Blog Post #2- Reading Blog

The Reading Strand

“You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book.” - Dr. Seuss!

 

For Language, the reading strand is deemed the most important topic of learning in school because of the ability to apply it across the curriculum and make meaningful connections. Additionally, teaching students to read can be the most difficult topic of Language and Literacy. Nevertheless, the Ontario curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge and skills that will enable students to become effective readers (MOE, 2006, pg. 10) for aspects of life that extend beyond the classroom.

Guided Reading Strategies

To begin, when implementing strategies to help students with reading, teachers should consider guided reading groups. As defined by the eWorkshop by EduGains, guided reading is the division between shared reading and independent reading. With guided reading, small groups of students apply knowledge and understanding from previously taught teacher-led and shared readings. Teachers incorporate selected unfamiliar texts that are tailored to certain individuals. These texts provide challenges for students learning through instructional support (2019).

Creative Teacher, 2019.

Following the reading, the teacher will observe the student-centered guided readings to assess their thoughts, opinions, and ideas. These are effective strategies that are used in various classes with several students to allow them the opportunity to take part in reading at a level suitable to their ability. Eventually, with the use of these guided reading strategies, the students will work their way into independent readings as they improve. The end goal for teachers is to get their students from early readers to emergent readers, and then finishing with fluent readers.  

The Effectiveness of Comic Books and Graphic Novels 

Comic books and graphic novels are becoming increasingly popular among differentiated texts for the reading strand among educations. As teachers, we need to provide students with the opportunity to explore comics and graphic novels as a way of exploring different text styles. When referring to the Ministry of Education and overall expectations, students should "read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning". Also, students can do this through recognizing a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate an understanding of how they help communicate meaning" (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006, pg. 111).

Gonzalez, 2016. 

Why should children read comic books? 

Comic books and graphic novels give students stories they can make connections to and reflect, without struggling to understand the information presented. Novels can be discouraging to read, especially when the text's or chapters are long. In giving students opportunities to expand their book choices, specifically comics, they are helpful because they include a "reasonable amount of text per page, lots of visual cues, and since most of the text comes in the form of dialogues, there are shorter and simpler sentences" (Myers, n.d.).  

Teachers Pay Teachers, n.d.

Additionally, other benefits of incorporating graphic novels are developing visual literacy skills, engaging and motivating reluctant readers, inference, memory, sequencing, understanding succinct language, and reading comprehension. Each of these are essential in meeting specific curriculum expectations. For instance, the Ontario Ministry of Education explains that students need to develop reading skills to become effective readers and critical thinkers, which in turn will assist in the ability to comprehend all sorts of material in other subjects. However, to do so, students need to have established excellent comprehension strategies beforehand. Therefore, the benefits from incorporating graphic novels transfer over to comprehension strategies because of predicting, visualizing, questioning, drawing inferences, identifying main ideas, summarizing, and monitoring (OME, 2006, pg. 10). For more information about the advantages of graphic novels, visit Raising Super Readers: Benefits of Comic Books & Graphic Novels. 

Some examples of graphic novels that teachers use in educations are Ghosts and Smiles, by Raina Telgemeir, The Dumbest Idea Ever by Jimmy Gownley, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, A Wrinkle in Time by Hope Larson, and many others (Secondary Sara, 2018). Overall, teachers need to expand their horizons when adapting reading programs for students, especially in emphasizing the benefits of extending opportunities for book selection.

Finally, the following article written by EduTopia presents insightful ideas about graphic novels being implemented in middle school:

https://www.edutopia.org/article/discovering-depth-graphic-novels

Helpful Reading Techniques 

Going off the guided reading strategies, ways that teachers can assist students identifying with troubles in reading are through internal approaches first. Internal approaches that can be performed when reading are pacing, anxiety and processing strategies. A few examples of anxiety are positive reinforcement or reassurance from the teacher, and peer mentorship (i.e., reading buddies). As mentioned by the Ministry of Education, reading is a complex process that involves the application of many strategies before, during, and after reading (2006, pg. 10).

Wyatt, 2019. 

Strategies, such as pacing, are usually when students slow down their visual inferences while reading the material to grasp all components. Whereas processing strategies include using critical thinking questions, decoding strategies, comprehension strategies, and communication strategies.

Additional techniques within comprehension strategies that teachers use include inferences, questioning, breaking down the plot to find the main points/idea, and synthesizing (Secondary English, 2017).

For comprehension methods, there are 8 concepts commonly taught: 

1. Active prior knowledge
2. Determining the purpose of reading
3. Making connections to self, text, world
4. Predicting
5. Visualizing
6. Critical questioning
7. Drawing inferences
8. Evaluating

Secondary English, 2015. 

These concepts discussed above are important for students regarding comprehension because they can make connections to real-world situations, to their readings, and what they are learning. While doing so, they enhance their knowledge and understanding of the material they are learning about, especially when focusing on the eight concepts listed above. Moreover, when practicing these strategies, students tend to improve their vocabulary, oral communication, punctuation, being descriptive, and thinking about the meaning of the reading.  

References:
Creative Teacher. (2019). Reading Strategy Checklist Based on Fountas and Pinnell. Retrieved from https://www.dgoodz.com/products/reading-strategy-checklist-based-228866 

DeHart, J. (September 20, 2018). EduTopia: Discovering the Depth in Graphic Novels. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/discovering-depth-graphic-novels

EduGains. (2019). eWorkshop: Literacy Modules- Guided Reading. Retrieved from http://eworkshop.on.ca/edu/core.cfm?p=modView.cfm&navID=modView&L=1&modID=15&c=2&CFID=168971&CFTOKEN=7b072684d523f053-450CDA06-AD9F-84C4-7D8A6AF240B471DC

English, M. (2019). Scholastic: Raising Super Readers: Benefits of Comic Books & Graphic Novels. Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/raising-super-readers-benefits-comic-books-and-graphic-novels.html

Gonzalez, J. (October 9, 2016). Cult of Pedagogy: Graphic Novels in the Classroom: A Teacher Roundtable. Retrieved from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/teaching-graphic-novels/

Myers, L. (n.d.). Graphic Novels for Kids. Retrieved from https://www.adventure-in-a-box.com/graphic-novels-for-kids/

Ontario Ministry of Education. 2006. The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1-8: Language. Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/language18currb.pdf

Secondary Sara. (September 18, 2018). 20+ Graphic Novels that English Teachers Love. Retrieved from https://www.secondarysara.com/2018/09/20-graphic-novels-that-english-teachers.html?m=1

Teachers Pay Teachers. (n.d.). Graphic Novel Reading Unit of Study: How to read a graphic novel. Retrieved from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Graphic-Novel-Reading-Unit-of-Study-How-to-read-a-graphic-novel-3800904

The Secondary English Coffee Shop. (2017). Reading Strategies for Middle and High School Students. Retrieved from https://secondaryenglishcoffeeshop.blogspot.com/2017/03/reading-strategies-for-middle-and-high.html

Wyatt, L. (2019). EDBE 8P24: Language and Literacy- Week 6. 

Blog Post #1- Media Strand

Media Literacy vs. Digital Literacy

Media literacy is the understanding and comprehension of utilizing online practices in assisting with analyzing, evaluating, accessing and creating media in a variety of methods to create messages (Module 1, n.d). According to Andrea Quijada, media literacy is essential in including it into the curriculum, for students to learn how to deconstruct the information presented. Incorporating media literacy helps educate students on how to be critically engaged when coming across media (TED, 2013).

(Wilkey Oh, 2017) 

Digital Literacy goes hand in hand with media literacy because of using specific informational resources connected to media, through the internet and with the use of smartphones, video games, and other resources (Common sense media, n.d ). Incorporating digital literacy can be accomplished by building onto media literacy concepts and developing knowledge and skills to utilize digital resources. 

(MediaSmarts, 2018)

With this being said, it is essential for students to critically understand digital resources to communicate clearly through technology. Overall, digital and media tools can be beneficial and advantageous as educational tools, however, there are potential risks associated with learning and using digital media.

Fake News vs. Real News

Recently, students are becoming targets of fake news. It is so hard to spot because a lot of individuals get sucked into the virtual world of misconceptions and large headliners. One article that gives authoritative insight for determining how to deconstruct and detect falsified information is Real Media Literacy: Spotting a Fake Story. The author provides a picture called The Art of Reading Laterally, to improve the reader's critical thinking and analysis when researching news and important information. ART stands for A: author, R: reliability, and T: target. Overall, the entire website presents crucial knowledge to their intended audience of middle graders to assist students in developing techniques to discover fraudulent news. 

(Baker, 2019). 

One of the most iconic videos that came out 12 years ago, about a popular house hippo became an internet sensation. However, little did people know, it was FAKE. Now, MediaSmarts has created a new video about the famous house hippo to explain and inform the upcoming generations regarding the dangers of fake news, and how easy it is for people to be fooled by the digital world. 

(MediaSmarts, 2019). 

Ministry Resources

In the world of technology and fake news, it is important to consider the resources and tools that are available for students. A website that is fantastic for providing information about media and digital literacy, as well as games that are interactive for students concerning fake news is https://mediasmarts.ca. One game in particular that includes missions while emphasizing the importance of spotting fake news is called "Reality Check". I highly recommend students trying out this enjoyable game. The purpose of the game is to assist students in learning "how to find clues like finding where a story originally came from and comparing it to other sources, as well as how to use tools like fact-checking sites and reverse image searches" (MediaSmarts, n.d). Each mission has a different goal in spotting fake news. Can you do it?

Attached here is the link to the game Reality Check for anyone to try themselves: https://mediasmarts.ca/sites/mediasmarts/files/games/reality-check/index.html#/

(MediaSmarts, n.d.).

Ministry of Education- Language and Literacy Curriculum

When teachers are preparing their lesson plans, there are guidelines for each curriculum that they must follow. For language and literacy, particularly looking at the media strand, there are specific and overall expectations that students are required to achieve. For the junior grades (i.e., 4 to 8), a majority of students have the same requirements with a few minor differences in expectations. When acknowledging the overall expectations, students are to:

1. demonstrate an understanding of a variety of media texts;
2. identify some media forms and explain how the conventions and techniques associated
3. with them are used to create meaning;
4. create a variety of media texts for different purposes and audiences, using appropriate forms, conventions, and techniques;
5. reflect on and identify their strengths as media interpreters and creators, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful in understanding and creating media texts.

(MOE, 2006, pg. 89). 

As for the specific expectations, these have been established to help students reach the guidelines and be successful in terms of learning. Under this category, the curriculum focuses on understanding media texts, understanding media forms, conventions and techniques, creating media texts, as well as reflecting on media skills and strategies. Overall, these expectations are for educators benefit to analyze, assess, and evaluate the student's progress regarding knowledge, (critical) thinking, communication, application, and learning.  

References:

Baker, F. (2019, August 7). MiddleWeb. Real Media Literacy: Spotting a Fake Story. Retrieved from: https://www.middleweb.com/40839/real-media-literacy-spotting-a-fake-story/

Common sense media. (n.d.). What is digital literacy? Retrieved October 1, 2019, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/news-and-media-literacy/what-is-digital-literacy

MediaSmarts. (May 31, 2018). Digital Media Are Networked | Digital Literacy 101. Retrieved September 30, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-HXiObDDnA

MediaSmarts (2019, September 30). YouTube: House Hippo 2.0. Retrieved October 1, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R_tOSRynZU

MediaSmarts. (n.d.). Reality Check: The Game. Retrieved October 1, 2019, from
https://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/educational-games/reality-check-game

Ministry of Education (MOE). (2006). The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1-8: Language. Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/language18currb.pdf

Module 1: What is digital and media literacy? Retrieved October 1, 2019, fromhttps://lms.brocku.ca/portal/site/Media_Info_Literacy_Modules/tool/04ab90c7-565c-441f-8c8e-0c5444930f31

TED (2013, February). Andrea Quijada: Creating critical thinkers through media literacy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHAApvHZ6XE

Wilkey Oh, E. (December 12, 2017). EduTopia: Media Literacy- The Future of Fake News. Retrieved October 1, 2019, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/future-fake-news