- Jul 2015
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networkedlearningcollaborative.com networkedlearningcollaborative.com
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Buddy Reading
I witnessed buddy reading in field work placement.
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The umbrella skill of fluency can be broken down into automaticity (rapid and automatic word recognition) and prosody (reading with phrasing and recognition of punctuation)
New terms to know. Prosody and automaticity.
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Fluency is one of the key indicators of a proficient reader, as it is necessary for true comprehension of a text. As explained earlier, if a student spends time sounding out words or stringing syllables together, her slowed pace prevents her from being able to focus on the overall meaning of what she is reading.
Reiterating how important fluency is in being a proficient reader.
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When students make errors, you should address them explicitly. The LiPS Program uses the following structure: Identify something correct in the student’s response. Provide direct instruction to correct the error—the mistake is a sign that you need to explain the concept again. Provide a choice question that distinguishes the original error and the correct response. Here is an example. When asked to pronounce the word bed, a first grade student says, “bet.” The teacher responds, “In this word, I agree that the b says /b/ and the e says /ĕ/. You said that word was /bet/. The last sound was /t/, but I see the letter d at the end of the word. What sound does a d make, /t/ or /d/?” Student: /d/. Teacher: “I agree. So, is the word /bet/ or /bed/?” Student: “/Bed/.”
This is good to know because you want to be able to correct the child's mistakes, but not scrutinize them for them. In fact they are just learning.
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Using the Word Wall to Teach High Frequency Words
I have seen the word wall be done in many classrooms and I think it is a very useful tool.
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Syllable Division:There are several main ways to break words into syllables. Note that the following rules are designed to produce the correct vowel sounds, not to match pronunciation exactly. For example, follow has only one /l/ sound in its pronunciation, although we visually divide it between the two consonants to make the first syllable a closed syllable.
It was interesting to see the descriptions of each type of syllable division.
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iphthongs are sounds produced when the mouth moves from one formation to another within a single syllable.
It was helpful to have a clearer definition of what a diphthong was. Ex: /u/(long u) cute is a diphthong.
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vowel circlepictured here. In this graphic, you see the vowels in four groups: the smiles (the /ē/ in speak), open sounds (the /aw/ in saw), rounds (the /ō/ in rope), and schwa (the /uh/ in attend).
I had never heard of the vowel circle prior to this. It was very helpful to see the picture of it as well because it was easier with a visual.
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As a teacher of beginning and/or struggling readers, you must help students learn and remember sounds by describing and drawing attention to what is happening in their mouths when they produce phonemes. Here are some suggestions for teaching new sounds or improving articulation: Describe the articulation. Draw attention to the location and use of the lips, the tongue, the teeth, and the jaw—whichever are relevant to the production of a particular sound. Use the descriptions above to help you. Help students to feel the sounds. Tell students to pay attention to what they feel in their mouths and their throats. To explain voicing, have students contrast /f/ and /v/. Have students feel the side of the nose to identify nasals. Have students place their hands in front of their mouths to feel the quality of the air. For example, /s/ will bring a stream of air, /j/ a puff. Use your hands to demonstrate. Curve your fingertips to simulate teeth and show student the side, such that your hand simulates the profile of the mouth. Use the other hand to be the teeth. You can demonstrate the /t/ by tapping your “tongue” fingers behind the “teeth” fingers. Examine the mouth. You can draw students’ attention to the action of your own mouth. You can also provide them with mirrors and allow them to see for themselves how their mouths are working. (Use of mirrors is not necessary for most students and works best in small groups. It is not advisable as part of whole-group instruction.) Even with guidance on how to pronounce sounds, some students may still confuse some of the consonant phonemes. If you are aware of some of the most common areas of confusion, you will be better prepared to identify the cause of student error and provide the necessary corrective feedback
These were some very informative tips on how to help improve struggling readers ability to pronounce words.
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When consonant phonemes are adjacent to one another within a syllable,32 the individual sounds are spoken together as consonant blends(two phonemes) or consonant clusters(three phonemes). The word drive has the consonant blend /dr/ at its beginning, while lengths ends with the consonant cluster /ngths/.
It is crucial to know the difference between consonant blends and consonant clusters.
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The liquidsare “the most problematic speech sounds for English articulation, reading, and spelling...These are among the later developing sounds in the speech production of many children and the most difficult to teach in speech therapy because they ‘float’ in the mouth. The liquids have no clear beginning or end point in articulation.”28 The sound is “smooth and flows easily.”
It's important to note how difficult these speech sounds are because of how late they develop and because they float in the both with no end or beginning being clearly there.
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The nasalsinclude consonant phonemes that are produced by exhaling all of the air through your nose. All of the nasal sounds are voiced; you can feel the vibration of the vocal chords through the nose if you hold a finger beside your nose.
This was something really interesting to learn. Now I pay more attention to how I speak and what type of sounds are being made and from what part of my mouth and what other part of the body is involved.
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Throughout this section, we use linguistic terminology to describe the action of the speech organs, such as the tongue. This provides a common, specific language for us to discuss phonemes with your colleagues. However, use of this language will not provide any material benefit to your students. It is probably not very helpful to remind students to “make sure you articulate your unvoiced velar stop with the raising of the tongue on the velum instead of the hard palate!” For that reason, we will include simple language to use with your students, and notes for focusing your attention on students’ production of sounds.
This was a very interesting topic because before I would have never thought about how to describe the actions my mouth and tongue are making when I am forming different words.
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Running records, which are useful for students of all grade levels, do not have to be complicated. In fact, you can implement a running record system with blank sheets of paper kept in a notebook. Consider the following instructions for a running record system in which the teacher uses lined writing paper to record errors: Sit beside the student and explain that you want her to read the book independently. Read the title of the book to the child. Give the child the book and use a record form or a blank sheet of paper to mark her reading behavior and record miscues. When a child stops during reading, allow enough time for her to work on a problem before you supply the word. It is also important that you do not wait so long that she loses the meaning of the story while trying to solve the unknown word. Use a standardized system to record words read correctly, substitutions, omissions, and deletions. Take note of self-corrections. When a student corrects a miscue herself, it is an indication that she is monitoring her own comprehension.
After learning about running records I think that they are very important in helping to track the reading level of a child and their fluency.
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Word Lists.
I think this is a great way to see what level the students are at and it lets them be exposed to more words.
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Phonics Surveys.To measure students’ ability to decode words, teachers often give a phonics survey to individual students.
It is important to do this and to make sure the instruction given after the results fits each child's different needs.
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Third grade students learn to write in cursive.
This was the same as when I was young too. However, I think writing in cursive unfortunately is dying out for many people. After a certain time point children stop writing in cursive and just write in print. I know people always are amazed that still write in cursive.
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That is, second and third grade teachers are likely to have some students who read independently and others who are still mastering basic phonemic awareness and understanding of the alphabetic principle. The mid-elementary teacher’s challenge therefore is to quickly identify those students who need remediation in the basics of phonics and the alphabetic principle and simultaneously move all students forward with two key goals: Building automatic word recognition, spelling skills, and reading fluency Improving comprehension by building knowledge of words, text structures, and conscious strategies required for understanding and using text
This makes perfect sense because not everyone learns at the same pace. It is good how they have goals for what all the students need to move forward in their reading.
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By the end of the year, first graders should have a firm grasp on the alphabetic principle; they should increase their understanding of sound-spelling relationships, by learning vowel teams, diphthongs, r-controlled vowels, consonant digraphs, and consonant blends.16
Again, reaffirming how important the alphabetic principle is towards reading.
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Kindergarten—Setting the Foundation for Reading and Writing According to the National Research Council, Kindergarten teachers are responsible for two over-arching goals: By the end of the year, Kindergarteners should have a solid foundation in book/print awareness. By the end of the year, Kindergarteners should be comfortable with and have a positive association with the fundamental concept that we learn from print. More specifically, these overarching goals require that a teacher focus on the format of books and other print resources. By the year’s end, Kindergarteners have learned to identify and use the parts of a book (such as the front and back covers and title page) and know that print is organized and read in a consistent manner (from left-to-right and top-to-bottom). And, though they are not expected to become fluent readers by the end of the year, Kindergarteners should come to understand that print carries meaning and that they are rapidly becoming capable of determining what that meaning is.
From observing in a kindergarten classroom this fall, I saw this happen first hand faster for some children than others, but nonetheless it was happening. As I read this section it brought back the memories of reading workshop with them. Many students were fluent readers already.
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Of course, vocabulary is just one part of developing reading comprehension skills. Students must also learn to analyze and assess what they read at increasingly complex levels.
Every concept is built upon another concept, you never stop building and you never stop learning something new.
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Reading accuracy refers to the ability to read words in a given passage correctly, without mispronunciations. Fluency combines accuracy with speed and expression. Research has shown that students who can read with accuracy and fluency are better able to comprehend the material because they are spending the majority of their time thinking about the text and not deciphering the words
I agree with this because when you are able to read the passage without any mispronunciations or other mistakes you are then able to focus on what the text is saying. Therefore making it easier to comprehend. Fluency is crucial. This also reiterates what was said in part of chapter six in the Tompkins books.
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First grade students will learn compounds, simple contractio ns, and some word endings. Second grade students will expand on these skills and learn some simple prefixes and suffi xes as well. Our second gr aders will learn syllable types in their phonics lessons and can combine the use of syllable types and word analysis to decode longer words. Third graders will lear n to use meaningful word parts not only for the purpose of decoding, but increasingly, to learn word meanings. Fourth an d fifth graders will use Greek and Latin roots to decode words and learn their meanings.
This reiterates what was said in Tompkins, but breaks it down even more. You see exactly what students should be learning throughout each grade.
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Every day my 1 st and 2 nd graders would learn a new phonics skill during our 15- minute mini-lesson.
This is a good thing, every day is a new lesson, which most likely builds on from the lesson they did the day before.
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Key to Kindergarten and first grade teachers’ success in teaching the alphabetic principle (the idea that written spellings represent spoken words) is this notion of a long-term plan for an “explicit and systematic” approach.
In the Tompkins book they talk about the alphabetic principle as well. However, I like how in this text they talked about how this is a long term approach and not something you teach one day and move on. You keep building upon the skill.
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One of the most profound and personal connections that young children make to print involves their names.
I agree, from personal experience in a classroom and from my childhood as well. It really does help them make connections when their name is involved. When they see their name it makes them excited to read more. I think that is why it is so important to incorporate the students names all throughout the classroom.
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en they hold up a Big Book that the class is reading, th ey “think aloud” about how to hold the book, where to start reading, and in what direction. While a teacher is writing the morning news on the board for his first graders, he might ask the students, “Should I start at the top of the board or the bottom?”
I think that it is very impressive how the teachers do this. It takes a lot of patience, time, and planning to be able to ask the correct questions to the students. They have to make sure they are helping them improve their book and print awareness.
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You may wish to watch your mouth in a mirror as you pronounce sounds,
this is also a technique used in singing when you want to get the correct placement of the sound you are trying to produce.
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As a writer of English, you may occasionally refer to spelling conventions (such as “ i before e , except after c ”) but probably generally rely upon me mory and constant repetition to cue spelling patterns.
This really got me thinking about what I myself do when trying to spell a word or what I did as a child.
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Some suggest that learning most English sound-symbol correspondences is folly, since so many rules that govern its use are often broken and sometimes contradictory
Tompkins also gives statistics of how often certain rules actually work and apply.
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These building blocks include: 1. Book and print awareness 2. Phonological and phonemic awareness 3. Phonics and the alphabetic principle 4. Word and structural analysis
My cooperating teacher used this in my field work, she had a word wall right above the computer station that included the children's names and other high frequency words and she introduced new words each week.
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most crucial, component of literacy: the building blocks that are the underl ying processes required for students to decode and read with fluency.
This just solidifies what I learned in class and in the Tompkins book. The building blocks are so important!
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eadin g involves both decoding and comprehending, two processes wh ich are taught separately, yet work interdependently as we read.
This is important to remember and reiterate to yourself when you are teaching a child how to read.
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- Jun 2015
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networkedlearningcollaborative.com networkedlearningcollaborative.com
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This reminds me of how when I was young I would try and read in class without making any mistakes.
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I agree, when the children would see their names they would get really excited and want to tell others. I think it also made them feel special. Even when I was in elementary school I remember being excited to see my name on things or if I found my name in a book I was reading.
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My cooperating teacher use to do this and would have me do it as well. It was really interesting watching the students say start here or when they would say what they thought it would be about just based on the cover alone.
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This is why they say practice makes perfect because it takes a while for students to have fluency while reading, but when they do comprehension becomes easier.
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In the classroom I observed, each week they had a new "sight" word that they were learning. When the students were reading many would come up to the cooperating teacher or myself and tell me they found words and they began to recognize new ones each week.
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This is similar to what Tompkins said. But it is important to note this authors use of the term actively reading.
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Literacy as a Big Goal: Standards and Diagnostics
Read this for the next class and make sure to annotate.
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