Can you identify any specific practices or strategies that align with what you currently do in your classroom?
- I have noticed that some of my students struggle with more complex sentences, as is noted by Zipoli and Merritt (2022). I have had many students with auditory processing challenges and focus challenges like ADHD, and I can certainly see students losing focus as I talk. I try to ensure that I always have visual instructions on the board or in print to resolve students’ challenges with listening to instructions.
- I teach my students to retell and summarize readings, which is a recommendation by Zipoli and Merritt (2022). Students can retell what happened in the text orally, thereby synthesizing narrative sequencing and structure.
- Even though I teach grade nine, I will still frequently choose to read text out loud to my students. I will often ask them to reread it on their own after I read it to them, teaching them to reread strategically.
- I do think-alouds in my classroom occasionally, but I could certainly deepen my practice and ensure that I am doing them more and doing so more intentionally.
- I generally give examples of figurative language, and then support students in finding examples together, and then ask them to find examples, with support. We repeatedly come back to figurative language throughout the year, reinforcing their learning.
Are there any connections to students’ needs or challenges that you’ve encountered in your teaching career?
- I am interested in teaching signal or transition words more systematically, as this has come up as a good literacy intervention in several different texts. I think that this will support students in building connections in their writing and in their thinking. From the often-fragmented writing I see, I think that this is definitely a necessary instructional focus.
- I think that ensuring that I frame sentences actively, not passively, will support students better. I would also like to explicate this, explaining why active voice is better than passive voice, and circling back repeatedly with practice and review.
- I can see that more explicitly teaching figurative language might be helpful, especially for neurodiverse students who may struggle with non-literal meanings.
What new insights or strategies have you gained from the chapters that you believe might enhance your teaching of oral language comprehension?
- After all of the readings in this course, I am determined to teach morphology in my English 9 AND my Social Studies 9 classes next year. I am planning to work to teach students about roots, etymology, suffixes, and prefixes. I am confident that my students are going to be interested, based on the casual times I have shared some of this. I am excited to encourage my students to be word conscious.
- I do not usually explicitly teach vocabulary. There always seems to be so many things that I need to teach in English 9 that vocabulary is not a focus. I am interested in adding it in next year, though, to support the reading comprehension of my students. Now that I know how inextricably connected it is to comprehension, I will make an effort to systematically incorporate vocabulary into my teaching.
- I like the idea of dialogic reading, and think that I will work to build an advanced version of this into my practice. I think that I already do this occasionally, but not systematically, and I could incorporate it much more intentionally.
What aspects of implementing structured literacy interventions for oral language comprehension do you anticipate might be challenging?
- I worry that using higher-level vocabulary during instruction and in class discussions may be confusing for some students, even while it is helpful for exposing students to new vocabulary.
- As with everything, there just isn’t enough time to do everything well. Because we are already speaking to students all the time, I think that I can work to be more intentional with oral language, but I am nervous that it will still be burdensome and a challenge.
Are there any aspects of the chapters that you find unclear or in need of further exploration?
- I would like to learn more about how to create a vocabulary-rich classroom that is inclusive and welcoming. How can I ensure that using rich language is not exclusionary? How can I ensure that my students understand and are not turned off by big vocabulary?
References
Wanzek, J., Al Otaiba, S. D., & McMaster, K. L. (2020). Intensive reading interventions for the elementary grades. The Guilford Press.
Zipoli, R. P., & Merritt, D. D. (2022). Structured literacy interventions for oral language comprehension. In Structured literacy interventions: Teaching students with reading difficulties, grades K-6. Edited by L. Spear-Swerling. Guilford Publications.