Forward Thinking Assignment

1. Forward Thinking Assignment The Teacher-Parent Connection: Bringing Reading Home By: Stacy Anderson

2. Explanation of the Program My goal for the Teacher-Parent Connection website was to provide a site where parents can receive information and strategies to help their children with reading at home. The website contains research-based reading activities that parents can do with their child. The Teacher-Parent Connection website also allows for parents to get in contact with teachers in regards to reading issues.

3. Rationale Parental involvement in a child’s education is essential for literacy development (Baker, 2003). The Teacher- Parent Connection website provides the link between educators in the schools and parents at home. It provides a plethora of research-based reading topics that parents can utilize at home. The website contains comprehension strategies, vocabulary activities, lists of quality multicultural books, and other resources for parents and children. The comprehension strategies that were focused on spawned from the four strategies identified by Palinscar and Brown (1984). Through the website, parents can model and help their child develop predicting skills, questioning skills, visualization skills, and summarizing skills. All of these strategies help to improve comprehension of the text. Vocabulary is influential to “comprehension, fluency, and achievement” (Bromley, 2007), yet many children struggle with vocabulary development (Blachowicz, C. L. Z., Fisher, P. J. L., Ogle, D., & Watts-Taffe, S., 2006). It seemed necessary to include vocabulary activities at the website. This makes parents aware that learning vocabulary is difficult and extra exposure is helpful. Some basic vocabulary activities are included that parents can do with their child. Guidelines for choosing quality multicultural literature, as well as lists of certain books, are provided at the site. There are many good multicultural books, but you have to know how to find them. It is important for parents to be able to weed out stereotypical, biased, and culturally inaccurate literature. Overall, the Teacher-Parent Connection site provides a strong resource for parents. It addresses the many reading issues that children face and offers activities to improve them. Parents utilization of this site will bring research-based reading instruction to the home.

4. Body of Knowledge Click the icon for a flyer explaining the website. This flyer could be given to parents to make them aware of this resource. Now it is time for you to get involved! Visit the Teacher-Parent Connection Website. Click the Internet sign below to begin.

5. Pedagogy Explore the website and see what it has to offer. How could you contribute to this reading program? After exploring the website, there will be time for questions.

6. What do you think? On a sheet of notebook paper, tell me what you think about the website. Please, include any comments and/or suggestions. If you would like to participate in this wonderful outreach, please speak with me afterwards or email me at: abc123@notreal.net

7. References (2001). Reading quotes. Richmond Public Schools. Retrieved October 31, 2007, from http://www.richmond.k12.va.us/readamillion/readingquotes.htm (2007). Reading planet. Reading is Fun. Retrieved October 29, 2007 from http://www.rif.org/readingplanet (2007). Starfall. Starfall Education. Retrieved October 31, 2007 from http://www.starfall.com (2007). Words and pictures. BBC. Retrieved October 30, 2007 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/index.shtml Baker, L. (2003). The role of parents in motivating struggling readers. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 19, 87-106. Taylor & Francis. Blachowicz, C. L. Z., Fisher, P. J. L., Ogle, D., & Watts-Taffe, S. (2006). Vocabulary: Questions from the classroom. Reading Research Quarterly, 41, 524-539. Bromley, K. (2007). Nine things every teacher should know about words and vocabulary instruction. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50, 528-537. Brown, R., & Coy-Ogan, L. (1993). The evolution of transactional strategies instruction in one teacher's classroom. The Elementary School Journal, 94, 221-233. Cockrum, W. A., & Markel, S. L. (2007). The four square vocabulary instruction strategy. The Journal of the International Association of Special Education, 8, 98-100. Dougherty-Stahl, K. A. (2004). Proof, practice, and promise: Comprehension strategy instruction in the primary grades. The Reading Teacher, 57, 598-609. International Reading Association. Durkin, D. (1978). What classroom observation reveals about reading comprehension instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 14, 481-533. Eilers, L. H., & Pinkley, C. (2006). Metacognitive strategies help students to comprehend all text. Reading Improvement, 43, 13-29.

8. References Continued Kragler, S., Walker, C. A., & Martin, L. E. (2005). Strategy instruction in primary content textbooks. The Reading Teacher, 59, 254-261. International Reading Association. McKeown, M.G., & Beck, I.L. (2003). Taking advantage of read-alouds to help children make sense of decontextualized language. In A. van Kleeck, S.A. Stahl, & E.B. Bauer (Eds.), On reading books to children (pp. 159-176). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Onofrey, K. A., & Theurer, J. L. (2007). What’s a teacher to do: Suggestions for comprehension strategy instruction. The Reading Teacher, 60, 681-684. Owocki, G. (2003). Comprehension: Strategic instruction for K-3 students. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Palinscar, A. S. & Brown, A. L. (1984) Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities, Cognition and Instruction, 1, 117–175. Parker, M., & Hurry, J. (2007). Teachers’ use of questioning and modeling comprehension skills in primary classrooms. Educational Review, 59, 299-314. Taylor & Francis. Pressley, M. (2000). What should comprehension instruction be the instruction of? In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 3, pp. 545-561). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Rosenblatt, L. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press. Salas, R. G., Lucido, F., & Canales, J. (2002). Multicultural literature: Broadening young children's experiences. Retrieved November 1, 2007, from ERIC database. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED468866). Schuder, T. (1993). The genesis of transactional strategies instruction in a reading program for at-risk students. The Elementary School Journal, 94,183-200. Yokota, J. (1993). Issues in selecting multicultural children’s literature. Language Arts, 70, 156- 157.