Chapter 7

1. The student’s mediate reading level determines at which reading level the student can be taught. This is based on Vygotsky.
a. It is interesting to see how what I just did with the word lists to determine my student’s independent, frustration, and instructional reading levels is based on such solid research. Although the book uses a different style of vocabulary than my QRI, all of the goals and procedures for diagnostic literacy instruction is essentially the same. I like that is is such a structured, step-by-step approach to teaching, and not some philosophy or theory that is difficult to put to work.

2. Prior to instruction, the diagnostic teacher decides on certain task conditions that will enhance learning for the student.
a. The list of questions provided by the text that demonstrates what I will be doing myself is incredibly helpful. Essentially, it shows me how to plan and implement a diagnostic lesson, right down to how I am going to have the student read the text. This may be a little bit of a challenge since I have never really instructed one-on-one before. I am used to large group education, so I ask myself a very different set of questions before going into a lesson with a full classroom.

3. During instruction, the teacher’s hypotheses are dynamic. Modifications of hypotheses can occur as the teacher responds to the student’s needs.
a. This is another reason why I like this approach, especially since it is one-on-one with a student. I have discovered during my own general classroom instruction that I need to reformat my lessons to meet the needs of my students. With my Writing class at Wheatfield I realized that when I spoke about certain parts of speech within a sentence, not many students knew what I was talking about. I then planned several lessons around the parts of speech so that we can all be familiar with the vocabulary. I will be excited to do the same with my tutoring with the student, since I will discover more and more about his reading level as I work with him.

4. When evaluating Terry, another passive reader, the diagnostic teacher decided to use think-aloud again.
a. This part of the text went through the steps of a typical diagnostic tutoring session with a student. This section was helpful because I am starting to get a feel for what this literacy project is going to look like. It is going to be helpful to use the text to determine which strategies to implement, but it will still be strange directing my lessons to only one child. Hopefully, this will be easier and more efficient than a class of 25, and also more rewarding.

5. The diagnostic teacher needs to determine how much modification to do to a text before teaching it to a student. If too much modification is needed, then the text may be too difficult.
a. This is the part I think I may have some trouble with. I have never really had to go looking for texts before; I have always had them handed to me by the school. I will have to first try to find something that interests the student and then determine if is in his instructional reading level. I just don’t want to get something that may be too difficult – this could result in a lot of extra work and wasted time.