Making Sense of it All

I've shared all of the reading experiences that I had with Cindy but I've yet to tell you how this experience has changed by beliefs about learning to read. I always thought that reading was a matter of breaking up and sounding out a words (phonics method). Now I understand that it goes much farther than simply reading a word correctly. A child must be able to comprehend what (s)he is reading or there really is no point in reading at all. Gretchen Owocki and Yetta Goodman's book Kidwatching: Documenting Children's Literacy Development is basically a teacher's guide to evaluating a child's reading strategies and finding the best methods that will enhance a child's reading experience. They stated:
"Kidwatching teachers use miscue analysis to help them understand how young readers are making sense and to observe them in the process of constructing meaning. They listen to children read a whole story or article without interruption because they know that when students are permitted to work out their strategies, teacher discover their ability to learn from the text" (63).
I was so lucky to have Cindy as my Audit Trail partner because she helped me understand that it is important to focus on what a child already knows and to use that knowledge to discover new things (such as reading strategies). Whenever we had to break apart a word or sound it out, Cindy was using the knowledge that she already had in order to make sense of what she was reading and I was able to use her knowledge as a way to guide her without simply giving her the answers! Reading is no longer about the phonics of things but simply the ability to comprehend a piece of literature!

Mr. Potter and Tabby Pick the Pears

This book was Cindy's first chapter book! It was a book that still had pictures but it was formatted in chapter form. Again, she struggled with words that contained slurs and also compound words but I couldn't really help her as much because it was a running record. During this reading, there were a lot more incidences where Cindy appealed for my help while also self-correcting her miscues. Even though she was struggling with some of the words, she still received a 92% for her reading record which is simply amazing! Her world of literacy has definitely affected the way that she sees reading for the better!

(Track 4 on disc)

The Pet that I Want

Conference #2 rolled around and I felt more comfortable in letting Cindy sound out words by herself because this particular book had more pictures that related to the text. There were some moments where she need some help deciphering words. For example, one page contained the slur "through". Because the class hadn't learned about slurs yet, I needed to help her so that she could continue to read. There were also times where I had to break apart a word in order for her to see that she knew some parts of the word which would help her decode it! Here's an example:

Cindy: The pet that I want does not ........ (pause)... not..... (pause)

Me: So if we cover this "f", what does it look like?

Cindy: fffff... fit! rrrrrrr.......rrrrrr....

Me: So "th" "rrr", Thats a tough one cuz...

Cindy: through the door.

All Cindy needed was to recognize the parts of the words that she already knew and she was able to use that strategy later on in the story!

(Track 3 on disc)

Wake Me in Spring

During my second reading conference with Cindy, I went ahead and chose my own books for her based on her level of reading. I decided to go for a level J book which is typically a second grade level book, but I knew that she would be able to do it! Because this book didn't have a lot of repeating phrases and words, it actually made her think more about how to decipher what she was reading.

Here is what I discovered:

1) She paused on words that she didn't know and worked hard to try to break apart the word.

2) Picture cues helped her in guessing a word.

3) Simply pointing to parts of a word with my finger made it easier for her figure out the word.

4) Though she needed help on some of the words, she was learning some of my reading strategies and using them later in the book.

5) Sometimes I had to go back to phonics as a part of the deciphering process.

6) She knew that words within quotation marks sounded different than the other words on the page.

Though she struggled on some parts of the reading, I have to remember that she is a kindergartener! If anything, her smart ways of reading need to be celebrated!

(Track 2 on disc)

Sally's New Shoes

Sally's New Shoes was the book that Cindy read for our first conference. This book was one that had repeating phrases that only changed one word as the pages changed so I felt that this book would be a good book choice when working on a child's fluency. She was able to understand the pattern as she moved along in the book which made it easier for her to read more fluently. At the end of the book, the pattern changed which kind of threw her off but she was able to go back and make sense as to why the pattern changed. The reading went as such:

Cindy: Sally's New Shoes
I'm going to walk in my new shoes.
I'm going to run in my new shoes.
I'm going to jump in my new shoes.
I'm going to hop in my new shoes.
I'm going to climb in my new shoes.
I'm going to dance in my new shoes.
I'm going to (pause) swim in my new shoes.

Me: But she's not wearing her shoes! (pause)
Alright, so I'm going to have you read it again and I want you to make it sound like you're talking. So instead of being like "I'm...going... to... walk... in... my... new shoes" You are going to say "I'm going to walk in my new shoes because it sounds like you're talking to someone, huh? Try it one more time!

I didn't criticize any of the miscues that she made like continuing the pattern on the last page when it was supposed to read "But I'm not going to swim in my new shoes". Instead, I had her focus on her fluency and in turn, she recognized the change in pattern on her second try! It's crazy how they can fix their miscues by simply having another try!

(Track 1 on disc)

Running Record #1

I spoke with Mrs. Crawford about the level of text she had chosen for Cindy and she seemed to have everything figured out! She gave me a small book that had repetitious words/phrases and pictures that matched the text. I thought, "Maybe this might help me understand what Cindy already knows." Well, turns out that Cindy got a 100% on her Running Record, so I basically learned NOTHING!

"What do I do now?"

Then I thought to myself, "Hey! I have an Eric Carle book in my bag! I'll go grab that." So I handed The Tiny Seed to her and she seemed pleased that the book was of a greater volume! She opened the book and began to read. During this new running record, I learned that she has a very large "small word" vocabulary and that breaking apart larger words was a little difficult but Cindy was able to read a sentence, go back to a part that she didn't understand and try to find a word that made sense to her. Even if she was unable to come up with the correct word, she was still able to find the meaning of the text! This is when I knew I had a lot to learn about reading strategies.

My Journey Begins! Reading Inventory

During my first day at Rogers, I was able to meet my amazing Kindergarten class. Full of excitement, I walked around the room and mainly observed the things that the children and the teacher were doing. There was one child that stuck out to me and that was little Cindy. She was very creative, liked to talk, but knew when to do her work and when to have some time to converse with others. During the "opening exercises" I asked Cindy to read a book to me. I was absolutely amazed at how much she already knew! It was at that very moment that I knew I wanted to learn from her in this Audit Trail experience.

During my first meeting with Cindy, I learned a lot about her home life and her experiences with literature. She mentioned that her parents read to her a lot before bed and at various times of the day which is a great start! She was coming to class with reading strategies that most kindergarten students don't use which made Cindy my teacher. I began to talk with Cindy about reading and all she had to say were good things! She was breezing through books that Mrs. Crawford was giving her which gave her a great self-esteem but I felt like she wasn't being challenged to all of her ability. I would have to meet with her and learn more about her world of literacy before I could really begin to learn big things from her.