Wednesday, May 7, 2014

I had to leave class early this week – family emergency. So I am catching up again with the recording.

We looked at the idea of standards in education-the idea that there really is not an “average” student. In fact the “average” student is a myth – it doesn’t exist. Yet our Departments of Education have been moving towards standardization for some time now.  For example, Powerschool is clearly a standards- based reporting system that does not allow for creative, formative –assessment style reporting. Yet we are not only forced to use it, but forced to accept its limitations.

As well our classrooms, scheduling, curriculum materials, and majority of curriculum delivery technologies are still squarely based in an industrial model of education – possibly even 19^th century in some cases.

We spent some time on the reading process. This is fascinating stuff. When we tried to analyze how we read it soon becomes revealed how complex a task it really is. There are several brain operations working in concert to make the reading process happen.  We track the reading process of students to see where the process breaks downs and if certain AT will improve their performance on some aspect of the reading process.

Points of consideration that I noted as the lecture proceeded:

·         Recognize letter and vowel sounds

·         Recognize words – knowing proper nouns, places etc.

·         Understand context, vocabulary, understanding voice

·         First stages – Seating, Sensory input, Do you have the physical ability to manipulate the text.

·         Once we address  these precursors then we can address the task at hand

·         We need to have our basic needs already met, we need to emotionally engaged.  Want to be able to read.

·         Every step of the task analysis is about attention to task.

·         What about orientating the page?

·         How do I know to go to the top left corner of the page?

·         Using eyes, vision control

·         How do I know it starts with a D? Someone taught me and that’s now automatic.

·         Sound letter association.

·         Phonic awareness, prior knowledge. Visualizing, how to decode.

·         See pictures. Breaking down the geography. Have to learn the vocabulary.

Why do we read?

Entertainment,  gain knowledge. Reading is not just decoding text.

Reading begins with oral language – rich oral language.

We need many oral languages experiences before we deal with print. Phonemic awareness.

We need to know the symbols. We need to have the code.

Secret Life of the Brain – ep 2. –

These are some of the interesting statements from the video.

Reading is a high wire balancing acts. It is an example of one of the most complex cognitive processes of the human brain.  It is a combining of many brain processes.

Reading must be explicitly taught. You don’t just learn to read.

The brain first begins with attention to task.

The ability to read is not given equally to all children. The brains of children with dyslexia have regions which do not function as it should in the reading process.

There is a bright ray of light in brain research -  Plasticity is lifelong.

Some interesting videos I found on the reading brain.

They are ads for reading instruction programs, but the science they present is good to take in;

Another