Northern Adelaide Region
Aboriginal Early Years Research
Project 2011
Stephen Graham
Closing the Gap
for Aboriginal Students
The language of power is
white Anglo-Saxon middle class English
OR
Standard Australian English (SAE)
It’s not better, not right
but it is what it is – the
language of power!
“Big mob of fellas ere”
Yes, there is a large
group of people here!
Contextual
understanding is
essential and needs
to be explicitly
taught.
(We talk about home language and school
language with our students)
“Concepts of Print”
“Phonological
Awareness”
So where do
we start with
our Aboriginal
students?
Most babies don’t walk before they
crawl, most children don’t learn to read
before they have an automatic
understanding of the Concepts of Print.
Concepts of Print
(25 of them)
It all begins here!
Directionality
Concepts of Text
(word/letter)
Concepts of Book
Mechanics
Concepts of Print
Do you know what they are?
Many students may come to school
with these skills if they have a rich
language environment at home or they
have been immersed in a language
based play program at preschool…
You need to assess your
students to ascertain
what skills they have and
where the gaps are, this
can be done through
Guided Reading sessions!
What is my learning
intention for the kids
who are dressing up?
What is my learning
intention for the kids playing
games on the computer?
What is my learning
intention for the kids
who are drawing with
chalk outside?
Play based
programs must
always have a
learning
intention…
Do the children
know what it is?
Teachers often move too quickly from
aural work to phonics – representation
of sound into symbol (writing).
Order – syllables, rhyme, hearing
beginning, final, then middle sounds,
manipulation of sounds …
Phonological
Awareness
The child’s ability to
hear and manipulate
sounds!
Phonological Awareness
Continuum
Remember Aboriginal students have
particular difficulty with soft sounds…
t, d, f, s, b, h, p, k, g, th, sh
The reason for this is related to the high
incidence of a condition known as ‘conductive
hearing loss.’ One in three Aboriginal students
suffer from this condition.
Phonological
Awareness
The child’s ability to
hear and manipulate
sounds!
Hierarchy of Phonological Awareness
Syllables
• Segmenting words into syllables (clapping,
touching blocks, taking steps)
• Determining the number of syllables
• Blending syllables to form words
- Use pictures as cues
- Words only
Hierarchy of Phonological Awareness
Rhyme
• Recognition – does ‘hat’ rhyme with ‘mat?’
• Matching (3 pictures/words, find the 2 that
rhyme)
• Oddity (3 pictures/words, find the 2 that
don’t rhyme)
• Production/generation (Tell me the words
that rhyme with pot – nonsense or real)
Hierarchy of Phonological Awareness
Analysis (phoneme isolation within words)
• Beginning – alliteration, detection/recognition,
matching, oddity, production/generation;
• Final – detection/recognition, matching, oddity,
production/generation;
• Middle – detection/recognition, matching, oddity,
production/generation;
Hierarchy of Phonological Awareness
Analysis (phoneme segmentation of words)
• Recognition of phonemes in a word (e.g. clapping
phonemes)
• Determining the number of phonemes in a word
• Introduction of consonant blends
• Listen to phonemes and blend to create words
• Say phonemes and blend to create words
Phoneme – smallest unit
of sound.
Hierarchy of Phonological Awareness
Manipulation
(assumes competence in analysis & blending of sounds)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sound deletion – say ‘sunshine’ without the shine
Initial position sound
Final position sound
Within an initial consonant blend
First sound & then second sound (e.g. say ‘clap’
without the /c/ sound. Say ‘clap’ without the /l/ sound
Within the final consonant blend (e.g. say ‘bend’
without the /d/ sound. Say ‘bend’ without the /n/
sound
Hierarchy of Phonological Awareness
Manipulation
•
•
•
•
•
Sound addition – say ‘sun’ and add ‘shine’ - sunshine
Initial position sound – art, say ‘art’ and add a /p/ at
the beginning
Final position sound – far, say ‘far’ with a /m/ at the
end
Within an initial consonant blend – lap, say ‘lap’ with a
/c/ at the beginning
Within the final consonant blend – car, say ‘car’ with
a /t/ sound at the end.
Hierarchy of Phonological Awareness
Manipulation
•
•
•
•
Tracking sound changes– grapheme representation
Identification of changes at the initial, final and medial
position
Production of changes at the initial, final and medial
position
Generate new words increasing in number of
phonemes
“Descriptive”
Description has a role in
each text type so students
must have this skill first.
Which text type do I
start with?
9 Major Types
of Texts
Description!
Recount!
Exposition!
Narrative!
Procedure!
Explanation!
Response! Information
Discussion!
Report!
Explicit Teaching in Description
From Concrete to Abstract
Description - begin with
familiar contexts
Level 1 & 2 books
Description
Aboriginal students respond
well to visual cues…they help
with setting the scene, building
the field, contextual
understanding.
Why do I need to
provide visual cues?
Scaffold work
with
Visual Cues
For Example:
Unit of work on
Fairy Tales
Research shows that
phonological awareness
is the greatest indicator
of success in reading and
writing.
Success
Indicator
To be a balanced reader students
need to be able to:
Decode
Read with Fluency & Phrasing
and Comprehend
a wide range of texts.
Balanced
Reader
93% of work in
secondary
schools is based
on factual texts.
Balanced Reader at Every
Level of Reading
Use a picture book of interest to
the child. The text must contain
at least 4 events. Teacher reads
the text continually from
beginning to end whilst the child
looks at the book and listens
Comprehension
(Oral Retell)
“Now I want you to tell me what
happened in the story.” If
necessary, say: “Can you tell me
more?” OR “Can you tell me
more about that?”
(child does not have access to text during retell)
Comprehension
(Oral Retell)
Scored Retell
1.
Child establishes the context of the narrative (where the story took
place).
2.
Child identifies the complication of the narrative.
3.
Child identifies the major characters in the narrative by their correct
names.
If the child makes no attempt, make a note and do not continue.
4.
Child gives only one event.
5.
Child identifies 2-4 of the events in a logical consequence.
6.
Child identifies 4 or more of the events in a logical consequence.
7.
Child gives a variety of conjunctions or time connectives to place the
events in order.
8.
Child kept consistent tense throughout the retell.
(either present or past is acceptable but must be consistent)
Scored Retell
Teacher selects a page from the text and shows it to the child. The page
should have clear illustrations of one of the character. Ask the child to
describe the character.
1.
Child cannot describe the character and may just offer its name
(e.g. the big bad wolf)
2.
Child offers a limited description of the character.
3.
Child describes the character fully.
Select a page from the text where the illustration clearly shows a major
event in the narrative. Ask the child to tell you what is happening here.
1. Child offers no response.
2. Child offers a limited explanation with no linking to previous or
following events.
3. Child gives a clear explanation linking the event to what came before
and what happened next.
Have fun discussing the powerpoint with fellow
early childhood educators…
Explicit
Teaching
Concepts
of Print
Phonological
Awareness
Comprehension