Week #3 Comprehension

Kintsch's Construction-Integration Model is a scheme theory model that activates students prior knowledge in the reading comprehension process. This model was very beneficial for me to read because it helped me to understand that reading comprehension is a spiral process. What we know about a topic before we read can help us tremendously with understanding the text. This model is reading text while activating prior knowledge and applying it by explaining what we've read. Kintsch says we then use what we learn and apply it to the next text and so on and so on. This is how reading becomes a spiral because we pull from all kinds of sources such as prior knowledge, making inferences, and text evidence. I have been trying to implement good reading strategies in my classroom this year, but now I feel like I have a better visual of the whole process from Kintsch's Construction-Integration Model that I can share with my students. I'm going to apply this model to my classroom by enforcing to activate background knowledge and making inferences and then applying their new knowledge across the content areas. To do this I will have my students use KWL charts, graphic organizers, and inference charts while reading. Some examples to do so can be found at the bottom of my blog! 

Popplet- app for graphic organizers 

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/chart-a-30226.html

Website for KWL charts and mini lesson plans 

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/sites/default/files/asset/file/graphic_organizers.pdf

Website for inference graphic organizer as well as organizers for all other text structures 

Differentiation of Phonics Instruction

After reading this weeks articles on phonic instruction, it got me to reflect on how I truly implement it into my own classroom. Last year when I taught second grade, phonics was implemented in our Superkids Reading Program. We did it everyday with all my reading groups. However, this year I am now teaching third grade with the same group of kids and I feel like I do not need to teach phonics to every one of my reading groups because of how high some of my students are. To differentiate, I incorporate phonics with my 2 low reading groups out of my 5 total groups. I decided to research more on differentiation with phonics instruction and found some great resources that I would like to share.
I didn't know if I was correct with my philosophy of not teaching it to all my students, and found that phonics should be taught through differentiation so that students can learn at their own pace. Especially after reading the articles this past week and learning more about phonics, I realize how complex it is and tedious. My students have a phonics workbook, but I do not like to just teach from there. It's important to use hands on activities and fun games for our students so that they stay engaged and that they want to learn and become better at phonics. This is the one area where I feel like I could improve on with my instruction and was happy to find some great apps, resources, and games. The one I liked best was a Boggle Board! I'm definitely going to try to implement this into my classroom. The Reading Rockets website list 10 great apps for phonics as well as other great games/activities. The link is attached below. I found a ton of great activities on Pinterest by just searching "phonics activities for third grade". I hope some of these resources will help you in your own classroom instruction!

http://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading101/phonics/literacyapps_phonics

https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?rs=ac&len=2&q=phonics+activities+for+3rd+grade&term_meta%5B%5D=phonics+activities+for+3rd+grade%7Cautocomplete%7C0