Word Knowledge and Fluency

                What is Word Work? And who cares? (At least according to me)

              

            When teaching students to read you want to hit on the big five (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) right. Everyone knows this. Sounds easy right. Well anyone who has tried can tell you it is hard. One of the ways a teacher, or a parent can help children learn to read is to implement word work strategies on a daily basis.

I would define word work as working with words on a daily basis in an authentic way.  This may be word sorting, word listing, etc. there are a variety of ways this could happen. Students should do this every day and when they do it they need to make the lesson become almost automatic.  This automaticity helps aid in our learning because what happens in our brain when we learn something is that new synapsis fire and new connections are made, and if we don’t reinforce this new knowledge the connection will get severed and we will forget it. (My apologies for the simplicity of the last sentence, I know the brain is more complicated but you get my point)  Because we may forget new information, this is why it is so important to repeat things to students about letters and reading. And furthermore why it is so important for students to repeatedly sort words for meaning because that will reinforce the word.

Word work helps student read in a variety of ways. One way is decoding. A person can only spend so much time and energy on one thing at a time. Think about, reading is tough, we are taking weird shapes and assigning them sounds that we’ve all agreed to and somehow we make meaning out of that. It is easy if you know the sounds and the meaning behind the sounds, but what if you struggle. You are going to spend all your time trying to sound out words and you will forget what you are even reading about in the first place. Is it any wonder some people hate reading.

What word work does is helps students reinforce phonic sounds and patterns and therefore their reading fluency can improve. If a student works on the /st/ sound for a few days during word work in class. They will eventually know how to tackle a word like “crustacean” or “streamline” more easily than they would by simply trying to sound it out.  Because it is easier for them they will not need to work as hard and therefore they can read at a faster rate. More importantly they won’t struggle as much when they read and may enjoy reading more.

Research Matters:

I know what you are probably thinking, who are you do make such claims. Well I am not an expert by any means, but my opinions are based on facts. Three article I’d like to highlight are: “Developmental-Spelling Research: A Systemic Imperative” by Marcia Invernizzi and Latisha Hayes, “Word Study Instruction in the K-2Classroom” by Cheri Williams, with several others and finally “Vocabulary: Questions from the classroom” by Camille Blachowicz.   

In their article “Developmental-Spelling Research: A Systematic Imperative” Marcia Invernizzi and Latisha Hayes discuss this at length. It is their work that most of my opinions are formed.  Something I found very interesting that they highlighted was how prevalent word work is now in our education system. They discuss how “Virtually every teacher’s manual in every major reading series at least nominally suggest word sorts.” A word sort is when a student sorts words based on some criteria. You can have an open sort when students pick the word or a closed sort where an instructor gives criteria.  They believe that word sorts aid in helping students learn to spell. Because of the patters being reinforced and not just a random list of words. The student learns the phonic pattern and then can apply that knowledge later to new words. This way of thinking is very different than the old “spelling list” in which students were forced to memorize a random list of words. They advocate for a systematic approach to teaching spelling and phonics in their classroom. I feel they can best be summed up by their statement:

As knowledge of the phoneme-grapheme relations expands, students begin to acquire many sight words, and they move into independent reading about the same time they begin to navigate through the pattern tier of English spelling. The more the students read, write and learn about the spelling system, the larger their vocabulary grows. Before you know it, students are learning and remember so many words that their lexicons abound with words of more than on syllable…

                  Think about how powerful of a tool this is for young emergent readers. We can equip them with the skills necessary to tackle words they’ve never even heard of before! That is awesome. If you can instill a love of language into children at a young age think of the implications later in life for that student, not only academically but also in the real world.  In a little way this helps them tackle problems head on and to relate new things to old things in order to create meaning. Wow! That is an awesome thought to think about.

                In Cheri Williams article “Word Study Instruction in the K-2 Classroom” she defines word study as “an approach to spelling instruction that moves away from a focus on memorization.” For example “students come to understand that the second vowel in compose is spelled with an “o” because it is related to compose” This reinforces what we’ve been discussing. That this is a movement away from memorizing and into actually understanding the language. Williams has four approaches to implementing word study:

1.       Assess Students’ Word Knowledge Using Multiple Assessment Tools

2.        Use a Homogeneous Small-Group Approach to Instruction

3.       Carve Out Time to Prepare for Word Study Instruction

4.       Teach Word Knowledge Not Just Words

In my opinion number four is the hardest but most important. If you can teach student word knowledge they can exceed our expectations. If we teach them a word list they will memorize it.  Below is an example of a teacher doing word work with two second grade students:

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvdeFqPrQCQ

Analysis:

                Overall I think this is an okay example. I think that it is good the students are writing the words down. But I think for overall time it would have been faster to do a word sort. They could have covered more words. However, some positives that I saw were her interactions and her accountability of her students.  In her interactions with the two students she stayed on task, it is a small clip but I feel that a rehearsal would have strengthened this. She did rehearse the sounds a few times with them but not as a model. As far as accountability is concerned I like that she did not tell the students the answers. They had to arrive on it on their own. Far too often we rush through lessons and we never let students learn. They just listen to us talk. This doesn’t help anyone.

                Finally as a secondary teacher this is a whole new world to me. I don’t carve out time to teach phonic sounds. But the concepts could be applied to vocabulary words. In Blachowicz’s article “Vocabulary: Questions from the classroom” she argues for the use of “new words, wordplay, playful word practice and other techniques for motivating” and furthermore states that we should have “an emphasis on semantic relatedness” and that “instruction provides both definitional and contextual information about words.”  This is important because the core ideas are there. In an AP English class when a new book is being discussed instead of working from a generic list students could be involved in authentic word work that would help aid their reading instead of just regurgitating a word list.

Final thoughts…a “so what” if you will:

                As I stated previously I am a secondary school teacher and old enough that I never really did this kind of word work as a student. So when I started researching it I was skeptical. But upon researching word work and its implication on fluency, spelling etc. I am a believer. I think word work should be an essential part of every classroom. It helps prepare students to read on their own, which after all is the goal. We want our students to take these skills with them the rest of their lives. They can be in a meeting and say “sorry that wasn’t a vocab word I don’t know what that means, or how to say it.” We want students that are capable of understand and manipulating the language so that they can communicate their ideas in ways that will benefit all of us.

American Reading Instruction since 1967- by P. David Pearson

             The way educators have taught students literacy in the last third of the century stands in stark contrast to how literacy was taught in the first two-thirds. In his article, “American Reading Instruction Since 1967” P. David Pearson’s focus is to give his readers a brief account of the changes in reading instruction since 1967, while doing so he aims to provide an account of the past, and present reading instruction that will hopefully render predictions about the future.

               

Setting the Scene:

The article begins with a brief account of where literacy instruction was in the 1960s, right around the time of massive paradigm shift in literacy education.  Pearson describes this as a time in which we engaged in five-tuning and elaboration of instructional models that were born in the first third of the century. (Pearson 2002) Jeanne Chall described the then common set of principles as:

Chall’s Description of Literacy Principles (1967)

·         The goal of reading from grade one should include comprehension, interpretation, and application, as well as word recognition

·         Instruction should begin with meaningful silent reading of stories that are grounded in children’s experiences and interests

·         After sight words are learned analytic phonics should begin

·         Phonics instruction should be spread over several years

·         Phonics instruction should be carefully controlled for frequency and repeated

·         Children should get off to a slow and steady start

·         Children should be instructed in small groups

Along with these principles Pearson notes that there was a rise in teacher manuals and that reading instruction in the 1960s was still a straightforward perceptual process. Pearson describes this process using the equation RC=Dec* LC or reading comprehension is the product of decoding and listening comprehension.

Changes are coming:

                Pearson uses Chall’s recommendation of five major changes as the catalyst to look at the five new theories that arise out of this time period. Chall recommends the following changes should be made in literacy instruction:

1.       Make necessary change in method (to an early emphasis on phonics of some sort)

2.       Reexamine current ideas about content (focus on enduring themes in folktales)

3.       Reevaluate grade levels (increase the challenge at every grade level)

4.       Develop new tests (both single-component tests and absolute measures with scores that are independent of the population taking the test)

5.       Improve reading research

Responses:

               In response to Chall’s recommendation the educational community responded with five competing theories about literacy that changed the lens through which educators teach. Gone are the days of believing reading is the product of a perceptual process, now one views literacy as a: linguist, psycho-linguist, cognitive psychologist, socio-linguist or a literary theorist.

Linguistics:

                A linguist believes not everything needs to be taught, some language skills are inherent because of our oral traditions. Linguistics push the idea that we are hard wired for language and that language is acquired easily and naturally by children living in an environment in which they are exposed to language rather than taught language.

Psycho-linguistics:

                Looking at literacy through the psycholinguistics lens made four major contributions to literacy instruction during this time. First, they valued literacy experiences, second they helped us to value texts, third it helped us to understand the reading process and appreciate a child’s effort as readers, and finally it gave us means and a theory that are distinct from previous ways at looking at literacy.

Cognitive Psychology:

                Put forth the schema theory. This is the bedrock of prior knowledge, it is the idea that our background helps us understand the text. Everything we do either fits or expands our schema.

Socio-linguistics:

                Introduced the idea of “context” to reading, including home, and community levels of students. Also, the heightened the consciousness surrounding language as a social construction.

Literary Theory:

                Traditionally viewed as helping readers find the “true” meaning in a text.  During this time there was a shift to reader response theory. Proposed by Rosenblatt who suggests that we all bring to the piece a different worldview, and every reading will be a different transaction with the text.  How you “read” a book in high school is different than how you “read” a book as an adult.

To the future:

Pearson does expand on several theories and discusses their contributions to literacy theory.  However, he does not advocate for one over the other, instead he feels that a blending of multiple theories is the best approach to take when teaching literacy.

Reflections and Connections to my own practice:

                In my opinion, it is nearly impossible to read this article and not reflect on our own selves: how we were taught in school, and how we teach currently in our schools? If we look at reading as essentially how language is understood, used, and applied, it is impossible to not take into account all of these theories shape a child’s education.  It would be foolish to think that language and literacy for that matter would be understood in only one way. 

                As an English teacher, and former English major I am personally drawn to Rosenblatt’s Transactional Theory. I love the idea that all of us have a different interpretation of the same text, and that every time we read a text we are bringing our own schema and background to the piece. But after reading this article, I am now beginning to see that looking at how we read from a sociolinguistics lens would say that our interactions may be based on the context of how we read.  I could dig even deeper and say that all of this is only because we as people are hard wired for oral communication and reading is just applying an oral sound to a symbol.  But I keep finding myself asking, “Who is right, and don’t the all relate to one another?”   

                In my opinion, yes all these theories are inter-related because of schema.  Schema is really the cornerstone of most of these theories. How we form our schema may be different depending on which theoretical lens you view the world through.  But I believe that in order to read successfully we must activate the prior knowledge of our students.  Each reader brings their background knowledge, their cultural ideals, and their own literacy events to reading.

                If we are to teach struggling readers in a way that is effective, we must recognize that we need to draw from our students past, and we need to expand their prior knowledge.  Our goal as educators is to expand our student’s view of the world and have them figure out what is their role is in it. I believe that we need to always “set the scene” for our struggling readers. This may be a free write, it may be a simple conversation or countless other instructional strategies. The idea is we need to start a conversation before we read. If struggling readers feel that they already understand the “main stuff” (to quote a student) about the text before they read they will interact with the text in a better more authentic way.

                For me, this means when I introduce a piece regardless of the grade (I teach 7^th and 8^th grade mostly but I also teach Advanced Placement students) I’ve come to realize that I need to meet the students where they are, and it is my goal to expand their knowledge so that they can access this knowledge from their schema at a later date and use it independently. If they are to be college and career ready, I need to help them be able to meet the world head on, and have the background and the tools to it!  

                However, this is my take on the theories of the last quarter century. I may be reading or “interacting” with the text differently than you. Or I may be over simplifying a complicated piece. How does theory shape your classroom decisions?    

Word Work Center- Blended R sound

As a follow up to my fluency video on “The Day the Crayons Quit” I’ve created a word work center around blended r sounds, for example…crayon or dragon.  I came to this decision because according to, the Phonics Skills Sequence 2nd grade and the book What Research has to Say About Reading Instruction by PM Cunningham and JW Cunningham understanding blends is an essential phonetic skill that all students need to master in order to become fluent readers. 

Furthermore, the lesson helps students vocabulary grow because they are beginning to see a patterns develop with the various blends.  The text contains numerous blends but if you focused on the "purple crayon" "beige crayon" and "green crayon" the students should find the following words in the text: crayon, grapes, dragons, crazy, proud, brown, green, crocodile, trees, frogs, problems, congratulate, orange,  and driving.  In addition to these words students will sort the following words at the end of the lesson: brain, drum, draft, crown, drink, craft, crow, crab, brave, broom, brag, and drain.  These last twelve words are pre-selected by the teacher and serves as either tier one or tier two words. For example we (as teachers) can start showing students how the word drain, may mean to empty a bowl or may mean being physically tired.  This book is also an excellent book for increasing a students overall vocabulary with words such as: gorgeous, congratulate, humpback whale, embarrassed, and brilliantly.     

I’ve selected this book because I feel it is of high interest to students. This is a level R book for third graders.  As previously stated in my last post,  we know it is a level R book because when we compare it to the book Neighborhood Mystery by Ray Ramos from the website www.readinga-z.com we see several similarities including words per page, use of illustrations, and vocabulary level/literary devices.  Neighborhood Mystery has about 80 words per page on average, this is the same as The Day the Crayons Quit.  Furthermore both text use illustrations that are described in the writing but are not essential to understand the plot of the story. By which I mean, pictures alone would not be enough to understand what is happening in the text. The student would need to read to understand.  Both texts also use italics, bold words, and a variety of punctuation marks in the text.  Finally both text use a variety of words that would improve a students vocabulary, for example in The Day the Crayons Quit there are words such as - gorgeous, Humpback Whale,  and brilliantly; whereas  Neighborhood Mystery uses words such as - accidently, violinist, symphony, and eerie.  When you compare these two text, one which (Neighborhood Mystery) we know is leveled R we can see that they are both of similar levels.


The following activity would be for small group instruction after having modeled the text for students by reading it during whole group instruction. 

The activity would be ideal for small group instruction because it involves students reading, speaking, listening, and writing. It would work in a large group setting but I feel it would be less effective.

This lesson would meet the following standards:

·         1.1.K.B: Employ word recognition techniques:

o   Use association strategies to identify letters

o   Demonstrate phonological awareness through the segmenting and blending of phonemes

o   Use knowledge of letter sound correspondence (alphabetic principle) to decode words in context

·         1.1.1.B: Use word recognition techniques:

• Demonstrate phonological awareness through phoneme manipulation
• Demonstrate knowledge of letter sound correspondence (alphabetic principle) to decode and encode words

 1.1.2.B: Use knowledge of phonics and word recognition (e.g., root words, prefixes, suffixes, and syllabication) to decode and understand new words during reading

The activity would go as follows:

Objective:
To have students become familiar with and be able to locate, and produce words with common r blends.  This lesson specifically focuses on br, cr, dr blends. 

Materials:

·         The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

·         Five pieces of plain white paper (required)

·         Extra pieces of plain white paper (preferred)

·         Markers/pens

·         Sticky notes (colorful preferred)

·         12 tiered words on notecards

·         Large note cards

Engaging activity:

·         Ask students for a quick verbal summary of the book. 

o   This is to check for understanding

Lesson:

·         On the pieces of plain paper at the top, write three of the “blended r” sounds

o   Br

o   Cr

o   Dr

·         For the last two pieces of paper write “__r” at the top

·         As you are writing the letters pronounce each sound the blend makes

·         Ask students for one or two examples they can think of for these three blends

·         If correct have the student write them underneath the blend on the paper.  if incorrect write out the incorrect word and explain to students why it does not fit the pattern: For example if a student says "car" the teacher would write down car and explain how yes it does have a "c" and a "r" but they do not blend like the word "crash". 

·         Tell students we are “hunting for r blends today” so while we re-read the story if you see one, we have to stop…and write it out on their “r traps” (aka sticky notes)

·         Begin rereading the story; after reading a page, have students write the words that have the “r blend” on sticky notes.  The students will then stick the note on the correct page. This “captures” the blends

·         As they “capture” a blend help students identify the meaning of the word using context clues from the crayons letter

·         As we read, have the students discover two other blends that are in the text

·         Have students find and capture the blend sounds using their “r traps”

·         After finishing the book have students try to add more words that weren’t in the text but that follow the pattern

Summarizing:

·         Have students repeat the different sounds for each category by correctly pronouncing two words from each category

·         Give students twelve note cards with tiered words on them

• You may want to pair up students and have one student read a word and one student place the word in the correct category.  This would prevent students from just matching letter patterns. It would also serve as an informal assessment for you as a teacher to gage your students progress.

·         Have students sort the note cards correctly

·         Have students pick out their favorite word in each category

• for this have students use words from "purple crayon" "beige crayon" and "green crayon"

·         Have them write it on a large note card.

·         Add the note card to the classroom word wall under a “blends” section.

I feel that this lesson would be engaging because students would be generating their own list and doing the work. They would take ownership of the lesson. In the interest of time, you could focus on specific pages of the text that really have these sounds. For example, the purple crayon has several of these blends. This way you could really focus the students on finding the blend instead of overwhelming them with the entire text. Furthermore, a teacher can really set the tone of excitement by playing up the “hunting” atmosphere and the “r traps” and really praising each “catch”. 

Hopefully, the students would generate more than two additional blend sounds and you can create more on the extra paper. Ideally students would recognize that their “r traps” have an r blend in their name. And this would be one of the blends they would use.

Overall, I feel that this lesson would be a very effective way of teaching blends.  It is interactive, engaging, and the lists are initially generated from the text that they are working with in whole group discussion. This connection re-enforces the importance of the text and the lesson.

The Day the Crayons Quit- A literacy lesson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcFJIkrNwMo&list=UUYXl7-RbC728R-Tzt_AmpiQ

Above is a link to my first YouTube video! It is of me reading The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the book let me provide a brief summary. Duncan is the main character and when he reaches for his box of crayons he finds a large pile of letters.  These letters are from all of his crayons. Some are happy with how they are being used but most are unhappy. In a unique way each crayon writes to Duncan.

This is a level R text, or a great book for third graders. We know it is a level R book because when we compare it to the book Neighborhood Mystery by Ray Ramos from the website www.readinga-z.com we see several similarities including words per page, use of illustrations, and vocabulary level/literary devices.  Neighborhood Mystery has about 80 words per page on average, this is the same as The Day the Crayons Quit.  Furthermore both text use illustrations that are described in the writing but are not essential to understand the plot of the story. By which I mean, pictures alone would not be enough to understand what is happening in the text. The student would need to read to understand.  Both texts also use italics, bold words, and a variety of punctuation marks in the text.  Finally both text use a variety of words that would improve a students vocabulary, for example in The Day the Crayons Quit there are words such as - gorgeous, Humpback Whale,  and brilliantly; whereas  Neighborhood Mystery uses words such as - accidently, violinist, symphony, and eerie.  When you compare these two text, one which (Neighborhood Mystery) we know is leveled R we can see that they are both of similar levels.

This would be an excellent book to use for whole group or small group instruction.  The book is engaging for all students. It is funny, and could be adopted for several smaller lessons, including a variety of writing activities. Such as answering the crayons in a letter back, or writing a letter to your own crayons.

Throughout the video I will stop and model several literacy skills as well as ask several sample questions that could be used. Of course as no students are present I had to pretend that students responded correctly. The type of question and the questions that I asked were: (editor’s note these are the written questions, I was a little nervous while reading and they may not be word for word translations)

1.       Let’s re-read these two sentences. They end with an exclamation point not a period.  How does this change the message of the sentence?-Literal question

2.       Let’s re-read the first sentence. What does the word gorgeous mean? What other words could we use instead o gorgeous? - Vocabulary question 

3.       Look at all these question marks? What should we do when we read a question? How does our voice sound?-Literal question

4.       Based on what the Green Crayon said what do you predict we will hear about on the next two pages?-Inferential or prediction question

5.       Look at the last sentence. Let’s re-read it. What does the phrase splash of color mean?-Vocabulary question

These questions are effective because they involve the text, students cannot simply rely on the picture to answer the questions. They must interact with the text. By stopping and engaging the students we ( as teachers) are drawing the students in.

I hope this video will help you plan out future lessons.

Reflection seven- Spaces and Places 2

                While reading the assigned pages of Spaces and Places by Debbie Diller I was struck with more than a few ideas for my own classroom, most of which involved the classroom library and the writing stations.

                As a secondary English teacher I find students too often get prescribed reading in school.  By which I mean we as educators too often tell kids what they can or can’t read. We eliminate their input and then we wonder why they don’t ld then we wonder why they don'ids what they can or can'get prescribed reading in school.  By which I mean ove to read! Well if someone told me everything I had to read all the time…I’d hate it too. Now practically there are times when we must assign certain texts or certain articles but one thing I’ve used as a compromise is SSR.  This is the practice of allowing kids to select their own book and read independently in class. I usually allow the first ten to fifteen of class for this activity.  Once we are in the routine I allow students to move around the room and get comfortable. This is why the classroom library caught my attention. When you implement SSR into your curriculum you need to help the students by giving them access to books, and a wide variety of books.

                The first thing that jumped out at me on these pages was the genre baskets. I think this is great for three reasons.  One it is neat and saves space (a huge need in a classroom) two it helps students find books quicker (this would eliminate the student who just can’t find a book) and finally it allows students to see all the different kinds of books that are available, and make goals. They may really like fantasy books, and make a goal for themselves that they will read the basket this year.

                The second thing I liked in these pages was the comfortable reading corners. I am moving rooms this year because our building is under construction and I can’t wait to set up my reading corners. I have an old chair and an old ottoman that I can’t wait to bring in and set up. I think once kids are comfortable they will forget they are in class and be more inclined to “get into the book”. Because of the size of my students this idea is impractical but I thought the idea of the kids blow up pool was really neat. I like that because it could come out on special occasions. My only concern is how to eliminate fighting over the seats or areas. 

                In my class we focus a lot of time on writing. In my opinion writing is an essential tool for life, if you can’t put your thoughts onto paper you will struggle. So I spend a lot of time working on writing skills. So I was very interested in the writing areas. The one thing that I saw that was really cool was the peg board that had different writing tips on it. I think that this would be an extremely adaptable idea to any grade level. In the pictures they use sight words; I could use vocabulary words, or editing reminders. Students struggle with citations. This could be a way to help them.

                When it comes to desk arraignments I think the idea of groups is wonderful. It allows for easy interaction and allows students to “discover” the content together, which will make the content “stick” for the students.  The setup that I like the most is the four desks together in a large square, I like this setup because I think it is really important that as teacher I can easily get beside every desk if I need to help a student. It eliminates distractions. This way I am not reaching over other students or asking them to move.

                The final thing that I really liked in the room placement was the idea that nothing is permanent.  Even though the bare bones stay the same there are slight changes in the classroom as the year goes on. For example the back to school books, get replaced by fall books, or winter books. This keeps things fresh for students. I like that I think these little things in a class room go noticed by students, it shows you care, and that is so helpful in a classroom.

                   Before I became a teacher I was a substitute for two years. I subbed in four districts, and for every subject area. At the time I hated it…I mean really hated it. But now that I am employed I loved that experience.  I learned a lot. When you get to see many rooms, in many buildings you really can get a good idea of what you like and what you don’t like. I got to the point where I could walk in a room and even before kids got there I could tell if this was a “good” teacher or a “bad” teacher.  Just from the way the room was set up.  Some of the things I’ve seen that I really liked were a clothes line and an editing bank.  Let me explain.

                 The clothes line was hung near the class room library and the teacher used clothes pins to hang up books that were “highly recommended” to read. The students all went for those books first. It was like when you go into a book store and the new books are all in the front and center of the store and you gravitate towards those first. I thought it was a neat way to get kids reading books, which they may never have picked up.  

                The editing bank was interesting. It was a place where a student could “deposit” his or her first draft only to have it “withdrawn” by someone else for editing, this way students who were ahead could help edit other students work. Sometimes they would conference with the person too.  I thought this was an interesting idea because it motivated students to want to edit and read each other’s work without feeling like they were forced. 

                All in all I think these ideas seemed pretty simple to implement, and above all cheap. This book was helpful because these ideas are all affordable and easy. No one wants to spend hundreds of dollars on their classroom. But a few bucks here and there for an efficient classroom.  Sign me up! 

Reflection eight- assesment drives instructions

http://www.pdesas.org/module/assessment/Search.aspx#assessmentsearch

For this post I looked on the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s website at their Standard Aligned System (SAS) section for third grade Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening (RWLS) assessments.  I’ve used this site before in my classroom as a way to help prepare my students for the state tests. Last year I had a lot of luck using the site as a tool to gage what and how the state will evaluate my students. I also tried to mirror my own test questions based on the formatting of their questions. I think students who are familiar with the language and format of a test will do better than those who are unfamiliar. If students have seen similar style questions they won’t panic, and will think it is easy.

For this assignment I chose to focus on the story “A Truth Speaker” it is described as a story about a king who likes poetry.  I especially liked it because I felt that the assessment was starting to set the groundwork for the types of questions my students see on their middle school tests. I think it is always good to know where students are starting from. To know what they are familiar with can save so much time in the classroom. 

To understand this passage students would need a multitude of literacy skills but in my opinion three would be essential: comprehension, decoding vocabulary words, and understand point of view.  I selected these three because of the sample questions that followed. The first skill (comprehension) is important to the story because if we as readers cannot understand a text we have no hope in moving onto higher order thinking skills. Comprehension helps us decode meaning, and understand the point of view, and helps us learn the deeper meaning of the text.  The second skill (decoding vocabulary words) is a skill that is really important for students to master, especially as they get older.  On question asked students to re-read a line and determine what disdain means. Well, if they have never heard it, how would they determine its meaning? We need to teach the skills of context, and prefixes, etc.  this allows students to learn words on their own. Finally the third skill I selected was point of view. Again, I selected this based on a question. But I think it is an important skill to master. The point of view determines so much of the story.

I would use the following questions as guides for my students to help them succeed on the test.  The questions would relate to each of the three literary techniques I mentioned above:

1.       Why do we stop and check for understand when we read?

a.       For this lesson I would model for students how when we read something confusing it is okay to re-read it, and to stop and think about what we are reading. Reading is not a race.  I would then have them practice these skills

2.       How can I use context clues to learn a words meaning?

a.       For this lesson we would work with context clues. I would probably design a detective lesson and read a short mystery and play up that we are reading detectives and we can’t leave any stone unturned. A simple word may be the clue to solving the case!

3.       How do you write from a different perspective?

a.       This one is slightly different. I think a great way to teach perspective is to make kids work on writing from a different perspective. Then when we read something from another perspective they seem to get it easier. For example this year,  I had students write about a day in the life of a 7^th grader (one of the grades I teach) but from the perspective of the opposite gender.  As a preview for this unit we read “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” and I had them re-write classic tales from the bad guys’ perspective.  It seems juvenile to use story books at a secondary level but as a preview activity, it works fantastically.

I think the SAS site can be overwhelming at times, because when you look at the big picture we need to cover so much material in so few days. However, I think it is helpful to use it as a map, this is where I need my students to be in the spring, and this is how I get there. Once we realize how much we need to cover, each minute of class becomes important and when we realize this, students realize this. They will meet you expectations. 

Reflection six- Explicit and Systematic Phonics Article

          In searching www.readwritething.org for a great lesson to teach phonics I stumbled upon a lesson called “The Big Green Monster Teaches Phonics in Reading and Writing” by an educator in Arizona named Maureen Gerard.  The reason that I liked this lesson is that it covers three 45 minute sessions and is very interactive. The students begin the lesson together and then move to literacy stations. I think lessons like this are great ways to get students to work with a text. This lesson is recommended for K-2 but I would say that this is more of a K-1 lesson, only because it seems to really focus on sight words, which is something strongly focused on in Kindergarten.

            The preparation for the lesson includes writing out the text of “Go Away, Big Green Monster!” using colored markers to match the colored words in the story.  The teacher would also need to gather index cards, or card sheets for a memory game station. Finally the teacher would need to gather crayons for students to make their own monsters. The final optional step given I think is great, it is making your own monster pointer. In my experience, students love when teachers go the extra step, even in high school students like seeing that you care and aren’t just making them do something you haven’t thought through. So I would not make this step optional.

            This lesson has several parts because of the literacy stations, each part should take about 30 minutes, but the writer’s workshop may take up to 45 minutes. The lesson begins at the large group area in the classroom. The teacher introduces the story and students read through the story chorally. While reading you should point out the words in color and ask if they can recognize the work from the color. Furthermore you should review the sight words from the word wall in your room (hopefully already established by this time, if not you could add words to the wall).  After reading the story through once you would re-read it several times. The site recommends doing just boys, then girls, left side, right side etc. finally ending for any individual volunteers, claiming “Reading the story multiple times in alternative formats builds fluency, adds interest, and speeds word recognition.” After the group station students go to one of three stations: literacy work, artwork, writer’s workshop.

            At the literacy station students will rotate through mini-stations based on needs. They will listen to an online version of the story and read along with the tape to build fluency skills, build and play a memory game with color words that will increase their familiarity with these words. The third station is my favorite; it is the word family station. At this station students will choose words from the text to generate word families. The site encourages you to “Direct the students to begin their word family lists by selecting words from the story that they already know. Have them drop the beginning letter (onset) and create a list of new words by substituting different beginning letters to the word ending (rime). Students can then add these words to their personal dictionaries.” The final mini-station at the literacy station is sentence strips. At this station students will pair up and reconstruct the story in the right order. This station “encourages rereading of the story in an alternative format to build word recognition, oral reading fluency, and understanding of story sequencing. The center provides an opportunity for self-assessment as the pairs of students can compare their sequencing of the strips to the actual story.”

            At the second station, students will go to the artwork station. At this station students will re-read the story and as they will recreate the monster with crayons. The final products can be displayed. This is a great station for students who are creative and love to draw and color. It allows for students to show their creative side.

            The third station is writer’s workshop. Students will imagine their own monsters and write about what they would say to the monster. They also need to use color words to describe the monster. They will plan individually and then share orally stressing the correct words.  Finally they will write down their version. From here you could take this lesson in a variety of ways depending on how you teach writing. The editing and finalizing would be up to you as a teacher.  The final stories could be displayed, or turned into a book.

           

            I enjoyed this lesson. I think it focuses on several components of literacy which is good. When you have finite time with students you need to maximize your time. I feel that the literacy stations, especially the word family, will help students learn the phonetic cues associated with certain words. I also like the idea of giving the student scaffolding in learning the sounds of color words.  This lesson may not be the purist phonics lesson; however, I feel that the elements are all there and as an overall lesson, students would be engaged and would love doing the creative parts of the lesson. I especially like the writer’s workshop component. I love teaching writing. It is something that I hang my hat on. I view writing as a “sport” ; it is something you need to practice often. No one wakes up and is good at writing. Writing is really hard, but it can be mastered. And, in my opinion being able to write well really shows a mastery of a subject, so the student’s final stories would help the teacher assess the students and help meet the teacher meet the student’s needs.