Problem

The thing that bothered me today was brought to mind by something another middle-school teach said in the faculty lounge. She stated that nearly all her students can read and spell but do not understand what they are reading or the meaning of words they are spelling. During the next few days, I paid attention to the teacher's comment when working with my students. Yes, they can read and spell words, but half the time they have little or no understanding.

Student Name	How does this problem relate to what we know about learning?	Cite your sources.	Given what you know about learning, how might you resolve this problem?
Kathryn Kraus	Students appear to have mastered decoding and are ready to develop reading comprehension skills. From Vygotsky, we have learned about the zone of proximal development, "that students learn subjects best just beyond their range of existing experience wih assistance from the teacher or another peer to bridge the distance from what they know or can do independently and what they can know or do with assistance." Vygotsky has also taught us that the social interactions children have with peers, teachers and other adults "develop language - which supports thinking - and they provide feedack and assistance that support ongoing learning." Once the teacher has located the points in the ZPD where students need assistance, he or she can provide assistance by "providing readings...that support the next stage of learning."	CD: Mod. 1, P. 14, How Psychologists Have Thought of Learning. CD: Mod. 7, p. 126, pragraph 2. C, Mod. 7, p. 126. Vygotsky's Theories of learning	An effective cooperative learning strategy to assist students in moving to the next level is reciprocal teaching, where the teacher and the students dialogue about the reading material, using the four strategies of predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing. "Usually ReT is thought about as a way to help kids comprehend or understand what they read" (PPR: Ch. 4, p. 92, Reciprocal Teaching).
	Meaningful learning states that some cognitive scientists are interested in how information can be made more meaningful so that it can be better understood and used. Some of the ways suggested to accomplish this is to have students process - think about and use - new information and to help students summarize what is learned.	The Act of Teaching, page 90, paragraph 1; page 90, bullets 6 & 8	From what I know I would begin to incorporate into my lessons time for the students to do individual and group refection papers. This would help the student to have to stop and think about the information they are using because they are going to have to use a summary using different wording than in the original assignment. The small group assignment is also helpful because they would do this same summary, only it will be verbal.
Andrew Lawrence	To explain one part of the problem we have to understand information processing or "the study of how we mentally take in and store information and then retrieve it when needed" (1). The children are not processing what they are reading. The information is not reaching their long-term memory. In order for the information to reach their long-term memory the students must process new info in different ways. Two examples are: One, "connect it with what students already know" (2) and two, the must "manipulate it or engage in active 'rehearsals' with it" (3). By processing the information, with these techniques, into a recognizable form for storage in long-term memory, the students will better understand the words and subjects they are studying.	(1) PPR, Ch.4, p.86, para 5. (2) PPR, Ch.4, p.89, para 1. (3) PPR, Ch.4, p.89, para 1.	To better help the students understand new information, I would split the information into smaller segments. After each segment, I would discuss the information with the students and have them provide examples for the information. As they are reviewing the subject, I would "call attention to information of importance" (PPR, Ch.4, p.88, para 2). The following day in class we would review the prior days information before moving on to the new.
Genevieve Cosby Green	Cognitive School of Thought supports the idea of Reciprocal teaching. This method of teaching helps students to clarify information. In problem #4 the students have been exposed to the information, but they are not making the connection need to associate the word with it definition. “Reciprocal teaching is an instructional activity during which a dialogue or interchange takes place between teacher and students regarding what is to be learned (Palincsar, 1986).” During the activity, the students predict, question, clarify, and summarize the information. The teacher can provide just enough information by sensing when the students need help, and when they are at the point where their can take over the learning process. The method is called scaffolding, and it works well for small group work because the students can help one another.	PPR, Chp 4, page 92, paragraph 2, PPR, Chp 4, page 92, paragraph 1	As the teacher, I would group the students in pairs and have them use a combination of reciprocal teaching and scaffolding. The pairs of students would question each others. During the activities each student would have an opportunity to play the role of peer educator. I would walk around the room and assess students’ progress. This would give me an opportunity to model the scaffolding techniques. “When learners need help or guidance, wise teachers provides such things as better direction and better explanation, (see Chapter 11), or use additional learning resources.”
Delores Hopper	Reading comprehension and vocabulary development can increase when meaningful learning takes place. When a student can read a passage and organize the information into something meaningful, they are more likely to understand the concept.[1] Using a scaffolding approach to teaching may also increase student learning[2]. By scaffolding, vocabulary terms can be taught and then used in sentences, where meaning is added. Reverse scaffolding can be applied to reading comprehension. Passages can be broken down into sentences and then again into meaningful words.	[1] The Act of Teaching. Ch. 4, pg. 86-87, ¶5,1. [2] The Act of Teaching. Ch. 4, pg. 92, ¶1.	I would increase my students’ fluency with the vocabulary I wanted them to learn. I would also form lesson plans that incorporated passages with the vocabulary. We could break down those passages to understand them sentence by sentence.