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Differentiating for advanced learners means allowing them to dig deeper into content, often because they finish their work first. Here are a few suggestions from the Oxford University Press.

Strategies:

1. Complexity of questions. Open-ended questions to increase higher-order thinking.

2. Mini-classes or stations. Mixed-ability groups can challenge and support one another.

3. Independent and creative work. Give advanced learners more independence to discover their learning needs and dig deeper into content.

4. Integrated skills tasks. Such as having students "rephrase information at varying levels of complexity."

Activities:

1. Peer teaching. Encourage students to dig deeper into the content through a didactic lens to create a short lesson or tutorial.

2. Problem-solving projects. Students use current and relevant problems to create innovative solutions and are encouraged to work together.

3. Debates or group discussions. Students work on creating lucid ideas to present to their peers orally and take a stance on real-world issues.

Oxford University Press, (2024, March 7).

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Differentiation strategies for challenging advanced learners

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By using differentiation strategies in the classroom, we can provide extra challenges for our advanced learners.

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English language learners need the same rigorous content as their English-speaking peers, but they need differentiated instruction to learn the most. We cannot assume that just because they sound like they speak English fine, they are reading and absorbing the material we teach just as well. Here are some tips from the above website to help:

1. Get to know as much as possible about each student.

2. Have high expectations for all students.

3. Have a variety of research-based instructional strategies at hand.

4. Use ongoing assessment to guide instruction.

5. Provide multiple types of assessment. Think multiple modalities

6. Differentiate homework.

7. Collaborate.

8. Use flexible grouping.

9. Make content comprehensible for all students.

Ford, K., Colorin' Colorado, Differentiated Instruction for English Language Learners.

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Differentiated Instruction for English Language Learners

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Each student comes to school, not only with unique academic needs, but also with unique background experiences, culture, language, personality, interests, and attitudes toward learning. Effective teachers recognize that all of these factors affect how students learn in the classroom, and they adjust, or differentiate, their instruction to meet students' needs.

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Dyslexia:

It is important as an educator to educate oneself about dyslexia and share that knowledge with colleagues and families. Among the most important information would be its symptoms and teaching strategies. The resource provided below is called, IDA Dyslexia Handbook, What Every Family Should Know.

https://www.readingrockets.org/sites/default/files/guide/IDA-Dyslexia-Handbook-2019.pdf

Here is a list of ideas to help students with dyslexia:

Accommodations involving materials,

1. Tape recorder; students can read along as the text is being read to them.

2. Clarify or simplify written directions; underline or highlight directions. Rewrite directions by breaking them down into easier-to-read, linear-style directions.

3. Present a small amount of work; tear out workbook pages, assign odd numbered problems, and break a worksheet into sections.

4. Block out extraneous simuli; a line marker to follow along each line of reading. A sheet of paper to cover extra sections on a page.

5. Highlight essential information; for students who struggle to find essential information.

6. Provide additional practice activities. Supplement the learning activities with instructional games or peer teaching activities.

7. Provide a glossary in content areas.

8. Develop reading guides. A road map of written material with questions embedded to aid comprehension.

Accommodations involving interactive instruction,

1. Use explicit teaching procedures.

2. Repeat directions.

3. Maintain daily routines.

4. Provide a copy of lecture/content notes.

5. Provide students with a graphic organizer.

6. Use step-by-step instruction

7. Simultaneously combine verbal and visual information.

8. Write key points or words on the board.

9. Use balanced presentations and activities.

10. Use mnemonic instruction.

11. Emphasize daily review.

Accommodations involving student performance,

1. Change response mode.

2. Provide an outline of the lecture.

3. Encourage use of graphic organizers.

4. Place students close to the teacher.

5. Encourage use of assignment books or calendars.

6. Include information on handouts or worksheets.

7. Allow use of instructional aids.

8. Display work samples

9. Use peer-mediated learning.

10. Encourage note sharing.

11. Use flexible work times.

12. Provide additional practice.

13. Use assignment substitutions or adjustments.

Read the below article for a full review of the above suggestions.

https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/dyslexia/articles/accommodating-students-dyslexia-all-classroom-settings

Any of the above support systems will help struggling students. Some are more specific for learners who need assistance for dyslexia, but the idea here is to provide support for all students, those who need it will use it, those who don't need it, won't use it.

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Differentiating Instruction: It’s Not as Hard as You Think

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Grammar is the system and structure of language. The online dictionary merriam-webster.com defines grammar as:

1. a : the study of the classes of words, their inflections, and their functions and relations in the sentence

2. a : the characteristic system of inflections and syntax of a language.

The parts of grammar are as follows:

*Syntax: arrangements of words, phrases, and clauses in sentences.

*Punctuation:

a) statement: I can read.

b) question: What can I read?

c) command: You must read.

d) exclamation: I love to read!

*Sentence structures:

a) simple - Basic sentence that expresses a complete thought. Contains subject, verb, and verb phrase.

b) complete - basic sentence that expresses a complete thought. Contains a subject, verb, and a predicate.

*Clause: a group of words that contains a subject and a verb.

*Phrase: a group of words without a subject-verb component.

c) compound sentences: two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction.

d) Complex sentences: An independent clause and a subordinate/dependent clause linked together by a subordinating conjunction (after, although, because, since, when: or a relative pronoun (that, which, who).

e) Compound-Complex Sentence: contains two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. (Most advanced)

f) Run-on sentences: A group of words with two or more complete thoughts and incomplete punctuation.

*Contractions:

isn't - is not

let's - let us

she's - she is

they're - they are

*Possessives:

Student (singular)

Students (plural)

Student's (singular possessive)

Students" (plural possessive)

Activites:

1. Punctuation Scavenger Hunt: Choose a read-aloud and read the first few pages of the book. After each sentence say the punctuation at the end. Then pause after each sentence and have students guess the punctuation. Use a chart with punctuation listed and mark their answers, keep it for future reference. Compare with fiction and non-fiction and have students observe if one type of text uses more of a certain type of punctuation.

2. Parts of Speech Hopscotch: create a traditional hopscotch using chalk. Instead of numbers label the squares noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, conjunction, proposition, prepositional phrase, and interjection. Have students give an example of the type of word or speech that they land on.

Assessment:

Building sentences: After a grammar unit, students will write a short story or paragraph using two and three-part sentences, 1 or 2 compound sentences, 1 or 2 complex sentences, and at least 1 contraction. Assess for punctuation, proper comma placement, and spelling; fiction or non-fiction.

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Can teaching grammar benefit reading comprehension? | Reading Rockets

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"Writing is a way of learning as well as a method of communication." (Gunning, Pg. 427) With well less than half of fourth and eighth-grade students reading at or above proficient reading levels, the Science of Reading has given us hope for improved literacy instruction and higher reading scores. But this attention to reading has put writing on the back burner, and writing scores are even worse. Joan Sedita has developed the Writing Rope, she deems it a "...nod to Hollis Scarborough's "Reading Rope". There are five strands in Sedita's Writing Rope, which was designed to elicit "...fluent, skilled writing...".

Critical Thinking Strand: Students need explicit instruction to learn to brainstorm ideas, take notes from sources, and plan and organize their writing based on what they are writing about.

Syntax Strand: "Students benefit from explicit instruction focused on building sentence skills, including activities such as sentence elaboration and sentence combining."

Text Structure Strand: Explicit instruction is needed in the following levels of text structure:

Narrative, information, and opinion

Paragraph structure

Patterns of organization

Linking and transition words or phrases

Writing Craft Strand: Explicit instruction is needed in the following :

Word choice

Awareness of task, audience, and purpose

Literary devices

Transcription Strand: Students need explicit instruction in spelling, handwriting, and keyboarding.

readingrockets.org/writing-rope-strands

Activities to teach writing:

1. Shared Writing: Students and teacher write collaboratively, ..." the teacher is the primary holder of the pen, even though the process is a collaborative one." During this instruction, the teacher models the text structures while including spelling, punctuation, and grammar. This activity is ideal at the beginning of a new genre unit and should be modeled from start to finish. The collaboration between the teacher and the students includes lots of oral exchange, allowing students to hear each others' ideas before putting them in writing. Ferlazzo, L., (2021, June 19). Four Strategies for Effective Writing Instruction. edweek.org.

2. Four Square: (Think Frayer's Model), Students fold a blank sheet of paper into four squares and draw a square in the middle. This can be used for any grade. Below are three ways to use this graphic organizer:

*Writing sentences: Write a topic in the middle and draw and/or write ideas in the four squares.

*Writing paragraphs: Write a topic sentence in the middle. Write three supporting sentences with details in three squares and a concluding sentence in the last square.

*Writing short essays: The main information goes in the middle square, and supporting paragraphs with details go in the squares around it.

Ferlazzo, L., (2021, June 19). Four Strategies for Effective Writing Instruction. edweek.org.

Assessment:

Assessment of a Four Square activity; use the graphic organizer for students to begin. Have students utilize each square for its intended purpose depending on the writing assignment, and assess its use for its purpose. Look for the accuracy of information if the assignment is expository writing. For the final product, check for student understanding of the use of the graphic organizer. Make sure students have met the criteria for writing the assignment itself, including proper grammar, sentence structure, spelling, and details.

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We Need a "Writing Rope"! - Keys to Literacy

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The literature and discourse related to literacy instruction tends to focus on reading, even though writing is just as important for student literacy achievement. In addition, significant attention is paid to the multi component nature of skilled reading, while writing tends to be referred to as a single, monolithic skill.

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There are five common structures for non-fiction text:

1. Description: Offers a detailed description to give the reader a mental picture.

2. Sequence: Chronological order of events or steps in a procedure.

3. Problem and Solution: Set up a problem, explain the solution, and discuss the effects of the solution.

4. The causal relationship between an event, idea, or concept and the events, ideas, or concept to follow.

5. Compare and Contrast: Examines the similarities and differences between two or more people, events, concepts, ideas, etc...

All About Adolescent Literacy (AdLit). (2023). Text Structure. adlit.org

Activities to teach text structure:

First, introduce text structure to students by showing them examples of each. Analyze text samples including topic sentences to help students learn how to identify text structure. Model writing a chosen structure for students to see. Choose a structure to focus on and have students practice it.

1. Have students create a graphic organizer of the different text structures. If appropriate, let them choose their platform to show their learning. i.e., PowerPoint, Google Slides, Canva, Prezi, or simply create a poster-board presentation.

2. Students can write paragraphs using a text structure. This could be done article style as for a newspaper or magazine. A timeline, table, or chart as in a textbook would be an option as well.

https://www.readingrockets.org/classroom/comprehension/teaching-text-structure

Assessment: Use either of the above activities at the end of a unit on text structure. If doing activity 1, allow students to work in pairs and choose which mode best suits their learning style to show their knowledge. Students should include the purpose of non-fiction text structures, each text structure, and its description, along with an example of where the structure might be found. For example, a recipe would be an example of a sequence text structure. For activity 2, choose a text structure you want students to dig deeper into that pairs well with another discipline such as social studies. Again, have students choose a mode to show their learning. The expectations for this assessment will depend on the discipline and text structure you choose.

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Background

Text structure refers to how the information within a written text is organized. This strategy helps students understand that a text might present a main idea and details; a cause and then its effects; and/or different views of a topic. Teaching students to recognize common text structures can help students monitor their comprehension.

Benefits

Teachers can use this strategy with the whole class, small groups, or individually. Students learn to identify and analyze text structures which helps students navigate the various structures presented within nonfiction and fiction text. As a follow up, having students write paragraphs that follow common text structures helps students recognize these text structures when they are reading.

Create and Use the Strategy

To create the text structure strategy teachers should:

1. Choose the assigned reading and introduce the text to the students.

2. Introduce the idea that texts have organizational patters called text structures.

3. Introduce the following common text structures (see the chart below for more detailed information):

description

sequence

problem and solution

cause and effect

compare and contrast

4. Introduce and model using a graphic organizer to chart the text structure.

To use the text structure strategy teachers should:

1. Show examples of paragraphs that correspond to each text structure.

2. Examine topic sentences that clue the reader to a specific structure.

3. Model the writing of a paragraph that uses a specific text structure.

4. Have students try write paragraphs that follow a specific text structure.

5. Have students diagram these structures using a graphic organizer.

Examples

Problem-Solution
This type of structure sets up a problem or problems, explains the solution, and then discusses the effects of the solution.

References

Dickson, S. V., Simmons, D. C., & Kameenui, E. J. (1995). Text organization and its relation to reading comprehension: A synthesis of research. Eugene, OR: National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators. Retrieved March 26, 2008, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED386864

Dymock, S. (2005). Teaching Expository Text Structure Awareness. The Reading Teacher, 59(2), 177-181.

Simonsen, S. (1996). Identifying and Teaching Text Structures in Content Area Classrooms. In D. Lapp, J. Flood, & N. Farnan (Eds.), Content Area reading and Learning: Instructional Strategies (2nd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

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Text structure refers to how the information within a written text is organized. This strategy helps students understand that a text might present a main idea and details; a cause and then its effects; and/or different views of a topic. Teaching students to recognize common text structures can help students monitor their comprehension.

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Resources for students and teachers.

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Lexia’s curriculum and professional learning solutions are designed to equitably meet the needs of all Minnesota students and the educators who…

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This Is My Neighborhood: By Lisa Bullard

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Create a village by collecting energy with correct answers.

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Here's how nearly one million teachers use Prodigy in the classroom at no cost!

Help students master math standards with a fun and engaging gameplay experience

Adjust and align Prodigy's in-game math content with your lesson plans

Track student development to decide where to best spend your time

No trial period, no hidden costs for educators. Our optional parent memberships ensure Prodigy stays free for all teachers.

Prodigy for Teachers

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Here's how nearly one million teachers use Prodigy in the classroom at no cost! Help students master math standards with a fun and engaging gameplay experience Adjust and align Prodigy's in-game math content with your lesson plans Track student development to decide where to best spend your time No trial period, no hidden costs for educators.

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Map My Neighborhood by Jennifer Boothroyd

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Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension

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Comprehension strategies are conscious plans — sets of steps that good readers use to make sense of text. Comprehension strategy instruction helps students become purposeful, active readers who are in control of their own reading comprehension. These seven strategies have research-based evidence for improving text comprehension.

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"Teachers need to obtain evidence to see what impact their teaching is having so that they can build on what they are doing or make needed changes." Gunning Pg. 11

"Visible learning is the most effective method of teaching. it means that the goal is clear to the students and is challenging but not overwhelming. Students engage in deliberate practice, feedback is provided, and progress is tracked. Teachers see learning through the eyes of their students." pg. 11

Instruction is based on the evidence collected through progress monitoring, often if not weekly. It is important to pm often to see how much progress is being made and evaluate what is working or not.

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Evidence-based means using classroom practices based on clear and convincing proof from well-designed research and data analysis. Find out what to look for in identifying best practices.

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What is Dyslexia:

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability (SLD) that is neurological and language-based. People have trouble with "accurate and/or fluent word recognition and poor spelling and decoding abilities." (IDA) There is a deficit in the phonological component of language.

Signs of Dyslexia:

Learning to speak

Learning letters and their sounds

Organizing written and spoken language

Memorizing number facts

Problems Reading quickly enough to comprehend

Problems Persisting with and comprehending longer reading assignments.

spelling

Trouble Learning a foreign language

Trouble correctly doing math operations

Evidence-Based Instructional Strategy:

Systematic, explicit instruction that involves several senses (hearing, seeing, touching) at the same time. Equipped for Reading Success by Robert Kilpatrick

Intervention:

Phonological and Phonemic awareness activities

Resources:

International Dyslexia Association (IDA)

https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/READ/Dyslexia/

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Definition of Dyslexia - International Dyslexia Association

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“Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word

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P.A.S.T (Phonological Awareness Screening Test) (week 12)

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P.A.S.T (Phonological Awareness Screening Test) (week 12)

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The PAST test is designed to be administered to children starting in Kindergarten and is meant to assess their phonemic awareness and proficiency. It is important to administer this test often to monitor the progress of students' throughout and to guide instruction.

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The PAST can be downloaded above. Please also download and carefully read the instructions before using. Information can also be found in the manual “Equipped for Reading Success” by David A. Kilpatrick, Ph.D in chapter 11 on how to effectively use the test. Make sure to also practice using the test before using it with […]

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There is a three-part approach to assessing the complexity of text: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Reader-Task Considerations:

1) "Quantitative factors include sentence length, word frequency, or word length that can be measured objectively." Pg. 102 Gunning

2) Qualitative factors are subjective such as readers' interest, density of concepts, illustration use, and background to construct meaning from text.

3) Reader-Task Factors - Reader factors consider motivation, interest, background knowledge, and knowledge of the reading task. Task factors include the purpose for reading and the complexity of questions to be answered after reading.

Leveling Systems, such as Raz-kids use qualitative factors as described in no. 2 above to estimate the level of difficulty of reading material, based on predictability of text. Books are leveled A - Z; A is very beginning and Z is eighth grade.

I would define text complexity as the level of difficulty in the text a student would be assigned to read while learning to read. It is important to assess text complexity to maximize student output. A text that is too easy doesn't benefit from a lack of challenge, similarly a text too difficult will cause frustration and a student may shut down. Furthermore, qualitative factors enhance the experience through personal interest, the use of pictures to ease decoding if needed, and background knowledge for connections. Lastly, Reader factors consider qualitative factors as well as motivation and knowledge of the reading task, while task factors consider the purpose of reading the questions to answer at the end.

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The computer adapts to the student's level based on their responses. If a student is answering the questions correct it presents higher-level questions. If the students is answering the questions wrong, it switches to lower-level questions.

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Help kids identify alphabets with fun phonics games for kids. Phonics form the building blocks of a child’s language development. Merge this fundamental learning requirement with interactive games to make practicing phonics an engaging experience for your child.

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Phonics is the science of sounds, a technique used to teach young readers to pronounce words and read by learning the sound of letters, group of letters, and syllables.

Phonics is a foundational reading approach that focuses on the relationship between letters and the sounds they represent. It helps kids decode words by recognizing the sounds of individual letters or groups of letters.

Example: We blend the different sounds in a word together (individual sounds and their corresponding letters), such as 'h', 'a', and 't' to make the word 'hat.'

Phonics aids in reading fluency and spelling accuracy, enabling kids to independently decipher new words by applying their knowledge of letter-sound connections.

Online Phonics Games for Kids

Phonics is taught to preschoolers and kindergarteners at a young age to help them decode sounds from letters. This helps them subsequently to start reading and recognizing unfamiliar words. Somewhere between pre-K and grade 2 are the ages where children pick up phonics. These four years are crucial to draw attention to words and letters and help children pick up the sounds based on which they are formed.

Online phonics games for the classroom help children to learn and practice phonics with ease. Games like letter sequence games, letter sounds games, reading words games, rhyming words games, letter names games, vowel teams games, trigraphs games, diphthongs games, three letter blends games and more can help your little one master the concept of phonics.

Other ELA games you can explore are: reading games, writing games, sight words games, letter tracing games, etc.

How Do We Introduce Phonics to Kids?

Phonics helps children to master the art of identifying alphabets, string alphabets together to form words, and understand sounds in order to make verbal speech. They basically help students to spell, read, and write.

Phonics can be introduced to kids with interactive phonics games online. These games allow children to identify and sequence letters, identify letter sounds, and practice reading and rhyming words. Children also get to work with trigraphs, initial and ending consonant blends, bossy R, soft sounds, three letter blends and much more. They learn how to form words and sentences and learn the meaning as well as the pronunciation of words. These games can be utilized to introduce the concept of phonics to kids to help them develop a long-lasting relationship with language.

How Can We Make Phonics Fun for Kids?

Interactive phonics games online do a great job of combining learning with fun. Parents and teachers often look for exciting and engaging ways to enable kids to learn phonemes to improve their reading and spelling fluency. Since the English language contains 44 phonemes derived out of 26 letters, many letters have different sounds.

The idea behind 'learn phonics games' is to bridge the gap between academic struggle and fun learning. These games are interactive, engaging, and digitally vibrant. They help children easily segment sounds to identify words.

How Can Games Help in Better Understanding of Phonics?

Recognizing sounds and words are essential for children as most of the things they read, even as they grow older, are unfamiliar. Phonics go a long way into building a foundational construct towards a child's reading, writing, and speaking abilities.

While flashcards and books are excellent to help children learn words, incorporating a unique set of educational learning games can be very successful to help kids understand phonics in an engaging and interactive way.

What Are the 5 Best Phonics Games and Activities for Kids?

Here are 5 fun and engaging Phonics games and activities for kids by SplashLearn:

1. Can you Find the Letter B Game

2. Practice A and its Sounds Game

3. Guess the Word: Whiz and Thin Game

4. Explore the Words with the Second Sound of C

5. Listen and Master Rhyming Words Game

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Phonics Games for Kids Online - SplashLearn

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Explore interactive phonics games for kids and help your child enhance their ELA skills with these fun phonics learning games with ease. Get Started for Free!

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From phonics and reading comprehension to writing strategies and more, IXL helps learners develop the communication skills needed for success in school, college, and career.

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IXL Language Arts | Topics for pre-K to 12th grade

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See all of the language arts topics available on IXL! From phonics to grammar, reading to writing, there’s always something new to learn.

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Engage every type of reader with Read-To-Me books, audiobooks, graphic novels and more.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Ch. 7 One Minute Activities and Other Phonological Awareness tasks:

There are many types of phonological awareness tasks including rhyming, alliteration, segmentation, blending, categorization, isolation, and manipulation. Of these, manipulation has proven to be the most effective because it provides a combination of segmenting, isolation, manipulation, and blending all in one. For example, change sling to sing by deleting the l. The student must segment the word then locate where in the word she hears the /l/ sound (isolation), then she needs to pull the sound out (manipulation), last she needs to combine the remaining sounds to form the word sing (blending). There is no need to use the other phonemic awareness skills because when a student responds instantly to a phonemic manipulation task, their phonemic analysis skills are unconscious and automatic. "This represents phonemic proficiency and is the foundation of efficient orthographic mapping." Pg. 76 Kilpatrick

Ch. 8 Becoming Proficient in Phonemic Awareness:

There are 3 stages students go through during the Equipped for Reading Success program:

1. Multisensory Stage: The student can only do the task with external prompt or helps. The student often makes mistakes.

2. Knowledge Stage: The student can do the task mentally, with no external prompts, but not quickly. He or she may still make mistakes.

3. Automatic Stage: The student can do a task quickly and with no apparent effort. The student rarely makes mistakes.

There are several multisensory teaching strategies one can use to help students develop a sense of phonemic awareness.

a) Letters/Spelling, L/S, to illustrate phonemic awareness concepts. Level J; using letter visuals, change bat to bet

b) Visual-Spatial, VSp, remove visuals and use tokens. 3-D tokens, us an object or post-it notes to represent syllables, onsets, times, and/or phonemes. 2-D tokens Students draw boxes, circles, or dashes to represent "tokens" on paper. Invisible tokens, tap the table left to right in place of "tokens".

c) Visual-Sequential Skills, VSeq, Focuses on segmenting without visuals. 3 examples are: Clapping sounds you are working on. Tap each segment (good for small groups). Hand Puppet to demonstrate opening and closing of the mouth during syllable segmenting.

d) Oral Cues. Whisper technique, whisper the words or parts you want the child to delete. Stretching and repeating sounds. Hiiiiiiiiit or had-d-d, some sounds can be stretched, some can't so they are repeated.

Ch. 9 How to train phonological awareness:

"Direct teaching means explicitly instructing students in phonological awareness skills." pg. 85 In this order, 1) explanation, 2) demonstration, 3) practice, 4) feedback.

Focus on teaching the levels of phonological skill Level D1 - level M2. This is at the multisensory stage, in 2 -10 minute lessons. Teaching techniques are as described above in the multisensory teaching strategies.

When a student understands a phonological awareness level, they are ready for One Minute activities, which are the main tool for developing skill and automaticity at each phonological awareness level. Students need to be at the knowledge stage of development to do One Minute Activities. Students should be working on two levels simultaneously.

Ch. 10 How to use the One Minute activities:

Start in K with D1, when all the students in the group are quick and accurate, move on to D2. Use instructional strategies as needed. Do levels in sequence, with 2 exceptions, (see pg. 91). Use the samples at the top of the page for verbiage. Re-use levels as necessary. Us words from One Minute activities for multisensory teaching tasks.

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3 Examples of Phoneme Manipulation with Deleting Phonemes

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Echo Reading
Choral Reading
Paired Reading
Alternate Reading
Repeated Reading

Oral reading techniques have, "had a significant and positive impact on word recognition, fluency, and comprehension across a range of grade levels." (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2023). What Works in Fluency Instruction. readingrockets.org) (see above)

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Learn how to find your students’ fluency score, guidelines for instruction, strategies to improve fluency, assessment, intervention, and more.

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Freedom from word identification problems that might hinder comprehension in silent reading or the expression of ideas in oral reading. Fluency has four components: accuracy, automaticity, prosody, and comprehension. "Students are accurate readers if they can recognize the words. They have automaticity if they recognize the words rapidly." Pg. 246 Gunning. Prosody is reading with expression and includes proper phrasing, emphasis, and intonation. Comprehension is making meaning of what is being read.
Fluent readers can read accurately with comprehension and little to no pauses for word decoding, as well as good prosody, making this an important, life skill.
Fluency instruction should be modeled and there are several techniques to choose from:
*Echo reading: the teacher reads a phrase or sentence, and the students(s) echo the reading.
*Choral Reading: Involves two or more people. Unison reading, whole group. Refrain reading, group reads refrain. Antiphonal reading, two or more groups alternate.
*Paired reading: The teacher and student read simultaneously.
*Alternate Reading: The teacher and the student take turns reading the selection.
*Repeated Reading: Teacher reads, then student reads, take turns so the student reads first, then the teacher. Students could do this together.

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Words such as the, of, and them appear in printed material with a high rate of occurrence. These words make up about 60 percent of the words in continuous text and they tend to have irregular spellings. It is important for students to learn high-frequency words to aid in reading fluency. Especially since they are irregular words, we don't want students getting caught up trying to figure them out and slowing them down, which hinders comprehension.
Students should learn high-frequent words accurately, and then work on automaticity or rapid recognition. HF words should be immersed into phonics instruction using only 3-4 at a time and they should be words students will see in their text. Use words that do not look similar unless word patterns are being taught, such as take and make = -ake ending, or can and man = -an ending.

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Words that are recognized immediately, occur with high frequency--usually the top 200 are also known as sight words. They can be recognized immediately. Any word that is known immediately is a sight word, therefore, high-frequency words become sight words. Because these words are irregular and at one time it was thought that we stored words in our visual memory, flash cards were used. Now we know that even irregular words are learned phonetically so we can teach the parts of the word that are decodable, then use text and writing to increase exposure and maximize retention. We would want to talk about these words before we read to students and show them what they look like, have them practice the spelling orally and on paper. Then as we read through the text students can recognize where and how they are used.

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Out of Sight Words is a beautiful, quirky game that allows children to practice their knowledge of sight words! Kids have to read the sight word, and then find its corresponding image in the fun illustrations. Simply click on the word at the bottom of the screen and then find it in the picture!

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Development Approaches to Reading Instruction (week 8)

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Development Approaches to Reading Instruction (week 8)

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In order to avoid students reading below grade level with current teaching practices, it is important to reconstruct the teaching process in the following recommendations:
*Train the prerequisite skills for OM: letter-sound skills, phoneme awareness to the level of phonemic proficiency, and word study.
*Teach reading in a developmental sequence that 1) is consistent with the sequence of phonological awareness development, and 2) is consistent with what we know about the development of how children efficiently build a sight word vocabulary.
*Avoid or postpone teaching word-reading strategies that do not promote orthographic mapping.
*Teach and use specific word-study strategies that directly promote or reinforce orthographic mapping (i.e., wor memory) Pg. 45 Kilpatrick

Students should have reached the full alphabetic phase of reading development in order for phonics to work best, as phonics is "not the developmentally most appropriate introduction to reading." Pg. 49
Two easier approaches than phonics are Rebus reading and the Linguistic approach.

*Rebus reading-uses small pictures in place of words, which is only appropriate for the child's first exposure to the concept of reading. (Pre-K to Early Kindergarten)
*Linguistic approach, or word family approach-focuses on the rime unit (m-at, c-at, b-at). The rime unit is the part of the syllable that the vowel and consonant(s) follow. This approach is like training wheels. (Mid-Kindergarten) In this stage, we work on mastering letter names and sounds alongside phonological awareness development.

"For beginning reading instruction, we need to make use of reading materials that are appropriate to the level at which the student can phonologically and orthographically deal with words." (Kilpatrick, 2016. Pg. 48) It is important not to present reading materials that are too difficult to avoid students using compensation strategies.

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Decodable texts are important because they contain only phonics elements that have been taught. Not all text is fully decodable, words like is, the , and need to be included. Decodable texts are a transition into more natural readers. "Two factors have to be considered in order to determine the decodability of a text: the skills the student has learned and the skills demanded by the text." Gunning Pg. 219

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You are welcome to print copies for non-commercial use, or a limited number for educational purposes, as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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What Are Decodable Books and Why Are They Important?

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Decodable books play an important role in phonics instruction and building confidence in young readers. Learn more about decodable books, how they differ from predictable texts, and how to select high-quality texts that align with the scope and sequence of your phonics program.

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Pronounceable Word Part: Ask the student, "Is there any part of the word that you can pronounce?" For yet, cover the y and ask if they can read the et, once they can pronounce it, assuming they know the sound for y, they should be able to say the word.

Analogy Strategy: If the pronounceable word part strategy isn't working try the analogy strategy. Have the student compare the unknown word to a known word. Ask, "Is the word like any word you know?"  Compare yet to net.

Context:

Advanced Decoding Strategies:

*Try another sound- the vowel or consonant has another sound.

*Sound correction/model word routine- the student says the letter, then uses the model word, "a, apple", as a reminder of what sound the letter makes for a word.

*Monitoring/Cross check- Student produces a nonword or a word that doesn't fit. Student uses context to check the use of a phonological strategy or phonics to check the use of a contextual strategy.

*Writing- Student fails to process all the letters in a word, even though he knows all the correspondences in the word. "Write the word. As you write the letters, say the sounds that the letters stand for."

*Choice- Student is unable to decode a word using any strategy. Provide a choice of two words. Have student select the correct one. "Is the word wolf or dog? How do you know?"

*Affirmation- Praise student for working out a word. Specific praise is based on what the effort is.

*Diagnostic- Use a diagnostic prompt to see how a student has decoded a word. "How did you figure out that word?"

The goal of phonics instruction is to provide students with the keys for unlocking the pronunciations of unknown words encountered in print. Having and using multiple problem-solving strategies offers students options if and when other options are not working. It offers hope and ultimately builds confidence.

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Syllabic Analysis: the practice of breaking multisyllabic words into their component syllables and then combining the syllables so as to be able to read multisyllabic words.  Syllabic analysis features the use of strategies. Syllabic analysis is sometimes included under the term structural analysis.

The two approaches to teaching syllabication are generalization and pattern:

*Generalization Approach:  students learn general rules for dividing words into syllables. a) Open syllable generalization states that syllables that end in a vowel are generally long.
b) Closed syllable generalization states that syllables that end in a consonant are generally short.

*Pattern Approach: Students examine a number of words that contain a syllable that has a high frequency.

Combining the generalization and pattern approach: instruction in open (mo-, ta-, fi-), and closed (-at, -em, -in) syllables and affixes (un-, pre-, -less, -ful) was especially helpful. After teaching a number of open-syllable patterns, you might have students construct a generalization about the pattern, such as "Syllables that end in a vowel are often long." After teaching a number of closed-syllable patterns, you might have students construct a generalization about the pattern, such as "Syllables that end in a conson ant are often short."

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Most vowels occur in one of four patterns:
1. Consonant-vowel-consonant; CVC (hat, cat) The vowel is usually short
2. Consonant-vowel; or open syllable; (he, go, o-pen) The syllable is open because it ends with a vowel. The vowel is usually long.
3. Final e (wave, pine) The vowel is usually long.
4. Vowel digraph (sheep, wait) The vowel is usually long.

*Teaching final e: cap=cape, dim=dime; explain that the vowel is in the middle of the word, and e is at the end, making the a  sound long.
*Teaching vowel digraphs: Explain that this is another way of spelling long vowels; tail the a is long because it is placed before another vowel. mail, pail
*Split digraphs: The ie in die, lie, pie, and tie, can be split to make new words. lie-like, pie-pine, tie-tide

As students begin to learn decoding strategies that combine context and knowledge of letter-sound correspondences, it is important that they have opportunities to apply these strategies to whole selections.  Play games: Rhymes, word walls, secret messages, the secret word, and making words.

K-beginning and ending consonants and short-vowel patterns and some long vowel patterns are introduced. Recently, long vowels have been taught.
1st- All phonics elements are reviewed and the major single-syllable vowel patterns and consonant blends and digraphs are presented.
2nd-major patterns and blends are reviewed and some advanced patterns and syllabic analysis are presented.
3rd-phonics elements are reviewed but emphasis is often on syllabic analysis.

Major word patterns: adjust for dialect variation. If using word building or another pattern approach, you can think of scope and sequence in terms of word patterns. Present word patterns in the easiest and most useful patterns. Present only words that students know or are likely to use in the near future.

Vowel generalizations: "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." This refers to the tendency for the first letter in a digraph to represent the long sound typically associated with that letter. ea in team represents long e. This is true about 50% of the time. Generalizations and patterns draw attention to regularities in English spelling, but actually meeting the elements in spring is the way students' decoding skills become automatic, they can then direct fuller attention to comprehension.

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CVC Words | Letter a | Consonant Vowel Consonant | Phonics Song | Jack Hartmann

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English has about 16 vowel sounds. Each vowel has a variety of spellings. Long /a/= late; a is at the end of a syllable, also, favor, train, ai, and tray, ay. All the other vowel sounds also have two to four major spellings.
Vowel sounds can be spoken in isolation without distortion, so teaching vowels synthetically (both consonant and vowel sounds are pronounced in isolation) should not be confusing.

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These Are the Vowel Sounds | Jack Hartmann

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There are 25 consonant sounds in English. Some of the sounds are spelled with two letters and are known as digraphs. (Shop, child, sing, whip, thumb)
Some groups of consonants represent two or even three sounds, known as blends or clusters. (Stop, strike) Most blends are composed of l, r, or s and another consonant or two. It is recommended to teach blends in this sequence: s blends, l blends, then r blends.
*Consonants are important because they are more frequent, easier to distinguish, and play a more important role in decoding than vowels do, especially in the early stages of reading.
*Initial consonants: Being the first letter and sound in most words, initial consonants are the first correspondences taught in phonics.
*Final consonants: Are handled in much the same way as initial consonants. Relate them to their initial counterparts. You might teach final consonants as you teach the word patterns that use them.
*The most difficult consonants are c and g. Use the Generalization Strategy and the Variability Strategy. A mix of both is best practice.
*Consonant blending: Begin with S sounds because they are more distinctive. Stress the separate sounds and emphasize the second sound. To develop phonemic awareness, slowly say a word containing the blend and have students count ou the sounds holding up a finger for each sound.

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What Is a Blend? | br, cr, dr, fr | Writing & Reading Skills for Kids | Phonics Song | Jack Hartmann

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Prealphabetic Stage (prephonemic): Students learn a word by selective association by selecting some nonphonemic feature that distinguishes it from other words. Only about 40 words can be learned at this stage, but it is important because children are beginning to understand that letters mean something, and that they are connected to our speech.

Partial Alphabetic Stage (Early letter name): Learners use letter-sound relationships to read words. They may use just a letter or two. They may use only the first letter of a word and combine the sound of that letter with context. At this stage children have made the connection with some letters and their sounds. It is important because they can continue to build on their letter sound knowledge.

Full Alphabetic Stage (letter name): Students begin to process all the letters in words. As they learn to apply their growing knowledge of letter-sound relationships, their reading may be slow and effortful. Here is where students build their confidence as readers, the slow, effortful reading is important for proper letter sounds.

Consolidated Alphabetic Stage (Within-word pattern): Students consolidate and process longer and more sophisticated units. Children are able to chunk words into bigger groups for sounding out because of unification. Continued confidence at this stage speeds up reading.

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Ray Charles reads Chicka Chicka Boom Boom 2017 Edition

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Definition: The mental process we use to permanently store words for immediate, effortless retrieval. This process is how unfamiliar printed words can be turned into immediately recognizable sight words. Occurs behind the scenes and exposure to literacy activities helps students learn to "map" words to permanent memory.

Importance: Understanding how words are stored in the brain helps us to know what to teach and how to teach it. As OM skills improve sight vocabulary grows and leads to reading fluency and comprehension.

Instructional Strategy: Syllable, Onset-Rime, and Phoneme level skills. Syllable and onset-rime for the base, then phoneme skills.

Strategies for Beginning Reading Instruction and Remedial Reading Interventions (Consistent with OM):
1) Teach students the vocabulary of mapping, vowel, onset, rime, etc.
2) Phoneme-to-grapheme mapping technique: students should master sound-to-grapheme: b,t,ph,sh,ee,oa, and -igh are all graphemes because they each represent a single phoneme.
3) Teach students to map rime units: we map rime units not just words and they can be instantly recognized: ip, ut, um, to, even, same, ake, etc.
4) Introduce words orally first: have students concentrate on the oral properties of a word before showing them in print.
5) Use look-alike words: use words that look alike such as black, block, brick, brink, break, etc. It forces student to attend to every letter in the words they are learning.
6) Mappin so called "irregular" words: avoid the term irregular word and talk about irregular letter-sound connections. Said, the letters s and d perform their jobs, but ai represents only one phoneme. There is an irregular relationship between the ai and the sound it makes.
7) Direct Mapping: Before presenting a word, have a student orally segment the word. Then have students present the sound/letter connections out of order. Be sure to present blend, rime units, etc. together and separately. /br/= /b/ and /r/
8)Backward decoding: Students sound out words back to front. sent: cover up /s/  and the student says /ent/, then uncover /s/ and the student says sent.
9) Highlight rime units and syllables in words: draws attention to the structure of the word and minimizes guessing. Increases the likelihood of paying attention to the letter sequence. Use dots between syllables in multi-syllabic words.
10) Use oral spelling to reinforce mapping: have students orally spell either new words or words that are difficult for them to remember.
11) Oral decoding-identifying orally spelled words: Spell a word aloud and have the student identify the word based on your oral spelling. Students hear letter names, not the letter sounds, which reinforces orthography and therefore orthographic memory.
12) Invented spelling: students spell new words using letter-sound and phoneme awareness skills.
13) Reading nonsense words: reinforces letter-sound skills and blending. Have students read 5-10 nonsense words per session.
14) Spelling nonsense words: reinforces both phoneme awareness and letter-sound skills, both essential for OM.
15) Spelling irregular words: irregular word do not conform to the basic grapho-phoneme regularities of printed English, Reinforces orthography-correct letter string representation which represents a specific word. The goal is to have them learn the precise spelling of those particular words.
16) Word Structure analysis: Have students identify the onsets and rimes units in words, verbally and in print. Analyzing the structure of words helps students to focus on the sound sequence that is present in oral words and the corresponding letter sequences in the printed form.
17) Making/breaking words: Students start with letters which for a big word (independent), they don't know the word, they try to see how many words can be made from the set of letters. They write down the smaller words. The ongoing interaction with the internal structure of words directly reinforces letter-sound skills and indirectly reinforces phoneme segmentation and the word-study portion of orthographic mapping.
18) Words their way: spelling/phonics program focusing on orthography. Teaches the developmental stages of spelling.

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Definition: A familiar written word that is recognized instantly, automatically, and effortlessly, without sounding it out or guessing. All the printed words a student knows instantly and automatically are their sight vocabulary.
Importance: Accurate and quick reading at grade level
Instructional Strategy: Alphabetic Knowledge and Phonemic awareness skills

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New Sight Words 1 | Sight Words Kindergarten | High Frequency Words | Jump Out Words | Jack Hartmann

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Three Levels of Phonological Awareness (week 6)

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Three Levels of Phonological Awareness (week 6)

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Three levels of phonological awareness: Syllable level, Onset-Rime level, and Phoneme level. Children must be thoroughly competent in all of these levels to become good readers.

Syllable Level: Separating syllables (segmenting), rhyming, and alliteration developmentally come before phoneme-level awareness. These activities expose children to the sounds we say in words. This is the entry to phonological awareness.

Onset-Rime Level: The first time children break apart syllables. It is an important step toward focusing on middle and ending phonemes.

*The onset of a syllable is the consonant sound that comes before the vowel in that syllable. (sat-the onset is s)

*The rime is the part of the syllable that includes the vowel sound and any consonant sounds that follow the vowel sound, within that syllable. (sat-the rime is at) We, go, and see have no consonants in their rimes (e,o, and ee) The rime can involve more than one written vowel if it is part of the same syllable. (food-ood) Written and oral rimes don't always match up. A rime is a rime regardless of the spelling pattern or whether it rhymes with anything else.

Phoneme Level: The most difficult type of the three levels of phonological awareness. The syllable and onset-rime levels are the foundation for the phoneme level.

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In " The National Reading Panel and the Big Five," I introduced you to the origins of "The Big Five" essentials for reading. Today, I am going to discuss the first of the "Five," which is Phonological and Phonemic Awareness. This area is so important to remediation, that I will cover it over two blogs. It is the foundation upon which all the other layers are built and, unless it is solid, the other layers will most definitely suffer, and the student will struggle to read. Phonological and phonemic awareness is, of course, the core deficit for dyslexic students, and the most common cause of poor reading. That said, these difficulties can be preempted and corrected before the child starts reading, but before we go any deeper into this topic, I need to define phonological and phonemic awareness.

When we talk about a student having "auditory problems," this refers to all the sounds they hear. "Phonological," on the other hand, refers only to the sounds of spoken language. Students that have learning difficulties generally don't have auditory problems that are not related to speech sounds. They can understand, speak, and communicate using language, because their phonological issues are related to parts of words, rather than whole words. Reading is a challenge for them because our ability to decode (read) is based on being able to break words apart, and to match those parts to their written parts or letters. In other words, as David Kilpatrick says, "they struggle to connect parts of spoken language to their alphabetic forms." [Sources #1, below.]

I like to think of Phonological Awareness as an umbrella term, with phonemic awareness as one of the skills that comes in under that umbrella. Phonological awareness includes:

● Syllables

● Alliteration and Initial sounds

● Phonemes (Phonemic Awareness)

I will quote David Kilpatrick's definitions of the differences between the two from his book, " Equipped for Reading Success ":

Phonological awareness: The ability to recognize and manipulate the sound properties of spoken words, such as syllables, initial sounds, rhyming parts, and phonemes.

Phonemic awareness: The ability to recognize and manipulate individual phonemes in spoken words.

Phonemic, or phoneme awareness is crucial to reading, and the other skills of phonological awareness, mentioned above, are its foundation. The order in which phonological awareness is developed is a complex subject, and I find myself tweaking it from time to time. The most important thing is to lay thefoundation for phonemic awareness to be developed through rhyme, words, syllables, and alliteration and initial sound work. Later in this blog, I will talk about my current preferred order, along with some examples, but first we must define a phoneme.

Phoneme comes from the Greek word, phonos, which means "sound" or "voice." To quote David Kilpatrick again, "A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a spoken word." Written letters represent the phonemes in our spoken language. Phonemes and letters are not the same; phonemes are the oral sounds while letters are a written representation of those sounds. It is really important that children understand that phonemes are the smallest parts of oral words, whereas letters are the smallest parts of written words.

It is worth repeating: Phonemic awareness is crucial to reading, and the other skills of phonological awareness are the foundation for phonemic awareness.

Now I will lay out my current order so this foundation can be developed. I will also mention the order in which I personally introduce phonemic awareness, once the foundation is in place, and I will discuss this in greater depth in part 2 of this blog.

A parent recently shared with me that when her daughter was becoming distressed when trying to figure out whether two words rhymed. She hit on the idea of asking her daughter to think about whether her mouth moved in the same way as she said the end of each word, and also to feel her lips. These two tips really helped.

● How many word-parts do you hear in "monkey?"

● How many syllables do you hear in "photograph?"

Blending of syllables: Children are asked to put two syllables together to form a word. For example, "Blend these two word parts together to make a word: win-dow."

Syllable Segmentation: The parent, or teacher says a multisyllable word, and then asks the child to separate the word into its parts. For example, "Tell me the parts of this word: Doughnut (dough-nut), wonderful (won-der-ful)."

For students who want to treat each syllable in multisyllable words as individual words, I use different colors or types of counters for syllables, to those which I use for words. This way, if the child has mistakenly selected word-counters for each syllable, it becomes a teaching opportunity, as the teacher or parent can go through the sentence again and discuss the multisyllable words. Then, together, they can exchange each group of syllable counters for a single word counter.

Syllable Deletion: The teacher or parent starts by saying a compound word and asks the student to delete the initial and then the final syllable.For example, "Say cupcake without saying cup," and, "Say sailboat without saying boat." Then simple multisyllable words are introduced, and syllables are deleted. For example, "Say hamper without the ham." The next stage is to delete syllables from three-syllable words, again starting with compound words. For example, "Say basketball without the ball." From here a teacher can ask the student to remove syllables from the beginning of more complex words such as, "Say improvement without /im/," and then on to removing the final syllable in a word such as clarinet: "Say clarinet without the /net/."

Onset-Rime: This is where development charts of Phonological Awareness tell us phonemic awareness starts. I will define this term for you.

David Kilpatrick, in Equipped for Reading Success, separates his levels of phonological awareness into these levels:

1. Syllable Level (Also Alliteration and Rhyming): Pre-K to Kindergarten

2. Onset-Rime: Early Kindergarten to Second Grade

3. Phoneme Level: Basic, which is mid 1st Grade to Early 2nd Grade, and Advanced, which is late 1st Grade to 3rd Grade

He starts with a deletion of syllables, then works on onsets and rimes, and then moves on to substitutions of both.

His Phoneme Level covers manipulation of initial phonemes, then deletion of ending phonemes, onto substitution of phonemes, and finally working on reversal of phonemes. For teachers and parents not following this program, the following may be helpful, I will cover these in greater depth in part 2 of this blog.

1. Identification of phonemes

2. Blending of phonemes

3. Segmentation of phonemes

4. Deletion of phonemes

5. Addition of phonemes

6. Manipulation of phonemes

Part 2 will also include more resources, including assessment and curriculum materials for teaching phonological and phonemic awareness.

For further information about phonemic awareness, the Orton-Gillingham Online Academy offer a free webinar on this topic.

1. David A.Kilpatrick, Ph.D. Equipped for Reading Success

2. Unlocking Literacy by Marcia K. Henry

3. Great Leaps Reading Grades K-2 by Kenneth U.Campbell

4. Great Leaps Language Growth Phonological Awareness and Language Activities by Kenneth U. Campbell.

Lorna Wooldridge is a dyslexia specialist tutor with over twenty-five years of experience and qualifications in the field of learning differences, from both the UK and USA. Lorna has a unique perspective on this condition as she has dyslexia, and her passion is to serve this community in any way she can.

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The Big Five: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness - Part 1

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In "The National Reading Panel and the Big Five," I introduced you to the origins of "The Big Five" essentials for reading. Today, I am going to discuss the first of the "Five," which is Phonological and Phonemic Awareness.

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A standard, widely used list providing a practical starting point for building the needed academic language skill. It is important to obtain this list as an educator and incorporate the words into everyday academics to increase students vocabulary as they become college and career ready. Using the Basic words starting in Kindergarten and continuing on to the Intermediate and Advanced words throughout one's education expands verbiage.

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Assessment to Guide Instruction (Week 5, 11)

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Assessment to Guide Instruction (Week 5, 11)

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"The results of an emergent literacy assessment should help you plan instruction." Pg. 172 As indicated in the text, instruction should be parallel to the student's level of ability. Informal assessments such as observation can guide the instructor and help them determine the student's strengths and needs. It is important to assess often as literacy development can change quickly.

According to Reading Rockets, there are 5 purposes of assessment: 1) to identify skills that need review, 2) to monitor student progress, 3) to guide teacher instruction, 4) to demonstrate the effectiveness of instruction, 5) to provide teachers with information on how instruction can be improved." Additionally, teachers should use strategies that are supported by research evidence and that will give them useful information about their students." Areas to test students' abilities include letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, and comprehension.

MTSS: Multi-Tiered System of Supports; within this framework, there are 4 types of reading assessments: 1) Universal Screeners: conducted 1-3 times a year and established criteria by the school, if a student fails they may be at risk for reading problems and/or qualify for services. 2) Diagnostic Assessments: administered after being screened, identify a student's strengths and weaknesses to guide intervention. 3) Progress Monitoring Tools: Measures progress at a specific amount of time such as weekly or bi-weekly. 4) Summative Assessment) given at the end of a unit or the year.

There are many types of assessments:

Formative: ongoing assessment which takes place during learning and is used to plan or modify instruction; often an observation.

Summative: occurs after learning to summarize a student's progress at the end of a unit.

High-Stakes testing: a summative used to make an important decision based on the outcome; can dictate curriculum.

Norm-referenced: students are compared to others in the same grade or age.

Criterion-referenced: assesses how well skills or knowledge in a specific domain have been learned.

Functional-level assessment: measures growth.

Role of Assessing for Learning: assess for learning as opposed to assessing of learning. "The basic idea behind assessing for learning is to obtain enough information about students so that you can give them the help they need" Pg 65 Gunning. Using standards provides learning intentions, they offer an explanation of the objectives that are required for students to meet.

Success criteria: students need to be able to tell when they have met their learning goal or target objective. This is in addition to knowing what they need to learn.

Self-assessment: Students should ask themselves, "Where am I going? Where am I now? How do I close the gap?" This is a key component of learning.

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Take advantage of opportunities throughout the day to foster reading and writing concepts and skill. Point to words and spell them such as "We're going to a-r-t, art". Create centers in the classroom: Writing center with upper and lower case letters, writing paper, pencils, and models of writing. Library corner, with books, magazines, and student's works. Dramatic Play Center with personalized experience opportunities such as a restaurant with a menu.

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Prealphabetic stage: (prephonemic) children realize that letters are used to create words but have not caught on to the alphabetic principle-that letters represent sounds.

Alphabetic (letter name) stage:  Early stage-Children start putting the alphabetic principle to work. Students start by spelling the sound they feel in their mouth, which is often the first sound in a word. Stage progression-children begin representing vowel sounds. Students strategize by using a letter to represent the sound heard in the letter's name. (late is spelled lat)

Consolidated Alphabetic Stage: Through exposure to book and environmental print children recognize that spelling uses certain conventions, like the final e is used to mark long vowels. (hat, short a vs. hate, long a) Spelling is no longer strictly guided by sound, children begin combining visual or orthographic elements along with sound elements. Progression through this stage spelling becomes conventional and, ultimately they move into the stages of syllable juncture and derivational constancy which are advanced stages of conventional spelling involving multisyllabic words.

Syllable Juncture: Advanced stage
Derivational Constancy: Advanced stage

It is important to instruct students in the stage they are in. The stages of spelling are scaffolded. Understanding each stage of spelling development is important to learn before the next in order for the student to progress efficiently.

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Overview of the Stages of Spelling Development

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Emergent literacy can be assessed through observations. The observation guide on pg. 169 (Gunning) can be used but is generic, use what's appropriate for your program. Observations should focus on what the child can do and should be ongoing because literacy behavior changes quickly. A formal assessment should be done once a month. Informal assessments should include letter knowledge, a writing sample, print formality, and phonological awareness.
Formal assessments should include letter knowledge, phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and rudimentary spelling ability to measure word reading.

PAST (Kilpatrick Week 12)

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The concept that letters represent speech sounds so that what we say can be written down and read. This is the beginning of Phonemic Awareness and is important for students to understand that the letters in the alphabet make sounds to be able to put those sounds with letters.

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Children’s knowledge of letter names and shapes is a strong predictor of their success in learning to read. Knowing letter names is strongly related to children’s ability to remember the forms of written words and their ability to treat words as sequences of letters.

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Culturally diverse texts are children's literature with a variety of cultures represented including but not limited to ethnicity, race, culture, family structure, etc. It is important to provide a plethora of literature in your teacher's library so all students have access to windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors in the classroom, which should include fiction and non-fiction. This allows students to see themselves, see others, and step into other worlds through literature.

Scholastic:

A Ticket Around the World, Natalie Diaz & Melissa Owens

Happy In Our Skin, Fran Manushkin

Beautiful, Stacy McAnulty

Hidden Figures, Margot

Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan

The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi

Amanda Gorman by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and    Queenbe Monyei

Blue by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond and Daniel Minter

Bright Brown Baby by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney

Free at Last by Sojourner Kincaid Rolle and Alex Bostic

Hats of Faith by Medeia Cohan

Four Feet, Two Sandals by Lynn Williams, Karen; Mohammad Khadra

Bee-bim Bop by Linda Sue Park

Dim Sum for Everyone by Grace Lin

Yoko by Rosemary Wells

Dear Juno by Soyung Park

Zen Shorts by John Muth

Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein

Native American:

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard

We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom

We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell

Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talkers Story by Joseph Bruchac

Drawn Together by Minh Lê, illustrated by Dan Santat

Hosea Plays On by Kathleen M. Blasi

Plenty of Hugs by Fran Manushkin, illustrated by Kate Alizadeh

Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall

I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

1001 Cranes by Naomi Hirahara

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

Happy In Our Skin By Fran Manushkin

One Family by George Shannon

Same Sun Here

Juna's Jar

One Word From Sophia

Last Stop on Market Street

Emmanual's Dream

Mango, Abuela, and Me

I'm New Here

Mama's Nightingale

The Jumbies

Funny Bones

Gone Crazy in Alabama

El Deafo

Sitting Bull

George

The Way Home Looks Now

Listen, Slowly

The Invisible Boy

Full Cicada Moon

Echo

In The Footsteps of Crazy Horse

X

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https://flyleafpublishing.com/emergent-reader-series-book-set-41-titles/

Scholastic:
Level A Pre-K-1
Emergent Reader Library 2 K-2
101 Thematic Poems for Emergent Readers
My first little Readers Level B
Just Right-Plays: 15 Science plays for emergent readers
Science Level 1: Footprints in the Sand
Raise a Reader Collections
Acorns #1 Collection Pack
Unicorn and Yet Collection
Princess Truly Collection
Mister Shivers

Emergent reader printables:
https://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/EmergentReaderListing.htm

First Little Readers A-C

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Emergent Reader Series: Book Set (41 titles)

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A collection of 41 richly illustrated, engaging, and meaningful decodable readers tied to a cumulative systematic phonics scope and sequence.

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Phonics is the method for teaching students to sound out unfamiliar words.

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Phonics is the method for teaching students to sound out unfamiliar words.

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Without phonics, we would not be able to learn and read new words.

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Phonics instruction teaches the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. To read, children need to understand the alphabetic principle - the idea that letters represent the sounds of spoken language. Decoding is when we use letter-sound relationships to translate a printed word into speech.

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This is the two-part system of RTI and supports the whole school approach. There are 2 main parts, "a. build a strong academic and behavioral support program and b. provide tiers of support for struggling students before considering special education placement." Gunnings

Educators and administration collaborate to implement RTI to discuss student data and educational needs, behaviors, and emotional and social perspectives. This is important to evaluate throughout the year as student needs change and students move in or out of the building.

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"RTI is a whole-school improvement program that enlists all staff members, the community, and parents to ensure that the literacy potential of all students is fully developed. This typically consists of three level of prevention or intervention: primary, secondary, and tertiary." Gunnings
Primary: differentiated instruction that benefits all learners. Secondary: small group intervention, moderately intense. Tertiary: specific one-on-one intervention according to student needs.

This process helps identify students who might be at risk, it is recommended to assess three times a year. Catching deficiencies and providing early intervention can prevent issues in upper grades that could cause lower student efficacy as well as gaps in learning.

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Second Language development occurs in approximately 5 stages, as shown above. It is important to assess students level of knowledge and language to be able to create instruction for their level.

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"Understanding students' cultural background." as well as "...become familiar with the literacy heritage of the students..."
Building cultural competence aids in motivating students while providing them with the most opportunities for creating cognitive connections.

"In developing teaching techniques that are appropriate for diverse approaches to learning, you have to be aware of the ways in which students think and process information." This is for all learners. I believe culture has multiple meanings, and our home life has a culture that contributes to children's learning strategies.

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Handwriting is the formation of letters, in a continuous motion if possible, used to write words and can be paired with phonics for enhanced instruction.

Handwriting is important for future academic skills such as note-taking, tests, and homework, specifically math. A competent, confident ability to write prevents mental drain while doing the previously mentioned tasks, with less stress focusing on how to write. Learning handwriting can enhance reading and spelling skills as well.

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Handwriting Without Tears is a proven program for teaching handwriting to children. Developed by OTs, it uses multisensory techniques to make writing fun.

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Phonemic and Phonological Awareness (week 4)

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Phonemic and Phonological Awareness (week 4)

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Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear the individual sounds in words; which letters go with which sounds. Having proficient phonemic awareness is a good indicator of the ability to learn to read.

Phonological Awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate the spoken parts of sentences and words. To notice them, think about them, and work with the individual sounds, such as syllables, initial sounds, rhyming words, and phonemes. Skills include blending sounds into words and segmenting words into sounds, and deleting and playing with the sounds. Phonological awareness is a listening skill and refers to oral language. These skills are necessary to become a proficient reader, they provide the foundation for phoneme awareness.

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Workout to the Letter Sounds | Version 2 | Letter Sounds Song | Phonics for Kids | Jack Hartmann

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Reading difficulties stem from language and/or word reading difficulties and comprehension is compromised. It is important to intervene early, and using the Simple View of Reading can help determine a reading problem.

Dyslexia: Phonological-core deficit, the problem is phonological/auditory, not visual. Poor word-level reading skills, learning opportunities, and language skills.

Hyperlexia: Proficient reading with trouble comprehending. Difficulty in understanding oral and written language.

Mixed/Combined Type: Difficulties in language comprehension and word-level reading.

Compensator Type: Reading comprehension is well below language comprehension due to weaknesses in word reading.

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The building blocks of literacy education. A learning theory guides the teacher in their instruction and ideology.

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The quadrilateral relationship between educational research, psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience combined. Educational research includes an appropriate pedagogy using phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Psychology helps us understand how things are stored in memory, organized, and retrieved. Linguistics are language structures such as semantics, syntax morphology, phonology, and phonetics. These help us understand what we need to teach and what knowledge and skills are required to acquire new knowledge and skills to build on. Neuroscience is the study of the brain functions and is structured. This helps us understand the necessity of teaching students in different ways to allow them the maximum benefit of instruction.

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https://www.azed.gov/scienceofreading/scarbreadingrope

The left side of Scarborough's Rope represents the skills and knowledge required to begin weaving the rope together. Through skill practice, the rope begins to weave together and continues until the reader becomes skilled and proficient. This is a good visual for teachers and parents to understand how learning to read progresses slowly using the skill practices on the left.

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Instruction that is research-based and conforms to the needs of the students. Methods are assessed to add, omit, or change instruction as needed. Ample opportunity to practice reading-level text; text should not be too easy, and contain no more than 2-5 percent of words that are difficult. Differentiate to meet individual student's needs. Provide systematic interventions on the pupil's instructional level. Believing that your students can achieve their reading goals and advocating for independent reading while modeling a growth mindset, can build their self-efficacy. Assess students often and share their progress with them to continue building a sense of pride.

Reading Comprehension is the product of decoding and linguistic comprehension. It is similar to a mathematical equation: D x LC = RC; that is, Decoding x Linguistic Comprehension = Reading Comprehension

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Objectives: "learning intentions" Use state standards to indicate what you want students to "know, understand, and be able to do." - (Gunner, 2020, pg. 20.)
Content/Texts/Activities: Instructional level, intriguing, and challenging.
Instruction: Modeled expectations of content with detailed explanations along with the opportunity to practice the skill.
Evaluation: Formative assessment to monitor understanding and skill level.
Differentiation: Content/Texts/Activities are modified to meet students needs.
Classroom Atmosphere: Established routines, specific praise, high expectations in a caring and supportive environment.

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Literate Environment (Classroom and Home)

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Literate Environment (Classroom and Home)

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Having literature that is reflective of the students in the classroom so as to provide windows and mirrors for each individual. Encourage literature in the home to do the same, if possible.

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Direct, explicit instruction of oral and written language in a systematic manner. Instruction intensity is based on student needs.

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Brady, S. (2011). Efficacy of phonics teaching for reading outcomes: Implications from Post-NRP research. In S. Brady, D. Braze, & C. Fowler (Eds.), Explaining individual differences in reading (pp. 69-96), London: Psychology Press.

Denton, C. A., Fletcher, J. M., Taylor, W. P., Barth, A. E., & Vaughn, S. (2014). An experimental evaluation of Guided Reading and explicit interventions for primary-grade students at-risk for reading difficulties. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 7(3), 268-293.

Ehri, L., Nunes, R. S., Stahl, S., & Willows, D. (2001). Systematic phonics instruction helps students learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading Panel's meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 71, 393-447.

Foorman, B., Beyler, N., Borradaile, K., Coyne, M., Denton, C. A., Dimino, J., Furgeson, J., Hayes, L., Henke, J., Justice, L., Keating, B., Lewis, W., Sattar, S., Streke, A., Wagner, R., & Wissel, S. (2016). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade (NCEE 2016-4008). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from the NCEE website: http://whatworks.ed.gov

Kilpatrick, D. (2015). Essentials of assessing, preventing, and overcoming reading difficulties. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

McCardle, P., & Chhabra, V. (Eds.). (2004). The voice of evidence in reading research. Baltimore, MD, Paul H. Brookes.

National Early Literacy Panel (NELP). (2008). Developing early literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy.

National Reading Panel. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Child and Human Development.

Seidenberg, M. (2017). Language at the speed of sight: How we read, why so many can't, and what can be done about it. New York: Basic Books.

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Structured Literacy Instruction: The Basics

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Structured Literacy prepares students to decode words in an explicit and systematic manner. This approach not only helps students with dyslexia, but there is substantial evidence that it is effective for all readers. Get the basics on the six elements of Structured Literacy and how each element is taught.

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Learning Theories: The ways in which people learn, process, and apply information. Implementing learning theories in literacy instruction sets the foundation for the educator allowing them to successfully engage the learner while providing the model for instruction.

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Learning Theories: The ways in which people learn, process, and apply information. Implementing learning theories in literacy instruction sets the foundation for the educator allowing them to successfully engage the learner while providing the model for instruction.

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Behaviorism: Learned behaviors that are reinforced are repeated as a result of positive reinforcement. Behaviors that are not reinforced stop. Importance: Because incorrect behaviors are given positive, direct feedback the learner's dignity remains intact, while the incorrect behavior is unlearned.

Cognitivism: The mental process of learning along with feedback from reinforcement. Importance: The negative feedback loop from mistakes provides a learning opportunity.

Constructivism: Children learn through their experiences in the world and develop schemes. These schemes are their existing knowledge allowing them to add new information and understand it; knowledge growth. Importance: Accommodations can be made to existing assimilation through careful observation; learning happens when the child reconstructs their initial knowledge.

Social Constructivism: Learning is done with others who are more knowledgeable while experiencing the content to be learned. Importance: The brain is wired to be connected socially and information is best obtained through existing knowledge, therefore learning is optimal.

Cognitive-Behavioral: Self-evaluation and reflection of learned material or task for an improved outcome. Importance: Helps develop independent learning through effort and autonomy.

Interactionist: Combined effort of the bottom-up and top-down ideas. Importance: Students are instructed through scaffolding, and given opportunities to experiment with their learning, allowing them to make mistakes and correct them.

Reader Response: A two-way process involving the reader and the text, an active transaction. Importance: The reader determines whether the text is either; 1. Efferent-Information that is applied to a skill, or 2. Aesthetic- text that is analyzed to make meaning of it.

New Criticism: focuses on the text, not connections between the reader and the text. Meaning and emotional impact are revealed through analysis of the text. Importance: This encourages critical thinking because students are not making connections to add information to.

Critical Literacy: Texts are evaluated for inequality among specific groups of people. Importance: Students are made aware of inequalities and inequities and can sympathize with their peers while learning to disengage with previous, outdated beliefs.

Constructionism: Much like constructivism, people build their knowledge by doing as opposed to a traditional school setting.