Towards Reading
Strategies
Towards Reading
• Try to provide a positive, productive period to
contribute actively to the lesson.
• Try to give the child the opportunity to practise
his reading skills and show off his ability.
• Participate in his reading experience instead of
listening.
• Encourage reading by looking at books together.
Rag books, board books are great for younger
children.
• Read aloud together - use expressive features,
different voices to encourage the child to try this
too.
Towards Reading
• Joining a library can help establish a good
attitude towards books.
• Encourage the child to look at things for
information e.g. cereal box, streets,
roads,maps.
• Reading should be fun so try not to
pressure him/her and don’t expect too
much too
Towards Reading
• Read stories at bedtime where it is quiet and you can be
comfortable together.
• Make sessions fun by playing around with rhyming
words and associated words.
• Read books that are comparable with his reading ability.
There are many graded
• series that can be purchased even for the older child.
• To build self-belief it is sometimes better to start on an
easier book to encourage and
• boost his confidence.
• Praise him for the attempted words he gets correct.
Always look for the things that
• he can do rather than what he cannot.
Towards Reading
• Use bookmarkers to keep place in a book.
• Encourage the child to try to decode the words
himself. Don’t leave him to struggle though! If he
is stuck - give him a clue e.g. look at the
beginning of the word, are there familiar letters,
look at the picture, look at the words around, try
giving the first sound.
• Give him the chance to `make up’ stories whilst
you write them down for him. Then as he
progresses, ask him to write them down as
clearly and as accurate as he can.
• In time, you could ask him to transfer his story
onto a PC to make it more presentable.
Activities to help with Reading 1
• 1. Say nursery rhymes together; they help to encourage
rhythm at an early age.
• 2. Finger play e.g. poems and songs which have hand
actions.
• 3. Read to the child: poetry, (especially funny or
nonsense poems) and stories.
• 4. Act out a mime of a rhyme or something that has
happened and then guess the mime.
• 5. Find pictured to talk about and help the child to notice
details e.g. Is the man in front of or behind the lady? Is
the boy climbing under or over the gate?
Activities to help with Reading 2
• 6. Play games e.g. hunt the thimble and say “is it
inside the pot, under the pot, on top of the pot?
• 7. Watch television together. It can be a useful
way of learning if you talk about what is
happening.
• 8. There are some very good puzzle books e.g.
joining dots, mazes and simple picture
crosswords are all useful.
• 9. Encourage the child to help with tasks e.g.
laying/cleaning the table, setting out play things
and putting them away.
Types of Reading Text
Materials
• narrative text materials
– stories, fiction, inspirational
• informational text material
– textbooks, content area materials,
instructional materials
Literature-Based Reading
Instruction
• Strong relationships among language
systems: oral language, reading, writing.
• Immerse children in language and books.
• Children should have early experiences
with writing.
• Children need time for independent
reading.
Explicit Code-Emphasis
Instruction
• Systematic, direct instruction of alphabet
code
• Mapping linkage of letters and words
• Early attainment of decoding skills
• Children need an early start in reading
In the Last Lecture
Some Aspects of Reading were
Discussed
These included
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Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Reading Comprehension
Today we look at
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Strategies and resources for
Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Phonemic Awareness
• The objective of any phonemic awareness activity should
be to facilitate children’s ability to perceive that their
speech is made up of a series of sounds. It is the
breaking down and manipulation of spoken/oral
language. The focus of activities should be on sounds in
speech. These activities should fit into a meaningbased framework. Phonemic awareness should not be
addressed as an abstract isolated skill to be acquired
through drill type activities. It can be a natural, functional
part of literacy experiences throughout the day. As Hallie
Yopp stated (Yopp, 1995) "Phonemic awareness is not
an end to itself – rather, it is one aspect of literacy
development."
PA activities
Identity of Phonemes
• Introduce the phoneme with a semantic representation.
• Demonstrate the production of the phoneme (mouth
shape, tongue, etc.).
• Sound repetition activities (iteration) help children begin
working toward full segmentation by isolating the first
sound in a word. Eg. K-K-K- Katie. Popular songs may
be modified by the teacher to include iterations, e.g Pop
Goes the Weasel – last line could be p-p-p-p-Pop goes
the weasel!
• Use any popular melody and sing it using that sound as
the lyrics. (eg. London Bridge sung as /b/-/b/-/b/-/b/...
• Learn an alliterative tongue twister featuring the
phoneme. (Peter Piper)
More PA Identity of Phonemes
• Use a puppet to isolate the initial phoneme in the
alliterative words. (bear says blue berries and black
berries in the bushes... brown, black...)
• Stretch the phoneme to explore its articulation, using an
elastic band or a stretchable action figure as a visual
demonstration.
• Isolate the phoneme in the final (or medial for vowels)
position of other example words.
• Practice sound-to-word matching for the target
phoneme, first as a yes/no game (e.g. "Do you hear /n/
in next?"), and then as a forced choice (e.g. "Do you
hear /n/ in old or new?)
More Identity of Phonemes
• Listen for the sound in stories, poems, or
songs.
• Find objects in the room that have that
sound.
• Use different voices to produce the sound
(e.g. baby, troll, queen, tyrannosaurus...)
• Categorize or sort pictures based on
beginning or ending sounds.
Rhyming Words
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Rhyme Game: Model rhyming first, by saying, "I can rhyme a word with /at/
that begins with /f/. Can you tell me what it is?" Fat. "I can rhyme a word
with /at/ that begins with /s/. Can you tell me what it is?
Initial rhyme recognition can be reinforced by direct modeling of instances
(nose-rose) and non-instances (bed-car) of rhyming word pairs. To make a
game of this, use a happy face symbol for a rhyming pair and a sad face
symbol for non-rhyming pair; or a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. It is important
to have the children repeat the rhyming pairs to reinforce the verbal
production of rhymed words.
Pictures can be used as visual cues for rhyme recognition activities and can
be used during the modeling phase of instruction. The teacher can present
3 pictures and ask the child to select and say the two that rhyme. A variation
would be to display two nonrhyming pictures and have the child select the
one that rhymes with a word being said by the teacher.
Rhyming Words
• Odd Word Out is a game in which the teacher presents four words,
three of which rhyme, and the child determines which word is the
odd one that doesn't belong with the others. (e.g. zveed, bead, pill,
seed)
• Rhyming Pair Concentration: Name the pictures out loud. Find two
that rhyme.
• Snap and Clap Rhymes: Begin with a simple clap and snap rhythm.
Get more complex as children move along in rhyming. Clap Clap
Snap fall Clap Clap Snap ball
Clap
Clap Snap hall Clap Clap Snap small
• A variation is the "I say, you say..." game: I say fat. You say ___. I
say red. You say ___.
• Rhyming Word Sit Down: Children walk around in a big circle taking
one step each time a rhyming word is said by the teacher. When the
teacher says a word that doesn't rhyme, the children sit down: she,
tree, flea, spree, key, bee, sea, went
Rhyming Words
• Rhyming words in songs, poems and big books: As you do shared
reading with the students, pause at the end of phrases and let the
students supply the rhyming words. After you have read the poem
together, ask the children to find the rhyming words. Generate other
words that rhyme with these rhyming words.
• Silly Rhymes Big Book: Use rimes (roots of word families) and
rhyme charts around the classroom to create silly poems with the
class. Write the one line rhyme with the whole class in big letters on
large chart paper. Read aloud several times. Use different voices.
Have children sound and clap words. Have a child illustrate the
rhyme. Repeat each week for another set of rimes.
• Some rhyming patterns to start with: at (s, f, m, r), ip (z, l, r, sh), an
(f, m, r, v), eat (f, m, n, s, h), et (s, v, m, n), ock (l, r, s), ick (s, l, th,
t), ay (l, r, s, p), ee (m, s, b, t), ame (f, n, g, t), an (f, c, v, p), ed (b, f,
r, l), ag (b, n, s, r), ick (k, l, p, s), all (b, c, f, t), ell (b, s, f, sh), ine (d,
f, m, sh), ack (b, j, qu, t), and (b, h, l, s).
Rhyming Words Activities
• The Task
• Children identify words that rhyme in a
series of activities. For example, "Put your
thumbs up if these two words rhyme--pailtail or cow-pig?" or "Finish this rhyme, red,
bed, blue, ______."
Snap and Clap Rhymes
• Begin with a simple clap and snap rhythm.
• Get more complex as children move along
in rhyming. Clap Clap Snap fall
Clap Clap Snap ball Clap Clap
Snap hall Clap Clap Snap small
• A variation is the "I say, You say" game:
• I say fat. You say _____. I say red. You
say _____.
Rhyming Word Sit Down
• Children walk around in a big circle taking
one step each time a rhyming word is said
by the teacher.
• When the teacher says a word that doesn't
rhyme, the children sit down:
• she tree flea spree key bee sea went
Rhyming words in songs, poems,
and big books
• As you do shared reading with the
students, pause at the end of phrases and
let the students supply the rhyming words.
• After you have read the poem together ask
students to find the rhyming words.
• Generate other words that rhyme with
these rhyming words.
Silly Rhymes Big Book
• Use rimes (roots of word families) and rhyme
charts around the classroom to create silly poems
with the class.
• Write the one line rhyme with the whole class in
big letters on large chart paper (Shared Writing).
• Read aloud several times.
• Use different voices. Have children sound and
clap words.
• Have a child illustrate the rhyme.
• Repeat each week for another set of rimes.
•
Sound Matching Activities
• Children are asked to decide which of several
words begins with a given sound or to generate
a word beginning with a particular sound (can
use picture cards or small objects). You may ask
for a specific sound like /s/; you may ask
students to generate their own examples of
words beginning with the sound like /s/.
Teachers say the phoneme sounds not the letter
names.
• Word to word matching: Do pen and pipe begin
with the same sound?
Blending Activities:
• Blending requires children to manipulate individual sounds by
combining them to form a word. Given a series of isolated sounds
(e.g. /b/-/a/-/t/), children blend them together (e.g., bat)
• Guessing Game: Yopp (1992b) "What am I thinking of?" This game
encourages children to blend orally spoken sounds together. The
teacher tells the children a category and then speaks in a
segmented fashion the sounds of a particular item in that category.
For eg. category of clothing – sounds may be /h/-/a/-/t/ Children’s
attempts to blend the sounds together are applauded and the game
continues. Eventually, children become the leaders and take turns
providing their peers with segmented words for blending. Categories
may include theme words as an extension of integrated literacy
experiences.
• Use picture cards with pictures turned away until children have
guessed the picture
• Use a grab bag, peeking inside and saying, "I see a toy /d/-/u/-/k/ in
here. Who knows what I see?"
Blending Activities:
• Use the lyrics to "If You’re Happy" substituting the words "If you
think you know this word, shout it out!"
• Pronounce the sounds individually (the slow way) in a word and ask
the child to say the word the fast way. Listen: f-oo-t-b-a-ll is the slow
way and football is the fast way. Now your turn. Here is the slow
way, can you say it the fast way?
• Blend onsets and rimes: model blending an initial sound onto a word
by using a jingle, "It starts with /l/ and it ends with /ight/, put it
together and it says light." When they have the idea, the children
supply the final word. An element of excitement can be created by
using children's names for this activity and asking each child to
recognize and say his/her own name when it is presented, "It starts
with /b/ and it ends with etsy, put it together and it says Betsy."
• Have a puppet who speaks "funny" by saying words syllable by
syllable, or phoneme by phoneme for the children to figure out. The
puppet can have children guess, /f/-/i/-/sh/ ... I said fish! or tri-cer-atops ... I said triceratops!
Sound Isolation Activities:
• Children are given a word, picture, or object and asked to tell what
sound occurs at the beginning, middle, or end of the word.
• Sound Snacks (A Tasty Game): Place two paper cups on a table
next to a bowl of peanuts, M & M's, raisins, cheerios, or whatever
snack you want to have. Label one cup "B" for beginning and the
other "E" for ending. As the child to identify the beginning or ending
consonants in words you name by placing one piece of snack in the
correct cup. Eg. "Where is the /t/ sound in wet?" (End), "Where is
the /b/ sound in bed?" (Beginning). Children may eat the snack if
they put it in the correct cup. Some words like pop, treat, tent, Mom
will allow the children to put a treat in both cups and eat more than
one treat at a time.
Phoneme counting:
• How many sounds do you hear in the word cake?
• To count syllables in words, activities can be used such as clapping
hands, tapping the desk, or marching in place to the syllables in
children's names (Ma-ry), items in the immediate environment (window), or words from a favorite story (wi-shy, wa-shy).
• Clap your hands or tap finger on the back of your other hand to mark
each sound or syllable heard.
• Take One Thing From the Box: Collect a number of objects in a box
or bag, making sure that the numer of syllables in the name differ. A
child selects an object, name it (e.g., pencil). All of the children
should repeat the object's name as they clap out its syllables. Then
ask how many syllables were heard. A variation would be to use
pictures.
Deleting phonemes:
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What sound do you hear in meat that is missing in eat?
I can make a new word from flat by taking out the /l/ sound? Can you guess what it
is?
I can take the /k/ sound out of monkey and make a new word. Can you tell me what it
is?
I can change the last sound of a word to make a new word: take the /p/ off the end of
map and put a /d/ sound intead. Can any one tell me what the new word is?
Play a game of "sound take-away". The teacher models how to orally segment a word
into the "target" sound plus everything else and then takes the sound away. A
modified jingle can be used: "Chair. It starts with /ch/ and it ends with air; take the first
sound away and it says air." The jingle can be used until the children can delete
sounds with a simple prompt: "Say ball without the /b/".
Children who have difficulty with deleting sounds might benefit from visual clues. By
placing two colored blocks side-by-side, the teacher can designate one as
representing the target sound and the other as representing the remainder of the
word: "I'm going to use these blocks to say moon. This (red block) says moo and this
yellow block says /n/. The child is then asked what the first block said when the
second block is removed.
Odd word out:
• What word starts with a different sound: bag,
nine, beach, bike?
• Have three of four objects that start with the
same sound. Have children identify the objects,
so everyone uses the same labels and
exaggerate the initial sounds. Sing/say the
Sesame Street jingle, "One of these things just
doesn't belong here, one of things is just not the
same. Can you tell which thing just doesn't
belong here? Before I finish this game?"
Sound to word matching:
• Is there a /k/ in bike?
• Use songs in sound matching activities, e.g. Old
Macdonald Had a Farm: What's the sound that starts
these words? Turtle, time and teeth. (wait... for children's
response) /t/ is the sound that starts these words: Turtle,
time and teeth. With a /t/t/ here and a /t/t/ there, Here a
/t/, there a /t/, everywhere a /t/t/. /t/ is the sound that
starts these words; turtle, time and teeth. The children
might use favorite stories from their reading lessons to
identify different sets of three words that start with the
same sound to incorporate into the song. Each repeated
verse could then emphasize a different sound.
Sound to word matching:
• Make a set of dominoes that have two pictured objects
on each card. The children are required to join cards
sharing beginning (or ending) sounds.
• A version of "snap: uses cards having one picture. The
children take turns drawing a card from a face-down pile
and placing it on a face-up pile. When a newly drawn
card has the same beginning (or end) sound as the top
card in the face-up pile, the first child to identify the
match by saying "snap" collects the pile.
• Sound bingo uses bingo cards with pictures that the
children mark if one of their pictures has the same
beginning (or ending) sound as the word said by the
caller.
Segmentation Activities:
• Segmenting the sounds in a word is one of the more difficult of
phonemic awareness tasks to perform (Yopp, 1988), yet it is highly
related to later success in decoding words. Segmenting refers to the
act of isolating the sounds in a spoken word.
• Pronounce a word and tell the children that this is the fast way to
say the word, and give an example of the slow way. For example,
football (fast way) and f-oo-t-b-a-ll (slow way). Give the children
another word eg. bed and ask if they can say it the slow way (b-e-d).
• One idea is to display a picture of a train composed of an engine,
passenger car, and a caboose. Three connecting boxes can be
drawn under each component. Explain that words have beginning,
middle, and end sounds just like the train has a beginning, middle
and end. Demonstrate by slowly articulating a CVC (consonant,
vowel, consonant) word (e.g. /p/-/i/-/g/) and pointing to the box
corresponding to the position of each sound in the word.
Segmentation Activities:
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Use interlocking blocks as a visual demonstration of segmentation.
Children’s Names: Draw out the first sound and exaggerate so as to draw
attention to the sound, e.g. C-C-C-Catherine, or Llllllllllllll-inda. Students may
even begin to guess which child you are calling by the initial sound.
Use Twinkle, Twinkle melody replacing with the following words: Listen,
listen, to my word. Tell me all the sounds you heard: race. (slowly) /r/ is one
sound, /a/ is two, /s/ is last in race, it’s true. (ask how many?)
Concrete Objects: Elkonin boxes have been used in Reading Recovery to
help low achieving readers focus on the sounds in words (Clay, 1985). A
series of connected boxes are drawn across the page. The number of
boxes corresponds to the number of sounds in a target word. The word
chick is represented by three boxes. As the teacher slowly says the word,
she/he models moving an object, such as a chip, into each box (l-r) as each
sound is articulated. Ultimately, the moving of chips into the boxes is
replaced by writing of letters in the boxes (chick: /ch/-/i/-/ck/).
Teaching Syllable Segmentation
• The Task
• Children participate in a series of activities
that help them realize that words are made
up of syllables. For example, "Can you
count the syllables or the word parts in
football?“
Syllable Clap
• Talk with children about why knowing
about syllables can help them when they
read and write.
• Ask them to clap with you as you say
these words:
• sunshine vacation delicious dinner
astronaut alphabet communication
calendar school wonderful merry-go-round
television
Syllable Count
• Have children clap for each syllable you
say.
• Begin with two or three syllable words and
build up to longer words with more
syllables:
• airplane air plane 2
• table ta ble 2
• porcupine por cu pine 3
• communication com mun i ca tion 5
General Phonological
Manipulation
• Language games that teach children to identify rhyming
words and to create rhymes on their own.
• Activities that help children understand that spoken
sentences are made up of groups of separate words,
that words are made up of syllables, and that words can
be broken down into separate sounds.
• "Word play" activities in which children change
beginning, middle, or ending letters of related words,
thus changing the words they decode and spell.
• Introduction of phonetically "irregular" words in practice
activities and stories
Teaching Sound Substitution
• The Task
• Children identify the beginning, middle,
and ending sounds in words. For example,
"What is the ending sound in pig?" What
sound do you hear in the middle of cat?"
•
Activities
• Tricky Rhyming Riddles Using Onset and Rime
• Ask children riddles that require them to
manipulate sounds in their heads.
• The easiest are the ones that ask for endings.
• The next easiest are the ones that ask for a single
consonant substitution at the beginning.
• The most difficult are the ones that ask for a
consonant blend or digraph at the beginning. What
rhymes with pig and starts with /d/? dig What
rhymes with book and starts with /c/? cook What
rhymes with sing and starts with /r/? dig What
rhymes with dog and starts with /fr/? frog
Songs that Teach Sound
Substitution
• Choose a song your students all know and substitute a
consonant sound for the beginning of each word in the
song.
• One song that works well is from "I've Been Working
on the Railroad: (Yopp, 1992) "Fee-Fi-Fiddle-ee-I-Oh"
"Bee-Bi-Biddle-ee-I-Oh" "Dee-Di-Diddle-ee-I-Oh"
"Hee-Hi-Hiddle-ee-I-Oh"
• Try Old Mac Donald Had a Farm making substitutions
when singing about each new animal. (Yopp, 1992)
For a cow, sing, "kee-high,kee-kigh, koh!" For a
sheep, sing, "shee-shigh, shee-shigh, shoh!"
•
Teaching Sound Isolation
• The Task
• Children identify the beginning, middle,
and ending sounds in words. For example,
"What is the beginning sound in nose?"
"What is the ending sound in pig? "What is
the sound you hear in the middle of cat?"
Activities
• A Song That Teaches Sound Isolation is Old Mac Donald Had
a Farm (Yopp, 1992)
• In this song, children are asked to tell what sounds they hear
at the beginning, middle, or end of words.
• You may use the same sound for each position (beginning,
middle, and end) as you begin to work with a new sound and
then mix them up as children learn more sounds.
• What's the sound that starts these words: turtle, time, and
teeth? (Wait for a response from the children - /t/.) /t/ is the
sound that starts these words: turtle, time, and teeth. With a
/t/, /t/, here and a /t/, /t/, there, Here a /t/, there a /t/,
everywhere a /t/, /t/. /t/ is the sound that starts these words:
turtle, time, and teeth.
More
• What is the sound in the middle of these words beet
and meal and read? (Wait for a response from the
children - /ee/.) /ee/ is the sound in the middle of these
words: beet and meal and read. With a /ee/, /ee/, here
and a /ee/, /ee/, there, Here a /ee/, there a /ee/,
everywhere a /ee/, /ee/. /ee/ is the sound in the middle
of these words: beet and meal and read.
• What's the sound at the end of these words: bed and
seed and mad? (Wait for a response from the children
- /d/.) /d/ is the sound at the end of these words: bed
and seed and mad. With a /d/, /d/, here and a /d/, /d/,
there, Here a /d/, there a /d/, everywhere a /d/, /d/. /d/
is the sound at the end of these words: bed and seed
and mad.
Teaching Phonemic Blending
• - "I Say It Slowly, You Say It Fast" Game
• Teacher explains that she will say the
sounds in a word slowly.
• Children take turns saying it fast. Example:
Teacher says, "/k/-/a/-/t/ child says, "cat."
Example: Teacher says, "cow - boy" child
says, "cowboy."
•
Another Example
• The THRASS Phoneme Machine is a FREE
computer programme that uses moving human
lips to pronounce the sounds (phonemes) in
hundreds of frequently used English words. It is
an excellent resource for teachers, assistants
and parents for learning about, and also
teaching, the fundamental building blocks of
English in an entertaining and fun way.
Phonics
• Phonics teaches developing readers the
relationship between phonemes (sounds of oral
language) and graphemes (letters that represent
sounds in print).
• Students who learn phonics master the
sound/symbol code that enables them to read
and spell.
• Mastering phonics, or the alphabetic principal,
will help readers decode unfamiliar words and
automatically recognize familiar words.
Phonics Strategies
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Analogy phonics Teaching students unfamiliar words by analogy to known
words (e.g., recognizing that the rime segment of an unfamiliar word is
identical to that of a familiar word, and then blending the known rime with
the new word onset, such as reading brick by recognizing that -ick is
contained in the known word kick, or reading stump by analogy to jump).
Analytic phonics Teaching students to analyze letter-sound relations in
previously learned words to avoid pronouncing sounds in isolation.
Embedded phonics Teaching students phonics skills by embedding
phonics instruction in text reading, a more implicit approach that relies to
some extent on incidental learning.
Phonics through spelling Teaching students to segment words into
phonemes and to select letters for those phonemes (i.e., teaching students
to spell words phonemically).
Synthetic phonics Teaching students explicitly to convert letters into
sounds (phonemes) and then blend the sounds to form recognizable words.
Contents of a Phonics Program
• A systematic phonics program should cover all
the major sound/symbol relationships, including
consonants, blends, short and long vowels,
consonant and vowel digraphs, diphthongs, and
variant sound-symbol relationships.
• However, instruction of sound/symbol
relationships is most effective when combined
with plenty of practice and application through
the reading and writing of words.
Teaching Strategies for Phonics
Instruction
•
• Sound Play
• Rhyming
• Identifying Sounds
• Segmenting Words into Sounds
• Blending Sounds Into Words
• Combining Phonics Skills
Phonics Strategies and Activities
Sound Play
• Take nature walks or share tape recordings of everyday sounds.
• Listen and identify sounds in the environment.
• Play taped rhythms or model rhythms for students to duplicate by
clapping or tapping out the patterns using percussion instruments.
• Share literature selections with predictable language.
• Share tongue twisters that feature specific phonemes
Phonics Strategies and Activities
Rhyming
•
• Share nursery rhymes, poems, finger plays, and songs that
demonstrate rhyming, repetition, and alliteration.
• Display a picture or an object from a story, nursery rhyme, poem,
finger play, or song. Have students identify as many words as
possible that might rhyme with the name of the object.
• Construct a list of rhyming words drawn from reading materials that
are familiar to the students. Assign a word to each student. Call out
two rhyming words and ask the students who have those words to
act out the two words.
Phonics Strategies and Activities
Rhyming
• Construct rhyming couplets. Read the stem and ask students to
complete the rhyming word. An example of a couplet follows:
I went to the circus in town
To see the funny ___________ (clown).
• Sit in a circle and ask students to imagine going on a class trip.
Then give one student a ball. That student begins a rhyming couplet
by completing the following frame:
"We're going on a trip and I'm taking a ____ (hat)."
The ball is tossed to a second student, who responds,
"We're going on a trip and I' taking a _______ (bat, mat, etc…)"
The ball is tossed to another student who continues by starting a
new couplet with a different ending.
Phonics Strategies and Activities
Identifying Sounds
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•
Have students look into individual mirrors and tell them to look at the
location of their lips, tongue, and teeth, when pronouncing certain sounds
and words. Use these observations to discuss how certain sounds are
produced.
•
Create a list of word pairs. Some should have the same number of
phonemes, others different numbers. Pronounce the words pairs, ask
students to identify which pairs have the same number and which do not.
•
Create a list with pairs of words. Some should end with the same phoneme.
Pronounce each word pair and ask students to indicate if the pair ends with
the same sound or a different one.
Phonics Strategies and Activities
Identifying Sounds
• Prepare a class picture dictionary. Write the uppercase and
lowercase letter that represents the initial phoneme. Collect pictures
for each of the letter-sounds.
• Create a mobile or collage that features words or pictures of words
that begin or end with a specific sound (phoneme).
• Play a consonant riddle game by presenting the riddle in the
following frame: "I'm thinking of something that rhymes with dish but
starts with /f/. What can it be?
• Use word walls to display words that feature specific sounds or
patterns.
Phonics Strategies and Activities
Segmenting Words into Sounds
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Have students use letter tiles or small objects to represent the phonemes in a word.
•
Ask students to pronounce a word. Then ask them to repeat the same word without
one of the sounds. Begin by having them delete the initial consonant sound and
conclude by having them delete the final consonant sound.
•
Using a large rubber band as a visual, stretch it as you slowly pronounce a particular
word. Instruct the students to pretend to stretch a rubber band when they pronounce
words to identify the individual phonemes or sounds.
•
Use magnetic letters or colored chalk or markers to visually differentiate segments of
words by syllables.
•
After students have been introduced to word families, construct manipulatives such
as word wheels or flip books to create various words.
Phonics Strategies and Activities
Blending Sounds Into Words
•
Identify the phonemes in a blending riddle that provides a clue to the
meaning. One example might be: "I am thinking of a small, furry animal that
meows" The sounds are /k/a/t/.
•
Assign each student a specific phoneme. Form teams of students to create
words from the blending of their assigned sounds. The words can be shared
orally or visually by spelling the words on the board or charts.
•
Construct a cloze passage from familiar material that has been read to the
student or that the student has read. Delete every fifth word by covering it
with a sticky note or select key words with particular sounds or patterns that
you want to review. As students read the material, encourage them to
"guess" the missing word using clues you provide. Start by providing the
initial letter, and continue giving letters for them to use by blending their
sounds until the word is identified.
•
Phonics Strategies and Activities
Combining Phonics Skills
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Incorporate repeated readings of familiar passages or stories with
previously taught spelling patterns to develop fluency and rate.
•
Use a stamp and stamp pad to create words. Once the words are
constructed, vocalize each phoneme, blending the sounds, then discuss the
meaning of the word. A picture of the word might also be drawn.
•
When teaching words with common spelling patterns, use word sorts to
encourage students to sort according to the common patterns. Open sorts
involve presenting the students with the list of words to be sorted in any way
they choose. Closed sorts involve presenting the students with a list and
instructions on how to sort them.
Phonics Strategies and Activities
Combining Phonics Skills
•
Demonstrate the connection of phonics with spelling by using dictation and
free writing activities.
•
Include commercially prepared children's games that support sound/spelling
relationships, such as Hangman, Scrabble, and Got-A-Minute in learning
center areas.
•
Making words. Begin by displaying and introducing a word to the students.
Create a list of shorter words that can be constructed using letters from the
larger word. Provide the students with individual letter tiles or cards. Prompt
the students to construct 2-letter words. Pronounce the words and use each
one in a sentence. Continue constructing smaller words, increasing the
number of letters used. Prompt the students to look for patterns as the
words are created. Review all the words that were created and encourage
students to use the words in authentic writing activities.
• Show the children a picture (dog) and asking the
children to identify the correct word out of three:
"Is this a /mmmm/-og, a /d/d/d/-og, or a /sssss/og?" A variation is to ask if the word has a
particular sound: "Is there a /d/ in dog? This can
be switched to "Which sound does dog start
with- /d/, /sh/, or /l/? This sequence encourages
the children to try out the three onsets with the
rime to see which one is correct.
Improving Fluency
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Repeated reading
Predictable books
Neurological impress method
Read-along method
1. Model Fluent Reading
• In order to read fluently, students must first hear and understand what fluent reading sounds like. From there, they will be
more likely to transfer those experiences into their own
reading. The most powerful way for you to help your students
is to read aloud to them, often and with great expression.
Choose selections carefully. Expose them to a wide variety of
genres including poetry, excerpts from speeches, and folk and
fairy tales with rich, lyrical language — texts that will spark
your students' interests and draw them into the reading
experience.
• Following a read-aloud session, ask your students: "After
listening to how I read, can you tell me what I did that is like
what good readers do?" Encourage students to share their
thoughts. Also, ask your students to think about how a fluent
reader keeps the listener engaged.
2. Do Repeated Readings In
Class
•
•
•
In their landmark book, Classrooms That Work (Addison-Wesley, 1998), Patricia
Cunningham and Richard Allington stress the importance (and I agree) of repeated
readings as a way to help students recognize high-frequency words more easily, thereby
strengthening their ease of reading. Having students practice reading by rereading short
passages aloud is one of the best ways I know of to promote fluency.
For example, choose a short poem to begin with, preferably one that fits into your current
unit of study, and transpose it onto an overhead transparency. Make a copy of the poem for
each student. Read the poem aloud several times while your students listen and follow
along. Take a moment to discuss your reading behaviors such as phrasing (i.e. the ability
to read several words together in one breath), rate (the speed at which we read), and
intonation (the emphasis we give to particular words or phrases).
Next, ask your students to engage in an "echo reading," in which you read a line and all the
students repeat the line back to you. Following the echo reading, have students read the
entire poem together as a "choral read." You will find that doing group readings like these
can be effective strategies for promoting fluency because all students are actively
engaged. As such, they may be less apprehensive about making a mistake because they
are part of a community of readers, rather than standing alone.
3. Promote Phrased Reading In
Class
• Fluency involves reading phrases seamlessly, as
opposed to word by word. To help students read
phrases better, begin with a terrific poem. Two of my
students' favorites are "Something Told the Wild
Geese" by Rachel Field, and "Noodles" by Janet
Wong. (See resource box below.)
• After selecting a poem, write its lines onto sentence
strips, which serve as cue cards, to show students
how good readers cluster portions of text rather than
saying each word separately. Hold up strips one at a
time and have students read the phrases together.
Reinforce phrased reading by using the same poem in
guided reading and pointing to passages you read as
a class.
4. Enlist Tutors to Help Out
• Provide support for your nonfluent readers by
asking tutors — instructional aides, parent
volunteers, or older students — to help. The tutor
and the student can read a preselected text aloud
simultaneously. By offering positive feedback
when the reader reads well, and by rereading
passages when he or she struggles, the tutor
provides a helpful kind of one-on-one support. The
sessions can be short — 15 minutes at most. Plus,
if you provide tutors with the text that you plan to
use in an upcoming group lesson, you can give
your nonfluent readers a jump start prior to the
next lesson.
5. Try A Reader's Theater In
Class
• Because reader's theater is an oral performance of a
script, it is one of the best ways to promote fluency. In
the exercise, meaning is conveyed through expression
and intonation. The focus thus becomes interpreting
the script rather than memorizing it.
• Getting started is easy. Simply give each student a
copy of the script, and read it aloud as you would any
other piece of literature. (See the resource box, below,
for script sources.) After your read-aloud, do an echo
read and a choral read of the script to involve the
entire class. Once the class has had enough practice,
choose students to read the various parts. Put
together a few simple props and costumes, and invite
other classes to attend the performance.
5 Continued
• For the presentation, have readers stand, or sit on stools, in
front of the room and face the audience.
• Position them in order of each character's importance.
• Encourage students to make eye contact with the audience
and one another before they read. Once they start, they
should hold their scripts at chest level to avoid hiding their
faces, and look out at the audience periodically.
• After the performance, have students state their names and
the part that they read. You might also want to videotape the
performance so that you can review it with students later. In
doing so, you will show them that they are, indeed, fluent
readers.
Talk About The Story
Ask your child to tell you what might happen next.
Help her use context, pictures, first letters, ending letters
and other clues to guess what a word is.
Model reading smoothly with expression and phrasing that
matches the meaning of the text. This makes the story
more engaging and builds fluency.
Reread books several times in a week. Choose books at
your child's reading level to prevent frustration and build
fluency.
Your child's Accelerated Reader books are good choices
for home reading practice because they are at your
child's independent reading
Paired Reading
• In paired reading, you and your child read
a book aloud together, pointing to each
word as you go along.
• Also, you will allow your child to read out
loud alone as he moves his finger under
each word.
• When a mistake is made, move his finger
back and correct it.
Books with Tapes/CD sets
• Many popular children's books come with
tapes or CD's or listening while following
along in the book. Check your favorite
bookstore. You can also record your
children's books at home. Use a tape
recorder, or record it through your
computer mic and burn it on CD
Reading Poetry
• Poetry is a good way to build fluency
because poems have rhythm and
expression. Begin reading children's
poetry to your child at a young age. When
he begins elementary school, begin
memorization of poetry. The process
involves multiple readings and oral
expression, two components of fluency
development
Dramatic Reading
• Choose a story or book that has lots of
dialogue. Practice and perform a dramatic
reading with you and your child performing
the parts. Again, you will use multiple
readings and expression. Your child
doesn't have to memorize the dialogue.
She may read the script, but encourage
pacing and expression
Echo Reading
• In echo reading, you read a sentence or brief
passage aloud using phrasing and expression to
convey meaning. Then, your child reads the
same sentence or passage aloud.
• Echo reading can be used with storybooks,
poems, and nonfiction books.
• Choose material that is relatively short and
reread it at least four times until he reads the
material quickly, accurately, and with
expression.
Enhancing Vocabulary
• Helps Reading Comprehension
Root Word Lesson Plans
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Fill-in-the-blanks,
Synonym/Antonyms,
Crosswords,
Word Finds,
True/False
Prefix Study
Thematic Puzzles
• Themes organized in subject areas and by
calendar to promote decoding skills with
vocabulary building activities, discussion
questions & ideas
• Themes for example could include
Science, Math, Social Studies/History,
Language Arts/English, Fine
Arts/Music/Drama, Sports & Holidays.
Word Lists
• word lists for writing and word walls;
• vocabulary from books;
• frequently used roots
Others
•
•
- Jumble Puzzles
Solve jumble puzzles by unscrambling letters to improve Vocabulary
•
Jugglets
Arrange scrambled letters to form words in the English language.
•
Fun Games of Hidden English Words
Enjoy games of finding English words on fruits, flowers, animals, vegetables & colors.
•
•
Hangman Games
Translation games in hangman format to learn languages especially English.
More Vocabulary Strategies
• Vocabulary Word Lists - Nouns, Verbs & Adjectives on People,
Science & History
Vocabulary test activities to learn English language and build your
word power.
•
Preparation for Verbal Ability
Antonyms, analogies and sentence completion tests
• Verbal Ability
Confusing words and sentence correction tests
Reading Comprehension
• Depends upon what reader brings to the
text
• A language process
• A thinking process
• Requires interaction with the text
Improving Reading
Comprehension
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•
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Building vocabulary
Using basal readers
Activating background knowledge
Language experience method
Reading-writing connection
Learning strategies
Encourage wide reading
K-W-L
K
W
L
What we What we What we
know
want to
have
find out learned
Word Webs
Specific Remedial Methods
• Multisensory methods
– Orton-Gillingham
– Wilson
– Fernald
– Others
• Reading Recovery
• Direct Instruction
• Using Computers