the smallest part of spoken language); being able to hear, identify, and manipulate those phonemes
The simplest thing can change a word completely. Pad, Pat....Bad, Bat...
need
they need review for as long as it takes for them to understand.
Discussions of new words that occur during the course of the day, for example in books
In a kindergarten class that I observed, every morning the teacher wrote them a letter on the board. They would read it during morning meeting and then any new words would be introduced. For example on Saint Patricks day the new word was leprechaun.
Beginning readers should be able to read easily 90 percent or more of the words in a story
Student who are given material above their level will not benefit or improve their level of reading. They must develop confidence in their skills and read effortlessly before moving on.
Print represents oral language Reading from left to right and top to bottom Spaces between words and sentences Standard text structures and organization, such as covers, backs, titles, and illustrations Specific genre structures and organization, such as table of contents and index Sentence structure How to hold a book, turn its pages, and shelve it
Most of these points are skills we take for granted becuase they are second nature to us. In preschool and k to 1st these are a primary focus to develop a foundation for reading.
Phonemic awareness is the recognition of distinct phonemes, or speech sounds, in words. For example, the word squished is composed of the phonemes /s/, /k/, /w/, /i/, /sh/, and /t/.
Definition and example of phonemic awareness.
Once they figured out what letter or letter combinations made that particular sound, we decoded practice words with our cool new symbols.
An improtant technique that shows for example, "th" and "ch" sounds as well as long a short vowel sounds with in words.
A]ll students, regardless of which language(s) is (are) spoken, must develop an awareness of phonology and syntax if they are to become literate. . . . The development of listening comprehension is also a necessary condition for reading readines
Being a student with English as a second language, I was put into a pull out program for reading and writting during my years in elementary school. In these classes we focused a lot on phonology, syntax, and comprehension.
This instruction begins in Kindergarten with the dictation of stories to correspond to children’s illustrations. The child first attempts to use the letters he or she is learning to label pictures independently. Then he or she moves on to early elementary grades, where he or she should learn sentence structure, parts of speech, and how to develop paragraphs with topic sentences and details on a variety of topics. Finally, in upper elementary grades, the child learns to complete full compositions of different styles targeted to different audiences.
Reading and writing must be taught along side each other. These are some axamples of different stages of writing.
Students need to be Web literate in the future—not simply as a literacy but also a fundamental human right.
It is also becoming a huge part of the job world, one they will eventually need to learn to navigate.
Individuals plot their own learning pathway, but use the map as a guide.
Again, something we should strive for in our classrooms.
“the Internet as literacy
I love the wording and idea of this
“I just figure out what I need to learn and then I go learn it,
We need to teach our learners to do this type of inquiry based learning in the classroom as well.
Furthermore, rarely is the core generator (e.g. the textbook or the curriculum guide) modified (“patched”) in an ongoing way based on student desires, pleasures, displeasures, actions, and interactions.
We may not modify the text book, but who is to say we don't modify our lessons to student interest. This is very presumptuous.
There are many different forms and routes to participation
very important in the classroom
Intensive knowledge is specialized, extensive knowledge is less specialized, broader, and more widely shared.
We want to know whether content organization and interactional organization reflexively shape each other in strong or weak ways, not just whether they do or not.
in other words how accessible and effective is our curriculum.
First, we can look at it directly in terms of content, i.e. what signs it has and how they are organized. Second, we can look at it in terms of how people interact with that content or with each other over that content.
If we apply this to the classroom, we could think of different content spaces as subjects, however when we think in terms of how people interact with the space, those processes may seem similar despite content area.
Too often in schools knowledge is not shared across the students, is not distributed so that different students, adults, and technologies offer different bits and pieces of it as needed, and is not garnered from dispersed sites outside the classroom
group work, turn and talk, buddy reading all come to mind.
Schools often try to teach kids to read and write, rather than read or write specific types of things like stories, reports, field notes, essays, or expositions. But, just like games, these different types of reading and writing operate by different principles and are used to carry out different types of actions.
I dont necessarily agree with this. We teach different strategies for different purposes and text structures. We also teach key elements of different types of writing, such as a story vs. an informational piece vs. a how-to vs. a letter.
The player gets a real sense of being in the game, even a sense of urgency, but can’t really lose, or at least lose at all early before having put up a very good stand.
Similar to guided practice perhaps.
We see the game as a system, not just a set of discrete skills.
Another thing we need to teach our readers.
Information is given multimodally (Kress and van Leeuwen 2001): that is, in print, orally, and visually
This speaks to the importance of incorporating multiple modalities in our instruction as well.
What has to come before is motivation for an extended engagement with the game.
extended engagement is what we are striving to bring out in our young readers too.
In the end, I hope to convince you that today’s young people often see deeper and better forms of learning going on in the games they play than in the schools they attend.
Could this be because with video games learners are learning through experience, with a series of trial and error of different techniques? Where as in the classroom learners at times learn through lecture, discussion or other means not directly through experience. The classroom also poses a social pressure to get things "right" and could inhibit some children from taking chances and learning via trial and error.
arning to read in a way that allows people more than a literal understanding, that does not fuel the fourth-grade slump and create poor readers, requires that people “play” in a domain in such a way that they can give situation-specific meanings to the styles of language associated with that domain.
Readers need to make meaning of what their reading by doing and playing an active role.
A variety of studies have shown that, in peer-peer discourse, children are less likely simply to defer to the authority of the other’s viewpoint, more likely to seek some rational way to deal with differing viewpoints and perspectives, and more likely to actually change their own viewpoint for reasons they understand
This is interesting and supports the need for students to work collaboratively, turn and talk, buddy read.
Perspective-taking and moral reasoning
After having taught several individuals with Asperger's syndrome, I have to disagree. Some of these students have been advanced readers, with great comprehension skills, however severely lack social skills, including perspective taking and empathy.
Later, in other interactions, or in thinking to oneself, the child can re-run such simulations and imitate the perspective-taking
Would this be something to address with students receiving special education services, specifically those with autism who struggle with perspective taking?
a) they are specially built and we make them on the spot to help us make sense of and act in specific contexts or with specific texts; (b) they are not “neutral,” but capture a given perspective or viewpoint, foregrounding some things and backgrounding others, though our perspective or viewpoint changes in different contexts.
We need to teach readers to do this when reading.
We build our model simulations to help us make sense of things. Sometimes this does not work all that well.
This must be how it is for our struggling readers.
thinking is connected to, and changes across, actual situations and is not usually a process of applying abstract generalizations, definitions, or rules
I like this, it shows how we use our background knowledge and visualize meaning, altering it as we think and make meaning.
learning to decode was not “decontextualized.” It was not, in fact, separated from meaningful and value-laden action
This is reminds me of a previous reading in which the author claimed that students had greater comprehension with real world texts (news papers, brochures, signs). If students understand the purpose for reading, it can help them comprehend and act as a motivator.
It is easy to believe, as the traditionalists do, that the best way to learn such skills is to practice them over and over again out of any meaningful contexts. However, many children learn to decode print as part of larger activities which do have deep meaning and value to the children.
This shows how children learn differently, and a variety of teaching methods are required to ensure all learners are being targeted.
I was simply overwhelmed with details, questions, and confusions
This is how our struggling readers often feel.
It is, outside the practices in the domain from which it comes, just as meaningless, however much one could garner literal meanings from it with which to verbally repeat things or pass tests.
I understand that building experiences allows readers to build vocabulary and thus make meaning when they come across it in text, however, how do we provide students with further experiences within the constructs of our classrooms.
t may be somewhat surprising to learn that most researchers agree that although students do learn word meanings in the course of reading connected text, the process seems to be fairly inefficient and not especially effective
This is interesting. If words are not efficiently learned through drill or through contextual tex, how are they learned?
Writers of narratives often omit the motives that drive characters to particular actions in a story on precisely the grounds that they expect readers to use their knowledge of stories, life experiences, and human nature to infer those motives.
In order to level the playing field for readers without that background knowledge, we need to first build it prior to reading the text. This can take a significant amount of time if it needs to be done for each text daily.