Reading Curriculum in Ohio

Review the reading development sequence for students in grades Kindergarten through third grade in the Reutzel and Cooter text on pages 28 - 31.
Then review the Ohio academic content standards at the ODE web site for students in grades Kindergarten through third grade.
Review the "Big Ideas" about reading on the uoregon web site.
Offer a compelling argument for or against the notion that the Ohio standards match the reading development sequence in the text, and/ or the "Big Ideas".

Oregon’s “Big Ideas” and Ohio’s Department of Education seem to follow similar patterns. The Big Ideas site seems to suggest a more detailed, or segmented flow of knowledge, but I believe Ohio’s is probably saying the same thing, just with fewer words (maybe Ohio doesn’t know as many words - *winks*).

Big Idea’s site lists five levels or stages in the sequence of learning to read. These are: Phonemic Awareness, Alphabetic Principle, Fluency Vocabulary, and Comprehension

Ohio’s Department of Education stages are: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness, Word Recognition, and Fluency.

I would assume that Ohio assumes that “Phonological and Phonemic Awareness” will involve Oregon’s “Phonemic Awareness and Alphabetic Principle” in the early stages, and that Oregon’s “Fluency Vocabulary” would be similar to Ohio’s Word Recognition. “Comprehension” and “Fluency” would be considered “being able to read” by both states’ systems.

However, as pointed out by previous students, both systems are not nearly as detailed as the grade by grade outline in our textbook. With my limited experience in these arenas of teaching, It is hard for me to say if the Ohio standards match the reading development sequence in the text. I can say I believe that the Ohio standards match the reading development sequence that Oregon has according to their “Big Ideas” website. I further can not say that Oregon’s standards match the reading development sequence found in the text. To an extent, I would say that they both very well could, as their actual day to day curriculum may be thought of in the many goals each year as the text lists. If they do see curriculum that way (several goals, divided by age/school year, then they are doing good. However, if these two states are in all actuality omitting parts of the textbook’s puzzle, then they are selling their students short. The questions we need to ask are similar to the following:

Do we start by teaching the parts and functions of a book/magazine/etc.?
Do we encourage and ensure that kindergarten students are using new vocabulary and grammatical constructions in their own speech?
Do we make sure students in kindergarten can correctly answer questions about stories read aloud?
Do we make sure first grade students can predict and justify what will happen next in stories? --or do we just make sure they can read them?

We need to ask our schools if they do all the steps listed on the pages from the text. Upon receiving those answers, we will have the answers to this module’s questions. I would imagine the results would not only be different for each school system, but for each classroom and teacher as well.

Filed under: EDC 541 Curriculum and Instruction for Diverse Learners
Copyright: June, 2003 - David Profitt