Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI)

I loved this assessment. I felt like this was a great way to learn about a student’s reading level in such a short amount of time. When I first looked at the requirements for the assessment, it looked overwhelming and complicated. The assessments were laid out in order for you to assess your student properly and to grade them as well. I will use the QRI in my future classroom to find out my students reading level. I will also use the interest survey to find out which books they like to engage them in more reading.

Fluency

Learning about fluency is so important in today’s world, especially with all of the different “slang and acronyms” people use now. When a student is fluent in reading, it means that they can comprehend the concept of the print, decode the words, and know when to use expressive tones. My favorite fluency strategy that Dr. Behrens talked about was the Choral Reading Cloze. I will be using this in my future classroom, because it makes students pay attention and they do not have to worry about being called and prepared for a specific reading. They will be able to focus on comprehending the text and have fun doing it.

Emergent Literacy

When we learned about Emergent Literacy in Dr. Behrens class, it made me think about all the children out there who are not talked to constantly. I feel this can have a huge impact on our children and students learning throughout their lives. It seems they may struggle in reading and sometimes socialization with other students. As a future teacher, I can only hope that I can bring each and every child to a similar reading and writing level and they feel comfortable in my classroom to socialize and ask for help when they need it.  

Reading to our children EVERYDAY

In Dr. Behrens last class, she made it very apparent how important it is to read to our children; whether it be our own or to our students in the classroom. Reading to them will help increase their vocabulary at an early age and also let them hear how words are supposed to be pronounced. When reading aloud to children you can teach them context clues and word parts. When they learn these they can put vocabulary words together and know what they mean. Teaching this skill to my students will be one of my top priorities in my classroom and Dr. Behrens has inspired me to do so.  

Strategies that will help us in the future

One of my biggest “take-aways” so far in Dr. Behrens class has been sustainable strategies, which is teaching students how to think. This concept has changed my thoughts on how I will teach in my classroom. It seems like a lot of teachers are teaching the students how to take the FCAT, rather than teaching them the basic skills to solve a problem, although I do hope it has gotten better. Also, Dr. Behrens made a great point about strategies that teachers may use in their classes today that probably do not benefit the students in the future, such as, the reading “web”.

I love this class because Dr. Behrens is truly helping us prepare to be a great teacher and makes a point to tell us that things are always changing and growing in the education field.