ENGED 275 | Blog #6 | Kaitlin Roth
Chapter 5: Cracking the Alphabetic Code

Terms

• Phoneme: any of the perceptually distinct units of sound that distinguish one word from another
• Grapheme: the smallest meaningful contrastive unit in a writing system; individual letters and groups of letters that represent single phonemes; is a spelling of a sound in a word
• Graphophonemic relationships: the recognition of letters and the understanding of sound-symbol relationships and spelling patterns
• Phonemic awareness: the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words; children’s basic understanding that speech is composed of a serious of individual sounds and it provides foundation for phonics and spelling
• Phonics: a method of teaching people to read by correlating sounds with letters or groups of letters in an alphabetic writing system
• Phoneme grapheme correspondences: the links between letters or combinations of letters (graphemes) and the speech sounds (phonemes) that they represent
• Spelling: the process of writing or naming letters of a word
• Etymology: the study of the origin of words and the way their meanings have changed throughout history
• Orthography: the conventional spelling system of a language (capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation)
• Eponym: a name or noun named after a person

Phonemic Awareness Strategies

Identifying sounds in words: students identify a word that begins or ends with a particular sound
> when shown a brush, a car, and a doll = can identify doll as the word that ends with /l/

Categorizing sounds in words: students recognize the “odd” word in a set of three words
> when the teacher says ring, rabbit, and sun = recognize that sun doesn’t belong
Substituting sounds to make new words: students remove a sound from a word and substitute a different sound
> substituting the beginning sound = bar to car; change middle sound = tip to top; change the end sound = gate to game

Blending sounds to form words: students blend two, three, or four individual sounds to form a word

> the teacher says /b/ /i/ /g/ = children repeat the sounds blending them to form the word big

Segmenting a word into sounds: students break a word into its beginning, middle, and ending sounds

> students segment the word feet into /f/ /e/ /t/ and go into /g/ /o/

Teaching Phonemic Awareness

Types of Activities

Sound-matching

> students choose one of several words beginning with a particular phoneme or say a word that begins with a particular sound

> students name a word that rhymes with a given word and identify rhyming words from familiar songs and stories

Sound-isolation

> teachers say a word then students identify the sounds at the beginning, middle, or end of the word

> What’s the sound that starts these words: Chicken, chin, and cheek? (wait for response)

/ch/ is the sound that starts these words: Chicken, chin, and cheek. With a /ch/, /ch/ here, and a /ch/, /ch/ there, Here a /ch/, there a /ch/, everywhere a /ch/, /ch/. /ch/ is the sound that starts these words: Chicken, chin, and cheek.

Sound-blending

> students blend sounds in order to combine them to form a word = /d/ /u/ /k/ to duck

> I’m thinking of a small animal that lives in the pond when it’s young. When it’s an adult, it lives on land and it’s called a /f/ /r/ /o/ /g/. What is it

Sound-addition & substitution

> students play with words and create nonsense words as they add or substitute sounds in words from songs they sing or from books read aloud to them

Sound-Segmentation

> one of the more difficult phonemic awareness activities is segmentation = students isolate the sounds in a spoken word

> this is a truck and it starts with a /t/

> Elkonin Boxes: build phonological awareness skills by segmenting words into individual sounds or phonemes

Nurturing English Language Learners

How to teach phonemic awareness: it’s more difficult to develop English learners’ phonemic awareness than native English speakers because they’re just learning to speak English; however, this training is worthwhile for EL’s as long as familiar and meaningful words are used

> teachers should create a rich literacy environment

> begin reading books & poems aloud and singing songs so children can recognize & pronounce English sound patterns

> teachers often integrate phonemic awareness training, vocabulary instruction, and reading and writing activities to show how oral language sounds are represented by letters in written words

“Children who have learned to read in their home language are phonemically aware, and this knowledge supports their reading & writing development in English”

Why Phonemic Awareness is Important

> a clear connection exists between phonemic awareness & learning to read

> researchers have concluded that phonemic awareness is a prerequisite for reading development

> as children become phonemically aware, children recognize that speech can be segmented into smaller units

> children who receive approximately 20 hours of training in phonemic awareness do better in both reading & spelling

> phonemic awareness has been shown to be the most powerful predictor of later reading achievement

Phonics Concepts

• Alphabetic principle: suggests that there should be a one-to-one correspondence between phonemes and graphemes so that each sound is consistently represented by one letter
• Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, and z> Most consonants represent a single sound consistently, but there are some exceptions. C, for example, doesn’t represent a sound of its own: When it’s followed by a, o, or u, it’s pronounced /k/ (e.g., castle, coffee, cut), and when it’s followed by e, i, or y, it’s pronounced /s/ (e.g., cell, city, cycle).

  > G represents two sounds, as the word garbage illustrates: It’s usually pronounced /g/ (e.g., glass, go, green, guppy), but when g is followed by e, i, or y, it’s pronounced /j/, as in giant.

  > X is also pronounced differently according to its location in a word. At the beginning of a word, it’s often pronounced /z/, as in xylophone, but sometimes the letter name is used, as in x-ray. At the end of a word, x is pronounced /ks/, as in box.

  > The letters w and y: At the beginning of a word or a syllable, they’re consonants (e.g., wind, yard), but when they’re in the middle or at the end, they’re vowels (e.g., saw, flown, day, by).

• Consonant blends: occur when two or three consonants appear next to each other in words and their individual phonemes are “blended” together, as in grass, belt, and spring.
• Consonant digraphs: letter combinations representing single sounds that aren’t represented by either letter; the four most common are ch as in chair and each, sh as in shell and wish, th as in father and both, and wh as in whale. Ph as in photo and graph
• Vowels: a, e, i, o, u (w & y are vowels when used in the middle and at the end of syllables and words)
• Short vowel: marked with the symbol ˘
  > The short vowel sounds are /ă/ as in cat, /ĕ/ as in bed, / ĭ/ as in win, /ŏ/ as in hot, and /ŭ/ as in cup

• Long vowel: marked with the symbol ¯> The long vowel sounds—/ā/, /ē/, / ī/, /ō/, and /ū/—are essentially the same as the letter names, and they’re illustrated in the words make, feet, bike, coal, and rule

  > Long vowel sounds are usually spelled with two vowels, except when the long vowel is at the end of a one-syllable word or a syllable, as in she or secret and try or tribal

  > When y is a vowel by itself at the end of a word, it’s pronounced as long e or long i, depending on the length of the word

  > In one-syllable words such as by and cry, the y is pronounced as long i, but in longer words such as baby and happy, the y is usually pronounced as long e.

• Breve: ˘
• Macron: ¯
• Vowel diagraph: when two vowels represent a single sound (nail, snow)
• Diphthong: when the two vowels represent a glide from one sound to another

  > oi and oy, but other combinations, such as ou as in house (but not in through) and ow as in now (but not in snow), are diphthongs when they represent a glided sound. In through, ou represents the /ū / sound as in moon, and in snow, ow represents the /ō/ sound

• R-controlled vowel: r influences the pronunciation of the vowel sound
  > Sometimes teachers refer to the “r” as the “bossy r” because the r “bosses” the vowel to make a new sound
  > start, award, nerve, squirt, horse, word, surf, square, stairs, pearl, beard, cheer, where, here, pier, wire, board, floor, scored, fourth, and cure

• The vowels in the unaccented syllables of multisyllabic words are often softened and pronounced “uh,” as in the first syllable of about and machine, and the final syllable of pencil, tunnel, zebra, and selection. This vowel sound is called schwa and is represented in dictionaries with ə, which is an inverted e
• Blending into words: readers blend or combine phonemes to decode words
  > even though children may identify each phoneme, one by one, they must also be able to blend them into a word

  > to read the short-vowel word best, children identify /b/ /ĕ / /s/ /t/ and then combine the sounds to form the word.

  > for long-vowel words, children must identify the vowel pattern as well as the surrounding letters. In pancake, for example, children identify /p/ /ă / /n/ /k / /ā / /k / and recognize that the e at the end of the word is silent and marks the preceding vowel as long

  > to ability to blend sounds into words is part of phonemic awareness, and students who haven’t had this practice are likely to have trouble decoding unfamiliar words

• Phonograms: one-syllable words & syllables in longer words can be divided into two parts—the onset & the rime
• Onset: the consonant sound (if any) that precedes the vowel
• Rime: the vowel and any consonant sounds that follow it (in show, sh is the onset and ow is the rime)

• Word wall: collection of words displayed in large visible letters on a wall, bulletin board, or other display in a classroom; is designed to be an interactive tool for students and contains an array of words that can be used during writing and reading

Phonics Rules

Since English doesn’t have one-to-one correspondence between phonemes and graphemes, linguists have created rules to clarify English spelling patterns

> q is followed by u and pronounced /kw/, as in queen, quick, and earthquake

> When there are two adjacent vowels, the long vowel sound of the first one is pronounced and the second is silent; teachers sometimes call this the “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking” rule. Examples of conforming words are meat, soap, and each

> The CVC pattern rule—which says that when a one-syllable word has only one vowel and the vowel comes between two consonants, it’s usually short, as in bat, land, and cup (estimated to work only 62% of the time)

> Most rules in English have several exceptions, but still are useful to teach

Teaching Phonics

The best way to teach phonics is through a combination of explicit instruction and authentic application activities

> the most useful phonics skills are taught in a predetermined sequence

> most teachers begin with consonants then introduce the short vowels (so that children can read & spell consonant-vowel-consonant or CVC pattern words such as dig & cup)
then consonant blends, digraphs, and long vowels (so that children can read and spell consonant-vowel-consonant-e or CVCe such as broke and white)
then consonant-vowel-vowel-consonant CVCV pattern words (such as clean, wheel, and snail) lastly, less common vowel digraphs and diphthongs (such as claw, brought, shook, and boil and r-controlled vowels such as square, hard, four, and year)

> children also learn strategies to use in identifying unfamiliar words—sounding out words, decoding by analogy, and applying phonics rules

Assessing Students’ Phonics Knowledge

> Teachers assess students’ developing phonics knowledge using a combination of tests, observation, and reading and writing samples.

> Teachers typically use a test to screen students at the beginning of the school year, monitor their progress at midyear, and document their achievement at the end of the year

> When children aren’t making expected progress, teachers administer a test to diagnose the problem and plan for instruction

The role of phonics in a balanced literacy program

• Phonics is a controversial topic
• Reading is a complex process, and the phonological system works with the semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic systems, not in isolation
• Research recommends that phonics be taught within a balanced approach that integrates instruction in reading strategies and skills with meaningful opportunities for reading and writing
• Phonics instruction should focus on the most useful information for identifying words, that it should be systematic and intensive, and that it should be completed by third grade

Stages of Spelling Development

• Invented Spelling: as children begin to write, they create unique spellings based on their knowledge of phonology

Stage 1.) Emergent spelling: this stage is typical of 3- to 5-year-olds

• The distinction between drawing & writing
• How to make letters
• The direction of writing on a page
• Some letter-sound matches

Stage 2.) Letter name-alphabetic spelling: this stage is usually 5-7-year-olds

• The alphabetic principle
• Consonant sounds
• Short vowel sounds
• Consonant blends & digraphs

Stage 3.) Within-word pattern spelling: students at this age are 7- to 9-year-olds

• Long-vowel spelling patterns
• R-controlled vowels
• More complex consonant patterns
• Diphthongs and other less common vowel patterns
• Homophones

Stage 4.) Syllables & affixes spelling: students at this age are generally 9- to 11-year-olds

• Inflectional endings (-s, -es, -ed, -ing)
• Rules for adding inflectional endings
• Syllabication
• Compound words
• Contractions

Stage 5.) Derivational relations spelling: students are 11- to 14-year-olds

• Consonant alternations (soft—soften, magic—magician)
• Vowel alternations (please—pleasant, define—definition, explain—explanation)
• Greek and Latin affixes and root words
• Etymologies

Teaching Spelling

To become good spellers, students need to learn about the English orthographic system and move through the stages of spelling development. They develop strategies to use in spelling unknown words and gain experience in using dictionaries and other resources. A complete spelling program includes these components:

• Teaching spelling strategies
• Matching instruction to students’ stage of spelling development
• Provide daily reading & writing opportunities
• Teaching students to spell high-frequency words

Students learn spelling strategies that they can use to figure out the spelling of unfamiliar words. As they move through the stages of spelling development, they become increasingly more sophisticated in their use of phonological, semantic, and historical knowledge to spell words. Important spelling strategies include:

• Segmenting the word & spelling each sound (aka, sound it out)
• Spelling unknown words by analogy to familiar words
• Applying affixes to root words
• Proofreading to locate spelling errors in a rough draft
• Locating the spelling of unfamiliar words in a dictionary

“Two of the most important ways that students learn to spell are through daily reading & writing strategies.”

Teachers involve students in a variety of activities to expand their knowledge and help them move through the stages of spelling development

• Word walls
• Making words
• Word sorts
• Interactive writing
• Proofreading
• Dictionary use

Weekly spelling tests: students’ study 5-10 words during the week using this procedure
1.) Say the word: students look at the first word on their spelling list & say it to themselves
2.) Read the letters: students pronounce each letter in the word to spell it aloud
3.) Spell the word: students close their eyes, visualize the word, and spell it aloud
4.) Write the word: Students write the word & check that it’s spelled correctly. If the word is correct, they continue to the next step. It it’s misspelled, students repeat this step
5.) Write the word again: students write the word again and check that it’s spelled correctly. If it is, students repeat the steps with the next word on their list. If it’s misspelled, they repeat the procedures with the same word

Application to Classroom/New Ideas

• One of the more difficult phonemic awareness activities is segmentation = utilize Elkonin Boxes
• Create a rich literacy environment to help all students thrive = this will help ELL too!
• A clear connection exists between phonemic awareness & learning to read = practice phonemic awareness in order to help develop students reading skills
• W & y are vowels when used in the middle and at the end of syllables and words = (I did not know W could be a vowel!)
• Breve= short vowel, macron=long vowel
• The best way to teach phonics is through a combination of explicit instruction and authentic application activities
• Most teachers teach consonants then short vowels (CVC pattern), consonant blends, digraphs, long vowels (CVCe patterns), CVCV, vowel digraphs, and diphthongs
• Phonics is a controversial topic = but continue to expand their knowledge and develop their skills

ENGED 275 | Blog #5| Kaitlin Roth
Chapter 4: The Youngest Readers & Writers

“How do I support young children’s literacy development?”

Oral Language Activities

Interactive Read-aloud: a literacy event where children actively engage in listening and talking about the text during the-read aloud

Interactive Writing: Students and the teacher create a text together during interactive writing, as they write the text on chart paper

> The students compose the message together, and then the teacher guides them as they write it word by word on the board/chart paper

> Students take turns writing known letters and familiar words, adding punctuation marks, and leaving spaces between words

> All students participate in creating and writing the text on chart paper

> Students write the text on small whiteboards or on paper as it’s written on the chart paper/board

> Afterward, children read and reread the text together with classmates and on their own

Shared Reading: teachers reading a book to students and having students read certain portions of the book or specific words

> Teachers use shared reading to read aloud books that are appropriate for children’s interest level but too difficult for them to read for themselves

Interactive Reading: a reading model that recognizes the interaction of bottom-up and top-down processes simultaneously throughout the reading process

> Literature circles are small groups of students who read and then discuss a book, similar to a book club

Choral Reading: students take turns reading lines of a poem or book. In these activities, the students support each other by actively participating and sharing the work
> Video example of choral reading: https://youtu.be/rQFlnAukEFs

Language Experience Approach: a method for teaching literacy based on a child’s existing experience of language

Predictable Books

• The stories and other books that teachers use for shared reading with young children often have repeated sentences, rhyme, or other patterns
• Books representing each category below are valuable to emergent readers because it makes it easier for children to predict the next sentence

> Repetition: authors repeat sentences to create a predictable pattern

> Cumulative Sequence: sentences are repeated and expanded

> Rhyme and Rhythm: used to add musical quality to writing and create a strong beat

> Sequential Patterns: use a familiar sequence such as months of the year, days of the week, numbers, or letters on the alphabet to structure book

Morning Message

Daily literature routine that teachers use to teach literacy concepts, reading strategies and skills.

• teacher writes brief message on board about what will happen that day
• read by teacher first
• students reread it together, count letters, words, and sentences
• can go into more depth such as punctuation, high-frequency words, particular phonics, and patterns, depending on the grade level

Manuscript Handwriting

• handwriting research indicates that moving models are much more effective than still models
• worksheets on letters aren’t very useful—researchers recommend that children watch teachers to see how letters are formed, then practice forming them themselves
• teachers should supervise students as they write so they can correct those who are forming letters incorrectly
• students should be taught to write circles counterclockwise (starting from 1:00) and form most lines from top to bottom and left to right across page—this will help transition to cursive handwriting

Nurturing Children’s Oral Language Development

Children develop oral language through everyday experiences and interactions with people

• Phonology: children learn to produce sounds and to manipulate language
• Syntax: children learn to combine words into different types of sentences and to use irregular verb forms, pronouns, and plural markers
• Semantics: children gain knowledge about the meanings of words and add several thousand words to their vocabularies each year
• Pragmatics: children learn to use language socially to carry on conversations, tell stories, and use social conventions (please & thank you)

Fostering an Interest in Literacy

• Concepts About Print: through experiences, young children learn that print carries meaning and that reading & writing are used for a variety of purposes. Preschool & kindergarten teachers demonstrate the purposes of written language & provide opportunities for children to experiment with reading & writing

Examples include:

• Posting signs in the classroom
• Making a list of classroom rules
• Using reading and writing materials in literacy play centers
• Exchanging messages with classmates
• Reading and writing stories
• Labeling classroom items
• Drawing and writing in journals
• Writing notes to parent

Concepts About Words

Children develop a sophisticated understanding of literacy terms.
Papandropoulou and Sinclair identified four stages of word consciousness:

1. Young children don’t differentiate between words & things
2. Children describe words as labels for things and consider words that stand for objects as words, but they don’t classify articles and prepositions as words (such as the and with) since they can’t be represented with objects
3. Children understand that words carry meaning and that stories are built from words
4. More fluent readers & writers describe words as autonomous elements having meanings of their own with definite semantic and syntactic relationships

Environmental Print
Young children begin reading by recognizing logos

At first, young children depend on context to read familiar words & memorized texts, but slowly develop relationships linking form & meaning as they gain more reading & writing experience

Concepts About the Alphabet
 young children develop concepts about the alphabet & how letters are used to represent phonemes

• The letter’s name
• The formation of the letter in upper-and lowercase manuscript handwriting
• The features of the letter that distinguish it from other letters
• The direction the letter must be turned to distinguish it from other letters
• The use of the letter in known words
• The sound the letter represents in isolation
• The sound the letter represents in combination with others
• The sound the letter represents in the context of a word
  

Assessing Children’s Concepts About Written Language

• Regularly observe students as they look at books and reread familiar ones à Monitor their developing knowledge about written language concepts
• Notice which concepts students understand and which ones they need to work on
• CAP Test = used to assess young children’s understanding of written language concepts
• As teachers read a book, they ask the student to point out book orientation concepts, directionality concepts, and letter & word concepts

How Children Develop as Readers & Writers

Emergent Reading & Writing: children gain an understanding of the communicative purpose of print and develop an interest in reading writing

• Usually emergent readers & writers are in kindergarten (but can be younger or older)
• notice environmental print in the world around them
• develop concepts about print as teachers read & write
• learn that speech can be written down

During this stage, children accomplish:

• develop an interest in reading & writing
• acquire concepts about print
• develop book-handling skills
• learn to identify the letters of the alphabet
• develop handwriting skills
• learn to read & write some high-frequency words

Beginning Reading & Writing
children grow awareness of the alphabetic principle

• most first and second graders are in this stage
• learn about phoneme—grapheme correspondences
• phonics rules in words (run, hand, this, make, day, and road
• word families: ill [fill, hill, will] and ake [bake, make, take]
• apply their developing phonics knowledge to spell words
• learn to read & write high-frequency words (what, are, there = can’t be spelled out)

During this stage, children accomplish:

• learn phonics skills
• recognize 100 high-frequency words
• apply reading strategies (cross-checking, predicting, and repairing)
• write five or more sentences (sometimes organized into a paragraph)
• spell phonetically
• spell 50 high-frequency words
• use capital letters to begin sentences
• use punctuation marks
• reread their writing

Fluent Reading & Writing: children move into fluent reading & writing

• Some 2^nd graders reach this stage, and all children should be here by the end of 3^rd grade
• recognize hundreds and hundreds of words automatically
• have the tools to identify unfamiliar words from reading
• use writing process to draft, revise, and publish their writing
• participate in revising groups
• familiar with a variety of genres and know how to organize their writing
• use conventional spelling & other written conventions (capital letters, punctuation marks)

During this stage, children can accomplish:

• read fluently & with expression
• recognize most one-syllable words automatically & can decode other words efficiently
• use decoding & comprehension strategies effectively
• write well-developed, multi-graph compositions
• use the writing process to draft and refine their writing
• write stories, reports, letters, and other genres
• spell most high-frequency & other one-syllable words correctly
• use capital letters & punctuation marks correctly most of the time

Terms

Mini Lessons: As teachers teach lessons, they provide activities and supervise/guild as students apply what they’re learning

Guided Reading: teacher meets with small groups of students (who read at the same proficiency level) for teacher-directed lessons.

> about 20 minutes
> teachers teach word-identification & comprehension strategies (not just read, but being able to understand what they read)
> other students in the class work on other learning activities independently

Word Wall: collection of words displayed in large visible letters on a wall, bulletin board, or other display in a classroom

Revision Groups: students break apart into groups to revise each other’s work

Collaborative Books: children make collaborative books, where each child creates one page to be added to a class book

Video Notes

https://youtu.be/_woMKwBxhwU

SMART Objectives

• Student Centered
• Measurable = define acceptable levels of learning
• Attainable—challenging but developmentally appropriate (at grade level—whole class)
• Relevant/result oriented—ex: “use the internet to locate 5 reliable resources”
• Time-bound—ex: “at the end of the lesson” or “after observing”
• Bloom Verbs/Words to use: conclude, solve, sort, categorize, generate, construct, compare, design, create, list, identity, describe
• Weasel words/Words to avoid: imagine, understand, know, comprehend, appreciate, see, explore, learn, realize, familiar with, discover
• Lesson plans & learning objectives can be fore one lesson, one day, or multiple days/months
• Simply state, don’t overly complicate—be specific
• Cannot be an activity
• Avoid vague terms
• Can have specific amounts

https://youtu.be/rzZVffbjx3U

UW-S Lesson Plans

• Focus on scaffolding
• Lesson: where this particular lesson may fall in the unit of study—ex: “3 of 5”
• Unite/Theme: ex: Romeo & Juliet
• Period/Time: estimated duration
• Where in the unit does this lesson occur: Beginning, middle, or end
• Structure or Grouping of Lesson: whole class, small group, one-to-one, other
• Big idea/Concept being taught: essential learning questions, learning target, what students can do by the end of the lesson
• Rationale/Context: Why @ this time? What have the students learned previously? What will they learn after?
• Prior Knowledge & Conceptions
• Student Learning Objectives: 1 or 2 objectives starting with “The student will be able to . . .” *not an activity*
• Measuring Learning: Not a completion of a task
• How Will You Communicate the Learning Objectives to Students: state learning objectives on board or handout, verbalize to students
• Expectations for Student Learning: Meet, above, or below (referring to learning objective)
• Evidence & Assessment of Student Learning: Monitor, formative, observe, summative (not based on behavior)
• Student Feedback: info teacher provides to students to enhance learning, piece of scaffolding, not a grade
• Standards: common core, WI academic
• How Will You Support Students to Meet Your Goals?
• Explore: activities, like a cookbook
• Closure: exit ticket, quiz

Classroom Application/New Ideas

• Observe students when they are reading books to monitor their developing knowledge about written language concepts
• Not all students will be at the proper reading & writing level based on their age, it all depends on the students’ home life, experiences and exposure to literature
• SMART objectives = student centered, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound
• By providing student feedback, students learning will be enhanced
• Research on handwriting indicates that moving models are more effective, so  worksheets on letters aren’t very useful
• Understand is a weasel word, do not use when writing a learning objective
• Teach students to draw circles counterclockwise to help them transition to cursive earlier

ENGED 275 | Blog #3| Kaitlin Roth
Chapter 3: Assessing Literacy Development

“Teachers monitor students learning every day and use the results to make instructional decisions.”

Terms

• Running Record: a way to assess a students’ reading progress by systematically evaluating a students’ oral reading and identifying error patterns
• Minilessons: short lesson with a narrow focus that provides instruction in a skill or concept that students will then relate to a larger lesson that will follow
• Guided Reading: teacher supports students as they apply reading strategies and skills to read a text
• KWL Chart: is a graphical organizer designed to help in learning (what I know, what I want to know, and what I learned)
• Leveled Books: A leveled book collection is a large set of books organized in levels of difficulty from the easy books that a growing reader might begin to the longer, complex books that advanced readers will select
• Lexile Framework: used to measure both students’ reading levels and the difficulty level of books
• IRI’s (Informal Reading Inventories): use to evaluate students’ reading performance
  – can be used 1st-8th grade levels
  – helps identify struggling students instructional needs (word identification, oral reading fluency, and comprehension)
  – consist of two parts: graded worded lists & passages
  – teachers use scoring sheets to record students’ performance data and calculate their independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels
• Miscue Analysis: a diagnostic tool that helps teachers gain insight into the reading process

4 steps of Assessment

Step 1.) Planning for Assessment

• plan before teaching
• prepare to use assessment tools wisely
• classroom assessment often turns out to be hit or miss and random

Step 2.) Monitoring Students’ Progress

• observations:
  – direct & informal observation of students
  – focusing on literacy, not behavior
  – observe a specific group of students each day, so all students will be observed    throughout the week

• anecdotal notes:
  – write brief notes in notebooks or sticky notes as students are being observed
  – report, don’t evaluate
• conferences:
  – planned
  – on the spot
  – revising
  – book discussions
  – editing conferences
  – evaluation
• checklists:
  – help simplify assessment and enhance students learning
  – Book Talk: what is spoken with the intent to convince someone to read a book

“Monitoring is vital to student success.”

Step 3.) Evaluating a Students’ Learning

• students’ work samples: list of books students has read, their reading logs, writing samples, photos of projects, digital projects, and audio files of them reading aloud to use to document students’ progress toward meeting grade level standards and to assign grades
• rubrics: scoring guides the evaluate student performance according to specific criteria and levels of achievement
  – similar to checklists, but go in further detail
• multimodal assessments: uses more than one modality to achieve its intended purpose.

Step 4.) Reflecting on Students’ Learning

– teachers reflect on their instruction to improve their teaching effectiveness & analyze students’ achievement

Determining Students’ Reading Levels

• Independent reading Level: books that students can read comfortably on their own
  – able to recognize almost all words
  – accuracy is 95-100%
  – reading is fluent
  – able to comprehend what is being read on their own
• Instructional Reading Level: students can read books at this level, but only with support
  – recognize most words
  – accuracy is 90-94%
  – reading may be fluent
  – understands what is being read only if a classmate or teacher breaks it down
• Frustration Reading Level: books at this level are too difficult to read successfully, even with assistance
  – accuracy is <90%
  – reading is choppy and word by word
  – show little understanding of what is being read

High Stakes Testing
annual high-stakes testing is emphasized in American schools with the goal of improving the quality of reading instruction

• designed to objectively measure students’ knowledge (according to grade level standards)
• The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, promoted an increased focus on reading instruction and narrowed the racial and ethnic gaps in achievement = created the need for annual standardized testing
• different from classroom assessment

Problems with High-Stakes Testing

• students feel pressured, teachers do too
• students don’t try harder because of standardized tests
• struggling students get discouraged and feel defeated = actually harms their achievement
• students spend more time practicing for the test than doing authentic reading & writing

Test-Taking Strategies
– red entire question first
– look for key words in the question
– read all answer choices before choosing the correct answer
– answer easier questions first
– make smart guesses
– stick with your first answer
– pace yourself
– check your work carefully

SOLOM (Student Oral Language Observation Matrix)
A rating scale that teachers use to assess students’ command in English as they observe them talking and listening in real, day-to-day classroom activities

5 Components of Oral Language
Listening
Fluency
Vocabulary
Pronunciation
Grammar

Portfolios:
a collection of student work that can demonstrate learning and be used as an effective assessment tool

• help students, teachers, and parents see patterns of growth from one literacy milestone to another in ways that aren’t possible with other types of assessment
• students feel ownership of their work
• students become more responsible about their work
• students set goals and are motivated to work toward accomplishing them
•  students make connections between learning and assessing

Portfolio Assessment:
students collect their work in portfolios and use them to evaluate their progress and showcase their best work

Collecting Work in Portfolios

• students label & date all items placed in a portfolio
• students review and add pieces periodically
• students get to choose what goes in (within the teachers’ guidelines)
• large projects can be photographed
• focus on students’ strengths, not weaknesses

Involving Students in Self-Assessment

• portfolios are a tool for engaging students in self-assessment and goal setting
• students learn to reflect on their own reading & writing activities
• teachers use mini lessons and conferences to teach about the characteristics of good readers and writers
• students write notes on the items they choose to put in their portfolios (why they chose it, identify strengths)
• students will discuss what they want to improve on

Showcasing Students’ Portfolios

• teachers organize “Portfolio Share Days” at the end of the school year
• celebrates students’ accomplishments and provide opportunity for students to share their portfolios with classmates and families
• help students accept responsibility for their own learning

Application to Classroom/New Ideas

• First step in assessment is to plan what will be taught, what assessment tools will be used and how so
• When monitoring students’ progress, focus on literacy, not on the students’ behavior
• Conferences are very beneficial, but time consuming
• Rubrics are a helpful source in evaluating student learning
• Reflection focuses on what the teachers can do to improve their instruction
• Instructional reading level is the happy medium between independent reading level and frustration reading level
• SOLOM doesn’t apply to all students. It is mostly for ELL (English language learners)
• Portfolios are a great way to have students engaged in their learning, as well as serving as a great way to monitor the students’ learning – it also keeps the families and community involved in students’ education

ENGED 275 | Blog #3| Kaitlin Roth
Chapter 2: The Reading & Writing Processes

• The Reading Process:

“Reading is a constructive process of creating meaning that involves the reader, the text, and the purpose within social and cultural contexts.

> Goal of the reading process: Comprehension, understanding the text and have the text serve its purpose.

Stage 1.) Prereading:
– beings before a reader opens/reads a book
– reader prepares to read
– activate background knowledge
– set purpose
– make plans for reading

Stage 2.) Reading:
– reader reads the book
– reading styles include; independently, read aloud, shared reading, guided reading, partner reading, and independent reading
– reading depends the teacher’s scaffolding
– teacher provides most support = read loud, least support = independently

Stage 3.) Responding:
– students respond to what they’ve read
– continue to decipher the meaning of the text
– utilize reading logs and/or participate in class discussions

Stage 4.) Exploring:
– examine the text analytically
– more teacher directed than previous stages
– focus on specific words, sentences, or ideas
– teachers present mini-lessons

Stage 5.) Applying
– extend readers comprehension
– reflect on students understanding
– value the reading experience
– projects to wrap up the lesson (posters, slideshows, performances, essays)

Phonemic Awareness & Phonics

– Word Identification: students recognize common words automatically & use their knowledge to decode unfamiliar words

– Fluency: students become fluent readers by reading with expression, read quickly and recognizing words automatically

– Vocabulary: students begin to think about the meaning of words that they’re reading and apply them to their background knowledge.

– Comprehension: students understand what they’re reading, create meaning, predict what will happen, and connect.

The Writing Process: five stages that describe what students think about (and do) as they write. The stages merge and can be rearranged.

Stage 1.) Prewriting:
– getting ready to write stage
– brainstorming ideas
– choose a topic, consider purpose & genre
– gather and organize ideas

Stage 2.) Drafting:
– get ideas onto paper
– skip every other line (when writing) to leave room for revisions
– rough draft

Stage 3.) Revising:
– refine ideas
– adding, substituting, deleting, and rearranging material to better suit the readers needs
– meeting groups for revisions

“Revision means, seeing again.”

Stage 4.) Editing:
– putting the writing into its final form
– correct spelling mistakes and other mechanical errors (capitalization, punctuation, sentence structure)
– proofreading

Stage 5.) Publishing:
– write final copy
– share with class orally
– online publishing (Amazing Kids! Magazine, Cyberkids, Poetry Zone, Stories from the Web)

“Publication is powerful: Students are motivated not only to continue writing, but also to improve the quality of their writing through revising and editing.”

The Writers Craft: specific techniques that writers use to capture readers’ attention and convey meaning
> Ideas: heart of the composition, the message & meaning
>Organization: skeleton of the composition (crafting the lead, ending with a satisfying conclusion
> Voice: writers’ style, breathes life into a piece of writing (write with knowledge & passion)
> Word Choice: clear & interesting to read (paint a picture with words, strong verbs)
> Sentence Fluency: rhythm and flow of language (effective sentences, varying sentence patterns)
> Conventions: proofread (spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar)
> Presentation: make the final copy look good (text features, illustration)

Literacy Strategies: goal directed actions
Reading Strategies
> Decoding: phonic and morphemic analysis to identify unfamiliar words
> Word-Learning: analyzing word parts to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words
> Comprehension: predicting, visualizing to understand what is being read
> Study Strategies: taking notes, questioning, learn background knowledge on material

Writing Strategies: Students use these writing strategies purposefully as they draft and refine their writing.
> Prewriting: use organization to develop ideas
> Drafting: narrow the topic and focus on main ideas when writing first draft
> Revising: detect problems, elaborate ideas, communicate ideas more effectively
> Editing: proofread, identify any spelling and mechanical errors
> Publishing: design the layout, prepare final copy, share with classmates

Terms:

• Shared reading: interactive reading that includes students to join in or share the reading of a book with the help of a teacher
• Grand conversation: student led conversation about a story where students ask the questions, discuss their thoughts and feelings, and make meaning as they talk about the story
• Reading logs: a journal where a student can record his/her reading activity, summary what was read, and provide thoughts on what was read
• Word wall: collection of words displayed in large visible letters on a wall, bulletin board, or other display in a classroom
• Minilessons: short lesson with a narrow focus that provides instruction in a skill or concept that students will then relate to a larger lesson that will follow
• Background knowledge: information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem

“Call it schema, relevant background knowledge, prior knowledge, or just plain experience, when students make connections to the text they are reading”

• Interactive read-aloud: teacher reads aloud text to students, while occasionally pausing for discussion
• Anticipation guides: a strategy that is used before reading to activate students’ prior knowledge and build curiosity/interest about a new topic
• Prereading plans: helps students activate prior knowledge as a starting point for better reading comprehension
• Learning logs: a learning resource for children, the children record their responses to learning challenges set by their teachers
• Close reading: critical analysis of a text that focuses on significant details or patterns in order to develop a deep, precise understanding of the text’s form or meaning.
• Word sorts: a vocabulary and comprehension strategy used to familiarize students with the vocabulary of a new topic or book
• Semantic feature analysis: strategy that uses a grid to help kids explore how things are related to one another
• Readers theatre: students read from script and reading parts are divided amongst the readers. There is no memorization, costumes, or props needed. This helps students practice reading with fluency and expression.
• Story board: a graphic organizer (images or illustrations) displayed in order for the purpose of telling a story
• Revision groups: students break apart into groups to revise each other’s work
• Proofreading: read, mark, and correct any spelling or mechanical errors
• Think-alouds: demonstrate the thought process readers & writers use as they read & write
  
  Application to classroom/things to remember:
• “Making connections between reading & writing is a natural part of classroom life.”
• Construct activities before & after introducing reading and writing projects to help strengthen students’ knowledge and understanding
• Involve students in daily reading & writing experiences
• Motivate students by appealing to all types of learners & interests
• Set clear purposes for reading & writing
• Support students in the reading & writing process, but promote independence

ENGED 275 | Blog #2, Part 2 | Kaitlin Roth
Chapter 1: Becoming an Effective Literacy Teacher

NINE PRINCIPLES OF BALANCED LITERACY INSTRUCTION

5.) Effective Teachers Address Standards

• Common Core State Standards (CCSS): the knowledge that students are expected to learn at each grade level (K-12).

> Guideline on what should be taught, but not necessarily how to teach it
> Research based standards
> Framework for improving teaching and learning
> Provides clear and consistent academic benchmarks
> Freedom for teachers to teach the material in the ways they want
> Organized into five strands: Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening, Language, and Media & Technology.
> Goal is to prepare students for college and succeed in the workforce and/or college

• Reading Strand: Foundational skills, Literature, and Informational Texts
• Writing Strand: Writing Process
• Speaking & Listening Strand: Oral presentations and discussions
• Language Strand: Vocabulary and grammar
• Media & Technology Strand: Media

6.) Effective Teachers Scaffold Students’ Reading & Writing

• Scaffolding: instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and greater independence in the learning process

“Teachers provide the greatest amount of support when they model how expert readers read and expert writers write.”

• Shared Reading & Writing

> Shared reading: teachers reading a book to students and having students read certain portions of the book or specific words

> Language Experience Approach: a method for teaching literacy based on a child’s existing experience of language

> KWL charts: A chart designed to help in learning. The letters KWL are for what students already Know, Want to know, and what they Learned.

• Interactive Reading & Writing: makes the writing process visual to the whole class

> Choral reading: students take turns reading lines of a poem or book. In these activities, the students support each other by actively participating and sharing the work.
Video example of choral reading: https://youtu.be/rQFlnAukEFs

> Reader’s theater: students read from script and reading parts are divided among the readers. There is no memorization, costumes, or props needed. This helps students practice reading with fluency and expression.
Video example of readers theater: https://youtu.be/inixTU8mufI

> Interactive writing: students and the teacher create a text and write a message. The text is composed by the group, and the teacher assists as students write the text on chart paper.
Video Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4FsR1xiI5o

Purposes include:

• Practice reading and writing high-frequency words
• Apply phonics and spelling skills
• Read and write texts that students can’t do independently
• Have students share their literacy expertise with classmate
• Guided Reading & Writing: Small, homogeneous groups of students meet with the teacher to read a book at their instructional level; the teacher introduces the book and guides students as they read it.
  Video Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdGZON3rigY

> Mini lessons: As teachers teach lessons, they provide activities and supervise/guild as students apply what they’re learning.

• Independent Reading & Writing: Students do the reading and writing themselves independently, applying the strategies and skills as they work on literacy activities.

7.) Effective Teachers Organize for Instruction

• Guided Reading: teacher meets with small groups of students (who read at the same proficiency level) for teacher-directed lessons.
  > about 20 minutes
  > teachers teach word-identification & comprehension strategies (not just read, but being able to understand what they read)
  > other students in the class work on other learning activities independently
• Basal Reading Programs: These programs feature a textbook of reading selections with accompanying workbooks, supplemental books, and related instructional materials at each grade level.
  > phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, grammar, and spelling instruction is coordinated with the reading sections and aligned with grade-level standards
  > instruction is presented to whole class (reteaching to small groups of struggling students)
  > includes testing materials to monitor students progress

• Literature Focus Units: Teachers create literature focus units featuring high-quality picture-book stories and novels. The books are usually included in a district-or state-approved list of award-winning books that all students are expected to read at a particular grade level
  > everyone in the class reads and responds to the same book
  > requires explicit instruction
  > involves reading & writing activities

• Literature Circles: Small groups of students get together in literature circles or book clubs to read a book.
  > teachers select several books at varying reading levels to meet the needs of all learners in the class
  > helps promote responsibility and develop social skills

• Reading & Writing Workshop: Students select books, read independently, and conference with the teacher about their reading and they write books on topics that they choose and conference with the teacher about their writing.
  > all students read and write while the teacher conferences with small groups
  > teachers teach mini-lessons on reading and writing strategies and skills and read books aloud to the whole class
  > students read and write more like adults do, making choices, working independently, and developing responsibility

> Incorporating technology into instruction

Nurturing English Learners (ELs): English learners benefit from participating in the same instructional programs that mainstream students do, and teachers create classroom learning contexts that respect minority students and meet their needs
> Explicit instruction
> Oral Language
> Small group work
> Reading aloud to students:
> Background knowledge:
> Authentic literacy activities

8.) Effective Teachers Differentiate Instruction

• Differentiating: 
• The content:
  > Choose instructional materials at students’ reading levels
  > Consider students’ developmental levels as well as their current grade placement in deciding what to teach
  > Use assessment tools to determine students’ instructional needs
• The process:
  > Provide instruction to individuals, small groups, and the whole class
  > Scaffold struggling readers and writers with more explicit instruction
  > Challenge advanced readers and writers with activities requiring higher level thinking
  > Monitor students’ learning and adjust instruction when they aren’t successful
• The product:
  > Have students create projects individually, with partners, or in small groups
  > Design projects that engage students with literacy in meaningful ways
  > Assess students using a combination of visual, oral, and written formats

“Teachers differentiate instruction, they consider the background knowledge and literacy demands of the reading selection, consider students’ preferred language modalities and thinking styles, and determine how much support students are likely to need.”

9.) Effective Teachers Link Instruction & Assessment

• Assessment: is an integral and ongoing part of both learning and teaching
• Linking Instruction & Assessment: teachers link instruction & assessment in a 4-step cycle

Instruction-Assessment Cycle

1. Plan: Teachers use their knowledge about their students to plan appropriate instruction (ensuring it’s not too easy or too difficult)
2. Monitor: Observing students to monitor their progress (reteaching if necessary)
3. Evaluate: Teachers evaluate students work and check for understanding
4. Reflect: Teachers judge the effectiveness of their instruction and adapt if necessary

• Classroom Assessment Tools
  > Running records
  > Rubrics
  > Examination of students work
  > Conferences
  > Checklists
  > Examinations
  > Observations

* Application to Classroom/New Ideas *

• Understand how students learn –> It will help me become a better teacher & help all types of students and their varying learning methods
• Know & utilize the four cueing systems –> This will help with communication & learning among students & myself
• Build a community in the classroom –> This gives students a sense of belonging, comfort, and will overall help them learn more effectively
• Use a balanced literacy approach –> This will help all learners and their needs, also easier to remember material if presented in multiple ways
• Address standards –> This will ensure students are learning what they should be learning at the particular grade level I will be teaching
• Scaffold Learning –> Benefits students by helping them grasp the content materials before moving onto the next. Will eventually promote a sense of independence.
• Stay organized –> Students will learn better in an organized environment and with consistent routines
• Know that one-size does not fit all –> By differentiating instruction, I can figure out what each student needs to succeed
• Link instruction to assessment –> By showing the connection between what the students are learning and why it is important will help the students grasp/retain the content 

 

ENGED 275 | Blog #1, Part 1 | Kaitlin Roth
Chapter 1: Becoming an Effective Literacy Teacher

Nine Principles of Balanced Literacy Instruction

1.) Effective Teachers Understand How Students Learn
        >learning comes from stimulus-response actions
        > behavior can be learned and unlearned
        > behaviorists believe that teachers motivate students through rewards and
punishments
       > teacher-centered

“Understanding how students learn influences how teachers teach.”

• Behaviorism: focuses on student behavior that can be observed and measured
  
• Constructivism: occurs when students merge new information with prior knowledge
  > student-centered theory
  > constructivist theorists say children are active, engaged learners who construct their own language
  > teachers engage students with experiences so that they can construct their own knowledge
• Sociolinguistics: believe that learners use language to organize their thoughts.
  > promotes in class/small group discussions to help retain information
  > Lev Vygotsky suggested that teachers give students the opportunity to talk in the classroom about what they’re learning
  > zone of proximal development: the level between a student’s actual development and a student’s potential development

• Information processing: compares the human brain to a computer and describes how information moves through a series of processing units (sensory, short-term & long-term memory) as it’s stored.
• Engagement theory: students reach higher levels of achievement when they’re engaged and enjoy what their learning
  > self-efficacy: the confidence in ones-self to succeed and reach personal goals
  > students are more engaged when they participate in activities and collaborate with classmates
• Inquiry learning: when students collaborate, ask questions, seek information, and create new knowledge to solve problems
  > John Dewey was an advocate and said that learners are innately curious and create their own knowledge
• Schema: describes a pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them
• Schema theory: explains how students learn based on schemas and actively interacting with their environment
• Assimilation vs accommodation: assimilation is when a student learns something that is already a familiar topic and is easier to process where accommodation is when a student studies a new topic that is unfamiliar and more difficult to process.
• Metacognition: “thinking about your own thinking” a control mechanism that involves both students’ awareness about their thinking and their active control of thinking

2.) Effective Teachers Support Students’ Use of the Cueing Systems

• Phonological system: sound
• Syntactic system: structural
• Semantic system: meaning
• Pragmatic system: social

> All of which make communication possible
3.) Effective Teachers Create a Community of Learners

Characteristics of a classroom community:

• Safety
• Respect
• High Expectations
• Risk Taking
• Collaboration
• Choice
• Responsibility
• Family & Community Involvement

“TOGETHER, STUDENTS AND THEIR TEACHERS CREATE THEIR CLASSROOM COMMUNITY, AND THE TYPE OF COMMUNITY THEY CREATE STRONGLY INFLUENCES THE LEARNING THAT TAKES PLACE.”

• How to create the classroom culture:

> be a classroom manager – set expectations and provide a clear description of what is expected of the students
> provide classroom rules that are specific and consistent
> model good classroom behavior
> assign student leaders to help enforce the classroom rules and promote good behavior
> classroom community will evolve over time, evolve with it
> classroom environment predictable with familiar routines = students feel
comfortable and safe & will be more willing to take risks
> Grand conservation: conversations/discussions among the entire classroom of students where they ask the questions, discuss their thoughts and feelings, and make meaning about what they’re learning.

4.) Effective Teachers Adopt a Balanced Approach to Instruction

• Balanced approach: is based on a comprehensive view of literacy that combines explicit instruction, guided practice, collaborative learning, and independent reading & writing