Final Exam.
Emergent Readers.
A. (a) Children writing in the letter like stage are beginning to learn the alphabet. In order for this
alphabet knowledge to develop children should be exposed to activities that work with a few
letters at a time. Comparing and contrasting letters is vital because in order to know what a
letter is you also need to know what it is not. Previous research had suggested that the best way
for a child to learn the alphabet is to study one letter at a time, much like teachers do when
introducing a letter of the week in their classrooms. However, here the child gets somewhat of
an idealized notion of a letter. The theory being that repeated exposure showing only one letter
in one way the child makes a template of this one letter in their mind. The child takes
something abstract and arbitrary about how a letter is shaped with no reason for it. The child
simply memorizes the letter enough times in the same way so that they get a puzzle piece of
the letter in their mind. The child can then look across other letters and ask is that a letter ‘a’
and does it fit my template. Gibson’s research proved that this was wrong because children as
they write move from scribbles to letter like letters. Otherwise, children would simply use their
template and move straight from scribble to clear letters.
Correlating with Gibson is current research about what and why children do in order to learn
the alphabet. It suggests that they look for correlation and commonalities then try to implement
these, discriminating the features of the letters. Gill in his article Teaching Phonemic
Segmentation Naturally reinforces this need to compare and contrast in order to learn the
alphabet by stating ‘what makes a letter a letter is largely determined by what features it does
not share with other letters. These are the letters distinctive features and they can only be
realized by comparisons of each letter with other letters’. The need to look at distinctive
features across a group of letters, in order to build up, for example, a sense of ‘a’ness, is
demonstrated in Gill’s discussion about his grandson learning to distinguish between cows and
horses as they journey down a road. His grandson saw a cow and said ‘cow’. Later on he sees a
horse and says ‘cow’. Gill replied that no that was a horse. On seeing another horse his
grandson still said ‘cow’. This illustrates that children naturally need further opportunities to
compare and contrast distinctive features in order to recognize what is and is not a cow and a
horse. It is the same for accurate alphabet recognition.
1.b. Exposure to many fonts, sizes and shapes of the same letter and comparing and contrasting
them with other letters is crucial because it essentially firms up the knowledge that the letter ‘a’
is still an ‘a’. By looking at a variety of fonts of, for example, the letter ‘b’, children can observe
in writing and in text that there are an infinite number of fonts and features that the letter ‘b’
could be written in but that the letter has finite distinctive features. As Bear et al states in Words
their Way ‘by comparing and contrasting fonts of the same letter, children note the salient, stable
characteristics of a letter, and a rudimentary concept of a letter can be formed. Every new
encounter with, for example the letter b, adds new attributes to the concept of the letter’.
(c) A child learning the alphabet needs to compare and contrast his own writing with a correct
formation of that letter so that he can compare it to his current hypothesis, and schema of what
the letter looks like. He can then make the necessary changes to his hypothesis in his mind and
then move it forward in a more accurate way.
B. I would assess a group of beginning kindergarteners by first testing for lower case alphabet
recognition by giving them a sheet with the letters written from a to z. If they know their lower
case letters then chances are they would know their upper case because with upper case letters
how they are different is easier to see for the child.
I would then ask them to spell a series of words for me from level 1 of the Schlagal Qualitative
Spelling Inventory of word knowledge. Gill, in Teaching Phonemic Segmentation Naturally
asserts that ‘it has been convincingly demonstrated that a child’s spelling of a word not
memorized will include a representation of each of the units into which the child can segment
language”. Having them spell these words gives the teacher evidence of their current stage of
developing phonemic awareness. The students invented spellings would then fall into one of
seven categories described in Gill’s ladder of spelling stages, ranging from random scribbles to
spelling with beginning and ending consonants and logical vowel substitutions.
Finally I would have them memorize orally a text such as Sam, Sam the Baker Man, and then
write it out and see if they could point accurately to the written words as they read them aloud.
How the child points as he reads would correlate with the spelling stage that they are in as
outlined on Gills ladder model. For example, a child spelling in the random letter stage would
typically point to words, whilst saying the stressed units.
With this correlating evidence at both spelling and reading stages I could then group the children
accordingly and differentiate instruction.
C. (a) Teaching the alphabet song, tracking all of the letters on an alphabet strip first, teaches
alphabet. A teacher should teach the capital letters first because how they are different is easier
to see for the child. By naming the letters in order as they track them the children can move
across the letters and begin to contrast the features of each and begin to observe differences,
whilst using the familiarity of the sequence of spoken alphabet songs to support this. Thus,
children can gradually build up a sense of each letter as they observe the distinctive features of
each and make and adjust their hypothesis about what each letter should look like and is.
With this activity, best teaching practice would also have the teacher teaching the letter names
first. Research has demonstrated that children use the sound of the letter names first in their early
phonetic spelling, even if they are taught letter sounds first.
(b) To recognize letters in isolation teachers should play a letter recognition game using the
alphabet strips after the children have practiced saying the alphabet in the previously discussed
activity. Students have the strips turned face down and no classroom copy of the alphabet should
be displayed. The teacher then writes one of the letters on the board and asks the children to
guess its name without saying it aloud. The teacher then asks them all to call out their guess in
unison. This serves to ensure each child is making their own hypothesis in their mind rather than
saying what the child beside them has called out. Students then turn over their alphabet strips to
track to the letter to prove if they were right or to discover an error. Comparisons can be made to
letters having the name that they mistakenly attributed to the one on the board. The important
rationale behind this activity is that the children genuinely have to hypothesize what they think
the letter will be, rather than the teacher taking all of the real learning out of the activity by
saying ‘find the letter a on your strip’. The hypothesizing allows the child to meaningfully firm
up their alphabet name knowledge and adjust it according to their guess.
(c)To teach the production of letters in isolation I would use the same letter recognition game.
This time I would call out one of the letters and ask the children to try and write it down
themselves. After they have written their attempt, the alphabet strip would be turned over and
they again track down to check themselves. The rationale for this activity is that comparisons can
be made with any confused letters. The child’s hypothesis of how they think the letter should be
written can be adjusted and accurate knowledge of the correct formation can be firmed up.
Equally important is that students are able to develop as Gill states in his article Teaching
Phonemic Segmentation Naturally ‘a consistent motor skill and schema that can be cognitively
laid down contributing to the solidity of the concept’.
(d) I would teach a letter sort using letter cards whole group in a pocket chart. I would choose
letter groups that were in ‘breath’ groups, namely how you say it in the alphabet song. Here the
sound of the letter names are taught first. After completing this, I would then give each child
their own letter sort grid, for example, B, D, C, A. The children would then have a bag of letters
with six of each letter sort to match on their grid according to the letter header. Different fonts
could also be introduced later on in the week to further discriminate finite features. The rationale
for this activity is that again children have the opportunity to compare and contrast letters in
order to establish what a letter is and is not. Here they can determine this by what features a letter
does not share with the other letters and adjust their hypothesis in their mind accordingly.
(e) As children rotate through letter sorts, these sorts can then be placed in a station and practiced
for speed. For example, with a teacher or in pairs, and with a stopwatch set for one minute,
students can see how quickly they can sorts the letters that you have been working with. This
develops automaticity of their alphabet knowledge. As Gill states in his article on emergent
readers ‘It is not enough that children know the letters. They need to recognize, name and write
them automatically and fluently. Automaticity of recognition and production of alphabet letters
ensures that more cognitive energy can be turned to higher order thinking while reading and
writing’.
2.A. a. The teacher would first choose a collective experience, such as an activity in the room or
a field trip. The whole group then discusses the experience with the teacher facilitating this with
open ended questioning. The children would then have one sentence dictated describing the
experience that he or she can repeat. For example the teacher would write on chart paper
‘Cassidee said I like to pop popcorn’ and continue in this way for each child. The teacher would
track the child’s complete sentence; including saying ‘Cassidee said’ and have the student come
to the chart and have them track it. As these children at this stage do not have concept of word
this may take two or three tries of modeling dividing speech into word, the goal being for the
child to read it successfully. This also explains why it is important to keep the sentence between
three to six words otherwise they would get off track. With this type of dictation the child can
then rely on their memory and their own oral language, to read the words.
The teacher then makes a copy of the sentence on paper for each student. Emergent readers can
then practice re-reading their dictated sentence. The sentences can then be made into a class book
and placed in the reading center for re-reading. Here children can read to each other and teach
each other their sentence, in effect, asking the author of each page.
(b) With longer personal narratives a teacher listens to a child’s oral retelling of an experience
that they have had. The teacher writes it down for them, asking the child to dictate the sentence
slowly to them, word by word. The teacher takes the time to write each word as they say the
word, leaving deliberate large spaces in between each word. As the teacher writes each word
they should go back and track and slowly read each word up to the next one. The teacher also
models rereading the sentences and have the child re read it until they can track it accurately.
Here again they are able to read it because it is their own oral language and it can be memorized.
This can then be made into a book. At this stage the child may not necessarily have concept of
word and thus will not track accurately. To help with this, the teacher ensures that the book has
pages with no more than six words per page because they would get off track as they read. The
book can then be reread many times to help the child to track print.
B. This language experience would differ with students who were starting to spell with some
logical or correct beginning consonants. First the dictation could be extended. The teacher as
they listen to the oral retelling and begin the dictation could ask what consonant a particular
word begins with, drawing attention to the fact that you can use what you know in your writing.
The child could also write some of the initial consonants but not so many that they lose the ideas
for the story. The child can then be rereading as you dictate. The personal narrative can then be
made into a book for the child. Here the teacher is not limited to a sentence with three to six
words on each page. They can extend this to between eight to ten words because the child who is
spelling with some logical or correct beginning consonants has concept of word and can use their
knowledge of these consonants to self correct and keep on track whilst reading. The book can
then further support initial consonant knowledge, with the teacher drawing attention to them as
the child rereads. The child can then begin to firm up this knowledge. As this becomes
increasingly automatized they can then begin to focus on final consonants in their reading and
writing.
3.A (a) Children who are spelling with random letters have alphabet knowledge. Previous to this,
when attempting to read a memorized text, they would point to individual letters. As Gill states
‘Their voice pointing at the letter like stage suggests that they have hypothesized that the letter is
the primary unit of reading”. Therefore, their minds are naturally drawn to what is taking their
attention, to what they are trying to figure out. With secure alphabet knowledge this child now
points to words. This is because they are no longer obsessed with the alphabet and are trying out
a new hypothesis about what reading is about. They can now attend to noticing a series of letters
bound by spaces on each side, namely words. However, just because they point to a word does
not necessarily imply that they have concept of word. They are merely modeling what the
teacher has modeled and understands that this is part of what a reader does.
(b) When a child who is spelling with random letters, is reading memorized text, they have
firmed up their knowledge of alphabet. However, they will still point to a word and say stressed
units because these are the most salient features of the word and most salient of speech. Gill in
his article Teaching Phonemic Segmentation Naturally notes that ‘This is perfectly logical when
one considers that if speech is put on a spectrograph , the major peaks occur at these stressed
units….in fact, when speaking, we pause no more between words than we do between syllables’.
B (a) In the letter name stage children who are spelling with beginning consonants do not also
begin to spell with ending consonants at the same time because the beginning consonant is far
more salient than the final consonant of a word. In other words, children enunciate the beginning
consonant more in speech and this is transferred to their spelling of a particular spoken word. At
this stage children are still focusing their attention on what they are trying to figure out, namely
beginning consonants.
(b) Children spelling with beginning consonants say one syllable each time they point to a
written word in the text for several reasons. They have first hypothesized that when you point to
a letter you say each stressed unit of language whether word or phrase. However, they realize
that their theory is not correct because they finish saying the verse before getting to the end of
the text. For example, they point and say Sam, Sam, but for ‘the’ they say ‘the baker’, and for
‘baker’ they say man.
Now that they are spelling with beginning consonants, and are becoming aware that print has
something to do with sound, finger pointing changes to a closer match with syllables. Here the
child takes and uses his beginning consonant knowledge and as Gill states in his article on
emergent readers ‘hypothesizes now that a consonant represents an entire syllable. For when he
points to a memorized verse he now says each syllable as he points to each word’. This can seem
to work well and could appear to represent a rudimentary concept of word. However, this holds
true for one syllable words, but not when they have to read a two syllable word. When they
track, ‘Sam, Sam, the baker man’ the child would point six times: Sam/Sam/the/ba/ker/man,
saying ‘ker’ the second syllable of baker , they point to the next word which is man.
( c) Finally with firm beginning consonant knowledge and the alphabet sounds associated, a
child can be taught how to self correct if they get off track, read the word correctly and fine tune
their hypothesis. With beginning consonant knowledge, the child’s finger pointing can be
anchored more directly to the memorized text. The child now realizes when they say ‘man’ they
need to have a finger on a word that begins with m. If they do not then they know they must start
again and reread. Bear et al in Words their Way states that “these self corrections then herald the
onset of a concept of word in print’.
4.A. A child is ready to begin to learn beginning consonants when they can recognize 20 out of
26 letters of the alphabet. At this stage, emergent readers have climbed the hill of alphabet
recognition, and are coming down the other side, firming up what they know and the next hill is
beginning consonants. This firming up of alphabet knowledge is likely to be correlated and
demonstrated in their spelling, where they show the ability to attend to beginning consonant
sounds. Careful introduction of beginning consonants is them possible because children can
stand on this solid base of alphabet recognition and are able to now attend to beginning
consonants which helps them to move to and reach the next stage.
B. Picture sorts are suited to learning beginning consonants rather than teaching the sounds in
isolation because teaching one sound to the consonant is extremely difficult for the child. This is
because keep, cool and cat all begin with ‘c’ except they do not. They are produced in a different
way in the mouth. Co articulation makes it impossible to say that the initial consonant in the
word ‘bat’ is purely a b. It is co articulated with the vowel and is in fact ‘ba’. Word recognition is
not then a matter of saying an idealized, singular consonant sound and blending it with the
vowel. Therefore it is better to teach children to categorize the various coarticlulated sounds that
are produced with the beginning consonant and the influence of the vowel. By sorting pictures by
their initial sounds, children can categorize the consonants into the sound category that they
make when they say the whole word. There they can as Gill states ‘ conceptualize that took,
time, and tall all start with a ‘t’ , a letter that represents the common abstract category of sound
that they all begin with’.
By comparing and contrasting picture cards by their initial consonants children can naturally
learn to discriminate between sounds. For example, it would make sense to begin with a two
column sort with obvious contrasts such as m and t. Later they can then understand the more
easily confused sounds such as p and b between columns, that despite being co articulated n the
same way, are different sounds. Contrast within columns, allows the emergent reader to see and
firm up knowledge of the categorization of the words by their initial sound but also exposes them
to final consonant sounds which is their next goal.
C. Picture sorts at this stage are used rather than word sorts because emergent readers, who are in
the letter like and early within word stages of spelling development, do not have extensive sight
word knowledge. They are making connections between letters and sounds and produce phonetic
spellings that contain one or two letters for each syllable. However, they do not yet have
complete phonemic awareness or segmentation or full concept of word which would enable them
to keep words such as pat, pit and put apart in a word sort.
Beginning Readers
1. When children spell with beginning and ending consonants they are acquiring knowledge
of the boundaries of words as they read a memorized text. This spelling stage correlates
to reading where they apply this knowledge to self correct. Essentially, they would know
where they need to point and not point. For example, when reading ‘Twinkle, twinkle,
little star, the child who previously as an emergent reader pointed to a word and said the
stressed units and then hypothesized again to try reading it with syllables, now knows
that when they get to little star, and reads ‘lit’ for little and ‘tle’ for star, they must re read
because ‘tle’ does not begin or end with s and t. They expertly use their knowledge of
beginning and ending consonants to self correct. This is particularly crucial when the
child comes to a two syllable word in the text.
2. Complete phonemic awareness is usually achieved only after the child has concept of
word because with concept of word, beginning and endings of words have stabilized and
the child is able to keep themselves on track reading memorized text. As Gill states in
Teaching Phonemic Segmentation Naturally ‘the ability to segment language into words
is stabilized’. Phonemic awareness can then shift from partial to full because the reader
spends less conscious attention on beginning and final consonants and turns that attention
to the medial vowels. They are also exercising this skill when looking at sight words out
of context. Phonemic segmentation also becomes evident in their spellings. They use
vowels systematically despite using logical substitutions, such as spelling the word
‘bump’ as ‘bop’. The feel of the vowel ‘u’ in the child’s mouth is closest to how they say
‘o’ and will therefore make this substitution. Gill states that all of this ‘always follows
and never precedes concept of word’.
3. One reason that a sight vocabulary develops only after the child can accurately track print
is that until a child can track a word accurately, they cannot read the correct word.
Therefore, they cannot develop an accurate sight vocabulary.
A second reason is that once a child can accurately track, they use their beginning and
ending consonant knowledge to self correct and for the first time accurately read the word
in a memorized text. Conscious attention can then be focused on vowels. This attention
on vowels can also be encouraged through building a sight vocabulary simultaneously
alongside this reading before a child knows all of the vowels. Sight vocabulary can
deepen and develop further as the child gets an understanding of how vowels work in
words through their reading and writing. Here they can distinguish the finite phonemic
aspects of words such as pit/pat/put and increase their sight vocabulary accurately. Only
through getting a concept of word and developing a sight vocabulary that the child can
ultimately gain this deeper understanding of vowels in words. This transactional
knowledge where one is feeding the other operates to move the reader forward to
becoming a self reliant reader.
4.A A beginning reader does have concept of word whereby they can accurately track
memorized text even if it has some two syllable words. However, beginning readers cannot read
a pre primer two non patterned text without help with 90% word recognition accuracy. This is
why they are sometimes called support readers. Beginning readers can only read text after the
teacher has modeled it first.
B. Beginning readers need material that gives support by using patterns of simple text that are
repeated. The material needs to have clear picture clues that support the text for the reader.
Students also get support from their own language; the material that is their own dictation which
they can memorize and reread.
C. The teacher can give support by echo reading, where the teacher reads a section and then the
student reads the same section. Choral reading gives support to the reader because here they are
reading it aloud with the teacher in a group. The teacher should give only as much support as
needed. For example, the teacher can retract from the text and lower their voice depending on
whether the student can successfully read on their own. Picture walks are also good when
introducing a new story with emergent and beginning readers. Here the teacher can scaffold the
learning by using the language from the text and anticipate any difficult words or unfamiliar
concepts. Once children are self reliant readers, those that can read at least a pre primer two non
patterned text with 95-97% accuracy, it is not necessary to do a picture walk because they can
read and the teachers support would focus more on getting them to stop and make their own
predictions to enhance reading comprehension.
5. It is helpful to pull words from a text, despite a beginning reader gaining sight words most
readily from reading because when they recognize a sight word in text they are probably just
looking at the initial consonant and using their memory of the word to help them. They are not
looking at all the letters in each word as mature readers do. They may well be able to recognize
and keep apart words in a text such as dog, cat and hot. However, when the story has words that
include dog, dig, hot and hat, they need to look more deeply at the finite phonetic aspects of the
word in order to distinguish them. Here a word bank is helpful. This collection of words from
familiar texts written on cards can be reviewed regularly and the skill of careful examining each
letter in every word can be honed.
6. The building of a word bank might foster a better and deeper understanding of how letters
work in words because as previously discussed the word bank essentially develops sophisticated,
analytical phonetic skills in the reader. They are attending to all letters in words, in order to keep
the words apart and automatically recognize them and sort them. They are observing spelling
patterns which in their application in their reading and writing, increases fluency and
automaticity of word, a strong predictor of reading success. The building of the word bank also
provides an excellent foundational knowledge of words that will then form their word sorts. Thus
they are doing what Gill describes phonics as ‘understanding how to file the words you know’.
7. On day one the teacher would introduce a pattern book or take dictation. The teacher provides
support by doing a picture walk, naming characters in the pictures and commenting on the story.
The teacher then returns to page one and echo and/or choral reads with the group, encouraging
accurate finger pointing. The group then reread the text quietly. At this stage the teacher is not
focused on comprehension, rather the majority of attention is focused on the text. The pattern
books can be sent home only if the teacher is certain the child can reread it.
On day two, during guided reading the teacher has the children read the pattern book form day
one independently, without support to determine if the book is the appropriate level and has been
learned. Here children can also reread their dictated stories as well. The teacher then asks the
students to close their books and work on word cards with those stories’ words. This is to see
which of the words can be correctly identified without referring to the books. The words can be
sorted into words that they know and do not know. Known words go into a word bank.
Unfamiliar words can be kept in another box for when the students think they can recognize
them. A new story is then introduced in the same way the teacher introduced it on day one.
On day three the word bank is used. Students practice the words, including those from day two,
sorting them into the two piles as they did on day two. The teacher puts a check in the corner of
each word card when the child knows their first twenty five words. After twenty five more have
been added, the teacher again tests recognition of the first twenty five words, and a check can be
added again. The second set of twenty five words is marked with a check in the corner of each of
the word cards that were read correctly. Any still recognized words can be archived and sent
home.
The students reread for a third time, the story that was introduced on day one. They read this
independently in the same way as they did on day two. They also reread day two’s new story.
Finally, a third new pattern book is then introduced by the teacher just in the same way as the
day one lesson with a picture walk, echo and/or choral read.
8. Word sort A is more challenging than sort B because the beginning reader in sort B can sort
the words merely by looking at the ending sounds. There are three contrasting columns of words
ending in t, p and d. Thus these words are easier to keep apart. In sort A, in order for the reader
to sort the words correctly, they cannot rely on their final consonant knowledge. This is because
two columns contain words that both end with the same consonant’s’. Here they have the
challenge of having to look more deeply at the words, and attend to the medial vowel and
discriminate between words such as bat and fit, fat and lit, in order to sort the words correctly.
Self Reliant Readers
1. Current basals used at my school have a ‘before reading’ section. It introduces
vocabulary and its definitions out of context first as a necessary precursor for
comprehension. The writers of such basals reason that studies have shown that
inferencing and vocabulary are the two components that really affect comprehension so
they include it in the basals. The national panel on Literacy also stated that vocabulary
was important and so in order to get state funds, programs had to show vocabulary
strategy techniques. The ‘before reading’ section is also put in because publishers also
know that over 50% of children will be below grade level and unable to access the text.
Therefore, introducing it first will somehow help them to access the text successfully.
A directed reading/thinking activity does not do this. The rationale being that we recognize
75,000 vocabulary words, but not the dictionary definitions. The reason being is that we learn
these definitions in context in reading not as part of an isolated vocabulary activity. Nagy’s
research states that human being s learn vocabulary from context within reading. More
importantly, this vocabulary can be accessed with a directed reading activity because it is at
the appropriate level (95% accuracy, word recognition in context), rate and comprehension.
At their instructional level children can clearly get the vocabulary during reading and through
context and discussion figure it out.
Background knowledge is again taught before the children read the basal reader. The basals
do this because the only way people can understand something is to make a connection to it.
It attempts to give prior knowledge to try and hook the story onto. However, since publishers
know how many children are likely to be unable to read the story, they try to do a lot of the
comprehension teaching first. This type of per-teaching is simply a fallacy. Ultimately, a
teacher cannot use their own prior knowledge to ‘give’ the students comprehension. A
classroom merely looks as though the children are using background knowledge to build
comprehension.
The directed reading activity uses open ended questions before and at specific points in the
story therefore activating real comprehension. Comprehension is in essence, getting a small
piece of the story and guessing. Using prediction questions such as ‘what do you think will
happen next? or ‘I know you do not know but what do you think’? along with ‘What do you
think the rest of the story will be about? the teacher has the most powerful indicator to
activate comprehension.
In a directed reading activity when children read at instructional level and are interested they
are reading for a purpose. The purpose being to see if their hypothesis is right. It is also to
decide if they will change their minds as they stop at points in the story and answer questions
with the teacher.
Basals do not offer the story of the week at every child’s instructional level and as a result
interest is lacking. Students are not encouraged to set their own purpose for reading after
reading a bit of the text or test out their hypotheses. Instead, the basals have a set focus such
as ‘visualization’ as the purpose for the teacher and the children before they begin reading.
Most basals ask questions about what has already happened in the text. They do have
stopping points that recommend the teachers stops and a question is given that can be asked.
These questions are not open ended and do not elicit any prediction from the reader. Instead
they are really just recall of information about what they have already read so far.
In a directed reading activity when you ask children to predict the teacher gets all the facts
anyway because the open ended questions get the children to think. As the Temple
Partnership Literacy Instructional Guide states ‘Here the teacher is the agitator or the
provoker of discussion not the comprehension tester’. In other words, unlike the basal
question format the teacher does not ask questions that they already know the answer to. This
is only for if you are giving a test. Predict, confirm and explore questions in the directed
reading activity meaningfully activate all of the students prior knowledge, purpose,
inferences, prediction and connections, that the basals strive to pre teach in isolation or at the
end of the story without any purposeful thinking from the reader.
The rationale for comprehension strategies in basals has been based on observing cognitive
studies on what poor and good readers do. Publishers decided that these good readers must be
using key vocabulary words, sequencing or making inferences to be successful. Basals then
were set up to have poor readers do all of this as well and this alone will improve their
reading. Obviously this is not successful for all children. Putting children on the correct
instructional level and asking open ended questions as evidenced in the directed reading
activity, will result in meaningful comprehension. All of these skills are exercised when you
predict in a natural way during instructional level reading, rather than in the artificial way the
basals try to pre teach these strategies. Ultimately, basals teach children who seem to be,
rather than be.
1.Short Vowel Sort: Word Families (Rhyming)
bag
fun
dad
wag
(P)run
(P)sad
(P)rag
(P)sun
(P)mad
tag
bun
had
(P)flag
gun
pad
2. Short Vowel Sort: Letter Name Stage : Word Families
man
cat
fun
Can
Mat
Bun
(P)Fan
Sat
(P)Run
Ran
(P)Hat
(P)Sun
Than
(P)Rat
Gun
(P)Pan
That
3. Short Vowel Sort: Non-Rhyming
cap
pig
hot
?
fast
ship
(P)fox
for
camp
(P)fish
(P)lock
ball
(P)hat
sit
shop
ride
(P)mad
(P)hill
job
was
track
him
not
want
4. Single consonant v Consonant blend/digraph
cat
cheese
?
corn
chip
shin
(P)cap
chin
shop
cut
(P)chop
shut
cup
check
cent
(P)cake
(P)chick
cycle
5.Short vowel v Long V
hid
kite
?
stick
bike
give
(P)dig
ride
live
(P)zip
(P)nine
brick
(P)slide
hill
dive
fish