In this class we covered some of the most important strategies for teaching reading in the early stages. We applied some of this knowledge in looking at children's magazines and creating impromptu reading lessons. We discussed some aspects of designing a lesson and everyone was able to put together worthwhile activities that were multilevel and flexible. Great work everyone!
As promised, here's the Hinky Pinky website: http://www.beavton.k12.or.us/jacob_wismer/leahy/2001/hinkypinky/hinkypinky.htm You can also have a look at our class website for many more links to sites dedicated to particular areas of reading: http://www.sfu.ca/~smbarber/resource.htm
For homework, please read Chapter Five in CMCM and the handout, Chapter 13 in R&P. Please fill in the other handout, and match stages of reading with activities (front side of paper). You can look through the readings and fill in concrete activities. Next time we will share what we've found. Also, you can send me a rough description of your topic for your paper in the next couple of weeks. Lastly, please bring your textbook to class next time. Enjoy the great weather!
One thing I realised about my self after this class is that I really want to teach outside of the box. Unfortunately, I'm not as creative as I'd like to be. When I've had a chance to observe some grade one classes, I noticed that a lot of what the kids were learning regarding phonemic awareness, was standard seatwork. That method worked well enough for the classes I was in, but I wondered how I would have understood the concept as a 6 year old. It was great to learn about more concrete activities to solidify ideas with students. I'm hoping to track down some resources that incorporate teaching phonemic awareness with music. I've noticed that kids that I work with are continually singing to themselves even as they work at their desks.
ReplyDeleteIt was encouraging to be reminded of how significant it is to affirm students in their efforts, by Harpreet. It seems like there is a divide amongst teachers I know over whether or not to point out every error early (and force kids to correct), or put a greater emphasis on what was done well. What Harpreet said was very logical to me. It is easy to forget that what adults, especially teachers, say to kids really sticks - and kids often believe the messages we send, specifically the negative ones.
Esanju
I just wanted to start off by saying that I really enjoyed last night’s class. It made me start thinking about the way I teach reading. I really liked the idea of getting the kids more involved in their learning, such as Action phonics. I think by letting the kids move around in the classroom not only allows for reading practice, but it incorporates the oracy into the classroom. In my practicum I did an activity where my students had to get up out of their desk and find the opposite homophone. The kids were excited about getting up and moving. Their brains were activated and thus learning. I was surprised it worked so well, as a result I used get up activities for other subjects that I taught. Another thing that I liked was the idea of using different outlets for reading. Again in my class, the kids received letters from teachers who they wrote to. The kids were so engaged as it was not the traditional form of reading. I think we as teachers need to be creative in what we give kids to read. Let’s give them something that they want to read.
ReplyDeleteThat brings me to my next topic. I really liked the idea of incorporating different reading the materials. The magazines were great, as we as teachers could take the articles and alter them to fit our class. The story and the map would be a great example. By altering the directions of the activity we could make the assignment easier for the lower level readers and make it more challenging for the higher level readers. Relating back to my practicum, I had to adjust many of the assignments because I had students at a grade 1/2 reading level in a grade 3 class. I ended up using reading materials that had text and pictures so the students would be successful. It is very important as teachers to make students feel good about their reading other wise they will give up. I know from my own experience that my teachers told me that I was not a good reader. I became very discouraged and still to this day, I am not a fan of reading. I want to make sure that my students never feel that way.
Helen
I really like how the textbook and handouts lay out steps in HOW someone would teach a reading strategy/activity to a class. Something that stuck with me was the “Using Words You Know” activity. I realized how many more words you could actually learn using the same spelling pattern and by using the words you already know, it is much easier to remember them and figure out more difficult words as time goes on. I think is an excellent concept and I am going to try this strategy with the student I tutor. Another activity, which I see happening in all classrooms when I TOC are word sorts. In all the elementary schools in the NW District, they have developed a Smart Reading Program for giving students the tools for reading, writing, and spelling more efficiently. For word study, called “Words Their Way”, students were assigned a level based on their spelling and word identification level, and looked at pictures. The pictures were put into categories based on their sound (for example: short ‘a’ as in ‘cat’ or long ‘o’ as in ‘nose’.) For harder levels, sometimes, there were words that needed to be matched beside the pictures. As the levels got harder, so did the words and pictures diminished. When this happened, students would go over the words with the teacher and draw a picture on the back of the word as to have a visual cue and reflect meaning when reading the word (for example, the difference between ‘which’ and ‘witch’.) I found this spelling program a really good way to assess students’ progress. After introducing it and doing the sort together the first day, students would play word sorting games, such as Hangman or word hunts (students were to find similar word patterns in books they read) to help reinforce their spelling of their words. I think the games are what keep the students excited about the words they learn, otherwise they will most likely lose interest.
ReplyDeleteI was also intrigued how the book mentioned Action phonics. In my grade one practicum, I observed the teacher use the words (that were to be put on word walls) in ways that encouraged kinaesthetic abilities. It is a good idea to incorporate all the learning styles (kinaesthetic, visual, auditory, etc.) since everyone is different. When the letter in a word extended from the top line to the bottom line when writing the word (ex. d, b, h, t, f, l, k), the students would touch their head. Students would touch their knees when letters didn’t extend below the bottom line (ex. m, n, o, r, s, u, etc.). Last, students would touch their toes when letters were q, p, or g. I suppose this was to help students remember to print properly, practice their reading, but also a way to keep students engaged because it was fun! That is something we as teachers must remember to do, when teaching reading, writing, or spelling strategies – to keep things fresh and fun.
(I may add more to my blog after attending class.)
Stephanie
Whenever I am in class or reading the textbook, I always try to picture how I could use the information/strategies for students in grades 6+. The "sounding out" strategy reminded me of something that happened in 405. A group of students was giving a presentation for social studies. One student, a very bright and sharp grade 7, was using the word "peasant", but he pronounced it "PPPsant". I did not want to stop him right then and there, so as not to embarrass him or stop the flow of great information he was sharing. I waited a day and then came back to that word. I put it on the overhead and asked the class to say the word together. Most made the same mistake. I asked them why they pronouced it that way, and many said they had never seen the word before and just spelled it out. I told them the correct way of pronouncing the word, and explained (I hope correctly) that it was an "exception" word. I guess my point is that as students get older, even though they are competent readers they will still continually encounter new vocabulary words and will use the same decoding strategies that a grade 1 student might. I think that "word walls" in the older grades, for words such as peasant, could really help students learn new words and new strategies.
ReplyDeleteA strategy mentioned in class and the readings was using the dictionary to find the correct spelling for unknown words. In my experience, both personally and with students, I have found this to be somewhat ineffective, both in English and French as a second language, when used without correct promting and explaining from teachers. I saw that most times when students used a dictionary they almost immediately forgot the spelling. I think this was because they had not attached any personal meaning to the spelling, if that makes any sense. When using this strategy, it is important that others be used in conjuction. Students should not look up the word, copy it down, and move on to the next without any discussion or other such activities to deepen understanding and awareness.
Two things from the handout reading really spoke to me. First, I really felt a personal connection to the comment in chapter 4 that older students who need help developing phonemic awareness could be paired up with younger students and learn through reading them books that emphasize this concept. At the school where I did my practicum many of my students were involved in a buddy reading program set up by the LST teacher in which older students read to the kindergarten kids three times a week. Most of the older students in the program were high level readers, but one of my students, who has difficulty in reading, really wanted to join the program. Thankfully the LST teacher let her join even though her oral reading skills aren’t up to grade level.
ReplyDeleteThe amazing part was the impact this had on her. Normally during silent reading she would ask me if she could draw, but suddenly she started reading because she wanted to be a better reader for her little buddy. She also started volunteering to read aloud in class because she wanted to improve her skills and was starting to see herself as a good reader. I also got notes in her planner from Mom saying that she was reading at home each night. It was an incredible transformation to see and I was very moved by the fact that she was so motivated to learn by her desire to help someone else.
The second thing I really liked from the readings was the Action Phonics program. I often find it difficult to incorporate kinesthetic learning in language arts and this seems like a great way to do it. It would also be an interesting way to fulfill the DPA (Daily Physical Activity) requirement from time to time. This could easily be adapted to older students as well. Once they are familiar with the movements on the action phonics list, you could have them come up with actions for vowel sounds and other letter combinations. Students or the teacher could call out words, and students would have to spell the words by going through the movements in the right order. I could see an activity like that appealing to students in the intermediate grades and you could even incorporate the weekly spelling words or vocabulary from a particular subject.
I think “What looks right?” activity is great strategy to teach students how to write spellings. I would certainly introduce this strategy to my class because I have personal experience with this strategy. Many times it happened to me that I write something and it does not look right. Then I consult a dictionary, I think I know what to do if some spellings are not right. But students do not know this automatically, and a teacher has to teach them about this strategy because I believe it is great to learn to check your spellings through this technique. I think a teacher has to introduce the technique and teach them how this works. It worked for me and definitely will be helpful for new readers and writers. Therefore, what looks right? is a great strategy to teach students to come up with write spelling and cross out the wrong ones.
ReplyDeleteThe other strategy, I really liked was “The Nifty Thrifty Fifty List.” Teachers teach students to decode and spell new words based on patterns they know from other words. I think students need to know the patterns in big words with the most common prefixes, endings, and suffixes. I would definitely teach these basic fifty words and manipulate the prefixes and suffixes, and come up with new words. First as a class we will prepare a skit of one to two sentences using a new word and then present to the class. Then I will assign one new word to a pair of students and each pair has to come up with a skit using these new words and present to the class. This way we will learn new words and meanings, which will help my students to add to their vocabulary and also they will be able to write new words. I believe they will remember the meaning and spellings because they have had first hand experience of using the words in their skits.
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ReplyDeleteWeek 3
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that this class is all about things that we can actually use in a classroom. Although I was a little apprehensive about standing up in front of the class and teaching about what we had read I found it very valuable. It was great to hear from others and having everyone share the things that they learned. I really enjoyed the examples of activities that we can use in the classroom. One of the activities that stood out to me was the making words activity. I feel that this is a great way for students to have hands on experience and be able to practice how to spell words. In the grade 3 classes in the school I work in the teachers do this activity. It works well... although I agree that if it gets to long then students lose interest. But the students really get into it. It is fun to see the light bulbs go on when they figure out how to spell a word. It is however a lot of work to prepare this activity, but once it is done you can reuse it and just make adjustment as needed. You can also have the kids be a part of making the letter cards and the card holders. On the other hand in most of the classroom the teachers are using worksheets and pre-packaged work to teach phonemic awareness. I hope that as a teacher I will use these activities and make learning fun for students. Although I am a little worried about the fact that some of these activities will take a lot of planning I am hopeful that I will use them.
As mostly an intermediate teacher on call, I found our last class extremely useful especially because I haven’t heard about many of those mini activities used to help younger children learn how to read. It was great to present them to class, giving different strategies and specific examples about how to use each one. I hope others found them just as useful and will add them to their TOC kit, as you never know who you might get for the day.
ReplyDeleteBoth the handout and the chapter from our text book suggest many great ideas and activities to help students develop phonemic awareness. I really liked the idea of using Elkonin boxes to teach students to segment words. In such activity, students get a chance to experiment with oral language by reinforcing the segmentation and blending. As English language does not have one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters, it is important for us to use as many different strategies as possible to reach every child sitting in our classroom. I can speak to this from personal experience as English is not my first language. As a child, I had difficulties understanding all the different English spelling patterns and pronunciation rules. Unlike English, my language is read as it is written and each letter has its own sound. When I came to Canada I was in grade nine and in ESL 1 as I could speak no English at all. I often got frustrated with my ESL teachers as I felt too old (in grade 9) to be reading rhyming books and playing riddle games. I now realize the importance of all of these mini activities/games as they have greatly contributed to my phonemic awareness and my success in learning the new language.
Another interesting section that really stuck with me was the last section of Chapter 4 in our textbook. It talks about how devoting large amounts of time to phonemic awareness activities each day can neglect other important literacy activities such as oral language, listening skills, meaning vocabulary, etc. Personally, I disagree with this. Though we shouldn’t spend the whole day doing these activities, I believe that it is crucial to integrate them into other subjects whenever possible. Many children are only exposed do phonics instructions only at school and are never read to at home, so as teachers, we should be obligated to spend as much time as possible to give them that good base to phonemic awareness and lead them to become successful readers. Oral language and listening skills could be taught through other subjects, even PE.
I am finding this text quite an interesting read. I find the examples, books and activities it suggests through out the chapters very helpful and quite motivating. I am wanting to go out and find the recommended materials, try the suggested lessons and teach!
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the last three chapters I have found that I have been or have observed other teachers implementing these strategies and did not realize the exact purpose of them. Through-out my limited experience teaching a class, whether it was as a child and youth care worker, daycare/preschool teacher or student teacher practicum, I have incorporated reading strategies without realizing it! As a preschool teacher I was always singing rhyming songs, chants, making up silly rhymes with the children, reading rhyming books and allowing the children many opportunities to write, read, and rhyme. As a child and youth care worker I have taught small groups and whole classes social skills and have implemented word dramatization to enhance understanding of emotions, social concepts and problem solving strategies that involve new vocabulary. As well, as a student teacher I would introduce new vocabulary before a lesson, activate prior knowledge, use displays and topic boards and reading and listening approaches.
I was talking to the principal at my work the other day saying that I don't know how we can possibly fit everything we are learning into the classroom. It seems like we have to juggle so much at one time! She said that I need to realize that I am doing it without even realizing it, all the time, and it comes naturally. I didn't believe her until I sat down and thought about it! We are doing important lessons through-out every minute, and these education courses are helping us (well, me) to name them, be aware!
One of the readings that really stuck with me was the one I did the presentation on chapter 6th of the handout readings discussing using prefixes and affixes as well as derivation (root words). This was something I found very useful because I deal with secondary students yet I could see using these strategies in my English or socials classroom when reading novels or other text resources. I think that extending student’s vocabulary and giving them skills to access words is a great strategy when teaching students how to read. For some students, when they reach a word they don’t know, I find they often skip it and not worry about its meaning. This is a learned habit probably from their earlier years where this was acceptable and there was no check. I think that implementing weekly word banks using prefixes, affixes and derivations is a great way for students to learn how to tackle some of those daunting words that contribute heavily to the understanding of certain novels or texts. So, by implementing some of these important word banks into my classroom I expect that students would enjoy having strategies to work out words on their own, using some prior knowledge. I would even consider having some review or group work, where students can have some practice with words from the “word bank” mixing words up and writing out new definitions. I think this would be a valuable way to expand vocabularies and give students more tools to help enhance their understandings as they are reading.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that most English teachers complain about secondary students is reading comprehension. Students often finish reading an article or novel and they assume because they have gotten to the bottom of the page that they understand. However, when given comprehension tests, they do poorly. I think perhaps some of this has to do with students reading skills. They may be reading the words but without understanding the words and being able to extract meaning from them, they are not achieving the classroom task. This is what concerns me with reading. I agree that reading is important and that the more students read the better, but I also feel the need in elementary school for students to be asked why they are reading, what the reading was about, why is it important and what can they learn from that reading. I feel like these questions are not explored as much as they should be in the intermediate levels and many students come to secondary school able to read the words, but unable to extract deep meaning from text. I think that reading needs to be better introduced as a way of gaining information so that students can see the value in reading. I think for us to teach reading well, comprehension is a very important part of the equation and I argue that teaching affixes, prefixes and root words is at least one way for students to gain meaning from text when they understand important words.
May 26, 2009.
ReplyDeleteComments on last week’s class:
I am having some struggles with some of the concepts we have discussed in class. It is not understanding the concept I am struggling with, it is the implementation of different strategies and ideas in the classroom. Last week we talked about a word wall and how it would benefit students. My problem is how effective will it be? Will students automatically defer to the wall instead of problem solve for themselves the proper spelling, and furthermore, and a word wall will give them no input on if they are using the word in the proper context. Is there a more suitable word the student can find? These problems are solved with a dictionary and thesaurus, but, I fear students might be guided into thinking the word wall is a suitable out. Dictionaries and thesaurus’ are excellent sources to build vocabulary, and a word wall is limited in its usefulness.
Reading the chapters has got me doing some thinking. A lot of the suggestions in the text are similar to the 5 reading powers suggested by Adrianne Gear (Connect, Question, Visualize, Infer, and Transform). I know these are familiar with a lot of PDP students. I just could not help noticing the similarities between the suggestions in the text and those that are suggested by Gear. I am now starting to assume that some of these strategies have long been used in classrooms, but it is just recent that they have been examined by academics and tweaked to the students benefit.
Reading the post of Essie in regards to music has got my brain started about different applications phonic awareness. The comment, she makes about music “I'm hoping to track down some resources that incorporate teaching phonemic awareness with music. I've noticed that kids that I work with are continually singing to themselves even as they work at their desks” has got me thinking about phonic awareness in different formats. I want to be the best teacher I can be for the benefits of my students, and I think taking different approaches is a way to do that. Thank-you, Essie for helping me think about this topic in differently.
Boy was last class informative. It seemed as if we were learning strategy after strategy for teaching literacy. I did feel as if all the strategies were blending into one another, which is why the sheet that we received for homework will prove to be useful I’m sure. My brain hurt by the end of last class and I’m afraid I didn’t retain much of the lesson plan ideas (using magazines) that were shared by classmates at the end of the class. I walked away from the class feeling partly excited by the new knowledge I had gained, partly frustrated that I was already beginning to forget it, and partly exhausted from the hours of concentration. This made me wonder about the way we teach our own students and the hours each day we expect them produce work and retain information. I have seen that ‘glazed’ over look from my students more times than I want to count. I need to think more about ways to avoid this. A challenge as a TOC when there is so much information set out for you to teach in one day. Don’t get me wrong, however. I did very much enjoy the way everyone presented their part of the reading. It was helpful to see everyone else's take on the info.
ReplyDeleteI especially enjoyed the presenting student who brought up the importance of teaching young students to use a dictionary from the readings. I agree that it is a skill that should be taught at a young age. In my long practicum I was surprised that my grade 3 students had no clue how to use a dictionary or thesaurus. I designed a lesson that included using a dictionary and thesaurus to find synonyms for their word choices. The teacher and LST teacher were apprehensive about this and thought the students wouldn’t be able to handle it. They were still supportive, however, and we went ahead with it. It was a difficult lesson for many of them and it was clearly noticeable that most of them had never had exposure to a dictionary or thesaurus in their lives! I was so happy to be able to bring this resource into the classroom. (I had to go room to room and steal them from other teachers to get enough for the class to use). I would encourage dictionary and thesaurus use from the very beginning. Not only does it create powerful writing, but it also creates a sense of autonomy for the students and encourages problem solving. What do we do when we don’t know what a word means or how to write it better…? Look it up!
This class was especially informative and packed with strategies for teachers in the classroom. I am really enjoying the interactive nature of this class and not only practicing information sharing in front of the class, but also one-on-one collaboration with fellow students. Having exposure to the magazines and brainstorming ideas for their use in reading activities for the classroom was particularly eye-opening. The more exposure in using Reading Lesson Templates the better! Is there a way of compiling our lessons that we come up with in class so that we can refer back to them afterwards? Perhaps as part of or instead of a portion of our blogs? In the confines of our class time it is sometimes difficult to digest all of the information being thrown at us. It would be nice to have an opportunity to preview possible lessons that were presented in class after the fact.
ReplyDeleteAs a new teacher in the field, the sections in the text “Books too Good to Miss” is especially useful in building a classroom library. The section “Children Must Develop Strategies for Decoding and Spelling Unknown Words” is especially useful when describing the four activities – Using words you know, Making Words, Word Sorting and Hunting, and What Looks Right? By going over these strategies in the classroom with each other we are able to not only process and learn this information, but also manipulate the information and practice how we would actually use it in the classroom. That way it is not such a burden to incorporate all of these activities in the classroom, it will be more intuitive and automatic and make us that much more prepared to teach. This definitely puts my mind at ease and I feel as though I am actually getting exposure to skills that are useful! This class and the text are also opening my eyes to teaching strategies I have already been exposed to in the classroom and I am able to remember these activities and perhaps even build on them, tailoring the approach to my own. Before this class I did not realize that Phonemic awareness was such an indicator of success in learning to read. It has opened my eyes to strategies in developing not only this but also oral language, meaning vocabulary, listening comprehension and print concepts and including all of these aspects in various lessons across the curriculum.
I really enjoyed our last class on reading strategies. Having taught Kindergarten for a number of years, I am very familiar with Phonemic Awareness and Phonics activities. One of the many reasons I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching Kindergarten, is that I`ve had the opportunity to expose young children to a variety of activities that foster the development of their Early Literacy skills such as Phonemic Awareness. This has always involved music! Children love music and many children learn and retain information better when music is involved. A resource I have found to be invaluable is “Music Play.” It is a music program for Kindergarten-aged children that includes cds, words to the songs, lesson plans and suggestions of how to incorporate the songs into daily lessons. It also covers all curriculum areas. As others have mentioned, it has also been my experience that children often sing or hum during different activities throughout the school day.
ReplyDeleteWe have an excellent music teacher and program at my school. During the school year, we have several different kinds of assemblies where classes take turns performing a song or dance or playing an instrument such as the recorder. It has been very interesting and insightful for me to observe so many children who are usually inattentive and unfocused, being attentive and focused, and excelling at what they`re doing! I believe this speaks volumes for the impact music has on children and their ability to learn.
As a less experienced LST teacher, I have found it challenging to provide a wide variety of activities that support reading strategies for older students such as Grade 3 and 4. Some older students that I support, are at a much lower grade level in literacy than their same-age peers. I am currently using a reading intervention program that the other LST teachers at my school have been using, called, “Early Success” and “Soar to Success.” It includes books for the children (fiction and non-fiction), a teacher`s guide with all the lesson plans/daily activities clearly laid out, letter cards for the “Making Words” activities, charts for vowels, letter blends, etc. and assessments. It is easy to use and does include a variety of activities. I do like it and have found it to be quite successful. However, having a Kindergarten background, I am used to more “hands-on” activities, music, movement, and a less structured environment.
My goal as a Learning Support Teacher, is to try and continue to meet the individual needs of each student, by providing them with a greater range of appropriate activities that support reading strategies at their level. For example, I would like to try to buddy up one of my Grade 4 students who is at about a Grade 2 literacy level with a Grade 3 student who is at a Kindergarten literacy level. I think this idea in a LST group is great and would also foster responsibility and self-esteem. Also, I think that magazines are a great idea for encouraging literacy and would appeal to many students. Ironically, I have used both of these examples in my Kindergarten classroom!!
Julie
I really enjoyed the part of the handout regarding teaching derivational patterns. Reading the first two sentences I immediately became cynical, thinking to myself, how is this really going to help kids? Then it brought to mind how kids in spelling B’s always ask for the root of the word, and then I got to thinking that when I worked at Montessori all the little ones had etymology books, where they would write down words, their roots, and their meanings. As I kept reading I realized how beneficial knowing the roots to words can be, as knowing one root can help kids identify hundreds of words! This study of words would be a great history lesson as well and I can see how thrilled kids would be to become “word detectives.” By looking at the word list provided and looking at the roots, some of the more difficult words were suddenly far easier for me to comprehend and I wondered why I hadn’t seen a connection before!
ReplyDeleteChapter four also had so many brilliant ideas that will be such great fun trying out when I FINALLY get a classroom. I liked the idea of students “being the alphabet” as they line up to go somewhere. Sometimes getting students to line up can be a real chore and this would be lots of fun for them, while allowing them to learn to recognize letters. I have had children line up alphabetically with their names and this can also be a bit of a challenge, especially when two names start with the same letter. I like the idea that many of these learning activities are fun and will really engage students in productive learning that lasts, instead of boring rote memory learning.
I really enjoyed reading about word sorts in our readings. I was in a grade 4 class for my 401 practicum, and my SA used word sorts for the students’ spelling words. I think that word sorts are an incredibly effective way to give students spelling words because it creates a connection with how we use letters. In my practicum class of the 21 students, there were four word sort groups based on the writing levels of the students. Word sorts are great because they do not focus on rote memorization of words, instead children are given an opportunity to explore why words are spelt and pronounced certain ways. I believe that this is fundamental to how students learn to read and write. It also attaches greater meaning to why they are learning these words. When you give all the learners in your class the same set of 10 to 20 spelling words, what are you really teaching them? I believe that word sorts are an excellent way for children to explore words and the greater meaning behind why they are spelt the way that they are.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, word sorts are also very effective for ESL learners. I was amazed at how quickly the most struggling ESL learner in my practicum class picked up how to sort words, and I can’t help thinking how unproductive it would have been for him to just memorize a list of spelling words.
Another aspect of the text that I found very interesting was the “making words” section. While observing a grade 1 class I saw this being implemented. The children were amazed at how many words they could spell by just using 6 or 7 letters. This is also an effective strategy to use with young children because since they are using a small selection of letters they will be dealing with a lot of rimes.
The comment was made in class that although this is a good approach to spelling, it can be time consuming as far as preparation for the teacher is concerned. An easy way to solve this would be to hand out a piece of paper with all the letters of the alphabet on it, let the children cut them out, and then have them put the letters in a zip lock bag and keep them in their desks. With students having these individual letters in their desks, a lot of other activities could also be done.
Last class was very busy! It’s sometimes hard to believe that there are SO many strategies out there for teaching phonics and spelling (and ultimately reading). To be completely honest, I have always been terrified at the thought of teaching Kindergarten or Grade 1 because of the immense responsibility that those teachers have for teaching their students “how to read.” However, the more time I spend reading the textbook/handouts and discussing strategies with others in class, I realize that there are so many great ideas that can be used, and that teaching a early primary grade would actually be A LOT of fun! And for that I am grateful!
ReplyDeleteI really liked the magazine mini-lessons from last class and agree with others who have mentioned the idea of somehow recording those lesson ideas so they are not forgotten. What I particularly enjoyed about the magazine activity was the idea of exposing students to another form of print. Also, the magazines were very engaging and could be used to link Language Arts with Science or Social Studies. Cool!
Lastly, I also thought the Action Phonics was a great strategy that would especially help kinesthetic learners. It’s so nice to see that there are different strategies available to reinforce phonics for various learners. (Songs, Books, Actions, etc.)
Hi there everyone!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed last week's class. Like Jamie, I have found the early primary level quite intimidating because of the responsibilities to teach them basic ideas, which are mainly common sense for us! Incorporating these "common sense" ideas into something workable and broken down has been very helpful. As an intermediate teacher, it is good to know these skills because there will be many students that will come to my class that will have reading difficulties and these strategies will come to good use. Also, (thinking way into the future), teaching a child how to read is very useful knowledge for when I eventually have kids myself, as, in the future, I will be able to use these strategies directly as a parent.
I really appreciated that we looked at the children's magazines from the perspectives of different age groups. I found that I got a lot out of that activity. As teachers, you see so many different resources, but it's putting these resources to use is what is the key. I definitely think that I could implement some of the ideas I learnt in class last week in a Language Arts, Creative Writing, Science, etc unit!
Another thing I enjoyed about last class was reading through the text. Doing group work like that really helps you delve into the readings more efficiently. I'm finding that this textbook is really helpful, easy to read and full of direct advice that we can use.
Learning about different strategies and techniques made for an interesting class! What I found particularly interesting, and hope to learn more about, was the different ways of incorporating movement into reading lessons. For example: encouraging students to use their hands, or whole body to form letters when learning different sounds. I found it interesting because during my practicum I felt like I spent a great deal of time trying to keep the students in their desks. They crave movement! So why not incorporate it as much as possible!
ReplyDeleteI also like the idea of using magazines as a base for a reading lesson. Many students love magazines and actually prefer them to books. As far as I’m concerned: if it gets them to enjoy reading, lets them read whatever they want. Enjoying books will hopefully follow soon after. I wonder if there are any strategies for building lessons around comic books?
Last class was a great way to acquire new strategies for teaching reading to a variety of different age groups. It was wonderful to hear about so many highly engaging ways that the same basic principles of teaching beginning and even more advanced literacy skills could be incorporated into Elementary Language Arts as well as Secondary English. I learned a lot about decoding and spelling strategies from K-12, such as breaking multisyllabic words down into the smallest units of meaning, an idea incorporated by a few groups. Thank you to our high school group for presenting us with a different perspective, as I know these strategies will also be useful for all of us as current/future TOCs in both elementary and secondary school classrooms.
ReplyDeleteI also thought it was really useful for all of us that many groups were able to tie in reading activities with a variety of different subject areas ranging from Language Arts to Science to Social Studies. Especially in the primary grades and in Kindergarten in particular, all of the subjects seem to meld together. I also think that when children are learning to read, this is a skill that should be practiced in relation to a variety of different forms of print from across the curriculum. I found that many of the activities extracted from children’s magazines were interesting and original ways of getting children to practice known skills and acquire new ones.
During the reading this week as well as in class discussion it has been wonderful to get such insight into Phonemic awareness and all the aspects that need to be considered. I especially liked the word whopper, as well the importance of teaching students to listen and hear the different morphemes. The articles seem to stress the importance of always exposing students to variety and choice when they select books.
ReplyDeleteI was excited when I read the section on action phonics and the sounds and actions to accompany letters and blends. I couldn’t wait to try it with my students. We had a wonderful time outside in the sunshine doing some of these actions. They even tended to extend the activity to think of a lot of words that may have started with that sound. How exciting when students enjoy and learning is fun.
I found it very useful to work in groups with a magazine and come up with some lesson plans. It shows that you can pull anything together if in a crunch...
Just the other day I was having a discussion with some of my friends and we were talking about movies that have been horribly made. Someone mentioned the movie “Twilight” and I was quick to judge and say that I didn’t enjoy the movie that much because of how much I enjoyed the books. One person that we were with was quick to say, “Well I hate books anyways, so I’m pretty sure I hate everything about Twilight.” This comment almost offended me in a way. Not because of the fact that he didn’t like “Twilight” but because of the fact he “hates” books. This topic is a “hot” topic for me because I was never a strong reader growing up. Throughout my school years I can never remember saying I “hate” reading though. I can remember struggling at wanting to read and I was always a little envious of my friends that could read really quickly and read numerous chapter books within the week. I can remember wanting to be able to accomplish that, but could never reach that goal. This issue about “struggling readers” is a huge awareness for me going into the profession of teaching. I think all of us being teachers want our students to succeed, and there will be instances that some students are just simply not motivated to read and take no interest in books. I wish I asked this person why he “hated” books but I think I was in such a state of shock; I never thought to proceed with that conversation. I guess my question would be: “How can we as teachers, help our students to “love” reading, rather than ever getting to point of “hating” reading? Why do some students have a passion for reading whereas some students could not even be bothered with it?”
ReplyDeleteAnother topic that I was interested in was learning to write and people’s actions and attitudes towards a child’s learning strategy.
I was thinking about this topic after having read the example about Ben’s writing development throughout time in Chapter 13: Spelling and Word Learning. When viewing his writing skills my initial first reaction was to think how “cute” his writing was. Then I started to wonder how many adults view children’s learning development as “cute.” I started to wonder if I thought it was cute only because he was young or just learning how to write. I then thought about other people just learning how to write English from another culture. Would their writing lead people to think that their methods were cute?
I guess this topic intrigued me because I have a psychology background, but I wonder if this attitude has any effects on the children’s learning development.
I liked the idea that teachers let students read magazines for their educational purposes. Having the freedom to choose the magazine to read can allow promote students’ interest in reading. I lost interest in reading textbooks because as a kid because it takes the fun out of it and it seems like a chore, especially when I first came to Canada in grade 6 as an ESL student. The heavy load of reading took me so much time to read per night that I do not have time to read books for fun. Eventually, I lost interest in reading. I believe if I had a chance to read something fun I the class, I would be able to prolong my interest in reading.
ReplyDeleteI like the Nifty Thrifty Fifty List because it can let students see that many words may contain the common prefixes and suffixes so they do not have to memorize each new word by rote. They can recognize the most common parts of the word and expand it to other new words.
One of the activities I liked in the textbook is the word books (p.132) where students have to make a little booklet of an individual word. Many criteria’s are given with one word so students need to think of the word in many different aspects. I believe that it is a good way to make sure students learn a word well.
Lastly, I believe phonemic awareness is important for word recognition because it does allow readers to read unknown words with decent accuracy and would not affect the flow of reading. If I have to stop at every word in a reading and ask others hwo to pronounce the word, reading will become a torture.
I find all the activities we discussed during class very interesting and the fact that I don’t think I’ve encountered any of them when I was in elementary school astounding. I remembered doing drills and spelling but that’s by rote memories. We never went through the sound of the entire alphabet and the long and short sounds of vowels. In Ch. 4 where they said we should spend a good amount of time with just dealing with phonic awareness is such a great idea but I don’t know who did that when I was in elementary school. I don’t remember learning any of this. Hence, my spelling and decoding skills are still lacking even though I’m an adult now.
ReplyDeleteThe second part that I really enjoyed was the magazine activity portion of the class. I didn’t think it was going to be that easy to come up with language arts activities as that is not my strongest subject. Within minutes of looking at the magazines we were coming up with ideas for older students and younger students and probably came up with a term worth of materials that are not only for language arts but for science too.
Like most of the others in this class, I am finding our sessions to be incredibly interesting and useful. Spelling is a topic of interest for me, probably because I worked in a learning assistance setting for so many years. I found the handout for this week particulary intriguing in the way it followed students' typical developmental patterns in learning to write and spell. By respecting this pattern, and recognizing where each student is at in terms of development, we are better able to support and maximize their learning, as well as help them gain confidence and enthusiasm for writing.
ReplyDeleteIn dealing with parents, the thing that answered my last reservations about invented spelling was that it is a developmental stage, much like learning to talk. If we can help parents understand and support this process, they will be the child's strongest allies in learning to spell. Spelling is worked on in context, rather than only in isolation, where it is often not transferred to everyday writing. Another comment I found valuable was the idea that allowing approximations of spelling allow for more precision in word use, which develops the child's writing and thinking skills, rather than setting up a road block for true creative expression and communication of thoughts.
Lastly, the activites with children's magazines were really fun. I remember the magazines I read as a child and how much I enjoyed them, probably becasue it gave me the opportunity to learn and explore something without being taught it. The unspoken message I got was, "This is fun, useful, and exciting, and you are capable of exploring it on your own!"
It is amazing how easily and quickly a teacher can set up activities to go along with any subject, and focus on different aspects of reading development at a variety of levels.
The idea that phonemic awareness is critical in achieving reading success has been around for a while, as a result the concept of teaching phonemic awareness has also existed for some time now. What I find most interesting are the numerous different strategies employed to teach phonemic awareness, however, I found the text did an excellent job of breaking these strategies down into five types of focused activities. These five concepts provide us, as educators, with an excellent framework to build and plan instruction around. I strongly feel if each of these concepts is followed and built upon sequentially every child will have had the opportunity to develop phonemic awareness.
ReplyDeleteI addition, I found the notion of teaching children advanced word patterns extremely interesting. I think once students have developed some sense of word knowledge and ability to read they should be introduced to this concept. It’s a great way for students to build upon their existing vocabulary, learn to decode and recognize word patterns.
Wednesday, May 27
ReplyDeleteI am really enjoying the practicality and the usability of the activities in this course so far. When I initially read through all of the readings for this week, I felt a little overwhelmed at how many different strategies were being presented to us. I find this especially daunting because the strategies we have been introduced to are but a small sample of what is available. How do teachers know which strategy they should use for best results with each of their students? The group presentation activity, where we each presented a “section” of the strategies, was helpful in solidifying not only the strategies themselves but also their usefulness in the classroom. And even though I was terrified to stand up and talk about a topic that I did not feel very familiar with, the process forced me to gain a deeper understanding. I guess it really is true when “they” say the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else
When I got home that night, I was thinking about the “what looks right” activity in chapter 4 of the text book and it reminded me (connection) of a strategy that I use to help my son with unfamiliar words by asking him “what sounds right?” This is especially helpful with vowels and vowel combinations where the vowels could be saying either their “name” or their “sound”. At first this is something that we would do together orally as we read together, but now he does it on his own and in his head.
I am a little puzzled about something I read in the hand out called “Teaching Phonemic Awareness” (chapter 4). It mentions how “playing with sounds may be abstract for many students” because they are “invisible [and] they can’t be held or made to stay”. Their suggestion is to make the sounds more concrete by associating each sound with a physical object. They use different coloured blocks in their example, where each sound is represented by a different coloured block. While I agree that providing students with a concrete object to represent each sound may be helpful for many students, I do question their choice of objects. Associating each sound with a different colour seems far more “abstract” to me than teaching students that each sound is associated with a different letter or letter combination. They go on to say that once young children are familiar with the sounds (using coloured blocks) teachers can move on to making the same associations with the letters of the alphabet. My question is this: Why not use physical letters right from the start? They did not provide any sound research to support their choice of coloured blocks over letters. Does anyone have any ideas or thoughts as to why we shouldn’t use letters?
Shanie