Hello everyone!
Wow so we are drawing closer to the halfway point! I have been so enlightened by all of the information I have come to learn in this class. Ashleigh and I both think that this week helped us learn a lot more about phonics and phonemic awareness. I think we learned things that helped us solve the week’s “problem” of how we will teach phonics in the context of reading quality literature. We discussed how many of the things learned in this module will stick with us well throughout our future teaching careers.
Phonics Quiz
I started off this module by taking the phonics quiz again (I remember taking it in a previous module). I was surprised at my results! There were still so many things I thought I knew that the quiz revealed I didn’t! I wasn’t sure about my actual score—I thought I would be able to get a score at the end of each section but didn’t. However, I can say that I did miss a lot more than I should have! Knowing this, it is obvious that I need to brush up on the different phonics rules! It would be interesting to take it again every so often as a means to review and check what words I missed.
Phonics PowerPoint
Ashleigh and I agreed that the PowerPoint presentation in this module was filled with a ton of information on phonics! It was nice to be reminded of some of the vocabulary words associated with phonics and be reintroduced to the development of phonemic awareness (slide 3). I recall learning this information in a previous module as well. It is evident that it is so important to help students develop phonological awareness so it can be easy for them to learn rhymes, syllables, and words. I thought that slide 4 was interesting because it mentioned that the English language requires some “guessing” when it comes to phonics. There are many possibilities for spelling a word when attempting to spell a word using phonics. It can get tricky! As slide 5 mentions, there are some words you cannot “just sound out” because it may have a different meaning than you think. Words such as “present” and “can” fall under the list of exceptions. This is also true with dealing with fluency of sentences with such words. The PowerPoint explains that to understand the meaning, you may have to skim the entire sentence before reading it all the way through. Slide 6 was a great reminder that dialect indeed affects how people read. Living in the South has revealed that because there are many words people may say here that are significantly different than they are up North! Dialects come from many different regions, countries, social classes, and ethnicities (slide 7) but that does not mean that one dialect is wrong/right/better/worse than the other (slide9). At first I thought that differences in dialect could cause problems for readers so I was surprised to learn that natural dialect patterns are often corrected by the time children exit elementary school (slide 8). I was shocked to read the excerpt from Moustafa on slide 10 stating that formal phonics should not be part of primary grade instruction. However, I was relieved to learn that it is important for children to be exposed to reading and that the teacher should help students note certain features of text (slide 11). I was glad to re-learn the different words associated with phonics such as “schwa,” “diphthong,” and “fricative” (slide 12). I haven’t heard those words in years!! Essentially, they are all fancy words used to describe the movement of the tongue when speaking, and the use of accented syllables. It was interesting to read about the 45 phonic generalizations on slide 13 because I learned that only 18 of those are considered useful. Reading the Theodore Clymer’s article reminded me of the importance of teaching children these generalizations—even the ones that don’t always apply (slides 13-14). The “two vowels go walking” analogy was a very interesting rule learned in this PowerPoint. It makes sense because in many cases, the first vowel dominates, both vowels cooperate, and then they separate into different syllables (slide 15). It was great to be reminded of the many activities teachers can do with their students to help them develop phonemic awareness. Activities include reading nursery rhymes, reading poetry, and teaching a variety of strategies (slide 17-18). More importantly, I was glad to read a little bit about the “whole to part to whole” model of blending skill with meaning (slide 16). Slides 19-24 were interesting to read over and talk about with Ashleigh because these are things we both once learned long ago. They were also things we were reminded of when taking the phonics quiz earlier! It’s amazing to realize the things I have forgotten! Many of these rules and generalizations and list of word families can be tricky or hard to remember but they are certainly useful! The last couple slides of this PowerPoint were great because it stressed the importance of following up phonics lessons with application of what was learned. This idea will come in great use for my future teaching.
Phonics Talking PowerPoint
The talking PowerPoint with Dr. Powell provided a lot of additional information about phonics instruction and it’s safe to say they Ashleigh agreed! First of all, it was surprising to learn that one slide 1, phonics instruction can range from 45-60 minutes! To me, this seems like a long time to have children sit and listen to a lesson but I’m sure there is a lot more that goes into this type of instruction than just sitting and listening. Slide 2 reminded me of the previous PowerPoint presentation about the inconsistencies we have with spelling in the English language. Because of this, I can see why “Phonics-First” instruction could be a questionable approach. It was interesting to listen to Dr. Powell describing synthetic phonic approaches. I realize that there are many different resources out there that can help students with phonics (slide 5). Slide 6 describes the importance of helping students identify concepts of print and comprehension with having shared book experiences—something that I have learned is essential for elementary aged students! Referring to slides 7 and 8, it makes sense for students to begin phonics instruction by listening to and examining nursery rhymes because these are stories, songs, and poems that most children are familiar with. The teaching approaches Dr. Powell mentioned here were very interesting! The slide about word families (slide 9) was interesting because Dr. Powell mentioned that children can learn the 30 most common word endings. Also, it was great to be introduced to a couple of new vocabulary words: “onset” and “ryme” to indicate certain phonological parts of a word. The word family lists on mrsalphabet.com was interesting! I was re-introduced to things I once learned in elementary school! Slide 10 focused on the importance of practicing different word ending. It’s funny how Dr. Powell mentioned the “word hat” activity (slide 10) to help students learn words because the child I tutor came in one day wearing an “ap cap” that had words such as “map,” “tap,” and “trap” written on a sentence strip. I learned that there are many opportunities during shared book experiences to place emphasis certain words and ask children questions about the words. Word sorts and “making words” activities are also great tools to use when teaching students to help students determine the features of certain words (slides 11-14). Ultimately, I found this PowerPoint to be very helpful! I was reminded that the most important aspect of teaching phonics is to apply it in connected text (slide 17).
Phokissingfonix
I thought this was an interesting read and that it did a great job of highlighting the different confusing elements of phonics in the English language. I learned that about half of the words in English are phonically simple or can be sounded out with ease (page 1). Moreover, it was interesting to note that phonics is a totally different concept than phonetics—which involves the interpretation of various sounds in language. It was also great to read over the difference between “whole language” and “whole words” (pg. 2). It was interesting to read through this article about the children who learned to read by having their parents read to them. It is evident that shared book experiences and read alouds make a world of difference!! I liked how the author related reading to the act of driving a car. Most adults can drive but can’t take the car apart and put it back together. The same goes with reading. Children are just modeling (and sometimes memorizing) what they have been read to (pages 4-5). This article reminded me of first PowerPoint I discussed regarding languages and dialect. The way people say words changes from country to country and state to state (pg. 6-7). I was also reminded of “synthetic” phonics and the idea of making sense of meaningless words. After reading this, I understand that doing so takes meaning out of words and reading—something that is important for children when learning to read (pg. 9-10).
Phonics and Spelling Continuum
This document lists a variety of phonic rules and word patterns that students should be familiar with by the end of Third grade. Diphthongs, syllables, and vowel sounds are just some things that are focused on here. I know this is something I will keep, not only for my future teaching, but for my own knowledge! There are a lot of different things on this list that are easy to forget—so it will be helpful to have this for future reference.
Teaching Phonics to ELLs
Thinking about teaching phonics to students whose primary language is not English can seem tricky but this document gave helpful tips and ideas to make things easier. As always, the most important thing to remember to do is to make things meaningful for the student. Teachers should focus on having these students do hands on activities, individual writings, and familiarize them with songs, chants, and poems. They should not be placed in large groups of children to complete work. They need guidance and intimate feedback. Rhyming is an important thing to incorporate and teachers should also focus on repeating words for emphasis. The handout also suggests that using onomatopoeias can also help these students distinguish the differences and similarities between sounds in different languages.
Appropriate materials should be used when teaching ELLs. They should be able to use things on their own such as a computer or other device. Published books or materials used with these students should be chosen with the needs of the students in mind. The process of learning a second language can be hard. I think we all learn how to speak by listening to others say words. This is why it is important to repeat words over and over to help ELLs pick up on appropriate characteristics of phonics. Ashleigh and I discussed how important this information is since we will more than likely have an ELL in our future classrooms!
Phonics on the Web
Although this was not a required read, I skimmed through the website and was reminded of some very interesting rules of phonics. Just like the quiz and other previous assigned readings, I was reminded of rules about different aspects of phonics such as long/short vowels, consonants, and blends.
Teaching Technique for Kindergarten and 1st Grade
This Rhyme Reading activity idea would be great to implement into my future teaching or tutoring lesson. I know that before introducing this activity, it is important to have followed the To, With, and By approach. Students need to be familiar with the rhyme before trying it on their own. I think this is a great activity to help children become familiar with high frequency words and memorize rhyming words.
Teaching Technique: Vocabulary Examples
The Slang document provided here presents an interesting way to help students discover the different meanings of words. They can “interview” people of different ages and examine the how meanings can change overtime. Children can use the Word Finder chart to help them find words they may not know when reading and then go back and write the words and what they think it means in their writing/vocabulary notebook. Another activity posed in this section: I Know the Meaning of… involves students to rate different words such as “devoured” and “scrawny.” The Possible Sentences activity requires students to write sentences they think they might see in a given book/text. I think this is a great way to help students predict and then discover the meaning of particular vocabulary words. I like the last activity mentioned here. It involves students taking Latin roots and examining the relationships they have with many words we use in English! I love these ideas and feel like I will used these approaches one day!
Teaching Techniques: Said Words and Lively Words
I think the Said Words activity mentioned here is a great way to help students use other words in place of the word: “said.” I think this is an important thing to help students develop an idea of new words and synonyms. In the same sense, the Lively Words activity is intended to help students find words to “spice up” words we commonly use. They can pay attention to words as they read to help them expand on their vocabulary. This reminds me of a fun thing I did in 6th grade. We had a “word funeral” and got to “put to rest” some of the words we excessively use. We were each assigned a common word and made a tombstone out of paper and Popsicle sticks. We even wrote obituaries about our word and described the words that we would use in place of our given word. It was really fun because the teacher dressed up in a black robe, acted as if she were conducting a funeral, and we stuck our sticks in the ground to symbolize the passing of the overused word. I remember my word was “ugly.” I found words such as “horrible” and “unpleasant” to use instead. The activity mentioned in this module immediately reminded me of doing this!
Teaching Technique: Making WordsI like the activity mentioned here. I think it will help students develop skills in making words out of jumbled letters. It would be interesting to see how many words students are able to come up with on their own and then learn to put together with some guidance from a teacher. I recall this activity being mentioned earlier in the talking PowerPoint provided by Dr. Powell. I can see it being very useful both an individual or group activity. I like the suggestion of using the Smartboard to make things more interesting and hands on.
Ashleigh and I enjoyed talking about these different teaching techniques and discussed different ways we could incorporate them into different lessons in the classroom. We agreed that these are all very effective ways to helps students get interested in learning new words!
Readability and Selecting BooksAshleigh and I remember reviewing the document posted here back in a previous module. I was reminded of the many different ways to find appropriate level books for students. It amazed me that there are so many sites available to help rate and score books such as bookwizard.scholastic.com and booksource.com. I was also brought back to the information about matching the students to books considering their reading abilities and zones of proximal developments (ZPD). I was also reminded about how to choose predictable books for emergent readers and how to find books for efficient readers in upper grades satisfied.
Annenberg Video: K-2 Reading WorkshopIt was great to watch the video of Dr. Paratore’s lecture about setting up a K-2 Reading Workshop. It was interesting to listen to the group of teachers discussing what it takes to create a literature community within the classroom. The instructor started off by saying that effective teachers provide access to high quality books diverse in many areas such as genre and level of difficulty. Effective teachers also have strategic room/wall displays (around 3:46 on video). The video stressed the importance of appropriately organizing the classroom to make the process of reading easier for students. After listening to the lecture, I recall a lot of the many ideas Dr. Paratore gave to help students on all reading levels and even students of different cultures. I like how she mentioned that students can learn about other cultures from reading books. They learn from books that are not about them (around 7:50). A thoughtful selection and display of books is important in the classroom! I think I can take what I saw in this video and use it to set up my future classroom. I learned that when setting up a classroom, it is important to be mindful or what you display, how you are going to display it, and why you are displaying it (9:00 in video).
Another important principle addressed in this video informs viewers that effective teachers provide classroom routines that maximize reading time and requires purposeful reading, writing, speaking, and listening (10:45 on video). I really like what the instructor said in the final moments of the video. She stressed the importance of helping students understand that reading and writing can make a difference in their lives. I fully agree with this!
My Annenberg Video Choice: #7 link Connecting Skills to Text (Charmon Evans)
As always, the Annenberg website gives great insight as to how instruction is given in the classroom. The video featured a teacher named Charmon Evans and her First grade class. First of all I loved how she reviews the alphabet and letter sounds with her students. They go through the alphabet recite and sound out each word or letter combination but the interesting thing about it is that she teaches them the sign language to go along with each letter (around 2:00 in video). What a great idea! I enjoyed watching this teacher working in the small groups with her students and the different strategies she used to help them learn concept of Vowel-Consonant-Vowel words/”final e” (around 5:00 in video). I noted how she did a picture walk in this small group—something I have learned is an effective practice (7:30). I like how Mrs. Evans allows her students to choose what centers they work at. I think this gives them a sense of independence!
The use of the puppet, Aesop is a great way to help keep students engaged in a lesson about phonemic awareness (14:45). She also incorporates a really cute game using one of those play echo microphones and pretends to be the host of a game show where the students identify different high-frequency words (16:00). I really like how she encourages the children to build sentences using the different sight words they have already gone over.
She does a read aloud with the students using a The Littles book. The children seemed so engaged while she was reading and seemed to enjoy the first chapter she read. I like how she had them make predictions about what happened to one of the characters and write/draw pictures in their journals (23:30). Ultimately, I think Mrs. Evans did a great job of incorporating good literature and establishing a positive classroom environment while teaching important reading skills!
Reading Rockets Video and Article on Fluency
I enjoyed viewing the video about developing fluency on the Reading Rockets website. I thought the program to help struggling readers called RAVE-O was very interesting to learn about! I liked watching Mrs. MacDonald use various strategies to help her students with reading such as the word web. I like how it was explained that fluency and meaning are a big part of reading so I think the word web is a great tool to use in the classroom!
I remember reading Jan Hasbrouck’s article on fluency in a previous module. It was great to be reminded of the many strategies to help students at different stages of reading develop fluency. I also recall reading about some of the caveats about fluency. For one thing, there is so much we still need to learn about fluency!
Pinell & FountasThe required chapters for this text involved A LOT of reading, so I won’t talk about EVERYTHING I liked, although there was a lot Ashleigh and I talked about!
Chapter 9 focused on the things children need to know about letters and words. I was enlightened to read about the six core goals a Word Study Curriculum. I noted how the text mentioned that many of the core words children need to develop (goal #2) are high-frequency words that are often found in children’s books (pg. 88-89). As I read this, I was reminded of how I am working on these types of sight words with my tutee in our tutoring sessions. Many of the words we have been reviewing are indeed found in the various books we read together. The example given about Emma and her writing sample (pg. 91-92) was interesting because it also reminded me of my tutee. Although he is not writing much, the words that he does spell or recite are similar to the ones mentioned in this section. I can see how the need for children to develop sound-letter relationships is the third goal of Word Study Curriculum. It was interesting to read over the different word patterns that young children learn such as syllables, vowels, plurals, homonyms, and Greek/Latin roots (pg. 93-99). It was great to be reminded about some of these things for I had forgotten about a couple of these concepts! The Suggestions for Professional Development on page 103 were very helpful because these are things I could take into consideration for when I become a teacher!
Chapter 11 was helpful in that it highlighted the many word strategies teachers often use while teaching their students to become word solvers. I read over the list of roles teachers and learners have during this process (pg. 127). I also learned that teaching and learning is a cycle. Ultimately, it begins with observation which turns into teaching, student application, and teacher reinforcement (pg. 128-129). This chapter also reminded me of using the idea of mini-lessons to approach specific concepts about letters and words. The many samples they gave throughout the text were very helpful and gave me an idea of how to structure a Word Study or Daily Work plan (pg. 133-136).
Chapter 12 discussed the idea of teaching students print and sound knowledge. The text was filled with many strategies and activities teachers can use to alphabet books, name charts, songs, rhymes, and name charts (pg. 137-140). It was interesting to read about the guidelines for appropriate handwriting: 1) it must be legible/easy to read, 2) organized in lines, and 3) produced with some fluency (pg. 144). I know that handwriting is something that will be developed over time, but I was surprised to read that such practice should be accomplished in Kindergarten and first grade (pg. 146). I know a few children at these ages that do not have legible handwriting. Nevertheless, I was able to read up on some strategies to help such students improve in this area. Such activities include letting them trace letters with stencils and letting them write letters in sand on a cookie tray (pg. 146-147).
It was interesting to read more on Inquiry and Word Solving strategies in Chapter 13. To sum it up, Pinnell and Fountas highlight the following strategies for solving words: thinking about the sounds words make, thinking about the way words look by reading/writing words, examine the meaning of a word, make connections about a word, and use various materials to learn more about words through Inquiry (pg. 150). I read that word solving can be practiced using a variety of methods such as word sorting, word searches, and crossword puzzles. One strategy I really liked was the idea of having students find words specified in different categories/clusters (compound words, three letter words, words with particular sounds, describing words etc.) and write the down on a piece of paper (pg. 137 and 161). This chapter also highlighted ways students can develop skills with using dictionaries, thesauruses, spell check, and proofreading. It makes sense that using a dictionary requires skills such as putting words in alphabetical order and distinguishing syllables (pg. 165-166). I know that making age-appropriate dictionaries in my future classroom readily accessible will be highly beneficial!
Chapter 14 from Word Matters was a long read, but it revealed a lot of ideas on how to develop a comprehensive word study program. Reading through the chapter, it is evident that this is a highly structured program. I like how it allows students to learn independently while also and allows them to develop their own open-ended questions to study words beyond what they have learned in class. The words they learn are characterized as core words (words the teacher chooses from class readings and writings) and personal words (words the students choose from their personal writings) (pg. 169). I like the idea of pairing students and forming Buddy Systems to create learning relationships and help students become exposed to new words (pg. 169). Further reading into this chapter led me to a daily schedule teachers can use to implement Word Study in the classroom (pg. 175-178). This was interesting to look over because it revealed the many steps taken each day. The rest of this chapter focused on strategies and techniques used in a Buddy Study System. I like how it gave examples of tools, materials, activities, and mini-lessons used in such a setup (pg. 178-187). I must say that I really like this idea not only because it exposed students to new words, but because I think it teaches responsibility, accuracy, and cooperation!
The Daily 5
Chapter 6 of the Daily 5 focused on writing and word work. A quote given by Ralph Fletcher on the very first page really stuck with me: “You don’t learn to write by going through a series of preset writing exercises. You learn to write by grappling with a real subject that truly matters to you” (pg. 80). I couldn’t help but think about how true this is! One thing I like about the writing aspect of The Daily 5 is that it allows students to choose what type of writing they want to produce. The authors provide a schedule listing the daily focus lessons that include things like teaching writing traits and modeling the “Work on Writing” process before allowing their students to work independently or with partners (pg. 82-83). It’s great that they allow a large part of their Daily 5 program to include Word Work so students are able to experiment, memorize high frequency words, form word patterns, and be introduced to unique words (pg. 85). I like the “I-Charts” listed throughout this chapter because it helps to see the different responsibilities the students and teachers hold during the Word Work process (pg. 86 and 90).
Wow! So that was quite a long module but it revealed a lot of information. Ashleigh and I both agree that we now have a lot of ideas on how to teach phonics in our future classrooms!
Thanks for reading my post. I am looking forward to reading other’s blogs! See you next week!
Kelsey
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