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The single most important way for young readers to learn how to read is for their parents to read to them every day.  Literacy should be encouraged by parents from infancy, even until fourth grade, when students already know how to read.  This allows students to become comfortable with reading and to realize that it is a process.  Studies show that when parents are involved in their children's reading, it leads to "higher academic achievement, greater cognitive competence, greater problem-solving skills, greater school enjoyment, better school attendance, and fewer behavioral problems" (Melhuish, Sylva, Sammons et al., 2001).  Children should learn to love reading at a young age, so that it continues throughout their entire lives. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED496346.pdf

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Parents should choose books to read to their children that have vivid, colorful images that help enhance the story.  An example of a book like this is "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie."  This was one of my favorite books as a child, and is well-liked by parents, teachers, and students as a whole! https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51aCFGh8IBL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

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The use of flashcards are an effective way to encourage literacy at a young age.  Although most students will not be able to read books by themselves yet at age three and four, they can learn to recognize simple words with the use of flashcards.  By connecting the images on the flashcards with the words, this will help them become more familiar with common words.  Flashcards are a form of direct instruction and "have been shown to be useful for teaching sight-word reading" (Kupzyk, Daly, & Andersen, 2011).  Clearly, reading with flashcards will help students eventually learn how to read independently. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3251281/

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Flashcards can be used to teach more specific rules in later grades, such as homophones.  Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently.  The flashcards that are attached below are effective for teaching homophones and word recognition. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Homophone-Memory-29158

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When deciding on which books teachers should use in their classrooms, they should first find award-winning books. Award-winning books that can be used in an elementary level classroom will have a Caldecott medal, whereas ones that can be used in a secondary level classroom will have a Newbery Medal. This is important because "teachers should be aware of the different books that have won the awards mentioned above; the selection is of high quality and contains a variety of books that will enrich literacy activities" (Cohen, 2011). Award-winning books tend to be more popular among students, teachers, and parents.

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One of the award-winning books that I chose to discuss in Task 1 was "Smoky Night" by Eve Bunting.  This book was about a young boy named Daniel who is living in Los Angeles during the riots of 1992, where individuals of different races came together in a difficult time.  This Caldecott medal book addressed cultural diversity and acceptance, which was its main theme.  Students should be reading books such as these, since they also teach life lessons. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61VORYhdlPL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

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Another award-winning book that I chose to discuss for Task 1 was "Mirette on the High Wire" by Emily Arnold McCully.  This story is about a young girl named Mirette who meets a retired high wire walker named Bellini, who hesitantly teachers her how to walk on the high wire.  Its main theme is determination and not giving up.  However, the illustrations in this story are bright and vivid, which further help tell the story to children.  https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51tVGpF-TQL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

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A way that teachers can promote children's literature is through making bulletin boards outside of their classroom.  Students can all work on a project that is related to the book that they are reading, which also incorporates creative aspects of learning.  This method promotes literacy throughout the school and shows the rest of the students and faculty what this class is learning about. The image below is a picture that I took at one of my Field Placements, where students cut out a moon, to represent that it begins with the letter "M."

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Reading a text fluently means that the child reads it smoothly, without any choppiness. Fluency was difficult for the student who I was tutoring, who had autism. Fluency improves over time, particularly when students "reread the text out loud to the teacher, to peers, or at home until a certain level of fluency is reached" (Cohen, 2011). Essentially, the student needs to become more comfortable with the text in order to be fluent, which can be accomplished by reading it over and over.

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The following activity allows students to build fluency by having them work in small groups and recognize the letters in the alphabet.  This activity is appropriate for kindergarten, where students are still building their basic fluency skills.  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/I-have-Who-has-Cards-Capital-Letters-4473

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Another method for building fluency is through choral reading.  Choral reading is when "students read along as a group while the teacher models fluent reading" (Cohen, 2011).  During one of my field placements, my cooperating teacher informed me that choral reading was a strategy that she used in her classroom. http://justreedblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/components-of-fluency-2.png

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An example of choral reading is Reader's Theatre, which allows all students to choose a character to read the part of, along with the rest of the class.  This strategy builds fluency because students are hearing their fellow peers read, as well as the teacher.  Reader's Theatre also helps them pay attention to the story, since they are constantly waiting to read their part.  Additionally, it allows them to read with expression and recognize punctuation.  The following that is attached is an example of Reader's Theatre from "Frog and Toad." https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Readers-Theatre-Script-Frog-and-Toad-25275

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Phonemic awareness is when students are able to break up and blend words, such as with the use of hand symbols.  A student needs phonics instruction when he or she lacks phonemic awareness.  For example, if the student sees the word "cat" and reads "map," he or she lacks phonemic awareness. An important factor to note is that "phonemic awareness begins with their names written on tag board" (Cohen, 2011). The classroom should be a print-rich environment, with name tags, student work displayed, posters, word walls, and so on, in order to encourage phonemic awareness.

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Students will need to memorize certain phonics rules in order to improve their phonemic awareness.  Memorizing these rules will further help them with reading and writing, as well.  As teachers, we need to come up with ways to make these rules fun and entertaining so that they stick out in students' brains.  One way that this is possible is through rhyme and song.  For example, "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking," is an effective way to teach vowel teams.  I utilized this method in my unit plan when I planned how I would teach vowel teams in "Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea."  I have attached a YouTube video that I would play for my students that is short and cute, which will help them remember vowel teams and what sound they make.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fb3Pdt8kxg

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Another method to teach phonics to children who lack phonemic awareness is through not only songs, but also visual representations.  Some students learn better by auditory means, whereas others have to see the information with their eyes.  I have attached a poster that I would use with my students to teach the vowel teams "ea," "oa," and "ai."  This poster includes speech bubbles over the vowel teams that emphasizes which letter makes the sound, which is helpful to students who are struggling with phonemic awareness. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/When-two-vowels-go-walking-sign-1086565

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An important fact to teach students when teaching phonemic awareness is that every syllable in a word must have one vowel.  Clearly, students should be able to master the difference between vowels and consonants by first grade.  One way they can do this is by the use of letter cards, where vowels are in red and consonants are in black.  Students can form words with these cards and will be able to visually recognize the difference between vowels and consonants, which will therefore help improve phonemic awareness. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Letter-Cards-22119

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Guided reading groups are either created based on the level of the students or the strategy that needs to be taught to the students.  Therefore, there can be a guided reading group of students from different levels who all need to work on their comprehension skills.  In guided reading groups, "the teacher provides skills and strategy support to each child" (Cohen, 2011).  Some students learn better in smaller groups, which is another reason why guided reading groups are effective. https://s7d9.scene7.com/is/image/lakeshore/aa853?id=iNCvn2&fmt=jpg&fit=constrain,1&wid=400&hei=300&fmt=jpeg&qlt=100,1&op_sharpen=0&resMode=bilin&op_usm=5,0.25,25,0

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Read alouds are done in the classroom at the carpet when the teacher reads a book to all students in the class. To conduct a read aloud successfully, teachers should plan out what questions they will ask students with post-its. They should not ask a question after every single page, but rather important questions regarding the characters, plot, setting, problem, and solution. Before reading the story, they should ask students what they think the story is about, based on the title. Read alouds should be done with a book that is above the students' independent level and should be read with a lot of expression. The book that is pictured below is a book that I read to the class from my Field Experience placement, which was a first grade class. They enjoyed this book a lot, so I plan on reading it to my future students.

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Shared reading is when the teacher and students are essentially reading a text together.  The text is typically reread so that the students become comfortable with it.  Shared reading is important because "it helps students develop concepts about print:  letters, words, phrasings of sentences, tracking of eyes from left to right, story lines, and rhyming" (Cohen, 2011).  The attached worksheet can be used after students have done shared reading a few times.  It allows them to think about what they are reading with the class and make connections between what is going on in the text to themselves and the world.  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/I-Made-a-Connection-138657

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As discussed throughout the semester, Independent reading levels are sometimes going to vary greatly within one classroom.  Scholastic Book Wizard is a fabulous tool that allows teachers to type in the name of a book, and the level of the book comes up, which makes it easy for teachers to find books that are appropriate for the reading levels of all students.  This is the link for Scholastic Book Wizard: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/bookwizard/. An effective strategy for independent reading is "reading the room, in which students read words on charts, bulletin boards, and so on" (Cohen, 2011). The classroom should be a literacy-rich environment, and should contain a Word Wall of some sort which contains sight words and other words that students are learning.

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Reader's workshop involves making a connection from the previous day's lesson, having a teaching point, modeling, active engagement, independent reading, and conferences. Similar to writer's workshop, it essentially involves "I do," "we do," and "you do." As discussed in class, anchor charts are effective strategies for reader's workshop. They remind students tips for how to be good readers and how to read a text in general. Anchor charts allow reader's workshop to be a "highly structured activity. Students need to understand the value of silent reading and the importance of sharing and listening during discussions" (Cohen, 2011). Essentially, anchor charts allow students to understand the rules and guidelines of reader's workshop.

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The attachment here is an example of an anchor chart that can be used during reader's workshop in an elementary grade level classroom.  This particular chart reminds students what good readers should do while they are reading a text, so that they constantly can look at this chart while they are reading independently. http://www.thecurriculumcorner.com/thecurriculumcorner123/2016/07/anchor-charts-reading/

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Reading centers allow students to break up into small groups to work independently. Each reading center contains a different focus. For example, one center might be focused on listening to a story through audiotape, whereas another center may have students utilize technology or artwork. A reading center can otherwise be described as "a place or activity that invites students to practice and apply strategies that have been taught and modeled in shared and guided reading lessons" (Nations & Alonso, 2001).  Reading centers allow reinforcement of the lessons that are taught in the classroom.  http://www.esc4.net/users/0001/docs2/120-501-1107%20First%20DELC%20Book.pdf

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The video that is attached explains how teachers can create successful reading centers for their classrooms.  An aspect of this video that I liked is that it talked about how students can write about the particular center they were in, which encourages writing reinforcement.  This allows students to reflect on their experience, which provides feedback for the teacher. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYhiZah8vgE

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Writing As a Process and Writer's Workshop

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Writing As a Process and Writer's Workshop

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As a future teacher, it important to remember to teach students that writing is a process, that consists of an introduction, mini-lesson, independent writing and conferring, and a wrap up. As discussed throughout the semester, the workshop model consists of "I do," "you do," and "we do," which should be emphasized in the writing process. A strategy that can be used during writer's workshop is a writing survey, which is "given once at the beginning of the year to learn about each student's experiences and attitudes as a writer" (Cohen, 2011). A writer's survey allows the teacher to know what strengths and weaknesses each student as when it comes to writing personal narratives and other types of writing pieces.

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Writing As a Process and Writer's Workshop

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Writing As a Process and Writer's Workshop

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The attached worksheet is an example of a survey that students can take in the beginning of the school year, before beginning writer's workshop.  It asks questions such as what the student's favorite cartoon, snack, sport, and so on is.  This activity not only allows teachers to get to know their students, but also gives students ideas to write about throughout the school year. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Free-Back-to-School-Writing-Activity-for-3rd-5th-Grade-842335

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Writing As a Process and Writer's Workshop

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Writing As a Process and Writer's Workshop

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Step three of the writing process involves independent writing and having conferences with the teacher throughout this period.  In order to stay organized teachers should have a list of which students they are going to conference with on that particular day.  In between conferences, the teacher should be helicoptering around the classroom in order to see how all students are doing.  While conducting conferences, teachers should use a "writing conference record, which is a record of conferences between the teacher and student which include comments made by the teacher" (Cohen, 2011).  Keeping a conference record for each student is an effective way to stay organized and keep track of each student's progress.

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Writing As a Process and Writer's Workshop

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Writing As a Process and Writer's Workshop

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A writing conference sheet helps the teacher keep track of how students are doing with staying on topic, spelling, punctuation, writing neatly, and so on.  They are also helpful for when parents have questions about how their children are doing in class.  The sheet that is attached is an example of a writing conference sheet that I found on TeachersPayTeachers. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Writing-Conference-Form-21931

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With the growing amount of technology in the 21st century, there are more digital tools that can be used in the classroom to enhance literacy.  One of these tools is hypertext, which is "text that is not longer linear, but interactive and dynamic" (Cohen, 2011).  When students are on an iPad or another technological device, they can easily access another website by simply clicking on the text.  This tool allows them to dig deeper into the text and find out more about what they are reading. https://www.media-studies.ca/articles/images/hypertex.gif

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Hypermedia is a technological tool that goes one step deeper than hypertext. The difference between the two is that hypermedia "combines on-screen text with pictures, animation and graphics, and increasingly sound and video, while also having organizational features of hypertext" (Cohen, 2011).  This tool allows students to connect images with what they are reading about, which allows them to learn visually. https://image.slidesharecdn.com/fhypermedia-090503072751-phpapp02/95/hypermedia-3-728.jpg?cb=1241335709

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Discussion boards and blogs are great ways to incorporate technology into teaching literacy in the classroom.  They can be used for students to enhance their reading comprehension skills, such as by the teacher posting a question about the story that is being read in class.  This way, students can respond to one another and share various opinions, while also becoming more exposed to the technological world.  Blogs and discussion boards create a "community of learners, which is a group of students who share a common interest in a topic [...] and together build collaborative knowledge with a set of common collective tasks" (Cohen, 2011).  Fundamentally, students have the opportunity to learn in a group, rather than individually, with the use of discussion boards and blogs to enhance reading comprehension skills.  The picture below shows questions that can be asked for students when answering blog questions.  https://i.pinimg.com/736x/89/68/43/896843484729efee46bed9903ba0cb9e--lounge-asking-questions.jpg

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By assigning students Internet projects, they are exposed to literacy on a unique platform, which is the worldwide web.  This method can be used in any subject, even science and social studies.  For example, if students are learning about the ocean in science class, all students can research a different type of sea animal.  Therefore, this allows students to conduct research and enhance their reading skills by reading nonfiction articles.  According to the text, Internet projects "engage children in classrooms at different locations in collaborative work to solve a common problem or explore a common topic" (Cohen, 2011).  Thus, students can even use Google Docs to share ideas with their classmates, which is another way to use technology to promote literacy.  The following website provides excellent tips for introducing Internet projects to students: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/students-and-class-projects-using-internet/.

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Vocabulary goes hand in hand with reading comprehension.  If students cannot understand the unfamiliar words in the story, they will have difficulty comprehending the plot of the story. For my unit plan, I utilized the strategy of Four Corners Vocabulary.  This involves the student recording a word from the story that they are unfamiliar with, drawing a picture that represents the word, writing a sentence using the word, and the definition.

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Four Corners Vocabulary is effective because although it is a worksheet, it is not a "busy" activity to simply kill time.  It is valuable because students get to choose a word that they do not know, and complete several activities based on that one word.  It is also valuable for English Language Learner students, to enhance their vocabulary skills.  As stated by Echevarria, Vogt & Short (2014), “These charts provide more context and “clues” than typically word walls, because they include an illustration, definition, and sentence for each vocabulary word."  Thus, they are an effective visual representation to build vocabulary skills. https://spedellreadingstrategies.weebly.com/four-corner-vocabulary-chart.html

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When teaching vocabulary to students, it is crucial to teach them what context clues are, as this is the most important skill when learning new vocabulary words. The context clues in a story are the surrounding words in the sentence and sentences before and after the difficult word, as well as the illustrations on the page that could hint at what a word means. During my unit plan, which was focused on the book "Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea," I discussed how I would teach context clues by modeling a think aloud to students. The word that I was teaching was "company," which I pointed out to students that the sentence next to this word said "Mr. Putter was lonely and wanted a friend." Then, I stated how I would say to my students "Since Mr. Putter wanted a friend because he was lonely, the word 'company' probably means friends." Specifically, this type of context clue is a semantic clue, where students search for synonyms of the word within that given page (Cohen, 2011). Therefore, the word "friend" is a synonym for the word "company."

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I attached a worksheet that I will use in my future classroom to teach students about context clues, which I found on TeachersPayTeachers.  The first part of the worksheet contains sentences with nonsense words, in which students have to replace each nonsense word with a word that makes sense in the sentence.  The second part of the worksheet has students answer questions from a short passage, where they need to understand context clues to be able to answer the questions.  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Context-Clues-and-Reading-Comprehension-123420

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Phonics instruction is all about students understanding the sounds that letters make in order to read words properly.  Throughout the semester, we learned how to mark up words, based on the sounds the letters make.  For example, a short vowel would be marked with a "u" over it, such as in the word "cat," whereas a long vowel would be marked with a horizontal line over it, such as in the word "ape."  The image below is a clear visual representation of the difference between long and short vowels.  https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5c/09/fd/5c09fdad5f7130bf351bb67e20107a17.jpg

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Throughout the semester, I have learned several effective ways to teach phonics to students, one being by tapping out words. Tapping out words is especially effective for students who are below-level in reading and phonics.  It is a bodily-kinesethtic method that allows students to recognize each individual sound in the word, and put the sounds altogether in order to read the word. Tapping out is a good strategy for CVC words, such as the word "cat," where the first and last letters are consonants and the middle letter is a vowel.

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Tapping out words is an effective strategy, as it does not require students to complete a meaningless worksheet.  Essentially, they are learning by doing.  The teacher models the process, and students repeat it.  Research has displayed that "any word with two or three phonemes can be used to practice tapping with beginners" (Slee, 2009).  After students understand how many sounds are in a particular word, the teacher can further instruct students how to figure out how many syllables are in a word. http://multi-sensoryreadingstrategies.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/file/view/Directions+for+Tapping+and+Spelling.pdf

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In class, we have talked about several ways that students can practice their phonics skills without pencil and paper.  For example, students can use mini whiteboards to practice marking up words, which is a strategy that I used in my lesson plan.  It keeps students engaged in the topic, since they are constantly writing and erasing on a platform that is unique, as compared to a simple worksheet.  http://images.slideplayer.com/20/6036919/slides/slide_20.jpg

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A picture walk is an important strategy that we have discussed in class this semester.  Before students read a story independently or during guided reading, the teacher can instruct the students to flip through to pages to solely look at the illustrations.  This way, students will gain a brief understanding of what the story is about, based on the pictures. During my tutoring sessions, I utilized this strategy with my student, for the book "D.W. the Picky Eater."

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Picture walks are effective for any subject, even math, art, history, and so on.  They are especially effective for students with disabilities and English Language Learner students, who might learn better visually.  Sources say that picture walks allow students to make predictions and sparks connections prior to reading the text and "help activate prior knowledge" (Milne, 2014). https://spedellreadingstrategies.weebly.com/bookpicture-walk.html

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An effective strategy to help students with their reading comprehension skills is to create a WordCloud for them! This is a website that allows you to type in a passage and the most common words that are used appear the largest. Thus, this is a visual strategy that helps students understand what the main idea of the story is, by seeing which words represent the main idea of the story. This method can be used for any subject, even math!

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WordClouds are effective strategies for reading comprehension prior to reading a text as well, as it allows the readers to make predictions about what the text is about.  They are a great pre-reading strategy, so that students understand the important themes of the text, as shown by the enlarged words. http://tlt.cofc.edu/2011/08/17/improve-writing-and-reading-comprehension-using-word-clouds/