H & F Ch 3 Emergent Reader and Writer
This chapter focuses on characteristics of the emergent reader and writer. The authors state that this type of student is usually found in kindergarten classrooms, but can be in all primary grades. In the beginning, students at this stage, pretend read and use memory reading when working with books. On page 63, the authors describe how a student moves from the pretend stage to the conventional stage of reading, " First with targeted instruction, they learn to process oral language as a sequence of sounds--they develop phonological awareness." I believe this step is so critical in progressing with reading and writing. There is a visual on page 65 which shows the phonological awareness progression. In order to help emergent readers progress, the authors recommend a "well-balanced literacy diet" (p. 67). This includes assessment-based instruction, word knowledge, writing, and oral language. There is an example of a 120 minute literacy block in a kindergarten classroom on pages 69-70. I appreciate what the authors said on page 72, " The ultimate goal of instruction is to transfer word knowledge into contextual reading and writing." In order to monitor progress, the authors provided assessments and forms to track progress--the web address on page 72 will take you to a page to register and then you will have all forms for assessments in a file.
How do you provide a well-balanced literacy diet? Does it look similar to examples in the chapter? How do you monitor progress in your reading and writing block?
If you teach other grades besides kindergarten, do you have any emergent readers or writers? If so, how do you help them move to the next level?
How do you support oral language?
H & F Ch 5 The Beginning Reader and Writer
This chapter focuses on characteristics of the beginning reader and writer. The author states that usually students move to this stage in the spring semester of kindergarten, although not all students move at the same rate. This is the stage that builds to the next stage of reading and writing. I'm glad the authors pointed out the CCSS and Lexile levels do not relate easily to beginning readers who are at preprimer to primer levels (page 109). Teachers should focus on Guided Reading levels (Founts & Pinnell) or Developmental Reading Assessment levels (Beaver & Carter) for finding appropriate texts.
Spelling in this stage includes a multitude of characteristics which is shown in Figure 5.6 on page 110. The authors recommend to focus on the "front end of the zone" of spelling which will help scaffold instruction. There are examples of where to begin (short vowels) and what areas of spelling to advance after mastery of short vowels. In order to be successful, the authors again refer to a "balanced literacy diet". On page 122, Figure 5.15, breaks down what this would look like in a classroom setting.
How do you know your students are ready to move to the next level in both reading and spelling?
In my classroom, I find some of my students progress faster in reading than writing. Do you see the same issues?
What key idea did you find beneficial?
H & F Ch 7 The Transitional Reader and Writer
I appreciate the readings this week following the progression from emergent reader/writer, to beginner and on to transitional. It helps me visualize the characteristics of each one as well as relate to some of my students I teach. A transitional reader and writer builds automaticity in reading and writing fluency. The authors define a transitional reader as one who "reads at the late first-grade to early third grade level" (page 178) and a transitional writer as one who has a " solid control of short vowel patterns, blends and digraphs from the beginner stage" (page 180). Students at this level will be able to read and write in chunks, and not by letter by letter. The "well-balanced literacy diet" is addressed in this chapter as well. I found it interesting to note the differences in time spent in each area of the literacy diet from an emergent reader (page 69), beginning reader (page 122) and transitional reader (page 189).
Do the differences in the balanced literacy diet across students in each stage make sense to you?
What key idea did you find beneficial?
C & R Ch 4 Teaching Spelling
I enjoy teaching spelling so this chapter was an enjoyable read! On page 53, the authors state," high-quality, explicit instruction in spelling is more effective that informal instruction " and "spelling instruction has been found to support both reading and spelling skills". Just as an emergent reader needs a strong foundation in phonological awareness, so does a proficient speller. Chapter 3 from H & F has a visual progression of phonological awareness (page 65), this chapter has the same visual progression of phonological awareness for spelling ( page 57). The authors provide strategies for teaching reading and spelling together, for teaching spelling by itself, and supporting spelling in different authentic contexts. The authors address invented spelling, while they support the use of invented spelling, they also encourage the use of modeling correct spelling. I also appreciate the chart on page 69 with spelling practices to avoid with recommendations to use instead.
Does your spelling curriculum follow the reading curriculum or do you teach spelling by itself?
Do you incorporate spelling tests in your classroom activities?
What key idea did you find beneficial in this chapter?
At my school, our literacy curriculum reflects similar ideas to the Balanced Literacy program. I incorporate interactive reading, interactive writing, shared reading, guided reading, independent reading and writing, word work, and other strategies throughout the week during the literacy block. The lessons range from 15-30 minutes long just like the examples on p. 70.
ReplyDeleteAfter a lot of modeling and shared activities, the students will engage in independent work time. During this time, I provide them with less instruction, but guidance if needed. I use these writing samples and observations as assessments to gauge instruction. Unlike Mr. Moore, I do not get assistance from other teachers during my small group reading time, so instead of being in another small group with a teacher, the students that are not in the small group are working on independent center work that I also use to help with instruction.
As a second grade teacher, I have had emergent readers and writers every year since I started teaching. They display all of the characteristics listed on p. 62, like writing with scribbles and letter-like symbols, there is no correlation to letters and sounds, etc. For rhe students that are showing this level of word recognition, we work on the alphabetic principle and associate sounds to letters. Once that is established, we practice listening for word patterns and associating word pattern sounds with letter patterns. It's a very explicit and slow process, but eventually, the students learn quickly and as they see their growth, their motivation levels spike tremendously!
Looking forward to the rest of the discussion.
ReplyDeleteChapter 4 of C&R had such great examples on how to support word work in the classroom. Sorting words (p. 61) is an activity we do weekly in the classroom. The students will have their spelling words of the week to cut and paste into their interactive reading notebook. This activity helps with recognizing sound patterns and manipulating words by their onset and rime.
ReplyDeleteOur spelling curriculum comes from our reading curriculum, Wonders. However, there have been weeks when the Wonders curriculum incorporates way too many word families together in one week. This makes practicing and understanding the patterns much more difficult. Because of this, my grade level team and I selected a few of the patters (about 4 or 5 out of the 8 total) to create our own lists. This allows the students to focus on a few patterns and master them, versus a bunch of patterns and not fully grasp the skill.
Our spelling tests are also different from the traditional spelling tests. As a grade level, we believe that understanding word families and spelling patterns of the week is learned not by just memorizing how to spell, but really understanding how the letters work together to create a sound or multiple sounds. And so our spelling test words are not the words that are sent home for homework, but it is a list of words that consist of the pattern, but not on the studied list. For example, if the word family is "at" a list would go home with bat, cat, fat, etc. But the test would have words like sat, pat, and mat. It becomes an assessment of understanding the skill and not memorizing how to spell.
Theresa,
DeleteI love that your spelling tests are based on word families and that you don't send home a spelling list that they simply memorize. You're really encouraging decoding skills and I'm going to have to ask some of the teachers at my school to see if any of them do something similar- or maybe this is common thing I didn't know about!
I agree with Melinda, Theresa. That is a really good idea to not send the actual list home. I like that you pointed out that it becomes an assessment of understanding the skill rather than memorizing how to spell. How did your parents respond to that idea?
DeleteI also liked a lot of the strategies listed in the chapter. I also do word sorts every week. I am going to start using the study-copy-cover-compare technique. I bet the kids would enjoy it. I also liked the idea of building on easier words to differentiate instruction. For example, the chapther mentioned if the word base is to simple, then the students could practice baker, baked, and bakery.
Theresa and Jamie,
DeleteHow do you teach how to spell irregular words?
When it comes to reading and writing, noticing the milestones like mentioned on p. 127 of H&R Ch. 5, is what helps me determine if a student is ready for the next level of instruction. When decoding, letter-sound correspondence, and the automaticity of high frequency words are observed, I know that my beginning reading or writing student is ready to practice a more difficult task.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that some students are much more advanced in their reading than spelling as well. Many of my students are fluent readers, however their spelling is not up to par. With these students, I focus a lot on vowel teams, because there are so many, r-controlled vowels, and vowel-consonant e. It seems like those patterns are most challenging to grasp.
My class schedule looks very similar to the example on p. 124. The times allot for each literacy area is similar to my own. Having a balanced literacy curriculum throughout the day, with read-aloud, independent reading and writing, word work, and small group reading really helps the students practice the skills in an encompassing manner. Some days we do have to leave some areas out due to scheduling, however the students respond very well to the continuity of the skills.
I found that my literacy block was also closely related to the model described on page 124. I do have my students work on all areas of the balanced literacy diet components. I meet with small groups daily for about 20-25 mins, while my other students do center work or seat work. For my seat work, I'll usually have students practice what we did at teacher table or extend on what we did there either individually or with partners. However, I do have some differences too. I constantly have my students write especially about what we've read. We write for shorter and extended periods, but I don not have a set time for a writer's workshop each day. I do teach our writing lessons similar to the teacher example on page 124, but this is not something I do daily. Do you have a daily writer's workshop? I am going to work on making more time for writers workshop, because I definitely know the importance. The example and picture were helpful.
DeleteI have weekly spelling tests and then a review week--usually about every third week. It depends on the pattern we are learning---for a pattern that seems more difficult I might have a review every second week.
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ReplyDeleteDo you incorporate spelling tests in your classroom activities?
I have had years where I don’t have the weekly spelling tests and years when I do it weekly. When I taught in Edmond, our principal had told us to stop giving weekly tests. Her reason was similar to what the authors described on page 69 where the students memorize the words the week of the test, but then can’t spell those same words later down the road. On the other hand, when I have decided not give spelling tests on a weekly basis, I have parents that have complained that their students won’t learn to spell.
Jamie,
DeleteI can see the arguments for both sides but I feel like the way Theresa does her spelling tests might be a good in between?? I know some of my students get really stressed out about the weekly spelling tests because they mention when they come see me in speech. If they are stressing out and simply memorizing the words long enough to pass the spelling test I can see why they wouldn't be beneficial. You'll have to let us know if you decide to implement this and how it goes, parents reactions, etc! I am interested in reading some research on using spelling tests in the classroom.
Jamie,
DeleteI also use dictation of sentences on my weekly spelling tests. At the end of the spelling test, I say a few sentences (usually three) using spelling words from previous lessons and irregular words we have learned.
H&F Chp 5.
ReplyDeleteThere were many key ideas that I took away from this chapter but the one that stuck out to me the most was just the overview of characteristics of beginning readers and writers. It was very helpful for me to read more in depth about the thought processes and tendencies of beginning readers and writers. Im excited to eventually be able to analyze a beginning reader/writers spelling and be able to get a lot of information from that. Also, although I do not provide instruction in either reading or writing , I agree that it does seem like many students progress faster in reading than in writing Karen.
H&F Chp. 7
Coming from a non-classroom teacher point of view, the "balanced literacy diet" for transitional readers makes sense to me. The 20% "rich oral and written language" portion seems like it would not have to be a separate devoted time since most classrooms are naturally language rich environments? As they move out of the transitional stage and towards their ultimate milestones it would make sense that they would need different amounts and types of literacy instruction- to me it seems a little like how I would slowly fade cues in speech therapy.