Facilitator #1

Introduction

Say: Welcome to each of you! We are so glad you have joined us today. My name is (name) and I am from/with (affiliated organization). Also introduce your co-facilitator.

Before we begin this virtual workshop, we want to acknowledge that this is new and may be awkward, so please participate to the extent you are comfortable, and please don’t hesitate to ask any questions.

Here are some general guides to participating on zoom. - Raise Hand, can be done from the participant’s list at the bottom of your screen. [Let everyone try it]- Ask a Question – can be done through the chat. [Ask everyone to put in something like their favorite ice cream flavor as practice]- Mute/Unmute - Note that everyone will be muted to prevent background noises –

but when you want to speak you will be unmuted by the host, or [show how they can unmute themselves]

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- NOTE – if recording the workshop, announce that it is being recorded to be share with more parents. Please let us know if you are not comfortable with recording –you can turn off your video.

- NOTE – “Turn and Talk” in a virtual workshop isn’t possible. If your participants are comfortable, they can raise their hand and just share out!

Ask about who is in the room : [For zoom: use hand raising ]● Parents? (grade[s] of child[ren])● Teachers? (which school)

Confirm that all participants have received handouts/materials. Note: Each parent will receive the one-page, two-sided handout on Early Reading Skills (referred to throughout the workshop as the “guide sheet”) when they arrive, or on the table. They will also receive a blank “Note Catcher” page. For Virtual workshop, parents should have received the Guide Sheet ahead of time. If not, let them know they will receive the Guide Sheet in their Take Home Packet.

Say: Before we get started, let me share a little bit of background about today’s workshop.

Philadelphia is a unique city, in that several organizations, including the School District, charter schools, parochial schools, universities, non-profits, the city government, are coming together to make sure our kids are strong readers by the time they get to 4th grade. The group that is coordinating these partners is named Read by 4th. So welcome, on behalf of Rb4 and all of its partners, especially (name of partner actually presenting).

But even with all these groups coming together, the research is clear that a good connection between classroom and home is what really helps kids learn to read. So YOU, the parents and caregivers, can make all the difference and we are happy that you’ve joined us today. Let’s get started!

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Facilitator #2

Say: In this workshop on Early Reading Skills, we are going to talk about the skills your child is learning in his/her classroom – skills for becoming a strong reader. Strong readers need to know how to read (or decode) the words, and there are three specific skills that make reading (decoding) words possible.

Read the three skill areas listed on the slide:1. Hearing sounds in words – we call that Phonological Awareness;2. Matching sounds with Letters – we call that Phonics; and3. Reading smoothly – we call that Fluency.

Say: In the next two slides, we will look at the Guide Sheet. If you have a copy, you can make notes on it, and remember you will receive it in the Take Home Packet.

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Say: Let’s look at the guide sheet, “Parent Guide to Early Reading Skills”. This is a Rb4 guide sheet - see the Rb4 logo on the top purple bar - that was developed with Rb4 partners, AIM and Drexel, that you saw on the first slide. Let’s review how it is organized.

● First, there is a color scheme for each grade: Kindergarten is red; Grade 1 is blue; and on the back of the handout Grade 2 is green; and Grade 3 is dark purple. [Toggle between this slide and the next which shows the back of the Guide Sheet and includes grades 2 and 3]

● [Back to the first page of the Guide Sheet] Next, you will see the skills for each grade. In K and 1, students learn about Sounds (phonological awareness), and Letters & Words (phonics).

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In grades 2 and 3, students learn more about Letters & Sounds. And finally, in all grades, as you see on the back of the page, students in all grades K-3 learn about Smooth Reading (fluency).

We suggest that you keep this guide sheet [if you have it] out in front of you during this workshop, make notes on it, and notice how each video or activity relates to one of the skills on this guide.

Don’t worry about what all these terms on this slide and the guide sheet mean right now, because we going to explain everything as we move through the workshop and give you time to experience each skill through games and activities that you can then use with your child anywhere: at home, on the bus, in the grocery store, or walking down the street.

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Facilitator #1

Say: While today’s workshop is about the development of essential early “or foundational” reading skills, it’s important to remember… we want our children to learn new things and love reading! Reading is about learning and understanding new things, and it is about exciting stories and pictures! We want our kids to love to read. We want our children to comprehend what they are reading - that is the real goal of everything we teach about reading.In fact, Read by 4 has created another workshop on reading with your child. It is called the Active Reading Workshop, and you can find out more on the Read by 4th website.

Turn and Talk [or take comments from the zoom attendees]: Take a minute to talk to your partner about whether your child likes to read, and then let’s share how you know your child likes to read, and how you read with your child.Share out!

Say: So many great shares! Thank you. To summarize, in the early grades children are learning how to read - children are learning the foundational skills we will be talking about today. As they get older and into higher grades, then they read in order to learn! Comprehension is the goal. And all along the way, we want them to love learning new things, enjoy reading and enjoy being read to.

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Facilitator #2

Say: Here is the plan for our workshop. For each of the three skills (Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Fluency), we will show a few short videos and take some time for questions and discussion. Next, we’ll spend a few minutes showing you some of the activities that you’ll then get to take home to use with your own child. The more you use these activities with your child, the more you will be supporting the work of the teacher and the reading progress of your child.

Review timeframes on the slide. Note: 20 minutes for each segment on Phonics.

Refer to guide sheet.

Say: No matter what grade your child is in, it will be good for you to know about all of the different grade level skills – sounds, letters and smooth reading. Some skills might be a review for your child, while others will show you what to expect to see next in your child’s classroom.

For example, if your child is in 2nd or 3rd grade and is having difficulty with reading,

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you might want to look at the skills from 1st grade or even Kindergarten to see how your child does with those earlier skills. You could check whether your child can, “Say the sound each letter makes.”, which is a Kindergarten Phonics skill, #5. Or if your child is currently in Kindergarten or 1st grade, it can be helpful to have a preview of what they will be learning later.

Are there any questions so far?

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Facilitator #1Elapsed time: 10 minutes - Check your timing and adjust accordingly.

Say: So, let’s talk about Phonological Awareness.

Phonological awareness is ALL ABOUT sounds. It is just another way of saying your child can recognize and play with the sounds of our spoken language. Some people think this is too easy, so they skip this skill. But hearing all the words in a sentence or all the sounds in a word is so important to then being able to read sentences or words.

So here is a challenge for you to see how tricky hearing all the words and sounds can be. But here is a warning…..this will be challenging because this sentence is NOT in English. So the words and sounds won’t be easily recognized by any or most of you. But give it a try….because you will experience how words you aren’t familiar with are difficult to understand, on even a basic level. Listen to this sentence and see if you can recognize the number of words in the sentence. That’s all, just tell me how many words are in the sentence you hear. Ready?

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Play audio of Chinese speaker.

Say: Is there anyone who recognizes this language? Does anyone speak MandarianChinese, and can tell the rest of us what they heard?

Facilitate brief discussion (hand raising and whole-group). How many words did you hear? Can you repeat any of the words you just heard? What could we do, that would help you hear and be able to repeat the words? [write suggestions on Post It note]

Say: This was probably really hard, because most of us aren’t familiar with the sounds or the words in the Chinese language. But the more you hear words and the more you play with them, the easier it is to recognize those words. Here is what it says: "I like reading with my child every night before he goes to bed." [Summary, that hopefully came through in the brief discussion]: If we played this many more times, and very slowly, and repeated some of the individual words, pretty soon, you would be able to recognize the words in the sentence. This is similar to the process your child uses to learn words and sounds.

Your child learns about the sounds of our language through talking and listening. Children start to learn about the sounds in words even before they begin school and they learn a lot more about the sounds in words in Kindergarten and 1st grade. Believe it or not, phonological awareness is a strong predictor of early reading success! It’s a very important set of skills!

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Facilitator #2

Say: One of the best ways to “play” with sounds and learn how the sounds work in words, is through rhyming. Words that rhyme sound the same at the end of the word, like rhyme...dime...lime….time…

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Facilitator #1

Say: Here is a video of a mother and child playing with rhyming words at home.

Play video.

Say: What do you think? Does that look easy enough?

Facilitate brief responses from audience.

Say: Also, did you notice that the mom first asked her son to recognize rhyming words and then asked him to create rhymes? This would be the appropriate developmental sequence, it’s easier for children to listen for and recognize rhymes than it is to come up with them on their own. In a bit, we will give you time to practice rhyming and we’ll be giving you picture cards for creating rhyming games to play with your child.Guide Sheet: Take a look at your guide sheet. Under Kindergarten, in the “Sounds” section, we just talked about #1 and #2 - being able to hear a rhyme and then being able to make a rhyme.

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Facilitator #2

Say: OK, now for more Phonological Awareness! Rhyming is just one phonological awareness skill; another one is syllables, which are parts, or chunks, of a word. As an example, my name is (name), which has (#) “chunks”. (Clap the syllables) And in Philadelphia, there are 5 chunks: fil u del fee u. (Clap the syllables)

Ask: Would someone volunteer their name for us to “chunk” so we can figure out how many syllables it has? And here is another suggestion… figure out the number of syllables by touching your chin and feeling the syllables. Your mouth opens for the vowel sound in each syllable. (Demonstrate)

Facilitate brief discussion to figure out the number of syllables in the name (turn-and-talk or whole-group). Then ask for volunteers to chunk the names of the animals on the screen. Note: alligator, bear, monkey.

Say: If your child can hear syllables, they will be able to read many more words because they will be able to “hear and recognize” the different parts of the word.

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Facilitator #1

Say: Here is a video of a mother and child playing with syllables at the zoo.

Play video.

Say: Part of what this video showed is that you can talk about words - sounds and syllables wherever you are, no matter what you are doing!

Guide Sheet: Just so you know where we are on the guide sheet, syllables are under Grade 1, Sounds, #1 - “Hear the number of syllables in a word.”

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Facilitator #2

Say: So we have talked about rhyming and syllables. Now we are going to talk about the individual sounds within a word. Let’s look at the video first and then we’ll discuss.

Play video.

Ask: Anyone want to give a word to the group, a short word, to figure out the beginning, ending, and middle sounds?

Facilitate: brief discussion to figure out the sounds in words (turn-and-talk or whole-group).

Say: One point that needs to be stressed is to be sure you are modeling nice, clean sounds for your child. For example, it is easy to add additional sounds on to our letter sounds, like saying “paaa…” instead of a nice clean /p/ (almost like a puff of air) to represent the sound made by the letter “P”. Be careful to keep the sounds crisp or clean WITHOUT adding any extra sounds! In fact, in your take-home packet you will find videos links will show you and let you hear how to best make the sounds of each

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letter.

I also want to make sure you notice that children have the easiest time hearing the beginning sounds in words, next is identifying the ending sounds, and finally, most challenging is hearing the middle sound in a word. Then students ALSO learn to put all the sounds together - like you saw in the video - /p/…../i/…./g/, for pig; and /m/…./o/.../p/ for mop.

If you look on your guide sheet, you will see that these skills are in this order for Kindergarten, Sounds, #3, #4 and #5 - first sound, last sound, and middle sound.

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Say: Before we get to the activities, we want you to know about two, free, online resources where you can actually hear someone making the sounds exactly right.

The first is an app called the OG Card Deck. You look for any letter, and the app will give you a recording of the name of the letter, the sound it makes, and a word that begins with that sound.

The second is a web address on the “Jack Hartmann Kids Music Channel” - it is an entertaining music video in which Jack Hartmann sings the name of each letter, gives its sound and a word that begins with that sound. Kids will enjoy listening to it! Please note that Jack Hartmann also shows how to “sign” each letter in sign language.

The web address for each of these resources is in your take-home packet, in the directions for Phonological Awareness activities.

Ask: Are there any questions before we go to the activities?

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Facilitator #1 Elapsed time: 30 minutes - Check your timing and adjust accordingly.Time for Table Activities: 10 minutes – including sharing after the activities

Say: While this describes what we would do in an in-person workshop - We have adapted the activities for you to experience virtually. We are going to use a few of the picture cards to practice rhyming activities together as a group. After the workshop, you will get 64 picture cards to enjoy with your child. So let’s get started with the activity.

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Say: First we want to show you how to draw on our slides. [Demonstrate while explaining’] For parents to annotate, select View Option from the top of the Zoom window, and then choose Annotate. A toolbar appears with all your options for annotating, including text, draw, arrow, and so forth. Have parents choose draw.

To start, let’s name some of the picture. [Ask for volunteers] Just so you know, when you have the actual picture cards, they are labeled on the back. Since you can see that some of them aren’t totally obvious.

[Begin by naming each picture, either you as presenter or parent volunteers]

Say: Again, you will have many more pictures with your child - what you want to do is match the pictures that rhyme. [activate ‘annotation’ at the top of the screen, and choose a color]. Now I’m going to circle one of the pictures [dig], and then ask if a volunteer can tell me

the word for that picture, and then what rhymes with that picture – then circle the rhyming word. [continue and match all the rhyming words]

Now you might remember from the video – first, children can hear a rhyme and recognize it, and then they can make up their own rhymes. [Choose a word – mop as the word used in the video - and ask if anyone would like to make up rhymes, real or not, with that picture]

Finally, children can recognize the beginning sound – NOT the LETTER – just the sound. Then the ending sound, and finally the middle sound. Let’s try that with some of these pictures.[beginning – mug; ending – hop; and middle – pig]

Great job everyone! You got rhyming and beginning, middle and ending sounds.

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Facilitator #2

Say: I hope you had fun doing the phonological awareness activities! To review, in phonological awareness your child learned to hear the sounds in words through rhyming, syllables and individual beginning, middle and ending sounds. Now in phonics, we are going to connect sounds to letters; this is where the magic happens! Words are written in a code - telling us what sound to make when we see a certain letter or group of letters. With phonics, our children learn to crack the code!

Phonics is the beginning of reading, and it’s very important for our young readers. In fact, the National Reading Panel looked at all parts of reading instruction and concluded that “[systematic] phonics instruction produces significant benefits for students in Kindergarten through 6th grade.” Phonics enables students to read new words they’ve never seen before, and in the higher grades there will be lots and lots of new words to read!

This slide has some examples of new words that you won’t recognize, but that you can pronounce if you know the code. Will someone read a few of these words for us?

Ask a volunteer to decode the words out loud for the group. To facilitate, be sure you

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know how to pronounce the words properly! [chot - like hot; tade - like made; fe - like me; thirm - like firm; floak - like cloak; brumble - like fumble]

Say: The reason you can read these words is not because you’ve seen them before and you recognize them; these aren’t even real words! You can read these words because you have good phonics skills, and you can put a sound with a letter[s] and break the code! We don’t have to know what “chot” and “tade” mean; we can read these words if we know the sounds that the letters make, and that is phonics.

Note: Background for facilitator - These 6 words represent the 6 syllable types: closed, silent e, open syllable, r controlled vowel, vowel team, and consonant-le.

So, when do we learn phonics? Phonics skills are learned across Kindergarten through 3rd grades, as you see on the guide sheet. [Show in guide sheet - a phonics section is in each grade level]. In this presentation, you will see phonics skills in two groups: Kindergarten/1st, and then 2nd/3rd. It is good for you to be familiar with all the skills no matter your child’s grade because you may need to see if your child missed a skill, or you may need to zoom ahead with your child. Please note… all of the skills are listed in your handout since we won’t be able to address each and every one here today. So, let’s jump into phonics!

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Facilitator #1

Say: The most basic part of phonics is being able to name each letter and make its sound. Take a look at this video for examples.

Play video.

Say: What is great is that all of this practice is happening in the grocery store! You can play these games anywhere with your child.

Again, so you can see where we are on the guide sheet, Letters and Sounds, are Kindergarten Phonics, #1 “Recognize and name all of the letters” and also #5 “ Say the sounds each letter makes.”

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Facilitator #2

Say: The next challenge is WRITING the letters, both uppercase (or capital) letters and lower-case letters, AND knowing the name of the letter and its sound. Take a look.Play video.Say: Again, you see you can play with letters and sounds just about anywhere! And if you don’t have paper and crayon with you, or if your child is having difficulty writing their letters, try writing in the air - just moving your arm and hand in the shape of the letters. Making the shape of the letter helps your child remember the letter name and its sound.Ask: Any ideas you would like to share, on where you might practice naming and writing letters, and the letter sounds?

Facilitate brief discussion on opportunities for this practice with children (turn-and-talk or whole-group).

Say: On our guide sheet, writing letters is under Kindergarten - Phonics #2 - “Write all of the capital and lower-case letters.”

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Facilitator #1

Say: We have learned about letters and their sounds. Well, actually we have only learned about the most common sounds represented by each letter. There are other sounds, like when two consonants come together. Take a look.

Play video.

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Facilitator #1

Say: This slide shows examples of digraphs (when two consonants come together they make one new sound: ch, wh, th, sh, ck), as well as blends (when two consonants come together and keep making two sounds: bl, sl, br, fl, tr, st, sp). These are not all of the blends just some examples.

Ask: Please take a minute in a “turn and talk” [or share on zoom with the whole group]. Do digraphs and blends make sense? Do you have any questions? [After 1 minute]... Would anyone like to share a question with the group?

Say: Back to our guide sheet, digraphs and blends are a 1st grade - Phonics skill #1 and #2. Would someone (who has the guide sheet) like to read these two skills for us from the guide sheet?

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Facilitator #2

Say: So far we have been talking mostly about consonants, so let’s talk about vowels now. Vowels can be tricky for children, but they are so important. Every single word, in fact every single syllable, has a vowel sound. Vowel sounds are either short or long.Sometimes the vowel sound is short as in the first sounds of apple, edge, itch, octopus, and up. And sometimes the vowel sound is long, which may sound like the name of thevowel letter but may be represented by a syllable pattern or vowel team: gate & rain, theme & meat, bike & light, broke & coat, cube & flute (u has two long sounds /yu/ and /oo/).

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Facilitator #2

Say: Let’s look at a video on long and short vowel sounds.Play video. Say: Once children learn about short and long vowel sounds, they learn two common rules -rules you saw in the video. One rule is: silent “e” at the end of a word makes the vowel before it long. Ask: Does anyone remember the word in our phonics introductory slide that had a silent “e” at the end? [tade] Yes, it was tade. If there was no “e” on the end, what would “t..a..d” sound like? [tad] Here’s another, example... If you have the word /kit/ and add a silent “e” to the end, the vowel /i/ changes to the long vowel sound….to make…….. anyone want to volunteer? Yes, “kite”. Say: Another rule about vowels is that double vowels frequently (not always) make the long vowel sound. Ask: Does anyone remember the double vowel word from our first phonics slide? Right, it was “floak” spelled, f..l..o..a..kSay: On the guide sheet, we covered #3 and #4 in Kindergarten - Phonics, and most of #3 and #4 in 1st grade - Phonics.

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Facilitator #1 and #2Elapsed time: 50 minutes - Check your timing and adjust accordingly.Time for Table Activities: 10 – including sharing after the activities

Now for the games – we are going to do virtual games! We are going to practice two phonics skills today – matching letters and sounds and also blending sounds and letters to make words. In your Take Home packet you will get ideas on lots more activities.

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Say: Once again, we have only a small portion of the letters you will receive – just enough to show the activities. You can, with your child, point to a lower-case letter, and ask your child for 1) the name of the letter, 2) its sound, and then 3) match it with the upper-case letter.

Do: Let’s try this with a few of these letters. [point to a letter and ask a parent to name it, give its sound and then match it with the upper or lower case, using annotation]

Say: When you have the actual letters, you can use them as flashcards, and see how quickly your child can name 20 letters. It is important for your child to automatically, quickly recognize and name all of the letters.

Any questions or suggestions?

First SoundSay: Now, with the picture cards, ask your child to choose a picture and then find the letter that matches the first sound. So, if your child chooses “hop”, they say, /hop/, and the first sound is /h/, and that is the letter h.

You’ll see that this is almost the same activity we did just with sound, but now we are naming the letter that makes the sound.

Do: Ask a volunteer to choose another picture, and then find the letter that matches the first sound – saying the letter name and its sound. Parent can use annotation to circle the letter.

Last SoundSay: So next, we’ll look for the last sound. if your child chooses “mug”, you ask for the last sound and they say the last sound is /g/, and that is the letter g. Ask: Do we have a volunteer who will circle the letter “g”, and then find another picture and tell us the last sound?

Middle Sound[demo a few more – include a middle sound like m o p]

Say: Now the big stuff! You can use the letters to spell three letter words for one of the picture cards. Let’s take this picture. Do we have a volunteer?

Ask the volunteer to name the picture, and then make each sound, blend them together, and then find each letter. [Note, each time you forward the slide, one of the letters will appear]

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Say: Here is another picture. Do we have another volunteer? ….to name the picture, then each sound, and then each letter.

Say: One more activity……You can now replace of the letters to make a new word. What if we change the “u” to “a” – do we have a volunteer to tell us the new word? And what if we change the “g” to “d”? You can do this with lots of letters – and remember, the words can be nonsense words.

Say: If you have a guide sheet - we have covered Kindergarten - Phonics, #1 through #5, and 1st Grade - Phonics, #1 through #4. We will cover #6 in a little bit. For now, let’s move to 2nd and 3rd grade.

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Facilitator #1 Note: if your workshop has taken more than 1hr 10 min to this point, you can consider skipping the slides, videos, and activities for Phonics (2nd-3rd). Tell parents that the videos will be available on the Read by 4th website so they can watch them another time. The activities, although we won’t be practicing them during the workshop, are in the their take-home packet.

Say: Now we are moving into some 2nd and 3rd grade phonics skills. Part of the magic at this stage is that when your child can read short one-syllable words with long or short vowels, they can combine those short syllables and read two-syllable words and then even longer words. A whole bunch of new words can be recognized. Take a look.

Play video.

Say: Before we move on to talking about a couple more skills, as there any questions at this time?

Say: OK, going back to our guide sheet, two-syllable words are in a couple of places, but we just reviewed, 2nd grade - Phonics #2 “Read two-syllable words with long vowels”.

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Facilitator #2

Say: As you can see, your children learn so much in school! Now, you will see a grandmother talking with her grandson about contractions. Take a look.

Play video.

Say: One of the activities we’ll do later has to do with contractions so stay tuned for that. Contractions are a 2nd grade - Phonics skill, #3 on your guide sheet.

Ask: Any questions before we move onto another 2nd and 3rd grade skill?

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Facilitator #1

Say: 2nd and 3rd graders also learn about prefixes and suffixes, which are small word parts that change the meaning of the word to which they are attached. Prefixes are added to the beginning of the word, and suffixes are added to the end of the word.

On your guide sheet, this is 2nd grade - Phonics #4, and 3rd grade - Phonics #1.

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Facilitator #1

Play video.

Say: You are going to have a chance to play with prefixes and suffixes next. Any questions before we move on to more table activities?

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Facilitator #1 and #2 Elapsed time: 70 minutes - Check your timing and adjust accordingly.Time for these Activities: 10 minutes

Say: Once again, we have adapted these activities to enjoy virtually, so here we go [next slide]

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Say: Now we will play the prefix/suffix game.So once again, here are a few word parts – prefixes, suffixes and root words – for us to play with right now – but you will be getting many more of these in your Take Home materials. What we are going to do is find as many combinations, words or pseudo words, that we can make with these 6 word parts.

So just to get us started, would anyone like to try using just the top three word parts and tell us some words they can make? [ export, exporting, porting]

OK, now take about 1 minute to write down (or remember in your head) all thecombinations you can think of, and then we’ll share out. Let’s see who can get the most in 1 minute.

Say: [After one minute], “Ok, let’s stop writing or thinking, and see what we have. Didanyone get 5 words, or 7 words, or 10 words or more? [find the highest, or a willingvolunteer, and have them read their words].

Any one want to read their words? You can do this with your child with actual word parts on pieces of paper in your Take Home Packet. You can discuss, whether some of those are real words or nonsense.

Say: Now we’ll play the Contractions GameThis is a matching game – match the two words in the corners to the contraction inside the triangle.The goal is to match all the contractions – but of course, we only have a few here toplay with.

So let’s take the words “I have”, can someone tell me what the contraction is? Great!And what letters are missing that are now replaced by the apostrophe? [go through the rest, saving “will not” for last]. [Remember, Parents can circle the contraction inside the circle, as a match for the two words]

We saved a tricky contraction for last……one that doesn’t quite follow the rules…….but it is so common, we all use it, so we had to include it. Does anyone know what “will not” becomes when it is a contraction? [wait for responses]

Answer: “Will not” drops the “ill” and moves the “o” to make won’t. This is one you just have to remember!!

One way to remember it is that won’t rhymes with don’t -------. Won’t and don’t are big important words for lots of children.

Facilitator #2

Say: This is the last skill under Phonics, and it applies to every grade. On your guide sheet, you will see, at the end of the phonics section for each grade, it says “Read [k,1, 2 or 3] grade level, high-frequency sight words that may not follow rules…” Lots of words follow the rules and some don’t. For example: Kindergarten - Phonics #6: “I” (follows the long vowel sound, open syllable pattern) but “the & was” are not regular. Under 1st grade - Phonics #6: “what, could, said” are irregular. If your child knows these common words automatically, reading will be easier and a lot more fun!

You will hear everything you need to know about Sight Words in the video, and we can discuss afterwards.

Play video.

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Facilitator #1 and #2 Elapsed time: 90 minutes - Check your timing and adjust accordingly.Table Activity: 10 minutes – including time for sharing after the activities

Once again, we are going virtual, with the Sight Word Deck and the Sight Word list. [next slide]

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Sight Words, 20, on the slide

Say: More activities! First here are some sample sight words – you will be receiving all 300 sight words, on stock paper, ready for you to cut out and use with your child.

Say: Before the activities, let’s look more closely at some of these sight words. As you heard in the video, many or most of these can’t be sounded out but they are used frequently - that is why they are on the Sight Word list. Only a portion of these words can be sounded out by a 1st grader.

You can really help your child by discovering any letters in these sight words that are making the sound you expect, even if other letters aren’t making expected sounds!

[Engage parents as possible] - So, how about “over” [annotate and circle] – we know that “o” can make the long sound and say its name. We also know that V makes the /v/ sound, and r makes the /r/ sound. Maybe we don’t know what to do with the ‘e’, but we have long /o/, /v/ and /r/…..over.

Here’s another example, the word “put”. Can someone volunteer to tell us thefirst sound in “put”? And is the letter “p” making the sound we expect it tomake? Yes. Now what about the last sound? Is the last letter, t, making thesound we expect? Great. Now, what about the middle letter, u? What sound

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do we expect short “u” to make? Yes, /u/, which would make this word, /p/ /u//t/…..but we know this word is “put”. So your child remembers that the firstand last letters make their expected sound, but the “u” is making an unexpectedsound.

Here’s another example, the word “great”. We know the /g/ and /r/ blend, thenthe sound of long /a/…….must be the “ea” combination, but we know /t/. Sowe know /g/, /r/ and /t/….and we remember to say long /a/ in the middle –Great!

Now, for practice, ask your child to spell the word while tapping the table foreach letter. Moving their hands as they say the letters, helps them to rememberthe spelling.

Finally, see how quickly your child can read 10 or 20 of the words. You will be able to cut out the words in your Take Home Packet. You can use them as flash cards!

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Say: Here is a list of the 100 most common sight words in 1st and 2nd. You will also get the list for the 100 sight words for K-1 and the 100 sight words for 3rd grade. And remember……you will also get all 300 printed on stock paper so you can cut them out and play games with them.

So you can practice with the words on cards, or you can practice the long lists. Kids like to be timed and show their progress…..how many words can they read in 30 seconds……then practice and see how many they can read.

Remember, these are the words that are most often in your child’s books – they arewords they need to know so that they are confident readers!

In your Take Home materials, you will have ideas for lots more activities!

Facilitator #1

Say: We have talked about sounds, or phonological awareness (rhymes, syllables, beginning/middle/end sounds), and then phonics (sounds connecting to letters and using those letters to make words), and about sight words. For your child to enjoy reading, as it says on the slide, they need to recognize words automatically and read smoothly, like they are talking. These are the early skills that are going to prepare your child to be able to comprehend, or understand, what they are reading. Because we all know that the goal is to read and understand and learn new things.

In the early years children are learning how to read (how to break that code), and as they get older and into higher grades, they need to be able to read so that they can learn!!

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Facilitator #2

Say: When your child reads each word s-l-o-w-l-y [stretch out this word] and takes a long time to read a sentence… well, it is boring to listen to and boring to read and it is actually harder to understand. But when a sentence can be read smoothly, like you are talking, it is much more fun and it is easier to understand! Watch how this parent and child practice reading smoothly.

Play video.

Say: Notice that the child chose the book, and that the parent asked about the story. The parent also asked about the child’s favorite parts and the pictures.The parent is making sure that the child comprehends the book, that he understands what he is reading. We always want to make sure our children are reading books they enjoy and comprehend!

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Facilitator #1 and #2Elapsed Time: 105 minutes - Check your timing and adjust accordingly.

Say: For our virtual workshop, we’ll find some ways we can help our child read more smoothly, more fluently. Everybody reads more slowly, the first time they read something. And then with some practice, they become smoother - and when we read more smoothly, we understand what we are reading a lot better.

And children love to see that they are making progress – we all do. So you might time your child reading a passage, for the first time – we call that a “cold read” - for one minute. How many words did they read, reading as smoothly as they could? Then maybe review any words that were tricky, let them practice, and time them again for one minute. They will see the progress!

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Say: To help your child read more smoothly, maybe even look at scooping as you can see in this slide.

We want to read the words and phrases together, and not….just….one …..word …..at a ……time.So your child can see that “Tamara opened her eyes” and “jumped out of bed”. It isnot…..”Tamar opened”…..her eyes….and jumped out….of bed. We read and put the ideas together.

So after looking more carefully at the tricky words, and scooping and practicing smooth reading, time your child again for one minute.

Note - If you have time, ask for a volunteer to read the first two scooped sentences –first choppy and then smooth.

Another activity with your child - make a one-minute video of your child reading something for the first time, and then after some practice, show them the first video and they’ll see how much smoother they are reading.

Do you have some ideas? Let’s share.

Facilitator #1

Say: In your take home packet of materials, you will find all the activities we played with today. Remember, in your Take Home Packet, there are more picture cards, more letter cards, more prefix/suffix and contraction cards, and a whole lot more Sight Words. For our activities today, we used just a small portion of the cards in each of those activities.

For reading lots of books and becoming a fluent reader, you might need more books at home. If you need more books, you can ask your child’s teacher, and you can also try these websites. These websites have stories at all different levels - that are all FREE!! These web addresses are in your Take Home Packet - no need to write them down - we just wanted to make sure you noticed them.

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Facilitator #1

Say: Here is a screen shot of Starfall.com - Starfall actually starts with learning the ABCs, and then lots of activities for learning to read. While Starfall will try to sell other activities, there are plenty that are free.

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Say: you will get this chart in your Take Home packet. This is just a quick demonstration of charting a child’s progress. You can see that the children read 30 words in a minute on the first day, and then 40 words in a minute on the next day, and finally, 50 words in a minute. You can use the chart for sight words or for fluent reading!

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Facilitator #2 Elapsed time: 115 minutes.

Say: We hope you have enjoyed this workshop and learned a lot about how to support your child’s early reading skills. Remember, the connection between the home and the classroom is what really makes the difference for kids learning to read. Yes, they have a teacher, but they can learn SO much about words and letters and books at home, too!If you think your child is missing skills or having difficulty, ask their teacher. The one-page summary of skills, the guide sheet we have been referring to, shows you what to expect at each grade level. If your child is having difficulty with these skills at the end of the school year - again, ask the teacher. Most of all, have fun with your children, playing with words in anything you are doing, anywhere!

Say: And please visit the Read by 4th website, where you can find all kinds of resources! Rb4 has lots and lots of resources for you and for your child! If you have time: Have any parents visited the Rb4 website? Would you like to share what you have found that others might want to know about?

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Facilitator #1

Thank You’s

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