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The powerpoint that was used from today.

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Foundations in Reading for Novice Teachers

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Has activities and information about all foundations/pillars of reading.

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One of the first things I do in our phonics lessons every day is to review our letters and sounds by doing a flashcard pack with our sound spelling cards. I use the cards that come with our reading series, but if you don't have a set, you can print some out here. I quickly say the letter, key word, then the sound. Then the students repeat after me. I want my students to be able to make the association between letter and sound quickly, so when they decode they won't have to spend large amounts of time mentally retrieving the sound when they see a letter. This will help with fluency because you have helped students to free up their "mental deskspace." Once students have mastered basic sounds such as consonants, I take those out of our pack and then we only work on other graphemes such as ai, sh, and aw.

After going through our card pack, I said, "OK boys and girls, did you know that you can learn to be an awesome reader with a slinky? Scientists have learned that if we can't break a word into each of its sound parts, or phonemes that we will have a hard time learning how to read and spell? It is really important that we learn how to break our words apart into its phonemes so we can be good readers and spellers. When we break a word apart into its phonemes its called segmenting. Can you say segmenting?" I asked them, "Would you like to see how I do this?" And of course they did.

One of the key shifts in the Common Core standards is to make sure understand academic vocabulary, so I don't dumb down the language I use with them and help them learn words like segment, syllable, phoneme, etc.

I continued by saying, "Now watch carefully as I segment this word into its phonemes using this slinky." The process went like this:

I say the whole word first.

I point at my students so they repeat after me, saying the whole word.

Then I take my slinky, holding each side in each of my hands. Each time I say a phoneme I stretch the slinky out with both of my hands.

Then I say Word? (This tells the students I want them to blend the word back together again.) Then I blend the word back together again, saying the entire word, pushing my slinking back together again.

So if I was doing the word mess, I would model it like this:

mess

(students repeat) mess

/m/ /e/ /s/

I say, "Word?" And the students tell me "mess."

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Using Slinkys in a Phonemic Awareness Activity

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One of the first things I do in our phonics lessons every day is to review our letters and sounds by doing a flashcard pack with our sound spelling cards. I use the cards that come with our reading series, but if you don't have a set, you can print some out here.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Phonological awareness & Phonemic awareness activities

It has taken a while but we have finally completed our Phonological Awareness Activities Packet. This packet has been a huge undertaking but we wanted to accomplish a few things with it:

1. Align the phonemic awareness activities on this page below with the Common Core Standards.

2. Create new phonemic awareness activities for the standards we did not have existing activities for.

3. Put all the activities in one download!

What we ended up with is a 58 page Phonological Awareness Activities Download.
The file was so large that we could not upload it to our Download Central Page so we placed it in Katie's TpT Store. Here are some sample pics for you. Click any pic to enlarge.

This is our favorite part about the new download! You'll get a 30-page phonological awareness progression for ways to help your students at the word, syllable, and sound level. Simply cut the page down the middle, punch a whole in the corner, and bind with a metal ring! It's perfect to do with your students when you have a few free minutes...and it's super handy. Click to enlarge the pics.

Head on over to Katie's TpT Store to purchase this packet for just $3 or keep scrolling down for all of our FREE phonemic awareness activities.

Want an easy and effective way to track multiple students' phonological awareness skills? Print off this template! List the names of students in the left hand column and place check marks under the skills when a child has mastered them!

Syllable: Phonemic Awareness Activities

Using different items such as hand clappers, drums, or tennis rackets you can have children determine the number of syllables in a given word. For example, you would tap a drum two times for the word "sister" because it has two syllables. For increased difficulty, tap the drum (any number of times) and have your child think of a word that contains that same number of syllables.

Using the lyrics to "Hickety Pickety," have your child say, clap the syllables, and whisper their name to you.

Write the names of students in your classroom or members of your family. Have you child color a smiley face for each syllable in a given name and make a tally mark for each syllable.

Copy a "Classroom Syllable Graph" for each student in your classroom. Say the name of a student and have them color a square above the correct number of syllables. A fun way to combine phonemic awareness activities and math practice!

Help your child find items in different rooms in your home. Sort them by syllables. Write words (or draw pictures) for each object.

Beginning & Ending Sounds: Phonemic Awareness Activities

Tell your child you are going to teach them a song that will help them discover new words by taking off parts (sounds) of the word. Teach this song and let them fill in the last word. After a few verses using new words, invite the children to sing along. Other possible words to use include:

Beginning Sounds: boat (oat), farm (arm), meat (eat), bus (us), sled (lead), hand (and), & sit (it).

Ending Sounds: hammer (ham), soap (so), little (lit), meat (me), & boat (bow).

Segmenting & blending: phonemic awareness activities

Use these sound boxes to help children segment sounds in words. Simply print, laminate, and cut in half each card. Place one game chip under each box. Students say the name of each picture and then push up a chip for each sound in that word. Great for small group instruction!

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Give students a word with 1-4 phonemes (sounds). Have them stand up and touch their head, shoulders, knees, and toes as they are saying the sounds in words. For example, the word "cat" would be /c/ (head), /a/ (shoulders), and /t/ (knees). A great active, phonemic awareness activity for helping students with segmenting!

Tell your child that you are going to teach them a song that will help them hear all of the sounds in a word. Teach this song and let them blend the sounds together to make a word. Sing the song a couple times, substituting a new word each time. Scroll down on this page to open a list of words with 4-6 phonemes (sounds) for ideas!

Place the cards face-up in random order on a flat surface. Have your child put the pictures together. Say a sound for each picture part while slowly sliding the parts away from each other. Then have your child say a sound for each picture part while slowly sliding the parts together. Once they are back together, say the whole word and continue with other picture cards

Using the above template, write words with 1-5 sounds in the left-hand column. Have students count how many sounds they hear in each word and write that number in the middle column. Give your child 5 bean bags and place a basket in front of them (distance depends on their ability to throw). Children throw a bean bag for each sound they hear in a given word. A point is received for each bean bag that makes it into the basket. (Make sure your child is saying the sounds they hear as they throw the bean bag). When they are finished throwing, have them count up their points to determine the grand total.

Place a green, yellow, and red mat on the floor (in that order). Begin by giving your child a word with 1-3 sounds. Have your child say the sounds they hear as they jump from mat to mat. For increased difficulty, move the mats so they are further apart.

This template can be used similar to those of Elkonin boxes for segmenting words into sounds. Give your child a word with 1-5 sounds and have them move a token into a box for each phoneme. It's a good idea to use different colored tokens and make sure your child is moving from left to right, just as if they were reading a word.

Have your child look at each picture and determine the number of sounds in that word. Color a box for each sound.

Here you will find a list of short and long vowel words with 4-6 phonemes (sounds). Before you use this list with your child/class, make sure they have mastered segmenting 1-3 phoneme words. These words can be used with the following phonemic awareness activities for segmenting:

This segmenting activity is easy to do and it doesn't require any materials but your hands! Have your child/class place their hands together. Give them a word. Each time they hear a sound in a word, have them say it and move their hands further apart.

This is the same concept as the segmenting activity above, only using silly putty to stretch the sounds in words. Using the silly putty helps children to visualize words that have a few sounds and words that have many sounds. (Children really get excited when they find words with many sounds, causing the silly putty to break apart).

This way of stretching words is great for students who like movement! Use a yoga mat and begin by explaining that it's important to stretch your body before you can stretch your brain. Give your child a set of directions to stretch their body. For example, tell them to slowly touch their toes, reach high in the air, place arms out to the side, and roll their head slowly. Once they have stretched their bodies, they are ready to stretch words! A fantastic multi-sensory phonemic awareness activity.

Using inexpensive night lights is a great way to help children learn to say sounds in words. Line up the night lights and say a word. Have your child say the sounds in the word as they turn the lights on. Repeat this process with the same word, but have your child say the sounds while they turn off the night lights. (It's always a good idea to teach your child to work from left to right! This typically is best to do in the small group setting when working on 1-4 phoneme words).

Using magnetic bingo chips and a cut-apart egg carton, place a chip in each slot. Give your child a word with 1-6 phonemes and have them pick up a chip while they say each sound. Like in the previous activity, it's best to teach your child to work from left to right.

Rhyming: Phonemic Awareness activities

Rhyme Time Bingo

Check out our new rhyming bingo game to play with children in the small group setting or at literacy centers. Directions are attached!

Want a fun way to help children learn to rhyme? Try this game with 2-4 children...Great for small group instruction and centers! Directions are attached.

By cutting and laminating the following cards, you can provide a fun and easy way to help children increase their rhyming skills.

Each week and new chant or poem is introduced. Students practice reading these poems through various activities and send them home each Thursday to share with family members.

Mystery Bag

Using an old book bag filled with random objects is a great way to help children with rhyming. Find things that are of meaning to you or place objects in the book bag that will make them laugh. See how many words you can think of that rhyme with that object, even if it is not a real word!

Track your class student rhyming progress using the "Rhyming Groups Folder". Glue the following four tabs on the inside of a manila folder, laminate, and use Post-Its to move individual students' rhyming progression.

Can't Hear/Can't Produce Rhymes

Can Hear/Can't Produce Rhymes

Can Hear/Can Produce Some Rhymes

Can Hear/Can Produce Rhymes Consistently

Learning the Difference between letters, sounds, syllables, & sentences: phonemic awareness activities

By enlarging and laminating this template your students can determine the letters, sounds, and syllables in new words you are working on in the classroom. (Kinkos is a great place to have documents enlarged). This helps children visualize that some words might have a lot of letters, but not a lot of sounds and vice versa.

Letter, Sound, Syllable, Word, & Sentence Poster Template

Cut out the cards and glue each to the top of a large poster. Provide your students/child with old magazines and newspapers. Help them cut out uppercase and lowercase letters, sounds, syllables, words, and sentences and glue of the appropriate poster. For "sounds" and "syllables" have your child use pictures of objects. Cut the objects according to the number of sounds and syllables. For example, the word "cat" would be cut into three pieces to represent the sound /k/ /a/ /t/. A great multi-sensory phonemic awareness activity.
Return from Phonemic Awareness Activities Page to Home

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It has taken a while but we have finally completed our Phonological Awareness Activities Packet. This packet has been a huge undertaking but we wanted to accomplish a few things with it: Align the phonemic awareness activities on this page below with the Common Core Standards.

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Phonemic Activities for the Preschool or Elementary Classroom

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Activities that stimulate phonemic awareness in preschool and elementary school children are one sure way to get a child ready for reading! Here are eight of them from expert Marilyn Jager Adams.

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Are you looking for some FREE Phonics Activities? Well, you've come to the right place!! Today in our Struggling Reader Series, I'm sharing TONS of links to free phonics activities.

Don't get stressed out looking at the entire list. We'll talk really quick about how to narrow down what phonics skills your learner needs to work on. All the phonics activities are listed by skill, so you can easily find what you need.

*This post contains affiliate links.

What Phonics Skills Does Your Reader Need?

Before you dig too deep into all the freebies, it helps to first know what your reader needs to work on. In order to help struggling readers, it's very important to zero in on what they don't understand. We always want to start there.
So how do you know what phonics skills your learner knows or doesn't know?
This quick and simple phonics assessment can totally help you out! Be sure to click on the link to print it out and read more about it. Note: If you need to assess letter sounds & phonics, you'll want to use pp. 8-9 of my Reading Readiness Checklist.

The Ultimate List of FREE Phonics Activities

So, let's say that based on your assessments and observations, you know the phonics skills your learner needs. The following free activities & printables are organized by skill with links to the blogger's post, so be sure to scroll to the section(s) you need! Enjoy!

FREE Alphabet Activities

FREE Short Vowel Activities

FREE Blends & Digraphs Activities

FREE R-Controlled Activities

FREE CVCe {Long Vowel} Activities

FREE Common Long Vowel Team Activities

FREE Less Common Vowel Teams

FREE Words with Syllables Activities {Longer Words}

Subscribe to my newsletter and get over 100 phonics cards FREE! {See below.}

Happy Teaching!

~Becky

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The ULTIMATE List of FREE Phonics Activities - This Reading Mama

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Are you looking for some FREE Phonics Activities? Well, you've come to the right place!! Today in our Struggling Reader Series, I'm sharing TONS of links to free phonics activities. Don't get stressed out looking at the entire list. We'll talk really quick about how to narrow down what phonics skills your learner needs to work ...

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Learn about the benefits of the Orton-Gillingham approach and how innovative educators are using Orton-Gillingham to help every student learn to read.

What Is Orton-Gillingham?

In the 1930s, neuropsychiatrist and pathologist Dr. Samuel T. Orton and educator, psychologist Anna Gillingham developed the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction for students with "word-blindness," which would later become known as dyslexia. Their approach combined direct, multi-sensory teaching strategies paired with systematic, sequential lessons focused on phonics.

Today, the Orton-Gillingham approach is used around the world to help students at all levels learn to read.

Learn More

Orton-Gillingham and Structured Literacy

Structured Literacy is an umbrella term that was adopted by the International Dyslexia Association to refer to the many programs (like Orton-Gillingham) that teach reading by following the evidence and research behind the Science of Reading.

Programs that exemplify the components and methods that are outlined in the term, Structured Literacy, have been found to be beneficial for all students and essential for students who struggle with reading.

Learn More

of 4th graders read at a "Below Basic" level*

of US adults possess low literacy skills*

students who do not read proficiently by 3rd grade likely to leave high school without a diploma vs. proficient readers*

Orton-Gillingham Training

Orton-Gillingham training is beneficial to all educators, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic where early literacy has been disrupted for young students.

For those interested in learning the Orton-Gillingham approach, programs that incorporate a broader Structured Literacy foundation have been shown to deliver strong outcomes.
View Training Options

Orton-Gillingham Resources

Making an Impact for Educators and Students

See how IMSE is delivering Orton-Gillingham and so much more to thousands of teachers and millions of students.
Learn More

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Orton-Gillingham | Orton-Gillingham and So Much More

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Learn about the benefits of the Orton-Gillingham approach and how innovative educators are using Orton-Gillingham to help every student learn to read.

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12 Phonics Activities for Kids Learning to Read

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Teaching your child to read can be tricky when you don’t necessarily know what to do first and phonics activities are hard to come by.

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We love learning phonics with hands-on activities and games! Click on each image to get to the blog post, where you can download the activity for FREE. This page contains affiliate links. Related post: How to teach the alphabet to preschoolers Related post: What are phonological and phonemic awareness?

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ABCya! * ABCya! * Learning Games and Apps for Kids

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Educational games for grades PreK through 6 that will keep kids engaged and having fun. Topics include math, reading, typing, just-for-fun logic games... and more!

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What Is Fluency?

Fluency is the ability to read "like you speak." Hudson, Lane, and Pullen define fluency this way: "Reading fluency is made up of at least three key elements: accurate reading of connected text at a conversational rate with appropriate prosody or expression." Non-fluent readers suffer in at least one of these aspects of reading: they make many mistakes, they read slowly, or they don't read with appropriate expression and phrasing.

​ Developing reading fluency with Read Naturally Strategy programs

Key Concepts

Why Is Fluency Important?

For many years, educators have recognized that fluency is an important aspect of reading. Reading researchers agree. Over 30 years of research indicates that fluency is one of the critical building blocks of reading, because fluency development is directly related to comprehension.

Here are the results of one study by Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp, and Jenkins that shows how oral reading fluency correlates highly with reading comprehension.

To interpret this type of correlation data, consider that a perfect match would be 1.0. As you can see, oral recall/retelling, fill in the blank, and question answering are all above 0.6, which indicates there is a strong correlation. But oral reading fluency is by far the strongest, with a .91 correlation.

Many researchers, including Breznitz, Armstrong, Knupp, Lesgold, and Pinnell, have found that fluency is highly correlated with reading comprehension-that is, when a student reads fluently, that student is likely to comprehend what he or she is reading.

Why are reading fluency and reading comprehension so highly correlated? Dr. S. Jay Samuels, a professor and researcher well known for his work in fluency, put forth a theory called the automaticity theory. According to Dr. Samuels, people have a limited amount of mental energy. If you want to multitask or to become proficient at a complex task such as reading, you first need to master the component tasks so you can do them automatically. For example, a reader who must focus his or her attention on decoding words may not have enough mental energy left over to think about the meaning of the text. However, a fluent reader who can automatically decode the words can instead give full attention to comprehending the text. To become proficient readers, our students need to become automatic with text so they can pay attention to the meaning.

See also:

Challenges Faced by Non-Fluent Readers

Students become fluent by reading. Some students learn to read fluently without explicit instruction. For others, however, fluency doesn't develop in the course of normal classroom instruction.

Research analyzed by the National Reading Panel suggests that just encouraging students to read independently isn't the most effective way to improve reading achievement. Too often, simply encouraging at-risk students to read doesn't result in increased reading on their part. During sustained silent reading, at-risk readers may get a book with mostly pictures and look at the pictures, or they choose a difficult book so they will look like everyone else and then pretend to read.

Even if at-risk students do read, they read more slowly than the other students. In a 10-minute reading period, a proficient reader who reads 200 words a minute silently could read 2,000 words. In the same 10 minutes, an at-risk student who reads 50 words a minute would only read 500 words. This is equal reading time but certainly not an equal number of words read.

These students need to read more, but just asking them to read on their own often doesn't work. The National Reading Panel has concluded that a more effective course of action is for us to explicitly teach developing readers how to read fluently, step by step.

Research-Proven Fluency Strategies

How do we explicitly teach students to read fluently? The National Reading Panel found data supporting three strategies that improve fluency, comprehension, and reading achievement-teacher modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring.

Teacher Modeling

The first strategy is teacher modeling. Research demonstrates that various forms of modeling can improve reading fluency. Examples of teacher modeling include:

Teacher-assisted reading

Peer-assisted reading

Audio-assisted reading

Teacher modeling involves more than just listening to someone else read. Students must be actively involved 100 percent of the time and in a multisensory way.

Teacher modeling teaches word recognition in a meaningful context, demonstrates correct phrasing, and gives students practice tracking across the page. A child can benefit from teacher modeling once he or she knows at least 50 sight words and has a good sense of beginning sounds.

The reading rate of the model reader is important. Christopher Skinner, a reading researcher, found that students who read lists of words with him slowly were more fluent with the words than students who read with him at a faster rate. The slower rate enables students to learn new words and clarify difficult words. As students learn more words, they naturally become more fluent.

Another form of modeling is the neurological impress method. In the neurological impress method, a proficient and a struggling reader read together from a passage, with the more able reader reading near the rate of the struggling reader. Heckelman (1969) showed that after 29 15-minute sessions, 24 seventh- through ninth-grade boys, who were an average of 3 years behind in reading, gained an average of 1.9 years in reading based on the Oral Gilmore and the California Achievement Test.

Repeated Reading

Another technique that research has shown significantly builds reading fluency is repeated reading. In fact, the National Reading Panel says this is the most powerful way to improve reading fluency. This involves simply reading the same material over and over again until accurate and expressive.

In the 1970s, LaBerge and Samuels studied what happens when students read passages over and over again. They found that when students reread passages, they got faster at reading the passages, understood them better, and were able to read subsequent passages better as a result of the repeated reading.

Repeated reading is a form of mastery learning. The students read the same words so many times that they begin to know them and are able to identify them in other text. Besides helping students bring words to mastery, repeated reading changes the way students view themselves in relation to the act of reading.

Progress Monitoring

People who play video games are presented with a specific goal and with immediate, relevant feedback about their progress toward that goal. This combination of having a goal and getting feedback on progress can be very motivating.

Progress monitoring takes advantage of this combination to motivate students to read. You give students a specific, individual reading goal, and you tell them exactly how you're going to know they've met it. Then, you give them the means to measure how they're doing. Finally, you make it simple enough that they'll know they've met their goal even before you do. This progress monitoring is what motivates students to practice reading the same story over and over until achieving mastery.

​Developing Reading Fluency With Read Naturally Strategy Programs

The research-based Read Naturally Strategy combines these three strategies into highly effective programs that accelerate reading achievement. Students become confident readers by developing fluency, phonics skills, comprehension, and vocabulary while reading leveled text. The time-tested intervention programs engage students with interesting nonfiction stories and yield powerful results.

Learn more about the Read Naturally Strategy
Research basis for the Read Naturally Strategy

The Read Naturally Strategy is available in a variety of formats:

Choosing the right Read Naturally Strategy program

One Minute Reader®
Structured, supplemental reading program for developing literacy skills independently. Available in these formats:
One Minute Reader Live (component of web-based Read Live for supplemental reading at school)
One Minute Reader books/audio CDs (for a school-to-home checkout program)

Bibliography

Armstrong, S. W. (1983). The effects of material difficulty upon learning disabled children's oral reading and reading comprehension. Learning Disability Quarterly, 6, pp. 339-348.

Breznitz, Z. (1987). Increasing first graders' reading accuracy and comprehension by accelerating their reading rates. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79(3), pp. 236-242.

Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Hosp, M. K., & Jenkins, J. R. (2001). Oral reading fluency as an indicator of reading competence: A theoretical, empirical, and historical analysis. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5(3), pp. 239-256.

Heckelman, R. G. (1969). A neurological-impress method of remedial-reading instruction. Academic Therapy Quarterly, 5(4), pp. 277-282.

Hudson, R. F., H. B. Lane, and P. C. Pullen. (2005). Reading fluency assessment and instruction: What, why, and how. Reading Teacher 58(8), pp. 702-714.

Knupp, R. (1988). Improving oral reading skills of educationally handicapped elementary school-aged students through repeated readings. Practicum paper, Nova University (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 297275).

LaBerge, D., & Samuels, S. J. (1974). Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 6, pp. 292-323.

Lesgold, A., Resnick, L. B., & Hammond, K. (1985). Learning to read: A longitudinal study of word skill development in two curricula. In G. Waller & E. MacKinon (eds.), Reading research: Advances in theory and practice. New York, NY: Academic Press.

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

Pinnell, G. S., Pikulski, J. J., Wixson, K. K., Campbell, J. R., Gough, P. B., & Beatty, A. S. (1995). Listening to children read aloud: Data from NAEP's integrated reading performance record (IRPR) at grade 4 (NCES Publication 95-726). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics.

Samuels, S. J. (2002). Reading fluency: Its development and assessment. In A. E. Farstrup & S. J. Samuels (eds.), What research has to say about reading instruction, 3rd ed., pp. 166-183. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Samuels, S. J. (1997). The method of repeated readings. The Reading Teacher, 50(5), pp. 376-381.

Samuels, S. J. (2006). Towards a model of reading fluency. In S. J. Samuels and A. E. Farstrup (eds.), What research has to say about fluency instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Samuels, S. J. (1997). The method of repeated readings. The Reading Teacher, 50(5), pp. 376-381.

Skinner, C. H., Logan, P., Robinson, S. L., & Robinson, D. H. (1997). Demonstration as a reading intervention for exceptional learners. School Psychology Review, 26(3), pp. 437-447.

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What is fluency? Reading at a conversational rate with accuracy and expression. Why is fluency important? Fluency directly correlates to comprehension.

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21 Ideas for Teaching Vocabulary in the Classroom

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Looking for ideas for teaching vocabulary? Here are 21 activities for teaching vocabulary in the classroom, along with links to other sources and ideas.

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21 Ideas for Teaching Vocabulary

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Vocabulary is an important aspect in reading comprehension. If students do not know what the words mean, they cannot understand what they are reading.

Research has shown that vocabulary deficiencies are a primary cause of academic failure in grades 3 through 12.

(Baumann, Kameenui, Stanovich, & Becker)

Unfortunately, too many of our students have poor oral language skills. This can be due to many reasons, but research has typically found that students from low SES tend to be lacking in oral language development and vocabulary. Once they enter school, we have the sometimes difficult job of trying to bridge that gap.

Teachers need to be very intentional about teaching vocabulary.

We have to take the time to teach vocabulary to our students. We cannot just rely on discussing words that we may come across in our read alouds. While it is very important to discuss unknown words while reading, we also need to explicitly teach vocabulary words to our students.

For example, I explicitly teach vocabulary words to my students in small groups during guided reading time. Using my monthly Guided Reading packets, I introduce the students to 3-5 new vocabulary words for each story. We read the word, write the word, discuss the definition, and then USE the word. Just reading the definition is not enough. The students MUST use the word to learn it.

After introducing the words and practicing them numerous times, we read the passage that contains the words.

The number of words I introduce for each lesson depends on the level of my students. I do not want to overwhelm my lower readers with 5 or 6 six vocabulary words. They are much more likely to learn 2-3 new words.

Students need "kid friendly" definitions of new vocabulary words.

Do you remember having to look up words in a dictionary and write the definition? I know I remember doing that (not in 1st grade, of course). While I know that learning dictionary skills is very important, this is definitely not an effective way of teaching new vocabulary to young students. For example, if I look up the definition of the word dilemma it says, "a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives." For a first grader, this definition would only lead to looking up the words situation and alternatives. Students need teachers to provide them with definitions that they are going to understand.

Students need multiple exposures to learn new words.

It can take a student anywhere from 4-40 exposures to learn a new word depending on their previous vocabulary knowledge. While I'm sure that 40 exposures would not be the "normal," I know that I have had students that would need this. We cannot mention a word once and expect students to understand and use the word.

One of my favorite vocabulary activities is to use Fancy Nancy books to teach vocabulary. I throw on a tiara, some fancy Dollar Tree glasses, and Christmas garland, and I instantly become Fancy Nancy. I explicitly introduce the words prior to reading. Then, we hang them on our Fancy Nancy Words board to use in our writing.

Provide students with rich vocabulary every day.
Students will never learn new vocabulary if they don't hear it and use it on a regular basis. As teachers, we need to try and use rich vocabulary as often as possible to give students more exposure. I like to throw in vocabulary words into our morning message.

Use vocabulary in all subject areas.

We often think of vocabulary instruction during reading or science, but you can throw in vocabulary instruction into all subject areas. We work on new math vocabulary every day when we do our D aily Math Notebooks.

Know which words to teach your students.
I'm sure you have heard about Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 vocabulary words. Tier 1 words are your basic words (cat, ball, cup, etc.). Tier 2 words are your high frequency/multiple meaning words that often occur in literature and adult conversations (absurd, coincidence, embellish, etc.) Tier 3 words are your content or subject based words that are not used very frequently. These are vocabulary words that students may find in science books. Direct vocabulary instruction is best for Tier 2 words. These are going to allow students to expand their reading and oral vocabularies.

I love these Word Teasers that I purchased at Books a Million. They make different levels of boxes, but I have the Small Fry and the Junior versions. They are great for those extra minutes in a day to introduce a new vocabulary word.

Another idea is to place Tier 2 words into a Word Jar and randomly pick a new word for each day.

These are great ways to make sure you are teaching students vocabulary words that they will be able to use in their every day lives.
What are your favorite ways of teaching vocabulary in your classroom?

If you would like to check out my March Guided Reading packet, click on the picture below. My monthly packets contain 3 levels of passages to make differentiating a breeze.

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Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary - Fun in First

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Vocabulary is an important aspect in reading comprehension. If students do not know what the words mean, they cannot understand what they are reading. Research has shown that vocabulary deficiencies are a primary cause of academic failure in grades 3 through 12.

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Adapted from Adler, C.R. (Ed). 2001. Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, pp. 49-54. National Institute for Literacy. Retrieved Nov. 1, 2007, from http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/reading_first1text.html.

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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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The ultimate goal of reading is good comprehension. We've gathered information about apps that provide practice with specific comprehension skills, including sequencing, differentiating between fact and opinion, developing word awareness (through antonyms, synonyms, and homophones), as well as several mind mapping apps. Mind maps are visual diagrams that help students represent words or ideas and can be used in reading and writing.

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The ultimate goal of reading is good comprehension. We've gathered information about apps that provide practice with specific comprehension skills, including sequencing, differentiating between fact and opinion, developing word awareness (through antonyms, synonyms, and homophones), as well as several mind mapping apps.

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Importance of Comprehension | Partners In Learning | Miami University

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If you are like most parents, you have forgotten that you had to develop reading comprehension skill. Much like learning to drive, reading comprehension becomes automatic and skilled readers forget that they had to develop their reading comprehension skill. The key to teaching reading comprehension is developing the habit of "interacting" with the text and monitoring one's understanding.