Catching Readers Before They Fall Chapters 5 & 10

             The main idea the authors mention in Chapter 5 is the components of a comprehensive literacy framework. The authors state that reading aloud, shared reading and interactive read aloud, guided reading, and independent reading are components to reading to, with, and by children (73). A morning message, community writing, and independent writing are components of writing to, with, and by children according to the authors (73). I never thought of literacy components in this way so this idea was very interesting to me.  After looking at the chapter, I understand how each component is crucial to students’ overall understanding of literacy. To me, it was interesting when the authors stated that they use the activities throughout the day to show students that literacy is a “tool to make sense of the world” (91). The teacher that authors mentioned used literacy components throughout the day in different subjects. This idea helped my form my idea about literacy in my classroom. I, also, would like to use different literacy activities throughout the day in different subject areas to cover the components of literacy. Like the author’s stance on using literacy throughout the day, I would like to use literacy in many different subjects so students can see the importance of literacy in our lives.

                Chapter 10 discusses assessing readers which is an important concept for teachers to help make students better readers.  The authors mentioned some resources or tools teachers can use when assessing students’ readings. The author stated that informal assessments can include anecdotal notes about reading conferences or observations (181). Formal assessments include benchmark tests, running records, and other tests (181). The authors’ statements helped me form my idea of using assessments in the classroom. I think using assessments are helpful and valuable for teachers to see where a child is at in their learning and how I child has improved or still needs to improve. I plan on using informal assessments daily but focus on a couple of students per day so I am not overwhelmed. Kidwatching will help me with making observations and assessing what a child already knows and what they could learn. I would like to use formal assessments, but not as often as informal assessments. I could use formal assessments at the end of a unit. Both formal and informal assessments will help me with seeing where children are at with their reading and help me to progress every students’ reading skills.