Author Archives: nicolekavajecz

EngEd 370 – Week 10 part 2 – Chapter 13 – Nicole Kavajecz Of the variety of ways a teacher can teach reading, using a Basal Reading Program has become the go-to for a starting point (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 370). Components of a Basal Program include addressing the coreContinue reading “Instructional Reading Materials”

EngEd 370 – Week 10 Part 1 – Chapter 12 – Nicole Kavajecz There are many factors which influence the type of texts which are ‘appropriate’ for teachers to use for instruction (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 344). Social concerns, technology changes, and rigorous standards implementation are just a few ofContinue reading “Bringing Children and Text Together”

EngEd 370 – Week 9 – Chapter 11 – Nicole Kavajecz “These connections are powerful enough to suggest that children probably learn as much about reading by writing as they learn about writing by reading” (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 313). The real value in the reading-writing connection is that oneContinue reading “Reading-Writing Connections”

EngEd 370 – Week 8 part 2 – Chapter 10 – Nicole Kavajecz A text which explains a subject area and provides facts about that subject is known as an informational text (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 270). There are many subcategories of informational texts, including technical texts, textbooks, “how to”Continue reading “Comprehending Informational Texts”

EngEd 370 – Week 8 – Chapter 9 and Reading Rockets – Nicole Kavajecz Reading Rockets is a well known and widely used source for young readers to gain confidence in all areas of reading (2021). There is a wide variety of resources for teachers and other adults in a child’s life to implement toContinue reading “Reading Comprehension”

EngEd 370 – Week 7 Part 2 – Nicole Kavajecz There is much more to learning to read than simply a reductionist view of memorizing definitions and using words in sentences (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 214). Readers need to be involved in constructing meaning from the text they read fromContinue reading “Chapter 8: Vocabulary Knowledge and Concept Development”

EngEd 370 – Week 7 – Nicole Kavajecz Reading fluency can be described as the ability to read easily, smoothly, and with full comprehension (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 189). Fluency can be broken into three dimensions: accuracy in word decoding, automatic processing, and prosody or prosodic reading. Effective fluency instructionContinue reading “Chapter 7 Reading Fluency”

Eng Ed 370 – Week 6 Chapter 6 – Nicole Kavajecz – Summer 2021 “Word identification means putting a name or label on words that are encountered in print” (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 152). Terms used to categorize this process of word identification are often used interchangeably, and can includeContinue reading “Word Identification”

Eng Ed 370 – Week 5 – Nicole Kavajecz – Summer 2021 Of the multiple ways to assess reading performance, a focus on high stakes testing is prominent in today’s standards-based education system (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 116). “High-stakes testing can provide information about program evaluation, but it cannot provideContinue reading “Chapter 5: Assessing Reading Performance”

EngEd 370 – Week 4, Chapter 4 – Nicole Kavajecz Emergent literacy is a term used primarily in pre-kindergarten levels of schooling (Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKoen, 2010, p 78). The concept refers to how supportive the child’s environment since birth was to literacy development. It can include observing the adults in theirContinue reading “Foundations of Language and Literacy”