Introduction
Third grader Jonathan sat at his desk anxiously fidgeting his right leg and tapping his pencil vigorously on the desk. His mind raced trying to remember all the things his teacher had taught him this year plus the review they had yesterday and all of last week. He looked around the room for familiar words and grammar posters but they had all been covered with newspaper or taken down altogether. He looked to his left for the Word Wall yet all he saw were pictures of fruit, cheese and deli meats. Supermarket ads were taped over words the he was familiar with! He felt his heart beating faster and his hands felt clammy; that is when his teacher approached his desk and handed him his Grade 3 Reading Ohio Achievement Assessment (OAA). …show more content…
He knew his teacher meant well but he also knew that sometimes when he reads he does not know many of the words and that his reading is slow and “choppy” not smooth like some of the others in his class. He felt that others in his class knew more words then he did and also knew words he did not know. Jonathan waited for his teacher to read the directions. He took a deep breath and opened the test booklet. He looked at some of the words and already knew that this was going to be a challenge. Is this the test I have to pass to go to the fourth grade? He asked himself. A Third Grade Reading Guarantee has been established in his state making this a high stakes test for Jonathan. Tears started to well up in his eyes but he fought them back. He remembered that his teacher told him to remember the sounds that letters make and try to read words that way. “Sound it out” resonated in his mind but as he attempted to “sound out” certain words the more confused he became. Although phonics is a vital part of any reading instruction program (National Reading Panel, 2000), some words (e.g., through) do not contain predictable grapheme–phoneme correspondence, making them difficult to decode based on phonics rules learned through DI programs.
Third grader Jonathan sat at his desk anxiously fidgeting his right leg and tapping his pencil vigorously on the desk. His mind raced trying to remember all the things his teacher had taught him this year plus the review they had yesterday and all of last week. He looked around the room for familiar words and grammar posters but they had all been covered with newspaper or taken down altogether. He looked to his left for the Word Wall yet all he saw were pictures of fruit, cheese and deli meats. Supermarket ads were taped over words the he was familiar with! He felt his heart beating faster and his hands felt clammy; that is when his teacher approached his desk and handed him his Grade 3 Reading Ohio Achievement Assessment (OAA). …show more content…
He knew his teacher meant well but he also knew that sometimes when he reads he does not know many of the words and that his reading is slow and “choppy” not smooth like some of the others in his class. He felt that others in his class knew more words then he did and also knew words he did not know. Jonathan waited for his teacher to read the directions. He took a deep breath and opened the test booklet. He looked at some of the words and already knew that this was going to be a challenge. Is this the test I have to pass to go to the fourth grade? He asked himself. A Third Grade Reading Guarantee has been established in his state making this a high stakes test for Jonathan. Tears started to well up in his eyes but he fought them back. He remembered that his teacher told him to remember the sounds that letters make and try to read words that way. “Sound it out” resonated in his mind but as he attempted to “sound out” certain words the more confused he became. Although phonics is a vital part of any reading instruction program (National Reading Panel, 2000), some words (e.g., through) do not contain predictable grapheme–phoneme correspondence, making them difficult to decode based on phonics rules learned through DI programs.