Why is Reading Important?
What is reading?
‘A complex developmental challenge’ that ‘encompasses the learning of a complex set of strategies, skills, concepts, and knowledge enabling individuals to understand visual and print-based information presented in a variety of media or technological formats’ (p. 9).
What is so special about talk?
Oral language is one of the main predictors of reading success – the more words students know, the more they interact with others verbally, the better readers they will become (Reutzel & Cooter, 2015)
What is the Big 5?
•Phonemic Awareness – the knowledge of how sounds work in the English language
•Phonics – How sounds attach to letters and words
•Fluency – reading with automaticity and prosody
•Vocabulary – sight and sound knowledge of words
•Comprehension – making sense of text
What are functions of print?
Students who know why they are learning to read and write, and not just because they are now in school, are very aware of the functions of print. They are making the connection that reading and writing happens in all areas of their lives, and not just school. They have seen adults in their lives who are reading and writing as a normal part of their usual days, and they know that reading and writing happen for everyone!
Grown-ups express they do not have any concerns that their student does not demonstrate sound to letter symbol knowledge. Do they need more time, or should interventions and data be in place?
Needed more time is a myth.
Data collection should have begun day 1.
What is the Science of Reading?
Research today tells us that we should be explicitly teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, and decoding so that students are able to understand what they are reading. This approach, coupled with elements of whole-language instruction, should raise the reading comprehension abilities of our students.
What are two types of language?
Two types of language – expressive and receptive
Expressive – how the speaker puts thought in form
Receptive – how the listener unlocks the form to make sense of the conversation
What is the difference between phonological and phonemic awareness?
Phonological awareness involves the soundss of our language, and begins at birth
Phonemic awareness involves the ways that sounds map to letters, then letters map to words; begins as the child begins to recognize that letters make certain sounds
Instructionally:
•Word families; teaching what syllables are; clapping syllables
•Blending and segmenting – putting sounds together to make words, taking words apart to make their separate sounds
•Sound sorts
What are print concepts?
Students who have been read to regularly come to school with a good understanding of print concepts. They know that books have fronts and backs, and that words are read from left to right, and top to bottom. The same goes for writing – they watch people write, and they know that words flow from left to right.
My child just doesn't like to read.
They are dyslexic. lol
What is the importance of Early Literacy?
–Children who are read to early in life will enter school with a distinct advantage in vocabulary and learning to read. A kindergartener who has been read to generally enters school with a vocabulary of 10,000+ words (Vocabulary Development and Word Lists).
–Children who have been read to regularly come to school with over 1,000 reading and writing experiences (Cunningham, 2017, p. 3)
–From their early exposure to reading and writing activities, students learn print concepts, awareness of sounds, concrete words, and the names of letter and the sounds they make (Cunningham, 2017).
What are the Six Components of Language?
Phonology – Prosody of the language
Orthography – Patterns of linking sound to letters
Morphology – parts of words that lend to understanding of the total word
Syntax and Grammar – Rules that govern the usage of words
Semantics – Schema that leads to meaning
Pragmatics – How we use language to get what we need
Name 3 concepts of print
Three Concepts of Print
•Print Familiarity
•Understanding print conventions
•Recognizing environmental print
Instructionally:
•Book parts – front, back, spine, beginning, middle, end
•How our language is read (left to right, top to bottom)
•Visual clues for the reader – indentations, spacing, print size, font intensity, punctuation
•Blanketing the classroom with print – walls, centers, their desks, the ceiling, etc.
What is phonological and phonemic awareness and give examples.
Phonemic awareness shows the student knows that words are made up of separate, or discrete sounds. The word ‘cat,’ for instance, is made up of three discrete sounds: /c/ /a/ /t/. Phonological awareness, on the other hand, has to do with words and sentences. Students know that each word in ‘I have a cat’ has meaning, and that together, they convey a thought. They know that each of the four words has only one syllable. Knowing this is a good indicator that this student will become a good reader.
My child can read they just can't remember what they read.
They are probably dyslexic.
What do readers need to know about reading?
•Print Concepts - what we learn about how words in books work and how things are written. As children being read to, we learn that words in a book are read from left to right and top to bottom (at least in English! Other languages operate differently). We learn that writing is done for communication.
•Phonological and Phonemic Awareness - Phonological awareness “includes the ability to separate sentences into words and words into syllables. Phonemic awareness includes the ability to recognize that words are made up of a discrete set of sounds and to manipulate sounds” (Cunningham, 2017, p. 5).
•Concrete Words – basic words that students learn early as readers and writers. Many children can recognize and read 10-15 words by the time they enter school (Cunningham, 2017, p. 6).
•Letter Names and Sounds – the names of the alphabet and the sounds that the letters make (this is also called alphabet knowledge)
How does poverty limit oral language development?
Working parents away from the child for long periods of time, perhaps limited verbal interaction with caregivers
Limited verbal interaction when parents are present (see the list on page 42-43)
Verbal interactions focus more on teaching behaviors rather than encouraging critical thinking
Illnesses that might impact oral language development – ear infections, unresolved speech impediments
Hunger/malnutrition - correlates to lower ability to learn
Give 3 examples of how to motivate students to read.
•Providing plenty of books to choose from, either in the classroom or the media center
•Providing a good mix of genres
•Allowing students to make personal choices in their reading, both in books and in responses to that reading
Encouraging lots of ‘book talk’
What are concrete words?
Concrete words that students know when entering school are those that are important to them – such as their names, the names of people who are important to them, the names of places or toys that are important to them. This is why, in an early elementary classroom, you will see desks and cubbies labeled with a child’s name, you may see children signing in each morning by writing their names (or at least, what they think their names look like in print!), you might see a child writing a short two or three sentence story, which the teacher then transcribes so that adults can read the story as well.
Do older kids need phonics?
ABSOLUTELY!!
Reading and writing are...
–Inextricably interwoven
–Developmentally progressive - Children learn first what sounds are, then what letters make those sounds, then how to decode words, while at the same time learning how to write those letters, then how letters form words, then how written language operates (punctuation, spelling, creating sentences, paragraphing, etc.) (p. 9-10). These elements are a part of the Science of Reading.
What are the Tiers for RTI and descriptions?
Tier One – general classroom support given to all students
Tier Two – intended to help move those just a year or two behind to move to grade level. Small group three X a week along with Tier One instruction
Tier Three – individualized instruction daily, plus small group instruction three times a week, plus Tier One instruction
Tier Four – all three Tiers, plus the decision on whether to staff in SPED
Ebooks vs. Paper Books – the Benefits
Ebooks can be adapted to student preference/need
•Changing font sizes
•Changing screen colors
•Back lighting for clarity
•Dictionary available at a touch
•Ability to make notes but not mar the text
•Audible support
•App supports
What should be the Phonics focus for 4th and 5th graders?
Older students, on the other hand, also benefit from phonics and word study. For them, the focus is on word parts (such as root words, prefixes, and suffixes, collectively called affixes), as well as on refining their understanding of the rules of grammar and syntax.
In these classrooms, you would see lots of Word Walls, on which the teacher and the students list new vocabulary they are studying. The teacher would teach many mini-lessons on how to break apart words to find the root word and isolate the affixes. If students can understand the meaning of the root word, and couple that with the affixes, they will be able to attack unfamiliar words with more ease. And students would write with the new vocabulary.
What if a middle schooler or high schooler still can't read or reads on a 3rd grade level? Do we really start from the beginning with symbol/sound recognition.