The second article: Toward a Theoretical Model of Text Complexity for the Early Grades: Learning From the Past, Anticipating the Future
Here is my summary of the text complexity article. Essentially, the authors have begun a working model of text complexity for early readers and have pointed out the need for continued research in this area. This is my take on their research article.
Text complexity is defined separately from text difficulty. This distinction implies independent variables relative to complexity, where textual elements can be studied and manipulated. Difficulty, on the other hand, cannot be manipulated because it's dependent on the reader. Who's to say what is difficult? This article focuses on text, not digital reading, by the way.
The RRSG model (the RAND Reading Study Group) shows four variables that surround text complexity: the reader, the activity, the text, and the sociocultural context within which the reading's being done. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, coming together to form a rough model to begin to understand text complexity. There are interactions among and between the elements in the model, which makes it tricky to interpret.
Early-grade texts have been studied, primarily from the perspective of structural complexity and word familiarity. Structural complexity refers to elements of a word that influence its difficulty in decoding it. Word familiarity refers to the degree to which a word might be known, both in recognition and meaning.
However, these researchers have identified other areas that contribute to overall text complexity. One of these areas is the semantic features of words, which has been less studied. Semantic features refers to vocabulary children know. Imageability is a compensatory strategy where a child imagines or visualizes the word, making it easier to know and remember. Vocabulary research overlaps with this area of reading and text.
Syntax is another area in text that should be studied more closely in the early-grades. This relates to a child's understanding of sentences, a basic level of reading comprehension. There are different ways to measure sentence length (T-unit is one such way), but beyond measuring sentences and checking syntactic meaning, the researchers admit there's still much to learn about syntactic processing.
Discourse structure, which includes cohesion, genre, and text length, is another way to measure text complexity. Cohesion refers to argument repetition. The more frequently words, phrases, and ideas are repeated, the more cohesive, and easier, the text is to read. Cohesion is required of readers to varying degrees, depending on their reading ability and comprehension. Genre is not defined in one particular way. There is no agreement about the types or numbers of genres in text. Therefore, genre is difficult to measure. However, the researchers of this article believe genre plays a role in text complexity. Text length may contribute to text complexity as well but it's hard to measure also.
In addition to examining the components of text itself, the researchers examine the interaction of features and design principles in early-grade text programs. This is another area believed to affect text complexity as well. The "diet of texts," as the authors term it, represents the texts that are selected and presented to young children by school systems and teachers. In examining program design, there are four learning principles: content, sequence, pace, and repetition. These principles directly affect whether young readers will gain meaning from text, and they contribute to the complexity of text.
Finally, the authors present numerous questions for future research endeavors, in all areas mentioned above. They feel strongly that early-grade text complexity is an area in reading research that has been neglected and deserves further study.
QUESTIONS
My questions are rather random, derived as I read and studied this article. You may or may not have similar questions, and you may or may not opt to respond to these.
1. How did these researchers know where to start to study text complexity?
2. How did they determine the factors that comprise text complexity? That is, are there other factors they did not take into consideration? How did they decide on the ones highlighted in the article?
3. How many iterations are needed before a mature model of text complexity is created and accepted by scholars?
4. Where do background knowledge, neuroscience (genetics), and other outside factors come into play in this model?
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
WEEK 7 - The Reading and Writing Process
KUCER CHAPTERS 5 & 6, and "WHAT ELSE MATTERS BESIDES STRATEGIES & SKILLS" ARTICLE
INTRODUCTION TO THIS WEEK'S BLOG
First, this was very dense reading, for me at least. I will add the second article to the next post, but for now I'd like to focus on what we all read together. I'd like to structure this first by reviewing what we read and highlighting key ideas. This ensures that I (and you) understand what we've read. If I've misunderstood a concept, or have overlooked an important note, please feel free to add your ideas. Then, I'd like to pose the questions Dr. Beach presented with our answers following. Finally, I had a couple of questions of my own, which you may answer. As a reminder, Dr. Beach asked us to answer questions in blue so it's obvious where we've written.
CHAPTER 5 - KUCER - THE CONSTRUCTIVE NATURE OF PERCEPTION
The traditional view of perception is that it is a passive, one-way process. The reader reads print, the print goes to the eye, the eye takes the print to the brain, and the brain makes meaning. However, recent research now suggests perception is much more interactive, both active and transactive between the visual and nonvisual memory. It's a constructive process where the visual (print) and nonvisual (brain) transact in a reciprocal relationship to make meaning. It's a selective process, where the reader chooses to perceive certain letters and words for a longer time than others.
Kucer broke down reading perception into parts of words, and consonants and vowels (Tables 5.3 through 5.7). I tried to read each of these tables, and I had an easy time with 5.3 (perception and beginning letters); I had to think more when reading Tables 5.4 and 5.5 (middle letters, ending letters). It was harder for me to read Table 5.6, which was missing vowels, and almost impossible for me to read Table 5.7, which was missing consonants. I thought a lot about my students who have difficulty reading and how it must feel to them. Interestingly, Kucer pointed out that children misspell the interior parts of words more often than the beginnings and endings. So there is inequality among letters, and how letters and words are perceived. Background knowledge fills in the gaps and is a powerful system of language.
Our reading perceptions are selective and constructive. Short term memory (STM) attends to print at the moment and has a limited capacity. "Masking" occurs when new information replaces just-learned information and we can't retrieve the just-learned information. It's easy to retrieve info from STM because it was just learned (telephone numbers are an example).
Long-term memory (LTM) contains conceptual and linguistic knowledge of the world. It's structured and interrelated to other store information. Information remains in LTM for an indefinite period of time. It can be difficult to retrieve and storing info here is slow. The more meaningful and connected information is, the easier it is to retrieve it.
Visual processing entails our eyes moving along the page when reading. Our eyes jump, called saccadic movements, and may jump ahead (progression), or backwards (regression), or both back and forth. Readers who are learning content focus (or fixate) on new, content words more so than shorter, transition words. The number of fixations, or times a reader returns to a word to process it, varies greatly within one reader's text reading session, and from one reader to another.
If text is predictable, it makes it easier to read. Word count has historically been the one measure of predictability, but there are many other ways to measure predictability, including the author's language pattern (does it match the reader's?), the words that are used (are there multiple meanings?), and the matching of pictures to print (more pictures make it easier to read print for emergent and early readers).
CHAPTER 6 - KUCER - THE READING PROCESS
There are a number of factors that influence reader-text-writer transaction including shared language, strategies that are known and used, background knowledge, and the purpose for reading, to name a few. All acts of literacy are not equal. Conditions and contexts when reading vary greatly, and affects the reading process so it varies as well. Technology is considered the new literacy, where linear reading is displaced by navigational reading, which is bouncing back and forth, and in and between web pages and Internet sites. This new technology will definitely affect the reading process, and may, in fact, engender a whole new reading process yet to be determined.
Literacy theory attempts to identify common processes and strategies used by efficient readers to make meaning. Models are illustrations or non linguistic representations of key ideas of theory. On page 146, there were features of literacy theory and a model of the reading process that included background knowledge, context, goals and plans, evolving text, intentionality and situationality, and intertextuality. Reading strategies are processed in STM and guide a reader's transaction with the text and construction of meaning.
When I read Table 6.2 I found I was reading from left to right and re-reading certain words and phrases. I was stumped and confused by the homographs thrown in and had to go back and reread complete sentences to make meaning. I found myself stopping mid-reading and subconsciously asking myself if I had read anything like this, or experienced anything like this, before. I was definitely flexible as I read. Further, the author pointed out that our offline (book) reading behaviors may differ from our online (Internet) reading behaviors. Again, this is a new area to be explored.
There are many, many differences between proficient readers and struggling readers. (I read this section of the chapter with keen interest since I work primarily with struggling readers.) Some key hallmarks of proficient readers include varying processing speed, flexibility in reading, a more global stance toward reading, drawing upon background knowledge as they read, fewer fixations, filling in gaps, and faster processing. Some key hallmarks of struggling readers include tunnel vision (narrow focus on the words, not the meaning), overreliance on the use of graphophonemics, underutilization of context, and inflexibility and not enough re-reading. These readers tend to think they need to read each letter in each word, whereas proficient readers don't do this at all. They fill in the blanks with what they think they know, and get the bigger picture in the process. The key difference between the two readers is the amount of information that perceived in a single fixation. That is, proficient readers perceive more quickly and accurately than struggling readers, who perceive less information and/or misinformation during a single act of perception.
Kucer elaborated upon the selective sampling view and the dense processing views of reading. Selective sampling is one perspective in the literacy field whereby the reader uses background knowledge, previous text processing, purpose of reading, and the print selected to make predictions and to make meaning. In the dense processing view, reading is print driven. That is, the reader depends on letters and words to make meaning, rather than to scan for the overall meaning of a passage. Interestingly, this may cause readers to become strugglers because they can't see the forest for the trees!
Fluency is debated as to whether it's speed and accuracy, or speed, accuracy, and prosody. Accurate reading does not a fluent reader make. We all know children who can read word for word accurately and not know a thing they've just read! So maintaining overall meaning is much more important than word identification.
Flow is the processing rate, which varies within a reader and from reader to reader, depending on background knowledge, context, and selective processing.
WHAT ELSE MATTERS BESIDES STRATEGIES AND SKILLS?
There are characteristics of successful readers. They include:
1. metacongition - how a student understands himself as a learner; the awareness he has of his own thinking process; his understanding of what is needed for learning. Self-regulation and comprehension skills emanate from this and enable a student to take control of his reading. If a teacher shows a student how to be metacognitive, the student will become a more independent reader because he will be able to recognize reading challenges and will have the understanding to meet those challenges. Teachers can show children how to be metacognitive by thinking aloud as they read, to model it for students. Then they can talk about it. (I do and I use this word with my elementary students.)
2. motivation and engagement - This has to do with the quality of student participation in reading, supporting effort and attention to reading. We want students to invest time in reading, whether it's reading curriculum content or reading for pleasure. If students do not have these qualities, they lack stamina and perseverance and attention to learning, which impairs their ability to learn overall. A teacher's language, interaction, and feedback during student reading can positively effect a student's motivation and engagement.
3. epistemic beliefs - This is a student's theory of knowledge and knowing, or what "counts" as knowledge in the students' eyes. A student's epistemic beliefs directly influence how the student approach learning and reading, specifically critical reading, and the stance he takes toward text. Literal readers get information from text but are unable to evaluate what they've read if they have underdeveloped epistemic beliefs. Teachers can encourage development of epistemic beliefs by reading many views of one account of history, for example. This helps students develop an understanding that written words are authored, authors are fallible, and critical reading helps develop insight.
4. self-efficacy - This is the student's own views on his ability to perform in the classroom academically. Many students who have low self-efficacy avoid challenges and see themselves as failures in school. On the other hand, students who have high self-efficacy see themselves as able to meet challenges and to solve problems. Teachers can help build a sense of self-efficacy by highlighting a student's progress, by praising the student with specific observations, and by documenting progress and having the student reflect on the progress.
DR. BEACH'S QUESTIONS (Please answer in blue on our blog.)
1. What is the role of perception in reading?
Perception is interactive and ever-changing, and depends on the text, the reader, the reader's ability, the writer's ability. The reader's brain (nonvisual information) influences the print (visual) and vice versa. Perception changes, depending on what is printed. If the reader has the entire word, or just letters from the word, or the top half or a word, it makes a difference in what is perceived, and what is processed. There is inequality in perception among letters and words, depending on familiarity with the text, the vocabulary, the author's perspective, and the predictability of the text.
2. What does it mean to read?
Reading entails many processes simultaneously. Ultimately, the reader must make meaning from print in order to read. This meaning-making may take a long time or a short time, depending on a number of factors.
3. What factors impact transaction with text?
Transaction with text is determined by many, many factors. From the reader's perspective, transaction is determined by the reader's metacognition, motivation, engagement, epistemic beliefs, and self-efficacy. In addition, transaction is determined by the reader's background knowledge, contexts within the reading, the goals and strategies employed before and during reading, the intentionality and situationality of reading, and the intertextuality or relevance to previously-encountered reading. Short-term and long-term memory have an impact on transaction as well. From the writer's perspective, transaction includes the use of vocabulary and language, syntactics, familiarity with the reader's language and parallel use of this, the use of pictures and graphics in the text, the context of the writing
4. What else, besides reading strategies discussed in Chapter 6, are important to becoming a reader?
A reader needs to be motivated to read, to have a plan and goals for reading, and to be engaged in reading.
5. What makes text complex?
Text is complex when the reader struggles and isn't aware of his struggle, and doesn't know how to help himself. If a reader is not comprehending the text, it's complex. It has nothing to do with the number of words, or the kinds of words. It has to do with making meaning.
DISCUSSION
1. Discuss your experiences with the tables in Kucer, Chapter 5, and your responses to the questions in Kucer, Chapter 6, with respect to Tables 6.2 and 6.6.
MY QUESTIONS (Answer in blue also.)
1. Is there a point where whole language and phonics intersect? What does that intersection look like? At exactly what point do struggling readers rely heavily upon sounding out strategies (phonics) and miss the big picture (the whole language approach)? Conversely, when do proficient readers ignore some of the words (phonics) and go for the big picture (whole language)? What is the tipping point for each? How can we work with struggling readers to get them to read less and understand more?
2. What teaching ideas have you gathered from reading this material? How will you do things differently in your classroom as a result of your reading? What are you aware of now that you were not before?
*I will read the second article and will post on it tonight.
KUCER CHAPTERS 5 & 6, and "WHAT ELSE MATTERS BESIDES STRATEGIES & SKILLS" ARTICLE
INTRODUCTION TO THIS WEEK'S BLOG
First, this was very dense reading, for me at least. I will add the second article to the next post, but for now I'd like to focus on what we all read together. I'd like to structure this first by reviewing what we read and highlighting key ideas. This ensures that I (and you) understand what we've read. If I've misunderstood a concept, or have overlooked an important note, please feel free to add your ideas. Then, I'd like to pose the questions Dr. Beach presented with our answers following. Finally, I had a couple of questions of my own, which you may answer. As a reminder, Dr. Beach asked us to answer questions in blue so it's obvious where we've written.
CHAPTER 5 - KUCER - THE CONSTRUCTIVE NATURE OF PERCEPTION
The traditional view of perception is that it is a passive, one-way process. The reader reads print, the print goes to the eye, the eye takes the print to the brain, and the brain makes meaning. However, recent research now suggests perception is much more interactive, both active and transactive between the visual and nonvisual memory. It's a constructive process where the visual (print) and nonvisual (brain) transact in a reciprocal relationship to make meaning. It's a selective process, where the reader chooses to perceive certain letters and words for a longer time than others.
Kucer broke down reading perception into parts of words, and consonants and vowels (Tables 5.3 through 5.7). I tried to read each of these tables, and I had an easy time with 5.3 (perception and beginning letters); I had to think more when reading Tables 5.4 and 5.5 (middle letters, ending letters). It was harder for me to read Table 5.6, which was missing vowels, and almost impossible for me to read Table 5.7, which was missing consonants. I thought a lot about my students who have difficulty reading and how it must feel to them. Interestingly, Kucer pointed out that children misspell the interior parts of words more often than the beginnings and endings. So there is inequality among letters, and how letters and words are perceived. Background knowledge fills in the gaps and is a powerful system of language.
Our reading perceptions are selective and constructive. Short term memory (STM) attends to print at the moment and has a limited capacity. "Masking" occurs when new information replaces just-learned information and we can't retrieve the just-learned information. It's easy to retrieve info from STM because it was just learned (telephone numbers are an example).
Long-term memory (LTM) contains conceptual and linguistic knowledge of the world. It's structured and interrelated to other store information. Information remains in LTM for an indefinite period of time. It can be difficult to retrieve and storing info here is slow. The more meaningful and connected information is, the easier it is to retrieve it.
Visual processing entails our eyes moving along the page when reading. Our eyes jump, called saccadic movements, and may jump ahead (progression), or backwards (regression), or both back and forth. Readers who are learning content focus (or fixate) on new, content words more so than shorter, transition words. The number of fixations, or times a reader returns to a word to process it, varies greatly within one reader's text reading session, and from one reader to another.
If text is predictable, it makes it easier to read. Word count has historically been the one measure of predictability, but there are many other ways to measure predictability, including the author's language pattern (does it match the reader's?), the words that are used (are there multiple meanings?), and the matching of pictures to print (more pictures make it easier to read print for emergent and early readers).
CHAPTER 6 - KUCER - THE READING PROCESS
There are a number of factors that influence reader-text-writer transaction including shared language, strategies that are known and used, background knowledge, and the purpose for reading, to name a few. All acts of literacy are not equal. Conditions and contexts when reading vary greatly, and affects the reading process so it varies as well. Technology is considered the new literacy, where linear reading is displaced by navigational reading, which is bouncing back and forth, and in and between web pages and Internet sites. This new technology will definitely affect the reading process, and may, in fact, engender a whole new reading process yet to be determined.
Literacy theory attempts to identify common processes and strategies used by efficient readers to make meaning. Models are illustrations or non linguistic representations of key ideas of theory. On page 146, there were features of literacy theory and a model of the reading process that included background knowledge, context, goals and plans, evolving text, intentionality and situationality, and intertextuality. Reading strategies are processed in STM and guide a reader's transaction with the text and construction of meaning.
When I read Table 6.2 I found I was reading from left to right and re-reading certain words and phrases. I was stumped and confused by the homographs thrown in and had to go back and reread complete sentences to make meaning. I found myself stopping mid-reading and subconsciously asking myself if I had read anything like this, or experienced anything like this, before. I was definitely flexible as I read. Further, the author pointed out that our offline (book) reading behaviors may differ from our online (Internet) reading behaviors. Again, this is a new area to be explored.
There are many, many differences between proficient readers and struggling readers. (I read this section of the chapter with keen interest since I work primarily with struggling readers.) Some key hallmarks of proficient readers include varying processing speed, flexibility in reading, a more global stance toward reading, drawing upon background knowledge as they read, fewer fixations, filling in gaps, and faster processing. Some key hallmarks of struggling readers include tunnel vision (narrow focus on the words, not the meaning), overreliance on the use of graphophonemics, underutilization of context, and inflexibility and not enough re-reading. These readers tend to think they need to read each letter in each word, whereas proficient readers don't do this at all. They fill in the blanks with what they think they know, and get the bigger picture in the process. The key difference between the two readers is the amount of information that perceived in a single fixation. That is, proficient readers perceive more quickly and accurately than struggling readers, who perceive less information and/or misinformation during a single act of perception.
Kucer elaborated upon the selective sampling view and the dense processing views of reading. Selective sampling is one perspective in the literacy field whereby the reader uses background knowledge, previous text processing, purpose of reading, and the print selected to make predictions and to make meaning. In the dense processing view, reading is print driven. That is, the reader depends on letters and words to make meaning, rather than to scan for the overall meaning of a passage. Interestingly, this may cause readers to become strugglers because they can't see the forest for the trees!
Fluency is debated as to whether it's speed and accuracy, or speed, accuracy, and prosody. Accurate reading does not a fluent reader make. We all know children who can read word for word accurately and not know a thing they've just read! So maintaining overall meaning is much more important than word identification.
Flow is the processing rate, which varies within a reader and from reader to reader, depending on background knowledge, context, and selective processing.
WHAT ELSE MATTERS BESIDES STRATEGIES AND SKILLS?
There are characteristics of successful readers. They include:
1. metacongition - how a student understands himself as a learner; the awareness he has of his own thinking process; his understanding of what is needed for learning. Self-regulation and comprehension skills emanate from this and enable a student to take control of his reading. If a teacher shows a student how to be metacognitive, the student will become a more independent reader because he will be able to recognize reading challenges and will have the understanding to meet those challenges. Teachers can show children how to be metacognitive by thinking aloud as they read, to model it for students. Then they can talk about it. (I do and I use this word with my elementary students.)
2. motivation and engagement - This has to do with the quality of student participation in reading, supporting effort and attention to reading. We want students to invest time in reading, whether it's reading curriculum content or reading for pleasure. If students do not have these qualities, they lack stamina and perseverance and attention to learning, which impairs their ability to learn overall. A teacher's language, interaction, and feedback during student reading can positively effect a student's motivation and engagement.
3. epistemic beliefs - This is a student's theory of knowledge and knowing, or what "counts" as knowledge in the students' eyes. A student's epistemic beliefs directly influence how the student approach learning and reading, specifically critical reading, and the stance he takes toward text. Literal readers get information from text but are unable to evaluate what they've read if they have underdeveloped epistemic beliefs. Teachers can encourage development of epistemic beliefs by reading many views of one account of history, for example. This helps students develop an understanding that written words are authored, authors are fallible, and critical reading helps develop insight.
4. self-efficacy - This is the student's own views on his ability to perform in the classroom academically. Many students who have low self-efficacy avoid challenges and see themselves as failures in school. On the other hand, students who have high self-efficacy see themselves as able to meet challenges and to solve problems. Teachers can help build a sense of self-efficacy by highlighting a student's progress, by praising the student with specific observations, and by documenting progress and having the student reflect on the progress.
DR. BEACH'S QUESTIONS (Please answer in blue on our blog.)
1. What is the role of perception in reading?
Perception is interactive and ever-changing, and depends on the text, the reader, the reader's ability, the writer's ability. The reader's brain (nonvisual information) influences the print (visual) and vice versa. Perception changes, depending on what is printed. If the reader has the entire word, or just letters from the word, or the top half or a word, it makes a difference in what is perceived, and what is processed. There is inequality in perception among letters and words, depending on familiarity with the text, the vocabulary, the author's perspective, and the predictability of the text.
2. What does it mean to read?
Reading entails many processes simultaneously. Ultimately, the reader must make meaning from print in order to read. This meaning-making may take a long time or a short time, depending on a number of factors.
3. What factors impact transaction with text?
Transaction with text is determined by many, many factors. From the reader's perspective, transaction is determined by the reader's metacognition, motivation, engagement, epistemic beliefs, and self-efficacy. In addition, transaction is determined by the reader's background knowledge, contexts within the reading, the goals and strategies employed before and during reading, the intentionality and situationality of reading, and the intertextuality or relevance to previously-encountered reading. Short-term and long-term memory have an impact on transaction as well. From the writer's perspective, transaction includes the use of vocabulary and language, syntactics, familiarity with the reader's language and parallel use of this, the use of pictures and graphics in the text, the context of the writing
4. What else, besides reading strategies discussed in Chapter 6, are important to becoming a reader?
A reader needs to be motivated to read, to have a plan and goals for reading, and to be engaged in reading.
5. What makes text complex?
Text is complex when the reader struggles and isn't aware of his struggle, and doesn't know how to help himself. If a reader is not comprehending the text, it's complex. It has nothing to do with the number of words, or the kinds of words. It has to do with making meaning.
DISCUSSION
1. Discuss your experiences with the tables in Kucer, Chapter 5, and your responses to the questions in Kucer, Chapter 6, with respect to Tables 6.2 and 6.6.
MY QUESTIONS (Answer in blue also.)
1. Is there a point where whole language and phonics intersect? What does that intersection look like? At exactly what point do struggling readers rely heavily upon sounding out strategies (phonics) and miss the big picture (the whole language approach)? Conversely, when do proficient readers ignore some of the words (phonics) and go for the big picture (whole language)? What is the tipping point for each? How can we work with struggling readers to get them to read less and understand more?
2. What teaching ideas have you gathered from reading this material? How will you do things differently in your classroom as a result of your reading? What are you aware of now that you were not before?
*I will read the second article and will post on it tonight.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
WEEK 7 - The Reading and Writing Process
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Kucer, Chapters 5 and 6, and "What Else Matters Besides Strategies and Skills?"
I will also read and comment on "Toward a Theoretical Model of Text Complexity for the Early Grades: Learning From the Past, Anticipating the Future."
For our initial post, let's start with the terms Dr. Beach presented. I'll post them here, with some defintions I've derived from the reading. Please feel free to add your own ideas to mine. To share the list, I've given you each one or two terms to define. We can read each other's definitions and add to them. So at the end of the word list, please look for your name next to two terms --- those will be yours to define. We can come up with common definitions for the words at the end of the week.
In a later post, I'll discuss the readings.
********************************************************************************
perception - How we make meaning of language. The traditional view was that perception was a one-way and passive process. The more recent view is that it's an active and transactive process, with interaction between visual and onovisual memory. Some perception is selective, some is constructive.
short term memory - STM - the print being attended to at the moment. It has a limited capacity and it's relatively easy to retrieve information from STM.
long term memory - LTM - contains a person's knowledge of the world, both conceptual and linguistic. It is structured and interrelated to other knowledge in our brains. The capacity for information in LTM is unlimited, as far as we know now, but information in this part of our brain is difficult to retrieve. Storing information here is slow and it's most efficiently done when information is linked to prior information/knowledge and the information is made meaningful.
cognition - wfact-based knowledge, valued in school. This is different from affective knowledge, which is feelings-based, and is less valued in school.
saccadic movement - These are eye jerk movements people experience when they read text. Our eyes jump along as we read. They do not sweep smoothly across the words. As we read, our eyes jump ahead or go forward (progression), then jump backward (regression).
fixations - Our eyes focus on the first third of most words, but when words become difficult to understand or decode, we stop, or fixate on them longer. Readers experience more fixations on content words, longer words, and unfamilir words, moreso than shorter, familiar words. The number of fixations required to process text varies from text to text and reader to reader.
regressions - when our eyes return to words we've seemingly already read. We look back to check for meaning and understanding.
readablity - is the number of words and sentences, diffiult words and sentences, and average sentence length in a text passage. Readability formulas are word based and tend to be limited to strictly the number of words read. This formula discounts other important aspects of readability such as sentence complexity, similar language patterns, and chunking of interrelated, embedded ideas.
text complexity - Texts can be very different from linguistic aspects, which includes syntactic sentence complexity, an author's language patterns and words choices, and the hierarchy of interrelated ideas. It's also affected by the reader's conceptual background and perception of the text.
predictability - how readily a reader can predict what comes next in text. It's the relationship between the reader and the text/author. Predictability makes reading easier or harder, fluent or disfluent, depending on how predictable it is. Factors that affect predictability include the match between the author's and reader's language, the use of natural language patterns, the use of repetitive sequences, the overlap between print and pictures, and the reader's conceptual background as it relates to the text.
MEGAN: transaction - what transpires between two entites. In the case of reading, transaction occurs between the reader and the text/author. There's a conversation going on between the two, and it can vary greatly from reader to reader, or from text to text by one reader.
JENNY: skill - a skill is a learned way to do something. It helps do a task more efficiently, more quickly. Reading is composed of many skills.
JENNY: strategy - a way a task is accomplished. There are various strategies when one reads. Some strategies include rereading, deep reading, asking questions as we read, and visualizing as we read.
MEGAN: metacognition
COURTNEY: epistemic beliefs
COURTNEY: self-efficacy
KAITLIN: motivation
KAITLIN: engagement
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Kucer, Chapters 5 and 6, and "What Else Matters Besides Strategies and Skills?"
I will also read and comment on "Toward a Theoretical Model of Text Complexity for the Early Grades: Learning From the Past, Anticipating the Future."
For our initial post, let's start with the terms Dr. Beach presented. I'll post them here, with some defintions I've derived from the reading. Please feel free to add your own ideas to mine. To share the list, I've given you each one or two terms to define. We can read each other's definitions and add to them. So at the end of the word list, please look for your name next to two terms --- those will be yours to define. We can come up with common definitions for the words at the end of the week.
In a later post, I'll discuss the readings.
********************************************************************************
perception - How we make meaning of language. The traditional view was that perception was a one-way and passive process. The more recent view is that it's an active and transactive process, with interaction between visual and onovisual memory. Some perception is selective, some is constructive.
short term memory - STM - the print being attended to at the moment. It has a limited capacity and it's relatively easy to retrieve information from STM.
long term memory - LTM - contains a person's knowledge of the world, both conceptual and linguistic. It is structured and interrelated to other knowledge in our brains. The capacity for information in LTM is unlimited, as far as we know now, but information in this part of our brain is difficult to retrieve. Storing information here is slow and it's most efficiently done when information is linked to prior information/knowledge and the information is made meaningful.
cognition - wfact-based knowledge, valued in school. This is different from affective knowledge, which is feelings-based, and is less valued in school.
saccadic movement - These are eye jerk movements people experience when they read text. Our eyes jump along as we read. They do not sweep smoothly across the words. As we read, our eyes jump ahead or go forward (progression), then jump backward (regression).
fixations - Our eyes focus on the first third of most words, but when words become difficult to understand or decode, we stop, or fixate on them longer. Readers experience more fixations on content words, longer words, and unfamilir words, moreso than shorter, familiar words. The number of fixations required to process text varies from text to text and reader to reader.
regressions - when our eyes return to words we've seemingly already read. We look back to check for meaning and understanding.
readablity - is the number of words and sentences, diffiult words and sentences, and average sentence length in a text passage. Readability formulas are word based and tend to be limited to strictly the number of words read. This formula discounts other important aspects of readability such as sentence complexity, similar language patterns, and chunking of interrelated, embedded ideas.
text complexity - Texts can be very different from linguistic aspects, which includes syntactic sentence complexity, an author's language patterns and words choices, and the hierarchy of interrelated ideas. It's also affected by the reader's conceptual background and perception of the text.
predictability - how readily a reader can predict what comes next in text. It's the relationship between the reader and the text/author. Predictability makes reading easier or harder, fluent or disfluent, depending on how predictable it is. Factors that affect predictability include the match between the author's and reader's language, the use of natural language patterns, the use of repetitive sequences, the overlap between print and pictures, and the reader's conceptual background as it relates to the text.
MEGAN: transaction - what transpires between two entites. In the case of reading, transaction occurs between the reader and the text/author. There's a conversation going on between the two, and it can vary greatly from reader to reader, or from text to text by one reader.
JENNY: skill - a skill is a learned way to do something. It helps do a task more efficiently, more quickly. Reading is composed of many skills.
JENNY: strategy - a way a task is accomplished. There are various strategies when one reads. Some strategies include rereading, deep reading, asking questions as we read, and visualizing as we read.
MEGAN: metacognition
COURTNEY: epistemic beliefs
COURTNEY: self-efficacy
KAITLIN: motivation
KAITLIN: engagement
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Word Study Instruction
This post is for Kaitlin and Jenny to post their thoughts on the article written by Williams, Phillips-Birdsong, Hufnagel, Hungler, and Lundstrom concerning word study instruction. Meg and Marti, let's comment on their responses so we can have a discussion about the article!
Thanks!
Thanks!
Differentiated Alphabet Instruction
This post will be used to discuss the Piasta article that focused on differentiated instruction when teaching the alphabet. Megan and Marti, I believe you've got this one! Kaitlin and Jenny, let's join in on their posts and have discussion!
Common Readings - Kucer Ch. 3 and B&M 9
Our blog with Dr. Beach this week was focused on activating knowledge for a few different concepts - phonological and phonemic awareness, concepts of print, alphabet and alphabetic principle knowledge, and word recognition and decoding. We posted about what we believed the definitions of each of these terms is and then we discussed some of terms more in detail during our online meeting. I want to focus part of this post on focusing on instructional techniques for these concepts and how we should go about teaching them in the classroom.
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness:
Phonological awareness (paired with alphabet knowledge) are the two most powerful predictors of early literacy achievement, according to the National Early Literacy Panel and the Barone and Mallet text. Activities that focus on phonological and phonemic awareness deal only with letter sounds and sounds that make up words, in other words, these are auditory activities. These awareness skills must be explicitly taught because most students will not learn phonological awareness on their own. The instruction needs to focus on the different parts of oral language, starting with the larger units such as words or syllables, and then moving to rhymes and beginning sounds, and then finally individual phonemes within words. Phonemes are the hardest sounds to isolate, and the difficulty can change depending on the speaker and pace of speech.
Using pictures and encouraging the use of oral language in a game-like format can be a good activity to teach phonological awareness. This can also be a way to informally assess a student's knowledge.
Alphabet and Alphabetic Principle:
Knowledge of the alphabet and the alphabetic principle are important stepping stones in order for students to begin to decode words. Similar to phonological awareness, the alphabet needs to be taught explicitly in order for students to gain this important knowledge. Most alphabet instruction begins with learning the alphabet song, but it is important that students are exposed to the visual component of letters as well in order to separate the individual letters and not blend them. Letters in a child's name are usually a good starting place for talking about letters and letter sounds. The letters that give a clue to their sound (such as the letter b), are usually easier of children to learn. Children usually learn their upper-case letters first and then make connections when learning the lower-case letters. The writing of these upper-case letters (and some words, such as their name) is an opportunity for students to connect and use their knowledge of phonological awareness as well as the alphabet. Often, these words may be spelled using phonetic writing (or invented spelling). Children may use their partial phonemic awareness to spell words (such as using the first letter correctly).
Instruction needs to include opportunities for children to write about various topics and use invented spelling. This can be an informal way for teachers to know if students are understanding the alphabetic principle and if they are starting to build a foundation for phonological awareness. Teachers can also play games with students where students are asked to match pictures with the same sound or rhyme or produce a certain letter-sound.
Both of the chapters did not cover either of these concepts in detail. I look forward to reading about your experiences reading about these topics in the articles!
Concepts of Print:
These are important concepts to know before being able to read independently. These need to be covered and instructed each time a text is read aloud in the classroom. Informal assessments can occur during small group and independent reading time.
Word Recognition and Decoding:
The word recognition and decoding is a skill that will build over time. Learning letter sounds and exposure to language are vital to being able to decode and recognize words. We need to expose our students to words and books, and teach them techniques to figure out words during read-alouds.
_____________________
I loved the "Insights from Ms. Gimm" on p. 171 (Barone and Mallette). I want to highlight her guidelines for effective and engaging instruction in an early literacy classroom.
Some students may need support than others. Teachers may need to modify task difficulty or change the task completely depending on the student. Asking a child to blend or segment a word is an easier task than having to sort and compare words. Along the same lines, choosing a specific letter out of a choice of 3 is easier than having to provide a letter name to a random letter of the alphabet. Instruction and assessment needs to be designed with all students' needs in mind.
_____________________
Oral Language vs Written Language
I learned a lot from reading Kucer Chapter 3. Writing is not just spoken language that is printed, as I have originally believed. It is much more complex than oral language. It also serves different purposes. Oral language comes and goes, and only lasts in memory (unless recorded), although it can be repeated if requested by the listener and granted by the speaker. Written language, on the other hand is usually more planned and has the potential to be read and remembered forever. Written language is usually more dense and detailed than oral language.
Oral and written language do have components in common. Both forms of language are usually changed based upon the audience. You would usually write or speak to a friend in a different way than you would write or speak to your boss or an authority figure. Technology has certainly blurred the lines between the languages. Oral language can now be recorded and played over and over again, through the use of a phone, computer, or camera technology. Oral language can also be heard any where in the world if the language is through a tv or internet medium. These two features make oral language more similar to written language. The two language forms also have a tendency to overlap. I liked the comparison to thinking of a speech. If you or I was giving a presentation, many of us would probably have note cards or jotted down thoughts that we want to touch on. We might have even written a whole speech to recite.
English Spelling
This chapter clearly demonstrated (to me) the difficulties that arise for someone learning the English language. We have words that sound alike, but have different meanings (homophones), like to, two, too. We also have words that are spelled the same, sometimes pronounced the same, but have different meanings (homograph), like bow and bow. And for the last category, there are words in our English language that sound the same, are spelled the same, but have different meanings (homonym). These are still difficult for me to keep straight! Our language is alphabetic, which means our letters relate to the sounds in words. But these sounds can change based upon their position in the word and the other letters surrounding the letter. This is especially true in the case of vowel sounds, while consonant sounds are usually more consistent. When listening to a conversation in English, special attention needs to be paid to context in order to decipher meaning. When reading, one can pay attention to spelling as well in order to determine meaning. One of the great things about reading written text is that dialect does not matter, because spelling is the same for all dialects of English.
QUESTIONS!!!
1. Do you believe that technology has made it more difficult to separate the differences between oral and written language (and what is appropriate for each)? Do you think this positively or negatively impacts the classroom?
2. Are there any strategies that you remember being helpful to you learning your letters or sounds? Or if you are an early literacy teacher, what are some strategies you find effective?
3. What do you think is the best way to go about teaching homophones, homographs, and homonyms? This seems like a difficult task because of the similarity between the words.
4. What is your top (or couple top) take-aways from the chapters?
Thank you ladies!! I look forward to reading and responding to you this week.
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness:
Phonological awareness (paired with alphabet knowledge) are the two most powerful predictors of early literacy achievement, according to the National Early Literacy Panel and the Barone and Mallet text. Activities that focus on phonological and phonemic awareness deal only with letter sounds and sounds that make up words, in other words, these are auditory activities. These awareness skills must be explicitly taught because most students will not learn phonological awareness on their own. The instruction needs to focus on the different parts of oral language, starting with the larger units such as words or syllables, and then moving to rhymes and beginning sounds, and then finally individual phonemes within words. Phonemes are the hardest sounds to isolate, and the difficulty can change depending on the speaker and pace of speech.
Using pictures and encouraging the use of oral language in a game-like format can be a good activity to teach phonological awareness. This can also be a way to informally assess a student's knowledge.
Alphabet and Alphabetic Principle:
Knowledge of the alphabet and the alphabetic principle are important stepping stones in order for students to begin to decode words. Similar to phonological awareness, the alphabet needs to be taught explicitly in order for students to gain this important knowledge. Most alphabet instruction begins with learning the alphabet song, but it is important that students are exposed to the visual component of letters as well in order to separate the individual letters and not blend them. Letters in a child's name are usually a good starting place for talking about letters and letter sounds. The letters that give a clue to their sound (such as the letter b), are usually easier of children to learn. Children usually learn their upper-case letters first and then make connections when learning the lower-case letters. The writing of these upper-case letters (and some words, such as their name) is an opportunity for students to connect and use their knowledge of phonological awareness as well as the alphabet. Often, these words may be spelled using phonetic writing (or invented spelling). Children may use their partial phonemic awareness to spell words (such as using the first letter correctly).
Instruction needs to include opportunities for children to write about various topics and use invented spelling. This can be an informal way for teachers to know if students are understanding the alphabetic principle and if they are starting to build a foundation for phonological awareness. Teachers can also play games with students where students are asked to match pictures with the same sound or rhyme or produce a certain letter-sound.
Both of the chapters did not cover either of these concepts in detail. I look forward to reading about your experiences reading about these topics in the articles!
Concepts of Print:
These are important concepts to know before being able to read independently. These need to be covered and instructed each time a text is read aloud in the classroom. Informal assessments can occur during small group and independent reading time.
Word Recognition and Decoding:
The word recognition and decoding is a skill that will build over time. Learning letter sounds and exposure to language are vital to being able to decode and recognize words. We need to expose our students to words and books, and teach them techniques to figure out words during read-alouds.
_____________________
I loved the "Insights from Ms. Gimm" on p. 171 (Barone and Mallette). I want to highlight her guidelines for effective and engaging instruction in an early literacy classroom.
- She designs fun, engaging, and motivating instruction.
- Drills are not fun. Making learning into a game helps students have fun while learning these important concepts.
- She fosters word consciousness and interest in words and language.
- Silly songs and playing with letters helps students to engage with the language.
- She embeds instruction in a literacy context.
- Read-aloud's, big books, and songs can all be helpful during literacy learning. Helping students make connections between oral and written language is important.
- She scaffolds instruction to gradually release support.
- Explanation by the teacher, recognition, identification, and then production by the student -- she makes sure the children understand the concept before moving on to the next step.
Some students may need support than others. Teachers may need to modify task difficulty or change the task completely depending on the student. Asking a child to blend or segment a word is an easier task than having to sort and compare words. Along the same lines, choosing a specific letter out of a choice of 3 is easier than having to provide a letter name to a random letter of the alphabet. Instruction and assessment needs to be designed with all students' needs in mind.
_____________________
Oral Language vs Written Language
I learned a lot from reading Kucer Chapter 3. Writing is not just spoken language that is printed, as I have originally believed. It is much more complex than oral language. It also serves different purposes. Oral language comes and goes, and only lasts in memory (unless recorded), although it can be repeated if requested by the listener and granted by the speaker. Written language, on the other hand is usually more planned and has the potential to be read and remembered forever. Written language is usually more dense and detailed than oral language.
Oral and written language do have components in common. Both forms of language are usually changed based upon the audience. You would usually write or speak to a friend in a different way than you would write or speak to your boss or an authority figure. Technology has certainly blurred the lines between the languages. Oral language can now be recorded and played over and over again, through the use of a phone, computer, or camera technology. Oral language can also be heard any where in the world if the language is through a tv or internet medium. These two features make oral language more similar to written language. The two language forms also have a tendency to overlap. I liked the comparison to thinking of a speech. If you or I was giving a presentation, many of us would probably have note cards or jotted down thoughts that we want to touch on. We might have even written a whole speech to recite.
English Spelling
This chapter clearly demonstrated (to me) the difficulties that arise for someone learning the English language. We have words that sound alike, but have different meanings (homophones), like to, two, too. We also have words that are spelled the same, sometimes pronounced the same, but have different meanings (homograph), like bow and bow. And for the last category, there are words in our English language that sound the same, are spelled the same, but have different meanings (homonym). These are still difficult for me to keep straight! Our language is alphabetic, which means our letters relate to the sounds in words. But these sounds can change based upon their position in the word and the other letters surrounding the letter. This is especially true in the case of vowel sounds, while consonant sounds are usually more consistent. When listening to a conversation in English, special attention needs to be paid to context in order to decipher meaning. When reading, one can pay attention to spelling as well in order to determine meaning. One of the great things about reading written text is that dialect does not matter, because spelling is the same for all dialects of English.
QUESTIONS!!!
1. Do you believe that technology has made it more difficult to separate the differences between oral and written language (and what is appropriate for each)? Do you think this positively or negatively impacts the classroom?
2. Are there any strategies that you remember being helpful to you learning your letters or sounds? Or if you are an early literacy teacher, what are some strategies you find effective?
3. What do you think is the best way to go about teaching homophones, homographs, and homonyms? This seems like a difficult task because of the similarity between the words.
4. What is your top (or couple top) take-aways from the chapters?
Thank you ladies!! I look forward to reading and responding to you this week.
Monday, February 9, 2015
Week 5- Topic Choice Summarizes
This week we are covering 2 topics for the ibook: chapter 3 in S&H (Explicit and Extended Vocabulary Instruction) and chapter 4 S&H (Word Learning and Word use in Language-Rich Environment). As discussed during our adobe connect meeting on Sunday, we have divided the chapters into sections for each person to cover. Please briefly summarize what you feel to be the most important ideas in your section so that pre-service and beginning teachers would have a better understanding. Keeping it simple and direct when defining your area. When I was a new teachers, wordy ideas/definitions went over my head. Once you have defined your area, please post so that others in the group may modify, add, or change the summarizes.
Chapter 3
Jenny- Theory/Characteristics of vocabulary
Marti- Strategies/instructional practices
Chapter 4
Kaitlin- Characteristics/theory
Megan- Individual/writing workshop
Courtney- peer-mediated/center sections
Week 5- Glossary Words
For tonight each person in our group needs to find 2 vocabulary words they deem essential for preservice/new teachers to know/understand. You need to find one of your words from Kucer’s book and the other from ch. 3 or 4 in S&H depending on which topic you are summarizing for this week. Please note the definition should not be a text book definition or a lengthy one. Keeping it simply and brief will help teachers develop a clear understanding. Once the definitions have been posted, please go back and give suggestions for changes to others words if necessary. Please do this by Monday night (tonight) so there is time to edit!
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Week 4-Vocabulary
Measuring
Vocabulary Knowledge & Choosing
Words and Texts (Silverman & Hartranft Chapters 2 & 3).
Measuring vocabulary knowledge is a complex task. The depth and breadth of vocabulary are two important notions to consider when
teaching. It can be a daunting, almost
impossible and impractical task to be able to measure vocabulary knowledge for
each child. For instance: students need to know how words relate to one
another, how they are said out loud, what they mean, what contexts they are used
in, different tenses and forms, synonyms, antonyms, etc.
Choosing appropriate words and texts is multifaceted. Children will
encounter many words during the first few years. According to the text, words
should be useful, known, frequent in academic texts, and related to content,
theme, or other words being taught. Some of these are simple, everyday words
that they can acquire easily. (Note-these are not sight words- there is a
difference between these words and sight words-depending on the academic
source: a sight word is either an irregular word that children need to know by
sight, or a sight words is any word that a child can recognize by sight.). Then
are words that are more difficult, but have a high frequency. Finally, there
are words that are specific to a discipline. Chapter 2 outlines many slightly
varied systems for assessing which words should be taught. These are shown in
Figures 2.1-2.5. Figure 2.1 discusses the three main Tiers. Figure 2.2 shows
Biemiller’s (2010) word ratings from easy, teach in grades, k-2, low-priority
in k-2, teach in grades 3-6, low-priority in grades 3-6, and difficult. Figure
2.3 show the word ones as adapted by Hiebert (2005). These are ranked based on
how often these words appear in text. Figure 2.4 show the principals for
vocabulary selection. Finally, figure 2.5 shows a sampling of words and their word
ratings as a cross-reference for several ranking systems. Here is a link to the
academic word list (Coxhead). http://www.uefap.com/vocab/select/awl.htm
Figure 2.7 offers a
comprehensive table on how to choose texts. Choosing words to teach is most
effective when taught either thematically or taxonomically. Both of these methods work well, but it has
been shown that children respond especially well to the thematic approach. In
addition, reading fiction texts is correlated with a stronger vocabulary. As
Einstein said, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.
If you want them to be very intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” On the
other hand, recent research (and most likely the strong push toward the Common
Core State Standards) has shown that nonfiction texts can also foster
vocabulary knowledge and contain words that fit more into Tiers II and III. More time and explicit teaching should be
directed at Tier II words as these are more difficult words that are found
frequently across disciplines. These are often words that can cause children to
have difficulty when answering questions/following directions on a test. Teachers should make sure that texts are at
the right complexity for students, both in content and with vocabulary. In
addition, teachers should include a range of cultures, as well as classical
texts and new literacies. Background knowledge and prior experience are key in
finding appropriate texts.
Implicit
and Explicit Teaching (S&H, 2 &3)
Explicit teaching is that which teachers give direct instruction on in
the classroom. These are the standards that we overtly teach. Explicit Teaching
takes many forms. One of the most well-renowned forms is the gradual release
method. The gradual release method is
appropriate for teaching across various subjects and grade levels. In this
model of instruction, students slowly acquire independence and teachers as
teachers lessen their supports. In addition there are several ways to
explicitly teach vocabulary. These include: read-alouds, saying & repeating
the word, word cards, having visuals, actions, and props, providing
grade-appropriate, easily understood definitions, providing examples, using the word across
contexts. In addition, teachers might provide sentence frames, encourage elaboration,
have close questions, guiding students to the relationships between other
words, and providing repeated exposure are just some of the ways that teachers
can explicitly teach vocabulary. In
addition, figure 3.13 provides a great lesson planning checklist on strategies
for vocabulary before, during, and after reading aloud, as well as extended
learning activities. Participating in a class or group project or activity can
be a wondrous experience for students. Implicit teaching is the teaching that
students receive without direct instruction. These are the things that students
sometimes have to piece together and make their own connections. Students will gain
vocabulary on their own and implicitly. However, some words need to be taught
explicitly, particularly Tier II words.
Assessment
(Silverman & Hartranft Chapter 6).
Assessment can
take many forms. However, for best results, assessments should be able to be
done in a relatively short amount of time. Educators should not rely on only
one assessment, but assessment should be varied and spread throughout the
school year. In addition, assessments should not directly match instruction.
Thus, both instruction and assessments should take different forms throughout
the year.
Synthesis:
Children in the
early grades learn words through exposure at a rapid rate. However, this is
greatly influenced by home and environmental factors which means that teachers
in Pre-K need to help students expand both the breadth and depth of their
vocabularies through stories and play, and assessment. As students reach
kindergarten, even more attention needs to be given to those words in the Tier
II category and that fall under the meant to teach in K-2 list of words to
teach. Children should be reading both fiction and nonfiction texts starting on
their own and with the class. Children should be involved in centers that
involve vocabulary. Children will be submitted to diagnostic, formative and
summative assessments. As children reach
and continue through the primary grades, more attention should be given to
morphology and building on breadth and depth of word knowledge. Students should
be able to actively participate in class and group projects, read fiction and nonfiction
texts, build and elaborate on word use across contexts; students will be more
active in exploring words in expressive speech and writing. Students will participate
in activity centers geared toward word usage, and think about how words relate
taxonomically and thematically. Students will take more comprehensive, in-depth
diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments.
Questions:
v
How do the readings impact your stance on what
words you choose to teach?
v
What are your thoughts regarding implicit and
explicit vocabulary instruction as they relate to early literacy and grade
levels? Think about how these ideas tie into vocabulary, what are your thoughts
for Pre-K through 5th grade, feel free to expand, correct and
elaborate on my brief synthesis.
v
What do you think about using nonsense words for
teaching and assessment? What contexts/reasons would you use them for? Talk
about any experiences or ideas.
v
Which of the explicit vocabulary learning
activities appeal most to you? Talk about ideas or examples for lessons.
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