Balancing Literacy

Janeen M. Harris

Foundations in Reading

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate the sounds letters represent, including blending sounds to make words, creating rhyming patterns, and counting phonemes

Phoneme Isolation Phoneme Identity Phoneme Categorization Phoneme Blending Phoneme Segmentation Phoneme Deletion

(McEwan, 2009)

Instructional Resources

Print based Non-print

Print based and online activity are appropriate for K-2nd grade students.

(www.pbs.org) (www.k12reader.com)

Instructional Strategy

Timing and Grouping

Phonemic awareness should be a priority in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and early first grade reading instruction. Studies have found that young children benefit the most from short instructional sessions (up to 30 minutes long) offered in small group settings. Teachers working with small groups should focus on between 2 and 3 phonemic awareness skills at a time to help children solidify these important pre-reading abilities.

Segmentation activities

Objectives: Students will be able to segment various parts of oral language.

Activity:

Early in phonological awareness instruction, teach children to segment sentences into individual words. Identify familiar short poems such as "I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream!" Have children clap their hands with each word.

As children advance in their ability to manipulate oral language, teach them to segment words into syllables or onsets and rimes. For example, have children segment their names into syllables: e.g., Ra-chel, Al-ex-an-der, and Rod-ney.

When children have learned to remove the first phoneme (sound) of a word, teach them to segment short words into individual phonemes: e.g., s-u-n, p-a-t, s-t-o-p.

(www.hillsboroschools.net)

Authentic Assessment

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills-DIBELS IS APPROPRIATE FOR ALL STUDENTS LEARNING TO READ IN

ENGLISH WITH A FEW EXCEPTIONS:1. Students who are deaf2. Students who have fluency-based speech disabilities (e.g., stuttering-oral apraxia)3. Students who are learning to read in a language other than English4. Students with severe disabilitiesa. Reading is not on the IEP b. Reading is on the IEP but long-term goal is functional use of environmental print

Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation

Description The Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation is a list of 22 common words. Students are given the words and asked to break each word apart (segmentation). individually administered by teacher, instructional assistant, paraprofessional timeframe: 5 – 10 minutes per child It was originally designed for English speaking kindergarteners; however , it has also proven useful with first grade students and older children.(www.pcbow.net)

Phonics

Phonics is an understanding of the alphabetic principle and ability to apply this knowledge in the decoding of unfamiliar words.

Focuses solely on the letters and sounds of words Helps children learn to read and spell. Help students understand which letters are used to form words.

(McEwan, 2009)

Instructional Resources

Alphabet activities-Alphabet knowledge is a significant predictor of future reading success. Students at the earliest stages of reading require instruction in letter names and formation among other critical pieces of early literacy instruction (i.e., phonological awareness and phonics instruction, concept of word development using connected text, vocabulary and comprehension development through read alouds, writing opportunities to practice their developing knowledge of letters and sounds).( online)

Analogy Books-The goal of an analogy book is to emphasize the utility of using what you know to read and spell other words with

similar parts. For example, if you know the –at rime as in cat, then you know how to read and spell hat, mat, sat, and pat. While doing analogy-based work, teachers should explicitly talk about the similarities of the words. The sound, pattern, and position of the target feature of phonics/spelling instruction should be emphasized. Students can review their analogy books and refer to them when reading or spelling unknown words.(print based)

www.readingfirst.virginia.edu/profdev/phonics/iadpss.html

Instructional Strategies

Word Sorts: Have ready an assortment of words on cards. Have students work in small groups to sort the words according to word patterns. Have students start with an open sort, allowing each group to determine which word patterns they want to use. Then, have them sort given a set of guidelines, such as open syllables or closed syllables. Extensions: allow students to cut words out of newspapers or magazines to add to their sorts, gluing them onto construction paper.

Word building: This activity builds a chain of words that will help students become aware of rimes in words. Using a pocket chart, place the letters a and n in the chart. Have the students say each sound and then blend the sounds. Place another an underneath the first letters, this time adding a b to the beginning. Have the students say each sound and then blend the sounds. Continue this procedure through the alphabet using as many letter combinations as possible to show the rime.

www.student.fcgu.edu

Assessment Strategy

Letter Sound Knowledge- Simply put, phonics is the connection between letters and sounds. PALS provides you with an assessment of letter sound knowledge that will allow you to align instruction to meet the letter sound needs of your students. Students must have a firm grasp of letters and their corresponding sounds, so you should take note of the automaticity of their responses. As with letter recognition, there is a significant difference between the student who knows 20 letter sounds automatically and the student who knows 20 letter sounds only after given time to think and process. The procedure for this task is outlined on the PALS website. www.pals.virginia.edu

Scholastic Phonics Inventory- SPI identifies students in Grades 3-12+ who lack foundational reading skills. As a server-based program with a high concurrency rate, SPI can screen hundreds of students at one time. SPI makes four skills-based recommendations that directly correspond to Tiers II and III in any RTI implementation. Tier III recommendations place students within the scope and sequence of an explicit and systematic decoding intervention. SPI provides three equivalent forms for benchmarking and progress monitoring purposes. Automated reporting in five preformatted reports provides data on the individual student level to the district level. www.scholastic.com

Fluency

Fluency is the ability to read so effortlessly and automatically that working memory is available for the ultimate purpose of reading—extracting and constructing meaning from the text. Fluency can be observed in accurate, automatic, and expressive oral reading and makes possible, silent reading comprehension. (McEwan, 2009)

Readers have very little difficulty decoding text. Readers can process more than one word at a time with their eyes. Readers have a large base of core words from which to draw.

Instructional Resources

Print-based- Fluency Formula- is a reading program designed to supplement the fluency component in a school’s core reading program. Fluency Formula is designed to help all students in grades 1-6 develop fluency at the different levels of reading from identification of letters to reading connected text. Daily lesson of 10-15 minutes target a specific skill necessary for fluent and effortless reading. (www.fcrr.org)

Non-print based-Online Leveled Reading Books- The Raz-Kids K-6 are animated leveled books and interactive quizzes give educators choices. Students listen to books read aloud, read with vocabulary and pronunciation support, and read without support. They read freely in the bookroom. Or, teachers easily limit students to appropriate reading levels and specific books and track student reading progress. Students can practice reading to improve reading comprehension and reading fluency anywhere with Internet access. (www.raz-kids.com)

Instructional Strategies

Choral Reading- Choral reading is simultaneous oral reading of text by a small group or class of students. The text is displayed on an overhead projector or everyone has a copy of the text. (McEwan, 2009)

Taped Reading- Students read aloud once or twice shore passages of text at their independent reading levels and then record the passage via a tape recorder. The tapes are then replayed as students follow along with the text while monitoring their oral reading. (McEwan, 2009)

Assessment Strategies

Reading Fluency Monitor- -The Reading Fluency Monitor is an assessment by Read Naturally instrument that allows teachers to monitor student progress. Fall, winter, and spring administrations are recommended. Grade-level passages are available for grades 1–8, as well as a software program for reporting and record keeping. (www.fcrr.org)

The “Pets” fluency passage is leveled in a unique pyramid design: the first paragraph is at the first grade (Fleish-Kincaid) reading level; the second paragraph is at the second grade level; the third paragraph is at the third grade level; the fourth paragraph is at the fourth grade level; the fifth paragraph is at the fifth grade level; the sixth paragraph is at the sixth grade level; and the seventh paragraph is at the seventh grade level. Thus, the reader begins practice at an easier level that builds confidence and then moves to more difficult academic language through successive approximation. As the student reads the fluency passage, the teacher will be able to note the reading levels at which the student has a high degree of accuracy and automaticity. Automaticity refers to the ability of the reader to read effortlessly without stumbling or sounding-out words. (www.penningtonpublishing.com)

Vocabulary

Vocabulary represents the breadth and depth of all words we know, the words we use, recognize and respond to in meaningful acts of communication (Vacca, Cacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart & McKeon 2012).

Classified as having four components:o Listening

o Speaking

o Reading

o Writing

Instructional Resources

Word Generation is a research-based vocabulary program for middle school students designed to teach words through language arts, math, science, and social studies classes. The program employs several strategies to ensure that students learn words in a variety of contexts. The program consists of weekly units that each introduces 5 high-utility target words through brief passages outlining controversies currently under debate in this country. (www.scoe.org)

myvocabulary.com-A free site that allows students at high-elem., junior high and high school levels, teachers and life-long learners to acquire and retain vocabulary. Each free session has three levels. Each level has 3 puzzles with 12 words each (36 total words in a session) and contains seven (7) additional activities/exercises that help develop vocabulary. It is continuously updated.(www.myvocabulary.com)

Instructional Strategy

Semantic Mapping – is a strategy that shows readers and writers how to organize important information. During vocabulary activities, it provides a visual display of how words are related to other words. Semantic mapping is good for K-12 students. (Vacca, Cacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart & McKeon 2012).

Predictogram- used to sort vocabulary words into categories according to literary elements such as setting, characters, conflicts, and resolution. Predictograms teach students how to utilize context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words when reading fiction. It is a graphic organizer for sorting words into categories according to the elements of plot. Appropriate for grades K-8. (www.scholastic.com)

Assessment

The Vocabulary Recognition Task (VRT) is a teacher-constructed yes-no task used to estimate vocabulary recognition in a content area (Stahl, 2008). Like the VKS, it combines self-report with demonstrated knowledge. Stahl applied the VRT with second graders reading at a mid-first-grade level. The purpose was to identify content-related words that the students could both read and associate with a unit of study. (www.readingrockets.org)

The Word Meaning Test (WMT) is an assessment of expressive vocabulary. It is an oral test that you will give to your learners individually. Scores are given as Grade Equivalents (GE) from grade 1-12. For the WMT, you score the test in “real time”; that is, you will have to decide whether a learner has given a correct response while you are giving the test (this is so because the number correct on each level determines which level you will give next, as explained in the section above). ( http://lincs.ed.gov)

Comprehension

Comprehension is the extraction or construction of meaning from text using the seven cognitive strategies of highly skilled readers as appropriate. (McEwan 2012)In order to comprehend text, students must be able to: (1) decode what they read; (2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and (3) think deeply about what they have read. One big part of comprehension is having a sufficient vocabulary, or knowing the meanings of enough words. (www.readingrockets.org)

Most complex aspect of reading Requires reader to draw upon general thinking skills. Skills develop and improve over time through instruction and practice.

Instructional Resources

Abcteach.com features over 1,000 multi-page reading comprehension activities, complete with study questions and is appropriate for grades K-12. www.abcteach.com

Reading games for kids are a great help for parents and teachers who are looking for fun ways to develop healthy reading habits in children. The virtual world here at JumpStart has a fun collection of games to encourage reading in kids. This activity is appropriate for grades K-5. (www.jumpstart.com)

Instructional Strategies

Directed Reading-Thinking Activity(DR-TA)- builds critical awareness of the reader’s role and responsibility in interacting with the text. It involves readers in the process of predicting, verifying, judging and extending thinking about the test material. (Vacco,Vacco, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart & McKeon 2012)

Circular Story Map- uses pictures to depict the sequence of events leading to the problem in the story. The strategy is useful for students whose strengths include visual representation. Appropriate for grades K-5. (Vacco,Vacco, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart & McKeon 2012)

Assessment

DRP Core Comprehension Tests are designed to guide, monitor, and support students in their achievement of the grade-level Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for ELA and Literacy and, subsequently, to assist in their preparation for postsecondary education and career training. The tests gauge how students are advancing toward these goals; determine their functional reading complexity levels; and provide diagnostic information about their comprehension and the enabling skills that support comprehension. Test results help classroom teachers, literacy coaches, and reading specialists—as well as local-, district-, and state-level administrators—support the development of each student’s reading power. Appropriate for grades 1-12. (www.questarai.com)

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of assessments used for universal screening and progress monitoring in grades K-6. They are standardized, efficient and extensively researched. They help educators identify students who may need additional literacy instruction in order to become proficient readers. DIBELS can be an integral part of most RTI programs. (www.dibels.uoregon.edu)