Literacy Essentials
Bishop Woods School
Jo Garrison
December 12, 2011
Critical Components - CCSS
• Climate, Engagement & Differentiation
• Alphabetic Principle
• Reader’s Workshop & Comprehension
• Unit Planning - Science & Social Studies
Engagement
“Student engagement is the product of motivation and active learning.
- Elizabeth F. Barkley
• Create an emotionally and intellectually safe classroom.
• Make learning relevant & provide authentic learning opportunities.
• Provide opportunities to engage & explore topics assignments and content
in a collaborative way.
• Design lessons that involve wondering, dreaming, playing, communicating,
exploring discovering, questioning, investigating, creating.
▫ The disengaged will become engaged!
• Scaffold instruction to insure success – not too easy, not too hard. ZPD
▫ Learning should be rewarding!
• Create a culture of explanation vs. “right answer.”
• Use questioning strategies that make all students think and answer
• Use draft and revision process, peer edit, & feedback .
▫
Adapted from Ten Steps to Better Student Engagement, by Tristan de Frondeville &
26 Keys to Student Engagement, by Angela Maiers (See BW Wiki Space for full articles.)
Addressing Intervention &
Director Visits
• Use the test data along with lesson notes/running records to choose material at the
just-right instructional level.
• Ask questions that cause students to apply the comprehension focus in all
intervention groups. Question to monitor comprehension & deepen discussion.
• Encourage all students to participate in discussions. Individual miniconferences may be appropriate at times, for example when giving students feedback
on whisper reading. However, if you are discussing the text, include the whole group.
• Use the turn and talk strategy during discussions to increase active engagement in
the lesson.
• Provide active learning opportunities for all students. If you are using flash
cards, you should have enough sets for all the students. If you are quizzing individual
students, you can have the other students practicing the words from a typed list. Use
white boards so all students can participate.
• Listen to students whisper read to verify that students can decode the text level
and take notes to guide planning for a phonics component, if needed.
• Take anecdotal records or running records.
Why teach phonics?
In today’s world, learning to
read well is a key to the future
success of our children. Not only is
reading fluently and with
comprehension by third grade a
legislated priority, it is an ethical
and professional imperative.
Wolfe and Nevills, 2004
Alphabetic Principle
Decades of research has
resulted in converging
evidence that learning the
connection between the
sounds of speech and print is a
critical prerequisite to
effective word identification.
Alphabetic Principle
• Children's reading development is dependent on their
understanding of the alphabetic principle – the idea that letters
and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken language.
Learning that there are predictable relationships between sounds
and letters allows children to apply these relationships to both
familiar and unfamiliar words, and to begin to read with fluency.
• The goal of phonics instruction is to help children to learn and be
able to use the Alphabetic Principle. The alphabetic principle is
the understanding that there are systematic and predictable
relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Phonics
instruction helps children learn the relationships between the
letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language.
• Two issues of importance in instruction in the alphabetic principle
are the plan of instruction and the rate of instruction.
Guidelines for Rate and Sequence of
Instruction
• Recognize that children learn sound-letter relationships
at different rates.
• Introduce sound-letter relationships at a reasonable
pace, in a range from two to four letter-sound
relationships a week.
• Teach high-utility letter-sound relationships early.
• Introduce consonants and vowels in a sequence that
permits the children to read words quickly.
• Introduce single consonant sounds and consonant
blends/clusters in separate lessons.
• Provide blending instruction with words that contain the
letter-sound relationships that children have learned.
The Alphabetic Principle Plan of
Instruction
• Teach letter-sound relationships explicitly and in isolation.
• Provide opportunities for children to practice letter-sound
relationships in daily lessons.
• Provide practice opportunities that include new sound-letter
relationships, as well as cumulatively reviewing previously
taught relationships.
• Give children opportunities early and often to apply their
expanding knowledge of sound-letter relationships to the
reading of phonetically spelled words that are familiar in
meaning.
Vowel Pattern Chart
Conquer the Code: Sounds, Symbols, and
Syllables by Judith Cohen
Closed
Open
Silent e
Bossy r
2 Vowels
C+le
Talkers
Whiners
Vowel Pattern Chart
Closed
cat
fish
bub-
Open
me
go
ta-
Silent e
ride
cape
hope
Bossy r
car
girl
tur-
2 Vowels
C+le
ta - ble
bub - ble
tur - tle
Talkers
boat
meat
Whiners
boy
clown
Vowel Patterns
Closed:
A word or syllable that contains only one vowel followed
by one or more consonants; the vowel is short.
“One lonely vowel squished in the middle,
says its special sound just a little.”
sat bed fin
top
sand best print shop
at
Ed
in
on
gum
lunch
up
Vowel Patterns
Open:
A word or syllable that ends with one vowel; the
vowel is long.
“If one vowel at the end is free, it pops way out
and says its name to me.”
me she
hi
go
flu
fly
Vowel Patterns
Silent e [Magic e]:
A word or syllable that ends in e, containing one
consonant before the final e and one vowel before that
consonant; the vowel is long.
The magic e is quiet, but it has a claim to fame;
it makes the vowel before it say its real name.
“The magic e is so powerful, it gives all its strength to the
other vowel so that it can say its real name.”
make Steve ride hope cube
Vowel Patterns
Bossy r [r-controlled]:
A word or syllable containing a vowel followed by r; the
vowel sound is altered by the r.
“The letter r is so bossy, it tells the vowel that it can’t say
its real name (long vowel) or its special sound (short
vowel), but must say the r sound (as in car, for, her).”
car
her
girl
for
curl
Vowel Patterns
Double Vowel Talkers: [vowel digraphs]
A word or syllable containing two adjacent
vowels; the first one is long.
“When two vowels go walking, the first one
does the talking and says its name.”
rain day see meat pie
boat toe slow suit blue
Vowel Patterns
Double Vowel Whiners :[diphthongs and variants]
A word or syllable that contains two adjacent vowels; the
vowels say neither a long or short vowel sound, but
rather a very different sound.
“Sometimes when two vowels are next to each other,
they make a funny whining sound, like when you fall
down and say “ow,” “aw,” “oy,” and get a “boo-boo.”
fault saw foil boy loud cow moon new book
Vowel Patterns
C+le: [consonant + le]
This syllable ends with “le” preceded by a
consonant, and occurs in two-syllable words.
“When a word ends with a consonant and “le,”
the “le” grabs the consonant before it,
and the word breaks into two parts
right before that consonant.”
bub–ble
ca–ble ea–gle poo–dle pur-ple
Vowel Pattern
“Prediction Power”
The prediction power of the patterns ranges from 77 to 89%,
each of which is much better than predictions on the basis of
chance alone. Teaching children vowel patterns can make a
difference in their fluency and comprehension (May, 2002).
Closed
86 – 89%
Open
77%
Silent e
81%
Bossy r
2 Vowels
C+le
Talkers Whiners
77%
Syllabication Patterns
•
•
•
•
•
C+le
VC/CV
V/CV
VC/V
V/V
turtle
rabbit
tiger
camel
lion
tur – tle
rab – bit
ti – ger
cam – el
li - on
Strategy for Syllabication
• “Spot and dot” the vowels
• Connect the dots
• Look at the number of consonants between the
vowels
• If 2 – break between the consonants
• If 1 – break before the consonant; if it doesn’t
sound right, move over one letter
Try it!
Non-negotiables!
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•
•
•
•
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Teach phonics every day
Teach separate spelling lessons
Be explicit
Display evidence of learning/anchor charts
Use the jingles
Nonsense words
Highlight chunks
Syllable types
Assess & re-teach
Students should know the CODE
by the end of second grade.
Comprehension & CCSS
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•
•
•
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Character studies
Theme
Genres
Compare two or more versions of the same story
Author’s Craft
• Packets from Nancy Boyles
Teaching Theme
• Literary text
• Author’s message – DRA2
• Theme Wall
• Activity - Match text to theme
• Some text may have more than one theme –
what is important is how the child justifies the
theme
Themes in Children’s Literature
Friendship
Courage
Compassion
Perseverance
Kindness
Honesty
Cooperation
Acceptance
Responsibility
Family
Sharing
Freedom
Forgiveness
Greed
Loyalty
Fairness
Trust
Death
Matching Texts to Themes
• Believe in yourself/Be proud of who you are
• Perseverance (determination) helps us achieve
our goals/Follow your dreams
• True friends and family are a gift
• Home is where the heart is
• Take responsibility for your actions/make good
decisions
• It’s important to care for our environment & the
natural world
Readers’ Workshop
Learning Walks :
• All classrooms - workshop model, mini-lessons/shared reading, focus for
instruction, independent reading, small group instruction
• Most classrooms had students applying the focus strategy
• Many classrooms had students utilizing monitoring tools
• Several classrooms employed some form of reflection
Readers’ Workshop Coaching Action Plan:
• Solidify/strengthen structure of Readers’ Workshop with a focus on shared
reading and reflection/mini-lesson for 6-8
• Improve the quality of independent reading and conferring
• Make explicit the focus of small group instruction and increase discourse
Readers’ Workshop
Reader's Workshop ends with a time of reflection and sharing.
Learners have the opportunity to share what they learned, what
worked for them, struggles, exciting moments, and new discoveries.
Reflection & Sharing
• Whole class share - keep track so everyone
shares in a week
• Post-it notes
• Inner/outer circle
• Share with table
• Exit slips
• See Bishop Woods Wiki Space for Readers’ Workshop Overview document.
Reflect & Share
Resources
• Boyles, Nancy. More Great Answers: Kicking Up Our
Comprehension Curriculum & More Than Great
Answers: Giving Comprehension a Voice
• Cohen, Judith. Conquer the Code: Sounds, Symbols,
and Syllables
• de Frondeville, Tristan. Ten Steps to Better Student
Engagement
• Maiers, Angela. 26 Keys to Student Engagement