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How to Teach Phonemic Awareness in Kindergarten, 1st, & 2nd Grade | Phonemic Awareness Activities

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Dr. Mary Dahlgren "Sound Walls and Phonemes"

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Dr. Mary Dahlgren "Sound Walls and Phonemes"

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'Thank you, Mr. Falker' read by Jane Kaczmarek

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The Ladder of Reading and Writing. Let us explain.

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Scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught. But many educators don’t know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail.

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Dr. Amy Schulting, Dyslexia Specialist for the MN Department of Education, explains the areas of the brain that take in language (language input) and produce language (language output). She then describes how a pathway must develop between these two areas of the brain that result in one's "Reading Road" to facilitate the ability to read print.

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Video 1: How the Brain Learns to Read - The "Reading Road" analogy - MediaSpace > Minnesota State

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Dr. Amy Schulting, Dyslexia Specialist for the MN Department of Education, explains the areas of the brain that take in language (language input) and produce language (language output). She then describes how a pathway must develop between these two areas of the brain that result in one's "Reading Road" to facilitate the ability to read print.

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How to Spot Dyslexia, and What to Do Next | Cult of Pedagogy

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Learn the traits that might indicate dyslexia in students and what you can do inside and outside the classroom to better support these students.

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How to Spot Dyslexia, and What to Do Next | Cult of Pedagogy

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Learn the traits that might indicate dyslexia in students and what you can do inside and outside the classroom to better support these students.

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LETRS phonics routines videos - Google Search

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This video shows the first four components of the LETRS Phonics Lesson Plan. For Phonological awareness, Tools 4 Reading Sound Wall and…

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Syllable Division | Learn the six rules of syllables | Chunking words | Learn to Read

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Dr. Anita Archer - Vocabulary Instruction

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Dear Cult of Pedagogy, Last week, my son brought home a stack of papers from his first-grade class. Some of them had obvious spelling errors, but no one had marked them wrong. Later that same day, I was helping my 10-year-old daughter with a research paper. I noticed a few misspellings on her draft, but when I pointed them out, she said, "My teacher told us not to worry about spelling when we're drafting." What's the deal? Why don't teachers seem to care about spelling anymore?
When kids first learn how to write, they grapple with many different skills at once. After they master letters and build them into words, their next step is stringing those words together into complete ideas. That takes a lot of mental work, and trying to spell every word perfectly can slow the whole process way down. For this reason, many teachers in the early grades encourage inventive spelling, also known as temporary spelling - where the child makes his best guess on the spelling of the word, rather than stopping to find out the correct version.

This practice is grounded in research. A number of studies demonstrate that kids who are allowed to use inventive spelling learn to write more quickly, more fluently, and with a richer vocabulary than those who work under more rigid spelling expectations (Kolodziej & Columba, 2005).

Researchers suggest that parents think about inventive spelling the way they once viewed their child's early attempts at speech:

When the child said "ba-ba," did the parent say, "No, honey, it is pronounced "bottle"? Parents treasure this developmental step their child took towards conventional speaking by lavishly praising the child and offering the bottle...The child will not call the item a "ba-ba" for the rest of his/her life; rather, when the child is developmentally ready, he/she will be able to say "bottle" (Kolodziej & Columba, 2005, p. 217).

In the later years, spelling does "count," but it has a time and a place. Most writing teachers use some version of the Writing Process, where students are taught to (1) gather and group their ideas (pre-writing), (2) flesh out those ideas in sentences and paragraphs (drafting), and (3) reorganize the piece so that it accomplishes the writer's goals (revising). Only then, after the piece has been revised into a shape that's close to finished, do most teachers tell their students to start the next step: editing. In this stage, final corrections are made to spelling, punctuation, and usage.

The reason spelling and mechanics are de-emphasized in the first few steps is the same as in the younger grades: Too much focus on correctness interrupts the flow of ideas. Furthermore, teachers want students to understand that good writers revise their pieces many times for structure, development, clarity and voice. Although the mechanics are important for polish, correct spelling can't make up for a poorly structured, underdeveloped piece of writing. And if a piece is going to be revised several times, it makes no sense to keep correcting the mechanics, only to have those words dumped entirely in a later revision.

Producing a finished piece of writing is a lot like putting on a polished musical performance: It requires the synthesis of many skills, some of which need to be handled separately. Imagine if a band conductor brought a brand-new piece of music to her band and expected all sections to play it together, perfectly, the first time. Even someone with no musical training can see that this is an unreasonable approach. Instead, if each instrument section starts by practicing their part separately, the performers will get really solid on their individual parts before pulling it all together to refine the complete performance.

So what should you do if your child comes home with a paper full of spelling or other mechanical errors? Take a cue from the teacher: If the teacher hasn't mentioned the errors, then spelling was not a priority for this particular assignment or at this particular stage. Instead, praise the content itself. Here are some specific things to look for, and if they are there, to praise:

Strong, vivid vocabulary: "You chose a really interesting word to describe that monster - ferocious."

Idea development: "You described how the lizard's tongue works really clearly. At first I couldn't understand how a tongue can smell, but this sentence helps."

Audience awareness: "This introduction really grabbed my attention."

Organization: "Nice transition here: 'On the other hand.' That's a good way to show that you're going to talk about a different side of the issue."

Attempts at sophisticated construction: "Is that a semicolon? That's a pretty advanced punctuation mark. I like to see you trying new things with your writing."

If you want to help your child improve his spelling, keep assignments that contain errors in a folder. Later in the year, after a certain kind of word has been taught - say, the difference between there, their, and they're - have your child go through the folder and see if they can catch some old mistakes with this set of words.

Rest assured, teachers still care very much about spelling. They just recognize that learning other skills - harder, more complex skills - often works best when those skills get a student's full attention. Single instruments first, then the whole orchestra.
Reference:
Kolodziej, N.J., & Columba, L. (2005). Invented spelling: Guidelines for parents. Reading Improvement, 42 (4), 212-223.

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Why is my kid allowed to make spelling mistakes?

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"Last week, my son brought home a stack of papers from his first-grade class. Some of them had obvious spelling errors, but no one had marked them wrong. What's the deal? Why don't teachers seem to care about spelling anymore?"

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The number of repetitions matter when planning reading instruction for the dyslexic learner, While some may believe that our lessons are filled with constant drilling of skills, this is not the case. Structured literacy is designed to weave in multiple practices within a lesson and review previously learned skills.

I like to think of it this way: when athletes learn a new skill, they practice the movement repeatedly with the goal of perfection in mind. I was a competitive gymnast, and we would practice our routines to the point of automaticity so that when it was time to perform, it was automatic. It had been practiced over and over again. This repetition made the skills stick. A key thing to remember about repetition is that perfect practice is what makes perfect - not just practice. Performing tasks repetitively and correctly is what helps the skills learned from those tasks set in ("The Power of Repetition," 2016).

Learning happens in a very similar way. With correct repetition of a skill, we create a new pathway in the brain. Repetition creates change at the synaptic level where the neurons meet. The more correct repetition we include in our reading instruction, the stronger and faster the connection between the neurons become. When we look at the reading brain, we see no one location is designated for reading. Instead, the brain relies on a network of systems, each meant for different things (language, vision, cognition), but together creates a whole new circuitry so that we may read. For this circuitry to automatize, we need to provide appropriate amounts of practice and correct repetition of skills.

The number of repetitions needed differs from person to person. Students with dyslexia or other learning differences will need many more repetitions to solidify the neural pathways to make reading automatic. It is important to note that these repetitions refer to correct responses. So often, the number of repetitions needed for students with dyslexia is significant.

The number of repetitions needed when students are learning foundational reading skills:

1-4 repetitions for a gifted student

4-14 repetitions for a typical student

14-40 repetitions for a struggling student

40-200 repetitions for a student with dyslexia or learning disability

("A Principal's Primer for Raising Reading Achievement", p. 66)

Repetition sounds simple enough, but it requires a high level of knowledge on the teacher's part to help students access the reading code. Within our reading lessons, carefully chosen repetition is embedded throughout the components of the lesson in a multi-sensory way.

Repetition in Reading Instruction

The brain needs to make new neural pathways to convert our oral language to the linguistic code, which takes practice! Children learning to read need to work with and practice decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling). This work in integrating phoneme awareness to graphemes and letter knowledge and handwriting formation is the heavy lifting that is needed during reading instruction to allow for the orthographic mapping process to occur. Our lessons should provide repetition in linking speech sounds to their letter representations (phoneme-grapheme correspondence), letter formation, reading, and spelling. This is accomplished through the following tasks:

Reading decks (a quick daily review of previously learned letter-sound connections)

handwriting linkages (I start my sessions with a daily review of letter formation practice - see this resource for a multi-sensory approach that links speech to print)

Reading practice - (words, , sentences, text)

Spelling deck (students write graphemes learned for phonemes, read more here )

Spelling practice (words, phrases, sentences)

Instant words (previously mapped from sound to print - this is the that I use for instant words)

While some children may transfer knowledge in one to four exposures, many need more practice to automatize their reading. Those with dyslexia need explicit and systematic instruction in phonics and ample opportunities to bridge this knowledge to practice.

As educators, we are busy teaching skills and lessons but are we providing enough practice and repetition to allow for the skills to transfer to automaticity?

Practice and repetition provide the application of taught skills to become permanent, shouldn't be overlooked or brushed over, and should be a thoughtful part of our lessons.

Remember, practice makes permanent!

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Why Repetition is Important in Reading Instruction

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The number of repetitions matter when planning reading instruction for the dyslexic learner, While some may believe that our lessons are filled with constant drilling of skills, this is not the case. Structured literacy is designed to weave in multiple practices within a lesson and review previously learned skills.

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#29 Donalyn Miller: The Power of Independent Reading (pt.1) - Teach Me, Teacher

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Hello everyone! It’s finally here, episode 29, the first episode of season 2 of Teach Me, Teacher, and it is my biggest privilege to bring you Donalyn Miller for the two-part opener of the season. I mention Donalyn Miller more times […]

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Melissa and Lori Love Literacy Podcast | Featuring Dr. Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler - The Writing Revolution

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The Writing Revolution authors, Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler, share a ‘revolutionary’ approach to writing. The best part: It begins at the sentence level AND content knowledge drives the rigor. Moreover, there is an overlap in reading, writing, and critical thinking. What are the principles of The Writing Revolution? There are six: Students need explicit instruction in writing, beginning in the

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Three Assistive Technology Tools to Help Students with Dyslexia

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Dyslexic? They're not broken | Dr Rosa Kwok | TEDxCoventry