In a sense I think that fluency can be taught through vocabulary. It is important that students always feel comfortable with the text that they are reading and it will make reading much easier. In the beginning of chapter 5, the high frequency words that the teacher allows the students to explore and ask questions about is a great way for the students to be able to recognize these words. I like how the teacher made connections with the words to themes/units that were being taught in the class, I feel as if this is another way students can make connections with the words and what they are learning. In my classroom, my CT is always adding new words to the top-words list and the students then have to know these 'sight words'. The chart on page 155 was helpful for me to understand how the different components of fluency can fit into everyday literacy lessons. From the entire chart, I view oral language as one of the strongest ways a student can pick up on vocabulary, which is something I think ties into fluency. These components will only help a child while reading and it will help them comprehend other aspects in literacy, so that many aspects can tie together.
In chapter 9 many of the assessments in the beginning reminded me of some of the tests that we had to complete with our focal student in TE 301. That was neat to see that those assessments were things that I have done before. I do feel that assessments are very crucial to a class and to be honest I think that many of the assessments that I have completed in the past were not completely appropriate. Knowing what my students are able to do and what they know will only help my teaching. On page 299 the chart that describes how various assessments for literacy fit into a classroom is useful. I remember for example, that spelling bees or quizzes was one way that my elementary school teachers assessed us in vocabulary/spelling and it was fun (well maybe not the quizzes)! For writing I think that allowing students to assess their own work is one of the most powerful and challenging things to do.
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Your post made me think of something that I had completely forgotten- spelling bees! What a great way to assess student's vocabulary and comprehension! I remember taking spelling tests and having classroom spelling bees throughout grade school that had a large impact on me (as a language arts student). However this also made me think that teachers may not be able to completely assess the students knowledge in this manner. For example (and I will never forget this), when I was in 4th grade I had misspelled a word on my spelling test that I was so upset about because I had mixed two letters up. I remember being angry with my mom because she had been helping me study the night before. Simple mistakes (such as mixing up and i and e) could possibly hurt the students grade, and for me, my self-esteem. Right when I left the class I realized that I spelled it wrong and was beating myself up about it for the rest of the day, because I knew how to spell that word but I had accidentally mixed the two letters up. Therefore, do you think this idea of spelling tests and bees help completely assess students vocabulary and comprehension? How could teachers scaffold this learning/assessment technique?
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