Take a minute and see if you can answer the questions and see if your belifs are the same as other great tecahers.

What school do you teach at? What grade do you teach?

• Ms. Hyatt teaches at Wesfield School Winthrop Harbor IL in a kindergarten classroom.

• Ms. Heather teaches at Westfield School in Winthrop Harbor, IL as a K-4 Reading Intervention.

• Ms. Mattison teaches at Johnson Gretna Park Elementary, on the West Bank of New Orleans in a first grade classroom.

• Ms. Admad teaches as a maternity leave sub for a 5th grade class .

• Dr. Rishel taught the most years in Rensselaer, Indiana, first grade. She also taught grades 5-6 Remedial Reading at West Central in Francesville, Indiana and grades 6-8 Remedial Reading at Kankakee Valley in Demotte, Indiana.

• Ms. Richter teaches at Fall Creek Junior High (Hamilton Southeastern) for 7th & 8th grade Wellness.

• Ms. Cooper taught in the Decatur Township school district for 12 years. While she was there she taught 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grades.

How do you define literacy? What do you think good literacy is? Why do you think Literacy important?

• Literacy is reading, writing, speaking, understanding and communicating. Good Literacy is the ability to do all of the above in a proficient manner. Literacy is important, because you use it to communicate to others and understand others.

• Literacy is Reading, writing, and speaking. Good Literacy is the ability to read, write and communicate effectively. Literacy is important, because it is the foundation to success.

• Literacy is being able to no only read, but also comprehend a text, and be able to answer questions about it and show your understanding. Good literacy is being able to discuss a text, answer different levels of questions about a text, and apply it to what you already know. Literacy is important, because it helps students in all areas of academics and life. Every subject uses reading, so the more comfortable you are with reading and understanding, the better you do overall academically.

• I would define literacy as being able to read and write. Good literacy is being able to read text at grade level fluently and accurately. Good literacy is also being able to use strategies to decode unfamiliar words as well as being able to use context clues to figure out meaning of an unknown word or phrase. I believe that literacy is important because it is one of the key components of being able to effectively communicate and function as a member in our society.

• Literacy is the overall ability to read text and make sense of it (comprehension) in order to discuss it, reflect on it, learn from it and enjoy it. Literacy is also being able to write in a comprehensive manner in order to communicate.

• Literacy is the ability to read, understand, and use information. In her class they spend a day talking about health literacy and what it looks like to be “Health Literate” and why it is so important (knowing key health terminology, health organizations, etc.). Having the ability to read and understand vital health information will factor into the decisions a person makes to help or hinder their well-being. Knowledge is power.

• She feels that literacy is reading, writing, speaking, and listening. This is different from being literate, which is being able to read, write, speak and listen effectively. Literacy is important because it is the foundation of everything we do. To continue to learn and grow as a society we must be literate in all forms; digitally, and electronically.

How do you keep readers interested in what they are reading?

• By finding what they are excited about and sharing my excitement with them.

• The most effective motivation for a child is observed success.It’s important that my students want to read for pleasure and information if I want reading instruction to be successful.I provide my students many interesting ways of practicing their reading skills – books, iPad apps, and games.

• To keep my readers interested in what they are reading I pick out books that appeal to my readers interests, as well as having the text be in the students reading level whether they are reading independently, with a partner or with the teacher.

• Find things that are relevant to them. Also, engage in discussion and different types of activities.

• She believe it is important to give readers something to look for in a character or plot, like a treasure that awaits them, in their reading.

• She provides many opportunities for choice. She will introduce the overarching topic they will be covering and do my best to get the students to buy in and become intrigued. However, she leaves some loose ends in the topics she cover, so that the kids can research the topic in more detail when it comes time for a project/larger assignment.

• Choice, encouraging them to find the “just right” book, sharing her passion for great literature and authors, discussing great texts.

Do you know the five pillars of reading? If so what are they?

• Yes- 1. Phonemic awareness, 2. Phonics 3. Fluency 4. Vocabulary 5. Comprehension

• In my opinion there are 7.Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Comprehension, Fluency, Speaking/Listening, and Writing.

• No, she does not L she would say that the basics are being fluent, decoding (phonics), comprehension and word recognition to be a good reader.

• Phonemic awareness, phonics and concepts about print, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

How would you assume the results would be in teaching phonics compared to not teaching phonics?

• It is a very critical part in teaching reading but it is the hardest part for kids to learn and apply.

• A systematic phonics program would be more beneficial than a program providing unsystematic instruction.I believe most children need a balanced reading program.Using a combination of strategies and methods would be most effective.

• Children would not have good background knowledge of the language and would not have a good base for how to read words.

• I do not think teachers would have as much success if they did not teach phonics. Even though the English language is very difficult to learn the students should still learn the sounds of each letter or combination of letters

• She has experienced both sides in teaching first graders to read. She has always believed phonics was the way to go, but many of my emergent readers picked up words before they learned phonics. One year she had a deaf student in my classroom and she had to learn sign language. She taught the whole class sign language as well and they did it by learning to sign “words” not sounds. Eventually, when the words got too difficult, they reverted to phonics, which was difficult for the deaf student, but she eventually was able to do it.

• Students who do not receive phonics instruction struggle to read and spell. They lack the skills to sound out words. She had one son who received quality-reading instruction that included phonemic awareness and the other son did not. She had to reteach him everything so he could catch up with his reading ability.

What is the difference in reading skills and reading strategies?

• Reading skills are automatic and students with practice do them without having to think about it whereas strategies are more of a plan or way to figure out in your reading.

• A skill is what I want my students to do.A strategy is what I model to achieve that skill

• Reading skills are the things you already know or are good at and strategies are the tools you use while you are reading.

• Strategies are the ways to learn the skills – the ways the teacher uses to develop the skill. For example, looking at the pictures to predict what the book is about. Or practicing vocabulary words that will be used in the story by using flashcards or other methods (strategies).

• She believes that reading strategies are what give you the skills to be a successful reading. Your skills can be on different levels depending on the strategies you have to attack a text. For example, some readers are more skilled at reading nonfiction than others because they have better strategies to attack that text.

What is the most important way that you support literacy in your classroom?

• Phonemic awareness exercises, reading workshop and letter/sound/sight word work

• Providing my students with various modes of reading – books, magazines, iPads, audio books.Giving my students praise .Conferencing with students about their reading goals.Weekly trips to the library to select books my students are interested in reading

• Encourage reading and making it fun. Always have an opportunity for students to be reading. Give as many different ways to incorporate reading into the day to excite all students.

• Using literacy in all subjects as well as creating a fun and interactive environment for literacy.

• Planned or organized reading time based on the students’ choice of material, as well as structured time to silently read curriculum text. She used word walls that students had to check before asking me to help them with the word. She had students write a lot – lists, recipes (peanut butter and jelly was their favorite!), thank you notes, etc. – anything that was related to real life. Nearly everything they did was based in reading and/or writing. They had thematic units that delved into a lot of reading and writing, illustrating and role playing.

• Promoting the importance of accessing credible sources for reliable information rather than assuming or complying.

• She thinks the most important thing she did to support my students was know them each individually as learners. She took the time to get to know children individually, their strengths, weaknesses, and goals. This allowed her to plan targeted instruction around their needs.

In regard to Literacy, how often do you focus your instruction on Text Features?  ex: bold print, color of print, italics, footnotes, chapter headings, questions/points in margins, captions, graphs, pictures, diagrams, etc.

• Weekly

• Daily when teaching nonfiction

• We did three weeks of lessons on it, then since then, we constantly are talking about it when we see them, in order to keep that knowledge fresh. My students will come up to me and show me whenever they see a text feature because they remember it.

• I had 5th graders so they already knew what most of those text features are. Our social studies book had a lot of good activities for text features that we would look over.

• A lot – the text we use for EDEL 244 has a lot of text features (not color) that draw the students into the reading. I think these are easily overlooked as unnecessary to the reader, but once they learn to use them, the relevancy becomes obvious.

• OFTEN. It is much easier for her students to comprehend the information.

• Since she was in a self-contained classroom, she taught all subject areas. This allowed her to implement literacy instruction into her content area instruction, and vice versa. She could incorporate the needed content area reading strategies into my literacy instruction. She tried to cover these strategies daily.

Which Reading Strategies for your content area do you teach?

The number represnts the number of teachers who use a certain strategy either daily, weekly, rarely or never!