It is 6 p.m. and I have just wrapped up a “laborious” hour of math homework with my daughter. Math homework is typically my husband’s “job,” but tonight he is at a meeting so I am in charge. Just like my daughter, I find reading work much easier than the abstract tasks associated with the math work that comes home every night. Students struggling with math is very real but has not necessarily gained as much attention as students struggling with reading. Math Response to Intervention—identifying students who may be at risk of falling through the cracks either in reading or in math—is redefining education. However, the challenges that exist in implementing RTI for math can be significantly different than those for reading.
In the video below, Lynn Fuchs, a senior advisor from the National Center on Response to Intervention (http://www.rti4success.org/aboutus/staff#lfuchs), talks about these differences. She reflects that reading intervention is, in some ways, more straightforward because learning in the early years provides the building blocks for later comprehension and fluency, whereas math knowledge can follow a more indirect path including fractions, geometry, calculus, and measurement that don’t all naturally emanate from one another.
It’s no surprise that teachers are leading the charge on innovative interventions for struggling students. Technology is a very simple vehicle teachers can use to support these students. For example, Gabrielle Smith from Etna Elementary School brought an iPad into her classroom and used an application to test math facts among her students, making it fun to practice facts over and over again while storing children’s scores and progress. Overall, as teachers I think we need to be aware of the differences between reading and math as it relates to Response to Intervention.
Where does phonics instruction fit into a balanced approach to literacy? Recently a great deal of attention has been focused on the teaching of phonics in the elementary grades. Good teachers have always taught phonics. A student cannot learn to read without attending to letters and sounds.
There are numerous examples of how teachers use phonetic activities during reading and writing. For instance: during assisted writing, students use ABC charts, magnetic letters, and practice boards to learn about letters, sounds, and words. While writing independently, students analyze the sequence of sounds within words and apply strategies for noting relationships between spelling patterns. To complement this learning, the teacher addresses phonetic skills during group and individual conferences. The teacher also prompts the students to locate, predict, confirm, and search for visual information while reading. All these activities occur within the context of meaningful reading and writing. In the process, students learn how to transfer their knowledge about letters, sounds, and words across varied and changing circumstances.
This brings up a second question: do we teach phonics in isolation? Well, it depends on how you define isolation. Learning about letters, sounds, and words is a strategic process, rather than memorization or drill. Thus we structure learning opportunities that focus on categorization, comparison, integration, and analysis of graphophonemic information. At the same time, we provide students with varied experiences that promote automatic and flexible control of letters and words. Although some of the information is presented in isolation from the text, it is always based on the knowledge, skills, and strategies that the students bring to the task. As a result, the activities reinforce, link, and expand students’ learning through manipulation and exploration.
Learning About Letters and Sounds
It is a mistake to think that because students know the names of letters that they will be successful readers. As teachers, we encounter students every day who can identify all the letters but are unable to read even the most simple text. Phonemic awareness, not letter knowledge, is a strong predictor of children’s ability to read (Adams 1996). Yet knowing the names of letters is valuable because the names are labels for associating specific letters with their sounds. However, children do not have to know all the letters or sounds before they can begin to read (Clay 1991; Smith 1994).
As students develop letter knowledge, the teacher provides them with opportunities to learn the sound of the letter and how to construct the letter form. The process of learning letters, sounds, and graphic formations concurrently provides students with alternative feedback for checking and confirming each sensory system. Teachers enable students to access knowledge from various categories, thus strengthening the interconnections between related information. This type of support allows students to become flexible with letters. They begin to recognize and use letters in a variety of situations (not only in isolation) Obviously, phonics instruction is a critical component of a balanced literacy program. The difference from some traditional programs is the delivery of instruction!
Check back in a few days to see a more information on phonics instruction and view a video clip of phonics in action.
Phonics Support Sites you may want to check out:
PBD Kids Letter Games
Starfall
Primary Games
ABC Books
Sight Word Books
Phonics Resources
Response to Intervention—identifying students who may be at risk of falling through the cracks either in reading or in math—is redefining education. However, the challenges that exist in implementing RTI for math can be significantly different than those for reading.
In this video, Lynn Fuchs, a senior advisor from the National Center on Response to Intervention, talks about these differences. She reflects that reading intervention is, in some ways, more straightforward because learning in the early years provides the building blocks for later comprehension and fluency, whereas math knowledge can follow a more indirect path including fractions, geometry, calculus, and measurement that don’t all naturally emanate from one another.
It’s no surprise that teachers are leading the charge on innovative interventions for struggling students. For example, to support the RTI framework in math specifically, Gabrielle Smith from Etna Elementary School brought an iPad into her classroom and used an application to test math facts among her students, making it fun to practice facts over and over again while storing children’s scores and progress.
Have you used RTI for math or solely for reading? What’s been your take on the similarities and the differences?
Metacognition literally means “thinking about thinking.” It has been linked to intelligence and correlated with success in school. Therefore, it’s impossible to discount, both for students and teachers.
There is a knowledge component, i.e., assessing how a task should be done, monitoring your understanding of the task, and evaluating your progress on how well it’s going. And there is a strategic component, i.e., deciding how to allocate resources and time and determining how deeply to commit to the project as a whole and to each step along the way.
All of the following are metacognitive moments that may occur for our children:
- What should my notes look like for this class?
- Should I write a plan before I tackle the project, and if so, how detailed should it be?
- Am I on track on this assignment?
- Does my essay answer the questions?
- Should I work in the library or in my own bedroom?
- Should I listen to music while I work?
- Should I answer the multiple-choice questions first on this test or the essay?
All of these questions show some degree of critical thinking about one’s thinking.
And unfortunately, no standardized test can accurately reflect the critical thinking that goes on behind the scenes. It’s a particularly vexing dilemma because though multiple choice cannot capture the complexity of someone’s thoughts or strategy, there’s no doubt that being equipped with well developed and effective metacognitive strategies is paramount to academic success.
Here at Benchmark Education, we have dedicated our resources to helping students become “big thinkers” and active, strategic readers. Our Anchor Comprehension Workshop units provide the resources to teach comprehension and metacognitive strategies effectively in Grades K–8+. The curriculum guides help not only with thinking about reading, but also in training kids with the skills—like critically viewing text and making inferences—that are required to master multiple-choice questions on the high-stakes tests. For more information, or to order a sample, click here.
It used to be enough just to think . . . now we literally have to think about what we (and our children) are thinking. Do you believe the classroom should spend time focusing on this “big thinking” or do the ends (i.e., getting the right answer on a test) justify the means? If the former, what have you found to be successful? How can we evaluate someone’s metacognitive abilities? Should we?
