I've been reading Richard Gentry's book, Breaking the Code and throughout he discusses brain scan research, which shows that a beginning reader's brain looks different on scans compared with a skilled reader's brain, which should occur at around the end of grade one, beginning of second grade. Perhaps, these first graders are using the skilled reader's brain that he describes, which reads automatically. Decoding is the "key" to breaking the code and is the function of the beginning reader's brain, but becomes automatic as children become more skilled. Does this sound right? Food for thought!
Claudine DiMuzio -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Sent: Mon, 28 May 2007 3:31 pm Subject: [MOSAIC] DIBELS Results I recently completed the DIBELS assessment on all our first grade students - I'm Reading Specialist. This year something really stood out for me when I did he scoring. At first, I thought it was just a fluke, but as I continued hrough the three classrooms, a pattern began to emerge. I'm just wondering if nyone else who uses the DIBELS has had a similar experience. First, let me clarify the instruction used by our classroom teachers. All of ur teachers have attended and implement their instruction with the Teachers ollege format for both reading and writing. Each teacher has a minimum of 1-2 ead alouds each day and devotes at least 45 minutes or more each to reading and riting workshop on a daily basis. Word study is also a component with teachers sing the format of Words Their Way instruction. The word study or phonics omponent from the previous year (kindergarten) was with the Fountas and Pinnell rogram. This program is not district-wide - some of our elementary schools are sing Fundations in both kindergerten and first grade. Our end-of-year DIBELS showed that across the three first grade classrooms, 62% f the students had a drop in their Phoneme Segmentation Fluency. Knowing these tudents personally, I was surprised at first but then realized that these very tudents were among the strongest readers. Within this same 62% who droped in SF, 49% had gains in the Oral Reading Fluency section. And, while I'm not utting in a plug for DIBELS (I think it is quite invalid, especially based on ow we are instructing our students), I was surprised at these results. Has anyone else who administers DIBELS had a similar experience? Thank goodness y principal doesn't have the sun rise and set on DIBELS, but this information oes to our central office and I'm just concerned at what their response might e? Does anyone know if there is valid data to support that strong readers do ot necessarily need to be good at separating sounds? Thanks for your anticipated responses. Linda ______________________________________________ osaic mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] o unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to ttp://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
